The Baseball-Reference.com Play Index Stat of the Day

Today, with the season on the line, Tom Glavine was utterly dreadful.  He had a game score of 11.  It was not, however, the worst start of his life.   Going by game score, it was tied for 7th worst.  (The start ain’t up there yet, but tommorrow Sean Forman will include today’s result and you can see for yourself, if you have a PI subscription).

He only got one out, making it the second shortest start of his life.  This was the only time he recorded no outs.  In every other start he had at least 2 outs before getting yanked.

UPDATE 2: I’m extending the MVP voting until the end of the day on Tuesday, in view of the extra regular-season game to be played.

UPDATE: I’m extending the MVP voting until the end of the day on Monday, in view of the extra regular-season game to be played.

You know what I’m talking about.

Jimmy Rollins just got his 20th triple, batting in a big run for the Phillies as they try to win the NL East.

He’s now the only player in major league history with 20 homers, 20 doubles, 20 stolen bases, 20 triples, and 200 hits in a single season.

Firstly, a couple of notes:

• It’s the final day of the regular season, and it certainly is exciting. All eyes will be on the Phillies, Mets, Padres, and Rockies. I’m inclined to think there will be at least one playoff game on Monday.
• If you would like to place your votes for NL MVP, please do so by noon on Monday so I can add up all the votes. Place your votes in the comments for this post.

Now, I want to talk a little bit about Dale Sveum.

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I noticed a comment from “jmvbaseball” at another entry to the Stat of the Day blog that asked:  “The Yankees only have 3 pitchers with 100+ innings.  Have any other teams made the post season with such a flimsy rotation?”

Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Season Finder, we can look up the answer.

The 1995 Reds only had two pitchers with 100+ IP (Pete Schourek /John Smiley) - and they were a post-season team.  But, that was a shortened season.

If you’re looking for the last full-season that a post-season team had only three pitchers with 100+ IP in a season, that would be last year - when the 2006 World Champion Cardinals had only three hurlers meet that mark:  Jason Marquis/Jeff Suppan/Chris Carpenter.

The full-season post-season team before that to do it was the 2004 Astros - with Roy Oswalt/Roger Clemens/Tim Redding.    The full-season post-season reaching 2002 Cardinals also did it - with Matt Morris/Jason Simontacchi /Woody Williams.  And, the full-season pennant winning 1997 Indians only had three 100+ IP hurlers:  Charles Nagy/Orel Hershiser/Chad Ogea.  That same season (’97), the Giants reached the post-season with just three reaching this mark:  Kirk Rueter/Shawn Estes/Mark Gardner.

So, to answer the question, yes, it’s happened before.

Here’s some Saturday frivolity for you. My friend ehanczyc, who is an occasional commenter here, reminded me of the greatest offensive career in history for a player who appeared in just one game.

Most of you old-time baseball fans probably know who it is…can you guess? The answer and analysis is after the jump. (more…)

• Not to go too crazy here, but Micah Owings just completed the greatest hitting season for a pitcher ever (well, since 1901, and, well, if you’re judging just by OPS.) He capped off an amazing season yesterday with a ho-hum 4-for-4 performance with 3 doubles and 3 RBI. (And he pitched shutout ball into the 7th inning in a critical game for the Diamondbacks.) He finishes the year with a 1.050 OPS, tops among pitchers with at least 40 plate appearances in a season since 1901. His 12 extra-base hits are tied for 28th all-time and are the most singe Ferguson Jenkins’ 14 in 1971. It’s time for the Diamondbacks to seriously think about using him as a pinch-hitter, and if the kid can play some outfield, he might even get a few starts there in between mound appearances. (Editor’s note: much to my surprise, Arizona did use Owings as a PH and his OPS for the season dropped a bit. See the comments below.)

• Lost in the hoopla of the Mets’ collapse is that Jesus Matty Moises Alou had a 30-game hit streak snapped yesterday. That’s the longest in the majors this year. Ichiro had a streak of 25 and another of 19 this year…not too shabby. (I kept in the Jesus and Matty because I did actually start to type those names by accident…only Felipe’s name didn’t come out.) By the way, Alou is hitting .344 on the year, giving him 4 seasons in his career with at least 300 ABs and a batting average higher than .330. Not too shabby.

• Ryan Howard did it! In yesterday’s game, he finally broke the tie with Adan Dunn and moved into first place all-time for most strikeouts in a season. Of course, nobody cares since it happened after his 2-run first-inning HR put the Phillies up 4-0 and allowed them to tie the Mets for first place. I’m sure Howard would love to avoid striking out 3 times in the last 3 games, to finish below the magic number of 200.

• Yesterday I was reminded of something I had forgotten: Braves reliever Ron Mahay actually made it to the big leagues as an outfielder with Boston in 1995, getting a homer and 3 RBI in 20 ABs. As you can see from his minor league stats, starting in 1996 he went back to single-A to become a pitcher. He had a very nice season as a lefty reliever this year.

Did you know that there have been only 2 triples hit this season in the first inning of a game where the bases were loaded when the triple occurred?  Thanks to Play Index, it’s easy to find unquie stats like this one.

Josh Willingham (a former catcher) and Jason Varitek (currently a catcher)  are the only two batters to pull this off this season, to date.  And, they did it within 20 days of each other back in May.

Just for the heck of it, I went back to see how many bases-loaded triples happened in the first inning, since 2000.  Basically, there’s around 2-4 times that this occurs per season. 

And, in addition to the two this season, it’s been done by Bobby Estalella in 2000, Jorge Posada in 2002, and Javy Lopez in 2003.  They’re all catchers too.

Who says that catchers are slow?

Wow, yesterday was a very exciting day in baseball. I’ll be back later today with a News & Notes post, but first I wanted to post on something cool I found.

Using the Team Batting Event Finder, I went on a hunt to see if a game has ever ended on a triple play. (more…)

After my last post, a reader asks what’s the worst single-season ERA+ of all-time.  Well . . . . among guys with at least 162 IP, it’s Jack Neagle from 1883, whoever the hell he was, with a 54.

Worst 20th century pitcher:  Rube Bressler,  56 in 1915.

Worst liveballer: Jose Lima, 62, 2005.  Given how many really old pitchers dominate the list, this might be the worst, in context of the era.

How ’bout worst by franchise?  Well that list has the bottom 200.  Let’s see what teams I can find on it.  First AL then NL teams, alphabetical by current nickname:

American League:

Angels - Willie Fraser - 1988, 71

Athletics:  Rube Bressler - 56 in 1915

Devil Rays - Mark Hendrickson, 73, 2005

Indians - Bob Feller (!?!?) - 71 in 1952

Mariners - Joel Pineiro - 68 in 2006

Orioles/Browns: Willie Sudhoff - 66, 1904

Rangers/Senators - Phil Ortega - 68, 1965

Red Sox: Jack Lamabe, 65, 1964

Royals: Jose Lima 62 in 2005

Tigers - Joe Coleman, 72, 1975

Twins/Senators - Dolley Gray, 1909, 67

White Sox - Pat Carraway - 68, 1931

National League:

Astros - Jose Lima, 74, 2000.  He’s the only person to be the all-time worst with two different clubs.  Well, that’s some sort of accomplishment, I guess.

Braves: Curry Foley, 59, 1880.

Cardinals: Pol Perritt, 62, 1913

Cubs - Pat Luby, 70, 1891 TIED with Tex Carleton, 1938

Dodgers: Oscar Jones, 62, 1905

Expos: Javier Vazquez - 68, 1998

Florida - Scott Olsen, 72, 2007 - PRIOR TO TODAY, WHERE HIS NUMBERS IMPROVED

Giants: Mark Davis, 66, 1984

Mets - Jack Fisher, 1967, 72

Padres - Steve Arlin 68, 1973

Phillies: John Coleman, 63, 1883

Pirates: Kirtley Baker, 58, 1890.

Reds - Eric Milton, 69, 2005 TIED with Bill Phillips, 1901

Original 16 teams not listed: Yankees.  That’s it.  Those bastards! Expansion teams not here (oldest to youngest): Pilots/Brewers, Blue Jays, Rockies, D-backs.  Marlins as of tommorrow won’t be listed either.

Random Memory Day:

Once upon a time, in a blogosphere far far away, Aaron Gleeman wrote that Carlos Silva’s ERA of 5.94 was the worst by any AL pitcher with at least 180 IP since 1969. (No, I don’t remember quite when Gleeman wrote it; and I sure as heck ain’t gonna check his site looking for it, either).

For no good reason, this quote stuck with me - was it true?  Why make 180 IP his benchmark (aside from the fact that Silva tossed 180.3 IP that is).  More strangely, why use 1969 as a benchmark?  I mean, 1963-8 was the new deadball era, so the worst score from 1969-onward should also be the worst score for an even longer time back.

Five minutes ago I realized the PI could solve the riddles for me.  Turns out, it is true.  (I’d love to do this as save’n’share it, but for some reason that function won’t work for me at the moment):

1 Jose Lima         6.65 

2 Darryl Kile           6.61  

 3 Eric Milton           6.47  
 4 Pedro Astacio         6.23  
 5 Brian Bohanon         6.20 
 6 Jason Marquis         6.02  
 7 Carlos Silva          5.94 

A couple guys had worse years, but they were all in the NL.   

If you drop it down just 5 innings, he wasn’t as bad as fellow Twin LaTroy Hawkins in 1999 (6.62 ERA) or Chris Carpenter (6.26 ERA) in 2000.

But who was the last AL pitcher to have an ERA higher than 5.94 in 180 or more innings?

Silva’s the worst since expansion by those standards.

He’s the worst since integration by those standards.

But, if you go back to 1939, you’ll see Nels Potter of the Philadelphia A’s under Connie Mack scoring a 6.60 ERA in 196.3 IP.  That’s nothing.  In 1936 Jack Knott had a 7.29 with the Browns. 

Silva’s is the seventh highest ERA in AL history by those standards, also trailing Sloppy Thurston’s 1925, Pat Caraway’s 1931, Jim Walkup’s 1935, and Earl Caldwell’s 1936.  Caldwell was Knott’s teammate.  Some rotation, eh?