Is it possible to both start and pinch run in the same game? Until recently I thought it was not.  Then I came across an old game from 1984 and my eyes were opened to the fact that a player could both start and pinch run in the same game.

On July 23, 1984 the Twins and A's hooked up in a game that was decided long before it was over. Oakland was trailing 14 - 1 in the bottom of the 7th when manager Jackie Moore brought in pitcher Keith Atherton to relieve. Atherton gave up a single and then retired Tim Teufel to end the inning. In the top of the following inning, after DH Dave Kingman singled, Moore once again called upon Atherton to sub, this time as a pinch runner. Atherton replaced Kingman at first, took his place in the batting order and finished the game off as a pitcher.

My initial reaction to seeing this was: "Hey wait! You can't do that!" But as I thought about it, it became more logical. I assume that after the Kingman single, it wasn't Atherton replacing Kingman that allowed him to pinch run. Rather, it was Oakland deciding to forfeit their right to the DH that forced them (and allowed them) to put Atherton on first base. (If this true, then Atherton's being listed as a DH is an error). Regardless of how he got there, Atherton did pinch run for Kingman, even though he was already in the game.

While Atherton was not a starter, the same logic should apply to a starting pitcher as well. If a team wants to forfeit their rights to a DH while he is on base, the pitcher would then take his place as a pinch runner. In that case, it would be possible to start and pinch run in the same game.

EDIT:  To further clarify, here is my theory:

Prior to a game a team has the option of giving up the right to a DH. Presumably, a team has the same right at any point during the game as well. Normally this occurs when a team moves their DH into the field.  However, during this game, the A's chose to do it at a unique moment. With Kingman at first , the A's decided to longer use a DH. As is required by the rules, when the DH is removed the current pitcher replaces him in the lineup. In this case it meant that Atherton replaced Kingman at 1st base. In this way Atherton "pinch ran" for Kingman.

I hope this is clear.  If anyone knows of a better explanation, please let me know.

1938 American Association Batting Leaders - Baseball-Reference.com

Sorry it has taken so long, but I've made a start to getting the old minor league leaders back on the site. Now if you go to a league season page there is an option for finding the leaders for that league for various stats. Still a little rough. No pitching stats yet, no classification or all leagues together stats, just batting for individual leagues.

Among the wealth of information we have here at Baseball-Reference, some of the coolest can be found at our splits pages -- in fact, there's so much data to be had that I get the feeling many users don't even know the extent of what they can find. So over the next week or so, I'm going to be taking you through a guided tour of the splits pages to show you exactly how many awesome factoids there are to be uncovered there.

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With the 00's soon ending, the race is on for players to become the decade long leader in different statistical categories. Here are how thing are shaping up in the race for trivia immortality:

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If you check out the major-league batting splits for 2009 to date, you can find the batting splits based on leverage.

For a brief description of leverage, you can check out the glossary here. Basically, each plate appearance can be assigned an index that indicates how big of an influence it has on the outcome of the game.

I've reduced the table to some stats of interest:

First, you can see that medium-leverage and low-leverage plate appearances have about the same frequency, whereas high-leverage plate appearances are about half as frequent. This tells you that in an average game, only about 1 out of every 7 plate appearances can have a large impact on the game's outcome. Interesting, huh? (That's not to suggest that runs scored during low- or medium-leverage situations don't matter--they just have less average effect on the outcome. Many of these are, for example, solo homers late in a game where the run differential is already 5.)

Calculating RBI per plate appearance, high-leverage situations come in at 0.22, medium at 0.10, and low at 0.08.

These numbers might be confusing. Some people interpret them to mean that players focus more during high-impact situations and drive in more runs. (Another way to refer to this is "clutch hitting.") In reality, the reason there are more RBI in high-leverage situations is that there are more runners on base. In other words, a situation with 2 runners on base is more likely to be high-leverage, whereas a situation with empty bases is more likely to be low-leverage. A homer hit in each case results in more RBI in the high-leverage case.

This explanation is backed up by the HR numbers. Here are the HR hit per plate appearance in each situation. High: 0.025, Medium: 0.027, Low: 0.029. They are pretty similar. I would presume that HR (as well as batting average) are slightly lower in high-leverage situations because they often see an effective relief pitcher (such as a lefty specialist or a closer) come in to face the batter.

Anyway, I will be looking at the performance of some specific players in these situations. I just wanted to introduce the numbers for starters.

Do you know how many catchers, since 1954, have played in games where they had 10+ Plate Appearances in that contest? Well, thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Game Finder, now you do. Here's the list:

  Cnt 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 Gary Carter       1985-07-04 NYM @ATL W 16-13 10  9  1  5  0  0  0   2  1   0  1   0  0  0   0   1  0  0 4th C
    2 Carlton Fisk      1984-05-08 CHW  MIL W  7-6  12 11  1  3  1  0  0   1  1   0  3   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd C
    3 Duffy Dyer        1974-09-11 NYM  STL L  3-4  10  9  0  2  0  0  0   0  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th C
    4 Johnny Oates      1973-05-04 ATL @PHI L  4-5  10  8  0  1  0  0  0   0  2   1  1   0  0  0   1   0  0  0 8th C
    5 Dick Billings     1971-09-14 WSA @CLE W  8-6  10 10  2  3  0  0  1   3  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th C
    6 Chris Cannizzaro  1964-05-31 NYM  SFG L  6-8  10  9  0  1  0  0  0   1  1   0  3   0  0  0   1   0  0  0 8th C
    7 Tom Haller        1964-05-31 SFG @NYM W  8-6  10 10  1  4  0  1  0   1  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th C
    8 Yogi Berra        1962-06-24 NYY @DET W  9-7  11 10  0  3  0  0  0   1  0   0  1   0  0  1   0   0  0  0 6th C
   

 
The fun thing here is that Chris Cannizzaro and Tom Haller did it in the same game - a 23-inning match which was the second game of a double-header.   And, of course, this "feat" hasn't happened again since 1985.  Makes you wonder if we'll see it any time soon...

From Sporcle, how well do you know the top home run hitters of the 1980s?

As Derek Jeter approaches Lou Gehrig's record for hits as a Yankee, I can't help but notice the sheer number of plate appearances that Jeter has accumulated for the team.  Jeter, who leads  all Yankees  ever in AB and is second in PA, has more PA for the Yankees than any other active player has for any other  franchise. Here are the current leaders in plate appearance for a franchise among active players:

Derek Jeter*     New York Yankees   9707
Chipper Jones*   Atlanta Braves     9185
Garret Anderson  Angels             8480
Todd Helton*     Colorado Rockies   7662
Andruw Jones     Atlanta Braves     7276
Ken Griffey Jr.* Seattle Mariners   7070

* active with the team listed
In baseball history only  22  players have had at least 10,000 PA for a franchise.  Here are the top ten:
Carl Yastrzemski    Red Sox    13,991
Hank Aaron          Braves     13,089
Cal Ripken          Orioles    12,883
Stan Musial         Cardinals  12,712
Craig Biggio        Astros     12,503
Pete Rose           Reds       12,325
Robin Yount         Brewers    12,249
Ty Cobb             Tigers     12,105
Willie Mays         Giants     12,012
Brooks Robinson     Orioles    11,782

			

In response to the request for an open suggestions page, I present you with this thread. I will try to monitor it so that  it won't be closed. Additionally, I will try to check the site spam folder regularly so that if your comment with a link gets swallowed up, it will be brought back to life. I know that there will be a "Your Suggestions" page soon, but consider this as a backup for now. As Andy said, please have a little patience with this blog, as it is only a minor part of a major website. If this thread is giving you any trouble, please email me raphysotd at gmail.com.

Remember collecting those old Starting Lineup sports action figures when you were a kid? Well, I do, at least. And for every Barry Bonds and Greg Maddux, they also made figures of some pretty questionably-talented players -- some of which unfortunately ended up in your stocking when you were 7 because it was Christmas Eve at Toys-R-Us and Mom didn't know that Damon Berryhill sucked.

Anyway, the blog Sharapova's Thigh has taken the time to chronicle the 40 (!) worst choices for starting lineup figures ever. And guess who's in there? Yep, Berryhill. So at least I know someone else can relate.