NFBC Message Boards

We have a great show lined up for STATS Fantasy Advantage tonight. NFBC veteran Joe Martino will be our guest at 8:15 pm ET as he's currently leading the Rotowire Fantasy Baseball Online Championship on a team co-managed with two of his buddies. They are first in line for that $70,000 grand prize. We'll talk with Joe about that team, about fantasy baseball and of course about fantasy football.

We also have JJ Cooper of Baseball America lined up at 7:30 pm ET for a fun talk about the next wave of prospects who will be called up to the majors. June 1st is that happy date when MLB teams like to call up players who can shake things up. And we'll lead off with Sammy "The STATS Man" Lubeck at 7 pm ET.

Join us tonight for another great show.

If you didn't get to listen to the STATS Fantasy Advantage on Wednesday night, you missed some good facts from Sammy "The STATS Man" Lubeck:

Interestingly, if you're looking for stolen bases this season, you're not alone. And you can look to the leadoff hitters for lack of SBs. Through May 7th, MLB leadoff hitters are on pace for 177 fewer stolen bases than two years ago, while they are on pace for the most HRs in five years. Hey, leadoff guys, we want SPEED not POWER from you guys!! Here's the numbers:

Leadoff Hitters

SB by Leadoff Hitters

2009 839
2010 880
2011 953
2012 815
2013 776 (pace)

HR by Leadoff Hitters

2009 408
2010 360
2011 430
2012 403
2013 489 (pace)

Also, doesn't it seem like there are more relievers getting saves this year than in recent years? Yes, it seems that way, but no it's not happening that way. In fact, through May 7th, the exact same number of closers have had 2+ saves than in each of the last two years:

Closers - This change of closers is nothing new, as the numbers below state.

Pitchers with 2+ Saves, Through May 7

2011 39
2012 39
2013 39

Here's a few cool fast facts about some hot players:

Nolan Arenado
- Over the last five seasons, Nolan Arenado is the fourth player (Heyward, Espinosa, Middlebrooks) with at least 3 HR and 8 RBI over his first 7 MLB games.

Didi Gregorius
- 17 hits over his first 10 games. Since 2000, only one rookie has put together more hits in his first 10 games of the season (Bo Hart had 23 hits in 2003) than Gregorius.

Matt Harvey
- 7 runs allowed and 58 K in first 7 starts
- since 1921, Harvey is just 5th pitcher to strike out at least 55 batters and allow less than 8 runs in his first 7 starts.

Pitchers with 55+ Strikeouts and Fewer Than 10 Runs Allowed in First 7 Starts of Season, MLB Since 1921

(no relief appearances)

Player, Team Season Ks Runs

Fernando Valenzuela, LA 1981 61 2

Roger Clemens, Bos 1991 58 6

Pedro Martinez, Bos 2000 82 7

Zack Greinke, KC 2009 59 4

Matt Harvey, NYM 2013 58 7

I apologize for not creating this thread BEFORE our show tonight, but I just want to thank Steve Fiore for being on the STATS Fantasy Advantage tonight. He was GREAT. If you have the ability to download the show from SiriusXM, give it a listen tonight or tomorrow. It was a good show with Steve Fiore and lots of STATS Facts from the vault. I'll post some of those facts tomorrow.

Thanks Steve. We'll have you on again if you can keep all of those teams in the Top 20!! Three NFBC XII and Main teams, all in first place and all in the Top 20 (2nd overall in the NFBC XII). Pretty impressive start to the season.

We had a lot of cool stats from the STATS Vault in Wednesday's show. In case you missed it, here are some of those tidbits:

Did you know that Major League Baseball is on pace to set a new record for strikeouts per 9 innings and that this would be the sixth consecutive season that a new high was set?

Most MLB-Wide Strikeouts per 9 Innings, Single Season All-time
Season SO/9
2013 7.69
2012 7.56
2011 7.13
2010 7.13
2009 6.99
2008 6.83
2001 6.74

Here are the individual leaders (min. 1 IP/Team G):
Player Team IP
SO
SO/9

1 Yu Darvish Tex 52.2 80 13.67
2 Max Scherzer Det 47.1 61 11.60
3 A.J. Burnett Pit 56.0 72 11.57
4 Ryan Dempster Bos 48.0 61 11.44
5 Anibal Sanchez Det 52.2 66 11.28
6 Jeff Samardzija ChC 48.2 57 10.54
7 Jake Peavy CWS 38.2 45 10.47
8 Shelby Miller StL 45.2 51 10.05
9 Justin Verlander Det 51.1 57 9.99
10 Matt Harvey NYM 56.1 62 9.91

** Let’s stick with pitching and talk about Mets’ rising star Matt Harvey. Opposing batters are hitting just .143 off him right now, which is one reason he’s on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated. If he would continue that dominance it would be the lowest BA allowed in 30+ years. Who else is dominating in Batting Average allowed and how does this rank with other pitchers in MLB history?

RK Player Team AVG▲ WHIP
1 Harvey, M NYM .143 0.73
2 Darvish, Y TEX .163 0.91
3 Iwakuma, H SEA .167 0.74
4 Moore, M TB .172 1.13
5 Wood, T CHC .175 0.92
6 Kershaw, C LAD .175 0.87

Lowest Opponent BA, Single Season Since 1980(min. 20 starts)
Player Season AB H AVG

1 Pedro Martinez 2000 Bos 768 128 .167
2 Nolan Ryan 1991 Tex 594 102 .172
3 Sid Fernandez 1985 NYM 596 108 .181
4 Hideo Nomo 1995 LA 681 124 .182
5 Rich Harden 2008 Oak-ChC 526 96 .183
6 Pedro Martinez 1997 Mon 860 158 .184
7 Mike Scott 1986 Hou 976 182 .186
8 Nolan Ryan 1989 Tex 867 162 .187
9 Nolan Ryan 1981 Hou 528 99 .188
10 Nolan Ryan 1986 Hou 634 119 .188

** Still, Harvey is just 4-0 and has no-decisions in his last 4 starts. The Mets have averaged just 1.98 runs per game over his last four starts compared to 7.14 runs per game in his first 8 starts.

** Which starting pitcher gets the most run support in baseball today?
Most Run Support per 9 IP, MLB 2013
Player Team IP RS RSA
1 Max Scherzer Det 47.1 47 8.94
2 Yu Darvish Tex 52.2 51 8.72
3 Jon Lester Bos 52.2 45 7.69
4 Jason Hammel Bal45.2 39 7.69
5 Doug Fister Det 43.0 36 7.53

Who gets the Fewest Runs of Support per 9 IP, MLB 2013
Player Team IP RS RSA
1 Clayton Kershaw LAD 55.2 13 2.10
2 Kyle Lohse Mil 43.1 12 2.49
3 Homer Bailey Cin 42.1 12 2.55
4 Kris Medlen Atl 49.2 15 2.72
5 Stephen Strasburg Was 49.1 15 2.74

** Miguel Cabrera was the first hitter in 45 years to win a Triple Crown. The crazy thing is that he could do it again this year as he leads the majors with 41 RBIs, is second in batting average at .375 and is among the leaders with 8 HRs. Since 1920 when RBI became an official stat, there have been only 12 Triple Crown winners. Who came the closest to winning a Triple Crown the next year?

Ted Williams (1942 AL) 1946 Bos** 38 (2) 123 (2) .342 (2)
Ted Williams (1947 AL) 1948 Bos 25 (t6) 127 (3) .369 (1)
Frank Robinson (1966 AL) 1967 Bal 30 (4) 94 (3) .311 (2)
Mickey Mantle (1956 AL) 1957 NYY 34 (3) 94 (6) .365 (2)
Lou Gehrig (1934 AL) 1935 NYY 30 (3) 119 (2) .329 (6)
Joe Medwick (1937 NL) 1938 StL 21 (6) 122 (1) .322 (4)
Carl Yastrzemski (1967 AL) 1968 Bos 23 (7) 74 (t8) .301 (1)
Miguel Cabrera (2012 AL) 2013 Det 7 (t16) 40 (1) .369 (2)
** Williams’ next season in MLB after 1942 was 1946 due to his service in World War II

4) Manny Machado is still just 20 years old and yet he is having an incredible season, hitting .329-5-24 through last night’s games. He’s a phenom, someone who ranks right up there with a few other greats who had memorable seasons at the age of 20. They included:

PLYR AGE AB R H 2B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Mel Ott, 1929 NYG 20-45 545 138 179 37 42 152 113 38 .328 .449 .635 1.084
Alex Rodriguez, 1996 Sea 20-248 601 141 215 54 36 123 59 104 .358 .414 .631 1.045
Ted Williams, 1939 Bos 20-230 565 131 185 44 31 145 107 64 .327 .436 .609 1.045
Al Kaline, 1955 Det 20-113 588 121 200 24 27 102 82 57 .340 .421 .546 .967
Jimmie Foxx, 1928 Phi 20-171 400 85 131 29 13 79 60 43 .328 .416 .548 .964
Mike Trout, 2012 LAA 20-234 559 129 182 27 30 83 67 139 .326 .399 .564 .963

8) How bad has Josh Hamilton been this year with his new team the Angels? He’s driven in Albert Pujols JUST ONCE all year. Hamilton (#4) has driven in Pujols (#3) once this season (4/4/2013 - Top of 3rd):
Josh Hamilton, Most Consecutive PA as #4 Batter without Driving in #3 Batter - Career
Josh Hamilton, LAA 98 04/04/2013 - 04/29/2013**ACTIVE
Josh Hamilton, Cin-Tex 73 04/19/2007 - 07/09/2008
Josh Hamilton, Tex 43 09/06/2008 - 07/07/2010
Most Consecutive PA as #4 Batter without Driving in #3 Batter - MLB 2013
Alfonso Soriano, ChC 108 04/01/2013 - 05/03/2013
Josh Hamilton, LAA 98 04/04/2013 - 04/29/2013 **ACTIVE
Nick Swisher, Cle 87 04/17/2013 - 05/13/2013 **ACTIVE
Michael Morse, Sea 87 04/16/2013 - 05/11/2013 **ACTIVE
Edwin Encarnacion, Tor 86 04/02/2013 - 04/23/2013

Also during Wednesday's show, Rich Wilson of Prospect361.com said that Zack Wheeler "has better stuff than Matt Harvey." If that's not a testament to Wheeler's future potential, I don't know what is.

He also said that Wil Myers will be called up between June 10th and June 22nd. The Super 2 deadline for number of games played to avoid a year of arbitration has a moving line, so no team really knows yet what the date is, but it's somewhere between then. Wilson agreed that there's no guarantee that Myers will succeed right away, but he did say that he is the prospect who is most ready for the promotion.

One of his favorite prospects is Miami's Christian Yelich, who also should see the major leagues by late June. He said he's definitely a better prospect than Marcel Ozuna, who was called up two weeks ago when Yelich was still coming off an injury.

Oh, and did you know that Billy Hamilton hit two home runs last week at Triple-A? He's got his average "up" to .234 and he has 21 stolen bases in 24 attempts in 35 games. Just sayin'.

Tonight's NFBC guest on STATS Fantasy Advantage will be NFBC Charter Member Ari Benjamin, who is leading the NFBC Auction Championship. Kudos to Ari for that one. Also, Ari is leading the March 23rd Super League with 124 points. His Auction Championship team has 139 league points and has a pitching staff to drool over!! We'll discuss it all on SiriusXM 210/87 tonight at 8 pm ET. Should be fun.

We'll lead off with some great stats from Sammy "The STATS Man" Lubeck at 7 pm ET and we'll bring in Grant Paulson of MLB Network Radio to talk about minor-leaguers at 7:30 pm ET. We talk about NFBC FAAB bids and Injuries between the interviews and then do some fantasy football talk during the last 30 minutes. It should be another good show.

See ya there.

Thanks again to Ari Benjamin and his 6-year-old son for being on STATS Fantasy Advantage last night. It's great to get our great players on the air with us each week and each one brings a different perspective to the game. It's a unique aspect that we bring to SiriusXM that nobody else does. Good job last night Ari and again CONGRATS on such a great start in the NFBC Auction Championship and the NFBC March 23rd Super League.

Sammy "The STATS Man" Lubeck provided a lot of unique stats to the opening of the show and we'll post most of those here if you didn't hear the show last night. Good stuff. Enjoy.

Mariano Rivera blew his first save on Monday night vs. the Mets in which he didn't get a single out. Consider all that Big Mo has done in his career before that outing:
- 626 career saves (most all-time). Only one other closer with 500+ saves (Hoffman 601)
- 1135 career strikeouts - 4th most among pitchers with no more than 10 starts
- 2.21 ERA - 11th lowest all-time among pitchers with 1000+ IP
- 1072 career appearances - last night was just 3rd in which he did not get a single hitter out, and first since August 10, 2008

Of the 114 division leaders going into June 1 (through games of May 31) since 1995, 65 (57.0 percent) have finished the season as division champ.

Facts on the two big FAAB pickups for this coming week:
Michael Wacha
- 1.71 ERA since 2012 - third lowest in minor leagues among pitchers with at least 20 games and 10 starts over that span. (Tony Cingrani 2nd at 1.53)
Nick Franklin
- one of just 3 minor league infielders with 45+ HR & 60+ SB since 2010

Mike Trout hitting .299-10-39-12 before last night's game is on pace for another 30-40 season. If he accomplishes that, he would be the first player in MLB history to do that in back-to-back seasons. He's also trying to become just the 7th player in MLB history with back-to-back 30-30 seasons,

Players with Back-to-Back 30-30 Seasons

Barry Bonds 3 straight (1995-97)
Alfonso Soriano (2002-03, 2005-06)
Ron Gant (1990-91)
Vladimir Guerrero (2001-02)
Willie Mays (1956-57)
Ryan Braun (2011-12)

SB Dropoffs (Braun)

Largest Dropoff in SB – Since 1990
(Minimum 120 Games in Second Season)

Player Seasons Yr1 Yr2 Diff
Kenny Lofton 1996-1997 75 27 -48
Juan Pierre 2010-2011 68 27 -41
Brian Hunter 1997-1998 74 42 -32
Otis Nixon 1991-1992 72 41 -31
Chuck Knoblauch 1997-1998 62 31 -31

Yu Darvish - 105 K's thru his first 11 games are tied for the 11th most since 1921, and are the most by any pitcher since 2003.

Most Strikeouts Thru First 11 Games – Since 1921

2000 Randy Johnson 121
2001 Pedro Martinez 121
1998 Curt Schilling 117
1999 Pedro Martinez 117
2001 Randy Johnson 115
2000 Pedro Martinez 114
2002 Curt Schilling 114
1968 Sam McDowell 109
1999 Randy Johnson 108
1988 Roger Clemens 107
1965 Sandy Koufax 105
2013 Yu Darvish 105

6 pitchers currently undefeated with 8+ starts.
Number of Undefeated Pitchers at End of May (minimum 8 starts)

2012 0
2011 1
2010 3
2009 1

2009-12 5
2013 6

Jim Johnson
- 4 blown saves (3 in 2012)
- 5.25 ERA (more than doubled his ERA of 2.49 last season)
- batters are 10 for 19 (.526 BA) with RISP vs. Johnson this season (highest in majors - min 20 batters faced)

Fernando Rodney
- 5 blown saves (2 in 2012)
- 5.48 ERA (over 9 times ERA of 0.60 last season)
- 19 walks in 21.1 IP (only 15 all last season)

May I suggest a Kessenich-Outlaw Cage Match tonight on STATS Fantasy Advantage?

Joe Sambito wrote:May I suggest a Kessenich-Outlaw Cage Match tonight on STATS Fantasy Advantage?

Thats funny - lol... All I'll say is its a shame we even have to be discussing this. Tom has made some very points througout the discussion... Its what makes the world go round though, differences in Opinion and respect for those opinions...

It's possible we'll talk a little about Braun tonight on STATS Fantasy Advantage and it's possible I'll have some things to say about it.

We'll also be joined by NFBC vet Bob Particelli, who is leading one of our Diamond Leagues entering action this month. We'll also have Jonathan Mayo from the MLB Network on the show to talk about the upcoming baseball draft as well as provide some insight on some minor league prospects.

Should be a GREAT show so tune in tonight from 7-9 pm ET on Sirius 210/XM 87.

Thanks to Bob Particelli for being on the air last night and being patient as we took some time to find his right phone number!! That was my fault, Bob. But we had a great segment and we talked about the good, the bad and the ugly of this baseball season. It was also good to have a lawyer's perspective on the Biogenesis case because we all must remember that there is due process in this great country of ours. I think Bob put the whole ugly episode in a perfect light. We also highlighted his NFBC Diamond team which is in first place by a whopping 39 points -- unprecedented in most NFBC leagues -- and even ripped on his other Diamond team that had some other unprecedented picks!! But seriously, Bob is having one helluva season in the NFBC as he's first in a Main Event that is in the Top 25 overall and first in the NFBC XII with a team in the Top 10 overall. Pretty amazing season Mr. Particelli. Good luck the rest of the way and hopefully you didn't get jinxed by appearing on the STATS Fantasy Advantage!

Jonathan Mayo of MLB Network -- who is live in the studio right now and on the air -- also was a great, great guest. Jonathan and I go way back together and we even talked about his LABR team from around 2001 that won in the NL when he left $23 on the table!! Seriously, he was a prospects game way back then who bid on too many and had a lot of money left and as luck would have it he hit on all of them and won the title!! It was pretty amazing. He competed in LABR until he just got too busy with his work at MLB.com, but he was always a good fantasy player. He went over tonight's top draft prospects and more last night during a fun, fun segment on STATS Fantasy Advantage.

We also had Brian Finneran, former NFL wide receiver and now the voice of 680 The Fan in Atlanta and talked some fantasy football with him. He said he loves fantasy football and his 18-year-old son is so good that after winning three of the last four titles in his local leagues his friends want to kick him out. We told him that if Brian has $10,000 to spend on his kid that we have a league just waiting for him!! He was a really good guest last night.

And Sammy Lubeck had some great updates as well last night, including some historic DL numbers. I'll post all of that soon, after I catch up on some other work. But check out the show if you still have access to it on SiriusXM On Demand because it was a good one. Even Tom's rant on MLB to kick off the show was good!!

Here's one good note from Sammy last night on MLB injuries in 2013:

** STATS has kept DL stats since 1982

** There have been 278 players sent to DL thru June 4th – the 3rd most thru June 4 since 1982

** The Dodgers have DL’d 18 players – tied (with 2011) for their most thru June 4