Continuing on our series of posts (previous posts here and here) providing a more thorough statistical analysis of the Stros’ key players, today we examine the star-crossed careers of Craig Biggio and Jason Lane.
Bidg is already a Stros legend and may well be the first true Stros player to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bidg was the best secondbaseman in Major League Baseball during the decade of the 90’s, and baseball stat guru Bill James has rated him as the fifth best secondbaseman in Major League Baseball history. Accordingly, Bidg’s place as one of the best Stros players of all-time is well-secured.

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The Stros lost last night, but not due to any lack of effort from Roger Clemens. The Rocket continued his amazing season as the best 43 year old pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball, which only serves to cement his place as one of the three best pitchers in Major League Baseball history. Following in line with this earlier post on providing more detailed statistical analysis on the performance of Stros players, some of Clemens’ amazing statistics are set forth below. “NW” and “NL” refer to “Neutral Wins” and “Neutral Losses,” which are the number of wins and losses that Clemens would have had if his team had always generated a league average number of runs in support of his pitching. Here are the stats.

From time to time, I am going to pass along detailed statistics on the Stros’ players. In last night’s win, two of the players around whom the Stros will build over the next several years — Lance Berkman (whose stats are down a bit this season as he is playing while rehabbing from off-season knee surgery) and Roy Oswalt — had good games. Their respective statistics are here, including how they compare against the National League average. They are two of the best players in the National League at their respective positions.

George Will, who knows a bit about baseball, wrote this interesting column yesterday in the Washington Post in which he explores the South Atlantic Minor League Baseball League, otherwise know as “the Sally.” The Sally is the hinterland of professional baseball, a low-A league in which the best players on their respective high school teams are evaluated to determine whether they have what it takes to move on to the next level of baseball’s brutally efficient meritocracy. As Mr. Will notes:

The RiverDogs play 140 games in 151 days, traveling by bus, living at least two to a room in motels, some earning as little as $1,050 a month — and only during the season — with a $20 per diem for food. “Sometimes,” says a player touchingly grateful for life’s little blessings, “the motel is near an Outback.” A young man from west Texas says, “I had a brother working in the oil fields. So if I wake up tired one day, I think, ‘I could be doing that.’ ” Most of today’s Sally Leaguers will be doing something like that sooner than they can bring themselves to imagine. But for now they are delighting some of the 40 million fans who will see minor league baseball this summer.

About 40 percent of the players on the 40-man rosters of the 30 major league clubs each spring are Sally League alumni, including, last April, Derek Jeter, Curt Schilling, Ivan Rodriguez, Luis Gonzalez, Scott Rolen, Andruw Jones and John Smoltz. But nowhere near 40 percent of Sally League players get to the majors. Most were the best on their high school teams and are slow — mercifully so — to understand the severity of professional baseball’s meritocracy.

If you are interested in baseball, read the entire article. By the way, the Stros’ farm team in the Sally is the Lexington Legends ball club. Hat tip to Phil Miller over at the Sports Economist for the link to Mr. Will’s column.

The bloom is officially off the Stros‘ (63-54) streak after the lowly Pirates (51-67) took two out of three from the Stros over the weekend, including the last two in which the Stros could not manage a run. Ouch!
Thus, after getting back into the NL Wild Card playoff race with a 41-14 streak, the Stros are now 7-10 over their last 17 games. Unfortunately, that latter stretch is more representative of this Stros club’s ability-level. So, absent a late season acquisition of a strong hitter, it is not likely that this club will win the 27-30 games out of its last 45 that is probably necessary to clinch the Wild Card playoff spot.

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Stros reserve firstbaseman Mike Lamb is having a bad season. Coming off the best season of his career in 2004 (11 RCAA/.356 OBP/.511 SLG./867 OPS), Lamb has regressed this season to an Ausmusian -11/.259/.389/.649 stat line.
Consistent with Lamb’s futility at the plate this season, in the Stros’ win on Wednesday against the Nationals this week, Lamb should have been credited with a walk in the sixth inning, but instead stayed in the box and popped out to third after the plate umpire lost track of balls and strikes. At least Lamb has retained his sense of humor, as reflected by his observation about the incident in today’s Chronicle:

“What a year I’m having. Now I’m making outs on walks.”