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1. Martin Prado was THE positional guy to get during the draft this year. Often going in the third-fifth rounds.

Here is Prado's stat line compared to another positional guy:

Prado- .271/48/10/39/4

Wigginton- .261/41/14/44/6



Before crying foul and saying Prado had a dl stint, Prado still has 58 more at bats than Wigginton.



2. Before the season, Adrian Gonzalez was a sexy pick. He has come through with high average and a lot of rbi.

But, Gonzalez had 31 homers playing in Yellowstone Park last year, this year, just 18 at Fenway.



3. Adam Dunn has had a horrible year. But, there is another guy giving him a run for his money for a bad 2011.

Ian Stewart, playing in arguably the best ballpark in baseball for power, has zero home runs. Not only is Stewart dying on the vine in home runs, Dunn has a higher average than Stewart, .163 for Dunn, .157 for Stewart.



4. Maybe I'll start paying more attention to who comes to spring training in shape. Last year, Delmon Yound looked svelte and drove in 112 runs.

This year, he broke into my Doritos stash.

Young has 30 rbi.



5. Last year, James Loney had an improbable 10 homers with 88 rbi. But, the two years before that, he had 13 homers and 90 rbi.

36 homers/268 rbi

That's just not right.

It shouldn't be that surprising that Loney has crashed with a 5/35 this year.



6. Juan Pierre had 68 stolen bases last year.

Chone Figgins had 42 stolen bases.

Speed never slumps, my ass.



7. Here is why pitching is so hard to take with high draft picks.

Last years E.R.A. leaders were:

FHernandez 2.27

JJohnson 2.30

Buchholz 2.33

Wainwright 2.42



8. Last year, James Shields gave up 117 earned runs.

This year, he still has not given up half that many, 55.



9. .260/45/7/38/13

.307/110/19/90/47

Those are the Carl Crawford lines for the last two years.

This year, Crawford is not among the top 50 base stealers.

Was it the batting position?

Health?

New team?

New contract?

He becomes a hit or miss pick in the second or third round of drafts next year.



10. Doubles turn into home runs.

We've all heard it.

It's a load of crap.

Somehow, our mind's eye makes us think of doubles as balls off the wall or balls that were close to home runs. Not a ball landing between three fielders or a ball hugging the line.

Last year, the top 20 doubles hitters, all with at least 40 doubles, had 868 doubles.

Those same hitters have 243 home runs this year. While they averaged 43 doubles last year, they are averaging just 12 homers so far this year

Only three of those hitters have broken the 20 homer barrier, and they are hiiters that are expected to do just that.

Cabrera-22

Braun- 21

Beltre- 20

Some of the doubles-rich of last year and homer-poor of this year are Delmon Young, James Loney, Howie Kendrick, Bobby Abreu, Joe Mauer, and Andres Torres.

Thanks for shedding light on the doubles-to-homers and speed-never-slumps myths. They are irksome. I wish those announcers would tell my whole team that speed never slumps. They were fine until about two weeks ago. Three weeks ago I had ten steals. In the two weeks since I have only managed eight total.



[ August 08, 2011, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: bjoak ]

There is no honor among thieves.



Originally posted by bjoak:

Thanks for shedding light on the doubles-to-homers and speed-never-slumps myths. They are irksome. I wish those announcers would tell my whole team that speed never slumps. They were fine until about two weeks ago. Three weeks ago I had ten steals. In the two weeks since I have only managed eight total.

I understand your speed never slumps but really, you think these are slumps or new baseline for these guys? Slump leads a person to believe they will be back in that range again. Don't see it with these guys. Pierre leads all of baseball in caught stealing(also did last year but look at the dif). I would quit running too if I got thrown out at a 60% rate....Juan got caught 18 times all of last year and was thrown out at a 20% rate. So they are throwing him out 3 times as often as last year. Hard to let someone steal when that is happening.

Actually just about 40% this year...so I guess he is only twice as bad as last year, not three times

If you're more comfortable with Carl Crawford or Rajai Davis as slumpers of speed, so be it.

Speed never slumps is pseu, pseu, pseudio

Ellsbury: April 5 SB, May 14 SB, June 6 SB, July 6 SB, August 0 SB. Think he's lost his skills? I've no idea why it has to be on and off but it is.



[ August 09, 2011, 02:50 AM: Message edited by: bjoak ]