If you have read some of my earlier blogs you know that I love looking at stats and coming up with fun statements or figures from those stats. I thought we would play this little game by taking a look at MLB stats as of 12:39PM on 8-4-10 (Wednesday). When you see a ranking please keep in mind that it is the MLB ranking unless otherwise noted. In other words, it will not be just an NL or AL ranking unless I tell you. Click the link below to see the ESPN stats page that I used. (http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/batting/year/2010/seasontype/2)
If you take a look at the top 20 teams in runs, only two of them (Milwaukee and Arizona) have a record below .500. Milwaukee has scored the 7th most runs this year which means their pitching has been far from good. Arizona has scored the 12th most runs this year and they are 27 games below .500. That is impressive.
Kansas City is ranked 2nd in hits but 21st in runs. Somebody needs to work on hitting with runners in scoring position.
Tampa Bay, on the other hand, is ranked 25th in hits but 3rd in runs. Kansas City needs to try and hire the Tampa Bay person responsible for this stat.
Batting average does not mean everything. Kansas City is ranked 2nd in BA but they are still almost 15 games out in the AL Central.
On base percentage is pretty important. All 10 teams in the top 10 have records at .500 or above.
Milwaukee (5th) and Arizona (10th) are the only teams in the top 14 in slugging percentage who do not have a record above .500. It is to bad they cannot pitch.
Showing that strike outs are overrated, Tampa Bay is in 5th place in SO’s but look who is on top of the AL East. Arizona leads in this category with 126 more than their nearest challenger (Florida).
Showing that HBP (Hit by pitch) does not matter, Milwaukee, Washington, and Cleveland are all in the top 5 in that category.
IBB (intentional walks) is not a category you would think would be all that indicative of a successful team but every team in the top 9 has a record above .500.
Run baby run. The White Sox show that getting caught stealing really does not matter. They lead the league with 48 (up 12 over their closest competitor) but they also lead the AL Central by a 1.5 games.
Maybe my Little League coach was right when he said it was cool to sacrifice. The top 5 in sacrifice hits all have records above .500. The Dodgers lead the league in sacrifice hits and sacrifice flies.
Catcher interference is the way to go. Tampa and Texas lead this category with 4 each and have I mentioned they also lead their divisions.
Hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did. Take care.
