Larry Mahnken and SG's

 Replacement Level Yankees Weblog

"Hey, it's free!"


The Replacement Level Yankees Weblog has moved!  Our new home is:
http://www.replacementlevel.com
Featuring:
 Larry Mahnken
SG
sjohnny
TVerik
Sean McNally
Fabian McNally
John Brattain
This is an awesome FREE site, where you can win money and gift certificates with no skill involved! If you're bored, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out!


Web
yankeefan.blogspot.com
Donations are gratefully accepted!
Read Larry Mahnken at The Hardball Times!

The New York Yankees Vintage World Series Films DVD Set, available from A&E.
2006 Lineup Toy
BuySellTix.com buys and sells:
Yankees Tickets
World Series Tickets
MLB All Star Tickets
NFL Tickets

Purchase your
New York Yankees tix
as they go for another
AL East
crown in 2006

Onlineseats.com
is your #1 source for MLB tickets,
NY Mets Tickets,
Cubs Tickets,
Yankees Tickets,
Red Sox Tickets,
Giants Tickets,
Astros Tickets,
Angels Tickets,
Phillies Tickets.

Buy all your MLB Tickets,
Mets Tickets,
Orioles Tickets,
Yankees Tickets,
Cardinals Tickets,
Phillies Tickets,
Cubs Tickets,
Red Sox Tickets,
Dodgers Tickets,
from The Ticket Specialists.

Engagement Rings
Laser Keyboard
Brazil Flowers
TickCo.com for premium
New York Yankees Tickets
Boston Red Sox Tickets
Chicago white Sox Tickets
A's Tickets
Angels Tickets
New York Mets Tickets
St Louis Cardinals Tickets
Cubs Tickets
Dodgers Tickets

Atom Feed

RSS Feed

Add the RLYW to My Yahoo!

"I'm not a pessimist, I'm an optimist. Things are really worse than I say they are."
- Steve South
A-Rod Cover Counter

Appearances
5


Magic Numbers
Playoffs --
Division --
Home Field --



DIPS Worksheets!

The Curse Of... Oh, Let's Say, Clay Bellinger:
January 2001 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007
LINKS
Yankees Sites and Columnists
Nomaas.org
General Baseball Sites & Columnists
At Home Plate
Rotoauthority.com
The Book Blog - Playing the Percentages in Baseball(Tango, MGL, Dolphin)
Yankees Blogs
Almost Perfect
Baby Bombers
Baseball Mania
Bronx Banter
Bugs and Cranks
Canyon of Heroes
Dugout News
Eephus Pitch
Here Comes Number 27
High and Tight
Lohud Yankees Blog
No Sense Worrying
Pinstripe Potentials
River Ave. Blues
Soft Hands
The Stat Boy of the Empire
Was Watching
Yankees Chick
Yankees Fans in Foreign Lands
Yanks Blog
Other Team Blogs
Anaheim Angels All the Way
Bucco Blog
San Francisco Giants Blog
Viva El Birdos

Look what people have to say about Larry Mahnken's commentary!

"Larry, can you be any more of a Yankee apologist?.... Just look past your Yankee myopia and try some objectivity."
- Bernal Diaz

"Mr. Mahnken is enlightened."
- cordially, as always,
  rm

"Wow, Larry. You've produced 25% of the comments on this thread and said nothing meaningful. That's impressive, even for you."
- Anonymous

"After reading all your postings and daily weblog...I believe you have truly become the Phil Pepe of this generation. Now this is not necessarily a good thing."
- Repoz

"you blog sucks, it reeds as it was written by the queer son of mike lupica and roids clemens. i could write a better column by letting a monkey fuk a typewriter. i dont need no 181 million dollar team to write a blog fukkk the spankeees"
- yan

"i think his followers have a different sexual preference than most men"
- bob

"Boring and predictable."
- No Guru No Method

"Are you the biggest idiot ever?"
- Randal

"I'm not qualified to write for online media, let alone mainstream media."
- Larry Mahnken 

[Powered by Blogger]
Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com

This site is best viewed with a monitor.

Disclaimer: If you think this is the official website of the New York Yankees, you're an idiot. Go away.


April 30, 2003


Alfonso Soriano - The Exception To The Rule?
by Larry Mahnken

Guys who don't draw walks and strike out a lot usually don't have a very high batting average. This is because a low walk total and high strikeout total are indicative of a overly agressive batter, who swings at everything. Before long, pitchers figure that out and stop throwing them strikes. Either the batter starts to draw walks, or they start to make a lot of outs.

Alfonso Soriano batted .300 last season. So far this season, he's been batting over .370. Many statheads are starting to concede that Soriano is an exception to the rule--a "Freak of Nature" as Aaron Gleeman dubbed him last week. Maybe. Maybe it's still April, too. More importantly, simply saying that Soriano is an exception is not good sabermetrics (Yeah, like I would know what good sabermetrics is--but it's not good science). If the rules don't apply to Soriano, you have to find out why he's different, and maybe that the rules are--*GASP!*--wrong!

Not that I'm saying they are. But then, there's Soriano, hitting in the upper .300's, crushing balls over the wall. Maybe it's the fact that he's facing lesser pitchers, and we should wait until the Yankees are done with Seattle and Oakland to make a judgement, or even until the end of the season. Some have said that it's because he's batting leadoff, and getting better pitches to hit, though that would require discarding another sabermetric theory--that protection doesn't matter.

Here's my crackpot theory. Feel free to disregard it.

It's the bat.

No, it's not corked. Well, probably not. But that's not my point. I think it's too heavy.

See, my theory goes like this. Because of the extra weight of his bat, Soriano needs to start his swing a little earlier, and has less time to recognize a pitch. So, he gets fooled sometimes by the movement of a pitch, and swings through a ball in the strike zone, or a ball that drops out of it. Further, he swings at anything in the strike zone, since, like Vlad Guerrero, he can crush anything in the strike zone. Thus the low walks, thus the high strikeouts without fishing for stuff in the dirt. The way to get Soriano out is not to throw him lousy pitches, but to throw him great pitches. Of course, that's how to get everyone out, which is why Soriano isn't more prone to extended slumps than anyone else.

A lighter bat would probably cut back on his strikeouts with this theory, but not increase his walks. That would take a change of approach. And he really does need to change his approach, because as great as he has been, his value has been limited by the fact that he makes so many outs. An approach at the plate more like Barry Bonds (or at least Jason Giambi, although he's not a good example thus far, what with his slump), would not only lead to more walks, but better pitches to hit. That's a nice thought.

In other news, the Yankees beat the Mariners tonight, but almost blew it in the 8th because they insisted on using Acevedo and Hammond rather than bringing in Mariano Rivera. Yes, I understand that it's Rivera's first game back, so you might not trust him quite as much in a situation with runners on base as you normally would, but this is exactly what Bill James is talking about. You bring in your ace reliever with a four-run lead in the ninth, and leave your lesser relievers to get you out of a bases-loaded jam with a one-run lead in the eighth. How does that make any sense?

In a related story, the Red Sox have blown only one ninth-inning lead this season. The problem with the Sox's pen is the pitchers, not the system.

--posted at 11:52 PM by Larry Mahnken / |