Welcome to Behind the Plate With DJ, a weekly look at what is going on in the world of baseball. This series will weigh in on the interesting, the controversial, and the downright cool. The play of the week could be an incredible play or an unusual one. If something made you scratch your head, you will probably find it here. So sit back, relax, and let’s take a look at the week that was.
20K
On May 11, Max Scherzer of the Nationals hosted the Tigers. Scherzer would prove to be a rather rude host, throwing 119 pitches in a complete game win, giving up just 2 runs on 6 hits. The most impressive part of his night was his Major League record-tying 20 strikeouts without walking a batter.
Scherzer joined Roger Clemens (twice) and Kerry Wood as the only pitchers to throw 20 strikeouts in a 9-inning game. Among the 20-strikeout performances, Scherzer gave up the most hits, most runs, and the most home runs (2 solo shots).
Even with those marks, it was only the fourth time in Major League history that a pitcher struck out 20 batters in a 9-inning game. In contrast, there have been 23 perfect games and 61 four-strikeout innings. A 20-strikeout game is one of the most rare occurrences in Major League Baseball.
Unwritten Rules
Tempers have been running high between the Blue Jays and the Rangers since the infamous “Bat Flip” incident during last year’s playoffs.
Matt Bush started it off by hitting Jose Bautista in the eighth inning. Bautista then slid hard and late into Rougned Odor to break up a double play. He got right into Odor’s face when he got up and Odor punched him. The benches cleared and there was a lot of shouting and pushing and shoving.
Major League Baseball handed out suspensions and fines on Tuesday. Odor was given the largest suspension, 8 games, for throwing his punch. Bautista received a 1-game suspension for his late slide, which the MLB is actively trying to eliminate this season.
All of this brought the unwritten rules to the forefront again. The Rangers, as well as their fans, have not forgotten the bat flip by Bautista in Game 5 of the ALDS last October. That violated the unwritten rule of not showing up the pitcher when you hit a home run. According to these unwritten rules, this means that a pitcher will retaliate by intentionally hitting the offending player, even if that means waiting six or seven months.
It is going to be an interesting few years as younger ball players tend to be more flamboyant, and they tend to break the unwritten rules. Those rules are going to change, but we are going to see some more blow-ups like this one before they do.
Power Outage
The Atlanta Braves have hit just 11 home runs. All season. That is by far the lowest in the Major Leagues, with the Phillies having 29, the second lowest total. There are 11 players that have at least that many home runs, including four that have more. Let that sink in. Thirty-seven games into the season and the Braves as a team have hit less home runs than four players.
Only one member of the Braves, Freddie Freeman (6), has more than one home run this season. There are only four members of the Braves roster that have hit at least one home run this year, as Drew Stubbs was released and Adonis Garcia has been sent down to AAA.
On the bright side, they have hit more home runs than the 1917 Pirates, the team that hit the fewest home runs in National League history with 9.
Advanced Stat of the week
Every week, Behind the Plate will look at an advanced stat that is being used in baseball. These stats give a better idea on what value a player gives a team. This week’s stat is not really a stat, but a couple of qualifiers that are common in sabermetrics, w and +.
Weighted Stats
The w stands for weighted. This is added to a stat when different values are used depending on different outcomes. For instance, the difference between on base percentage (OBP) and weighted on base average (wOBA) is that with OBP, every time a batter gets on base gets the same value, whereas with wOBA, every outcome gets a different value, or rate. So, if a batter gets a walk and a double in a game in 4 plate appearances, the walk and double each count as 1 with OBP. With wOBA, the walk would get the value of .69 and the double would get 1.27.
This gives a more accurate look at how much the batter helps his team score runs. Obviously, a home run helps a team score runs better than a walk, and a weighted stat can show just how much better.
Many stats can be weighted, such as runs created (wRC), stolen bases (wSB), and runs above average (wRAA).
Normalized Stats
The other qualifier is +. When a + is added to a stat, it indicates that this stat is normalized for different variables, such as park factors, and sets it to a scale where 100 is average. Therefore, anything above 100 is better than average and anything less than 100 is below average.
The + stats are easier to read, because they are all on the same scale. It is easy to see at a glance that a player with an OPS+ of 120 is doing pretty well, whereas a pitcher with an ERA+ of 85 is not.
Some of the stats that have a + are on base plus slugging (OPS+), weighted runs created (wRC+), and earned run average (ERA+). As you can see, some stats can be weighted and normalized, like wRC+.
These stats were all created to more easily see a player’s value to a team. Weighted stats are more accurate and normalized stats are on an easy to evaluate scale.
Plays of the Week
The Mets pitching staff went on a power surge this week. It started on May 7 with the big man, Bartolo Colon, who had been hitless in nine at-bats coming into the game against the Padres. In the second inning, he got his first hit of the season, his first home run in a 19-year career.
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Four days later, Noah Syndergaard did Colon one better. He hit two home runs against the Dodgers, driving in all 4 runs in a 4-3 complete game win.
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