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2012 Saber Porn Of The Year

Vote on the best saber porn of 2012. Achievements by Mike Trout, Craig Kimbrel, and Yadier Molina are among the nominees.

Mr. Beane
Mr. Beane
Leon Halip

The BBWAA has handed out its end-of-season awards so it's time to determine the third annual Moneyballs Award For Achievement In Sabermetric Porn. Saber porn is not easily defined but I know it when I see it. Cliff Lee won this award in 2010 for his 10.28 K/BB ratio. R.A. Dickey took home the hardware in 2011 for his 2.33 BB/9. Dickey managed to improve his walk rate in 2012 but is ineligible for consideration this year because he accepted a full-time role with leading saber porn studio, and sponsor of this award, Moneyballs Productions.

Consider this year's nominees and cast your vote in the poll below:

  • Desmond Jennings' 31 stolen bases with a 94% success rate, the highest rate for anyone with 30+ steals.
  • Craig Kimbrel's 50.2% strikeout rate. He struck out just over half of the batters he faced in 62.2 innings pitched. Compare to Matt Harvey's Mets-best rate of 28.6%. Frank Francisco's mark was 23.9%. Kimbrel's K/9 was 16.66, his FIP was 0.78, and his walk rate was just 6.1%. It was a special year for the Braves reliever with the "easy gas", as Ron Darling says.
  • Cliff Lee's 7.39 K/BB rate, the best in MLB for a starting pitcher. It's no match for his 10.28 K/BB in 2010 but it's still special. Lee finished the season with just six wins but was probably one of the ten best pitchers in the league.
  • Yadier Molina's +16.3 runs catcher defense, according to Getting Blanked.
  • Mike Trout. Everything about the guy. He put up an fWAR of 10.0 and an rWAR of 10.7. The second-best in MLB for each stat was 8.0 and 8.2, respectively.
  • Brad Ziegler's 75.5% groundball rate. Unsurprisingly, he allowed just 2 home runs in 68.1 innings pitched.
  • The Braves' outfield defense. Yes, defensive metrics are wonky, but Martin Prado, Michael Bourn, and Jason Heyward combined to post both a UZR and DRS of +56. The Braves had the third-best defensive efficiency in the league, so perhaps there is something to the stats.