Pile on Howie Night

[QuinlansMinion]

This is a thread that should be archived for many years to come, so the offspring some of us will create will also be able to laugh at the stupidity of some of what has been seen in this thread. "Howie sucks in the playoffs and that's all that matters because I don't care about division titles" is the sort of braindead drivel I symapthize with Terry Smith for having to endure on Angel Talk.

[Stradling]

This is a thread that should be archived for many years to come, so the offspring some of us will create will also be able to laugh at the stupidity of some of what has been seen in this thread. "Howie sucks in the playoffs and that's all that matters because I don't care about division titles" is the sort of braindead drivel I symapthize with Terry Smith for having to endure on Angel Talk.

yep

[yk9001]

I love that Fox chart of the strike zone, and where strike one was shown on the screen.  It was almost off the chart.

[mulwin444]

He had a stretch of 3 years where he was really terrible in high leverage.  From 2011 to 2013.  He was good before that but I think that's what people remember.  When you consider that it gets magnified by the fact that the Angels were just losing more games during those seasons than they had earlier in howie's career.  

 

there is also some issue by just using leverage as the indicator.   an aLI of 2.0 is considered high leverage.  There are multiple situations in the first 3 innings that have an aLI over 2.0.  

 

To reiterate - Howie was one of my favorites and I was totally bummed to see him go.  But the recall to create the narrative isn't totally anecdotal.  It started with him having a mediocre year in 2010 and then the three years to follow showed him to be worse than his usual self when it mattered more.  

 

here are the numbers from those four seasons

year, WPA (clutch)

 

2010   0.34 (0.25)

2011   0.66 (-1.33)

2012   -2.25 (-2.43)

2013   -0.43 (-0.94)

 

During those four years, he had a WAR of 12.3 and a WPA of -1.68.  

Nice analysis...yeah, I was looking at more of an entire body of work but no doubt he struggled in these situation in his more recent Angels' seasons.

 

Conversely, someone like Vladimir Guerrero had some pretty horrendous post season series (.183 1 HR 7 RBI in 60 AB's from 2004 - 2007) but turned it around in 2008 and 2009 (.403 4 2B 1 HR 7 RBI in 52 AB's).  Sometimes you come in to a postseason hot and sometimes you are injured/cold.  A little luck helps too  

[Jay]

those lights were way too bright for Howie

[red321]

What I can't figure out is why anyone would ever throw Kendrick a pitch that wasn't a slider...even if you don't have a slider in your repertoire. 

[laagamer]

There's a few people on here who agree with this.

I know I've said it at least once.

Their posts are similarly... "interesting"

[QuinlansMinion]

You guys and your conspiracy theories

[laagamer]

And Howie was the best Angels 2B I've ever seen personally, and a tremendous person to boot.

I'll always root for him.

Anyone who says he sucked is moron.

[QuinlansMinion]

And Howie was the best Angels 2B I've ever seen personally, and a tremendous person to boot.

I'll always root for him.

Anyone who says he sucked is moron.

Great regular season player. He sucks in the postseason.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Great regular season player. He sucks in the postseason.

to be fair, that could be said about just about every angel in his era...sadly

[Jim]

to be fair, that could be said about just about every angel in his era...sadly

And the greater majority of all baseball players, ever.

[Dick B Back]

What I can't figure out is why anyone would ever throw Kendrick a pitch that wasn't a slider...even if you don't have a slider in your repertoire.

Probably the same reason Angels pitchers throw fastballs to Hamilton... they just can't help themselves.

For the record, I miss Howie.

I've noticed more than once where Johnny G bats in a big spot late in the game where his poor D earlier in the game led to opposition runs. Just saying...

[ABC]

[CaliAngel]

haha i can't believe this thread is still going strong

[Guest]

 

it's Mike Trout's stats. ohwowoow

Edited October 17, 2015 by failos

[ABC]

He had a stretch of 3 years where he was really terrible in high leverage.  From 2011 to 2013.  He was good before that but I think that's what people remember.  When you consider that it gets magnified by the fact that the Angels were just losing more games during those seasons than they had earlier in howie's career.  

 

there is also some issue by just using leverage as the indicator.   an aLI of 2.0 is considered high leverage.  There are multiple situations in the first 3 innings that have an aLI over 2.0.  

 

To reiterate - Howie was one of my favorites and I was totally bummed to see him go.  But the recall to create the narrative isn't totally anecdotal.  It started with him having a mediocre year in 2010 and then the three years to follow showed him to be worse than his usual self when it mattered more.  

 

here are the numbers from those four seasons

year, WPA (clutch)

 

2010   0.34 (0.25)

2011   0.66 (-1.33)

2012   -2.25 (-2.43)

2013   -0.43 (-0.94)

 

During those four years, he had a WAR of 12.3 and a WPA of -1.68.  

 

His earlier postseason ABs (07/08?) vs the Red Sox were atrocious in critical bases loaded moments. He was toyed with when a hit could have changed the series. Getting a hit isn't easy but he folded and had non-competitive ABs when he was called on to deliver. Nothing has changed.

[ABC]

I wonder what CF8 thinks about Howie.

 

I was a Howie fan from the beginning. I thought him and Kotch were going to be the heart of the order for the next decade. lol.  Howie showed resolve when he struggled early in his career at the plate and when he needed to improve his defense. 

 

However it seemed that he didn't care about the mental and strategic part of the game nearly that much and heavily relied on his talents. He has always been in top physical condition but he brushed off metrics that were presented to him which most likely made him easy to take advantage of in the moments that meant he most.

 

I never expected Howie to be a perennial .320 hitter. I thought he might be close to a .300 hitter. Yet that doesn't factor in my opinion of him as a player. He was frustrating to watch in high leverage situations when a pitcher made Howie look like Mathis. For that reason, I don't miss him and I'm happy with the brilliant move Dipoto made to get Heaney.

[Blarg]

85 plate appearances scattered across 6 seasons is always the true focus of any players career.

[CaliAngel]

I was a Howie fan from the beginning. I thought him and Kotch were going to be the heart of the order for the next decade. lol.  Howie showed resolve when he struggled early in his career at the plate and when he needed to improve his defense. 

 

However it seemed that he didn't care about the mental and strategic part of the game nearly that much and heavily relied on his talents. He has always been in top physical condition but he brushed off metrics that were presented to him which most likely made him easy to take advantage of in the moments that meant he most.

 

I never expected Howie to be a perennial .320 hitter. I thought he might be close to a .300 hitter. Yet that doesn't factor in my opinion of him as a player. He was frustrating to watch in high leverage situations when a pitcher made Howie look like Mathis. For that reason, I don't miss him and I'm happy with the brilliant move Dipoto made to get Heaney.

 

Great post. Jist of my feelings on Kendrick.

[seenoevil]

what a thread!

Edited October 17, 2015 by Stradling

[KevinJ14]

The exact moment Howie Kendrick started to swing at this terrible Familia pitch last night.

 

 

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[ABC]

howie being howie