Comments on: Padres keep pitching shutouts

By: Kahuna Tuna

Kahuna Tuna — Fri, 14 May 2010 23:59:58 +0000

Two other notes:

1. The only post-deadball team to come up empty in more games than the 1985 Padres in which their opponent scored six or more runs is the 1942 Phillies: No wins and 56 losses (the all-time record). Ga-ack. That team finished 42-109. Overall 14 teams have lost all such games over a full season, most recently the 1988 Padres (0-33).

2. Eight teams so far in 2010 have lost all games in which they gave up 6+ runs: The Padres (0-6), Yankees (0-7), Rockies (0-8), Mariners (0-10), Indians (0-11), Angels (0-12), Pirates (0-14), and Royals (0-16). I was very surprised to see the Yankees on this list, and somewhat surprised to see the Rockies.

By: Kahuna Tuna

Kahuna Tuna — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:48:24 +0000

As a Padres fan, I am loving the team's current hot streak. Honestly, though, it's hard to believe that it's going to last much longer. The Padres are playing mid-'60s Dodger baseball — stealing bases, working the count, and getting timely hits (lately Yorvit Torrealba has come up with one clutch hit after another). The ##4 and 5 starters, Wade LeBlanc and Latos, have been amazingly good. Clayton Richard has opposing hitters pounding his sinker to the middle infielders. Torrealba and Nick Hundley have contained opponents' base-stealing efforts. The team seems built for the PETCO low-run environment. The players are very focused and are playing with a sense that every little thing counts. BUT . . . there's very little extra-base power, especially with corner outfielders Will Venable and Kyle Blanks off to such slow starts. The hitters strike out too much. The starting pitchers are going to cool off sooner or later — maybe when the weather warms up and the Padres travel to the smaller Eastern stadiums. Some of those clutch hits are going to start to find fielders' gloves. And some of the routine grounders being hit by the opposition will become seeing-eye singles. The Padres' small-ball style of play leaves very little margin for error. Researching which Padres teams have registered the most shutouts in a season, I paused to dig into the numbers of the '85 team, the defending NL champs, which notched 19 shutouts and was shut out only seven times, scored right at the league runs-per-game average of 4.07, yet finished 83-79. I discovered that, although that team could score runs fairly well (44 games scoring six or more runs), in games where the opposition scored six or more they went 0-38. That's what I'm afraid will happen with the 2010 Padres — they'll lose all the slugfests because they can't construct big innings. This tendency has been hidden so far because the pitching has done so well. All that having been said, bring on the Dodgers!

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:54:48 +0000

My guess is that that particular "stat" is not enough of a draw for Sean to want to dedicate real estate for a button. But if you really want to pursue it, send it in as a suggestion:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/feedback/

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:51:49 +0000

Though I think adding a quality start button would further delegate this blasphemy of a stat... it wouldnt be that hard to do given all the features already on there and it would be pretty convienent

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:21:35 +0000

Do you suppose the folks that run the site can put a "quality start" button for player pitching game finders?
This button would include all quality start parameters in one selection without having to tweak separate boxes...