This Week in JunkStats: Week 4

It was a sparse week for Dumb Luck Wins and Tough Luck Losses. Also included this week: team Out Prevention Percentage (OPP) standings. There are some big surprises on that list.

For the second straight week, there was only 1 Dumb Luck Win in MLB. That drops us below record pace for the first time this year.

This Week in Dumb Luck Wins

# of DLWs this week: 1
DLW% this week: 1.4% (1 out of 70 starter wins)
DLWs so far in 2011: 15 (out of 278 starter wins, 5.4%)
On pace for: 95 (There were 81 DLWs last year. The record-high is 106.)

Here is the info for this week’s only DLW:

Six of this year’s 15 DLWs have now been against the Astros. That is just ridiculous. The entire American League has had only 3 DLWs so far this year. Last year, no team had more than 6 DLWs pitched against them all season (the Mets and Tigers both suffered through 6 DLWs from the opposition). The Astros have matched that total in the first month of 2011.

There was also just 1 Tough Luck Loss this week.

This Week in Tough Luck Losses

# of TLLs this week: 1
TLL% this week: 1.5% (1 out of 65 starter losses)
TLLs so far in 2011: 10 (out of 268 starter losses, 3.7%)
On pace for: 63 (There were 85 TLLs in 2010.)

Here is this week’s TLL:

A.J. Burnett is not the first guy I’d expect to have a TLL. Or the 50th. I’d peg him as more of a DLW type. He’s pitched pretty decently so far this year, though, and as we’re about to see, the Yankees’ offense hasn’t been quite as dominant as you’d expect based on their home run totals.

This Week in Another Junk Stat: OPP (Team)

Each week, I’ll update you on one of the other Junk Stats. This week, I’ll examine the Out Prevention Percentage (OPP) for each team. Which teams have been most successful at not making outs? For reference, the league-average OPP is now .307 (which would be the lowest mark since 1988 if it held up for the entire season).

Just imagine how good the Cardinals’ OPP would be if they didn’t hit into so many double plays. Of course, it’s easy to hit into double plays when you always have runners on base.

An interesting note is that the top 5 teams all play in a central division. That’s pretty surprising, especially in the case of the Indians and Royals.

I was also shocked to see the Mariners rank ahead of supposed great-hitting teams like the Rockies, Phillies, Diamondbacks, Yankees, and Rangers. They lead MLB in both ROEs (not too unexpected) and walks (very unexpected). They’ve also hit into only 10 double-plays, which is also the best mark in MLB. The Mariners only rank 20th in MLB in on-base percentage, but the combination of lots of ROEs and very few GIDPs puts them at 7th in OPP. Their OPP (.321) is actually higher than their OBP (.317); I don’t think that’s ever been done by a team for an entire season.