Posted by Sean Forman on September 17, 2009
Same columns as the earlier post, but from the pitching team's perspective.
Team Lk_hm Lk_rd Bls_hm Bls_rd %L_hm %L_rd HFA HFA_hi_lev
SFG 2136 1967 3967 4104 35.00% 32.40% 2.60% 0.80%
PHI 2093 1894 4056 3975 34.04% 32.27% 1.77% 0.39%
CIN 1972 1948 3995 4265 33.05% 31.35% 1.69% 2.26%
STL 2073 1829 3776 3581 35.44% 33.81% 1.63% 3.97%
HOU 2115 1799 4116 3767 33.94% 32.32% 1.62% 4.62%
MIN 2016 1727 4021 3705 33.39% 31.79% 1.60% 2.46%
TOR 1919 1859 4016 4136 32.33% 31.01% 1.32% 0.79%
PIT 1690 1703 3831 4107 30.61% 29.31% 1.30% 1.37%
WSN 1890 1835 4082 4206 31.65% 30.38% 1.27% 0.84%
CLE 2032 1879 4179 4063 32.72% 31.62% 1.09% -1.75%
SDP 2135 1820 4425 3966 32.55% 31.46% 1.09% 2.13%
NYM 1895 1812 4162 4188 31.29% 30.20% 1.09% 1.65%
ATL 1973 2038 3728 4028 34.61% 33.60% 1.01% 2.28%
DET 1899 1829 4112 4140 31.59% 30.64% 0.95% 1.65%
LAD 2090 1906 4223 4007 33.11% 32.23% 0.87% 2.93%
TBR 1893 1992 3823 4133 33.12% 32.52% 0.60% 1.06%
MIL 1921 1885 4190 4215 31.44% 30.90% 0.53% -0.47%
CHC 1981 1864 4230 4065 31.90% 31.44% 0.46% -0.40%
LAA 1972 1995 4122 4246 32.36% 31.97% 0.39% -0.06%
KCR 1987 1836 4414 4145 31.04% 30.70% 0.34% 0.84%
BOS 1946 2032 4010 4253 32.67% 32.33% 0.34% -0.95%
FLA 2130 1841 4482 3919 32.21% 31.96% 0.25% -1.86%
ARI 2001 1948 4054 3991 33.05% 32.80% 0.25% 0.90%
BAL 1975 1884 4238 4073 31.79% 31.63% 0.16% -1.16%
NYY 2188 1920 4566 4035 32.40% 32.24% 0.15% -1.12%
OAK 1813 2011 3919 4366 31.63% 31.54% 0.09% 1.44%
CHW 1901 1787 4144 3892 31.45% 31.47% -0.02% 1.75%
SEA 1788 1845 4104 4224 30.35% 30.40% -0.05% -1.01%
TEX 2041 1831 4518 3870 31.12% 32.12% -1.00% 1.48%
COL 1732 1841 3941 3965 30.53% 31.71% -1.18% -1.92%
Actually on the face of it there may be a park effect here. As the Rockies and Giants had almost the same spread in the opposite direction. Pitchers get more calls in San Fran and hitters get more calls in Colorado? Any ideas why?
Posted in Bloops, History, Leaders | 4 Comments »
Posted by Sean Forman on September 17, 2009
Given the brouhaha over the Boston/LA of Ana game last night, and spurred by a media request, I looked at the called strike percentages at home and on the road for all 30 teams. The total line is in there as well. The called strike percentage is Called Strikes / (Called Strikes + Balls (not pitchouts or intentional)). The Home-Field Advantage is then the road rate - the home rate, since a lower rate is better for the batting team. I also looked at it in high-leverage situations, though in most cases we are only talking about 700 pitches, so it probably is just noise out there.
Team SL_hm SL_rd Bll_hm Bll_rd %Chm %Crd HFA HiLevHFA
COL 1918 2173 4278 4437 30.96% 32.87% 1.92% 1.44%
ATL 1673 1913 3817 4041 30.47% 32.13% 1.66% 0.17%
HOU 1764 1795 3893 3676 31.18% 32.81% 1.63% 1.53%
KCR 1813 1778 3981 3627 31.29% 32.90% 1.60% 2.94%
CHC 1720 1810 4092 4007 29.59% 31.12% 1.52% 2.93%
MIN 1987 1980 4299 4004 31.61% 33.09% 1.48% 1.97%
DET 1679 1751 3984 3883 29.65% 31.08% 1.43% 2.18%
WSN 2023 2154 4161 4155 32.71% 34.14% 1.43% 0.57%
BOS 2095 2248 4359 4408 32.46% 33.77% 1.31% 1.47%
MIL 1976 2183 4084 4254 32.61% 33.91% 1.31% 0.73%
FLA 2095 2024 4476 4087 31.88% 33.12% 1.24% 1.21%
TOR 1902 2036 4125 4173 31.56% 32.79% 1.23% 3.51%
SEA 1724 1884 3745 3885 31.52% 32.66% 1.13% -1.61%
PIT 1799 2059 3628 3964 33.15% 34.19% 1.04% 0.72%
TEX 1703 1635 4140 3783 29.15% 30.18% 1.03% 0.13%
BAL 1870 1884 4083 3926 31.41% 32.43% 1.01% -1.41%
ARI 1845 2052 4001 4261 31.56% 32.50% 0.94% 1.37%
SDP 1921 1867 4225 3936 31.26% 32.17% 0.92% 0.55%
Totals 56357 59197 121630 123444 31.66% 32.41% 0.75% 0.87%
PHI 2121 2144 4256 4203 33.26% 33.78% 0.52% 1.87%
OAK 1751 2009 3839 4312 31.32% 31.78% 0.46% 5.80%
NYY 2146 2078 4687 4465 31.41% 31.76% 0.35% -0.65%
TBR 1863 2071 4256 4714 30.45% 30.52% 0.08% 0.77%
NYM 2079 2203 3967 4204 34.39% 34.38% 0.00% -0.46%
CIN 1763 1855 3874 4082 31.28% 31.24% -0.03% -1.02%
CLE 1998 2155 4185 4542 32.31% 32.18% -0.14% 1.01%
CHW 1819 1887 3870 4093 31.97% 31.56% -0.42% -2.30%
STL 1616 1607 3734 3804 30.21% 29.70% -0.51% -1.62%
LAD 2140 2267 4135 4493 34.10% 33.54% -0.57% 0.38%
LAA 2039 2223 4016 4508 33.67% 33.03% -0.65% 1.40%
SFG 1515 1472 3440 3517 30.58% 29.50% -1.07% -0.32%
I don't see much of a pattern in this data. You've got good and bad teams sprinkled around, you've got east and west coast teams sprinkled around (passionate east coasters vs. dispassionate left coasters). Looks pretty random to me.
Posted in Bloops, Leaders, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Who Gets the Calls at Home?
Posted by Andy on September 17, 2009
Lots of news around about the great start Ian Desmond's had in his career. Here are a few searches since 1954 for performance by shortstops in their first career game:
Cnt CarGm Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR **RBI** BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+-------+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
1 1 Ian Desmond 2009-09-10 WSN PHI W 8-7 4 4 1 2 1 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7th SS
2 1 Kazuo Matsui 2004-04-06 NYM @ATL W 7-2 5 3 1 3 2 0 1 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1st SS
3 1 Roberto Pena 1965-04-12 CHC STL T 10-10 6 6 2 3 1 0 1 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
4 1 Bert Campaneris 1964-07-23 KCA @MIN W 4-3 5 4 2 3 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2nd SS
5 1 J.J. Hardy 2005-04-04 MIL @PIT W 9-2 4 4 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th SS
6 1 Freddy Sanchez 2002-09-10 BOS @TBD W 12-1 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH SS 2B
7 1 Geoff Blum 1999-08-09 MON SDP W 8-0 4 4 1 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th SS
8 1 Chris Woodward 1999-06-07 TOR @NYM L 2-8 4 3 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 8th SS
9 1 Craig Wilson 1998-09-05 CHW NYY W 9-5 4 4 3 3 2 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
10 1 Abraham Nunez 1997-08-27 PIT LAD L 5-9 5 5 1 2 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1st SS
11 1 Mark Lewis 1991-04-26 CLE @TEX W 5-2 4 3 0 2 1 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th SS
12 1 Rey Quinones 1986-05-17 BOS TEX W 8-2 4 3 2 2 2 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th SS
13 1 Johnnie LeMaster 1975-09-02 SFG LAD W 7-3 3 3 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6th SS
14 1 Chris Speier 1971-04-07 SFG @SDP W 7-3 5 4 1 2 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
15 1 Don Money 1968-04-10 PHI @LAD W 2-0 3 3 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7th SS
Here are the only shortstops since 1954 to homer in their first game:
Cnt CarGm Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B **HR** RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+------+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
1 1 Bert Campaneris 1964-07-23 KCA @MIN W 4-3 5 4 2 3 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2nd SS
2 1 Ian Desmond 2009-09-10 WSN PHI W 8-7 4 4 1 2 1 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7th SS
3 1 Kazuo Matsui 2004-04-06 NYM @ATL W 7-2 5 3 1 3 2 0 1 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1st SS
4 1 Craig Wilson 1998-09-05 CHW NYY W 9-5 4 4 3 3 2 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
5 1 Alex Gonzalez 1998-08-25 FLA @STL W 4-3 4 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
6 1 Jose Offerman 1990-08-19 LAD MON L 1-2 5 5 1 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1st SS
7 1 Johnnie LeMaster 1975-09-02 SFG LAD W 7-3 3 3 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6th SS
8 1 Rick Renick 1968-07-11 MIN DET W 5-4 4 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7th SS
9 1 Roberto Pena 1965-04-12 CHC STL T 10-10 6 6 2 3 1 0 1 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
And here are the most times on base for a shortstop in his first career game:
Cnt CarGm Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB **TOB** IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+-------+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
1 1 Kazuo Matsui 2004-04-06 NYM @ATL W 7-2 5 3 1 3 2 0 1 3 2 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1st SS
2 1 Bert Campaneris 1964-07-23 KCA @MIN W 4-3 5 4 2 3 0 0 2 3 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2nd SS
3 1 Jimmy Rollins 2000-09-17 PHI FLA W 6-5 5 4 2 2 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2nd SS
4 1 Craig Wilson 1998-09-05 CHW NYY W 9-5 4 4 3 3 2 0 1 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
5 1 Orlando Miller 1994-07-08 HOU @CHC L 5-6 5 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th SS
6 1 Jeff Gardner 1991-09-10 NYM MON W 9-0 5 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
7 1 Jose Hernandez 1991-08-09 TEX MIL L 8-10 3 2 2 2 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th SS
8 1 Mark Lewis 1991-04-26 CLE @TEX W 5-2 4 3 0 2 1 0 0 2 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th SS
9 1 Jose Offerman 1990-08-19 LAD MON L 1-2 5 5 1 3 0 0 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1st SS
10 1 Rey Quinones 1986-05-17 BOS TEX W 8-2 4 3 2 2 2 0 0 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th SS
11 1 Sam Khalifa 1985-06-25 PIT MON L 2-3 4 4 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th SS
12 1 Jeff Kunkel 1984-07-23 TEX BAL L 5-9 4 4 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 7th SS
13 1 Sergio Ferrer 1974-04-05 MIN @KCR W 6-4 6 5 2 2 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1st SS
14 1 Enzo Hernandez 1971-04-17 SDP STL L 0-4 4 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th SS
15 1 Chris Speier 1971-04-07 SFG @SDP W 7-3 5 4 1 2 1 0 0 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
16 1 Roberto Pena 1965-04-12 CHC STL T 10-10 6 6 2 3 1 0 1 3 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd SS
These lists are quite varied in terms of the careers the players went on to had. One game is a small sample size and doesn't mean much.
Posted in Game Finders | Comments Off on Nice starts for shortstops
Posted by Steve Lombardi on September 16, 2009
How many players, since 1954, have hit a triple in 4 consecutive games (or more)? Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Streak Finder, we can look for things like this...let's do it in slices...first, 1954 through 1979:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Billy Williams 1963-05-08 1963-05-11 4 13 2 6 0 4 0 5 3 3 1 0 .462 .563 1.077 1.640 CHC
Next, how about 1980 through 2005:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Nomar Garciaparra 2003-05-31 2003-06-04 4 19 7 8 1 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .421 .421 .895 1.316 BOS
Sammy Sosa 1994-05-14 1994-05-17 4 14 3 8 0 4 1 4 1 1 1 2 .571 .600 1.357 1.957 CHC
Tom Herr 1981-04-20 1981-04-25 4 15 1 5 0 4 0 8 1 0 0 0 .333 .333 .867 1.200 STL
Lastly, no one has done this, meaning hit a triple in four straight games, to date, since 2003.
Will we ever see someone hit a triple in 5 straight games? Well, we haven't seen it happen since 1954. So, while anything is possible, I don't like the odds of this happening - any time soon.
It's interesting that, for the four times, since 1954, that a player has hit a triple in 4 consecutive games, that it's never happened after June 4th in a baseball season. I guess no one wants to run that much once it starts getting hot outside. 😉
Posted in Streak Finders | Comments Off on Hardball Sasquatch: 3 Bags 5 Games In A Row
Posted by Andy on September 16, 2009
Check out Joe Blanton's numbers so far this season. Not including his nice start tonight, he's 9-7 in 27 starts with a 4.11 ERA. But against the Nationals (again, before tonight) he was 0-2 in 4 starts with a 9.45 ERA over 20.0 innings. By doing a little math, that means he was 9-5 with a 3.40 ERA against everybody else.
I guess things really do average out over time, though, as Blanton tonight pitched 6 scoreless ininngs against the Nats and picked up the win.
Posted in Splits | Comments Off on Joe Blanton vs. Nationals
Posted by Sean Forman on September 16, 2009
Longest Streak to start career with multi-hit games - Baseball-Reference PI
Ian Desmond has gotten off to a fine start for his career with three multi-hit games, but he'll need to be better to be the best of recent memory.
To generate this list I used the batting streak finder. I made the decision to only consider games with 2 or more AB's. This causes us to include Oliva's streak. In 1962 and 1963 he pinch hit a bunch of games, but actually had only one multi-AB game in that stretch. He then started 1964 with five multi-hit games. Salazar pinch ran in his debut and then rattled off his streak. The caveat that this is only for the retrosheet-era 1954 on applies. If you want to push the retrosheet era back earlier, volunteer here.
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+---------
Tony Oliva 1962-09-14 1964-04-19 6 27 6 13 3 2 1 9 3 3 0 1 .481 .533 .852 1.385 MIN
Luis Salazar 1980-08-17 1980-08-21 5 19 3 11 0 1 0 3 4 1 0 0 .579 .600 .684 1.284 SDP
Josh Anderson 2007-09-14 2007-09-17 4 18 3 11 2 0 0 5 2 1 0 0 .611 .650 .722 1.372 HOU
Willy Taveras 2005-04-05 2005-04-09 4 15 3 9 1 0 0 1 2 1 1 0 .600 .625 .667 1.292 HOU
Morgan Burkhart 2000-06-27 2000-06-30 4 15 3 8 1 0 0 4 1 4 0 0 .533 .632 .600 1.232 BOS
Pete Coachman 1990-08-18 1990-08-21 4 18 1 8 1 0 0 4 4 1 0 0 .444 .474 .500 .974 CAL
Doug Dascenzo 1988-09-02 1988-09-05 4 19 3 10 3 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 .526 .550 .684 1.234 CHC
Nyls Nyman 1974-09-10 1974-09-13 4 14 5 9 2 1 0 4 1 0 1 0 .643 .667 .929 1.596 CHW
Ken Griffey 1973-08-25 1973-08-29 4 17 3 9 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 .529 .529 .647 1.176 CIN
Rich Coggins 1972-08-29 1972-09-05 4 16 2 9 3 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 .563 .563 .750 1.313 BAL
Tommy Helms 1965-09-01 1965-09-04 4 16 2 9 2 1 0 2 2 2 1 0 .563 .611 .813 1.424 CIN
Gene Baker 1954-04-13 1954-04-18 4 17 7 9 3 0 2 7 0 3 0 0 .529 .600 1.059 1.659 CHC
Ian Desmond 2009-09-10 2009-09-13 3 13 2 8 3 0 1 4 2 1 0 0 .615 .643 1.077 1.720 WSN
plus many more with three
Posted in Stats, Streak Finders, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted by Raphy on September 16, 2009
One of the stats highlighted in today's Elias Says column is that Adam LaRoche turned in his 3rd career 4 extra-base hit game last night. While their post compares Laroche's accomplishment to recent players, it made me wonder how he ranks with all players since 1954. The answer - surprisingly well. Here are the players with the most career 4 extra-base hit games since 1954:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Game Finders | 4 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on September 16, 2009
From Sporcle, Can you name every .400 hitter in MLB history? (Sorry, Joe Mauer, you'd be on here too if we could ignore your performance in June and July...)
Posted in Bloops | 1 Comment »
Posted by Andy on September 16, 2009
Friend of Baseball-Reference Peter Abraham noted that only 6 players have 2700 hits, 1500 runs, 220 homers, 300 steals, and 1000 RBI:
Cnt Player **RBI** H R HR SB From To Ages G PA AB 2B 3B BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+--------+----+----+---+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+---+---+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
1 Barry Bonds 1996 2935 2227 762 514 1986 2007 21-42 2986 12606 9847 601 77 2558 688 1539 106 4 91 165 141 .298 .444 .607 1.051 *78/D9 PIT-SFG
2 Willie Mays 1903 3283 2062 660 338 1951 1973 20-42 2992 12493 10881 523 140 1464 192 1526 44 13 91 251 103 .302 .384 .557 .941 *8/39675 NYG-SFG-TOT-NYM
3 Paul Molitor 1307 3319 1782 234 504 1978 1998 21-41 2683 12160 10835 605 114 1094 100 1244 47 75 109 209 131 .306 .369 .448 .817 D543/6879 MIL-TOR-MIN
4 Craig Biggio 1175 3060 1844 291 414 1988 2007 22-41 2850 12503 10876 668 55 1160 68 1753 285 101 81 151 124 .281 .363 .433 .796 *4287/D9 HOU
5 Rickey Henderson 1115 3055 2295 297 1406 1979 2003 20-44 3081 13346 10961 510 66 2190 61 1694 98 30 67 172 335 .279 .401 .419 .820 *78D/9 OAK-NYY-TOT-OAK-SDP-TOT-NYM-SDP-BOS-LAD
6 Derek Jeter 1065 2723 1564 223 300 1995 2009 21-35 2120 9729 8593 437 58 873 33 1454 142 77 44 211 80 .317 .387 .459 .846 *6/D NYY
Of the four eligible guys, all are in the Hall of Fame. Biggio comes up for election in a few years and in my opinion he should be a first-ballot HOFer. He and Jeter are the only two guys to play for one franchise (although there has been rampant speculation that the Yankees will let Jeter walk when his contract expires. Personally I highly doubt this speculation.)
I wrote a post 2 years ago about Craig Biggio during his final season. He was an All-Star at two different positions and played plenty of catcher, infield, and outfield in his career.
His career total ranks as of now:
Runs scored 1,844 (13th)
Hits 3,060 (20th)
Doubles 668 (5th)
Stolen bases 414 (62nd)
Times on base 4,505 (16th)
Hit by pitch 285 (2nd)
Power-speed # 341.8 (9th)
His Hall of Fame Monitor is 169 (63rd).
Anyway, the guy was simply incredible and I think the case is very clear. As PeteAbe wrote in his post (linked at the top here) a lot of voters seem to completely ignore Biggio but when the time comes, I think he'll get the votes.
Posted in Season Finders | 13 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on September 15, 2009
In today's bloop, Sporcle asks you to reflect on the franchises that have suffered the longest since their last World Series crown. Unfortunately for fans of the #1 team, barring some kind of outright miracle finish to the season, this streak is going to continue for another year; #2 is eliminated as well, but at least there's still some hope left for #3.
Posted in Bloops | 1 Comment »
