Dealing with Strat Injuries
By Joe Harder - Guest Writer & Owner of the Charlottesville Meadows
11/04/2006
Although my club, the Charlottesville Meadows, entered The Stratomatic League’s “blow out” with a record of 5-4, things went south in a hurry during the weekend, the Meadows now stand with a record of 14-22, and hopes of making the playoffs are dim.
Perhaps the team just isn’t that good, but it has also been beset by a number of injuries.
This article covers my decisions and their outcomes around injury call-ups.
Last year was the first year that the team was really hit hard by injuries, falling two games short of making the playoffs after losing key component Frank Thomas and many other smaller parts for big chunks of the season, and that pattern seems to be repeating itself again this year.
The tone was set early when Ryan Freel was hit by a pitch and knocked out for multiple games in his very first plate appearance of the season, which, incredibly, happened again on his second plate appearance after he returned from his first injury. At least with those two injuries he reached his allotment for our entire season based on his plate appearances in the majors in 2005, so he became indestructible.
INJURY LIST
Here’s the list of Charlottesville Meadows injuries through the first thirty six games, comprising two-thirds of the season.
Jason Giambi – 1 (out of 2 maximum allowed)
Rich Aurilia – 2 (maximum)
Adam Everett – 2 (maximum)
Javier Valentin – 3 (out of 26 maximum)
Corey Koskie – 4 (out of six maximum)
Frank Thomas – 4 (out of 36 maximum)
Ryan Freel – 6 (maximum)
Kenny Lofton – 6 (maximum)
Junior Spivey – 20 (out of 26 maximum)
Part of the lesson is not to rely so much on limited use players, who are more susceptible to injury. But it also gave me a chance to experiment with players who were just outside my twenty five man roster.
When Freel went down twice in the first series, I got to experiment with the versatility that Craig Counsell’s card gave me (a second shortstop who was better than a four, primarily, and a reverse lefty bat). He hit only .214, but did manage an on base average of .353 during his call up.
DOWN GOES LOFTON
Next down was Kenny Lofton, and so I had to think about what centerfielder to bring up between Brady Clark and Aaron Rowand. Both right handed batters were mostly singles hitters, okay in the clutch, and starred base stealers, although Clark was “stupid,” in that he could be picked off. Clark’s card had eleven more on base chances versus right handed pitching (and seven versus lefties), but he was a cf-4 compared to Rowand’s cf-1 (both with zero arms and low error ratings). Did I really want to run a four range factor centerfielder out there, to pair with Sheffield, my four in right, and often, with Wilson my four in left? Does the value of a one in center make up for eleven fewer on base chances versus right handed pitching?
I ended up going with Clark, certainly a questionable decision.
It didn’t occur to me at the time, but perhaps should have, that if I was content with a four in centerfield, Ryan Freel could do that, and I could have brought up someone else. But much of the value of Freel’s card is its positional versatility. In fact, other than a really negative clutch rating, Freel’s is a great card, and I look forward to using him as we used to use Tony Phillips (though maybe Freel is not quite as good).
Clark ended up hitting .286 overall (.400 against right handed pitching), with a .348 on base percentage (thanks to a walk and a hit by pitch), and sacrificed successfully the one time he was asked to do so, but all his hits were singles, he struck out four times, and he grounded into one double play. The stats show that he made one of the two x chart plays that came his way, but I don’t recall the significance of either in the games.
In game fourteen, against the Busy Bodies, Aurilia got injured for one additional game, so I brought up Craig Monroe, to allow me to rest the overused Craig Wilson.
In his one game, Monroe went oh for three against lefty Barry Zito, with no chances in the field.
DOWN GOES KOSKIE, BIG HURT
Corey Koskie went down in game seventeen, versus The Team, for one additional game, so I brought up Brandon Inge to face Gustavo Chacin, one of The Team’s three lefties.
Inge also went oh for three, with no chances in the field.
Frank Thomas went down in the next game, for three additional games, so I had another roster decision to make. This time, I brought up Rowand, knowing it was only a three game commitment. He seemed the right choice because The Team, whom I was facing in the next three games at the time, featured left handed starters Andy Pettitte, and Noah Lowry in addition to Chacin. As long as he was a complement to Lofton, not having to start against right handed pitchers, he fit the role nicely.
ROWAND’S SURPRISE
In his first three games, Rowand hit .545 and slugged .818, with a home run, two runs scored, and two runs driven in. With one hit by pitch (but no walks), his on base percentage was .583. He hit .500 against lefties, and hit his home run in his only at bat against a right handed pitcher. He was caught stealing in his only attempt, however, and did strike out three times. He caught all six balls that were hit to him in those three games.
In game nineteen, Rowand’s first game, Junior Spivey got injured, for a total of eleven games, so I now had two players on the disabled list. This was a hidden opportunity, in some ways, as I could now choose whether to keep Rowand or Spivey’s replacement, whoever that was, for eight games beyond Frank Thomas’s return.
With that in mind, I knew that whoever I picked up could be for as few as two games, if I wanted to keep Rowand. I thought about bringing up a relief pitcher, to rest my regular bullpen a bit, but instead opted for infield versatility, and a two at second base (since that was some of Spivey’s value) by bringing up Counsell again.
Counsell went one for seven in his two starts, and I did indeed decide to keep Rowand for the duration of Spivey’s injury. In three games against the Goths, Rowand hit .250, with an on base of .333 and a slugging percentage of .625 (including another home run, against Randy Johnson), and one for two in his final three games, against the Mohawks.
SHEFFIELD MANS SHORTSTOP!
In subsequent games, injuries continued to hit the Meadows. In game twenty eight, against the Mohawks, both Adam Everett and Corey Koskie went down during the game, necessitating Gary Sheffield playing shortstop in the fifth inning of what was then an eight to four game. In his four innings there he had one putout, three assists, and was part of one double play. Not bad for a return to the position he played when he first became a major leaguer (no ss(X) plays occurred, however). In game thirty, again against the Mohawks, Adam Everett again got knocked out with an injury. The game called for him to be out for eight additional games, but because he had over five hundred plate appearances our league says he can only be injured for the rest of that game, and that can only happen twice during our fifty four game season, so he became “indestructible” for the rest of my season.
In game thirty two, the second against the Outlaws, Jason Giambi got knocked out. Here again, though the game called for two additional games, as an over five hundred plate appearance player he could come back the next game.
Game thirty four, still against the Outlaws, saw Javier Valentin get dinged for two additional games (his maximum would have been twenty six, so three is not too bad). I took that opportunity to call up Rene Rivera, he of the forty eight on base versus lefties and fifty six versus righties, but limited to forty percent of his forty nine 2005 plate appearances (nineteen plate appearances for me). Rivera went two for four, with a single and double, in his first game, the Meadows only win against the Outlaws, but zero for four his second game on the roster.
Junior Spivey was injured again in the solo win against the Outlaws (game thirty five), this time for a total of nine games, bringing his season total to twenty games missed (out of his maximum of twenty six). With so many normal left-handed starters now in our league I made him the final roster spot (over Craig Counsell), so I feel this has weakened my lineup considerably. Based on how he performed in his previous call up, I brought up Aaron Rowand again. He doubled and struck out twice in three trips to the plate and scored a run in our final loss against the Outlaws, so his average thus far stands at .417, with an on base percentage of .462 and a slugging percentage of .708. Plus, having the one in centerfield keeps me from holding my breath for the split on each cf(X), the way I do with Kenny Lofton and his cf-3 out there.
I’m not sure my uninjured team would have done much better than my current record of 14-22, especially considering we were 5-5 in games Rowand played (and 4-4 where he was more than just a pinch hitter or defensive replacement), and he isn’t even on the twenty five man roster!
SPIVEY: SUBTRACTION BY ADDITION
And my choice for twenty fifth roster spot (over Craig Counsell, Aaron Rowand, Rene Rivera) hasn’t done that great either. When Spivey got injured the first time, we sat with a record of 8-11. Over the next nine games, with him on the disabled list, we went 5-5. After he rejoined the roster, we went 1-6 before he was injured again, and 0-1 since. That’s 5-6 with him injured so far, and 9-17 with him on the team…wow.
Maybe my team just isn’t that good, but I would have liked to see us without injuries. Then again, that’s part of the game, and I guess I need to learn to take that into account better when fashioning a team.