Mariano Rivera is now the all-time saves leader, but he's been the greatest closer of all-time for what, six years? That was 265 saves ago. In the 310 innings since 2005, Rivera has surrendered about two runs per nine and he's allowed fewer baserunners than innings pitched. In those six years, he's whiffed seven times as many batters as he's walked.
Dude is 41, throws one pitch and still dominates.
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Atlanta Braves phenom Freddy Freeman leads all NL rookies in batting average, home runs and RBI, writes poetry with his glove at first ... and hasn't a chance to sniff the Rookie of the Year award. His teammate, Craig Kimbrel, has a lock on that hardware.
Kimbrel earned a save Saturday by fanning David Wright, Lucas Duda and Jason Bay in order in the ninth inning of a 1-0 game. He did allow a weakly hit foul ball.
Kimbrel has turned the best hitters in the world into Phyllis Diller. (I.e., ugly.) In 75 innings, Kimbrel has more saves than hits allowed (45 in 51 chances, compared to 44 hits). He's fanned 129. Wait 'til he gets some experience.
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The Phillies are 28-4 when Brian Schneider starts at catcher. His batting line makes you wonder what he does with the other arm: .171/.238/.261. All the cosmos' dark mysteries combined lack sufficient intangibles to make a .499 OPS hitter an asset to his team.
Correlation is not causation.
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Earlier in the season, you could have made a case that pitching would propel the Red Sox and Braves into the World Series. Today, pitching is the reason they're losing ground.
The Braves have lost Jair Jurrjens (2.96 ERA) to the DL for the season. Tommy Hanson (3.60 ERA) may join him. Derek Lowe (4.94 ERA; 10.13 in the last two weeks) might as well. That leaves Brandon Beachy and his 26 career starts as the number two starter behind Tim Hudson, and a who's who of Triple-A stars filling the rotation. That's not the pitching staff you want to send against Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Corey Hart in the playoffs.
For Red Sox Nation, a playoff appearance would count as a small victory. Boston has frittered away nine games of an 11-game lead over Tampa Bay for the Wild Card, thanks to a tattered mound corps. Tim Wakefield (5.13 ERA) ran out of pitching utility 15 starts and two wins ago. Likewise John Lackey (6.13 ERA) the day he signed his contract. At least Dice-K had the good form to get hurt earlier in the season. Josh Beckett (2.50) and Clay Buchholz (3.48) liked that idea so much, they decided to join Dice-K despite excellent seasons. Both are back, but are their ankle and back ready? The only sure arm for Boston is Jon Lester (3.15 ERA).
If the Sox' answer to any question is Andrew Miller or Eric Bedard, the Yankees, Tigers and Rangers would like to raise their hands. The Rays may be the ones calling on them.
b
1 comment:
But Schneider looks like Phil Collins with a bat (prolly hits like him, too). I bet he sings to the pitching staff between innings.
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