Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Alaska Daily Empire, October 12, 1921: The Giants won a nerve wrecking pitcher’s battle from the Yankees this afternoon by a score of 2 to 1. The spitballer Douglas won the decision by a hair line over the underhand slinger Carl Mays.
...
The series now stands, Giants 4 and the Yankees 3. The series will continue until one team wins five games.
Before the game, John McGraw had speculated that Shufflin’ Phil Douglas might miss his start because of a severe cold, but obviously Douglas came through.
|
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Jefferson Manship (Dan Lee) Posted: October 12, 2021 at 08:21 AM (#6045742)C: Rick Ferrell (30.8 WAR)
1B: Phil Weintraub (9.0 WAR)
2B: Ketel Marte (18.0 WAR)
3B: Pop Smith (13.1 WAR)
SS/Manager: Joe Cronin (64.8 WAR)
LF: Jose Valentin (31.6 WAR)
CF: Tony Kubek (18.4 WAR)
RF: Pete Hill (4.2 WAR)
SP: Sid Fernandez (32.7 WAR)
SP: Dixie Davis (13.9 WAR)
SP: Al Smith (7.6 WAR)
SP: Erv Brame (5.5 WAR)
SP: Tanyon Sturtze (4.6 WAR)
RP: Tony Fiore (1.3 WAR)
Blogger: Murray Chass
Broadcaster: Dick Stockton
Fun names: Malachi Kittridge, Dutch Holland, Bub Kuhn, Chub Collins, Bobo Osborne
Not that one: John Kennedy
Neither of those ones: Al Unser
Spent a year playing for a team that didn't exist: Rupert Mills
I am always surprised to see that he ranks 4th all time in fewest hits/9 with 6.85. The 3 guys above him are who you'd expect: Ryan, Koufax, Kershaw.
Which still makes him the best-hitting Charlie Morton of all time, by a wide margin.
So really, it's like a 21st century team with all these versatile guys who can play IF and OF. And if ever there was a not-too-old-school SP designed for today's usage, it's Sid Fernandez. He only averaged a bit over 6 IP/start anyway. Tell Sid to put in max effort for as many innings as he could against today's hitters and I'm pretty sure he'd be K'ing at least 10 per 9 (which he was doing at the end anyway).
I am always surprised to see that he ranks 4th all time in fewest hits/9 with 6.85. The 3 guys above him are who you'd expect: Ryan, Koufax, Kershaw.
Which is the sort of pitcher he was. There may have never been a more flyball pitcher than Fernandez. We don't have G/F for his entire career but what we do have gives him a career G/F ratio of 0.37. We have GO/AO for the whole career and that's 0.43. MLB averages at the time were 0.81 and 1.07. For comparison, Joey Gallo is 0.44 and 0.64 (league averages haven't budged). Flyballs in play of course have a terrible BA and his HR/FB and HR/PA were only a bit worse than league average so, along with the high K-rate, that leads to low BA (209 career BAA).
You'd think that would be a guy whose ERA was a lot lower than his FIP given FIP plugs in a league-average BABIP. His ERA is better but not by a huge amount, just 0.16/9. He comes out much better in WAR though because a K and FB pitcher will also generally give up very few unearned runs (just 53 for his career)** -- his RA9 is barely higher than his FIP. His ERA was about 0.37 better than average; his RA9 was about 0.6 better. So his FIP+ looks to be just 106, his ERA+ 111 and his RA9+ about 117. bWAR says his defenses were average so I think all of those differences are "real" and due to all those flyballs.
** Greg Maddux had a single season where he was charged with 25 unearned runs, gave up 225 for his career (obviously much longer than Sid's) and his RA9 was 0.40 higher than his ERA (Sid 0.25).
The Rupert Mills story is one of my all-time favorite baseball stories.
https://www.mlb.com/news/the-crazy-crab-was-the-most-hated-mascot-in-sports-history
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main