Entering yesterday’s Game Five between the Phillies and Rays, Cole Hamels had pitched brilliantly in four straight post-season starts, and could have become the first pitcher in the Wild Card era to win all five of his playoff starts. Due to the nasty weather conditions, it is unlikely for him to reach this feat, but he could still pull it off if the Phillies take the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning and hold on for the victory. Sure, it would be quite the odd win, but regardless of whether or not he records a decision, his post-season has been extremely stellar.

In five starts, he scattered 23 hits over 35 innings, walking 9, striking out 30, and surrendering just two home runs. All told, he produced a 1.80 ERA, 3.33 K/BB, 0.91 WHIP, and a 2.92 FIP. While he has pitched beautifully and basically provided a guarantee that the Phillies would win or, at the very least, stay in the ballgame, he is not alone in post-season dominance this decade. From 2000-2007, I found five other post-seasons that either matched or surpassed Hamels in 2008.

In 2001, we saw a pair of amazing performances from the Diamondbacks dynamic duo of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. In six starts, Schilling posted the following: 48.1 IP, 25 H, 3 HR, 6 BB, 56 K. Those numbers resulted in a miniscule 1.12 ERA, a 0.64 WHIP, a 9.33 K/BB, and a 1.98 FIP. Teammate Johnson appeared in six games, five of which were starts, putting together the following line: 41.1 IP, 25 H, 2 HR, 8 BB, 47 K. His 5.88 K/BB is fantastic but actually pales in comparison to Schilling’s, as do his 1.52 ERA and 0.80 WHIP. His FIP of 2.06 comes strikingly close, however. It is no wonder the Diamondbacks were able to win the World Series.

In 2003, Andy Pettitte put together a tremendous line, even though the Yankees ended up losing the World Series to the Florida Marlins. Pettitte, in five starts, produced a 2.10 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 3.09 K/BB, and 3.24 FIP. Josh Beckett, then a member of the series winning Marlins, put together even better post-season numbers: a 2.11 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 3.92 K/BB, and 2.67 FIP in 42.2 innings assembled over five starts.

Beckett further cemented himself as arguably the best playoff pitcher in recent history, if not ever, with his line in 2007 as a member of the Red Sox: 4 GS, 30 IP, 19 H, 4 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 35 K. Yes, Beckett produced a K/BB of 17.50, almost doubling Schilling’s overly impressive ratio from 2001. Beckett posted a 1.20 ERA, 0.70 WHIP, and an astounding 1.42 FIP, which is actually lower than that of others before adding the 3-3.20 ERA normalizing number. Hamels may have just put the finishing touches on a brilliant post-season, but let’s not forget that there have been other absolutely tremendous performances. Which do you think was the best? Beckett in 2007, or Schilling in 2001?

Rain rain, go away. Tonight’s possible World Series deciding game has been officially suspended due to excessive precipitation in Philadelphia. How precarious is this suspension? Several people are no doubt thinking that technically the game should be called (because they completed the top of the fifth) and the score reverted to the previous fully completed inning. That would make the score 2-1 in favor of Philadelphia and the game would be over. And that would be it, four games to one, Philadelphia would ironically break their title drought thanks to a downpour.

Well thank goodness for the rule changes that came about prior to the 2007 season. Prior to 2007, the above would be the letter of the (baseball) law. Starting with the 2007 season however, we now have Rule 4.12 which covers the suspension of games. What does it say? A lot, but here’s my best take at it in plain English as it pertains to tonight. A baseball games shall be considered suspended if a regulation game (4.5 innings completed with the home team ahead, or 5 innings with the visiting club ahead or tied) is called while an inning is in progress, the visiting team has scored one or more runs to take the lead and the home team has not retaken the lead, or if it is a regulation game that is called with the score tied.

If Carlos Pena had not singled home B.J. Upton with two outs in the top of the sixth, tonight’s game would not fall under any of the nine provisions for a suspended game and the old rules would be back in effect. That is, game over, series over. That is how close we all came to the worst ending in baseball since Bud Selig’s All-Star game tie.

Baseball will attempt to resume play tomorrow at 8pm eastern in Philadelphia, but with a forecast currently showing tomorrow to be worse than tonight, only time will tell if that will prove feasible. And if not? Well, it gets pretty murky. Going back to Rule 4.12 we find the provision for the resumption of suspended games. It shall be resumed before the next scheduled game between the two clubs on the same grounds or played at the opposing club’s park if there are no more scheduled games between the teams. We don’t have another scheduled game in Philadelphia so we’re going to resume this game in Tampa; right? It depends on how baseball interprets what constitutes a “scheduled game” when we’re dealing with a postseason series and realistically, they aren’t going to allow this to be resumed in Tampa. Baseball’s rules are well-written to disguise easy interpretation and this section is no exception, but the good part for all of us as fans is that this is the World Series and nothing short of a labor stoppage is going to prevent to playing this out fully.

This season has been quite the rollercoaster for me, considering I never thought in a thousand years that I would bare witness to the team I root for taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the World Series. Clearly, the dominance of Cole Hamels, tonight’s game five starter, has loomed large in the team reaching this juncture, but the work of their relief corps has been outstanding, and is another reason why they find themselves in a series-clinching game tonight. The bullpen of the Phillies was extremely solid all season long, posting one of the lowest ERAs in baseball while simultaneously producing one of the best FIPs. And, as mentioned last week, they threw the lowest percentage of fastballs of any bullpen in baseball, relying almost equally on offspeed pitches.

Against the Brewers, in the NLDS, Ryan Madson, Brad Lidge, Chad Durbrin, JC Romero, Scott Eyre, and Clay Condrey allowed four earned runs in 10 innings of work. The sextet walked just three batters while striking out nine. The 3.60 ERA and 3.00 K/BB were both impressive, but they did allow 13 hits, as Durbin and Eyre combined to give up 6 hits in 1.2 innings. The big three of Lidge, Madson, and Romero, however, combined for: 7.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.

The Phillies won the series three games to one and moved onto play the Dodgers. JA Happ joined the previously mentioned six relievers in dominating the opposition, as the bullpen allowed just two earned runs in 18.2 innings of work. All told, their numbers were: 18.2 IP, 13 H, 2 ER, 12 BB, 17 K. The walks and strikeouts could be much better, but next to nobody scored in their appearances, as they produced an ERA below 1.00. The big three scattered six hits over 11.2 innings, walking six and striking out 13, all while stranding every baserunner that reached. Through the first two series tiers, the Phillies bullpen had posted the following numbers: 28.2 IP, 26 H, 6 ER, 15 BB, 26 K.

They then moved onto the World Series, to take on the Rays, who themselves had an extremely solid bullpen in the regular season. They had not been as stellar in the DS and CS, but had balance and depth that most other teams lacked. While they have faltered to some degree through four World Series games, the Phillies relievers have continued to flourish. Happ and Condrey have not seen action, but Lidge, Madson, Romero, Eyre, and Durbin have combined for 8.2 innings in which only one earned run has scored. Only two Rays batters have recorded hits off of this quintet, who suddenly stopped walking hitters. All told, they have walked one batter while striking out 12.

In the Division Series, the Phillies had decent K/BB numbers, but their ERA was higher than they would have liked. In the Championship Series, they drastically reduced the ERA, but their K/BB numbers got much worse. In the World Series, so far, they have put everything together, coupling a Bob Gibson-esque ERA with a Pedro Martinez circa 1999-2000 K/BB ratio. Having confidence in a bullpen can reduce the stress on a manager to make the decision of whether or not to keep a starter in the game, and the Phillies bullpen has done everything possible to earn this confidence. Will they all be this good next season? Who knows, but what is certainly clear is that if they can sustain their performances for at least one more game, they could end their season on the highest of high notes.

This afternoon, we looked at the first of several potential free agent bargains this winter – Jeremy Affeldt. This afternoon, we take a look at another guy with some potential for positive reward who won’t cost an arm and a leg. That guy is Juan Rivera.

Two years ago, Rivera hit .310/.362/.525 for the Angels, racking up a 2.45 WPA/LI mark that made him a very solid contributor to Anaheim’s offense. Then, injuries struck, and the last two years have been something of a wash. He managed just 324 plate appearances between the two seasons, and the missed time cost him his shot at a regular gig in LA. Now 30 and hitting free agency, it’s unlikely that a team is going to be giving him a multi-year contract without proving he can play everyday again, but if we look at his skills, he’s still a pretty solid hitter.

Rivera’s signature skill has always been his power, and that hasn’t disappeared. Even with the health problems and limited playing time, he posted a .191 ISO last year. When you look a little deeper, there’s even more reasons for optimism. During the first three months of the season, Rivera managed all of 66 plate appearances in 30 games. He barely made it on the field from April through June, and he wasn’t giving the Angels any reason to put him in the line-up more often, struggling to a .177/.227/.226 line. He had three extra base hits, all doubles, and simply wasn’t hitting. However, Gary Matthews Jr’s struggles created an opportunity for him to play a bit more often, from July on, he showed that the old Juan Rivera still existed.

In the final three months of the season, Rivera hit .268/.299/.505, and while the OBP isn’t exactly impressive, the 22 extra base hits (12 of which were home runs) show that Rivera’s still got some juice in his swing. His overly aggressive approach at the plate will always make him a low on base guy, but that kind of power is still valuable. Even with the .299 OBP, Rivera’s WPA/LI over the final three months was -.07, making him essentially a league average hitter.

Now, if that was Rivera’s ceiling, he’d be a nifty platoon corner OF/DH type, and that would be the end of it. But Rivera was a league average hitter while hitting .270. As a guy with both good contact and power, Rivera’s got the kind of skills that could allow him to hit .290 to .310. If you don’t strike out, and you hit the ball over the wall with some frequency, it’s pretty hard to post a low batting average, thanks to the sheer quantity of chances you have for hits. Rivera managed to hit .269 over the final three months despite a .242 batting average on balls in play. That’s extraordinarily low, even for a guy hitting a ton of flyballs.

If we assume that Rivera’s true talent BABIP is more in the .280 range (it’s .292 for his career, but we’ll knock it down a bit for age and injuries), and the rest of his skills remain in tact, he’s a .290 to .300 hitter. Even with his aggressive approach, .300/.340/.500 isn’t out of the question.

Rivera may never get back to his 2006 prime, but he’s certainly better than he’s shown the last two years, and there’s no reason to think he’s washed up at age 30. For a team looking for a right-handed power bat who makes good contact and offers some upside without requiring a long term, big money deal, Rivera’s a good bet. He’ll never be a star, but he could be the kind of useful role player that is picked up cheaply that championship teams need.

The Graduate: Brandon Moss | Born: September 1983 | Outfielder

The Pirates did not see much impact from its own system in 2008; the majority of rookies like Brandon Moss and Andy LaRoche came from other organizations in mid-season. Moss was stuck behind a backlog of outfielders in Boston but should get the chance to play everyday in Pittsburgh, although he may be better suited for a fourth outfielder role. He has modest power potential for a corner outfielder (.188 career MLB ISO) and he’s never hit more than 16 homers in a season. He also has a healthy line-drive rate in the Majors of 21.1%. Like most young hitters, Moss could stand to cut down on his whiffs.

The Riser: Jim Negrych | Born: March 1985 | Infielder

The former University of Pittsburgh infielder had a breakout 2008 campaign by hitting .370/.449/.508 in 386 High-A at-bats. Jim Negrych also held his own during a late-season promotion to Double-A. He doesn’t have much power, but he showed a good eye at the plate (55 walks, 55 strikeouts in High-A) and he steals in the odd base (12 attempts, seven stolen in 2008). Negrych spent his first two pro seasons playing second base but was moved over to third for most of 2008 where he struggled defensively (.912 FP, 2.87 RF/g). He also lacks the power to be an average to above-average offensive player at the hot corner. He is back playing second base in the fall Hawaii Baseball League.

The Tumbler: Daniel Moskos| Born: April 1986 | Left-Handed Pitcher

Daniel Moskos was a bit of a quizzical pick as the Pirates’ first selection (fourth overall) in the 2007 draft and he struggled miserably in his first full pro season. Most teams felt Moskos had the potential to be a starter in pro ball, but Pittsburgh initially announced that he would be a reliever. After the 2007 season, though, Moskos was shifted to the rotation and posted a 5.95 ERA in High-A ball this past year. He allowed 124 hits in 110.1 innings and posted rates of 3.51 BB/9 and 6.36 K/9. Moskos’ fastball was also lacking zip. Obviously, he needs to turn things around in 2009.

The ’08 Draft Pick: Chase D’Arnaud | Born: January 1987 | Shortstop

The brother of Philadelphia’s 2007 supplemental first round pick Travis D’Arnaud, Chase D’Arnaud had a solid college career at Pepperdine and was selected in the fourth round by Pittsburgh. He posted solid numbers in his debut with a line of .286/.330/.423 in 168 short-season at-bats. D’Arnaud played mostly third base in college, before his final season, but lacks the power to play there regularly in pro ball. At worst, he should be a solid utility player who can do a little bit of everything at the Major League level.

The ’09 Sleeper: Robinzon Diaz | Born: September 1983 | Catcher

Robinzon Diaz was obtained from Toronto late in the season for the disappointing Jose Bautista. Diaz has the chance to be a solid player, as an athletic catcher who does not strikeout (7.6 K% at Triple-A in 2008) and puts his bat on everything he swings at (which is just about everything – 3.7 BB% at Triple-A). Diaz is athletic for a catcher and has also played some third base and second base. He could be a valuable bench player and third catcher in the National League – although he has the potential to play regularly.

Up Next: The Chicago White Sox

As we head towards free agency, the focus is always on the big name guys – who is going to sign Mark Teixeira or CC Sabathia? Which team is going to give Manny Ramirez a deal that pays him into his 40s? What kind of contracts will older-but-still-effective guys like Randy Johnson and Jamie Moyer get?

But every year, there’s always a guy signs as something of an afterthought and turns into an important player, with the rest of baseball looking back and wondering why they weren’t more interested when he was available. This week, we’ll profile a group of players that should pay nice dividends for the team that recognizes that they’re worth more than they’re going to get this winter.

Starting off, let’s take a look at one of the more underrated pitchers in the game – Jeremy Affeldt.

A former top prospect as a starter, Affeldt didn’t live up to expectations in Kansas City and has bounced around the bullpens of the Royals, Rockies, and in 2008, the Reds. His career has seen him struggle with command problems, and as such, he’d never been trusted with any kind of meaningful role.

However, in 2008, he took a pretty big step forward. His average fastball velocity went from 92.3 MPH a year ago to 94.6 MPH, and his CB saw a similar improvement (going from 76.9 to 79.1). Adding several ticks to both pitches moves him into the power pitcher category, and it showed in his results.

His swinging strike rate (data from statcorner.com) jumped from 7.6% last year to 10.8% this year, putting him in the company of guys like Grant Balfour, Joakim Soria, and Kerry Wood. The swinging strikes translated directly to his strikeout rate, which jumped to 9.19 K/9. More swings and misses means less called balls as well, and Affeldt significantly improved his walk rate as well, down to a respectable 2.87 BB/9.

In a lot of cases, a pitcher will add velocity by switching to a four seam fastball and pitching up in the zone, but that’s not the case here – Affeldt continued to pitch down in the zone, posting a career high 54.4% GB%. Because he keeps the ball down, he was able to sustain a fairly low HR rate even though his HR/FB went through the roof (as it can with every reliever, thanks to the small yearly sample of batters and its variance).

Based on 2008, Affeldt has shown an entirely new skillset as compared to his major league career, adding a couple of ticks to both his fastball and curve, which have transformed him into one of the game’s best left-handed relievers. Because his curve is a legitimate second pitch, he shows almost no platoon split, and is equally effective against both LHB and RHBs. His stuff is clearly closer-worthy, and while he has no experience as the 9th inning guy, some smart team would be wise to give him a two or three year contract for setup man money and watch him blossom into one of the game’s best relief aces.

There’s a good case to be made that Jeremy Affeldt is the best reliever available this winter, while most of baseball has no idea who he is.

A continuation of the series of retrospectives looking back at the regular season and how teams fared. They will be presented, from first to last, in order of their run differential as given by the BaseRuns formula and adjusted for strength of schedule, which I feel is the best measurement of a team’s actual talent level.

Number Sixteen: Florida Marlins

Another team like Oakland and Minnesota that was mostly dismissed at the beginning of the season due to the trading of their best player, Florida also surprised many with how long they stayed competitive in the NL East. Florida was a balanced team, 16th in run scoring and 14th in run prevention per BaseRuns.

Florida’s defense may be the biggest story as their pitching staff had their BABIP drop from an astounding .330 last season to a more pedestrian .301 this year. That 29 point difference comes out to roughly equal 130 plays over a full season, or 100 runs using Tango’s 0.8 runs per play constant. 100 runs saved! Makes you wonder just how bad at defense Miguel Cabrera really was/is.

Speaking of Cabrera, that was certainly the thought that his being traded away would hamper the Marlins, sending them into a tailspin so bad as to compete with the Nationals for worst team in the NL. In retrospect, that was pretty silly. Yes, Cabrera is a fantastic offensive talent, but just like with Manny Ramirez, his abhorrent defense seriously deflates his value and mitigates his departure. The hitting got worse of course, but it really wasn’t all that much worse. Jorge Cantu helped provide some relief and this season there was no Miguel Olivo around to soak up 450-odd at bats with a .263 OBP.

The bullpen took a step back however as 2007 standouts Justin Miller and Matt Lindstrom both reverted more toward the league average and nobody, aside from Arthur Rhodes in limited duty after being acquired midseason from Seattle, really stepped up to provide a dominant performance.

You could say the same about the rotation in a ways, that nobody truly stood out, and while that would be true, it would gloss over just how much of an improvement that represented over 2007. Last season saw around 500 innings go to Daniel Barone, Scott Olsen, Rick Vanden Hurk and Dontrelle Willis who combined to post awful ratios. 2008 saw a superficial improvement from Olsen (his ratios remained poor), but getting rid of Willis was a blessing and Ricky Nolasco stepped up along with some supporting cast in Andrew Miller (though where are his groundballs?), Chris Volstad and the return of Josh Johnson.

As Eric and I have been illustrating over the last few days, there’s some really cool stuff in the new team pages that you guys should be checking out. Here’s one more example – a graph of all team’s Clutch scores, which measure the portion of their WPA that came from their performance in high leverage situations. Essentially, this is how team’s performed when it mattered.

Notice how most teams aren’t that far from zero? 23 of the 30 teams had scores between +3 and -3, meaning that they won three more or less games thanks to their high leverage hitting. It helps, but clearly, it’s not the thing that makes or breaks a ballclub.

But look at those two big bars on the far left hand side, especially the biggest one – that’s a clutch score of +7.32. That’s the 2008 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who added almost seven and a half wins to their total by performing well in high leverage situations. That’s 2.6 standard deviations from the mean – a true outlier if ever there was one. A huge portion of Anaheim’s success in 2008 was directly due to clutch hitting.

Guess what – they led the league in 2007, too, posting a +5.19 clutch score. That’s 12.5 wins in two years thanks to timely hitting. Yes, it’s probably random variation, but it’s interesting random variation.

Just for kicks, here are their clutch scores and MLB ranks for the entire decade, which happens to be the length of Mike Scioscia’s managerial reign.

2000: -2.08 (21st)
2001: -5.41 (25th)
2002: 4.54 (3rd)
2003: 0.13 (11th)
2004: 1.33 (6th)
2005: 4.28 (2nd)
2006: -1.85 (21st)
2007: 5.19 (1st)
2008: 7.32 (1st)

This probably doesn’t mean anything, and I certainly wouldn’t advise betting on the Angels to be among the league leaders in clutch hitting again next year. But a +20 clutch score over the last seven years sure is eye opening. If you keep looking at those rosters and trying to figure out how they won so many games, here you go.

The Graduate: Nick Blackburn | Born: February 1982 | Right-Handed Pitcher

The Twins featured a very inexperienced starting pitching staff in 2008 and Nick Blackburn was no exception. Entering the season, he had just six games of MLB experience but he provided 193.1 innings and posted an ERA of 4.05. Blackburn did not miss a lot of bats by allowing 224 hits, with a K/9 rate of 4.47, so he relied heavily on his defence. He won’t hurt himself with walks after posting a rate of 1.82 BB/9. Blackburn is not going to be a star, but he should be an innings-eater for the foreseeable future.

The Riser: Ben Revere | Born: May 1988 | Outfielder

You’d think a former first round pick (2007) would already be pretty highly though of – but most analysts felt Ben Revere was a huge overdraft. Do they still think that after his first full season in pro ball? Not so much. Revere flirted with hitting .400 for much of the minor league season. He showed a far more advanced bat than expected, and does a little bit of everything well – except hit for power (.113 ISO). He finished the season with a line of .379/.425/.497 with 44 stolen bases (13 CS) in 340 at-bats. If Revere needs to work on one thing in particular, it is his patience at the plate. More walks (7.4 BB%) could help him become an even more effective lead-off hitter.

The Tumbler: Deolis Guerra | Born: April 1989 | Right-Handed Pitcher

The crown jewel of the John Santana trade with the Mets prior to the 2008 season, Deolis Guerra took a huge step back and may have put too much pressure on himself to impress his new club. It’s also possible that he was over-matched as a 19-year-old in High-A ball, although he spent most of 2007 there as well and posted better numbers. Guerra went 11-9 in 2008 but posted a 5.47 ERA thanks in part to 138 hits and 71 walks in 130 innings. He also struck out just 71 batters. The good news is that Guerra has plenty of time to right the ship.

The ’08 Draft Pick: Tyler Ladendorf | Born: March 1988 | Shortstop

An offensive-minded shortstop, Tyler Ladendorf posted gaudy numbers in junior college and showed the ability to hit for average and power – with speed on the base paths. He found pro ball to be a little more difficult, though. In 147 Rookie League at-bats, Ladendorf hit .204/.287/.293 with one home run and six stolen bases. He posted rates of 10.4 BB% and 19.7 K%. Expect better numbers in 2009 now that he has his feet wet.

The ’09 Sleeper: Wilson Ramos | Born: August 1987 | Catcher

Wilson Ramos is finally attracting some much-deserved attention as an offensive-minded catcher. It will be interesting to see how Minnesota gets his bat into the line-up when he’s ready, given the presence of Joe Mauer. Ramos had his third straight solid offensive season and produced a line of .288/.342/.434 with 13 home runs in 452 at-bats. His ISO has averaged .146 in each of the last three seasons. With a career walk rate around 7.5%, he could stand to be a little more patient, while also trimming the strikeouts (22.8 K%). Defensively, Ramos has improved his receiving skills and features a dangerous arm behind the plate (41% CS in 2007, 43% in 2008).

Up Next: The Pittsburgh Pirates

When you think of the standard cliches about “Moneyball” teams that have hired statistically inclined GMs over the last few years, what’s one of the first one’s that comes to mind? Patient hitters who draw a lot of walks has to be at the top of the list, right?

Well, with the new team pages here on Fangraphs, I decided to look at the teams rankings in our Plate Discipline stats, just to see if the stereotype holds. I figured the easiest way to judge approach was by O-Swing%, or the amount of times a team swings at pitches outside the strike zone, since laying off bad pitches is one of the fundamentals of the “sabermetric hitting approach”. The results were… well, just look for yourself. Sorted by lowest O-Swing%:

1. Tampa, 22.63%
2. Boston, 22.85%
3. Oakland, 23.88%
4. Cleveland, 23.25%
5. Arizona, 23.50%
6. Yankees, 23.62%
7. Toronto, 23.64%
8. Colorado, 23.81%

and the bottom eight:

23. San Diego, 26.83%
24. White Sox, 27.44%
25. Dodgers, 27.66%
26. Kansas City, 27.88%
27. Houston, 27.97%
28. San Francisco, 28.02%
29. Seattle, 28.49%
30. Anaheim, 28.87%

Among the top eight, the only team that you could argue doesn’t employ a sabermetric GM would be the Yankees, but they’ve still shown a clear affinity over the years for patient hitters. In fact, the five teams with the lowest O-Swing% are basically The Big Five stat-friendly organizations in baseball right now. Likewise, the five teams with the lowest O-Swing% are five franchises that have essentially looked at statistical analysis and said “nah, that’s not for us.”

The correlation between a team’s statistical bent and the players rate of chasing pitches out of the strike zone is pretty strong. Now, some of that is due at least in part to the selection processes of the players by the GM (Oakland is way more likely to give a job to Jack Cust than Seattle), but teams like Tampa and Arizona are mostly built upon position players developed from within. It seems clear that the emphasis of plate discipline as an approach can manifest itself in on field results. Perhaps the Royals, Astros, Giants, Mariners, and Angels might want to consider preaching a bit more patience at the plate – it’s not like their offenses are much to write home about anyway.