Does anybody out there know (I am not asking for guesses) what happens if the Phillies, Mets, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Padres all finish with the same record?

This is possible, based on the current standings and the remaining schedule.

I wanted to use some league-wide 2007 batting splits to emphasize a couple of points.

First, all the data I am citing can be found on the 2007 AL batting splits page and the 2007 NL batting splits page. This type of data is among my most favorite at B-R.com because there's a lot you can glean from such large sample sizes, and yet this data isn't easily available in many places.

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I knew there was something I forgot to mention in today's news & notes:

In yesterday's NYY-TBD game, both Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees and Jorge Velandia of the Rays hit grand slams.

So far this season, there have been 132 grand slams (boy, doesn't that seem like a lot?) and there have been 6 games featuring more than 1.

Here are the six games:

   Yr#    G# Date          Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-------+---+-------------+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
     58   1 2007-06-20    Bill Hall         MIL  SFG Barry Zito        tied   0-0  b 1 123   1 3-2   9   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Hart Scores; Hardy Scores; Fielder Scores
     59   2               Bengie Molina     SFG @MIL Claudio Vargas    down   0-6  t 6 123   0 3-1   5   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Winn Scores; Durham Scores; Klesko Scores

     90   1 2007-08-10    Marcus Thames     DET  OAK Joe Blanton       down   2-8  b 4 123   1 0-0   1   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Ordonez Scores; Guillen Scores; Casey Scores
     91   2               Jack Cust         OAK @DET Macay McBride     down   8-9  t 6 123   1 1-0   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF); Buck Scores; Stewart Scores; Swisher Scores      92   1 2007-08-11    Yuniesky Betancou SEA @CHW Gavin Floyd       ahead  3-1  t 4 123   1 0-0   1   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Sexson Scores; Johjima Scores; Lopez Scores
     93   2               Josh Fields       CHW  SEA J.J. Putz         down   2-7  b 9 123   0 0-0   1   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Hall Scores; Gonzalez Scores; Owens Scores

    108   1 2007-08-22(1) Marlon Byrd       TEX @BAL Brian Burres      ahead  6-3  t 6 123   1 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Catalanotto Scores; Kinsler Scores; Young Scores
    109   2               Travis Metcalf    TEX @BAL Rob Bell          ahead 16-3  t 8 123   0 2-0   3   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Vazquez Scores; Catalanotto Scores; Kinsler Scores

    119   1 2007-09-10    Kurt Suzuki       OAK @SEA Horacio Ramirez   ahead  1-0  t 2 123   1 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Johnson Scores; Hannahan Scores; Barton Scores
    120   2               Dan Johnson       OAK @SEA Ryan Rowland-Smi  ahead  5-3  t 9 123   2 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF-RF); Scutaro Scores; Swisher Scores; Ellis Scores

    131   1 2007-09-25    Alex Rodriguez    NYY @TBD Jason Hammel      ahead  1-0  t 3 123   0 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Damon Scores; Jeter Scores; Abreu Scores
    132   2               Jorge Velandia    TBD  NYY Brian Bruney      down   2-5  b 6 123   2 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Gomes Scores; Norton Scores; Iwamura Scores

Only Texas and Oakland have hit two in the same game, while the four other multi-slam games featured one by each team.

Just for laughs, I checked all the same stats for 2006:

There were, coincidentally, also 132 slams in 2006 (although it's pretty likely that 2007 will finish at somewhere between 133 and 135) with Travis Hafner and Richie Sexson leading the way with 6 and 5, respectively (boy, did both of those guys fall off the table this year or what?)

There were just three games featuring two slams (a two-slam game by the Mets, a Mets/Cards 1-slam-each game, and a Rockies/Braves 1-slam-each game, featuring a slam by possible 2007 MVP Matt Holliday.)

• Jimmy Rollins hit his 30th homer last night, joining the 30/30 club (the other 30 being stolen bases, in case you've been living under a rock since 1987.) Courtesy of some stats given out during the Phillies' radio broadcast of last night's game, Rollins becomes only the second Phillie ever to have a 30/30 season (Bobby Abreu has done it twice,) and just the 3rd full-time shortstop to do it. That should earn him a few more MVP votes.

• Manny Ramirez returned to the Boston lineup yesterday after missing 24 games with an oblique strain, but he batted 2nd instead of his customary 4th. I assume that Francona was trying to prevent Manny from swinging for the fences and instead just try to make contact, as Manny's oblique is almost certainly not fully healed. Anyway, before last night Manny had just 9 of his career 8331 plate appearances from the 2-hole, and most of those came in his early years with Cleveland. He has batted 4th the most by far, with 5474 PAs hitting cleanup.

• Matt Cain. It's too painful to even go into details of last night's game, but let's just say he was robbed again.

• Prince Fielder homered twice last night to give him 50 on the season, and now he and his Big Daddy are the only father-son combo to each have 50-homer seasons. However, I am very disappointed in both generations of Fielder for airing their family dispute publicly. Cecil has called Prince disrespectful, and now Prince says he's glad to stick it to his father. I understand that people sometimes have differences, but family issues should stay within the family. Public jabs like that only make everyone involved look increasingly immature and irrational.

UPDATE 3: I'm extending the voting until the end of the day on Tuesday for all you Matt Holliday lovers.

UPDATE 2: I'm extending the voting until the end of the day on Monday

UPDATE: please place your votes by noon on Monday (see below for instructions)

I think the National League MVP is one of the more interesting seasonal award races (although I don't like these awards all that much because I think the most deserving candidate rarely wins--which is one big reason why I like that Baseball-Reference.com lists shares of such awards--for example Eddie Murray is 21st career with 3.33 MVP shares despite never winning one.)

Anyway, as near as I can see it, here are the leading candidates for the award, in no particular order:

Chipper Jones
Matt Holiday
Chase Utley
Hanley Ramirez
Miguel Cabrera
David Wright
Prince Fielder
Jimmy Rollins
Adam Dunn
Ryan Howard
Jose Reyes

Certainly many other guys (including Uggla, Pujols, Byrnes, and Brandon Phillips) deserve a vote, but I think these are the only viable candidates to actually win the award.

I'm curious to see who you would vote for to win this award. Please fill out the ballot below (cut-and-paste it into a comment and fill in your votes, which can be any eligible players, not necessarily on the list above.) As with the real voting, you are required to vote for at least the top 3 and can vote for up to the top 10.

I'll tabulate the results and we can compare it to the real voting when the time comes. Try to pick with your baseball brain and not your fan heart.

Ballot:

1st place (14 points):
2nd place (9 points):
3rd place (8 points):
4th place (7 points):
5th place (6 points):
6th place (5 points):
7th place (4 points):
8th place (3 points):
9th place (2 points):
10th place (1 point):

A lot has been written about Matt Cain's unlucky season, but I just thought I'd add a few tidbits.

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Ryan Howard is poised to become the new all-time leader for strikeouts in a season. At the moment he is tied with Adam Dunn at 195. Here's the full list, and here are the leaders:

  Cnt Player             **SO** Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Ryan Howard         195   2007  27 PHI NL 138 623 508  88 134 26  0 42 125 103  31   5   0   7  13   1  0  .264  .388  .563  .951 *3/D
    2 Adam Dunn           195   2004  24 CIN NL 161 681 568 105 151 34  0 46 102 108  11   5   0   0   8   6  1  .266  .388  .569  .957 *73/D
    3 Adam Dunn           194   2006  26 CIN NL 160 683 561  99 131 24  0 40  92 112  12   6   1   3   8   7  0  .234  .365  .490  .855 *7/3D
    4 Bobby Bonds         189   1970  24 SFG NL 157 745 663 134 200 36 10 26  78  77   7   2   1   2   6  48 10  .302  .375  .504  .879 *98/7
    5 Jose Hernandez      188   2002  32 MIL NL 152 582 525  72 151 24  2 24  73  52   5   4   0   1  19   3  5  .288  .356  .478  .834 *6
    6 Preston Wilson      187   2000  25 FLA NL 161 674 605  94 160 35  3 31 121  55   1   8   0   6  11  36 14  .264  .331  .486  .817 *8
    7 Bobby Bonds         187   1969  23 SFG NL 158 720 622 120 161 25  6 32  90  81   3  10   3   4   9  45  4  .259  .351  .473  .824 *98
    8 Rob Deer            186   1987  26 MIL AL 134 566 474  71 113 15  2 28  80  86   6   5   0   1   4  12  4  .238  .360  .456  .816 *793/D
    9 Jose Hernandez      185   2001  31 MIL NL 152 592 542  67 135 26  2 25  78  39   8   2   5   4   9   5  4  .249  .300  .443  .743 *6/87
   10 Jim Thome           185   2001  30 CLE AL 156 644 526 101 153 26  1 49 124 111  14   4   0   3   9   0  1  .291  .416  .624 1.040 *3/D
   11 Pete Incaviglia     185   1986  22 TEX AL 153 606 540  82 135 21  2 30  88  55   2   4   0   7   9   3  2  .250  .320  .463  .783 *9D/7
   12 Jim Thome           182   2003  32 PHI NL 159 698 578 111 154 30  3 47 131 111  11   4   0   5   5   0  3  .266  .385  .573  .958 *3/D
   13 Cecil Fielder       182   1990  26 DET AL 159 673 573 104 159 25  1 51 132  90  11   5   0   5  15   0  1  .277  .377  .592  .969 *3D
   14 Ryan Howard         181   2006  26 PHI NL 159 704 581 104 182 25  1 58 149 108  37   9   0   6   7   0  0  .313  .425  .659 1.084 *3
   15 Mo Vaughn           181   2000  32 ANA AL 161 712 614  93 167 31  0 36 117  79  11  14   0   5  14   2  0  .272  .365  .498  .863 *3D
   16 Mike Schmidt        180   1975  25 PHI NL 158 674 562  93 140 34  3 38  95 101  10   4   6   1   7  29 12  .249  .367  .523  .890 *56       

One amazing thing is that Howard's played in just 138 games so far, missing 18 games to this point. If he'd played those 18 and struck out at the same rate, he'd have 220 K's already!

As it stands, unless something unusual happens, he's going to finish with over 200. Of course, with 42 HR and 125 RBI, it's manageable. But it's not quite as impressive as getting 200 walks in a season.

Using Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Event Finder, for the Post-Season, and setting it for "Strikeouts, World Series, Game 7, Innings 7-to-end, with the Bases Loaded" tells us that, today, still, there's only been one time in baseball history where a batter, in Game 7 of the World Series, has struck out with the bases loaded, during innings 7 or later:  October 10, 1926 - when Pete Alexander fanned Tony Lazzeri on a curveball.

Including Tony, there have been 29 batters who faced this situation in a World Series.  The last one was Luis Gonzalez in the 9th inning of Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

As a Yankees fan, boy, do I wish that Luis had tied Tony for this "record" on that day.

In 1961, MLB switched from 154-game schedule to a 162-game schedule. I started this post because I was curious to see whether it was easier to get 200 hits with the longer schedule.

For starters, I wanted to calculate the cumulative batting averages for all of MLB for those two eras. To distinguish, I'm calling 1901-1961 the "154 era" meaning 154-game seasons (although I don't think they played 154 in the very early 1900s) and 1961-present the "162 era." From the season-to-season totals pages, we can get all the data and then use Excel to calculate totals.

Ok, so hold your breath for some big numbers. In the 154 era (1901 to 1950) there were a total of 1,336,891 hits in 5,037,614 at-bats, for a cumulative batting average of .265. In the 162 era (1961 to present) there were a total of 1,694,459 hits in 6,530,478 at-bats, for a cumulative batting average of .259.

Now, 6 points of batting average isn't much difference, although with more than 5 million at-bats in each era, it's certainly a real and statistically significant difference. Still, over the course of 600 at bats, a 6 point difference is only a matter of 3 more hits.

As far as players getting at least 200 hits in a season, it's been done 266 times in the 154 era but just 197 times in the 162 era.

It's pretty clear, then, that getting 200 hits was more common in the 154-era than in the present era. Sure, the 154 era covers 60 seasons while the 162 era covers just 47 seasons. But, there are so many more teams and players now that the percentage of players getting 200-hit seasons was significantly higher in the 154 era.
By the way, adding up the numbers for all the 200+ hit seasons yields cumulative batting averages of .349 (56487 for 161770) for the 154 era and .326 (41195 for 126087) for the 162 era.

Using the PI Team Batting Event Finder we can find games that ended when a batter reached on error (ROE.)

Check here for how it's done.

Here are the 5 times it's happened so far in 2007:

   Yr#    G# Date          Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-------+---+-------------+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
       1   1 2007-04-03    Chris Iannetta    COL  ARI Jose Valverde     tied   3-3  b11 -2-   2 0-1   2   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E5 (Ground Ball); Tulowitzki Scores/unER/No RBI
       2   1 2007-07-26    Josh Fields       CHW  DET Zach Miner        tied   3-3  b 9 1--   0 1-1   3   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (throw) (Bunt); Podsednik Scores/unER/No RBI; Fields to 2B
       3   1 2007-08-10    Cory Sullivan     COL  CHC Ryan Dempster     down   2-6  b 9 ---   2 2-2   5   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E5 (throw) (Ground Ball); Sullivan out at 2B/2B-SS
       4   1 2007-08-24    Kazuo Matsui      COL  WSN Jon Rauch         tied   5-5  b 9 -23   2 1-1   3   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E6 (Ground Ball); Hawpe Scores/unER/No RBI; Torrealba to 3B
       5   1 2007-09-17    Jason Bartlett    MIN  TEX Joaquin Benoit    tied   4-4  b 9 -2-   2 1-0   2   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E4 (Pop Fly); Ford Scores/No RBI/unER

You have to think for just half a second to realize that all these games are won by the home team, since the visiting team can never win in walk-off (game-ending event) fashion.

I'm surprised that only one of these plays was on a bunt. As was discussed in a post by Steve, three World Series games have ended on an error on a play involving a bunt. And what the heck happened a few days ago...a failed pop up to the second baseman? Here's the story.

I'll also list the times a game has ended on an ROE from recent years:

Here's 2006:

   Yr#    G# Date          Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-------+---+-------------+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
       1   1 2006-05-01    Paul Lo Duca      NYM  WSN Gary Majewski     tied   1-1  b 9 12-   1 0-0   1   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (Ground Ball); Chavez Scores/No RBI/unER; Reyes to 3B
       2   1 2006-05-06    Jason Kendall     OAK  TBD Tyler Walker      tied   2-2  b 9 -2-   2 1-2   4   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E5 (Ground Ball); Payton Scores/unER/No RBI
       3   1 2006-05-09    Bobby Abreu       PHI  NYM Aaron Heilman     tied   4-4  b 9 123   2 2-1   4   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (Ground Ball); Dellucci Scores/unER/No RBI; Rollins to 3B; Utley to 2B
       4   1 2006-05-16    Damian Miller     MIL  PHI Ryan Franklin     tied   2-2  b 9 12-   0 0-0   1   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (Ground Ball); Hall Scores/No RBI/unER; Koskie to 2B
       5   1 2006-05-20    Craig Monroe      DET  CIN Dave Weathers     tied   6-6  b10 1-3   2 0-0   1   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E6 (Ground Ball); Guillen Scores/unER/No RBI; Young to 2B
       6   1 2006-06-14    Jeremy Hermida    FLA  ATL Mike Remlinger    tied   5-5  b10 12-   0 0-0   1   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (Ground Ball); Abercrombie Scores/No RBI/unER; Aguila to 2B
       7   1 2006-06-28    David Eckstein    STL  CLE Bob Wickman       tied   4-4  b 9 --3   2 1-0   2   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E6 (Ground Ball); Miles Scores/unER/No RBI

No bunts at all there. All ground balls to the pitcher, SS, or 3B.

   Yr#    G# Date          Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-------+---+-------------+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
       1   1 2005-04-16    Marco Scutaro     OAK  LAA Scot Shields      tied   0-0  b10 1--   0 0-0   1   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (throw)/Sacrifice Bunt; Swisher Scores/unER/No RBI; Scutaro to 2B
       2   1 2005-05-22    Luis Rodriguez    MIN  MIL Matt Wise         tied   5-5  b11 123   1 0-1   2   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E4/attempted forceout (Ground Ball); Ford Scores/No RBI/unER; Cuddyer to 3B; Stewart to 2B
       3   1 2005-08-06    Nick Punto        MIN  BOS Mike Timlin       tied   3-3  b 9 -2-   0 0-0   1   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (throw)/Sacrifice Bunt; Cuddyer Scores/unER/No RBI
       4   1 2005-09-18    Dave Roberts      SDP  WSN Joey Eischen      tied   1-1  b 9 12-   0 3-1   5   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (throw)/Sacrifice Bunt; Olivo Scores/unER/No RBI; Fick to 2B

More errors by the pitcher, but this time three bunts as well.

   Yr#    G# Date          Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-------+---+-------------+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
       1   1 2004-05-26    Keith Ginter      MIL  LAD Duaner Sanchez    tied   1-1  b12 12-   0 1-1   3   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E5 (throw)/Sacrifice Bunt; Jenkins Scores/No RBI/unER; Overbay to 3B
       2   1 2004-06-22    Mark Loretta      SDP  ARI Mike Koplove      tied   1-1  b10 12-   1 0-1   2   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E4/attempted forceout (Ground Ball); Greene Scores/unER/No RBI; Burroughs to 2B
       3   1 2004-09-24    Mark Loretta      SDP  ARI Greg Aquino       tied   5-5  b 9 123   1 2-2   6   0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E5 (Ground Ball); Greene Scores/unER/No RBI; Vazquez to 3B; Payton to 2B

So Mark Loretta was the batter in two such games in 2004, both against Arizona, and Khalil Green scored the winning run both times. That's surprising given that Greene entered both the games a few batters before Loretta (once he was HBP and once he pinch ran. Loretta was the batter one other time when he reached on error to end the game: see here.