“Inside Baseball” Battles

May 24, 2013 Bill Chuck Off The Bill Chuck Files,

During the course of the season there are the meta races to follow in each division and in each league, but those answers won’t be resolved until the first week in October, and quite frankly, they are not as interesting now as they will be in a couple of months.

So to make things more interesting in my day-to-day following of the sport, I track different smaller battles which I think of as “inside baseball.”

One of the battles I follow is between two very close friends: John Farrell and Terry Francona.

Tito made his first return to Boston last night back in uniform, as opposed to the suit of an ESPN analyst, and the love returned to Fenway for the first time since early 2011. While the Sox have recovered from the public relations and on-field disaster of 2012, the fans have yet to embrace this team of relative strangers.

In 2012, the Sox and the Tribe had very close to the same record with Boston going 69-93 and Cleveland going 68-94. Both teams replaced their managers and last night Terry proved triumphant beating up the very disappointing Ryan Dempster and Boston, 12-3.

Here’s how the two teams stand this morning

Rk	Tm	W	L	W-L%
1	TEX	30	17	.638
2	NYY	28	18	.609
3	CLE	27	19	.587
4	BOS	28	20	.583
5	DET	26	19	.578

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/24/2013.

Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout

There were, and still are, arguments as to who should have been the 2012 AL MVP, but the Triple Crown winning Miggy soundly defeated the Rookie of the Year, Mike Trout.

So far this year, the result would be the same.

Miguel

G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
45	212	184	39	72	13	1	14	55	1	0	25	26	*.391*	.467	*.701*	*1.168*

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/24/2013.

Mike

G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
47	217	189	35	57	13	5	10	35	10	3	23	43	.302	.378	.582	.960

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/24/2013.

Cy Young Award winners R.A. Dickey and David Price

Both pitchers are in the AL this season and neither pitcher is having a stellar season:

R.A.

W	L	W-L%	ERA	GS	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	WHIP
4	5	.444	4.50	10	0	62.0	53	35	31	9	28	0	53	1.306

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/24/2013.

David

Year	W	L	W-L%	ERA	GS	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
2013	1	4	.200	5.24	9	0	55.0	65	39	32	8	14	49	1.436

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/24/2013.

Blue Jays and Angels

Both of teams got off to awful starts, but its still May and I’m tracking to see if there is a recovery in their future

Rk	Tm	W	L	W-L%	GB	Strk	last10	last20	last30
11	LAA	20	27	.426	7.0	W 5	6-4	10-10	13-17
13	TOR	20	27	.426	7.0	W 2	7-3	10-10	13-17

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/24/2013.

Cubs and White Sox

I’m proudly writing a Sunday column for the Chicago Sun-Times and spending a lot of time watching these two teams attempt to get on the right track.