Cliff Lee, the comeback kid, has been getting press all year long and his Cy Young has long been a foregone conclusion, but now that the season is actually coming to a close he is no longer alone in the Cy Young conversation. We give you, Roy Halladay.
Their numbers, with their respective league ranks in parentheses (a big asterisk)*:
Cliff Lee
22 Wins (1), 2.54 ERA (1), 1.11 WHIP (3), 170 Ks (9), 223.1IP (2), 4 CGs (2)
Roy Halladay
20 Wins (2), 2.78 ERA (2), 1.05 WHIP (1), 206 Ks (3), 246 IP (1), 9 CGs (1)
If we go a step further, and use Bill James' favorite pitching tool, Halladay's SO-BB ratio is 5.29 to Lee's 5.00. Going more Jamesian still, Lee has the higher ERA+, sitting at a league-leading 174. The discrepancy is Halladay's pitcher's park and Lee's hitter's park. A 174 ERA+ would be the highest in the AL in five years, but let's not unfairly penalize Halladay while praising Lee, because his splits bear out that he was unaffected by his supposed home field advantage.
The talk in the NL CY Young race has been about the bullpens, specifically how many wins they've cost Santana and Lincecum. The flip side of that argument, that everyone so conveniently ignores in this age of pitch counts, is that if Santana or Lincecum had the fortitude to regularly go 9 innings, there wouldn't be any whining about bullpens.
This is what the AL Cy Young comes down to. Lee's and Halladay's stat lines are quite similar. Either would be a defensible winner, but the tie breaker should be, has to be, those nine Complete Games staring back at you.
Appropriately, last night, Halladay finished his season with yet another complete game, and it is significant that he now has more than twice that of his nearest competitor, that he is the only pitcher in the league that regularly gives his bullpen a rest, that he gives his entire team a boost of confidence. And no, we do not mean the confidence of "the stopper," no, it's more than that; it's the kind of confidence that the Mets' players, for example, do not get to experience when Santana takes the mound, because they know that once his pitch count starts to approach triple digits he'll be out of the game shortly and thus their bullpen-driven anxiety can never quite subside. And yes, that's why Halladay is carrying that ugly looking "11" in the loss column, because, if you want to get into the numbers of it, he leads the league with 5 "tough losses," defined as losses in Quality Starts.
This is no knock on Lee, because 4 CGs is nothing to sneeze at; it would've lead the NL last year. This is in praise of Roy, of Doc Halladay.
Lee has his own tiebreaker working for him, and that's his story, and since it's writers doing the voting, perhaps that will be the tiebreaker they choose to consider. Or maybe convention will dictate that it's preferable for the Cy Young to have a sexy win-loss record and they'll never even get to the point of considering Doc, but the case can be made, and perhaps they should.
*Yes, Lee could make one more start on Sunday, but for now it's uncertain.
-Agent Easy
Showing posts with label Cito Gaston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cito Gaston. Show all posts
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Late Season Surges
The national stories of the past week had been the Rays' swoon and Yanks sinking back to fourth in the East, but the flip side of those stories was that it was the Jays, sweping the Rays, and surging past the Yanks into third place in the Wild Card race. Toronto's 10-game winning streak is the longest current one in the majors.
That rank is a bit deceptive because they're still seven games back of that Wild Card, trailing both Boston and Minnesota, but their recent run has been cause enough for Boston headlines like this.
They're doing it with their bullpen (4 out of those 10 wins) which remains fresh and effective because they get to rest every fifth day when Roy Halladay takes the mound (league leader in IP, CGs), spot starters you've never heard of and a little of the Cito Gaston magic.
As much as they're not in the playoff conversation just yet, they're on the cusp, and they play Boston 10 more times, so at least they control their own destiny.
The Jays' late-closing counterparts in the NL perhaps make a better case to be included in the playoff talks.
Houston is 9-1 in their last 10 and owns the best second half record at 34-16. They are only four games back of the Wild Card, though this too is slightly deceptive as they still have 3 teams to leapfrog in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee.
They first got hot in early August as Carlos Lee went on an RBI tear before breaking his hand and wrist. Without missing a beat Ty Wigginton stepped in led the majors in HRs and Slugging for the month. Then he went down with a groin pull and the 'Stros have won three in a row since. Roy Oswalt is 8-1 since the break and Ed Wade's mid-season pickups Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins have a combined 2.95 ERA since joining the team. Wolf has gone 4-1 as a starter and Hawkins has become the primary set-up man (9 holds).
They control their destiny a bit less that the Jays because they don't play any of the teams ahead of them in the standings, but instead, they might have something better going for them: an easy schedule. They see the Pirates twice and play series each against Cincy and Atlanta. Their only tough matchup, the slumping Cubs, they get at home.
To reiterate, we're not trumpeting either of these teams as playoff-bound. We're just pointing out that they're creeping in that direction. Think of them as the Rockies and Phillies of last season.
Some 2nd half statistical leaders:
AL HRs, RBIs: Miguel Cabrera
AL OPS: Melvin Mora
AL Wins, ERA: Cliff Lee
NL HRs, RBIs: Carlos Delgado
NL OPS: Manny Ramirez
NL Wins, ERA: CC Sabathia
That rank is a bit deceptive because they're still seven games back of that Wild Card, trailing both Boston and Minnesota, but their recent run has been cause enough for Boston headlines like this.
They're doing it with their bullpen (4 out of those 10 wins) which remains fresh and effective because they get to rest every fifth day when Roy Halladay takes the mound (league leader in IP, CGs), spot starters you've never heard of and a little of the Cito Gaston magic.
As much as they're not in the playoff conversation just yet, they're on the cusp, and they play Boston 10 more times, so at least they control their own destiny.
The Jays' late-closing counterparts in the NL perhaps make a better case to be included in the playoff talks.
Houston is 9-1 in their last 10 and owns the best second half record at 34-16. They are only four games back of the Wild Card, though this too is slightly deceptive as they still have 3 teams to leapfrog in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee.
They first got hot in early August as Carlos Lee went on an RBI tear before breaking his hand and wrist. Without missing a beat Ty Wigginton stepped in led the majors in HRs and Slugging for the month. Then he went down with a groin pull and the 'Stros have won three in a row since. Roy Oswalt is 8-1 since the break and Ed Wade's mid-season pickups Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins have a combined 2.95 ERA since joining the team. Wolf has gone 4-1 as a starter and Hawkins has become the primary set-up man (9 holds).
They control their destiny a bit less that the Jays because they don't play any of the teams ahead of them in the standings, but instead, they might have something better going for them: an easy schedule. They see the Pirates twice and play series each against Cincy and Atlanta. Their only tough matchup, the slumping Cubs, they get at home.
To reiterate, we're not trumpeting either of these teams as playoff-bound. We're just pointing out that they're creeping in that direction. Think of them as the Rockies and Phillies of last season.
Some 2nd half statistical leaders:
AL HRs, RBIs: Miguel Cabrera
AL OPS: Melvin Mora
AL Wins, ERA: Cliff Lee
NL HRs, RBIs: Carlos Delgado
NL OPS: Manny Ramirez
NL Wins, ERA: CC Sabathia
-Agent Easy
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Another Explanation All-Star Game's Irrelevance
On the heels of the advent of our unique signatures, we'll also introduce a new feature: the back and forth.
Interleague play might have killed the All-Star game, but it was already on its last breath after the ‘93 game at Camden Yards. That’s when, with the game in hand, Cito Gaston went to his own Duane Ward, instead of Baltimore’s own Mike Mussina, to pitch the almost perfunctory ninth inning.
The Baltimore fans booed throughout the ninth inning, the media brouhaha followed, and a precedent was set, that the stars be allowed to shine, that managers should not get in the way.
Each successive ASG came with the obligatory broadcasters’ late inning speculation about which one, or god-forbid two, players might not get on the field, Bob Costas bemoaning Ricky Bones’ exclusion on behalf of the Milwaukee fans, or perhaps Joe Buck wryly noting the Paul Byrd Omission.
The trend's natural evolution culminated in the tie of 2002. The managers were primarily concerned with getting everyone on the field, and neglected to consider the possibility of extra innings (Which is exactly the reason Gaston gave for saving Mussina back in ’93! ), let alone concern themselves with winning. But you can’t blame them, because precedent, and supposedly the fan’s preference demanded such an attitude.
I'm sure tonight they'll replay the iconic video of Pete Rose barreling over Ray Fosse, and the requisite commentary about "Fosse never being quite the same again" will follow, and the announcers will, even if only subtly, pine for the All Star Games of yore, when they meant something without the aid of a contrivance.
But they (and we) can’t have it both ways.
The devaluation of the ASG began long ago, when, combined with the 1 rep per roster rule, the league’s expansion began to turn the ASG into more of a spectacle than a competition. The extra (and often inferior) players were usually superfluous in a nine inning game. It was only a matter of time, that the fans’ attention turned to the surplus of benchwarmers.
Without knowing the entire context of the ’93 game, one might suspect that the Baltimoreans were right in their umbrage because perhaps one might assume that Mussina was the host city’s lone rep. In fact, Cal Ripken was in the starting lineup. But such consolation no longer mattered and the fans believed that the game was there primarily for their entertainment and only secondarily as a competition. And so booed their league and the winning team.
- Agent Easy
Interleague play might have killed the All-Star game, but it was already on its last breath after the ‘93 game at Camden Yards. That’s when, with the game in hand, Cito Gaston went to his own Duane Ward, instead of Baltimore’s own Mike Mussina, to pitch the almost perfunctory ninth inning.
The Baltimore fans booed throughout the ninth inning, the media brouhaha followed, and a precedent was set, that the stars be allowed to shine, that managers should not get in the way.
Each successive ASG came with the obligatory broadcasters’ late inning speculation about which one, or god-forbid two, players might not get on the field, Bob Costas bemoaning Ricky Bones’ exclusion on behalf of the Milwaukee fans, or perhaps Joe Buck wryly noting the Paul Byrd Omission.
The trend's natural evolution culminated in the tie of 2002. The managers were primarily concerned with getting everyone on the field, and neglected to consider the possibility of extra innings (Which is exactly the reason Gaston gave for saving Mussina back in ’93! ), let alone concern themselves with winning. But you can’t blame them, because precedent, and supposedly the fan’s preference demanded such an attitude.
I'm sure tonight they'll replay the iconic video of Pete Rose barreling over Ray Fosse, and the requisite commentary about "Fosse never being quite the same again" will follow, and the announcers will, even if only subtly, pine for the All Star Games of yore, when they meant something without the aid of a contrivance.
But they (and we) can’t have it both ways.
The devaluation of the ASG began long ago, when, combined with the 1 rep per roster rule, the league’s expansion began to turn the ASG into more of a spectacle than a competition. The extra (and often inferior) players were usually superfluous in a nine inning game. It was only a matter of time, that the fans’ attention turned to the surplus of benchwarmers.
Without knowing the entire context of the ’93 game, one might suspect that the Baltimoreans were right in their umbrage because perhaps one might assume that Mussina was the host city’s lone rep. In fact, Cal Ripken was in the starting lineup. But such consolation no longer mattered and the fans believed that the game was there primarily for their entertainment and only secondarily as a competition. And so booed their league and the winning team.
- Agent Easy
Monday, June 23, 2008
Cito Gaston, Full Circle; Blue Jays Front Office, Incompetent
Two World Series titles buys you about 3.5 years. Thats for how long Cito Gaston managed the Jays after Joe Carter's walk-off. The Blue Jays fired him in 1997, and Mel Queen, the pitching coach, filled in as the interim manager. Since then the Jays have proven themselves inept at finding a viable replacement.
Tim Johnson lead the team to its first post-WS winning record, motivating his players with stories of his tour in Vietnam. After the season, he admitted the stories weren't true. It took the Jays' management three months to decide that the lies posed a "credibility problem." They fired him less than a month befre opening day.
They replaced him with Jim Fregosi. The mid-March coaching candidate pool is like a grocery store after a hurricane warning and Jim Fregosi was the dented can of spam. Perhaps it was the Jays' scramble to fill the vacancy that led to some sort of "Wait, what about the guy we beat in the WS?" logic that conveniently, or perhaps naively, ignored the rest of his resume. Not surprisingly, they didn't bother to extend him 2 years later.
Buck Martinez managed for a season and a half and Carlos Tosca finished off Martinez' year and then stuck around for another year and half himself. Neither left behind a winning record. Neither managed before or since.
The feisty John Gibbons will best be remembered for fighting with Ted Lilly and trying to fight Shea Hillenbrand.
Now that the Jays fired Gibbons, we come back to Cito Gaston. This is the Jays throwing their hands in the air, conceding that they haven't had a clue for the past 10 years. Obviously they figured since they've already fired 4 of their last 5 managers mid-season, whats one more? They are out of ideas, curled up in the fetal position, trying to comfort themselves in the cocoon of the good 'ole days. Supposedly, Cito spent the interim as a special assistant to the Jays' CEO, but what does that really mean when a then-10 year old MC Hammer was the VP of the A's?
I'm not saying the new Gaston era wont work out. I'd love to see a Tolkien-like story emerge, where we see that only Cito, the true manager of the Blue Jays, can win in Toronto! Then again, another mid-season firing is more likely.
Tim Johnson lead the team to its first post-WS winning record, motivating his players with stories of his tour in Vietnam. After the season, he admitted the stories weren't true. It took the Jays' management three months to decide that the lies posed a "credibility problem." They fired him less than a month befre opening day.
They replaced him with Jim Fregosi. The mid-March coaching candidate pool is like a grocery store after a hurricane warning and Jim Fregosi was the dented can of spam. Perhaps it was the Jays' scramble to fill the vacancy that led to some sort of "Wait, what about the guy we beat in the WS?" logic that conveniently, or perhaps naively, ignored the rest of his resume. Not surprisingly, they didn't bother to extend him 2 years later.
Buck Martinez managed for a season and a half and Carlos Tosca finished off Martinez' year and then stuck around for another year and half himself. Neither left behind a winning record. Neither managed before or since.
The feisty John Gibbons will best be remembered for fighting with Ted Lilly and trying to fight Shea Hillenbrand.
Now that the Jays fired Gibbons, we come back to Cito Gaston. This is the Jays throwing their hands in the air, conceding that they haven't had a clue for the past 10 years. Obviously they figured since they've already fired 4 of their last 5 managers mid-season, whats one more? They are out of ideas, curled up in the fetal position, trying to comfort themselves in the cocoon of the good 'ole days. Supposedly, Cito spent the interim as a special assistant to the Jays' CEO, but what does that really mean when a then-10 year old MC Hammer was the VP of the A's?
I'm not saying the new Gaston era wont work out. I'd love to see a Tolkien-like story emerge, where we see that only Cito, the true manager of the Blue Jays, can win in Toronto! Then again, another mid-season firing is more likely.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
