Getting Rougned Up By Unwritten Rules

With a .730 OPS, Rangers’ rookie second baseman Rougned Odor (pronounced: Roog-ned. No kidding.) is the greatest “Rougned” in baseball history. He’s also the greatest “odor” since Willie Stargell brought air fresheners into the Pirates clubhouse in 1979.
 
Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion not only tied the record for homers in May with 16, he also did a little Joe DiMaggio imitation, fanning just 14 times. David Lough laid down a similar stat line, except the first number represents hits. (Kidding: Lough doesn’t hit that well.)
 
Twins’ Phil Hughes has blossomed since leaving the Bronx. He pitched six starts without a walk before offering a pair against the Yankees in a June 1 win. That pumped his record to 6-1, 3.12 with 56 K/8 BB. And now he’s even got a win in the Bronx under his belt.
 
“Unwritten rules apply to the other team.” –Eric Karros, in an exalted Zen state.
 
For the third time in his career, Adam Wainwright leads the league in wins, and that doesn’t even include his 20-win season. Pitcher wins don’t mean much, but they don’t mean nothing. In his case, a lifetime 107-60 record reflects the fact that he’s an effective workhorse, with a lifetime 3.07 ERA. The only thing keeping him from a Hall path is a late start to his career and TJ surgery that robbed him of 2011 and limited his effectiveness in 2012. 
 
Still in the “pitcher wins don’t mean nothing” meme, Toronto’s Mark Buerhle leads the AL with a 10-1 record, notching his 14th straight 10+ win season. All but once he won at least 12. Soft-tossing Buerhle is also vying for his 14th straight 200+ inning season. At his current rate – which is unsustainable, particularly because he’s allowed just two home runs despite just five whiffs per game – he’ll finish 27-3, 2.33 in 220 innings and all of 129 strikeouts. I’d like to see it.

On the other hand, Jeff Samardzija leads the Majors with a 1.68 ERA for the Cubs, but it took him 11 starts to get his first win. Just putting pitcher wins in perspective. 
 
Charlie Blackmon update: Still hitting .313 with some power, but it’s a mirage at this point. It’s Colorado-fueled (OPS 500 points lower on the road) and mostly the legacy of a .374/.418/.616 April. Blackmon looks like a big lefty who can hit for decent average and occasional pop, and play anywhere in the outfield. And he rocks a sharp beard.
 
June 22 is Coco Crisp Garden Gnome day at the O.Co Coliseum. Tickets are plentiful. (C'mon, have you seen that sewer of a stadium?)

A-Plus in Oakland

"Is it difficult being a ballplayer?"
"No ma'am it's not difficult...if you're a ballplayer."
Napoleon Lajoie 

Billy Beane has finally found a formula to put his Oakland A's reliably back in the playoffs: hit like the Dickens, get lights-out pitching, win bunches of games. 

Why didn't he think of it earlier?

Still on a budget, Beane has assembled a lineup that walks and hits for power and a rotation and bullpen that suppress walks. Beane spent his limited funds on a shutdown bullpen whose six most used pitchers have served up 330 innings at half a run better than league ERA.

On offense, the A's are led by stealth MVP candidate, third baseman Josh Donaldson, whose 27 games consecutive on-base streak has catapulted his OPS 53% above league average. Every starter in the Oakland lineup sports an OPS league average or better, including veteran Coco Crisp, who's achieved his first 20/20 season in one of toughest hitting parks in majors. 

Overall, the A's are fourth in the AL in OPS while playing half their games in O.com Coliseum, accruing most of their damage in the second half of the season. They've led the league in bombs and averaged six runs-a-game since the All-Star break, sparking a spurt that's made up 11.5 games on Texas in September.

Forty-year-old Bartolo Colon (17-6, 2.64) has anchored a strong rotation otherwise composed of hurlers 26 or younger. Thirty-five year-old Grant Balfour leads the league's best pen, with eight of nine regular relievers limiting offenses to fewer runs than league average.

You can't talk about the A+ performance of the A's without mentioning their $62 million payroll. Their three highest paid players combined earn less than Alex Rodriguez, and their star, Donaldson, in only his second season, brings home less than $500 grand.

Beane's A's have been here before, and as he's famously noted, his "@#$%* doesn't work in the playoffs." Last year they extended the narrative another year by losing the Division series in five to Detroit. They may draw the Tigers in the ALDS again this year. We'll see if Beane's @#$%* still stinks.

Small Sample Size Fun

If the first three weeks of the season are any indication, the Mets' Matt Harvey is the greatest pitcher of all time. Harvey has dominated opposing batters to the tune of 4-0, 0.93 with 10 hits allowed in 29 innings. He'd won just three games in his entire career before this (10 starts last season.)

And Cardinal first baseman Matt Adams is the greatest masher in history. His .524/.565/1.048 slash stats represent seven games of near invincibility. His 23 plate appearances have produced two walks and 11 hits -- three homers, two doubles and six singles. His 1.613 OPS is more than triple the league average.

Justin Upton leads the majors with nine bombs. Upton didn't smack his ninth last season until August, more than 100 games into the season. His .820 slugging percentage with Atlanta nearly doubles last year's work with Arizona. If you average out the Uptons, by adding in the struggles of Justin's older brother and outfield-mate BJ, you get a less Ruthian .235/.314/.568. I suspect the Uptons would cotton to an .882 OPS in 2013; they'd just like it distributed more evenly.

How about Mr. Vottomatic, Cincinatti's Joey Votto? There's nothing flukey about Votto pacing the majors in walks, but 24 free passes in 80 plate appearances is a bit rich for a guy with just one home run. Votto's on base average of .500 dwarfs his pedestrian .377 slugging average. Most players with upside-down OBP-SLG numbers are Slappy McSpeedster types, not MVP candidates.

Baltimore first baseman Chris Davis is a hero or zero kind of guy. Last season he helped the surprising Orioles by blasting 33 jacks, but otherwise fanned 169 times with just 37 walks, a nearly 5-1 ratio. He's improved on both in 15 games so far this year -- 13 Ks and nine BBs -- en route to the AL lead in homers, RBIs and OPS.

With 21 RBI in 16 games, journeyman backstop John Buck leads the majors, despite playing his home games in the offense-suppressant Citi Field surrounded by a lineup of Justin Turner, David Murphy and Ike Davis (and, to be fair, David Wright). Buck brought home 41 runs in seven times as many 2012 plate appearances.

But if power is your thing, Oakland's Coco Crisp is your guy. With five home runs, seven doubles and a triple in just 58 at bats, Crisp leads MLB in extra base hits. That's an extra base hit every 4.5 at bats. In his previous 4400 major league at bats, Crisp crushed 378 extra base hits, about once every 11.5 at bats. Can you say "regression?"

Kurt Suzuki can. The Nationals' catcher entered today's tilt against the Mets at a handsome .321/.444/.714. An oh-fer day left him at .281/.366/.625. Still attractive, but hardly photo-worthy. Two more days like that and he'll be right around his career numbers of .256/.313/.383.

That Ranger fireballer Yu Darvish is mowing down opponents like a landscaping business requires no regression. The Japanese import whiffed 221 in 192 innings last year. He's blowing them away at an even higher rate this year, but it's his consistency that's so noteworthy. In 33 lifetime starts, Darvish has fanned 10 or more one-third of the time.

It's been a painful start for another Far Eastern product, Reds outfielder Shin-soo Choo, but it could get him into the record books. Choo has thrust out an elbow, pointed a thigh, leaned in a sleeve and turned a back to seven hit-by-pitches in just 77 plate appearances. At this rate, a full season of visits to the batters box will obliterate the single season record of 51 HBPs, which has stood for 115 years. 

Of course, "at this rate" may be the three dumbest words in the baseball lexicon, just ahead of "good RBI guy." It's still so early that Matt Cain doesn't yet have a win. Let's wait until Craig Kimbrell allows a run -- say June -- before we put any stock in the numbers.