The Mad Professor: Strategic Stat Categories and Late Season Fantasy Moves
As the Dog Days get hotter, I offer some additional reflections on macro-level MLB data that impact http://www.starwars.com/databank/jedi-mind-trick fantasy managers’ strategies as we look to shore up our teams for the playoff run. Barring unforeseen injury, the good fortune of a rookie that lights up the board, a player that suddenly skyrockets above his norm, or your ability to use the Jedi…
Yesterday, the first day of full action in the new season, closers took the spotlight, mostly for the worse.
In Cleveland, Chris Perez, a guy who looks like your average hardware store clerk and not someone you should give the ball with a win on the line, took a gem from my man Chris Masterson, who had pitched 8 innings, striking out 10, and turned it into a puddle of mud, which eventually became the longest game ever played on opening day.
While this thing may appeal to statisticians, it certainly ruined the day to Masterson, Acta (hey, skipper, why didn't you take out Shaggy before he completed his disaster?) and over 42,000 fans in Cleveland.
And you know what? Had Perez been a little luckier, he could have ended up with a blown save, a mess and..a win, like his pal Valverde just a couple of hours before.
In Detroit, in fact, Verlander had pitched his usual masterpiece, a two hit, eight inning dismantling of the Red Sox, before giving the ball to his team designated closer, a guy who looks like your average..yes, hardware store clerk.
Valverde took the 2-0 lead and in a matter a minutes transformed it into a tie, blew Verlander's win and was lucky enough to escape his half inning. Turned out that in the bottom of the ninth the Tigers took advantage of the hardware store clerks pitching for Boston and scored the winning run.
Now for the funny part: Valverde took the blown save and..HE WAS CREDITED WITH THE WIN!!
In case you weren't listening: HE WAS @[#?ING CREDITED WITH THE WIN!!
He totally ruined his pitcher's masterpiece, he was the worst man in the game (check fangraphs.com, he had the worst wpa of his team) and still, by the way of the most absurd rule in all of sport, he got home with a win.
I mean, are you serious? Where else do you credit the worst guy on the pitch with anything but boos? Here in Europe, a soccer player gets the ball of the match when he scores 3 goals, but not in his own goal.
You can't keep in effect such a lousy rule, in situations like the one occured in Detroit, the starting pitcher should have his win back, you could just change the rule that now defines the winning pitcher as "the one who last pitched prior to the half-inning when the winning team took the lead for the last time", adding something like "unless said pitcher is ineffective in saving a teammate's win. When these situations should happen, this pitcher should only get a blown save and the win should be given to the pitcher who busted his @#^ before him, throwing maybe 100 pitches of effective game before leaving it, just to see a hardware store clerk taking the mound where he so brilliantly had dismantled opposing hitters".
See? Not to difficult to make, maybe just some more appropriate words and we could get rid of the most aburd rule in sport.
Braves Steal a Game One Day, Cough One Up the Next
Holy hell this season is awesome, but DRAINING! Just when the Braves heat up, they collapse and lose a tough one. The Braves are somehow 5 games over .500, despite many painful extra-innings losses and blown saves, including last night's debacle versus Arizona. Braves fans will soon have a coronary if this doesn't stop. The good news is that no one is hitting over .300, Freeman, Heyward, and Uggla are all below .230 1/4 of the way through the season, and the Braves are still only 2.5 games out of first. We ain't hitting but somehow, for the most part, we're winning.
Great teams battle through adversity. Will the 2011 Braves become a great team? What do you guys think?
