Nine to Know: The AL Postseason Watch

1. Adrian Beltre hit a tiebreaking two-run 9th inning homer off Angels closer closer Ernesto Frieri as the Rangers topped the Angels, 3-1, and got the fat lady starting to warm up her voice for the Halos this season.Since the All Star break, Beltre has hit 19 homers in 62 games
2. Texas  is now 89-60 and the Angels  are now 81-69 and 4.5 games behind the A’s (85-64) who are 4 games behind Texas after clobbering Detroit (79-70), 12-4.
3. The A’s got bad news when they found that pitcher Brett Anderson will miss the rest of the season, due to an oblique injury.
4. The Tigers did not lose ground in the AL Central as the division leading White Sox (81-68) lost to the Royals, 4-3, on an Eric Hosmer walkoff single. The ChiSox have a 2 game lead in the division despite going 6-12 against the Royals this year.
5. The Yankees (86-63) increased their AL East lead to a full game by winning their fifth in a row as Nick Swisher  grand slammed and Ichiro Suzuki was simply grand again in a 10-7 win over the increasingly blue Jays.Ichiro in three games against Toronto
6. In the sweep of Toronto, Ichiro was 9 for 12 with three doubles, a homer, four RBI and four steals. He’s now hitting .321 as a Yankee including batting .362 against lefties. The Yanks matched their season high of 23 games over .500.
7. The Yankees lead the AL East by one over Baltimore (85-64) who were idle yesterday and by 6.5 over Tampa (80-70) who scored six in the bottom of the 9th including a three-run walkoff homer by B.J. Upton to top the pitiful Red Sox, 7-4.
8. By splitting the four games with Boston, Tampa Bay remained 5.5 games back of Oakland and Baltimore who are tied for the two AL wild-card slots.
9. Walkoffs:

• The A’s now have 13 walkoff wins and four walkoff losses.
• The Orioles now have seven walkoff wins and no walkoff losses.
• The Rays now have seven walkoff wins and six walkoff losses.
• The Tigers now have seven walkoff wins and seven walkoff losses.
• The White Sox now have seven walkoff wins and seven walkoff losses.
• The Rangers now have five walkoff wins and five walkoff losses.
• The Angels now have four walkoff wins and six walkoff losses.
• The Yankees now have two walkoff wins and six walkoff losses.

Bill Chuck’s Friday Nine to Know

1. From the day of Andy Pettitte’s first start May 13^th (a loss) through his last game (a win) on June 27, the Yanks went 27-14 (.659) tied with the Angels for the best record in baseball. Since that date, the Yanks have played .515 (35-33) ball.
2. The last time the Red Sox did not have a 15-game winner was 2001, the streak will end this season.
3. The last time the Red Sox did not have a hundred RBI batter was 1997, the streak will end this season.
4. Mike Leake leads all pitchers this season with two homers, but Yovani Gallardo has one this season, giving him 10 in his career tying him with Livan Hernandez among active pitchers and trailing only Carlos Zambrano who has 24.
5. While Albert Pujols is ending up with a strong season, he is not stopping an alarming trend: Pujols hit .357 in 2008, .327 in 2009, .312 in 2010, .299 last season, and .286 this season.
6. Aroldis Chapman leads all full-time relievers with 119 strikeouts in just 67.2 innings. Dick Radatz who had 181 whiffs in 157 relief innings for the Red Sox in 1964 holds the record.
7. So far Mike Trout, Alex Rios, B.J. Upton, and Ryan Braun are the only members of the 20 homer/20 steal club this season, the most in any season were the 19 in 1999. There were 12 last season.
8. Max Scherzer is the first starter (with a least 162 IP) to average over 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched since Kerry Wood in 2003 when he averaged 11.35. Scherzer is at 11.21.
9. Dickie Dietz is the only Giants catcher since the team moved to SF to have over 100 RBI (he had 107 in 1970); Buster Posey had 89.

Soft Stuff Vexing B.J. Upton

B.J. Upton looked like a Carlos-Beltran-In-Training back in his early twenties. Power, speed, plate discipline and plus defense in center field -- Upton had all of those attributes in spades. Since then, however, we've been left waiting for him to put all of those tools to use at once and turn in another monster season. Upton is channeling his inner Corey Patterson in 2012 instead, seemingly unable to tell balls from strikes when pitchers snap off a breaking ball or pull the string.

It's not really fair to call him a disappointment (second overall picks in the draft produce an average of 12.4 career Wins Above Replacement, while Upton already has 11.2 before his 28th birthday), but Upton's bat is backsliding as he heads for free agency this winter. Upton's OBP is just .302 (lowest since he was a scuffling 21-year-old in 2006), and his OPS+ is just 89. He's still hitting at or near the top of Tampa's lineup, but Upton's strike-zone judgment against "soft" stuff (curveballs, sliders and changeups) has cost him walks during his walk year.

Take a look at Upton's swing rate by pitch location against soft stuff in 2011, and then the league average:

Upton in 2011

League Average

Upton swung at a lot of breaking balls and changeups last season, but they were good swings on pitches thrown over the plate. When pitchers tried to expand the zone, he didn't bite. Upton took a cut at about 70% of soft pitches thrown in the strike zone, above the 65% MLB average, but chased just 28% of soft pitches thrown out of the zone (32% average). That quality plate approach allowed Upton to slug .398 against soft stuff. While not elite, that beat the league average by over 30 points.

In 2012, though, Upton looks confused against curves, sliders and changeups:

Upton in 2012

His in-zone swing rate against soft pitches has declined to 61%. Upton's chase rate, meanwhile, has climbed to 34%. With such poor pitch recognition, Upton's slugging just .238 against soft stuff. Jordan Schafer, Michael Bourn, Jemile Weeks, Carlos Pena and Brandon Crawford are the only qualified batters to show less punch against breaking and off-speed offerings.

Maybe it's time to stop doting upon the player we thought Upton would become and accept him for who he is: a swift fielder and baserunner who likely won't do more than keep his head above water at the plate. Upton is still plenty valuable when he complements his range and wheels with occasional power and a good number of free passes. But his Patterson-esque approach so far in 2012 won't cut it.