Dispelling the Andy Pettitte Myth

A friend of mine shot me a text the other day asking whether sabermetrics takes into account the ability of certain pitchers to perform better in "big games." The question seemed to be prompted by Andy Pettitte's recent 7 inning, 5 hit, 2 earned run ALDS victory over the Minnesota Twins.

No Hitters: What's All the Fuss About?

Just this past Saturday, Ubaldo Jimenez threw the first no hitter in the Colorado Rockies franchise history.  When the game was over, he threw his hands in the air jubilantly and was subsequently mobbed by his teammates in the infield.  The sports reporters discussed his place in history, alongside the select other pitchers who have thrown no-hitters.  Even the casual fans are impressed by this milestone achievement.  But is the no hitter really all that impressive?

A Brief Hiatus; Same Sad Result

I apologize if this is too cliche for all of you nonexistent readers out there, but I just looked up the Kübler-Ross model, commonly known as the "Five Stages of Grief," on Wikipedia. I paste them below for your review:

What, in the name of the baseball gods, is going on?

You know, I was planning on writing a post today about the historical performance of Cliff Lee in this years playoffs.  It's not every year that you see a performance like what he's put on so far in 2009.  In one season, as a starter, he has dethroned Mariano Rivera as the career playoff ERA king.  Not too shabby.  I thought it was a post-worthy analysis, but then a funny thing happened.

World Series: Phillies-Yankees

Broadway vs. Broad Street. The City That Never Sleeps vs. The City That Loves to Hate. Six hands of rings vs. two fingers of rings. Ballpark sushi vs. cheesesteaks. Payroll of 208$ million vs. 111$ million. (Ok, it's not exactly David vs. Goliath or the haves vs. the have-nots, but there's certainly a gap there that cannot, nor should not, be ignored.)