Blog Archives
The Surprising Leader in (road) Home Runs
The Washington Nationals have hit the third most home-runs among NL teams. Atlanta Braves batters lead the league and have hit 15 more taters than the Nats. There is an interesting twist taking place this year as Davey Johnson‘s team has more HR’s than any other team in the senior circuit when playing away from their home park. Washington’s 87 road HR’s are four more than the Braves have hit away from Atlanta.
Here are the home/road splits for all NL teams this season:
Home – 37 AB/HR
Road – 39 AB/HR
Not surprisingly home teams tend to hit for a little more power than the visiting clubs.
Now here are the same splits for the Nats:
Home – 36 AB/HR
Road – 30 AB/HR
Washington bucks the trend and hits for significantly more power away from Nationals Park. Who is responsible for this deviation? Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.
Besides Zimmerman being on a tear over the last month (9 home-runs in his last 11 games alone) he has also been on fire when he gets away from his home park. This is a new trend for Zimmerman. Coming into 2013 he had hit 77 career HR’s at home and 76 on the road. This year he has hit 19 of his 24 bombs away from home.
Finally, you will never guess who leads the NL in home-runs hit away from home. It’s not Pedro Alvarez or Paul Goldschmidt, the only two guys with 30 bombs overall this year in the NL. The Nationals Ryan Zimmerman’s nineteen road taters has been unsurpassed in 2013.
Nationals Top Reliever, Good & Lucky This Year
Tyler Clippard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Overall, I really like Washington Nationals reliever Tyler Clippard. He has shown good stuff ever since he was forced to make six starts for the playoff bound 2007 Yankees as a 22-year old. The Joe Torre led Yanks won 5 of his 6 starts by the way.
What caught my eye today about Clippard is his Hits Allowed/Balls in Play (aka BAbip). Over the last five years his K rate has been very steady between 10-11 SO/9 but his HA/BiP has jumped all over the place.
Clippard and the Nats have been lucky (or their defense good) this year. His Hits/BiP dropped from 26% in 2012 to just 19% so far in ’13. See his annual chart below:
NL Starting Pitcher 2nd half #AllStar
Jordan Zimmerman‘s two seasons in one:
17 starts to begin 2012: 16% K Rate, 50% GB
final 14 starts: 23% K rate, 35% GB
I will take the strikeouts as they are probably part of a more established trend.
The Nats should be freakin’ fun in 2013!
Catcher Interference 