Aaron Hill Rides the Bi-cycle

Please excuse the lame wordplay title (wordplay is fun!) and listen to this piece of truth: Aaron Hill made history last night. If your first questions is, “Tim, who the hell is Aaron Hill?”, you can join most MLB fans in being duly surprised that a random role player is getting so much press. What is more surprising is that Mr. Hill has now hit for the cycle in two games in the same calender month. How rare is this? The only other player to do so hit two cycles in the same week in 1883. He is also only the second player since 1900 to hit two cycles in the same season (Babe Herman in 1931 for those of you keeping score at home). How rare is the cycle? If he hits one more IN HIS ENTIRE CAREER he will be tied for the most all time. Ludicrous.

Taking a look at Trevor Bauer and Andrew Cashner’s Starts

Yesterday highly touted prospect Trevor Bauer made his major league debut. He was the number three pick in last year’s draft and has been flying through the Arizona Diamondback’s farm system ever since. He wasn’t the only pitcher joining a rotation though. San Diego Padres pitcher Andrew Cashner also got the call to the majors yet nobody paid any attention to him. Dave Cameron took a look at both pitchers in this article yesterday. I was curious to see how both fared so let’s take a look.

Top 100 Right Now: Summary

Well, at least we got this done by the All-Star Break…  Looking back on the list, there are already a ton of mistakes, but that’s how these go.  Here is the full list:

1	Evan Longoria	35	Kevin Youkilis	68	Brett Gardner
2	Troy Tulowitzki	36	Cole Hamels	69	Jonathan Papelbon
3	Joey Votto	37	Jon Lester	70	John Axford
4	Miguel Cabrera	38	Giancarlo Stanton	71	Desmond Jennings
5	Roy Halladay	39	Tim Lincecum	72	Doug Fister
6	Justin Verlander	40	Matt Cain	73	Chase Utley
7	Jose Bautista	41	Jered Weaver	74	Chris Carpenter
8	Albert Pujols	42	Brandon Phillips	75	Alex Gordon
9	Dustin Pedroia	43	Carlos Gonzalez	76	Yadier Molina
10	Matt Kemp	44	Shane Victorino	77	Mat Latos
11	Cliff Lee	45	Joe Mauer	78	Howie Kendrick
12	Adrian Gonzalez	46	Brett Lawrie	79	Jay Bruce
13	Ryan Braun	47	Alex Rodriguez	80	Joel Hanrahan
14	Robinson Cano	48	Matt Wieters	81	Anibal Sanchez
15	CC Sabathia	49	Hunter Pence	82	Matt Garza
16	Felix Hernandez	50	Hanley Ramirez	83	Buster Posey
17	Justin Upton	51	Adam Wainwright	84	Alexei Ramirez
18	Clayton Kershaw	52	Mike Napoli	85	Gavin Floyd
19	Ben Zobrist	53	Madison Bumgarner	86	David Wright
20	Ryan Zimmerman	54	James Shields	87	John Danks
21	Andrew McCutchen	55	Mariano Rivera	88	Carlos Beltran
22	Matt Holliday	56	David Price	89	Josh Beckett
23	Ian Kinsler	57	Jose Reyes	90	Corey Hart
24	Dan Haren	58	C.J. Wilson	91	Yunel Escobar
25	Adrian Beltre	59	Yovani Gallardo	92	Ubaldo Jimenez
26	Prince Fielder	60	Carlos Santana	93	Lance Berkman
27	Curtis Granderson	61	Craig Kimbrel	94	Miguel Montero
28	Zack Greinke	62	Rickie Weeks	95	Jayson Werth
29	Pablo Sandoval	63	Mark Teixeira	96	B.J. Upton
30	Josh Hamilton	64	Matt Moore	97	Nelson Cruz
31	Stephen Strasburg	65	Sean Marshall	98	Nick Swisher
32	Brian McCann	66	Justin Masterson	99	Gio Gonzalez
33	Josh Johnson	67	Daniel Hudson	T100	Jordan Zimmermann
34	Jacoby Ellsbury			T100	Michael Bourn

Here is the team breakdown:

ARI – 3	HOU – 0	PHI – 7
ATL – 3	KCR – 1	PIT – 2
BAL – 1	LAA – 5	SDP – 0
BOS – 5	LAD – 2	SEA – 1
CHC – 1	MIA – 5	SFG – 5
CHW – 4	MIL – 6	STL – 6
CIN – 5	MIN – 1	TBR – 7
CLE – 3	NYM – 1	TEX – 5
COL – 2	NYY – 8	TOR – 3
DET – 4	OAK – 0	WSN – 5

Here is the position breakdown:

C – 8	LF – 6
1B – 6	CF – 8
2B – 8	RF – 10
SS – 5	SP – 35
3B – 9	RP – 6

Here is the age breakdown:

22 – 3	30 – 8
23 – 2	31 – 12
24 – 4	32 – 4
25 – 6	33 – 5
26 – 9	35 – 2
27 – 7	36 – 2
28 – 20	37 – 1
29 – 15	42 – 1

I will leave it to you to find interesting tidbits among the tables.  Feel free to comment on any missed or horribly-placed player, along with any trend you see in teams, positions, and ages.

Jason Heyward, Back to His Old Self

Depending on where you stood, Atlanta Braves outfielder Jason Heyward was either the number one or two prospect heading into the 2010 season. He made the opening day roster and impressed right out of the gate. His 5.1 WAR for that season rank in the top 15 all-time for a season by a 20 year old. In no time the lofty comparisons arose, most notably by former Braves Manager Bobby Cox. Cox said that Heyward reminded him of Braves all-time great, Hank Aaron. That was a lofty comparison, but if anyone could live up to it, it was Heyward. After a great rookie year, Heyward struggled though but appears to be back this season. Let’s take a look at Heyward’s journey the past couple seasons and how he returned back to dominance.

Poll: Who Would You Pick to Start Your Franchise?

Top 100 Right Now: #5-1

We have finally hit the end, showing the Top 5 players in the game.  You can find the explanation and origin of our list here.  After this post, there will be one last wrap-up post, showing how many players are on each team, position, and age.  As a (not-so) quick refresher, here are 100-6:

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Kevin Youkilis Sent to the Chicago White Sox

Yesterday the seemingly inevitable happened. The Boston Red Sox finally parted ways with 1B/3B Kevin Youkilis after a flurry of rumors. In return the Red Sox received pitcher Zach Steweart and utility player Brent Lillibridge from the Chicago White Sox. Youkilis was struggling mightily for the Red Sox and Will Middlebrooks is ready to take over third base. On the flip side, the Chicago White Sox were in desperate need of a third baseman. Brent Morel was terrible and the Orlando Hudson experiment didn’t work out at all. It’s possible that a change of scenery is all that Youkilis needed.

A PITCHf/x Look at Gio Gonzalez

After being acquired from the Washington Nationals, lefty Gio Gonzalez has been off to the best start of his career. Before this year Gonzalez was a solid pitcher and in 2010 he began to take off. During that time he has posted fWARs of 3.2 and 3.5 respectively. His FIP during those times was 3.78 and 3.64 which is considered above average. This year it’s a whole new story, he currently has 3.1 WAR to go with an excellent, yet highly unsustainable 2.07 FIP. His 2.97 xFIP and SIERA are identical, so even if Gonzalez runs into some regression he should still remain dominant. What’s the cause for the sudden change? More after the jump.

Facebook Page

After much discussion, a new Facebook page for Saber Analysis is up and running! Please go there and ‘Like’ the page so you can get easy access to site updates, news, and blog posts. This will be another resource we will utilize to reach our readers and the general public. As always, comments and concerns are appreciated. Feel free to reach out to us on the FB page (facebook.com/SaberAnalysis), on Twitter (@SabrAnalysis), email (sabranalysis@gmail.com), in the comments section, or to any of the writers individually. Thank you for your continued support during this time of big change and growth!