Sexson for Comeback Player of the Year!
Nominees for the 2005 Comeback Player of the Year Award are out, and our own Richie Sexson is one of six American League nominees. Exciting as this heady news is, my own enthusiasm is augmented by one factor: the identity of the presenting sponsor.
Anyone? OK, I’ll give you a hint: Rafael Palmeiro.
No, not Winstrol. Viagra, of course!
Don’t take my word for it. Ask MLB.com:
Major League Baseball and Viagra, the presenting sponsor, have announced the nominees for the 2005 Comeback Player of the Year Award, and balloting is now under way.
That’s right, balloting is now under way! If you’re as excited about the double entendre potential as I am — “Big Sexsy, Viagra Comeback Player of the Year” — then vote early, vote often. This is funny enough for me to forgive Richie for stealing Kevin Nash’s nickname.
But wait: there’s more. Speaking of Winstrol, the hilarity continues with nominee numero uno, Jason Giambi.
In the American League, the candidates are Jason Giambi of the Yankees, Roy Halladay of the Blue Jays, Bob Wickman of the Indians, Jay Gibbons of the Orioles, Richie Sexson of the Mariners and Barry Zito of the A’s.
This reminds me of one of my favorite Sesame Street songs, “One of These Things is Not Like the Others.” Most of these players are coming back from injury, and one is … yeah.
I’m sure you can come up with your own reasons to vote against Giambi, but here are mine.
First, the national pastime offering a steroid poster boy this honor would only be a notch worse than the NFL awarding Jamal Lewis their comeback player of the year award post-pokey. Second, Alex Rodriguez asked rhetorically of Giambi, “How do you not root for a guy like that?” Well, it helps when he’s endorsed by someone wholly unlikable.
Most of all, though, consider the impact on our server. If a steroid user wins, the commenting debacle could be locust-like. Waves of Winstrol and Deca musings get zapped as it is. Thus, I hope you will proceed en masse to vote for Sexson so Derek does not have to spend hundreds of hours deleting variations on the “OMG he’s on the juice!” comment.
Won’t someone please think of Derek? And the children. Them too.
To make up for denying Giambi this award, I am prepared to create the USS Mariner Comeback Immune System of the Year Award; then, I will present it to the antibodies in Jason’s stomach that were so useful in beating back last year’s intestinal parasite.
In summary, Richie Sexson has rebounded from serious injury to become an imposing power threat once again; the only way the Viagra award could be more amusing is if Bubba Franks took up baseball; and Jeremy Giambi’s brother must not win. Thank you for your kind attention.
More Felix Fun
Because there’s nothing else on the team that even begins to bring a smile to my face, here’s more musings on the greatness of Felix Hernandez.
Through four starts, King Felix has faced 107 batters and allowed 0 extra base hits. How good is that? He’s tied Mariano Rivera for the fourth longest streak of batters faced without giving up an extra base knock on the season, and if his next start is anything like his first four, he’ll stand alone at the top of the list. Here it is, for those who are curious.
Kyle Farnsworth, 125 batters faced, May 2nd to August 4th
Sergio Mitre, 115 batters faced, May 29th to June 24th
Noah Lowry, 113 batters faced, July 26th to August 17th
Mariano Rivera, 107 batters faced, April 9th to July 2nd
Felix Hernandez, 107 batters faced, August 4th to present
The craziest name on the list (which I got from the awesome Keith Woolner-thanks Keith): Shigetoshi Hasegawa, who faced 76 batters from May 29th to July 29th without allowing an extra base knock. Who knew?
Going back to the past 33 years (all that we have play by play data for), by the way, the record belongs to Bob Welch at 223 batters faced.
Okay, how about something else? The chances of different events occurring in any given at-bat against Felix through his first four starts:
14.95 % chance of a hit
0.00 % chance of an extra base hit
3.74 % chance of a walk
0.93 % chance of being HBP
28.04 % chance of striking out
42.06 % of hitting into a groundout
10.28 % chance of flying out
If you want a comparison, here’s Dwight Gooden’s percentages from his crazy 1985 season, when he won the Cy Young at age 20.
18.59 % chance of a hit
3.66 % chance of an extra base hit
6.48 % chance of a walk
0.19 % chance of being HBP
25.16 % chance of striking out
Opposing batters put up a .201/.253/.270 line against Gooden that season. The average line for the hitters he faced that year was .253/.319/.375. In other words, Gooden knocked 25 percent off a normal hitters line when he faced him. Felix is cutting 53 percent off the average line of the hitters he has faced, turning them into a collection of pitchers. People are hitting .157/.196/.157 against him. That’s… there’s no words for that.
Lets see, what else. Among major league starting pitchers who qualify for the ERA title, here are the league leaders in a few categories, and then Felix’s numbers next to those:
ERA: Clemens, 1.56 – Felix, 1.24
Fielding Independant ERA: Clemens, 2.61 – Felix, 1.60
Component ERA: Clemens, 1.64 – Felix, 0.70 (!)
G/F: Webb, 3.90 – Felix, 4.25
BB/G: Silva, 0.5 – Felix, 1.4
K/G: Peavy, 11.0, – Felix, 10.4
Line Drive %: Lowe, 15.5 percent – Felix, 11.0 percent
Opponents OPS: Clemens, .507 – Felix, .353
WHIP: P. Martinez, 0.89 – Felix, 0.67
Pitches/Inning: Silva, 12.0 – Felix, 13.4 (Felix would rank a measly 2nd in the majors)
Among starting pitchers, his groundball rate is the best in the majors, his strikeout rate is second best, and his walk rate would tie him for sixth best. He’s given up less line drives than anyone else. It’s not even close, actually. His rate of baserunners per innings is off the chart. And he’s doing it with less pitches than everyone other than Carlos “Walks Are A Ticket To Hell” Silva.
How about this one. Game Score is kind of a gimmicky stat developed to summarize a pitchers start in one number (which is almost impossible), but its kinda fun to look at. The highest average game score this year belongs to Roger Clemens (of course) at 66.3. Felix’s average game score? 72.3. His average game score in his last three starts, where he wasn’t on a restrictive pitch count? 77.3.
Through four starts, Felix has been a mutant combination of Randy Johnson’s strikeout dominance, Greg Maddux’s control, Roy Halladay’s efficiency, and Brandon Webb’s groundball rate.
His next start is at home on Friday against the White Sox. Buy tickets. Go to the game. Don’t miss the King in action. Good luck, White Sox.
The Attrition War, Rockies
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Rockies.
The Attrition War, Reds
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Reds.
Game 123, Mariners at Twins
RHP Joel Pineiro vs. RHP Brad Radke, 11:10am, KSTW and KOMO.
Last night, Ron Fairly mentioned that Hargrove said Bloomquist would get the day off today, but followed up with something like, “But if he gets two or three hits tonight, don’t be surprised if he changes his mind.” Sure enough, fresh off his 3-for-4 night, Wee Willie is back out there for the umpteenth consecutive game.
RF Ichiro
2B The Ignitor
LF Ibanez
1B Sexson
3B Beltre
CF Reed
“DH” Dobbs
SS Betancourt
C JoeJessica
The Attrition War, Red Sox
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Red Sox.
The Attrition War, Pirates
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Pirates.
The Attrition War, Phillies
(I can’t believe there was a time I thought I’d whip these out, one after another)
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Phillies.
Felix and Pitch Counts
The good news:
8 innings, 5 hits, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 14 groundballs, 4 flyballs. All on a night where the strike zone, was, well, we need an image to represent this accurately:
_________
| Normal |
| Strike |
| Zone |
|________|
__
| |
|_ | <----- tonight's strike zone
Season line: 29 innings, 16 H, 4 BB, 30 K, 1.24 ERA. Still hasn't allowed an extra base hit.
The bad news: 115 pitches
So, I guess we need to do a post on pitch counts, which is still one of the most controversial subjects in baseball. We'll do a longer post on it soon, especially as pitch limits relate to Felix. For now, here's a summary:
If this is a trend, it's bad. If it's an isolated incident, it isn't a big deal. Felix was rolling in the 7th and the 8th, throwing just as hard as he was early in the game, and his mechanics were fine. He didn't appear tired, and pitching tired is the most plausible of the pitcher injury theories. The "the game doesn't matter" belief flies a lot better with fans who have given up on the season than with a manager or the ballclub. Try telling Mike Hargrove that this game "didn't matter". He knew Felix was his best pitcher, and sending him out there gave him the best chance to win tonight's game.
If he had thrown 100 pitches, I doubt anyone would have cared. 105, maybe a few people, but it wouldn't have been a big deal. So, really, the concern is over the last 10-15 pitches.
If you believe that there's some magical injury demon that crops up from pitch 101 and on, well, you shouldn't. But there clearly is evidence that higher pitch counts correlate with pitcher injuries. And the M's should be careful with Felix. He shouldn't regularly get over 100 pitches the rest of the year.
But as a one time thing? It's not a big deal. Don't freak out, and don't call for heads to roll. If the M's manage Felix well the rest of the year, this won't have any kind of impact on his career at all.
If he's regularly throwing 115 pitches the rest of the year, however, I'll lead the charge on Safeco Field myself.
Game 122, Mariners at Twins
Weird 4:37 start time. RHP Felix Hernandez v RHP Kyle Loshe. Given past usage patterns, this means we’re probably going to start experiencing site slowness… real soon now. The joys of being a non-profit. Please be kind with the reload button, folks.
To catch up on transactions: Gil Meche went on the 15-day DL (knee), Spiezio’s on waivers because you have to put someone through waivers before granting them their release, and Greg Dobbs was called up from Tacoma.
Best quote I read today was Bavasi on putting Spiezio on waivers for purpose of granting him his unconditional release: “We have wrung the rag of opportunity dry.” Heh. Did the tattoo do the twist while you were wringing Spiezio out? Because that would be amusing.
Bavasi also had the second-best quote, when talking about the reputation for grit/etc Spiezio was partly signed for: “I don’t think his desire changed, but nobody slides head-first into the dugout. I don’t think he has lost his grit, or his desire to play.”
That’s a good joke.
Spiezio, displaying a remarkable ability for self-deception, claimed that he’d gotten off to a decent start and then failed, which is… wow. Not really, no. Sorry.
In a twist worthy of a double-take, today’s lineup is essentially the same as we’ve seen every day for a while, but with Greg Dobbs playing DH. Yes, they released Scott Spiezio so they could get Dobbs time at DH. Dobbs does, however, have that great-looking swing. Have you seen it? It looks great.
Also, Miguel Olivo hit his 9th HR of the year for the Padres today.