Retrospective: Scott Rolen 2001-2003

So, I made the decision to move Scott Rolen in a trade the other week. Many of you know the problems I had with Scott under-performing from his card stats. I really, really liked Scott, and kept waiting for his time to break out. 75 games into the 2001 season I traded for Rolen with the NY Rippers. I sent another long time favorite Vlad to NY for Scott. At the time Scott was really not doing well for the Rippers and Billy had enough.

Scott came and finished the 2001 season for the Stonecutters with the following line:

Year	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG
2001	87	327	64	101	25	2	16	58	47	85	15	5	0.309	0.400	0.544

Man, I thought I hit the jackpot! Rolen was rollen  in Atlanta, and couldn't wait for 2002 to come around as hit card got even better than 2001.  2002 I had a stronger team, and with the addition of Rolen I thought I would be able to take the division. Well, I came in 2nd place cause the Tribe had a great team I was not expecting. Rolen gave the Stonecutters the following production.

Year

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

SLG

2002

162

600

95

127

22

10

24

91

76

115

3

4

0.212

0.322

0.402

Ugh, everything that I hoped Rolen would be he was not. Hitting a horrible .212 with a slugging percentage of .402 was god awful. I wanted to cry. I believed that Rolen was the best third man out there in 2002 between the offensive stats and his defense. While Rolen lived up to the the defense he was way short on what was more important, offense.

As I picked up the pieces of the 2002 year looking forward to the 2003 year again my hopes for Rolen to be that middle of the order stud fell flat. 

Year

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

SLG

2003

97

380

56

89

33

2

13

50

38

90

4

4

0.234

0.319

0.434

No matter where I put Scott in the lineup he did nothing. Sure he was hitting a little bit better avg, and slugging, but it wasn't enough. The one bright spot is that in 97 games he hit way more doubles than the whole year in 2002.

So I decided to end the Rolen experiment and sent him off on his way to Seattle where he seems to be enjoying it out there so far. In 6 games he's hit 2 doubles, 2 home runs and driven in 6. Good luck, Scott. I wish we had better memories, but we will always have that awesome run in 2001.

Matt's New Power Rankings!

Matt's new power rankings, enjoy -Craig

Power Rankings are Back!

A few years ago, Kenny used to compute power rankings for the league from time to time and it was always interesting to see what he came up with. I thought I’d see if I could come up with a new formula. This was my first attempt. I’ll keep adding to the formula. I did not include defense here because I don’t think it should weigh as high as pitching or offense and it’s hard to compute anyway (errors? Range? Fielding percentage?). Also, divisional strength or strength of schedule should probably play a part.

Anyway, to start I based this on three categories: Offense rank based on runs scored, pitching rank based on ERA and run differential. Each team got a ranking in each category, 1 being the best. Then I added the three categories. Obviously, the lower the score, the better.

I ranked the twelve teams competing for the playoffs. I was surprised to find that Boston came out on top. We’ll see about that. I’ve long suspected that the Bombers will overtake us in the end by a half dozen games or so. Houston looks very strong to contend for their second title. San Diego may be their fiercest competition. Detroit placed quite high as well as they look to hold off Cleveland for their third straight division title.

In the Baltimore-Oakland trash talking competition, the power rankings say the Stouts have the edge. In fact, they even have the advantage over Los Angeles. Is it possible, the Stouts could catch them and win their third divisional crown? And of course, as trades are made and rosters change, teams may play better or worse than they have thus far. The ’03 playoffs should be memorable regardless.

Here is the breakdown:

Power Ranking		Run Differential	RD Rank	Pitching	Offense	Total
1	Boston Beaneaters	206	2	1	5	8
2	Houston Buffaloes	199	3	4	2	9
3	New York Bombers	311	1	8	1	10
4	Detroit Buckeyes	155	4	5	4	13
5	San Diego Vipers	137	5	2	9	16
6	Atlanta Stonecutters	119	7	6	7	20
7	Arizona Apaches	120	6	13	3	22
8	Baltimore Stouts	86	8	11	6	25
9	LA Diablos	57	9	7	13	29
10	Oakland Osprey	55	10	9	11	30
11	Cleveland Rock N' Rollers	49	11	3	19	33
12	Washington Tribe	37	12	10	14	36