May 2013 - Stats, Stories and Surprises

Brassball month two is in the books.  With that, some interesting stats and stories may be hidden by multiple months of results.  Thanks to Doug, I took a look at the stats for just the month of May to see which players and teams had the most interesting stretch of 28 games.  

• Fleetwood rookie Mike Trout led all of Brassball in hitting (.426), on base percentage (.522) and slugging (.734) and still couldn't win Strat-O-Matic's MVP voting.  He lost a close race to Metropolis's Andrew McCutchen (.333/.389/.642).  McCutchen did have more RBIs, which probably explains the vote.  He had 27 to Trout's 26.
• The Portland Steelheads were not quite ready for May, as they were one-hit by Simi Valley aces Clayton Kershaw and David Price in the first two games of the month.
• Parkland's Casey McGehee had himself quite a month - going .368/.467/.842 and also coming through in the clutch with two pinch hit home runs.
• Brooklyn won a 19 inning marathon game vs West Hills, but that couldn't match the 1-0 pitchers' duel (or batters' failure) that Simi Valley won in 20 innings at Metropolis.  
• Plaza was a scorching 25-3 in May and two of its losses were by a single run.
• Lancaster's Austin Jackson legged out seven triples in May.
• Outlaw Elvis Andrus got his bunting practice in, laying down 13 sacrifices in 14 attempts.  The only other team with more was Cook County, with 16 successful bunts in May.
• Metropolis pitchers and catchers shut down opposing base runners, allowing just one stolen base on three attempts.
• Butte County infielder Joaquin Arias was a threat off the bench, collecting five hits in eight pinch hit at bats.  
• On the other side of the coin, Plaza and California each had only three pinch hit attempts all month.
• Plaza hitters compiled an amazing .307/.373/.522 line on the month in nearly 1100 plate appearances.  
• With a batting line like that, Plaza should probably give up the bunt - they were successful in just half of their 10 attempts.
• Santa Barbara was by far the most reliable team in the field, making only five errors all month.  The next best was the Outlaws' long-time AL rival Cook County, with twice as many.
• The Outlaw bullpen was another key to their 19-9 month, as they allowed just six of 47 inherited runners to score (12.8%).
• Sacramento's Ross Detwiler had a fantastic month, going 4-1 in six starts with a 0.53 in 33 innings.  
• Detwiler didn't even get a vote SOM's Cy Young vote, however.  Plaza closer Wilton Lopez took home the hardware after recording 13 saves in 14 appearances.  
• Several pitchers had four wild pitchers (including staff anchors Felix Hernandez and Tim Lincecum), but Hophead Jason Marquis uncorked five.  
• On the other hand, no Avenger pitcher threw a wild pitch and the team had only one passed ball.
• SoCal's Ramon Santiago booted the most balls last month, totaling eight errors.
• Not surprisingly, Plaza had the most players on SOM's all-star rosters.Joe Mauer, Alex Rios, Wilton Lopez and CJ Wilson made the first team while Aaron Hill and Jarrod Parker on the second.
• Three batters went 5-5 in a game: Brandon Belt, Craig Gentry and Alejandro De Aza.
• Superior might be in the market for a new baserunning coach after getting thrown out 10 times in just 21 steal attempts.
• Amazingly, Portland was thrown out just once while stealing 24 bases this month.
• Here's a baserunning tip - don't run on Dwayne Wise or Josh Hamilton.  They both gunned down six runners.
• Only once did Metropolis allow more than five runs.  Glen Allen gave up 10 or more runs five times.
• North Georgia's Chris Davis struck out 43 times in just 117 at bats.  If he doesn't turn that around, he might be out of the league by this time next year.
• Latrobe rode their new ace, Justin Verlander, like a horse.  He went 4-2 in seven starts and tossed 60 1/3 innings.  No one else threw even 50 innings.
• Springfield "batters" compiled a .192 average in May, nearly 30 points behind Hessville's .227.

September Stats Roundup

The regular season is over and the playoffs are underway, but it's not too late to dig through the September stats to see what gems we can pull out.

If momentum means anything, Santa Barbara (20-2) and Metropolis (19-3) look like they're headed to a World Series matchup.  Cook County will be a hurdle for the Outlaws, as they also finished September 19-3.  On the other end of the spectrum, playoff teams Fleetwood, California and Superior all muddled through September at 11-11.




Why was Lancaster's Chris Valaika intentionally walked two times?  Probably because he hit .750 as a pinch hitter in September.

Fleetwood's Miguel Cabrera was easily the best hitter this month, going .420/.505/.765 and leading the league in hitting by 52 points over Springfield's Hunter Pence.  He also collected nine RBIs on September 18th vs. Schaumburg.

Santa Barbara's playoff rotation ended the regular season on fire - Jeremy Hellickson: 3-0, 0.73; Jered Weaver: 5-0, 1.23; Justin Verlander: 5-0, 1.33.

Hessville's Carl Pavano had a tough month, as he lead the league in hits allowed, steals allowed and was seventh in walks allowed.

Why were Santa Barbara, Metropolis and Cook County so great this month?  Home runs.  They hit a bunch and allowed very few.  Home runs hit and allowed: Santa Barbara 29-8, Metropolis 31-7, Cook County 31-6.


North Georgia Yellow Jacket Livan Hernandez deserves a restful off-season after giving up 23 hits and 21 runs in a complete game loss to Metropolis on September 22.



Simi Valley ace Clayton Kershaw deserved a win on September 15, but got a no decision, despite throwing 10 innings and allowing just one hit while striking out 13.




Elvis Andrus continued his bunting clinic, laying down nine sacrifices this month.

Tinley's Nick Punto should ask for a new glove this Christmas - he booted nine balls in September.  Amazingly, a first baseman was right behind him with eight errors - North Georgia's Adam LaRoche.

Schaumburg center fielder Skip Schumacher led all outfielders with four outfield assists.


David Robertson locked down the ninth inning for Latrobe.  He pitched 9 innings and gave up just a single hit and three walks on the way to ten strikeouts and seven saves.

Parkland had a disappointing year, but stars Dustin Pedroia and Joey Votto had very good and nearly identical Septembers: Votto - 86 AB, 26 H, 4 2B, 4 HR, 14 RBI.  Pedroia - 85 AB, 26 H, 5 2B, 4 HR, 12 RBI.

SoCal's Jonathan Sanchez struck out 36 guys in 25 2/3 IP, but also surrendered 10 walks and four homers on his way to a 5.26 ERA.

NL Hitter of the Month: Fleetwood's Miguel Cabrera - .420/.505/.765, 81 AB, 5 HR, 19 RBI, 14 BB.



AL Hitter of the Month: Cook County's David Ortiz - .364/.417/.773, 88 AB, 9 HR, 22 RBI, 8 BB.



NL Pitcher of the Month: Metropolis's C.C. Sabathia - 5-0, 2.62 ERA, 33 1/3 IP, 26 H, 41 K, 10 BB.

AL Pitcher of the Month: Santa Barbara's Justin Verlander - 5-0, 1.33 ERA, 40 2/3 IP, 23 H, 45 K, 9 BB.

2012 Brassball All-Stars - Pitchers

My earlier post discussed the 2012 Brassball All-Star hitters.  Various challenges, including position difficulty, playing time differences and team representation can make the hitters a very difficult All-Star puzzle.  The pitchers shouldn't be as difficult, however.  You don't need to weigh the difference between a slugging first baseman and a defensive star catcher.  Sure, you need to have a bunch of starters and a couple relievers, but that's about it. 


So, let's take a look to see how this year’s All-Star pitching rosters stack up.


Similar to the Weighted OPS (wOPS) I used to rank the hitters, I’m going to use a simple calculation that will give pitchers credit for both the number of innings pitched and the quality of those innings.  Let’s use youngster Jeremy Hellickson and veteran Roy Halladay as examples.


Hellickson has pitched 138 2/3 innings with a sparkling 2.14 ERA.  Halladay, however, has pitched many more innings – 174 1/3, but his ERA is also significantly higher at 2.58.  Are Halladay’s innings more valuable than Hellickson’s superior ERA?  If we divide a pitcher’s innings by his ERA, we’ll get a Weighted ERA (wERA) that gives credit for both innings and ERA.  Doing the calculation for Halladay and Hellickson shows that, by wERA, Halladay’s quantity was more valuable than Hellickson’s quality.

Halladay: 174.33/2.58 = 67.57
Hellickson: 138.66/2.14 = 64.80

Those wERAs rank Halladay #2 and Hellickson #5 in all of Brassball.  Although drawing lines between players at the very top of the game may be difficult, that’s what I’m here to do.
Here are the top 15 starting pitchers, ranked by wERA.  Eight of the 15 will be making the trip to the midsummer classic.

	NAME	ERA	IP	wERA
1	C.Kershaw	2.52	175.33	69.58
2	R.Halladay	2.58	174.33	67.57	All-Star
3	T.Lincecum	2.37	159.67	67.37	All-Star
4	J. Verlander	2.73	181.00	66.40	All-Star
5	J.Hellickson	2.14	138.67	64.80	All-Star
6	J.Weaver	2.64	170.67	64.65
7	J.Shields	2.73	174.67	63.98	All-Star
8	Y.Gallardo	2.61	158.67	60.79	All-Star
9	M.Cain	2.64	160.33	60.73	All-Star
10	C.Sabathia	2.73	164.67	60.32
11	C.Carpenter	2.93	168.67	57.57	All-Star
12	M.Bumgarner	2.76	156.67	56.76
13	C.Hamels	3.18	169.67	53.35
14	M.Garza	2.57	136.33	53.05
15	J.Vazquez	2.80	141.67	50.60

Amazingly, wERA leader Clayton Kershaw won’t be at the All-Star game.  Springfield’s Tim Lincecum ranks third overall, but first in the NL and will be that league’s starter.  Santa Barbara’s Hellickson is the fourth best starter in the AL but got the starting nod, likely because of his 14-1 record, as much as his great ERA. 


Looking at the chart above makes it easy to identify Kershaw and Outlaw Jered Weaver as the two starters who most deserved a nod but were left home.  What about the starters making the trip that were further down the list?  Parkland’s Jon Lester ranked just 33 with a 41.59 wERA.  Cook County’s Anibal Sanchez also made the team with a 42.98 wERA, good for #28 in Brassball.  Sanchez made the team despite throwing just 104 innings, but he was a nearly perfect 12-1 in his 15 starts.


Now, let’s turn to the relievers.  Here it can be a little trickier, as many voters like to reward big save totals as opposed to the best pitching.  Every year, it seems that some of the most effective relief pitchers are somewhat hidden in the seventh and eighth innings, as opposed to the more glamorous role in the ninth.  I re-ran the wERA leader board limiting it to pitchers that made 10 or more relief appearances this season.  Here are the top 15, including saves for good measure:

	NAME	ERA	IP	SV	wERA
1	M.Belisle	1.02	44.00	1	43.14
2	J.Lopez	0.79	34.00	1	43.04
3	J.Venters	1.30	55.33	17	42.56	All-Star
4	S.Marshall	1.24	51.00	2	41.13
5	D.Oliver	0.95	38.00	6	40.00
6	K.Farnsworth	1.14	39.33	1	34.50
7	C.Martinez	1.74	57.00	5	32.76
8	F.Salas	1.55	46.33	28	29.89
9	P.Humber	3.18	93.33	2	29.35
10	S.Cishek	1.66	48.67	1	29.32
11	A.Alburquerque	1.24	36.33	2	29.30
12	S.Romo	1.13	32.00	2	28.32
13	J.Peralta	1.70	47.67	6	28.04
14	S.Casilla	1.52	41.33	3	27.19
15	T.Clippard	2.61	69.00	3	26.44

Amazingly, just one of the top 15 relievers, ranked by wERA is in the All-Star game.  Even more amazingly, it’s not the guy with 28 saves – Superior’s Fernando Salas.  A couple of names jump out from this list.  Obviously Lancaster’s Matt Belisle and Santa Barbara’s Javy Lopez have had standout seasons., even if they don’t get the chance to close for their teams.  Phil Humber, however, has been an absolute workhorse for the Maulers, throwing 93 innings in 41 games.  Given how hard he's been worked so far, Humber may actually prefer a three day vacation to a trip to the All-Star game. 

So, where did the All-Star relievers come from?  Here’s where they rank on the wERA list of pitchers with 10 or more relief appearances.  

Rank	NAME	ERA	IP	SV	wERA
3	J.Venters	1.30	55.33	17	42.56	All-Star
42	J.Smith	2.23	36.33	12	16.29	All-Star
50	B.Sanches	2.91	43.33	3	14.89	All-Star
57	S.Elbert	1.59	22.67	0	14.26	All-Star

Not surprisingly, Hessville, Brew City and Boston did not have many candidates for the All-Star team.  As such, their best choices (Smith, Sanchez and Elbert, respectively) were middle relievers.  Although he has been effective for the Tea Party, Elbert is likely the single least deserving All-Star this year.  He has by far the fewest innings of any All-Star and has only appeared in ten games.  All that said, I’d put my money on Elbert to win the game’s MVP, because that’s just the sort of thing baseball would do to surprise everyone.