Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

I recently came across a mention of Steve Adkins, who had a very unusual major-league debut. Since 1919, here are pitchers who gave up no hits but a bunch of walks in their first big-league game:

Kevin Whelan became the first guy in a while to toss at least 4 walks with no hits in his MLB debut. Steve covered this when it happened.

I love Win Probability Added. Although it has its flaws (notably no good way to assign credit or blame for significant base running events or errors) I think it's very useful for getting a sense of just how helpful a player has been to his team's cause.

I have isolated the top 100 games in 2011 for individual player WPA.

Here are the players with multiple entries in the top 100:

Prince Fielder and, umm, Daniel Descalso?

Edwin Jackson got rocked today by the Brewers, but Tony LaRussa left him in the game for 7 innings, presumably to preserve his bullpen. In the end, Jackson gave up 14 hits and 10 runs (8 earned).

Here are the 20 most recent appearances where a pitcher gave up at least 14 hits and at least 10 runs:

It doesn't happen very often, and note that most of the appearances are shorter than Jackson's. The last time a pitcher went at least 7 innings was in 1989 when Bob Forsch did it, and that actually came in relief after Jim Clancy was unable to retire any batters before allowing 7 runs.

The last time before today that a starter did it was Mike Norris in 1980.

In his last 12 games covering exactly 9 IP, SFG reliever Sergio Romo has retired 27 straight batters.

It's the 5th relief game streak of at least 9 perfect innings* since 1919, all coming since 1995:

Read the rest of this entry »

Matt Stairs was released by the Nationals the other day. They were his 13th team in the big leagues (but only the 12th franchise since he started off with the Expos.)

There are 20 players currently listed as active who have played for at least 8 teams in the majors:

That first column is franchises played for, and Octavio Dotel has also played for 12.

Among players all-time to play for at least 10 franchises in the majors since 1901, Stairs edges out Todd Zeile for most career homers:

Wow...Terry Mulholland makes a leader board as a batter!

The Wild Card was supposed to make the season interesting for more teams by giving them a legitimate shot at the playoffs later in the season (and also, of course, increase revenue by adding more playoff games...)

Most years, the Wild Card fulfills its intention--but not this season.

As of now, the AL Wilcard is almost mathematically certain to be either the Yankees or the Red Sox--whichever team does not win the AL East, which Boston currently leads by 1 game. The Yankees lead the Angels by 7 games and the Rays by 10 for the Wild Card.

Over in the NL, it's less of a lock but the Braves have by far the best shot. They lead both the Giants and Diamondbacks by 1.5 games (but one of these teams will win the NL West) and the next-closest team is the Cardinals at 4.5 games. In fact, Coolstandings.com gives no NL team other than the Braves as much as a 6% chance of winning the NL Wild Card.

This year, at least, it seems the division races are the thing to watch. Aside from the tight AL East, we have the Rangers leading the Angels by just 1 game in the AL West, the Tigers leading the Indians by 3 in the AL Central, the Brewers leading the Cardinals by 2.5 in the NL Central (now that the Pirates have faded back to .500) and the Giants and D'Backs in that dead heat. That's 5 tight races out of 6, with only the Phillies a lock for the division at this point.

Derek Holland shut out the Blue Jays in Toronto Saturday, his 4th shutout of the year and 3rd in his last 5 starts. He threw just 26 balls out of 95 pitches, walking 1, with 5 strikeouts. In the 4 shutouts, he's allowed a total of 18 hits, 5 walks and 1 HBP.

Despite the shutouts, Holland's season ERA is 4.14 in 22 starts. In the previous 30 years, 107 pitchers had a season with at least 4 shutouts; every last one finished the season with an ERA under 4.00, and the majority were under 3.00.

Since 1981, here are the 25 highest ERAs in a season of 4+ shutouts: Read the rest of this entry »

As of last week, three players are poised to join the list of qualified players to post a slugging percentage of at least .500 in a season where they also stole at least 1 base for every 4 games played:

More love for Reggie Sanders!

Since 1901, there have been 30 seasons of at least 50 stolen bases and a .500 slugging average, by 17 different players. (That total includes 2 seasons by Benny Kauff in the Federal League, a dubious "major league.")

Every player who ever did this was a long-time star in the big leagues -- even Benny Kauff:

• Of the 30 seasons, 14 came between 1904 and 1922 (mostly by Cobb and Wagner). Then there was a 50-year gap to 1972, when Cesar Cedeno kicked off another run of 13 such seasons in 19 years. In the past 20 years, there have been just three 50/.500 seasons.
• A number of these were MVP seasons, including both 1990 MVPs; both of Joe Morgan's MVP campaigns; Cobb in 1911, Speaker in '12, Sisler in '22, McGee in '85. A few others probably should have won the MVP. (Cobb and Wagner surely would have won multiple MVPs in these years, but the NL award had not yet been instituted and the AL allowed only 1 win to a customer.)

In case you haven't guessed already, this is my latest "historic" angle on Jose Reyes. His 2-week DL stint basically killed any chance of reaching previously projected historic combinations. But he's still slugging .519, and his 32 steals puts him on pace for 49.4; if pressed, I'd predict he doesn't get 50 SB, since he's been a bit more cautious since the hamstring pull. But it's not out of the question.

Of all the seasons on this list, I think Jose's 2011 looks most like one of Honus Wagner's years, perhaps 1904.

P.S. A search for players who slugged .500 but fell just short of the 50-SB mark turned up someone I'd never heard of: Birdie Cree, of the 1911 Highlanders (Yankees). It wasn't exactly a fluke year -- he was a legitimately good hitter -- but Cree played just 742 games in the majors, and topped 100 games just 4 times.

Can you figure out the most-viewed player page for each of the names below?

Click on each name to see the answer.

Sanderson

King

Red

Big

Angle

Dog

Michael

Joseph

Bob

Bill

Will

Boston

Daryl

Jack

Martinez

Emmanuel

Jose

George

Lamont

Averett

Gene

Eugene

These can all be verified by entering "The Sanderson" (etc) in the search box.