The DH - Where I get NL fans mad at me again

National League fans are adamant, and I get it. We baseball people do not like people messing with our game. Even though replay worked great (IMHO) this past year, many still hate it because it takes away the "charm" of human error. But that human error cost teams World Series titles in the past. NL fans, pitchers batting has got to go. It doesn't cost games, but it sure costs enjoyment.

Let's break this down a bit into numbers. NL pitchers when batting as a group did not have as high an OPS as what is borderline acceptable as an on-base percentage. The group OPS of all NL pitchers last season was .312. OPS combines on-base percentage with slugging percentage. This is a terrible number.

How terrible? The league as a whole had an average OPS of .694. Therefore, collectively, pitchers' offense was 45% as good as league batters as a whole. NL pitchers when batting struck out 36.4% of their plate appearances. Pitchers walked only 3% of the time. And here is the part that gets me the most: Pitchers sacrificed bunted (successfully) 10.2% of their plate appearances.

Let's put some of this in perspective. NL pitchers came to the plate 5,141 times last year. They actually reached base a grand total of 722 times. That works out to an on-base percentage of .140. Let me clarify that point briefly. NL pitchers' official on-base percentage was .156. Why am I getting a different number? Sacrifice bunts.

An OBP and an OPS do not penalize a player for successful sacrifice bunts (or for sac flies for that matter). I have never agreed with this statistical anomaly. Whether a sacrifice is successful or not, the batter made an out. Yes, a runner got to second or third, but an out was still recorded.

Those numbers are bad enough. But there are other consequences. Pitchers having to bat means a greater reliance on pinch hitters. National League pinch hitters put up this unlovely triple slash line in 2014: .210/ .286/.319. That .605 OPS is second to only pitchers in futility among "positions." Their help only brought up the ninth spot in the lineup up to a grand total of a .444 OPS. Pinch hitters struck out 27% of the time. Heck, the pitcher could have done that!

It doesn't stop there.  The eighth place batter in a National League lineup becomes a moot point. The National League had a combined .625 OPS from the eighth spot in the batting order. Compare that with the American League which had a .680 OPS from their eighth position in the batting order.

Oh, and get this: That OPS is deceptive too. With the pitchers batting ninth, the eighth place batter often gets intentionally walked even if it is a weak hitter. The eighth place batters had fifty more intentional walks than any other lineup position, even the big boys in the third spot.

We are not really talking apples to apples here, but the National League scored 561 runs less than the American League in 2014.

If the commissioner is interested in improving offense and is concerned about the current run scoring climate, making the DH universal is a good place to start and is much better than outlawing shifts.

The long-term trends of pitcher batting have shown a gradual decline. Sacrifice bunts are up four percentage points from where they were in the early 1960s. OPS figures have stayed fairly static since 1961, but again, with sacrifice bunts trending up, the OPS is deceptive. The strikeout rate has always been high, but has spiked the last two seasons. The chart below starts with the 1961 season on the left and tracks the percentages to the present as you move right.

This decline makes a lot of sense really. In the old days, a pitcher would bat consistently through high school, college and the minor leagues. Today, most colleges use the DH and if a pitcher is drafted by an American League team, then the pitcher never hits. If that same pitcher gets traded to a National League organization, suddenly he has to hit and it might have been a few years since high school.

Plus, pitchers are much more valued (read "babied") than in the past. Most pitchers are encouraged to protect themselves when batting and not to run at full strength.

The weekly reality of interleague games also puts new wrinkles into the entire argument. National League teams are not constructed to have an offensive player available as the DH and suffers in AL parks. And if you think NL pitchers are terrible at batting, they are all Mike Trout compared to AL pitchers who have to hit in NL parks.

American League pitchers put together this triple slash line when batting last year: .090/.110/.109. In 154 such games, AL pitchers got on base a grand total of 35 times. It is a joke and a travesty to baseball. Making AL pitchers hit is like asking an NFL punter to play one game a year at offensive tackle. AL pitchers have a strikeout rate of over 40% when batting. Pathetic.

If you make the DH the norm for all interleague games, you are punishing NL teams that do not plan roster spots for DH types. So that doesn't make for an easy solution.

I know there is a lot of passion in this area of conversation. I'm sure two of my friends who cover the St. Louis Cardinals are glaring at me as they read this. But times have changed. Tickets cost too much to have to watch a woefully skilled batter being sent up to the plate. Times have also changed in college and in the minor leagues. Pitchers had a chance at the plate sixty years ago. They do not now. It is time to make things universal instead of the two leagues playing with different rules.

National League Manager of the Year

In yesterday's post, I gave you my choice for the American League Manager of the Year. And while there were six viable choices for that award in that league, there are only really four choices in the National League. And as such, I will break things down between those four candidates and make my NL selection. Please keep in mind, like yesterday, there is no clear process for evaluating a manager. There are no stats kept on in-game moves to draw upon. There is no way to measure or understand the value of a manager in the clubhouse or in the dugout. Any selection for this award is strictly subjective. I would not quibble if the final pick went to any of the four on this list.

The four candidates are Don Mattingly, Clint Hurdle, Mike Matheny and Fredi Gonzalez.

It is funny how Don Mattingly went from a terrible manager in the early part of the season to a brilliant one once Puig showed up and Hanley Ramirez got healthy. That only goes to prove that it is the players who win and lose games and not the manager. The fact is that Mattingly was the same guy all season. He stayed the course when things were bad and rode the wave when things were good. You have to give him credit for perseverance. He had some injury trouble all season too.

But I have some reservations. With the run differential, they should have won three less games than they did. But, Mattingly did not come across as strong when there was a backlash against Puig for some of Puig's more misguided adventures. Mattingly seemed more reactionary to that situation than strong. In my mind, Mattingly should have come out strong for Puig saying that Puig was his guy and then worked with him behind the scenes. Instead, Mattingly seemed to get buffeted by the public opinion and pulled Puig in the middle of games and sat him at other times. I just don't think it was handled well. Of course, I could be all wet as I am sitting thousands of miles away.

Mike Matheny is a strong candidate. Not only did he allow the young pitchers to flourish instead of that loyalty crap and sticking with veterans, but he handled each of them really well. He protected them when he should have and let them go when he should have. Plus, his team of coaches really handled the offense well and their approach was magnificent. I don't think that is an accident. The players have to buy in to an approach and that happened here.

I do have one problem with Matheny as a candidate. According to the Pythagorean win-loss statistic, based on the run differential, the Cardinals should have won four more games than they did.

Fredi Gonzalez will never get much love when it comes to this award. Heck, even his own fan base rails against him all the time. Apparently, nobody likes his in-game decisions and the feeling is that his teams win in spite of him and not because of him. I do not know if that is fair or not.

Two things seem to balance out over the course of the season. First, he stuck with Kris Medlen in the rotation despite a rough start to the season. You can perhaps say that he had nobody else. But even so, that was a great decision as Medlen became great in the second half. On the other hand, he stuck with Dan Uggla for far too long and how could Dan Uggla and B.J. Upton have been so bad.

Gonzalez did make a nice move when he shifted Jason Heyward to the lead-off spot. The win streak that happened after that could all be just coincident. The Braves were two games behind their Pythagorean win-loss record. I know I rely on that stat too much, but I do think it matters at least a little.

That brings us to Clint Hurdle. According to (I know, here we go again) the Pythagorean thing, the Pirates should have won 88 games. They won 94. We have not seen that sort of thing since Mike Scioscia's glory years with the Angels. But Hurdle's unbridled enthusiasm kept the Pirates buoyant through the tough times and in the end, crushed the Reds when it mattered.

The Pirates really are not a Cinderella team. Their steps of improvement last year make this year seem like a natural progression. But like my Francona choice in the AL, Clint Hurdles made less work more for the Pirates all season. He handled his bullpen brilliantly and despite a challenged offense, made it work to the tune of 94 wins and came within a disastrous series against the Cardinals of winning the division.

Clint Hurdle is my choice for the NL Manager of the Year. I would not be unhappy if Matheny wins as I think he was excellent as well.

My overall ranking of NL Managers:

1. Clint Hurdle
2. Mike Matheny
3. Don Mattingly
4. Fredi Gonzalez
5. Davey Johnson
6. Terry Collins
7. Bud Black
8. Kirk Gibson
9. Dusty Baker
10. Mike Redmond
11. Ron Roenicke
12. Bruce Bochy
13. Walt Weiss
14. Dale Sveum

I did not count any for Philadelphia because they switched mid-season.

Crowded field for National League MVP

The Most Valuable Player Award is one of the most confusing awards in baseball. The Cy Young Award is easy: Who was the best pitcher in the league? But the MVP is difficult because nobody can agree on who should be considered. The problem comes from the word, "Valuable," stuck in the middle of the award's name. Value based on what? Based on WAR? Based on runs batted in or homers? Does the value have to be to a contending team for it to count? After all, to paraphrase an old general manager, a team finished in last place with a valuable player, it can finish in last place without him. If the award was called the Player of the Year, it would be easier. But it isn't. 2012 gives us a crowded field of MVP contenders, so these questions all come into play.

So who are the contenders? Well, there is Buster Posey, David Wright, Yadier Molina, Ryan Braun, Andrew McCutchen, Chase Headley, Michael Bourn and perhaps Jason Heyward. That is a lot of contenders for the award. And on both stats sites, Fangraphs.com and Baseball-reference.com, several of them are bunched up in those site's WAR valuations. Last year was a little easier as the two contenders were Braun and Matt Kemp. McCutchen was in the conversation too.

How did that race break down since the play of the two players were similar. One led one site in WAR and the other led the competing stat site in WAR. It appears that Braun won because his team was a contender and the Dodgers were not. And personally, that seems fair. The Dodgers were never a factor in any race, whether it be the wild card or the division race. That would have been the case with or without Kemp.

The one problem with this way of thinking is putting so much value upon a player for a team's contending success. A contending team needs so many things to happen in order to contend. It sounds simple to simply say they have to score more runs than they allow on a regular basis. But so much is involved in that equation. The schedule, injuries, the pitching, the defense, "clutch" hitting and to a small degree, the manager and coaching. Even if a player has a monster year, giving him too much credit for that contending team is questionable. If a great player cannot elevate a terrible team, how much does a great player then elevate a good team? Do you see how that is not a correlation and there is a logic conundrum there?

In the course of writing these thoughts out, the feeling that the award has to go to a contending team's player is not in personal jeopardy. The award is not called, the "Most Valuable Player to his Contending Team" Award. In fact, the thinking is now almost reversed itself. Should the award go to a player that brings the most value to his team? That would simply bring the award to the guy with the highest WAR. The trouble with doing that is that the two sites listed rarely agree. Verlander was much more highly rated last year on one site over the other. Gosh this is confusing, especially in light of so many contenders for the award. Fortunately, there are no pitchers close in the NL to the position player's WAR totals, so we can save the debate on whether pitchers should win for another day.

There is another problem to which player is the most valuable to his team concept. When great players dominate bad teams, those bad teams are not going to have much for total team WAR. For example, Mets' batters have accounted for the grand total of 11.5 rWAR. With David Wright's total of 6.4 rWAR, he accounts for 57.1% of his team's WAR. A couple of years ago, the Pirates finished with a negative WAR for the team and McCutchen was at like six by himself. The math on that boggles the mind. This season, the Pirates are a contending team and McCutchen accounts for 46.8% of his team's total batting WAR.

Oh man, we are not getting anywhere are we? This much can be said, rightly or no, public opinion believes that Ryan Braun got away with a technicality on this PED thing. In other words, most people think he was guilty but got off on a forensic snafu. No matter how he fares this season and how much he elevates the Brewers in their last ditch effort to sneak into the wild card mix, he will probably not get the vote this season after winning it last year under what many feel was false pretenses. That is not the personal opinion here. It just states the obvious.

With all the messiness already involved here, the only thing left to do is to assign the award to the player of the year. Who was the best player? One equation this writer would take out would be the part that fielding plays in current WAR evaluations. Fielding metrics are not universally loved and trusted. At least they are not yet. And again, the way the fielding metrics are measured varies from stat site to stat site. So that has to be factored in to some of the valuation methods.

For example, a lot of Michael Bourn's worth is tied up in his fielding. Of his 6.1 fWAR, perhaps as high as two of those wins come as a result of his fielding metrics. Until we can pin this fielding thing more closely to where most people agree they are the bomb, they should not be included in the MVP discussion.

After boiling all this down, the top contenders for this observer are Andrew McCutchen, Ryan Braun and Buster Posey. Not only are all three at the top of the WAR leaderboards, but all three are the only NL players above .400 in wOBA and above 160 in wRC+. If the season ended today, the pick would be Ryan Braun.

Is Pinch Hitting worth it?

As a baseball writer and a baseball Fan, box scores are a major source of entertainment. And a lot of baseball games and highlights are watched with avid interest. Like many writers who slowly are indoctrinated with the new truths about baseball such as sacrifice bunting stinks and there are no such things as productive outs, these truths call in to question a lot of what is culled over each day. So a thought occurred the other day after watching Brandon Allen pinch hit for the Tampa Bay Rays. He struck out on three pitches. Yes, he hit a walk-off, pinch hit homer a few games before, but isn't that more of a fluke than the norm? To answer that question, six hours were spent compiling pinch hitting statistics yesterday. The trouble with that is the abject fear that there isn't enough talent or smarts sitting in this chair to interpret them correctly. But here are some conclusions about pinch hitting the work seems to indicate.

First, pinch hitting makes sense in the National League. Of course in the senior circuit, they cutely hold on to the notion that pitchers should hit. While watching every pitcher bunt with a man on base or else strikeout may be the cup of tea to some, it is imminently boring on this end of the observation deck. Pitchers this season have the amazingly low OPS of .300 while batting. This follows last season when those same humans batted to an OPS of .357. So yes, in the National League, pinch hitting a pony league player would be an improvement on a pitcher hitting. Last year, National League pinch hitters had an OPS of .603. While that is still in the dungeon range of production, it is certainly better than pitchers.

But what of the American League that has had the DH since 1973? Does pinch hitting seem worth it when there are no pitchers to hit for? The conclusions here are no, it does not seem worth it. For just one example, a pinch hitter is usually sent to the plate to pinch hit for a lefty batter facing a lefty pitcher. Such a lefty to lefty split last season added up to a .656 OPS. Yes, that's not very good. But pinch hitters in the American League last season had an OPS of .618. That is worse, isn't it? Of course, the missing piece of the puzzle here is what happens in subsequent at bats and this writer doesn't have that data, so that is a hole in the logic for sure. But at least in the initial at bat, pinch hitting doesn't work.

By nature, a guy is a bench player or a role player and thus, a pinch hitter, because he's not good enough to play every day. Wouldn't that be a fair statement? And yet managers "play the percentages" and pinch hit for match ups that seem to backfire. A spreadsheet was created that compared pinch hitting in the majors, NL and AL since 1961 and compared those numbers to each of those entities' OPS average. In every one of those seasons, pinch hitting has an OPS below the league average OPS. Some years it came close, but it hasn't for years.

And there might be a reason for that. Teams are keeping more pitchers on their 25-man rosters now. The specialization of relief pitching has made it so managers need plenty of options. Since only four or so bench players are now the norm and a catcher has to be one of them, there are only a pool of three or so bench players to form the pool of pinch hitters. Most of those bench players are filled by versatility these days rather than offensive ability. And pinch hitting has lagged way behind league OPS averages. Hopefully it was done right since Google Docs are new here. But here is a link to the spreadsheet created.

Look at Column K. American League pinch hitting is over a hundred points lower in OPS than that league's average for seven of the last eight seasons. That looks like an epic fail to these eyes. Corrections are certainly welcomed.

Even worse is pinch hitting for designated hitters. Again, the hole here is what happens in subsequent at bats. But at least in the initial pinch hitting experience, is it not amazing that pinch hitters batting for the designated hitter last season had an OPS of .411 last season? The numbers go up and down, but they have been historically bad on average since 2005. For those of you who like charts to show such things, here it is:

2012 may be a record year according to the data collected for the National League. Not counting yesterday's games, National League pinch hitters had a collective OPS of .711. The National League's overall OPS is .702. If this were to continue for the entire season, it would be the first time in the 51 years studied that pinch hitting OPS in a league outperformed that league's OPS. That would be amazing. We'll see where it ends up after the season.

So in conclusion, pinch hitting for pitchers makes sense. Pitchers cannot hit in general and even lowly pinch hitting OPS is far better even though pretty paltry (except for this season). But pinch hitting in the American League makes little sense and pinch hitting for designated hitters makes even less sense. Here is one more chart to show the American League OPS plus or minus for pinch hitters to MLB OPS over the years. Your comments are most welcome.

The National League and the DH

There isn't a more passionate topic for fans of National League baseball than the fact that in the National League, the pitchers hit when the American League has the DH. For those fans of National League baseball, it's akin to a right of passage. It's a mark of heroism. This writer has to admit to growing up watching American League baseball. As such, the entire notion seems quaint and antiquated. But there is fear and trembling in writing this post because of the passion National League fans have of their purity. Purity is good in a world that is diluted with preservatives. But is it entertaining?

That's the point this writer comes back to over and over. Pitchers hitting is an exercise in failure. National League pitchers have a combined hitting line of: .142/.177/.182. And it's worse than even that sounds. Not including last night's games, pitchers have had a combined 4,406 at bats and have struck out 1,679 times. That's a whopping 38 percent strikeout rate. That makes Mark Reynolds and Adam Dunn look like contact hitters. Pitchers have sacrificed bunted 10.8 percent of their 5,159 plate appearances. If you add the strikeouts to the sacrifice bunts, that means that 2,238 plate appearances out of the 5,159 total result in either a strikeout or a bunt. No matter how hard you argue, you can't convince this writer this is entertaining. We all enjoy watching Matt Garza, Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay pitch. But all three have struck out more than 30 times in less than 70 at bats. That's no fun.

The last time a starting pitcher walked more than fifteen times in a season was Vida Blue for the Giants way back in 1978. He hit .076 that season. The last starting pitcher to walk more than twenty times in a  season was Mickey Lolich in 1972. He batted .067. Walks aren't part of the pitching equation. Only 3.4 percent of the 5,159 plate appearances by pitchers have resulted in a walk. Only Vladimir Guerrero and Yuniesky Betancourt have a lower walk rate among batters who qualify for the batting title. Heck, even Darwin Barney walks more often than pitchers do. Instead, the walks go to the eighth place in the batting order (the position in front of the pitcher). Eighth place batters have been intentionally walked 166 times this season, the most of any batting order position. What fun is that?

And what happens if pitchers do get on base? They don't score. Batters who aren't pitchers by position score on average in a range from 42 percent (catchers) to 56 percent (center fielders) of their total hits. The pitcher only scores 38 percent of the time they get hits. Pitchers have by far the lowest BABIP of all positions. That means that only 22.2 percent of the balls pitchers put in play will fall in for a hit.

Pitchers hitting has other ramifications. To start a game, the manager puts his eight best position players on the field or at least the eight the manager feels gives him the most chance to win the game. If the manager makes a pitching change, we get the double switch, which means that one of those players will be replaced. Why? To hide the pitcher's batting spot to a batting order position that recently made out the inning before. How is losing one of your best eight players a good thing?

Then we have pinch hitters. If a team needs a run or has a rally going and the pitcher is due up to hit, the manager has to decide if he wants to lose his starting pitcher for the sake of a better chance to score. If the manager does decide to remove the starting pitcher (or any pitcher in the game for that matter) he really doesn't get that much of a bump in production. All pinch hitters this season in the NL have a combined slash hitting line of: .215/.292/.314 with a combined strikeout percentage of 24.9 percent.  Thrilling isn't it? 

Not using a DH gives the National League teams a disadvantage in interleague games and in the post season. American League designated hitters have a combined OPS of .773. When the NL has used the DH in interleague games this season, they had a combined OPS of .657. That's a huge difference. The DHs in the World Series last October went one for twelve in the post season though Aubrey Huff did have that one hit with a dramatic homer.

This writer loves low-scoring, crisply played games. They are exciting and dramatic. But having a pitcher hit is about as anti-climatic as it gets in baseball. Sure a Ross Ohlendorf will hit a homer in odd games like he did last night. Sure some teams will have a slight advantage because their pitchers can hit better than the other team's (the Brewers come to mind). Sure it's interesting that Livan Hernandez struck out only twice all season. But generally speaking, pitchers batting is a drag on the entertainment value of Major League Baseball. It would be the equivalent to having the placekicker play quarterback for a few plays a game. Perhaps that placekicker may complete a pass in ten attempts, but wouldn't you rather have a real quarterback back there?

A pitcher will succeed at the plate 177 times in 1,000 plate appearances. He will bunt in another 108 of those 1,000 plate appearances. Most now know that bunts lower the probability of scoring and not the opposite. It's a no win proposition. And while knowing that you NL fans will crucify this post, this is just one guy's opinion. The National League should adopt the DH. It's time.

16 NL Teams - 16 Fascinating April Stories

The first month of the season has been put in the book and each team has a story to tell. Whether they are playing well or poorly, each team has a narrative worth telling. That's why we love baseball. The narrative may change next month. April's trends could be all but forgotten by the end of May. Sample size certainly has a role in many of these stories. But, let's review April with one quick story from each team in MLB.

The Philadelphia Phillies: Like most of the teams we will survey, there are lots of things to talk about with the Phillies. The front four of the rotation received much hype before the season and it's fascinating to see how that will all work out. The results thus far are solid with only Halladay showing continued brilliance. Rollins and Victorino have begun the season in bounce back fashion. Raul Ibanez isn't hitting at all. Lidge has not pitched and the bullpen has held its own. But the most fascinating story thus far for the Phillies has been the play of Ben Francisco and John Mayberry. Francisco has a 115 OPS+ in 107 plate appearances and Mayberry has a .946 OPS in 36 plate appearances. The two combined have more than offset any loss of Domenic Brown and Jayson Werth while providing solid fielding. Their success has helped keep the Phillies on top.

Florida Marlins: Their overall April record is fascinating enough. Josh Johnson was already known as one of the great pitchers in the National League. The slow start of Hanley Ramirez is interesting. The fact that Bonifacio has fooled his manager for another month is interesting. Logan Morrison was a great story until he got hurt. Chris Coghlan has been surprisingly adequate in center and solid at the plate. Gaby Sanchez is having a good year. Stanton has had moments. But the most interesting story so far for the Marlins has been the pitching of Ricky Nolasco. He's had five solid starts, is only walking 1.1 batters per nine innings and his emergence has given the Marlins a great one-two punch in the rotation.

Atlanta Braves: Chipper has come back with a solid season. Heyward has hit seven bombs and has a 140 OPS+. Uggla and Freeman have had slow starts. The Braves record is fascinating in its disappointment considering the rotation has been solid. It's no surprise that Brian McCann has been fantastic. The biggest story from this perspective has been the pitching of Brian Beachy. The rookie has only two decisions in his six starts including a win and a loss, but his peripherals are fantastic with a WHIP of 0.991 and a strikeout to walk ration of 3.60. He's been terrific.

Washington Nationals: The loss of Ryan Zimmerman has been devastating on the offense and seven of the starting line up are well under 100 in OPS+ (eight when Ivan Rodriguez starts). Only Jayson Werth is above 100. Jordan Zimmermann has shown flashes of being good and is throwing strikes. Livan is Livan. The most fascinating story thus far for the Nationals has been the play of catcher, Wilson Ramos. Wouldn't the Twins love to have HIM back. Ramos has been so good that he has dashed I-Rod's hopes of having another year as the number one catcher. Plus, Ramos has thrown out 44% of base steal attempts and has played solidly behind the plate. It's early, but he's been the best story for the Nats.

New York Mets: The Mets have a lot of interesting stories and they are not all bad. Several of their players are having solid seasons including Carlos Beltran as this Fan predicted before the season. Reyes is playing really well. Chris Young is pitching well. The return of Jason Isringhausen has been interesting. But the big story for the Fan is Ike Davis. Since his story was just chronicled in the last day or so, we'll let you go read that post for more. Suffice it to say he's really broken out as a star (thus far).

St. Louis Cardinals: So many great stories! The failure of the bullpen early on has led to six blown saves. Can you imagine what their record would be as they are still 16-11! Kyle McClellan has been great as Adam Wainwright's replacement. Kyle Lohse has been fantastic, but that is no surprise to @throatwarbler who predicted as such. The struggles of Chris Carpenter is fascinating for the wrong reasons. But the real story for the Cardinals is their offense. They lead the league in just about every category and Albert Pujols hasn't even gotten going yet. Berkman, Holliday, Theriot and Colby Rasmus have led the Cardinals to a hitting rampage.

Cincinnati Reds: That the Reds finished above .500 and within striking distance of the Cards is fascinating because they really haven't played well at times. Joey Votto has continued his MVP season of a year ago. Scott Rolen got hurt. Bronson Arroyo is a fascinating study as a starting pitcher (check out his K/BB ratio!) but the best story thus far has been the play of Brandon Phillips. We all knew he was a good player, but thus far, he's been a superstar with a slash line of: .355/.413/.527.  Phillips has already scored 21 runs and has an OPS+ of 157.

Milwaukee Brewers: The Brewers are still in the NL Central mix despite problems for Yovani Gallardo and the bullpen. The offense is second to the Cardinals in most categories. Shaun Marcum has been everything they hoped he would be. Greinke will be back this week and his loss for April is a story to tell. But the most fascinating story has to be Ryan Braun. We all knew he was good. But in the words of TCM, he's been crazy good. He has easily been the best player in baseball for April. You can't have a more fascinating story than that.

Chicago Cubs: Soriano has ten homers already. The bullpen has been solid despite leading the world in walks. Carlos Pena has been fascinatingly bad as has Tyler Colvin. Matt Garza has been fantastic, but fantastically unlucky. Zambrano has held his own. Fukodome has a .383 batting average and a .486 OBP, but 22 of his 23 hits have been singles. Starlin Castro has been very good (great even) on offense and a challenge in the field. Darwin Barney has been a major surprise and would normally be the most fascinating story. But that honor has to go in dubious terms to Ryan Dempster. Dempster has been so bad that it's painful. He struggled at the end of 2010 too and the interesting thing will be to see if he can dig himself out or if the Cubs pull the plug. You have to wonder if there is something physically wrong with him.

Pittsburgh Pirates: The Pirates have nearly the same record as the cubs, but while that is bad news for the Cubs, that is good news for the Pirates. They have seldom been pushovers this year and all you can ask as they rebuild is that they play competitive baseball. Mission accomplished so far. Kevin Correia and Charlie Morton have winning records and good ERAs but are only striking out 4.0 and 4.6 batters per nine innings thus far. The young Neil Walker continues to look like a star. Other young players like McCutchen, Tabata and Alvarez haven't really gotten going yet, nor has Lyle Overbay, who should have a good season. The most fascinating story thus far has been the bullpen tandem of Joel Hanrahan and Chris Resop. The two have been dominating with Resop even outshining the closer. That one-two punch in the bullpen keeps them in a lot of games and when they have the lead, they keep it.

Houston Astros: Wandy Rodriguez had a good start yesterday, which may signal the end of his early season struggles. He really is one of the best pitchers nobody knows about. Brett Myers and Bud Norris have been solid. Hunter Pence has been very good if not great yet. Carlos Lee and Chris Johnson have started off very poorly which is more surprising for Johnson than Lee. Michael Bourn is a good center fielder. But he's not going to blow you away. Their catchers have been very good offensively (collectively). So far, Bill Hall hasn't been much help. The most fascinating story thus far has been Brett Wallace, who has really broken out nicely. His .988 OPS is spectacular in a poor scoring environment. He has only hit one homer thus far, but has nine doubles and a triple. It will be interesting to see how Wallace fares the rest of the season.

Colorado Rockies: The Rockies have built a nice separation thus far in the NL West. And they've done so without contribution from Ubaldo Jiminez. That's fascinating. Troy Tulowitzki is poised for an MVP run. CarGo has started slowly. Todd Helton has had an encouraging start. Jonathan Herrera's batting average is starting to fall after a really hot start, but his patience at the plate has been outstanding with 15 walks already. Third base has been fascinating for all the wrong reasons as Jose Lopez and Ian Steward have been abominable. The bullpen has been outstanding. Street has ten saves already! But the real story thus far for the Rockies has been Jhoulys Chacin and Jorge De La Rosa. They are 7-2 between them, both have ERAs under three and have been rock solid for the Rockies. You would expect the Rockies to hit but they've started somewhat slowly. The Fan said early in the season that they had to pitch well. Mission accomplished so far.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Plenty of story lines. It was Matt Kemp early, but nobody can dispute that Ethier has been the real story with hits in 26 games in a row. His heroics have finally pushed some of the ownership story to the second page.

San Francisco Giants: The Giants big story unfortunately just ended with an injury that will cost Pablo Sandoval six weeks of his season. That's really a shame because he was raking. Buster Posey is off to a pedestrian start. The same can be said of Cain and Lincecum despite brilliant moments. Brian Wilson still has eight saves after a brutal start. Pat Burrell has five homers but only eight RBIs. Sanchez is still great. If only he could pound the strike zone more regularly. If one were to have to pick the best story for the Giants thus far, it would be the pitching of Guillermo Mota. He's been lights out with a very high strikeout rate and a minuscule walk rate. He's been a real lifesaver for the Giants, who were extremely lucky to break even for the month of April.

Arizona Diamondbacks: The D-backs have played much better than last year. The Fan heard one commentator say that they were the forgotten team, and that is right. You hardly ever hear about them. Their offense has been very good and only one regular (Kelly Johnson and he should rebound) under 100 in OPS+. Ian Kennedy has been very good in the rotation. The rest of the rotation has really struggled but Galarraga, Enright and Hudson all had decent starts their last times out. The bullpen has been solid except for the one meltdown of Putz yesterday. But the real story? The most fascinating story for the D-backs has been Ryan Roberts. Roberts has been fabulous with a 1.007 OPS with 15 RBI in just 20 games. His 168 OPS+ leads the team. Right behind Roberts is Stephen Drew who is making this Fan's prediction of a breakout season look very good right now.

San Diego Padres: The biggest story for the Padres has to be their offense. They are last or next to last in every major offensive category. Only Nick Hundley is having a good season. Tim Stauffer, Aaron Harang, Dustin Moseley and Clayton Richard have been a solid rotation with only Matt Latos struggling. Moseley is certainly a fascinating story. But you can't have any narrative about the Padres without including their offense or lack of it as the leading point of interest thus far.

Early MVP leaders: Joey Votto, Matt Kemp, Ethier, Lance Berkman and Ryan Braun.
Early Cy Young candidates: Roy Halladay, Josh Johnson.

The Best Race in Major League Baseball

What is currently the best race in Major League Baseball? You might say the American League East, where four teams are within six games of first place Boston. You might say the National League East where the Phillies have a full four game lead over the Mets with the Braves hanging around too. You might say the National League Central where the Brewers, Cardinals, Reds and Cubs are all in it. Or you might say the American League West where the Rangers have the Angels to contend with. But the Fan doesn't think any of those is the best race right now. The best race currently is the race for the National League Wildcard.

The Dodgers seem to have the National League West well in hand and the American League Wildcard will most likely come from whoever finishes second in the AL East. But the NL Wildcard has gotten very interesting. With roughly a hundred games left to go, there are four teams within two games of the lead and a staggering eleven teams within four and a half games of the lead.

The Cardinals and the Giants (surprise!) are the co-leaders. The Mets are a half a game back. The Reds are a game back. The Cubs and the Braves are two games back. The Marlins and the Rockies (with their stunning turnaround) are three and a half back. The Padres are four back. And the Astros and the Pirates are four and a half back. So if you are keeping score, all of the teams in the NL Central are in the hunt, three teams in the NL West and three teams in the NL East.

This has to be exciting for the executives of Major League Baseball as it means that all of these franchises have good reason to keep striving. Which gives all of those teams full reasons for their fans to be active and interested. Perfect. But it also may mean a franchise or two that is looking to slim down and jettison an expensive player or two can't really do it or the fans will have a cow. Heck, even the Diamondbacks are only six games off the Wildcard pace.

The race also seems to show that the National League is really about parity right now. Only the Nationals have no shot at all and only the Dodgers seem to be a lock. Beside probably the Dodgers, none of the teams are all that great. The Cubs seem dysfunctional and continue to bat Soriano in the leadoff spot (inexplicably!). The Mets don't have enough starting pitching. The same goes for the Cardinals. All of the teams have holes and that means that this could stay interesting for a very long time.

Why It's So Hard to Like National League Baseball - Part 2

There were eight games played in the National League Sunday. In those eight games, 79 pitchers were used. That's only one pitcher away from ten per game. Over in the American League, there were 55 pitchers used in seven games.

In fairness, there were three extra inning games Sunday in the National League, but the longest was eleven innings. Not exactly extra long contests.

Tony LaRussa was again a big player in all this. The Cardinals won a ten inning game today against the Reds to salvage one game in the series. LaRussa used eight pitchers. Eight! And a ninth pitcher was called on to pinch hit (Wellemeyer and he struck out).

The first position of the Cardinals' batting order started with Schumaker. He was Sunday's designated guy for the old "double-switch." That's where a new pitcher is brought in during an inning and a position player is also replaced to favorably allow more at bats before the pitcher's spot in the order has to come up again. Anyway, Schumaker's spot in the batting order featured ten players by the end of the game. Ten!

Think about that. That's ten players a box score enthusiast has to read through before you even get to the second guy on the batting order. And that's twelve guys to sift through just to figure out what Pujols did for the day. Can you imagine what those fans' scorecards looked like?

Oh, and it's not all bad. Micah Owings pinch hit for the Reds in the bottom of the ninth and hit a homer to tie the game and send it into extra innings. How cool is that?