Clay’s 2010 Season Among the Elite
8/22/10: Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 0
Our spirits are up after yet another Red Sox win due to a stellar effort from Clay Buchholz, whose ERA+ now sits at 194. For some perspective on that, only two other AL pitchers have finished with a higher single-season ERA+ in the 21st century. One of them, Zack Greinke, did it last season. The other did it several times, and you can probably guess who that is.
Notes & Takeaways:
A sobering thought: Baseball Prospectus has the probability of the Red Sox making the postseason at 18.5%. However, I don’t think this analysis includes the assumption that Dustin Pedroia may not return to the field this season. Given this, I’d discount that number a bit, maybe to around 10-15%. Now, try something for me. Reach into your pocket and dig out a coin. Try to flip “heads” three times in a row (you only get one chance, do not flip more than three times). It probably didn’t happen, right? Not to piss in your corn flakes, but the odds of you successfully pulling that off are roughly the same as the odds of the Red Sox playing baseball in mid October.
I’ve always thought that Tim Wakefield was slightly overrated in some circles, due to the fact that he’s a charter member of what I call the Goatee Mafia (or, if you prefer, the blue-collar team chemistry guys who play the game the way it was meant to be played).
Victor Martinez had one of the best games in his career, going 5 for 5 with 4 doubles, and Adrian Beltre continues to earn every penny of his contract, hitting a key 3-run HR in last night’s victory against Oakland.