By Kyle Soppe
Jacoby Ellsbury is having a magnificent year, due to his new approach at the plate as well health. He homered to left field Wednesday night against the Yankees, clearing the Green Monster. His 44thcareer homer was his first one hit to left field.
Andruw Jones did his part to prolong the Yanks/Sox game on Thursday night. Not a typically patient hitter, Jones saw 36 pitches in his 4 at bats. On the season, he averages 4.2 pitches per at bat this year, so this type of game was unexpected, as it would typically take Jones 8 or 9 at bats to see 36 pitches.
Craig Kimbrel gets my vote for NL rookie of the year, and is a big reason why I like Atlanta in the playoffs. He set the rookie record for saves when he recorded save number 41 earlier this week. He is 42/47 in save opportunities and has been effective all season. The Braves fireballer has the highest k/9 (14.66) of any rookie reliever of all time. He leads all of baseball in saves, and if he can hold on, he would become the first rookie to ever do so.
Ivan Nova managed to shake off any sort of Splinter curse, and has continued his winning ways. He has won all 8 of his last 8 starts, most consecutive victories by a Yanks rookie since Marius Russo in 1939, who also won 8 straight.
Justin Verlander continues to rewrite the Detroit record books. He is the first Tiger with 21 wins since Jack Morris in 1986. Still not going to win the MVP.
Zach Greinke (10.67) and Brandon Morrow (10.41) rank as the top 2 pitchers when it comes to strikeouts per 9 innings this year. They both have an ERA over 4, and their combined ERA (8.78) is by far the highest of all time for the 2 leaders in k/9.
Juan Pierre leads the league in CS this year with 13. His 25 successful steals the lowest number of steals by the league leader in CS’s in a year over the last 11 years. For context, Pierre led the league in CS’s last year, but he stole 68 bases.
Carlos Quentin is on the DL this season and with his White Sox not going much of anywhere, it is yet to be determined how much more action he will see this season. If he plays less than 13 more games, he will be the first player to lead the league in HBP while playing less than 130 games since Fernando Vina in 2000.
Casey Kotchman leads the league in fielding percentage, at a remarkable .999. He Now a member of the Rays, he has only committed 4 errors … in the last 4 seasons put together. He has lead the league in fielding percentage every one of those years.
Tim Lincecum has struck out 200 batters for a 4th straight season. A remarkable feat that has only been done by 2 other Giant pitchers ever. If he remains healthy, safe money would have him going for the 5th straight next year.
I am advancing to the finals in my fantasy baseball league. Not that that is of general interest, but I figured that the name of the league deserved a mention: “Bring back the Expo’s”. Not sure if you’ll be allowed to view it, but here’s the link if you think I’m bluffing. https://games.espn.go.com/flb/leagueoffice?leagueId=192809&teamId=7&seasonId=2011
Kyle, every time I read an article you do, I hear a voice in my head that says “he should change the name of his columns to What’Soppe with Kyle.”
Good piece as always, and I am sure Casey is having a good laugh about the Expos.
Cliff Lee with his 6th complete game shutout yesterday. Everybody’s talking about Halladay vs. Kershaw for the NL Cy Young, and asking the question if Ian Kennedy belongs in the discussion. It’s looking to me like it’s going to be a three-horse race, but Lee is the third horse, not Kennedy.
Kyle —
Great post again … informative and entertaining. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re gonna snooze through Sept as the races are essentially over … except the AL West (Rangers-Angels). Football will take over. Hopefully, we’ll notice when the baseball playoffs begin. I’m kinda bummed about this. 🙁
Here’s some great facts about Cliff Lee’s season:
https://passion4baseball.blogspot.com/2011/09/14-phun-phacts-of-cliff-lees-2011.html
My personal favorite: Lee’s slugging percentage this year is .339. The combined slugging percentage of all batters he’s faced: .337. Awesome.
Agree … that’s pretty awesome, Chas.
Any idea who’s on the list of the “best hitting pitchers” of all-time? I think Greg Maddux was pretty good and Carlos Zambrano has been quite a slugger.
Babe Ruth? 😉
Of course, all-time would be tough because the list would mostly be old-timers. Red Ruffing comes to mind as one of the best. Most recently, Micah Owings was the best: 9 HR in 217 PA, .283 BA, .507 SLG.
holy smokes, Lee only went to 3-0 on 22 batters? That’s ridiculous.
We talked earlier this season about how Thome’s approach of the 600 HR plateau did not get much fanfare.
How about Kimbrel? He hasn’t allowed a run since June 11th. That’s a span of 36 (if I am counting correctly) appearances.
https://espn.go.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/30653/craig-kimbrel
Hahahaha. love the title Bill … i dont care what the numbers say, i think if my life is on the line, im giving Cliff Lee the ball … Kimbrel is a stud, no 2 ways about that. but hes got to do it for more than 1 season. Neftali Feliz looked the same way his rookie year, and is now a solid (not jaw dropping) closer. Love Kimbrel, and believe he has staying power, just want to see it again next year
Not a very good outing, but Justin Verlander is now 22-5 … Tigers beat the Indians again.
Ichiro update: 161 hits in 141 games. Needs to average 1.86 hits per game over the remaining 21 games to keep his record streak going for 200+ hits per season. It’s not looking good.
By the way, Ichiro is 37 years old and has more than 2,400 hits in his MLB career. If he can play 4 more seasons, he should get to the hallowed 3,000 hit club. This would be remarkable given the late start to his career here after several years in Japan. I’d be willing to bet that he might be among the fastest to get there in terms of games played.
Verlander watch: 7 scoreless innings to beat the ChiSox last night. Now 23-5 with ERA 2.36. MVP! MVP! 🙂