Welcome to the tenth week in our ongoing series recapping the best hitters and pitchers from the previous week. We were so close to two perfect games last week. Three hit batsmen, one walk, and one base hit that was a silly little blooper was all the stopped it from happening. Oh yeah, and some batters hit some balls.
BEST HITTER: Giancarlo Stanton, OF, Marlins
It’s the first time for Miami’s slugging superstar to show up on our feature spot. Looking at his season stats it’s somewhat surprising as he’s been quite good again this year. He’s been striking out more than usual and his BABIP suggests he’s been getting unlucky. Last week he slashed 520/528/1280 (.756 wOBA, 395 wRC+) with 5 home runs.
Honorable Mention: Alex Rodriguez reached 2000 RBI’s on his 666th home run of his career this past week. This of course would be far more notable had the PED suspension not been the real, and unfortunate, highlight of his career.
MLB Leader:
AVG – Miguel Cabrer (.588)
OBP – Miguel Cabrera (.650)
SLG – Giancarlo Stanton (1.280)
wOBA – Giancarlo Stanton (.756)
wRC+ – Giancarlo Stanton ()395
HR – Giancarlo Stanton (5)
SB – Denard Span/Ben Revere (3)
fWAR – Giancarlo Stanton (1.2)
BEST PITCHER: Chris Heston, Giants
Okay look, I’m the first person that will tell you that pitcher wins don’t matter and that walks (or in this case hit batsmen) can be just as important as base hits in the proper context. But I still think no-hitters are cool. Sometimes when we try so hard in one area to do our best to analyze the sport we forget that it’s okay to just enjoy the pure fun of the moment. I compare it to being a bit of a film snob/aficionado and still enjoying the occasional popcorn flick where things blow up for no real reason. Speaking of which, you should totally watch American Ninja. There’s a part where a jeep flips and explodes mid-air for zero reason. It’s amazing. Ahem, but I digress.
On June 10th Giants starter Chris Heston tossed a no-hitter against the Mets (further exasperating their offensive woes). He struck out 11 batters and walked none! He did hit 3 batters though. But whatever. It’s still an impressive feat.
Honorable Mention: The move to the National League seems to agree with Max Scherzer. He’s been really good all season. He did scuffle a bit against the Yankees last week allowing 4 runs in 6.2 innings. But he bounced back in a big way against the Brewers. He nearly no-hit them. The only hit was a blooper to the sweet spot in right field. He also only walked one batter while striking out a whopping 16. So we were one walk and a stupid blooper away from a perfect game. Oh well, maybe next time.
MLB Leaders:
K% – Chris Sale (44.8%)
BB% – 10 players tied (0.0%)
AVG – Scott Kazmir (0.42)
WHIP – Shaun Marcum/Chase Anderson (0.29)
ERA – 16 players tied (0.00)
FIP – Yovani Gallardo (0.67)
xFIP – Yovani Gallardo (1.07)
fWAR – Max Scherzer (0.8)
Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs
