Did You Know?
October 5th, 2012 | by Ray Flowers |
The MLB playoffs are just about ready to get underway, so baseball is on the cusp of starting its “second season.” Before we get there, let’s take a look back at the just completed regular season. I’ve found a few numbers there that are certainly worth taking note of.
How many players in baseball have gone 40-100 the past two years? The answer is one. He’s also the only player who has, obviously, gone 40-100-100. He’s also the only option in the game, redundancy anyone?, who has gone 40-100-100-10 the past two years. The answer is Curtis Granderson. Sure his average dropped to .232, and his OBP fell to .319, and those numbers aren’t good in any world, but he’s as impressive a counting number performer as there has been in baseball the past two years. Granderson is a faster version of Adam Dunn, you’ll just have to learn how to work around his so-so batting average (Granderson has hit .247 the past four years, so you shouldn’t have been shocked to see his .262 batting average from last season fall).
How many pitchers in the AL won 15 games while striking out 200 batters? You’ve got your standard in Justin Verlander (17, 239), and if you thought of Verlander you most likely also also hit on Max Scherzer (16, 231) who also led baseball with a K/9 mark of 11.08 (that mark allowed Scherzer to post the 19th best single season mark in the history of baseball for a pitcher who tossed at least 162 innings). Given that he is starting the AL Wild Card today you probably also thought of Yu Darvish (16, 221) who had a very successful first season in the States even if he walked too many batters (89 in 191.1 innings). Hopefully you also remember the guy who appears to have a strong shot to win the AL Cy Young Award, the man who tied Jered Weaver for the league lead in wins (20), and that is David Price. The Rays’ lefty won 20 games, struck out 205, posted a 2.56 ERA and had a 1.10 WHIP. So here’s the question. Who is the lone pitcher in the AL to win 15 games and strike out 200 batters who I didn’t mention? The answer can be found below.
Brandon Moss had an amazing run for the A’s to close the year that included a .690 SLG over his last 26 games. When the season was over he had accrued only 265 at-bats, but boy did he use them to great effect. Moss was a tremendous weapon for the A’s as he hit .291 on the year with a .358 OBP and .596 SLG. Moss also drove in 52 runners while scoring 48 times as he had a great season for a guy who struck out nearly a third of the time. The most amazing part of his effort? Let’s look to the home run. Moss hit 21 of them in just 296 plate appearances. No player has ever hit more than 21 homers in under 300 palte appearances. The others who have hit that mark are Art Shamsky (1966), Johnny Blanchard (1961), Kevin Maas (1990) and David Ross (2006). How about that?
The most dangerous “pull” hitter in baseball in 2012 was Giancarlo Stanton, and when you read the numbers I’m about to list your eyeballs might fall out of your head. Stanton hit .507 in the 140 at-bats in which he pulled the ball. That’s 71 hits in 140 at-bats folks. His SLG mark was 1.164. His slugging was 1.164. His OPS? Get out the video game. That number was 1.671. Stanton also hit 24 homers in at-bats when he “pulled” the ball. That number didn’t lead baseball though. The leader in “pull” home runs was none other than Mr. Curtis Granderson who had 37 homers in 201 at-bats.
ANSWER: The fifth pitcher in the Junior Circuit to pull off the 15-200 trick in 2012 is a teammate of one of the other four. Still not able to narrow it down? A hint. He struck out 15 batters in his final start of the season. That man is none other than James Shields who won 15 games with 223 Ks. Shields also won 16 games with 225 Ks last season. Why not keep the good times rolling? How many hurlers in baseball have won 15 games with 220 Ks each of the past two years? The answer is two – Verlander and Shields.
By Ray Flowers
Tags: Adrian Beltre, Brandon Moss, Curtis Granderson, David Price, Gincarlo Stanton, James Shields, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Yu Darvish
By Reed on Oct 5, 2012
Ray — love the continued focus on baseball and all the insights you provide.
Starting to think about keepers in one league and have to select two of these three for one of my tiers:
Granderson
Andrus
Kipnis
Cargo is the only other OF I’m likely to keep, so it’s not like Granderson is overkill in the OF, but I get to keep them forever, and Kipnis is damn compelling.
What say you?
By Steve on Oct 5, 2012
Ray,
Great article. Definitely something to consider for next season in my AL-Only auction league. Gotta love the MLB stories this year (Athletics, Baltimore, Nationals). However, my question centers on Fantasy Football.
In a 1/2 PPR league, who would you start at the flex:
F-Jax vs SFO
or
Jazquizz vs WAS
Thanks for the help.
Steve
By Ray Flowers on Oct 5, 2012
Reed – I’m not BaseballGuys for nothing! LOL
Granderson and Andrus for me.
I think that Kipnis sees a regression in thefts, and SS is still a wee bit harder to find that elite play than second.
By Ray Flowers on Oct 5, 2012
Steve – Glad you aren’t turning away from baseball.
FJackson. Not a strong play at all, not even close, but since Turner is likely to get goaline work, I’m just not a fan of Rodgers right now, especially with Turner coming off that huge week. For more see:
http://blogs.rotoinfo.com/flowers/
By friend to all on Oct 5, 2012
Hi, Ray.
I have a weird situation with yahoo and I was wondering if you had heard anything about it. This is lengthy…
I am in a $100 yahoo roto proleague. There is a discrepancy in stats and it affects the payouts.
Stats are tallied on stattracker and on the yahoo page. The two do not add up because stat tracker (correctly) stopped counting stats for players that had reached max innings. The yahoo team page did not stop counting stats.
On my team, I had reached max games for shortstop on the second to last day. So I was ineligible to earn points from my shortstop on the last day. Stattracker lists my batting average as 9/32 (.281). On my yahoo page, it lists my batting average as 9/36 (.250). The difference between the two is that stat tracker did not count my shortstop’s at bats.
This difference is significant as it changes the outcome of the game. On stattracker, I am listed at -.5 on the day and my opponent is listed as -1. Our final scores on stattracker are 78.5 (me) to 78 (my opponent).
Yet, on the yahoo main page, it lists us at -1 (me) and 0 (my opponent) for a final score of 78.5 to 78.
This drops me to third place because of stats that should not have been counted. I have screenshots from stattracker that prove this. It was taken after all the MLB regular season games were completed.
I do not know how long the main page was counting positions that had reached the maximum because going into the last day, I only had one player at the maximum.
When I went to bed on Wednesday night (well after the completion of the regular season), I was in 2nd place. When I woke up, I was in 3rd. The reason why is that the stats on the main yahoo page are incorrect. This is a difference of $300 vs $100.
I contacted yahoo and included screen shots. Did anyone else notice this? Is this the possible reason for a delay in contacting winners? I’m sure you have your ear to the fantasy baseball ground… heard anything?
I am not being a sore loser or a weirdo here. I have evidence that they incorrectly counted stats, which changed the outcome.
By Ray Flowers on Oct 5, 2012
Friend to All – I honestly didn’t hear about this issue. You should certainly push to make sure the situation is dealt with appropriately. Yahoo is usually very good about these things, so if they follow along with what they have done in the past, I would think they would do the correct thing here. Hopefully it works out as it should.
By friend to all on Oct 5, 2012
Maybe it is the other way around and the team page is correct and stattracker is wrong. Either way, the two do not show the same number, which is a problem.
Yahoo raked $300 out of the $1200 entry (25%). For that, I expect a fair, regulated game.
I suspect they know it is broken, hence the delay in notifying winners.
This is not the first oddity that I have noticed. I play h2h and roto on yahoo. After the h2h semifinals, they did not add stat corrections on Monday (when the new series started) but they did add them in the roto leagues. This could be hidden somewhere in the rules, though.
By Jon on Oct 6, 2012
Hi Ray, football question for you. Need to play 2 of 3 this week out of Kyle Rudolph, Jermichael Finley, and Jeremy Maclin with Rudolph playing against the 31st ranked defense against TE’s and Finley the 1st. I would normally just role with Finley, but the not sure with those matchups.
Thanks!
By Matt K on Oct 6, 2012
Ray,In ppr, hunter or bolden at rb, and cobb, m. crabtree, a. roberts, or hunter or bolden in the flex? Thanks.
By Ray Flowers on Oct 6, 2012
Jon – Maclin biggest upside play, but also downside given his lack of performance last week even when on the field. I’d be comfortable with any combination here – have them like 1.5 pts apart this week in PPR. If me, I’d go Maclin and Finley.
For more football from me: http://blogs.rotoinfo.com/flowers/
By Ray Flowers on Oct 6, 2012
Matt K – Bolden isn’t in my top-50 at RB this week. Go Hunter. For flex, Roberts already played. Go Crabtree.
By CB on Oct 7, 2012
Ray, in a ppr league I need to start one of Jackie battle, Jerome Simpson, or martellus bennett in a flex position. Which one would you start?
Thanks
By Ray Flowers on Oct 7, 2012
CB – I will be only be answering start/sit #NFL questions at @SiriusXMFantasy Sunday AM, 10a-1p EDT. So send them over there if it’s Sunday. Rest of the time, here is fine.
By Steve on Oct 9, 2012
Ray,
My team exploded this weekend (Eli, Cruz, Colston, Foster, James Jones). However, I need to forget the past and focus on the present. One week I could be high score and the next I could be worst. My current dillema is with Benson. He is out for 8 wks and most likely the season. Of the available RBs, who should I pick up, if I should? The available:
Starks, Alex Green, William Powell, LaRod Stephens-Howling
My roster currently looks like this:
Eli
Foster, Tate, Jacquizz, Benson, Joique Bell
Cruz, Colston, James Jones, Hawkins
Gates
Tucker
Vikings
I would drop Benson. Info is saying Starks, then Green, then LHS, then Powell, but in what order do you think I should add, if I should add?
Kendall Hunter, David Wilson, and Best are also available. Just want to give you the entire picture of available RBs on the waiver.
Also, it’s been 5 wks and Rivers has not heavily targeted Gates as he has done in the past. I’m 90% tempted to drop Gates and pick up Owen Daniels. I was thisclose to doing it last week, but held onto hope he would return to 75% of his former self. I just can’t believe the drop is here and happened so quickly. Gates is a HOFer, but he is not even in the top 10 TEs this year thus far. Your thoughts and wisdom please… and as always, THANKS, Ray!
By Ray Flowers on Oct 9, 2012
Steve – Benson I would be hard pressed to say keep. That eight weeks seems like a bit of a guess to me. Foot injuries like this often last longer than expected. If PPR, i would go LSH, Starks, Green, Powell. Total guess though. When you get to 3rd and 4th stringers, predicting who takes off is really hard.
I’d rather have Hunter and Wilson over the Packers/Cardinals guys, and Best could be a monster in PPR if healthy.
I would never drop Gates for Daniels. Disappointing yes. But still a guy I’d rather have.
By Steve on Oct 9, 2012
Thanks, Ray. Will go after Hunter and Wilson instead of GB/ARI situation. In those cases, I can see the, going to the air instead. Also, I’ll hold onto Gates and try to pick up Daniels if I can get the wiggle room. Again, thanks, Ray.