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Sunday, June 4, 2023

Griffey Gold Glove Catch Wraps Up PA Sweep of Dominicans

Ken Griffey Juniors gold glove catch of Manny Ramirez would-be base clearing double completed a 2-game sweep for Pennsylvania to start our Wild Card Pool of play.

The other opening series will be California against Venezuela, as each wild card team plays the other three in a two game series, and whoever finishes first advances to play our all-time divisional winners (Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida).

Our previous blog noted we had just updated fielding ratings for all players on our 12 all-time World Baseball Classic teams. If we were still treating all players as average fielders, Pennsylvania would have scored twice in the top of the 8th inning, rather than losing 1-0.

In the top of the 9th inning of the 2nd game trailing 1-0, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a grounder back to the mound that would have been an error for most pitchers, but Herb Pennock had been upgraded to an E2, CD4 on defense, so made the play. With two outs Vladimir Guerrero singled, and Rafael Furcal came in as a pinch runner. A z-play then came up and Manny Ramirez hit a deep drive that would have been a base clearing double to tie the game if Griffey were still an average E3, but due to upgrading him as a gold glover it turned into a series ending hit.

In the first game, Pennsylvania won 2-1 after the Dominicans failed to cash in early. In the second inning they loaded the bases with no outs but failed to score. In the 4th inning David Ortiz singled with one out. Cesar Cedeno pinch ran and stole second and third base, but they could not get him home.

Pennsylvania took the lead in the 4th when Honus Wagner led off with a triple and then scored on Griffey's single to make it 1-0. Buddy Bell then homered in the 7th inning. The Dominicans had another great chance in the 9th when Sparky Lyle was greeted by back-to-back doubles by Manny Ramirez and Felipe Alou to cut it to 2-1, but they could not score again.

In these pools a country or state's top two pitchers of all time pitch the 1st of 3 round robin series. We knew that would make runs hard to come by as the two greatest pitchers in Dominican Republic history (Pedro Martinez and Juan Marijual) faced the top two pitchers ever from Pennsylvania (Ed Walsh and Christy Mathewson).

Only allowing one run in two games is very good for Pennsylvania, since the tie-breaker after head-to-head is runs allowed. The Dominican Republic won our Statis-Pro World Baseball Classic a few years ago using current players, but in this all-time game the ability of some of the state teams to use starts from more than 100 years ago has left them not as deep on pitching.

Since we just updated fielding, we put each player clutch defense rating in the box score. CD-5 is gold glove level, down to CD-1.

Dominican Rep. Line-up	Pos	Defense	AB	r	h	rbi
Fernando Tatis Jr.	ss	CD-1	8	0	0	0
Jose Ramirez	3b	CD-3	7	0	0	0
Vladimir Guerrero	lf	CD-3	8	0	2	0
Rafael Furcal	pr2	CD-3	0	0	0	0
Manny Ramirez	rf	CD-1	7	1	1	0	2b, robbed of GW 2b
Sammy Sosa	cf	CD-3	6	0	1	0
Ramon Martinez	p1	CD-2	0	0	0	0
Felipe Alou	ph1	CD-3	1	0	1	1	2b
David Ortiz	1b	CD-3	3	0	0	0
Cesar Cedeno	pr1	CD-5 Gold	0	0	0	0	2 steals
Albert Pujols	1b1	CD-5 Gold	2	0	0	0
Robinson Canó	2b	CD-5 Gold	5	0	1	0
Cesar Cedeno	pr2	CD-5 Gold	0	0	0	0
Placido Polanco	2b2	CD-5 Gold	1	0	0	0	Glove saved hit
Tony Pena	2-C	CD-5 Gold	6	0	0	0
Pedro Martinez	p1	CD-1	2	0	0	0
Juan Soto	ph1	CD-5	1	0	0	0
Juan Marichal	p2	CD-3	2	0	1	0
Albert Pujols	1b2	CD-5 Gold	1	0	0	0
DR bats .117			60	1	7	1
Dominican Republic Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Notes
Pedro Martinez	6.1	4	2	2	1	10	Loss
Ramon Martinez	1.2	1	0	0	0	1
Octavio Dotel	1	1	0	0	0	2
Juan Marichal	7	5	2	2	1	2	Loss
Francisco Cordero	1	1	0	0	1	1
Armando Benitez	1	1	0	0	0	2

Pennsylvania Line-up	Pos	Cht	ab	r	h	bi	notes
Honus Wagner	ss	CD-1	8	2	3	0	2b,3b
Ken Griffey Jr.	cf	CD-5 Gold	8	0	2	2	2b, Game saving catch
Stan Musial	1b	CD-3	8	0	2	0
Reggie Jackson	rf	CD-3	6	0	0	0
Sherry Magee	rf1	CD-3	0	0	0	0	sb
Buddy Bell	3b	CD-5 Gold	8	1	1	1	HR
Hack Wilson	lf	CD-2	8	0	1	0
Roy Campanella	c	CD-4	4	0	3	0	3b
Sherry Magee	pr1	CD-3	0	1	0	0
Mike Piazza	c2	CD-3	2	0	0	0
Nellie Fox	2b	CD-5 Gold	4	0	0	0
Ed Walsh	p1	CD-3	2	0	0	0
Mike Piazza	ph1	CD-3	1	0	0	0
Christy Mathewson	p2	CD-3	1	0	0	1	RBI Sac Fly
Dick Allen	ph2	CD-3	1	0	0	0
PA Batted .197			61	4	12	4
Pennsylvania Pitching	IP	h	r	er	w	k	Notes
Ed Walsh	7	2	0	0	2	5	Won
Bruce Sutter	1	0	0	0	0	0	Hold
Sparky Lyle	1	2	1	1	0	2	Save
Christy Mathewson	8	3	0	0	0	5	Won
Herb Pennock	1	1	0	0	0	0	Save

Note, the modern players have cards, but for the all-time players the info that would be on a card is on sheets for each team. The sheets only include the last number of each range. On the sheets the range does not specify to which fielder the ball was hit. If the second digit of the random number is a "1" or "2" (11,12,21,22,31 etc) the ball was pulled, so left field for a RN or RP, center field for an SN or SP and right field for a LN or LP. The one exception is an 11 is an infield single if the batter is an OBR A or B.

Ending in 3 or 4 is to left field

Ending in 5 or 6 is the center field

Ending in 7 or 8 is tk right field

Click for the free Statis-Pro Master Baseball Game. Click here for 60 of the all-time great MLB teams, or on teams of manyof the all-time great players on teams by nation or state with one sheet for each team. Or click on the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form. You simply print two teams cards and then either print theaster link above and fast action cards in master link or buy the dice to start playing.

Saturday, June 3, 2023

All-Time Statis Pro World Baseball Classic Playoff Teams

Before starting our preliminary playoff round in the all-time Statis-Pro World Baseball Classic, we were finally able to go through and designate Clutch Defense Ratings (1 = poor fielder up to 5 = Deserved or received Gold Glove). In the first round we had not had time to do that, so everyone was a CD-3.

Below are the complete batters and pitchers cards from the four team in the preliminary playoff round. The only item not shown in the screenshots are the pitcher at bat numbers, which appear on this sheet of all 12 All-Time WBC player cards. The three divisional winners - Florida, Puerto Rico and Texas - get a bye in this round and only the top team of the four below will join the three divisional winners in the championship win.

Here are the links to the players above if you want to view all of their stats on baseball reference.

California Line-up 1-8, subs

California Pitching

Dominican Rep. Line-up

Dominican Republic Pitching

Pennsylvania Line-up

Pennsylvania Pitching

Friday, June 2, 2023

Statis-Pro Midseason Recap, Culminating With Dodgers 3 HRs in 11th Inning & Padres Split

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9			R	H	E
Padres	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	3	0			7	12	2
Dodgers	0	3	1	2	0	0	0	0	0			6	8	0

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
Dodgers	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	1	0	0	5	10	11	0
Padres	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	5	8	1

With both teams down to their final and worst Statis-Pro pitching card for the 11th inning, it was the Padres Ryan Weathers who gave up homers to Miguel Rojas, Jason Heyward and then Mookie Betts in the top of the 11th. Despite his PB 2-4 card (worst of seven ranges), Noah Syndergaard threw a scoreless bottom of the 11th to let the Dodgers win 10-5 and salvage the split (see picture). Here is the game log of all 66 games we've played so far with the grid of each team's record against the others and standings.

Julio Urias actually pitched 8 innings to leave with a 5-1 lead, but the Padres loaded the bases off the pen in the 9th and a clutch defense shot down the first baseline by Austin Nola got past Freddie Freeman (only an average Clutch Defense 3) to clear the bases and then pinch runner Adam Engle scored on a sac fly to force extra innings. Urias appearance did move him into 8th in ERA, one spot behind teammate Clayton Kershaw (see entire list at bottom of blog).

It was the Padres Josh Hader (PB 2-9, best of seven ratings and only PB 2-9 in the series) who wrapped up a 7-6 Padres win with the save. The following is a combined box score for the two games, though the Padres were on the road for their win. The ++ indicates the player has improved substantially over his projected OPS or ERA and thus adjusts the PB one in his favor. This led to one interesting result for Fernando Tatis leading off what ended up being the extra inning game. Because of his --, Urias was a PB 2-9 instead of his normal PB 2-8, and the PB 9 stayed on Urias card thus turning the 23 from a HR on Tatis card to a single. However, Tatis stole second, went to third on Juan Soto's grounder to 2nd, and then raced home on Machado's single to a drawn in 3rd baseman and beat the throw to score anyway.

This series wrapped up the 6th series for each team and thus each team has been through their rotations three times each, and we will list ERA leaders at the bottom. Fielding was key as well, as two clutch defensive plays that would have been RBI singles for the Dodgers if Tatis were still playing short sto this year were instead tuned into outs by the much better shortstop Xander Bogaerts.

In our standings, the Dodgers win kept them as the only team besides the Brewers to be playing .600 baseball in our Statis-Pro season, and thus they are the two teams that would have the two byes if our playoffs started today. We are now averaging 4.57 runs in our 66 games played to date, while the actual MLB average this year is 4.74 and last year was 4.27. The only stat we keep is starters ERA, and so far in our season the starting pitchers are averaging 5 1/3 innings with a 3.96 ERA. In the actual MLB season, Baseball Reference tracks the starting pitchers who qualify (71 pitchers so just the top 2 or 3 on each team so they would be expected to be slightly better) and they average 5 2/3 innings and a 3.80 ERA. We listed the leaders further below.

Pos	Los Angeles Dodgers	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes	OPS now	Card
2B	Mookie Betts	11	3	3	2	3B, HR, reach 2x on Error	0.878	0.856
1B	Freddie Freeman	8	2	4	2	2B, HR, but glove all 2B	0.959	0.883
PR	Chris Taylor	0	0	0	0		0.696	0.723
Ca	Will Smith	11	0	2	1	2B, ++	0.978	0.836
3B	Max Muncy	6	1	1	1	HR, 3 W, HBP	0.823	0.787
	J.D. Martinez	8	1	0	0	~++	0.888	0.777
RF	Miguel Vargas	8	2	2	0	2B	0.754	0.758
SS	Miguel Rojas	9	2	2	2	~--, GW HR 11th inn	0.505	0.676
DH	James Outman	8	1	3	2	~++ @B	0.82	0.726
RF	Jason Heyward	9	3	4	4	2B, 3B, HR ++	0.807	0.682
	Dodgers .269 BA	78	15	21	14	3 HRs in 11th for split

Pos	San Diego Padres	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes	OPS now	Card OPS
RF	Fernando Tatis Jr.	10	1	2	1	SB, lost HR due to --	0.774	0.916
LF	Juan Soto	9	0	2	0		0.936	0.924
3B	Manny Machado	8	1	1	2	~--	0.654	0.806
SS	Xander Bogaerts	8	1	3	0	glove saved 2H>Tatis	0.761	0.775
2B	Jake Cronenworth	8	1	2	0		0.717	0.762
Ca	Austin Nola	7	2	3	0	~--	0.446	0.711
PR	Adam Engel	0	1	0	0	~--	0	0.63
Ca	Luis Campusano	1	0	0	0		0.656	0.673
DH	Nelson Cruz	7	1	1	2	~++, 2-R GW HR in 8th	0.676	new card
PR-DH	Ha-Seong Kim	1	0	0	0		0.697	0.697
1B	Matt Carpenter	8	2	3	1	HR	0.663	0.73
CF	Trent Grisham	7	2	2	2	HR	0.665	0.71
	Padres .257 BA	74	11	19	8

The pitching part of the box is listed by game, unlike the batters above who are listed with stats from both games combined in one box score. The ~++ indicates the pitcher's PB is temporarily improved by 1, while a ~-- means it is downgraded (increased) by one. The sheet of all batters and pitchers who were upgraded or downgraded based on ERA or OPS so far this season is here.

Padres Game 1 Away	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Notes	ERA Now	Proj Card
Joe Musgrove	4	6	6	4	1	4	~--	5.64	3.73
Tim Hill	1	0	0	0	1	1		4.15	4
Nick Martinez	1	0	0	0	2	2		2.98	4.13
Michael Wacha	1	1	0	0	0	2	W	3.58	4.31
Brent Honeywell Jr.	1	1	0	0	0	2	H	3.38
Josh Hader	1	0	0	0	1	0	S	0.82	2.89
Dodgers Game 1 Home	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Notes	ERA Now	Proj Card
Tony Gonsolin	6.1	7	4	4	1	6	~++	1.82	4.38
Yency Almonte	0.2	2	0	0	0	0	~--	7.71	4.09
Shelby Miller	0.2	3	3	3	0	1	L, ++	2.74	4.4
Evan Phillips	1.1	0	0	0	0	1	~++	1.89	3.55
Dodgers Game 2 Away	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Notes	ERA Now	Proj Card
Julio Urías	8	5	1	1	0	8		4.39	4.04
Caleb Ferguson	0	3	4	4	1	0	~++	0.98	3.68
Brusdar Graterol	2	0	0	0	1	3	W	2.18	3.45
Noah Syndergaard	1	0	0	0	0	0		6.27	4.83
Padres Game 2 Home	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Notes	ERA Now	Proj Card
Blake Snell	6.1	6	4	3	1	2	~--	5.04	3.4
Luis García	1.2	2	1	0	1	3		4.66	3.35
Steven Wilson	2	1	0	0	0	4		2.96	4.07
Ryan Weathers	1	4	5	4	0	1	L	3.94	New

The following are all pitchers to throw at least 12 innings ranked by ERA. Because we count each game as a 3-game series with the winner getting 3-0 sweep series if up by 5 runs after 8 innings without using their closer. Therefore the record is the team record in the three games in which each starter started, whether or not he got the decision.

Rnk	Starting Pitcher	GS	IP	ER	ERA	W	L	Support	Allow
1	Mark Leiter ChC	3	18.2	1	0.48	7	2	13	2
2	Spencer Strider Atl	3	22.2	2	0.79	5	4	11	7
3	Roansy Contreras Pit	3	18	2	1.00	7	2	17	3
4	Corbin Burnes Mil	3	20.2	3	1.31	4	5	6	7
5	Max Fried Atl	3	19.2	3	1.37	7	2	17	6
6	Jordan Montgomery StL	3	16.1	3	1.66	3	6	8	17
7	Julio Urias LAD	3	20	4	1.80	6	3	24	15
8	Clayton Kershaw LAD	3	19.2	4	1.83	5	4	5	7
9	Justin Verlander NYM	3	19.2	4	1.83	7	2	22	5
10	Aaron Nola Phi	3	17.2	4	2.03	3	6	10	16
11	Kyle Wright Atl	3	12.2	3	2.13	6	3	15	3
12	Zac Gallen Ari	3	19	6	2.84	5	4	16	11
13	Miles Mikolas StL	3	18.2	6	2.90	7	2	21	13
14	Blake Snell SDP	3	18.1	6	2.95	5	4	15	14
15	Nick Lodolo Cin	3	18.2	7	3.37	4	5	8	13
16	Jameson Taillon ChC	3	17.2	7	3.56	4	5	7	12
17	Ranger Suarez Phi	3	15	6	3.60	4	5	11	19
18	Brendon Woodruff Mil	3	17	7	3.71	6	3	16	10
19	Zack Wheeler Phi	3	19	8	3.79	4	5	7	13
20	Justin Steele ChC	3	18.1	8	3.93	4	5	13	13
21	Eric Lauer Mil	3	12.1	6	4.39	7	2	26	16
22	Yu Darvish SDP	3	16	8	4.50	3	6	10	18
23	Freddy Peralta Mil	3	13.2	7	4.60	6	3	27	15
24	Dustin May LAD	3	13.2	8	5.26	5	4	9	10
25	Jack Flaherty StL	3	15	9	5.40	5	4	22	29
26	Marcus Stroman ChC	3	16.2	10	5.42	5	4	15	15
27	Luis Ortiz Pit	3	13	8	5.54	3	6	6	12
28	Graham Ashcraft Cin	3	12.1	8	5.85	4	5	24	19
29	Tony Gonsolon LAD	3	12.1	8	5.85	6	3	29	14
30	Max Scherzer NYM	3	15.1	10	5.88	4	5	13	17
31	Kodai Senga NYM	3	12.2	9	6.38	3	6	10	15
32	Hunter Greene Cin	3	14	12	7.71	4	5	10	18
33	Merrill Kelly Ari	3	13.1	13	8.80	2	7	12	23

Click for the free Statis-Pro Master Baseball Game. Click here for 60 of the all-time great MLB teams, or on teams of many of the all-time great players on teams by nation or state with one sheet for each team. Or click on the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form. You simply print two teams cards and then either print theaster link above and fast action cards in master link or buy the dice to start playing.

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Improved Cubs Bellinger and Gomes vs. Matz Lowered to PB 4-7

The optional sheet adjusting players who have dramatically improved (green) or dropped off (red) gives a big edge to the Dodgers in the final 6th Series of our Statis-Pro season against the Padres.

As "red" players on the rosters, both Padres starting pitchers for the series (Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove) drop from their projected PB 2-8 cards to PB 2-7s. Meanwhile the Dodgers Julio Urias and Tony Gonsolon will be 2-8s.

Two of the first three Padres batters, Fernando Tatis and Manny Machado, are also in red meaning they increase the opposing pitcher's PB by 1. Therefore Urias and Gonsolon will be PB 2-9s against them.

The Dodgers just need to win the series 4 games to 2 to be in first place in our Statis-Pro NL season, while the Padres would not make our 6-game playoffs if our season ended today.

Meanwhile the set up below shows the Cubs and Cardinals players before the Cubs took the first game in a sweep 9-3, then led 6-1 in the second game only to have the Cardinals rally to win 8-6. Our log of all our league games is here.

Note the + and - for players who have dramatically improved or dropped off from their projected Statis-Pro Cards. The Cubs and Cardinals are both playing better in Statis-Pro than in the real season, though the Cubs just won a series from the MLB best Rays. One nice upgrade + is Cody Beglinger, who hit cleanup in the series like he was doing a few years ago for the Dodgers before dropping down in the line-up with less productive seasons.