Stat Line of the Day: May 3rd

F. Liriano (MIN): 9 IP, 0 H, 6 BB, 2 Ks @ CHW

Well, the same day I said that Liriano's rookie year was his career exception, not a rule, he goes and throws a no-hitter. Obviously with six walks it wasn't the best no-hitter ever thrown, though at least it was better than Edwin Jackson's last year (149 pitches, 8 walks). While a no-hitter pretty much is automatically going to be the stat-line of the night, you have to be wary that any pitcher who threw a 2-strikeout no-hitter also relied on some luck. Liriano only  threw 11 first-pitch strikes out of 30 batters (36.7%),

How lucky did Liriano (M) get during his no-hitter?

while Jackson did it to 21/36 (58.3%), neither of which are great numbers. For comparison, Cole Hamels' complete-game last night involved first-pitch strikes to 26/31 batters, or 83.9%. The lack of strikeouts means that 25 balls were put into play last night by the Chicago White Sox. The key stat to look at here is something called BABIP--Batting Average of Balls In Play. The typical BABIP average is around .290; in other words, 29% of all batted balls are expected to land in play as hits, based on fielder variation, luck, and a few other factors. What it comes down to is that when a player hits a ball, they only have so much control over where it goes--a hard-hit line drive could be a double down the line, or hit six inches to the left and be caught for an out. So, of those 25 balls in play, we would expect (in the long term) that the White Sox would average about seven hits. Now, more strikeouts would mean Liriano was really on his game--but he wasn't, as he walked six batters. "Effectively wild" is what we can call Liriano tonight, but I'm not so sure it will have any impact on the rest of his season. Coming into last night, he had an ERA of 9.16, but don't expect this to show a turnaround in Liriano's season. The once-talented pitcher could still improve this season, but don't use this game as a sign of those times.

Honorable Mentions:

C. Hamels (PHI): 9 IP, 5 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 6 Ks vs. WAS
This complete game was not quite as nice as Liriano's, but Cole Hamels still took care of business for the Phillies. In addition to his complete-game, five-hitter (albeit against the Nationals), Hamels also had two hits--including a triple off the top of the right field wall. To compare Cole's BABIP to Liriano's (see above), Cole allowed 21 balls in play and five hits, or a BABIP of 23.8%, which is much closer to what you would expect from a soft-hitting Nationals squad. Cole also scored the first run of the game, and ended up stranded on third base another time later in the game. If you go out and help your team offensively while at the same time pitching a complete game, that's a good night. Over his last 5 starts, Cole is 4-0 with a 1.42 ERA and a WHIP of just 0.84, an average gamescore just over 70, and a 4.63 K/BB ratio.

L. James (MIA): 35 points (14-25 FG), 7 rebs, 2 assts vs. BOS
Despite being outplayed by D-Wade in Game One, LeBron James was fantastic last night against the Celtics. LeBron scored 35 points on 14-25 shooting (56%) from the field while grabbing seven rebounds en route to a +10 +/- rating. After a lackluster first half--that ended with Miami only holding a five-point lead--James broke out in the second half. He scored 12 points in the final five minutes of the third quarter, turning a one-point Boston lead into a five-point Miami edge heading into the final period. In that fourth quarter, LeBron kept up the pressure as he scored 12 more, including a personal 7-0 run that increased Miami's lead from five to 12.  At that point, with 4:35 left in the fourth, the game was all but over.

What's Going on in the AL Central?

Sizemore's return has been a 
huge spark for the 19-8 Indians

Back in the mid-2000s, the American League Central seemed like a pretty hot division. The Twins were fresh off three straight playoff appearances, behind the amazing arm of Johan Santana and the bat of Torii Hunter. The White Sox won 90+ games in 2005 and 2006, including a World Series title in '05. The Tigers won only 71 games in '05 by made the World Series in '06, while the Indians won 90+ games in '05 and '07, making it to the ALCS in 2007. Lately, however, the AL Central has taken a backseat to the power race in the American League East and the amazing pitching staffs out in the AL West--the division-winning Twins got swept out of the playoffs the last two seasons, and no AL Central team has won a playoff series since those 2007 Indians. This year, more of the same was expected--the Royals were a year or two away from contending, the Indians were an unknown quantity with Grady Sizemore (see right) returning from injury, while the Twins were expected to win the division behind the arm of Francisco Liriano and the bats of Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. However, a month into the season, the standings are straight out of the Twilight Zone: the Indians have the best record in baseball at 19-8, followed by the Royals at 15-13. Behind Kansas City is Detroit (12-17), Chicago (11-19), and the Twins (9-18). Let's take a look at each team and see why they are where they are, and if they can keep it up.

NFL Draft: Rounds 1-3 Recap

With Rounds 4-7 of the NFL Draft just underway, let's take a look at the past three rounds. With the NFL Lockout imposed, then lifed, then re-imposed the first three rounds were, to sum it up politely, chaotic. Teams traded up and down, up and down, and quarterbacks were plucked at lightning speed.

So, in all of this mess, who made the best picks and who didn't? Hit the jump to find out.

NFL Draft Preview: NFC North

Welcome to part six of our eight-piece preview of the 2011 NFL Draft. Three division still need to be previewed, and this installment will focus on the NFC North, home of the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers.

Perhaps more than any other division in the NFL last season, the NFC North was incredibly unpredictable. Brett Favre was expected to lead the Vikings to a deep playoff run in his (real) last season in the league, but those plans fell through very quickly as the team started a miserable 3-7. The Lions showed progress and have a young core of talent to build around for the future  The Chicago Bears surprisingly won the division, as Jay Cutler appeared to mature and play smart football. But the story of the year in the NFC North was Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews and the Green Bay Packers, who underachieved for much of the season before finally turning the corner late in the season, and subsequently using that momentum to roll through the playoffs for the franchise's first Super Bowl title since 1996. With last season in mind, where will each team head in this season's draft? Hit the jump to find out.

Stat of the Day Line: April 28th (Quick Hits Edition)

Lately, we've been pretty good about picking only one or two great/awful/interesting lines per night to include in this column, but this time we just couldn't do it.  There were too many awesome/terrible/peculiar stat lines from last night's action for us to single any few out.  So instead, we're going to give you quick nuggets on a six different stat lines (drawn from all three major sports not sorta in a lockout) that really caught our attention. To see who made today's cut, hit the jump!

Leadoff Rankings: Week 1 (Way-Too-Early Edition)

In any baseball lineup, there are two spots in the order that get more attention than any of the others--the number four, or cleanup, hitter, and the number one guy--the leadoff hitter. That leadoff guy is traditionally someone who gets on base rather often, and has the speed on the basepaths to put pressure on the defense as the heart of the order comes to the plate. As baseball players have gotten more athletic and more versatile, it's become common for more than one player to have leadoff-type qualities, and there are plenty of very talented number two hitters who do a great job of getting on base (Placido Polanco, Derek Jeter, Dustin Pedroia, Freddy Sanchez, etc). Every spot further down in the lineup costs a player about 20 at-bats over the course of a season--so, if the number one hitter bats 600 times, it's expected that the number three hitter would have 560 at-bats, the number five hitter would have 520 at-bats, and so forth. Let's assume a player bats .300 for a season--that amounts to a difference of six hits for every spot in the order he's dropped. So, what that all means is that a team with production at the top of the order should have an advantage over teams relying on more production from their fourth and fifth hitter.

With that in mind, we debut our first ever Leadoff Rankings: a statistical look at which teams are getting production from the first two spots in their lineup--regardless of who is playing. That is, we're not going to rank the teams based on talent level in their top two spots, but by their production instead. Obviously, that means these first rankings, after most teams have played just three games, are not exactly going to be representative of how these lineups will turn out, but neither are any Power Rankings at this point in the season. The list is slightly objective--there's no set formula to decide which team gets the highest ranking, but we look at number of factors. On-base-percentage is very important, as are steals and runs scored. RBIs are nice from the top of the lineup, but that can often be misleading, as American League squads are more likely to have production from the bottom of the lineup (leading to more RBIs for the guys batting first and second). However, it still comes down to all-around performance for these rankings. So, who had a great first weekend in terms of top-of-the-lineup production? Hit the jump to see how your team did!

Stat Line(s) of the Day: April 2nd

We had a few really good nights last night, and a few particularly atrocious ones. So we picked one of each to spotlight, plus a few other good lines down below.

Andray Blatche (WAS): 36 points, 19 rebounds (16 offensive), 4 assists vs. Cavaliers

Blatche, 24, is having a career year

The record for offensive rebounds in one game is 21, set by Moses Malone back in 1982, but that's not to say that Andray Blatche had a bad game...on the contrary. Blatche went off on the Cavs, tying a career-high with his 36 points and setting a franchise record with those 16 offensive rebounds. Those boards helped the Wizards to a 56-38 rebounding differential, leading to the Wizards taking 12 more shots than the Cavs (and making eight more), leading to a Wizards eight-point victory. The 24-year-old center is in the midst of his best season ever, averaging 16.2 points and 8.1 rebounds in 34 minutes per game, starting 56, for the Washington Wizards. Blatche was originally a 2005 draft pick out of high school, and has taken a few years to develop--it took Blatche until his fourth season to average double-digits in points, but his PER (player efficiency rating) is up near 17, which is very very solid. To give you an idea, it puts Blatche as the 57th-best offensive player in the game. Not a first option by any means, but he's rated above players such as Chauncey Billups, Jrue Holiday, and Andrea Bargnani--not really bad company either. 

Fausto Carmona (CLE): 3 IP, 11 H, 10 R (10 ER), 2 HR vs. White Sox

Well, I don't think Fausto Carmona wanted to start the season off with an ERA of 30.00, but that's just what he did yesterday against the White Sox.  Giving up six runs in the first three innings was bad enough, including two home runs in the 3rd to Carlos Quentin and new White Sox slugger Adam Dunn.  But then, it took the first four batters to reach base in the 4th inning (single, walk, single, double) for manager Manny Acta to finally (and mercifully) pull the plug on Carmona's day. He was relieved by the equally effective Justin Germano, who promptly hit Paul Konerko before  (after getting one out) allowing a double, a single, and two more doubles. Chicago managed to battle back from a 14-0 deficit for a somewhat respectable, though quite deceiving, 15-10 loss.

Honorable Mentions:
J.P. Arencibia (TOR): 3-for-4, 2 home runs, 1 triple, 5 RBIs vs. Twins
J. Crawford (WAS): 21 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 blocks vs. Cavs
P. Elias (NJD): 3 G, 4 SOG, 15:51 TOI vs PHI

Baseball Debate: Stadium Edition (Part 2)

(Click Here for Part One)

After yesterday's overview about the current state of baseball stadiums--and some basic data from our friends at Stadium Journey--we really haven't settled any debate yet about who's got the best stadium. So now we're left with 30 stadiums, each with their own merits and drawbacks, their own idiosyncrasies that make them what they are. There's the Green Monster out in Fenway's left field, the home run balls flying into McCovey's Cove in San Francisco, and even that weird hill that Houston decided to build in the middle of center field, flagpole and everything.

But how can you even attempt to quantify something as subjective as a stadium? It's not easy, and as good a job as the folks at Stadium Journey do, it's still not easy to take one person's review of a stadium as the end game for stadium ratings. So, keep in mind that the data we used is flawed, but that's what makes it fun to add to the debate--if you think about it, the majority of basic statistics are flawed in some way (a 30-point night sounds nice until you find out the guy took 45 shots to do it), but the important thing is that they have given us some sort of quantifiable data to work with it. And that's what we do best. So, to see how well (or poorly) your stadium did, hit the jump!

Some Love for Kevin Love

So, by now our savviest NBA readers know that Kevin Love recently broke Moses Malone’s record for the most consecutive double-doubles since the NBA-ABA merger.  Malone’s mark was 51 between 1978 and 1979; Love is currently at 53 double-doubles and counting.  Just the fact that Love broke any record held by Malone (see left) in his third professional season shows the type of player he has become.  Not only has he become the model of consistency, but he has also barely even flirted with missing the double-double mark.  Only once during the streak did Love score only 10 points, and only three times he managed only 10 rebounds.  Other than that, though, Love has been dominant.  He has achieved nine 20-20 games since the streak began on November 22^nd, and he even managed a 31 point, 31 rebound performance against the Knicks.  (Admittedly, this game came before the streak began, but that doesn’t make it any less remarkable).  As much praise as Kevin Love has received from the basketball punditry, few have assessed how his season has stacked up to other seasons by some of the NBA’s most prolific big men.  After all, the time since Moses Malone’s streak has seen the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Kevin Garnett, Dennis Rodman, Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard.  However, none of them have had a season like Kevin Love is having now. Keep reading to find out why.