so can some stat geek tell me how much they're over-performing (pythagorsomething) so i don't get too excited about next season?
I've always heard the opposite and my eyes tell me the same thing. He seems to have the opposite of a quick bat. Rather, it's a long, deliberate swing that stays in the zone for a while. I think he has shown an improved ability to stay back on pitches and shorten his swing when necessary but it would probably be a stretch to say that he has a quick bat. What he does appear to have is plus bat control and an ability to make contact consistently. I think that the challenge for him going forward will be dealing with offspeed stuff as well as some of the better fastballs out there.
The starting pitching has largely been phenomenal since the break. The same could be said about the offense up until the past few series. The truth is that short of any FA acquisitions, the offense projects to be near the bottom of the league again next season in OBP and SLG. We still don't draw walks or hit for power, relative to the rest of the NL. Berkman is elite at drawing walks and there is nobody on the roster likely to make up for much of that loss. Defensively, again assuming roughly the same roster, it would be great if we end up average compared to the league. Outside of Bourn and perhaps Castro/Q, we don't have any projected plus defenders. Pence used to be but has dropped off considerably this season. Maybe he'll bounce back next year. Our best asset may actually be our starting pitching despite not having a clear cut ace. We seem to have potential depth in that area. A lot will ride on how they perform. Our bullpen is also looking deeper and could end up being an area of strength. This is just how I see it as far as projections. It's obviously impossible to know for sure, esp. with so many young players and unknowns as far as what Wade will do with the roster between now and next season. As a lot of people have said though, we are moving in the right direction and the enthusiasm is fun to watch if nothing else. Personally, I have low expectations for next season and am looking more at 2012 and beyond when hopefully several years of drafting well really starts to make an impact on the big club with lots of good, cheap, controlled players making up the bulk of the roster.
One thing I found encouraging about Chris is that he has had a couple stretches this season of 4-5 games where he doesn't do much of anything. And then he gets hot all over again. One would think that if his stats are way above what his actual skill is that as soon as his hot streaks are over that he'll have an equal (or near it) cold streak. But that hasn't been the case. He just goes on another tear. Unless pitchers find a hole in his swing (and that could still happen) then I think that maybe what we have seen so far this year might not be an aberration after all.
we'd all save a lot of time and money if the sabre-metricians would just conduct the whole season in a 3 minute computer simulation and let us know what happened.
If Astros complete a 4 game sweep of the Phillies those fans will be on suicide watch if they are not already there.
Diving play on a hard grounder up the line. Got up quickly and made a hard, accurate throw to 1st to beat the speedy Rollins.
Lucky SOB. August is being a decent month for Lee. So was June. Right up there with his career numbers.
I traveled weekly for years to all parts of the country so it's nice to be on a long-term project where they don't require me on site very often. Traveling is fun early on but it becomes a pain over time.
