"Since 2009, only one undrafted, non-U.S.-educated, Dominican-born player ranked in the top 30 in baseball in walk rate: Cleveland’s Carlos Santana."
Am I missing something about David Ortiz? Was this referring just to Minor Leaguers? He was top-15 in MLB 2010 and 2011.
Based on those numbers to lead-off batters, any thoughts within the Rangers system that Perez's primary issues are with his windup delivery more than anything else?
I wonder what the chart of pinch runners per game would look like. I always find myself wishing my team's manager would pinch hit more and pinch run less.
Far too positive response to Scutaro deal from Red Sox's perspective. Not sure why timing would be an issue when surely the ownership could allow the expenditure for Oswalt with the understanding that Scutaro would be dealt by Opening Day.
That would have given Cherington two months to find the best package for him, if indeed that was whom he was going to always deal to drop salary.
It was a hasty move that is quite poor in and of itself regardless of how sensible the subsequent moves might be. Those future moves did not necessitate this exact move at this exact time.
World Series WPA through Five Games:
1. Cliff Lee (.593)
2. Alex Rodriguez (.345)
3. Chase Utley (.302)
4. Hideki Matsui (.300)
5. Johnny Damon (.298)
7. Mariano Rivera (.232)
9. CC Sabathia (.132)
35. Derek Jeter (-.084)
Derek Jeter is really a better candidate for MVP?
These figures are based on how a players good and bad plays at the plate or on the mound actually contributed to his team's likelihood of winning (available at Fangraphs). Are they perfect? No (defense isn't included for one), but only someone suffering from myopia could possibly claim that Derek Jeter has been more valuable to the Yankees in the World Series than Alex Rodriguez, just because of his empty batting average.
Francona played the bullpen pretty well in Game 3. Not sure you want to ask Masterson to go another inning there and then ask him to come back against tonight. I know he threw just 16 pitches, but the Angels were starting to get into their righty/switch part of the lineup, which is not Masterson\'s strength. Francona is using Masterson very much like he did Arroyo in \'04 -- looking for stretches of righties and leveraging the kid in those spots. Plus, he probably figured that two shutout innings from Papelbon would be enough of a chance for the Sox to push one across. Francona got six shutout innings out of his four best relievers.
In Game 2, he made two very poor decisions (leaving Okajima in for one or maybe two batters too many, and letting Masterson start the eighth -- those were two decisions that I was first-guessing) that bit him, but either by choice or circumstance, he didn\'t make those same bad decisions on Sunday. The decision to (finally) use Delcarmen is a good one. Delcarmen doesn\'t give up homers, can get lefties out with that changeup and plus fastball and strikes out a bunch. His only weakness is walks, but Paps is the only guy in that pen who isn\'t prone to the walk. Delcarmen should be used often for the rest of whatever\'s left of this series.
Besides the Red Sox and Angels not being able to push across a run earlier, this game came down to Boston not having as good of a fourth starter as the Angels. Paul Byrd is eminently hittable and Wakefield is always a risk in the pen (especially since Cash was gone by the time Wake would have pitched in the 12th). Wake was probably on the roster only as a failsafe for an injured Beckett. So, I agreed (and still agree) with the decision to bring in Javier Lopez in the 12th, even against four straight righties/switch-hitters. It obviously didn\'t work out, but he got ahead and the Angels just managed to find two holes. That\'s baseball. I still think Lopez was the best option there. The bigger issue is that the Red Sox didn\'t have enough confidence in Mike Timlin or David Aardsma there to even put them on the roster.
This has been quite a series.
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