How Good was Halladay?

The playoffs supposedly started yesterday.  One of the games was the Reds visiting the Phillies.  A lot of the talk prior to the game revolved around how pitcher Roy Halladay would fare in his playoff debut.  We see it all the time, a star pitcher who has never been in the playoffs before then throws a mediocre game his first time out.  Fairly, or unfairly, he gets labeled by that appearance until he has about 10 more games to turn it around.


Halladay..... well, he fared pretty well in his playoff debut.... by throwing just the second post-season no-hitter in history.  Touche, Year of the Pitcher, touche.


However, after the game, Reds SS Orlando Cabrera said, "Another umpire, he [Halladay] wouldn’t have thrown a game like that,” Cabrera said. “He was getting every pitch. We had no chance. We had to swing."  


I know a lot of people think things like that during the game, especially if you go  0-3 with a strikeout.  However, Brooks Baseball has a pretty neat little graphic displaying pitch location, and for Halladay's debut, it looks a little like this:

Now, I know that it's a little difficult to see, but let me just tell you what the chart says.  Basically, its says that Orlando Cabrera is a whiner with no factual basis for his comments, or, as teammate Brandon Phillips may say.... well, we won't go there.


There is exactly one called strike that was located outside of the strike zone.  In fact, there were four pitches inside the strike zone that were not called strikes.  There are several pitches outside of the strike zone that were swinging strikes, but the Reds have nobody but themselves to blame for that.


Big congratulations goes out to Halladay for following in the footsteps of Don Larsen, the only other person to throw a post-season no-no (and his was the perfect game in the '56 World Series).  And just to point out something, an NL Central team still has not won a post-season game since Game 5 of the 2006 World Series when the Cardinals ended it against the Tigers.

The Sluggers Strike Back

Sluggers throughout baseball, pissed that everyone keeps referring to this season as the "Year of the Pitcher," took some might hacks at that image on Wednesday night.  Across baseball, a season high of 46 balls left the park in fair territory and one more was legged out just for good measure.

Paul Bunyan Adam Dunn led the charge with three round-trippers against the Padres, while Matt Holliday, Buster Posey, Martin Prado and Casey Kotchmann all pitched in with a pair.  Blue Jay Jose Bautista, bored with just jogging around the bases, decided to add an in-the-park dinger to his league leading total.

Take that mainstream media!

Year of the Pitcher?

Many across the media are referring to 2010 as the Year of the Pitcher, but is there enough evidence to support this overly optimistic view on the 2010 pitching season?

Consider the facts:

• 2 perfect games
• 1 "should've been" perfect game
• 2 no-hitters
• 21 starters with ERA under 3.00
• 9 starters with ERA under 2.50
• 6 starters with winning % over .800

It certainly would appear that starters are having a pretty good year so far.  However, is it enough to qualify 2010 as the Year of the Pitcher?  I would submit "No," as my answer.

Consider this:

Josh Hamilton, OF for the Texas Rangers, is currently hitting .470 for the month of June.  He is in the midst of a 21-game hitting streak.  During which he has 41 hits, 9 HR, 28 RBI, 20 R.  His batting average has gone up 55 points, and he has a .495 on-base percentage and .850 slugging percentage for the month.

BOOM!  My one, small-sample-size example just blew you out of the water, mainstream media!  I just sunk your Battleship!!!