The Red Sox record matched their performance this week, which it didn't for the first couple. The good news is that when you can have a 3-game losing streak and still put a winning week together, that's a good thing. It actually had the potential to be a very good week until Beckett and Timlin started giving up gopher balls on Friday night.
- It was good to see Manny finally hit a couple out. He's got a very interesting line right now (.273/.407/.379), in that he hasn't hit much, and has only got 3 extra-base hits, but he's walked 15 times, so his OBP is over .400.
- Alex Gonzalez continues to be every bit the black hole that I feared. The 2 runs that he scored in Sunday's game were the first 2 that he's scored this year. Granted that we're still talking about a small sample size for him, too, and that he's likely to improve upon his current .211/.281/.263, I still see no reason to think that his defensive contributions approach his offensive cost. I cannot believe that he'll still be playing for this team in August if there isn't a massive improvement in his contribution.
- Not that Loretta's been much better. He's only at .237/.291/.325 which, the walk-off dramatics on Patriots' Day notwithstanding, isn't going to get it done. Pedroia can come up and take one of those middle infield spots, but he can't take both. Loretta is, to this point, less concerning than Gonzalez simply because he's a player with a positive track record. It's much easier to look at his line and say "small sample size - he'll improve" than it is to look at Gonzalez' and say the same thing.
- Keith Foulke was excellent yesterday, and very good Friday night. He took the loss on Friday, because Seanez gave up a 2-run double after Francona lifted him. I didn't understand, and still don't, why he was pulled from that game. In any event, on the week Foulke pitched in 5 games, throwing 6 2/3 innings and giving up 2 runs, 7 base-runners and having 6 strikeouts. He looks like he's just about all the way back.
- One of the things that Bill James, among others, has talked about is optimal bullpen usage, and the foolishness of saving your best relief pitcher for pitching the last 3 outs with a lead that you may not have when it's time to get those outs. Yesterday's performance illustrated what he's talking about, and Francona, and the Sox, handled it just about perfectly, or at least it would look like it if Foulke were still their best reliever. The keys outs of that game came in the 6th inning with the starter tiring, the lead down to 1 run, and 2 on with 1 out. Instead of going to the "middle relief" because it was the middle innings, Francona went to Foulke, who closed the door. Papelbon gets a save for pitching the 9th with a 3-run lead, but the key relief performance was Foulke's, who kept the lead when it was at its most precarious.
AL Pythagorean Projection Report - 4/24/2006
| | | | | | | ProjectedActual
| | R/G | (rank) | RA/G | (rank) | Pythagorean | (rank) | W | L | W | L | Luck
|
|---|
| New York | 6.24 | (1) | 4.18 | (3) | 0.676 | (1) | 11 | 6 | 9 | 8 | -2
| | Chicago | 5.94 | (3) | 4.06 | (2) | 0.668 | (2) | 12 | 6 | 13 | 5 | 1
| | Detroit | 5 | (8) | 3.84 | (1) | 0.618 | (3) | 12 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 0
| | Toronto | 5.94 | (4) | 5.29 | (9) | 0.553 | (4) | 9 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 0
| | Texas | 5.42 | (6) | 4.89 | (6) | 0.547 | (5) | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 0
| | Boston | 4.74 | (11) | 4.37 | (4) | 0.537 | (6) | 10 | 9 | 12 | 7 | 2
| | Cleveland | 6 | (2) | 5.63 | (10) | 0.529 | (7) | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 0
| | Los Angeles | 4.84 | (9) | 5.05 | (7) | 0.481 | (8) | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 1
| | Baltimore | 5.55 | (5) | 5.85 | (11) | 0.476 | (9) | 10 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 1
| | Seattle | 4.4 | (12) | 4.75 | (5) | 0.465 | (10) | 9 | 11 | 7 | 13 | -2
| | Tampa Bay | 5.16 | (7) | 6.37 | (13) | 0.405 | (11) | 8 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 0
| | Minnesota | 4.78 | (10) | 6 | (12) | 0.397 | (12) | 7 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 0
| | Oakland | 4.11 | (13) | 5.16 | (8) | 0.397 | (13) | 8 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 0
| | Kansas City | 3.94 | (14) | 6.53 | (14) | 0.284 | (14) | 5 | 12 | 4 | 13 | -1
| |
|---|
Top 5 projections (using current winning %)
| Chicago | 117 | 45
|
| Detroit | 102 | 60
|
| Boston | 102 | 60
|
| Baltimore | 89 | 73
|
| New York | 86 | 76
|
Top 5 projections (starting with today's record, using Pythagorean winning %)
| Chicago | 109 | 53
|
| New York | 107 | 55
|
| Detroit | 100 | 62
|
| Toronto | 89 | 73
|
| Boston | 89 | 73
|
Standings for the week
| | | | | | | ProjectedActual
| | R/G | (rank) | RA/G | (rank) | Pythagorean | (rank) | W | L | W | L | Luck
|
|---|
| Chicago | 6.67 | (3) | 1.17 | (1) | 0.96 | (1) | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0
| | Texas | 7.33 | (1) | 5.17 | (10) | 0.655 | (2) | 4 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1
| | Toronto | 5.8 | (4) | 4.2 | (4) | 0.644 | (3) | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0
| | New York | 5.2 | (8) | 3.8 | (3) | 0.64 | (4) | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0
| | Detroit | 4.29 | (9) | 3.71 | (2) | 0.565 | (5) | 4 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1
| | Los Angeles | 5.43 | (6) | 4.86 | (6) | 0.551 | (6) | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0
| | Boston | 5.29 | (7) | 4.86 | (6) | 0.539 | (7) | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0
| | Cleveland | 7.14 | (2) | 7.29 | (12) | 0.491 | (8) | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0
| | Baltimore | 5.71 | (5) | 6.86 | (11) | 0.417 | (9) | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1
| | Seattle | 3.86 | (12) | 4.86 | (6) | 0.396 | (10) | 3 | 4 | 1 | 6 | -2
| | Oakland | 3.83 | (13) | 5 | (9) | 0.381 | (11) | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0
| | Kansas City | 3.67 | (14) | 4.83 | (5) | 0.376 | (12) | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0
| | Tampa Bay | 4.17 | (10) | 7.33 | (13) | 0.262 | (13) | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | -1
| | Minnesota | 4 | (11) | 7.83 | (14) | 0.226 | (14) | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 0
| |
|---|
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Comment?
<< Home