The Power of Pitching: 1995 WS Champs

great post

Jesus…I remember maddux having an excellent year but never saw the peripheral stats. .811 WHIP. That is….well, I cant think of any adjective poweful enough to convey my amazement. .811!
In your face, Lincecum! Pansy ass 1.047 WHIP. Get that weak shit outta here!

The only reason this season isnt talked about as one of the best ever is the relatively weak K ratio. Also, I cant remember off the top of my head but wasnt the season Maddux went like 60-something straight innings without a walk. And if I remember correctly, this streak was broken by an intentional walk. I think it was someone on the Rockies, back when they had an absolute beast of a middle lineup. Larry Walker, Andres Gallaraga, Vinny Castilla, Dante Bichette. Oh! Almost forgot! The greatest Hawaiian to every play…Benny Agbayani.

Rec’d.

Great post

Great post. However, shouldn’t McGriff’s stats be prorated?

freds numbers=.280/27/93…. wouldn’t that be awesome if we could get that out of glass glaus?

Really good. To be honest i think as a whole our rotation this year will be better or rather i hope it will. I wouldnt be surprised to see Kawakami put up a 3.8 era season and hope Lowe can do about the same and eat up some innings for us.

As far as the bullpen goes i think we have potentially one of the best bullpens in the league. If Wagner and Saito stay healthy thats a crazy duo at at the back end. Moylan and EoF we already know are great but what i believe puts us up over the top is the group of new guys we have coming in. Chavez, Dunn, Kimbrel, Hyde, Lyman etc. All of these guys are complete upgrades over Boyer, Bennett and Logan.

I have conveniently left off Medlen because i hope that a whole crop of these guys come in and do GREAT so that we can put Medlen in AAA and let him develop as a starter and be stretched out to jump in as a starter during the season if needed.

In addition to that i really hope Dunn and Kimbrel make the BP out of spring training. I have a feeling both of those guys being around Wagner and having similar stuff as him will help those two blossom into amazing relievers.

Heres to a BP of

Wagner
Saito
EoF
Moylan
Dunn
Kimbrel
Chavez

w00t!!!

Great post… However…

Hate to put a damper on things but we have to keep in mind that the rest of the league was VERY weak that year.

The Braves won 90 games and at the rate they were winning would have been a 101 win team. What else is new from the Braves of that era?

The second place team in the East that year? The Mets with 69 wins! Strangely, the Mets, Phillies, Marlins, and Expos were separated by only 3 games that year.

Cincinnati won 85 games and may have won 96 that year if it was a full season. They won their division by 9 games. But if I remember correctly, the Braves absolutely murdered the Reds in those days.

Los Angeles won their division that year with only 78 wins which would have translated to a 88 win year. An okay year but not great—obviously.

So really, their only competition in ’95 was the Reds and they beat up on them regularly.

As far as the World Series, it was pretty clear who was the favorite given that Cleveland won 100 games and may have won 112 that year. However, when you are among the 100+ win elite, guess it really doesn’t make much difference—but none the less the Indians were really scary that year though.

It was a fascinating series because of the great story of polar opposites behind it: it was might and brawn against control and finesse. Cleveland was #1 in run scored and #1 in ERA in the AL. They had an outside chance of scoring 1,000 runs that year if it wasn’t for the strike. Atlanta was 9th in the NL in runs scored (below league average) but #1 in ERA (really by a wide margin if you consider that Dodger stadium is/was an extreme pitchers park and so was the old Shea).

I digress…

So is it fair to compare the potential 2010 Braves to the ‘95 Braves? Maybe. But really, it was the Braves weakest overall team of the 90’s since most Braves teams of that era really did score runs. It is normally difficult to make it to the World Series when you have a serious deficiency like the Braves had that year. They played in a really weak league in ’95 and frankly they were extremely lucky to have steamrolled right over the Indians who may have been their strongest competition in the 5 World Series of that decade—at least on paper.

So can the Braves beat out the Phillies, Cardinals (especially if they bring back Holliday?), Dodgers, Rockies, and Giants? Not to mention the Marlins—you never know what you are going to get with them. The Braves may improve but they may still not make the playoffs depending on what everyone else does.

I could go on and on about this but a couple of final notes… The Braves finished 6th last year in runs scored ahead of the Cardinals and their two great sluggers and they finished 3rd in ERA behind the two great pitchers parks in L.A. and S.F. So not bad considering how terrible the offense was in the first half…

Pythagorean W-L should have put the Braves at 91 wins and the Phillies at 92. The Rockies were at 90 wins. Should the Braves been more competitive? Most definitely. They really underperformed most of the year and those last 7 games were ridiculous.

(The Cardinals Pythagorean was 91 and the Dodgers 99—I would say they were probably the best in ’09).

I believe the Braves could be improved by quite a bit if they can get one more player for left field, Glaus is even a shadow of what he once was (25 homers would be nice), and Heyward plays like we think he can (20 homers and .300 average is great!).

So putting things in perspective for the new year can brighten things up a bit… ;-)

Avery was a better pitcher that year than his ERA and W/L record indicate, and he came up huge in the NLCS and WS for us that year, really helping us to take control of both series.

Something to consider about that ’95 team is that they tended to play well in key situations. The hitters turned it up with RISP and High Leverage situations.

Their Pythagorean win total says they should have been an 84 (still good with the strike and all) win team but they won 90. To an extent they’re a team that outplayed their stats that year.

I think the one thing the 1995 team was way better at was on the defensive side of the Game. Lemke and Blauser up the middle. A young Chipper at 3rd. And McGriff who is a experienced 1st Baseman unlike Glaus who has rarely played the position. In Center I would take Grissom over McLouth. The corners you can make a case for, Melky would probably be better than Klesko in LF and Heyward better than Justice. At the plate, I would probably say Lopez, more Athletic and better thrower.

Jurrjens. Age and Payroll aside he was awesome last year and I expect him only to be better this year. Hopefully he can get more run support this year.