24th August 2007
Times on base isn't a stat we look at all that often. The basic total, times on base, correlates pretty nicely with OBP, but I want to look at this in a little more detail. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Game Finders, Season Finders, Streak Finders | 5 Comments »
20th August 2007
Joba-mania is huge now in Yankeeland, as a result of Joba Chamberlain's first five games with the Yankees:
CarGm TmG Date Opp DR GmReslt Pitcher Result IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA BF Pit Str GmSc IR IS Situat. In/Out Inn Rnr O Scr SB CS Pk AB 2B 3B IW HB SH SF RE DP
+-----+---+---------+----+--+-------+--------------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+------+--+---+---+----+--+--+--------------+--------------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
1 113 Aug 7 @TOR - W 9-2 8-9f 2 1 0 0 2 2 0 0.00 8 33 19 0 0 8b --- 0 a 7 9b end a 7 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 115 Aug 10 @CLE 2 W 6-1 7-8 ,H 1 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 0.00 6 21 14 0 0 7b --- 0 a 3 8b 3 out a 5 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 118 Aug 13 BAL 2 W 7-6 8-8 ,H 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0.00 3 14 9 0 0 8t --- 0 a 1 8t 3 out a 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 122 Aug 17 DET 3 W 6-1 9-9f 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 4 10 7 0 0 9t --- 0 a 5 9t end a 5 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 124 Aug 19 DET 1 W 9-3 7-7 ,H 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0.00 3 9 8 0 0 7t --- 0 a 1 7t 3 out a 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Looking at Chamberlain's stats, I was curious as to what other relief pitchers started their career with the same results as him. So, I went to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Streak Finder and asked it to find the "Longest Streak with IPouts<=2, SO>=1 From 1957 to 2007, as Reliever, To start career." The results of the query pointed me towards the start of Todd Wellemeyer. Check out the stats for Wellemeyer's first five games in the big leagues:
CarGm TmG Date Opp DR GmReslt Pitcher Result IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA BF Pit Str GmSc IR IS Situat. In/Out Inn Rnr O Scr SB CS Pk AB 2B 3B IW HB SH SF RE DP +-----+---+---------+----+--+-------+--------------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+------+--+---+---+----+--+--+--------------+--------------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ 1 40 May 15 @MIL - W 4-2 17-17f,S 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 0.00 3 18 14 0 0 17b --- 0 a 2 17b end a 2 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 41 May 16 @STL 0 L 4-7 7-8f 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 6 26 16 0 0 7b --- 0 d 3 8b end d 3 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 45 May 21 @PIT 4 L 2-5 6-7 1.2 1 0 0 0 2 0 0.00 5 19 12 2 1 6b 12- 1 d 4 7b 3 out d 5 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 50 May 26 PIT 4 L 0-10 9-9f 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 0.00 4 18 13 0 0 9t --- 0 d10 9t end d10 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 54 May 31 HOU 4 W 1-0 15-16f,W 1-0 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 0.00 6 31 19 0 0 15t --- 0 tie 16t end tie 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
The totals look close, no? Here's the tale of the tape for their first 5 big league games:
Wellemeyer: 7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K's
Chamberlain: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 11 K's
I guess a hot start is not always a lock for future stardom, huh? Todd Wellemeyer is still out there, today, chucking - on a rehab stint, actually - but, it's not like he's crafting a Cooperstown resume in the process. As a Yankees fan, I hope things work out better for Joba. I think the catch here is the number of pitches thrown each time out. Chamberlain seems to have the edge there - which indicate that control is better, or, at least it's been better in this five game start comparison.
Posted in Streak Finders | Comments Off on Blazing Out Of The Pen
20th August 2007
At the trade deadline, the Yankees did not pick up a reliever, as many expected. Instead, they shortly thereafter called up Joba Chamberlain, who has been lights out since joining the team. Through yesterday, in his first five major league appearances, he's pitched 7 innings, with 2 hits, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts, and no runs. He's also been hitting triple digits on the radar gun. It should make things interesting when it comes time to negotiate a new contract for Mariano Rivera this off-season.
Anyway it got me to thinking: is such a start for a reliever all that impressive? The answer, at least from a statistical point of view, is no. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Streak Finders | 4 Comments »
18th August 2007
Today's sports news is headlined by Brandon Webb's streak of 42 scoreless innings -- thanks to his third straight shutout last night against the Braves. There are eight pitchers with more consecutive shutouts, if you consider a shutout to be nine innings of no-run baseball. Notice that four of them occurred in 1968.
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Orel Hershiser 1988-09-05 1988-09-28 6 5 0 6 5 5 0 0 55 30 0 0 9 34 0 0.00 0 1 0 LAD Don Drysdale 1968-05-14 1968-06-04 6 6 0 6 6 6 0 0 54 27 0 0 9 42 0 0.00 2 1 0 LAD Bob Gibson 1968-06-06 1968-06-26 5 5 0 5 5 5 0 0 45 21 0 0 5 35 0 0.00 1 0 0 STL Luis Tiant 1972-08-19 1972-09-04 4 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 36 16 0 0 7 31 0 0.00 0 0 0 BOS Gaylord Perry 1970-09-06 1970-09-19 4 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 36 15 0 0 3 20 0 0.00 1 1 0 SFG Ray Culp 1968-09-13 1968-09-25 4 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 36 18 0 0 8 43 0 0.00 0 1 0 BOS Luis Tiant 1968-04-28 1968-05-12 4 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 36 14 0 0 7 35 0 0.00 3 0 0 CLE Ray Herbert 1963-05-01 1963-05-14 4 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 36 15 0 0 3 22 0 0.00 0 0 0 CHW
Since Hershisher's streak in 1988, there have only been six others lasting three games, including Webb's current streak:
Brandon Webb 2007-08-05 2007-08-17 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 0 27 14 0 0 2 20 0 0.00 0 0 0 ARI Roger Clemens 1998-08-20 1998-08-30 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 0 27 8 0 0 5 31 0 0.00 0 0 0 TOR Bobby Witt 1994-06-23 1994-07-03 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 0 27 9 0 0 6 26 0 0.00 0 0 0 OAK Randy Johnson 1994-05-25 1994-06-04 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 0 27 12 0 0 8 34 0 0.00 0 1 0 SEA David Cone 1994-05-11 1994-05-22 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 0 27 8 0 0 5 20 0 0.00 0 0 0 KCR Dave Stieb 1988-09-18 1988-09-30 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 0 27 6 0 0 5 16 0 0.00 2 0 0 TOR
In 2007, CC Sabathia has the only other multi-game shutout streak, at two games.
Posted in Streak Finders | 2 Comments »
9th August 2007
In Chris' excellent post about Bonds yesterday, he pointed out that Bonds' longest homer-less streaks were 27 games in the "classic Barry" era and 14 games in the "Big Head" era.
I'm interested in comparing Bonds' performance in that area to the top current contenders for breaking Bonds' eventual record final career HR record.
According to Rob Neyer, whose stuff I used to love to read before ESPN made his columns Insider-Only, the top contenders, in likelihood of getting to 801 career HR, are A-rod, Albert Pujols, Adam Dunn, Ryan Howard, Andruw Jones, and Ken Griffey Jr. I do recommend you check out that Neyer piece, particularly because that one is free.
Anyway, on to the analysis: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Streak Finders | 11 Comments »
8th August 2007
Thanks to Sean, we can now search for pitching game streaks that include getting (or not getting) a decision. (In case you don't know who Sean is, check out this recent interview over at THT.)
Anyway, he pointed out to me a stat like this: the longest streaks since 1957 to start a season where every start yielded a decision: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Streak Finders | Comments Off on Streaks with a decision
7th August 2007
In case we have any newbies, that's most consecutive plate appearances without grounding into a double play.
To some degree, grounding into double plays is a team thing. Obviously, teams with more baserunners ground into more double plays (but also score more runs.) It's also out of a player's control whether he faces more ground ball pitchers or fly ball pitchers. But in general, players certainly have some impact, and some are certainly better than others at avoiding GIDP.
For 2000 to present, here are the longest streaks without grounding into a double play: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Streak Finders, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
5th August 2007
Willis lost his 8th straight decision on Friday, and he now has 12 straight starts without a win. Here are the longest streaks of starts without a win over 2006 and 2007: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Streak Finders | 1 Comment »
2nd August 2007
Here's a list of all the times since 2000 that one team has hit at least 5 homers in 2 consecutive games:
Team StreakStart Streak End Games W L AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Opponents +-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ NYY 2007-07-31 2007-08-01 2 2 0 71 24 24 3 0 13 24 5 7 0 1 .338 .400 .930 1.330 CHW DET 2006-04-05 2006-04-06 2 2 0 83 24 31 6 0 12 22 12 5 0 0 .373 .411 .880 1.291 KCR,TEX NYY 2004-07-11 2004-07-15 2 2 0 71 15 20 2 0 10 15 15 3 0 0 .282 .311 .732 1.043 TBD,DET CHW 2004-06-08 2004-06-09 2 1 1 79 24 29 9 0 11 24 12 9 0 0 .367 .438 .899 1.337 PHI ANA 2003-06-03 2003-06-04 2 2 0 89 26 39 4 0 13 26 10 8 0 0 .438 .485 .921 1.406 MON CHC 2002-08-10 2002-08-11 2 2 0 84 27 33 4 0 11 27 8 5 0 0 .393 .440 .833 1.273 COL BOS 2002-07-21 2002-07-23 2 1 1 77 30 30 5 0 12 29 9 10 1 1 .390 .460 .922 1.382 NYY,TBD LAD 2001-04-06 2001-04-07 2 2 0 67 20 22 5 0 10 20 15 5 2 0 .328 .384 .851 1.235 SFG
No team since 2000 has done it three times in a row, although the Yankees have a shot today against the White Sox. Amazing that they hit 13 HR in the last 2 games and ARod didn't hit a single one of them.
Posted in Streak Finders, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
29th July 2007
The AP preview on today's Pirates-Phillies game notes that Kyle Kendrick pitched at least 6 innings in his first 6 starts for the Phillies this year, which were the first 6 starts of his career. That got me to wondering who the leaders are for that category. The results are not too surprising. For year 2000 to present, most consecutive starts with at least 6 innings pitcher to start a career: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Streak Finders, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Kyle Kendrick / Consecutive 6+ inning starts to begin a career
