Archive for the 'Event Finders' Category

The term "intentional walk" invokes images of 4 consecutive pitches purposefully thrown out of the strike-zone with the intent of putting a batter on first rather than allowing him to hit. In reality, however, an intentional walk only requires 1 intentional pitch out of the strike zone; namely the last one. The sequence of pitches prior to ball four are irrelevant and in fact an intentional walk can occur on any 3-ball count. Since 1998 (which is as far back as we can go and include the pitch counts for every IBB), 16,212 IBBs have been on 3-0 counts, 955 on 3-1 counts and 69 on a 3-2 count.

While 3-2 intentional walks sounds bizarre, it can get weirder than that. The have been 3-2 intentional walks involving lengthy plate appearances with many pitches. In fact, of the 163 3-2 IBBs since 1950 for which we have pitch counts, 18 involve at least 8 pitches.

Often, when there is a 3-2 IBB it is obvious that a situational change prompted the IBB. Runners moved up, scored or were tagged out during the at-bat, prompting the manager to reassess the situation and call for an intentional walk. It is also possible that if the batter or pitcher had to be replaced, a match-up change would instigate an IBB as well. What is particularity confusing, especially in retrospect, are those at-bats which meet neither criteria and there is still an IBB after a long series of pitches. Did the batter hit a foul ball so intimidating that the manger wanted nothing to do with him. Did the manager recieve some late breaking information that made hime change his mind? Or was the manager just a bit slow in making his decision. What changed?

How many times since 1954 have there been 2-out game winning HBP? Here is the list:

It almost never happens - yet, in 2002, it happened on back-to-back days. Ain't baseball great?

Here are two recent additions to the Play Index Event Finders (batting and pitching):

• Sean just added Balls in Play and Balls Not in Play as event options. This means you can search for things like all playable balls hit to center field against the Twins, etc.
• We also now have Pulled, Opposite Field, and Middle breakouts in the event finders, so you can call up a list of every ball Jose Bautista hit the other way this season.

The PI event database, which includes all games since 1974 and most games (1043 are still missing) from 1950-1973, has 10 instances of a team batting around before making their first out of the game.  Here they are in reverse chronological order. You can find the play-by-play description by clicking on the title for each game. Read the rest of this entry »

B-R reader Blake had an interesting question this morning:

"You folks are great at acquiring information like this, so I would like to ask:

Could you produce a list of the occasions when a visiting team starting pitcher has had an AB before he has thrown his first pitch in a ballgame?"

Using the Play Index Batting Event Finder, you can set up a search for all PAs in a given year range by a visiting pitcher in the 1st inning:

All of MLB: 189 Plate Appearances in 2003-2011, during 1st Inning, Away Games and As P

Of those 189 instances since 2003:

• All but two teams -- the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays -- had a pitcher bat before throwing a pitch. The leaders, predictably, are all NL teams; St. Louis saw this happen an MLB-high 15 times, while the Padres and D-Backs had it happen 14 times apiece. The Twins and Angels led the AL with 3 instances apiece.
• Pittsburgh pitchers allowed it to happen the most, as they saw their counterpart in the top of the 1st 25 times. Right behind them were the Rockies (20) and Reds (17).
• The visiting pitcher hit .110/.148/.134, which sort of hampers your chances of making it all the way back to the top of the order -- although away leadoff men also saw a second 1st-inning PA 96 times over the same time span.

Read the rest of this entry »

The final week of the 2010 season saw a wild finish in a game between the Rangers and Mariners. On September 29th, the Rangers, who had already come back from a 5-1 late inning deficit, were batting with the game tied in the bottom of the ninth.  There were 2 outs and a runner on first when pinch hitter Nelson Cruz struck out on 2-2 pitch, seemingly sending the game into extra innings.  However, catcher Guillermo Quiroz couldn't handle the pitch and his subsequent throw to first hit Cruz and went into right field, allowing runner Mitch Moreland to score.  Nelson's walk-off strikeout  was the first since 2005 and just the 5th since 1974. You can watch the play here.

Here are all the walk-off strikeouts recorded in the batting event finder. (some games from 1950-1973 may not be included.)

Read the rest of this entry »

How many times has the first batter in the first game of a post-season series started off the contest by going yard?

Read the rest of this entry »

This past September 11th, Francisco Cervelli came to the plate in the top of the ninth with his team leading by 1 and a runner on second.  Despite working the count to 3-0, Cervelli  bunted the next pitch , successfully moving the runner to 3rd.  In doing so, he became the 6th player since 2000 to record a SH on a 3-0 pitch.  Here are the others:

From 1974-2010 (The era for which the batting event finder is complete.)  forty-eight players hit more home runs than Jack Clark's 340.  Yet no one hit more than Clark in extra innings.  Of his 340 home runs, 18  (5.3 %)  came in extra frames.  Here are the leaders in extra-inning home runs since 1974. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are all the inside the park home runs by pitchers that are registered in the batting event finder.  (Due to the limits of play by play data collection  this is obviously not a complete historical list even within the batting event time frame.) It looks like no pitcher has done it since Joaquin Andujar in 1979.  Also of note was Mel Stottlemyre's inside-the-park grand slam in 1965. As has been mentioned by Statboy and Gerry in the comments of an earlier post, Stottlemyre and Deacon Phillippe are the only pitchers in MLB history to accomplish this feat.