Cabin Twelve

I am currently putting together a database of baseball stats in order to better understand the game fill my brain with absurd baseball trivia. And while I get things going, I’ve been occasionally asking random questions to get myself more comfortable navigating the tons of data available these days. I decided to post the answers to some of these questions and compile them in what I have dubbed, Random Bits of Useless Knowledge.

Here’s another thought that could be interesting, if I expand on it and present it in a more useful fashion. The rate at which the Twins “power” guys (I use that term loosely) hit Fly Balls, Ground Balls, Line Drives and Pop Ups. These are career numbers.

(The first column is the % of batted balls of each type, the second column in the % of total bases (from balls put in play – not walks) the player advanced with each type of hit)

Joe Crede pops up a lot. He also got a large % of his total bases on fly balls, so, you know.

Micheal Cuddyer does pretty well when he gets the ball in the air. So does Jason Kubel. Its too bad you can’t just say “hey, stop hitting the ball on the ground.”

Joe Mauer is really a ground ball guy. And he pops out 2.43% of the time. That’s close to never.

Justin Morneau is our fly ball king. No surprise there.

Delmon Young would probably benefit from getting the ball elevated more than Cuddyer and Kubel.

I am currently putting together a database of baseball stats in order to better understand the game fill my brain with absurd baseball trivia. And while I get things going, I’ve been occasionally asking random questions to get myself more comfortable navigating the tons of data available these days. I decided to post the answers to some of these questions and compile them in what I have dubbed, Random Bits of Useless Knowledge.

First up on the list? Why not find out how often the Twins swung at the first pitch of an at-bat in 2008? The question, for me, started with Jason Kubel. I can’t recall exactly when it was, but I seem to remember Kubel swinging at first pitches in a few later inning AB’s in a few games in short succession and hitting long fly balls that just missed going deep. So, did Jason Kubel swing at more first pitches than most Twins batters? That was a sort perception of events in my head. Well, I decided to pull the numbers for the Twins in 2008 and see if the perception was reality. And of course it wasn’t. Here are the numbers for Twins with >300 plate appearances:

Absolutely no surprise at the top. It took about 2 games into the 2008 season to devine that Young and Gomez swing, swing early and swing often. The surprise to me was the Morneau was 3rd on the team and that Kubel was that low on the list. I do happen to think that Kubel is a patient hitter and can take pitches (though I’m not sure he’s content to take too many with 3 balls), but I had developed the impression that Morneau was becoming a more patient hitter over time. Perhaps not. Perhaps he’s just realized that sometimes he’s just going to get pitched around, so he’ll talk his walks when he has too.

There are some interesting results of AB’s for some of these guys when they take the 1st pitch vs. swing as well, but more on that later. I’m not sure this topic, in general, is interesting enough to blather on any longer about.

One memo to AL pitchers though. Throw a first pitch strike to Mauer! He’s not going to swing at it!

I am flipping through the 1987 Bill James Baseball Abstract and came across a nugget on the Minnesota Twins team page. Writing about the wholly disappointing ‘86 team, while looking at the prospects for the ‘87 team, James had the following to say:

When the Griffiths sold out, there was an excitement here that created an opportunity. The window has closed; the new owners seem to be not only just as bad but almost indistinguishable. They likes their ballplayers slow and white.

Who could lead the Twins out of their doldrums? Dave Righetti? Nah; if the Twins weren’t losing games in the bullpen, they’d lose them somewhere else. Billy Martin? I don’t know. The time has come for the Twins to forget about winning somewhere down the road, but Martin is at his best when working with guys from the wrong side of the tracks. The Twins’ problem is that they’re a collection of smooth-faced suburban kids with no instinct for the jugular. I’m afraid the mixture would explode, rather than percolate. Tim Raines? Raines would give the Twins a leadoff hitter and a left fielder, plus he might compile better stats than Rickey Henderson in this park, but that wouldn’t do anything about the pitching and nobody can win nothing allowing 839 runs.

I love two things about what James wrote about the Twins back then. First, it turns out the Twins didn’t need Tim Raines or any other near-hall-of-famer-to-be to turn things around in ‘87 – they needed Dan Gladden. But more amazingly, while the circumstances of the ‘87 season made James seem to be completely wrong in his assessment of the Twins at the time, does it not ring true, even today? I thought so too.

10 days until pitchers and catchers report!

And as it draws near, the Pioneer Press gives us news of something to watch for this spring in regards to Go-Go and his fungo stick:

Gomez said he has improved at not swinging at too many pitches by … well, not swinging. “I take pitches. I stand and take 60 pitches, then swing at one,” Gomez said of his daily routine before Leones del Escogido games in the Dominican Republic. “Don’t swing for 60 pitches.”

Obviously, Gomez is a young dude and seems to have ability to spare, but needs improve both his strikeout rate and ability to draw walks, so it’ll be interesting if he can translate his off-season work into results as a batsman.

And to randomly compare his season to a few other AL Central lead-offish Center Fielders:

I realize this isn’t necessarily fair, objective, scientific or especially informative – but its at least a little interesting, in that, especially with the Sizemore/Granderson comparisons, you don’t have to stretch your imagination too far to think that Gomez could be on the level with those two players, if he manages to tap his potential.

And I’m not asking for an entirely new Carlos Gomez either, everything looks better if he just gets the walks up to a decent level and the strikeouts down. Everything else will come out in the wash. Heck, I’d even take the average of the 4 guys on this list. And that isn’t out of the realm of possibility for Gomez – the guy did get on base at a .336 clip and slug .399 in the minors, for what its worth. A couple of modest improvements from Gomez would mean a big improvement for the Twins offense.

Especially if Denard Span and Alexi Casilla can put up a 162 game version of their 2008’s in 2009.

Cabin Twelve’s favorite fat guy has landed a new gig – managing the Washington Nationals’ Single-A team in Hagerstown, Maryland. I, for one, am glad he’s no longer relegated to Indie League baseball or beer league softball, or whatever his other career options were.

A few Matty LeCroy memories:

Destroyed the Blue Jays! On May 19th, 2004.

Had Gout.

Made Frank Robinson cry.

And yes, I should feel bad for making a list of Matt LeCroy memories and only pointing out one big hit along with two rather embarrassing moments in the man’s professional life. I will attempt to mildly rectify that by saying he’s one of my all-time favorite Twins player for one reason. In a game that values precision, skill and execution, Matty seemed to joyfully lack them, and that’s what made him fun to watch. To me, he will always be a fat dude that got to live out the dream of playing professional baseball and was determined to work at it and have a damn good time doing it. Kudos Matty, hope the managing/coaching career is long and prosperous. With that, I present, A Brief History of Matthew LeCroy, in player photos:

Here’s an interesting career line for a guy that played in 2 games for the Twins last summer. In 20 career games in the big leagues, spanning four years, Jorgensen got 20 ABs. What’s interesting to me is that he while he managed only 3 hits in those ABs, 2 of them were home runs. Not bad a bad feather-in-the-cap for a journeyman back up catcher.

Take a look at his baseball-reference.com page.

The Cincinnati Reds “officially announced” his retirement today.