Jul

29

Cotuit by sun, Falmouth by fog

Posted by Greg | Filed Under Games | 3 Comments

Courtesy of Falmouth Twitter

Courtesy of Falmouth Twitter

A pop-up that vanished into the Falmouth fog last night may have kept the Commodores’ hopes alive in the West. A bewildered Hyannis Mets right fielder peered upward into the clouds and then watched as the ball plop onto the field in front of him. The umpires promptly gathered near the mound and delayed the game. The score, 2-0 Mets, was eventually wiped away and the game will have to resume at some point with a Falmouth player on second in the 5th.

Friends visiting from Virginia,  my son and I had arrived a few innings earlier after taking in a bright, sunny 5 pm game in Cotuit, where the Ketleers took on the Chatham Anglers. Cotuit prevailed 2-1 in what was probably the best game I’ve seen all season. Craig Fitsch, Navery Moore and  Ben Rown pitched brilliantly for Cotuit. Mike Dennhardt and Taylor Hill were strong for the Anglers. Hill was brilliant, striking out 6 in 2.1 innings.

Submariner

Submariner

My friend Tom, a real baseball man, made an interesting observation on the game. In the Angler 7th, with one out and men on the corners, Cotuit brought in submariner Ben Rowen (right). Tom observed he would throw sinkers to induce a groundball and so Addison Johnson (Clemson) should bunt to avoid a double-play and get the man in from third to tie the game. Instead he swung away and sure enough hit into a double-play to end the inning. Woulda-shoulda-coulda.

That Kettleer win, coupled with indecision in Falmouth, means Cotuit is looking more and more likely to advance to the playoffs. but we’ve still got another week or so of baseball so anything could happen.

We will be in Y-D and then Chatham tonight. Y-D will make the playoffs, but Brewster and Chatham are in a real fight in the East so it should be a great game tonight.

Taylor Hill (Chatham/Vanderbilt) Photo by Lisa Dowdell

Taylor Hill (Chatham/Vanderbilt) Photo by Lisa Dowdell

Comments

3 Responses to “Cotuit by sun, Falmouth by fog”

  1. willie on July 29th, 2009 1:36 pm

    Inside the numbers thru 7/28/09

    Took a different approach looking at the updated stats through yesterday, mainly since there has been some squabbling about players and their collective struggles. Therefore, let’s look at the TEAM and see if the numbers tell why who is winning and losing. Before we continue though, looking at the entire list of hitters, there is a vast difference in number of plate appearances for a fair comparison so you can toss out number of hits, home runs, etc. because a player with 150 appearances is more likely to have bigger numbers than a player with ½ less plate appearances.

    The entire CCBL, including those that left the Cape are hitting .233 and are striking out at a similar 23% of their plate appearances, and as far as outs being made, just over 1/3 are by the strikeout. As far as BB/K ratios, seven players are on the positive side of the ledger, the CCBL average is a negative 13, and a whopping 23 players struck out at least 20 times more than they have walked. Three players exceed 30 or more!

    As far as the pitching, I did a little power arms calculation using WHIP and K/IP as the basis and it’s no surprise that the teams with the most wins have the better pitching performances. The Bourne Braves lead the CCBL with a KIP of 1.065 and a WHIP of 1.170, 2nd to YD and Orleans. The YD Sox have a KIP of .971 but a nice WHIP of 1.151. Orleans has a KIP of .925, but lead the league with a WHIP of 1.135. These are the 3 teams with the most wins, and YD, with the best overall winning percentage sports a lofty .258 team batting average. This combination of pitching and hitting is a good reason why they have been the most successful to date. Wareham, right up there in the West is hanging around despite a team batting average of .201 with a 1.048 KIP, 2nd in the CCBL. Solid pitching and defense does win games, but can’t figure out Hyannis.

    They have solid numbers both hitting and pitching, and also have committed the least amount of errors, but have the least amount of wins and sit in the cellar of the West. Looking closer at the offense, slugger Cody Hawn not available has hurt the Mets. They won much more than they lost when Hawn was in the lineup. Excluding Hawn, the Mets have only one other player that has hit a home run or driven in double digit runs, and that’s Ryan Cuneo. Hyannis needs a few more guys to step it up offensively.

    Chatham losing 9 of its last 10 is a surprise considering the hot start they had. The only win was a 1-0 shutout on 2 hits versus Wareham by Tyler Lyons. The 9 losses were by a collective score of 60-25, or almost 7 runs given up per game by Angler pitching.

    Six teams in 2008 finished with a team batting average higher then .250 with a few above .260. Only one team so far, YD has achieved that hitting .258. With 2009 CCBL average holding pretty steady at .233 clip, what are the things that cross your mind as contributing factors? Is the pitching better? Are the hitters not as good? Did some of the poor weather and layoffs due to it break any offensive continuity? Over 60 everyday players hit above .250 in 2008. So far in 2009, there are about 40 doing that.

  2. Andrew on July 30th, 2009 10:08 am

    Haha, Greg, I twittered that photo and Falmouth re-used it for their tweet.

  3. Greg on July 30th, 2009 11:15 am

    Photo courtesy of Andrew Wirtanen!

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