A Statistical Feast to Turn on the Spit

Are you a Rotisserie geek?

To paraphrase XTRA sports talk show host Jim Rome: If you have to ask yourself that, then you are. If you have absolutely no idea, assume that you are.

The continuing popularity among sports fans of statistic-based fantasy leagues--with Rotisserie baseball at the top of the list--feeds the ever-growing hunger for statistical information, and nowhere are stats quite as interesting or meaningful as in baseball.

And while numbers can’t quantify the graceful arc of a sweet swing or the pleasing pop of a hard fastball, they do tell a story.

Here’s a look at some of the area’s more eye-catching high school baseball statistics:

* Talk about ratio! Crescenta Valley pitcher Jim Parque has 140 strikeouts and only 20 walks in 70 2/3 innings pitched. That’s seven strikeouts per walk and 1.98 strikeouts per inning.

* Palmdale pitcher David Glick has 114 strikeouts and 20 walks in 69 innings, an average of 1.65 strikeouts per inning and 5.7 per walk.

* Glick’s teammate, Jerome Payton, has 31 stolen bases in 32 attempts.

* El Camino Real’s Randy Wolf has finished all 11 starts.

* Crespi pitcher John Cuccias appeared in 18 of the Celts’ first 24 games.

* Littlerock pitcher Robert Reed has given up 48 runs--but only 19 are earned.

* Buckley’s Mitch Brim is a one-man stat gang: Brim is batting .590, with 10 doubles, seven triples and 41 runs batted in in 61 at-bats. He also has 28 stolen bases.