Friday, August 11, 2006 - Posts

Mound sounds

Top 5 pitching performances this year:

No. 1: Jose Contreras, Aug. 11.  9 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Considering this was against the Tigers, following a five-inning start the night before, and against the Tigers, there's no doubt about it.

No. 2:  Javier Vazquez, Aug. 5.  8 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 13 K
This was as important for Javy as it was for the White Sox.  Considering he hadn't completed seven innings since May, this was huge.

No. 3.  Mark Buehrle, April 21.  8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
This win against the Twins looks a lot bigger now than it did then.  It was also a victory over Johan Santana, which is usually an automatic loss.

No. 4.  Freddy Garcia, June 22.  8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Freddy avenged the one-hit, 1-0 loss he suffered last year by returning the favor to Cardinals rookie Anthony Reyes.

No. 5:  Jon Garland, July 23.  8.1 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Garland shuts down the Rangers to end a four-game losing streak -- he had the only two victories during the 2-10 skid opening the second half


Justin Verlander's ERA against the American League by team:

EastCentralWest
Yankees10.80WHITE SOX9.87Athletics2.25
Red Sox
n/aTwins0.60Rangers0.00
Blue Jays
n/aIndians1.32Angels4.50
Orioles4.26Royals0.00Mariners1.29
Devil Rays
4.09




The Rookie of the Year candidate has a 2.95 ERA on the season after tonight's start -- and against everybody else, his ERA is 2.20.  As you can see, his ERA against the Yankees is higher, but he's only had one start against the Bombers, compared to three against Chicago.  For whatever reason, the Sox have solved him thus far.
posted Friday, August 11, 2006 11:50 PM by Jim with 0 Comments

Who's better, who's best

Last year, when Joe Crede was hitting (a dangerous) .230 and popping up just about everything, Hawk Harrelson defended the third baseman and said he would take him over any other third baseman in the American League.

Hawk's said a lot of ridiculous things in his career, but perhaps this notion was the most laughable.  The gap between Crede and Alex Rodriguez was about as large as the one between the cities in which they played.  When Joe went on the DL on August 26, his line was .232 / .285 / .408.  Rodriguez was hitting .316 / .414 / .607 -- yes, his on-base percentage was higher than Crede's slugging. 

A year later, however, and Hawk just may have been on to something (blind squirrel and broken clock parables apply). 

Look at the table of the tape between these two third basemen:

Crede Category Rodriguez
.305
.341
.559
25
78
0
19
41
9
.974
.773
 BA
OBP
SLG
HR
RBI
SB
BB
K
E
Fielding%
ZR		 .282
.384
.501
23
81
11
64
103
19
.933
.735

That's a pretty even breakdown, and Crede's RBI total is probably more admirable considering he hits sixth or seventh, while Rodriguez hits third or fourth.

And when you compared the way the two played against each other in the Sox-Yankees series, Crede more than held his own.  They put up similar offenive numbers -- Crede went 3-for-9 with two homers and three walks, A-Rod went 5-for-11 with one homer and three walk -- but while Crede didn't strand any runners, Rodriguez left five.

Then there was the defense.  In Game 2, Rodriguez hit a hard grounder to third with runners on first and second.  Crede backhanded it and in successive steps, got the force at third and threw Rodriguez out for a 5-3 double play. 

The next day, with runners on first and second, Crede hit a soft grounder to third.  Rodriguez fielded it cleanly, then threw five feet wide of second, into right field, allowing a run to score.  The floodgates would open, the Sox would score four runs, and that error helped to give the Sox the series. 

This is not to say Crede is the better third baseman, since Rodriguez will end up in the Hall of Fame while Crede will have to pay admission.  But for the first time, and maybe the only time, we can compare the two and without factoring in the $23 million difference, say that we're fine with the guy we have.
posted Friday, August 11, 2006 10:52 PM by Jim with 2 Comments