Can't wait to hear rebuttles on this one. Fair warning: I've had 32 oz. of Coke, ran 13 miles this morning and it's 75 degrees outside and I'm NOT at work on a Friday afternoon. Laptop on the patio outside with a nice breeze on March 25th? Freaking LOVE Arizona.
Ryan Howard is a slopply mess of waste. Check this out. .279 career average. Ok, thats decent for a power hitting first basemen. No complaints there. But lets put out there that he just signed a 7 year deal at $25 million a year. He'll be 31 this year. Another contract signed at the peak of a players prime that will take them well past their crappy years. So why is he overrated? I'd even go so far as saying the MOST overrated player in baseball. The overall scope of it is the $25 million a year. If you are making THAT much money you better be putting up some serious stats. Quick look at 2010:
.276 AVG in 152 games. 87 Runs, 23 2B, 31 HR, 108 RBI, 157 K, 59 BB, .353 OBP, .505 SLG, .859 OPS
Solid right? Until you look at Adam LaRoche from the Dbacks in 2010 and realize they had almost the same year. Or that Dan Uggla had the same year or that David Ortiz had a better year or that Votto, Pujols, Cabrera, Dunn and about 30 other players had a much better year. Down year? Sure, but he's had a down year every year since his 2006 MONSTER MVP season. He's still great, but when you are not having a better year than Jayson Werth and are the 3rd-4th best hitter on your team I think you should stop doing commericals and maybe take a little less money in arbitration every year.
Here's the whammy though. Someone actually gave him a 1st place MVP vote for 2010. That means someone voted for Howard for MVP over Votto or Pujols last year. What in the freaking hell?? Flawed system for sure but thats another post.
Most telling stat is up Arod's alley. 2010 Postseason? 0 RBI's in 9 Games. Also, 30 of his last 52 Postseason at bats dating back to 2009 World Series have been strikeouts....!!!!!! And if it weren't for Mark Reynolds every year topping 200 k's Howard would be all over the news with his 199 K's in 2007 and 2008. And he's rated below average defensively.
$25 million.
Almost as bad as Jeters contract.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Year of the Pitcher Indeed
I originally was going to write a post about why calling last year the "year of the pitcher" was a bunch of bull. I wanted to argue that instead of a league wide dominance in pitching it was merely the year of amazing individual performances highlighted by no hitters and perfect games. So I went to baseball-reference.com to look up the statistics for league averages in pitching statistics only to find that 2010 was one of the best years for pitching in decades.
~In 2010, MLB set the record for most K's per 9 innings with 7.06 K's/9 innings pitched!
~In 2010, MLB had the lowest ERA of 4.08 since 1992!
~In 2010, MLB allowed the least amount of HR's at .95/game since 1993!
~In 2010, MLB allowed the least amount of H's at 8.76/game since 1992!
~In 2010, MLB had the lowest WHIP of 1.347 since 1992!
Do you see a trend? There seems to be this massive 19 year gap between pitching dominance in MLB, and the difference is significant. A 4.08 ERA for the year is better by .20 or more almost every year since 1992. The strikeouts are ridiculous at 7.06 per 9 innings where in the late 90's and early 2000's K's/9 innings was in the high 5's and low 6's. Less than 1 HR allowed per game? That's crazy! In 2000 the league average was 1.17!
So what are the reasons for the decline of pitching over 19 years and then a sudden dominance in 2010? Are steroids finally done? Are pitchers getting better or more creative with new pitches? Are ballparks getting bigger and more conducive for pitchers? Are batters getting worse? Is it a combination of all?
It's very interesting that even in the year of the pitcher, there wasn't any real pitching standout. Only 3 pitchers achieved 20 wins, 3 got 19, 3 got 18, 5 got 17, and 3 got 16. Thats 17 pitchers who got more than 15 wins. Out of those 17 only 6 had ERA's under 3.00. I personally believe that Roy Halladay had the best pitching year last year going 21-10 with a 2.44 ERA and 219 K's. Will people be talking about that stat line in 20 years? Doubt it. But in the height of hitting prominence from 1998-2003, Pedro Martinez averaged 19.2 wins/year with a 2.23 ERA/year and 260.3 K's/season. Isn't that unbelievable! Shouldn't Pedro go to the Hall of Fame just for that 5 year stretch of being so far below the league averages? Koufax did.
I acknowledge that last year was the year of the pitcher, but I think that it wasn't the year of the pitching STARS. No one pitcher has popped out into Bob Gibson status since Pedro and I would like to see one pop out this year. I would love to see CC go 24-4 with a 1.98 ERA and 298 K's. My generation has witnessed McGuire and Sosa, Griffey and A-Rod, Ichiro and Jeter, but will we see a Bob Gibson or a Sandy Koufax. Will we see another Pedro or Greg Maddux? I hope so. I miss the old days when Pitchers were the stars and the bats were silenced. Here's to CC and Brian Wilson, Halladay and Jimenez, Mariano and Felez, I'm down for another year of the pitcher...defense and pitching wins and that why I'm scared of the Red Sox.
~In 2010, MLB set the record for most K's per 9 innings with 7.06 K's/9 innings pitched!
~In 2010, MLB had the lowest ERA of 4.08 since 1992!
~In 2010, MLB allowed the least amount of HR's at .95/game since 1993!
~In 2010, MLB allowed the least amount of H's at 8.76/game since 1992!
~In 2010, MLB had the lowest WHIP of 1.347 since 1992!
Do you see a trend? There seems to be this massive 19 year gap between pitching dominance in MLB, and the difference is significant. A 4.08 ERA for the year is better by .20 or more almost every year since 1992. The strikeouts are ridiculous at 7.06 per 9 innings where in the late 90's and early 2000's K's/9 innings was in the high 5's and low 6's. Less than 1 HR allowed per game? That's crazy! In 2000 the league average was 1.17!
So what are the reasons for the decline of pitching over 19 years and then a sudden dominance in 2010? Are steroids finally done? Are pitchers getting better or more creative with new pitches? Are ballparks getting bigger and more conducive for pitchers? Are batters getting worse? Is it a combination of all?
It's very interesting that even in the year of the pitcher, there wasn't any real pitching standout. Only 3 pitchers achieved 20 wins, 3 got 19, 3 got 18, 5 got 17, and 3 got 16. Thats 17 pitchers who got more than 15 wins. Out of those 17 only 6 had ERA's under 3.00. I personally believe that Roy Halladay had the best pitching year last year going 21-10 with a 2.44 ERA and 219 K's. Will people be talking about that stat line in 20 years? Doubt it. But in the height of hitting prominence from 1998-2003, Pedro Martinez averaged 19.2 wins/year with a 2.23 ERA/year and 260.3 K's/season. Isn't that unbelievable! Shouldn't Pedro go to the Hall of Fame just for that 5 year stretch of being so far below the league averages? Koufax did.
I acknowledge that last year was the year of the pitcher, but I think that it wasn't the year of the pitching STARS. No one pitcher has popped out into Bob Gibson status since Pedro and I would like to see one pop out this year. I would love to see CC go 24-4 with a 1.98 ERA and 298 K's. My generation has witnessed McGuire and Sosa, Griffey and A-Rod, Ichiro and Jeter, but will we see a Bob Gibson or a Sandy Koufax. Will we see another Pedro or Greg Maddux? I hope so. I miss the old days when Pitchers were the stars and the bats were silenced. Here's to CC and Brian Wilson, Halladay and Jimenez, Mariano and Felez, I'm down for another year of the pitcher...defense and pitching wins and that why I'm scared of the Red Sox.
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