Notable Numerals: Carl Crawford, Jose Bautista, Ryan Dempster & More
By Brian Phair
Now that we are a month into the 2011 MLB season, we can start to get a pulse on which teams and players are in the driver’s seat and which have some serious work to do. In the AL Central, the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox are two teams that have some work to do in order to get back in contention. The Twins are the only remaining team in baseball not to hit double-digit wins, and the White Sox are 2nd to the bottom in the AL with just 10 wins. In the NL, the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and New York Mets are all bottom feeders, with 11 or 12 wins. Getting back to the original intent of this column, this edition is focused on bizarre or unusual stats from around the league. With numbers from the AL East to the NL Central, I’ve got you covered in this week’s edition of Notable Numerals.
BBs for Jose Bautista in 7 games this week. Fear the bat of Jose Bautista is the loud and clear message in 2011. After a breakout, career year in 2010, many skeptics, myself included, believed we would see a massive drop-off in numbers for Bautista. In the 4 seasons leading up to his 54 home runs in 2010, Bautista had 16, 15, 15, and 13 home runs each season. In 2011, he already has 9 jacks in 25 games and has become such a feared power hitter that he is seeing more and more free passes. Last season, he broke the 100 mark, but already has 30 this year and is on pace for nearly double his 2010 number. Yes, he only has 1 intentional walk, but pitching around a guy is almost like intentionally walking him and that is what is happening to Bautista. This past week, he had 4 more walks than the next highest total (7 for Joey Votto) and that number is not likely to slow down significantly as long as he keeps himself healthy and keeps putting balls in the outfield stands.
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Batting average for Carl Crawford in May. Yes, I know it is only 1 game, but you can’t argue that Crawford didn’t start May with a bang. This being a Red Sox blog, 1 stat from the hometown team is almost a requirement and this was the best. The biggest news of this past weekend was the incredible clutch hit from Crawford in the bottom of the 9th on Sunday evening. After a bloop triple for Jed Lowrie (with an major assist from the sun), Crawford ripped a single up the middle for the walk-off victory. Crawford appears to be finding his grove, with 4 RBIs and 7 hits in his last 7 games, including his 1st home run in a Red Sox uniform and his 1st walk-off hit to boot. His 2 for 4 showing on Sunday marked the beginning of a new month for Crawford, which was a sigh of relief I’m sure for the speedy left-fielder. April was the worst month of his career in the batter’s box with a .155 average and an OPS of just .431. It was just painful to watch at times.
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Of Alexi Casilla’s hits this week were triples. These are the awesomely odd statistics I love in baseball. In 4 games this week, consisting of 13 at-bats, Alexi Casilla had just 2 hits and both were 3 baggers. Most players go an entire season and collect 1 or 2 triples, but Casilla decided that this week, he was going to visit 3rd base more often. Besides those 2 hits however, Casilla has been poor. He is hitting just .190 on the season with 0 home runs and just 3 RBIs with 5 BBs and 8 Ks. On top of that, he had an awful week in the field, committing 2 errors in 4 games, so apparently the deuces were wild for the SS. In 21 games at SS, Casilla now has 4 total errors and holds a poor .955 fielding percentage for the struggling Twins. The team sits at 9-18 entering play on Monday and Casilla does not appear to be helping the team jump into the double-digit column in wins. It could be a long season for Ron Gardenhire and his staff if things don’t turn around in Minnesota.
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ERA for Ryan Dempster of the Cubs this week. Wow, have you ever seen an ERA near 200 before? Not often does a starting pitcher only last 0.1 innings in a week, so to see Dempster’s 4 hit, 4 BB, 7 earned runs, 0 K performance was painful, especially against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Because of that performance, he ranked dead last, 364 out of 364 for the week in player ERA. Dempster has struggling overall to begin the 2011 season for the Chicago Cubs, as he now sits with an overall ERA of 9.58 after a 1-3 record in 6 starts during April. The Cubs have an identical record to the Red Sox at 12-15, but are hoping for some improved play over the next few months to jump right back into the NL Central chase. They sit only 3.5 games back of the St. Louis Cardinals, but have some obvious questions marks (like Dempster). The dud of the week was going to be Bobby Jenks with a 20.25 weekly ERA, but he ranked only 355 out of 364, 9 spots better than Dempster. That is certainly not something to be proud of for either of these guys.
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Slugging percentage for Brett Gardner in 7 games this week. After beginning the season with an abysmal (Crawford-esk) .136 batting average through April 15th, Gardner has been turning up the heat and hitting everything in the batter’s box. This past week, he had 2 HRs, 3 RBIs, and 6 BBs, while hitting in 4 straight games, raising his average to an even .200. The New York Yankees are a powerful team with a ton of offensive weapons, but when their less power-oriented guys like Gardner and Curtis Granderson are hitting for power and average, this team is as scary as they come. Gardner has a long way to go before we can say he is hitting for average, but jumping over .050 points on a batting average in a week is not a small accomplishment. His OPS has grown from .445 to .700 in a week as well and his OBP jumped .210 since the 25th. Watch out for the red hot Yankees who are now 7-3 in their last 10 games and sit at 16-9 on the season, 5 games ahead of the last place Red Sox.
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