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Some off-day reading for y’all -
Inspired by a conversation with my father-in-law about Andy Pettitte, I decided to try to discover who has the best pick-off move in history (via stats). Bear in mind though, pick-offs have only been recorded since 1956, so we don’t know about some of the great pitchers before that time (e.g. Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, etc.).
Going by total career pick-offs, Andy Pettitte ranks second to Steve Carlton. No surprise that southpaws top the list. Both Pettitte and Carlton are quality lefties, and both had/have pretty lengthy careers. The main reason Carlton bests Pettitte is longevity: he threw roughly twice as many innings, and hence has about twice as many pick-offs. That’s not really fair to Pettitte, who has a better pick-off-per-inning rate than Carlton.
Pettitte picked off a runner every 31 innings. Carlton every 36 innings. The ‘King of Pick-offs’, though, might just be Darold Knowles, who nailed a base runner every 24 innings. He isn’t higher on the list because he threw just 1092 innings, primarily as a reliever for nine different teams during the 60’s and 70’s.
That’s the not the conclusion though, because Carlton and Knowles pitched in more pitcher-friendly eras (meaning they generally had less base runners, hence less pick off opportunities). The real stat we need to find is pick-offs-per-base runner. We find this by adding hits and walks, subtracting home runs, and dividing by pick-offs. I’m not going to account for hit-batters and double plays as they roughly cancel each other out.
Carlton picked off one of every 42 base runners.
Pettitte: one of every 39 base runners.
Knowles: one of every 32 base runners.
Again, Knowles is the best, but we’re not quite done.
Who was the best at keeping runners from stealing - who put the most fear into base runners?
We can find this by calculating total base runners, then dividing by attempted steals.
Carlton: one of every 11 base runners attempted to steal.
Pettitte: one of every 15 base runners attempted to steal.
Knowles: one of every 28 base runners attempted to steal.
So now we can make the educated assumption that Darold Knowles is one of, if not the best pick off artist of the last 50 years.
- The two main sources for Senator Mitchell’s report were a Mets clubhouse attendant and a Yankees trainer. They were both threatened with jail time. No wonder the list has a lot of former and current New York players. If the sources worked in LA or Chicago or Boston, I’m sure many of those city’s players would be named.
- George Mitchell is a director for the Boston Red Sawx (and has been since 2002). Not one current Sawx player is named. Coincidence? Imagine naming your co-workers/employees ‘cheaters’, then walking in Monday morning: “Hey fellas, how was your weekend?” I know I couldn’t do that. Why couldn’t Bud Selig find an investigator for such a major case that didn’t have a clear conflict of interest?
- I’m disappointed that Andy Pettitte was named. Clemens and Giambi were expected, but not Andy. The report states he took HGH (human growth hormone) in 2002 to speed up his elbow rehab. Not as bad as Clemens’ use of it, but still disappointing.
- Since one of the main sources was a Yankee trainer, it probably means that those not named are clean - I think that’s a fair assumption. Good news for Derek, Jorge, Arod, Cone, O’Neill, Mo, etc.
- George Mitchell did not have any real power in this investigation. The player’s union did not want any players talking to him and he didn’t have any subpoena power. That’s why he had to go through other ’sources’ like the former Mets and Yankees employees.
- All together, it should be taken with a large grain of salt. Some players were linked merely by hearsay, and some by former employees threatened with jail time - a lot of circumstantial evidence like checks and phone records. I doubt this would stand up in court. Elsewise, just because a player wasn’t named doesn’t mean they didn’t juice. Outside of the Yanks and Mets (whose employees provided the two main sources), most every player is still a suspect. For all the money and time spent on this investigation, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire weren’t named. What does that tell you about it’s definitiveness? It’s a shame if those not named are somehow seen as ‘beacons of integrity’ or some shit because it’s simply untrue.
- ESPN showed a montage of Roger Clemens during their Mitchell Report special. It included only shots with the Yanks - what happened to his time with Boston, Toronto and Houston?
- Since most Yankee steroid use didn’t begin until 2001, Mark Feinsand says it doesn’t tarnish the Dynasty years.
- Oh, and the Yanks and Arod finalized his 10-year deal. He’ll make a base of $275 million and as much as $305 million with home run based incentives.
Update 7:19 pm
For what it’s worth, David Justice (named as a user in the report) on the YES Network strongly denied using any illegal substances.
Hughes is part of the Santana package. Say it ain’t so Brian. Hopefully this is just a ploy to get Boston to add more into the pot.
From the article:
“He was just starting to get that late life back at the end of the season,” one AL scout said Friday. “I think the leg injuries had a lingering effect. He was at 91, 92 (mph) after he came back, instead of 94-95. It cost him some explosiveness, and I’ve gotta believe it will come back next season. The impressive thing was that he was able to win anyway.”
And why was Dave Eiland named pitching coach if not to help the young’ins (he was Trenton’s pitching coach during Hughes’ phenomenal ‘06 season and with Scranton this year)? Acquiring the lefty Santana, they may as well have just kept Guidry.
Or maybe if Andy Pettitte could make up his damn mind already, we’d be in a better to position to trade (or hold) the youngsters.
- In the good news category, GMs voted in favor of instant replay (25-5) to help umpires decide fair/foul calls. This is great news, and although limited, is a step in the right direction. Hopefully next year balls/strikes, out/safe, catches/traps, and other such calls will be eligible for video review. And going by ESPN’s poll, fans overwhelmingly favor IR. Not all bad news these days.
- Andy Pettitte declined his 2008 option, but has left the door open to return. He wants more time to mull it over. I think he’ll return.
- New nickname alert: J-Tab.
- Miguel Cabrera is available for trade. I dream of getting him without giving up a top prospect, e.g. Cano, Hughes, Joba, Kennedy, Wang, Melky, Jtab, Ajax, Betances, Montero, McAllister, Heredia, Gardner, Melancon, Sanchez. Would some combination of Ohlendorf, Horne, Marquez, Whelan, Nacci, Miranda, Kontos, Dunn, McCutchen, Corona and Cervelli be enough? Doubtful. There’s not a single can’t miss in that group. Look at the haul they got for Beckett and Lowell. It would probably take something like that.
- Sources close to Arod say Boston is #1 on his list of teams. Don’t worry. It’s all a facade by Scottie Boras. First, why would the Sawx want Arod when they have the World Series MVP on their team at the same position who would cost a helluva lot less? Second, he’s the most hated athlete in Boston (yes, even more than Jeter). Third, if Arod thinks New York fans are fickle, wait till he plays a month in Fenway. Fourth, I wouldn’t be surprised if the ’source’ is in fact Boras trying to scare the Yankees into bidding on Arod when they said they wouldn’t. Without the richest team in baseball bidding for his client, he won’t receive as much as he hopes. Fifth, if he does think the Yanks are truly out of it, then having the second richest team (supposedly) bidding also serves this purpose.
- Tim Lincecum is available for a ‘good bat’ according to FOX Sports. How about J-Tab and A-Jax for Lincecum? Yeah, not enough in my opinion, but you never know with crazy Brian Sabean.
- Johnny Damon for Joe Crede? No thanks. Crede has a career OBP of .305. Ugh. He’s great on defense, but not not enough to make up for that putrid OBP. He’s marginally better against LHP but when accounting for Damon’s speed (which Crede is completely devoid of), you can’t make that trade. Now if Cash thinks Gardner, A-Jax or J-Tab aren’t far off (they’ll start 2008 in AAA and AA respectively), and considering Crede is four years younger, maybe it does make sense. We have a glut of OFers and a need for a righty third-baseman.
- 2008 Yankee projections
Shelley (!) is projected to lead the team in HR with 24. The hitting projections seem about right to me but I have some disagreements with the pitching. For example, Joba is projected to have a higher ERA (4.43) than Ian Kennedy, Chris Britton, Kyle Farnsworth and Ron Villone. Highly doubtful.
Why?
1. He was a bench coach for Joe Torre for two years. There aren’t many better bosses to learn from, especially in terms of dealing with the media and with megastar players (egos).
2. He spent this season working in the YES broadcast booth. How else to learn how to deal with the media than to actually experience it?
3. Girardi won Manager of the Year for his one season with the 2006 Marlins. No, it ain’t the most objective award, but he did manage to bring a seemingly awful team to a near .500 record.
4. You want someone the players look up to? Girardi was a hard-nosed player; he caught Mo Rivera and Andy Pettitte early in their careers and mentored Jorge Posada at the very start of his career (perhaps helping him become one of the best in the game?), and won three titles with those guys. I’m sure he’d have a shitload of respect from everyone in the clubhouse.
5. This part is mostly subjective, but he’s young (43), smart, and has less loyalties than Torre. He can bring some new ideas, some freshness perhaps to a team that seemed to stagnate under the 67-year-old Torre. He seems very intelligent from listening to him on YES - almost everything he says oozes baseball intelligence; he’s also got a great sense of humor and gets along well with Al Leiter, Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill (and Kenny and Bobby). Charm, charisma, whatever it is, he’s got it and it could go a long way to helping a ballclub. Outside of possible loyalties to Mo, Pettitte, Posada and Jeter, no one else on the Yanks was a teammate of Girardi’s, so all those feelings and egos that Torre was afraid to hurt because he was there 12 years (and seen somewhat as a father figure) would have no bearing on Girardi’s managing. Objective managing is the way to go.
Why not?
1. If Girardi, off the Yanks coaching staff for two years gets the job, will Don Mattingly feel slighted? Yes, probably. Enough to leave the team? I don’t know.
2. One of the big cons with Girardi is the way he got along (or didn’t) with Florida’s ownership during his season there. There’s no owner more imposing or distracting than The Boss. And even if he’s indisposed of, the Steinbrenner boys and Randy Levine seem to have taken a lesson from the pages of King George on how to disrupt a ballclub. Will Girardi be able to handle it the (usually successful) way Torre did? Since he served as Torre’s bench coach, I believe he can.
3. The other big con with Girardi is how he (supposedly) treated his young pitching staff. Several Marlins pitchers reached career highs in 2006 in innings pitched, and this year they had terrible injury problems. Is Girardi at fault? Is he the right guy for a staff that will have three early 20’s phenoms? This is a subject I’m going to tackle in depth, so stay tuned…
by Ty Kepner -
When it all began for Andy Pettitte and the Yankees, in April 1995, his wife and their infant son were living with relatives. Pettitte had earned $2,100 a month in the minors the year before, and he was eager to buy a home for his young family by making a name in baseball.
The years since have been very good to Pettitte. He has earned more than $75 million, and while there are bigger names in baseball, there are few more prolific winners.
Pettitte earned his 200th career victory at Yankee Stadium last night by beating the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1. Since the start of Pettitte’s career, only Greg Maddux (215) and Randy Johnson (203) have won more often.
Joba Chamberlain struck out Melvin Mora with a slider to end the eighth, and Mariano Rivera held on in a 34-pitch ninth, overcoming a one-out bloop double by Nick Markakis and two-out walks by Aubrey Huff and Ramón Hernández. Rivera earned his 30th save when Scott Moore struck out looking.
By holding the Orioles to a run and seven hits in seven and two-thirds innings, Pettitte helped the Yankees in two races. They are only a game and a half behind first-place Boston in the American League East and lead Detroit by five and a half games for the wild card.
The playoffs seem like a lock now, but winning the division (and hopefully getting homefield advantage) would be very, very nice.
True confessions time. I am a Red Sox fan. This season has held the magical feel of a Championship run, without the typical Red Sox fan baggage of the feeling of doom when the lead shriveled. So different then was the calm assurance I felt when New York closed to within five games almost three weeks ago. The tough stretch that awaited New York would slow down the surging Yankees. Sure enough, a 9-9 record since the 8th of August has restored the Red Sox lead to eight games. As an added bonus I was vindicated. This is not 1978.
But all is not well with this Red Sox fan. And part of it stems from the obtuse notions that fill the head of the management/ownership group that handles non-baseball ops at 4 Yawkey Way these days.
Without further ado, I give you the boss, John Henry.
But Henry understands that while the Red Sox find themselves on firm footing in their fight against the Yankees, both on and off the field, a new challenge is waiting around the corner.
“In 2009 their revenues will move to a higher level when they occupy the next Yankee Stadium,” he wrote. “And we are close to being maxed out in the venerable and magical Fenway Park [map]. So we will be presented with great challenges.
“It will be difficult,” he later added. “We are often called a large market team because our fans provide us with great revenues. But the fact is that we operate the 16th largest television territory as measured by the number of households. The Red Sox are ‘the little engine that could.’ It is because we have such devoted fans who live, breathe, eat and sleep baseball. They are the reason we have been able to build exciting teams. And our players as a group and individually have been a galvanizing force in New England and among Red Sox fans across America . . . around the world.”
If the Red Sox are “the little engine that could,” I’m U Thant.
The Red Sox have used every imaginable and conceivable means of adding new revenue streams possible. Highest ticket prices in the game? Check. Consecutive sellout streak intact? Check. Chartered trips so fans unable to score Fenway tickets can see the Sox on the road? Check. A fan club for the fans? You bet. Their own dating reality show on the team owned Cable channel? Hell yes!
Which makes a purist like me groan. The Coke bottles were fine, I get it, we need to raise money to compete with the Yankees who will spend anything and everything in pursuit of titles. And the new seating venues are wonderful. The packed stadium a testament to the ability to draw fans and fill the coziest and most intimate ballpark in the game. Even while the turnstiles spun to welcome throngs of pink hat clad fans to the stadium, arm in arm with their Bosox boyfriends, to buy overpriced beer and watch the beantown nine, the pervasive attitude on Yawkey Way was that Boston could not compete long term with the Yankees, because New York had the ability to earn far more than the Red Sox.
Reality ought to throw cold water on the Red Sox rationale. Of the last six World Series Champs, the 2004 Red Sox had the highest payroll. The Yankees, who spend more money than Congress, have exactly zero titles in that span. In fact, their last Championship, in 2000, was the last year where homegrown Yankees filled the roster and where the character guys like Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill were preferred. Since then the Yankees have added Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi, Robin Ventura, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez, Kevin Brown, Raul Mondesi, Hideki Matsui, Jeff Weaver, Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Johnny Damon, Tom Gordon, Bobby Abreu, Kei Igawa and brought back Andy pettitte and Roger Clemens. Lavishing those big contracts on these players have bought the Yankees exactly one fewer title than the Red Sox have in that stretch. Congrats Red Sox, it’s not a competition anymore, we’ve won. We’ve won by spending more than everyone else, except New York, and finding the happy medium between outrageous and truly obscene spending on payroll.
Money helps teams win, that’s true enough. But more than that, teams need to wisely allocate their limited payroll resources. But still we hear the refrain, New York can still outspend us. Oh boo hoo, wook at the widdle Wed Sox team, in first by eight widdle games, and scared of the big, bad Yankees. Break me a freakin’ give.
And if you are looking for a pair of little engines that could, real ones, try Seattle and Milwaukee. Two teams fighting for their playoff lives, with smaller payrolls than most of their competition. Milwaukee had led the woeful NL Central for most of the season, but have yielded to the Cubs, and the Mariners are playing a big three-game series against the LAnaheim Angels of Orange County, California. Both teams payrolls are smaller than the team they are chasing. Those are little engines that can, John Henry.
The Red Sox certainly are not. No other major league baseball team charges what Boston does for tickets, then says to its fan base, “why don’t you and your kids sign up to be members of ‘Red Sox Nation’ and ‘Red Sox Kid Nation.’” They can do it because a select number of my fellow fans are so obsessive of their support that they buy every Red Sox thing they can - including silly fan club memberships. Chances are they watch the God-awful “Sox Appeal” reality show on NESN. And more than likely they have no idea who Butch Hobson was or that he managed the woeful Sox teams of my teen years. They have probably no idea who Denny Doyle was. And probably had no clue about what Dean Barnett was talking about with his former nom de blog (James Frederick Dwight). Come to think of it, they probably had no clue about Dean Barnett, either. The more I pay attention to them, the less a part of that community I feel.
Eight game lead, heading into the Bronx, while the Yankees are reeling. I ought to be atop the wide world of sport. I’m not. I hate what Red Sox Nation has become. Led by an owner who outspends every other team, except New York, but still cries poor mouth when he speaks to the press, and a marketing department so relentless they sell television programs devoted to showing the dating foibles of “real” fans, is it any wonder, I’m wondering whether I will ever be able to cheer for this team without the bad taste in my mouth?
Andy Pettitte won his eighth game of the year (and his 194th overall) in today’s 5-4 comeback win. They now trail Detroit by a half game in the wild card.
Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees top pitching prospect, was promoted to the Big Club - and the story was broken by the Omaha World-Herald (with a hat tip to RAB):
Joba Chamberlain has been summoned to the major leagues and is scheduled to pitch in relief of Roger Clemens Tuesday night as the New York Yankees visit the Toronto Blue Jays.
Chamberlain, a 21-year-old former Nebraska All-American, received word of the promotion Monday, according to his father, Harlan Chamberlain, and immediately flew from Scranton, Pa., to Toronto.
The Yankees have not officially announced the move.
“To be happening this quick, it’s just a dream,” the elder Chamberlain said. “It’s a dream that was always there, but to achieve it this quick, it’s unbelievable. It’s surreal.”
- Why Joe, why? Is Torre living in some strange, bizarro universe in which bad pitchers are good, and good pitchers bad? That seems the only explanation for his continued use of Kyle Farnsworth late in close games. Edwar Ramirez goes on his 11th straight day riding the bench. He might as well be sent down to Scranton to stay sharp, because no pitcher can stay sharp after a layoff this long. Then predictably, when Torre does use him and he falters due to rust, he’ll be even deeper in Joe’s doghouse. A vicious cycle. He’s better than just a mop up guy - save that for Myers, Farnsworth and Villone. Just watch, now that Vizcaino is pitching well, Joe will overwork him and burn him out (like every good reliever so far).
- Maybe its about time Damon is DLed, and either Shelley Duncan is brought up to DH, or one of Brett Gardner or Justin Christian is brought up to play LF, pushing Matsui to DH. Damon is hurt, right? How else could he be hitting .238? Their season stats -
Damon, .238/.339/.330, 16 sb, 1 cs
S. Duncan, 28 (AAA): .292/.376/.571, 2 sb, 2 cs
Christian, 27 (AA & AAA): .266/.310/.370, 29 sb, 4 cs
Gardner, 23 (AA & AAA): .301/.395/.419, 21 sb, 4 cs
- Melky seems to make another great play every night. Tonight it was on Aaron Hill’s liner to left center (that looked like a sure double) that he ran down. Not to mention practically tying the game by himself in bottom of the 9th.
- Cano went from goat to hero in two innings. He struck out with two on to end the 8th, then drove in the winning run in the 10th.
- The forgotten hero is Andy Pettitte, who escaped several jams, and matched Halladay pitch for pitch through seven strong innings.
- Arod had a two-out, two-strike RBI single in the first which didn’t seem like much at the time, but turned out to be the difference in the game. He also made some very nice plays at 3b.
- The forgotten goats are Bobby Abreu and Derek Jeter, who - in the second and third spots in the lineup - went 0-10 with three Ks.
- An organizational sweep today as every team under the Yankee umbrella won - the GCL Yankees even swept a doubleheader.
by Joel Sherman -
Gary Sheffield was half-right, which is a lot different from Derek Jeter being “half-black.”
Sheffield was right that Joe Torre plays favorites. He favors the players who won him the four rings.
Torre loves Jeter best of all. He’d love him if he was half-green, half-awake or half-in-the-bag. Because Jeter and Mariano Rivera are the two players most responsible for Torre’s four rings.
Torre loves Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte, too, because they are the next three players most responsible for the four rings. Torre also loves those five players because they are quiet, professional gentlemen.
I suspect Torre didn’t love Sheffield because he is neither quiet nor professional, and I suspect he likes him even less now because Sheffield won’t shut up about how Torre mistreated him. And now it’s about how Torre mistreated Sheffield because he’s African-American and how he mistreats all African-American players.
Continued here.
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