Anyhow, hit the jump for baseball number goodness.

5/16

Oliver Perez: 27 K, 28 BB, $12 million. Carl Pavano: 34 K, 7 BB, $7 million.

I ripped Pavano as much as anyone for the shit he pulled with the Yankees, but he has been legitimately good this year (outside of his last start after this post, naturally). Perez’s contract was, is, and will forever be terrible.

5/18 (belated 5/17)

Brett Gardner: 17 SB, 1 CS. Baltimore Orioles: 9 SB, 10 CS.

This is me just making sure everyone knows how awesome of a base stealer Gardner is. He’s really, really awesome. At this point, he has taken away the title of “New York’s Most Exciting Player” away from Reyes. Shit, Angel Pagan is his closest competition at the moment, not Reyes.

5/18

Pedro, 1997-2003: 1408 IP, .940 WHIP, 213 ERA+. Koufax, 1962-66: 1377 IP, .926 WHIP, 167 ERA+.

I’m going to whip out FIP here. Pedro over his years: 2.39, 3.40, 1.39 (!), 2.17, 1.61, 2.24, 2.21. Koufax over his years: 2.54, 1.88, 1.74, 2.04, 1.73. Basically, other than the 3.40 in 1998, Pedro was as amazing a pitcher as Koufax was. Only Pedro pitched in one of the highest-scoring eras in baseball history. In Fenway Park. In the AL East. Koufax pitched in the greatest pitching era since the dead-ball era in Dodger Stadium. This is what accounts for the MASSIVE discrepancy in ERA+. In case you don’t know, that 213 ERA+ means Pedro was 113% better than the average pitcher (67% for Koufax).

I just want to get across that Pedro Martinez was better than Sandy Koufax. But the old people that still think otherwise don’t read this blog, unfortunately.

5/19

No-hitters by people with one hand: 1. No-hitters by New York Mets: 0.

Jim Abbott > Tom Seaver.

5/21

Ubaldo Jimenez: 8-1, 0.99 ERA, 58 K. Zack Greinke, 2009, thru 9 starts: 7-1, 0.82 ERA, 73 K.

I remember many people saying Greinke had already locked up the AL Cy Young at this point last year, but considering the way Roy Halladay is pitching (and his team), Jimenez has some work left ahead of him.

5/21

Pedro Martinez, 2000: 1.74 ERA. Roger Clemens, 2000, 2nd in AL: 3.70 ERA.

Almost a full 2-run difference. That season Pedro’s ERA+ was 291. In closing, Pedro Martinez in his prime was the greatest pitcher baseball has ever seen.

How did I ever decide to root for the Phillies?

Actually, in practice I’ve been seemingly going back and forth by player this entire World Series.

Cliff Lee? Wow, he’s a pimp, I want him to throw a shutout.

Jimmy Rollins? Shut the fuck up and strike out, please.

A-Rod? You fucking suck. Six Ks? Is Kate Hudson on the rag?

Chase Utley? Oh my God, you truly are my forbidden crush.

Mariano Rivera? No way I want to see the Phillies beat you.

Shane Victorino? Die in a Hawaiian volcanic eruption.

Perhaps I need to take this advice, and just look at the bright side of each possible outcome. If the Yankees lose, A-Rod still doesn’t have a ring, Yankee fans turn on every possible player, and the Yankees lose any possible claim at team of the decade. If the Phillies lose, they won’t be the first NL team to repeat in over 30 years, Philly doesn’t become the new Boston, and Jimmy Rollins shuts up.

As for comments on the actual game tonight, it was another pitchers’ duel that this time fell on the Yankees’ side. Pedro’s line was dangerously close to my prediction (three runs instead of four), and A.J. Burnett pitched a great, if not brilliant, game. And then of course Mariano Rivera threw 39 pitches in another ho-hum two-inning postseason save. That was the 14th two-inning save of his postseason career, and the 33rd time he pitched at least 2 innings in any situation. Piece of cake.

Succeeding Rivera as Yankee closer will be the worst job in the world.

Tonight, Pedro Martinez threw 8 scoreless innings on 130 pitches. Did he ever throw 130 pitches on the Mets? (Baseball-Reference says he only threw 120 pitches once, in 2005) I can’t believe this shit. I definitely thought he was asking too much at the beginning of the season, but at this point, it looks like he may be worth that $5 million he was asking over only 1/4 of the season. His 2.87 ERA is now better than Johan Santana’s. I want to die.

At least the Mets didn’t get swept, I guess. And David Wright actually had a two-homer game yesterday. I wasn’t sure if that would happen ever again. Josh Thole also went 4-4 in the first game of the doubleheader today. Those are about the only positive things I can think of right now. Oh, and Carlos Beltran is still able to stand after playing a bunch of games. That’s cool.

Fuck this season.

Skip ahead 24 hours, and Delgado is swinging at ball four again, the rest of the offense doesn’t score nearly as much as it should against the Marlins, and Pedro is out for however long the fuck knows. There’s no way that’s grammatically correct. Maybe it was a good thing Pedro got hurt, since he was getting demolished by the MARLINS. He heard a pop, which means he probably won’t be back for a while. Unless that was all an April Fools’ joke. I haven’t watched or listened to any sports today, so maybe they announced it on Mike and Mad Dog today.

. . .

goddamn it.

At least my fantasy team is doing well, even if Pedro did suck it up.