Baseball Musings: Players of the Month

June 01, 2006

Players of the Month

The month of May saw many great performances by both pitchers and hitters. Unlike April, no clear cut winner emerged in either category.

Among the hitters, three players from the Red Sox could easily get the honor. Kevin Youkilis performed like the ultimate leadoff batter, leading the majors in on-base average at .463. Manny Ramirez was only ten points behind that, but slugged .714. Mark Loretta collected 44 hits for a for a .442 OBA. Bobby Abreu, Nomar Garciaparra and Ichiro Suzuki were all worthy of consideration. But in my mind it came down to the sluggers, Matt Holliday and Jason Bay.

Based on averages alone, Holliday wins it. But Matt neither drove in or scored as many runs as Bay. I find it very unusual for a player to collect 18 extra-base hits and only drive in 15 runs. It turns out 17 of Matt's 18 extra-base hits came with the bases empty, including all 8 of his home runs. Even though he collected seven hits with runners in scoring position, those hits only yielded 7 RBI. On the other hand, Matt did it well on the road, so he doesn't lose points for the Coors effect.

Bay, on the other hand, drove in 22 runs with his 12 homers, and added another 13 on top of that. He scored 21 runs to Matt's 20. He even stole two bases without getting caught. And he homered in six straight games. In a very tough month to pick a winner, Jason Bay wins by a nose.

Congratulations to Jason Bay, the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the Month!

A number of pitchers in May posted numbers worthy of the honor. Tom Glavine's 5-0 record tied for wins and led in winning percentage. Johan Santana's strikeout to walk ratio topped 10. Pedro Martinez pitched great, but didn't win a game, going 0-1 for the month. Scott Kazmir did everything right for a poor Tampa Bay team.

But it does come down to run prevention, and two pitchers stood out with the lowest ERAs in their leagues. Jason Schmidt led the NL with a 1.17 mark, while C.C. Sabathia took the AL lead with a 1.20 ERA. It's very tough to distinguish the two. Both pitched two complete games and one shutout. C.C. struck out three more. Jason walked one less and allowed one fewer home run. Sabathia allowed five more hits, but didn't throw a wild pitch. Sabathia beat the White Sox twice, Schmidt took home wins over the Cubs and the Marlins. Sabathia won one more game, but he also lost one more.

The award goes to Sabathia, however, because pitching in the AL, his job is tougher. He faced a designated hitter in all six of his starts, while Jason did in just one. This is C.C.'s second pitcher of the month award.

Congratulations to C.C. Sabathia, the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month!

Former Baseball Musings Players of the Month:

Month	Batter	Pitcher
April 2006	Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals	Greg Maddux, Chicago Cubs
September 2005	Randy Winn, SF Giants	CC Sabathia, Cleveland Indians
August 2005	David Wright, NY Mets	Noah Lowry, SF Giants

Posted by David Pinto at 07:51 AM | Awards | TrackBack (0)

Comments

4-0 1.80 in May along with 25 straight shutout innings and you dont even mention his name?

I got your Webb Gem!

scott

Posted by: Scott at June 1, 2006 11:45 AM

Not a mention for Ryan Howard, with 13 HR, and 35RBI for player of the month? Talking about Loretta, but not Howard, hmm? I'm a sox fan, too :)-.

Posted by: David B at June 1, 2006 12:04 PM

Ryan Howard also had a ridiculous month, posting numbers that were similar to Bay's, with more home runs but less ba/obp. But I can't argue much since Bay led the Pirates to take 2 out of 3 against Cincinnati and Houston and 3 out of 3 against milwaukee this month ;)

Posted by: SleepyCA at June 1, 2006 12:23 PM

There were about five other batters and pitchers I considered. Webb and Howard were certainly among them. Howard's relatively low OBA but him out of the running. When you looked at Jason, Matt and Ryan, it clearly came down to the former two.

Webb did indeed have a great month, but he was fifth in the majors behind three American League pitchers. Zito and Verlander had better ERAs and didn't get a mention either. That's one reason I supply the links. I don't think there's anyway you can argue he was better than Sabathia, however.

Posted by: David Pinto at June 1, 2006 12:36 PM

re: player of the month - ryan howard

While I worship the Greek God of Walks, Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Howard was the runaway Player of the month, hitting 12 or 13 HRs to raise his season total to 18 and his RBI total to 47 or 48, which works out right now to about one RBI per game played by the Phils. He's now on pace to hit more than 40 and possibly more than 50 HRS with as many as 130-140 RBIs. His OPS is in the high 900s, he has hit as many HRs off lefties as righties, and he is surrounded in the lineup now by Abreu, Burrell and Rowand, who can all hit and protect him.

Contrary to the comment above, Howard has an OBA of nearly .400 and has as many walks as homers. It's in the high .300s. Howard takes a lot of pitches and knows the strike zone. He also strikes out a lot because he is ususally sitting, waiting for his pitch.

I've noticed the umps often don't give him the calls they give more experienced players. He is, still, basically a second year player. Abreu gets a lot of marginal calls which is why Abreu is leading the league in walks.

Eventually those marginal calls will go Howard's way and he will pile up even more walks to go with everything else.

The year Pujols is off, Howard will be the MVP of the league.

--Arthur John Kyriazis
--philly

Posted by: arthur j kyriazis at June 1, 2006 04:38 PM

Not to mention the WORST players so far this year-The All-Rotten Hall of Fame, thru May 31:

http://conniemack.blogspot.com/2006/06/all-rotten-hall-of-fame-thru-may-31.html

Posted by: John Salmon at June 1, 2006 11:55 PM