My IAL stats: Looking back at 2011

Our Illowa APBA League just finished its season in January and as usual, I got my stats done in the nick of time while in Pittsburgh.  Some stats of note:

Albert Pujols had a down year.  My friend Don S likes to tease me about Pujols and his “off” times but this time it’s worth noting.  For the 2011 season, Albert hit .296 with 34 homeruns.  Okay, not bad at all.  But this was the first year in his 10-year career with my team that he had less than 100 rbis.  He had 92.  It’s also just the third year he’s had less than 100 runs scored (95).  It didn’t help when Pujols went three nine-game series with only one homerun and just three rbis.

Time to trade him?  I know one Cardinal fan who would be more than happy to relieve me of him.  I don’t think so, though.  Good hitters are at a premium this coming year.

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Here’s an interesting stat:  After Albert Pujols, who had the most walks on my team?  Would you believe catcher Geovany Soto with 61?  Hard to fathom especially since he only played 103 games.  Soto sported six 14s on his 2011 APBA card and I just seemed to hit them.

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Call it the “Tale of Two CY Starters”.   Exhibit #1 John Lackey had a terrific year for me in 2011.  He led my Thunderchickens in wins (15-10), strikeouts (154), and ERA (3.52).  I could usually count on “Big John” for a good outing.

Now, bring on Exhibit #2, Jeff Niemann also a CY.  Niemann had a hard year with a 5-17 record.  With a 6.02 ERA, it wasn’t a big surprise.  Thank goodness he won his last game or he would have lost more than four times than he won.

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Finally, we get to the franchise pitcher, Stephen Strasburg.  Now, Strasburg (BKZ)didn’t get to pitch a lot in 2011 for us (and we won’t see him at all in 2012).  He got off to a rocky start.  In his second start, he got ejected arguing with the man in blue.  Rookie mistake… let’s not hold it against him, ok?  Two starts later, he gave up 12 runs in two innings.  During my visit to the mound that game, I told him, “You’re finishing this inning, Rook.”  That obviously took a while.

During the rest of year, Strasburg settled down and even ended up with a winning record (5-4).  His 5.72 ERA wasn’t anything to write home about but take away his two inning “lesson” and it would have been 4.24.  He ended up striking out 69 in 67 2/3 innings.

But I guess the most important stat for us is this:  68-94.  That was our won-loss record for the year putting us in last place.  The only silver lining is that it gives us the first pick in the 2012 draft.

For once though, I’ll be happy to take that 10th pick.