One of the most interesting things that stats-focused websites have been investigating is how a player promoted to the major leagues fairs after spending the previous year in the major leagues. The Book is included in this group, and this is one of the most fascinating statistical analysis that we've seen in a while. Check it out.
To say that the boys over at Beyond the Box Score are shocked by both the Jon Rauch to Arizona and Randy Wolf to Houston trades is an understatement. They argue that both are horrid because Washington only received a mediocre 2B for a cheap, quality closer and Randy Wolf's stats are bolstered by pitching at Petco Park.
It's been a couple days since we wrote in the By The Numbers section - so we apologize for that. We were just waiting for a high quality piece breaking down the Joe Blanton trade. One that attempts to explain why the Phillies gave up so much for a seemingly average pitcher, when they gave up what appears to be so little for Rich Harden (who has been subpurb so far with the Cubs). And guess what?
We found it.
Our friends at Beyond the Box Score analyzed the season. and career, of Joe Blanton, and have come to the conclusion that the A's took advantage of the Phillies because Blanton is actually worse than the average major league pitcher (and the pitcher the Phillies are expecting him to be). Even though he eats a lot of innings, which for a team that also had Rich Harden shouldn't be dismissed, the hefty right hander had the huge benefit for half of his starts in pitching in a pitching friendly park. Pitching in McAfee Coliseum surpressed Blanton's home runs allowed, therefore his runs allowed and ERA. For more of a breakdown of Blanton's "stuff" compared to the rest of the league's, head over to BtBS's article. But in the mean time, realize that with Blanton pitching half of his games in Citizen's Bank Park, he will not be provided the same luxuries as he was in Oakland. Meaning he will allow more runs, and be less effective.
There's not better indicator of this statement than looking at Blanton's home ERA versus his road ERA: 3.79 in Oakland vs. 4.78 away.
Beyond the Box Score (on of our favorites) ran an analysis of all of the players in the major leagues about how often they swing at a pitches outside of the strike zone. The results aren't all that surprising for most baseball fans - Vladimir Guerrero topped the list of free-swingers (And no, we're not talking about going commando). But what's interesting about this list is that some quality hitters who hit for power, who oftencredit their success to being aggressive early in the count, swing at a lot of pitches out of the zone (Josh Hamilton, Ryan Braun, Jeff Francouer). But there are also a lot of quality players who hit for power on the list of lowest balls out of the strikezone percentage as well (Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, Chipper Jones).
Baseball, we suppose, is a game of different strokes for different folks in all facets.
