All-Star Breakdown
July 13, 2004
by Michael Walls

As Major League Baseball takes a break to mark the halfway point of regular season play, all of the sports analysts have emerged from their barker-lounge TV rooms and are pouring over a half-season’s worth of statistics. By the start of the second half of the season, we will have heard about all the MLB leaders in a dozen different categories. We’ll hear about Scott Rolan’s league leading 80 RBIs, about Pudge Rodriguez’ .369 batting average (and how it is 4 point higher than Bond’s average), and about the sensational pitching season’s of Mark Mulder and Jason Schmidt.

So rather than regurgitate what has already been said, will be said, and will be forgotten by mid-August (as some of the above mentions hit the DL) – I’ve put together some analyses about some of the not-so-great statistics for the first half of 2004.

Error of our ways

In the year of the “Moneyball”, errors are getting scrutinized by the analysts, with some critics claiming error scoring as unfair or inaccurate. Critics claim that those spectacular diving catches that make the highlight reels are actually players playing out-of-position, while the real professionals are always underneath the ball to make difficult plays look routine.

Of course this theory probably doesn’t apply to Kaz Matsui of the Mets, as I’ve seen first hand at least a half dozen of his league leading 17 errors this season. This MLB rookie from Japan probably won’t be in any kind of rookie-of-the-year dispute like his non-related cousin Hideki Matsui was last year.

Following K. Matsui in errors committed thus far are Melvin Mora (15), Alfonso Soriano (15), David Bell (14), and Miguel Tejada (13). Mora makes up for his errors by ranking 2nd in the AL for batting average (.347).

Down on Strikes

Nothing is more humbling (or humiliating) then a swing and a miss for a third strike. Uh…unless you’re Jorge Posada, pinch-hitting in the bottom of the ninth, with the bases loaded, with two out, down by one run to the Mets, and you WATCH a third strike.

The current strikeout leaders for baseball are: Adam Dunn (108), Mark Bellhorn (96), Craig Wilson (89), Miguel Cabrera (86), and Mike Cameron (86).

Fans and fantasy owners of Adam Dunn will argue that his career best 25 homeruns so far this year more than offsets his 108 strikeouts. After all, he’s on pace for 50 homeruns this year. Yeah…don’t hold your breath. For comparison purposes, Bonds has 23 homeruns so far, but only 19 strikeouts.

GIDP

Ah, the old GIDP stat – Ground Into Double Play. This category should be renamed to CRFS – Can’t Run For Shit – as that is the main reason most of these players rack up this stat. Leading the three-legged race is Andruw Jones with 18, followed by Vinny “bag-of-donuts” Castilla (17), A.J. “pegleg” Pierzynski (15), Marquis Grissom (14), with “speedy” Jeff Kent and Miguel Tejada tied at 13 each.

Been Caught Stealin’

As opposed to the aforementioned slowpokes, guys like Florida’s Juan Pierre are built for speed. Pierre led the league last year with 65 bases swiped, while only getting caught 20 times. But it appears that this year’s pitchers aren’t giving Pierre the running room he’s used to, as he’s already been picked off 14 times (leading the league) and only stolen 21 so far.

Most of the running and stealing this year is being done on the other coast of Florida, as Carl Crawford of Tampa Bay leads the league with 38 stolen bases (but caught 12 times). And keep an eye on Milwaukee’s Scott Podsednik, as he has swiped 34 bases and has only been caught 4 times, for an 89% success rate.

Podsednik and Crawford are on pace for 68 and 76 total bases respectively, so Rickey Henderson can rest easy for another year as his record of 130 bases in 1982 is still safe.

Kerr-plunk!

Some records just plain old hurt. Currently leading the league in the hit-by-pitch category is Pittsburgh’s right fielder Craig Wilson. Wilson’s been clocked 18 times. Perhaps he’s leaning in over the plate a bit too much. Or maybe people just don’t like him. Either way, unless he leans a lot more, or faces Roger Clemens more often, he doesn’t have much of a chance of grabbing the hit-by-pitch award currently held by Ron Hunt for getting beaned 50 times during the 1971 season.

Pitcher Imperfect

Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Jason Schmidt, even Kenny Rogers – all have feel-good stories this year. The only thing that feels good to Baltimore’s Sidney Ponson (and the rest of his team) is when he’s sitting in the dugout. Ponson currently owns the lead in three pitching categories this year: losses (12), hits given up (153), and runs given up (86).

The 3-year, $22.5 million dollar man has already matched his 2003 loss total, while only giving his team 3 wins thus far. Coming off a 17-win season last year, Baltimore had high hopes for the Aruba-born hurler. But after inking the 3-year deal, Ponson showed up to training camp 15 pound overweight, which is partially being blamed for his poor performance this season. Perhaps Ponson should consult David Wells about proper diet and conditioning. Err…or maybe not.

(Michael Walls is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine)