The New York Yankees could be in big trouble once the post-season rolls around. At least, that’s what some columnists might try to tell you. Despite the fact that the Yankees have all but clinched a playoff spot — and lead the league in run differential — there’s panic in the streets of New York over the pitching rotation. While the rotation has been pretty solid this season — as Yankee starters rank sixth in WAR — there are question marks surrounding every member of the rotation excluding CC Sabathia. With the post-season rapidly approaching, let’s take a look at the candidates for the number two slot in the Yankees post-season rotation.
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Bill James’ discovery of the Pythagorean Win Expectation is one of the cooler findings of sabermetric research. You can read up on the details by following the given link. In short, what James found is that one can get a pretty good approximation of a team’s winning percentage given only their runs scored and allowed by using the following formula:

It works remarkably well, and more recent versions like PythagenPat are even more accurate. I won’t repeat the basics, which can be looked up elsewhere. Instead, I want to address the occasional misuse of the formula for building narratives of teams being better or worse.

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Mark Buehrle will be a free agent after this season. It couldn’t come at a better time for the 32-year-old, who will get plenty of interest from teams that need pitching because the thin free-agent class. Besides being a decent thrower, he’s extremely durable. Since 2001 — when the left-hander became a full-time starter — he hasn’t missed a start for any reason (player’s transaction information on the bottom left). Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a pretty solid week for Adam Loewen. First, the newly-converted outfielder gets called up to the majors for the first time since 2008, back when he was pitching for the Baltimore Orioles. Then, on September 7th, he gets his first start in center field and picks up his first major league hit and run to boot. This Sunday, Loewen picked up his first home run and his first two-hit game, and then yesterday he went and robbed a home run from Carl Crawford at Fenway Park. Not bad for anybody, really. Even better for a guy with Loewen’s story.

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Althought it appears Andrew Friedman has the Midas touch, not every move he makes turns to gold. While no front office will hit on every transaction, the hope is they come out more often than not. For the Tampa Bay Rays this has been the case since the Friedman regime took over prior to the 2006 season. Relatively small in regards to the grand scheme of things, the team’s decision to release right-handed reliever Cory Wade in June serves as an example of a rare misstep by the Rays front office.

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The slider is baseball’s hardest pitch to hit — at least when it comes from a guy like Sergio Santos.

This season, the 28-year-old White Sox reliever has used his slide piece to rack up nearly 13 strikeouts per nine innings. And consider this: For every 100 sliders Santos throws, he racks up 34 swings and misses — the best in the major leagues for any pitch thrown at least 250 times. That’s also more than double the average rate for sliders. Even more incredible, out of every 100 swings against his sliders, batters miss 63 times — also the highest rate in baseball. That’s simply absurd.

And pretty nasty.

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Peacocks actually can fly; they’re just really shy about it.

Washington (6) at New York NL (4) | 19:10 ET
What the Big Deal Is
The big deal in this game is how Bradley Peacock is making his first major-league start for the Nationals.

On Account of Why That’s a Deal, Big or Otherwise
Bradley Peacock’s first major-league start is a pretty big deal owing to his excellent minor-league numbers — or, at least his excellent Double-A numbers.

Regarding the Aforementioned Numbers
Here are Peacock’s minor-league numbers from 2011:

At Double-A: 98.2 IP, 11.77 K/9, 2.10 BB/9, 0.36 HR/9, 1.87 FIP

At Triple-A: 48.0 IP, 9.00 K/9, 4.50 BB/9, 0.94 HR/9, 4.18 FIP

On Account of Why Peacock’s Debut Is a Deal, Part II
Bradley Peacock’s first major-league start is also a pretty big deal because it allows one to ejaculate “Let the peacock fly!”

Regarding That Comment, What’s Funny About It
That comment is pretty funny, on account of peacocks can’t actually fly.

Regarding That Comment, What’s Funny About It, Part II
That comment is also pretty funny, on account of the word ejaculate is in it.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Nationals Television, maybe?

Two Other Games
Los Angeles AL (5) at Oakland (1) | 15:35 ET
Tonight in Oakland, the Angels persist in forcing us to imagine that there’s a playoff race in the AL West.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Angels Radio?

Arizona (9) at Los Angeles NL (4) | 20:10 ET
Observe as Arizona continues its attempt to “win all the games.” They face Clayton Kershaw.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Dodgers Television.

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Perhaps no pitcher over the last decade has relied more on his fastball velocity than Javier Vazquez.

He isn’t a pure flamethrower averaging 94-95 mph on the gun and batters aren’t typically mystified by the separation between his heater and offspeed offerings. But when his velocity drops he turns into a pumpkin. Certain pitchers can lose velocity and remain effective. Tim Lincecum loses four or five miles per hour and pitches better

Vazquez loses 1-2 mph and suddenly resembles sub-replacement level dreck. From the beginning of last season through June 2011, his velocity dropped significantly and the results were predictably poor. The narrative that Vazquez had nothing left was perfectly fueled. He wasn’t posting solid peripherals while simultaneously being victimized by the luck dragon. He legitimately pitched poorly and looked washed up.

None of this is necessarily strange except when considering that his velocity somehow returned in the middle of the season. Since that point, Vazquez looks like his vintage self, and doesn’t look anywhere near done.

Having passed the 2,500 strikeout milestone this season, and continuing to pitch effectively, Vazquez might still pitch another few solid seasons and march towards the 3,000 strikeout holy ground. He would become the Johnny Damon of pitchers in a sense, a player whose stats certainly fall in line with previously established Hall of Fame benchmarks, but who doesn’t really feel like an all-timer.

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Orlando Hudson has been outspoken — at times, controversial — when it comes to African-Americans in baseball. The San Diego Padres second baseman cares deeply about the subject, and his knowledge of the game spans from the Negro Leagues to the present day. Perhaps most important to him, though, is the game’s future.

The numbers are sadly staggering: In 1975, African-Americans populated more than a quarter of major-league rosters. By 1996, when Hudson signed his first professional contract, the figure was 17%. Today, only 8.5% of this season’s Opening Day big-leaguers were African-American. The downward trend is one that Hudson would like to see reversed.

The four-time Gold Glove winner addressed the subject when the Padres visited Fenway Park earlier this summer.

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Hudson, on the man who preceded Jackie Robinson: “Fleetwood Walker was the first African-American to play in the big leagues. People say that Jackie broke the barrier, but Fleetwood broke in back in [1884]. He had a couple of years in before they said, ‘We don’t want blacks in baseball.’ He was a light-skinned brother. He was the first one and then — 60 years later — Jackie came along, in 1947. It was like, ‘OK, I’m here to stay.’ He played nine or 10 years in the big leagues. Then it was [Don] Newcombe and [Larry] Doby, and so forth.

On the players who followed Robinson: “They aren’t [as well known] because they were there at the same time as Jackie. Here’s a prime example: At one time you had Jeter, A-Rod, Tejada, Nomar and Vizquel. Wow. All right, out of that bunch you have four who are still playing. Nomar is out, so nobody talks about him anymore. Everyone forgets that Nomar was one of the best in the game. They mostly talk about Jeter and A-Rod. That’s why I think that Doby and those guys aren‘t talked about. Jackie got all the limelight. Branch Rickey was like, ’OK, this is the first guy, right here, Jackie Robinson.’ People just gravitated to him.”

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