With the help of FanGraphs and Win Probability Added (WPA), a sentence-long recap of the night’s White Sox and/or Cubs game. Sometimes longer … but usually not.

Chicago White Sox 12, Detroit Tigers 2

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Mark Buehrle 15.8% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Most Valuable Hitter: Juan Pierre 17.1% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Mark Kotsay and Carlos Quentin -2.2% WPA

When Juan Pierre hits a home run, you know things are good.

Chicago White Sox 1, Detroit Tigers 7

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Least Valuable Pitcher: Carlos Torres -26.3% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Most Valuable Hitter: Omar Vizquel 8.2% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Alex Rios -10.2% WPA

Two very boring games in Detroit. This one went the other way.

Milwaukee Brewers 4, Chicago Cubs 3

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Andrew Cashner 3.0% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Least Valuable Pitcher: Thomas Diamond -5.0% WPA
Most Valuable Hitter: Mike Fontenot 10.9% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Alfonso Soriano -21.4% WPA

Compared to Casey Coleman: It was much better debut for Thomas Diamond.

The Detroit Tigers have fallen off the face of the AL Central in recent weeks. Just don’t blame Miguel Cabrera. Here are three things you should know about the Tigers:

Miguel Cabrera’s doing it all — .351/.429/.660

Miguel Cabrera is in the race for the traditional Triple Crown: He’s No. 2 in average, No. 2 in home runs and No. 1 in RBI. But he’s in a similar position for the “slash” Triple Crown, three stats that are more telling and important then traditional numbers.

Obviously, his average is No. 2, but he’s also No. 2 in OBP (.429) and No. 1 in SLG (.660).

You can probably figure out from this that Cabrera leads the league in OPS (1.088).

Pitching played a huge role in the Tigers’ recent struggles — opponents tOPS+ in July was 110.

The stat tOPS+ is a way to split OPS+. It is the split relative to the player or team’s overall OPS+. Since OPS+ is a comparison stat: it compares a team to the league average, tOPS+ compares the team in a shortened period of time to itself over the entire season.

Like in July, when the Tigers’ tOPS+ was 110, it means the Tigers pitched about 5% worse than they’re capable of pitching. The Tigers’ offense (98) in July was closer to the team’s overall average.

Based on tOPS+, July was the worst month of the season for the Tigers’ pitchers. It wasn’t a good month for the entire team, either. The Tigers went from leading the division by a half game on July 10 to trailing the White Sox by seven games.

The Tigers will swing at strikes — 69.1% Z-Swing%.

Nearly more than any other team in baseball, the Tigers want to swing the bats. So far this season, they’ve done it more than all but one team — only the Blue Jays have swung at a higher percentage of pitches this season.

Where the Tigers are marginally better than the Blue Jays is that they swing at a higher percentage of strikes. Detroit’s 69.1% Z-Swing% says the Tigers swing at nearly 70% of the pitches inside the zone. They won’t go chasing, but they are looking to draw walks and make opposing pitchers throw a lot of pitches.

With the help of FanGraphs and Win Probability Added (WPA), a sentence-long recap of the night’s White Sox and/or Cubs game. Sometimes longer … but usually not.

Seattle Mariners 5, Chicago White Sox 6

Courtesy of FanGraphs

The numbers for the bullpen in this one are awesome. All came in for high leverage situations; all came out with positive WPAs.

Most Valuable Pitcher: Bobby Jenks 16.7% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Least Valuable Pitcher: Mark Buehrle -23.0% WPA
Most Valuable Hitter: Juan Pierre 12.7% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Carlos Quentin -7.8% WPA

Chicago Cubs 1, Houston Astros 8

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Least Valuable Pitcher: Randy Wells -16.9% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Most Valuable Hitter: Starlin Castro 12.0% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Aramis Ramirez -16.5% WPA

(/smacks forehead and shakes head)

With the help of FanGraphs and Win Probability Added (WPA), a sentence-long recap of the night’s White Sox and/or Cubs game. Sometimes longer … but usually not.

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Gavin Floyd 11.4% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Most Valuable Hitter: A.J. Pierzynski 14.1% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Alex Rios -3.2% WPA

The White Sox took care of business early: Mariners starter Ryan Rowland-Smith left the game with a WPA of -38.6%.

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Ted Lilly 28.3% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Least Valuable Pitcher: Andrew Cashner -34.4% WPA
Most Valuable Hitter: Marlon Byrd 5.2% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Derrek Lee -12.9% WPA

Brett Myers worked the Cubs — 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 HR, 1 BB and 12 Ks. His WPA: 43.9%.

The White Sox head to Oakland with a two game lead in the division. Here are a couple of things to know about the A’s:

Jack Cust is FIP — 50.6% of at-bats are “true outcomes”

Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) determines how well a pitcher has pitched, regardless of how well his fielders fielded. To do this only three things matter: walks, strikeouts and home runs; in other words, the three true outcomes.

For the past few seasons, Cust has been the king of the three true outcomes. He has fallen behind a little bit this season, mainly because he only has six home runs. (His K numbers are also slightly down).

A’s fans will take fewer strikeouts, even if it means Cust isn’t the true outcome champ anymore. But the lack of home runs has people wondering, where’s the power?

Freddy Garcia should do well on Saturday — -1.50 wCH/C, -2.29 wSF/C

The Athletics are middle of the road when it comes to their ability to hit most pitches; however, they’ve had their problems with the changeup and split-finger. This season, A’s hitters are -1.50 runs above average per 100 changeups and -2.29 runs above average per split-finger; both are bad enough to either be worst (changeup) or second worst (split-finger) in baseball.

How can the White Sox exploit this? The Sox will do just fine on Saturday when Freddy Garcia takes the mound. Combined Garcia throws these two pitches about 39% of the time; plus, they’re his two best pitches, according to FanGraphs Pitch Type Values.

With the help of FanGraphs and Win Probability Added (WPA), a sentence-long recap of the night’s White Sox and/or Cubs game. Sometimes longer … but usually not.

Chicago White Sox 1, Seattle Mariners 2

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Gavin Floyd 42.0% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Least Valuable Pitcher: Bobby Jenks 82.0% WPA
Most Valuable Hitter: Omar Vizquel 30.8% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Andruw Jones -28.6% WPA

Bobby Jenks really needs the breaking ball to be good. It wasn’t.

Houston Astros 4, Chicago Cubs 3

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Ted Lilly 21.5% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Least Valuable Pitcher: Jeff Stevens -45.0% WPA
Most Valuable Hitter: Starlin Castro 18.9% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Tyler Colvin -39.1% WPA

This was possibly Ted Lilly’s last Cubs start; it ended like most of them have this season.

With the help of FanGraphs and Win Probability Added (WPA), a sentence-long recap of the night’s White Sox and/or Cubs game. Sometimes longer … but usually not.

Chicago White Sox 4, Seattle Mariners 0

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: John Danks 37.7% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Most Valuable Hitter: Paul Konerko 10.6% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Andruw Jones -8.7% WPA

Three-and-a-half game lead in the AL Central. That is all.

Houston Astros 7, Chicago Cubs 14

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Andrew Cashner 14.5% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Least Valuable Pitcher: Ryan Dempster -33.2% WPA
Most Valuable Hitter: Aramis Ramirex 21.1% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Tyler Colvin -3.8% WPA

Aramis Ramirez is making a late push at becoming a tradeable asset.

With the help of FanGraphs and Win Probability Added (WPA), a sentence-long recap of the night’s White Sox and/or Cubs game. Sometimes longer … but usually not.

Chicago White Sox 6, Seattle Mariners 1

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Daniel Hudson 23.7% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Most Valuable Hitter: Alex Rios 27.9 % WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Mark Kotsay -10.9 WPA

Solid start by (hopefully) the new, permanent fifth starter.

Houston Astros 11, Chicago Cubs 5

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Least Valuable Pitcher: Carlos Silva -36.0% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Most Valuable Hitter: Aramis Ramirez 8.4% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Marlon Byrd -7.8% WPA

Everyone! All together now: The Cubs are sellers.

The White Sox look to recover from their first three game losing streak in months. Well, the White Sox’s pitching staff shouldn’t have any problems.

Just better than the Astros — 80 OPS+

Slightly ahead of the Astros in most offensive categories is the Seattle Marienrs. Like I did for the Astros, I’ll just stick with one though: OPS+.

The Mariners’ 80 OPS+ means they are 10% worse than an average team — the closest thing to average this season would be the Royals. It also means the Mariners are considerably worse than the Orioles, who have an OPS+ of 89.

King Felix’s disappearing, yet still effective, changeup — 3.81 wCH/C

This season, Felix Hernandez’s changeup is among the best in baseball. That pitch is nearly four runs above average per 100 changeups. Only Jon Lester’s changeup has been better this season.

All of this is a relief to Mariners fans who grew worried by how hard Hernandez has thrown the pitch oer the last couple years. This season, he has averaged an 89.5 MPH change. It’s the fastest changeup among those who qualify. (Stephen Strasburg has not qualified, but yes, his average changeup, which he throws at 89.7 MPH, is faster).

There’s also not a whole lot of deception compared to his fastball, at least in terms of speed. Hernandez’s average fastball this season is 94 MPH. Both are about the same speed as last year, when Mariners blogs and fans like <em>Lookout Landing were very interested in “Felix’s Disappearing Changeup.”

Over the years, Felix’s changeup has gained more and more speed. And when it started happening at a greater rate last season, some wondered if it would ruin Hernandez’s results.

This year, it hasn’t.

I couldn’t have said it better myself — No stats

With Cliff Lee on the Rangers, that’s one less member of the Mariners whose work I’m familiar with. But now that Lookout Landing has compared the entire roster to things in or around his apartment, I consider myself good to go for this series.

With the help of FanGraphs and Win Probability Added (WPA), a sentence-long recap of the night’s White Sox and/or Cubs game. Sometimes longer … but usually not.

Chicago White Sox 8, Minnesota Twins 7

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Bobby Jenks 26.5% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Least Valuable Pitcher: John Danks -21.2% WPA
Most Valuable Hitter: Gordon Beckham 16.6 WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Alex Rios -7.8%

The story of this hot streak: When one things fails — starting pitching — something else is excellent.

Philadelphia Phillies 6, Chicago Cubs 12

Courtesy of FanGraphs

Most Valuable Pitcher: Ryan Dempster 6.9% WPA (Win Probability Added)
Most Valuable Hitter: Aramis Ramirez 19.0% WPA
Least Valuable Hitter Ryan Theriot -3.3% WPA

For the Cubs’ offense to turn it around, all they need is more 48-year-old starting pitchers.