Inspired by the lack of variety on the lists of the all time leaders in both hitting and pitching, I decided that I would construct a list of the “also-rans” (second place finishers) and the “active leaders” (leaders among the current Diamondbacks). Again, you’ll see that the top spot in many categories is highly predictable as well as highly repetitive.

We covered hitting a few days ago. Today, we’ll tackle the pitching leaders.

Remembering that this this team is young (not only, as I pointed out in the last post – this franchise isn’t even old enough to drink), but this is particularly true where the pitching is concerned. Pretty much every one of the “active leaders” fall into the category of “small sample size”.

There is no one on the Diamondbacks pitching staff (last year’s 25-man roster) that was wearing a Dbacks’ uniform before 2010.

But, it’s still fun to see where the current Dbacks sit in the grand scheme of things.

• Games Played — Jose Valverde (2003-2007) – 253
• Also ran: Byung-Hyun Kim  (1999-2003) – 245
• Active leader: David Hernandez (2011-2012) – 74
• Noteworthy: This is a very young team.
• Innings Pitched / Games Started - Randy Johnson (1999-2004, 2007-2008) – 1630.1 // 232
•  Also ran: Brandon Webb (2003-2009) – 1319.2 // 198
• Active leader: Ian Kennedy (2010-2011) -  416.1 // 65
• Noteworthy: Again, this is a very young team.
• Wins – Randy Johnson - 118
• Also ran: Brandon Webb – 87
• Active leader: Ian Kennedy – 30
• Noteworthy: Yes, everyone is aware that analysis of wins and losses leads to crappy analysis.
• Losses – Randy Johnson – 62
• Also ran: Brandon Webb – 62
• Active leader: Joe Saunders (2011) - 20
• Noteworthy: Randy Johnson and Brandon Webb lost the same number of games. Randy Johnson won a couple more. He also started a few more, as well. Just sayin’.
• ERA – Randy Johnson  – 2.83
• Also ran: Daniel Hudson (2010-2011) – 3.01
• Active leader: Daniel Hudson – see above
• Noteworthy: Third place of all time goes to Curt Schilling. Who has just missed appearing in each of the above categories.
• Saves – Jose Valverde - 98
• Also ran: Matt Mantei (2000-2004) – 74
• Active leader: JJ Putz (2011) – 45
• Noteworthy: JJ Putz’s 45 saves puts him fourth on the all-time franchise saves list. He does have some way to go to catch the pitcher in the third spot, Byung-Hyun Kim, who has 70.
• WHIP – Curt Schilling (2000-2003) – 1.04
• Also ran: Randy Johnson – 1.07
• Active leader: Daniel Hudson – 1.11
• Complete Games – Randy Johnson – 38
• Also ran: Curt Schilling – 18
• Active leader: Daniel Hudson – 3
• Shutouts – Randy Johnson – 14
• Also ran: Brandon Webb – 8
• Active leader: Ian Kennedy – 1
• Holds – Tony Pena (2006-2008) – 63
• Also ran: Brandon Lyon (2005-2008) – 63
• Active leader: David Hernandez – 23
• Double Plays – Brandon Webb – 140
• Also ran: Randy Johnson – 88
• Active leader: Joe Saunders – 38
• Noteworthy: Joe Saunders ended up 7th on the all-time list. This is noteworthy in that every one of the 6 pitchers above him faced at least 2200 more batters than he did. Ground ball pitchers are a very good thing for hitters’ parks.

And, now you know.

Sometimes, when I’m on the internet, I end up clicking on one baseball-related link, which contains another baseball-related link and I end up wandering down a twisty-winding path that is about a million degrees away from where I started.

I don’t even remember how I ended up on the Arizona Diamondbacks page for the All-Time Franchise leaders…. but, I did.

And, I’m a stat junkie, so I ended up spending more than a little time browsing through the numbers.

Unsurprisingly, its a list that’s comprised of more-or-less 2 names, with Luis Gonzalez leading the way for the offensive categories and Randy Johnson heading up most of the pitching categories.

So, inspired by the lack of variety on that list, I decided that I would construct a list of the “also-rans” (second place finishers) and the “active leaders” (leaders among the current Diamondbacks).

Today we’ll cover hitting. We’ll tackle the pitching leaders in the next post. Just in case you ever need to impress your friends at a party or something.

In order to put some of the raw numbers in perspective…. here’s a little background information on who has a leg-up on the competition, simply because of the number of times they’ve come to bat in a Dbacks uniform:

• Games Played/At-Bats  —Luis Gonzalez (1999–2006)- 1,194 // 4,488

• Also ran: Steve Finley (1999-2004) - 849 // 3049
• Active leader: Chris Young (2007 – ) – 784 // 2848 – 3rd place
• Noteworthy: Luis Gonzalez is the only Diamondback to play in all 162 games in a season.

• He did it twice: 2001 and 2002.
• In 2001, this was his quadruple slash line: .325 // .429 // .688 // 1.117

• No, seriously. His OPS was 1.117 (perspective: Jose Bautista led MLB with 1.056 in 2011)

Now, that being said:

» Continue reading “Dbacks Franchise Leaders. Or: Part One – Hitting Leaderboard”

Trevor Bauer signed with the Dbacks in 2011

There were also two alternate titles for this post: “Trevor Bauer Is A Smart Dude” and “How A Pitching Prospect Spawned a Post About The History of the Disabled List“. But, basically, what it boils down to is that you should probably familiarize yourself with Trevor Bauer – if you haven’t already.

He’s a 21 year old RHP who was drafted 3rd overall in June 2011.

He did a whole lot of very impressive things while playing baseball for UCLA, eventually winning the Golden Spikes award during his draft year. And, after he signed, he pitched a total of 7 games for A+ Visalia and AA Mobile in 2011 following signing with the Diamondbacks.

Other things that are interesting about Trevor Bauer have been chronicled in a number of different places. Here’s the rundown (all links are well, well worth a read), before we get to the meat of this article:

» Continue reading “Meet Trevor Bauer. Or: Not Your Average Pitching Prospect”

Today at BeyondTheBoxScore.com, there was a highly interesting (to me, and it should be to all of you) post regarding the regular season success of teams based on the number of “innings eaters” on the roster [HERE].

For the purposes of this discussion, they used the generally accepted threshold of 200 innings pitched as the definition of “innings-eaters”.

In summary (in the words of the author, Jacob Peterson – @junkstats - who you should really be following on twitter):

I decided to examine how team performance has related to the number of 200-inning pitchers that team had. I looked at the years from 1996 to 2011 (the non-strike-shortened years in the One-Wild-Card-Per-League Era).

In the interest of not stomping all over the copyright of other people’s hard work, I have provided a very tiny-screen shot of the article, which you should read by clicking the handy links provided at the top of this post so you can view the very helpful (and colorful) infographic for yourself.

In summarizing the bottom line:

• Teams with 0 pitchers with 200+ innings had an 8% chance of making the playoffs, while teams with 3+ pitchers with 200+ innings had a 67% chance of making the plaoffs. Teams with 1 and 2 innings eaters fell somewhere in the middle.
• 50% of teams with 3+ innings eaters won more than 92 games in the season (and more than 80% of teams with 3+ innings eaters won 85 or more games in the season).

Barring either catastrophe or miracle during spring training, the Diamondbacks’ starting rotation in 2012 will likely be as follows:

                                  information taken from baseballreference.com

» Continue reading “Let’s Talk About Stats,Baby! Or: Workhorse Starters Win Ballgames”

image from flickr user cedwardbrice (flickr.com/photos/cedwardbrice/5563380036/)

On Wednesday, Kirk Gibson announced that, barring injury or major catastrophe, Ian Kennedy will be the starter that the Diamondbacks send to the hill on opening day against the Giants.

This should come as a surprise to exactly no one. After a career year in which he posted a rather remarkable 21-4 record, with a 2.88 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, tossed his first ever complete game – a shutout, came 4th in the NL Cy Young race and got MVP votes, he’s more than earned that honor and Kirk Gibson agreed.

It hasn’t been formally announced, but it has been pretty heavily implied that Tim Lincecum will be taking the mound for the Giants on that day.

In 2011, the Dbacks played 4 games against Lincecum and posted a .255/.330/.408/.738 quadruple slash line (avg/obp/slg/ops). In contrast, when facing Ian Kennedy, the Giants offense put up a .188/.241/.277/.518.

Last season, IPK pitched 5 games against the Giants, going at least 6 innings in each of the games. He won 4/5, the lone Diamondbacks loss coming in May during a 1-0 contest in which he struck out 8 (Kennedy earned a no-decision).

Ian Kennedy and Tim Lincecum went head-to-head twice last year, once in May and once in September. The May game was the previously mentioned 1-0 Diamondbacks’ loss in which both Lincecum and Kennedy went 8 innings, giving up 0 runs on 4 hits. In the September game, Ian Kennedy was true to his 2011 form, giving up one earned run over 7 innings in a 7-2 Dbacks’ victory.

What does this mean for the Diamondbacks?

Well, Ian Kennedy pitched well last year and this remained the case when he faced their primary division rival. And, (stating the obvious here) everyone knows that Tim Lincecum can pitch, but it seemed in 2011 that the Diamondbacks hitters were able to figure him out just a little bit more than some other hitters around the league. The average quadruple slash line for batters facing Lincecum last season was .222/.302/.344/.646, with the Diamondbacks hitting above that mark in all 4 categories.

So, familiarity might breed contempt, but it also breeds knowledge. Hopefully the Diamondbacks will be able to continue to build upon the knowledge gained last season and keep the momentum going and start the season off on a high note.

And, it certainly seems that Ian Kennedy is the right man for the job.

click here to buy ST tickets!

Yesterday, the team announced the starting pitchers for the first two Split Squad games. According to Steve Gilbert, the split squad game against the Rockies will have Drew Pomeranz and Josh Outman pitching for the Rockies, facing Tyler Skaggs and Trevor Bauer.

He also announced that Josh Collmenter will be starting versus the Giants.

Given all of the attention being paid to the pair of top prospects so far in this off-season and pre-season, I have a feeling that there might be a whole lot more interest in the game happening at Salt River Fields on March 3.

Also of note yesterday, was Daniel Hudson having to “clarify” a number of comments that he made regarding retaliation for opposing pitchers who hit his teammates. Hudson explained himself in this article at mlb.com and there was a bit of reaction from the D-backs’ front office here.

I expect to cover this issue more in-depth in the next couple of days, but I’ll leave you with this:

Last season, the Diamondbacks had 5421 offial at-bats and they were hit by a pitch 61 times. There were 6 teams with a greater total number of hit batsmen, but none with fewer plate appearances.

Last season, the Diamondbacks pitching staff threw 1443 innings and hit 53 batters. There were 21 teams that pitched more innings than Diamondbacks pitchers. Only 12 of those hit fewer batsmen.

I probably won’t be shocked if those numbers change a little bit this year.

Today’s the day of the first full-squad workout in Arizona and we’re that much closer to real live baseball games.

One of the stories that has come out of Salt River Fields in the last couple of days is that catcher Miguel Montero and the team are still a ways apart on negotiating an extension.

image from flikr user afagen (flikr.com/photos/afagen/3803285289/)

What We Know: There’s History in Arizona

Miguel Montero was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks as a high school player out Venezuela in 2001 (as an amateur free agent). He spent 5 years in the minor league system, before making his debut with the organization in 2006 as a September call-up. He’s played his entire career in the Diamondbacks uniform until this point, and has said that he would like to stay in Arizona.

It is also been revealed that both Montero and the club aren’t having any trouble agreeing to the length of the contract, but its the question of money where the two sides diverge. This was evident when it took until moments before his arbitration hearing for 2012 for the two sides to agree on a salary. Even in his arbitration figures, it was easy to see that the 2 sides have very differing ideas of Montero’s “value”. Montero filed at $6.8 million and the team at $5.4 million.

Although this is most often the case in contract negotionations, I think the reasons why this might be are particularly easy to see when it comes to Miguel Montero.

What We Know: Miguel Montero is Good. REALLY GOOD.

We know that Miguel Montero is very good at baseball. He was an all-star in 2011 and even earned himself some votes in the MVP ballotting. He was first in the NL in caught-stealing percentage (40%) – a number which he has DOUBLED since 2008 – and second in the NL at the number of runners he threw out. He also made the leaderboard in the number of putouts on the season (9th) for the first time. Defensive metrics for catchers are generally quite crap, but I think its safe to say that, at the very least, his defense at catcher has improved over time. He’s still high up there on the number of passed balls and errors, but those are stats that are affected by both the number of opportunities you have and are also relatively subjective. So, again, defensive metrics are still crap.

In terms of Miguel’s offensive production, his RBISs, batting average, slugging percentage, isolated power and on base percentage was second to only Justin Upton on the team. In comparison to other catchers in baseball in 2011, his RBIs were 2nd among catchers (second to only Victor Martinez), his 18 HRs were tied for 8th with Russel Martin, 2nd in doubles (again, behind Victor Martinez – and Miguel was 9th overall in the NL in the number of doubles he hit), he was 4th in batting average (again, first place went to V-Mart), 3rd in OBP, slugging and OPS (behind Victor Martinez and Alex Avila).

So, it is pretty clear that he delivers offensively for his team, but also that his numbers stand up against the best in baseball. And, considering that V-Mart spent more than 100 games at DH this year (and Alex Avila puled DH-duty 4 times), that’s some impressive company to find himself in. He can hit.

» Continue reading “Contract Talk. Or: Everyone Wants Montero To Stay (Including Miguel Montero)”

So, in the process of researching for a forthcoming post about the Diamondbacks pitching staff, I somehow stumbled across some information that I hadn’t really synthesized prior to tonight.

The following is the list of the players who led the National League in 2011 in intentional walks (information taken from baseballreference.com):

Not that any of these players need introduction, but there are some facts that are interesting when you consider this group of players.

Fielder was 3rd in MVP voting this season, he was an All-Star (and All-Star MVP), and won the 1B Silver Slugger award. Kemp was 2nd in MVP voting, also an All-Star and winner of a Silver Slugger award this season, as well. Berkman was an All-Star, 7th in MVP voting and won NL comeback player of the year. Howard, the NL MVP in 2006, came 10th in voting in 2011 this year, and is the current active leader in at-bats per home run.

Pujols was 5th in MVP voting and would have likely been an All-Star if not for his wrist injury. Votto, 2010′s NL MVP, was 6th in MVP voting in 2011 and was also an All-Star.  McCann was an All-Star in 2011 and, while he didn’t wrangle any MVP votes this year, he picked up the Silver Slugger for catchers – his 5th in the last 6 seasons. Bruce was an All-Star this season and, in addition to having the 8th most IBBs, he was also 8th best in the NL in RBIs and home runs. And, Tulowitzki came 8th in the MVP race this past season, was an All-Star and the NL shortstop Silver Slugger.

That’s some impressive company to find yourself in.

» Continue reading “Gerardo Parra Hits Well Enough To Win A Gold Glove. Or: Statistical Ruminations”

fangraphs.com

So, since we’re still twiddling our thumbs in the land of the Diamondbacks, waiting for something to happen (or dreading that something bad will happen), today’s post is very, very random.

Today, I have compiled a list of random stats from the 2011 season.

Because you can never have too many ridiculous baseball stats.

For what its worth, I have limited my selection to those Snakes on the original post-season roster. Because doing this for everyone who played a game for the Diamondbacks this season? Well, now, that would just be ridiculous. (Which, obviously, this post is not. In any way.)

PITCHERS (11)

Micah Owings – Was the only pitcher who’s batting average = his OBP = slugging percentage.

Brad Ziegler – Had the lowest batting average against of any member of the pitching staff when facing RH batters (0.170).

David Hernandez – Had the lowest batting average against of the entire pitching staff… with the bases empty.

Ian Kennedy – As a hitter, led the Dbacks pitching staff with the most strikeouts. And, the most walks. Also, he pitched pretty well, too.

Joe Saunders – Caught more base stealers than any other member of the pitching staff.

Bryan Shaw – In a very small sample size, had a k/9 of 18.00 against the SF Giants. Of course, he also walked as many as he struck out.

J.J. Putz – Led the team in K/9 by more than a full point after the all-star break.

Daniel Hudson – As a hitter, he had nearly 2x as many total bases (24) as the next closest pitcher (13, Joe Saunders).

Joe Paterson – Had the lowest WHIP at home all season. Also, had the lowest WHIP and ERA in NLDS (he faced one batter and struck him out).

Josh Collmenter – Threw the only Quality Start in the LDS.

Jarrod Parker – Has only had to pitch to one batter with anyone on base. He struck him out.

CATCHERS (2)

Henry Blanco – Had the highest OPS of any position player on the Dbacks last year… with no one on base.

Miguel Montero – Had the longest hitting streak on the team this year (18 games).

INFIELDERS (8)

Aaron Hill – Highest BA on the team with a 3-2 count.

Sean Burroughs – Saw the highest number of pitches per PA with the bases loaded (8.00)

Ryan Roberts – Was the man most likely to come to bat with the bases loaded (15 times), he hit 0.462 with the bases loaded with a 0.533 OBP. (Also, is the subject of the WPA graph that is posted at the top of today’s entry. With his bases loaded, bottom of the 10th, ultimate (walk-off) grand-slam against the Dodgers, he pretty much maxed out the Win Probability Added statistic. See fangraphs for more info.)

John McDonald -Was the only Dback to have his only at-bat of a game come with the bases loaded. Twice.

Willie Bloomquist – Had the most stolen bases in the NLDS with 3.

Geoff Blum – Was most likely to walk when used as a pinch hitter (3).

Lyle Overbay – Had the greatest number of walks per PA (0.5) during day games.

Paul Goldschmidt – Had the highest batting average of any position player in an 0-2 count.

OUTFIELDERS (4)

Collin Cowgill – Was the only DBack to bat 1.000 in the NLDS. He went 1-for-1 with a single and 2 RBIs.

Gerardo Parra – Had the highest quadruple slash line of any Diamondbacks position player in interleague play this year.

Justin Upton – Led the team in HR, in the 7th inning or later (10), and pretty much every other offensive category. And, being HBP. There was no contest. Though, with the trade of Carlos Quentin to the Padres, it’s going to be a tight race to be the top of the NL this year.  

Chris Young – Led the team in power and extra-base hits in the NLDS. Good timing.

And, now you know. Go forth and impress your friends and family with your wealth of random knowledge.