Day Planners: December 2nd

December 2nd

1999
The first day to register for next semester's classes at UNM
Had a couple of classes and something big with 'Problem #4'
Went to visit my grandmother in the hospital after school

2000
Had to be at my mom's house around 10:00 AM to go to Carlsbad.
Presumably to see the Christmas on the Pecos

2001
Had to work
Call Tre after work about getting together to study for our EMT class

2002
Worked at Keva Juice from 7 - 3
Defined Fitness afterwords for 'Cardio'
Had to stop at the bank
Had to go to Sams Club
Was supposed to call Brad and Val about going to see The Sound of Music
I also was supposed to call Jason and
Write a letter to my grandfather
Lobos played NMSU at 7:00 as well-likely women's basketball

2003
Worked with a client from 9:30 - 12:30
Then supposed to go for a swim at the gym before
Working with another client at 3:00
There was also a show at the Launchpad.

2008
Living in Sweden
Was supposed to workout legs in the apartment gym
That evening I was supposed to sign up with some temporary job agencies

2009
Just arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark 3 days ago.

Player Review/Prediction: Aaron Hill

Aaron Hill

Aaron Hill had a terrible 2010: 205/.271/.394 (BA/OBP/SLG) which led to 1.1 WAR almost all based on defense and position.  His offensive ‘contribution’ was 14 runs below replacement level.

This was especially disappointing considering his 2009: .286/.330/.499 which led to 3.9 WAR and 18 runs above replacement level on offense.  All told that was a swing of 32 runs offensively.

What happened?

You should know what we’re going to look at by now.

Walk and strike out rates didn’t change much

His power remained above average

BABIP fell off of a cliff

He went from being a guy with an average or better BABIP to the lowest BABIP in the majors among qualified players.  So there we go.  Expect a full bounce back from Hill next season as luck corrects itself.  If only it were that easy.

There is a huge change in Hill’s batted ball profile in 2010. 

His ground ball rate is around where it has been.  

But his fly ball rate soared upwards while his line drive rate cratered. 

We know that line drives have the highest BABIPs (.750ish) and fly balls have the lowest (.140) so we’d fully expect his BABIP to to decrease.

Using the major league average BABIPs on Hill’s batted ball profile we get that he should have been expected to have had a BABIP of .240.  His actual BABIP was .196.  If Hill had had a BABIP of .240, he would have had 24 more hits.  If all of those hits were singles, his line for 2010 would have looked like: .251/.305/.440, a heck of a lot better. 

Do Hill’s BABIPs usually follow league average?

For his career:

Ground Ball BABIP = .241 – YEP

Fly Ball BABIP = .136 – YEP

Line Drive BABIP = .706 – Not quite.

If we give Hill a BABIP consistent with his career averages we come up with a BABIP of .234 which gives Hill and extra 22 hits and a line of: .246/.300/.435.  Still much better than his actual 2010.

But .245/.300/.435 is still way off from his .270/.325/.427 career numbers and we still don’t know what’s going on with the lack of line drives and increase in fly balls.

In 2009 Hill hit 36 home runs, that’s more than double how many he hit in his 4 previous seasons combined.  We know how the Blue Jays have emphasized hitting for power (see Bautista, Jose for Exhibit A) the last couple of years.  Have the Blue Jays encouraged Hill to try and hit more fly balls in order to get more home runs?  I don’t know.  He hit 36 in 2009 without resorting to hitting more than half of his balls in the air.  In 2009 Hill also had a HR/FB rate of 14.9% compared to a career rate of 8.6%.

Year HR/FB, Isolated Power

2010 10.8%, .189

2009 14.9%, .213

2008 2.4%, .098

2007 8.6%, .168

2006 3.6%, .095

2005 2.6%, .111

Hill’s HR/FB and ISO are all over the map.  League average ISO tends to be around .150 and HR/FB around 10%.  Some years Hill is well above average, and some he is well below.  So, who is the real Aaron Hill?

I don’t really know.  His walk and strike out rates seem to be established but his power numbers are all over the place and the sudden change in batted balls is just weird.

Batted ball rates stabilize over a relatively small number of plate appearances (well below the 580 Hill received last year) so it’s unlikely that his increase in fly balls was a fluke and much more likely that it was something conscious in his plate approach.  It sure seems to be a bad plate approach though.  Aaron Hill is 5’11” and 200 lbs (about the same size that I am).  He’s not a hulking slugger who should be trying to launch every shot into the seats.   I’d hope that the Blue Jays see this and try to get him to hit less fly balls.

I’m not encouraged by Hill’s month-to-month batted ball data

Month FB%

April 51.7%

May 48.9%

June 56.7%

July 51.4%

August 61.7%

Sept/Oct 53.6%

Doesn’t appear that they tried to get him to alter his swing during the season at all as he hit more fly balls the second half of the season, than he did the first.

So, what do I make of it?

Official Prediction:

.255 batting average, 540 AB, 26 doubles, 17 home runs, 38 walks, 76 strike outs, .260 BABIP, .307 OBP and .411 SLG

That’s splitting the difference in his FB rate between his career and 2010 and coming up with 48% fly balls and 15% line drives.

If he keeps hitting fly balls like he did in 2010 the batting average and On Base Percentage will come down with a few more home runs.

If he returns to his 2006-2009 batted ball rates then expect the average and On Base Percentage to come up and a drop in home runs.

Day Planners: November 23rd

1999
Class in the morning
Some stuff that is crossed out-guess that I accomplished it
Come out take a shower
Go see Suicidal Tendencies at the Launch Pad

2000
Was Thanksgiving.  Probably ate Turkey

2001
Play basketball in the morning
Wash my car in the afternoon

2002
Picked up a shift at work from 9:30 to 12:30.  This required me to drive to Las Lunas
Stop by my office to:
     See Val
     Give in some paperwork
     Get some paperwork
Sometime during the day I had to:
     Call UNM about my schedule
     Pick up and drop off some books at the Library

2009
Use my next to last clip on my ten times gym card

Day Planners: November 18th

1999

Had an accounting test in the morning.  First class.

I was then going to hit the UNM gym bookended by some studying.

After finish my classes for the day I was going to go and see my grandmother in the hospital.

That night Type-O Negative was playing at the Sunshine Theater.  I don't think I went

2000

Went to work

Went to the Bank on the way home

2001

Took a Sunday off

2002

Made smoothies from 7 to 3

Went to the gym to do Cardio

That night I was either going to:

Hang out with Vicki

Go see Tool

Or call "Terra"

--your guess is as good as mine what I did.  I have have seen Tool a few times, so maybe that.

2004

Get up and go for a swim

Meet a new community membership client-turned out to be a really awesome guy

"Buy Phil Tix" ???

Fix the window on my Jeep

Buy a heater for my bed

2008

Living in Sweden

Jog to the gym and work out "legs"

Go to ICA and buy groceries and some stuff to clean the drain

Clean the drain

Hit the sauna at 7:30

2009

Living in Sweden

Had to buy groceries

Shave and clean the bathroom

2010 AL Cy Young: Pitcher Wins

The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) will announce the 2010 AL Cy Young in about 10 minutes (as of this posting)

The two main contenders would figure to be:

CC Sabathia of the NY Yankees: 21 - 7  3.18 34 starts, 237.2 innings, 74 walks, 197 strikeouts
Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners: 13 - 12 2.27 34 starts, 249.2 innings, 70 walks, 232 strikeouts

Every SABR stat in the world says that Hernandez should win easily over Sabathia (who might not even be the 2nd best pitcher in the AL this year).

But the BBWAA hasn't always been receptive to sabermetric ideas.  One of the most galvanizing statistics is pitcher wins.  Traditional wisdom says that the pitcher with the most wins must be better-he has more wins.  Wins of course don't really reflect how a pitcher pitched as much as it reflects how the pitcher pitched, how the other pitcher pitched, how the team hit, how the other team hit, how the team fielded, how the other team fielded and a good dose of luck.  But some people still cling to pitcher wins despite well thought out articles like this one.
http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/09/10/king-felix-vs-c-c/

Just for fun I'm going to take a quick look at pitcher wins in this case and still show that Felix was the better pitcher this year.

Felix won 13 games this year, while losing 12-a 52% winning percentage
Sabathia won 21 games this year, while losing just 7-a 75% winning percentage

How can Felix be better?
The Seattle Mariners won 61 games this year while losing 101-a 38% winning percentage
The New York Yankees won 95 games this year while losing 67-59% winning percentage

Clearly the Yankees were a better team.

If we take out Felix's wins and losses the Mariners won 48 games while losing 89 games-a 35% winning percentage
If we take out CC's wins and losses the Yankees won 74 games while losing 60 games-a 55% winning percentage.

Dividing Felix's winning percentage (52%) by the Mariners' winning percentage (35%) without Hernandez we get a ratio of 1.48.  Felix won games 48% more often than the team as a whole.

Dividing CC's winning percentage (75%) by the Yankees' winning percentage (55%) without Sabathia we get a ratio of 1.36.  CC won games 36% more often than the team as a whole.

Looking at it this way Felix Hernandez had a higher winning percentage than Sabathia.

If anyone besides Felix Hernandez walks away with the AL Cy Young today the BBWAA writers aren't properly valuing wins.

Player Review/Prediction: Zack Greinke

Zack Greinke was the 6^th overall pick of the KC Royals in 2002 and was in the majors just 2 years later.  At the age of 20, he had an excellent season with an 8 – 11 3.97 season for the Royals.  His 2005 wasn’t nearly as good as he finished 5 – 17 5.80 but those numbers were exacerbated by a terrible BABIP and Left On Base Percentage. 

During spring training of 2006 Greinke left the team due to a diagnosis of Social Anxiety Disorder.  Greinke left baseball entirely for a few months and spent most of 2006 pitching in AAA. 

Greinke began 2007 in the Royals rotation and pitched well (3 – 6 3.80) in 14 starts before being moved into the bullpen. 

In 2008 Greinke returned to the Royals rotation and stayed there the entire season putting up a very good line of 13 – 10 3.47.

Then 2009 came.  Greinke didn’t give up an earned run in his first 4 starts and made 10 starts before giving up more than 2 runs.  He pitched complete games in 4 of his first 7 starts.  No one managed a home run against Greinke until June.  His excellence continued the entire season as Greinke ran away with the Cy Young finishing 16 – 8 with a 2.16 ERA. 

 Greinke couldn’t meet the lofty expectations created by his 2009, turning in a 10 – 14 record with a 4.17 ERA. 

So what happened in 2010, and what do we expect for 2011?

First, that’s sort of the wrong question.  The better question is, “what happened in 2009?”

The previous graphs show that 2009 was the odd year for Greinke.  Strikeouts, walks, home runs, and batting average were all better than anything that he’d previously done in his career.  2009 isn’t the baseline we should use for Greinke.  2007 and 2008 are. 

How’d Greinke’s 2010 compare to his 2007 and 2008?  In terms of ERA, not good. 

Year: ERA, ERA+

2007: 3.47, 124

2008: 3.80, 126

2009: 2.16, 205 

2010: 4.17, 100

*ERA+ compares a pitcher’s ERA to league average and adjusts for home park.  100=average.  Above 100=better than average.  Below 100=below average.

At first glance, it would look like Greinke had a poor (for him) 2010.  But did he?

Looking back at the graphs of strikeouts, walks, home runs, and batting average, his 2010 looks very similar to his 2007 and 2008.  So, why the bad ERA in 2010?  The first place to look is always BABIP. 

Not that.  Greinke’s BABIP has been remarkably consistent since 2007.  The next place to look is Left On Base Percentage

Now, there we have something.  The percentage of runners that Greinke stranded in 2010 was well below his career level and well below the league average.  Simply put, opposing hitters were getting more ‘clutch’ hits against Greinke than would be expected. 

According to Baseball-Reference 

With runners in scoring position in 2010 opposing hitters hit .297

With men on base opposing hitters hit .275

With no runners on opposing hitters hit .249

There is no real reason to expect opposing hitters to hit better with runners in scoring position as they did in 2010 (opposing hitters in general do hit better with runners on base than they do with the bases empty).  Check out Greinke’s 2007 and 2008

2007 RISP .224, Men On .274

2008 RISP .234, Men On .268

In 2007 and 2008 Greinke got excellent results with runners in scoring position.  In 2010, of course, he did not.  Why?

2007 BABIP with runners in scoring position: .258

2008 BABIP with runners in scoring position: .295

2010 BABIP with runners in scoring position: .349

That stands out.  I’ve already mentioned that Greinke’s BABIP has been very stable.  So a more than 50 point jump between 2008 and 2010 seems to be nothing but bad luck in those situations.  And that number is likely to be closer to .300 in 2011-leading to less runs scoring and a lower ERA.

There is one concerning thing about Greinke, however.  Strikeouts.  Greinke’s K/9 in 2010 was well below his established norm and right around the league average. 

The following numbers are Greinke’s year-by-year percentages for pitches swung at and made contact with and swinging strike percentage. 

2007 78.3, 9.8

2008 79.5, 9.3

2009 77.7, 9.9

2010 82.8, 7.5

2010 looks a lot different.  Why?

Two obvious places to look are at Greinke’s pitch selection and his stuff.

Greinke’s pitch selection

2007 FB=66%, Slider=19%, Curve=8%, Change up=7%

2008 FB=62%, Slider=19%, Curve=12%, Change up=8%

2009 FB=59%, Slider=20%, Curve=14%, Change up=6%

2010 FB=61%, Slider=16%, Curve=11%, Change up=13%

Greinke is obviously using the change up more and his slider less.  This is strange because his slider has consistently been his best pitch and his change up his worst.  Also about half of Greinke’s fastballs in 2010 were classified as two-seam fastballs while less than 1% of his pitches the 3 previous seasons were so classified.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1943&position=P#pitchvalues

This chart shows Greinke’s runs saved per 100 pitches of each type for the last few years (high numbers are good. & negative numbers bad).

2007 Fastball = .57, Slider = .43, Curveball = 1.00, Change = -2.92

2008 Fastball = -.19, Slider = 2.49, Curveball = .14, Change = -1.53

2009 Fastball = 1.27, Slider = 2.90, Curveball = .50, Change = -1.21

2010 Fastball = .49, Slider = 2.34, Curveball = -1.91, Change = -.57

You can see that the slider is by far his most consistent pitch.  Why would he throw it less?  And why would it substitute his slider for his changeup, which is his worst pitch?  I don’t have any idea.  It’s worth noting that his change has been improving each year.  Also note that his curveball was an above average pitch for Greinke in 2007-2009 but was terrible for him this year.

I’m far from being an expert on Pitch F/X but I’ll look at the numbers quickly.

http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?playerid=1943&position=P

There’s no obvious decline in Greinke’s velocity

His curveball has shown a decrease in horizontal movement.  The decrease has been gradual which doesn’t explain why the decrease in effectiveness dropped off so quickly.

2007 8.1 inches

2008 7.5 inches

2009 6.1 inches

2010 4.5 inches

His slider has also shown a similar decrease in horizontal movement

2007 5.7 inches

2008 5.0 inches

2009 3.6 inches

2010 2.9 inches

So, what does it all mean?

First, Greinke v.2009 isn’t the Greinke we should be comparing to.  He pitched to the best of his capabilities and everything broke right for him.  We should be looking at Greinke’s 2007 and 2008 seasons as a baseline.

Greinke’s 2010 was a lot like his 2007 and 2008.  The only two differences were his left on base percentage, which should return to normal and his strike out rate.  Regarding his strikeout rate; he is pitching differently and his pitches are moving differently so does this strike out rate represent a new norm for Greinke?  I don’t know. 

For a projection I’ll say:

33 starts, 220 innings, 60ish walks, 190ish strike outs, and an ERA of 3.50 (give or take the standard half of a run).  So, basically, the same Zack Greinke we’ve seen since 2007-exluding his amazing 2009 and terrible LOB% in 2010.

Day Planners: November 9th

1999
Had a couple of classes at UNM
Was going to go to the gym and work on my arms
Needed to work on a 'newsbrief'.  Probably something for school
And I was going to study for "303".  And I was going to do it "outside".
Notes for this week included something about "Mug Girl"


2000
Headed to the gym in the morning with this note "last day to relax"
Then Class.  
At lunch I needed to print something for 426 (Advanced problems in financial management)
Still needed to change the wiper blades
And I planned on taking a bubble bath


2001
Work from 8:30 to 6:00.  Headed to the gym at lunch to work out my legs
Then a Lobo basketball game
And "Tommy" at 8:00
EDIT:  Thanks to my bro who reminded me that was the musical of The Who's Tommy.




2004
Doing cardio at the gym before work
Had a new client intake that day.  I remember her.  She was a sweet girl.
After work I needed to come home and vacuum.  
After vacuuming I had to pack for a trip to California!  :0)
Somehow I still thought I'd have time to go to another Lobo game


2008
Had to write an email to the guy I was renting an apartment from about borrowing his bicycle and the electric bill
I also needed a shave


2009
Get up and go to the gym.  Working out "Arms".  6 times left on the 10 times card
Svenskundervisning För Invandrare (Swedish For Immigrants).  My Swedish class
Then grocery shopping on the way home
That night I had something to do with "library books"
I also had to email Nina about the movie "Kvinan som lekte med elden".  Nina was one of my SFI instructors and we were supposed to write emails to her about Swedish TV shows or movies that we saw.
I was also going to watch Silent Library and tell my girlfriend that she was a 'Plughäst' - Swedish for 'work horse' since she had been working so hard on her PhD and I just learned that word in class.