MLB - 2009 Regular Season Thread!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Halliday won again. 9-1.

2 blown saves in the losing streak, or he'd be 11-1 by the start of June.

What was that about the Cy Young?

Halliday has a nice shot over the course season, but AS OF TODAY, you'd have to be a complete fool to say that Greinke isn't the Cy Young of the season as of June 3rd.

[Arrian]

17 errorless games for the Yanks. I am envious of such fielding percentage. Though I wonder what their range is (as we know Jeter is horrid, and the newly added Teixiera is very, very good)

18 and done, thanks to a Posada throw that sailed into CF. As for range, the team's collective UZR is actually solid (they're almost dead average). This jives with their defensive efficiency as well.

Jeter, believe it or not, has been average. In fact, since the beginning of the 2008 season, Derek Jeter has been a perfectly average defensive SS. At least according to UZR. My eyes agree. The new theory is improved positioning (closer to 2B, which helps with his range problems moving to his left). We'll see if he can keep it up. Right now, he's clearly firing on all cylinders.

The biggest upgrade from last year has not been Teixiera, btw. He is good, and a big improvement over Giambi, but that's #2. #1 is Nick Swisher instead of Bobby Abreu in RF. Abreu was beyond awful last year. Swisher is basically average, which is therefore a huge upgrade. The CFers are getting it done. Damon started poorly, but has picked it up. Cano is a tick above average. So the only weak spots right now are 3B and C (when Posada is back there).

-Arrian

[Arrian]

To illustrate this better: AL defensive efficiency

1. 2009 TEX AL 0.706
2. 2009 TOR AL 0.706
3. 2009 DET AL 0.705
4. 2009 MIN AL 0.701
5. 2009 NYA AL 0.699
6. 2009 SEA AL 0.696
7. 2009 TBA AL 0.687
8. 2009 ANA AL 0.687
9. 2009 OAK AL 0.686
10. 2009 BAL AL 0.680
11. 2009 CHA AL 0.679
12. 2009 CLE AL 0.677
13. 2009 BOS AL 0.673
14. 2009 KCA AL 0.671

People have been talking about Texas' improved D, and rightfully so. Toronto has been good defensively for a while now. Detroit... wow, that's a pretty big improvement, no? Oh look, they're leading their division. Minny is a pitching & defense type of team. And then the Yanks.

-Arrian

[OzzyKP]

Yea I'm surprised Detroit is that high up there. All these new, young guys like Thomas, Anderson, Larish and Everett must be having an impact.

[Arrian]

Too bad they couldn't manage to hit against Boston. Sigh.

The Yanks survived a Wang start (he actually pitched better than the box score would seem to indicate, but that's faint praise), so yay. The problem is that his next start is against the Sox. At Fenway. He's probably going to get hammered.

But first, the Rays.

-Arrian

[OzzyKP]

Too bad they couldn't manage to hit against Boston. Sigh.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Congrats to Randy Johnson on his 300th win, but anyone else annoyed with this "Is he going to be the last 300 Game Winner" nonsense?

[rah]

Yes, since the obvious answer is YES.

[SlowwHand]

Through Thursday, Roy Halladay, 31, has 140 in his career. That means he will need to average right around 15 wins over the next 10 seasons, which will take him into his early 40s.

Another 300 winner seems unlikely.

[OzzyKP]

My neighbor sat around for hours on Wednesday waiting for the game to be rained out, and then was able to switch his tickets to yesterday and watch him get 300.

[OzzyKP]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9640992/Johnson-won%27t-be-final-300-game-winner

Johnson won't be final 300-game winner
by Tracy Ringolsby, FOXSports.com

Randy Johnson has become the 24th 300-game winner.

He will not be the last.

All the hysteria about the demise of the 300-game winner that will accompany the hoorays for Johnson's impressive accomplishment is wasted energy.

There's something about the good old days that is so enticing. It's almost like society has reached a point where it is difficult to accept the fact that today can be just as exciting as yester year.

And it's not something unique to this era.

As a refresher course, remember that when Early Wynn stumbled to his 300th and final win on July 13, 1963, the era of the 300-game winner was declared to be at an end.

Maybe it was because it was so painful to watch Wynn struggle to claim No. 300, having gone nine months and seven starts between No. 299 and No. 300 — the longest wait for 300 in history.

Maybe it was because he had to call in favors to get that chance. Wynn was released by the White Sox in the spring of 1963, and waited nearly two months before being picked up by Cleveland, where he had enjoyed his most success from 1949-57.

Maybe it was because once Wynn became the 14th 300-game winner in history there was nearly a 20-year drought before Gaylord Perry took the mound for Seattle and beat the Yankees to become the 15th member of the 300-win club.

But don't be deceived. Johnson has now become the 10th pitcher to reach 300 wins since Perry's victory on May 6, 1982 at the Kingdome.

A 300-win career is impressive. It's just not impossible.

The numbers are mind-boggling. It takes 15 wins a year for 20 years or 20 wins a year for 15 years. And there have only been 144 players in the history of the game who have survived 20 big-league seasons, much less enjoyed continued success.

Projecting a 300-game winner defies logic because the climb from No. 1 to No. 300 has no symmetry. What it requires is not only endurance but a late-career emergence.

It's hard to look at today's pitchers and finger a potential 300-game winner because there is nobody realistically close. Jamie Moyer is second among active pitchers in victories with 250, but he is also 46. Yankee left-hander Andy Pettitte is next at 220 wins, and he's 37, admittedly going year-by-year in his decision-making on whether he wants to keep on pitching.

So who is a viable candidate to win 300? Try Roy Halladay of Toronto, who turned 32 on May 14, has 140-67 in his career, and had only 21 wins by his 25th birthday. Or Roy Oswalt of Houston who, at the age of 31, has 131 wins, and Mark Buehrle of the White Sox, who at the age of 30 has 128 wins.

Winning 300 games is an example of improving with age. Consider that Dwight Gooden, who finished his career with 194 wins, won more games by the age of 25 — 119 — than any other pitcher since World War II. Denny McLain ranked second on that list with 114, but won only 17 more games over the course of his career.

The last 12 300-game winners have averaged 132 wins beginning at the age of 35. Phil Niekro, in fact, won 121 games in his 40s. Perry won 21 games at the age of 39. Warren Spahn was a 20-game winner seven times after the age of 35. Greg Maddux and Steve Carlton, in fact, are the only two 300-game winners out of the last 12 who reached the milestone by the age of 38.

Johnson is a classic case of a 300-game winner. He didn't win his first big-league game until five days after his 25th birthday. By his 30th birthday, Sept. 10, 1993, he had only 64 big-league wins on his resume. He was 19-8 that season in Seattle, the first time he had even won 15 games in a season.

He was 32 by the time he won his first 100 games, and chalked up victory No. 200 at the age of 38, when he also won a Cy Young award for the fourth consecutive season. And he has had to struggle to the 300-win finish line, battling through knee surgery and the second and third back operations of his career. No. 300 was, after all, only his 20th win since Sept. 11, 2006.

Halladay is on a Johnson-like pace. He had only won 21 games before he turned 25. He was 30 before he chalked up No. 100. He will, however, be past the midway mark to 300 wins by the end of this season, and has shown he has the No. 1 prerequisite to win 300 — durability. He is headed to his sixth 200-plus-inning season in the last eight years and has the ability to work late into games, which means he doesn't have to rely so much on the bullpen to bail him out.

Halladay does still have a long journey ahead of him before he arrives at No. 300.

His route, however, is not unlike the one that the previous 300-game winners have taken, even if the Chicken Littles of the baseball world are convinced the day of the 300-game winner has fallen.

[-Jrabbit]

It looks bad, but CC Sabathia and Johan Santana have a shot. Halladay is clearly a candidate. I hesitate to mention Zambrano, but he's a horse and only 28...

[rah]

We'll be seeing 6 man rotations as the norm before we see another 300 game winner which will make it even less likely

[-Jrabbit]

6-man rotations will not become the norm. There's not nearly enough depth of talent, and benches are already perilously thin due to the extra relievers most teams carry. So unless rosters expand, I don't see that happening.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Another 300 winner seems unlikely.

Please... what exactly was so special about Johnson, Clemens, Maddux, etc?

I mean Hell, if Matt Cain can win 20 games this year (he has 7), he'll have 50 wins before he turns 25.

Let us not forget that with modern medicine being what it is, a lot more pitchers will be pitching into their early 40s.