Friday Lists

 

Today DN&N gives you a look at who hits ‘em in the air and who hits ‘em on the ground.  Among the things we noticed is that Boston hits a lot of fly balls.  We also see that Alfonso Soriano hits ‘em in the air a lot as well but we also see that when he doesn’t, he doesn’t tend to do too much damage, either.  Speaking of double plays, those aren’t even and issue for Marcus Thames or Corey Patterson.  However, while you’d expect speedsters like Patterson to be the best at staying out of the DP, don’t tell that to David Dellucci or Scott Spiezio or even Mike Napoli.  As for those guys who hit it on the ground, DN&N isn’t surprised to see such guys as Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo at the top of the list, but does wonder why Preston Wilson hits so many on the ground when he should be trying to utilize his power.  A closer look into that reveals that he may have already made an adjustment – W/Hou – 390 AB – 9 HR – 129 GO/60 FO – W/StL – 77 AB – 6 HR – 24 GO/20 FO. 

 

Here’s a deeper look at who hits ‘em in the air and who hits ‘em on the ground.

 

AL – Most Fly Balls/Pop Ups                       NL – Most Fly Balls/Pop Ups

1. Joe Crede – ChW – 223                              1. Alfonso Soriano – Was - 238

2. Orlando Cabrera – LAA – 219                    2. Aramis Ramirez – ChC - 221

3t. Mark Loretta – Bos – 203                           3. Pedro Feliz – SF - 200

3t. Mike Lowell – Bos – 203                            4. Jimmy Rollins – Phi - 198

3t. Kevin Youkilis – Bos – 203             5. Luis Gonzalez – Ari - 196

(Note David Ortiz of Boston is tied with Frank Thomas for 7^th)

 

AL – Most Groundballs                                 NL – Most Groundballs

1. Luis Castillo – Min – 290                              1. Juan Pierre – ChC - 302

2. Ichiro Suzuki – Sea – 286                             2. Rafael Furcal – LAD - 249

3. Derek Jeter – NYY – 282                            3.Jimmy Rollins – Phi - 242

4. Miguel Tejada – Bal – 267                           4. Randy Winn – SF - 238

5. Michael Young – Tex – 265             5. Jose Reyes – NYM – 232

 

AL - % Groundballs                          NL - % Groundballs

1. Derek Jeter – NYY – 76.63 (282/368)        1. Juan Pierre – ChC – 69.11 (302/437)

2. Luis Castillo Min – 75.52 (290/384) 2. Jacque Jones – ChC – 69.03 (214/310)

3. M. Grudzielanek – KC – 69.43 (243/350)    3. Dave Roberts – SD – 68.12 (203/298)

4. Ivan Rodriguez – Det – 67.92 (216/318)      4. Preston Wilson – StL – 67.88 (205/302)

5. Jason Kendall – Oak – 67.15 (231/344)       5. Royce Clayton – Cin – 67.13 (192/286)

 

AL - % Flyballs                                              NL - % Flyballs

1. Frank Thomas – Oak – 70.07 (199/284)      1. Alfonso Soriano – Wsh – 63.64 (238/374)

2. Jonny Gomes – TB – 65.13 (155/238)         2. Adam Dunn – Cin – 62.31 (167/268)

3. Jason Giambi – NYY – 62.28 (175/281)      3. Pat Burrell – Phi – 59.07 (140/237)

4. Joe Crede – ChW – 60.76 (223/367)           4. Bill Hall – Mil – 58.05 (155/267)

5. Kevin Youkilis – Bos – 60.60 (203/335)      5. Clint Barmes – Col – 57.05 (178/312)

 

AL – GDP/GDP Situations                            NL – GDP/GDP Situations

1t. Corey Patterson – Bal – 0.0 (0/87)  1. David Dellucci – Phi – 1.9 (1/52)

1t. Marcus Thames – Det – 0.0 (0/62)  2. Scott Spiezio – StL – 2.2 (1/46)

3. Mike Napoli – LAA – 2.0 (1/51)                  3. Alfonso Soriano – Was – 2.3 (2/87)

4. Rocco Baldelli – TB – 2.0 (1/50)                  4. Clint Barmes – Col – 2.5 (2/80)

5. Grady Sizemore – Cle – 2.2 (2/89)               5. J.D. Drew – LAD – 2.9 (3/103)

All statistics through 9/13

 

Quick Hits

 

Derek Jeter is now tied with Edgar Renteria for the fourth longest hitting streak in the majors this year after going 2-for-4 in the Yankees’ win over Tampa Bay.  He is batting .396 (38-for-96) with 18 RBI since the streak began.

 

Rocco Baldelli was 3-for-4 with a triple and two home runs in the loss and is batting .391 (36-for-92) with 7 HR and 14 RBI since August 18.  In his fourth at bat, he took Bernie Williams to the wall.

 

Delmon Young was 1-for-4 in the loss and extended his hitting streak to 8 straight games.  He’s hit safely in 15 of 17 games in his short major league career and is batting .371 (23-for-62) overall.  On a free swinging note, he’s drawn just one walk (un-intentional) in 65 plate appearances.

 

Rookie Dustin Pedroia is batting .122 (6-for-49) after going 0-for-3 on Thursday.  He’s drawn just 2 walks (un-intentional) in 53 plate appearances.

 

Despite hitting just .238 (43-for-181) since July 31, Ichiro is just 4 hits away from his 6^th consecutive 200 hit season.  He was 3-for-4 in the M’s 10-8 loss to the surging Royals on Thursday, including his 8^th HR of the year.

 

Ryan Shealy had his 16^th multi-hit game since joining Kansas City – going 2-for-4 with 2 HR on Thursday – and is batting .351 (33-for-97) in his last 24 games.  He’s had 12 of his multi-hit games during that stretch along with 4 HR and 17 RBI.

 

Brian Schneider has hit safely in 8 straight games (9-for-26, .346) and is batting .319 (30-for-94) since August 6. 

 

The Chase is Wild

 

The Minnesota Twins continue to defy the odds and simply shrug off seemingly catastrophic injuries as they march closer and closer to the playoffs after beginning the season 9-16.  With Francisco Liriano’s season over and Brad Radke’s availability in doubt, the Twins beat the Indians 9-4 on Thursday to creep a half a game closer to the idle Tigers and at the same time extend by a half a game their wild card lead over the White Sox.  The Twins saw a 4-1 lead wiped out by a 3-run home run by Andy Marte, yet came back with five runs in the last three innings to take the opener of this four game set.  Minnesota now trails the free falling Tigers by just a single game and at the same time have stretched their lead over the Sox – who did not play Thursday – to 2 full games. 

 

A Look Ahead - AL Cy Young favorite Johan Santana (18-5, 2.75) goes on Friday against Fausto Carmona (1-9, 6.24) in game two of this four game series, while Detroit will send Jeremy Bonderman (11-8) to the mound against Sean Henn (0-2) and the Orioles in a weekend set.  Jon Garland (17-4) goes for the Sox in the opener of their 3-game showdown against the A’s who will counter with Esteban Loaiza (9-8).  On Monday, the Tigers and White Sox begin a crucial three-game series in Chicago. 

 

AL Wild Card

Minnesota        – 86-60 –

Chicago            – 84-62 2.0

 

San Diego extended their Wild Card lead to 2.5 games over the Phillies and Giants while at the same time trimming the Dodgers lead in the West to just a half a game after beating the Reds 4-2 and seeing the Cubs come from behind to beat L.A. 6-5.  Rookie Clay Hensley matched zeros with Aaron Harang for six innings before the Padres broke through with four in the top of the 7^th.  Cincinnati came back with two of their own in the bottom half but the Pads bullpen shut the door and sealed the win.  Trevor Hoffman got the final three outs for his 474^th career save, four shy of Lee Smith’s all-time record.  Hensley loaded the bases in the 1^st inning but then retired the next 14 straight batters as the fading Reds fell 4 ½ games behind San Diego with the loss.

 

Philadelphia fell back into a tie with San Francisco for second in the WC when they lost to Atlanta 4-1 who got 7 shutout innings from rookie Chuck James (10-3).  Andruw Jones hit his 335^th career HR in the win to tie Darryl Strawberry for 84^th all-time while Jaime Moyer gave up 4 runs in 6 innings to take the loss for the Phillies.  MVP candidate Ryan Howard went hitless in the loss for just the second time in the last 21 games and has gone homerless in his last four.  Nevertheless, he’s still batting .465 (33-for-71) with 13 HR and 28 RBI since August 22, including 28 hits in his last 53 at bats (.528). 

 

San Francisco held their ground in the chase with a 5-0 win over the Rockies as Matt Cain enhanced his  ROY resume with 8 innings of two-hit, shutout ball which dropped his ERA over his last 6 starts to a miniscule 0.21 (1 ER – 42 IP).  It was the 7^th time this season he has allowed less than three hits in a start and hitters are now batting just .208 against him in 172.2 innings (he leads NL rookies in IP).  He is 13-9 with a 3.75 ERA for the season and has gone 12-4 with a 2.86 mark since beginning the season 1-5 with a 7.04 ERA through May 10.  He has also garnered the second lowest run support of any rookie pitcher contending for the ROY Award at 5.00 RPG to Hensley’s 4.31.  

 

A Look Ahead - The Padres and Dodgers begin a huge four game series on Friday at Dodger Stadium with Greg Maddux (330 career wins, 10^th all-time) facing David Wells (229, tied for 61^st) in the weekend’s marquee game.  The Phillies will face off against the Astros, meanwhile, with Brett Myers (10-6) set to go against Roger Clemens (6-4, 347 career wins) in the opener in Houston.  The Giants make their first ever trip to the new Busch Stadium with Jason Schmidt (11-8) scheduled to go against Jeff Suppan (11-7) on Friday and Dontrelle Willis (10-11) faces Lance Cormier (3-4) in Atlanta as Florida and the Braves do battle.  And the Reds travel to Wrigley for the weekend to take on the Cubs with Bronson Arroyo (13-9) looking for his 14^th win against rookie Juan Mateo (1-3). 

 

NL Wild Card

San Diego        – 76-69 –

Philadelphia      – 74-72 2.5

San Francisco   – 74-72 2.5

Florida             – 73-73 3.5

Cincinnati         – 72-74 4.5

Houston           – 71-74 5.0

Questions or comments for Richard? Richard Van Zandt is a staff writer for Baseball Evolution who lives in San Francisco, California. You can reach him at richard@baseballevolution.com.