Very quietly, Cliff Lee has had one of the most dominant months put forward by a pitcher in the last several decades. In fact, you can’t do much better than Lee did this month. The Philadelphia left-hander went 5-0 in June, allowing only one earned run the entire month and pitching three consecutive shutouts. Can he reach Orel Hershiser’s record for consecutive scoreless innings, and can anyone stop the Phillies? Also, we’ll take a brief trip to the broadcast booth and find out our roundtable’s thoughts on baseball announcers.
Strike 1: Cliff Lee is over halfway to Orel Hershiser’s consecutive scoreless innings streak, sitting at 32 IP at the moment. What do you rate his chances of breaking the record?
Daniel Moroz: Of course he has a chance, but it’s really unlikely. It doesn’t really work this way, but Lee has given up runs in (by my quick count) 23 or so innings this year, out of 113 total. So ~80% of his innings are scoreless. He needs 28 more scoreless, and 0.80 ^ 26 is about equal to 0.2%. So yeah… I wouldn’t bet on it.
Joe Lucia: If anyone can do it, it’s Lee. But based on that home park, I don’t think he will. He’ll get a little too sloppy one day, and allow a shot over the fence. But he has the type of control that keeps him out of trouble, and could easily put together another couple stellar games in a row.
Pat Lackey: Breaking Hershiser’s record is going to take as much luck as it’ll take skill. Lee’s obviously the type of guy that could combine the two, but a scoreless inning streak is kind of like a hitting streak. 32 innings is awfully impressive, but it certainly doesn’t mean that 32 more are coming.
Garrett Wilson: He always has a chance, but I wouldn’t bet on it. There is no question that Lee has the talent to pull it off, but what I actually think will really spoil any chance of him breaking the record is the All-Star break. Pitchers are all about routine and getting that extended break (and likely a brief appearance in the All-Star Game) could totally throw Lee out of his rhythm should he still have the streak alive by then.
Strike 2: Staying in Philly, with the Phils having the best record in baseball and their dominant pitching staff, can anyone in the National League compete with them?
Pat: The Phillies’ pitching staff is awesome, but I’m still less than impressed with their offense. Of their regulars, only Shane Victorino, Ryan Howard, and Chase Utley have an OPS+ of over 100. They’ve scored fewer runs than the average National League team thus far in 2011. They’ll certainly make the playoffs and they’ll probably win the NL East, but any team that can run three good starters out in a row (as the Giants, the Brewers, and the Braves — three teams that would be in the NL playoffs with the Phillies if the playoffs started today — can all do) is going to have a chance against them in a short series. I’ll stick with what I’ve been saying since the season started: the Phillies are a very good team, but they’re still far from a slam dunk to win anything besides a playoff spot this year.
Garrett: Their playoff spot is pretty much a lock at this point, but that is as far as I am willing to go. Yes, they are the prohibitive favorite to win the NL pennant, but we said all the same things last year and they got upset by the Giants. My basic point is that the Phillies are formidable over the long haul of the regular season, but when you shorten down to a five or seven-game series, a lot can happen, no matter how much talent you have.
Daniel: The Braves, Brewers, Cardinals (when healthy), and Reds are all pretty good, and can give the Phillies a run for their money. But that rotation really makes it tough to actually beat them.
Joe: If the Braves start hitting, they can put up a challenge. Dan Uggla and Jason Heyward have struggled all year, and if they get going and the Braves put runs on the board, they can definitely challenge for supremacy in the NL East. Here’s some food for thought: the Braves have the third best record in baseball, and are 4.5 games out. It’s madness.
Strike 3: Bobby Valentine has been receiving rough reviews in the new Sunday Night booth. On that subject, who is your most and least favorite baseball announcer?
Joe: My favorite baseball announcers were the no longer active team of Pete Van Wieren and Skip Caray. They combined humor and information quite well, and I feel like a part of my childhood died when Skip passed in 2008. Considering active announcers, I really like Jon Sciambi of ESPN. He’s humorous and knows his information quite well, and makes the game an enjoyable experience. As for least favorite announcers, there are so many. Brian Jordan of the Braves, Garry Matthews of the Phillies, and Joe Buck of FOX make my ears bleed.
Pat: Since I’ve started blogging and digging a bit deeper into baseball stats (which is a while … six years now), I’ve realized that baseball broadcasts are in no way directed at me. Almost every baseball broadcast focuses on RBIs and pitcher wins and losses and a ton of things I don’t care about. At most these days I use the TV announcers as a radio feed if I’m working on something else. Most of the time, I barely pay attention to announcers, no matter who’s feed I’m watching.
Daniel: I don’t pay that much attention to broadcasters usual – the mute button is handy. Most and least favorite might be (have been) Joe Morgan, depending on what he’s talking. Sometimes – rarely – he provides really great insight. And sometimes what he’s saying is so dumb it’s actually entertaining. The majority of the in between time is pretty awful though. Locally, Jim Palmer’s honest, no nonsense approach is often amusing.
Garrett: My favorite announcer is Vin Scully. What he does is truly amazing. He works solo and never has even a millisecond of dead air. Everything he says just flows so smoothly and is phrased so well, that even when he says something archaic or even wrong, it still rings with sage-like wisdom. If you haven’t signed the online petition to get FOX to let Scully announce one game of this year’s World Series, you have no soul. My least favorite is the anti-Scully, Tim McCarver, who ironically is going to be announcing the World Series. McCarver is so bad it legitimately makes me angry. I’m pretty sure I lose IQ points every time I listen to him call a game, which is why I usually pound the mute button whenever he is on. It amazes me that FOX refuses to get rid of him, especially since their excuse is that he is “relatable” for people who are casual baseball fans, which is a nice way of saying that stupid people like him because every thing he says is of the “See Spot run” form of sentence construction.
