The South Side Strikes Back

After the Tigers acquired Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante it was clear that the White Sox needed to make another move. With an already strengthened bullpen and a legitimate starting lineup the White Sox needed to add a starting pitcher. Fransisco Liriano joined the pitching staff today after being traded from the Minnesota Twins for infielder Eduardo Escobar and pitcher Pedro Hernandez.

Liriano was the second choice for the White Sox, after they couldn't get Zach Greinke. Greinke was traded to the Angels, but the White Sox were heavily pursuing him. Liriano has a lot of success in the past, but in recent years he hasn't performed well. With a 5.31 ERA over 100 inning in 2012 Liriano has been struggling. Maybe with a new team the left hander can turn things around. Liriano will join a rotation anchored by Chris Sale and Jake Peavy.  


On an additional note the Arizona Diamond Backs have acquired third baseman Chris Johnson from the Astros in exchange for outfielders Marc Krauss and Bobby Borchering. The D-Backs recently traded their starting third baseman Ryan Roberts to the Rays.

Come and Get Your Halo

Zach Greinke will be pitching for the Angels for at least the rest of 2012. The Angels sent top infield prospect Jean Segura and pitchers Ariel Pena and John Hellweg to the Brewers in exchange for Greinke. The Angels will make the their rotation even stronger than it already was.

With the addition of Greinke the rotation for the Angels will look just like the following:

Weaver: 13-1, 2.26 ERA, 89 K, 115 IP
Wilson: 9-6, 2.89 ERA, 108 K, 131 IP
Greinke: 9-3, 3.44 ERA, 122 K, 123 IP
Haren: 7-8, 4.76 ERA, 89 K, 109 IP
Richards/Santana

Greinke has never pitched in a big market. The Royals and the Brewers don't pack stadiums and don't put too much pressure on the players. Greinke will be put on the spot and will have to perform. He may be working for a possible extension with the Angels if he performs well. He won't be the ace of the staff in Anaheim, so the pressure may not be all on him. With more run support and the excitement of a playoff race i expect Greinke to shine with the sun in Anaheim.

Flying Under the Radar

In a rotation with Stephan Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez it is easy to look over Jordan Zimmerman. National fans know that he is just as important as the previously mentioned starters. Strasburg has a 2.66 ERA, 10 wins, and 135 strikeouts in 2012. Gonzalez has 2.93 ERA, 12 wins, and 127 strikeouts. Zimmerman has a shockingly low 2.35 ERA, 7 wins, and 84 strikeouts.

Zimmerman is 26 years old and has been on the Nationals since 2009. In 2011 Zimmerman flashed what he could do with a 3.18 ERA over 161 innings. Zimmerman won't blow you away with his fastball or strike you out with his curve ball, but he will get you out. It doesn't matter how you get the guy out as long as he is out. He not only has the lowest ERA on the Nationals but also has the most innings pitched with 122.1.

Zimmerman is just icing on the cake for the Nationals. They have the best pitching rotation in all of baseball. Strasburg, Gonzalez, Zimmerman, Detwiler*, and Jackson sums up to be a dangerous combination of both the ability to go far into the game and being dominant throughout. These 5 guys combine for a 2.97 ERA over 527 innings pitched.

*Some of Detwiler's work was done out of the bullpen.

Goose Eggs

Madison Bumgarner pitches a 9 inning shutout against
the Reds to move the streak to 4 games without
allowing a run

The Giants' pitching rotation has been on a tremendous streak as of late. They swept the Dodgers and took first place yesterday with a win over the Reds. The catch is over those 4 games they have not allowed a run. Barry Zito, Ryan Vogelsong, Tim Lincecum, and Madison Bumgarner all pitched shutouts in their respected games. The bullpen has been a help to. Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo have made the back end of the bullpen lights out even with the absence of Brain Wilson. Matt Cain gets the mound tonight. Let us see if he can make the streak 5 games without allowing a run.

A Change In Pitching

The New York Yankees had a completely different pitching rotation every year since 2008. Every year its different and 2012 is the same story. On Friday the news broke that Andy Pettitte is coming out of retirement for a $2.5 million 1 year minor league deal. He will definitely make it to the major leagues and probably the rotation if he pitches effectively, but now the Yankees have seven starters again.

In 2008 The Yankees' rotation consisted of Andy Pettitte, Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes/ Joba Chamberlain, Mike Mussina, and Ian Kennedy. Pettitte would win 14 game with an ERA around 4.5, thanks to the Yankees' offense. Wang would suffer an injury in 2008 and wouldn't complete a full season, he would never be the dominant 19 game winner he was the previous two season and wouldn't be the same pitcher again. Chamberlain and Hughes would split time, Hughes didn't do very well, but Joba held a 2.60 ERA over 100 innings. Mike Mussina would win 20 games for the first time in his career and Ian Kennedy would just do terrible and pitch only 39 innings.

2009 was a significant change for The Yankees. CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett joined Andy Pettite, Chamberlain/Hughes, and Wang after Mussina retired. Sabathia won 19 games with a 3.37 ERA, Burnett won 13 games with a 4.04 ERA, Pettitte would win 14 with a 4.16 ERA, Chamberlain and Hughes would be ineffective. Wang would prove to be done with being a decent starter and be replaced by Aceves, Mitre, and Gaudin.  The Yankees would still win the World Series that year.

In 2010 CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes would take control of the first 4 spots. Sabthia would win 21 games and finish 3rd in Cy Young voting. Burnett would pitch to terrible 5.26 ERA. Pettitte would bounce back and have a 3.28 ERA although being injured for a portion of the year. Hughes would finally emerge and win 18 games for The Yankees.

2011 was when the abundance of pitching struck. Joba Chamberlain had officially become a reliever, but The Yankees still had their usual pitchers. CC Sabtahia, AJ Burnett, and Phil Hughes. Andy Pettite "retired" and didn't pitch in 2011. Hughes would be out most of the season due to an injury. The veterans Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon would come to the rescue along with rookie Ivan Nova. Sabathia would win 19 games again and pitch to a 3.00 ERA. AJ Burnett would prove he isn't as great as said to be and have a 5.15 ERA. Colon would have a 4.00 ERA, Garica would have a 3.62 ERA and Nova would have a 3.70 ERA.

Finally looking at the 2012 season The Yankees had 7 starting pitchers, then they traded AJ Burnett, so then they had 6. Now with the addition of Andy Pettitte they have 7 again. CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Hiroki Kuroda, Ivan Nova, Freddy Garcia, Phil Hughes, and Andy Pettite have to compete for 5 spots. It is pretty much a given that Sabathia, Kuroda and Pineda will have a spot in the rotation, but the remaining pitchers have to work hard to start ball games.

You can see how much the pitching rotation has changed since 2008. Andy Pettitte, Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes/ Joba Chamberlain, Mike Mussina, and Ian Kennedy has become CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Micheal Pineda, Andy Pettitte, and Hughes/Garcia/Nova. Pettitte can't pitch from the bullpen, because the Yankee Fans wouldn't be happy about that; so you can expect him to start the baseball games when he returns in mid-May.

The Minnesota Twins

The Twins finished 63-99 for the 2011 season. Opening their new stadium, Target Field, The Twins didn't live up to their expectations. Continuously hit by injuries to their big stars, Morneau and Mauer, The Twins were left with a sub par team.

The ticket to success for The Twins in 2012 will be to keep Joe Mauer healthy. He had reoccurring injuries throughout the 2011 season allowing him to play only 82 games. Joe Mauer can't catch everyday, or 5 times a week. He may need to learn another position. Right field may be good spot for him. You want your best hitter to get a lot at bats with many people on base and Mauer can't do that if hes sitting out every other game or injured.

Morneau has only played 150 games over the past 2 seasons. Which is an average of 75 a year. If he can play a full season and hit 30 home runs and drive in 100 RBI's The Twins may have a slight chance of keeping up with The Tigers. But the Twins should start rebuilding or start finding possible substitutions for frequently injured players.

The Twins have some pitching problems as well. Their projected starting rotation for 2012 is as follows: Liriano, Pavano, Baker, Blackburn, Duensing.  The problem here is that only one of these pitchers pitched 200 innings in 2011. If you guessed Carl Pavano, your right. How Pavano managed to not get injured is beyond me. Seeing how The Twins have a bullpen without Joe Nathan and assorted other relievers, pitching may be a problem against the now deadly American League.  If they don't have pitchers that pitch a lot of innings and not so good relievers, the team will fall apart.

Although the 2012 season may not look bright for The Twins they still have young stars Danny Valencia and Ben Revere. These 2 guys are quite promising and may help The Twins win a division in the future, but not anytime soon.

The Washington Nationals

In 2011 The Nationals had an improvement from the 2010 season. In 2011 The Nationals won 11 more games than the previous season, giving them a total of 80 for the 2011 season. The Nationals made a lot of noise in the 2011-2012 off season and definitely capitalized.

The Nationals added two new starting pitchers to their staff to give them one of the best in baseball. The 2012 starting rotation for The Nationals is going to look a little bit like this:

Using 2011 Statistics

*Stephen Strasburg(23) : 2.54 ERA
Gio Gonzalez (26) : 3.12 ERA
Jordan Zimmerman (25) : 3.18 ERA
Edwin Jackson (28) : 3.79
Ross Detwiler(26)/Chien-Ming Wang(32) : 3.00 ERA/ 4.04 ERA

* Combination of 2010 and 2011 ERA

The starting rotation is looking good, with Tyler Clippard, Sean Burnett and Brad Lidge anchoring the back of the bullpen, The Nationals' overall pitching is looking good. Clippard Posted a 1.83 ERA making him one of the best set up men in baseball. He has a high number of strikeouts and has a high RPC(Hayes Craze Stat.)

The Nationals started off the 2011 season without Adam Dunn, which proved to be a good thing, because Dunn would have one of the worst seasons ever. Instead The Nationals pulled through with their big sluggers. Mike Morse and Ryan Zimmerman. If these two players replicate the seasons they put up in 2011 and stay healthy, the rest of the NL East should watch out. If Jayson Werth, Danny Espinosa, and Bryce Harper can do well in 2012 The Nationals may be the wild card winners or even the winners of the NL East.

Lets not forget the two top prospects The Nationals drafted and signed in the 2011 draft, Anthony Rendon and Mathew Purke. Both of these two guys are very promising and may be just another reason not to under rate The Washington Nationals in years to come.

Japanese Cowboy

Yu Darvish signed with the Texas Rangers last night for 6 years $60 million.This will keep the Rangers as competitors with the Angels. If he performs well, the Western divisions will be stacked with great pitching. Darvish pitched to minuscule ERA's and high number strikeouts in his seasons with Japan. Now the Japanese right hander will be pitching 6 years in Texas, lets see how he performs.

With all the big name pitchers off the market, only Edwin Jackson and Roy Oswalt remain. The western divisions will be loaded with excellent pitching.

Rangers: Davish
Angels: Weaver, Haren,Wilson, Santana
Mariners: Hernandez
Giants: Lincecum, Cain
Dodgers: Kershaw, Billingsly
Diamondbacks: Kennedy, Hudson, Cahill

Those are 13 names that can put up great numbers. Those fans on the west coast sure are lucky.
  

New York New York

So nice they named it twice. Last night the New York Yankees traded top prospect Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi for Micheal Pineda and Jose Campos. I am for this deal even though I would have much rather traded for the miraculous Felix Hernandez. Either way Pineda will be a definite addition to the Yankees' rotation.

Also shortly after the trade previously mentioned The Yankees signed free agent pitcher Hiroki Kuroda. Kuroda pitched for the LA Dodgers this past season posting his best season yet.  This deal was worth 1 year 10.5 million.

To get back to the trade, this trade worked well for both teams. The Yankees received a hard throwing, young, right handed starting pitcher with a lot of promise. The Seattle Mariners received the ranked 3rd best prospect in all of baseball, Jesus Montero, who had an exceptionally excellent September. The Yankees needed starting pitching and the Mariners terrible offense needed a spark. I don't think the Mariners will be contending with the Angels and Rangers, but it will be nice to see how things stack up 5 years from now.

The Yankees already have one of the best lineups in the MLB. Now their pitching ranks pretty well also. They're rotation will shape up something like this: Sabathia, Nova, Kuroda, Pineda, Garcia which is pretty strong.

Now for The Yankees, they are left over with AJ Burnett and Phil Hughes. I believe The Yankees should keep one in the bullpen and trade one. I love to watch Burnett pitch, but it is agonizing sometimes. If I was general manager Brian Cashman I would see how AJ performs in spring training and if it ins't up to par, trade him to a team for a relief pitcher.  Phil Hughes has had experience in the bullpen before and he might add some depth. A friend of mine says Phil Hughes should be sent to AAA and recreate himself and come up later in the season.

Giving up Jesus Montero wasn't too hurtful. It was nice to get a little taste of what he can do in September, but the Yankees have Austin Romine and Gary Sanchez in the minor leagues, whom are also promising. But now the Yankees have interest in free agent slugger Carlos Pena, he would bat mostly against right handed pitches, and play DH. Andrew Jones will bat DH against left handed starters. Both can play the field to give every day players a "Half day off."

This 2012 season is shaping up well for The Yankees, for the 2013 season Cole Hamels and Matt Cain will be free agents. With one year deals to Garcia and Kuroda, the Yankees may land one of them.

Relief Pitcher's Clutch

We all know those really tough situations in the ball game. Bases loaded, no outs, and the opponents slugger is at bat. Who do you want to get you out of this jam? The guy in your bullpen with the most clutch. Up to now there hasn't been a reliable statistic to measure a pitchers clutch to my knowledge. Well I have developed one. I call this statistic RPC standing for Relief Pitcher's Clutch.

If your in a tough part of a game, you want a strike out, this is what relief pitchers are inevitably known for. In this statistic strikeouts will work at a pitchers advantage. Runs and an elevated whip (walks and hits per innings pitcher) will work at the pitcher's disadvantage. In an important game where the score is close and there are runners on base, you do not want runs to score, nor do you want to add additional runners on base.

To explain why the strikeout is important. If you get a strikeout you are obviously not getting a different kind of out, ground out, fly out, pop out etc. A 'contact out' may result in a run scoring and there is always a chance of the fielder dropping it or committing an error. This is why strikeouts would work at the relief pitcher's advantage in the statistic.

Finally to reveal the statistic: RPC = (Strikeouts / Runs) / (Walks and hits per innings pitched)
                                           RPC = (K/R) / (Whip)
                                           * The higher the number the better the pitcher's clutch

Now you check the math. What if the Runs or Whip is equal to 0. In the case of Runs be 0 the RPC is infinity. In the statistic for earned run average, if a pitcher gives up a run with 0 innings pitched, his ERA would be INF.  Getting back to RPC, if a pitcher's RPC is infinity he is currently 100% clutch, because he has not allowed a run to score. If the whip is 0 the player currently doesn't qualify for the statistic, because he could have given up a run without giving up a hit. If Both Whip and Runs are 0 then the RPC is infinity.

To look at some examples. David Robertson is notorious for getting out of big jams. He has 100 strikeouts, 9 runs, and a 1.125 whip. This gives him a 9.88 RPC. among the highest for 2011, earning him the name Houdini.

Dennis Eckersley's 1990 season 73 strikeouts, 9 runs, and a 0.614 whip giving him a  13.21 RPC, one of the best all time.

Now you may say RPC is directly proportional to ERA. Not always. Tyler Clippard of the Washington Nationals, and Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees have very similar ERA's 1.83 and 1.91, respectively. That is just a 0.08 point difference, barely anything, or noticeable, but Clippard's high amount of strikeouts (104) makes him much more clutch. Clippards RPC is 6.89 and Rivera's is 5.14. Rivera gets more of his outs from contact, making him less clutch in a tough situation.

I believe that the clutch rating may be the end of the closer, because if you have bases loaded jam with none out in the 7th inning, wouldn't you want your best pitcher to be in the game then and not close the door with the bases empty, just cruising by.

If Only I Was the Angles' GM.

The Angles just extended Howie Kendrick's contract. They also signed CJ Wilson and Albert Pujols. They have the best pitching rotation in the MLB with Weaver, Haren, Wilson, and Santana and the best first baseman and hitter of the past 10 years. They have it pretty good. The Angels also have Trumbo and Morales left over, what will they do with them.

If I were the Angels' general manager I would bring up a trade. This trade would involve Morales, Aybar, Chatwood, and the team's choice of $2 million or another prospect. But now the team for these players to be traded to... The Miami Marlins. Can you guess who? Hanley Ramirez.

Hanley Ramirez is an all star and capable of outstanding numbers. With the recent acquisition of Jose Reyes, the Marlins say Hanley will be moving to third base, which Ramirez is not fond of.  Perhaps a change of scenery would be nice.

The Marlins were in on Albert Pujols, but of course he went to the Angels. The Marlins aren't in on Fielder because he wont bring what Pujols would have to the Latino community. Morales has been injured for 2011 because of the incident when he hit a walk off home run and hurt his leg when celebrating. But he is healthy now and is capable of outstanding hitting. He is also of Latin origins and will bring a lot to the Latino community.

In this trade Aybar will be traded to the Marlins to replace Ramirez at third. This is a logical choice, because the Angels would no longer need a shortstop, because they have Ramirez. Also Aybar has remarkable speed, which is a big part of Marlins' offense.

Chatwood is young and could round out the rotation for the Marlins. Pitiching in the National League will maybe lower his ERA. Johnson, Burhlie,  Zambrano, Chatwood, is a pretty decent pitching rotation. The Angels don't need Chatwood. because they have the previously mentioned pitching rotation all in their prime.

Finally the Angels and Marlins will decide weather the Angels will take 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent of Ramirez's contract. The choice of $2 million or a prospect will remain, but Andrew Romine will not be an option, becuase he is the back up plan if Ramirez is a fluke. Ramirez only played around 90 games in 2011 which would make some skeptical, but I believe the Marlins will take it as yet another reason to trade him.

Yu Darvish

Yu Darvish is probably going to be a Texas Ranger for the 2012 season. The Texas Rangers won the right to negotiate with Darvish last night for $51 million. Yu Darvish is a pitching phenom in Japan. Posting a 1.44 era in 2011 and a 1.99 career era from the age of 18-25 Darvish has been dominate in his time in Japan.

The Rangers will absolutely be able to combat the angels now. The Angels signed Wilson and Pujols and now the Rangers will probably sign Darvish. Without a doubt the rangers have a blistering offense that will frighten any pitcher.

Neftali Feliz is said to move to the rotation since Joe Nathan was signed by the Rangers. With Darvish, Feliz, Ogando, and who ever else may fill in the positions the Rangers will be a definite force in the A.L. The only other thing I have to say is that the Angels-Rangers series' will be very entertaining.