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2. Two players haven’t popped out this season.
Nearly 650 times, Los Angeles Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick(notes) has swung and made contact. Not one of those balls lingered in the air before settling into an infielder’s glove.
Texas superutilityman Michael Young(notes) is at more than 750 contacts without a popout. Only twice in the past decade has a player qualified for the batting title and not popped out: Larry Bigbie in 2004 and Joey Votto(notes) in 2010.
It’s a staggering feat of skill mixed with a healthy dose of luck. The numbers back the skill part. Over the last six seasons, Young has popped out 21 times in 3,683 at-bats. Kendrick’s 2,350-at-bat career includes 11 popouts.
Nearly 650 times, Los Angeles Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick(notes) has swung and made contact. Not one of those balls lingered in the air before settling into an infielder’s glove.
Texas superutilityman Michael Young(notes) is at more than 750 contacts without a popout. Only twice in the past decade has a player qualified for the batting title and not popped out: Larry Bigbie in 2004 and Joey Votto(notes) in 2010.
It’s a staggering feat of skill mixed with a healthy dose of luck. The numbers back the skill part. Over the last six seasons, Young has popped out 21 times in 3,683 at-bats. Kendrick’s 2,350-at-bat career includes 11 popouts.
9. Anybody who doesn’t throw Alfonso Soriano(notes) a full diet of breaking balls is cheating himself.
Soriano deserves congratulations on leading the major leagues in futility against both the slider (minus-17.0 runs, with the next worst Casey McGehee(notes) at minus-10.6) and curveball (minus-7.7 runs). It is remarkably difficult to be that bad, and just plain remarkable that he’s being paid $18 million to be that bad.
His teammates in dubiousness:
Fastball: Alex Gonzalez(notes), minus-28.6 runs
Cutter: Omar Infante(notes), minus-5.5 runs
Changeup: Derek Jeter(notes), minus-7.6 runs
Split-finger: Werth, minus-2.3 runs
Knuckleball: Curtis Granderson(notes), minus-2.6 runs
Soriano deserves congratulations on leading the major leagues in futility against both the slider (minus-17.0 runs, with the next worst Casey McGehee(notes) at minus-10.6) and curveball (minus-7.7 runs). It is remarkably difficult to be that bad, and just plain remarkable that he’s being paid $18 million to be that bad.
His teammates in dubiousness:
Fastball: Alex Gonzalez(notes), minus-28.6 runs
Cutter: Omar Infante(notes), minus-5.5 runs
Changeup: Derek Jeter(notes), minus-7.6 runs
Split-finger: Werth, minus-2.3 runs
Knuckleball: Curtis Granderson(notes), minus-2.6 runs
16. Tyler Clippard(notes) is the flyballingest pitcher of all flyball pitchers
Clippard is like Bizarro Venters. His 18.1 percent groundball rate is the lowest of the last decade. The closest was Russ Springer’s(notes) 19.2 percent rate in 2009. And yet Clippard’s 1.54 ERA is second among pitchers with at least 60 innings. The best? Venters at 1.10.
Nobody strands baserunners like extreme flyball pitcher Tyler Clippard.
Clippard is like Bizarro Venters. His 18.1 percent groundball rate is the lowest of the last decade. The closest was Russ Springer’s(notes) 19.2 percent rate in 2009. And yet Clippard’s 1.54 ERA is second among pitchers with at least 60 innings. The best? Venters at 1.10.
Nobody strands baserunners like extreme flyball pitcher Tyler Clippard.
17. Clippard broke one of FanGraphs’ metrics.
To calculate LOB%, the number that indicates how good a pitcher is at stranding runners, you use the following formula:
(H+BB+HBP-R)/(H+BB+HBP-1.4*HR)
Calculate that for Clippard, and it comes out to 101 percent. And it’s sort of difficult to leave more runners on base than you actually allow.
In reality, just three baserunners of Clippard’s have scored this season – and only one by his doing. Early in the season, Sean Burnett(notes) let two runners inherited from Clippard score. On May 24, Clippard walked Craig Counsell(notes), then gave up a home run to Rickie Weeks(notes).
Aside from those four runs, all other eight Clippard has yielded have come on solo home runs. The nine home runs, multiplied by 1.4, comes out to 12.6 – higher than the 12 runs he has allowed and, thus, accounting for the 101 percent LOB%.
The highest before Clippard was Lance Carter, who in 2002 put up a 98.8 LOB% over 20 1/3 innings. Pat Neshek(notes) was Clippardian in 2006, giving up nine runs on six homers and posting a 97.1 strand rate. Texas reliever Koji Uehara(notes) ranks second to Clippard this season at 94 percent.
To calculate LOB%, the number that indicates how good a pitcher is at stranding runners, you use the following formula:
(H+BB+HBP-R)/(H+BB+HBP-1.4*HR)
Calculate that for Clippard, and it comes out to 101 percent. And it’s sort of difficult to leave more runners on base than you actually allow.
In reality, just three baserunners of Clippard’s have scored this season – and only one by his doing. Early in the season, Sean Burnett(notes) let two runners inherited from Clippard score. On May 24, Clippard walked Craig Counsell(notes), then gave up a home run to Rickie Weeks(notes).
Aside from those four runs, all other eight Clippard has yielded have come on solo home runs. The nine home runs, multiplied by 1.4, comes out to 12.6 – higher than the 12 runs he has allowed and, thus, accounting for the 101 percent LOB%.
The highest before Clippard was Lance Carter, who in 2002 put up a 98.8 LOB% over 20 1/3 innings. Pat Neshek(notes) was Clippardian in 2006, giving up nine runs on six homers and posting a 97.1 strand rate. Texas reliever Koji Uehara(notes) ranks second to Clippard this season at 94 percent.
And I giggled at the idea of breaking a metric
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