Ottawa Lynx April Wrapup Part Three

7. Lehigh Valley

The Ottawa Lynx In April (Part Three-Fielding)

It has seemed obvious from the last two segments of the Lynx in April that the Lynx defence has been the most consistent and important part of their game in April. We looked at the pitching breakdowns yesterday and with the large amount of base runners allowed coupled with a fairly decent team ERA, and with not much offense to speak of, a simple process of elimination should lead us to the above conclusion. But traditional fielding stats really don’t tell us very much and the evolving modernization of those stats can make for more complicated reading than the various time travel theories presented by the world’s leading physicists. Therefore, I am not going to delve into such calculations because, after all, baseball is supposed to be fun isn’t it? Instead, although I will quota a few general statistics. My summation of the Lynx defence in the month of April will be much more subjective than my discussion of hitting and pitching.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx April Wrapup Part Three →

The box score says it all…

Other Stuff

A few weeks ago, after a particularly strong outing for Pat Overholt, I noted that his success is basically tied to being able to get groundouts, as he has been home run prone in the past, and as a starter, he’d have to really focus on pitching at the bottom of the strike zone to be effective. Last night, Pat got a lesson about not keeping the ball on the ground, to the tune of 7 ER. Here is the only stat you need to know

2 groundball outs, 8 fly ball outs.

He gave up 3 home runs in the game, 2 of them to top prospect Jay Bruce. In a 4 start stretch from April 5th through April 21st, Overholt had gotten 37 ground balls to only 13 fly ball outs, and he was largely successful in those starts. In the start prior to last night’s, he got 9 ground balls to 7 fly balls, struggled with his command (5 walks), but managed to avoid major damage, allowing only 1 ER in 6.2 IP. Last night, however, he wasn’t so lucky.

Reading Report—Week Four

6. Reading

After the first four weeks of the season Reading, although inconsistent remains tied for the top of the Southern division (with Akron), with a 12-10 record. Looking at how individual Phillies rank in the league SS Jesus Merchan is hitting .373 and is 2nd in the league in batting average. OF Javon Moran leads the league with 21 runs scored and is 4th in stolen bases with 9. 3B Mike Costanzo is third in the Eastern League with 5 homeruns, and 6th in the league with 15 RBI’s, however his 31 strikeouts (2nd in the league) and 11 errors, remain of great concern. Looking at the pitching, Anderson Garcia still leads the way with 6 saves , and Kyle Kendrick is leading the league with 32.0 innings pitched.

Continue reading Reading Report—Week Four →

Ottawa Lynx April Wrapup Part Two

7. Lehigh Valley

The Lynx In April 2007 (Part Two)

Hitting and even pitching can be streaky but if you have solid and consistent defence you’ll always have a chance to win. The 2007 version of the Ottawa Lynx appear to be proving what baseball people have been saying for many years, solid defence can rescue many an ugly pitching stat. Let’s examine the pitching for the Ottawa Lynx in the month of April.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx April Wrapup Part Two →

Ottawa Lynx April Wrapup Part One

7. Lehigh Valley

The Lynx April 2007 (Part One-Won-Lost and the Lynx Offence)

The Ottawa Lynx completed the first month of the 2007 season with a 10-9 won lost record, not great, not terrible, but on the good side of .500 with an 8-4 record after a 2-5 start on the road. Getting off to a good start and perhaps leading the division or at minimum staying close to the division lead is of prime importance in the early going. If a team falls significantly behind due to a poor record in the month of April, any hot streak which they enjoy later will have been wasted just getting back to or near the .500 level. In most seasons, except those in which a team finishes close to .600, a team will have one or two cold streaks and one or two hot streaks. The key is limiting the length of the cold streaks and having them more towards the middle of the season. It is also preferable to have a cold streak against teams in another division and hot streaks against your own. But that is a matter of the luck of the schedule and I suppose, luck of the draw. There are statistical categories and analysis ad nasuem to explain everything from the effect of the moon to which movie todays starting pitcher watched three days ago. Stats are useful in their own right but I’m not a slave to them and more often than not prefer to analyse what I’ve seen and not what I’ve read. As we discuss April 2007 and the Ottawa Lynx, it should be interesting to try and determine what these stats might be telling us.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx April Wrapup Part One →

Park factors, sample size, and more..

01. Site Features

This is another area I wanted to touch on, sort of as a follow up to my “Prospect v Non-Prospect” post a few days back. As I mentioned in that discussion, when looking at a minor league player’s stats, you have to really look at things through a number of different lenses. A .260 batting average tells you relatively nothing if you don’t know how old the player is, what league he plays in, what position he plays, and what his home park is like. Not all .260 averages are made equal, not all 15 HR seasons are equal, and not all 3.00 ERA’s are equal. Understanding what goes into figuring this out will tell you a lot about the minor leagues in general.

Continue reading Park factors, sample size, and more.. →

Clearwater Threshers April Wrap-Up

5. Clearwater

The Clearwater Threshers have gotten off to the team’s best start in their fourth year of existence. The team owns the Florida State League’s best record at 16-8 and they have won 8 of their last 10 games.

It has been a solid team showing lead by a very strong effort from the pitching staff. As a team they own the league’s lowest ERA at 2.39, rank second in Ks with 186 in 211.0 innings pitched. They own a division best 4 shutouts, and WHIP (1.13), but also have a league high hit batters (16) and rank second in walks (93).

Continue reading Clearwater Threshers April Wrap-Up →

Interview With Lynx Catcher Jason Jaramillo

* Interviews

Jason Jaramillo

Ottawa Lynx catcher twenty four year old Jason Jaramillo is one of the jewels of the Philadelphia Phillies farm system. In this, his first full season at the Triple A level, Jaramillo to this point, doesn’t seem fazed at all by his debut in the highest level in the minor leagues.

Continue reading Interview With Lynx Catcher Jason Jaramillo →

Who’s Hot, Who’s Not, Week 4

Other Stuff

Welcome to the latest installment

Hot…

Carl Henry Jr: 6/20 — 2 2B — 1 3B — 1 HR — 4 R — 4 RBI
Greg Golson: 10/29 (3 BB) — 3 2B — 6 R — 2 SB
Jeremy Slayden: 9/28 (4 BB) — 2 HR — 8 RBI
Josh Outman: 12.2 IP — 2 ER — 10 H — 6 BB — 9 K
Mike Constanzo: 8/25 (4 BB) — 1 HR — 6 RBI

Not…

Gus Milner: 2/22 (5 BB) — 6 R
Jason Donald: 6/27 (1 BB) — 1 HR — 6 RBI
Alex Concepcion: 3.1 IP — 6 ER — 7 H — 2BB – 2 K — 2 HR
Matt Maloney: 8.2 IP – 5 ER (7 uER) — 13 H — 6 BB – 4 K
Michael Dubee: 3.2 IP — 4 ER — 5 H — 2 BB – 4 K

Weird stat of the week…

Gus Milner got on base a total of 7 times in 27 plate appearances and scored 6 times. Similarly, Lou Marson had only 3 hits in 17 AB but drew 5 walks and 1 HBP and scored 6 times.

Draft and Follow Update

2006 DFE's

Time for another update on our final DFE class. Here is a piece on Shawn Epps, talking about his recent performance, and noting he’s touched 94 mph this spring.

Rashad Taylor: 145AB — .434/.520/.724 — 11 2B — 3B — 7 HR — 24 BB/25 K — 13/18 SB
Shawn Epps: 42 IP, 3.00 ERA — 1.14 WHIP — 35 H — 13 BB — 35 K
Bobby Haney: 104 AB — .308 BA — 6 2B – 2 3B – 1 HR – 27 RBI – 3/4 SB
Gerard Mohrmann: 14 IP, 9.64 ERA — 1.64 WHIP — 13 H – 10 BB — 16 K
Daniel Faulkner: 30 IP, 4.20 ERA — 1.43 WHIP — 22 H — 21 BB – 27 K
Yazi Arbelo: MIA
Patrick Murray: 158 AB — .392/.453/.494 — 32 R — 8 2B — 1 3B — 2 HR — 30 RBI
Ty Manumaleuna: 112 AB — .277 BA — 8 2B – 5 HR – 28 RBI
Nick Morreale: MIA

Of the group, I think only Taylor and Epps will warrant nice bonuses. Faulkner may opt to head to a 4 year school to try and raise his draft stock, or may choose to re-enter the draft and stay in JuCo again next year. I’ve been banging the drum for Taylor for a while, we’ll see what happens.