Baseball-Reference.com, the authoritative online location for comprehensive baseball stats, has posted the final 2002 statistics, including those of your Toronto Blue Jays. Here's a few observations:
* Skydome played as a virtually neutral park last year, very slightly favouring pitchers. This is a turnaround from last year, when the Dome favoured hitters more strongly, but it's in line with many of the previous seasons. The stadium is not the Coors North some have taken it for, though I do think it's more prone to giving up HRs, making GBers like Halladay all the more valuable. I'm not sure where HR/park numbers would be kept, though.
* If you needed any statistical evidence that the Ricciardi Blue Jays operate by a whole new philosophy, consider this: Shannon Stewart led the team with 14 stolen bases. And get this: Hinske was second with 13. But together, they were only thrown out 3 times. That kind of percentage base-stealing is what you can come to expect.
* My Lord, but that was a terrible pitching staff last year. Chris Carpenter's 5.28 ERA was the third-best among starters. Oy gevalt.
* Dan Plesac has been very good to the Blue Jays. He was the only good thing that came out of the infamous Pittsburgh megatrade, and in two separate deals since, he's brought back Tony Batista and Cliff Politte. The man deserves a spot on the Level of Excellence, which in turn, deserves to have a much less stupid name.
* Skydome played as a virtually neutral park last year, very slightly favouring pitchers. This is a turnaround from last year, when the Dome favoured hitters more strongly, but it's in line with many of the previous seasons. The stadium is not the Coors North some have taken it for, though I do think it's more prone to giving up HRs, making GBers like Halladay all the more valuable. I'm not sure where HR/park numbers would be kept, though.
* If you needed any statistical evidence that the Ricciardi Blue Jays operate by a whole new philosophy, consider this: Shannon Stewart led the team with 14 stolen bases. And get this: Hinske was second with 13. But together, they were only thrown out 3 times. That kind of percentage base-stealing is what you can come to expect.
* My Lord, but that was a terrible pitching staff last year. Chris Carpenter's 5.28 ERA was the third-best among starters. Oy gevalt.
* Dan Plesac has been very good to the Blue Jays. He was the only good thing that came out of the infamous Pittsburgh megatrade, and in two separate deals since, he's brought back Tony Batista and Cliff Politte. The man deserves a spot on the Level of Excellence, which in turn, deserves to have a much less stupid name.
