Friday, April 08, 2005
Stat of the Union
I'm no sabermatrician. I read "Moneyball" like everybody else, but it didn't exactly revolutionize my way of thinking or become my lifeforce as it has for so many baseball fans. However, watching the Angels play the past two nights, I couldn't help but think there might be a yet-unknown statistic to better define certain areas of the game.
I give you the CFY. I trust it will become second nature to you eventually, but for now, I will explain. The CFY stands for Completely F_cking Yourself. What constitutes a CFY, you ask? Here's an example...
In the bottom of the 11th inning Wednesday, the Angels found themselves with runners on first and second with no outs. In a home game, with an offense such as this one, this situation should almost always garner a run by some means...but somehow with these Angels, it is when the situation would seem most favorable that they have the toughest time scoring (see Runs scored with 2 outs). What happened? Josh Paul dropped a bunt that had too much juice on it and allowed R.A. Dickey to field it and easily throw Orlando Cabrerra out at third. One out, no runs. Lou Merloni then flied out to left on the first pitch he saw. Was it deep enough to have scored Cabrerra? I guess we'll never know. Two outs, no runs. Next came 9th-inning savior Darin Erstad who grounded out to second. After having two men on, one in scoring position, with no outs, we were left with three outs, and, you guessed it, no runs. The Angels went on to lose the game in the following inning.
Can you see how such a fantastic opportunity squandered so foolishly is not really adequately represented by the simple stat of "left on base?" This is a perfect example of the CFY, when the choke is so great that LOB just doesn't tell the whole story.
The Angels nearly committed another CFY last night in the last inning of a see-saw battle. Once again, they had runners on first and second with no outs. This time, thanks to Garret Anderson, they were able to move the runners over successfully (who knew?!). However, that play was followed by Steve Finley botching what would have been a textbook squeeze play when he pushed a bunt foul. At that point, I got the CFY counter ready. Luckily, as you all know, Finley avoided the CFY with a slap single to win the game.
Since this is a new stat, it's impossible to say with any degree of accuracy where certain individuals or teams stack up in the CFY rankings. However, after seeing the Angels lose many an extra-inning game last year, including one 14-inning masterpiece-of-the-CFY in person, I am pretty confident that my boys are near the top of the leaderboard. I'm sure you can all think of at least one player on your respective teams that is the last guy you want at the plate when all you need is one well-executed play. Regardless of his AVG, RBI, or OPS, you have felt the sting of his CFYs and you would rather see the bat boy take a crack at it.
The CFY, not helping us understand the game; just helping us deal with it. Ask for it wherever good stats are kept.
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I give you the CFY. I trust it will become second nature to you eventually, but for now, I will explain. The CFY stands for Completely F_cking Yourself. What constitutes a CFY, you ask? Here's an example...
In the bottom of the 11th inning Wednesday, the Angels found themselves with runners on first and second with no outs. In a home game, with an offense such as this one, this situation should almost always garner a run by some means...but somehow with these Angels, it is when the situation would seem most favorable that they have the toughest time scoring (see Runs scored with 2 outs). What happened? Josh Paul dropped a bunt that had too much juice on it and allowed R.A. Dickey to field it and easily throw Orlando Cabrerra out at third. One out, no runs. Lou Merloni then flied out to left on the first pitch he saw. Was it deep enough to have scored Cabrerra? I guess we'll never know. Two outs, no runs. Next came 9th-inning savior Darin Erstad who grounded out to second. After having two men on, one in scoring position, with no outs, we were left with three outs, and, you guessed it, no runs. The Angels went on to lose the game in the following inning.
Can you see how such a fantastic opportunity squandered so foolishly is not really adequately represented by the simple stat of "left on base?" This is a perfect example of the CFY, when the choke is so great that LOB just doesn't tell the whole story.
The Angels nearly committed another CFY last night in the last inning of a see-saw battle. Once again, they had runners on first and second with no outs. This time, thanks to Garret Anderson, they were able to move the runners over successfully (who knew?!). However, that play was followed by Steve Finley botching what would have been a textbook squeeze play when he pushed a bunt foul. At that point, I got the CFY counter ready. Luckily, as you all know, Finley avoided the CFY with a slap single to win the game.
Since this is a new stat, it's impossible to say with any degree of accuracy where certain individuals or teams stack up in the CFY rankings. However, after seeing the Angels lose many an extra-inning game last year, including one 14-inning masterpiece-of-the-CFY in person, I am pretty confident that my boys are near the top of the leaderboard. I'm sure you can all think of at least one player on your respective teams that is the last guy you want at the plate when all you need is one well-executed play. Regardless of his AVG, RBI, or OPS, you have felt the sting of his CFYs and you would rather see the bat boy take a crack at it.
The CFY, not helping us understand the game; just helping us deal with it. Ask for it wherever good stats are kept.
# posted by j.h.k. @ 12:20 PM 
