10 Definitely Interesting, Possibly Helpful MLB Notes for July 17th
Every day while doing MLB DFS research, I inevitably end up in a statistical wormhole, where I’ll stumble across some unexpected bits of information that are possibly helpful, but at the very least, are interesting in one way or another. Here are 10 notes for Sunday, July 17th, 2016.
1. Johnny Cueto has a league-leading four complete games this season…and three of them have come against the same Padres team he faces on Sunday. Cueto is already in rarified territory, with only four other pitchers this millennium pitching three complete games against the same opponent in single season (Roy Halladay, Mark Mulder Brandon McCarthy, Paul Byrd). But if he’s somehow able to go the distance again on Sunday, he’ll be the first player to notch four CGs against a single opponent since Curt Schilling in 1998, who went the full nine on four occasions against the Expos.
2. The last time Max Scherzer allowed fewer than six strikeouts in a game at Nationals Park was July 7th of last year – that’s a streak of 15 consecutive games with 6+ strikeouts at home. It’s just the 10th time this millennium that a pitcher has had such a streak. He faces the Pirates on Sunday, and he’s had success against them in his career, posting a 6.91 K/BB ratio in nine career games – that’s the highest K/BB Scherzer has against any opponent.
3. David Price has recorded exactly 10 strikeouts and one walk in each of his last three starts, and it’s just the second time in his career that he’s had 10+ Ks and one or fewer walk in three straight (he also did with the Tigers in 2014. While run prevention shouldn’t be an issue for Price on Sunday (the Yankees rank in the bottom five of MLB in wOBA, ISO, and OPS against LHP), the strikeouts may be tricky, as the Yankees have the fourth-lowest K% against LHP (18.0%). In fact, the Yankees have allowed just one pitcher to reach double-digit Ks against them all year – it was Rich Hill, who fanned 10 way back on April 21.
4. While we’re here, two fun Rich Hill notes: 1.) Rich Hill is the only pitcher in MLB this year to make 13+ starts and not allow a single home run with men on base, and 2.) In his last six starts, Rich Hill has gone six or more innings, struck out six or more batters, and allowed three or fewer earned runs – that’s the longest active streak of such games in MLB.
5. Edwin Jackson makes his return to a starting rotation on Sunday for the Padres, and it could get ugly…quickly. His career 6.00 first-inning ERA is third-highest in MLB history (min. 250 IP). But it doesn’t stop there…his 1.655 WHIP is fifth-worst, his .301 average is third-worst, .373 OBP is seventh-worst, and .491 slugging is second-worst. But if you want more recent info to persuade you to play all the Giants on Sunday, look no further than the 7.11 ERA and 2.053 WHIP Jackson posted in three starts during his most recent stint at AAA.
6. Daniel Murphy’s first half of 2016 was historic. He was one of twelve players in history with a first half (min. 350 PAs) of .348 average, 38 or fewer strikeouts, and 17 home runs. Take a look at some of the players he’s joined by on that list – Albert Pujols (2003, 2008), Todd Helton (2000, 2004), Cal Ripken (1991), Wade Boggs (1987), Al Kaline (1955), Lou Gehrig (1930), Rogers Hornsby (1922). Murphy is to is expected to play on Sunday after missing the first two games of the Nats’ series against the Pirates, and he’s got a primo matchup against inexperienced Pirates righty Chad Kuhl.
7. Last night, Joey Votto lived up to his billing as a cash game play with less-than-ideal power upside, as he hit three singles and two doubles in a favorable matchup against Brewers righty Jimmy Nelson. Since his first full season in MLB (2008), Joey Votto now has 60 games where he’s reached base four times without homering – that’s more than any other player in MLB.
8. Javier Baez has a .445 wOBA against left-handed pitchers in 2016, which ranks seventh in MLB among qualified hitters. While Baez doesn’t seem to get enough credit as a lefty masher in DFS circles, the two hitters he’s sandwiched between on the wOBA leaderboard against LHP should illustrate just how dominant he’s been – he’s between Josh Donaldson (.447 wOBA) and Danny Valencia (.444 wOBA). Against Cole Hamels, Baez could be an interesting punt who nobody will play.
9. At Chase Field against D-backs left-hander Robbie Ray (.377 wOBA, 1.77 HR/9 against righties at home), the Dodgers’ right-handed bats appear to be in a great matchup on Sunday. The only problem? They don’t have a single qualified hitter with a wOBA higher than .340 against lefties this year – they’re the only team other than the Phillies with such a deficiency. In fact, 25 of 30 teams in MLB have at least one qualified hitter with a wOBA higher than .400 against LHP, and Howie Kendrick has been the Dodgers’ highest mark among qualified hitters with a .337 mark on the year.
10. After homering off R.A. Dickey twice last night, Khris Davis now has eight two-homer games since 2015. That ties him with three other players for most such games in MLB during that stretch. The other players with eight double-dong games since 2015 are Lucas Duda, Carlos Gonzalez, and…leave your guess in the comments below for a shoutout in Monday’s “10 Notes” article!
Thanks for reading! Stats from this article were pulled from FanGraphs and Baseball Reference.
Shoutout to Kopitar11 for getting yesterday’s trivia question correct! It was a well-fought battle with some good guesses (and some random Brian Scalabrine mentions), but in the end, he came away victorious. Well done, sir.
Don’t forget to check back on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays throughout the MLB season for more “10 Notes” articles, and good luck today, DFS’ers!