For most of his career, Doug Fister has been baseball’s version of Rodney Dangerfield. Coming up through the minor leagues, Fister was simply one of a legion of strike-throwing no-stuff guys, and his lack of velocity or anything resembling an out pitch made him more of an afterthought than a prospect. He made it to the majors in the second half of the 2009 season, but his combination of 88 MPH fastballs and a home run problem did nothing to tear down the image of a guy who just threw too many hittable strikes.

But if you look beyond the high-ish HR/FB rate he posted in his rookie year, Fister was actually pretty decent in his first go-around in the Major Leagues. Despite topping out at 90 with his fastball, he got enough leverage on the pitch to generate a decent amount of ground balls. He also threw a well-above average changeup that helped him keep left-handed hitters at bay and generate some swinging strikes, giving him a solid 2.4 K/BB ratio despite pedestrian stuff. It all added up to a 4.43 xFIP, a league average mark for a 2009 AL pitcher.

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In his final start of August, Cliff Lee went 8 and 2/3 innings without allowing a run. Lee plunked Miguel Cairo with pitch number 117, cuing Ryan Madson to get the game’s final out. Last night against the Atlanta Braves, Lee finished where he started, using only 100 pitches en route to his 200th strikeout and 6th complete game and 6th shutout of the season.

Lee is now at 106 batters faced without allowing a run — 29 and 2/3 straight scoreless innings across 4 starts. Wow.

Despite striking out an uncharacteristically low number of batters (6), Lee instead trolled the Braves hitters by inducing 14 ground balls (second only to his present season high of 17 in his complete game against the Cardinals) and allowing nary a walk.

Last night’s shutout makes complete game number 6 for ol’ Cliff Lee, pushing his statistics down to: 2.47 ERA, 2.64 FIP, 2.76 xFIP, and a 2.67 SIERA.

Lee ranks 3rd in ERA, 3rd in FIP, 2nd in xFIP, and 3rd in SIERA. And he now leads the majors in shutouts with 6, ahead of James Shields (4) and Derek Holland (4). In the NL, it’s not even close:

When it comes to the 2011 NL Cy Young race, it presently comes down to just three fellas: Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, and Clayton Kershaw. Yes, one could make the case for the likes of Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, and even Daniel Hudson and Matt Garza, but the Big Three are presently sporting Cy Young statistics, residing on a plateau of their own Manly Awesomeness.
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Featured Games
Los Angeles Nationals (4) at Washington (6) | 19:05 ET
• The author has taken the liberty of assigning Stephen Strasburg a NERD score of 19 — i.e. the lowest number Strasburg could receive for the purposes of making the overall Game Score a 10.
• It’s for these sort of executive decisions that people often refer to me as “Carson Cistulli.”
• On other occasions, people call me other, horribler things.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Dodgers Television (or Nationals Television, for what might be a more Strasburg-centric broadcast).

Seattle (0) at Los Angeles Americans (5) | 22:05 ET
• There’s a thin red line separating the current baseball season from a baseball season without a playoff race.
• The Angels, if I may submit a submission, are that thin red line.
• And Mike Trout is the Great Artist drawing said line.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Mariners Television.

San Francisco (3) at San Diego (3) | 22:05 ET
• Let’s watch this game together at San Francisco’s Gordon Biersch Brewery, how about.
• Starting around 5pm PT, how about.
• With some other baseball-y baseball nerds.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Giants Radio.

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Major League Baseball’s surprise team may run out of luck in the playoffs. After finishing dead last in the NL West last season, the Diamondbacks currently lead the division by seven games, and look poised to enter the postseason. While their hitting and fielding have both been solid this season, the pitching has been the real reason for the Diamondbacks’ turnaround. Led by one of the worst bullpen performances we’ve seen in recent years, the Diamondbacks finished last in pitching WAR in 2010. This season, the Diamondbacks have improved to roughly league average due to breakout performances by Ian Kennedy and Daniel Hudson. Still, those performances may not be enough to lead the Diamondbacks to victory in October.
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Last week, I mentioned I was working on a theory, but didn’t have the time to flesh it out. This week, I present to you conclusive proof that the introductions I write for the Power Rankings have cooling properties. I haven’t written about specific teams every week in the intro, but when I have, the results have been jarring:
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Michael Young won’t go away.

He’s 34 years old. He’s a bad defender pretty much anywhere on the diamond. He doesn’t walk much or hit for exceptional power. His biannual off-season whining when he’s moved to accommodate a superior fielder has damaged his reputation. (Remember “misled and manipulated?” Good times.) But, still, Young keeps on hitting.

As Joe Pawlikowski recently noted, Young — and his 3.6 WAR (on the back of his .372 wOBA — has been key for the American League West-leading Rangers, who’ve endured injuries to Young’s third-base replacement, Adrian Beltre, and to outfielders Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz. His playing time didn’t directly replace Hamilton’s or Cruz’s, but Young’s surprisingly strong offensive contribution (his 132 wRC+ is his best since 2005) has helped make up for what the team lost. The Rangers aren’t a lock for the playoffs yet, but they’re getting close, and Young has been a big part of that.

Which is exactly why this post so untimely: What should happen with Young in the off-season?

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Quite to the contrary, reader: he barely even knew her.

Featured Game
Detroit (2) at Cleveland (5) | 13:05 ET
• I don’t know the precise word for what the Tigers did to the White Sox on Sunday, but you probably shouldn’t say it in front of your mother.
• Other people’s mothers — that’s no problem.
• The Indians, for their part, managed to beat the Royals while deploying an outfield of Jerad Head, Ezequiel Carrera, and Kosuke Fukudome.
• You probably shouldn’t say at least two of those names in front of your mother, either.
• And probably don’t say the names of either of today’s starters — Doug Fister and Ubaldo Jimenez — in front of your mother, thirdly.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Tigers Television, if you must.

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.4.

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Bruce Chen recently told Tyler Kepner that, health permitting, he could see himself having a very lengthy career similar to Jamie Moyer’s. The man still loves everything about baseball and is fully aware of what defines his success.

Chen reasoned that, like Moyer, his success hinges on knowing how to pitch rather than velocity and pure stuff. Part of that knowledge calls for a hefty utilization of his offspeed pitches. Another part involves throwing his pitches from different arm angles at any given time, a lesson learned from Royals pitching coach Bob McClure. At 34 years old, Chen embodies the term ‘crafty lefty’ and embraces the classification. While Chen isn’t exactly putting the league on notice, he understands his limitations and has become quite the cost-effective starting pitcher.

While he’ll never achieve the potential many saw in his days as a prospect, Chen could certainly be a serviceable major league arm for years to come. But is he the next Jamie Moyer? Can he really keep batters off balance for another decade and a half?

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This clip is either (a) five days old or (b) timeless. No one knows for sure.

Featured Game
Minnesota (6 0) at Los Angeles (5) | 15:35 ET
• On the one hand, there are definitely better pitching matchups tonight than Kevin Slowey at Joel Pineiro.
• Like Roy Halladay at Anibal Sanchez, for example.
• On the other, the Angels are the only team within five games of a prospective playoff spot.
• And on the other-other, no other game permits us to employ a Mike Trout Watch.
• Which, voila: 85 PA, .267/.341/.520, .259 BABIP, 138 wRC+, 1/1 SB, 0.7 WAR (including a line of .406/.500/.844, .360 BABIP, in 38 PA since his mid-August recall).

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Angels Radio (i.e. The Home of the Jimmy-Jack).

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 4.9.

Read the rest of this entry »