A-Rod's playoff transformation continues

Yankees slugger has taken his game to new level this October


Link to Mlb.com article.

A-Rod REAAAALY snaps his post-season slump.

Link to mlb.com video.

A-Rod ties it again with a 2-run HR

Cool A-Rod video mlb.com.

A-Rod Snaps It

Link to mlb.com video.

A-Rod sees light at end of playoff tunnel

2009 might be year he emerges from postseason slumber
By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com

"Since Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, Rodriguez has come to bat with 38 runners on base over the span of 59 postseason at-bats. He has left every single one on base, going 0-for-27 with runners on base through the Yankees' four-game Division Series loss to CC Sabathia's Indians in 2007. His only RBI in that series came on a solo Game 4 home run with the Yankees trailing, 6-2."

Link to mlb.com article.

Follow the leaders: Inside look at '09's stats

Tie for AL HR lead; Pujols dominates in National League

Link to mlb.com article on end-of-season stats.

A-Rod: 12th Consecutive Season with 30+ HR & 100+ RBI

A-Rod had a monster 6th inning today against the Rays.  He had me a little worried for a while this season, but he came through on the last day to meet the 30 HR / 100 RBI standard.  He didn't finish with the usual 35 HR this season (or with the typical 100 runs) but he did finish off better than I had expected.

It is not only the 12th consecutive season he gets those numbers: today he also set the AL record for most RBI in a single inning, with 7 (in the sixth inning).  The NL and MLB record belongs to Fernando Tatis, with 8 RBI on April 23, 1999.  His 7 RBI also put A-Rod within the 1700 career RBI milestone, as he finishes the season with 1706 RBI.  He also tied Big Mac for 8th in the all-time HR leaders list, with 583 career dingers.

Click here to read mlb.com article and watch the video of A-Rod's monster inning.

See A-Rod's stats at the close of the 2009 Season (source: www.mlb.com).

You Don't See This Every Day.

Ichiro gets tossed for the first time ever.

Pujols' Grand Slams this Year

Grand Slam Records Single Season Records
Record	Lg	Name(s)	Team(s)	Data
Most In A Season	AL	Travis Hafner	Cleveland	6	2006
		Don Mattingly	New York		1987
	NL	Ernie Banks	Chicago	5	1955
		Albert Pujols	St. Louis		2009

Table from www.baseball-almanac.com


04/11/09: HR #2, vs. Houston
04/25/09: HR #7, vs. Cubs
06/21/09: HR #25, @ KC
07/03/09: HR #31, @ CINN
08/04/09: HR #36, @ NYM
Video links to MLB.com

Reynolds Breaks Strikeout Record. Again.

"So what? We won the game today, I got 100 RBIs, it was a good day." -Mark Reynolds
Link to MLB.com article (with video).

Mark Reynols: Second Ever to Reach 200 SO (the First Was... Er... Mark Reynolds)

Mark Reynolds just became the second player ever to reach the 200 SO plateau for one season.  Just the kind of guy I would love to play wiffleball with.  


The first ever to do it was, well, Mark Reynolds, last year, when he fanned 204 times.  With over a week and a half of regular-season play left, he's right on track to break his own record. 


Could this be the worst MLB hitter ever?  Well, he does have 42 HR this year, second only to Albert 'El Hombre' (by the way, is he really an hombre, or is he a droid of some sort?), Pujols.  Reynolds also has 92 RBI, which puts him among the top 10 in the NL this year.  So he's not a bad hitter; it's just that he only likes to get extra base hits (less than 50% of his 147 hits this year so far have been singles).  Singles are for weaklings, like Ichiro and Jeter.

Here is the ladder that Reynolds has climbed this year: the all-time single season strikeout leaders list (for batters) as of opening day this year:

Rank	Player	Strikeouts	Year
1	Mark Reynolds	204	2008
2	Ryan Howard	199	2007
	Ryan Howard	199	2008
4	Jack Cust	197	2008
5	Adam Dunn	195	2004
6	Adam Dunn	194	2006
7	Bobby Bonds	189	1970
8	José Hernández	188	2002
9	Bobby Bonds	187	1969
10	Preston Wilson	187	2000

Link to Andrew Bagnato's Washington Post article.

Amazing

Ichiro sets MLB record on infield grounder.

Mariners star reaches 200 hits for ninth straight season.

Link to MLB.com article.

"Seasonal Records Usually Elude Rookies"

Take a look at this fine article by George Vass.

Link to Baseball Digest 2001 article.

2009 Rookie of the Year: Not Impressed

Whoever gets the ROY award this year will get it, not because they have good numbers, but because they're lucky no one else had better numbers.

No rookie position player this year is likely to hit more than 20 HR (Garret Jones leads rookies with 16), or more than 80 RBI (Gerardo Parra leads with 50), or much higher than .300 (Chris Coughlan leads with .296), or get more than 150 hits (Coughlan leads with 109).  

Among pitchers, no rookie is likely to get any more than 15 wins (Jeff Niemann leads rookies with a 12-5 record), or to the 150 K mark (Brett Anderson leads with 109 K's), or to the 30 saves mark (Andrew Bailey leads with 20 out of 24 opportunities).  A couple of ERAs are outstanding, though: those are Bailey, with 1.90 over 71 innings, and J.A. Happ, with 2.63 over 142.3 innings.

So what are my ROY predictions?  It's not hard, given we have only one month left of regular season: 

• NL: Chris Coughlan, FLA, because of his .300-ish batting average.
• AL: Andrew Bailey, OAK, because of his 25-ish saves total and his sub-2.00 ERA.

Those are my votes, anyway.  What the actual results are, let's see.

Here are the current stats of the top 2009 rookies, according to mlb.com's Top Rookies Tracker.

Batting

Player▲	TEAM	POS	G	AB	R	H	TB	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	AVG
Andrus, Elvis	TEX	SS	112	360	53	96	136	11	7	5	27	30	61	24	3	.330	.378	.267
Beckham, Gordon	CWS	3B	77	280	39	76	122	22	0	8	49	30	51	6	4	.348	.436	.271
Cabrera, Everth	SD	SS	73	258	41	69	103	14	7	2	26	33	57	20	3	.356	.399	.267
Coghlan, Chris	FLA	OF	97	368	57	109	162	18	4	9	38	45	66	6	1	.373	.440	.296
Dickerson, Chris	CIN	OF	96	253	31	70	95	13	3	2	15	39	65	11	3	.373	.375	.277
Fowler, Dexter	COL	OF	113	378	62	102	159	27	9	4	33	63	105	26	9	.372	.421	.270
Gardner, Brett	NYY	OF	85	200	36	55	80	4	6	3	20	23	31	20	5	.354	.400	.275
Getz, Chris	CWS	2B	89	311	43	83	114	17	4	2	28	23	43	18	2	.325	.367	.267
Ishikawa, Travis	SF	1B	98	270	38	70	109	8	2	9	35	20	72	2	2	.319	.404	.259
Jones, Garrett	PIT	OF	52	202	30	59	122	13	1	16	31	22	45	9	1	.362	.604	.292
McCutchen, Andrew	PIT	OF	76	308	52	89	151	20	6	10	43	32	56	15	3	.357	.490	.289
McGehee, Casey	MIL	3B	86	253	45	74	123	14	1	11	40	25	46	0	2	.354	.486	.292
Nix, Jayson	CWS	2B	75	203	30	48	91	10	0	11	29	23	44	9	0	.320	.448	.236
Parra, Gerardo	ARI	OF	91	368	51	105	151	15	8	5	50	21	71	5	5	.322	.410	.285
Rasmus, Colby	STL	OF	118	376	58	96	160	20	1	14	44	28	72	3	1	.311	.426	.255
Reimold, Nolan	BAL	OF	92	314	42	84	140	16	2	12	39	43	70	8	2	.361	.446	.268
Wieters, Matt	BAL	C	67	243	20	65	92	10	1	5	26	16	58	0	0	.314	.379	.267

Pitching

Player▲	TEAM	W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	SVO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	HBP	BB	SO
Anderson, Brett	OAK	7	10	4.42	25	25	1	1	0	0	146.2	150	82	72	18	3	41	119
Bailey, Andrew	OAK	6	3	1.90	56	0	0	0	20	24	71.0	43	15	15	4	0	22	75
Bergesen, Brad	BAL	7	5	3.43	19	19	1	0	0	0	123.1	126	52	47	11	5	32	65
Cecil, Brett	TOR	5	3	4.96	15	14	0	0	0	0	78.0	93	47	43	13	4	34	59
Hanson, Tommy	ATL	9	3	3.15	15	15	0	0	0	0	88.2	79	32	31	9	4	32	73
Happ, J.A.	PHI	10	3	2.63	30	18	3	2	0	0	143.2	117	42	42	15	5	51	97
Kawakami, Kenshin	ATL	7	10	3.97	25	25	0	0	0	0	142.2	139	69	63	15	5	53	98
Niemann, Jeff	TB	12	5	3.80	25	24	2	2	0	0	146.2	143	67	62	14	6	47	92
Outman, Josh	OAK	4	1	3.48	14	12	0	0	0	0	67.1	53	30	26	9	0	25	53
Porcello, Rick	DET	11	8	4.27	24	24	0	0	0	0	128.2	135	66	61	20	2	42	71
Romero, Ricky	TOR	11	6	3.95	22	22	0	0	0	0	136.2	141	61	60	16	7	56	104
Wells, Randy	CHC	9	7	3.06	20	20	0	0	0	0	126.2	121	48	43	11	5	33	78
Zimmermann, Jordan	WSH	3	5	4.63	16	16	0	0	0	0	91.1	95	51	47	10	4	29	92