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We’re a month into the season now, and while even that much baseball can be
misleading, it’s a good time for a stroll through the stats:

(Does anyone else miss David Schoenfield at ESPN.com?)

  • Last year, when they were averaging fewer than four runs per game in the second
    half, the Diamondbacks chose Matt Kata and Shea Hillenbrand over Chad Tracy. Think they might regret
    that? Tracy is off to a .359/.419/.487 start for the Snakes, and will get
    regular playing time for at least as long as Richie Sexson‘s
    shoulder hurts. He can hit; think of him as a Rance Mulliniks
    for America.

  • Diamondbacks’ batters have struck out just 23 more times than they’ve
    walked. Over a full season, that would be a gap of 125 or so; the smallest gap
    I can find in the majors last year was the Red Sox, with 323 (AL gaps should
    be lower because pitchers hit in eight or nine games a year, not 153 or 154).
    In full seasons since the strike, the smallest gap is 173, by the 1996
    Indians. Smaller gaps were more common in the 1980s, with a bunch of teams in
    the first half of the decade having them. The 1982 Indians were the last
    full-season team to walk more often than they struck out (651-625).
    Mike Hargrove, Andre Thornton and Toby Harrah led that group.

    (See, this is why I don’t use the Sabermetric Baseball
    Encyclopedia
    too often. I used to get lost in the Baseball
    Encyclopedia
    –I still can, now that the great new edition is out–now I get lost running
    queries until 3 a.m. It’s an addictive tool.)

  • The Braves are once again trying to reach the playoffs with no corner
    infielders. As ridiculously great as they are up the middle–Marcus Giles, Andruw Jones and Johnny Estrada are all at .297 EqAs or above–even average hitters on the
    corners would guarantee a league-best offense. Adam LaRoche
    (.194 EqA) and Mark DeRosa (.236 EqA) are replacement level
    and below. Thank heavens for Julio Franco (.302 EqA) and the
    portrait no one has been able to find just yet.

    It should be easy to find a first baseman who can fill out the left side of a
    platoon and post a .280 EqA. The Twins have, what, 17 of them? That the Braves
    can’t or won’t, and haven’t for the past four years, is a searing indictment
    of John Schuerholz. (I get to say this in part because I never understood the
    hype on LaRoche, or the Braves’ eagerness to make him their first baseman this
    year.)

  • With Todd Walker in the lineup, Dusty Baker’s bench on
    most days consists of Todd Hollandsworth and four guys who
    are 13-for-87 with three doubles and six walks this year. Not that Baker needs
    another reason to leave his starting pitchers in, but at least three of them
    are better hitters than the available pinch-hitters, save Hollandsworth.

  • I was hyping Ryan Wagner in the offseason, so I should
    point out that he’s the worst
    reliever in baseball this year
    , with an ERA of 11.25, and just eight
    innings pitched in 10 appearances. The league is hitting .488/.520/.707
    against him, and at this point, he needs to be demoted before the words
    “David Clyde” start seeping into stories about him. He’ll be back,
    though.

  • There has to be some category for what Hee Seop Choi is
    up to: nine homers, no other extra-base hits. Choi, by the way, is at
    .277/.405/.692 so far. Derrek Lee is a good player, but the
    Cubs could have had Ivan Rodriguez and Choi for what they’re
    paying Lee and Michael Barrett. That they don’t is a cost of
    employing Dusty Baker.

  • Choi aside, I don’t believe the Marlins are for real. There’s no viable
    bullpen, and I don’t see Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett staying healthy and effective all season long. I do love Jack
    McKeon, though; he used Franklyn Gracesqui to get the last
    out of a one-run game on the road with the tying run on third base. No big
    deal, except it was Gracesqui’s major league debut.

    I think McKeon would look at what I do and laugh, but stuff like that makes it
    hard not to like the guy, regardless.

  • Good: Adrian Beltre is hitting .368 and slugging .695.

    Bad: Beltre has two walks in 95 at-bats.

    I’m pretty sure I know how this ends, but check back in 100 at-bats or so.

    Meanwhile, Cesar Izturis has 50% more walks than Beltre in
    the same number of at-bats, and he’s hitting .303. Now, I know how that
    ends.

  • Derek Zumsteg picked on the Expos last week, and I don’t want to pile on
    too much. While their raw stats are horrible, watching them–as I did all
    weekend–shows you that not only do they not have a good offense in general,
    but they are horrible with runners in scoring position: .152 BA, .199 SLG.
    They just never ever seem to drive in a run with a hit.

    They “exploded” for 14 runs in the series against the Dodgers. Of
    those, just three came home on a non-homer hit. Five were driven in with outs,
    three solo homers were hit, one home run came with a runner on first base, a
    run scored on an error, and three were driven in on three separate singles.
    It’s painful to watch, and a look through their play-by-plays shows that while
    they don’t get enough runners on base, when they do, they’re awful about
    getting them home.

    Nick Johnson was expected to provide a .400 OBP and
    above-average power. His playing time has basically been divided among
    Terrmel Sledge, Ron Calloway and Valentino Pascucci. Those three guys are 11-for-97 with two
    doubles and four walks. Pitchers, basically. Every healthy regular on the team
    opened the year not hitting, and with the Johnson replacements and yet another
    failed Peter Bergeron experiment (.214/.250/.214), the team
    basically had six replacement-level players and three pitchers in the lineup.
    Not good times.

  • Mike Cameron helps the Mets with his glove. The idea that
    he was somehow going to break out outside of Safeco Field was misguided, and
    his .230/.346/.437 start shows why. Had he been going anywhere else, I might
    have bought in; Shea Stadium, however, is a big park for strikeouts, and
    Cameron is a high-K guy. Whatever boost he gets from the park being a bit
    easier on fly balls he gives back in a career-high strikeout rate (32 in 87
    AB).

  • Some fun strikeout-to-walk ratios: John Smoltz, 13/0;
    Ben Sheets, 34/3; Billy Wagner, 18/0.

  • A year ago, I pointed out that Jack Wilson was improving
    as a hitter, and speculated that he could have a Mike Bordick-style leap in him. Bordick had his first big year at age 26,
    hitting .300/.358/.371 for the A’s. Wilson, 26 this year, is off to a
    .362/.378/.532 start for the Pirates.

    On the other hand, Wilson has two walks in 94 at-bats. That might look bad,
    except that the leadoff hitter for the Pirates, Tike Redman,
    has two walks in 102 at-bats. Maybe they have a bet?

    I can’t wait for the Pirates to get everyone healthy, just to see how Lloyd
    McClendon aligns the available talent. Will Craig Wilson and
    his 1100 OPS have to share time again with Randall Simon?
    Will Redman and his .226 OBP continue to lead off? Will Rob Mackowiak and Chris Stynes play instead of
    Bobby Hill and his .386 OBP? It’s like wondering who the
    Salem Stalker will whack next.

    (Lloyd McClendon : Pirates :: Marlena : “Days of Our Lives.” Discuss. But
    not with me.)

  • Ray Lankford, 2001: .252/.358/.491. Lankford, 2004:
    .288/.403/.559. Never mind the two lost years in-between.

    Lankford has come back to be virtually the same hitter he was when he was one
    of the game’s least-known stars. He doesn’t run or play defense as well as he
    used to, but when you hit like that, who cares? This is a great story, and one
    not getting nearly enough attention. I thought the Cardinals were nuts for
    trying this, and I have to say that I’m quite happy to have been wrong.
    Lankford is an easy guy to root for.

  • Any stroll through the NL stats has to at least mention Barry Bonds, so let me throw this idea out there. I think there’s a 15%,
    maybe 20% chance that Bonds finishes the season with more walks than at-bats.
    He has 44 walks and 54 at-bats right now, and since April 17, has seven more
    walks than ABs.

    That the Giants probably won’t be playing important games for much of the
    second half argues against this, as the less relevant wins and losses become,
    the easier it will be to pitch to Bonds.

  • To all the people cogitating on how to rework the intentional-walk rule:
    stop. You don’t change the rules because of one extreme case. There have been
    two guys like this in the entirety of baseball history, and we might not see
    another for decades. The rules are fine.

    Besides, if the intentional walks to Bonds are so bad, he can always swing at
    the first wide one and see what that does to the process. If you have Bonds
    down 0-1, do you then take a shot at getting him out, when you only intended
    to walk him? Given the staggering gap that usually exists between results
    after 1-0 and 0-1, I’d have thought this would be a poor strategy for Bonds.
    Then I looked it up: after falling behind 0-1, he’s batting .375/.423/.958. I
    actually think this is worth a shot at some point, as much to see what the
    opposing manager would do–and perhaps to allow Bonds to let off some steam–as
    anything else.

    Kelly Leak. And Michael Tucker is Ahmad, and Brian
    Dallimore
    is Tanner, and Dustan Mohr is Ogilvie (who
    had just one time on base, remember?). You’ve gotta love the idea that
    Kirk Rueter is Amanda. Tatum O’Neal throws harder than he
    does, anyway.

American League tomorrow…

Thank you for reading

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