Buy Low/Sell High Roto Stat Summary

For the hitters, here is the most up to date summary.

	ab/hr	ab/h	bb/so	ab/rbi	ab/run
Buy	25.5473	3.6182	0.4885	6.2085	6.7639
Sell	27.4521	3.6771	0.5592	6.6358	6.6578
	ab/sb	BABIP	SLG	OBP	OPS
Buy	180.0476	0.3102	0.4615	0.4325	0.8941
Sell	111.3333	0.3200	0.4491	0.4422	0.8913

After struggling mightily at the beginning of the thing, it’s finally started to turn the corner on the year. As you can see, I’m doing better in HR, H, RBI, and OPS. Not too shabby.

Now onto the pitchers:

	ERA	FIP	FIP-ERA	WHIP	K/BB	BABIP
Buy	4.5929	4.1041	-0.4888	1.3466	2.6563	0.2991
Sell	4.0317	4.1833	0.1516	1.3292	2.0619	0.2852
	K/9	H/9	HR/App	GmSc	#App/W
Buy	7.8982	9.1460	0.6350	50.1095	3.8056
Sell	6.2266	8.9429	0.5874	50.7330	3.4915

It looks like I’m having some bad luck. My FIP is so much lower than actual ERA. I’m leading in FIP, K/BB, K/9, and FIP-ERA. I’m losing the WHIP, H/9, Gm Sc, and # Appearances need for Win. Eventually my luck will turn around.

Would the real Huston Street please stand up.

Over the last couple of months, Huston Street has completely disappeared. He's been extremely inconsistent and many times horrendous. Since June 20th, he's been in 17 games with an ERA of 7.11 giving up 15 ER, 12BB, 14 K, and 26 Hits in only 19 IP. He has blown the lead (either blowing the save or losing the lead) 6 times since that time.

In the previous 29 appearances, he only gave up the lead twice, with giving up 11ER and 8BB, 35K, in 31.1 IP. He gave up 22Hits in these 29 appearances.

K/9 of 10.12 and a BB/9 of 2.32 before
k/9 of 6.63 and a BB/9 of 5.68 after

That's quite a difference in control.

What's causing it though? I personally believe he's injured or in a "pre-injury" period where the body isn't functioning properly but there aren't any symptoms. Looking at the PFX data only confirms what's I'm fearing.

To me I want to show the most damning pieces of evidence first. I want to look at the vertical movement over his season to see if there has been any drop off.






You can clearly see in all 3 graphs there is a general downward trend in the vertical movement of his pitches, especially his change-up and slider. This is a very bad thing. The pitches are basically coming in on a straight plane and there is a much less of an adjustment that the hitter needs to make. Eventually they'll start coming in like a batting practice pitch and of course it's going to leave like it too.



His pitches are also slowing down but not nearly as dramatically as the downward trend of the vertical movement. His fastball pitch is slowly decreasing which is not a good sign.

Next, I want to look at how many pitches he's throwing in each outing.

Ever since the middle of the season his pitch counts are basically trending upwards. He's less efficient, getting hit harder, and not being as effective as he should be. Going along with this you can see the general upward trend of the percentage of pitches that were thrown for balls. This means he's losing his control of his pitches, which is often a sign of injury.

Throw all of these together and to me it's troubling. I think there is something going on. It may be fatigue, but it may also not be fatigue. It could be an injury that we don't know something about. It could be a trunk injury, it could be a shoulder injury, or it may be an elbow injury.

Carl Crawford Injury Analysis

Will Carroll defined Crawford's injury as a "subluxating extensor tendon" in his middle finger in today's Under The Knife column. One of the MDs he spoke with compared it to the worst type of fracture. This is definitely true and one comparable that I think of immediately is similar although different and that's Curt Schilling's bloody sock injury from 2004.

Schilling's ankle injury was a subluxating peroneal tendon in the ankle which eventually needed surgery to correct. Schilling's subluxating injury was extremely painful and diminished his effectiveness, power, and control. Crawford's injury is similar in that the tendon will most likely not heal on its own and could require surgery to fix it. The injury will cause a decrease in power, bat control, and of course effectiveness.


(courtesy of ASSH.org)

This is what happens. The area in question is the knuckle at the base of the finger on the back of your hand(right where the other tissue crosses and at the dark circle in the picture above). There is a sheath of connective tissue which basically forms the roof over the tendon in order to keep it place with movement. The other sides are all surrounded by bone and cartilage. If this sheath is torn the amount the tendon can slide around depends on the amount the sheath is torn. If the sheath is completely torn, the tendon can come all the way out (dislocate) and then go back in on its own. If the sheath isn't completely torn, the tendons don't go all the way out but they ride up to the top of one of the side lips, rendering it essentially non-functional.

The most aggregating motion for this is forceful side to side motion while gripping something like a bat. Swinging a bat requires the muscles controlling the fingers to contract forcibly which puts tension on all of the tendons. This tension is what can cause that extensor tendon to sublux.

The sheath when torn reacts just like a tendon when torn. If it is completely torn, it basically never heals without surgery. If it is partially torn, there is a chance that it will scar down, but even then it requires a length of time.

Unlike Schilling's injury, there is no bracing of the fingers which would allow him to play. In order to brace/split the finger appropriately, he would need to have his whole finger stabilized from moving in either direction.

This is why honestly, I don't expect he can avoid surgery. There usually isn't any problems long term, but there is always that small chance that it can recur.