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30th April 2008
Micah Owings (a pitcher) hit a pinch-homer for Arizona today. I can’t figure out a way to use the PI to search for this type of event, but it’s got to be pretty damn rare. Owings is incredible.
Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments »
30th April 2008
Phil Hughes has created quite a stir here in New York, by pitching miserably in his first 6 starts. Andrew Miller has been just as bad, if not worse, for the Marlins.
I thought that it might be interesting to look at the players who have had a similar experience to these prospects.
Here are my criteria:
1) Young: 23 or younger
2) Inexperienced: Less that 32 games (a current season’s worth of starts) pitched in their career.
3) Starting a season: The team’s first 30 games (6 games in a 5 man rotation)
4) Struggling: A game score of 35 of lower.
Hughes and Miller join 6 other pitchers with 4 games that match these criteria.
Pete Redfern 1977 4 Ind. Games Jaime Navarro 1990 4 Ind. Games Rafael Medina 1998 4 Ind. Games Phil Huffman 1979 4 Ind. Games Jose Guzman 1986 4 Ind. Games Alex Fernandez 1991 4 Ind. Games
Not very encouraging if you’re a Yankees or Marlins fan.
Here are the season and career totals for each of the pitchers:
| Player | Season W | Season L | Season ERA+ | Career W | Career L | Career ERA+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pete Redfern | 6 | 9 | 78 | 42 | 48 | 90 |
| Jamie Navarro | 8 | 7 | 87 | 116 | 126 | 90 |
| Rafael Medina | 2 | 6 | 67 | 3 | 7 | 69 |
| Phil Huffman | 6 | 18 | 75 | 6 | 18 | 71 |
| Jose Guzman | 9 | 15 | 95 | 80 | 74 | 102 |
| Alex Fernandez | 9 | 13 | 88 | 107 | 87 | 115 |
Posted in Game Finders | No Comments »
30th April 2008
Thanks to my buddy Eric for this idea. (Not you, Eric H, this time it’s Eric P.)
Last night, Roy Halladay lost his third straight complete game. I am willing to bet than in the early 1900s, such a streak was very common since most starts were CGs. But, it’s rare these days. Here are the longest such streaks since 1956:
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Mickey Lolich 1975-07-17 1975-08-15 7 0 7 7 7 0 0 0 59 59 30 26 15 31 6 3.97 0 1 0 DET Rick Langford 1980-06-03 1980-06-30 6 0 6 6 6 0 0 0 52.2 51 25 23 13 22 8 3.93 0 2 1 OAK Jack Harshman 1958-05-17 1958-06-07 5 0 5 5 5 0 0 0 43 42 20 19 10 40 6 3.98 1 2 0 BAL Curt Schilling 1998-05-17 1998-06-07 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 33.2 31 13 11 7 36 1 2.94 1 2 0 PHI Phil Niekro 1978-09-21 1979-04-06 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 33 28 10 9 12 21 1 2.45 1 1 0 ATL Ken Brett 1976-06-20 1976-07-06 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 35.1 29 13 12 15 17 0 3.06 1 1 0 CHW Clyde Wright 1974-07-20 1974-08-02 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 33 37 14 13 7 9 1 3.55 0 1 0 MIL Bob Gibson 1965-05-25 1965-06-08 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 35.2 26 15 13 15 21 5 3.28 1 1 1 STL
Halladay is tied with roughly 60 other streaks at 3 games, although the last one was by Randy Johnson in 1999. See here for the full list.
Posted in Game Finders, Streak Finders | 6 Comments »
29th April 2008
Yesterday I wrote about the players who won their first 6 starts. Then I heard the news that Barry Zito had been sent to the bullpen after losing his first 6 starts. So without further ado, here are the players (since 1956) who have 6 or more losses in consecutive appearances, all starts, to begin a season. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Streak Finders | 11 Comments »
28th April 2008
Last night Brandon Webb won his sixth consecutive start to begin the season. This makes him the 37th pitcher since 1956 to accomplish this. This list, which consists of a lot of great starters mixed in with a few surprises, includes 17 pitchers who won their first 7 or 8 starts. Amazingly however, no one approaches the start that Andy Hawkins had to the 1985 season. Hawkins won his first 10 starts, and he is still the only player since 1956 to even win 9. What’s more amazing is that Hawkins, who only won 84 games in his career, never won more than 4 consecutive games during any other stretch during his career.
I was curious to see how these pitchers fared during the rest of the season. Here are the 36 seasons sorted by wins: Read the rest of this entry »
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27th April 2008
Here’s a fun little list via Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Batting Season Finder…
From 1901 to 2008, non-pitchers, batting seasons with at least 20 games played and a Batting Average<=.199 with an OPS>=.800:
From To Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons +-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+ Jason Giambi 2008 2008 37-37 1 Ind. Seasons Greg Vaughn 2003 2003 37-37 1 Ind. Seasons Mark McGwire 2001 2001 37-37 1 Ind. Seasons Rob Deer 1996 1996 35-35 1 Ind. Seasons Kevin Roberson 1995 1995 27-27 1 Ind. Seasons George Canale 1991 1991 25-25 1 Ind. Seasons
Of course, Giambi’s numbers are as of today’s game. Note that Vaughn, McGwire, Deer and Canale all did this trick in the last year of their big league career. An interesting way to go out, huh?
Posted in Season Finders | 3 Comments »
26th April 2008
Here are the leaders:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Kent Tekulve 12 Ind. Games Hoyt Wilhelm 11 Ind. Games Charlie Hough 11 Ind. Games Wilbur Wood 10 Ind. Games Mike Marshall 10 Ind. Games Rick Honeycutt 10 Ind. Games John Hiller 10 Ind. Games Clay Carroll 10 Ind. Games Al Worthington 9 Ind. Games Dick Tidrow 9 Ind. Games Bob Stanley 9 Ind. Games Phil Niekro 9 Ind. Games Roger McDowell 9 Ind. Games Darold Knowles 9 Ind. Games Rich Gossage 9 Ind. Games Elias Sosa 8 Ind. Games Barney Schultz 8 Ind. Games Greg Minton 8 Ind. Games Tug McGraw 8 Ind. Games Sparky Lyle 8 Ind. Games Joe Horlen 8 Ind. Games Greg Harris 8 Ind. Games Gene Garber 8 Ind. Games John Franco 8 Ind. Games Mark Clear 8 Ind. Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Jim Brewer 8 Ind. Games Ted Abernathy 8 Ind. Games
As you can imagine, these are all games where the pitcher allowed an unearned run to score by any of various means. Let’s take a look at Tekulve’s 12 such games:
Cnt Date Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP ERA +----+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+ 1 1978-05-09 PIT @SFG L 2-3 9-9f ,L 0.1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 2 1978-05-25 PIT NYM L 2-3 10-11f,L 2 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 10 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.00 3 1978-07-22 PIT @SFG L 2-3 9-10 ,L 0.1 1 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.00 4 1979-04-06 PIT MON L 2-3 9-10f,L 2 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 9 8 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 5 1979-04-21 PIT @HOU L 4-5 8-10f,L 1.2 2 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 10 8 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 6 1980-06-18(1) PIT @ATL L 2-3 9-9f ,BL 0.1 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 7 1982-06-09 PIT @NYM L 2-3 9-9f ,BL 0.1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 5 4 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 8 1983-06-28 PIT @CHC L 7-8 9-11f,L 2 3 1 0 2 3 0 0 0 12 10 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 9 1984-05-29 PIT @CIN L 4-5 10-10f,L 0.1 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 10 1984-07-27 PIT STL L 2-3 10-10f,L 1 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 6 3 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 11 1987-06-20 PHI @NYM L 2-3 9-9f ,L 0.1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 12 1989-07-13 CIN MON L 3-6 7-7 ,BL 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 22 15 2 1 6 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.00
Here is what happened in those 12 games:
1. Tekulve allowed a one-out single to Jack Clark, who advanced to 3rd after an error on the catcher attempting to throw him out stealing. Larry Herndon then singled in Clark.
2. With two outs in the 11th, pitcher Dale Murray reached on an E5, then moved to second on a wild pitch by Tekulve. Then Len Randle singled him in.
3. Terry Whitfield led off the 10th with a single against Tekulve, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Tekulve then walked Jack Clark, and was relieved by Dave Hamilton. Willie McCovey then singled off Hamilton to end the game.
4. Here’s a weird one. Andre Dawson led off getting hit by Tekulve. Then, Dawson was picked off by Tekulve but moved to 2B on an error by Tekulve himself. Warren Cromartie grounded out, sending Dawson to third. Then Ellis Valentine reached on E5, scoring Dawson. That’s some seriously tough luck for Tekulve.
5. The Astros loaded the bases on a single, E5, and sac bunt on which Craig Reynolds successfully reached. The next play was a FC groundout by Cesar Cedeno, forcing Denny Walling at home. Next, Jose Cruz singled, scoring Terry Puhl, who had reached on error.
6. Here’s a painful one. Down 2-0, Dale Murphy singled. Then Chris Chambliss reached on an error on the first baseman. Then Tekulve came into the game. Gary Matthews reached on an error on the shortstop. A guy named Brian Asselstine flew out. (I have never heard of that guy–what a name!) Then Bill Nahorodny doubled in all three runs, winning the game. So, Tekulve came in with 2 on and nobody out, the defense allowed the next guy to reach, Tekulve got an out, then gave up a bases-loaded double. That is a tough loss, folks.
7. This one is too long to give in detail, but suffice it to say that the Mets got two guys on by a single and an error. Then, Tekulve picked the guy off 2B, but he was safe on an error by the second baseman and he went to third. Then after a groundout and an intentional walk, Hubie Brooks drove in the winning run on a fielder’s choice.
8. Cubs won when Larry Bowa reached on an error on the second baseman with two guys on base, scoring Leon Durham.
9. Tekulve loaded the bases on a double, intentional walk, and another walk, and then Brad Gulden reached on an error on the second baseman, scoring Dave Concepcion to end the game.
10. Chris Speier led off the inning with a fly ball and got to 3rd base on an error by the right fielder. Oops. Tekulve got Darrel Porter on a lineout. After a walk, he gave up a sac fly to Willie McGee. He then intentionally walked Andy Van Slyke. Then Terry Pendleton singled and the runner was out at home (b ut the go-ahead run had previously scored.)
11. Gary Carter singled and was lifted for pinch-runner Lenny Dykstra. Darryl Strawberry reached on an error by the shortstop and Dykstra got all the way to third. Then Kevin RcReynolds hit a game-ending sac fly.
12. This is the only time that Tekulve got the loss when the run didn’t score in the last inning of the game. What happened is kind of crazy, so here’s the entire inning.
Top of the 7th, Expos Batting, Behind 1-3, Norm Charlton facing 2-3-4
--- 4 D Garcia Walk
R 1-- 2 A Galarraga Double to LF (Ground Ball thru 3B); Garcia Scores
-2- 2 T Raines Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B-1B); Galarraga to 3B
Kent Tekulve replaces Todd Benzinger pitching and batting 6th; Ken Griffey replaces Norm Charlton playing 1B batting 9th
R 1-3 3 H Brooks Reached on E6 (Ground Ball to SS); Galarraga Scores; Raines to 2B
Dave Martinez pinch runs for Hubie Brooks batting 5th
O 12- T Wallach Raines Caught Stealing 3B (C-3B); Martinez to 2B
-2- 5 " " Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B-1B); Martinez to 3B
O 1-3 4 M Fitzgerald Strikeout Swinging
R 1-3 4 S Owen Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B); Martinez Scores/unER; Wallach to 3B
Wallace Johnson pinch hits for Dennis Martinez batting 9th
O 1-3 3 W Johnson Groundout: 2B-1B (2B)
3 runs, 4 hits, 1 error, 2 LOB. Expos 4, Reds 3.
So Norm Charlton made a nice mess of things, and it all blew up on Tekulve.
By the way, this was Tekulve’s second-to-last major-league appearance. His last game came 3 days later, also against the Expos. He came into a tie game in the top of the 12th, gave up 3 runs, got the loss, and retired. He had a couple of rough outings at the end there, but he had a great career, finishing with an ERA+ of 132 while pitching in more than 1000 games.
Posted in Game Finders | 5 Comments »
22nd April 2008
Today the Cubs won again. It was their fourth straight game they won by at least 6 runs. I had to check to see when that last happened.
B-ref is great for checking things like that. Each team’s main page links to their schedule, and the right hand margin is a hash marker telling you how long their current win/loss streak is.
Upon checking, the last time they did this was . . . well, I got sick of checking after 1906. They hadn’t done it in all that time, unless I missed something. This week the Cubs did something they haven’t done in over a century. Wow.
Still, the first week of June 1930 might’ve been a more impressive stretch, though.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
22nd April 2008
Turns out, Giambi is not having a very good year in the Bronx.
One-eigthth the way through, he’s barely hitting .100, with only 5 hits. Even more impressive, only one of those hits is a single.
He’s got 59 PA. Has anyone ever had that many PA in a season with only one single? Let’s leave pitchers out of this one.
Turns out, Jason Giambi is on the verge of history. The record is 61 PA with only 1 single in a season, held by former shortstop Lyn Lary.
Best part of that list? Giambi used to be teammates with John Jaha, #4.
’course there’s a problem with the above logic. Giambi could go 60, 70, 100, 500 PA without another single, but the moment he does, he’s off the list.
My advice: take 3 more PA, Jason, and then go wash Jeff Kent’s truck. My settle for futility when history is right around the corner?
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
21st April 2008
Last night, Chase Utley homered in his 4th straight game.
The AP story on the game notes that the Phillies’ team record for homers in consecutive games is 5, done most recently by Bobby Abreu in 2005.
Indeed, here are the 3 who have done it:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Bobby Abreu 2005-05-08 2005-05-12 5 16 6 10 1 0 5 7 3 6 1 0 .625 .727 1.625 2.352 PHI Mike Schmidt 1979-07-06 1979-07-10 5 17 8 9 0 0 7 14 1 2 0 0 .529 .550 1.765 2.315 PHI Dick Allen 1969-05-27 1969-06-01 5 21 7 10 1 0 5 10 6 3 0 0 .476 .542 1.238 1.780 PHI
The AP article also noticed that before Utley, Josh Willingham was the last player to hit homers in 3 straight games against the Mets. Here are the longest such streaks since 1993:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Ryan Howard 2006-08-17 2007-04-09 5 18 6 7 0 0 5 13 3 2 0 0 .389 .429 1.222 1.651 PHI Chipper Jones 1999-07-04 1999-09-23 4 13 7 6 0 0 5 8 2 4 1 0 .462 .588 1.615 2.203 ATL Andruw Jones 1998-09-05 1998-09-25 4 16 5 7 0 0 4 5 5 0 1 1 .438 .438 1.188 1.626 ATL Larry Walker 1996-04-11 1996-04-19 4 15 6 6 0 0 4 7 2 1 0 0 .400 .471 1.200 1.671 COL Chase Utley 2008-04-18 2008-04-20 3 11 4 6 0 0 4 6 2 2 0 0 .545 .615 1.636 2.251 PHI Josh Willingham 2006-09-11 2006-09-13 3 13 5 8 1 0 3 6 3 1 0 0 .615 .643 1.385 2.028 FLA Andruw Jones 2006-04-17 2006-04-19 3 12 4 5 0 0 4 7 2 0 0 0 .417 .385 1.417 1.802 ATL Adam Dunn 2004-06-30 2005-04-04 3 10 5 7 2 0 4 8 3 3 0 0 .700 .769 2.100 2.869 CIN Bobby Abreu 2004-07-08 2004-07-16 3 14 4 7 2 0 3 7 2 1 2 0 .500 .533 1.286 1.819 PHI Hideki Matsui 2003-06-29 2004-06-27 3 11 3 3 0 0 3 6 4 1 0 0 .273 .333 1.091 1.424 NYY Eric Young 2003-05-02 2003-06-05 3 11 4 5 2 0 3 3 1 0 0 0 .455 .455 1.455 1.910 MIL Pat Burrell 2002-09-08 2003-05-20 3 10 4 5 1 0 4 7 4 3 0 0 .500 .615 1.800 2.415 PHI Albert Pujols 2001-08-12 2002-04-24 3 10 4 3 0 0 3 4 2 2 0 0 .300 .417 1.200 1.617 STL Scott Rolen 2001-07-29 2001-08-29 3 13 4 6 2 0 3 6 2 1 0 0 .462 .500 1.308 1.808 PHI Rich Aurilia 2001-05-12 2001-08-24 3 13 6 8 1 0 3 7 0 0 0 0 .615 .615 1.385 2.000 SFG Gary Sheffield 2001-08-17 2001-08-19 3 12 3 7 1 0 3 9 0 0 1 0 .583 .583 1.417 2.000 LAD Jose Cruz 1999-06-08 2000-07-16 3 10 4 4 0 0 3 3 3 4 0 0 .400 .571 1.300 1.871 TOR Vladimir Guerrero 1999-07-08 1999-07-22 3 11 3 5 0 0 3 4 1 1 0 0 .455 .500 1.273 1.773 MON Vladimir Guerrero 1998-06-18 1998-07-10 3 14 6 5 1 0 3 5 0 1 0 0 .357 .400 1.071 1.471 MON Damion Easley 1997-06-30 1997-07-02 3 12 4 4 0 0 3 3 1 0 1 0 .333 .333 1.083 1.416 DET Sammy Sosa 1996-05-11 1996-08-05 3 13 4 5 0 0 3 4 3 0 0 0 .385 .385 1.077 1.462 CHC Jerome Walton 1994-06-05 1995-05-07 3 8 4 4 0 0 3 6 1 1 1 1 .500 .556 1.625 2.181 CIN Matt Williams 1994-04-23 1994-05-02 3 12 3 3 0 0 3 6 1 1 0 0 .250 .308 1.000 1.308 SFG Glenallen Hill 1993-09-03 1993-09-05 3 9 3 3 0 0 3 6 2 0 0 0 .333 .333 1.333 1.666 CHC Rick Wilkins 1993-06-07 1993-06-09 3 12 4 5 0 0 4 6 1 1 0 0 .417 .462 1.417 1.879 CHC
You can see Willingham and Utley both there at 3-game streaks.
Other long streaks against the Mets can be seen here and here. Bad Henry has a streak of 5 that matches Ryan Howard’s.
Posted in Streak Finders | 1 Comment »
