Author Archive
The Minus Stats
Last week, the big boss around here rolled out the newest stats to hit the site; ERA-, FIP-, and xFIP-. I know, I know, the last thing FanGraphs needs is more numbers with weird acronyms, and now we’re introducing stats that have acronyms followed by a mark that often indicates that subtraction is on the way? Who wants to be caught in conversation saying “Cliff Lee had a FIP minus of 62 last year”? Not me, that’s for sure.
But, that’s the beauty of these new numbers – they actually give us the ability to describe advanced pitching metrics in plain english. You can use them without ever actually using the acronym; for example, “Cliff Lee was 38 percent better than average at things pitchers have the most control over.” You’ve just explained Lee’s FIP- in one not-overly-confusing sentence, and you’ve done it without causing the person you’re conversing with to yell “NERD!” and walk away.
Brandon Beachy’s Impressive Performance
When Butler takes on UConn tonight, you can imagine that a large percentage of the people who have no vested interest in the outcome will be pulling for the Bulldogs. Butler isn’t the same Cinderella story as they were last year, but they’re still a mid-major who entered the tournament as an eight seed, and unlike UConn, they don’t have a long history of winning NCAA tournament games. They’re the little guy who shouldn’t be here, and we like to root for these guys to do well.
Basketball doesn’t have a monopoly on those kinds of stories today, though, as Brandon Beachy made his season debut for the Atlanta Braves this afternoon. Beachy was signed by the Braves in 2008 as an undrafted free agent, used mostly in relief during his first two season in their system, and then skyrocketed to the Majors after moving into the rotation last summer. After a fantastic spring training, Beachy was named the Braves fifth starter, beating out Mike Minor (who was taken seventh overall by the Braves in 2009) for the job in a rather major upset.
Today, he went up against the Brewers – you know, the team with the best offense in the National League last year. The knocks against Beachy have been that his stuff is pedestrian. He lacks an obvious knockout pitch, and while he’s listed at 6’2/210, that seems generous, so there’s not a lot of projection there. However, Beachy shoved his “pedestrian” stuff right down the Brewers’ throats today, and ended up giving up just one run on four hits over six innings, striking out seven Milwaukee hitters in the process. He made one mistake to Rickie Weeks, but besides that, he dominated a really good Brewers offense.
A Tale of Two Cities and Their Broken Pitchers
14 batters faced, 5 hits (1 HR), 2 walks, 2 hit batters, and, just for fun, 1 balk.
17 batters faced, 6 hits (2 HR), 5 walks, but hey, a strikeout!
One of these lines was posted by Scott Kazmir this weekend, the other by Javier Vazquez. I would ask if you could tell which was which, but in reality, it doesn’t matter – they were equally abysmal, and while you should never get too worked up over the results of one start, fans in Anaheim and Miami have all kinds of reasons to be worried about the process that led to those results.
A Few Observations On Clayton Kershaw
While I watched a lot of baseball yesterday, there was only one game that was broadcast without competition – the evening affair between the Dodgers and Giants. Major League Baseball made a pretty smart move here – it’s hard to better feature the sport than by starting off with a prime-time match-up of bitter rivals, one of whom is coming off a World Championship, especially when each is capable of putting an elite young pitcher on the hill. Tim Lincecum versus Clayton Kershaw is a fun match-up at any time, and when you haven’t had real baseball in five months, its sure to attract attention. It got mine, that’s for sure.
I have to say, though, that what on paper looks to have been a classic pitchers duel did not seem to be while watching live. Lincecum wasn’t bad, certainly, but the game had the vibe of Clayton Kershaw’s coming out party, with Lincecum as just the opening act that got in the way of the guy who we really wanted to see. Even while they both were throwing shutouts, Kershaw’s innings were just ridiculous. Lincecum got hitters out – Kershaw embarrassed them.
Opening Week Chat
Jonah Keri’s going to swing by and chat starting at 11 am eastern, and then Brian Joura will host his RotoGraphs chat starting at 12:30 in the same space. Assorted other authors may swing by as well.
2011 Organizational Rankings: #1 – New York
The big dog of big dogs, the Yankees continue to show what an organization can do with access to massive amounts of cash and the understanding of how to use it. They’re not perfect, but they’re still the gold standard for clubs in Major League Baseball. The Yankee brand has never been stronger.
Present Talent: 94.00 (1st)
Future Talent: 90.00 (t-3rd)
Financial Resources: 93.18 (1st)
Baseball Operations: 87.00 (3rd)
Overall Rating: 91.40 (1st)