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Sixth sense
By egrissom | March 5, 2010
A brief moment to reflect on how the Phillies could be sixth-best in the league overall in runs allowed if their starters were seventh best and their relievers were ninth best.
There were five teams in the NL last year that allowed fewer runs than the Phils. They were the Dodgers, Giants, Cardinals, Braves and Cubs.
By runs allowed per nine innings there were six teams whose starters were better than the Phils in ‘09. They were the five above plus the Rockies.
By runs allowed per nine innings there were eight teams better relievers than the Phils. The five above plus the Reds, Brewers and Padres.
If every team plays a similar amount of innings, it’s tough to allow fewer runs overall if both your starters and relievers are worse than the Phils at preventing runs per nine innings. So I don’t think there’s a lot of confusion about how the teams that didn’t have better starters or relievers wound up allowing more runs overall than the Phils. Here’s how the total runs allowed for the four teams that had better starters or relievers than the Phils in ‘09 looked for the season:
|
Runs allowed |
|||
| Starters | Relievers | Total | |
| COL | 469 | 246 | 715 |
| CIN | 509 | 214 | 723 |
| MIL | 568 | 250 | 818 |
| SD | 504 | 265 | 769 |
| PHI | 477 | 232 | 709 |
Despite the fact that they allowed more runs per nine innings, the Phillies relievers allowed fewer runs overall than Milwaukee or San Diego. The Brewers bullpen threw 52 more innings than the Phillies pen while the Padres threw 79 2/3 more.
The Phils scored two in the ninth to top the Yankees 3-2 yesterday. Timing, fellas. Halladay struck out three in two perfect innings and was followed by Kendrick , Contreras and Carpenter, who each threw two scoreless frames. Ozzie Chavez doubled in Juan Castro to put the Phils up 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh. Sergio Escalona got hit in the top of the ninth, yielding two runs on four hits as the Phils fell behind 2-1. Paul Hoover tied it up with an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth and Wilson Valdez’s infield single scored pinch-runner Dewayne Wise to give the Phils the win. Polanco made a throwing error at third and dropped a wind blown foul ball. Release the hounds.
Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer are expected to pitch this afternoon as the Phils face the Blue Jays.
Um, really?
Topics: pitching |
March 5th, 2010 at 9:36 am
I liked that interview a lot. I guess sometimes I don’t want to hear about OPS and WHIP+. Okay that moment has passed. Carry on.
March 5th, 2010 at 10:47 am
I think WHIP+ could be the single factor that determines it all this year. That and maybe ERA-super-duper-extra-+/pi r2.
March 5th, 2010 at 11:07 am
You know as soon as I heard Polanco committed an error so soon, I thought we had an “I told you so” type write-up coming from you today. Your good behavior is a model to us all.
I’m done with Spring Training already and yet simultaneously surprised that it’s upon us so quickly. What, were we in the World Series again or something? Come on, April, hustle.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Yeah, April does like to lollygag the ball around the infield. And lollygag its way down to first. And lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes it? Lollygagger.