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Yet Another Battle
Hey sportsfans, it's me, Dr. Rapp, finally returning
to grace the pages of this fabulous website. I know that I've been
kind of missing in action the past few months, and I can't really
come up with a good excuse. While I have been extremely busy formulating
my theories on the behavioral patterns of epicureans, I can honestly
say that I have been following the league religiously and keeping
a separate noetbook on my personal league thoughts. And let me tell
you, I have got a few.
However, I can't write on all of them, because that
would a) take upwards of 500K of disk space on this page, and b)
I just don't have an inkling of the time necessary.
I narrowed it down gradually, and have come up with
the one topic I will release my thoughts on, and surprise surprise,
it involves the two most decorated players in the league: Scott
Carmichael and Joey
Creighton.
It's no secret that Scott is having a hell of a
season. He's hitting .392, has 47 HRs (record), 71 RBIs (record),
and is on pace for 279 ABs (record). While all of these numbers
are exceptional, they are overshadowing his most amazing stat: His
0.72 ERA.
The
offense this season has been off the charts. Players are bashing
homeruns like never before. Numerous pitchers have ERAs above 5.00,
and the league ERA is at an all-time high. Still, Scott has been
quietly shutting down hitters left and right en route to his astounding
ERA. Sure, you could say that he doesn't need to face himself nor
Mike
Walsh nor Nate
Stuempfig, but that's a useless excuse. Scott has to
face James
Vassar, Terry
Creighton, Casey
Sylvester, and Joey
Creighton among others. It's not his fault he's such
a great hitter as are his draft picks.
This leads me to another point though. The current
ERA record is 0.73, a number near unthinkable before Joey Creighton
pulled it off last season. Scott is well on his way to breaking
the record yet again and putting it under his name, along with many
other accolades. When I've watched Scott pitch these past few gamedays,
I've noticed a few things. For one, he seems to have taken a lot
off his pitches. I don't know if it's due to arm soreness or some
other physical problem, but despite the drop in speed, he remains
dominant. The reason for this is because Scott has implanted in
other player's minds that he is unhittable, a pitcher like no other
who throws harder than any other guy in the league and (on the most
part) throws it no higher than six inches off the ground. It's no
secret that 75% of the hitters in the league are intimidated by
Scott, and for good reason. Because of this, he can get away with
throwing at 75% speed. Players *know* that Scott can still throw
at near-unhittable speeds, yet now they don't know *when* he will.
He's developed a great offspeed pitch and has worked it into his
arsenal flawlessly. Batters seem to now have no idea what will be
coming with each Scott pitch. About 60% the time it's simply a straight
ball, not thrown too hard, yet thrown with near-precise accuracy.
About a quarter of the time, it's a deadly hook, seemingly aimed
to be a ball, as it will hit the ground before the strike zone 9
times out of 10, but will be swung at 9 times out of 10, and missed
9 times out of 10. The rest of the time it's the old Scott Carmichael
heater, now even more unhittable because you aren't sure when it's
coming. From 1994 to 2000 Scott threw hard fastballs 90% of the
time and would occasionally mix in a curve. To sum up my main point:
While many pitchers have multiple pitches in their
arsenal, only Scott Carmichael has shown the ability to mix them
with near-perfection.
So is the ERA title Scott's already? Maybe, maybe
not. His ERA will relatively skyrocket if he gives up a run. I mean,
if Scott gives up only one run in five IP at the next gameday, his
ERA will go up! That is what is known as "pressure". However,
his .169 opponent's average and 7.44 K/4 ratio displays how difficult
it is to hit off the man. This is where Joey Creighton comes in.
Joey is honestly the only man in the league who
can hit Scott. In 1999, Joey was 6-15 with 2 HRs off Scott. In 2000,
he was a remarkable 10-19 with 5 HRs off Scott. Combining those
two years gives Joey a brilliant .471 batting average off Scott.
This year, he's only hitting .176 off Scott (3-17) with only one
HR. Still, Joey's been facing Scott in this league for 7+ seasons,
not including all the times they faced each other before 1994. Joey
and Scott know each other inside out, and both hit each other better
than any other player in the league can. All this yapping and stat-flexing
boils down to this one point of mine:
Joey Creighton is the only guy in this league who
can save his ERA record. He can't rely on any other hitters to hit
Scott for him and raise his ERA above 0.730434846 (Joey's 2000 mark),
no matter *how* talented they are. While Casey Sylvester and James
Vassar are hitting machines, both are as helpless as Eric
"1-14, 11 K's off Scott in 2000" Christensen
when Scott is pitching. While Scott has had Joey's number
this year so far, Joey has proven to have the ability to not only
hit Scott, but piss on Scott's pitching.
Joey and Scott go head-to-head only one more time
in the regular season this year, and it's a doubleheader at the
Byrd House on August 26th. Those two games will tell you just who
has the ERA record at season's end, Joey Creighton or Scott Carmichael.
Joey will get roughly 4-6 chances to hit Scott, and chances are,
those ABs will be long and hard battles for both combatants. Sound
like a big deal? It's not really.
Just one more chapter in the book.
--Dr.
William Rapp
Dr. Willian Rapp is a contrinuting writer for
wiffleball2k.com. His columns appear whenever the esteemed psychologist
finds the time. He is not the biggest fan of Cliff Rancho.
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