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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Sports Justice: What’s in the numbers? An amazing fact about the Astros

If this was “the team Ed Wade envisioned”...Oh, please let him share a preacher’s tent with Dr. James Xavier.

The Astros are baseball’s only winning team with a negative run differential. They’ve given up 27 more than they’ve scored. They’ve got a losing record in one-run games (20-21). So how did this happen?

It could speak highly of the character of the club. They refused to quit in games. They played all 27 outs.

Are these cliches? Sure they are. There’s also truth in there. The Astros came from behind to win 41 times. They won 15 times when trailing in the seventh inning. They won 18 games in their last at-bat.

Those numbers could be a tribute to people like Miguel Tejada and Darin Erstad and Ty Wigginton, who play every inning of every game the same way. The score of the game or place in the standings don’t dictate their effort. They are professionals in every sense of the word.

...This was the team Ed Wade envisioned. Speed at the top, boppers in the middle. He thought he had it just right. Michael Bourn and Kaz Matsui were going to apply the pressure, and with them on base, Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, etc., were going to get plenty of opportunities.

Repoz Posted: September 27, 2008 at 11:17 AM | 9 comment(s)
  Related News: GeneralHouston

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   1. Jim (jimmuscomp)  Posted: September 27, 2008 at 11:38 AM (#2958161)
The Astros are baseball’s only winning team with a negative run differential.

Those numbers could be a tribute to people like Darin Erstad


Yeah, Erstad and his .674 OPS good for a 77 OPS+ is probably a big culprit in their negative run differential. How does a guy go from 355/409/541 as a 26 year old to 258/331/360 in his age 27 season? Erstad has to have cost me a couple of years on the back end of my life, I just know it. By far, the most frustrating player I've seen with regard to potential and actual results. His walk rate plummeted and his numbers dried up.

He must have more 4-3 putouts than any player in the last 10 years. In fact...

Off to BB-Ref I go to check...

[UPDATE]

Well, I couldn't figure out how to see who has the most 4-3 putouts in the last 10 years, but Ersty has 773 in his career. That's like 70 a year, or one every other game. I'd have bet the number was over 1500 for all the times he seemed to roll over on a pitch.
   2. Swoboda is freedom  Posted: September 27, 2008 at 12:31 PM (#2958216)
No one tell him about the Diamondbacks from last year.
   3. robinred  Posted: September 27, 2008 at 12:43 PM (#2958225)
The Astros came from behind to win 41 times. They won 15 times when trailing in the seventh inning. They won 18 games in their last at-bat
.

Are these numbers unusual for a team with a win total in the 80s?

They’ve got a losing record in one-run games (20-21).


Seems that this contradicts the idea of character=w's in toughgames.

Justice wrote a very smug, far more syrupy entry much like this when the Asros got hot early in the season.
   4. Monty  Posted: September 27, 2008 at 01:21 PM (#2958270)
This was the team Ed Wade envisioned. Speed at the top, boppers in the middle.


Innovative!
   5. North Side Chicago Expatriate Giants Fan  Posted: September 27, 2008 at 01:31 PM (#2958283)
This was the team Ed Wade envisioned. Speed at the top, boppers in the middle. He thought he had it just right. Michael Bourn and Kaz Matsui were going to apply the pressure, and with them on base, Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, etc., were going to get plenty of opportunities.


I suppose that did happen when they got on base. Bourn just didn't get on base much. 41 SB and only 56 runs scored? Wow.
   6. Walt Davis  Posted: September 27, 2008 at 03:00 PM (#2958435)
Wow. Ausmus. 80 games, 240 PA, 73 times on-base (302 OBP) ... only 14 runs scored.

Michael Bourn and Reggie Abercrombie on the same roster! Mark Loretta having a decent backup season. Wandy Rodriguez K'ing about 9/9 with a nearly 3/1 K/BB ratio. You discover all sorts of funny things when you open the b-r page of a team you haven't paid much attention to all year.
   7. Matt Welch  Posted: September 27, 2008 at 06:18 PM (#2958897)
How does a guy go from 355/409/541 as a 26 year old to 258/331/360 in his age 27 season?

Leg injuries, mostly. That, and managing to time your age-26 season with the second-biggest offensive year over the past six decades.
   8. Phenomenal Smith  Posted: September 28, 2008 at 09:29 PM (#2959530)
Wandy Rodriguez K'ing about 9/9 with a nearly 3/1 K/BB ratio.


Wandy has pitched decently the last two years, not that Astros fans or the media have noticed.
   9. Barry`s_Lazy_Boy  Posted: September 28, 2008 at 09:49 PM (#2959559)
It could speak highly of the character of the club. They refused to quit in games.

Except when they quit on the season in Milwaukee.
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