In 20o7 Jake Peavy gave up 2.46 earned runs every nine innings. The Padres scored 4.49 runs every nine innings.
Jake Peavy struck out 240 batters. He pitched 223.1 innings. That means 35.9% of the outs he recorded were strikeouts. That also means he averaged about a strike-out an inning.
Jake Peavy has a career ERA of 3.31. In the last four years he has an ERA of 2.96
Of course it’s the National League…
Still.
Somewhere in the Minor League system Doug Mientkiewicz is waiting.
I bet he has voodoo dolls of Adam LaRoche and Chris Gomez.
.209 batting average coupled with a .271 On-base percentage makes Jacoby Ellsbury’s spring training less hot than the Miami Heat.
It is spring training but numbers like those are justify concerns.
Then again, in just two less at-bats, Jed Lowrie hit .098.
From Left
Pierre Woods
Brian Scalabrine
Theo Epstein
Andre Tippet
Red Sox Logo
Bruins Bear
Jacoby Ellsbury
Bobby Orr
Why is it ridiculous?
The only statistic that matters for pitchers is how many runs they give up. If you need a reminder, Levinger, to win a baseball game you must score more runs than the other team. So a pitcher that gives up less runs gives his team an better chance to win.
I think you’ve forgotten what I’m trying to prove. I’m not trying to prove Jeff Francoeur is better than Alex Rios or that Ryan Howard is better than Carlos Pena, I’m trying to show you that the NL East is bettter than the AL East. If Chase Utley drives in a lot of runs not because of his own skills but because his fellow Philadelphia Phillies get on base, that’s fine by me. RBI’s reflect a teams ability to get on base and a players ability to drive them in. It is not a good way to evaluate an individual player, but it is the best way a player can represent his teams abilities.
I want numbers, but I actually want them to mean something. Judging a pitcher only by their ERA and a batter by their Home Run and RBI total is absolutely ridiculous. I’m done with neanderthal statistics. Time to call in Baseball Prospectus. VORP (Value over Replacement player), Equivalent Average, and Peripheral ERA will finally put this issue to rest.
But for now, it appears that the Jason Kidd Trade might once again be on hold this article talks about Jerry Stackhouse throwing yet another wrench into the Mavericks plans. I personally want the trade to go through. I think that the Mavericks will be very fun to watch with Kidd running the point.
I’m too sick to argue right now, but I will prove that the AL East is better later.
- Levinger
Pitching.
J. Smoltz 3.11 ERA vrs J. Beckett 3.27. Advantage: NL
J. Santana 3.33 ERA vrs S. Kazmir 3.48. Advantage: NL
T. Hudson 3.33 ERA vrs C. Wang 3.70. Advantage: NL
C. Hamels 3.39 ERA vrs R. Halladay 3.71. Advantage: NL
O. Perez 3.56 ERA vrs J.Shields 3.85. Advantage: NL
Hitting.
1B R. Howard 136 RBI, 47 HR vrs C. Pena 121 RBI, 46 HR. Advantage: NL
2B C. Utley 103 RBI, 22 HR vrs R. Cano 97 RBI, 19 HR. Advantage: NL
Note: Cano had 87 more at bats than Utley.
3B D. Wright 107 RBI, 30 HR vrs A. Rodriguez 156 RBI, 54 RBI. Advantage: AL
Note: D. Wright has greater OBP
SS H. Ramirez 81 RBI, 29 HR vrs D. Jeter 73 RBI, 12 HR. Advantage: NL
Note: Both had 639 AB, H. Ramirez has greater slugging percentage, 50 more total bases.
OF: J. Francoeur 105 RBI, 19 HR vrs A. Rios 85 RBI 24 HR. Advantage: NL
OF C. Beltran 112 RBI, 33 HR vrs M. Ramirez 88 RBI, 20 HR. Advantage: NL
OF A. Rowand 89 RBI, 27 HR vrs C. Crawford 80 RBI, 11 HR. Advantage: NL
C B. McCann 92 RBI, 18 HR vrs J. Posada 90 RBI, 20 HR. Advantage: Even
Totals.
NL Advantages: 11
AL Advantages: 1
Even: 1
Notes.
The NL East apparently has much tougher pitching thus deflating the hitting numbers. About the statistics I used, OBS means nothing if you can’t score, I can’t believe Levinger compared Beckett and Santana’s win totals. The Red Sox scored more than 149 more runs than the Twins, beautifully illustrating why win totals are meaningless stats. By the way, Johan also had more strikeouts. I’ll give you an advantage at DH, but I really see no more reason to include a DH than to not include on. These are 2007 statistics and the ‘07 All Star game did not feature DH’s. I find it fascinating that Levinger decided to complain that Rollins had run support while Jeter did not and then went on to show that A-Rod hit 54 HRs. Woops! Speaking of A-Rod he is hitless against Mr. Santana. Don’t you even complain to say that Chase Utley is over the hill. First off Chase Utley is 29. 10 months 3 days short of 30, in fact. Younger than your 1B man Carlos Pena. Secondly Jorge Posada is 36, and A-Rod is 32. Nice try.
The Winner.
National League East
–DK
Just for clarification, I think that the AL central is the best division in baseball, easily. But as long as Kliger wants to argue about AL East vs. NL East, I’ll willingly punch holes in his argument. his arguments are in regular text, my response is in bold.
SS. I mean its not even close. AL East top shortstop: Derek Jeter. I think all of us would take Rollins, Reyes, Hanley Ramirez or even Renteria over Jeter. Ok. Done. Edge: Big NL Okay. first of all, if we are to do the All Star Team argument, you can only have one player at a position. So the AL east has Jeter and the the NL has Rollins. Both are lead-off men. Jeter’s average is .322, Rollins’s is .296. both of their OBPS’s are in the .800’s. Yes, Rollins has better pop, but Jeter gets on base more, and fields the shortstop position as well as anyone in the league. the NL does not have a big edge here at all. Edge: Slight NL
2B? Cano, Brian Roberts or Pedroia. I’ll take Chase Utley and Dan Uggla and be sitting pretty. Edge: Big NL Chase Utley, while he is the best second baseman in the leaugue, isn’t that much better than Cano. he had a .322 average and 22 homers, Cano had a .306 average with 19 homers. However, Utley has Ryan Howard protecting him in the lineup, and Cano has Melky Cabrera. Cano will only be getting better, but Utley, being 30 years old, is on the tail end of his prime. Edge: slight to moderate NL.
3B. A slight edge for the AL. It’s tough to top Rodriguez or Lowell, but Chipper and David Wright get closer than any one else. Edge: Slight AL No. Alex Rodriguez had 54 home runs and 157 RBI’s last year. his average is 11 points less than Wright but his OBP and Slugging percentage are higher, the latter being about 100 points higher. It is true however, that Wright showed lots of maturity and leadership during the Mets’s playoff run… oh wait. Edge: Biiiiig AL
1B. AL: No one. NL: Ryan Howard, Mark Teixiera. Edge: Big NL AL has no one? NO ONE? Carlos Pena would beg to differ, Kliger. his .282 average, .411 OBP and .627 OBP all are better than Ryan Howard’s numbers. Also he has one less homer and 15 less RBI. This can be attributed to him playing in a much less offense-friendly stadium and less volatile offense. Edge: Even
OF: AL: Manny, Rios, Wells. NL: No one. Edge: Big AL AL has Rios, Carl Crawford, and Manny. The NL has Beltran, Jeff Francouer, and… yeah. No statistical analysis necessary. Edge: Big AL
C: AL: No one. NL: Brian McCann. Edge: Slight NL sometimes I wonder if Kliger watches baseball. The AL East has Jorge Posada, fool! .338 average, 20 HR, and 90 RBI! McCann had .270, 18, 92. Jorge has an amazing plate-blocking ability as well. That average is positively ridiculous. Edge: Moderate AL.
We have to add a DH category, because in order to truly compare the leagues, you need the DH. playing baseball without a DH is like going to an NFC stadium and them saying, “we don’t use linebackers here.” So for the AL we have Papi, and we’ll pick the best hitter who is on the bench of an NL east team. Here is where we run into trouble. Cody Ross? So Taguchi? Nick Johnson? It doesn’t really matter. Edge: Monstrous AL.
SP: AL: Beckett, Wang, Halladay, Kazmir. NL: Santana, Hamels, Hudson, Smoltz. Edge: Moderate NL Let’s do this starter by starter.
Beckett v. Santana. Unless I’m mistaken, Johan was two games over .500 last year. Josh Beckett was Josh Beckett. Becks almost won the AL Cy Young, Santana did not. Edge: moderate AL
Wang v. Hamels: Similar numbers, Hamels has better ERA and much better SO, but striking people out isn’t part of Wang’s game. still, Edge: Slight to moderate NL
Halladay v. Hudson: Same numbers, Hudson has better ERA. Edge: Slight NL
Kazmir v. Smoltz: Smoltz had slightly better ERA, Kazmir had much more SO. However, Kazmir pitched for the Rays with those numbers, and Smoltz pitched for the Braves. These guys should both be pushed up to #2 on these lists, maybe Smoltz to #1. Edge: even to very slight AL.
I’m going to add a #5 starter, for the AL it is Jamie Shields and for the NL it would be John Maine. (I would do Pedro, but he’s a cockfighter, which oddly drew less attention than dogfighting. The “Oh, but it’s a cultural thing” excuse seems to work in this instance, even though it didn’t for Michael Vick. Maybe its because Vick is black… naww, there has to be some other reason.) Anyway, Maine’s ERA was 3.91 and he had 180 strikeouts. Shields was 3.85 and 184 SO. He will improve on those numbers this year. Edge: even to very slight AL.
RP: AL: Paplebon, Joba. NL: Wagner, Soriano. Edge: Moderate AL I’m breaking this into middle relievers and closers
Middle Relief:
AL: Hideki Okajima, Jeremy Accardo, Mike Timlin, Manny Delcarmen, Al Reyes
NL: Peter Moylan, Jon Rauch, Justin Miller, Aaron Heilman, Tom Gordon
Edge: I’ll give the AL a slight edge here because of Delcarmen and Accardo’s upsides.
Closer:
Papelbon v. Wagner: three blown saves vs. five blown saves. Pap had a much better ERA and more strikeouts in about 10 less innings pitched. He came up huge in the playoffs, and Wagner, obviously, did not. Edge: Moderate AL
lets tally up the scores:
Monstrous AL: 1
Big AL: 2
Moderate AL: 3
Slight AL: 2
Even: 2
Slight NL: 3
Moderate NL: 1
Big NL: 0
Monstrous NL: 0
Total AL: 8
Total NL: 6
Even: 2
If I weighted the bigger edges more than it would have been even farther apart. The AL east is easily better than the NL east. Kliger can argue all he wants, but he’s wrong.
- Levinger
So, perhaps this post needs to be prefaced with a bit of explanation. Levinger and I have been arguing over the strongest division in baseball and we split between the AL East and the NL East. I, being the realist of the two, took the naturally superior NL East. Here’s why.
3 good teams. Phillies, Mets, Braves. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes, Chipper Jones, Mark Teixiera, Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, Dan Uggla on the offensive side in this division. The pitching? Johan Santana, Tim Hudson, Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, John Smoltz.
The AL East? Well we have two good teams. Ortiz, Manny, Lowell, Rodriguez, Jeter, Rios, and I’ll even let you throw in Cano and Vernon Wells, if it makes you happy. The pitching? Beckett, Wang, Kazmir, Halladay.
SS. I mean its not even close. AL East top shortstop: Derek Jeter. I think all of us would take Rollins, Reyes, Hanley Ramirez or even Renteria over Jeter. Ok. Done. Edge: Big NL
2B? Cano, Brian Roberts or Pedroia. I’ll take Chase Utley and Dan Uggla and be sitting pretty. Edge: Big NL
3B. A slight edge for the AL. It’s tough to top Rodriguez or Lowell, but Chipper and David Wright get closer than any one else. Edge: Slight AL
1B. AL: No one. NL: Ryan Howard, Mark Teixiera. Edge: Big NL
OF: AL: Manny, Rios, Wells. NL: No one. Edge: Big AL
C: AL: No one. NL: Brian McCann. Edge: Slight NL
SP: AL: Beckett, Wang, Halladay, Kazmir. NL: Santana, Hamels, Hudson, Smoltz. Edge: Moderate NL
RP: AL: Paplebon, Joba. NL: Wagner, Soriano. Edge: Moderate AL
Levinger? The balls in your court now.
–DK
In an effort to drag this out as long as possible, I will be doing one Division at a time, daily.
1. Boston Red Sox 94-68
This isn’t just homerism talking, I truly believe that the Red Sox are going to dominate this division until Hank Steinbrenner buys the entire National League all star team. The Sox’s rotation is shaping up to be Beckett, Dice (If he hits his stride this year, the sox will win it all easily.), Wake (he’s a little scary to watch, but still he had 16 wins last year. Wake is one of the streakiest pitchers in the league, Lester, and Tavarez. Schilling comes in at 100% in August, Buchholz becomes a starter Mid May-ish. That rotation becomes very formidable.
Compare this to the Yankees. Wang, Petitte (he’ll be distracted by the lack of his boyfriend Clemens. Lets put it this way, when Clemens went on the DL with a “fatigued groin” last season, Andy went on one day later with a “fatigued anus.” Phil Hughes (okay, Phil Hughes is really good), Joba, (He’ll blow out his shoulder by the all-star break, I guarantee it) and Moose/ Ian Kennedy. Not quite so scary.
Of course, the entire Red Sox season comes crashing down if Beckett, Papi, or Tek get injured. But we’re not going to contemplate that right now.
2. New York Yankees 89-73
Be very wary of this team, especially when they make a huge deal at the Trade deadline. However, A-Rod has his new contract, so he’ll probably revert back to his old pattern of 35-45 HR, 140-155 RBI, 3-5 self-gratifying Nike Ads, 10-15 instances in which he halfheartedly attempts to look involved with the “Urban Youth,” 162-181 instances of wearing purple, grape flavored lipgloss, and 1-2 Torontonian strippers brought up to his hotel room. Which makes this team a lot less dangerous. And more unbearable to watch creep up on us after the trade deadline. Stay on your guard. Robinson Cano and Phil Hughes put the fear of God in me.
3. Toronto Blue Jays 84-79
Hey, look at us, we play in the AL east too! Have you ever heard of Roy Halladay? Well, he might be the best pitcher in the AL now that Johan is gone! Try to ignore the fact that he gets seriously injured every single season. We have Alexis Rios too! You’ve heard of him right? No? What about that tiny white guy, David Eckstein? He fits right in in Canada. … (Sob) why do we have to play with the Red Sox and Yankees? (Sob) Would they let us win the division just one year? (Sob) JUST ONCE? MOMMY! THE RED SOX AND YANKEES WONT SHARE!! WE WANT ATTENTION TOO!
4. Tampa Bay Rays. (That’s right, not Devil Rays, just Rays) their record doesn’t matter.
Scott Kazmir, Carlos Pena, and Carl Crawford… and that’s about it. But they are getting better. They have the youth and potential to be very good in a few years. They also currently have a third baseman named Evan Longoria, which means that at some point NESN will show a picture of Eva Longoria during a Tampa game so Jerry and Don can compare the two. I’ll be riveted to every Sox - Rays game this season.
Click to view
HUZZAH!
5. Baltimore Irrelevants they’re gonna suck, no record projection necessary
This team always plays spoiler to the Sox, but not this year. That’s what happens when you trade your best player for a pu pu platter of prospects. At least they still have Nick Markakis.
Stay tuned for more projections over the next week!
- Levinger
American League Eastern Division - Boston Red Sox 99-63
-With a fresh Schilling in September, all the returning stars from last year, Ellsbury in for Crisp this team should go far. And can Lugo or Drew possibly have two years that bad in a row?
American League Central Division - Detroit Tigers 106-50
-I expect the pitching staff to rebound, and Granderson is only improving.
American League Western Division - Anaheim Angels 94-68
-Dynamic offense, good enough pitching, they’re a lock in the weak West.
American League Wild Card - Cleveland Indians 97-65
-Cast returns for a second year. Sizemore a year better. Scary.
Red Sox over Angels - Indians over Tigers
Red Sox over Indians
National League Eastern Division - Atlanta Braves 95-67
-Teixeira at 1b, Chipper at 3b. Be afraid. The Pitching staff isn’t half bad either: Hudson, Glavine, Smoltz.
National League Central Division - Milwaukee Brewers 90-72
-Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy or just imagine the Red Sox line-up in 3 years.
National League Western Division - Arizona Diamondbacks 93-69
-If The Unit is halfway decent this Haren-led pitching staff is among the best in the senior circuit. Bostonians, root for the other Drew.
National League Wild Card - Philadelphia Phillies 94-68
-Santana or no Santana, it’s still the Mets. I expect another choke in New York, and the Phills should benefit.
Braves over Phillies - Arizona over Milwaukee
Braves over Arizona
World Series — Boston Red Sox over Atlanta Braves - 4-0
NL MVP: Chase Utley, Philadelphia AL MVP: Jacoby Grady Sizemore, Cleveland
NL Cy Young: Dan Haren, Arizona AL Cy Young: Josh Beckett, Boston
NL ROY: Jeremy Hermida, Florida AL ROY: Jacoby Ellsbury
Hundereds of reporters, some from ESPN, were in the Target Center hoping to interview Da Kid, The Big Ticket, aka KG. The big return. In the midst of such chaos, Garnett calmly ignored just about everyone in the building, barely showing up to the crowd for a minute of handwaving. (Side note: the T’wolves, predicting the popularity of KG’s return, required any non-season-ticket holder to buy tickets to at least two other games to even qualify for purchasing one for KG’s return. For that, I salute the other Kevin in the building, who used to share love with Danny Ainge in the 80’s, and still does. (Thank you) Minnesota’s graceful, hairy GM has repeatedly shown the uncanny ability to screw over the fans.
Ballin’ ( heinsohn: I, LOVE, KEVIN)
KG did not speak to anyone let alone the dying reporters, and after his brief appearance, went back to his usual injured routine - sit in the locker room all by himself, pumped as if he were on the court, cheering his team on through the locker room TV. Weird and quirky as he is, you’d think he’d at least sit on the bench for Mr. Stern’s love of ratings.
Dave: NFL season is over? MLB hasn’t begun? Trade Shaq and Pau, ya heard me. Bill: That’s the greatest idea in the history of the western civilization.
The actual game: Ugly it was until the fourth, when, coinciding with the fourth-quarter absence of Kendrick www.perkisabeast.com/blog Perkins due to injury, the beast in the paint known as Big Al showed why McHale purchased the best he could with the Big Ticket. 5-5 from the field in the fourth, Al tried his best to show his frustration over the impressive 10-38 T’Wolves record. Leon Powe, however, was ready for the Show (which, many of you don’t know, is Leon’s official nickname). After a blatant no call on Ray Allen by your always sincere and wonderfully observant referees not named Donaghy, Powe put it back up for the buzzer beater, lifting the C’s 88-86. Another good game by Rondo, too.
Side note: what do Craig Smith, Al Jefferson, Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff, and Antoine Walker have in common? Hint: Some wish they were someplace closer to the Atlantic Ocean.
The lows:
Perk’s injury, for which he is getting an MRI as I type.
Sca-la-bri-ne. Now I love Scal as much as the redhead in Needham, but he makes me miss Kevin Garnett as much as I miss Fox Sports Network’s coverage of the C’s in the years past.
All in all, a happy night for myself and Beef Stallone, the CEO of http://www.perkisabeast.com/blog
Oh
The Boston Globe reports this morning Curt Schilling will be out until the All-Star break, at least.
The IHT article
(Sorry that this is a day late)
Rondo was an absolute beast in this game, he got bloodied up in the first half, playing the rest of the game with a cotton cylinder in his nose. He managed to put up 24 points and 8 assists. I love the guy. He’s a poor man’s Tony Parker. Leon Powe put in his usual stellar effort, and Brian Scalabrine hit every single field goal and three pointer he took. Of course, he only took one shot in the game, but still…
we can be happy that we can at least beat this team from L.A. The Pau Gasol move scares me a wee bit.
On an unrelated note, Corey Maggette is absolutely jacked. 
that image was from nbaglue.blogspot.com by the way. I do not have the creative genius that is necessary to create that.
Here’s the box score http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=280206002
some highlights:
James Posey plays for 40 minutes and has more turnovers and fouls than points and steals.
Scal starts and gets less minutes than everybody else on the team
Sam Cassel gets ejected. (He’s trying to get the clips to buy him out so he can be back with KG on a contender)
I still miss KG.
- Levinger
It is a cold, dreary day in Portland, Maine. The chance of rain is great enough that a tarp is covering the field at Hadlock. Hadlock Field is a miniature Fenway Park displaced a hundred miles to the north of Boston. The year is either 2003, 2005, 2007, or 2009, but the story is the same. The Portland Sea Dogs are the hottest ticket on the town and the hottest ticket in all of AA baseball. In 2003 a franchise record of 6,231 fans per game is set. In 2004 this AA affiliate of the Red Sox set a attendance record with just under half a million fans coming to Hadlock. In 2006 they break the 2003 record for average attendance with 6, 290 fans per game. In 2005 they add 390 new seats in answer to higher demand. Over that period they held the highest attendance record throughout all of AA baseball.
The good people of northern New England flocking to Hadlock. Why? Are there no restaurants open past 6:00 in Portland? Hardly. There all the dining options of any small to medium city could offer, even extending to fine Eritrean cuisine. Are people attracted by the Fenway-esque Green Monster, Citgo sign, and Coke bottles that adorn the stadium? Possibly, but in the end there still a wall, a sign and a giant bottle. So what is the magnet that draws in the New Englanders?
Dom Dimaggio has been, to date, the best Red Sox lead-off man. Sorry Johnny Damon, it is really not a contest.
The Little Professer was the better Dimaggio and do not let anyone tell you otherwise. He was the better fielder, the better base runner, and the better teammate. Now a ninety year old he has replaced baseball with bridge and a conversation with Bobby Doerr for - well, that’s one thing that hasn’t changed. When he retired in 1953 after 11 professional seasons, he ventured into the world of business. There he ran a manufacturing company successfully and earned his living through it. Though passive in retirement, he still avidly follows the Red Sox and is the first back up plan Theo has for center field.
–Kliger
Disclaimer: Some language in this article may not be appropriate. You have been warned.
-October 27th, Denver Colorado, Coors Field, Second Base.
After smacking his third double of a four hit night, a Navajo Indian crouches in a lead. He has reached base in more than half his World Series at-bats.
–Some time in the 2005 off season.
It began with the name. Jacoby Ellsbury. Possibly the only name that could better the poetry of Coco Crisp.
-June 7th, 2005, MLB Draft Day, The Boston Red Sox draft room.
Across the league, general managers worry of the public opinion to be lost with a ‘Brien Taylor’ bust and the rewards to be reaped by uncovering the next Pedro. The Sox haven’t won a World Series in a whole 8 months, so things are getting pretty drastic. So, with the 23rd pick of the draft, Theo Epstein makes a hair splitting decision that would be ridiculed by no one for generations to come. The Red Sox wipe Jacoby Ellsbury off the board. An unknown man minutes before hand, Ellsbury will now become known by five additional people throughout the world. If one of these people should happen to be an etymologist, he would swear Jacoby a descendant of a Polish Jew. He’d also be wrong. Neither Jewish nor Polish, or European for that matter, he’s a Mormon Navajo of Madras, Oregon.
He’s not the type of player that is suppose to play for the Red Sox. The Red Sox aren’t suppose to get good looking, fast, young, elegant, and charismatic players. The Red Sox are suppose to have awkward, clumsy, fat, slow, hyper, lanky, goofy, old or just plain wierd players (see Mo Vaugn, Manny Ramirez, Gabe Kapler, Nomar Garciaparra, Bill Mueller, Todd Walker, Hideo Nomo, Tim Wakefield, Lou Merloni, Brian Daubach, Kevin Youkilis, Trot Nixon, David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, I could go on). Jacoby Ellsbury looks like a Yankee. He really does, now he doesn’t act like one, nor does his name sound like one, but he certainly plays and looks like a Bronx Bomber.
And Red Sox Nation loves him and why shouldn’t they?
-October 28th, Denver Colorado, Coors Field, Luxury Suite.
Theo Epstein peers down on his closer in the final pitches of a second championship in four years after none in eighty-six. Yesterday he got flack from WEEI about the likes of Edgar Rent-a-reck, Lugo and Coco. Tomorrow isn’t looking much better. Yet, with every hit, every catch and every smile Jacoby Ellsbury is responsible for, Theo’s approval heightens.
