Some quick hits on the state of NY Baseball as the calendar turns to June.
- The Yankees are in first place, a game in front of the Red Sox, and 2 games in front of Toronto. Their 30-21 record has them tied for the secind-most wins in all of baseball, trailing only the LA Dodgers. A 9 game win streak from the 13th through the 21st of May was a big catalyst to a 17-11 month.
- The return of Alex Rodriguez seemed to bolster a lineup which had been hot and cold for much of the year. A-Rod hit a bomb on the first pitch he saw this season, and Mark Teixiera has come to life in the 3-hole, batting in front of Rodriguez.
- The Yankees just set a major league record last night, playing their 18th consecutive game without an error. No team in history owns a streak that long.
- Derek Jeter joined an elite club last night. He now stands alongside only Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Al Simmons as the only players in baseball history to have 2600 hits, 200 HR and 1000 RBI in their first 15 seasons. Pretty exclusive company for the Captain.
As of yesterday’s game, here are the respective numbers for Derek Jeter, and David Wright (who some have proclaimed the greatest thing since sliced bread)
Hits- Jeter 65/Wright 60
Runs-Jeter 32/Wright 31
RBI- Wright 30/Jeter 25
HR- Jeter 7/Wright 3
Avg- Wright .328/Jeter .311
OPS- Wright .904/Jeter .854
Errors- Jeter 2/Wright 7
SB-CS- Jeter 10 and 1/Wright 12 and 7
And all this has come while Jeter bats leadoff. While I won’t go so far as to proclaim this an even race, I do think it merits mentioning especially in light of the claims made by some about Wright and Jeter. Wouldn’t the best player in NY presumably blow a 34 year old on the decline out of the water statistically?
- The Mets come into June 2nd in second place in the NL East, a game and a half behind the world champion Phillies. A recent spate of injuries has struck the Mets, though it hasn’t hurt them much in the standings. Pitchers like John Maine and Mike Pelfry have been throwing well (pitching over their heads to some), and a steady diet of the 13-36 Nationals, and 24-28 Marlins from within their division has helped.
- Replacement players have stepped up, including Omir “Johnny Bench” Santos, and Angel Pagan. Gary Sheffield has also paid dividends, especially for someone who was essentially salvaged from Detroit’s scrap heap.
- The 19-9 May that the Mets just put up is undeniably impressive, especially considering that many of their main pieces have been dinged-up or out altogether. I think many Mets fans would gladly have accepted only a 1.5 game defecit on June 2 if you told them that Perez would be done for a while, Delgado would be out, Reyes, Beltran and others would be limping, and Tim Redding and Livan Hernandez would be regular starters.
- Last night, Joba Chamberlain pitched his longest career outing, notching a victory over the Cleveland Indians in an 8-inning performance. According to the television radar gun, his fastball was hitting 96-97 throughout the game, well into the late innings.
- With Chien Ming Wang off the DL following a very rough start, and pitching well out of the bullpen, there now appear to be 3 viable candidates for 2 starting pitcher spots. CC, AJ and Andy are not going anywhere, and this leaves Wang, Hughes and Joba up for the final rotation positions. The Yankees do not appear inclined to move Joba to the pen, and outings like last night will not give the idea any momentum. Wang has battled injuries, but was a 19 game winner and staff ace for two consecutive years. Hughes is a young stud who is still learning to be a complete pitcher. It remains to be seen how this will shake out.
- On the other side of town Johan Santana is pitching out of his mind, with a 7-2 record and a 1.77 ERA, and he could still have more wins but for some bullpen miscues. Zack Greinke in Kansas City rightly deserves to be in the discussion, but clearly Johan is one of the (if not the) best pitchers in baseball. Not sure that Pelfry and Maine are all that some people crack them up to be, but I am sure Mets fans will take what they have been getting from those two.
More to come later in the week. For now the Yankees are a first place team and the Mets are a second place team. Some standings
Runs: Yankees 3rd in MLB- Mets 14th
OPS: Yankees 1st- Mets 11th
Total Bases- Yankees 1st- Mets 18th
ERA: Mets 5th- Yankees 26th
Quality Starts: Mets 6th- Yankees 18th
BAA: Mets 10th- Yankees 15th
Errors: Mets 5th most- Yankees 26th
Fielding %: Yankees 3rd- Mets 26th
June 2, 2009 at 5:27 pm |
While I can still get a word in, let me say, “Go Yankees.” Very nice to see them battle their way up to the top of their division in May.
Obviously lovin’ the Manny-less Dodgers, too. That could’ve gone the other way.
I’d say your pre-season predix are right on track.
June 3, 2009 at 2:13 pm |
All I’ve got to say is, it’s a long season. We’ll see where the teams and individuals are at the end of September. And take a look at DW’s home/road splits. If he played his home games in that bullshit McStadium in the Bronx, he’d being leading the league in everything.
As for the Metsies, the injuries are now bordering on the absurd. As Manuel said last night, we’re now losing the back-ups to the back-ups, i.e., Angel Pagan and Ramon Martinez. It’s hard to get excited watching the games with the lineups they’re putting out there. Pathetic. But they should be getting Cora back tonight, Reyes and Beltran this weekend, and Church next week. So, they should be able to put out a decent team for the Phils and Yanks next week, unless something else happens. The injuries they are experiencing is more like a losing football team in December than a second place baseball team in June. But there is no crying in baseball, and they are hanging close to the Phils despite the injuries. And their biggest question mark, starting pitching, has been good. So there is some hope.
June 3, 2009 at 2:22 pm |
Watch out for the mighty pirates. If johan can’t win, who can?
June 3, 2009 at 4:15 pm |
At least we can beat the Red Sox.
June 3, 2009 at 4:44 pm |
Yes, but apparently not the Pirates. Second place and fading :-p
June 4, 2009 at 11:11 am |
Judging defense by errors and fielding percentage is just as bad as judging pitchers by wins. According to yesterday’s New York Times, the Yankees are 15th in zone rating, and they quoted Cashman from the last week of spring training as saying “we are a bad defensive team.” So, even Cashman was willing to see something you have refused to see.
But the team defense is much improved. Tex has settled the infield down and is HUGE upgrade over the stiff you had there last year, and the injuries to Nady and Posada have helped as well. You effectively replaced a horrible rightfielder (Nady) with a good fielder (Melky), and a bad catcher (Posada) with a good catcher (Molina or Cervelli, take your pick). But I still think your age will show come the dog days of Summer and that the bullpen is very weak (you have to admit I was right about the bullpen). And bad bullpens have a way of dragging a team down late in the season. Trust me on this — I’m a Met fan, and I’m talking from experience.
What I misjudged more than anything is the quality of the rest of the division and the league. While the AL East is the best division in baseball, it is not as great as many believed (myself included). The Red Sox lineup does not scare anyone, and Tampa has no pen, and little depth. In fact, the entire AL is weaker than most experts expected. Rangers are not that good. They can score, but their pitching is mediocre at best. The Angels can’t score any runs, and their pitching has been crushed by injuries. The rest of that division sucks, and the entire central division sucks as well. The league has taken a step backwards in my eyes and that should help your Yanks out quite a bit.
As for your prediction, you predicted 99 wins, and they are on pace for 94.7 wins after last night’s loss.
And WTF with all the booing at the McStadium last night? NY fans are such assholes. And it wasn’t just A-Rod. Cano got some after making an out as well.
June 4, 2009 at 12:02 pm |
Despite whatever value you may or may not place on stats, have the Yankees not committed 17 fewer errors that the Mets? Have they not committed fewer errors that all but 2 teams in baseball? Its hilarious that you just cast things aside as invalid because they dont fit your view of things.
“The Mets have made tons of errors, and the Yankees haven’t, but that doesnt matter because you cant judge defense based on errors”?????
And why not comment on the other things, like David Wright and Derek Jeter? Sure its a long season, but your comparisons on the two look way off-base now. Jeter is every bit the hitter Wright is right now, and hasn’t made the fielding and baserunning errors. He also doesn’t strike out at nearly Wright’s clip.
My team is in first place, yours is in second, and the best you got is “its a long season” or “the AL was overrated”? Those BS excuses sound pretty lame compared to all the bombast we were hearing not too long ago.
June 4, 2009 at 12:38 pm |
You are totally twisting and mischaracterizing my statements and beliefs. I never say “ignores stats.” I say the complete opposite. It is you who always wants to ignore stats and rely on insufficient data such as wins, runs, rbi, and errors. I am just saying errors are an insufficient way to judge a player defensively.
As for DW/Jeter — it is indeed a long season, and you are delusional if you believe that Jeter is as good an offensive player as DWright at this point of their careers. And as for errors and fielding percentage, third baseman and shortstops are apples and oranges, and you know it. The best third-baggers have lower fielding percentages than the worst shortstops. Just like the best shortstops have lower fielding percentages than the worst firstbasemen.
Do you believe that the AL East is as good as advertised this year? You don’t think many (myself included) overrated the Sox and Rays? Do you deny that the AL lacks the depth of good teams it had the past few years? I was saying previously that the Yanks are about what I expected, but they will probably do better than I predicted because the Sox and Rays are not as good as I thought, and there will be little, if any, wildcard competition from the central and west.
And the Mets defense has sucked this year. Murphy was a disaster in left, and Reyes and Cora have been out. Sheff has no range, and even Beltran has had a subpar season thus far (but I suspect that will change as he becomes more comfortable with the new stadium and corner outfielders next to him). Schneider was out for 6 weeks, and Castro, for whatever reason, just couldn’t catch anymore. He can still throw, but his defense has regressed enormously.
June 4, 2009 at 1:16 pm |
Dude, leadoff hitters and 3-5 hole hitters are apples and oranges. Yankee batters and Mets batters are apples and oranges. If you want to go position vs position, in the areas of FP and Errors, which are applied to all 3b, Wright was a middle of the road defensive player in 2008 (among qualified guys) and Jeter was slightly better than that among SS. You can argue that these stats dont tell the whole story, but they are applied to everyone and the numbers don’t lie.
Your statement about the best 3B having lower FP than the worst SS needs some reexamining. Troy Glaus was the best 3B last year with a .982 and 7 errors. Rollins was the best SS with a .988 and 7 errors. Wow, just a glaring difference there. The real drop-off comes at the bottom of the barrell, but at the top its pretty close. It is more accurate to say that the worst 3b have far lower FP than the worst SS.
June 4, 2009 at 1:20 pm |
and as if you didnt know it was coming….
Mike Pelfry vs Pitt (6/4)
3.2 IP, 9 hits, 9 runs, 8 earned. 4 walks, 4.85 ERA
Pretty studly stuff against the 24-28 Pirates.
June 5, 2009 at 11:33 am |
A very Wang-like performance by Big Pelf yesterday. And he hit a batter too.
June 5, 2009 at 11:54 am |
And second place for 3rd base was .974. Ten shortstops were higher than .974. You are being absolutely ridiculous here. SS’s get easy putouts at second base which third basemen don’t get which increases fielding percentage. And third basemen play much closer to the plate and have to deal with harder hit balls right on top of them and longer throws across the diamond. In any event, judging a player defensively by fielding percentage alone is absurdly inadequate. Its like judging a pitcher on wins alone or a hitter on batting average alone.
Looking like a long year for my Metsies. Reyes probably done through at least the all-star break. I’m guessing 8/1. Fucking idiots try to rush the kid back with tendonitis behind his knee at calf and he ends up tearing a tendon behind the knee at the hamstring, then act like its a coincidence so as to not look too incompetent. When a speedster who plays a demanding position has a leg injury, you let him rest it and don’t rush him back. Why is that so fucking difficult to comprehend? A slugger who plays first or a corner outfield spot can limp and lumber around while trying to heal such an injury, but not a guy like Reyes.
I just hope Omar doesn’t do something stupid and trade the farm for some stopgaps. I’d much rather come in third this year than compromise the future. The bets I can hope for is that some small or mid-market teams might be desperate enough to dump salary in this economy that they will trade good players with big contracts for shit. I’m thinking Carlos Lee and Vernon Wells. Excellent players, but not worthy of their their contracts. Put one of those guys in left next to Beltran, and the Mets might be able to survive these injuries.
And I also hope that they keep Fernando Martinez up and let him play everyday. He looks like he could develop into something special. And despite what you might read in the NY papers, the Mets do have some prospects besides F-Mart. These two flame throwing righties just got promoted to AA. Here are their May stats:
W-L ERA IP H R ER BB SO GB/FB BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB
Holt 3-0 1.30 27.2 18 5 4 5 34 0.70 1.63 11.06 6.80
Mejia 3-0 1.08 25.0 15 5 3 7 22 1.79 2.52 7.92 3.14
1.08 ERA in May for Jenrry Mejia, who hits 97-98 and sits at 96-96. 1.30 ERA for Brad Holt who sits at 94-95. Holt got rocked his first start in April, and then put up a 1.13 era since then.
June 5, 2009 at 1:29 pm |
Yes, impressive double A numbers. Though I will direct you to Ian Kennedy’s triple A numbers this season before you get too excited.
W-L ERA IP H R ER BB SO GB/FB BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB
Holt 3-0 1.30 27.2 18 5 4 5 34 0.70 1.63 11.06 6.80
Mejia 3-0 1.08 25.0 15 5 3 7 22 1.79 2.52 7.92 3.14
Kennedy 1-0 1.59 22.2 18 5 4 7 25 and I cant find the rest
Thats equal numbers, against better comp, from a guy who you consider complete garbage as a major leaguer. The two are younger than Kennedy, but lets not start the lovefest just yet.
And as far as FP, you twisted the point to make it that I was measuring defensive ability on that alone. I compared Wright’s season to other 3B as well, using numbers that are equally kept for all of them. Then i compared Jeter to other SS the same way. Jeter looked better using those stats at his position. I didnt claim it was the last word, thats just something you are throwing on me.
Im sure you can list baseball nerd stats until the cows come home about how bad Jeter is, but Jeter was 5th among 18 qualified players at his position in FP and 5th in Errors. David is 10th of 20 in FP and 15th of 20 in E. again, these don’t paint the whole picture, but they sure as hell are valid and sure as hell don’t back you up.
June 5, 2009 at 2:09 pm |
Actually, those were A numbers. They just got promoted to AA. Holt is 22. Mejia is 19.
You know how I feel about Kennedy. He lacks the raw stuff needed to get major league hitters out. He can fool minor leaguers with guile, but not the major leaguers. These kids have the stuff. They just need to learn how to pitch.
Errors just don’t mean that much.
June 5, 2009 at 2:17 pm |
Yes… Imagined stats about what balls a player should or should not get to are way more valid than a tally of the number of times a fielder misplays a ball.
June 5, 2009 at 3:51 pm |
I’ll take a computer over some 70 year old jerkoff in the pressbox who gives errors to players he doesn’t like, but not to those he does like. And I’ll take a player who covers a lot of territory but makes a few more errors in the process than some sure-handed statue.
How’s your fantasy team doing. I just made a 10-player trade today. I’ve been in first or second almost everyday so far, but just dropped to third. It’s a protectable league, and I just traded Braun and my four worst players ( Gordon Beckham, Scott Hairston, Melvin Mora and Clayton Richard) for Vladdy, JJ Hardy, Ted Lilly, Alex Rios and Ichiro.
June 5, 2009 at 8:55 pm |
Where do they film the above shots from during nats games ? Outerspace?
June 6, 2009 at 8:16 am |
It’s the highest pressbox in the majors. Mets announcers always complain how high they are (and not just Keith
).
How do you like DWright now? Game-winning double, average back up to .338. OPS over .900. He just needs to get into a homer groove. Citifield has screwed him out of handful in rightcenter, and it might be in his head. As you know, I prefer a pitcher’s park, but the place is just too damn big. Leftcenterfield gap is 380’s with a 16.5 foot wall. DWright use to hit them there at Shea and at rightcenter over the 396 mark, which is now 415. I think they should move home plate forward about five feet. That would make it less of pitcher’s park all around, and give you more fair territory, which will help with the blindspots in the corners.
June 8, 2009 at 7:25 am |
Wright can hit, never disputed that for a second. Nice that your healthy star is hitting a robust .340-something when the others are out. If he can get the team fully on his back, they may be able to keep within striking distance.
June 8, 2009 at 9:32 am |
Believe it or not, the Mets are actually the wildcard leader this morning by % points and in loss column. If they can play .500 ball until the All-star break (when they are suppose to get Jose back), the year might not be lost.
That’s the great thing about the wildcard.
June 8, 2009 at 10:05 am |
I think the Nats was a paper-tiger test though, and the Dodgers really helped your cause. The Phils and Yankees will really determine things soon.
Maine vs Joba on Friday. Andy vs Livan Sat (ill be there). Johan Burnett Sunday (ill also be there). Who you got?
June 8, 2009 at 10:54 am |
Didn’t the Phillies win the series in LA?
What do you mean with “who you got?”
June 8, 2009 at 11:40 am |
“Who you got?” as in “based on the starting pitchers in the matchup between the team I root for and the team you root for, which team do you imagine will be victorious in each of the games?”
June 8, 2009 at 11:43 am |
And no, the Phills went 2-2, but should have won all 4 games.
June 8, 2009 at 12:17 pm |
You’re right. I was thinking it was a three game series. Thank you Brad Lidge.
With the way the respective teams are playing, I’ll be very happy not to get swept by the Yanks. The next 6 are against the Philth and the Skanks. Santana pitches the first and the last of those 6. If we can win his two starts plus one more, I’ll be very happy. With the state of the Mets’ lineup, I just can’t make reasonable predictions on a game by game basis against anyone right now.
June 8, 2009 at 12:29 pm |
Yeah man, the run up to the all star break is just brutal for you guys. Phils, Yankees then Baltimore for bit of a respite.
Then its Tampa, Cards, Yankees, Brewers, Philly, Dodgers, Cincy.
That may determine the season right there. I won’t deny that your 2-4 have been pitching pretty well, but I also doubt that will continue.
June 8, 2009 at 2:04 pm |
I think it will continue, if Maine is healthy. He has not had his normal velocity the last 2x out, and is complaining of stiffness in the shoulder. He’s a guy who absolutely needs his velocity to perform. His secondary stuff is not good enough to pitch at 90. He needs to be at 93-94. Pelf had been pretty good until his last start. He got off to a slow start after suffering shin splints in March and some tendonitis in early April, then really got into a groove until Pittsburgh. He’ll be fine. Livian knows how to pitch and throw strikes, and might have a little more in that tank than anyone gives him credit. Everybody has been waiting for him to implode, but it hasn’t happened.
It’s the offense that concerns me. With 2 of the big 4 gone, we really need some of the complimentary players to step up. But none have done so thus far.
And Baltimore is no cakewalk anymore. Their pitching sucks, but that lineup is impressive. They might be really good next year or the year after.
June 10, 2009 at 9:55 am |
Were you at the Met game last night? Hell of a good game.
Still want to compare Jeter and DWright?
DWright has a .348 average and a .969 OPS. Jeter at .302, with an .829 OPS. Jeter on pace for 97 runs, 22 HR, 72 rbi, 30 sb’s. DWright on pace for 107 runs, 11 HR’s, 101 rbi and 40 sb’s.
By the way, what was the rush to get Wang into the bullpen and rotation? Why not leave him at AAA for a couple of more starts so you don’t have to worry about pitch counts and let Hughes hold down the fort? Makes no sense to me at all.