Fun with numbers
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Jan 13, 2010 
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A lot of these statistics mean absolutely nothing, but I wound up looking through some of the Yankees relievers splits on baseballreference.com and thought I’d post some of the numbers. Again, most of these are just curious groups of stats that don’t have much real meaning in the course of a baseball season. What can I say? On slow days like this, I sometimes click aimlessly through baseballreference for an hour. That site fascinates me.
Make him the lefty specialist
Damaso Marte’s career numbers against left-handed hitters: .197/.294/.287
Mariano Rivera’s career numbers against left-handed hitters: .206/.256/.261
Earning the losses
Mariano Rivera’s career stats are basically a series of 1s and 2s. Nothing but low ERAs and low opponents batting averages, but it does seem that he’s earned his losses.
In games when Rivera got the save: .163/.207/.199 — 0.64 ERA
In games when Rivera took the loss: .446/.508/.750 — 16.08 ERA
The difference of course, is that Rivera has 526 saves and only 52 losses.
First pitch matters
Dave Robertson has faced 322 batters in his big league career. Twenty three of those at-bats ended after one pitch. The other 299 lasted at least two pitches.
In 154 at-bats when Robertson fell behind 1-0
31 walks, 40 strikeouts, .248 batting average
In 145 at-bats when he went ahead 0-1
7 walks, 59 strikeouts, .203 batting average
If you can’t beat him, trade for him
There are nine teams Chad Gaudin has faced at least 10 times in his career.
Los Angeles Angels, 19 games, 5.40 ERA
Texas Rangers, 21 games, 5.37 ERA
Cleveland Indians, 11 games, 5.12 ERA
Seattle Mariners, 15 games, 4.82 ERA
Toronto Blue Jays, 14 games, 4.22 ERA
Kansas City Royals, 12 games, 2.86 ERA
San Francisco Giants, 11 games, 2.76 ERA
Boston Red Sox, 15 games, 2.64 ERA
New York Yankees, 10 games, 1.96 ERA
The opposite of A.J. Burnett
Mark Melancon pitching to Jorge Posada: .163/.308/.233 — 8 Ks, 5 BB
Mark Melancon pitching to Jose Molina: .333/.529/.500 — 2 Ks, 5 BB
The later the better
Alfredo Aceves actually has pretty good numbers the few times he’s pitched the first five innings of a ballgame, but with his role primarily out of the bullpen, he’s generally gotten better and better as the game’s gotten later and later.
Sixth inning: .284/.302/.431
Seventh inning: .293/.361/.480
Eighth inning: .214/.244/.333
Ninth inning: .077/.143/.308
Extra innings: .063/.118/.063
Keep him in the rotation
Make Andy Pettitte a lefty specialist at some point? Maybe not. In his career, Pettitte has actually allowed a higher batting average against left-handed hitters (.271) than against right-handed hitters (.270). Last year, lefties hit a whopping .282 against him.
The Quake in Haiti is going to be the story of the year.
How is TV covering it? Nonstop or here and there?
AAGGHH!
I posted my Gossage rant and then quickly ran off to dinner and so didn’t notice until now that it got filtered somehow. (And then a new post, to boot!)
pat – my post used the word “pontificate” because that is what he seems to do.
He seems to think his election to the Hall of Fame has given him some soapbox to stand on. I don’t recall any old time HOF-ers being quite the same. (Jim Rice is like this, too.)
Retired players, and especially Hall of Famers, have much to offer. They should not be relegated to being taken out, dusted off and served up for a few entertaining stories from time to time and then put away like an old suit.
But, there’s a line. And Gossage crosses it every single time.
And I love Goose. Think he’s quite personable most of the time. Seems to be happy.
And yet whenever there is an issue (Joba, and even Mariano for crying out loud, for instance), he almost sounds a little bitter or angry. As if he somehow need to boost up the way players were “back in the day,” lest we forget just how much better they were way back then.
Uncle Ellsworth: Pretty non-stop. I’ve seen some REALLY disturbing photos on the internet. Worst disaster this hemisphere has seen since Katrina, and it’s even worse than that.
***
Love this post. You can make numbers say anything you want them to, sometimes…
Another post bit the dust!
Chad -
Great post. Love numbers. Found Robertson’s interesting. Andy – splitting hairs, no???? Too close to call!
“Uncle Ellsworth: Pretty non-stop. I’ve seen some REALLY disturbing photos on the internet. Worst disaster this hemisphere has seen since Katrina, and it’s even worse than that.”
I think the loss of life will be much more than Katrina.
Good to see you Rebecca, where you been?
BTW are you going to spring training at all?
Wow are those Mo numbers incredible!
——————
The opposite of A.J. Burnett
Mark Melancon pitching to Jorge Posada: .163/.308/.233 — 8 Ks, 5 BB
Mark Melancon pitching to Jose Molina: .333/.529/.500 — 2 Ks, 5 BB————-
Chad, this might be a dumb question but where are those numbers from Melancon vs. Molina/Posada coming from, Melancon is from our system, I thought, so how would he have faced those guys in a real game? Do teams keep those kind of internal matchup stats?
Hi Doreen –
I hear what you’re saying about Goose. Sometimes I feel the same way. Right now, I’m feeling that I can see his point of view on this issue.
If I were a “clean” pitcher, and got beat by some hitter who – on drugs – hit a homer that just cleared the wall, and that might have been a warning track out without the drugs – I might feel the exact same way as Goose. And if it happened a few times, and my record and contracts were affected by it – I’d really be ticked.
One thing – it makes me think of Mike Mussina, who was presumably drug-free, and his 270 wins as HOF material.
Melancon pitching to Molina and Posada as catchers. As in, with one or the other behind the plate, not at the plate.
posada & molina caught melancon
not hitting against him
Doh! I should have gotten that one, my bad.
Pettitte has actually had a lot of success in his 10 games. 16 innings, 2.81 ERA, 15 hits, 0 homers, 3 walks and 11 strikeouts. Pettitte has said many times that he’d prefer to pitch in relief on his throw days over wasting it in the bullpen. His numbers point that out.
Those are 10 relief gmes for Pettitte.
Joe from Long Island -
Gossage has a very valid point to make. It’s just that, I find I’m tuning him out a bit. He needs to pick his issues a little better. Maybe?
He actually always makes good points. Maybe it’s the sheer volume of points he’s making? Or that he’s become the “go-to” guy for comparing the baseball generations? Maybe it’s just that there’s too much to compare?
I don’t know.
His points about relief pitchers of his era versus closers of this era is a valid one, except when he seems to be saying that Mo is nothing special. He never makes exception for Mo.
And I don’t believe we need to hear him weigh in on the Joba issue. (But in fairness, everyone with a microphone seems to weigh in on that one.)
Yeah, maybe it’s just that every time there’s a headline, there’s Goose to talk about it.
Mussina’s stock really is going up these days, isn’t it?
(I’m glad about that – always liked Mussina, even though I know he wasn’t a fan favorite for the most part.)
Doreen
Pontificate is a good word. With Goose it seems more the delivery that annoys me than the content all the time.
He speaks in absolutes often and I tend not to trust absolutes especially from third party sources.
Aliens will land on Bubba Crosby before the Yanks trade for Melky Cabrera.
And m will stick with the Patriots ‘cos she roots for the underdog.
any news on CMW?
I’m really annoyed at my job IT – they’ve blocked out the blog, and I’m forced to play catch-up when I get home. I miss out on a lot of good conversation during the day.
Time for dinner and home talk. Later.
I’m really annoyed at my job IT – they’ve blocked out the blog
======
Time to quit the job. Its obviously being run by sox fans.
chone predicts melky to have 3.4 war
fg 1.4
his highest was 1.6
awesome post boys….thanks a lot….keep it up. interesting stuff..a real nice post for slow day….you guys are hitting your stride. can’t wait to see how it goes over the whole season coming up. i’m looking forward to some good info from you dudes. thanks again.
In response to someone earlier about Wells on steroids…
He probably was too, as Kruk was. Obviously, they both enjoyed their donuts.
But, they both probably used some sort of PEDs, not necessarily steroids. Could have been greenies.
It’s not a stretch to think that classless guys like Wells or Kruk would stoop to PEDs.
CR9,
I see you made it back. I do agree with the you never know who used PED’s. Hell a skinny guy like Soriano might have been on it. The physic of a person doesnt tell the whole story. Steroids IMO is a different story.
I heard way back when that Mariano gained 3 to 4 mph on his fastball in a span of 2 weeks. Not sure how much truth there is to that. Does anyone know if that in fact did happen? Can changing your delivery help you out that much and that fast?
Interesting debate by Rosenthal, verducci, and Heyman on the mlb network about the greatest lefty of all time..
Verducci: lefty grove
Heyman : lefty
Rosenthal: randy Johnson
I liked Rosenthals argument the best.
Interesting numbers from Marte. He is best used as a lefty specialist. When he pitches to right handers, his effectiveness wanes.
When he was hit hard over the past two years, it was generally when he was misused. He either faced too many righties or tossed too many pitches. If you limit him to 2-3 batters, preferably lefties, that will keep him fresh and effective.
Most reports say Mariano changed his arm angle in the mid 90′s that saw him gain 3-4 MPH and at the same time he developed his signature cutter. His mechanics have remained the same ever since.
http://www.mosnewyorkgrill.com/
S.o.S., this is the only explaination I’ve found for the increase in Rivera’s fastball. Not doubting his explaination, but, my guess would be mechanical change and finally tearing the surgical adhesions loose. I’ve included the paragraph below, and the entire link.
“Rivera made his Major League debut against the California Angels on May 23, 1995 as a starting pitcher in place of an injured Jimmy Key, but he pitched poorly in a 10–0 loss. He experienced mixed success as a starter in the Major Leagues and therefore found himself splitting time between the Yankees and their minor league affiliate in Columbus. As a 25-year-old rookie with prior major arm surgery, Rivera’s role on the team was not guaranteed. Yankees management once considered trading him to the Detroit Tigers for David Wells, but Yankees general manager Gene Michael quickly called off negotiations when he learned that Rivera had begun to throw at 95–96 MPH in one of his starts, six MPH faster than his previous average velocity. Rivera attributes his inexplicable improvement to God.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariano_Rivera
It’s an interesting read.
Thanks GB for the link.
“Rivera discovered the cutter accidentally while playing catch with Ramiro Mendoza in June 1997″
Best thing since peanut butter was accidently made.
“Rivera has taught the cutter to several other pitchers, including Roy Halladay, who now uses it as part of his repertoire.[28]”
I wonder if he wishes he can take back that day? What the hell was he thinking?
Again, can changing your arm angle increase a PRO(someone whos been throwing all their life)pitchers fastball by that much? If this was an anonymous player, what would you think?
Im just glad hes on our team. The part of that article that also stood out is 3 of his first 6 saves were blown. Can you immagine if some of us were Managers. Hed be pitching lights out for another orginization. Come to think of it, Jeter and Mo might have beein in Detroit.
the Melancon thing doesn’t surprise me.
Posada seems to handle the younger kids well.
Rivera is much like Ted Williams was with hitting. It didn’t make any difference who the player was or what team the guy is on, he’ll help anybody that asks for his help.
Wow. You sure have a lot of time on your hands in mid-January, huh? This is great stuff!
He also has taught it to pettite and to Hughes. I just hope Phil can learn to use it like Halladay does.
I love Chad Jennings and his enthusiasm and work ethic! This time next year Chad will be in Cabo for two weeks after 365 more days of tireless posting!
GB7,
We are really fortunate to have future HOF players that are such class acts play for us through out this run. From Mo to Jeter to Posada. Hopefully the younger guys that havnt made a name for themselves(majors or minor leagues)are taking note and follow suit. I here alot of people say that they hate the Yankees but like these players. Says alot.
“In response to someone earlier about Wells on steroids.”
NO! If anything he bulked up and tripped on Alice B. Toklas brownies!!
Greatest lefty during their peak years was Sandy Koufax.
Best season by a lefty on a last place team-Steve Carlton.
1972 27-10 with 30 CG’s.
Best winning % by a lefty Ron Guidry. 1978 25-3, 9 shutouts.
Here are some non pitching stats -
Below is the output of two very fast players in their first two years of more than 100 ABs:
YEAR 1:
BA .265; OBP .316; SLG .336; OPS .652; OPS+ 91; SB 13; CS 1; SO 38; BB 19
BA .228; OBP .283; SLG .299; OPS .582; OPS+ 53; SB 13; CS 1; SO 30; BB 8
YEAR 2:
BA .214; OBP .256; SLG .277; OPS .533; OPS+ 63; SB 4; CS 3; SO 26; BB 8
BA .270; OBP .345; SLG .379; OPS .724; OPS+ 93; SB 26; CS 5; SO 40; BB 26
You could nit pick over either and say you don’t want either on your team but one played 15 years and was an All Star.
The moral is that one or two years of data does not necessarily tell you enough about a player to say you want him or not. In fact the second player has a history of improving year over year.
Player two is Brett Gardner
Player one is Mickey Rivers.
Maybe we should be more patient and see what Gardner does in year 3.
“On slow days like this, I sometimes click aimlessly through baseballreference for an hour. That site fascinates me.”
You can tell Chad’s part of the new breed of sportswriter. And that’s a good thing.
Good evening everyone!
I just did sauna and loaded up on juice (not that kind).
I drank a cup of organic grape juice and then organic orange juice.
i freakin love orange juice – could probably drink a gallon at a time.
Yankees contribute $500K to Haiti relief, should have spent it on Damon instead.
whatever, that is just plain heartless. To compare a game to the loss of thousands of lives is just wrong.
according to will carroll, bad news pending for Mets. could be beltran injury, according to source
http://twitter.com/InjuryExpert
nyp_joelsherman
Trying to get 2d confirmation, but hear that Beltran had microfracture knee surgery today without #Mets permission
lmao
Yankees contribute $500K to Haiti relief, should have spent it on Damon instead.
————————————————————-
Winner of the most moronic statement of 2010, Congrats!
Buddy Biancalana
January 13th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Yankees contribute $500K to Haiti relief, should have spent it on Damon instead.
————————————————————-
Winner of the most moronic statement of 2010, Congrats!
*********************
I kind of appreciated it. I am a big supporter of Damon returning, however not at the expense of Earthquake relief. Those poor people!
I am in a very pricey superbowl box pool. Top prize is $5,000- it wouldn’t make a dent in resigning Johnny Damon but I would gladly donate it to that cause
New post. Yankees doing a good thing.
Missing the old blog. All of the articles are speculation posts, no inside Yankees news at all. Is this how Spring Training is going to be? Are you guys planning on covering Spring Training games by actually being there or just making up stories to get people to post?
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