Fact: Through the first 12 years of his career, Joe DiMaggio had more home runs (349) than strikeouts (333).
Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.
Source: Baseball Reference
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Outfield prospect Brandon Jacobs is reportedly one of the mystery names involved in a blockbuster three-team deal involving Mark Trumbo between the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angles and Chicago White Sox.
Per Arizona’s Twitter account, the Diamondbacks acquired Trumbo and two unannounced players in the transaction:
Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com later helped to confirm Jacobs was one of the players to be named:
Jim Callis of MLB.com shared some details on the newest member of the Diamondbacks:
Profile
DOB: Dec. 8, 1990 (Age: 23)
Throws: Right
Height/Weight: 6’1″/225 lbs.
Drafted: 2009, 10th round by Boston
A 10th-round selection by the Boston Red Sox in 2009, the Auburn football recruit was signed for a $750,000 bonus because of his big bat and promising potential. Jacobs has hit .262 and 49 home runs in 428 games in the minors. Jacobs’ best year was 2011, when he had a career-best .303 average, 17 home runs and 80 RBI.
Jacobs’ 2012 season was derailed by a hamate bone injury. The Boston Red Sox subsequently shipped Jacobs to the Chicago White Sox last July in exchange for pitcher Matt Thornton. Jacobs went on to hit .244/.320/.407 in the minors overall in 2013.
Before the deal, Jacobs ranked No. 7 in Chicago’s farm system. The team’s site estimated his arrival in the majors to be 2015, citing his discipline problems at the plate as the main adversary to his advancement.
While Jacobs leaves much to be desired defensively, he has earned a look in center field as he continues to develop that area of his game. The majority of his time in the minors to this point has been spent in left field.
The 23-year-old offers plenty of potential if Arizona is willing to invest. He makes his money at the plate and through his ability to steal bases. He has nabbed 63 so far in his career, with his career-best 30 swipes also coming in 2011.
Arizona focused on the now and future as the key player in the three-team deal. Jacobs is part of the future in the outfield if he can continue to improve at the plate.
Note: All info courtesy of MLB.com.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Baseball isn’t played on spreadsheets, but to an extent, it can be evaluated on them.
Free agency is just one aspect in which knowing the numbers can be a way for teams to make better decisions and even find the occasional value signing.
As the sport has grown statistics-savvy over the past decade or so, finding said values has become challenging. It can—and does—happen, though. And in free agency, while getting great value (that is, better-than-expected production per dollar) is important, so is simply getting a quality return on investment (that is, not whiffing on a big-money deal).
That’s where it pays for teams to know some alternative numbers, statistics and metrics that are being used in evaluations.
Otherwise, teams are just, well, paying.
To be sure, because of the many, many ways to splice and parse statistics, there are more complex metrics than the ones that follow. But in the interest of time, space and decision-making, here are six stats that should be among the most prioritized when evaluating free agents.
For each, we’ll point out the 2013 leaders among players on the open market. And because this is also about the money, we’ll highlight which of them might be the best value.
For Position Players
ISO (Isolated Power)
Power is at a premium. You might’ve noticed over the past two or three seasons that the balance in baseball has shifted from offense to pitching. Gone are the days of players bashing 50 and even 60 home runs. Now, just 30 homers is an acceptably attractive number.
As a measure of a hitter’s raw power or ability to smack extra-base hits, ISO is a good number to look at for a team in search of a little more oomph.
wOBA (Weighted On-Base Average)
It was all the rage about a decade ago, but on-base percentage is old hat by now. (It’s still a very suitable, sturdy hat, though.)
The new-age OBP is wOBA, because it’s scaled to look like OBP except it’s a much more all-inclusive offensive metric.
In short, wOBA accounts for all the various forms of a player’s production at the plate, from hit type (single, double, triple, home run) to walk to hit by pitch.
wRC+ (Weighted Runs Created Plus)
This one puts all aspects of a player’s offensive contributions into the context of runs created compared to league average, which is 100. As an example, if a player’s wRC+ was 112 this past season, that means he created 12 percent more runs than league average.
Better yet, this stat is park- and league-adjusted, meaning players can be compared across teams, leagues, parks and eras.
For Pitchers
FIP-/xFIP- (Fielding Independent Pitching Minus)
OK, so I may be cheating a bit by lumping two stats into one, but there’s a reason for it.
If you’re unfamiliar with plain old FIP, here’s the quick rundown: It indicates how well a hurler fares in the traditional outcomes of the pitcher-hitter duel that the pitcher has the most control over—strikeouts, walks and home runs. FIP is scaled to look like ERA.
So FIP– and xFIP-, then, are an easy way to tell how well a pitcher performed compared to league average, which is scaled to 100, and lower is better. As an example, if a pitcher has an FIP– of 78, that means his FIP was 22 percent better than average.
The other good thing about these two? They factor in league and park adjustments, so comparisons are free and easy. That’s handy dandy for trying to figure out how a starter in a pitcher’s park might fit in a hitter’s park.
The one difference between FIP– and xFIP– is that the latter is based off xFIP, which normalizes home run rate.
The key takeaway is that while ERA alone is descriptive, FIP– and xFIP– are much more predictive. That’s extremely useful in the case of free agency, because any team that signs a hurler doesn’t want to know how he has pitched as much as they want to get an idea of how he will pitch.
K% and BB% (Strikeout Percentage and Walk Percentage)
Again, here’s two metrics roped into the same bundle, but that’s because they work best when utilized together to get a full sense of a pitcher’s ability to strike out batters while limiting walks.
K% and BB% are very similar to K/9 and BB/9 (strikeouts and walks per nine), except that instead of the results being on a per-inning basis, they’re on a per-batter one.
The reason this is better? A hurler who is giving up hits and walks or pitching in front of a poor defense is essentially getting more opportunities to strike out hitters, because of the very fact that he’s not getting them out in other manners.
Such a pitcher could still post a high K/9, but his K%—again, the percentage of all batters faced that he strikes out—would be lower, thus revealing how much less frequently he is whiffing the batters he does face.
Same goes for BB% compared to BB/9, and as we know, putting as few men on base freely tends to be a handy skill for pitchers.
GB% (Ground-Ball Percentage)
While strikeouts remain the most preferable form of out-getting a pitcher can achieve, ground balls are, for the most part, preferable to fly balls.
The reason, of course, is that even though flies turn into hits less often than grounders do, they are much more damaging (in the form of extra bases) when they do.
Ground balls, on the other hand, are very often either an out or a single.
The intention in all of this is to show how a few key statistics that are a layer or two below the mainstream (i.e., beyond batting average and runs scored, ERA and WHIP) can be rather useful when it comes to evaluating players on the open market.
By listing the top free agents in each metric, as well as highlighting the one who might be the best value (i.e., production per dollar) based on 2013 output, the goal is to open some eyes to show how the lesser names can actually, in some unconventional aspects, stack up against the bigger ones.
All statistics come from FanGraphs.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Fact: Yogi Berra (10) and Joe DiMaggio (9) are the only two players in MLB history who have played on nine or more World Series teams.
Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting, engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.
Source: Sports Trivia Championship
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Fact: Boston Red Sox slugger, Ted Williams (1918-2002), missed almost five full baseball seasons while serving as a fighter pilot in WWII and in the Korean War and still managed to hit 521 home runs.
Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.
Source: Wikipedia.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Fact: In 1996, Charlie Sheen paid $6,537.50 to buy 2,615 tickets to a MLB game at Anaheim Stadium, hoping to catch a home run ball. Sheen and three friends sat alone but no home runs were hit that day.
Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.
Source: VH1
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates seem like they have been within a game of each other all season.
There’s a reason for that—they almost have been.
The idea that neither team can gain any ground is more than a feeling (Boston pun intended).
Thanks to a savvy reader, a very interesting correlation was pointed out Tuesday morning. They obviously share the same overall record and winning percentage or there would be no tie, but the numbers tell a more interesting story.
The Cardinals and Pirates have identical home and road splits.
As of Tuesday, Sept. 17, each team is 48-27 at home and 39-36 on the road. Like I said, that feeling that every time the Cardinals win so do the Pirates isn’t a feeling, it’s fact.
But the similarities don’t start there. Following are a number of interesting stories within the numbers.
• Each team’s biggest lead in the division has been by only four games. For the Cardinals, that happened on Sunday, June 9. For the Pirates, it was on Saturday, Aug. 10.
• Each team’s biggest deficit under first place is also only four games. For the Cardinals, that was on Aug. 10, the same day the Pirates had their widest margin. For the Pirates, that day was on Sunday, June 20.
• Both the Cardinals and the Pirates longest game this season was 16 innings. For the Cardinals, it’s happened twice—once on April 3 and once on Sept. 4. The Pirates 16-inning game was on Sunday, Aug. 18.
• Each team has been shutout by opponents 11 times this season.
• The Cardinals first half record was one game better than the Pittsburgh Pirates. To date, the Pirates second half record is one game better than the Cardinals.
• The teams have identical records against four teams: the Atlanta Braves (3-4), Miami Marlins (4-2), New York Mets (5-2) and the Oakland Athletics (1-2.)
• The Pirates own the season series against the Cardinals by only one game (10-9.)
While there are a lot of similarities, there are also many differences. Just for fun, here are a few of those.
• The Cardinals are considerably better in—and have been involved in more—blowout games. The Cardinals are 32-17 in games decided by more than five runs. The Pirates are 17-14.
• Despite their close records, the Cardinals have scored far more runs. In 149 games, the Cardinals have scored 715 runs, while allowing 556. The Pirates have scored 580 runs and allowed 534.
• In extra innings, the Cardinals are 5-5 with a .500 winning percentage. The Pirates are 9-8 with a .529 winning percentage.
• The Pirates have a slight edge in one-run games (28-21) over the Cardinals (17-15.)
As the season winds down, each team is well aware that everything is on the line. Each win, run and even pitch could be the difference in a division championship and Wild Card play-in game.
As tight as it has been so far, don’t be shocked if this race comes down to the last night.
Stats current as of Sept. 17, 2013, via http://baseball-reference.com/
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Fact: The perfect inning (nine pitches, nine strikes, three outs) has only been achieved 46 times.
Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.
Source: Bleacher Report
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Fact: Canadian Glen Gorbous holds the record for farthest baseball thrown at 445 ft. 10 inches on August 1, 1957.
Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.
Source: Baseball Almanac
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
In December 2012, the Detroit Tigers signed Anibal Sanchez to a five-year, $80 million contract, bolstering one of the best starting rotations in baseball.
And this season, Sanchez has gone out and defended his mega deal.
Sanchez’s deal was one of the more polarizing contract agreements in Tigers recent memory, igniting outrage from some fans, and elation for others.
The 29-year-old received the deal mostly because of his 2012 postseason success when he earned a 1.77 ERA, 18 strikeouts and 6 walks in 20.1 innings over three starts.
Sanchez helped lead the Tigers to the 2012 World Series, but prior to last year’s postseason, Sanchez’s numbers were mediocre at best.
His 9-13 record with a 3.86 ERA in 2012, combined with his 39-38 lifetime record prior to 2012, had some Tigers fans up in arms about such an expensive, long-term contract.
But in 2013, the right-hander has picked up from where he left off from last October, and has been brilliant for the Tigers.
On Wednesday night, Sanchez earned his career-high 14th win after throwing seven scoreless innings, giving up just five hits and earning 10 strikeouts.
Sanchez improved to 14-7 this season with a 2.50 ERA, which is the best among Tigers starters.
He has the second-most wins on the team, trailing only Max Scherzer and is the only starter trailing Scherzer in strikeouts per nine inning with 9.67. His 9.67 K’s per nine innings is third in the AL.
With the struggles of Justin Verlander, Sanchez has been the Tigers’ second best starter this season, and he’s arguably been the best against the American League Central
Against the AL Central, when it matters the most, Sanchez has been even more outstanding.
Sanchez is 7-3 against divisional opponents and has a sub-2 ERA against three of the four teams in the division.
He’s on pace to earn a career-best ERA and for a career-high in strikeouts. His best game this season came in April against the Atlanta Braves, when threw an eight-inning shutout, striking out 17 batters.
Sanchez’s 17 strikeouts broke the Tigers’ franchise record for strikeouts in a single game, passing Mickey Lolich, who struck out 16 batters twice in 1969.
With 16 games left and the Tigers six games up in the division, Sanchez will have three more regular season starts, where he can help the Tigers bury the Cleveland Indians and lead Detroit to an AL Central three-peat.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com