Thought I would do something fun on Friday. Instead of focusing directly on fantasy baseball, I thought I would dive into the numbers of baseball and point out some facts that you may or may not be aware of. Perhaps some of the information contained in this report will change how you look at a few major league baseball players and what their worth is for the remainder of the 2013 season.
Chris Davis leads baseball with 41 Ks the past month. That's nine more than Pedro Alvarez. Davis has also struck out more times in a month than Marco Scutaro has since he became a Giant last season (Scutaro has 38 Ks in 153 games played for the G-Men).
Gerrit Cole is averaging nearly 96 mph on his heater (95.9), the fourth highest in baseball for a pitcher who has thrown at least 50 innings (the leader is Nate Jones at 97.3). Shockingly Cole is a batter an a half behind the league average K/9 rate at 5.98.
Chris Johnson leads the NL with a .346 batting average. He has fewer homers than Martin Prado (seven to nine), has less RBIs than Martin Prado (39 to 42), has fewer runs scored than Martin Prado (41 to 44) and has stolen fewer bases than Martin Prado (zero to three). I know Prado has hit only .265, but this comparison should point out how vacuous Johnson's effort has been this season.
Tim Lincecum is 5-11 on the year with a 4.61 ERA. Dreadful numbers. He's still 7th in baseball in K/9 though at 9.71. In fact, his K/9 mark better than the combined marks of Bartolo Colon (4.75) and Jeremy Guthrie (4.80) even though that duo is 25-10 on the year. Speaking of that duo, they are the only two pitchers in baseball with double-digit victories an a K/9 mark under 5.50.
Victor Martinez has hit .406 with 20 RBIs and 16 runs scored over his last 24 games. In that time frame no batter in baseball has a better average. His total of 20 RBIs also leads all catcher eligible players as well. Moreover, his 20 RBIs mark is better than the combined totals of Matt Wieters (10) and Joe Mauer (nine) Heck, V-Mart's total of 16 runs scored also leads the position.
Shark Week on Discovery Channel is days away. One of the shows on there will talk about Megladon, a thought to be extinct shark that would have been upwards of 65-75 feet long (it belongs to the Carcharodon family, the same as the Great White Shark. It's thought to be extinct). Or is it? Check out this video...
The last 30 days Kyle Seager is batting .396 with six homers, 15 RBIs and 21 runs scored. On the year he's batting .300 with 17 homers, 51 RBIs, 62 runs scored and four steals. He is the only third base eligible player in baseball to have gone .300-17-51-62-4. Miguel Cabrera has only three steals.
Dan Uggla is batting .188 the past month. He;s also driven the ball into the seats seven times with 18 RBIs. To compare, all-world youngster Wil Myers has four homers and 16 RBIs in that time. Myers is hitting a bit better overall though with a .363 average.
Eric Young Jr. has 13 steals the past 30 days, the highest total in baseball, one more than Jacoby Ellsbury (six) and Desmond Jennings (six) have in that time. Per 500 at-bats in his career Young has averaged 46 steals.
Adam Wainwright has walked 19 batters in 23 starts this season leading to a 1.01 BB/9 mark which is the best in baseball for a hurler who qualifies for the ERA title (Colon leads the AL at 1.28). Over the last 30 days Jeff Locke, Jeff Samardzija and Justin Verlander have all walked 17 batters. Speaking of Verlander, his 3.88 ERA and 1.41 WHIP leave him as a league average hurler, and his 8.65 K/9 mark would be a five year low.
FRIDAY NOTES
Hitters who hit Bronson Arroyo hard: Carlos Beltran (.344 with two homers), Jon Jay (.406 in 32 at-bats), Matt Holliday (.314-4-10) and Daniel Descalso (.360).
Jhoulys Chacin is 5-2 with a 2.28 ERA and 1.14 WHIP over his last eight starts. He also has a 1.90 road ERA this season. He pitches in Pittsburgh Friday. In that game take a look at Garrett Jones. He's 5-for-9 with two homers off Chacin.
Dillon Gee has a 2.47 ERA and 1.19 WHIP at home this season. He faces the Royals though, a club that has won 9-straight games.
You will want to avoid Aaron Hill. He's only hitting .063 against Jon Lester (2-for-32).
Alex Rios kills Doug Fister going 8-for-16 against him (.500).
Josh Thole has 11 hits in 26 at-bats against Tommy Hanson (.423 average). Teammate Jose Reyes is batting .381 in 21 at-bats vs. Hanson and he's also stolen a whopping eight bases.
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By Ray Flowers