Cardinals news from a Sabermetric point of view
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Cardinals’ and opponents’ best-pitched games (so far)

The Cardinals’ worst trade since Keith Hernandez haunted them again Saturday as Dan Haren stifled their bats with eight strikeouts in 30 batters faced. It prompted manager Tony La Russa to say “That’s as good as anybody has pitched against us this year." It’s been a while since we’ve broken out FIGS — Fielding-Independent Game Score — but now seems as good a time as any. Has anyone pitched better against the Cardinals in 2009 than Haren on Saturday?

Rk Player Date Tm GmReslt BB SO HR BF FIGS
1 Tim Lincecum 6/29 SFG W 10-0 0 8 0 29 76
1 Ubaldo Jimenez 6/7 COL W 7-2 1 9 0 29 76
3 Javier Vazquez 4/29 ATL L 3-5 1 8 0 33 75
4 Danny Haren 7/18 ARI W 4-2 2 8 0 30 72
5 Manny Parra 7/9 MIL L 1-5 1 7 0 26 71
6 Jo-Jo Reyes 4/28 ATL W 2-1 1 7 0 25 70
7 Cliff Lee 6/14 CLE W 3-0 2 6 0 32 69
8 Ryan Dempster 4/24 CHC L 3-4 1 6 0 25 68
8 Carlos Zambrano 7/12(1) CHC W 7-3 2 7 0 25 68
8 Kyle Davies 5/22 KCR L 0-5 2 7 0 23 68
11 Josh Johnson 6/9 FLA W 4-3 1 5 0 28 67
11 Francisco Liriano 6/28 MIN W 6-2 2 6 0 27 67
11 Andrew Miller 6/11 FLA L 5-6 0 8 1 26 67
14 Sean Marshall 4/25 CHC L 2-8 1 5 0 25 66
15 Homer Bailey 7/3 CIN L 4-7 2 5 0 28 65
15 Matt Cain 5/29 SFG W 4-2 2 5 0 27 65
15 Barry Zito 7/2 SFG L 2-5 3 7 0 21 65
15 Bronson Arroyo 6/2 CIN L 2-5 2 5 0 26 65
19 Shairon Martis 5/2 WSN W 6-1 0 6 1 31 64
19 Aaron Harang 5/9 CIN W 8-3 1 7 1 30 64

Okay, so technically, yes. All-Star Tim Lincecum dominated the Cardinals a couple of weeks before the All-Star break, and Ubaldo Jimenez and Javier Vazquez — who should’ve been All-Stars — both turned in stellar performances. So there’s no shame in losing to great pitchers — it happens.

We’ve been toying with a tweak to FIGS, namely changing the values of walks and home runs to match those of FIP (from 2 and 8 to 3 and 13, respectively):

Rk Player Date Tm GmReslt BB SO HR BF FIGS2
1 Tim Lincecum 6/29 SFG W 10-0 0 8 0 29 76
2 Ubaldo Jimenez 6/7 COL W 7-2 1 9 0 29 75
3 Javier Vazquez 4/29 ATL L 3-5 1 8 0 33 74
4 Danny Haren 7/18 ARI W 4-2 2 8 0 30 70
4 Manny Parra 7/9 MIL L 1-5 1 7 0 26 70
6 Jo-Jo Reyes 4/28 ATL W 2-1 1 7 0 25 69
7 Ryan Dempster 4/24 CHC L 3-4 1 6 0 25 67
7 Cliff Lee 6/14 CLE W 3-0 2 6 0 32 67
9 Carlos Zambrano 7/12(1) CHC W 7-3 2 7 0 25 66
9 Josh Johnson 6/9 FLA W 4-3 1 5 0 28 66
9 Kyle Davies 5/22 KCR L 0-5 2 7 0 23 66
12 Sean Marshall 4/25 CHC L 2-8 1 5 0 25 65
12 Francisco Liriano 6/28 MIN W 6-2 2 6 0 27 65
14 Homer Bailey 7/3 CIN L 4-7 2 5 0 28 63
14 Matt Cain 5/29 SFG W 4-2 2 5 0 27 63
14 Bronson Arroyo 6/2 CIN L 2-5 2 5 0 26 63
17 Barry Zito 7/2 SFG L 2-5 3 7 0 21 62
17 Andrew Miller 6/11 FLA L 5-6 0 8 1 26 62
19 Shairon Martis 5/2 WSN W 6-1 0 6 1 31 59
20 Aaron Harang 5/9 CIN W 8-3 1 7 1 30 58

FIGS 2.0, if you will, doesn’t change things too significantly, as the top six remain the same. The only big change is that Andrew Miller’s 6/11 performance loses rank on account of his home run allowed. Oh, and interestingly but not surprisingly, Tim Lincecum tossed the best game against the Cardinals last year, too, with a 77-FIGS (11 SO, 1 BB, 25 BF).

If you’re wondering, like we were, which Cardinal pitchers have thrown the best games this year (so far), here you go:

Rk Player Date Tm Opp BB SO HR BF FIGS2
1 Chris Carpenter 5/25 STL @MIL 0 10 0 25 78
2 Adam Wainwright 7/1 STL SFG 3 12 0 36 77
3 Adam Wainwright 7/7 STL @MIL 2 9 0 34 73
4 Adam Wainwright 5/26 STL @MIL 2 9 0 29 72
4 Kyle Lohse 5/23 STL KCR 0 6 0 29 72
6 Adam Wainwright 5/21 STL CHC 1 7 0 31 71
6 Chris Carpenter 7/17 STL ARI 1 7 0 30 71
8 Joel Pineiro 7/9 STL @MIL 0 5 0 28 69
8 Joel Pineiro 5/19 STL CHC 0 5 0 28 69
8 Adam Wainwright 4/24 STL CHC 1 6 0 29 69
8 Chris Carpenter 6/25 STL @NYM 0 5 0 26 69
12 Chris Carpenter 4/9 STL PIT 2 7 0 26 67
13 Chris Carpenter 6/30 STL SFG 1 5 0 26 66
14 Chris Carpenter 7/5 STL @CIN 1 5 0 25 65
14 Chris Carpenter 5/30 STL @SFG 1 5 0 25 65
14 Chris Carpenter 6/20 STL @KCR 2 6 0 27 65
14 Joel Pineiro 6/12 STL @CLE 2 6 0 27 65
14 Todd Wellemeyer 5/27 STL @MIL 1 5 0 23 65
19 P.J. Walters 4/17 STL @CHC 2 7 0 19 64
20 Todd Wellemeyer 4/26 STL CHC 2 5 0 27 63

It’s pleasing to see old Chris Carpenter, who is slated to face Roy Oswalt on Wednesday, filling out the list again. The Cardinal ace has already started 14 games — only three fewer than our pre-season over/under of 17 — and, as is the usually the case, when he’s healthy enough to pitch, he pitches extremely well. The team’s second-half success will be predicated less perhaps on who is playing third base or left field than whether Carpenter stays healthy.

This entry was posted by Pip on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 5:06 pm and is filed under by the numbers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Cardinals’ and opponents’ best-pitched games (so far)”

  1. Pitchers Hit Eighth Says:
    July 21st, 2009 at 8:42 am

    Despite knowing in the back of my mind how important defense is to a team, and more importantly, to certain pitchers – I’m still fascinated every time I see a list like this.

    A guy like Joel Pineiro, who has seemingly fully embraced the ‘pitch-to-contact’ philosophy, winds up all over the map between FIGS and straight Game Score.

    Makes me curious to see how many fielding runs this team is adding when Good Joel is on the bump.

  2. susan01 Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 1:32 am

    I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

    Susan

    http://onlinemariogames.net

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