Recent Trends Mid-May Editiion

[Dry1313]

The Baseball season is almost 1/3 done. And with such time flying by, it is impossible to not notice several surprising trends:

The 1B Hitting God: Several teams have not just been achored by their 1B, but carried. Pujols could singlehandedly beat the Cubs or Pirates, Giambi has annihilated opposing pitchers, and even smaller market players such as Chris Shelton and Chad Tracy have become major factors in their teams offense, while catastrophic injuries to Derek Lee and Sean Casey have plunged their teams into the dumps.

Releif Tragedy: Baseball's relief piching has taken an amazing plunge. Brad Lidge, one of baseball's best young closers, folded under the pressure. Several significant contributing setup men, e.g. Tanyon Sturze, have had a severe lack of talent.

Fogies Influence Rotation: With Greg Maddux, Mike Mussina, and Tom Glavine all providing stellar seasons, they have kept their teams otherwise poor pitching afloat. But, starters like Randy Johnson and Livan Hernandez have made winning games they start an adventure, even though they are considered All-Star Starters.

Youngins Contribute as Well: The inverse is that very young starters have made or broken their team as well. The alarming trend here, is whether the pitcher wins or loses, they typically have a high ERA. Gustavo Chacin has been an anchor of the BJ's staff, even while having an outlandish ERA. But Matt Cain, Zach Duke, and King Felix, all amazing talents, haven't produced. They have horrendous W/L records, and although we all know that W/L doesn't mean squat when rating pitchers, at the end of the day all of their teams are cellar dwellers.

The Trend in the MLB is typically more hitting, less pitching. Usually as the hitters tire, the Pitchers will excel. We will see in the next installment.

[General]

Uhh..Lidge isn't exactly "young". He's 30; I know its "young" by Yankee standards, but that aint young.

[Dry1313]

Dude Lidge, 30 or not was a dominating closer. It takes closers the longest out of any pitcher to develop. Granted, there are some closers with enormous talent, eg Huston Street or Chad Cordero, but about 90% of closers are 30+. Lidge is young by closer standards.

[General]

Uhh...K-Rod? Jenks? Fuentes? Nathan? Papelbon? Gagne? Point is, Lidge is no longer "young". He is, or should I say, was pretty good.

[Dry1313]

Jenks: STILL UNPROVEN
Fuentes: Not better than Lidge
Nathan: Declining

K-Rod: Anamoly

Dude, Lidge was recently one of baseball's best relievers, whether you like it or not.

[General]

You mean "anomaly" right? And how is Jenks unproven? He won a WS, and was lights out in the playoffs. Papelbon? Gagne?

[DirtyKash]

Relief Tragedy = Mariano Rivera

[Dry1313]

Yeah I forgot he has been terrible. Anyway, you specifically General should know that playoff performance, although somewhat valid, can at times mean jack. Otherwise Pat Borders would head the Hall of Fame.

[DirtyKash]

Closers who are younger than Lidge - 14 guys:

Street (22)
Burgos (22)
Rodriguez (24)
Ray (24)
Cordero (24)
Jenks (25)
Papelbon (25)
Valverde (26)
Turnbow (28)
Baez (28)
Reitsma (28)
Gonzalez (28)
Dempster (29)
Putz (29)

Older than Lidge - 15 guys:

Fuentes (30)
Ryan (30)
Walker (30)
Nathan (31)
Isringhausen (33)
Benitez (33)
Otsuka (34)
Wagner (35)
Borowski (35)
Weathers (36)
Rivera (36)
Wickman (37)
Gordon (38)
Jones (38)
Hoffman (38)

[Dry1313]

3 Are Definetly Better. All the rest are iffy.