Sabathia - Beckett Comparion - Review of 2007 A's Season
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Sabathia Wins AL Cy Young Award: Stats Give Sabathia Narrow Edge
C.C. Sabathia can be thankful the voting for the AL Cy Young Award took place before the playoffs or Josh Beckett would have been a runaway winner. Below is a comparison of the stats of Sabathia and Beckett so readers can decide for themselves who they think should have won. After checking the stats it shows they were very evenly matched. When considering that Sabathia pitched 41 more innings or the equivalent of four nine inning games plus five innings it is even more clear that Sabathia did deserve to win the award.
Wins Beckett 20 Sabathia 19
Losses Both had 7 losses
ERA Sabathia 3.21 Beckett 3.27
Complete Games Sabathia 4 Beckett 1
Shutouts Sabathia had one shutout...Beckett none
Innings Pitched Sabathia 241 Beckett 200
Hits Sabathia 238 Beckett 189
Home Runs Sabathia 20 Beckett 17
Walks Sabathia 37 Beckett 40 Note: Impressive lead in walks for Sabathia considering he pitched 41 more innings.
Strikeouts Sabathia 209 Beckett 194
Opponents Batting Average Sabathia .259 Beckett .245
This has no bearing on the award but just for fun am going to list the stats of Sabathia and Beckett during the postseason:
Postseason Record Beckett 4-0 Sabathia 1-2
ERA Beckett 1.20 Sabathia 8.80
Hits in Innings Pitched Allowed Beckett 19 hits in 30 innings Sabathia 21 hits in 15 innings (two more hits in half the innings)
Earned Runs Allowed Sabathia 15 Beckett 4
Walks Beckett 2 Sabathia 13
Strikeouts Beckett 35 Sabathia 14
Opponents Batting Average Beckett .178 Sabathia .350
Walks Per 9 Innings Beckett 0.60 Sabathia 7.63
Mariano Rivera Offered $45 Million for Five Years
Mariano Rivera who will be 38 on the 29th of this month was offered a three year contract by the Yankees for $45 million. Whether he will accept it remains to be seen as he may be wanting to see what other offers other clubs may make.
When you look at his declining stats it is a more than generous offer. Last season his ERA was 3.15. The last time his ERA was that low was 1995 when he joined the Yankees with a 5.51. Starting with 2005 season his ERA has been 1.38, 1.90 and 3.15 not exactly encouraging numbers for a pitcher that had four sub 2.00 ERA's in a row before the 2007 season.
His 68 hits allowed were the most since he allowed 73 in 1996. He allowed 25 runs last season which was his second worst season of his career when he allowed 41 in 1995. He allowed opponents to hit .248 against him with the previous high average being in 1995 when they hit .266. On the positive side his strikeouts per 9 innings in 2007 was 9.34 the most since 1996 when he struck out 10.87 batters per nine innings.
I think the offer is more than generous since he would be making $2 million more a year than Jorge Posada while Posada will be playing close to 150 games while Rivera who pitched in 67 games would be playing in roughly 80 game less.
What Happened to A's in 2007?
No baseball prognosticator in their wildest dreams could forsee the A's finishing ten games under .500 and 18 games out of first place behind the Angels in 2007. However, that is exactly what happened and the A's only finished one game ahead of the last place Rangers.
On May 15th the A's were tied for second with Mariners and only one game back of the Angels. On June 15th they were in second place and four games behind the Angels. By July 15th they were 11 1/2 games behind the Angels and 8 games behind the second place Mariners. Amazingly on August 15th they were in the same identical place being 11 1/2 games behind the Angels and 8 games behind the Mariners.
Pitching
With the loss of Barry Zito who had won 16 games in 2006 it was no surprise that the pitching suffered. Dan Haren started the season on fire with a 13-3 record at the end of July but in the last two months he was 2-6 and his ERA for each of the last three months of the season was over 4.00 after being under 3.00 the first three months. Haren finished with a 15-9 record.
Joe Blanton was 14-10 and had a 3.95 ERA. He did win 7 games in both the first three months of the season and the last three months of the season. His June ERA was 1.58 but in July it was 5.49. Blanton was 7-5 at home and on the road but his home ERA was 2.69 compared to a road ERA of 5.11.
The third and fourth starters Chad Gaudin and Lenny DiNardo were 19-23 between them but the fifth starter Dallas Braden finished the season with a 1-8 record and a 6.72 ERA. What hurt the most was that Rich Harden pitched only 25 innings and is raising questions of if he will ever stay healthy for a full season. He has pitched a total of 72 innings combined over the last two seasons and is becoming the American League version of Mark Prior. When you consider he has made only 13 starts combined over the last two seasons when he would have normally made 70 starts it shows the impact on the team when he is not pitching because when he does pitch he is very effective.
Hitting
Not even Nostradamus could foretell that Jack Cust would lead the A's in home runs, RBI's and slugging percentage. Cust had labored in the minor leagues for eleven seasons and hit 200 home runs exactly in the minors. Cust had little major league experience coming into the 2007 season having two at bats with the Diamondbacks, 65 at bats with the Rockies, 74 at bats with Orioles and 3 at bats with Padres. Before being called up from Portland of the Pacific Coast League he had 9 home runs and 20 RBI's in 80 at bats. Then he joined the A's on May 6th and hit 6 home runs and drove in 16 runs in his first seven games and went on to lead the team in home runs with 26 home runs and 82 RBI's. Cust walked 105 times and in the minors had walked 143 times in 138 games for Portland in 2006.
Nick Swisher saw his power numbers drop in 2006. His home runs fell from 35 to 22 and his RBI's dropped from 95 to 78 but he did walk 100 times. Eric Chavez had his second bad season in a row playing in only 90 games and hitting only 15 home runs after having hit 34 in 2002. A's need Chavez healthy and in the lineup everyday and hopefully Chavez is taking care of his medical problems this winter so he will be ready to play in 2008. Chavez won't be 30 till next month so time is on his side if he can conquer his health problems.
Mike Piazza was a bust for the A's for the most part. Piazza only played in 83 games and hit only eight home runs for the A's and failed to even approach Frank Thomas numbers with the A's. It just showed that Billy Beane can't strike gold like he did with Thomas every offseason.
Shannon Stewart had a steady if not spectacular season for the A's hitting .290 to lead the team in hitting. Stewart only had 35 extra base hits on the season so most of his 167 hits were singles. Mark Ellis was a pleasant surprise establishing career highs in home runs (19) and RBI's (76).
Highly touted Daric Barton finally made his major league debut and hit .347 and had a .639 slugging percentage. He had 13 extra base hits in only 72 at bats. In comparison departed Jason Kendall had 12 extra base hits in 292 at bats. Travis Buck and Kurt Suzuki did well last season and they and Barton should be regulars in 2008.
Bobby Crosby played in 93 games and hasn't played in more than 100 games in the last three seasons after winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 2004. A's need Crosby in their everyday and hope he can improve on his .240 lifetime batting average. He played in his last game on the 24th of July and coincidentally that is about the time the A's began to slide in the standings showing how important he is to this club.
Mark Kotsay played in only 56 games last season has missed 162 games in the last three seasons so seems to be injury prone like Chavez and Crosby. Those three players need to be on the field in at least 150 games next season for the A's to contend in the AL West.
There has been some talk of the A's trying to acquire Miguel Tejada from the Orioles. If they do it could help the power production of the A's. This team has the horses...they just need to keep them on the field for a full season.
