Eric Wedge is sending out a lefty-heavy line up for the Mariners in today's game against the Blue Jays as Seattle goes for the sweep. Toronto does not counter with a lot of lefties against Felix Hernandez which could bode unfortunate for them, not that Felix needs any help.
| TORONTO (64-77) | SEATTLE (69-74) |
|---|---|
| Brett Lawrie 3B | Dustin Ackley* 2B |
| Colby Rasmus* CF | Franklin Gutierrez CF |
| Edwin Encarnacion DH | Kyle Seager* 3B |
| Adam Lind* 1B | John Jaso* C |
| Yunel Escobar SS | Michael Saunders* LF |
| Kelly Johnson* 2B | Justin Smoak^ 1B |
| Rajai Davis LF | Luis Jimenez* DH |
| Jeff Mathis C | Carlos Peguero* RF |
| Anthony Gose* RF | Brendan Ryan SS |
| Henderson Alvarez | Felix Hernandez |
| chart | chart |
| TORONTO | SEATTLE | |
|---|---|---|
| LINEUP | -0.57 | -0.65 |
| STARTER | -0.88 | 1.02 |
This is new. It's in beta form, by which I mean it's kinda small and I don't much care for how it looks and formats on the page. But I think the information is neat. Really neat.
The lineup is the number of runs, relative to league average, that I think the lineup is. It's calculated by taking each hitter in the actual lineup and looking at his batting run value* (via wOBA) for the season, then dividing that by the number of plate appearances he's had and then multiplying that by the expected number of plate appearances based on their spot in the batting order. Each hitter's contribution is then summed to get an estimate of how many runs above/below average you can expect the lineup to produce.
* known as batV on Statcorner
The starter line takes each starting pitcher and his runs above/below average (so sayeth TRA) for the season*. It divides that figure by the total number of batters faced this season to get a runs per PA rate. Then, I multiply that by the average number of batters faced per start this season. The result is an estimate of how many runs above/below average you can expect the starting pitcher to contribute.
* known as RAA on StatCorner
This way when comparing the teams the Mariners aren't getting penalized for all those Chone Figgins at bats or Hector Noesi starts early in the season and the Blue Jays aren't getting rewarded for the same but with Jose Bautista and Brandon Morrow, when Morrow isn't the starter. I'm working on adding fielding and the bullpens as well, but those are trickier.
Additionally, I have finally updated the audio player to HTML5, because I'm awesome. Weeeeeeeeee, the future*
* present