lethal wrote:

Slowhand wrote:I was surprised to see how few triples Rickey Henderson had in his career. And doubles, for that matter.

Padding his singles and SBs.

I remember seeing an article by (I think) Rob Neyer years ago talking about Rickey's lack of triples, and this is basically exactly what he asserted.

phatj wrote:

lethal wrote:

Slowhand wrote:I was surprised to see how few triples Rickey Henderson had in his career. And doubles, for that matter.

Padding his singles and SBs.

I remember seeing an article by (I think) Rob Neyer years ago talking about Rickey's lack of triples, and this is basically exactly what he asserted.

It was definitely Neyer, and he broke it down really thoroughly. I don't remember all the specifics, but I think he also felt part of it had to do with Rickey being slow out of the box, which was partly cause of his crouched stance and partly because Ricky tended to watch his shots a little too much. I also think that era's ballparks, which were largely symmetrical, didn't create as many triples as all the wacky dimensions do today.

I imagine the triples also had a lot to do with him being right handed. The most common places to hit triples are centerfield and the right field corner, so if you're mostly a pull hitting righty (I'm not sure what his tendencies were, but I don't seem to recall him being a guy that would drive the ball the other way--I could be wrong), that would make an big impact on your triples opportunities. I don't also doubt that he cut a lot of extra base hits short so that he could steal the bag on the next pitch.

Rickey had far fewer triples than most leadoff men from his era. Neyer wrote about this and took e-mails on the subject - the original piece appeared in the mag -

here's the most common explanations:

1. triples turned into homers (a lot more than his contemps), of played deeper vs. Henderson

2. no hustle/bad jump - crouched stance, content with getting to second

3. why bother? - he was the base stealing master and he liked to demonstrate.

4. oh, those b on b's - according to David Newham, "Rickey's OBP was higher than most other speedsters, so his stolen-base totals somewhat overstate his speed, which was considerable but not nearly as unusual as his gaudy career steals would suggest."

5. Rickey just wasn't that fast

6. too many steals throw off the ratio

it's perhaps worth mentioning that Henderson has never been a big doubles guy, either. His career high is 33 (in 1990) and he's reached 30 only five times. And no, I don't think those figures are due to a lack of hustle, because despite what you've heard, doubles aren't generally about hustle, either. Looking at Henderson's career extra-base hits, one gets the impression of a hitter who was generally content to slap the ball through the infield for a single ... but when he got a pitch he liked and wanted to muscle up, he'd knock the ball over the fence.

And Henderson really could steal third base. According to Retrosheet's Tom Ruane, Rickey was successful 80.5 percent of the time he tried to steal second base, and 82 percent of the time he tried to steal third (these figures do not include the 15 times he was successful on the back end of a double steal).

My guess is that all of these things figure into the answer. Rickey Henderson was, in many ways, an outlier. He drew more walks than anybody, scored more runs than anybody, and -- by a huge margin -- stole more bases than anybody. He wasn't much for triples, especially relative to his steals, but I think this is because aside from speed he had just about everything going against him. Sure, styling might have cost him a few three-baggers along the way. But I suspect the homers and the walks and the steals -- especially those steals -- are what best explain Henderson's odd-looking ratio of triples to stolen bases.

Just kindling for the Keith Law haters (of which I am one), which is his quote from May of '07:

Dustin Pedroia doesn't have the strength or bat speed to hit major-league pitching consistently, and he has no power. If he can continue to hit .260 or so, he'll be useful, and he probably has a future as a backup infielder if he can stop rolling over to third base and shortstop.

I read somewhere this morning that the last time the Phillies had a former Cy Young Award winner on the roster was 1994 (Fernando Valenzuela). With luck, we'll soon have two.

Cool Brian Bannister radio interviewon how he uses Pitch F/x data, and how/why he switched to cutters from a 4 seam fastballs.

MLB Network just told me that the Phillies are the second-oldest team in baseball. Average age is 29.8 .

1 wrote:MLB Network just told me that the Phillies are the second-oldest team in baseball. Average age is 29.8 .

Coste, gordon, moyer, stairs, ibanez, bako, park, lopez, eyre....all old guys seemingly past their primes that they find a way to contribute.

BassGuiFloyd wrote:

1 wrote:MLB Network just told me that the Phillies are the second-oldest team in baseball. Average age is 29.8 .

Coste, gordon, moyer, stairs, ibanez, bako, park, lopez, eyre....all old guys seemingly past their primes that they find a way to contribute.

You forgot Thome, Garcia, and Carlton.

Werthless wrote:Cool Brian Bannister radio interviewon how he uses Pitch F/x data, and how/why he switched to cutters from a 4 seam fastballs.

It's weird and kinda refreshing to hear a pitcher talking about his ERA+, GB%, and FIP like it's wins and ERA. Nice link.

Bakestar wrote:I read somewhere this morning that the last time the Phillies had a former Cy Young Award winner on the roster was 1994 (Fernando Valenzuela). With luck, we'll soon have two.

My favorite real short Phillies stint.

Werthless wrote:Cool Brian Bannister radio interviewon how he uses Pitch F/x data, and how/why he switched to cutters from a 4 seam fastballs.

if he knows so mcuh, why is he 6-7 this yere

Saw this one on ESPN:

Kansas City had no assists on Wednesday....first time a team did it in 6 years

Everything was a strikeout, pop out, line drive, fly out or unassisted grounder towards 1st

Jon Lieber

Brandon Wood won't get a shot in the majors until he's 32, but hopefully he's still able to have a Branyan like career

Angels optioned infielder Brandon Wood to Triple-A Salt Lake.
The move completes a drawn-out cluster of Angels transactions. In summary, Wood and reliever Bobby Mosebach were optioned to Salt Lake while infielder Sean Rodriguez and catcher Bobby Wilson were called to the bigs. Wood, 24, was 1-for-17 in eight games (five starts) with the Halos.

10 years ago.....Turn Ahead the Clock

Lotta effort put into that Phillies one

We should send the Mets to Mercury.

I attended this Arizona League game tonight, which had an odd stat for the Indians. They had 14 hits, but none for extra bases.

The Phillies are positioned to be a contending team for the foreseeable future. There are of course some question marks once the "core" starts its decline, but their minor league system is strong and Rube (who may be the GM for a long time) has proven quite capable of making deals. The revenue is there, and they are perhaps becoming a national franchise--there seem to be Phils fans everywhere they play.

And all this makes me think that Wade is underappreciated in all this. He is not a great GM, but he did some good things, and avoided making big harmful mistakes. Yes, he alienated Schilling and Rolen, but that might have been inevitable anyway.

Under his watch the Phils went from terrible to respectability. He lacked the vision or the guts or the support from the front office to put real contender on the field and maybe he brought guys along too slowly. But the core--Utley, Howard, Hamels, Rollins, and Burrell were all nurtured through the Wade era.

In addition, Wade managed to keep payroll under control. He was outstanding at arbitration. Yes, he perhaps overpaid for Thome. But we're not saddled with Vernon Wells or any garbage like that.