Lou Marson had a pretty easy eight innings catching Justin Masterson Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins. Any catcher would gladly receive for a performance like Masterson’s — eight scoreless innings, bolstered by six strikeouts and only blemished by four hits and one walk. And it just may have been the single easiest game a catcher has ever called. 104 times Marson put a sign down with his right hand. 103 times it was the ol’ number one.
While some teams are still determining whether they will buy or sell at the deadline, for a few teams the answer is painfully obvious. The San Diego Padres are 14.5 games back in the NL West and 15 games back of the Wild Card, placing them firmly in the sellers column. They’re fielding plenty of phone calls now, mostly regarding their highly regarded relievers, Heath Bell and Mike Adams. But the Padres have some other chips that could potentially help a contender. Outfielder Ryan Ludwick is one of them, but they might be able to get a bit more if they were to shop around their third baseman, Chase Headley.
Who’s up and who’s down? Which pitcher will improve upon a stellar season, and who is headed for the trash heap? SIERA and xFIP attempt to answer these questions from year to year, but they’re not totally interchangeable metrics. Why? The biggest difference is the way each uses strikeout rates.
That’s not to say that the two statistics don’t generally say the same thing. In fact, they’re much more reliable – and calculated much differently – than traditional ERA. For a quick example, take a look at the top 10 pitchers in all three metrics during the past four seasons.
Moving the Needle: Danny Valencia brings home the winning runs, +.464 WPA. The Twins had put just five runners on base in the first eight innings, and found themselves down 1-0 as they took their last chance. Chris Perez got a quick out to start the inning, but then he walked Joe Mauer. Michael Cuddyer doubled, leading the Indians to intentionally walk Jim Thome. Valencia then laced one to left, deep enough to score both Mauer and Cuddyer and win the game. Chris Perez was seen in the dugout throwing everything in sight.
Notables
Justin Masterson: 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K. Apparently he threw a lot of fastballs.
Francisco Liriano: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 5 K. This is looking an awful lot like his 2008 season. An awful lot.
Also in this issue: Rangers 7, Angels 0 | Brewers 11, Diamondbacks 3 | Orioles 6, Red Sox 2 | Phillies 4, Cubs 2 | Tigers 8, A’s 3 | Rockies 12, Braves 3 | Royals 4, White Sox 2 | Padres 4, Marlins 0 | Astros 7, Nationals 6 | Rays 3, Yankees 2 | Mets 4, Cardinals 2 | Blue Jays 6, Mariners 5 | Pirates 1, Reds 0 | Giants 5, Dodgers 3
Whether he’s offering a strong opinion or he’s waxing philosophical, Chili Davis is always engaging. The former slugger can hold court on any number of subjects — he was born in Jamaica and coached in Australia — but when the topic is his 19-year big-league career (1981 to 1999), thought-provoking pearls are a given. That is especially true when a conversation about hitting morphs into an examination of doctored baseballs — Nolan Ryan cheated? — and bias in hall-of-fame and MVP voting.
Davis, a career .274/.360.451 hitter with 350 home runs, is coaching in the Red Sox system. This interview was excerpted from a conversation about hitting philosophy.
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David Laurila: Who did you least like to face? For instance, Ryne Sandberg told me that the pitcher who gave him the most trouble was Larry Andersen.
Chili Davis: Well, Larry cheated. Ryno probably wouldn’t say that, but later in Larry’s career, he cut the ball up. He taught Mike Scott how to cut the ball up, and then they taught Nolan Ryan how to cut the ball up. Larry Andersen was a good pitcher before that, but as a hitter, I know he did. The ball moved too dang much.
DL: Another former player told me that Mike Scott cheated better than anybody he ever saw.
Looking to sure up an area of weakness – the middle infield – the San Francisco Giants acquired Jeff Keppinger from the Houston Astros for a pair of minor league arms. For the Astros, selling a piece like Keppinger makes sense even if the return – or in this case returns – never pan out. I will not pretend to know much about Henry Sosa and Jason Stoffel; however, getting two live arms in a system void of many prospects in exchange for a player who does not have much a future in the organization is a worthwhile gamble regardless of the outcome.
This inkblot is giving two thumbs up.
This edition of One Night Only contains:
1. All of the news that’s fit to print, if by “news” you mean “game previews” and by “print” you mean “publish on the internet or whatever.”
2. Our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for every one of this mid-week’s games.
3. JeterYankeesMcCourtScandalSteroidsStrauss-KahnEconomyBadonkadonk.
Over the last week, Ubaldo Jimenez has become a popular conversation piece, as he has been linked to the Yankees and Reds (among other teams) as a potential acquisition before the trade deadline. While Jimenez is generally seen as one of the game’s better young starting pitchers, he’s also developed a bit of a reputation for being inconsistent.
As Buster Olney noted on Twitter yesterday, some people in the game see him as similar to A.J. Burnett, and Olney used the phrase “enigmatic inconsistency” to explain why the Rockies might be willing to move him. After I noted on Twitter that Jimenez’s xFIPs have been insanely consistent over the last three years, Buster and I got into a short discussion about the topic. Obviously, the point he’s making about Jimenez’s consistency from start to start isn’t going to be measured using yearly xFIP, though, so today, I thought I’d try to look at the question differently.
The Texas Rangers have been the talk of the league lately. Just a few weeks ago they were tied atop the AL West, a division that featured no clear frontrunner. The Angels and Mariners stayed close enough to create some intrigue, but it didn’t last long. In a run that started on Independence Day, the Rangers have taken 11 straight and have eliminated at least one division contender, the Mariners, by beating them four times. They now have a four-game cushion. It could have been more, too, had the Angels not put together a modest run of their own.
