Tuesday, April 8, 2008
New York Yankees (4-3) at Kansas City Royals (4-2), 4:10pm ***Game Chatter***
NYY: Phil Hughes(0-0,3.00) vs. KC: Brian Bannister(1-0,0.00)
NY Yankees
Johnny Damon LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Bobby Abreu RF
A-Rod 3B
Hideki Matsui DH
Jorge Posada C
Jason Giambi 1B
Wilson Betemit SS
Melky Cabrera CF
Kansas City
Joey Gathright CF
Mark Grudzielanek 2B
Mark Teahen LF
Jose Guillen RF
Billy Butler DH
Alex Gordon 3B
Ross Gload 1B
John Buck C
Tony Pena SS
Phil Hughes was great last time out. Another strong start today would be nice.
Brian Bannister is the new hero of the stat nerds.
And BABIP, all of a sudden, became another indicator of a pitcher’s likely future, depending on whether it was over or under the average, which is about .300.
Last year, Bannister’s BABIP was .264, among the best in the game.
“It’s tough because I’m a student of it, and all last year I was well aware I was among the league leaders in it,” Bannister said. “But what do you do? Just because you’re continuing to get outs, do you say, ‘Oh, this shouldn’t be happening’?
“I realize very well that I could regress to the mean.”
Translation: Far more of those batted balls could find the outfield grass instead of gloves.
Then again, his good fortune may continue. In a late January interview with Tim Dierkes that outlined much of his sabermetric leanings, Bannister theorized that he could keep his BABIP down if he got to two-strike counts more often. It was a brilliant hypothesis that melded the practical—hitters are taught to, and thus tend to, take more defensive swings with two strikes—with numerical data.
Let’s hope he regresses to the mean today. Go Yanks.
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