Separated at birth?

by el generico on Oct 28, 2005 12:41 PM PDT

After all the discussion of Mark Mulder and Dan Haren having eerily similar seasons, I thought I'd throw together some stats to make it easy to comapre in one place. It also got me thinking about how well Tim Hudson was replaced in the rotation (this is not about the issue of whether the Hudson trade netted us good players, but simply about how well he was replaced in the rotation by whoever took his place), so I took the time to compare Hudson to Joe Blanton. Somehow, Billy Beane replaced Hudson and Mulder with two clones of Hudson and Mulder, statistically speaking. Click Read More to see all the stats. . .

All statistics from baseballprospectus.com except salary from USAToday.com.

AGE YEAR TEAM W L ERA G GS IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP BK CG SHO H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9
Mark Mulder 27 2005 STL-N 16 8 3.64 32 32 205.0 212 90 83 19 70 111 9 9 0 3 2 10.0 0.9 2.8 4.4
Dan Haren 24 2005 OAK-A 14 12 3.73 34 34 217.0 212 101 90 26 53 163 6 6 0 3 0 8.7 1.0 2.1 6.4

And of course, the big issue for the A's:
2005 Salary
Mulder: $6,050,000
Haren: $323,500

AGE YEAR TEAM W L ERA G GS IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP BK CG SHO H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9
Tim Hudson 29 2005 ATL-N 14 9 3.52 29 29 192.0 194 79 75 20 65 115 9 4 0 2 0 9.3 1.0 2.8 4.9
Joe Blanton 24 2005 OAK-A 12 12 3.53 33 33 201.3 178 86 79 23 67 116 5 4 2 2 0 7.9 1.0 3.0 5.1

2005 Salary
Hudson: $6,500,000
Blanton: $316,500

So Billy Beane got essentially the same production, and saved $11.91 million. No wonder Lew wolf has kept this guy around.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for your comments about the stats, I had to look around a bit, but it seems that the rate stats at the end (H/9, HR/9, BB/9, SO/9) were pulled from the "Translated statistics" section of the BP player card, which is slightly different than his "actual statistics". The translated stats are all adjusted so that you can compare pitchers across eras, but I didn't realize this when I put my stats together. Sorry for the confusion, I guess this is what happens when I get cut-and-paste happy.

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I think your K/9 and BB/9 ratios are off. Hhow can Blanton have a K/9 that's .2 higher if he only had one more strikeout than Hudson and pitched 9 more innings?

by regfairfield on Oct 28, 2005 1:14 PM PDT reply actions

AND

Mulder and Hudson were in the NL, which on average is what, 1/2 a run lower then the AL in ERA right? Cuz they face pitchers and all that...

RIP Bill King "By the Beard of Zeus!" "I don't know if you heard me counting. I did over a thousand"

by ohad on Oct 28, 2005 1:45 PM PDT reply actions

Pretty Interesting Stuff!

Thanks for laying it out for us.

"If I'm not having fun, then I am not playing well" ~Bobby Crosby

by BobbyCrosbysGirl on Oct 28, 2005 2:05 PM PDT reply actions

i'm no mathematician

but:
Mulder: 19HR in 205IP = 0.9 HR/9
Haren: 26HR in 217IP = 1.0 HR/9

i'm not going to bother checking it but that looks wrong...

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on Oct 28, 2005 3:21 PM PDT reply actions

I should look like...

Mulder = .83 HR/9
Haren = 1.078 HR/9

At least this is what I got.

"If I'm not having fun, then I am not playing well" ~Bobby Crosby

by BobbyCrosbysGirl on Oct 28, 2005 3:30 PM PDT up reply actions

Either way

It is pretty dang close!

"If I'm not having fun, then I am not playing well" ~Bobby Crosby

by BobbyCrosbysGirl on Oct 28, 2005 3:32 PM PDT up reply actions

as much as i love the trade and haren

that is not pretty dang close.

home runs allowed are really the weak point so far with haren.
luckily, he doesn't walk anyone for months at a time so many of them were solo shots...

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on Oct 28, 2005 3:56 PM PDT up reply actions

what's also not pretty dang close

is the k:bb ratio. Haren blows Mulder away.

Monkeyball Note: if the A's postgame radio host was an evil supervillain, his official Evil Supervillain Laugh would be "Buan-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!")

by devo on Oct 28, 2005 4:02 PM PDT up reply actions

no doubt

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on Oct 28, 2005 4:49 PM PDT up reply actions

I didn't mean...

Mulder to Haren numbers were pretty dang close.

I meant the original numbers posted of .9 and 1.0 were close to .83 and 1.07; as in, lets not get up in arms about exact numbers when the ones posted were rather accurate, just rounded to the tenth instead of the hundredth places.

"If I'm not having fun, then I am not playing well" ~Bobby Crosby

by BobbyCrosbysGirl on Oct 28, 2005 4:28 PM PDT up reply actions

Well, they weren't rounded to the nearest 10th ...

they were actually both rounded away from the nearest 10th - and in a way that gave a very inaccurate description of their relative performances.

But, you're right, it's still good enough for government work.

Monkeyball Note: if the A's postgame radio host was an evil supervillain, his official Evil Supervillain Laugh would be "Buan-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!")

by devo on Oct 28, 2005 4:41 PM PDT up reply actions

exactly, again

rounded in an inaccurate way that supports the argument being made in the diary.

i'm not going to check on them all, but i wouldn't rely on any of the numbers posted in this diary for very much!

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on Oct 28, 2005 4:51 PM PDT up reply actions