Sweet Play of the Day - July 6

One of the things that makes baseball different from other sports is that the field of play is unique to each stadium. Every hockey rink, every basketball court, every soccer pitch, and every football gridiron has the same dimensions, and once you're out of bounds, play stops. But while every baseball diamond has 90 feet between the bases and 60 feet 6 inches from the pitcher's mound to home plate, the other aspects of the field, like the dimensions of the outfield fences (and whether's there's a hill out there) and the size of the foul areas varies by stadium. Including, as these catch by Oakland A's third baseman Josh Donaldson shows, what kind of stuff lying in the foul areas you might run into.

More on the Giants - Is It Luck?

Yesterday, I wrote that the San Francisco Giants' 5-16 swoon (now 5-17) is pretty grim, as no San Francisco team to have had a record that poor over 21 games has ever finished the season with a winning record. Later in the day, Jonah Keri, writing at FiveThirtyEight, delved into the reason for the team's abrupt turn of fortune, from the best in the majors to the worst. The whole article's here. His conclusion: It's a matter of "cluster luck." Early in the season, the team's batters were bunching their hits together and the pitchers scattering them throughout the game, resulting in more runs scored and fewer allowed than you'd expect. Of late, it's gone the other way. Or, as Keri puts it:

Whatever luck the Giants had earlier in the season, these latest numbers show that their good fortune has almost completely evaporated.

Keri's more optimistic than I (I wrote, "Can the Giants shake off their slump and hold off the Dodgers? History says they won't.") about the Giants going forward, so you Giants fans (and Dodgers haters) who didn't like my conclusion should feel better about his:

The Giants are a talented team, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see them contend for the NL West title, and maybe even make a run at the World Series. They have a young ace in Madison Bumgarner, Tim Hudson enjoying a late-career revival, Tim Lincecum suddenly pitching masterfully, All-Stars Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval heating up after lousy starts, excellent first baseman Brandon Belt due back soon after a long stint on the disabled list, and a general manager who’s made lots of aggressive trades in his 18 years at the helm. The cluster luck regression has come, yet they’re still hanging onto first place. 

Sweet Play of the Day - July 2

Your basic 4-6-3 double play turned by the Rockies, DJ LeMahieu to Troy Tulowitzki to Justin Morneau. Except...that's usually second baseman's glove to throwing hand, to shortstop's glove to throwing hand, to first baseman's glove. They skipped a couple steps.

The Giants' June Swoon

Monday morning, June 9, the San Francisco Giants had a 42-21 record, which was the best not only in the National League West but in all of baseball. Since then, they've gone 5-16, the worst record in all of baseball. But hey they're still in first place, half a game ahead of the Dodgers, so all's well, right?

Maybe not. Since moving to San Francisco in 1958, the Giants have had 13 seasons before this year in which they had a 5-16 record over 21 games. (Thanks, Baseball-Reference Play Index!) Here's how they fared in each of those years:
1972: 69-86, fifth of six in division
1974: 72-90, fifth of six in division
1976: 74-88, fourth of six in division
1979: 71-91, fourth of six in division
1980: 75-86, fifth of six in division
1985: 62-100, sixth of six in division
1991: 75-87, fourth of six in division
1992: 72-90, fifth of six in division
1994: 55-60, second of four in division
1996: 68-94, fourth of four in division
2006: 76-85, third of five in division
2007: 71-91, fifth of five in division
2013: 76-86, third of five in division

A couple observations: First, from 1958 to 1971, a span of 14 seasons, the Giants never were as bad as 5-16 over 21 games. In each of those years, their regular center fielder was Willie Mays. Mays was traded in 1972.

Second, and more ominously, the Giants not only have never won their division during a year in which they've gone 5-16, they've never even had a winning record in those seasons. 

Can the Giants shake off their slump and hold off the Dodgers? History says they won't. (Unless they bring back Willie Mays.)

Sweet Play of the Day - June 30

As you know, I usually pick fielding plays. But this was a particularly dramatic at bat: Last of the ninth, one out, bases loaded, Tigers trailing the A's by 3, Rajai Davis at the plate for Detroit.

At The Kind-Of Halfway Point

I missed this, because the schedule this year has been more uneven than usual. There are 162 games in the regular season, meaning that 81 games is halfway through. Most teams are now past that point, though not all:

• 85 games played: Dodgers, Tampa Bay 
• 84 games played: Arizona, Houston, Milwaukee, Toronto 
• 83 games played: Atlanta, Boston, White Sox, Colorado, Mets, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis, Texas
• 82 games played: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City, Miami, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Washington
• 81 games played: Cubs, Minnesota, Yankees
• 80 games played: Angels
• 79 games played: Detroit 

If the season were to end now, at the kind-of halfway point:

• The wild card games would be Mariners at the Angels and Nationals at Giants.
• The wild card winners would play the A's in the American League and the Brewers in the National League. The other playoffs would be Blue Jays vs. Tigers and Braves vs. Dodgers. The A's, Brewers, Tigers, and Dodgers would have home field advantage.
• The batting leaders would be Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies (.353) and Adrian Beltre of the Rangers (.332). Home run leaders would be Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins (21) and a three-way tie among the White Sox's Jose Abreu, the Orioles' Nelson Cruz, and the Blue Jays' Edwin Encarnacion (25 each). RBI leaders: Cruz (66) and Stanton (60). 
• ERA leaders would be Johnny Cueto of the Reds (1.88) and Masahiro Tanaka of the Yankees (2.10). Saves leaders would be Francisco Rodriguez of the Brewers (27) and a tie between the Dodgers' Kenley Jansen and the Braves' Craig Kimbrel (25 each). 
• MVP: Hard to argue against Tulowitzki in the NL, as he plays a key defensive position (shortstop) well and leads the league in batting, on-base, and slugging. In the AL, Mike Trout is seventh in batting, second in on-base percentage, second in slugging, and first in on-base plus slugging.
• Cy Young: It'd probably be close between Tanaka (first in ERA, first in wins) and the Mariners' Felix Hernandez (second in ERA by .003, second in strikeouts, second in wins) in the American League. The NL is more wide open, as Cueto, the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright, the Braves' Julio Teheran, the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, and the Marlins' Henderson Alvarez would all get votes. 
• The American League Rookie of the Year race is between Tanaka and Abreu and will likely remain so. The NL race so far is between Diamondbacks shortstop Chris Owings and Reds centerfielder/speed demon Billy Hamilton. 

But, of course, the season isn't ending. We still have half the year to go, kind of.

Sweet Play of the Day - June 28

The context makes this a great play. The Astros are up by one run in the seventh, but the visiting Tigers have the bases loaded with two outs, meaning that a base hit changes the lead. Astros outfielder L.J. Hoes delivers.



(Too bad Hoes' performance didn't motivate the Astros bullpen, which gave up three runs in the ninth to lose the game.)