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Post Gameday Points X
Great
Before
I forget, let me throw a congratulatory shot out to my man Terry Creighton,
who's turning 22 on the 15th. Terry was my ticket into being a sideline
reporter for this league back in 2001. I am still grateful. Have a good
one, TC!
Back
to Chico issues though, as the league inches closer to the postseason.
The
first thing I want to point out is that so far, all of my predictions
from last week have come true. The way I did it was, I sat down and looked
at each matchup from then on out. I picked winners and losers for each
game, except in the case of doubleheaders, where I simply picked a sweep
or a split. Funny thing was, I predict NO sweeps for the rest of the season,
and on the first day of action after I posted my thoughts, there were
no sweeps. And in both nitecaps, the team I predicted to win won.
So
there.
And
guess what else I was right on the money about! Tavis Beynon! I recall
saying that I thought Tavis would become an impact player after about
AB #50. Well, I was close...he finally started hitting at AB #43. Now
he sits with 52 ABs and guess what. He's an impact player. Assuming of
course that he chooses to keep coming out.
And
I was thrilled to see Pat Plummer break out of sorts and clear the Kemper
Line for good. He only went 8-35 during his doubleheader with a couple
homeruns, but when you're hitting .094 before that, you notice a spike
in your stats. True telling, the kid is MUCH better than either league
legends Aaron Kemper or Jeff Register, and it's good that now his numbers
are starting to reflect that.
That's
not to say that his pitching has struggled. He entered last weekend's
matchups with a stellar 2.29 ERA, but after EIGHT SCORELESS innings, saw
the number sink to 1.45. Which is ages better than either Kemper or Register
could ever dream of doing. Matt Smith also had a productive weekend on
the mound, posting 7 IP of one run ball, although his innings were broken
up a bit over the course of two separate days.
Scott
Carmichael won Round 1 of Carmichael versus Rozak during the Whites/Playerz
nitecap. Scott was a surprise show Monday night, but since he arrived
a little late, he could only throw the 3rd inning. In that inning he struck
out both Bill and Matt, and got Matt to ground out weakly to the mound.
There was no apparent rust on his arm, even though he hasn't pitched since
before the All-Star break. He also went 4-4 with three walks and a solo
homerun off Bill. Round 2 is set for August 24th.
And
I hate to bring it up right now, what with the real season going on, but
I think it's time to start thinking about players' picks for MVP, Cy Young,
Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player of the Year, Defensive Player
of the Year, etc. You all know who's in the league and who's done what,
so I won't rehash unnecessary information here. Keep a look out for a
future Postgame Points article, where I'll get into detail with who *I*
would pick, and who's right there to almost get picked. Until then, think
of who you like and why you like them so that you have at least some semblance
of an argument when you disagree with me.
| Current
Rookie Standings |
| Name |
Brnk |
Prnk |
Ornk |
| 1.
Curtis Henning |
5 |
5 |
1 |
| 2.
Matt Plummer |
10 |
7 |
2 |
| 3.
Bill Rozak |
1 |
20 |
3 |
| 4.
Matt Smith |
15 |
8 |
4 |
| 5.
Pat Plummer |
20 |
4 |
5 |
| 6.
Tavis Beynon |
14 |
13 |
6 |
| 7.
John Robins |
19 |
17 |
7 |
Brnk
= Batting Rank (overall)
Prnk = Pitching Rank (overall)
ORnk = Overall Rank (rookies)
Ornk determined by summing both Brnk and Prnk. In the event
of a tie, player with more ABs is given priority. |
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Curtis
Henning and Matt Plummer remain the only two rookies who are top 10 in
both hitting and pitching. Pat Plummer moved up a ranking in hitting,
and jumped up three ranks in pitching thanks to his previously-mentioned
day. However, the only change in the standings came with Tavis and John
Robins, who switched spots, not surprisingly, because of Tavis' big day.
Wiffolution
lost their most recent game, a 9-2 decision to the Holy Whites, but they've
been looking hot lately. Morrison,
in particular (and in addition to "Mattitude"), has been hammering
the ball lately, which may be no big deal to the big hitters like Carmichael,
Rozak, or Creighton, but to Morrison, who started the season 17-75 (.227)
with only three homeruns, it's like a rebirth. Earlier in 2003, during
Winterball, Jeff was opening some eyes with his power, but not until recently
has he transfered that game to the regular season. And no coincidentally,
Wiffolution is starting to win.
| Ratio
of homeruns to balls put in play |
| Name |
#
put in play |
HRs |
% |
| Bill Rozak |
76 |
25 |
32.9 |
| Jeff
Morrison |
64 |
18 |
28.1 |
| Dave Cain |
94 |
24 |
25.5 |
| Matt Plummer |
51 |
13 |
25.5 |
| Scott Carmichael |
106 |
24 |
22.6 |
| John Deatrick |
70 |
15 |
21.4 |
| Curtis
Henning |
102 |
21 |
20.6 |
| Jeff Morrison |
110 |
21 |
19.1 |
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I
mean, seriously, let's look at this from a statistical perspective. For
those reading who are in the league, you all know who Jeff Morrison is,
but I doubt most would think Morrison is capable of hitting 18 homeruns
in only 99 ABs, which is exactly what he's done since hitting the 75 AB
mark. And with all that, he's "only" been hitting .313 in that
stretch. Considering Jeff has always considered himself a "single
first" kind of hitter capable of sitting in the .350 range, this
is telling that we're looking at a completely different hitter than a
couple years ago. Chew on this: In his recent HR tear, 28.1% of the balls
Morrison puts in play leave the yard. This number may not mean much to
you without comparison, and I'm a nice enough guy, so I included a table
of a few other notable players and their "HR/Put-in-play" ratio.
The italicized Jeff Morrison is him on his current streak, the one ot
the bottom is his through the whole season.
Sure,
you can say that this list rewards those who either strike out or go deep,
a la Rob Deer, who maybe some of you remember. But then again, if you
actually LOOK at the list, we're not dealin' with those kind of hitters.
The closest who comes to that is Matt Plummer, as all others are over
.300. The bottom line is, for the guys above, when they hit the ball,
they're hitting it hard and far.
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