An excerpt from an interesting article...
http://thegoodphight.com/story/2006/10/6/132821/355



"We left runner on AGAIN! We always do that! THAT is what's wrong with
this team!"

A refrain heard, in some format - voice, email, message board post - on an
almost constant basis in the Delaware Valley.

But is it true?

The Phillies led the league in runs scored, with 865. They also led the
league in Baseunners (Hits+BB+HBP+CI-CS-DP), with 2099 - 84 more than the
2nd place team, almost 200 more than the average team. Thus, they
"stranded" 1234 runners, ALSO the highest total in the league.

Those 1234 stranded runners represent 58.8% of their baserunners. How does
that number compare to the rest of the league?


TEAM Baserunners Stranded % Stranded
Pittsburgh 1835 1144 62.30%
San Diego 1912 1181 61.80%
Houston 1908 1173 61.50%
Cincinnati 1941 1192 61.40%
Washington 1920 1174 61.10%
Milwaukee 1816 1086 59.80%
Arizona 1911 1138 59.50%
LA Dodgers 2015 1195 59.30%
St. Louis 1915 1134 59.20%
Florida 1858 1100 59.20%
Chicago Cubs 1751 1035 59.10%
Philadelphia 2099 1234 58.80%
San Francisco 1803 1057 58.60%
Colorado 1957 1144 58.50%
NY Mets 1929 1095 56.80%
Atlanta 1923 1074 55.90%

Average 1906 1135 59.50%


The Phillies were actually quite efficient, stranding runners at the
5th-lowest rate in the National League. 11 teams, including 3 of the 4
playoff teams, stranded runners more frequently.




The author of the piece summed it up well in a reply to a comment...

"The best offense in the league, every year, will strand a lot of runners.
Sometimes the most, sometimes 2nd, maybe even third. But they will ALWAYS
strand a lot of runners. Because they will HAVE a lot of runners."

Thats a good article. So it only 'seemed' as though they were leading the
league in runners stranded, well actually they did... but not in % figures.
I guess there were some key games in which they failed to get runners home
in what would seem to be 'for sure' situations, such as runners on 3rd and
nobody out or runner on second and nobody out.

TG


"BeastFish" <no@spam.com> wrote in message
news:eg9v4t$p2s$1@emma.aioe.org...

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 07:33:06 GMT, "TonyG"
<agraybill71460@earthlink.net> wrote:=
Nice stats.

It shows again that we scored plenty of runs, and that the pitching is
really this team's problem. When our starting pitchers came around
late, we made a run for the playoffs, but our relief pitching never
came around.

Most people know that our pitching is the issue, yet so many of them
still go crazy over all those runners stranded.


Swyck

And yet, the Phils relievers were 3rd in the league in ERA.


Only the Mets and the Padres finished with a lower ERA, and they have
much friendlier parks to pitch in.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats...128&season=2006

Danny

dannysprung@aol.com wrote:


Facts have a hard time getting the light of day in usenet discussions.

Just like with Burrell, it's all about perception, and in this case it
was the lasting image of late season blown saves and holds. Step back
and remember that the bullpen was way overused early, contributing to
later season problems. I've written about Madsen and how it's unfair to
blame him in a season where he was bounced from starter to pen to
starter and threw more innings than in a while.

g

<dannysprung@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1160431151.165355.121230@m73g2000cwd.googlegr oups.com...
That seems so hard to believe. I would have guessed that they were around
4.5 ERA. Who anchored the staff? Cormier, Geary was good, Gordon, Smith
(only a few innings), Fabio Castro and Condrey were better than the team
average. On the south side of the phils average were: Ryan Franklin,
Arthur Rhodes, Sanches, White, Madsen and Aaron Fultz. Even so, White, Fultz
and Rhodes were frugal with the HR. Rhodes got hurt with his walks. Madsen
was mediocre and if you take Franklins stats away and replace them with
someone like a triple dose of Condrey, it would look even better.

What is also noteworthy, is that if you compare starting pitching, The Phils
starting pitching finished 14th overall. The entiver pitching staff
finished 11th overall. But the last 3 months of July, August and
September, they finished 10th, 8th and 6th. They also had a good May, but
sucked in April and June. It does appear that the starting pitching and
especially the beginniing of the year was the weakest link in the Chain.

Good report Danny. Thanks for sharing.

TG

"TonyG" <agraybill71460@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:4kGWg.9563$o71.208@newsread3.news.pas.earthli nk.net...

Phils

Phils starting pitching was ranked next-to-last in the NL at the all-star
break (Pirates were last, but not by much). That, folks, is why they're
watching the playoffs on TV.

True. And the fact they were much improved in the second half has
nothing to do with Bobby Abreu. Sad that everyone who hated him was
'right'.

Danny

On 10 Oct 2006 18:19:14 -0700, "dannysprung@aol.com"
<dannysprung@aol.com> wrote:


Why is it sad? It is what it is.