I see that the Brewers are planning to move reigning AL ROY Ryan Braun from 3B (where he was pretty bad defensively) to LF next year.

It got me to wondering how often that’s happened before. I recall that Pat Burrell was a 3B when the Phillies drafted him, but he was blocked by Scott Rolen. They first moved Burrell to 1B, but eventually to LF, which is where he has played most of his major-league ball. (In fact, he’s played 58 ML games at 1B, all in his first year, and exclusively has played LF or DH since then.)

Anyway, I tried to come up with a search that might show a guy who played both 3B and LF a lot early in his career. This is what I came up with (although it’s definitely not that great): Within the first

  Cnt Player            Year From  To   Ages   G    PA    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
    1 Miguel Cabrera    2007 2003 2007 20-24  720  3072  2694  449  842 183  10 138  523  322  70  592  25   5  26  87   17  11  .313  .388  .542  .930 *579/D    FLA
    2 Mike Edwards      2006 2003 2006 26-29  106   282   259   24   63   9   2   3   15   19   0   40   2   2   0   7    1   1  .243  .300  .328  .628 /57D96    OAK-LAD-PIT
    3 Russell Branyan   2002 1998 2002 22-26  326  1062   928  134  213  38   5  61  154  114   5  380  10   0  10   9    5   4  .230  .317  .478  .795 75/D39    CLE-TOT
    4 Kevin Mitchell    1989 1984 1989 22-27  548  2099  1854  279  509 101  17 100  319  216  43  352  11   2  16  31   20  19  .275  .351  .509  .860 57/9683   NYM-TOT-SFG
    5 Steve Braun       1975 1971 1975 23-27  629  2339  2012  260  569  91  11  32  212  289  22  242  13  11  14  45   20  17  .283  .374  .387  .761 57/46D39  MIN
    6 Bill McNulty      1972 1969 1972 22-25    9    29    27    0    1   0   0   0    0    2   0   11   0   0   0   0    0   0  .037  .103  .037  .140 /*75      OAK
    7 Jim Dyck          1955 1951 1955 29-33  301  1085   949  131  236  50   5  26  114  118   1  130   7  11   0  26    4   6  .249  .336  .394  .730 57/89     SLB-CLE-BAL
    8 Ralph Hodgin      1947 1939 1947 24-32  416  1463  1358  170  393  68  19   3  154   76   0   52  17  12   0  38    7   7  .289  .335  .374  .709 75/9      BSN-CHW
    9 Bobby Estalella   1942 1935 1942 24-31  289  1023   852  135  234  50  14  18  130  164   0   94   4   3   0  30    8   5  .275  .394  .430  .824 7/598     WSH-SLB
   10 Cozy Dolan        1914 1909 1914 19-24  267   989   865  157  209  29  12   4   73   87   0  109   9  28   0   0   85   0  .242  .317  .317  .634 5/798     CIN-NYY-TOT-STL
   11 Scotty Ingerton   1911 1911 1911 25-25  136   575   521   63  130  24   4   5   61   39   0   68   2  13   0   0    6   0  .250  .304  .340  .644 /573469   BSN
   12 Emil Batch        1907 1904 1907 24-27  348  1361  1253  134  315  38  22   7   98   65   0    0   3  40   0   0   37   0  .251  .290  .334  .624 *57/9864  BRO
   13 Jim Delahanty     1906 1901 1906 22-27  406  1591  1428  176  385  62  20   9  161  104   0    0  30  29   0   0   54   0  .270  .332  .360  .692 *57/49618 CHC-NYG-BSN-CIN 

How many of these guys actually qualify as having switched from 3B to LF? Cabrera has basically gone the other way, from LF to 3B. Edwards hasn’t played enough games to be relevant. Branyan has played all around each year. Kevin Mitchell qualifies for the most part, playing most of his games at 3B until moving to LF with the Giants in 1989, although he did play a bunch of OF before that. Same story with Steve Braun. only 9 games for McNulty. Dyck played both positions most years. Alot fo the rest of the guys played in various positions from year to year. Delahanty actually switched from 3B to OF, then back to 3B, then to other positions.

So I didn’t find anybody who fit all that well.

Using some other searches for just the first 3 years of a career, I also found Jack Howell and Phil Nevin, but again neither really qualifies all that well.

As it’s currently set up, the PI isn’t well-suited to this type of search. I think we might have to rely on actual memories of fans. So–who can remember somebody who made the switch from 3B to LF?

a

After playing for five teams in the last four years, Steve Finley is looking to sign with another team. If he does, he could move up on a few speed related “older” player lists.

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Yesterday, when I wrote about bases-loaded walks, I noted that Levale Speigner had the second-most such walks last year. I must admit–I had not heard of him before writing that stat. Turns out he was a rookie pitcher (mainly reliever) for Washington last year, and he finished with 40 IP and an 8.78 ERA. Yuck.

Here are the worst ERAs since 1901 for a pitcher in any of his first 3 seasons, minimum 40 IP:

  Cnt Player              **ERA**    IP  Year Age Tm  Lg  G  GS CG SHO GF  W  L  W-L% SV  H   R   ER  BB  SO ERA+ HR  BF   AB  2B 3B IBB HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS Pk BK WP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  OPS+  Pit  Str
+----+-----------------+----------+-----+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+---+---+---+---+---+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+
    1 Roy Halladay         10.64    67.2 2000  23 TOR AL  19 13  0   0  4  4  7  .364  0 107  87  80  42  44   48 14  349  300 21  3   0   2   2   3   6   3  3  0  1  6  .357  .435  .587 1.022  153 1391  815
    2 Micah Bowie          10.24    51   1999  24 TOT NL  14 11  0   0  2  2  7  .222  0  81  60  58  34  41   44  9  265  223 12  2   2   2   3   3   1  10  3  1  2  4  .363  .447  .556 1.003  162
    3 Andy Larkin           9.64    74.2 1998  24 FLA NL  17 14  0   0  0  3  8  .273  0 101  87  80  55  43   42 12  373  307 20  3   3   4   5   2  10  13  2  0  0  3  .329  .435  .531  .966  166
    4 Glen Cook             9.45    40   1985  25 TEX AL   9  7  0   0  1  2  3  .400  0  53  42  42  18  19   45 12  187  162  7  1   1   3   0   4   4   1  2  0  0  1  .327  .396  .605 1.001  169
    5 Edgar Gonzalez        9.32    46.1 2004  21 ARI NL  10 10  0   0  0  0  9  .000  0  72  49  48  18  31   50 15  228  199 13  2   4   5   5   1   9   3  1  0  1  3  .362  .426  .673 1.099  179  814  499
    6 Reggie Grabowski      9.23    65.1 1934  26 PHI NL  27  5  0   0  7  1  3  .250  0 114  72  67  23  13   51 13  328                  3                        1  4                            0
    7 Nick Bierbrodt        9.14    43.1 2003  25 TOT AL  18  5  0   0  4  0  2  .000  0  64  47  44  27  29   48  9  223  184 16  1   3   5   2   5   4   5  1  0  1  4  .348  .434  .592 1.026  173  852  511
    8 Bryan Rekar           8.95    58.1 1996  24 COL NL  14 11  0   0  0  2  4  .333  0  87  61  58  26  25   59 11  289  252 16  6   1   5   3   3   4   1  2  0  0  4  .345  .413  .587 1.000  145
    9 Herman Besse          8.83    53   1940  28 PHA AL  17  5  0   0  7  0  3  .000  0  70  56  52  34  19   50 10  262                  3                        0  2                            0
   10 Levale Speigner       8.78    40   2007  26 WSN NL  19  6  0   0  3  2  3  .400  0  58  39  39  23  19   48  4  198  170 14  1   2   0   2   3   4   0  1  0  0  1  .341  .413  .506  .919  147  729  432
   11 Glenn Liebhardt       8.78    55.1 1936  25 SLB AL  24  0  0   0 12  0  0        0  98  58  54  27  20   61  4  291                  2                        0  2                            0
   12 Jim Converse          8.69    48.2 1994  22 SEA AL  13  8  0   0  1  0  5  .000  0  73  49  47  40  39   56  5  253  207 12  6   4   1   2   3   3   3  4  0  0  3  .353  .454  .541  .995  153
   13 Mike DeJean           8.41    61   1999  28 COL NL  56  0  0   0 17  2  4  .333  0  83  61  57  32  31   69 13  288  248 11  3   8   2   3   3  12  15  2  0  0  3  .335  .411  .560  .971  126
   14 Kyle Davies           8.38    63.1 2006  22 ATL NL  14 14  1   0  0  3  7  .300  0  90  60  59  33  51   53 14  312  271 19  2   0   3   3   2   5   4  1  1  0  3  .332  .408  .572  .980  155 1235  739
   15 Jimmy Haynes          8.29    89   1996  23 BAL AL  26 11  0   0  8  3  6  .333  1 122  84  82  58  65   60 14  435  366 18  4   1   2   4   5  10   6  3  1  0  5  .333  .422  .519  .941  136
   16 Jesus Colome          8.27    41.1 2002  24 TBD AL  32  0  0   0 15  2  7  .222  0  56  41  38  33  33   53  6  204  164  8  2   5   2   4   1   4   9  4  1  0  5  .341  .455  .524  .979  162  855  468
   17 Roberto Ramirez       8.26    40.1 1999  26 COL NL  32  4  0   0  6  1  5  .167  1  68  42  37  22  32   70  8  209  185 15  2   2   0   2   0   4   6  0  0  0  4  .368  .435  .600 1.035  141
   18 Chad Durbin           8.21    72.1 2000  22 KCR AL  16 16  0   0  0  2  5  .286  0  91  71  66  43  37   62 14  349  302 21  1   1   0   1   3   6   5  0  0  0  7  .301  .385  .517  .902  124 1368  784
   19 Willie Adams          8.18    58.1 1997  24 OAK AL  13 12  0   0  0  3  5  .375  0  73  53  53  32  37   54  9  282  238 22  3   2   4   3   5   2   5  2  1  0  2  .307  .391  .538  .929  143
   20 Brad Havens           8.18    80.1 1983  23 MIN AL  16 14  1   0  0  5  8  .385  0 110  75  73  38  40   52 11  378  330 23  5   3   0   1   9   4  10  1  0  0  6  .333  .393  .533  .926  149           

Speigner checks in at 10th. I’m surprised he wasn’t higher. The bad news for Speigner is that this list is populated mainly by recent pitchers who flamed out early in their careers.  The obvious exception is Roy Halladay, who might be the best starting pitcher in the American League now that Santana has gone to the Mets. Outside of Halladay, there are no great careers on there, although a number of guys are still active and might do something.

In case you’re interested, searching on the same criteria (first 3 years, minimum 40 IP) but ranking by WHIP instead of ERA pushes Speigner further down the list, to 40th, despite his 2.025 WHIP.

Yesterday Andy focused on bases-loaded walks. I’d like to focus on the most demoralizing type of bases -loaded walk, the two out walk to the opposing pitcher. Just when you think you’re out of the jam, not only have you replaced an easy out with a run, you have also brought up the top of the order. Recently this is has become an uncommon event, but it seemed happen about 3-10 times a year before 2006. Let’s take a look at the last 5 years.

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Using the Team Pitching Event Finder, we came up with this list of all 2007 instances of a team issuing a bases-loaded walk.

Among the things you can tell from this are:

• The pitchers to do it the most were Barry Zito (7), Levale Speigner (5), and Chad Gaudin (5).
• The team to draw the most bases-loaded walks was Boston (24), followed by Anaheim (19), and Philadelphia (17).
• Right-handed batters received 58.4% of the walks with the bases loaded, as compared to 53.5% of ALL walks (regardless of number of baserunners) issued to righties in 2007. I can’t think of any easy explanation for this discrepancy, except perhaps that lefties are more likely to pitch in tight spots and therefore the opposing manager might be more inclined to send up a right-handed pitcher.
• Right handed pitchers issued 63.2% of the walks with the bases loaded, as opposed to 70.9% of ALL walks issued by righties in 2007. This one is easier to explain, as left-handed specialists are brought in during tight squeezes all the times, so it stands to reason that they issue a higher fraction of bases-loaded walks (and probably a smaller fraction of bases-empty walks.)
• The 6th-place batter in the lineup received the most bases-loaded walks (57), followed by the 7th (53) and 5th (52) place batters.
• The relative score when the walk occurred was most often tied (74 times) and after that generally happened more when the pitching team was already behind (no surprise there.)
• Seven games ended on bases loaded walks, and those are listed right here.
• 55% of all bases-loaded walks were issued at the visitor’s park, i.e. at the batter’s home park.
• The pitch count for the bases-loaded walk was most rarely 4 pitches (19.7%) and most often 5 pitches (30.5%.) And twice in 2007, it was 38 pitches.
• More than half the time, the walk came with 2 out.

A few things you can’t tell from this report, but that you can tell from the Team Batting Even Finder for bases-loaded walks:

• The most were drawn by Pat Burrell (6) and Chone Figgins (5).
• The most were issued by Texas (19), Baltimore (19), Tampa Bay (17), and Washington (17.)

The 1934 season was Babe Ruth’s last productive year in baseball as a player.  Then, the Big Bam was 39-years old - and truly on his last legs.  But, he managed to come to the plate 471 times and post an OPS+ of 161.  This got me wondering as to what modern players have put together a season like Babe Ruth’s last good season - so, I went to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Batting Season Finder and set it for: “For single seasons, From 1996 to 2007, (requiring OPSp>=160, PA>=450, PA<=499, and OPSp<=170), sorted by name” and this is what I got:

  Cnt                       OPS+  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 Javy Lopez             169 495 2003  32 ATL NL 129 457  89 150 29  3 43 109  33   5  90   4   0   1  10   0  1  .328  .378  .687 1.065 *2/D 

    2 Ellis Burks            163 458 2000  35 SFG NL 122 393  74 135 21  5 24  96  56   5  49   1   0   8  10   5  1  .344  .419  .606 1.025 *9/D 

    3 Barry Bonds            170 477 2007  42 SFG NL 126 340  75  94 14  0 28  66 132  43  54   3   0   2  13   5  0  .276  .480  .565 1.045 *7/D 

  

I had a feeling that Barry would show up on this list - somehow.  But, Javy Lopez and Ellis Burks, well, I did not expect to see them here.  I wonder, during 2000, for Ellis, and 2003, for Javy, what if someone had yelled out to them “Hey, you’re playing like Babe Ruth on his last legs!” - would they have thought that was a bad thing?

I did a team streak finder for most consecutive games with no Extra Base Hits (XBH.) It runs from 1957 to 2007 and here are the top three:

 Team    StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 NYY      1967-04-14  1967-04-22     6    3   3   218   16   43   0   0   0   15   34   33    1   0  .197  .307  .197  .504 BOS,CHW                             

 PIT      1985-05-17  1985-05-21     5    2   3   151   10   32   0   0   0   10   32   19    4   4  .212  .298  .212  .510 CIN,HOU
 LAA      1964-06-26  1964-06-30     5    2   3   147    8   29   0   0   0    6   17   15    2   1  .197  .274  .197  .471 KCA,NYY

These are the only teams to muster more than 4 straight games with no XBH. Surprisingly, their records are pretty good, with that 1967 Yankees team going 3 and 3 in their streak of 6 such games.

Here are those 6 games:

 TmG Date       Opp GmReslt  PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RB  BB IW  SO HB  SH  SF RE DP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS   LOB Batrs Th Opp. Starter
+---+---------+----+-------+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+-----+--+------------+
   3 Apr 14     BOS L  0-3   33  28   0   1  0  0  0  0   5  0   2  0   0   0  1  1   0  0  .223  .298  .359  .657    6    13  L B.Rohr
   4 Apr 15     BOS W  1-0   33  27   1   5  0  0  0  1   4  1   4  1   1   0  0  1   0  0  .215  .301  .323  .624    8     9  L D.Bennett
   5 Apr 16     BOS W  7-6   76  65   7  15  0  0  0  6   9  0  13  1   1   0  1  3   1  0  .221  .312  .292  .604   16    19  R J.Lonborg
   6 Apr 19    @CHW W  3-0   40  31   3   7  0  0  0  3   6  2   2  0   1   2  0  1   0  0  .221  .315  .283  .598   10     9  L T.John
   7 Apr 21    @BOS L  1-6   36  35   1   8  0  0  0  1   1  0   7  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  .222  .307  .276  .583    8    14  L B.Rohr
   8 Apr 22    @BOS L  4-5   43  32   4   7  0  0  0  4   8  0   6  1   1   1  0  0   0  0  .222  .317  .270  .587   12    16  R J.Lonborg

Can you imagine a team scoring 7 runs today with no doubles, triples, or homers? Sheesh.

I would have to think that in the modern era, it is pretty hard to win a game without a single extra-base hit.

Here are the longest streaks from the last 10 seasons (1998-2007):

 Team    StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 SDP      2005-09-10  2005-09-12     3    0   3    92    7   18   0   0   0    6   18   11    0   1  .196  .286  .196  .482 LAD,SFG
 CHW      2004-09-14  2004-09-16     3    0   3    89    4   15   0   0   0    4   16    6    0   1  .169  .227  .169  .396 MIN
 KCR      2004-08-31  2004-09-03     3    2   1   100   10   25   0   0   0    9   27    6    0   0  .250  .290  .250  .540 DET,MIN
 KCR      2004-07-05  2004-07-07     3    0   3    87    0   13   0   0   0    0   24    2    2   1  .149  .196  .149  .345 MIN
 TBD      2004-04-17  2004-04-20     3    0   3    91    2   12   0   0   0    1   13    7    1   1  .132  .202  .132  .334 CHW,BAL
 MON      2004-04-11  2004-04-14     3    0   3    92    1   18   0   0   0    1   21    8    0   1  .196  .257  .196  .453 NYM,FLA
 BAL      2003-07-11  2003-07-13     3    0   3    92    3   15   0   0   0    1   17    3    1   0  .163  .189  .163  .352 OAK
 MIL      2003-05-24  2003-05-27     3    1   2    86    5   13   0   0   0    5   22    9    0   1  .151  .245  .151  .396 LAD,SDP
 PIT      2003-05-02  2003-05-04     3    1   2    97    8   18   0   0   0    6   23   11    4   0  .186  .269  .186  .455 LAD
 STL      2002-08-04  2002-08-07     3    0   3    93    3   14   0   0   0    1   11    5    0   1  .151  .194  .151  .345 ATL,MON
 SFG      2002-05-30  2002-06-01     3    0   3    92    6   21   0   0   0    5   14    7    2   2  .228  .280  .228  .508 ARI,COL
 SDP      2001-09-03  2001-09-05     3    0   3    89    1   10   0   0   0    1   20    4    2   0  .112  .160  .112  .272 STL
 NYY      2000-05-13  2000-05-16     3    0   3    95    4   16   0   0   0    4   16   10    1   1  .168  .255  .168  .423 DET,CHW

Indeed, check out that record. 4 up and 35 down, a .103 winning percentage.

But if you thought the Yankees scoring 7 runs in 1967 without an XBH was impressive, check out this game, one of the Royals’ victories in their 3-game streak above from 2004. Nine runs on 17 singles, 3 walks, and 2 reaches-on-error.

Brian Cashman started trash talking about Bernie Williams the other day, leading to this thread at BTF.  In post #22 Lance Linden says “For my money, Williams was the Yankees’ best outfielder since Mantle.”  Is that true?  Well, looking at the PI . . .

Clearly, he crushes everyone in terms of quantity.  Only 4 had half as many games as him (Piniella juuust misses 50% as many games).  He leads in every notable counting stat except SB, where he’s 3rd.

Looking at the guys with 500+ games (Williams is over 2000), he’s middle-of-the-pack at OPS+.  The only guy noticably higher than him with much playing time is Dave Winfield though.

That’s career.  How ’bout single-season?  Well, he’s not as good.  Going by OPS+, he only has 1 of the top 11 seasons (though 6 of the top 20).   Then again, Dave Winfield only has 2 of the top 11 and 3 of the top 20.

So, yeah, I guess he is the best OFr for the Yanks since Mantle.

The title says it all. By using a minimum of 100 games, I’m ensuring that the player had at least 2 appearances at each position (other than pitcher, catcher, and DH.)

  Cnt Player            Year  G  Age Tm  Lg  PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Alfredo Amezaga   2007 133  29 FLA NL 448 400  46 105 14  9  2  30  35   0  52   4   4   5   4  13  7  .263  .324  .358  .682 *8654/397
    2 Willie Bloomquist 2006 102  28 SEA AL 283 251  36  62  6  2  1  15  24   0  40   4   2   2   3  16  3  .247  .320  .299  .619 86495/37
    3 Alfredo Amezaga   2006 132  28 FLA NL 378 334  42  87  9  3  3  19  33   4  46   3   7   1   5  20 12  .260  .332  .332  .664 *8476/539
    4 Damian Jackson    2003 109  29 BOS AL 172 161  34  42  7  0  1  13   8   0  28   0   2   1   4  16  8  .261  .294  .323  .617 46879/53
    5 Jolbert Cabrera   2003 128  30 LAD NL 380 347  43  98 32  2  6  37  17   3  62  10   3   3  10   6  4  .282  .332  .438  .770 487/6359
    6 Dennis Hocking    2001 112  31 MIN AL 363 327  34  82 16  2  3  25  29   1  67   2   4   1   7   6  1  .251  .315  .339  .654 643/D7589
    7 Joe McEwing       2001 116  28 NYM NL 319 283  41  80 17  3  8  30  17   0  57  10   6   3   2   8  5  .283  .342  .449  .791 7956/438D
    8 Dennis Hocking    2000 134  30 MIN AL 433 373  52 111 24  4  4  47  48   1  77   0   7   5   2   7  5  .298  .373  .416  .789 4897563/D
    9 Shane Halter      2000 105  30 DET AL 265 238  26  62 12  2  3  27  14   0  49   1  10   2   5   5  2  .261  .302  .366  .668 *5364/89721
   10 Scott Brosius     1995 123  28 OAK AL 443 389  69 102 19  2 17  46  41   0  67   8   1   4   5   4  2  .262  .342  .452  .794 5983/764D
   11 Cory Snyder       1992 124  29 SFG NL 420 390  48 105 22  2 14  57  23   2  96   2   2   3  10   4  4  .269  .311  .444  .755 93758/46
   12 Luis Salazar      1988 130  32 DET AL 489 452  61 122 14  1 12  62  21   2  70   3  10   3  13   6  0  .270  .305  .385  .690 765/9843
   13 Jose Oquendo      1987 116  23 STL NL 312 248  43  71  9  0  1  24  54   6  29   0   6   4   6   4  4  .286  .408  .335  .743 946/75381
   14 Rod Kanehl        1962 133  28 NYM NL 378 351  52  87 10  2  4  27  23   2  36   1   3   0   7   8  6  .248  .296  .322  .618 457/8396
   15 Randy Reese       1928 109  24 NYG NL 432 406  61 125 18  4  6  44  13   0  24   1  12   0   0   7  0  .308  .331  .416  .747 *74/63598
   16 Jack Rothrock     1928 117  23 BOS AL 384 344  52  92  9  4  3  22  33   0  40   1   6   0   0  12  6  .267  .333  .343  .676 795368/421
   17 Jimmy Johnston    1917 103  27 BRO NL 369 330  33  89 10  4  0  25  23   0  28   2  14   0   0  16  0  .270  .321  .324  .645 783/9645
   18 Possum Whitted    1913 123  23 STL NL 450 404  44  89 10  5  0  38  31   0  44   4  11   0   0   9  0  .220  .282  .270  .552 6579/483
   19 Solly Hofman      1907 134  24 CHC NL 536 470  67 126 11  3  1  36  41   0   0   1  24   0   0  29  0  .268  .328  .311  .639 69837/54
   20 Wid Conroy        1905 101  28 NYY AL 424 385  55 105 19 11  2  25  32   0   0   0   7   0   0  25  0  .273  .329  .395  .724 5763/849  

Amezaga has done it each of the last 2 years, and Denny Hocking is on here twice too.

Just for giggles, I looked at Amezaga’s two games in LF this past season. In one, he played only LF, but came in as a defensive replacement for Mike Jacobs in the 9th. In the other, he pinch ran for Josh Willingham in the bottom of the 9th, but did not score, sending the game into extra innings. In the 10th, he took over LF (vacated by Willingham). The the 11th, Amezaga was displaced from LF by another pinch-runner, Cody Ross, and Amezaga himself took over 2B from Dan Uggla, who left as part of a double-switch.

This kind of versatility, assuming that the player can manage defensively, is extraordinarily valuable, in my opinion, just like pitchers who can play a little outfield.

Congress is up against an expert runner.