B-R Blog & Stat of the Day

Yesterday, the reigning MLB sacrifice hit king was traded to a league in which he will hardly get to bat. In 2009, Vazquez had 20 SH in only 91 PA, the third highest percentage ever for anyone with at least 20 SH. Here are the leaders.

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Shocker played at a time when sacrifice flies were counted as SH, but given his extra-base hit total, I doubt that this was the case.

The Rangers tied a post-1954 record this past season for most games getting at most 1 hit:

There are some bad, bad teams in there, but that does not include the five most recent teams on the list. That's kind of surprising, since these days there's so much offense that I'd think only the really bad teams would get one-hit so often. But I guess that 4 games is too small of a sample for such general trends to apply.

Here are the post-1954 teams to get no-hit twice in a season:

Note that the 1967 Tigers won one of those games. This was the famous game against the Orioles that we've discussed on this blog a few times. The Tigers scored 2 runs in the 9th inning on a few walks, a wild pitch, and a fielder's choice.

I got curious to see what players have the rest ratio of total bases in a season vs. outs made in that same season.

After playing around with the parameters, it seems that 0.8 is an exceptionally good ratio, meaning a player racks up a number of total bases that is 80% of his total outs made.

Here are the players from the last 3 seasons to achieve the 0.8 ratio in a qualified batting season:

It seems that most of these guys make the list due to very high OBP as well as lots of extra-base hits. Some players were also helped by low GIDP totals, which shaves a few outs off that total. I find it interesting that the strikeout totals are all over the map.

Putting the ratio at 1.0 (meaning seasons where a player's total bases matched or exceeded his total outs) yields these 65 qualified seasons:

So these are all seasons with very high OBP and SLG. Like many searches of this type, we see very little since the 1950s except for George Brett's incredible 1980 and a bunch of seasons from the Steroids Era.

Incidentally, the best such qualified seasons since 1901 ranked by TB/outs ratio are Babe Ruth in 1921 (1.309), Barry Bonds in 2001 (1.253), Bonds in 2004 (1.242), Ruth in 1920 (1.298), Bonds in 2002 (1.238), and Rogers Hornsby in 1925 (1.253.)

A simple but fun list via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Post-Season Game Finder...

...most post-season road games won by a team in a given year. Here's the leader board:

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Yes, since the playoffs were expanded in 1995, it's hard for a pre-1995 team to have a chance here. Nonetheless, what the 1996 Yankees did in October is impressive - getting 8 of the required 11 wins needed (for a ring) on the road. And, what about those teams that won 5 post-season road games in a year and who didn't win a ring that season? Yeah, 2002 Giants, 2003 Yankees, 1997 Indians and 1996 Braves and ...I'm looking at you!

One of the most intriguing aspects of PI is the ability to find obscure oddities that have occurred throughout the history of baseball (or at least in the retrosheet era). As intriguing as this is, it can also be quite maddening, as it if often difficult to find the story behind the numbers. Today I present you with one such case and ask for your help in filling in the blanks.

When a starter takes the mound, it is  rare (actually less rare than I would have guessed - around 1 in every 353 starts since 1954) for him to leave without retiring a batter. I assume that there are basically four  reasons a starter would leave without retiring a batter. The most obvious is ineffectiveness. However, a starter can also be pulled for health reasons, a long rain delay or  an  ejection. I guess that it is also possible (although highly unusual) for a manager to start a  pitcher just to face a hitter or two to gain a match-up advantage.

Since 1954, there have been 4 games in which both starting pitchers failed to retire batter.

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Back when I was in Little League - and this is way back there...circa 1974-75...you never wanted to be the guy to make the last out in a game. Worse...you never, ever, wanted to be the guy making the last out of a game via a strikeout. (Keep in mind, this was way before the days where Run Expectancy Tables were widely known...suggesting that a strikeout "out" was no worse, for the most part, than another other "out.") It was just a terrible feeling to have to walk back to the dugout...with your bat in hand...as the other team began to whoop it up. (Yeah, I speak from experience here...as it happened to me...at least once or twice.)

I wonder how big leaguers feel about this? I'm sure, over the grind of a full season, it's not a happy-time for them (if this happens). But, I would also bet it rolls off their back, somewhat, too. But, what about the post-season, where the stakes are higher? How about in the final game of a post-season series? To that end, I used Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Post-Season Event Finder to list all post-season batter strikeouts where that out was the last out of a series. Here's the list:

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There's some "brand names" on this list. And, note that Jesse Orosco, Orel Hershiser and Adam Wainwright ended two post-season series in the same year by getting a batter to strikeout. Granted, sure, this could only happen from 1969 forward. But, that's still pretty cool that only three pitchers have done this twice in the same post-season.

In the history of major league baseball there have been only 2 seasons which featured multiple players that made at least 25 starts and had an ERA+ of at least 200.

In 1997 (coincidentally the year after Clemens left the Red Sox and the year before Pedro joined the team) Roger Clemens posted an ERA+ and of 221 and Pedro Martinez an ERA+ of 219. The Blue Jays and Expos met that season, but Clemens' and Martinez's starts did not line up. (The both hooked up in pitching duels vs. the other's team on back to back days, but not against each other.)

92 years earlier, Christy Mathewson and  Ed Reulbach paired up to initiate the club. Mathewson posted an ERA+ of 230 and the rookie Reulbach posted an ERA+ of 209. On August 10, 1905  the pitchers crossed paths in a match-up between the young phenom and the established star.  The pitchers did not disappoint, hooking up in a beauty. Mathewson struck out 6 while allowing only 1 walk and  3 singles. Ruelbach  also struck out 6 while allowing just 4 singles. Unfortunately for Reulbach, one of the singles followed a couple of errors and the Giants scored the decisive,  unearned run in the bottom of the sixth. You can read more about the game and see the box score in this article from the New York Times.

There are 108 stitches on a baseball. Taking that number, let's have some fun with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index...

How many players, since 1901, have had exactly 108 plate appearances in their career? The answer:

And, how many pitchers have faced exactly 108 batters in their career, since 1901? That answer:

Since 1901, how many batters have reached base exactly 108 times in their big league career? Here's the list:

Lastly, since 1901, how many pitchers, in their major league career, have retired exactly 108 batters? Here they are:

There are some "fun" names on these lists, huh? Elmer Yoter, Tim Unroe, Pete LePine, Spike Merena, Red Bullock, Paul Foytack, Buck Etchison, Emiliano Fruto, Al Epperly, etc. They just sound like ol' time "ball players," don't they?

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How many catchers, since 1901, have posted seasons in the big leagues where they've had 200+ PA at age 20 or younger? Actually, it's not been that many...via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder...here's the list:

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It's an interesting list. The first thing that jumps out to me is how many of these "men" stayed in the game after their playing career albeit as a manager or coach in the big or minor leagues - or had some sort of career in the media covering baseball. The second thing that jumps out at me is that only two of these guys have done "this" since 1976 and we've seen no one do it since 1992. Pretty rare stuff these days...

EDIT: The original question posted here was phrased using a search since 1901. I have revised it to include all players since 1871.

A quick search of the Season Batting Finder reveals that there are 229 members of the Hall-of-Fame who batted in the major leagues. Of those 229,  215 played at least 50% of their career games at a single position (OF positions are counted separately when available), 14 did not. 2 of the 14, Whitey Herzog and Dick Williams, were elected as managers.

Can you name the 12 8 12 HOF players who didn't play at least 50% of their games at any one position (4 2 4were 19th century players) ?