____Texas A&M & Baseball
_______________In No Particular Order


Saturday January 31st, 2004

2:14am

B.T.H.O.

Two big games today for the Aggie basketball teams....

First, the men square off against the t.u. longhorns in yet another rivalry game......12:30pm CST

Then at 7pm the lady Ags take on Iowa State....

Both games are at Reed Arena....

B.T.H.O. tu! Whoop!
B.T.H.O. Iowa State! Whoop!


Friday January 30th, 2004

1:26am
(sorry about the scrolling....I'm still trying to figure out what is making it do that)

Smorgasbord

That's not how I would have spelled it....Anyways, today's post is just that....but with no reference to food....just ideas that have gone through my head....


Krzyzewskiville

That's two funny words in less than 5 lines....

I've written about Sports Illustrated On Campus a couple of times before, but basically it is a mini-version of SI that is distributed as a part of school newspapers across the country that are entirely focused on collegiate sports, collegiate sporting atmospheres, etc. It is designed to be aimed at college kids, so it is a bit crazier than normal SI.

Well, I read the cover story in this week's issue and I was just blown away. It was about Duke University's basketball fans (Cameron Crazies) and their complete and utter desire to get the best seats in the arena.

If you don't read another word on this blog today, just read the article (but you're still welcome to stick around and see what else I have to say). It single handedly shows why college sports are sooooo much superior to professional sports....plus these kids are just nuts.

Coincidentally, Duke played Florida State last night on ESPN, so I sat down just to watch these nuts. The yelled, screamed, and bounced the ENTIRE GAME. Here at A&M we yell, scream and stand for entire football games (which do last anywhere from 2-2.5 times longer than basketball games) but we sure don't jump up and down the entire time.

I don't know how they can sleep in tents for weeks, stay in school academically (this is Duke University we're talking about, not Blinn Junior College), and then have the energy to participate in these games 3 or 4 times every 2 weeks.

I suppose that is part of why Duke can recruit these great players year in and year out.....

Here is the link to my bootlegged copy of the article (shhhh, don't tell anyone)


What's My Number?

It is a good thing that I picked up a copy of our school newspaper, The Battalion, on Tuesday. Apparently the school has changed every student's ID number at random and I would have been completely in the dark about it.

Now I have some brand new 9 digit number that I'm expected to memorize to go along with the other 40 billion numbers already floating around in my head.

On top of that, it turns out that I have to make a new password to get onto the computers on campus. This will be the 4th or 5th time I've had to do this (it must be changed every semester), but the problem is that you can't reuse a password from any other semester. Basically, I'm out of all my normal ones that I use elsewhere (and on a daily basis) so I'm resorting to having to make up random ones that I have no way to remember.

Let's run down a list of numbers or passwords that are needed for me to get through the day:

That doesn't include anyone else's phone numbers, which with cell phones seem to be changing every 6 months.

I can't wait for the day when we can just scan our finger prints and access everything...

I had an engineering professor once who was what I would describe as a 'Good 'ole boy'. He was talking about all the passwords he needed to access grades, etc. and he said, "It's not that tough because I've only got 3 hounds (dogs)."

Well, Dr. Wiggley, I've only got one dog.


Revenge of the Students

As some of you may remember, I'm not a big fan of the book stores up here at school. They jack up the prices of books and then buy'em back for a fraction of what they charged. They totally take advantage of poor college kids who don't have too many options to turn to when it comes to buying books for class.

This past fall, I did a bit of shopping around to find the best offer when I was selling my books back and I've done the same this semester when buying my books.

Well, kind of....but better.

Not only did I shop around in town, but I also shopped around on-line.

I'm taking 13 hours this semester (b/c I'm graduating in December and that is all I can take due to pre-reqs for the classes I have left in the fall), so that is 4 classes.

I needed one book in 3 of the classes and 3 books in the fourth class (individually they were much smaller and less expensive--not true text books).

Here is how much the world of the internet has helped: 

Text Books
Course    Bookstore Price    Price Paid  
IDIS 300      $97.43           $60.75*
IDIS 434     $128.44           $47.50*
IDIS 444      $82.97           $52.79*   
ENDS 250 (3)  $45.52           $45.52
-------------------------------------
             $354.36          $161.04           

A savings of $193.32  

*bought online

That is a heckuva difference!

Now if I am able to repeat my feats from this past fall while I'm selling my books back I will be able to fulfill my goal, 2 years in the works, of revenge for the first two years I was here at school and didn't know any better than to use the trusting book stores.

If I can get the same 42-46% of the original bookstore price that I got last semester then we're looking at a buy back of $148.83-$163.01, which would put me at just about even.

That may be some sort of collegiate record....I'll look into it to see if I'm going to be famous.


No, No...Please Don't Sit There

I took a class once where we had to form into groups and throughout the semester we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 group presentations in front of the class.

Our groups were formed at random and I think that there were 4 of us in our group.

Overall, we did well in the class and I'm pretty sure we all made A's....well, I'm pretty sure about all of us except one guy, well call him 'Will'.

'Will' was one of those guys who just seems to slum through life. He was late to every meeting that we had to prepare for the presentations, he REAKS of menthol cigarettes (we're talking about being able to smell him from 4 of 5 feet away), and his idea of 'business casual' dress for our presentations was a short sleeved shirt barely tucked into his slacks that he uses at work (not washed or ironed) with no belt and sneakers.

I wasn't particularly thrilled that he had to be used in the presentations, but apparently my professor was kind enough to not deduct points from our entire group for Will's appearance.

Now that you have the background, here is what happened yesterday.

I'm sitting in my lab for my electricity class (we have lab once a week and didn't meet last week so this is our first lab) and the lab instructor starts his schpeal a few minutes late to make sure all the stragglers had arrived.

I hear the door open about a minute later, but I don't turn around because I'm trying to pay attention to the instructor.

Next thing I know, the nauseating smell of menthol cigarettes waifs my direction and I look over and it is 'Will' and he has chosen to sit in the empty seat next to me because I was apparently the only person he recognized in the class.

This is bad news....in my 4 years of experience with labs, 10 out 10 times you get partnered up for the semester with the person next to you. It was too late for me to move (plus this guy doesn't know I can't stand him), so I just whispered, "Hey 'Will', what's up?"

So now we're lab partners.....yippee


The Finished Athletic Complex

Some of you may remember the 'Virtual Tour' that I gave of the brand new Aggie Athletic Department back in early December (if you don't you can just click on that link and find out).

Well, this past weekend, the A.D. hosted an open house tour of the facilities and I've run across some photos of the place in its completion.

If you're interested, then check'em out here


Thursday January 29th, 2004

1:42am

What If....Vincent Sinisi Had Come to A&M?

I ran across an article some time ago (June 7th, 2002) in the Dallas-Morning News that told of Vincent Sinisi's yearning to come to Texas A&M.

"Vincent says his first choice was Texas A&M. Vinny [note: his father]says he contacted A&M coaches early in Vincent's senior year but was told the Aggies weren't ready to commit to a player they considered a lock for the pro draft. As it turned out, Sinisi was so set on college, no pro team took him in the draft."

Turns out he signed with t.u. after getting snubbed by A&M. That relationship didn't last long enough (in the eyes of wishful longhorn fans), and Vincent transferred to Rice University after a bit of a falling out. He was able to get a medical redshirt for the year he was with t.u. because of a broken rib which only allowed him 8 at-bats on the season.

Once at Rice, Vincent showed the world the caliber of player that he is (although most of Houston already knew because he went to the Woodlands HS and if I'm not mistaken he won the city batting crown his senior year).

Thanks to the redshirt, Vincent was classified as a Freshman and went on to be named to Baseball America's 1st Team All-Freshman Team and 2nd Team All-American Team as he led Rice into the College World Series for the first time since Lance Berkman led them to Omaha back in 1997.

Interestingly enough, when he arrived at Rice before that 2002 season, he was handed jersey #27.....Berkman's old number.

His sophomore season Vincent slumped....to a mere .338 BA. He was still a driving force in the Owls lineup, and he improved his defense from 7 E to 3 E. Rice, as you probably know, won the College World Series in 2003 so Vincent had accomplished the feat of winning the championship in both high school (The Woodlands won State in his junior season of 1999) and now in college.

Here are Vincent's stats during his two excellent seasons with Rice:

Year  AVG GP-GS  AB   R   H 2B 3B HR RBI  TB SO/BB  OB% SLG% 
2002 .428 66-66 271  65 116 22  2 11  80 175 31/20 .490 .646  
2003 .338 70-70 287  61  97 15  1 10  59 144 44/25 .423 .502  
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tot. .382   143 558 126 213 37  3 21 139 319 75/45 .455 .572

Vincent was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 2nd Round of the 2003 draft. The only reason he didn't go in the first round was because Scott Boras was his agent and teams were afraid of what Boras would be asking. Not Tom Hicks....Boras owns his soul. Vincent signed for a $2.07M bonus, which made him one of two players from the second round to sign a bonus >$1M....the other guy signed for $970,000 less.

2002

Now let's look at how Vincent did in games against the Aggies during his collegiate days. 

2/08/02 #11 Rice 2 v. A&M 5
        Enron Field, Houston, Tx
        AB R H RBI BB SO
         4 0 0  0   0  0

4/23/02 #2 Rice 7 v. A&M 4 
        Olsen Field, College Station, Tx
        AB R H RBI BB SO
         4 1 2  2   0  0 
        He hit a 2B and a HR

Ok, so now that we see what Vincent could have brought to the table, what if we could go back in time and tell him during his senior year in HS, "Vince, we love you. Please come to our school and play ball for us. The crowd will love you and you will love them. What will it take?"

Since A&M was his top choice, it wouldn't take anything other than the normal scholarship.

Done.

Let's just assume that he also broke his rib when he was with us during his true freshman season. That stinks, but injuries do happen.

Now, for Vince's R.S.-Freshman year he is up against 1Bman Travis Wong for the starting job.

Here are Wong's numbers v. Sinisi's from 2002: 

 Player  AVG GP-GS  AB  R   H 2B 3B HR RBI  TB SO/BB  OB% SLG% 
   Wong .286 43-42 154 33  44  9  0  8  31  77 34/11 .387 .500 
 Sinisi .428 66-66 271 65 116 22  2 11  80 175 31/20 .490 .646

Ah yes, and did I mention that Wong didn't play a game from April 6th until May 10th (13 of A&M's 59 games) because he was suspended from the team for skipping class? It's tough to play in the Big XII, let alone any conference, without your starting first baseman.

Just for simplicity's sake let's look at A&M's overall stats as a team with Wong in there and then again with Sinisi's stats substituted in for Wong: 

             AVG GP-GS   AB   R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  TB   SO/BB  
  With Wong .286 59-59 1990 353 569 104 13 47 313 840 372/174 
-------------------------------------------------------------
With Sinisi .304 59-59 2107 385 641 117 15 50 362 938 369/183

Now don't start emailing me with complaints because you can't just sub a player into another team's lineup like that. I understand that, and I'm not saying that this is exactly what would have happened if Sinisi played for us.

The first thing I see wrong with this is that by subtracting Wong's stats (which were only through April 6th & picked back up on May 10th) and adding Sinisi's stats (which were through the end of the season) there is a overlap with Wong's replacement (who played from April 7th until May 9th) and Sinisi's numbers during that stretch of time.

Also, you can argue that Sinisi didn't have to face the competition level that A&M faced by playing in the WAC rather than the Big XII.

Wouldn't that swing look great at Olsen Field with Dave in the background?

If you compare Sinisi's number to the Aggies' leader in each category here is how he compared: 

              AVG  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  TB SO/BB* OB% SLG%
Aggie Leader .335 228 45  66 16  4 12  48 126 49/23 .413 .553
      Sinisi .428 271 65 116 22  2 11  80 175 31/20 .490 .646  
*SO was the player with the most SOs, not the lowest amount
(didn't want to use b/c of different amt of ABs)

I don't know how much difference there is between the WAC & the Big XII, but I think that Sinisi would have likely been our top player regardless.

Still, there are a lot of things could have happened to make things differently. Sinisi would not have seen the same exact pitches that he did hit, or maybe the competition for the starting spot would have inspired Wong to play better, or maybe Sinisi would have moved to an outfield spot and taken someone else's place in the batting lineup.

There are thousands of maybes, this entire piece is a 'What If', so just roll with me....I'm just trying to see if the addition of Sinisi would have pushed the Ags over the edge into the post season....Remember, this is all completely fictional.

The Aggies finished the season 35-24 after losing 6 of their last 7 games of the season. I suppose the question that needs to be answered is "Would Sinisi have given the Aggies a 5 game boost to get them to the magic 40 win plateau?"

It is also interesting to note that in those last 7 games of the season (the ones where A&M lost 6 of 7), they played t.u. in 5 of those games. During the 3 games that season where Rice (and Sinisi) faced texas, he was 6-for-11 with a double, a HBP, a R, and 2 SBs. Could he have been the key to those games?

I think that with Vincent the Aggies would have won more than 5 more games and I think that we would have hosted an NCAA Regional in place of Tempe, Wichita, or Lincoln. Maybe we wouldn't have hosted, I don't know enough about the politics to be sure, but if we didn't then I think we would have made one of those regionals and made it a much higher quality tournament.

2003

Again, let’s start off by looking at how Vincent did against us: 

2/14/03 #2 Rice 10 v. A&M 5 
        Enron Field, Houston, Tx
        AB R H RBI BB SO
         6 0 2  2   0  0
        He hit 2 2bls 

4/08/03 #1 Rice 8 v. #17 A&M 0
        AB R H RBI BB SO
         4 2 2  6   0  0
        He hit 2 HRs

If you combine all 4 games Sinisi played against us in his career, he had 14.3% of his career home runs & 7.2% of his career RBIs....in ONLY 4 games....Ouch, talk about getting even with us for snubbing him.

Swapping Sinisi's stats out with someone is going to be particularly difficult, since Scott Beerer played the majority of 1st base for the Ags last season....considering he was an All-American. I think it would a bit more reasonable to assume that one of the two would end up playing LF. Since Beerer also started in LF in the games he didn't start at 1B, then I'm going to use Sinisi's stats to substitute for both the other LFer and the other 1Bman. Those two players (for the most part) happen to be John Infante and Brian Bowe.

Let's see how Vincent's 2003 stats compare to their stats: 

  Player  AVG GP-GS  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI  TB SO/BB  OB% SLG% 
    Bowe .247 39-27  93 11 23  5  0  1  16  31  15/8 .314 .333 
 Infante .246 44-16  69 15 17  7  0  3   9  33  11/7 .325 .478
--------------------------------------------------------------
Combined .247 83-43 162 26 40 12  0  4  25  64 26/15 .318 .395 
--------------------------------------------------------------
  Sinisi .338 70-70 287 61 97 15  1 10  59 144 44/25 .423 .502

Actually, I think that this makes for a more realistic comparison than does the Travis Wong comparison. Bowe and Infante started a combined total of 43 of the Aggies games.

Now let's do the substituting of Sinisi's numbers with Bowe/Infante. 

                   AVG GP-GS   AB   R   H  2B 3B HR RBI   TB   SO/BB  
With Bowe/Infante .303 64-64 2188 417 663 135 10 59 376  995 330/211 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
      With Sinisi .311 64-64 2313 452 720 138 11 65 410 1075 348/221

As you can tell with the huge increase in the actual batting stats from 2002 to 2003, the Aggies could swing the sticks last year, even without Sinisi. Regardless, it appears that Sinisi would have still improved the team's offense.

Just think, the Aggies could have had 8 of their 9 starters with averages over .320 (instead of 7 of 9)! They also could have had 4 players in double digit HRs! Wow.

Now comparing Sinisi to the Aggies' team leader in each category we get: 

              AVG  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI  TB SO/BB  OB% SLG% 
Aggie Leader .351 257 66 85 17  4 13  58 141 52/39 .453 .555 
      Sinisi .338 287 61 97 15  1 10  59 144 44/25 .423 .502

Obviously, Vincent would not have been the true stand out on this team, as he would have been in 2002, but he wasn't the standout on Rice's team either. He would, however, have been a very very solid contributor and an All-Big XII player.

Since A&M DID get a regional birth and we DID host the regionals, I think we need to look to see how much Sinisi would have helped in those two final games against the University of Houston.

Well, since UofH and Rice are rivals it just so happens that they played each other 7 times during the 2003 season and Vincent was 9-for-30 (.300) with 5 Rs, 5 RBI, 2 HRs, a 2bl, and a SB.

Since A&M hit only .257 against UofH (36-for-140) in '03, I think that Vincent would have been enough to give the Ags at least another run or two. Would that have been enough to hold of the Cougars? I don't know....we should have held them off as it was already.

Let's just say that we did win one of those two fateful championship games....could we have defeated Rice in the Super Regionals?....at Rice? UofH turned it into a pretty good series.

We were 0-2 v. Rice during the regular season with a combined score of 18-4 (10-4, 8-0)....so it wouldn't have looked too good for the Ags in the Super Regionals.

But....could those games have been different if Sinisi was on our side? He was 4-for-10 with 2 HRs, 2 2bls & 8 RBI in those two games against us.

Let's just say that I'd pay for admission to the Super Regionals again....


Wednesday January 28, 2004

12:36am

The Deserving Cy-Young Candidate

I think that in the past I've made it pretty clear that Tim Hudson is one of my favorite pitchers. I don't think that everyone in the baseball world completely understands how great Tim really is because they assume that he is part of a "system" that they have in Oakland (something similar to the success of texas tech QBs over the last few years). He is also frequently snubbed as the team's top starter, which in my opinion, is not necessarily true.

Here are Tim's stats vs. the other members of 'the Big 3' over the last 3 seasons: 

Player   GS   W-L    IP   H   R  ER HR   SO/BB  ERA  BAA
Hudson  103 49-25 713.1 650 271 239 54 495/194 3.02 .244
--------------------------------------------------------
Mulder   90 55-24 623.1 576 246 233 52 440/146 3.36 .246
  Zito  105 54-25 675.1 552 269 238 61 533/246 3.17 .222
I think if you look at those numbers you can tell that Mulder and Hudson are just a smudge above Zito.

Next, I don't think it is totally fair to look at their W-L record and come to a conclusion about them (although it is quite apparent that W-L is extremely instrumental in the Cy-Young voting).

Tim has had 29 no decisions over that time span compared to Mulder's 11. As you will see later, a no decision isn't something that should hurt the pitcher because more often than not it is caused by the bullpen giving up the lead once a starter has left.

Even if you're not interested in the individual games (which I'm sure that 90% of you aren't), check out the totals and the commentary at the end of each section. That's what is really interesting.

Hudson's 2003

Here are Tim's game-by-game lines from his 2003 season: 
Regular Season:
Date  Opp  Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
 4/1  Sea   W  5-0 8.0  5 0  0  0  2  4  W   74 107 F.Garcia
 4/6  Ana   W  7-6 5.0  6 4  4  0  6  1  -   34 108 J.Lackey
4/11 @Ana   L  5-9 6.0 11 6  6  1  1  1  L   26  95 J.Lackey HR: T.Salmon
4/16 @Sea   W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  7  W   75  92 F.Garcia
4/22  Det   W  6-5 7.2  3 3  3  1  4  6  -   63 117 A.Bernero HR: D.Young
4/27  Cle   W  4-3 7.0  7 3  3  0  4  6  -   53 114 C.Sabathia
 5/3 @NYY   W  5-3 8.0  3 1  1  0  2  4  -   74 115 J.Weaver 
 5/9  NYY   W  7-2 8.0  5 2  2  1  1  5  W   68 101 J.Weaver HR: J.Giambi
5/14 @Det   L  1-2 8.0  7 1  1  1  1  3  -   66 107 G.Knotts HR: C.Monroe
5/20  Min   W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  5  W   73  94 R.Reed 
5/25   KC   W  4-3 7.0  5 3  2  0  1  4  -   60 108 D.May
5/30  @KC   L 6-11 3.2 10 9  6  2  1  1  L   11  83 K.Wilson HR: C.Beltran, 
                                                                    M.Tucker 
 6/4 @Fla   W  6-5 6.0  7 5  3  0  3  3  -   42 102 M.Redman
6/10  Atl   W  4-3 8.0  6 2  2  0  2  2  -   62  95 G.Maddux
6/15  Mon   W  9-1 7.0  6 1  1  0  1  5  W   65 109 J.Vazquez
6/21   SF   L  4-6 7.0 11 6  5  2  2  5  L   36 109 J.Williams HR: P.Feliz 2
6/26 @Tex   W 13-0 7.0  3 0  0  0  0  8  W   79  87 I.Valdez
 7/1  Sea   W  3-2 8.0  5 1  1  0  2  5  -   71 105 G.Meche
 7/6  Ana   W  6-5 6.2  4 1  1  0  4  5  -   63 114 J.Washburn
7/11  Bal   W  2-0 9.0  3 0  0  0  1  9  W   89 115 R.Lopez
7/17 @Min   L  2-6 7.0 11 6  4  1  1  2  L   36 115 R.Reed HR: T.Hunter
7/22  @KC   W 10-0 7.0  1 0  0  0  1  8  W   82 101 K.Wilson
7/27 @Ana   W 10-1 9.0  4 1  1  1  2  6  W   79 105 R.Ortiz HR: A.Kennedy
 8/1  NYY   W  3-2 7.0  4 2  2  0  3  5  -   63 119 M.Mussina
 8/6 @Det   W  9-3 8.0  7 3  3  2  0  6  W   62 104 W.Ledezma HR: B.Higgenson, 
                                                                     E.Munson
8/11  Bos   W  4-0 9.0  2 0  0  0  1  7  W   89  93 P.Martinez
8/16  Tor   W  6-4 6.1  2 1  1  0  3  6  W   69  89 M.Hendrickson
8/24 @Tor   W 17-2 6.0  6 2  0  0  1  0  W   55  87 K.Escobar
8/29   TB   W  5-2 8.0  6 2  2  0  1  7  W   68 103 J.Kennedy
 9/3 @Bal   L  4-9 3.0  8 5  5  0  0  1  L   24  66 R.Lopez
 9/8  Ana   L  1-3 7.2  9 3  3  1  4  7  L   52 127 A.Sele HR: S.Wooten                  
9/13 @Tex   W  9-3 6.0  7 3  3  0  2  6  W   50 100 R.Dickey
9/19  Sea   L  1-6 6.0  8 4  4  1  3  7  L   44 112 R.Franklin HR: J.Olerud
9/24  Tex   W  5-3 7.0  5 2  1  1  1  5  W   65 100 J.Benoit HR: H.Blalock

TOTALS:  TeamW-L    Scr    IP   H   R  ER  HR  BB  SO  Dec  ERA GSc   PIT
     Totals 26-8 191-111 240.0 197  84  72  15  61 162 16-7 2.70  59  3498 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Ave/Game      5.6-3.3   7.1 5.8 2.5 2.1  .4 1.8 4.8    -    -  59 104.8
Something that I was a bit surprised about was the quality of the pitchers he matched up against. In his 34 starts he faced off against a former all-star 9 times....that's over 25% of his starts....and that doesn't include the game against Javy Vazquez (who somehow hasn't ever been an all-star).

The other thing that was interesting was the quality of the opponents who HRed off of him. 7 of the 15 HRs were hit by former All-Stars, plus there was one hit by Carlos Beltran (how has he not been in an All-Star game yet...with the Royals?).

His season's gem was the 2-hitter on August 11th v. Pedro Martinez and the insanely awesome Red Sox lineup. Just filthy.

Hudson v. Playoff Bound Teams

Here's a look at how Tim did against the teams who made the playoffs. These are obviously the higher quality teams in the major leagues. 
Hudson v. Playoff Teams
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
 5/3 @NYY  W  5-3 8.0  3 1  1  0  2  4  -   74 115 J.Weaver 
 5/9  NYY  W  7-2 8.0  5 2  2  1  1  5  W   68 101 J.Weaver HR: J.Giambi
5/20  Min  W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  5  W   73  94 R.Reed
 6/4 @Fla  W  6-5 6.0  7 5  3  0  3  3  -   42 102 M.Redman
6/10  Atl  W  4-3 8.0  6 2  2  0  2  2  -   62  95 G.Maddux
6/21   SF  L  4-6 7.0 11 6  5  2  2  5  L   36 109 J.Williams HR: P.Feliz 2
7/17 @Min  L  2-6 7.0 11 6  4  1  1  2  L   36 115 R.Reed HR: T.Hunter
 8/1  NYY  W  3-2 7.0  4 2  2  0  3  5  -   63 119 M.Mussina
8/11  Bos  W  4-0 9.0  2 0  0  0  1  7  W   89  93 P.Martinez

TOTALS:  TeamW-L    Scr   IP  H   R  ER HR  BB  SO Dec  ERA GSc   PIT
     Totals  7-2  37-28 68.0 54  25  20  4  15  38 3-2 2.65  60   939
---------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ave/Game    4.1-3.1  7.2  6 2.8 2.2 .4 1.7 4.2   -    -  60 104.8
Those are great numbers against the best teams in the league. His ERA in these games is lower than his overall numbers, plus he only went less than 7 IP in one of these starts.

Hudson v. AL West

I'm showing these statistics because I wanted to show how he performed in the games that were more important with regards to making the playoffs, since inner-division games are more important due to the unbalanced scheduled. 
Hudson v. AL West Teams:
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
 4/1  Sea  W  5-0 8.0  5 0  0  0  2  4  W   74 107 F.Garcia
 4/6  Ana  W  7-6 5.0  6 4  4  0  6  1  -   34 108 J.Lackey
4/11 @Ana  L  5-9 6.0 11 6  6  1  1  1  L   26  95 J.Lackey HR: T.Salmon
4/16 @Sea  W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  7  W   75  92 F.Garcia
6/26 @Tex  W 13-0 7.0  3 0  0  0  0  8  W   79  87 I.Valdez
 7/1  Sea  W  3-2 8.0  5 1  1  0  2  5  -   71 105 G.Meche
 7/6  Ana  W  6-5 6.2  4 1  1  0  4  5  -   63 114 J.Washburn
7/27 @Ana  W 10-1 9.0  4 1  1  1  2  6  W   79 105 R.Ortiz HR: A.Kennedy
 9/8  Ana  L  1-3 7.2  9 3  3  1  4  7  L   52 127 A.Sele HR: S.Wooten                  
9/13 @Tex  W  9-3 6.0  7 3  3  0  2  6  W   50 100 R.Dickey
9/19  Sea  L  1-6 6.0  8 4  4  1  3  7  L   44 112 R.Franklin HR: J.Olerud
9/24  Tex  W  5-3 7.0  5 2  1  1  1  5  W   65 100 J.Benoit HR: H.Blalock

TOTALS:  TeamW-L   Scr   IP  H   R  ER HR  BB  SO Dec  ERA GSc   PIT
   Totals    9-3 69-39 84.1 72  26  25  5  27  62 6-3 2.67  59  1252
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Ave/Game     5.8-3.3  7.0  6 2.2 2.1 .4 2.3 5.2   -    -  59 104.3
Again, very impressive. I think we see why the A's won their division.

I wanted badly to get up to Arlington for one of those games he pitched against the Rangers, but we missed his spot in the rotation and saw Mulder.

The first game against the Rangers back in June is pretty impressive considering the park and the lineup he faced.

Hudson Down the Stretch (Aug.-Sept.)

Everyone always seems to deem a player great based on how well he performs 'down the stretch', or in the 'dog days of August' where pennant races are won and lost. Just ask Albert Pujols how important that stretch is and he'll show you an empty spot in his trophy case where last year's MVP award would have gone. 
Hudson Down the Stretch (August-September):
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
 8/1  NYY  W  3-2 7.0 4 2  2  0  3  5  -   63 119 M.Mussina
 8/6 @Det  W  9-3 8.0 7 3  3  2  0  6  W   62 104 W.Ledezma HR: B.Higgenson, 
                                                                   E.Munson
8/11  Bos  W  4-0 9.0 2 0  0  0  1  7  W   89  93 P.Martinez
8/16  Tor  W  6-4 6.1 2 1  1  0  3  6  W   69  89 M.Hendrickson
8/24 @Tor  W 17-2 6.0 6 2  0  0  1  0  W   55  87 K.Escobar
8/29   TB  W  5-2 8.0 6 2  2  0  1  7  W   68 103 J.Kennedy
 9/3 @Bal  L  4-9 3.0 8 5  5  0  0  1  L   24  66 R.Lopez
 9/8  Ana  L  1-3 7.2 9 3  3  1  4  7  L   52 127 A.Sele HR: S.Wooten                  
9/13 @Tex  W  9-3 6.0 7 3  3  0  2  6  W   50 100 R.Dickey
9/19  Sea  L  1-6 6.0 8 4  4  1  3  7  L   44 112 R.Franklin HR: J.Olerud
9/24  Tex  W  5-3 7.0 5 2  1  1  1  5  W   65 100 J.Benoit HR: H.Blalock

TOTALS:   TeamW-L   Scr   IP   H   R  ER HR  BB  SO Dec  ERA GSc   PIT
     Totals   8-3 64-37 74.0  64  27  24  5  19  57 7-3 2.92  58  1100
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Ave/Game     5.8-3.4  6.7 5.8 2.5 2.2 .5 1.7 5.2   -    -  58 100.0
Tim really did well 'down the stretch' winning 5 decisions in a row and finishing with a 7-3 record. Isn't it interesting how in the 3 losses his team scored a total of 6 runs?

Hudson at Home/on Road

Yes, the Oakland Coliseum is a great pitcher's park, but A's pitchers have won the Cy-Young award before (like Zito in '02). Here are Tim's home stats, followed by his road stats, then I compared his totals for each. 
Hudson at Home:
Date Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
 4/1 Sea  W  5-0 8.0  5 0  0  0  2  4  W   74 107 F.Garcia
 4/6 Ana  W  7-6 5.0  6 4  4  0  6  1  -   34 108 J.Lackey
4/22 Det  W  6-5 7.2  3 3  3  1  4  6  -   63 117 A.Bernero HR: D.Young
4/27 Cle  W  4-3 7.0  7 3  3  0  4  6  -   53 114 C.Sabathia
 5/9 NYY  W  7-2 8.0  5 2  2  1  1  5  W   68 101 J.Weaver HR: J.Giambi
5/20 Min  W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  5  W   73  94 R.Reed 
5/25  KC  W  4-3 7.0  5 3  2  0  1  4  -   60 108 D.May
6/10 Atl  W  4-3 8.0  6 2  2  0  2  2  -   62  95 G.Maddux
6/15 Mon  W  9-1 7.0  6 1  1  0  1  5  W   65 109 J.Vazquez
6/21  SF  L  4-6 7.0 11 6  5  2  2  5  L   36 109 J.Williams HR: P.Feliz 2
 7/1 Sea  W  3-2 8.0  5 1  1  0  2  5  -   71 105 G.Meche
 7/6 Ana  W  6-5 6.2  4 1  1  0  4  5  -   63 114 J.Washburn
7/11 Bal  W  2-0 9.0  3 0  0  0  1  9  W   89 115 R.Lopez
 8/1 NYY  W  3-2 7.0  4 2  2  0  3  5  -   63 119 M.Mussina
8/11 Bos  W  4-0 9.0  2 0  0  0  1  7  W   89  93 P.Martinez
8/16 Tor  W  6-4 6.1  2 1  1  0  3  6  W   69  89 M.Hendrickson
8/29  TB  W  5-2 8.0  6 2  2  0  1  7  W   68 103 J.Kennedy
 9/8 Ana  L  1-3 7.2  9 3  3  1  4  7  L   52 127 A.Sele HR: S.Wooten                  
9/19 Sea  L  1-6 6.0  8 4  4  1  3  7  L   44 112 R.Franklin HR: J.Olerud
9/24 Tex  W  5-3 7.0  5 2  1  1  1  5  W   65 100 J.Benoit HR: H.Blalock

Hudson on the Road:
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
4/11 @Ana  L  5-9 6.0 11 6  6  1  1  1  L   26  95 J.Lackey HR: T.Salmon
4/16 @Sea  W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  7  W   75  92 F.Garcia
 5/3 @NYY  W  5-3 8.0  3 1  1  0  2  4  -   74 115 J.Weaver 
5/14 @Det  L  1-2 8.0  7 1  1  1  1  3  -   66 107 G.Knotts HR: C.Monroe
5/30  @KC  L 6-11 3.2 10 9  6  2  1  1  L   11  83 K.Wilson HR: C.Beltran,
                                                                   M.Tucker 
 6/4 @Fla  W  6-5 6.0  7 5  3  0  3  3  -   42 102 M.Redman
6/26 @Tex  W 13-0 7.0  3 0  0  0  0  8  W   79  87 I.Valdez
7/17 @Min  L  2-6 7.0 11 6  4  1  1  2  L   36 115 R.Reed HR: T.Hunter
7/22  @KC  W 10-0 7.0  1 0  0  0  1  8  W   82 101 K.Wilson
7/27 @Ana  W 10-1 9.0  4 1  1  1  2  6  W   79 105 R.Ortiz HR: A.Kennedy
 8/6 @Det  W  9-3 8.0  7 3  3  2  0  6  W   62 104 W.Ledezma HR: B.Higgenson,
                                                                     E.Munson
8/24 @Tor  W 17-2 6.0  6 2  0  0  1  0  W   55  87 K.Escobar
 9/3 @Bal  L  4-9 3.0  8 5  5  0  0  1  L   24  66 R.Lopez
9/13 @Tex  W  9-3 6.0  7 3  3  0  2  6  W   50 100 R.Dickey

TOTALS:      TeamW-L    Scr    IP   H   R  ER  HR  BB  SO Dec  ERA GSc   PIT
Home    Totals  17-3  90-57 147.1 107  41  38   7  46 106 9-3 2.32  63  2139
Road    Totals   9-5 101-54  96.2  90  43  34   8  15  56 7-4 3.17  54  1359 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home  Ave/Game      4.5-2.9   7.4 5.4 2.1 1.9  .4 2.3 5.3   -    -  63 107.0    
Road  Ave/Game      7.2-3.9   6.6 6.4 3.1 2.4  .6 1.1 4.0   -    -  54  97.1
Ok, so the split in the totals looks pretty significant, but look carefully at the average/game.

He only gave up .5 ER more on the road than he did at home, and he also had pretty similar W-L even though he pitched in 6 more home games than road games. Plus all the stats still count. Every pitcher who pitched against Tim in Oakland had the same advantage of the ballpark as he did.

Days of Rest

I think that this is really quite interesting because you always hear announcers saying stuff like "He's got to be wearing out pitching on less rest than normal."

Well, let's check out the facts: 

Hudson on 4 Days Rest:
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
 4/6  Ana  W  7-6 5.0  6 4  4  0  6  1  -   34 108 J.Lackey
4/11 @Ana  L  5-9 6.0 11 6  6  1  1  1  L   26  95 J.Lackey HR: T.Salmon
4/16 @Sea  W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  7  W   75  92 F.Garcia
4/27  Cle  W  4-3 7.0  7 3  3  0  4  6  -   53 114 C.Sabathia
5/14 @Det  L  1-2 8.0  7 1  1  1  1  3  -   66 107 G.Knotts HR: C.Monroe
5/25   KC  W  4-3 7.0  5 3  2  0  1  4  -   60 108 D.May
5/30  @KC  L 6-11 3.2 10 9  6  2  1  1  L   11  83 K.Wilson HR: C.Beltran, 
                                                                  M.Tucker 
 6/4 @Fla  W  6-5 6.0  7 5  3  0  3  3  -   42 102 M.Redman
6/21   SF  L  4-6 7.0 11 6  5  2  2  5  L   36 109 J.Williams HR: P.Feliz 2
6/26 @Tex  W 13-0 7.0  3 0  0  0  0  8  W   79  87 I.Valdez
 7/6  Ana  W  6-5 6.2  4 1  1  0  4  5  -   63 114 J.Washburn
7/11  Bal  W  2-0 9.0  3 0  0  0  1  9  W   89 115 R.Lopez
7/22  @KC  W 10-0 7.0  1 0  0  0  1  8  W   82 101 K.Wilson
7/27 @Ana  W 10-1 9.0  4 1  1  1  2  6  W   79 105 R.Ortiz HR: A.Kennedy
 8/1  NYY  W  3-2 7.0  4 2  2  0  3  5  -   63 119 M.Mussina
 8/6 @Det  W  9-3 8.0  7 3  3  2  0  6  W   62 104 W.Ledezma HR: B.Higgenson,
                                                                    E.Munson
8/11  Bos  W  4-0 9.0  2 0  0  0  1  7  W   89  93 P.Martinez
8/16  Tor  W  6-4 6.1  2 1  1  0  3  6  W   69  89 M.Hendrickson
8/29   TB  W  5-2 8.0  6 2  2  0  1  7  W   68 103 J.Kennedy
 9/3 @Bal  L  4-9 3.0  8 5  5  0  0  1  L   24  66 R.Lopez
 9/8  Ana  L  1-3 7.2  9 3  3  1  4  7  L   52 127 A.Sele HR: S.Wooten                  
9/13 @Tex  W  9-3 6.0  7 3  3  0  2  6  W   50 100 R.Dickey
9/24  Tex  W  5-3 7.0  5 2  1  1  1  5  W   65 100 J.Benoit HR: H.Blalock

Hudson on 5 Days Rest:
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
4/22  Det  W  6-5 7.2  3 3  3  1  4  6  -   63 117 A.Bernero HR: D.Young
 5/3 @NYY  W  5-3 8.0  3 1  1  0  2  4  -   74 115 J.Weaver 
 5/9  NYY  W  7-2 8.0  5 2  2  1  1  5  W   68 101 J.Weaver HR: J.Giambi
5/20  Min  W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  5  W   73  94 R.Reed 
6/10  Atl  W  4-3 8.0  6 2  2  0  2  2  -   62  95 G.Maddux
6/15  Mon  W  9-1 7.0  6 1  1  0  1  5  W   65 109 J.Vazquez
 7/1  Sea  W  3-2 8.0  5 1  1  0  2  5  -   71 105 G.Meche
7/17 @Min  L  2-6 7.0 11 6  4  1  1  2  L   36 115 R.Reed HR: T.Hunter
9/19  Sea  L  1-6 6.0  8 4  4  1  3  7  L   44 112 R.Franklin HR: J.Olerud

Hudson on 7 Days Rest:
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
8/24 @Tor  W 17-2 6.0  6 2  0  0  1  0  W   55  87 K.Escobar

TOTALS:      TeamW-L  Score    IP   H   R  ER  HR  BB  SO  Dec  ERA GSc   PIT
4 DOR   Totals  17-6 128-80 158.1 134  61  53  11  42 117 11-5 3.01  58  2341
5 DOR   Totals   7-2  41-29  67.2  52  21  19   4  16  41  3-2 2.53  62   963
7 DOR   Totals   1-0   17-2   6.0   6   2   0   0   1   0  1-0 0.00  55    87 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 DOR Ave/Game      5.6-3.5   6.8 5.8 2.7 2.3  .5 1.8 5.1    -    -  58 101.8
5 DOR Ave/Game      4.6-3.2   7.5 5.8 2.3 2.1  .4 1.8 4.6    -    -  62 107.0
7 DOR Ave/Game     17.0-2.0   6.0 6.0 2.0 0.0  .0 1.0 0.0    -    -  55  87.0
I think that we can discard the single 7 d.o.r. game simply because of the small sample size.

Looking at his results between 4 & 5 d.o.r., I think it is safe to say that Tim is better on 5 d.o.r. His ERA is down nearly 0.50 and his average IP shows that he is able to go an average of about 2/3 an inning longer, which just about eliminates one relief pitcher appearance per game. Hudson in Ws, Ls, and N.D.s

This is interesting to me because of the number of wins that Tim didn't get simply due to horrible bullpen work, which stuck him with most of the no decisions. 

Hudson in Wins:
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
 4/1  Sea  W  5-0 8.0  5 0  0  0  2  4  W   74 107 F.Garcia
4/16 @Sea  W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  7  W   75  92 F.Garcia
 5/9  NYY  W  7-2 8.0  5 2  2  1  1  5  W   68 101 J.Weaver HR: J.Giambi
5/20  Min  W  4-1 8.0  5 1  1  0  0  5  W   73  94 R.Reed 
6/15  Mon  W  9-1 7.0  6 1  1  0  1  5  W   65 109 J.Vazquez
6/26 @Tex  W 13-0 7.0  3 0  0  0  0  8  W   79  87 I.Valdez
7/11  Bal  W  2-0 9.0  3 0  0  0  1  9  W   89 115 R.Lopez
7/22  @KC  W 10-0 7.0  1 0  0  0  1  8  W   82 101 K.Wilson
7/27 @Ana  W 10-1 9.0  4 1  1  1  2  6  W   79 105 R.Ortiz HR: A.Kennedy
 8/6 @Det  W  9-3 8.0  7 3  3  2  0  6  W   62 104 W.Ledezma HR: B.Higgenson,
                                                                   E.Munson
8/11  Bos  W  4-0 9.0  2 0  0  0  1  7  W   89  93 P.Martinez
8/16  Tor  W  6-4 6.1  2 1  1  0  3  6  W   69  89 M.Hendrickson
8/24 @Tor  W 17-2 6.0  6 2  0  0  1  0  W   55  87 K.Escobar
8/29   TB  W  5-2 8.0  6 2  2  0  1  7  W   68 103 J.Kennedy
9/13 @Tex  W  9-3 6.0  7 3  3  0  2  6  W   50 100 R.Dickey
9/24  Tex  W  5-3 7.0  5 2  1  1  1  5  W   65 100 J.Benoit HR: H.Blalock

Hudson in Losses:
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
4/11 @Ana  L  5-9 6.0 11 6  6  1  1  1  L   26  95 J.Lackey HR: T.Salmon
5/30  @KC  L 6-11 3.2 10 9  6  2  1  1  L   11  83 K.Wilson HR: C.Beltran,
                                                                  M.Tucker
6/21   SF  L  4-6 7.0 11 6  5  2  2  5  L   36 109 J.Williams HR: P.Feliz 2
7/17 @Min  L  2-6 7.0 11 6  4  1  1  2  L   36 115 R.Reed HR: T.Hunter
 9/3 @Bal  L  4-9 3.0  8 5  5  0  0  1  L   24  66 R.Lopez
 9/8  Ana  L  1-3 7.2  9 3  3  1  4  7  L   52 127 A.Sele HR: S.Wooten                  
9/19  Sea  L  1-6 6.0  8 4  4  1  3  7  L   44 112 R.Franklin HR: J.Olerud

Hudson in No Decisions:
Date  Opp Res Scr  IP  H R ER HR BB SO Dec GSc PIT Versus
 4/6  Ana  W  7-6 5.0  6 4  4  0  6  1  -   34 108 J.Lackey
4/22  Det  W  6-5 7.2  3 3  3  1  4  6  -   63 117 A.Bernero HR: D.Young
4/27  Cle  W  4-3 7.0  7 3  3  0  4  6  -   53 114 C.Sabathia
 5/3 @NYY  W  5-3 8.0  3 1  1  0  2  4  -   74 115 J.Weaver 
5/14 @Det  L  1-2 8.0  7 1  1  1  1  3  -   66 107 G.Knotts HR: C.Monroe
5/25   KC  W  4-3 7.0  5 3  2  0  1  4  -   60 108 D.May
 6/4 @Fla  W  6-5 6.0  7 5  3  0  3  3  -   42 102 M.Redman
6/10  Atl  W  4-3 8.0  6 2  2  0  2  2  -   62  95 G.Maddux
 7/1  Sea  W  3-2 8.0  5 1  1  0  2  5  -   71 105 G.Meche
 7/6  Ana  W  6-5 6.2  4 1  1  0  4  5  -   63 114 J.Washburn
 8/1  NYY  W  3-2 7.0  4 2  2  0  3  5  -   63 119 M.Mussina

TOTALS:      TeamW-L  Score    IP   H   R  ER  HR  BB  SO  Dec  ERA GSc   PIT
In W    Totals  16-0 119-23 121.1  72  19  16   5  17  94 16-0 1.19  71  1587
In L    Totals   0-7  23-50  40.1  68  39  33   8  12  24  0-7 7.36  33   707
In ND   Totals  10-1  49-38  78.1  57  26  23   2  32  44  0-0 2.64  59  1204
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In W  Ave/Game      7.4-1.4   7.6 4.5 1.2 1.0  .3 1.1 5.9    -    -  71  99.2
In L  Ave/Game      3.3-7.1   5.8 9.7 5.6 4.7 1.1 1.7 3.4    -    -  33 101.1 
In ND Ave/Game      4.5-3.5   7.1 5.2 2.4 2.1  .2 2.9 4.0    -    -  59 109.5
I think it's so nuts that in Tim's 11 no decisions the team won 10 of the games. I'm going to break these games down in a bit more detail to show why Tim should have won the Cy Young, and why he should have been on the All-Star team.

Let's recap what Tim missed out on.

In the 5 games Hudson left when it was tied, he gave up a total of 14 R (14/5= 2.8 runs/game) in 34 IP (34/5= approx. 7 IP/game). Two of those games he had given up only 1 run (which is well below what he should have according to his overall season ERA). If your team can't score more than one run against either Detroit (!) or Seattle while you're out there busting it for 7 innings, it's not your fault. I think they should have, so I'm going to give Tim those two wins (his overall W-L record is now at 18-6).

As for the 4 games that Tim was winning when he left (all 4 losses a result of Foulke blown saves), those should have been gimmies. The way the game is played today, it is the job of the starter to get the ball to the closer with as few intermediaries as possible. If your closer sucks at his job of preserving the win you handed him, then that is his fault. Foulke blew 5 saves all year, and 4 of them were in games where Tim Hudson was lined up for the W. Let's add those 4 wins to Tim's record (now it's at 22-6 overall).

Since I'm a fair person, I'm going to look at the games that Tim was not winning when he left. Even though he only gave up a mere 3 ER in the 14 innings he pitched during those two games (that is an ERA of 1.92 which is way lower than his overall ERA), I will still subtract two wins from his record just to be totally fair (now he is at 20-6 overall). It is still pathetic that his team couldn't put any more runs up on the board than what they did.

What It Cost Tim

Now you may wonder why I'm so upset about all this, especially since the A's won 10 of the 11 no decision games Hudson pitched in.

Well, take notice that 10 of those 11 no decisions were before the All-Star game (which was played on July 15th). At the time, Tim had a record of 7-3 with an ERA of 2.71 but was not selected for the game because other players had 13 or 14 wins.

Had he not had so many Ws taken from him by his own team (as we just talked about in the 3 paragraphs above) he would have had a record of 11-3 with a 2.71 ERA. Even more so, since one of the games that I subtracted a W from his record occurred after the A.S. game, his stats would have stood at 12-3 with a 2.71 ERA almost assuring him of an A.S. appearance.

Isn't it funny that Keith Foulke was awarded a spot on the A.S. team, although he had single handedly cost his teammate of a spot (and padded his own W-L record in games that Tim should have won; he also won the AL Rolaids Relief Man Award which is basically the top reliever in the league....if they only knew).

Just think about All-Star bonuses that most players have in their contracts. We're talking about enough to buy a new car (I don't know the specifics of Hudson's contract so I don't know for sure that he would earn a bonus but I would assume that the odds are very good that he would).

The other reason I'm upset about this is because of the Cy-Young voting.

Look at the stats of the pitchers in the top 4 in voting: 

     Player  GS  W-L   W%    IP   H   R ER HR  SO/BB  ERA 
 R.Halliday  36 22-7 .759 266.0 253 111 96 26 204/32 3.25
   E.Loaiza  34 21-9 .700 226.1 196  75 73 17 207/56 2.90
P.Martinez*  29 14-4 .778 186.7 147  52 46  7 206/47 2.22
  T.Hudson*  34 16-7 .696 240.0 197  84 72 15 162/61 2.70
*team made playoffs
Now imagine if Tim had those other Ws that he lost out on..... 
     Player  GS  W-L   W%    IP   H   R ER HR  SO/BB  ERA 
 R.Halliday  36 22-7 .759 266.0 253 111 96 26 204/32 3.25
   E.Loaiza  34 21-9 .700 226.1 196  75 73 17 207/56 2.90
P.Martinez*  29 14-4 .778 186.7 147  52 46  7 206/47 2.22
  T.Hudson*  34 20-7 .741 240.0 197  84 72 15 162/61 2.70
*team made playoffs
Let's go back and re-read what I wrote about the AL Cy-Young award back on September 5th, while keeping in mind that there was still 25 days of the regular season left when I wrote it.

My final decision was this:

After seeing these records, I have to say that Esteban Loaiza is my vote for AL Cy-Young this year. The 5-0 record vs. division leaders is what sealed it for me...I guess, Tim, good luck during the play-off stretch....and just pray Loaiza loses 2 more games (that may change things a bit)...

Well, Loaiza did lose two more. In fact, he lost 3 more games. On top of that consider that when I made that decision, I didn't even factor in the extra 4 wins that I proved Tim should have had.

Tim Hudson should have walked away from the 2003 season as an All-Star, the Cy-Young Award recipient and a division winner. Instead, voters relied on W-L records too heavily to decide the first of those 3 accomplishments. This all just goes to show how it isn't always best to judge a player's season simply on W-L.....


Tuesday January 27th, 2004

12:32am

A Flash Back In Time: Pete Incaviglia

I was reading the current Baseball America magazine (I was actually reading the online version, I don't think the print edition mentioned him) which is the annual College Preview issue. I noticed that Oklahoma State had a 6'3", switch-hitting, freshman infielder named Thomas Incaviglia. I assumed that since a guy named Pete, who had the same last name, went to OSU and was one of the greatest collegiate hitters ever that the odds were good that Thomas was his son. Man, I AM GOOD. [edit 5/28/04: I am not good....Thomas is Inky's nephew]

That got me thinking about old Pete, and while I was entirely too young to remember his heydays back at OSU and his successful early days in the major leagues, I do remember his short stints with the Houston Astros in 1992 & 1998.

Surprisingly enough, when I started doing a bit of research last Friday, I stumbled across one of those "This Day In History" things that said:

January 23rd

1992 - Houston signs outfielder Pete Incaviglia and reliever Doug Jones as free agents. Jones would become the club MVP that season, leading the team with 11 wins and 36 saves with a 1.85 ERA. He either won or saved over half of Houston's victories that year. Incaviglia wasn't too bad either, hitting .266 with 11 homers in part-time duty while tying the club record with seven RBIs in a game against the Giants.

College: Oklahoma State (1983-1985)

Let's just say that when Pete left Oklahoma State there were some pretty high expectations for him at the next level. He was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 1985 draft as the #8 pick overall (3 slots behind Barry Bonds) after leading the Cowboys to nationally ranked finishes of #5, #3, & #5 in each of his 3 years in Stillwater (1983-1985 respectively).

Here are the offensive records that he still owns to this day (20 seasons after setting foot on campus):

What is so staggering is that those numbers survived the 'Gorilla Ball' of the late 90s without anyone other than Berkman coming remotely close to them. Now that the regulations on bats have changed to help keep scores more realistic, those stats seem unbreakable.

Looking at the single season records that he holds, here are the NCAA leaders from last year: 

      Pete   '03 Leader 
 HR:   48        33 
 TB:  285       225
SLG: 1.140     .933
RBI:  143       118

Minor Leagues

Well, Pete didn't need'em until 1998. Actually, that's just being technical. He played a year in Japan in '95 and he played part of a season with Columbus in the Independent league in 1997 before catching back on with the Orioles.

That first sentence up above is true to the extent that he did play his first professional game as a major leaguer. 

Year        Team  League Age  G  AB  R  H HR RBI SO/BB   BA
1995   Chiba Lot JapCent  31    243 25 44 10  31 74/23 .181
1997    Columbus      IL  33  3  13  1  4  0   2   4/0 .308
1998 New Orleans     PCL  34 76 281 57 91 23  66 63/34 .324   
2002    Portland     PCL  38 15  41  2  5  0   0  16/4 .122

Major Leagues

As I just mentioned, Pete is one of the very few players to make the jump to the big league without playing a minor league game. He was, however, traded to the Rangers before he could even do that. 

Year    Team Age   G   AB    H   R  HR RBI    SO/BB   BA  OPS  GPA
1986     TEX  22 153  540  135  82  30  88   185/55 .250 .783 .260
1987     TEX  23 139  509  138  85  27  80   168/48 .271 .829 .274
1988     TEX  24 116  418  104  59  22  54   153/39 .249 .788 .261
1989     TEX  25 133  453  107  48  21  81   136/32 .236 .746 .245 
1990     TEX  26 153  529  123  59  24  85   146/45 .233 .722 .241
1991     DET  27  97  337   72  38  11  38    92/36 .214 .643 .219
1992     HOU  28 113  349   93  31  11  44    99/25 .266 .749 .251
1993     PHI  29 116  368  101  60  24  89    82/21 .274 .848 .276
1994     PHI  30  80  244   56  28  13  32    71/16 .230 .717 .235 
1996 BAL/PHI  32 111  302   73  37  18  50    89/30 .242 .782 .259
1997 BAL/NYY  33  53  154   38  19   5  12    46/11 .247 .678 .231
1998 DET/HOU  34  20   30    3   0   0   2     10/2 .100 .289 .103
------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 12-yrs   1284 4233 1043 546 206 655 1277/360 .246 .758 .252

It is interesting to see that he had a great rookie season, but every year after that was a downward spiral (with a mini bright spot in '93).

Since he didn't have the same number of ABs in each year, let's look at some ratios for each season: 

Year  AB/HR  AB/SO  SO/BB
1986   18.0   2.92   3.36
1987   18.9   3.03   3.50
1988   19.0   2.73   3.92
1989   21.6   3.33   4.25
1990   22.0   3.62   3.24
1991   30.6   3.66   2.56
1992   31.7   3.53   3.96
1993   15.3   4.49   3.90
1994   18.8   3.44   4.44
1996   16.8   3.39   2.97
1997   30.8   3.35   4.18
1998      -   3.00   5.00

For those of you with non-math related degrees, it is good to have a smaller number for the AB/HR, a larger # for the AB/SO, and a smaller # for the SO/BB. I thought that maybe he didn't get worse every year but the decrease in numbers was due to lack of ABs in certain seasons. I was wrong....he did get worse in just about every year (except SO/BB, which was up and down).

I looked up that game back in '92 where Pete had 7 RBIs. It was on June 14th, 1992 in a home game v. the Giants. Pete's line for the day looked like this: 

AB R H RBI BB K PO A
 5 3 3   7  0 2  2 0

He hit 2 HRs [his 4th (a 3-run shot) and 5th (a 2-run shot) on the year] and had a double. Not too bad for 3 hours and 6 minutes worth of work.

My first experience with Pete Incaviglia was a game in 1992 when he was with the Astros. I remember hearing this funny name called out over the loudspeaker at the Astrodome (bless its soul) as a pinch hitter and everyone started to cheer. I don't remember the date of that game, but judging by the applause, it was probably not too long after that 7 RBI game.

In 1993, Pete had his final hurrah while playing for the Phillies and helping them win the NL Pennant. Pete finished 2nd on the squad with 24 HRs and 3rd with 89 RBIs. He also hit a HR in the 1st game of the NLCS v. the Braves, which is never really a bad thing.

I hope that Pete didn't go cheap and not buy the life-time warranty option when he was purchasing his luggage because after '93 he changed teams 11 different times (minor and major league) looking for anyone who needed a bat.

He picked up another stint with the Astros in '98 which was pretty much limited to PH-ing as they went on to win the NL Central. I remember a couple of games when Pete came to bat and he got quite a bit of fan applause. It was one of those applauses that you hear when the old, grizzled veteran steps up in a big situation and everyone is wishful that he will be able to perform like he did in his heyday, although they know that there is little chance it will happen.

Pete finished the season with a SLUG % that was lower than his OBP (.133 v. .156) which for a guy who can only hit for power is a sure-tell sign to hang'em up.

He never played in the big leagues again and has now finally retired for good. I'm sure he's chillin' the most and will be visiting Stillwater, Oklahoma quite a bit to see his son [edit: nephew] try to live up to the pressures of being the son [edit: nephew] of the most feared collegiate hitter of all time.


Monday January 26th, 2004

12:50am

Texas A&M 78 v. #18 texas tech 80

Box Score

Well, it was a heckuva game. I wasn't able to secure seats as great as I was for the Kansas game, but really any seat in Reed Arena isn't bad.

I know that I complained about the refs in the Kansas game, but I really think that Bob Knight was able to draw about 6 of tech's fouls simply on reputation.

I don't have any problems with refs being correct making calls, and if a call needs to be made then make it....just call the same things for each team.

We got hit with a technical foul on a very questionable traveling call because our player threw his hands up in the air, yet when tech's Robert "Frankenstein" Tomaszek drops an f-bomb so blatantly that I can read his lips from 25 rows up there isn't any call.

Oh yeah, tech's game winning basket by Andre Emmett with 6 seconds left in the game shouldn't have counted. He blatantly traveled and of course the ranked team gets away with it.

Between the time the clock hit 17 min. remaining in the game and 12 min. we had 6 fouls called against us. It just seems that whenever we start to get some momentum and the crowd gets fired up...BAM...traveling...or...BAM...offensive foul...or whatever.

The crowd was great (12,124-4th largest ever), and the team played pretty well. We had 5 guys in double digit points, which is well more than most nights. Freshman, Acie Law, really stepped up and hit some big shots for us en-route to his team high 14 pts.

Two things I've noticed watching the men play.

  1. When our shooters receive a pass when they have an open look, they drop the ball to their waist before bringing it up to shoot. This gives the defender that extra split second they need to get over and put a hand in our player's face.
  2. Pat pointed out that tech was very good at hitting their off-balance shots because they used the backboard very efficiently, whereas we do not.
In the end, we played a very good game against a team that physically is much better than ourselves. The Big XII conference is rough.

Texas A&M 62 v. #3 t.u. 64

Box Score

Phew, the games just got better as the weekend went on!

This game went down to the wire and even though we didn't pull this one out, I'm proud of our girls. Look at this: 

Texas A&M        t.u.
   5-7            5-4
   5-8            5-6*
   5-8            5-6*
   5-8*          5-11
   5-9*           6-1*
   5-9*           6-2*
   5-9            6-2*
  5-11*           6-2
   6-0*           6-2
   6-0            6-2
   6-1            6-2
   6-2            6-3
   6-3            6-5
Those are the heights of the girls on each team's rosters (*Sunday's starters). When 8 players on an opponent's team of 13 total players are taller than your 10 of your 13 players you are at quite a disadvantage physically.

Once again, the amazing Toccara Williams had 7 rebounds and 7 assists to go with her career highs in points (24) and steals (9). Toccara had her 400th career steal which made her only the 4th player in NCAA women's basketball history to have over 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 600 assists, & 400 steals in a career. That is pretty impressive.

Tamea Scales had 12 points and 9 boards in the best performance I've seen her have. I usually feel like Tamea isn't the most determined player on the court and she doesn't have quite the competitive drive that some of our other girls have, but she made me forget about all that yesterday with an all out effort performance. Great game.

Two other players who really impressed me were Charlette Castile, who hit a couple of tres to keep us in the game, & Lynn "the Stork" Classen. Charlette, in my opinion, emerged today as a player who I think will be a leading scorer next season. She's a JR transfer in her first season here at A&M, and I'm glad we'll have her for next year because we're losing 3 of our best players after the season ends. As for Lynn, who happens to be one of those 3 big seniors, she didn't contribute with huge numbers but she was able to draw a couple of huge fouls in the last few minutes of the game which forced t.u. turnovers.

t.u. was led by their hoss, Tiffany Jackson (15 pts, 11 rebounds, & 4 blocks). She's a freshman who only started one game this year, but is their second leading scorer. This girl is 6'3", but is SOLID. She's not overweight at all, but she's huge. There isn't any weight given on any websites, but I'm thinking somewhere near 190 pounds. It turns out that she was the #2 or #3 recruit in every recruiting poll after her senior season in high school. No wonder she was so good. Oh yeah, apparently she alone is allowed to hop with the ball without taking a shot and not get called for it....because she sure as heck did it.

I wanted to show again how great a coach Gary Blair is. On Friday in the school newspaper he was quoted saying, "(If we win) I will personally lead the parade to the Chicken."

Our lack of depth in comparison to the rest of the very difficult Big XII was part of what hurt us. Of the 200 total minutes we played, 183 of them came from 6 of our 13 rostered players. 

Player    Minutes
T.Williams*   40
J.Derrick*    34
T.Scales*     33
E.Roy*        27
M.Garrison*   25
C.Castile     24

This Week

I'll have lots of baseball stuff up this week so check for that. I'm in the midst of doing an EXTREMELY detailed breakdown of Tim Hudson's 2003 season, as well as a 'Flash From the Past' entry. It'll be fun for all....


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