Joe Posnanski checks in with this amazing (or depressing, depending on which team you root for) fact:
David DeJesus leads the Kansas City Royals with 46 walks. That is one behind Los Angeles’ Matt Kemp, who has 47 walks. OK … so what’s the big deal?
Here’s the big deal: Matt Kemp is EIGHTH on the Dodgers in walks. Eighth.
Which means that EVERY SINGLE PLAYER in the Dodgers starting lineup (with the exception of the pitcher, of course) has more walks than ANY player on the Kansas City Royals.
Surprise, surprise: 5 of the top 6 ranked teams in OBP would make the playoffs today, and the 6th is Tampa Bay, doomed by being a division rival of New York and Boston. Say what you will about Don Mattingly and his inability to turn around Rafael Furcal or Russell Martin, but the patience this team has shown from top to bottom in wearing out pitchers and getting men on base is hard to ignore.
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Hey, doom-and-gloom crew: I accept that things looked better in April, but the Dodgers have won 3 of 4, 5 of 8, and 9 of 14. This is hardly another 8-game losing streak, okay?
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Finally, this, from Buster Olney’s column today:
A rival talent evaluator on Manny Ramirez: “He still is a good technical hitter, and he’s still a dangerous hitter. But he’s not driving the ball anywhere close to what he was doing in the second half of last year. I know the Dodgers would never bench him, but right now, I think they’re a better team with Juan Pierre in the lineup than him, because Pierre at least energizes the team. Manny is a bad outfielder, and if he’s not hitting, you notice that a lot more.”
Sigh. Manny’s still got 200 points of OPS over Pierre this year, and if you want to make the case that much of that is Manny’s pre-suspension hot hitting, well, you’d still be wrong.
Last 28 days
Manny: .830 OPS
Pierre: .716 OPS
So even in the last month, in which Manny’s been admittedly sub-Manny, he’s still got more than 100 points of OPS on Pierre. But wait! Their paths are diverging:
Last 14 days
Manny: .983 OPS
Pierre: .659 OPS
Manny gets hotter, Pierre gets colder. How about the last week?
Last 7 days
Manny: 1.137 OPS
Pierre: .527 OPS
The point isn’t to bash Pierre, because it’s hard to compare anyone favorably to one of the ten best hitters ever. The point is that some people still can’t see the obvious difference in who’s the better performer.
So… we’re going to help them. Let’s put those three groups of numbers on a grid, shall we?
Hey, I know which guy I want playing! It’s… the one that keeps going down, right? I bet he’s ”gritty”. Or at least “a gamer”.
