MLBeef

We are only 35 some odd games into the season, but some players are already have great seasons.  Let’s take a quick look at the players that are most impacting their teams positively.  For this we will use Baseball-reference.com WAR calculation.  In case you aren’t familiar WAR represents “how much better a player is than what a team would typically have to replace that player.”  Pretty basic on the surface but complicated to represent with numbers.  Read their full explanation here.  who let’s see who is pacing the majors this year.

Carlos Gomez has been ridiculous this year.  It took him three organizations and some time, but he finally fulfilling his prospect promise.  The pitchers get half the spots here and 5 of the top 6.  The steroid era is over apparently.  Let’s give the batters some credit and exclude the pitchers.

Well the Rockies and Braves both having two players on this list seem to back up their winning records.  You may be curious why Andrelton Simmons is on here.  Well this includes defense.  Since defense is inherently harder to measure, let’s look at just what happens at the plate.

This is starting to look more like what you might expect when you think of the best players in baseball (Wait…maybe not Starling Marte, but he’s having a good season.)  This is a measure I like because it focuses on the runs that a player creates at the plate or on the bases.  And runs are the only way to win a baseball game.  Finally, let’s get to the pitchers who having been keeping the runs off the board.

Kevin Slowey?  Travis Wood?  Matt Harvey is having a tremendous season and has launched himself to the top of the pitching board.  With familiar names at the top balancing out some surprises at the bottom…bottom of the top 10.

There you have it.  The best players of the 2013 as judged by the stats.

Fernando Rodney gets a long look at JP Arencibia blast the game winner.

The Rays score 7 runs in the 3rd inning against the struggling Blue Jays and seemingly would have the game in hand if they could manage the next 6 innings.  Well beginning the very next inning, the Blue Jays begin to slowly claw their way back despite being a bad team despite acquiring many former All-Stars this off-season.  It got to 9th inning with the Rays clinging to a 1 run lead.  The usually recently reliable Fernando Rodney was in to close the game.  He emphatically did not.  See below:

He almost made it through the inning, but the free swinging JP Arencibia ran into a fastball and deposited it somewhere in the outfield where presumably nobody was sitting in the Trop.  Rodney was always an adventure closing until last year.  We’ll see if this signals a move back to the median.

Michael Bowden watches Jay Bruce’s game tying double roll to the wall

The Cubs were at it again tonight but this time Carlos Marmol somehow stayed out of the spotlight.  The Cubs are not a great team but they have Theo Epstein so they will probably win a World Series soon despite severed goat’s heads.  Tonight it almost seemd liek they would steal one from the Reds.  In the top of the 13th the Cubs were able to score 2 runs off of Alfredo Simon on a home run by Luis Valbuena.  Going int the bottom of the inning up by 2 runs seemed like a good position to be in.   Nobody told Michael Bowden though.  This is what happened:

Giving up 4 hits in one inning is a good way to blow a lead.  2 singles, 2 doubles, and 3 runs put the Reds over the top and hung an L on around Michael Bowden’s neck.  The Reds have had few one the good side and few on the bad side.

Side note:  It seems like the Reds have played 32 extra inning games.  In fact they have only played 4 and gone 2-2 in them.  Why was I so confused?

Indians fans love the old school, kind of racist team mascot.  Weird.  At least this year’s Indians team will be a little more fun to watch then previous years.  Is that all?  Read the team preview.

HERE.

Here is a baseball playing tiger on speed.  Apparently this is supposed to be a mascot for the Detroit Tigers.  It probably looks more like a Detroit fan if the Tigers don’t win the World Series.  Will they?  Read the season preview.

HERE.

Isn’t this picture artistic?  Very artsy.  Will it help the Royals?  Probably not.  Will they regret trading Wil Myers?  Read about it in the season preview.

HERE.

I’m pretty sure last place will be Twin’s territory this year.  Why?  Read our preview to find out.

HERE.