1681

To me, the armchair fan :), when you are pitching for a team that doesn’t get many runs, yet you still get wins, that’s pretty special. Most of Kershaw’s wins came in the hard times, when the team was scoring 2 runs or less. It’s a lot easier to get wins when you get the kind of run support that Lee and Halladay get.

(Which of course leads to the question of why there’s even such a thing as ‘pitcher wins’, but that’s a discussion for a different topic).

1682

Kershaw’s run support is higher than Lee’s.

1683

where can you get this info? I’m not disagreeing with you but I’d like to know where to find this. It also seems very surprising from a team that has 648 runs vs a team that has 561 runs, many of which have come after August 1.

EDIT: Ok, found it. Lee has 204 runs and Kershaw has 234 runs of support assuming the acronym SO means support:). That’s a one run difference in starts (eyeballing). Is that considered to be significant? I don’t know the answer, I’m not being snarky.

1684

SO is almost certainly Strike Outs.

1685

SO = Strikeouts.

Here is ESPN’s pitching stats page for the NL.

If you go to their “expanded stats II” page, you’ll find run support. Kershaw’s is 5.56, Lee’s is 5.26.

1686

Um, oops.

1687

I had hoped Beltran would have given the Giants the push they needed and I could have rooted for him in the post season. Alas, that is not going to come to pass. Thankfully the Mets made that trade and got that pitcher.

1688

With the season winding down, I find myself wondering what the Mariners end up doing in the offseason. A lot of money drops off the books, meaning they could legitimately go after a big name free agent. But will they? Perhaps, but not necessarily where we thought they would a few months ago.

Only a few positions are firm when it comes to the field and batting order. Dustin Ackley has been everything expected at 2B. Brendan Ryan is going to be back at SS. And for now we have to assume Ichiro is once again a lock in RF. But the rest is up in the air.

Miguel Olivo is signed for another year at catcher, but they need some plan their that involves him as the backup and not the regular starter. The teams best prospect at the position is Adam Moore, but he’s been injured most of the last two seasons and hasn’t hit when he has been healthy. Do they go outside for someone else?

Third base is interesting as well. It’s pretty clear they’ve given up on Figgins. Ackley’s college teammate Kyle Seager seems likely to get the first shot as he’s played pretty solid ball since his second call-up.

The outfield seems a logjam at this point. Franklin Gutierrez has regressed, but has potential. The two outfielders picked up at the deadline, Casper Wells and Travon Robinson, have both shown they can play. And then there are organizational candidates like Carlos Peguero (struggled in a long look this year) and Michael Saunders (struggled in a long look last year and early this season). Have they given up on those guys? And DH doesn’t seem like it can easily just act as the overflow, with other options.

Which leads to first base and DH. Justin Smoak got off to a good start, struggled for a couple of months, and now seems righted again. But he’s not going to end up with the kind of solid .250/20/80 kind of line everyone hoped. And yet he still has an OPS+ over 100. And then there is Mike Carp, a veteran minor leaguer who finally produced when he was brought up largely by default and currently holds the second highest OPS+ on the team. Where does he fit in?

And the pitching is pretty well set for next year as well. Hernandez, Pineda, Vargas, and Beavan can largely be written into the rotation right now. And plenty of internal options for that fifth spot (though the prospects tried so far have struggled.)

Which raises the question of whether the long assumed pursuit of Prince Fielder will even end up happening. Throw him in as a 1b/DH, and suddenly Carp or Smoak are displaced. Carp can play a corner outfielder, but Smoak is pretty limited. And Carp to the outfield increases the logjam.

So maybe they spend their money elsewhere, though where doesn’t seem so obvious (other then maybe catcher, where there isn’t a great free agent anyway). So this team needs an instant upgrade on offense and yet finds itself with plenty of apparent options already in just about every spot.

Which is why this offseason will be incredibly important for the team.

1689

Man, what a sad state for MLB where the best thing to talk about on Sept. 10 isn’t a playoff race but the offseason for everyone else.

Anyway, with the Mets it’s all about Reyes. At the beginning of the year I didn’t think they had a chance, and then he went on the DL twice. Then I thought they had a chance but I didn’t know if they should actually sign him (begs, the question, is a team better of with Reyes minus a month or someone else for the whole season?). Now that the minority partnership fell through I wonder if they have the money to sign him even at a reduced rate. Regardless, outside of Reyes or not I don’t see this team making a lot of moves in the offseason.

1690

Usually about this time of the season most fans of teams that aren’t in the playoffs are talking about the offseason. Kinda the way it goes. Nothing “sad” about that.

— Alan

1691

Sure, but there’s nothing to root for until October. No pennant race, no wild card race, it’s that all the teams are marking the calendar until Oct. It sucks.

ETA: Looks like there’s a race in the AL West, but it’s still pitiful, but the NL has felt wrapped up since the all star break.

1692

Unless there are a number of interesting races going on, I think the natural inclination in September is to start thinking about next year for just about every team not in the hunt. After all, the September prospect call-ups reinforce the idea. So even if there was one or two half decent races still happening, I doubt we’d be all that much more excited.

Which is pretty much how baseball has always been. The difference now is that the NFL launches in September and that instantly becomes front page sports news. It was easy for baseball to rule September when the NFL didn’t count and early season college football was the only other option for your sporting dollar.

1693

When you say “the difference now,” are you talking about the NFL launching in September like a recent development? Because ever since the NFL moved to 16 games in 1978, they’ve been kicking off in early Sept. This is how it’s been for 30 years. :)

And yeah, this is not a new problem for baseball. When it was just two divisions and it was the Yankees vs the Royals in the ALCS, the season was dead in August for most teams and there often weren’t races to follow. Some years you get lucky with a close race, some years you don’t. Football avoids this because they only have 16 games; hockey and basketball mitigate it by having half the league qualify. I can live with baseball the way it is, or maybe one more wild card in each league.

1694

Uh sluggo, what’s up with the Yankees only scoring 1 run in 16 innings? I felt like I was watching the Giants twice :)

1695

What’s up is that the Angels pitching staff is as good as anyone’s outside the Phillies. If they ever caught the Rangers and made the postseason, they would be just as dangerous as any team in the playoffs.

I’d be happy if they ended up playing the Yankees in the playoffs, because that would mean I’d go to a few of the games. :) But I’d be hella worried about it.

1696

Um, the Angel’s bullpen is horrible, ask an Angel fan. Did Haren pitch the whole game?

1697

I was thinking more about their starting pitching. Apparently Ken Rosenthal agrees with me, for whatever that’s worth.

Haren pitched a CG shutout.

1698

Yeah, they do have good starting pitching, although you don’t know what you’ll get with Santana. It’s just that their bullpen has lost so many games. If they could have the Dodgers bullpen, Texas would be in their rear view mirror.

1699

Don’t look now, but the Cardinals are within striking distance of the Braves in the NL wildcard race and Tampa has reentered the wildcard race in the AL, with the AL West loser still in play for the wildcard as well.

Edit: And speaking of the Cardinals, looks like they signed Carpenter to an extension.

1700

Yep, GM John Mozeliak is starting to try to lock down some of the question marks for next season. Good move on Carp. He’s still hitting his velocity, and commanding his fastball well. Terrible April and May, but with a few exceptions since he’s been terrific. Cardinals fold Carp’s option into a longer term deal that lets them spread the money around to give them payroll to play with for Pujols.

Look for them to do something similar with Raffy Furcal and Yadi Molina, both of whom have options next season. Then they get to work on the big contract.