What We Learned In Week Twelve
We’re nearly at the end of June, and 23 of the 30 major league teams are within six games of a playoff spot. If you like parity, 2009 is your kind of season. Let’s see what we learned last week.
Chad Gaudin is still talented.
The well traveled Gaudin had his two best starts of the season last week, shutting down the Mariners and Rangers in succession. His line for the week: 15 IP, 5 H, 1 HR, 3 BB, 20 K. His FIP for the season now stands at 3.76, and he’s stayed healthy enough to throw 71 innings in the first half of the year. The Padres have thrown a lot of spaghetti at the wall in assembling their pitching staff, and Gaudin looks like he’s going to be one of the pieces that sticks.
We might have to start taking Joel Pineiro’s sinker seriously.
After years of struggling to find himself, it looks like Pineiro’s decision to become an extreme groundball pitcher has taken hold. Between two starts last week, 76% of his batted balls were hit on the ground, just a ridiculous total. He now has the highest groundball rate in the majors, at 61.9%, despite never being over 50% before. Whatever Dave Duncan had him adjust, it’s working tremendously well, and his renovation of his approach is one of the reasons St. Louis is fighting for the NL Central title.
Franklin Gutierrez isn’t just a glove guy.
After being given the Mariners center field job, Gutierrez has thrust himself into the conversation for the title of best defensive outfielder in baseball. He’s earned the nickname “Death To Flying Things” by catching practically every fly ball hit against Seattle. However, Gutierrez’s bat has been the aspect of his game making noise in the last week, as he’s hit .391/.462/.609 in the last seven days. When a gold glove center fielder posts a .472 wOBA, that’s a pretty awesome week, and it shouldn’t be surprising that the Mariners have been winning games of late – their center fielder is playing like an MVP lately.
Andre Ethier wants to be more like Adam Dunn.
A strange season for Ethier continued this week, as he went 3 for 18, but all three hits were home runs, and he hit them in the same game. He also drew four walks and struck out five times, so half of his 24 plate appearances ended with one of the three true outcomes. Up until this year, Ethier has always been more of a gap power/solid defense kind of player, but now his strikeouts are up, his home runs are up, and his UZR is way, way down. It will be interesting to see how he finishes the season, because it’s a bit strange to see guys just totally switch skillsets mid-career.
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I particularly liked Ethier’s dead-on Adam Dunn impression in right field, dancing around the ball long enough to give Russell Branyan his first triple since 2007.
Ethier’s defensive issues are mystifying. His arm is powerful, yet people still run on him. He has plenty of range for his position and has shown good instincts, but seems to just miss a lot of balls lately. I wonder if any of this has to do with the Dodgers’ defensive coaching?
As for his offensive issues, I don’t see these as permanent. Ethier is too good a contact hitter to be stuck in a TTO pattern for too long. I do think his power is real, however, looking at his swing and his build.
Even if Andre continues his strikeout pace he will end up with 70 less strikeouts then dunn so its not like hes striking out A LOT
I’m looking forward to watching Torre’s juggling when Manny is back. Pierre is the logical choice for the bench, and he certainly can’t play right with his arm. But if Ethier continues to look like a flamenco dancer out there, would he switch Kemp to right at times and let Pierre play center?
I say this because if Furcal continues to struggle (or gets hurt again) I assume there’d be the temptation to let Pierre run the bases in front of Hudson and Manny.
A problem I’m sure a lot of teams wouldn’t mind having…
Kemp is the best overall CF in baseball this year. His combination of defense and offense is outstanding and his value reduced by wasting him in RF. Further, Ethier’s offense is significantly better than Pierre’s, especially with Manny in the lineup. If you wanted to sit Ethier against a tough lefty (remember, Pierre is better against LHP than RHP), then it would be better to keep Kemp in CF, where he is superior in every way to Pierre, and move Manny to his original position in RF. Given its symmetrical dimensions, there is no difference playing left or right in Dodger Stadium and Manny still has an arm that plays in RF.