Here we sit at the exact mid-point of the season and the Royals are on pace for 74 wins. Process, thy name is mediocrity. I'm going to use today's post to throw out some odd & ends for discussion.
Heroes & Goats
On my podcast which I can't find the time to do anymore, I used to have a segment called Heroes and Goats. I combined a players WPA* for a series and found out who helped the team and hurt the team over that period. With a recently finished series in Toronto, here are the Heroes and Goats from the Blue Jays series:
*WPA is Win Probability Added. It calculates the odds a team will win the before and after a plate appearance and finds the difference.
Name | WPA | Name | WPA | |||
Bourgeois | .242 | Hero | Hochevar | .139 | Hero | |
Perez | .187 | Holland | .088 | |||
Moustakas | .110 | Teaford | .069 | |||
Dyson | .024 | Broxton | .047 | |||
Francoeur | .010 | Herrera | .020 | |||
Hosmer | -.016 | Coleman | .008 | |||
Betancourt | -.031 | Collins | .007 | |||
Escobar | -.051 | Crow | -.030 | |||
Butler | -.072 | Mendoza | -.074 | |||
Gordon | -.170 | Goat | Mijares | -.078 | ||
Mazzaro | -.430 | Goat |
Bourgeois had the highest series WPA, who knew? I'm sure this chart will give some ammo to those who say Gordon isn't clutch, or some other invented attribute, but it's just one series.
More Odds & Ends after the jump.
Scoring Runs is Important
The modern baseball era should be called the Advanced Statistics era with the major advancements the game thas taken in that regard. However, theend result always has been and always will be runs. Score more than you give up and you win a game. So, in the first half, how have the Royals fared?
Runs Scored
Tm | R/G 6 |
---|---|
TEX | 5.23 |
TOR | 5.02 |
BOS | 5.01 |
CHW | 4.80 |
NYY | 4.74 |
CLE | 4.50 |
LgAvg | 4.46 |
DET | 4.43 |
LAA | 4.42 |
BAL | 4.24 |
MIN | 4.18 |
TBR | 4.13 |
KCR | 4.12 |
SEA | 3.90 |
OAK | 3.76 |
4.46 |
Runs Given Up
Tm | R/G 5 |
---|---|
OAK | 3.70 |
LAA | 3.99 |
NYY | 4.02 |
CHW | 4.06 |
TBR | 4.13 |
TEX | 4.25 |
SEA | 4.26 |
LgAvg | 4.37 |
BOS | 4.40 |
DET | 4.47 |
KCR | 4.52 |
BAL | 4.59 |
TOR | 4.73 |
CLE | 4.80 |
MIN | 5.27 |
4.37 |
The Royals are much cloer to being an average pitching/defensive team than an average offensive team. So while the rotation continues to get the blame, it's guys like Francoeur, Betancourt and yes, Hosmer who are killing this team right now. Also, I think Yost and Moore deserve some credit here for using the roster and bullpen to get this much out of the pitching staff. Depth and youth have saved the day here.
Fun fact: Bryce harper is 2 months younger than Bubba Starling
Box Score Worth Remembering
Below is a Royals boxscore from July 27th, 1993. The Royals lost in terrible fasion. Kevin Appier threw a one-hitter in which the lone hit was a home run. Kevin Appier might be the most underrated pitcher in history, and I'm not being hyperbolic.