Bits ‘n Bytes

I think it was some months ago now when I pointed out (in a comment right here on Firebrand) that the offseason renovations made to Fenway Park, including the removal of the glass that used to enclose The .406 Club, have clearly altered the wind patterns of the ancient ballpark, despite the many preseason assertions to the contrary by the BrainTrust. At the time, I believe Ye Olde Ballpark was the hardest ballpark in baseball in which to hit a homerun. Well, I’m sure you’ll all be very interested to know that not much has changed since then. AT&T Park in San Francisco, formerly SBC Park, formerly PacBell Park, formerly Other Generic Corporate Nomenclature Park, has surpassed Fenway Park for the title of “most difficult ballpark in which to hit a homerun in 2006,” but basically it was an insanely hard thing to do to pop a homerun out of Fenway this year. Coincidence? I think not. No, seriously, click that last link, look at the numbers. AT&T was freaking Death Valley compared to the rest of the league including Fenway, and Fenway was the Grand Canyon. No other stadium even came close to those two.

I bring this up … well, partly I bring it up because I found it, and I want my props for that. But partly, I bring this up because, as you might have heard by now, a certain David Ortiz led the league in homeruns this year, setting a new club record in the process. For the record, I’d like to point out that Jimmie Foxx, while a tremendous hitter, was a right-hander playing in Fenway. I don’t know what the Park Factors were like in 1938, but I’d be willing to be that Fenway was still pretty friendly to RHH back then, as it is now.

Long story short, all this goes to show how frigging great a hitter Papi really is. He left a pair of Pale Hose, Jim Thome (42 homers) and Jermaine Dye (44), in the dust, and he was playing his home games in the freaking Grand Canyon while they were playing theirs in a freaking sandbox. He left Old Double X in the dust when Foxx was a RHH and Fenway Park has historically always been a place that favors RHH power numbers but depresses the numbers of LH homerun hitters. Point being that the degree of difficulty was ratcheted up tremendously for Ortiz this year, and he still rose to the occasion, unphased.

On a related note, I think that David Ortiz might be god. I don’t have any proof of this, and BPro hasn’t invented a statistic (yet) to back me up here, but look for it in the near future. You heard it here first: David Ortiz might be god.

Trot Nixon posted a career-low .767 OPS this year and batted (and I use the term “batted” in the loosest sense) .171/.274/.256/.530 after the All-Star Break. That’s not a typo: Trot posted a .530 OPS in 117 AB’s after the ASB. Bye, Trot.

With the Twins, Yankees, Padres, and Dodgers eliminated, Red Sox fans are now obligated to root for the Tigers. Reason being that both the A’s (9) and Cardinals (13) have more World Series championships than we do (6). Obviously, in the grand scheme of things, it’s very important that we surpass both of those teams in total number of WS titles acquired, so to root for either of them in this upcoming World Series is, in effect, to root against the cause of the Red Sox — which, of course, is nothing short of heresy. But the Tigers only have 4 WS titles to their credit, so it’s OK to root for them. Of course, the Mets only have 2 World Series titles to their credit, but … c’mon, 1986, Bill Buckner, 1 strike away. You can’t root for the Mets. Ever. You just can’t. So there you have it. And I’m sure the Detroit Tigers and their fans will be very glad to know that they have the unflagging support of Red Sox Nation this October.

Only two players in all of baseball saw more pitches this season than Kevin Youkilis. Youks saw 3,004 pitches, better only by Grady Sizemore (3,013) and Bobby Abreu (3,056).

This just in: Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz combine to form the most-feared hitting tandem in the league.

Feared for good reason. Lord have mercy, those boys can hit.

When I think about the Yankees, I console myself, thinking that, although they have more WS and pennant wins than anybody else in history, I have to imagine that they must also have more WS and pennant losses than anybody else in history. And as any Yankees fan can tell you right now, it ain’t always easy to be the best.

As far as I can tell, according to BPro’s fielding statistics FRAR and FRAA, Brandon Inge deserves the Gold Glove in the AL this year, with Joe Crede a close second and Mike Lowell a close third. Eric Chavez is the incumbent and (according to BPro) falls a (still-close) fourth in the AL, so all of this might be a moot point. I’d be very surprised if the voters dethroned him now, though you never know.

On a related note, I keep telling myself that I need to buy The Fielding Bible, but do I really need to shell out $19.95 to learn that Manny is the worst defensive OF’er in baseball?

I forget the date now, but I got to see something rare & unusual this season. I met some friends for dinner at a Providence cafe, Tazza. Unfortunately, I was late arriving, so I didn’t really have first dibs picking my seat. As the evening wore on, the wait staff turned the television to the Red Sox game. Because of the seat I had, it turned out that my back was to the TV set. That turned out to be OK, though, because the TV was a large flatscreen and this cafe is all windows, meaning that I was able to watch the game in reflection. Which was pretty damn cool when Ortiz stepped to the plate and knocked one over the RF field: it’s cool enough watching Ortiz swat homeruns normally, but it’s even better to watch him hit them batting right-handed.

After years of dominance versus LHP, Manny spent the last couple of years bafflingly unable to hit lefty pitchers, while Jason Varitek crushed them. This year, Varitek can’t hit them to save his life and Manny returns to form. Go figure. Baseball is a crazy game.

Ex-Sock Bronson Arroyo threw 240+ innings of ball this year at a 3.29 ERA. I don’t think he’d have been nearly as successfu in the AL, but you’ve gotta give the kid some credit. Balls the size of Saturn. And I still like his album. His version of “Going Hungry” outstrips the original, which was an amazing song itself.

Despite some struggles for each of them, both Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett managed to hurl 19 Quality Starts apiece — good for a tie for 10th best in the American League. Perhaps not what we’d hoped for, but still reason to retain a shred of optimism for next year.

Anybody else notice that MLB gave the Yankees/Tigers ALDS all primetime games? All 8 p.m. start times — and you know that they didn’t do it to showcase the Tigers. Hey Selig, how’s that working out for ya?

I was surprised to learn that two pitchers in baseball, Carlos Silva and Mark Buehrle, allowed more HR’s than did Beckett. I thought The Goateed Gopherballer would cruise to that title. Hooray for not being the absolute rock bottom of the pile.

My grandfather, my father’s father, was born in 1918 and loved the Red Sox dearly. He waited his whole life for his beloved Red Sox to win a World Series, and though he lived to a ripe old age, he never got to see his wish fulfilled. George Steinbrenner goes 6 years between titles and throws a babyish tantrum. Do I hate the Yankees? Hell yes I do. With every bone in my body.