Friday, April 18, 2008

Stats of the Day: Extra, Extra Innings

This morning's (yes, it did in fact last past 4AM EST) game between the Padres and Rockies was the longest since 1993. I would be remiss to not look at a few of the line scores from this one, but what can we gather from 22 innings of play?

ColoradoABRHRBIBBSOLOBAVG
Helton, 1B9010102.242

San DiegoABRHRBIBBSOLOBAVG
Giles, RF9010003.298
Bard, C9021004.292

Todd Helton, Brian Giles, and Josh Bard were the only players to stay for the duration of the game and not strikeout one time. How do you make contact with the ball nine times and only get one hit, in Helton and Giles' case? They certainly aren't hitting the ball with authority as they did in years past, but Petco Park didn't help their cases.

What does this say about Josh Bard to be lumped into the same group with two very good veteran hitters? Well, he isn't going to hit you any home runs or steal any bases, but a catcher making this kind of contact can only help your team when many others are struggling to stay above .250. If you need a slight batting average boost and don't mind sacrificing the minimal numbers most catchers may give you anyway, Bard is not a bad pickup.

WashingtonIPHRERBBSOHRERA
Lannan 6.031101104.86

I'll be honest, before reading this box score I had no idea who John Lannan was. Turns out he's a 23 year old lefty pitching for the Washington Nationals who managed to strike out eleven Mets last night.

Lannan had mostly middling stuff last night with a fastball in the mid to upper 80's and a curve clocking in around 70 mph. He was obviously in good control of the strike zone though, not walking any batters. Lannan had an amazing path to the majors last year, going from high-A, to double-A, to triple-A, then finally debuting in the majors in August.

He had a phenomenal game last night, but it's hard to get excited about a pitcher who debuted last year in A ball, where he only struck out 35 batters in 50 innings. If you are the one person in the world who picked Lannan up for this start, buy a lottery ticket. Everyone else should probably let him hang on the waiver-wire until he proves he can do this again.

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