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Prospectus Hit List for August 29
Hit List for August 28
Hit List for August 30
Teams are ordered based on Adjusted Hit List Factor, a computer generated number, and the author isn't responsible for the order of the teams.
| Rk | Tm | W | L | W1 | W2 | W3 | HLF | AHLF | Win Div% | Win WC% | Playoff% | 1-Day | 7-Day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | 77 | 52 | 76.0 | 79.6 | 78.8 | .603 | .622 | 96.4% | 3.4% | 99.8% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Yu Darvish has essentially been adequate for Texas, but he's spun some gems on the way to that adequacy. Twenty-one swinging strikes in seven innings can't be explained solely by "but it was the Rays!" | |||||||||||||
| 2 |  | 75 | 54 | 74.8 | 76.0 | 77.0 | .587 | .606 | 95.1% | 4.2% | 99.3% | 0.4% | -0.3% |
| Derek Jeter has a .363 OBP at the age of 38. Yes, he gives back breathtaking amounts of value on defense, but my gosh, what a baseball player. | |||||||||||||
| 3 |  | 70 | 59 | 72.5 | 71.1 | 72.4 | .554 | .574 | 3.5% | 48.1% | 51.6% | -9.4% | -27.8% |
| Sam Fuld singled three times and stole a base after replacing Matt Joyce. Maybe if he'd started, the Rays wouldn't have lost 1-0. | |||||||||||||
| 4 |  | 77 | 51 | 74.5 | 75.5 | 73.9 | .588 | .568 | 79.0% | 20.2% | 99.2% | -0.5% | -0.8% |
| There were six shutouts last night, which is a pretty high number. It was also Strasmas. These two items are not as correlated as you'd think they are because Strasburg gave up seven runs in five innings. | |||||||||||||
| 5 |  | 71 | 57 | 71.1 | 67.7 | 67.3 | .541 | .561 | 64.1% | 19.1% | 83.2% | -1.8% | -0.6% |
| Chris Sale won't win the Cy Young by giving up four runs in four innings. Well, he won't either way (there's this guy, Felix something?), but still: he should try harder. | |||||||||||||
| 6 |  | 71 | 58 | 76.8 | 77.0 | 74.5 | .580 | .560 | 4.0% | 73.8% | 77.8% | -6.3% | 15.8% |
| The bright side of being shut out by the Pirates is that it's not as embarrassing as it once was to be shut out by the Pirates. | |||||||||||||
| 7 |  | 69 | 59 | 67.2 | 69.3 | 70.2 | .539 | .558 | 35.9% | 32.8% | 68.7% | -7.0% | -1.7% |
| Justin Verlander gave up eight runs but somehow managed to pass the loss off on his bullpen. What a shirker. | |||||||||||||
| 8 |  | 71 | 57 | 69.4 | 66.7 | 67.2 | .536 | .556 | 3.3% | 47.7% | 51.0% | 9.8% | 24.2% |
| You can look up for your own self how long he's been on the team, but Stephen Drew has a .379 OBP for the A's. It'll be interesting to see which side declines his mutual option this offseason. | |||||||||||||
| 9 |  | 67 | 62 | 67.1 | 70.2 | 71.2 | .534 | .554 | 0.3% | 20.1% | 20.4% | 0.2% | -4.9% |
| Mike Trout singled home the tying run in the bottom of the ninth ahead of Torii Hunter's game-winning sacrifice fly. He also had a 445-foot homer in the first inning. So, you know, yawn. | |||||||||||||
| 10 |  | 74 | 56 | 74.7 | 72.9 | 72.9 | .566 | .547 | 21.0% | 72.7% | 93.7% | 1.8% | 10.4% |
| End-of-game ERAs of the two pitchers who threw for Atlanta last night: 1.71 and 1.13. I thought Leo Mazzone retired. | |||||||||||||
| 11 |  | 79 | 52 | 73.9 | 71.9 | 70.2 | .563 | .543 | 95.3% | 4.4% | 99.7% | -0.3% | 0.6% |
| Johnny Cueto's really got a shot at this Cy Young, doesn't he? | |||||||||||||
| 12 |  | 62 | 68 | 68.2 | 69.9 | 70.5 | .520 | .540 | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.0% | -1.9% |
| At least Pedro Ciriaco wasn't DHing last night. That was embarrassing. | |||||||||||||
| 13 |  | 72 | 57 | 68.2 | 67.8 | 67.2 | .533 | .513 | 85.4% | 2.2% | 87.6% | 6.2% | 14.2% |
| I got to see Matt Cain in person in last week. That's ... I don't really have a point. | |||||||||||||
| 14 |  | 63 | 67 | 65.8 | 62.4 | 63.7 | .490 | .510 | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | -0.1% |
| Tom "Kaiser" Wilhelmsen has 20 "saves" despite being saddled with that nickname. | |||||||||||||
| 15 |  | 71 | 57 | 59.9 | 56.7 | 58.5 | .481 | .501 | 1.4% | 24.4% | 25.8% | 7.7% | 12.9% |
| Lew Ford. Just say it with me. Lewwwwww Ford. Lewwwwwwwwwww Foooooord. | |||||||||||||
| 16 |  | 69 | 61 | 68.0 | 66.9 | 66.5 | .520 | .500 | 13.8% | 8.0% | 21.8% | -6.5% | -14.6% |
| When the Dodgers acquire every player and lose to the Rockies anyway, I call them "Los Doyers" in a really obnoxious voice. The cats have become Dodger fans. | |||||||||||||
| 17 |  | 69 | 60 | 66.6 | 66.1 | 64.4 | .516 | .496 | 0.7% | 18.5% | 19.2% | 6.5% | -15.5% |
| Did you know that Pedro Alvarez is slugging .484 and has 25 homers? It took a while and he's not what he should have been, but for $700,000, the Pirates will take an above-average player at third. | |||||||||||||
| 18 |  | 64 | 66 | 67.9 | 66.8 | 66.3 | .510 | .490 | 0.8% | 0.2% | 1.0% | -0.9% | -10.0% |
| Shouldn't the Diamondbacks have a cooler logo by now? It's 2012. | |||||||||||||
| 19 |  | 57 | 71 | 60.3 | 58.3 | 59.8 | .460 | .480 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Congratulations to Adeiny Hechevarria on his first big-league homer. I'm looking forward to all seven he has left. | |||||||||||||
| 20 |  | 61 | 67 | 65.1 | 64.9 | 62.4 | .495 | .475 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | -0.1% |
| Jeff Bianchi was a prospect back in 2005, but now he's a guy who hit his first career homer in an August game against the 49-78 Cubs. Well, 49-79 Cubs now, thanks in no small part to that homer. So that's something, I guess. | |||||||||||||
| 21 |  | 61 | 68 | 61.5 | 64.5 | 64.6 | .487 | .467 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| B.J. Rosenberg is apparently a real hurler of baseballs on the Philadelphias. For now, anyway. The 12.66 ERA might have something to say about the long-term prospects of the proposition. | |||||||||||||
| 22 |  | 60 | 69 | 60.7 | 64.7 | 65.9 | .487 | .467 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Kelly Shoppach since leaving the Red Sox: .318/.400/.636. C'mon, that's funny. | |||||||||||||
| 23 |  | 57 | 71 | 58.4 | 56.2 | 56.0 | .444 | .464 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Even Mike Trout simply tips his cap at Alex Gordon's league-leading 44 doubles. Do you know how many doubles that is? Here's how many: 44. | |||||||||||||
| 24 |  | 60 | 71 | 59.5 | 60.9 | 59.7 | .458 | .438 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Four Padres pitchers threw last night. I do not know the first names of any of them: Werner, Vincent, Layne, Burns. August baseball! | |||||||||||||
| 25 |  | 52 | 77 | 53.1 | 55.2 | 55.5 | .418 | .438 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Kyle Waldrop, who threw the eighth for the Twins last night, is actually a NASCAR driver in disguise, right? | |||||||||||||
| 26 |  | 55 | 74 | 50.0 | 55.0 | 55.5 | .418 | .437 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| My favorite pitching line is the one where the guy strikes everybody out but still gets destroyed. Zach McAllister had eight whiffs in 4 1/3 innings, but gave up nine hits, three walks, and two homers. He just likes numbers, I guess. | |||||||||||||
| 27 |  | 59 | 71 | 55.4 | 56.6 | 57.1 | .439 | .419 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Justin Ruggiano went 4-4 with a walk and is now slugging .606. A famous philosopher once said, "Honest joy in the success of others is the highest human achievement." | |||||||||||||
| 28 |  | 53 | 75 | 54.9 | 52.2 | 52.1 | .415 | .395 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Brown and Rutledge were in the Colorado lineup last night. Brown and Rutledge were also Supreme Court justices, the former of which authored Plessy v. Ferguson. | |||||||||||||
| 29 |  | 49 | 79 | 51.9 | 49.1 | 49.4 | .390 | .371 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Travis Wood threw a quality start and hit a homer. And lost. Mainly because only two other Cubs got a hit. | |||||||||||||
| 30 |  | 40 | 89 | 44.9 | 44.9 | 45.0 | .339 | .321 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Don't look now but Brett Wallace is hitting .292/.363/.492. No, really, if you look, you'll turn to stone. | |||||||||||||
Kelly Shoppach is trolling, and Lewwwwww Ford is Lewwwwww Ford.