In thinking of the likely landing spots for Jose Reyes, few, if any, would have guessed the Florida… er, Miami Marlins. But with multiple reports speculating on such a possibility, it’s worth taking a look at how exactly Reyes would fit in with the Fish.
The inaugural edition of the FanGraphs Power Rankings was a bit of a labor of love for me. So, I thought it fitting that we take a look back at how they all played out in graphical view to put the finishing touches on the season.
Let’s start with the timeline of the Rankings for all 30 teams:
Click to embiggen.
With the Atlanta Braves shopping Jair Jurrjens, the question that everyone should want answered is whether or not Jurrjens is a lemon. Is the drop in his velocity attributable to injury, or is he simply losing velocity the natural way. The only way we will know for sure is if someone states so publicly, and unless Jurrjens is about to go under the knife, it’s doubtful that information will be forthcoming anytime soon. So for the moment let’s take a look at the things we can see.
Yesterday, we counted down the 20th through sixth most impactful plays of the postseason through the prism of WPA. Today we look at the top five. You might notice a theme.
Read the rest of this entry »
The 2011 postseason was one of the best we have ever seen. It is right up there with 1997 and 2003 as the best of the Wild Card era, and has to be mentioned alongside 1972, 1973, 1985, 1986 and 1991 in the discussion of greatest postseasons of the LCS era. As such, I thought it would be fitting to take a look at the ten most impactful plays of the postseason. This is really boiling it down to the best of the best, as the log for postseason games tops out at more than 3,000 plays. We’re looking at them through the prism of WPA. WPA/LI does a better job for telling us who did better in a completely context-neutral sense, which is handy when looking at multiple games or even multiple at-bats in one game, but that’s not the goal here. The goal is to see which plays swung the balance of a game more than the rest, so WPA is the stat of choice. I looked at them from an absolute value standpoint, so some negative plays found their way onto the list. We’ll count them down backwards, but first let’s glance at those that just missed the cut:
Read the rest of this entry »
Before Game Four, Rangers manager Ron Washington was caught on camera giving pitcher Derek Holland a pep talk right before first pitch. He may want to do the same tonight with Matt Harrison, as the Rangers need a good outing from him tonight.
For the World Series, the Rangers’ cumulative bullpen WPA is -1.065. The four relievers Washington has used most — Alexi Ogando (five appearances), Neftali Feliz (four), Scott Feldman (four) and Darren Oliver (three) all have a negative WPA. Ogando has been the most egregiously bad, and also the most frequently used. He has compiled a negative WPA in four of his five appearances, and in his one positive outing he probably would have been tagged with runs — and a negative WPA — if Albert Pujols had not forgotten about the hit-and-run he had apparently called for. Feliz had been fine until last night, but even when he has performed well enough, he has been treading on thin ice, as he has walked at least one batter in all four of his World Series appearances.
It’s not just that the Rangers bullpen is failing — they’re also failing in the clutch. Eleven of the 23 appearances by the Rangers’ bullpen have come with a pLI higher than two — in those 11 appearances, the ‘pen has totaled a WPA of -1.086. Most of the ugly in that came last night, and it will be interesting to see if Washington has a short memory and goes to his trusted guys again — no one threw more than 23 pitches so they should all be ready to go — or if he is going to seek alternatives.
It has become almost second nature this postseason for sarcastic Twitterists such as myself to mock certain mainstream writers who have seemingly used each plate appearance to tell us how much impending free agents have gained or lost on their upcoming contracts. And while I don’t think that postseason play has positively or negatively affected the financial standing (at least from a contract perspective) of any the players in this postseason, it will undoubtedly effect the reputations and/or legacies of some players. While there is still baseball left to be played, I thought we could take a look at six players in this World Series whose postseason performance has served to highlight the excellent, but underrated performance they put up throughout 2011, and how it may help them moving forward.
Last night it was clear early on that runs would be at a premium for both teams, as Colby Lewis and Jaime Garcia were dealing. In the fifth, the Cards finally mounted a rally, when of all people, Garcia drew a walk against Lewis to put runners at first and second. It was the first time the RedBirds put two runners on base, but the rally ended with the next at-bat thanks to the slick glove work of Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler on the rocket hit by Rafael Furcal. The play underscored what Rangers’ fans have come to realize — Andrus and Kinsler are the game’s best double play combo. Read the rest of this entry »