Giants corner-man Pablo Sandoval is following up his impressive rookie season with another excellent year. Through yesterday's games Sandoval was hitting .336  in 241 AB. In fact Sandoval can become just the second player since WWII (with 1 player doing it around the war) to hit at least .330 with at least 100 PA in each of his first 2 big league seasons. Here are all the players since 1901:

 Pablo Sandoval    2008 2009 21-22       2 Ind. Seasons
 Wade Boggs        1982 1983 24-25       2 Ind. Seasons
 Johnny Pesky      1942 1946 22-26       2 Ind. Seasons
 Earl Averill      1929 1930 27-28       2 Ind. Seasons
 Chuck Klein       1928 1929 23-24       2 Ind. Seasons
 Lloyd Waner       1927 1928 21-22       2 Ind. Seasons
 Paul Waner        1926 1927 23-24       2 Ind. Seasons
 Riggs Stephenson  1921 1922 23-24       2 Ind. Seasons
 Patsy Dougherty   1902 1903 25-26       2 Ind. Seasons

Of course, a lot of players only have a few PA in their first season. Here are the overall leaders in BA after 2 seasons (min. 300 PA)

  Cnt Player              **BA**    PA  From  To   Ages   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS  OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
 ----+-----------------+---------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------
    1 Benny Kauff          .368     681 1912 1914 22-24  159   582  124  214  44  13   8   97   75   0   55   8  16   0   0   76   0  .447  .529  .976 /987      NYY-IND
    2 Jim Bottomley        .361     748 1922 1923 22-23  171   674  108  243  42  19  13  129   51   0   57   6  17   0   0    7   7  .410  .537  .947 *3        STL
    3 Paul Waner           .360    1327 1926 1927 23-24  299  1159  215  417  77  40  17  210  126   0   33   7  35   0   0   16   0  .426  .539  .965 *9/37     PIT
    4 Wade Boggs           .357    1066 1982 1983 24-25  257   920  151  328  58   8  10  118  127   6   57   1   7  11  24    4   3  .431  .470  .901 *5/37     BOS
    5 Chuck Klein          .357     954 1928 1929 23-24  213   869  167  310  59  10  54  179   68   0   83   1  16   0   0    5   0  .404  .634 1.038 *9/8      PHI
    6 Johnny Mize          .349    1090 1936 1937 23-24  271   974  179  340  70  15  44  206  106   0   89   6   4   0   9    3   0  .416  .587 1.003 *3/9      STL
    7 Al Simmons           .349    1340 1924 1925 22-23  305  1248  191  436  74  21  32  231   65   0  101   3  24   0   0   23  29  .383  .519  .902 *8/7      PHA
    8 Earle Combs          .346     712 1924 1925 25-26  174   628  127  217  41  13   3   63   69   0   45   4  11   0   0   12  14  .414  .467  .881 *8/79     NYY
    9 Lloyd Waner          .345    1403 1927 1928 21-22  302  1288  254  444  39  20   7   88   77   0   36  10  28   0   0   22   0  .386  .422  .808 *8/74     PIT
   10 Dick Porter          .344     766 1929 1930 27-28  190   672  126  231  59  13   5   81   72   0   45   4  18   0   0    6   8  .410  .493  .903 *9/47     CLE
   11 Pablo Sandoval       .339     416 2008 2009 21-22  106   386   53  131  32   3  11   58   21   5   51   4   0   5  10    2   2  .375  .523  .898 /*532D    SFG
   12 Maurice Archdeaco    .339     437 1923 1924 25-26  117   375   82  127  14   4   0   29   46   0   38   4  12   0   0   13  10  .416  .397  .813 /*89      CHW
   13 Fred Lynn            .338     656 1974 1975 22-23  160   571  108  193  49   9  23  115   68  12   96   4   6   7  11   10   5  .408  .576  .984 *8/79     BOS
   14 Al Bumbry            .338     406 1972 1973 25-26  119   367   78  124  15  12   7   34   34   0   49   3   1   1   5   24  11  .398  .501  .899 /*79D8    BAL
   15 Wally Moses          .338    1028 1935 1936 24-25  231   930  158  314  56  14  12  101   87   0   50   5   6   0   0   15  10  .397  .467  .864 *8/9      PHA
   16 Ichiro Suzuki        .336    1466 2001 2002 27-28  314  1339  238  450  61  16  16  120   98  37  115  13   7   9  11   87  29  .385  .441  .826 *9/D8     SEA

Everything can change with a dip of a few percentage points, but as he stands today Sandoval (#11)  is still second only to Boggs since 1940.

I'm not trying to evaluate Sandoval here . Aside from the obvious problem of just using batting average as a measure, there are certainly players who have done better in more chances in their first season alone. However, I did notice Sandoval's numbers in Andy's post today and was struck by his double .330.

The title says it all. Here they are.

Hitting:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Derrek Lee         2009-05-30  2009-06-23    20     81   15   30   5   0   6   18   15   11    0   0  .370  .452  .654 1.106 CHC
 Jason Bartlett     2009-05-15  2009-06-23    17     64   17   25   6   3   2   18    8    6    5   0  .391  .431  .672 1.103 TBR
 Scott Rolen        2009-06-08  2009-06-23    12     52   12   24   4   0   2    7    4    3    1   1  .462  .500  .654 1.154 TOR
 Andrew McCutchen   2009-06-11  2009-06-23    11     49    8   16   2   3   1    9    9    3    2   0  .327  .365  .551  .916 PIT
 Shane Victorino    2009-06-11  2009-06-23    11     41    9   17   5   0   0    4    7   10    2   1  .415  .538  .537 1.075 PHI

Lee's got a long way to go to match Ryan Zimmerman's 30-gamer from earlier this season.

On-base:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 Derrek Lee         2009-05-16  2009-06-23    30    118   18   44   7   0   8   22   20   15    0   0  .373  .448  .636 1.084 CHC    
 Pablo Sandoval     2009-06-04  2009-06-23    19     68   10   29   8   0   5   13   13    9    0   0  .426  .494  .765 1.259 SFG
 Brett Gardner      2009-05-21  2009-06-23    18     55   10   19   1   1   0    3    6    7    6   1  .345  .419  .400  .819 NYY
 Justin Upton       2009-06-02  2009-06-23    18     70   10   23   5   0   5   16   14   11    3   1  .329  .420  .614 1.034 ARI

Again, Lee has a way to go to match Ichiro and Zimmerman, who each had a 43-game streak this season.

2009 New York-Pennsylvania League Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com

Our minor league site now contains the stats for the short-season and rookie leagues. We also were having some issues with the divisions in some of the minor leagues. I've cleaned those up and they should be corrected tomorrow.

Josh Beckett 2009 Pitching Gamelogs - Baseball-Reference.com

If you look at the 2009 (and eventually the 2008) pitching gamelogs you will see that the pitch count columns are now links. Clicking there will take you to the BrooksBaseball.Net summary page for that game where you can see things like velocity, location, and much much more in graphical and text formats. I am working with Dan Brooks on a couple of projects and this is the first step in bringing some of this pitch information to the site. Hope you enjoy it.

Quick...which pitcher has the best cumulative ERA+ since 2004?

Bet you don't get it right.

Read the rest of this entry »

Since this has now become the sole location of the B-R blog, I've moved it over from http://www.bbref.com/sotd/ to http://www.bbref.com/blog/ We've updated all of the links and also set up redirects, so your bookmarks should work for all eternity. Let us know if you encounter any issues.

Let us have them!

Mobile Survey - Sports Reference

Mobile is one area that we are focusing on at Sports Reference. Who doesn't want to be able to take Baseball-Reference.com with them wherever they go?

As part of our research effort we have posted a short survey where you can post your thoughts, mobile behaviors, and preferences. Thank you for your help on this.

...not of the apocalypse, but of the post-season.

Here are teams in the last 20 years to have 4 pitchers throw at least 200 innings:

 Year Lg Team                              Number Players Matching
+----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+
 2006 AL Chicago White Sox                      4 Jon Garland / Javier Vazquez / Freddy Garcia / Mark Buehrle
 2005 AL Chicago White Sox                      4 Freddy Garcia / Mark Buehrle / Jon Garland / Jose Contreras
 2003 NL Chicago Cubs                           4 Kerry Wood / Matt Clement / Carlos Zambrano / Mark Prior
 2003 AL New York Yankees                       4 Andy Pettitte / Roger Clemens / David Wells / Mike Mussina
 2003 AL Seattle Mariners                       4 Freddy Garcia / Jamie Moyer / Joel Pineiro / Ryan Franklin
 1997 NL Atlanta Braves                         4 John Smoltz / Denny Neagle / Tom Glavine / Greg Maddux
 1993 NL Atlanta Braves                         4 Tom Glavine / Greg Maddux / John Smoltz / Steve Avery
 1993 NL Los Angeles Dodgers                    4 Kevin Gross / Orel Hershiser / Tom Candiotti / Ramon Martinez
 1991 NL Atlanta Braves                         4 Charlie Leibrandt / John Smoltz / Steve Avery / Tom Glavine

These teams all made the playoffs, except for the 2006 White Sox (who still won 90 games), the 2003 Mariners (who won 93 and missed), and the 1993 Dodgers.

As you might imagine, this sort of thing used to be much more common, in particular when the 4-man rotation was still in use and bullpens had fewer members.

When you look at the list above, don't just consider the 4 guys you see listed. Behind these names were good bullpens made better because they were rested. The more innings the starts pitch, the fewer times each guy in the bullpen gets used and the more effective they can be.

Amateur Draft: 1st Round of the 2009 June Draft - Baseball-Reference.com

Just loaded in the 2009 draft results. As the season goes on we'll be linking these players to their minor league stats, so you can quickly and easily track what your team's 2009 draftees are doing in the minors.