Papelbon’s First Four-Game Stretch Without A Strikeout

In blowing his second straight save tonight (How the hell do you walk Carlos Gomez?), Jonathan Papelbon now has only one strikeout in his last 5.2 innings pitched and is on a four-game stretch without a punchout.

He has only gone three consecutive games pitched without a K one other time in his career, last year from September 22nd to the 28th (2.1 IP).

Daisuke Matsuzaka: 5 IP, 8 BB, 2 H

The disgusting line of 5 IP, 8 BB, 2 H has only been accomplished four other times in major league history…

Randy Johnson, 05-18-1997
Stan Williams, 06-29-1962
Darren Dreifort, 04-07-2000
William Van Landingham, 06-15-1997

Surprisingly, the worst anyone faired was Randy Johnson with 4 earned runs allowed. Williams allowed 3 ER, Dreifort 2 ER, with Van Landingham and Matsuzaka 1 ER each.

Red Sox Starting Pitching

Below is a graph of the Pure Quality Starts log for the Red Sox 5 main starting pitchers — Beckett, Matsuzaka, Buchholz, Lester and Wakefield.  As you can see, the starts have been really awesome of late, it’s only too bad that some of the starts came during a really rough stretch for the Sox hitters.

Here is how PSQ works:

How is PQS different? The old Quality Start method — minimum 6 IP, maximum 3 earned runs - is overly simplistic and does not measure any real skill. Bill James’ Game Score methodology is better, but is not feasible for quick calculation.

In PQS, we give a starting pitcher credit for exhibiting certain skills in each of his starts. Then by tracking his “PQS Score” over time, we can follow his progress. Here are the criteria…

1. The pitcher must have gone a minimum of 6 innings. This measures stamina. For a 6 IP performance, the pitcher gets 1 point. If he goes less than 5 innings, he automatically gets a total PQS score of zero, no matter what other stats he posted.

2. He must have allowed no more than an equal number of hits to the number of innings pitched. This measures hit prevention and earns him 1 point.

3. His number of strikeouts must be no fewer than two less than his innings pitched (IP minus K must be 2 or less). This measures dominance and earns him 1 point.

4. He must have struck out at least twice as many batters as he walked. This measures command and earns him 1 point.

5. He must have allowed no more than one home run. This measures his ability to keep the ball in the park and earns him 1 point.

5 and 4 points are DOMINANT starts, 3 and 2 points are AVERAGE starts, 1 and 0 points are DISASTER starts.

AL All-Star Team Preview

Using BaseRuns, here are the leaders at each position in the American League. Of course this doesn’t take into account defense, but I think it gives a fair assessment of who is raking in the AL.

AL All-Star 1st Team
		G	PA		BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	GPA		BsR	/PA		IsoP	IsoD	SecA	BABIP		BB%	K%	BB/K
1B	Carlos Guillen	19	82		.314	.415	.543	.957	.323		15.1	.18		.229	.101	.429	.322		15%	10%	1.50
2B	Dustin Pedroia	22	100		.364	.418	.523	.941	.319		19.2	.19		.159	.054	.295	.403		9%	10%	0.90
3B	Kevin Youkilis	21	95		.354	.421	.561	.982	.330		18.7	.20		.183	.067	.317	.380		10%	10%	1.00
SS	Edgar Renteria	21	89		.333	.371	.488	.859	.289		13.6	.15		.155	.038	.214	.357		6%	12%	0.45
C	A.J. Pierzynski	15	66		.344	.394	.590	.984	.325		12.5	.19		.246	.050	.328	.333		2%	6%	0.25
CF	Josh Hamilton	21	99		.306	.364	.553	.917	.302		16.6	.17		.235	.058	.365	.314		9%	11%	0.82
LF	Manny Ramirez	21	88		.342	.409	.684	1.093	.355		19.1	.22		.329	.067	.456	.412		7%	26%	0.27
RF	Nick Markakis	20	85		.313	.459	.493	.951	.330		16.9	.20		.179	.146	.478	.400		19%	23%	0.84
DH	Hideki Matsui	20	79		.328	.430	.522	.953	.324		15.0	.19		.194	.102	.373	.339		10%	10%	1.00
AL All-Star 2nd Team
		G	PA		BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	GPA		BsR	/PA		IsoP	IsoD	SecA	BABIP		BB%	K%	BB/K
1B	Ryan Garko	20	83		.294	.422	.456	.878	.304		14.2	.17		.162	.128	.382	.316		16%	11%	1.44
2B	Aaron Hill	21	92		.309	.367	.457	.823	.279		13.6	.15		.148	.058	.272	.333		7%	11%	0.60
3B	Chone Figgins	21	96		.363	.469	.413	.881	.314		18.2	.19		.050	.106	.263	.446		15%	16%	0.93
SS	Bobby Crosby	21	91		.310	.363	.464	.827	.279		13.1	.14		.155	.053	.238	.333		8%	11%	0.70
C	Kurt Suzuki	19	76		.319	.382	.362	.744	.262		8.9	.12		.043	.063	.130	.367		5%	12%	0.44
CF	Jacoby Ellsbury	20	68		.308	.456	.538	.994	.340		16.0	.23		.212	.148	.673	.295		18%	7%	2.40
LF	Raul Ibanez	21	91		.305	.374	.561	.935	.309		14.3	.16		.244	.069	.366	.294		4%	11%	0.33
RF	Alex Rios	20	90		.303	.400	.447	.847	.292		14.6	.16		.145	.097	.329	.375		13%	20%	0.67
DH	Milton Bradley	19	80		.328	.425	.478	.903	.311		14.0	.18		.149	.097	.299	.389		13%	15%	0.83