23rd June 2009
Josh Beckett 2009 Pitching Gamelogs - Baseball-Reference.com
If you look at the 2009 (and eventually the 2008) pitching gamelogs you will see that the pitch count columns are now links. Clicking there will take you to the BrooksBaseball.Net summary page for that game where you can see things like velocity, location, and much much more in graphical and text formats. I am working with Dan Brooks on a couple of projects and this is the first step in bringing some of this pitch information to the site. Hope you enjoy it.
Posted in Announcements, Gamelogs, Pitcher vs. Batter | 4 Comments »
16th March 2009
When I was a lad in 1988, I recall reading a blurb about a Cory Snyder plate appearance against Roger Clemens. I don't recall where I read it--perhaps in the newspaper. It said that in a recent game, Snyder hit a routine fly ball out against Clemens but when he returned to the dugout, Snyder received high fives from his teammates. The reason? Snyder apparently had struck out in every career plate appearance against Clemens prior to the fly ball.
The batter-vs-pitcher logs prove it:
Car# Year Date Tm Opp Score Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit Play Desc.
+-----+----+-------------+---+----+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
1 1986 1986-08-30 CLE @BOS tied 0-0 t 2 --- 1 - Strikeout
2 down 0-4 t 5 --- 0 - Strikeout Looking
3 down 2-7 t 7 -2- 0 - Strikeout
Car# Year Date Tm Opp Score Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit Play Desc.
+-----+----+-------------+---+----+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
4 1987 1987-05-27 CLE @BOS tied 0-0 t 2 --- 2 - Strikeout
5 tied 0-0 t 5 --- 1 - Strikeout
6 down 0-1 t 7 --- 2 - Strikeout
7 1987-08-30 CLE BOS down 0-3 b 2 12- 0 - Strikeout
8 down 1-4 b 4 1-3 0 - Strikeout
9 down 3-6 b 6 --- 0 - Strikeout
Car# Year Date Tm Opp Score Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit Play Desc.
+-----+----+-------------+---+----+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
10 1988 1988-06-29 CLE @BOS ahead 1-0 t 2 --- 1 0-0 1 Flyball: RF
11 down 1-4 t 5 --- 0 0-0 1 Flyball: LF
12 down 1-4 t 7 --- 2 1-2 4 Strikeout Looking
13 1988-09-30 CLE BOS ahead 1-0 b 1 -2- 1 1-2 4 Strikeout Swinging
14 ahead 3-0 b 3 --- 2 0-2 3 Flyball: 2B
15 ahead 3-1 b 5 1-3 2 1-2 4 Foul Flyball: 1B
16 ahead 4-2 b 8 --- 0 2-2 5 Strikeout Looking
That's 9 strikeouts in the first 9 PAs until he finally hit that fly ball. Only 4 pitchers struck Snyder out more than Clemens, and they all had more PAs in which to do it. And while Clemens and Bert Blyleven both struck Snyder out 12 times, look at the difference in stats. Off Clemens, Snyder managed only 2 singles for a .087 SLG. Off Blyleven, Snyder hit 4 HR, 1 2B, 1 3B, and had 7 RBI and a .821 SLG. Geez.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | 15 Comments »
8th January 2009
Mark Grace will not get into the Hall of Fame, not this year or ever. His career batting totals, even when measured objectively, fall a bit short, but he is also subjectively marked down because he was a first baseman without all that much power (having "only" 173 career HR.)
But there's a lot to like about Grace and his career. He was remarkably consistent, hitting at least .307 every year from 1989 to 1999 except for 1991 and 1994. You probably already know that he is the hits leader for the 1990s. That's kind of a dumb stat, since it favors players who had their primes starting right in 1990. Notice that guys finishing second and third (Palmeiro and Biggio) also both had their first full prime seasons in 1990. But Grace also had the 18th-most hits of all modern players in the first 12 years of their careers (regardless of when they played), trailing only George Sisler among first basemen.
Among all first baseman playing in at least 1000 games in the expansion era (post-1961) Grace has the following career ranks: 5th in batting average, 3rd in doubles, 7th in hits, 8th in triples, 10th in runs scored, 14th in runs created, 19th in RBI, and all this despite being just 45th in home runs. Also, he's 11th in walks but is only 55th in strikeouts.
Also he hit lots of pitchers well, but none better than John Smoltz. In 67 career AB against Smoltz (a pretty big sample), Grace hit 7 2B, 1 3B, 6 HR, with 11 RBI, and a .358/.456/.761 line of averages. Grace averaged 582 AB over 162 games, so projecting out a full season against Smoltz gives him 60 doubles, 8 triples, 52 HR, 95 RBI. I realize that 67 AB is just 67 AB, but they came against Smoltz and it's a little bit of impressive data.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter, Season Finders | 1 Comment »
15th January 2008
For the second day in a row, a pitcher from the 50s and 60s has passed away. Yesterday it was Don Cardwell.
Cardwell's career was not particularly remarkable, except that he seems to have pitched in some bad luck. His career W/L record is 102 up and 138 down, which is unusually lopsided for a guy with a 95 career ERA+. Indeed, neutralizing his stats converts the record to 113 up and 117 down, which makes a lot more sense. In 1961, he went 15-14 with a 110 ERA+, and when neutralized that converts to a 17-13 record that season. It's only a difference of a couple of decisions each way, but 17-13 sure sounds lot better than 15-14.
Image from www.baseball-almanac.com
Here are the guys with the most career PAs against Cardwell:
**PA** AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+-------+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Hank Aaron 121 109 39 4 3 10 34 11 9 .358 .413 .725 1.138 0 1 1 0 3 8
Willie Mays 117 106 30 4 0 5 17 8 13 .283 .333 .462 .795 0 2 1 1 0
Maury Wills 103 92 20 1 2 0 2 10 14 .217 .291 .272 .563 0 1 0 0 2
Tony Gonzalez 96 86 26 2 1 2 10 9 17 .302 .375 .419 .794 0 0 0 1 2
Eddie Mathews 96 74 22 5 2 6 13 21 12 .297 .448 .662 1.110 0 1 4 0 2 8
Bill Mazeroski 95 85 22 3 0 1 7 6 13 .259 .316 .329 .645 0 2 4 2 0
Frank Robinson 94 87 26 5 0 7 17 4 12 .299 .351 .598 .949 0 0 0 3 1
Johnny Callison 93 81 25 7 1 4 17 11 7 .309 .398 .568 .966 0 0 2 1 1
Jim Gilliam 93 84 26 5 0 0 8 9 5 .310 .376 .369 .745 0 0 0 0 0
Tony Taylor 93 83 21 2 0 0 5 5 13 .253 .319 .277 .596 2 0 0 3 1
Orlando Cepeda 92 79 14 1 0 2 9 9 17 .177 .283 .266 .549 0 1 2 3 4
Roberto Clemente 91 89 29 5 1 1 3 2 14 .326 .341 .438 .779 0 0 1 0 1
Vada Pinson 90 85 24 5 2 3 9 4 9 .282 .322 .494 .816 0 0 0 1 2
Dick Groat 87 84 19 0 0 0 2 1 7 .226 .244 .226 .470 1 0 0 1 5
Bill Virdon 85 75 16 3 3 1 1 9 6 .213 .306 .373 .679 0 0 0 1 1
Felipe Alou 82 77 15 4 1 2 5 2 8 .195 .235 .351 .586 1 0 0 2 1 6
Bob Skinner 81 76 21 3 2 1 10 4 7 .276 .309 .408 .717 0 1 0 0 4
Willie McCovey 77 64 21 3 0 7 14 9 8 .328 .442 .703 1.145 0 0 3 4 4
Bill White 77 73 22 5 1 0 7 4 10 .301 .338 .397 .735 0 0 0 0 2
Ken Boyer 75 70 24 4 3 2 11 4 11 .343 .373 .571 .944 0 1 0 0 2
Wow, there are a lot of great names on that list. It's a totally unfair sample, and as you can see, a lot of them did quite well against Cardwell (hello Hank Aaron.)
Actually, here are the lowest career OPS against Cardwell, minimum 50 PAs:
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG **OPS** SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Daryl Spencer 56 55 8 0 0 0 2 0 11 .145 .161 .145 .306 0 0 0 1 3
Roy McMillan 69 64 8 2 0 0 1 5 8 .125 .188 .156 .344 0 0 0 0 2 1
Del Crandall 52 48 7 0 0 1 6 2 6 .146 .192 .208 .400 0 1 0 1 2 1
Dick Groat 87 84 19 0 0 0 2 1 7 .226 .244 .226 .470 1 0 0 1 5
Julian Javier 68 64 12 1 0 1 7 2 10 .188 .221 .250 .471 0 1 1 1 1
Jose Pagan 53 49 8 2 0 1 5 3 3 .163 .226 .265 .491 0 0 1 1 1
Matty Alou 56 51 12 0 0 0 1 3 1 .235 .291 .235 .526 1 0 0 1 0
Ron Santo 57 52 9 1 0 2 8 4 9 .173 .228 .308 .536 0 1 0 0 1 1
Johnny Edwards 55 44 6 0 1 1 5 9 6 .136 .291 .250 .541 0 1 1 1 0
Orlando Cepeda 92 79 14 1 0 2 9 9 17 .177 .283 .266 .549 0 1 2 3 4
Maury Wills 103 92 20 1 2 0 2 10 14 .217 .291 .272 .563 0 1 0 0 2
Felipe Alou 82 77 15 4 1 2 5 2 8 .195 .235 .351 .586 1 0 0 2 1 6
Tony Taylor 93 83 21 2 0 0 5 5 13 .253 .319 .277 .596 2 0 0 3 1
Wes Covington 55 48 11 2 0 0 4 6 5 .229 .327 .271 .598 0 0 2 1 0
Jim Davenport 61 56 11 3 0 2 4 3 11 .196 .250 .357 .607 1 0 0 1 1
Pete Rose 53 47 10 2 0 1 5 5 7 .213 .302 .319 .621 0 0 0 1 2
Bob Aspromonte 55 45 10 1 1 0 3 6 9 .222 .345 .289 .634 0 1 0 3 4
Bill Mazeroski 95 85 22 3 0 1 7 6 13 .259 .316 .329 .645 0 2 4 2 0
Bill Virdon 85 75 16 3 3 1 1 9 6 .213 .306 .373 .679 0 0 0 1 1
Bob Skinner 81 76 21 3 2 1 10 4 7 .276 .309 .408 .717 0 1 0 0 4
A few of the same names, plus Ron Santo, Pete Rose, and others.
I don't know much else about Cardwell. Some of you readers must have some stories. Let's hear them.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | 5 Comments »
8th January 2008
New Cooperstown Hall-of-Famer Rich Gossage loved Rickey Henderson. But, I don't think the feeling was mutual. Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitcher Vs. Batter Finder, for the Goose, shows us that Henderson faced Gossage 11 times in his career - and Rickey whiffed 9 times (and walked twice). On the flipside, the late Darrell Porter faced Goose 30 times in his career - and never whiffed once. Play Index tells us all about it.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | Comments Off on Goose Hearts Rickey
26th December 2007
Since Mr. Knice Guy got shortchanged yesterday, I thought I'd use the PI batter-vs-pitcher feature to point out some of his career performances. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | Comments Off on Alan Knicely
29th November 2007
I heard a great interview with Bert Blyleven today, and it made me think more about his Hall of Fame candidacy, what with the vote coming up again (see the end of the post for a special announcement on this.) He'll be on the ballot for the 12th time, meaning there are just 4 more chances for the writers to finally get it right and put him in. He is significantly more qualified than quite a number of pitchers already in the HOF, and there are many sites out there with more info on it (including my previous post on this blog about him.) We're not talking about someone like Jim Rice or Tony Perez here, whose numbers are fringe for the HOF.
Anyway, since this whole thing is starting to feel like Blyleven against the HOF, I thought I'd post his lifetime pitching lines against HOF batters:
**PA** AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+-------+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Reggie Jackson 140 131 28 6 0 6 12 8 49 .214 .264 .397 .661 0 0 2 1 1
George Brett 128 117 27 5 1 2 10 6 15 .231 .281 .342 .623 0 2 0 3 6
Robin Yount 114 110 20 8 1 1 7 4 4 .182 .211 .300 .511 0 0 0 0 2
Paul Molitor 80 74 19 8 0 0 4 5 14 .257 .304 .365 .669 1 0 0 0 0
Cal Ripken 78 67 19 0 0 3 10 10 9 .284 .372 .418 .790 0 1 0 0 0
Carlton Fisk 70 63 17 1 0 4 10 3 9 .270 .343 .476 .819 0 0 0 4 0
Eddie Murray 67 62 26 3 0 7 13 5 10 .419 .463 .806 1.269 0 0 0 0 1
Carl Yastrzemski 65 58 19 4 0 1 7 5 6 .328 .385 .448 .833 0 1 0 1 0
Rod Carew 53 50 13 1 0 0 2 3 4 .260 .302 .280 .582 0 0 0 0 1
Dave Winfield 53 48 12 2 0 4 8 3 11 .250 .302 .542 .844 0 1 0 1 1
Brooks Robinson 51 48 12 0 0 1 3 1 1 .250 .294 .313 .607 0 0 0 2 0
Wade Boggs 46 43 11 4 0 1 3 3 2 .256 .304 .419 .723 0 0 1 0 1
Gary Carter 45 42 11 5 0 1 7 2 7 .262 .295 .452 .747 1 0 0 0 2
Kirby Puckett 41 41 17 2 1 1 6 0 4 .415 .415 .585 1.000 0 0 0 0 2
Joe Morgan 36 32 6 0 0 1 3 2 3 .188 .222 .281 .503 0 2 0 0 0
Mike Schmidt 33 23 8 1 0 2 7 7 5 .348 .485 .652 1.137 0 2 0 1 0
Tony Perez 25 23 7 1 0 1 1 1 3 .304 .360 .478 .838 0 0 0 1 0
Frank Robinson 21 20 7 1 0 2 3 1 5 .350 .381 .700 1.081 0 0 0 0 0
Ozzie Smith 21 20 4 1 0 0 0 1 8 .200 .238 .250 .488 0 0 0 0 0
Johnny Bench 19 17 4 1 0 2 3 1 2 .235 .263 .647 .910 0 1 0 0 0
+-----------------+-------+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
**PA** AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+-------+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Willie McCovey 19 16 6 2 0 0 3 3 2 .375 .474 .500 .974 0 0 2 0 0
Steve Carlton 18 15 2 0 0 0 3 0 2 .133 .167 .133 .300 0 2 0 1 0
Luis Aparicio 17 16 3 1 0 0 1 0 2 .188 .176 .250 .426 0 1 0 0 1
Billy Williams 17 15 1 0 0 0 0 2 3 .067 .176 .067 .243 0 0 1 0 0
Al Kaline 11 10 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 .100 .182 .100 .282 0 0 0 0 2
Phil Niekro 11 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Lou Brock 10 10 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 .500 .500 .500 1.000 0 0 0 0 0
Orlando Cepeda 9 8 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .125 .222 .125 .347 0 0 0 0 0
Jim Palmer 8 8 2 1 0 0 1 0 4 .250 .250 .375 .625 0 0 0 0 0
Gaylord Perry 8 5 1 0 0 1 2 1 3 .200 .333 .800 1.133 2 0 0 0 0
Hank Aaron 7 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Don Sutton 7 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .200 .333 .200 .533 1 0 0 0 0
Tom Seaver 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 1.000 1 0 0 0 0
Rollie Fingers 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Holy cow, can you believe Reggie had 140 PAs against him? And he hit terribly, as did George Brett, Robin Yount, and Paul Molitor. Cal Ripken and Carlton Fisk were so-so, but Eddie Murray had some serious PWNAGE going there.
I calculated an approximate average for all this data (should be within 2 or 3 points) and Blyleven's complete line against all HOF batters is .255/.306/.409. Remember that a lot of Bert's pitching came when offense was much less than today (for example in 1973, one of his best years, the AL hit.259/.328/.381) but that his career was through 1990 and that these numbers are against all HOFers. Pretty impressive stuff.
Now, for the special announcement, as per a great reader suggestion:
In the coming weeks, I am going to post another poll here, this time giving you a chance to vote on the Hall of Fame class of 2008. The real voting will be announced on January 8th, so I'll probably post it just before the end of the year. This is announcement is just to get you thinking seriously about who you'd vote in to the HOF, given the chance. So check out the names on this year's ballot, and get ready for my upcoming post!
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | 3 Comments »
23rd November 2007
In a piece of heartbreaking news, free agent pitcher Joe Kenndy has passed away. Leaving behind his wife and a young son the day after Thanksgiving, this is a terribly sad turn of events.
Kennedy has a largely nondescript career, primarily starting for below-average teams. One interesting tidbit I found is the list of batters he struck out the most times in his career, which ended much too soon:
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB **SO** BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Jason Giambi 29 26 4 0 0 1 1 2 11 .154 .241 .269 .510 0 0 0 1 1
Carlos Delgado 42 36 5 2 0 1 2 5 7 .139 .262 .278 .540 0 0 0 1 2
Jorge Posada 33 29 12 6 0 0 2 4 7 .414 .485 .621 1.106 0 0 1 0 0
Alfonso Soriano 31 27 5 0 1 0 2 3 7 .185 .258 .259 .517 0 1 0 0 0
Eric Hinske 21 21 5 3 0 1 5 0 6 .238 .238 .524 .762 0 0 0 0 0
He pitched quite effectively against some of the majors' best hitters.
With the death of Josh Hancock earlier this season, that's two active players who passed away this year, and that's simply awful.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | 2 Comments »
7th September 2007
Alex Rodriguez has 48 homeruns (so far) this season. Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batter vs. Pitcher function, we can see that A-Rod has gone yard against 46 different pitchers this year. The only pitchers that Alex has tagged twice this year are Curt Schilling and Chris Bootcheck.
Bootcheck was in two different games. But, Rodriguez got Schilling twice, this year, in the same game: April 20th.
If Alex hits 50 homers this year, he'll become the first right-handed batter in A.L. history to have three 50+ homer seasons. Considering the unique nature of that mark, it's nice that A-Rod is sharing it with so many different pitchers this season.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | Comments Off on A-Rod Taking As Many With Him As Possible
25th August 2007
David Wells will shortly start his 12th tour of duty with a major league team. That's 2 each with Toronto, New York, and San Diego (putting him in the Jeff Conine club), and one with Detroit, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Chicago (AL), Boston, and now Los Angeles.
I think there is a lot to like about Wells, both as a pitcher and as a candid person who is not afraid to take responsibility or make justifiable accusations about existing problems with MLB. But I have to say, Wells looks quite classless in this article (link via MLBTradeRumors.com.) I don't care what kind of person you are. Replacing another player at his job and then making fun of him while he effectively cleans out his desk is one of the crassest things I have ever heard.
But anyway, this blog is about stats, so let's look at some data about David Wells: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter, Season Finders, Splits | Comments Off on David Wells
