Break It Down: Yu Darvish's 10K Performance Against NYY

Later tonight, Yu Darvish will take the hill against the Toronto Blue Jays, looking for his fourth win in his first five Major League starts. The Japanese righty has handled the pressure well thus far, and it was no more evident than during his performance last Tuesday against the New York Yankees.

All 38 of the pitches in his diverse repertoire were dialed in, leading to 10 strikeouts, a bevy of poorly calculated racial puns by the Texas faithful and one extremely satisfying Alex Rodriguez roll over into an inning-ending, bases loaded double play.

Click through to check out the full PHS analysis.

Trend Spotting: SB > Hits

Here is a topic I am 100% none of you have ever thought about. Remember in the 2004 ALCS when Dave Roberts was put in as a pinch runner and stole second in the 9th, scoring the tying run? Dave Roberts recorded no hits that post season and one stolen base.  Jump ahead to this year - Brent Lillibridge, yes the Brent Lillibridge, has recorded six steals to his four hits putting him on pace for forty-four (44) steals and twenty-nine (29) hits.

This triggered my thinking - given a larger sample size, say, an entire season, have there been any instances of elite base stealers grabbing more steals than hits? Baseball Reference to the rescue! I set the bar at the prorated Lillibridgian (sp?)  44 steals and ventured deep into the catacombs.  In 1978, Willie Wilson, seen here with his game-used fungo, swiped 46 bags while blooping 43 hits. Impressive Willie, no wonder you later became the first player to serve jail-time mid season for attempting to buy cocaine.  Aaaaaany who - after another couple hundred clicks I found myself staring at the holy grail of Lillibridgesque (sp?) stat lines:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	H	SB	CS
1976	26	OAK	AL	68	4	1	0	31	11

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com

That's right. ZERO hits and Thirty-one steals. If the first throwback didn't have enough consonance for you how about Larry Lintz. Pictured here holding a bat as if he had any idea how to use it, Larry is the only player in history to record 30+ steals in a season without recording a single hit. He also holds the title as the only player to have more steals than hits in his career (min 100 steals). Given these facts, I will concede that perhaps it is not Lintz who was Lillibridgish, but Lillibridge may be Lintz-like*.

*Of course I saved the best alliterative consonance for last.

Justin Turner Gets No Respect

Justin Turner, former CSU Fullerton star and scrappy utility infielder for the New York Mets, enters 2012 after a commendable first full season in the Bigs in which he was named the May 2011 NL Rookie of the Month. Unfortunately, Justin Turner gets no respect.

Turner's Y! Sports profile continues to feature a Baltimore Orioles headshot, complete with double chin, nearly two years after being designated for assignment by his former team. Fortunately, he's no Adam Jones.

PHS 2012 Fantasy Projections

Bill James. ZiPS. CAIRO. PECOTA. MARCEL. OLIVER. HAROLD. Okay I made that last one up but the fact remains that there are a great deal of baseball projections available to the common(hu)man. We here at Post Hype Sleeper are dedicated to the same sabermetric principals as our contemporaries. Without further ado, here is an anonymous preview of the 2012 PHS Baseball Projections complete with player profile!

Future-HOF, arboreal-appendaged onebee-stalwart superstar explodes under media pressure. Literally. The PHS projections spat out a paltry .000/.000/.000 statline. Our crack team of statisticians concluded the only possible reason for the empty binary projection was due to spontaneous combustion. Don't let his status as fantasy-elite fool you! If he's still available with that 3^rd pick now you know why!

Note: Inexplicably, the 2012 PHS Projections didn't sell a single copy. The tens of man-minutes put into this project may not have reaped any monetary benefits, but the knowledge gained in the process will surely afford us to create a more polished product for 2013. Start saving your pocket lint and fast-food leftovers now because the $FREE99 cover price is subject to change.

Henderson Alvarez Gets No Respect

Gif via NotGraphs

Sartorial Baseball: Hipster Craig Biggio

Craig Biggio retired in 2007 and moved to the San Francisco Mission District, where he appears here posing with his young rescued dog from the SF SPCA. Wearing a snapback, graphic tee, watch from American Apparel and "Hare" Jordan VIIs, Craig looks and acts like he's 22 years old despite his late 1960s birth date (not unlike many of his neighbors). You can catch him playing softball on Sundays in Delores Park, where he has moved back to catcher, mainly so he doesn't have to run too much, but also to stick it to the man (suck on that, Art Howe).

Big slap of the hands to Kicks On Cards via Sole Collector

Sooner Rather Than Later

Here is a list of several issues that needed to be resolved and divulged for good of baseball as a whole:

• Chipper hardens the fuck up and returns to his real name, Larry Wayne Jones. You're 40.
• BJ Upton to expand his name to Bossman Junior Upton.
• Paul Konerko to use a DJ Pauly D ''club banger'' as his at-bat music.
• Travis Wood to stop using “N****s In Paris” as his at-bat music.
• Some player, I'm looking at you Bronson Arroyo, to bring back the Pedro Martinez Jheri curl.
• Jaime Moyer to receive a 50 game suspension for failed drug test for Viagra.
• Moyer challenges the suspension citing his goal as Comeback Player of the Year.
• MLB remembers it's Comeback Player of the Year award is sponsored by Viagra.
• MLB arbitration panel overturns the suspension and Bud Selig personally apologizes/endorses.
• Buck Showalter releases his secret fifth scouting rule: No players with freckles.
• Shane Victorino to use incrementally larger helmets until we realize he is just a life-sized bobblehead.

Philip Humber Throws 21st Perfect Game in MLB History

You want another classic performance from a mediocre White Sox pitcher? We're talking Wilson Alvarez and Joe Cowley and Joe Horlen and Mark Buehrle. Blue Moon Odom and Francisco Barrios! Now Phil Humber throws the third perfect game in franchise history and the twenty first in MLB history.  

Sartorial Baseball: Matt Holliday Elephant Print PEs

Whether it's hitting lasers out of the three spot in the Cardinals lineup, or getting blasted in the midsection while patrolling left field, Matt Holliday plays the game in style. 

An early adopter of such baseball fashion statements as oversized no-elastic-in-the-ankle pants and white baldy, Holliday continues to follow in the footsteps of sports fashion legends. This season, Holliday takes the field wearing an elephant print (yes, just like the Air Jordan 3) version of the Nike Air Show Elite 2. 

A Barry Larkin-style custom bespoke handshake to Sole Collector. 

This Week In Athletic Foolishness - 4/20/11

The greatest right-handed pitcher of all time and the only man with the intestinal fortitude strong enough to work with Chris Rose every day lead the Fenway crowd in a toast on the 100th birthday of the hallowed stadium. Also, shots fired at Kareem Garcia (+10 bonus points).

Weird Body: Placido Polanco's Head

Some of this readership will surely find our inaugural post perlexing as it contains neither a “post hype” nor a “sleeper” player. Nayeth, I decree, we of POSTHYPESLEEPER bring forth this new blog with an ode to everyone's favorite Hasbro™ toy – Mr. Potato Head himself, Placido Polanco. When I think of how little attention Placido's bulbous, starchy cranium has garnered over the years I shudder knowing some little boy hasn't been traumatized by the eerily spudlike shadow it casts in the dog days of summer. Here's to you, Placido Polanco.

Here we find senor cazeba de patata in his natural habitat, mingling with his fellow tubers.

It's such a wonderful day for a hot air balloon ride-OH MY GOD GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE WE'RE ALL DEAD!

You get the point*

*Author's note: No modification was done to the shape of Mr. Polanco's head. It really is just an upside-down potato.