All NL Central Team Outfield Nominees!

Slight rule change: The Center Field rule will be altered slightly as such: The player must be a legitimate option in center field THIS season. The easiest way to do this is to say the player must have played 100 innings in the field at center so far this season. This opens up the field of potential center fielders slightly to include two of my nominees that have played somewhat significant time at center, but are not full-time center fielders.

I thought about making Griffey eligible for this exercise, since he's been a full-time center fielders until this year (he hasn't forgotten how, surely), but he hasn't played in 130 games since 2000, and this year, his first year NOT as a center fielder, he's already at 126 with a month left, so I'm assuming at least some part of this new healthy Griffey is due to his move.

Players that are eligible for center field can play a corner outfield position, but players who are NOT eligible for center can NOT play center. Right/Left field distinctions should be made for the final roster, but right fielders aren't limited to right field and left fielders aren't limited to left field.

The Nominees!

Player - Team - BA - OPS - HR - RBI - R - SB/Att. - Salary
(alphabetical by last name), * - denotes Center Field eligible
Something new I'm going to do on this one, that I might go back and do on others, Bolded stats indicate the highest among this group.

C. Duncan - St. Louis - .273 - .876 - 21 - 66 - 71 - 2/3 - 400k
A. Dunn - Cincy - .263 - .931 - 36 - 91 - 84 - 9/11 - 10.5M
K. Griffey Jr. - Cincy - .283 - .909 - 28 - 82 - 71 - 6/7 - 8.4M
*J. Hamilton - Cincy - .279 - .901 - 17 - 41 - 46 - 3/6 - 380k
*C. Hart - Milwaukee - .281 - .845 - 18 - 57 - 64 - 19/24 - 395k
G. Jenkins - Milwaukee - .265 - .831 - 19 - 54 - 41 - 1/3 - 7.3M
C. Lee - Houston - .305 - .893 - 26 - 102 - 75 - 8/13 - 11.5M
X. Nady - Pittsburgh - .293 - .849 - 11 - 66 - 71 - 2/3 - 2.2M
*H. Pence - Houston - .323 - .894 - 12 - 47 - 45 - 8/12 - 400k
L. Scott - Houston - .254 - .837 - 14 - 56 - 40 - 2/3 - 382k
*A. Soriano - Chicago - .295 - .840 - 18 - 42 - 74 - 18/23 - 10M

I wanted to get one more post up before I traveled today. Bullpen most likely won't be posted until I get back home after the Labor Day weekend. I'll try to find time over the weekend to update this and the last post to link player cards in case anyone reading wants to examine other stats that I have not posted(or double check the ones I DID post). I also intend to go back and bold the stats where players lead their positional rivals. If I have time, my last update will be to Italicize anyone NOT eligible for the batting title, due to lack of at-bats, just to give the full picture of who the REAL full-time players have been this year, because that's pretty important information.

Have a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend. If you're boozing over the weekend, get someone else to drive. Beyond the safety concerns, usually the cops are out in force on these types of weekends.

All NL Central Team Nominees! (Infield Edition!)

Alright. I've talked about the starting pitching nominees, which takes me to the next set of nominations. So let's go around, from position to position.

At Catcher!

Three choices here that make any sense.

Player - Team - BA - OPS - HR - RBI - Runs Scored - Steals/Attempts - Salary
(format used for all positions)

J. Estrada - Milwaukee - .279 - .702 - 8 - 40 - 36 - 0/0 - 3.4M
Y. Molina - St. Louis - .282 - .727 - 4 - 30 - 27 - 1/0 - 525k
J. Valentin - Cincy - .287 - .742 - 2 - 29 - 12 - 0/0 - 1.25M

Estrada gets the edge on power numbers, with twice as many homers as Yadi and more RBI and Runs Scored than either of the other two. Valentin actually has the highest OPS(which in my opinion is the most important stat). Molina pretty much takes the edge elsewhere, with salary, stolen bases (insert ironic laughter here) and his defense, which, as stated in the previous post, plays a minor, but still important, part in the decision. A three-way race at the weakest position

First base: This one's pretty obviously a two-man race and no one else even enters the argument. Derrek Lee has been good this year, but he doesn't compare to Pujols and Fielder.

P. Fielder - Milwaukee - .281 - .976 - 39 - 97 - 84 - 0/2 - 415k
A. Pujols - St. Louis - .322 - .991 - 30 - 84 - 83 - 2/8 - 12.9M

Pujols has the better track record, batting average and OPS. Fielder has put up 9 more homers and costs a lot less. That's basically your choice. If the money's available to spend on Albert for this team, this is a REALLY tough choice. If I blow through my money elsewhere, this is a good place to take the cheap player and save 12M for similar production though.

Second Base: Another weak position overall, but two players stand out as nominees.

B. Phillips - Cincy - .286 - .814 - 25 - 78 - 89 - 25/32 - 408k
F. Sanchez - Pittsburgh - .312 - .809 - 11 - 66 - 71 - 0/1 - 2.75M

Weirdest thing here is that Biggio doesn't make it. He's definitely showing his age this year at the plate.

Third Base: I originally had four nominees, but really, one of them (Encarnacion - Cincy) had a far lower OPS than the other three, so I've cut him. This is another one like first base, but with a third guy thrown in. The young stud(from Milwaukee even) against the veteran player who's putting up his normal numbers.

R. Braun - Milwaukee - .333 - 1.020 - 25 - 66 - 62 - 11/15 - 400k
M. Lamb - Houston - .293 - .830 - 11 - 38 - 41 - 0/0 - 2.7M
A. Ramirez - Chicago - .310 - .894 - 18 - 79 - 51 - 0/0 - 9M

Finally, the last position!
Shortstop: Three guys here, this could be a tough one, due to the different things these players bring to the table.

A. Gonzalez - Cincy - .264 - .790 - 16 - 56 - 53 - 0/1 - 3.5M
J.J. Hardy - Milwaukee - .279 - .803 - 23 - 72 -71 - 0/3 - 400k
R. Theriot - Chicago - .285 - .720 - 3 - 39 - 72 - 22/26 - 390k

And there they are! Sorry I was too busy to link their information cards. PErhaps I'll spend an hour doing that tomorrow if I have time. Sometime this weekend, I'll try to post at least the outfield candidates, although with Labor Day being a busy family weekend for both my wife's family and my own, the 'pen might have to wait until we're back to the workweek.

The All NL Central Team, 2007

I decided to have a nice multi-post topic that I could go into a lot of detail on. What I've decided to do is create the All NL Central Team for 2007. It's perhaps the worst division in baseball, and at some positions you can see why. However, we've still got some excellent talent in our little part of the majors.

Of course, with the Central, we've got six teams to choose from, which gives for a larger talent pool to choose from than say, the AL West. So at least we have that going for us.

Now, to make this feasible, I've decided on some rules to make this a realistic team on some level. The rules are designed to keep this from being just a true all-star team that relies on veterans on huge contracts. They're designed to make it so that I HAVE to choose some players who are on either rookie contracts and are overperforming or are just generally on more frugal contracts than they'll probably receive if they keep up their current pace.

These rules include:
1) That my "team" is constrained by the average payroll of the NL Central teams. 2007 payrolls can be found here. This limits me to a somewhat frugal $74 million in payroll. This would put my team, should I spend it all, in 18th, between the Twins and A's.

2) For the outfield, any three outfielders can be selected, but one of them must be a center fielder.

3) The bullpen must contain 1 person who is actually a team's designated closer and should also contain at least 1 lefty, preferably 2.

4) Starting position players must be selected at the position they played most during the 2007 series (No putting Berkman back in the outfield, he's a first baseman now).

5) Defense and previous years DO matter, but should be secondary to the current year's offensive stats. So if I say Pujols and Fielder is a push on this year's stats, assuming I can afford Pujols' salary, he would be the one I'd choose.

6) I must fill a standard 25-man roster and every team MUST be represented.

7) Individual player salaries are per ESPN.com. Unlisted salaries will be assumed to be at $400,000, around where many rookies and minor-league deals are valued at.

Now, I'm going to post my nominees for positions in probably two posts, then over the course of the next week or two, I'll take chunks of this team per post, and tell why I chose them (with a final post summarizing the whole team).

For today's post, to finish up, I'll simply show my nominees for starting pitching.

Player - Team - Record - ERA - K's - IP - Salary - Throws
(stats are as of 8-29, BEFORE games were played)

R. Hill - Chicago - 8-7 - 3.68 - 154 - 161.1 - 400k - L
T. Lilly - Chicago - 13-7 - 3.85 - 140 - 168.1 - 6M - L
C. Zambrano - Chicago - 14-10 - 3.95 - 143 - 173.1 - 12.4M - R
A. Harang - Cincy - 13-3 - 3.68 - 166 - 181 - 4.25M - R
R. Oswalt - Houston - 13-6 - 3.33 - 130 - 178.1 - 13M - R
A. Wainwright - St. Louis - 12-9 - 3.86 - 113 - 163.1 - 410k - R
T. Gorzelanny - Pittsburgh - 14-7 - 3.58 - 114 - 173.1 - 386k - L
I. Snell - Pittsburgh - 8-10 - 3.93 - 147 - 169.2 - 408k - R
B. Sheets - Milwaukee - 10-4 - 3.39 - 90 - 119.1 - 11.1M - R

Bolded/Italicized indicates they have the highest(or in ERA, the lowest) in that stat.

These are the nominees for the starting five. They obviously have different strengths, different salaries, and different levels of accomplishment. Anyone else interested in participating in this activity either on your own blog or posting on mine, you're certainly not bound by this list. If there's a starter that I left off for some reason that you want to include, feel free. I don't imagine you'll find someone you'd rather have from the Central than these 9, but if you do, way to go.

Coming next: The nominees for each infield position (and maybe the outfield, or that might be a separate post).

Bullpen will be last, with bench players being chosen from the infielders and outfielders that did not make it.

Babe Ruth, Pitcher.

Babe Ruth would have been one of the best pitchers in his generation had he stayed a pitcher rather than going to the outfield. Being sold to the Yankees made his change full-time to the outfield much more possible because the Yankees already had a very good rotation and Ruth’s bat was obviously going to be just as prolific if not moreso than his pitching arm.

He really only spent four seasons as a full-time pitcher, from 1915 to 1918. He was still primarily a pitcher in 1919, but the Red Sox realized how much of a hitter he was, and he spent much more time in the lineup as an outfielder(111 games) than he did as a pitcher(17 games).

Now, many of these stats are on some level archaic because it was a different time period. This was a time period known for dominant pitching, and Ruth was definitely part of that. However, we can look at his stats compared to league average(as I did in the last post), and that will give us an idea of how dominant he was.

Ruth’s career ERA was a sterling 2.28. Obviously in today’s game that would make him the best pitcher in the league, but again, let’s consider it compared to Ruth’s era. The league average ERA over his pitching years was 2.86, so Ruth’s ERA was about 21% lower than the average pitcher. If we applied this to today’s ERA’s, the 2006 American League had a league average ERA of 4.56. An ERA 21% lower would equate to a 3.63 ERA, which is pretty darn good and would have put him in the top 10 in the AL in ERA.

Ruth also won the ERA crown one year, in 1916, with a 1.75 ERA. That same year, he was in the top 5 on many other categories, including: Win % (5th, .657), Wins (3rd, 23), Innings (3rd, 323.2), K’s (3rd, 170), Games Started (1st, 41), Shutouts (1st, 9) and Complete Games (4th, 23). If the Cy Young had existed, he surely would have won it this year.

He was also in the top 5 in many pretty important categories the other years of his career too, including 2nd in wins, innings and games started in 1917, 1st in complete games, and 5th in both K’s and Shutouts. He one of the best bets to win a game for his team during this time as well, in the top 5 in win % in both 1915 and 1918 as well.

In fact, his career winning % ranks 14th all time, among eligible players(100 decisions minimum to qualify) with a .671 winning percentage. This winning percentage puts him in the company of modern stars like Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Roger Clemens and Tim Hudson as well as all-time greats Cristy Mathewson, Lefty Grove and Sandy Koufax.

Now, to look at Ruth’s WHIP compared to league average of his time. These stats are compiled from the 1915-1918 seasons, when he was most active as a pitcher.

Stat Comparison – Ruth / League Average / % better Ruth is

WHIP – 1.088 / 1.261 / 15.9%

WHIP is of course, Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched, or more simply, how many baserunners a pitcher allows. If a pitcher allows very few, you can bet that the pitcher is probably very successful, since there’s no one on base to score. Ruth let basically 16% fewer people on base than the average pitcher, showing that he was very good there as well. His career WHIP is a little higher, as he was later often used here and there, but obviously being out of practice never had the level of success as a regular pitcher. That career average was 1.15, which places him 70th all time in WHIP.

He was also a stellar postseason pitcher though, once posting 29 consecutive scoreless innings in World Series play(This was a record for 43 years). I know being on World Series teams can’t be an entirely individual achievement, but in his few years pitching in Boston, he was on three World Series championship teams during Boston’s most successful years. His total postseason line is: 2-0, 0.86 ERA in 31 innings pitched with a 0.935 WHIP. This was in three games pitched, over the 1916 and 1918 World Series.

So, if anyone has any doubt that Ruth is the best player ever, when you take his dominance with the bat and you, on top of that, look at the fact that he was probably one of the top 5 pitchers in baseball over a 5 year span before moving to the outfield in New York full time, the conclusion seems pretty obvious.

Update: I had some other links, but I screwed the links themselves up. Once I find those pages again, I'll re-link them, but for now, since I screwed it up, I'm just taking those down.

Ruth vs. Bonds

I was recently in an online debate about who was the best player in major league history, and it quickly turned into a battle of Ruth vs. Bonds. I personally wouldn’t put Bonds even at #2, but rather I’d put Ted Williams #2.

However, needing to find a way to prove my point, I of course found a boatload of stats to back me up, the other guy did the same, but here I intend to outline my argument as simply as succinctly as possible.

Looking at size or any statistic that is based on totals and not rate are pointless, because there are huge differences between medical and fitness technology that favor Bonds, and the difference in eras makes comparing certain stats hard to do. My theory is this: The best way to make a real comparison of who is the greatest is to compare each player to the players of their era and then compare how dominant each player was compared to their era. This basically is making the assumption that the major leagues have, over the course of their history, been basically just as competitive as always and if you took Barry Bonds and threw him into the 1920s, he would perform equally better than the other talent than he did in the 1990s. Likewise, Babe Ruth would have been equally dominant now, compared to the overall competition, and his stats would be the same percentage over league average as they were then.

In my opinion, this is the only way to really make a case for a player being the best of all time.

For this argument here, I will make two assumptions:

1) We’ll leave out Ruth’s pitching. He was an above-average pitcher for 4-5 years of his career. My opinion is that including this makes him far and away the best player of all time, so for the sake of argument, we’ll just compare the players as hitters.

2) We’ll assume Barry Bonds did not do steroids, because in my mind, if you had to use performance enhancing drugs to make yourself the best player ever, then you’re NOT the best player ever. (I don’t actually believe this, but it’s the only way to make this a meaningful discussion.

Methodology of the comparison: I’ve taken each player’s best season, using OPS+ as the yardstick for which season is their best. I’ve also taken their worst season, using the same stat(I’ve left out any season where the player did not play 100 games and Bonds’ rookie year, so it’s not a fluke rookie season or a season where the guy only played 20-30 games). Lastly, I took their totals for certain stats. Then I found the league average stats for the same years and spans of years for each player. The stats used are the easiest to gather this information for and are “rate” statistics, meaning they’re averages/percentages, rather than totals. Batting average, On-base percentage, Slugging, and of course, OPS are the four stats that I looked at. I wanted to include HRs, RBIs and Runs scored, but these are harder to come up with league averages for.
So, first looking at their best seasons: This part is eerily similar between the two players. Ruth’s line is .376/.533/.849/1.382 and Bonds’ line is .370/.582/.799/1.381. Only one thousandth of a difference in OPS for their best seasons. Looking at the league averages, they’re also pretty close. During Bonds’ best season, the league line was: .259/.331/.410/.741 and during Ruth’s, the line was .283/.347/.387/.734. There’s somewhat of a difference in batting average, but in OPS, the gap closes and Ruth’s time period was a shade behind Bonds’ time for OPS. So using their best seasons, the only really conclusive thing we see is that they were both really dominant(about 650 points better than league average on OPS each), but overall, no huge difference here. So we’ll have to look at average and worst years.

Worst years there’s a fairly big discrepancy. Bonds in his worst year(his 2nd year) only matched the batting average for the league, matching it dead on at .261. His OBP was basically also matched, with Bonds being at .329 and league average being .328. He did smoke the league average slugging that year, slugging .492 compared to league average .404. So Bonds’ Slugging was 21.7% higher than the league average. The OPS difference is .821 to .732, so he’s 12.1% higher than average there in his worst season.

Now, on to Ruth: Ruth’s batting average was slightly higher than league average his worst year: .288 to .279. His OBP was CONSIDERABLY better, being .448 to .351, so he was 27.6% better at getting on base than the average player. The slugging discrepancy was .537 to .399. Ruth’s WORST OPS+ season was one where he slugged .537! This puts him 34.6% better than league average at slugging during his worst season. The OPS difference: .985 to .750. So in Ruth’s worst OPS+ season, he was 31.3% better than the average player.

OPS Difference – Worst Season

Ruth – 31.3% better than league average
Bonds – 12.1% better than league average

Now – average season time. Bonds’ career line is .298 batting and a .445/.608/1.053 OBP/Slugging/OPS line. His .298 compares to an average of .260 over the span of Bonds’ career. So Bonds is a respectable 14.6% better than the average hitter of his time period. The OBP/Slugging/OPS line for the league during his career is .328/.404/.732. So Bonds is an impressive 35.7% better than the average player during his time at getting on base, 50.5% better in the slugging line, and has an OPS 43.9% higher than league average during his career.

Ruth’s career line includes a .342 batting average and an overall line of .474/.690/1.164, so he tops Bonds in straight numbers, but how does he do compared to his competition? His batting average of .342 compares very favorably to the league average, which was .274. This means he gets hits 24.8% more often than the average player in the AL of his time period. He gets on base 38.6% more often (.474 vs. .342) slugs an absolutely astonishing 81.6% better than league average, and his OPS is 61.2% higher than league average. To line these percentages up:
Player vs. League Average – Batting – OBP – Slugging – OPS

Ruth – 24.8% - 38.6% - 81.6% - 61.2%
Bonds – 14.6% - 35.7% - 50.5% - 43.9%

So comparing their dominance vs. league average, Bonds is well above average in every category, but still doesn’t match the Babe’s success compared to their peers on ANY category. When you take this into account, even without Ruth’s pitching career and without disqualifying Bonds as a steroid user, Ruth is the better player and earns the distinction of best player ever.

Impressions of Miller Park

Being only the 2nd city I’ve seen a professional baseball game in, I certainly have to say that my perceptions are not as well educated as many others, but it seemed like a good topic to post on, to compare Miller to Busch.

First off, being the first away game I’ve been to for the Cardinals, it was truly awesome to get a chance to ACTUALLY see them take BP, as opposed to home games, when if you rush in right at the 90 minute mark when the gates open, you might see them walking off the field to let the visitors start BP. Edmonds looked very good during BP, launching about half of the balls he hit past the wall. Ankiel did the same. Pujols sprayed balls around, and I was actually a little amused to see how he starts BP: by bunting the first ball that comes to him. He did this at least two different times that he stepped into the cage.

The real impressive feat of batting practice also was for Pujols. The center field scoreboard is above the wall(obviously) and probably about the same amount of shrubbery as there is grass above the wall. Pujols drilled one BP ball that was probably 75% up the scoreboard, which I would have to guess was probably around a 450 foot home run, if not more.

I almost got two autographs from Cardinals. The Cardinal players who were the friendliest about signing autographs were Yadi Molina and Gary Bennett. Yadi signed about 30 autographs about 5 feet down the rail from me, but I could never get in to get my ball signed. Bennett told a crowd of us he would sign, and did so, but not before I was yelled at(more to come later) by Booker, one of Milwaukee’s “guest relations” people, to back off the railing because this particular walkway was being blocked.

Other random observations: Beer prices seemed about the same. Miller was actually cheaper for their large beer, at $7.25 vs. I believe $8.50 at Busch, but Miller’s large beer was considerably smaller than Busch’s, so I would imagine it’s probably pretty much a break-even situation. Bottles in the stands were $6.25 and were the typical 12 ounce size, although they were, of course, in the plastic bottles that Miller has adopted for sports venues.

They had a lot of the 1982 Brewers team there, signing autographs, and one such table was near where the Cardinals dugout was, which led to my being yelled at unreasonably by Booker. To be brief, basically, the front row was the pathway out for people after getting their autographs from Rollie Fingers and a few other Brewers, and I was able to get down into that row in a way that wasn’t blocking traffic, well before either of the two Cardinals came over to sign. When Yadier came over to sign, everyone crowded around, completely blocking people’s ability to get out of there, and that’s when Booker, the very large Brewers staffer, came over and starting telling us we needed to clear out of that row. At one point, after he said it about 3 times in a short span(and people were voluntarily, although slowly, clearing out), I said, sincerely, that I’d move once I was able to.

Booker’s response: “No, you’ll move now.”

To which I responded something along the lines of “I can’t, there are people all around me. I’m not going to shove someone over.”

For the moment, he seemed satisfied with that until about 15 seconds later, when I was moved over about 4-5 feet and still trying to find an opening among the very slowly moving mass when he yelled “Get moving, Number 5!”(a reference to the Pujols jersey I was wearing).

Eventually, I was able to move, but to say the least, I wasn’t very impressed with the courtesy of Booker. I understand he’s got a job to do, and that’s to get that aisle cleared, but as someone who was trying to be understanding and courteous to him, he didn’t have to be singling me out and yelling at me. To put it best, I’ll quote a bumper sticker that the guy who did maintenance at my old apartment building had on his truck: Booker: “Don’t be a Dick.”

The game itself was great. The seats we had were in section 119, which is nearly behind home plate. Edmonds, Pujols, Eckstein and Rolen, the ones we’ve counted on in years past, all played well. I was a little disappointed we were going to see a Kip Wells pitched game, and moreso after the first inning when all the Crew fans around me were up on their feet for the two home runs, but he really shut them down afterwards.

I do have to say though, with as many deep counts as Kip was going into, it didn’t seem like he was as good as he was beyond that first inning. But I do remember looking up sometime around the 4th or 5th inning and seeing that the Brewers hadn’t gotten a hit since that first inning. Sometimes the eyes can be deceiving.

Another observation that I was a little shocked about is how much that place cleared out late in the game. Being used to seeing games in St. Louis, where there are always a few fans that trickle out, I was thinking it would just be a few, but the seats would be mostly filled still. In our section, a prime section of 119, there were probably only 35% of the people still there by the 9th inning. Attendance for the game was around 37,000, but by the end, I’m guessing it was closer to 10-12,000.

Overall a great time: Suggestions for anyone making a trip to Milwaukee for a game. The Ambassador Inn and Hotel(two hotels, across the street from each other and owned by the same group) have a free shuttle that will take guests anyone in the downtown area, including the Miller Brewery, which we also toured(that’s my other suggestion – three free beers at the end of the tour! It makes paying $7.25 a beer at the park a little more palatable when you’ve already got a light buzz going into the game), and also including Miller Park.

The Park itself is beautiful. It seems much more triangular in the way it’s built compared to what I’m used to, which is of course, the current and the last Busch Stadium. But regardless, it’s a really cool park and other than my man Booker, all the staff and other fans there were very kind.

Late inning highlight: Two kids in the next section over got a nice clap/chant going of: “Bill!” clap clap, clap clap. “Hall!” clap clap, clap clap. They repeated this over and over during the at bat until he laced one into the outfield for a base hit. The two kids, who seemed like probably 14-16 in age, seemed very proud of themselves. I’m the same way, but it’s always amusing when fans take ownership of an athlete’s performance because they(the fan) wore their lucky shirt or found a “lucky spot” on the couch and refused to move until the rally was over, even though they had to pee really bad.

Kip Wells, inconsistency and Pacman Jones

The player I think all of us in Cardinal fandom pegged as being destined to hold the ERA crown this year(for highest ERA of course—it would also be the 2nd straight year a Cardinal held this dishonor, after Jason Marquis last year) is beginning to turn it around. Since the All-Star break, he’s had all pretty good starts with the exception of his first trip to the mound post-All-Star break.

Before we get into comparing different runs of his season, let’s look at the stats from these most recent starts. In six starts since the All-Star break, the Kipper has posted an ERA of 3.48 and has gone 2-2 and has improved his K/BB ratio, which was 1.69 over that span. His strikeouts actually went down over the span, but his walk rate went down considerably. One other interesting stat over the span: 0.00 HR/9. He hasn’t given up any! It really didn’t seem to be his problem before(moreso the 97 hits and 47 walks he gave up in 92 2/3rds innings), but the zero homers is still an impressive improvement.

Now, to look at the other starts to give you perspective. Prior to the All-Star break, Kip appeared in 19 games, 15 of them as the starter before being bumped to the pen for his uber-suckiness. During that span, he posted an ERA of two and a half runs higher than his recent stretch at 5.92. His 1.51 K/BB ratio doesn’t seem as much of a jump from the 1.69 of recent starts, but as I said above, both his strikeouts and walks dipped since. The walks were a huge problem. At 4.6 walks per 9 innings, he was basically walking someone every other inning on average. Along with the fact that he was giving up more than a hit per inning, that spells disaster.

To compound this, if we go back to before Kip went to the bullpen(where he actually had pretty good success), then we see an even more brutal picture. From the beginning of the year to his last start before going to the pen, which was on June 14th, he posted an obscene 6.93 ERA with even more walks (4.9/9) and an even worse K/BB(1.36).

His streaks have been very interesting(including his most recent). It basically looks like it can be broken into 4 chunks. His early starts, the ten starts where we fell apart, his time in the bullpen(with one start thrown in there), and his recent post All-Star starts. Instead of analyzing each stretch further, I’ll just put his stats below and let you make what you want out of them:

Dates – ERA - Record

April 3rd to April 19th -- 3.12 – 1-3
April 24th to June 14th – 8.88 – 1-8
June 20th to July 7th – 1.12 – 1-0
July 13th to August 8th – 3.48 – 2-2

It’s 10 starts, so it’s hard to just throw that bad stretch out, but if you do, Kip has actually been pretty good. It feels really weird to type those words though, I must say.

Tack-on:

Adam “Pacman” Jones must think everyone else is idiotic. On ESPN’s “First Take” this morning, he made the statement that his most recent trip into a strip club that resulted in yet another incident, was made because “I wanted to get something to eat—there weren’t even any girls in there.”

I know when I think, “Hey! I’m hungry!” My next thought immediately after hearing the belly gurgling is “Where’s the nearest strip club!”

The interview was obviously meant to be Jones’ way of trying to defend himself, but given his incredibly weak excuses, it’s really just shown how far from reality Adam Jones really is. You better soak up that time with your daughter, Pacman, because if you continue to behave in the way you do, one of these indictments will stick and you’ll find yourself convicted and in jail.