Taiwan, Silver Sluggers, and LinceCain

The MLB all-stars tour of Taiwan is over, and the big leaguers swept the five-game set. What strikes me as odd is that anyone would have predicted differently. While the major league team was made up of, well, major leaguers (including a large contingent of stars), the Chinese team was made up of, at the most elite, US minor leaguers and NPB players. The local team actually impressed me and did make a few of the games close, but was, from the outset, very unlikely to win a single game. While the event was a success in terms of popularity, the series was meant to build goodwill, and it is good for no one if it is so one-sided. This is a baseball blog, so I don't want to get into the policy ramifications for US-ROC relations, but it seems obvious that the trip would have worked better as a show of goodwill if the games were not so embarrassingly lopsided. And a showing of competition against each other, rather than cooperation, does not seem like a effective diplomatic maneuver.

So here is what I think they should have done: Rather than play games between the Taiwanese National team and MLB players, mix up the teams. On the American side, split up the stars in a fun way, not necessarily on league lines but randomly. A pitcher could theoretically pitch to a hitter on his own team. The same would be done with the Chinese team, and the two integrated teams would play each other. The mix of teams could even reshuffle for every game, giving new and exiting matchups each time. It would be much more balanced, and interesting. And it would engender camaraderie between the Taiwanese and American players.

On the topic of the Taiwan series, the Giants had a very good showing. Bochy managed his team to a 5-0 record, Ramon Ramirez (why don't they call him Ram-Ram?) pitched well, and Torres seemed to get on base and make great catches at an amazing clip. Of course, the real star was Pablo Sandoval, and he did well, other than his short stint in left field. I'm happy that he was a hit in Taiwan, because he was completely snubbed for the 3rd base Silver Slugger Award.

Sandoval missed about six weeks of the season with a broken hamate bone, but he still should have received the Silver Slugger for his position. Aramis Ramirez, the Cub third baseman who is nine years Pablo's senior, won the award. No one else was close to these two, so we need only to compare them to each other. First of all, Sandoval is younger, a better fielder, a great comeback story, and a face-of-the-franchise. If, theoretically speaking, the two players had identical offensive numbers, the Giant should get the award on the basis of all the other things. But they did not have the same numbers. Pablo's were better. 

Player	Games	PA	AVE	HR	2B+3B	RBI	Snubs/ ASG	BB	OPS	OPS+
Ramirez	149	626	.306	26	36	93	1	43	.871	136
Sandoval	117	466	.315	23 (29)	29 (37)	70 (89)	0	32 (41)	.909	153

(Numbers in parenthesis give theoretical quantities of the selected action Sandoval would have done 

had he had 626 plate appearances, rounded to the nearest whole number. (23*626)/466=approx. 29)

His average is significantly better, .315 to .306. Both his OPS and OPS+ are well ahead of Ramirez's. And while the north-sider did walk and knock in runs at a better clip, it is only by a very slim margin; so one cannot say that he is much more patient or professional than Sandoval. And consider this: While Ramirez had 26 home runs to Sandoval's 23, if we adjust for plate appearances and give Pablo 626 (the same number as Ramirez) he would have 29, more than his competitor and almost to the magic slugger threshold of 30. The same principle holds for doubles and triples. While his 2011 totals were smaller, Sandoval's totals adjusted for PAs are higher than Ramirez's. Indeed Sandoval leads in almost all of the adjusted major offensive statistics, and in the two in which he does not his deficit is very slim. 

Lets review. Higher Average, Higher HR rate, higher extra-base hit rate, higher OPS; and very slightly lower RBI's and walks. Moreover, Aramis Ramirez snubbed the All-Star Game. While this did pave the way for Sandoval's selection to the NL roster, this is incredibly disrespectful to his teammates, fans, and the game and should practically disqualify him (read: Carlos Tevez). Pablo was robbed.  

On another note, I am ambivalent about the Melky Cabrera- Jonathan Sanchez trade. While Cabrera did have a good year, Sanchez is a very talented pitcher who is among the league's elite when he throws strikes. Hopefully, Sanchez's departure will give even more motivation to locking up Lincecum and Cain for a long time. Give those two as many years as they want. To get extra money to pay for extensions, the Giants should sell "LinceCain" shirts. I'd buy one.

"The way to get a ball past Wagner is to hit it eight feet over his head." -John Mcgraw on Honus Wagner