20th August 2007
There is an absolutely fantastic interview with Tim Raines over here at Baseball Prospectus (shout out to the guys over at The Book for pointing it out.) I'll let you read the interview on your own, but I'll use the PI to point out a few of the things that Raines mentions. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Box Scores, Leaders, Pitcher vs. Batter, Season Finders | 4 Comments »
1st August 2007
48-year-old Julio Franco was released by Atlanta yesterday to make room for their new acquisitions.
Here's a bit of trivia for you. How many different pitchers do you think Franco has faced in his career?
Really think about it and make a guess before clicking past the jump for the answer.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
31st July 2007
There's a fellow named Rasmussen who has been in the news with regards to the Tour de France, which made me think of former pitcher Dennis Rasmussen (no relation, as far as I know.)
Looking at Dennis Rasmussen's main B-R.com page, did you know that he was twice the "player to be named later" in a trade? Once in a trade for Tommy John, and the other in a trade for John Montefusco.
Just for curiosity, who hit the most homers of Rasmussen?
The answer isTom Brunansky with 5, followed by George Bell with 4, and several guys with 3.
Top OPS vs. Rasmussen, minimum 25 PAs?
The answer is Lloyd McClendon, with a robust 1.408 OPS over 26 PAs (11 hits, 3 2Bs, 2 HRs, 5 RBI in 23 ABs), followed by Larry Herndon at 1.293 and Alan Trammell at 1.217.
And finally, a positive stat: lowest OPS vs. Rasmussen, again minimum 25 PA:
Four guys have OPS under .400:
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG **OPS** SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Lance Parrish 25 23 2 0 0 0 0 2 7 .087 .160 .087 .247 0 0 0 0 0 Spike Owen 33 30 3 0 0 0 2 3 7 .100 .182 .100 .282 0 0 0 0 1 Craig Biggio 32 29 4 0 0 0 0 3 6 .138 .219 .138 .357 0 0 0 0 1 Alfredo Griffin 38 34 5 0 0 0 1 3 8 .147 .216 .147 .363 1 0 0 0 0
On second thought, maybe Craig Biggio isn't a Hall of Famer (just kidding.)
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | 1 Comment »
29th July 2007
We know that Alex Rodriguez has a zillion homers this season. Well, actually, he has 35 - but, at this stage of the season, that seems like a zillion-something. However, do you know that A-Rod has hit homers off 34 different pitchers this season, to-date? Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Player Index Batting vs. Pitcher tool, we can see who Alex has taken downtown this year:
PA AB H 2B 3B **HR** RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss +-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+------+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Curt Schilling 9 8 3 1 0 2 4 1 1 .375 .444 1.250 1.694 0 0 0 0 0 Erik Bedard 6 6 1 0 0 1 2 0 2 .167 .167 .667 .834 0 0 0 0 0 Joe Blanton 3 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 .500 .667 2.000 2.667 0 0 0 0 0 Boof Bonser 6 5 1 0 0 1 3 1 2 .200 .333 .800 1.133 0 0 1 0 0 Chris Bootcheck 2 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 .500 .500 2.000 2.500 0 0 0 0 0 Joe Borowski 1 1 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Ryan Bukvich 2 2 2 0 0 1 5 0 0 1.000 1.000 2.500 3.500 0 0 0 0 0 Ambiorix Burgos 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Shawn Camp 5 5 1 0 0 1 2 0 3 .200 .200 .800 1.000 0 0 0 0 0 Dewon Day 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Casey Fossum 5 4 3 0 0 1 1 1 0 .750 .800 1.500 2.300 0 0 0 0 0 Tom Glavine 6 5 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 .200 .333 .800 1.133 0 0 0 0 0 Brad Hennessey 2 2 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 1.000 1.000 2.500 3.500 0 0 0 0 0 Livan Hernandez 3 3 2 0 0 1 3 0 1 .667 .667 1.667 2.334 0 0 0 0 0 Orlando Hernandez 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 1 0 1.000 .667 4.000 4.667 0 1 0 0 0 Masumi Kuwata 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Tom Mastny 3 3 1 0 0 1 2 0 2 .333 .333 1.333 1.666 0 0 0 0 0 Gil Meche 4 4 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 .500 .500 1.250 1.750 0 0 0 0 0 Jonathan Papelbon 2 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 .500 .500 2.000 2.500 0 0 0 0 0 Sidney Ponson 4 4 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 .250 .250 1.000 1.250 0 0 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 +-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+------+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Chris Ray 2 2 1 0 0 1 4 0 0 .500 .500 2.000 2.500 0 0 0 0 0 Chris Resop 1 1 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Al Reyes 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Juan Salas 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Scott Schoeneweis 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Josh Sharpless 1 1 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 James Shields 6 5 2 0 0 1 2 1 0 .400 .500 1.000 1.500 0 0 0 0 0 Josh Towers 4 4 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 .250 .250 1.000 1.250 0 0 0 0 1 Steve Trachsel 3 3 2 1 0 1 2 0 0 .667 .667 2.000 2.667 0 0 0 0 0 Tim Wakefield 8 5 2 0 0 1 2 3 2 .400 .625 1.000 1.625 0 0 0 0 0 Jered Weaver 3 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 .333 .333 1.333 1.666 0 0 0 0 0 Jake Westbrook 2 2 2 0 0 1 3 0 0 1.000 1.000 2.500 3.500 0 0 0 0 0 Jay Witasick 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Mike Wood 6 4 1 0 0 1 2 0 1 .250 .500 1.000 1.500 0 0 0 2 0
Curt Schilling is the only pitcher to allow more than one homerun to A-Rod this season - again, so far. It will be interesting to see if Rodriguez continues this trend of hitting homers off different pitchers - just one per customer outside of ol' Red Light - for the remainder of the season.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | 3 Comments »
22nd July 2007
Bear with me for a little fishing expedition here.
I went looking at Mike Schmidt's batter-vs-pitcher PI page. I thought "Let's see who Michael Jack really beat up on over the years" and sorted it by OPS. Since I didn't set a minimum number of PAs, the top of the list were the 7 guys who Schmidt had just one at-bat against, hitting a homer in each one (he had some walks as well against some guys.) That gives you a 5.000 OPS...a 1.000 OBP plus a 4.000 SLG. It's not a terribly meaningful number as it's based on just one at-bat, but I found it interested that Schmitty victimized 7 different pitchers this way:
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG **OPS** SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss +-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Dave Beard 1 1 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Mike Dupree 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Ken Holtzman 2 1 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 John Littlefield 3 1 1 0 0 1 2 2 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 2 0 0 Dave Meads 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Craig Skok 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0 Milt Wilcox 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 5.000 0 0 0 0 0
It got me to thinking... Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
6th July 2007
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...
Posted in Box Scores, Pitcher vs. Batter | Comments Off on Brothers in arms
15th June 2007
Roger Clemens vs. Current Mets - Baseball-Reference PI
A new feature in the batter vs. pitcher tools now lets you select an opposing roster to face. Select the opposing team in "vs. current" and then select what you want to sort on and the tool will show you the pitcher or batter vs. the opposition. We also list the players that the pitcher has yet to face below this list.
In addition, you can now filter the lists on opposition handedness and whether the option is active or is in the Hall of Fame.
Posted in Pitcher vs. Batter | 1 Comment »
