I haven't done one of these in over a month, and since the regular season is over I figure this is my last chance until next spring. Thank you baseball-reference, mlb.com and espn.com in assisting me with the facts and figures.
1. Clayton Kershaw won the NL Pitching Triple Crown with 21 wins, 248 strikeouts and a sparkling 2.28 ERA. He also topped the Senior Circuit in WHIP and H/9 with 0.977 and 6.7 marks, respectively. His season was basically just as good as a certain Tigers' ace, but few people seemed to talk about it since he didn't throw a no-hitter, played on a mediocre team and pitched in a pitcher's park
2. Justin Verlander won the NL Pitching Triple Crown with 24 victories, 250 punchouts and a 2.40 ERA. He also led the Junior Circuit in winning percentage (.828), games started (34), ERA+ (170), WHIP (0.92) and H/9 (6.2). He still doesn't deserve the MVP, not when his season isn't any more impressive than what Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, Roger Clemens, and Pedro Martinez have done in the past decade
3. A pitcher won the triple crown in each league for the first time since Walter Johnson and Dazzy Vance turned the trick all the way back in 1924
4. Matt Kemp missed 40/40 by one home run. In the past teams have batted players (recently Alfonso Soriano and Vladimir Guerrero) chasing this milestone in the leadoff slot to give them more at-bats, but the Dodgers continued to hit Kemp third. Perhaps he would have gotten it with a couple more trips to the dish? We'll never know...
5. 21 year-old Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro led the National League in hits with 207, becoming the youngest player to lead the NL in that category
6. Jayson Werth did not have a good debut for Washington, but narrowly missed his third career 20/20 season by finishing with 20 dingers and 19 thefts
7. Recognize these underachieving (compared to their productive track records) third basemen?
Player A: 102 G 447 PA 389 AB 60 R 99 H 23 2B 1 3B 14 HR 61 RBI 52 BB 97 K .254/.345/.427 166 TB 114 OPS+
Player B: 99 G 428 PA 373 AB 103 H 21 2B 0 3B 16 HR 62 RBI 47 BB 80 K .276/.362/.461 172 TB 116 OPS+
Player A is David Wright, and Player B is Alex Rodriguez. They made a combined $46 million this season from player salaries alone
8. Vernon Wells had an awful season for the Angels, but still mashed 25 home runs in just 131 games
9. Every division was won by at least six games, hence the dramatic Wild Card chases
10. Adam Dunn had more strikeouts (177) than batting average points (159)
11. So close but so far; Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, and Jhonny Peralta just missed the magical .300 mark and finished at .299. Pujols and Evan Longoria just missed 100 RBI, and Ben Zobrist just missed 100 runs
12. The Machine's decade long streak of .300-30-100 seasons came to an end, as did A-Rod's 13 consecutive 30 HR 100 RBI seasons and Ichiro Suzuki's string of ten consecutive 200 hit seasons. Injuries were to blame in the first two cases, and some bad luck plagued Ichiro
13. Shout out to Josh Willingham, who had 29 long balls and 98 RBI for the A's this season. Who knew? Same goes for Michael Morse and his 31 big flies, 95 ribbies and great .303/.360/.550 line
14. Carlos Pena (28) and Torii Hunter (23) hit the same number of homers in both 2010 and 2011
15. 35 year-old Alfonso Soriano can't run or field much anymore, but his bat still has enough pop to launch 26 homers, knock in 88 runs and slug .469 despite missing almost all of May
16. Jacoby Ellsbury, Andre Ethier, Nick Markakis and Shane Victorino were the only full time players to not make an error this season
17. Poor Tim Lincecum and Doug Fister, who sported 2.74 and 2.83 ERAs but managed to wind up with losing records
18. Detroit closer Jose Valverde went a perfect 49 for 49 in save opportunities
19. How many people know Ian Kennedy won more games than Roy Halladay, had as many strikeouts as Jered Weaver and owned an ERA lower than C.C. Sabathia? Not too many
20. Speaking of Halladay and Sabathia, both pulled a Mike Mussina and finished with 19 wins
21. Carlos Lee is like the Ryan Howard of the Astros; he managed to knock in 94 runs for the NL's fourth-worst offense
22. Derrek Lee looked lost in the AL, but a move to Pittsburgh seemed to rejuvenate his bat. He hit .337/.398/.584 in 28 games after the trade
23. Remember when Jason Bay was an annual 35-100-100 guy? He has 18 taters, 104 RBI and 107 runs...over the past two seasons combined. That's what happens when you leave Fenway for a pitcher's park
24. The Red Sox went 45-36 at Fenway and 45-36 on the road even though they have been historically much better at home. They also bookended their season terribly by winning 18 games in April and September combined
25. Toronto was the only team that finished exactly .500
Wright's slugging % was .427, not .527, I'm sure that's just a typo.
ReplyDeleteAlso it's interesting that you consider players with OPS+ of 114 and 116 to be underachieving.
It's probably safe to say that neither Wright nor Rodriguez earned there salaries this year but they both had uncharacteristic injuries and A-Rod's rate stats are still top 5, top 6 if you consider Brett Lawrie, in the AL among 3B.
Kennedy's year was sensational, and mostly under the radar
Thanks for the correction, and I meant that Wright and A-Rod underachived based on what they are capable of. Neither stayed healthy and when they were on the field their performancce didn't meet expectations/compare well with their established track records. Recall that some predicted during spring training that a healthier A-Rod would return to MVP form. Wright really needs a fresh start on a new team.
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