The other day, in a previous post, I stumbled onto just how good Mario Soto was from 1982 to 1985. Click through for some statistical proof of that. Read the rest of this entry »

Here's an interesting little report that you can run with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Game Finder - the number of games, in this case, during 2007, where a team had their starting pitcher go six innings or more:

 Tm  Year Games Link to Individual Games
+---+----+-----+-------------------------+
 CLE 2007   123 Ind. Games
 CHW 2007   123 Ind. Games
 BOS 2007   108 Ind. Games
 LAA 2007   105 Ind. Games
 TOR 2007   104 Ind. Games
 ARI 2007   103 Ind. Games
 OAK 2007   102 Ind. Games
 MIN 2007   102 Ind. Games
 HOU 2007   102 Ind. Games
 SFG 2007   101 Ind. Games
 SDP 2007   100 Ind. Games
 PIT 2007   100 Ind. Games
 MIL 2007   100 Ind. Games
 TBD 2007    99 Ind. Games
 PHI 2007    98 Ind. Games
 COL 2007    98 Ind. Games
 CIN 2007    98 Ind. Games
 CHC 2007    98 Ind. Games
 SEA 2007    96 Ind. Games
 NYM 2007    96 Ind. Games
 NYY 2007    93 Ind. Games
 ATL 2007    91 Ind. Games
 DET 2007    90 Ind. Games
 LAD 2007    89 Ind. Games
 BAL 2007    89 Ind. Games
 STL 2007    87 Ind. Games
 KCR 2007    80 Ind. Games
 FLA 2007    73 Ind. Games
 WSN 2007    72 Ind. Games
 TEX 2007    69 Ind. Games

Games found: 2,889.

Note:  This does not reflect the "quality" of those six-plus innings in a start.  But, it does tell you which team's starters ensured that their bullpen was not over-worked last season.

Here are all the pitchers since 1901 to finish their careers with an ERA+ between 99 and 101, as well as a W-L% between .490 and .510:

  Cnt Player              **IP**   ERA+  W-L% From  To   Ages   G   GS  CG SHO  GF  W   L   SV   H    R   ER   BB   SO    ERA   HR   BF  IBB HBP  BK  WP Teams
+----+-----------------+----------+----+-----+----+----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+------+---+-----+---+---+---+---+-----------+
    1 Rick Wise           3127      101  .509 1964 1982 18-36  506 455 138  30  15 188 181   0 3227 1455 1281  804 1647   3.69 261 13157  83  44   9  49 PHI-STL-BOS-CLE-SDP
    2 Elam Vangilder      1715.2    100  .493 1919 1929 23-33  367 187  90  13 120  99 102  19 1894 1012  815  699  474   4.28  92  7694      42   3  22 SLB-DET
    3 Tom Underwood       1586      100  .497 1974 1984 20-30  379 203  35   6  68  86  87  18 1554  772  685  662  948   3.89 130  6814  38  28  12  62 PHI-TOT-TOR-NYY-OAK-BAL
    4 Bob Muncrief        1401.1    100  .494 1937 1951 21-35  288 165  67  11  72  80  82   9 1503  669  592  392  525   3.80 108  5968      15   1  19 SLB-CLE-TOT-NYY
    5 Dan Schatzeder      1317      100  .504 1977 1991 22-36  504 121  18   4 117  69  68  10 1257  617  548  475  748   3.74 128  5569  64  23   5  56 MON-DET-TOT-MON-HOU-TOT-KCR
    6 Mike Fornieles      1156.2    100  .496 1952 1963 20-31  432  76  20   4 195  63  64  55 1165  567  509  421  576   3.96  98  4983  32  32   2  34 WSH-CHW-TOT-BOS
    7 Carl Pavano         1049      100  .492 1998 2007 22-31  186 168   6   4   3  62  64   0 1126  549  498  291  677   4.27 113  4506  36  58  13  13 MON-TOT-FLA-NYY
    8 Scott Karl          1002      100  .491 1995 2000 23-28  178 161   5   1   4  54  56   0 1164  594  536  369  513   4.81 120  4444  18  33   3  26 MIL-TOT
    9 Bill Lohrman         990.2    101  .504 1934 1944 21-31  198 121  47   9  36  60  59   8 1048  479  406  240  330   3.69  70  4176      13   2  19 PHI-NYG-TOT
   10 Don Hood             848.1    101  .493 1973 1983 23-33  297  72   6   1  84  34  35   6  840  412  357  364  374   3.79  57  3651  32  19  10  40 BAL-CLE-TOT-STL-KCR
   11 Bob Miller           822      101  .500 1949 1958 23-32  261  69  23   6  79  42  42  15  889  406  362  247  263   3.96  72  3547  24  16   4  20 PHI
   12 Steve Ridzik         782.2    101  .506 1950 1966 21-37  314  48   4   1  99  39  38  11  709  392  330  351  406   3.79  93  3368  19  36   1  18 PHI-TOT-NYG-CLE-WSA-PHI
   13 Ira Hutchinson       610.2    100  .507 1933 1945 22-34  209  32   7   2  96  34  33  13  628  289  255  249  179   3.76  33  2648      12   1  10 CHW-BSN-BRO-STL
   14 Whitey Moore         513.1    100  .508 1936 1942 24-30  133  60  18   4  42  30  29   4  450  243  214  292  228   3.75  25  2258      24   1   9 CIN-TOT
   15 Roberto Novoa        141.2    100  .500 2004 2006 24-26  131   0   0   0  23   7   7   0  149   84   71   63  115   4.51  23   635  11   8   1   9 DET-CHC
   16 Dewey Robinson        53.1    101  .500 1979 1981 24-26   30   0   0   0  13   2   2   0   42   27   24   28   35   4.05   4   220   3   0   0   0 CHW
   17 Rufe Clarke           11.1    100  .500 1923 1924 23-24    7   0   0   0   2   1   1   0    9    5    5   11    3   3.97   0    52       2   0   0 DET

These guys are seriously average.

Let's relax the criteria a bit but require more innings:

  Cnt Player              **IP**   ERA+  W-L% From  To   Ages   G   GS  CG SHO  GF  W   L   SV   H    R   ER   BB   SO    ERA   HR   BF  IBB HBP  BK  WP Teams
+----+-----------------+----------+----+-----+----+----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+------+---+-----+---+---+---+---+-----------+
    1 Rick Wise           3127      101  .509 1964 1982 18-36  506 455 138  30  15 188 181   0 3227 1455 1281  804 1647   3.69 261 13157  83  44   9  49 PHI-STL-BOS-CLE-SDP
    2 Joe Bush            3087.1     99  .516 1912 1928 19-35  489 366 225  35  93 195 183  20 2992 1443 1205 1263 1319   3.51  96 13185      62   1  90 PHA-BOS-NYY-SLB-TOT-PHA
    3 Willis Hudlin       2613.1    102  .503 1926 1944 20-38  491 328 155  11 105 158 156  31 3011 1491 1281  846  677   4.41 118 11546      44   9  41 CLE-TOT-SLB
    4 Rube Benton         2517.1    101  .510 1910 1925 20-35  437 305 145  24  83 150 144  21 2472 1115  863  712  950   3.09  52 10539      95   6  66 CIN-TOT-NYG-CIN
    5 Tim Belcher         2442.2    101  .510 1987 2000 25-38  394 373  42  18  13 146 140   5 2423 1253 1130  860 1519   4.16 264 10422  43  58  10  73 LAD-CIN-TOT-DET-SEA-KCR-ANA
    6 Mike Caldwell       2408.2     99  .513 1971 1984 22-35  475 307  98  23  77 137 130  18 2581 1182 1020  597  939   3.81 218 10156  62  35   9  65 SDP-SFG-TOT-MIL
    7 Livan Hernandez     2371      100  .511 1996 2007 21-32  351 350  43   7   0 134 128   0 2549 1206 1119  830 1546   4.25 271 10260  62  65  11  31 FLA-TOT-SFG-MON-WSN-ARI
    8 Scott Erickson      2360.2     98  .511 1990 2006 22-38  389 364  51  17  10 142 136   0 2586 1306 1203  865 1252   4.59 228 10284  32 103   3  68 MIN-TOT-BAL-LAD-NYY
    9 Larry Benton        2297       98  .498 1923 1935 25-37  455 258 122  13 113 127 128  22 2559 1190 1029  691  670   4.03 109  9864      25   1  47 BSN-TOT-NYG-CIN-BSN
   10 Fritz Peterson      2218.1    101  .504 1966 1976 24-34  355 330  90  20   9 133 131   1 2217  947  813  426 1015   3.30 173  9103  75  42   6  33 NYY-TOT-CLE
   11 Bill Singer         2174       99  .482 1964 1977 20-33  322 308  94  24   7 118 127   2 1952  944  819  781 1515   3.39 132  9143  50  63  11  67 LAD-CAL-TOT-TOR
   12 Joaquin Andujar     2153       99  .518 1976 1988 23-35  405 305  68  19  37 127 118   9 2016  955  857  731 1032   3.58 155  9008  65  51  33  33 HOU-TOT-STL-OAK-HOU
   13 Pat Dobson          2120.1    100  .486 1967 1977 25-35  414 279  74  14  51 122 129  19 2043  939  833  665 1301   3.54 197  8872  76  26   5  51 DET-SDP-BAL-TOT-NYY-CLE
   14 Jeff Suppan         2071.1    101  .511 1995 2007 20-32  351 335  16   5   6 118 113   0 2272 1155 1060  680 1162   4.61 265  9022  39  77   5  70 BOS-TOT-KCR-STL-MIL
   15 Hal Carlson         2002       99  .487 1917 1930 25-38  377 238 121  17  96 114 120  19 2256 1013  883  498  590   3.97  93  8522      36   2  18 PIT-PHI-TOT-CHC

Wow, is there a more average pitcher these days than Jeff Suppan? I'm surprised to see guys like Belcher, Hernandez, Erickson, and Andujar on there. These are guys who had some good years, who I would have expected to at least have W-L% slightly higher than the requirement.

Only 5 pitchers in baseball have, summed over 2005, 2006, and 2007, totaled at least 650 innings pitched and 550 strikeouts. How many can you get? Answers after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a reminder that you can vote for 2008 Hall of Fame candidates right here. Voting is open for another couple of weeks. I'm hoping for 100 complete ballots.

Again, the title says it all. I had to limit it to 1970 since 15 losses was quite common earlier in the century, even for great pitchers. (It wasn't so rare to see guys with 28-15 seasons, for example.)

Anyway, here are all the pitchers with an ERA+ of at least 125 with 15 or more losses, 1970-2007: Read the rest of this entry »

The title says it all, click through for the lists. Read the rest of this entry »

I used the PI's weight data to generate a list, which I then graphed in Excel. Click through.

Explanations:

• I did a very simple search for players listed at 175 lbs or less who had 200 PAs in a season, then divided the results by "Years with players." Then I made a list of the total number of teams in baseball for each year and divided the number of players by the number of teams for each year.
• I lowered the bar to 200 PAs to try to avoid issues with shortened seasons due to strike (though 1981 is still screwy as you can see), and also to try to get a better idea of the total number of regular big-leaguers who met the weight criterion.
• And keep in mind that this weight data is the player's listed weight. We all know that real weights might be a lot higher, but this is what was printed in the media guide or on backs of baseball cards, etc.

Obviously 1914-1915 stick out as an aberration. I have no idea what happened there, except that it comes during the period of United States involvement in World War I. is it as simple as the fact that people ate less during this period when supplies were less abundant? I'm not sure.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this graph doesn't correct for baseline changes in the US population. Over the last 100 years, Americans have generally gotten heavier, due to a number of factors including cultural changes and availability of a variety of foods. I'm sure that the fraction of the general population weighing 175 lbs or less has dropped over this period. This doesn't translate one-for-one with athletes, since you figure that baseball players are usually in great shape (chubby players aside, who have existed in all eras (see also Babe Ruth and John Kruk.)

The steroids out still sticks out a bit, with a big dropoff in 1994 (which probably has some 1994 strike effects) but that much lower level continuing through 1997. Since 1998 we've generally seen an increase in the number of undersized players.

I don't know what this all means since it's such a large average over so many different conditions.

sdfs

Did you know that the PI includes height and weight data? For some reason, after yesterday, I was inclined to look at lighter players today. Here are the top seasons since 1977, ranked by OPS+, for players listed at 175 lbs or less, minimum 400 PA:

 Cnt Player            **OPS+**  Wt  PA Year Age Tm  Lg  G   AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+--------+---+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Lonnie Smith         168   170 577 1989  33 ATL NL 134 482  89 152 34  4 21  79  76   3  95  11   1   7   7  25 12  .315  .415  .533  .948 *7
    2 Magglio Ordonez      167   170 678 2007  33 DET AL 157 595 117 216 54  0 28 139  76   8  79   2   0   5  20   4  1  .363  .434  .595 1.029 *9D
    3 Robin Yount          166   170 704 1982  26 MIL AL 156 635 129 210 46 12 29 114  54   2  63   1   4  10  19  14  3  .331  .379  .578  .957 *6/D
    4 Sixto Lezcano        164   175 566 1979  25 MIL AL 138 473  84 152 29  3 28 101  77   5  74   3   6   7  11   4  3  .321  .414  .573  .987 *9/D7
    5 Adrian Beltre        163   170 657 2004  25 LAD NL 156 598 104 200 32  0 48 121  53   9  87   2   0   4  15   7  2  .334  .388  .629 1.017 *5/6
    6 Oscar Gamble         162   165 470 1977  27 CHW AL 137 408  75 121 22  2 31  83  54   2  54   6   1   1   3   1  2  .297  .386  .588  .974 *D9/87
    7 Don Mattingly        161   175 742 1986  25 NYY AL 162 677 117 238 53  2 31 113  53  11  35   1   1  10  17   0  0  .352  .394  .573  .967 *3/5D
    8 Don Mattingly        156   175 727 1985  24 NYY AL 159 652 107 211 48  3 35 145  56  13  41   2   2  15  15   2  2  .324  .371  .567  .938 *3
    9 Don Mattingly        156   175 662 1984  23 NYY AL 153 603  91 207 44  2 23 110  41   8  33   1   8   9  15   1  1  .343  .381  .537  .918 *37/98
   10 Nomar Garciaparra    155   165 599 2000  26 BOS AL 140 529 104 197 51  3 21  96  61  20  50   2   0   7   8   5  2  .372  .434  .599 1.033 *6/D
   11 Alan Trammell        155   175 668 1987  29 DET AL 151 597 109 205 34  3 28 105  60   8  47   3   2   6  11  21  2  .343  .402  .551  .953 *6
   12 Magglio Ordonez      153   170 653 2002  28 CHW AL 153 590 116 189 47  1 38 135  53   2  77   7   0   3  21   7  5  .320  .381  .597  .978 *9/D
   13 Nomar Garciaparra    153   165 595 1999  25 BOS AL 135 532 103 190 42  4 27 104  51   7  39   8   0   4  11  14  3  .357  .418  .603 1.021 *6
   14 Derek Jeter          153   175 739 1999  25 NYY AL 158 627 134 219 37  9 24 102  91   5 116  12   3   6  12  19  8  .349  .438  .552  .990 *6
   15 Matt Stairs          153   175 410 1997  29 OAK AL 133 352  62 105 19  0 27  73  50   1  60   3   1   4   6   3  2  .298  .386  .582  .968 97D/3
   16 Ben Oglivie          153   170 660 1980  31 MIL AL 156 592  94 180 26  2 41 118  54  19  71   5   0   9   5  11  9  .304  .362  .563  .925 *7/D98
   17 Robin Yount          152   170 690 1989  33 MIL AL 160 614 101 195 38  9 21 103  63   9  71   6   3   4   9  19  3  .318  .384  .511  .895 *8D
   18 Robin Yount          150   170 662 1983  27 MIL AL 149 578 102 178 42 10 17  80  72   6  58   3   1   8  11  12  5  .308  .383  .503  .886 *6/D
   19 Amos Otis            150   166 567 1978  31 KCR AL 141 486  74 145 30  7 22  96  66   7  54   4   1  10  10  32  8  .298  .380  .525  .905 *8/D
   20 Willie McGee         147   175 652 1985  26 STL NL 152 612 114 216 26 18 10  82  34   2  86   0   1   5   3  56 16  .353  .384  .503  .887 *8/7
   21 Rich Aurilia         146   170 689 2001  29 SFG NL 156 636 114 206 37  5 37  97  47   2  83   0   3   3  14   1  3  .324  .369  .572  .941 *6
   22 Julio Franco         146   165 659 1991  32 TEX AL 146 589 108 201 27  3 15  78  65   8  78   3   0   2  13  36  9  .341  .408  .474  .882 *4
   23 Don Mattingly        146   175 629 1987  26 NYY AL 141 569  93 186 38  2 30 115  51  13  38   1   0   8  16   1  4  .327  .378  .559  .937 *3/D
   24 Chase Utley          145   170 613 2007  28 PHI NL 132 530 104 176 48  5 22 103  50   1  89  25   1   7   7   9  1  .332  .410  .566  .976 *4/3
   25 Jose Cruz            145   175 685 1984  36 HOU NL 160 600  96 187 28 13 12  95  73  10  68   0   2  10   8  22  8  .312  .381  .462  .843 *7
   26 Sixto Lezcano        145   175 559 1982  28 SDP NL 138 470  73 136 26  6 16  84  78  10  69   2   2   7  11   2  1  .289  .388  .472  .860 *9

Mattingly fans, go crazy.

Interestingly, that fake list that was all over the internet yesterday morning mentioned one of the players who appears above. I don't want to say who, since it's not right to bring up that player's name AGAIN since he didn't ultimately appear in the Mitchell report. Doesn't mean any of these above guys are clean, of course.

Hey, check this out. I searched for all players, 1977-2007, listed at 175 lbs or less who got 400+ PAs in that year, and then sorted them by year (actually the PI Batting Season Finder did all this work for me):

So everybody supposedly starting taking steroids in 1993, and then in 1994 the number of players getting 400+ PAs while weighing 175 lbs or less suddenly drops off. Interesting. And then when MLB puts any sort of testing in place in 2003, suddenly the number of players weighing 175 lbs or less shoots up. Interesting.

Well, the era of Performance Enhancing Drugs in baseball has been officially defined. Time will tell about the possible repercussions for the players involved.

I, for one, have been shocked by the response to the Mitchell report. People seem to be focusing on the fact that certain players were dumb enough to write personal checks for steroids or HGH. These people seem to fail to realize that these are the only players for whom purchase of PEDs could be proven.

For each one of the players named in Mitchell's report, there are probably 10 more who acquired PEDs from other sources that Mitchell and his team were unable to trace or confirm. And yet, already today I heard two different media outlets wondering how Mark McGwire will do in the Hall of Fame voting now that he has been  "cleared" of steroid use.

Frankly, that's ridiculous. We'll probably never know for sure about McGwire's use of PEDs, or about the use by other players of that era. Sosa, Juan Gonzales, I-Rod, even Sheffield--we'll probably never know. And there are probably dozens of other players who we never suspected who were users.

Only with the passage of time will the PED era get put into perspective. History will find a way to put this era into perspective.

I would imagine we all agree in the hopes of MLB putting an effective testing program in place and putting an end to this era.