/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47047054/usa-today-8767618.0.jpg)
Every once in a while there's a performance in a game that needs to be called out because it gets lost in the WPA shuffle. In this game that dubious performance belongs to James Russell for his eighth-inning -- I'm going to call it a dumpster fire; you can call it what you will -- in which he gave up one intentional walk, one unintentional walk, two hits that weren't homers, and one ugly grand slam. And because it was a 5-1 game at the time, it ended up having a -.009 WPA effect. But when you have a performance that's that bad, it has to get its proper due. So congratulations James, for taking a game that was already pretty blah and putting a giant cherry on top of it.
Graphs for Game 126 (courtesy of Fangraphs):
Stats for Game 126:
Pitcher |
IP |
H |
HR |
ER |
BB |
SO |
pLI |
WPA |
Z Rosscup |
0.2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.05 |
.002 |
J Russell |
1 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
0.03 |
-.009 |
D Haren |
6.1 |
6 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
0.62 |
-.348 |
Total |
8 |
10 |
2 |
9 |
5 |
4 |
0.48 |
-.355 |
Batter |
AB |
R |
H |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
pLI |
WPA |
S Castro |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.57 |
.086 |
A Rizzo |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0.67 |
.048 |
M Szczur |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.88 |
.002 |
C Coghlan |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.13 |
-.003 |
M Montero |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0.22 |
-.005 |
T La Stella |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0.41 |
-.010 |
D Haren |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1.1 |
-.023 |
K Bryant |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0.29 |
-.029 |
K Schwarber |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0.47 |
-.044 |
A Russell |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0.56 |
-.051 |
J Herrera |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1.17 |
-.056 |
C Denorfia |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0.6 |
-.060 |
Total |
30 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
16 |
0.6 |
-.145 |
Writer's Note: The daily selections of the three Heroes and three Goats are based solely on the top three and bottom three WPA scores for the game. The selections are not based on my subjective opinion.
THE THREE HEROES:
- Superhero - Starlin Castro (.086). Driving in the game's only run is what got him here, but special mention should also be made of the fact that he didn't strike out in four times to the plate.
- Hero - Anthony Rizzo (.048). Gained part of his points because of the wild pitch by Madison Bumgarner, but it didn't really matter because...
- Sidekick (tie) - Zac Rosscup and Matt Szczur (.002). ...this was the bottom of the podium on Thursday. Two-thirds of a scoreless inning -- albeit a very interesting two-thirds of a scoreless inning -- and a walk. The bottom of the podium sometimes isn't very pretty.
THE THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat - Dan Haren (-.348). Amazingly enough, his ERA and his FIP are exactly the same, and they're both really bad: 6.31.
- Goat - Chris Denorfia (-.060). The main thing that put him on the podium was having two hitless plate appearances while the game was still close. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be the leadoff hitter, especially if you don't get on base.
- Kid - Jonathan Herrera (-.056). He only had one plate appearance before the score broke open, and it was an inning-ending whiff with two on.
Heroes |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
Total |
Anthony Rizzo |
14 |
22.5 |
7.5 |
94.5 |
Kris Bryant |
14 |
11 |
7 |
71 |
Dexter Fowler |
10 |
5 |
13 |
53 |
Jake Arrieta |
13.5 |
4 |
0.5 |
49 |
x-Jorge Soler |
6 |
11 |
3 |
43 |
Miguel Montero |
9.5 |
5.5 |
2 |
41.5 |
Chris Coghlan |
8 |
3 |
8 |
38 |
Starlin Castro |
4 |
7 |
11 |
37 |
Addison Russell |
6 |
5.5 |
7.5 |
36.5 |
Jon Lester |
7 |
4 |
2 |
31 |
Jason Hammel |
7 |
4 |
0 |
29 |
Kyle Schwarber |
7 |
2 |
4 |
29 |
Hector Rondon |
0 |
9 |
8.5 |
26.5 |
Travis Wood |
2 |
6 |
3.5 |
21.5 |
Kyle Hendricks |
5 |
1 |
2 |
19 |
Jonathan Herrera |
1 |
5 |
2 |
15 |
Pedro Strop |
1 |
1 |
8.5 |
13.5 |
Chris Denorfia |
1 |
2 |
4.5 |
11.5 |
Matt Szczur |
2 |
1 |
2.5 |
10.5 |
x-Jason Motte |
0 |
2.5 |
5.5 |
10.5 |
Justin Grimm |
0 |
2 |
6.5 |
10.5 |
Zac Rosscup |
2 |
0 |
3.5 |
9.5 |
James Russell |
0 |
3 |
1.5 |
7.5 |
x-Junior Lake |
1 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
x-Tsuyoshi Wada |
1 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
x-Taylor Teagarden |
1 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
Clayton Richard |
1 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
x-Brian Schlitter |
0 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
x-Phil Coke |
1 |
0 |
0.5 |
3.5 |
Tommy La Stella |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
x-Edwin Jackson |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
Dan Haren |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
x-Welington Castillo |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
x-Arismendy Alcantara |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
x-David Ross |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
x-Mike Baxter |
0 |
0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
Tommy Hunter |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
x-Neil Ramirez |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
x-Yoervis Medina |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Goats |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
Total |
Starlin Castro |
10 |
9 |
14 |
62 |
Dexter Fowler |
9 |
8.5 |
8.5 |
52.5 |
x-Jorge Soler |
6 |
12 |
10 |
52 |
Addison Russell |
2 |
17 |
9 |
49 |
Kris Bryant |
7 |
9 |
8 |
47 |
Anthony Rizzo |
7 |
9 |
6 |
45 |
Chris Coghlan |
3 |
9 |
15 |
42 |
Kyle Hendricks |
9 |
2 |
1 |
32 |
Miguel Montero |
3 |
7 |
8 |
31 |
Pedro Strop |
8 |
2 |
0 |
28 |
Kyle Schwarber |
3 |
5 |
4 |
23 |
Jon Lester |
6 |
1 |
1 |
21 |
Chris Denorfia |
3 |
3 |
6 |
21 |
x-David Ross |
2 |
4.5 |
5.5 |
20.5 |
Jason Hammel |
4 |
4 |
0 |
20 |
Hector Rondon |
5 |
2 |
0 |
19 |
Justin Grimm |
2 |
4 |
3 |
17 |
Jake Arrieta |
5 |
0 |
1 |
16 |
Travis Wood |
3 |
2 |
3 |
16 |
Jonathan Herrera |
1 |
2 |
6 |
13 |
x-Tsuyoshi Wada |
4 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
Zac Rosscup |
3 |
1 |
1 |
12 |
x-Jason Motte |
1 |
4 |
0 |
11 |
x-Brian Schlitter |
3 |
0 |
1 |
10 |
Dan Haren |
2 |
1 |
1 |
9 |
x-Edwin Jackson |
2 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
x-Mike Baxter |
2 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
x-Welington Castillo |
1 |
1 |
2 |
7 |
x-Rafael Soriano |
2 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
x-Dallas Beeler |
2 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
James Russell |
1 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
x-Junior Lake |
1 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
Clayton Richard |
0 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
Matt Szczur |
0 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
x-Mike Olt |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
Tommy Hunter |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
x-Donn Roach |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
x-Gonzalez Germen |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
x-Phil Coke |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
Tommy La Stella |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
x-Arismendy Alcantara |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
x-Neil Ramirez |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Overall |
Hero |
Goat |
+/- |
Anthony Rizzo |
94.5 |
45 |
49.5 |
Jake Arrieta |
49 |
16 |
33 |
Kris Bryant |
71 |
47 |
24 |
Miguel Montero |
41.5 |
31 |
10.5 |
Jon Lester |
31 |
21 |
10 |
Jason Hammel |
29 |
20 |
9 |
Hector Rondon |
26.5 |
19 |
7.5 |
Kyle Schwarber |
29 |
23 |
6 |
Travis Wood |
21.5 |
16 |
5.5 |
Matt Szczur |
10.5 |
5 |
5.5 |
x-Taylor Teagarden |
5 |
0 |
5 |
James Russell |
7.5 |
5 |
2.5 |
Jonathan Herrera |
15 |
13 |
2 |
Tommy La Stella |
3 |
1 |
2 |
x-Junior Lake |
6 |
5 |
1 |
x-Arismendy Alcantara |
2 |
1 |
1 |
x-Yoervis Medina |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Dexter Fowler |
53 |
52.5 |
0.5 |
x-Phil Coke |
3.5 |
3 |
0.5 |
Clayton Richard |
5 |
5 |
0 |
x-Neil Ramirez |
1 |
1 |
0 |
x-Jason Motte |
10.5 |
11 |
-0.5 |
Zac Rosscup |
9.5 |
12 |
-2.5 |
Tommy Hunter |
1 |
4 |
-3 |
x-Donn Roach |
0 |
3 |
-3 |
x-Gonzalez Germen |
0 |
3 |
-3 |
Chris Coghlan |
38 |
42 |
-4 |
x-Mike Olt |
0 |
4 |
-4 |
x-Brian Schlitter |
5 |
10 |
-5 |
x-Edwin Jackson |
3 |
8 |
-5 |
x-Welington Castillo |
2 |
7 |
-5 |
x-Dallas Beeler |
0 |
6 |
-6 |
x-Rafael Soriano |
0 |
6 |
-6 |
Justin Grimm |
10.5 |
17 |
-6.5 |
x-Mike Baxter |
1.5 |
8 |
-6.5 |
x-Tsuyoshi Wada |
5 |
12 |
-7 |
Dan Haren |
2 |
9 |
-7 |
x-Jorge Soler |
43 |
52 |
-9 |
Chris Denorfia |
11.5 |
21 |
-9.5 |
Addison Russell |
36.5 |
49 |
-12.5 |
Kyle Hendricks |
19 |
32 |
-13 |
Pedro Strop |
13.5 |
28 |
-14.5 |
x-David Ross |
2 |
20.5 |
-18.5 |
Starlin Castro |
37 |
62 |
-25 |