Showing posts with label Ryan Howard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ryan Howard. Show all posts
Ryan Howard Breaks World Series record
The other day I reported that Ryan Howard had 12 strikeouts in the World Series to tie the record for most strikeouts in the fall classic. He was tied with Willie Wilson of Kansas City whom in the 1980 World Series struck out 12 times. Yesterday in game 6 of the World Series he struck out again to strike out for a whopping 13 times in a 6 game World Series. This is impressive to strikeout for over half his at-bats in the World Series because he only has 23 at-bats. Ryan Howard had a terrible World Series overall batting .174 with 1 homerun, 2 doubles, 3 RBI’s, 4 hits, and 2 walks. The 13 Strikeouts is what he will be remembered for though going into the record books. He did strikeout for a 186 times during the regular season.
World Series Milestones approaching
In game 5 of the World Series Chase Utley hit two homeruns. That gives him 5 homeruns so far in this World Series. He is now tied with Reggie Jackson who hit 5 homeruns for the New York Yankees in the 1977 World Series. Utley will have at least one more game to break the record. If the Phillies can win game 6, then he may have another to help his team win the World Series and be the sole record holder of the most homeruns in the World Series which has not been broken for 30 years. He is also the second person with Kansas City's Willie Aikens as the only players who have had multi-homer games in the World Series. I was surprised that there hasn’t been more, and by bigger names.
Utley’s teammate Ryan Howard has been struggling so far in this World Series. He is hitting .158 in 19 at-bats of 5 World Series games so far. He has no homeruns, 2 doubles, three hits, and 12 strikeouts in 19 at-bats. Twelve strikeouts in 19 at-bats is pretty bad and he is also approaching a record for the World Series. Sadly, his record is not of the good type. He is approaching the record for most strikeouts in the World Series. He has tied Willie Wilson of Kansa City in 1980 with 12 strikeouts in the World Series. Howard still has the chance to break the record and be the sole holder of it.
Utley’s teammate Ryan Howard has been struggling so far in this World Series. He is hitting .158 in 19 at-bats of 5 World Series games so far. He has no homeruns, 2 doubles, three hits, and 12 strikeouts in 19 at-bats. Twelve strikeouts in 19 at-bats is pretty bad and he is also approaching a record for the World Series. Sadly, his record is not of the good type. He is approaching the record for most strikeouts in the World Series. He has tied Willie Wilson of Kansa City in 1980 with 12 strikeouts in the World Series. Howard still has the chance to break the record and be the sole holder of it.
Strikeout Problems
There have been many players past and present who have had a difficult time avoiding the strikeout. Bobby Bonds was the first great strikeout artists having seasons of 187 and 189 K's. Sammy Sosa had eclipsed 170 3 times in his career. The record has been broken several times in the past 5 years by Adam Dunn and Ryan Howard who has topped out at 199 twice(so close). Last year Justin Upton found that it is difficult to make contact with major league pitching at the age of 20. In a single month, he managed to strike out 40 times in only 88 at-bats. Personally, i thought it would be very hard to eclipse that K rate over that many at-bats. However, every year brings new players who get into a massive funk and accumulate strikeouts in bunches.
First, Braves rookie Jordan Schafer came close by fanning 37 times in his first 87 at-bats. However, he has slightly improved his contact rate. However, the king of the strikeout this year has been Chris David. After striking out 88 times in 295 at-bats in his partial season last year, he has already strikeout 71 times the first 158 at-bats for a sweat 44% K rate. I'm pretty sure that would be a record. Assuming that he reaches 600 at-bats which is a fair estimation, he would accumulate approximately 250 strikeouts. WOW! Zips projections are being very modest projecting Davis to finish with 195 K's on the season. My experience has shown that players tendto get worse instead of better when it comes to making contact and I'll predict that David does break the record of 199 assuming he reaches 550 at-bats. Adding his low walk rate of 6% makes Davis a scary player to have, not in a good way.
First, Braves rookie Jordan Schafer came close by fanning 37 times in his first 87 at-bats. However, he has slightly improved his contact rate. However, the king of the strikeout this year has been Chris David. After striking out 88 times in 295 at-bats in his partial season last year, he has already strikeout 71 times the first 158 at-bats for a sweat 44% K rate. I'm pretty sure that would be a record. Assuming that he reaches 600 at-bats which is a fair estimation, he would accumulate approximately 250 strikeouts. WOW! Zips projections are being very modest projecting Davis to finish with 195 K's on the season. My experience has shown that players tendto get worse instead of better when it comes to making contact and I'll predict that David does break the record of 199 assuming he reaches 550 at-bats. Adding his low walk rate of 6% makes Davis a scary player to have, not in a good way.
Clutch Factor (Part 2)
Below is an 8 year analysis of 10 player's "Clutch" rating, courtesy of Fangraphs. I've provided a raw, unadjusted 8 year total, a weighted career total (which adjusts the cumulative total to be proportional to PA/Season) and a postseason Clutch cumulative total to bench mark overall performance.
As should be relatively obvious from the data of these notoriously "clutch" players, the ability to be "clutch" from year to year is highly variable. There seems to be little, if any consistency from one-year to the next. Having looked at much data on Fangraphs, I found that across most player's careers, their cumulative weighted Clutch factor oscillated somewhere around 0 -- this, of course, seems to indicate that as a player's sample size of clutch-situation AB's increases, that player's performance numbers in such situations converges to reflect their average career performance.
However, there were several notable exceptions to this trend, a few of which are documented here.
The big name on the list is A-Rod, who over the course of his career has been incredulously unclutch. Throughout his career, his clutch-situation numbers have been consistently lower than his overall performance numbers. There is a clear statistical trend that seems to point to A-Rod being unable, for whatever reason, to perform well in clutch situations. The reason could be anything from simple sample size to simple psychological factors. Regardless of the cause, a trend does exist; you might even say that booing him has some statistical justification.
On the other end of the spectrum are Beltran, Ortiz and Captain Clutch himself, Derek Jeter. Each of these players have accumulated slightly positive clutch numbers over the course of their careers. Each has arguable statistically earned their label as "clutch players", even if it has been a byproduct of situational luck rather than skill.
Speaking of situational luck vs skill, it would seem that the former is most likely the cause of "clutchiness", as most player's weighted cumulative career clutch numbers fail to translate in the post season. Excluding Ryan Howard, of the remaining 9 players listed here, there is much variability between post season play and career averages. If clutchiness was truly a skill rather than a byproduct of situational luck, you would imagine more consistency between the two figures.
(also, Jermaine Dye -- whose numbers I didn't include is this analysis -- has a cumulative career clutch factor of -8.33, almost as bad as A-Rod!)
As should be relatively obvious from the data of these notoriously "clutch" players, the ability to be "clutch" from year to year is highly variable. There seems to be little, if any consistency from one-year to the next. Having looked at much data on Fangraphs, I found that across most player's careers, their cumulative weighted Clutch factor oscillated somewhere around 0 -- this, of course, seems to indicate that as a player's sample size of clutch-situation AB's increases, that player's performance numbers in such situations converges to reflect their average career performance.
However, there were several notable exceptions to this trend, a few of which are documented here.
The big name on the list is A-Rod, who over the course of his career has been incredulously unclutch. Throughout his career, his clutch-situation numbers have been consistently lower than his overall performance numbers. There is a clear statistical trend that seems to point to A-Rod being unable, for whatever reason, to perform well in clutch situations. The reason could be anything from simple sample size to simple psychological factors. Regardless of the cause, a trend does exist; you might even say that booing him has some statistical justification.
On the other end of the spectrum are Beltran, Ortiz and Captain Clutch himself, Derek Jeter. Each of these players have accumulated slightly positive clutch numbers over the course of their careers. Each has arguable statistically earned their label as "clutch players", even if it has been a byproduct of situational luck rather than skill.
Speaking of situational luck vs skill, it would seem that the former is most likely the cause of "clutchiness", as most player's weighted cumulative career clutch numbers fail to translate in the post season. Excluding Ryan Howard, of the remaining 9 players listed here, there is much variability between post season play and career averages. If clutchiness was truly a skill rather than a byproduct of situational luck, you would imagine more consistency between the two figures.
(also, Jermaine Dye -- whose numbers I didn't include is this analysis -- has a cumulative career clutch factor of -8.33, almost as bad as A-Rod!)
