Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Boston's Andrew Miller earned a win with 5.2 scoreless innings in Baltimore Wednesday, allowing just 2 hits but 6 walks.

• Miller is the 2nd SP this year to win with more walks than innings. The other was Jonathan Sanchez on June 2. (That game began a string of 5 starts in which Sanchez walked 25 in 25.2 IP, before going on the DL with what was called biceps tendinitis but could have been termed a strained WHIP flexor.)
  

• In the last 40 years, the longest scoreless win with BB>IP was 7.2 IP by Darryl Kile in 1999. (Kile went 8-13, 6.61 that year, his 2nd rocky year in Denver after signing a big free agent deal. The Rox dealt him away that fall, and he went 20-9 for the division-winning Cardinals.)
  

• The last CG shutout with BB>IP was by Hank Aguirre in 1955, beating the Tigers in the first start of his career. (The Tigers never did get an earned run off Aguirre in 4 games, so they traded for him; and after 4 years in the bullpen, he went 16-8 and won the ERA and ERA+ title in 1962.)
  

• The longest searchable outing with BB>IP was 12.2 IP with 16 walks and 11 hits, by -- you guessed it -- Tommy Byrne, in 1951.

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Come on up out from under over there!
Let's briefly set aside the stats and try a little whimsy.

Tigers LHP Duane Below, making his MLB debut tonight, needs a nickname. I'll get the ball rolling with a couple of obvious suggestions:

• Duane "Look Out" Below
• Duane "He's Got the Fire Down" Below
• Duane "Wind-Chill Twenty" Below (he is from Michigan)

I'm sure you limber linguists can top my feeble phrases. Let's see what you've got!

Can you name the top 3 active pitching leaders for career strikeouts? As a clue, one of the pitchers is still active but hasn't yet pitched in the majors in 2011.

You can find the answers here, but please tell us in the comments how many of the 3 you got correct.

Most innings pitched in 2011 without registering a strikeout:

Most innings pitched in 2011 without issuing a walk:

Anybody else realize that 5 different guys with the surname Carpenter have played MLB this year?

Drew Carpenter
Chris Carpenter
Christopher Carpenter
David Carpenter
Matt Carpenter

All pitchers, except Matt.

Yes it is an arbitrary round number, but I like the fact that major league baseball will play its 200,000th game this year. To honor that milestone, I've added a countdown widget to the right hand column of the site's front page.

As of today, we are at 199,072 games played. I've provided a year-by-year summary of the games played totaled below. In case anyone disputes our number, please ask them for a similar list.

If you recognize the National Association as a major league (and many do), the 200,000th game was played on July 4th, 2011 by the Reds and Cardinals (if you go by start times).

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I have posted on this before, but let's do it again anyway.

Carlos Beltran has 294 homers and 292 stolen bases and is a good bet to reach 300 in each category (although he has just 3 steals this year and 3 all of last year, so it may take a bit of time yet.)

If he does it, he'll become just the 8th player in history to join the 300/300 club. See if you can name the other 7, and then click through for the answer.

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A few random notes on the messed up NL Central:

- The Pirates are in first. That's not all that messed up because they've played reasonably well in a weak division. It is shocking, though, to see a first place team averaging 3.95 runs scored per game, not to mention among the bottom 5 of NL teams in doubles, homers, and OPS.

- The team with the best run-scoring differential, the Reds at +27, are in FOURTH place. Yes, fourth.

- Not to worry, though, as 4th place is only 4 games out.

- The Brewers have insane home/road splits: 33-14 (.702) at home and 18-32 (.360) on the road.

- The Astros have a player, Hunter Pence, whose batting average (.318) is nearly has high as their team winning percentage (.323) - thanks to reader Eddy E. for that tidbit

- The last time the Cardinals won as many as 4 games in a row was June 3-7 when they were 37-25. Since then they have gone 13-20. Good thing for them, too, that the division is so weak.

It seems nearly certain at this point that the NL wildcard will be either the Phillies or the Braves. In the Central, the division winner will likely be the only team to make the playoffs.

In the Sunday night game, Boston's Josh Beckett and Tampa's Jeff Niemann both pitched 8 scoreless innings and earned a Game Score of 86. (See bottom for game score formula.)

• Niemann allowed 2 hits, walked 2 and struck out 10.
• Beckett fanned 6 and yielded just 1 infield hit and no walks.

It was the 41st game since 1969 in which both starters earned an 85+ Game Score --
but the first in which neither pitcher went more than 8 innings.

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[All factoids grown organically and prepared without Elias additives.]

Explain this strategy to me:

-- In Atlanta Sunday, the Nationals trailed the Braves by a run in the top of the 6th. With 1 out and the bases empty, relief pitcher Sean Burnett was due up. Manager Davey Johnson did not make a move. This seems odd, since:

1. In 28 career ABs, Burnett had just 1 hit, a double. In his minor-league career, he was 11 for 57 (.193); he had 1 HR, seven years ago.
2. Burnett, a LHP who averages about 3.4 batters faced per game, had already faced 5 batters, with awful results: he gave up a tying 3-run HR to Brian McCann, the guy he was summoned to retire, then walked LHB Freddie Freeman, who came around to score the go-ahead run.
3. Johnson had not yet used any hitters off the bench.

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Perhaps lost in the glow of Edwin Jackson's shutout Saturday was another oh-fer by ChiSox DH Adam Dunn (0-4, 3 Ks).

Dunn's batting average is now .159, giving him a 20-point "lead" in the backwards race for the worst qualifying BA in the live-ball era. Rob Deer currently holds that distinction with his .179 average in 1991; only one other qualified batter has finished below .190 in a live-ball season (Eddie Joost, .185 in 1943).

But the 91 years of the live-ball era may not be big enough to contain Dunn's futility. So let's cast the net all the way back to 1893, when the 60' 6" pitching distance was established. The only player with a qualified BA under .160 was the notorious non-hitting catcher Bill Bergen, who did it twice (while compiling a lifetime .170 average): .159 in 1906, matching Dunn's current mark; and the all-time record of .139 in 1909. And Bergen's 372 PAs in both seasons would not have qualified by the modern standard; the qualifying threshold at the time was 100 games.

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