Official 2017 MLB Frustration Rankings

Welcome. Last night’s loss to the Royals was a lot of things: dejecting, embarrassing, dispiriting, and demoralizing. Most of all, it was frustrating. Here was yet another chance to get back to .500 against a team that has been playing truly terrible baseball in 2017. It was the second straight loss to a team that came into the night with the worst record in baseball. As JT pointed out in our series preview, the Royals hitters in 2017 have basically been producing at a level equal to the Rays’ catchers since 2013 - not exactly high praise.

So what did the Rays do? Blake Snell went out and Blake Snell’d it up, giving up 11 base runners in five-plus innings and needing 3,326 pitches (approximately) to get through those five-plus innings. The defense somehow outdid Snell, committing four errors, including a Kevin Kiermaier under-the-glove special that turned a Lorenzo Cain run-of-the-mill single into an inside-the-park home run. And what about the offense? All they did was load the bases twice - once with one out and once with nobody out - and scored just one run from the two combined chances, and that came on a wild pitch. It was a master class in fan frustration.

Given the events of last night, it only seemed logical to create a matrix of numbers to determine if the Rays truly were as frustrating as they have felt at times in 2017. It turns out, they’re pretty darn close!

Here’s how it works.

There are eight categories: overall win-loss percentage, win-loss percentage in close games, pace of play, blown saves, errors, strikeout rate, wRC+ with men in scoring position, and win-loss percentage in the last ten games.

A few notes:

• Yes, a few of these categories are Rays-centric. Pace of play is definitely something a Rays’ fan would include in their frustration rankings, while a Blue Jays’ fan might include difference in standings from season projections and a Tigers’ fan might include team salary. This is DRaysBay, we reserve the right to pump up our Frustration Rank.
• Each category was ranked 1-to-30 with more points meaning more pain. For example, the A’s lead the league in errors, so they received 30 points in the errors category. Ties were simply given the same number of points.
• Pace was calculated by adding the FanGraphs Pitchf/x team batter and pitcher pace ranks and dividing by two.
• Yes, errors are the most troglodyte metric when it comes to measuring defensive impact. But errors are also, like, super annoying. If your centerfielder gets a mediocre jump and doesn’t get to a ball in the gap, that’s way less frustrating than your second baseman straight up dropping a tailormade double play ball. (People don’t forget, Brad Miller.) So while errors may be de-emphasized in more advanced defensive rankings, here they get their due.
• Win-loss percentage in the last ten games was included because we, as fans, live in the moment. Losing six in a row last month wasn’t great, but a current three-game skid is way worse.
• This will be a work in progress, with occasional updates throughout the season as we see how things play out. Please leave suggestions in the comments section for additional categories that can be added to the formula in the future.

The Frustration Rankings: First Cut

Our boys in Columbia blue showed well for themselves with a second-place ranking in this first edition. I guess we can be thankful we are not Texas Rangers fans.