A Tale of Two Teams

In case you've missed it, our No-Longer Lastros have been playing some pretty good ball over the last month or so. Over the last 30 days, the team has a better record than 21 other squads. A dreadful April is quickly disappearing in the rear view mirror as May's team has given us hope for the first time in many years. And while we may not be a winning team yet, the stats behind the turnaround indicate this is probably not a fluke. Expect the bandwagon to start getting a little crowded.

	Total Batting
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	29	88	83	18	8.2%	24.5%	0.254	0.210	0.282	0.358	79	-0.9
May	30	124	115	25	9.0%	20.5%	0.309	0.261	0.335	0.410	111	3.3
	Catcher
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	6	12	16	0	7.0%	24.8%	0.224	0.205	0.295	0.411	98	0.5
May	4	13	17	0	5.1%	26.3%	0.294	0.234	0.294	0.379	89	0.4
	First Base
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	4	8	8	0	7.6%	30.5%	0.232	0.183	0.246	0.321	58	-0.5
May	2	7	10	2	13.8%	25.9%	0.254	0.192	0.310	0.283	74	-0.3
	Second Base
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	1	9	9	9	7.1%	7.9%	0.292	0.276	0.325	0.371	94	0.4
May	1	21	8	11	5.9%	6.7%	0.376	0.357	0.393	0.484	147	1.3
	Shortstop
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	4	14	9	4	6.0%	26.5%	0.310	0.245	0.298	0.443	107	0.5
May	2	15	11	7	6.3%	25.2%	0.277	0.214	0.270	0.316	65	-0.2
	Third Base
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	5	14	11	0	7.9%	18.3%	0.253	0.237	0.302	0.404	98	0.1
May	3	15	14	0	5.4%	21.0%	0.342	0.281	0.325	0.399	102	0.2
	Right Field
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	1	3	5	1	9.1%	29.1%	0.227	0.162	0.245	0.222	34	-0.8
May	11	26	30	0	11.0%	28.3%	0.365	0.304	0.389	0.632	184	1.5
	Center Field
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	2	15	7	3	9.9%	23.8%	0.292	0.231	0.307	0.363	90	0.0
May	1	14	9	3	18.3%	16.0%	0.337	0.276	0.42	0.343	126	0.5
	Left Field
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	5	10	12	1	7.6%	25.0%	0.207	0.177	0.238	0.310	52	-1.0
May	2	11	10	2	9.0%	11.2%	0.282	0.263	0.331	0.364	98	0.0
	Designated Hitter
	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wRC+	WAR
April	3	8	8	0	13.0%	37.0%	0.217	0.153	0.270	0.329	70	-0.4
May	5	10	13	0	5.7%	23.9%	0.250	0.232	0.284	0.500	117	0.2

 

With the exception of a severe slump at shortstop and a holding steady of catcher and third base, every position saw improvement with a good bit of that improvement corresponding with an increase in BABIP. (sound familiar?) Left and right field in particular saw improvements of 1 WAR or more.

	Total Pitching
	W-L	K/9	BB/9	BABIP	GB%	ERA	FIP	WAR
April	9-19	7.38	4	0.301	47.7%	4.87	4.45	0.8
May	15-14	7.44	2.57	0.295	50.5%	3.42	3.33	4.3
	Starters
	W-L	K/9	BB/9	BABIP	GB%	ERA	FIP	WAR
April	7-13	7.19	4	0.284	49.3%	4.28	4.11	1.7
May	12-12	6.96	2.57	0.296	51.9%	3.46	3.45	3.2
	Relievers
	W-L	K/9	BB/9	BABIP	GB%	ERA	FIP	WAR
April	2-6	7.69	4	0.329	45.3%	5.86	5.04	-1.0
May	3-2	8.63	2.59	0.292	46.8%	3.33	3.02	1.1

 

With the pitching, we see that a pretty dramatic decrease in walks, a little positive regression for the bullpen BABIP, and a little bump in groundball rate have made a big difference in our pitching staff as well. Maybe we haven't completely turned the corner yet, but it doesn't seem to be too far away.