Author Archives: David Pinto

Playoffs Today

Game six of the World Series kicks off Friday night at 8 PM EDT/ 5 PM PDT in Toronto with Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers taking on Kevin Gausman of the Blue Jays in a rematch of game two. The Dodgers won that game 5-1 after Yamamoto pitched a second complete game in the post-season. Note that he never pitched a complete game in the regular season. Note that even if Yamamoto pitches another complete game tonight, he won’t make the top 10 in post-season innings, missing it by 1/3 an inning. Madison Bumgarner in 2014 pitched 52 2/3 innings with a 1.03 ERA. Note that a number of pitchers are tied for tenth place at 38, and the top ten include Dodgers greats Orel Hershiser (42 2/3 innings, 1.05 ERA in 1988) and Fernando Valenzuela (40 2/3 innings, 2.21 ERA in 1981, the first year of three rounds due to the strike). Yamamoto comes into this game with a 1.57 ERA, walking just four batters in 28 2/3 inning with just 17 hits allowed.

Gausman owns a 2.55 ERA in 24 2/3 innings. He has not delivered the strikeouts, just 18, but still managed to limit hits, allowing just 14 in the post season. Four of them went for home runs, however, The four solo shots account for most of his seven runs allowed.

Both pitchers throw the split finger fastball. The pitch experienced a renaissance, after being dropped due to injury concerns. I suspect that since pitcher injuries kept going up after the pitch went on leave, people started to realize that maybe it’s just the act of pitching that causes injuries.

Both Yamanoto and Gausman get an extra day of rest due to the two travel days, so if they pitch well, expect both of them to go deep tonight.

Enjoy!

Ohtani and Betts

2 Replies

The other day during the World Series broadcast Joe Davis talked about Shohei Ohtani and Babe Ruth. He made the point that Ohtani spent a lot more time as a two-way player. I believe he said that after a couple of seasons Ruth just wanted to hit.

It should be obvious that in 1920, Ruth didn’t really have a choice. All hitters back then played in the field, and faced all the wear and tear cause by that. If Ruth had tried to keep doing both, at least one of his skills would have suffered.

When Ohtani came to the Angels, management was very careful about putting too much stress on him. He would only bat as a designated hitter, and until Joe Maddon came along, he would not play the day before he was supposed to pitch. If baseball adopted a DH in the 1920s, two way players might have been a bit more common, with Ruth, and maybe Red Ruffing taking that role.

Which brings me to Mookie Betts. Cy Morong at Cybermetrics notes this about Betts’ defense:

He might be the only guy to ever lead his league in defensive WAR at 2 different positions. That is among all players, regardless of position. All data from Baseball Reference.

I made a list of all the guys who led their league in defensive WAR more than once since 1901 (Just the AL & NL). There were 51 guys. I counted OF as one position (this actually did not matter). Then I looked at each guy one by one and only Mookie Betts has led his league in defensive WAR at 2 different positions(OF in 2016, SS in 2025).
Cybermetric.Blogspot.com

What an amazing defensive performance, especially since Betts moved to the most difficult position behind the pitcher, and did it at seasonal age 32. It came at a cost, however, as Betts posted batting number far below his career averages; down about 30 points in BA, 40 points in OBP, 100 points in slugging percentage. Shortstop wears down players much more than the outfield. There are more dives into the dirt, more throws, more collisions with base runners.

Which brings us back to Ohtani. The Blue Jays walked him five times in the 18 inning game, four times intentionally. They could do that because they no longer feared Mookie Betts. Betts gave his all to post a gold glove season in the field, and it hurt him at the plate. The Dodgers also could not use the DH position to rest fielders, since it’s the only position Ohtani plays.

If Ohtani had to play the outfield or first base in order to hit and pitch, we would not be as good a hitter or as good a pitcher. Ruth pitched great. Ruth hit great. The game at the time did not allow him to do both well at the same time. We are lucky the rules allow us to see Ohtani be superlative at both at the simultaneously. And while we marvel at Ohtani, let Betts remind us that defense takes a toll on the body of players, and Ohtani doesn’t pay that toll.