Archive for the 'Box Scores' Category

Well Micah Owings just set some records for offense by a pitcher. In his start against Atlanta, he went 4 for 5 with a single, a double, two homers, 4 runs scored and 6 batted in. Click through for the details. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 2: Hey, that's 3 homers in 3 games for Ankiel. The last story I can remember of a young top-flight pitcher disappearing then coming back as a power-hitting outfielder is that one about Roy Hobbs.

UPDATE: Ankiel powered a 3-run homer in his first game with the Cardinals as an outfielder. A very nice start.

Rick Ankiel was called up to the Cardinals (Thanks to Tim at MLBtraderumors.com for the link.)

You probably remember Ankiel as one of the guys who suffered the condition named after Steve Blass, namey losing the ability to throw strikes with any regularity. It was in the third inning of Game 1 of the ALDS vs. the Braves in 2000 when Ankiel unexpectedly threw 5 wild pitches and had to be taken out of the game. His career as a an effective major league pitcher ended right there.

But as you may have heard, Ankiel accepted assignment to the minor leagues and started over as an outfielder. He's had some injuries in the last couple of years, but finally put together a full season this year and has shown tremendous power in the minors. In 2000, before that playoff game, he hit 2 home runs in 68 at-bats.

Ankiel has shown tremendous tenacity and dedication. Most people, after suffering such a public type of failure, would choose to shrink away into anonymity. Ankiel obviously feels he can contribute, and I for one hope he finds success again at the major league level. Don't forget, he's still a couple of weeks away from his 26th birthday! he just turned 28! He has plenty of time for a second major league career.

If I ask you what the record is for most stolen bases in a season without getting caught (since 1957), a bunch of you will probably shout out "Kevin McReynolds, 1988", and you'd be right. McReynolds was not a particularly fast base runner (he topped double digits in steals only 3 times), but by all accounts he was a very skilled base runner.

Here are the top seasons since 1957 with no caught stealings:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Kevin McReynolds     21    0 1988  28 NYM NL 147 600 552  82 159 30  2 27  99  38   3  56   4   1   5   6  .288  .336  .496  .832 *7/8
    2 Paul Molitor         20    0 1994  37 TOR AL 115 515 454  86 155 30  4 14  75  55   4  48   1   0   5  13  .341  .410  .518  .928 *D/3
    3 Gary Thurman         16    0 1989  24 KCR AL  72 105  87  24  17  2  1  0   5  15   0  26   0   2   1   0  .195  .311  .241  .552 897
    4 Jimmy Sexton         16    0 1982  30 OAK AL  69 154 139  19  34  4  0  2  14   9   0  24   1   2   3   0  .245  .289  .317  .606 *6/5
    5 Davey Lopes          15    0 1984  39 TOT ML  88 290 247  37  63 12  1  9  36  37   1  41   1   2   3   8  .255  .351  .421  .772 94/8D75

I don't know a thing about Jimmy Sexton (feel free to tell me about him in the comments), and we've already discussed McReynolds. Certainly the other guys on this list were all great base-stealers. Although, Gary Thurman's problem was that he couldn't steal first base, and otherwise got on base at a rate of just .297 in his career.

If we relax the CS criterion to allow one caught stealing, here are the leaders since 1957:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Carlos Beltran       31    1 2001  24 KCR AL 155 680 617 106 189 32 12 24 101  52   2 120   5   1   5   7  .306  .362  .514  .876 *8/D
    2 Brady Anderson       31    1 1994  30 BAL AL 111 525 453  78 119 25  5 12  48  57   3  75  10   3   2   7  .263  .356  .419  .775 *78/9
    3 Chris Duffy          26    1 2006  26 PIT NL  84 348 314  46  80 14  3  2  18  19   1  71  10   4   1   1  .255  .317  .338  .655 *8
    4 Ken Griffey          23    1 1980  30 CIN NL 146 615 544  89 160 28 10 13  85  62   4  77   1   3   5   4  .294  .364  .454  .818 *9/8
    5 Jason Bay            21    1 2005  26 PIT NL 162 707 599 110 183 44  6 32 101  95   9 142   6   0   7  12  .306  .402  .559  .961 *78
    6 Jason Bartlett       20    1 2007  27 MIN AL  98 387 350  48  91 15  1  3  27  31   3  50   5   0   1   4  .260  .328  .334  .662 *6
    7 Stan Javier          20    1 1988  24 OAK AL 125 440 397  49 102 13  3  2  35  32   1  63   2   6   3  13  .257  .313  .320  .633 *789/3

Note, of course, that's Ken Griffey Sr., not Jr. But it is Stan Javier, not his father Julian. Check out Jason Bartlett's active streak at 20. He got caught stealing July 3 by Jorge Posada.

Once again, if we relax the criterion to allow for 2 CS's, here are the leaders:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Ichiro Suzuki        45    2 2006  32 SEA AL 161 752 695 110 224 20  9  9  49  49  16  71   5   1   2   2  .322  .370  .416  .786 *98/D
    2 Doug Glanville       34    2 1999  28 PHI NL 150 692 628 101 204 38  6 11  73  48   1  82   6   5   5   9  .325  .376  .457  .833 *8
    3 Amos Otis            33    2 1970  23 KCR AL 159 700 620  91 176 36  9 11  58  68   3  67   1   6   5   8  .284  .353  .424  .777 *8
    4 Jack Perconte        31    2 1985  30 SEA AL 125 542 485  60 128 17  7  2  23  50   0  36   3   2   2   9  .264  .335  .340  .675 *4
    5 Ichiro Suzuki        30    2 2007  33 SEA AL 109 497 455  77 156 16  5  5  45  37   8  46   2   2   1   5  .343  .394  .433  .827 *8/D
    6 Alfonso Soriano      30    2 2005  29 TEX AL 156 682 637 102 171 43  2 36 104  33   3 125   7   0   5   6  .268  .309  .512  .821 *4/D

Now you're really cooking. 45 steals with only 2 CS is a huge offensive boon It's like turning 40+ of your singles into doubles. And note that Ichiro makes the list (at least at the moment) for 2007 too.

Honorable mentions to Carlos Beltran and Dave Roberts, who in 2004 stole 42 and 38 bases, respectively, each getting caught only 3 times. Of course, as Red Sox and Yankees fans can both tell you, Roberts' most important stolen base in 2004 happened in the post-season.

Some fans may not remember the only time in history that a team has led off a game with three consecutive homers:

It was done by the Padres in 1987 when Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn, and John Kruk hit consecutive dingers in the bottom of the first. Let's take a look at the box score. Incidentally, I found it by first going to Wynne's PI event log for homers, then limiting it to 1st-inning homers, of which he had only 3. From there it was easy to find. (Knowing that Wynne was one of the guys who hit a homer helped too.)

The three homers didn't help the Padres win, who dropped to 1-6 after this game. The Giants went on to win the division and lost the NLCS to the Cardinals.

By the way, Topps commemorated the three consecutive homers leading off the game with a series of cards on the bottom of boxes for 1988 packs of cards:

Read the rest of this entry »

A very nice piece over at The Hardball Times by Richard Barbieri looks at some of the pairs of brothers who have played MLB, with a focus on the Hoffman brothers.

It's true that the Phillies have often been on the shorter end of brother combos in baseball. Aside from the ones mentioned in the article, the Phillies also ended up with Tom Barrett (instead of Marty), Juan Bell (instead of George, who the Phillies lost in the Rule 5 draft to Toronto), Ken Brett (instead of George, although this one is tough since Ken Brett was pretty good hinmself), Tom Delahanty (instead of brother Jim, but of course they did have brother Ed), Ron Roenicke (instead of Gary), Mark Leiter (instead of Al), Rich Surhoff (instead of B.J.), Frank Torre (instead of Joe), and Mack Wheat (instead of Zack).

But the one I remember most...

Read the rest of this entry »