Signs of Life

Four teams that did not play well in the first half of the season are showing signs of life since the All-Star break. The top four teams in that time are the Athletics and Rockies at 9-4, the Reds and the Angels at 8-4. Three of those clubs beat first place teams on Wednesday.

The Athletics and Angels remain far behind in both the division and wild card races, but with records around .450 they are proving to be not so bad teams. The A’s are getting on base more and hitting for more power, while their ERA has dropped 0.8 runs as their pitchers do the opposite. The Angels are hitting better, with a 30 point increase in BA and a 50 point increase in slugging percentage. Their pitchers are walking a batter every five innings since the break.

The Reds are now at .396. In my find, getting over .400 is important. A .400 could be a good team that just had bad luck. Under .400 is simply a bad team. The Reds hitters went from a .298 OBP before the break to a .344 OBP since. Billy Hamilton, who always lacked in that category, is at .375 over his last 12 games, with Jay Bruce and Joey Votto off the charts. The pitchers upped their strikeouts, which lowered the hits allowed, and their ERA.

The Rockies are hitting worse since the break, but the pitchers lowered their ERA over 1 1/2 runs. They are walking a ton of batters, but stopped allowing home runs. Seven of their thirteen games have been at home, so it wasn’t just a road effect. Of the four team, the Rockies have the best chance at making a playoff run, only six games out of the wild card. The played ten games against Atlanta and Tampa Bay in this stretch, but taking two of three from Baltimore has to increase their confidence.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2ac0Gxq