Posted by Sean Forman on August 28, 2009
YouTube - Steroids in Sports :: Part 1 :: Its Your Call with Lynn Doyle
I taped a tv appearance on It's Your Call with Lynn Doyle a show that appears on the Comcast Network. The appearance was back in May or April, but it appears it is going to air this weekend or maybe last weekend. Unclear. I linked part I above. Here are Part II and Part III. Other than nodding my head like a broken bobblehead, I thought it went ok. I did come off a little glib at the end and that wasn't my intention. My main point is that baseball would be better without steroids, but I don't agree with the hysteria and scarlet letters handed out around their use.
Posted in Media Mentions, Videos | Comments Off on Appearance :: Its Your Call with Lynn Doyle (youtube)
Posted by Andy on August 28, 2009
Check out the longest streaks in 2009 where a starter had at least 6 IP in each game:
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Adam Wainwright 2009-04-16 2009-08-25 25 14 7 25 1 0 0 0 176.2 164 55 50 46 146 15 2.55 2 6 0 STL
Ubaldo Jimenez 2009-05-01 2009-08-23 22 11 6 22 1 0 0 0 155.1 123 51 49 49 135 9 2.84 5 6 2 COL
Danny Haren 2009-04-07 2009-07-18 19 10 5 19 3 1 0 0 138 93 32 30 18 137 12 1.96 2 4 0 ARI
Josh Beckett 2009-05-05 2009-08-12 18 12 2 18 3 2 0 0 128.1 96 37 31 26 114 9 2.17 4 0 0 BOS
Tim Lincecum 2009-04-18 2009-07-17 17 10 1 17 3 2 0 0 126.1 91 31 27 29 149 4 1.92 2 6 0 SFG
Zach Duke 2009-05-12 2009-07-29 15 6 6 15 2 0 0 0 104.1 104 40 40 25 52 11 3.45 3 2 0 PIT
Both Wainwright and Jiminez have active streaks.
Going back to 2005, Roy Halladay has the longest streak:
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Roy Halladay 2008-06-20 2009-06-07 32 22 6 32 7 3 0 0 238.1 212 75 67 38 208 16 2.53 7 5 0 TOR
C.C. Sabathia 2008-04-22 2008-09-16 28 15 6 28 9 5 0 0 213.1 176 52 47 41 216 14 1.98 5 2 1 CLE-MIL
Chris Carpenter 2005-04-16 2005-09-13 28 20 3 28 7 4 0 0 216 165 54 49 44 197 15 2.04 2 3 0 STL
Roy Halladay 2007-07-17 2008-06-08 27 14 8 27 10 1 0 0 211.2 195 76 69 37 148 13 2.93 9 2 0 TOR
Brandon Webb 2005-07-26 2006-06-10 27 14 6 27 2 2 0 0 197.1 179 59 53 32 149 14 2.42 4 5 2 ARI
Tom Glavine 2005-07-15 2006-06-03 27 15 8 27 2 1 0 0 189.1 155 54 50 43 122 12 2.38 5 0 0 NYM
Adam Wainwright 2009-04-16 2009-08-25 25 14 7 25 1 0 0 0 176.2 164 55 50 46 146 15 2.55 2 6 0 STL
Roy Halladay 2006-05-03 2006-09-05 25 13 4 25 4 0 0 0 181.2 168 69 66 28 113 16 3.27 4 2 0 TOR
Ubaldo Jimenez 2009-05-01 2009-08-23 22 11 6 22 1 0 0 0 155.1 123 51 49 49 135 9 2.84 5 6 2 COL
Danny Haren 2008-09-16 2009-07-18 22 12 5 22 4 2 0 0 160 112 39 37 21 162 13 2.08 2 5 0 ARI
Pedro Martinez 2005-04-04 2005-08-03 22 12 3 22 2 0 0 0 157 107 50 49 31 163 12 2.81 2 4 0 NYM
The 2009 leaders both have a shot to match that streak but probably not this season.
Posted in Streak Finders | 3 Comments »
Posted by Andy on August 27, 2009
I noticed that Nick Swisher had a really high OBP (.367) for a guy with such a low BA (.245.)
I did a season finder for qualified players ranked by OBP and then in Excel I subtracted each player's batting average. Here are the leaders in 2009 for highest differential of OBP minus BA:
|
OBP |
BA |
difference |
| Carlos Pena |
0.357 |
0.222 |
0.135 |
| Adam Dunn |
0.417 |
0.283 |
0.134 |
| Alex Rodriguez |
0.400 |
0.267 |
0.133 |
| Milton Bradley |
0.391 |
0.259 |
0.132 |
| Lance Berkman |
0.413 |
0.281 |
0.132 |
| Adrian Gonzalez |
0.407 |
0.276 |
0.131 |
| Jim Thome |
0.380 |
0.252 |
0.128 |
| Albert Pujols |
0.441 |
0.318 |
0.123 |
| Nick Johnson |
0.419 |
0.296 |
0.123 |
| Jason Bay |
0.381 |
0.258 |
0.123 |
| Chipper Jones |
0.400 |
0.278 |
0.122 |
| Nick Swisher |
0.367 |
0.245 |
0.122 |
| Chase Utley |
0.424 |
0.303 |
0.121 |
| J.D. Drew |
0.376 |
0.258 |
0.118 |
| Ben Zobrist |
0.409 |
0.292 |
0.117 |
| Jack Cust |
0.357 |
0.243 |
0.114 |
| Kosuke Fukudome |
0.391 |
0.278 |
0.113 |
| Dan Uggla |
0.353 |
0.241 |
0.112 |
| Kevin Youkilis |
0.419 |
0.308 |
0.111 |
| Prince Fielder |
0.415 |
0.304 |
0.111 |
| Jayson Werth |
0.377 |
0.273 |
0.104 |
| Dexter Fowler |
0.372 |
0.270 |
0.102 |
| Russell Martin |
0.359 |
0.257 |
0.102 |
| Mike Cameron |
0.358 |
0.256 |
0.102 |
| Shin-Soo Choo |
0.397 |
0.297 |
0.100 |
Interesting how different guys end up on this list for different reasons. Pujols is hitting .318 but he walks so damn much. Carlos Pena barely hits at all (except for dingers) but he also walks a lot.
Lots of guys from the AL East on this list...a very tough division.
Posted in Season Finders | 10 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on August 27, 2009
Courtesy of Sporcle: Can you name the home run leaders of the 1990s? Oh, and word to the wise: you should probably bring your steroids.
Posted in Bloops | 1 Comment »
Posted by Andy on August 27, 2009
At the end of last season, I wrote a post worrying about Ryan Howard's declining offensive performance. When a guy is hitting over 40 HR and driving in more than 130 runs, it can be easy to miss the fact that his OPS drops more than 200 points over 2 seasons (from 2006 to 2008.)
Check out the worst OPS+ values for 45 HR seasons:
Cnt Player **OPS+** HR Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions
+----+-----------------+--------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
1 Jose Canseco 113 46 1998 33 TOR AL 151 658 583 98 138 26 0 107 65 5 159 6 0 4 7 29 17 .237 .318 .518 .836 *D79
2 Greg Vaughn 117 45 1999 33 CIN NL 153 643 550 104 135 20 2 118 85 3 137 3 0 5 9 15 2 .245 .347 .535 .882 *7/D
3 Ryan Howard 124 48 2008 28 PHI NL 162 700 610 105 153 26 4 146 81 17 199 3 0 6 11 1 1 .251 .339 .543 .882 *3/D
4 Richie Sexson 127 45 2001 26 MIL NL 158 667 598 94 162 24 3 125 60 5 178 6 0 3 20 2 4 .271 .342 .547 .889 *3
5 Vinny Castilla 127 46 1998 30 COL NL 162 697 645 108 206 28 4 144 40 7 89 6 0 6 24 5 9 .319 .362 .589 .951 *5/6
His 2008 performance is among the worst of the 113 different 45+ HR seasons in history, at least when rated by OPS+.
Of the 9 guys with at least 30 HR so far this season, he's near the bottom of the pack:
Cnt Player **OPS+** HR Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions
+----+-----------------+--------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
1 Carlos Pena 125 35 2009 31 TBR AL 122 518 425 81 94 22 2 87 81 10 149 9 0 3 5 2 3 .221 .355 .529 .884 *3
2 Russell Branyan 127 30 2009 33 SEA AL 112 491 419 61 105 21 1 75 56 6 144 9 1 6 6 2 0 .251 .347 .520 .867 *3
3 Ryan Howard 131 34 2009 29 PHI NL 121 537 471 81 126 27 3 104 57 3 150 4 0 5 9 5 0 .268 .348 .554 .902 *3/D
4 Mark Reynolds 142 38 2009 25 ARI NL 121 518 452 81 127 25 1 84 61 3 170 4 0 1 7 21 7 .281 .371 .593 .964 *53
5 Mark Teixeira 143 31 2009 29 NYY AL 120 551 473 76 136 34 0 93 67 7 85 9 0 2 10 2 0 .288 .385 .556 .941 *3/D
6 Adam Dunn 160 33 2009 29 WSN NL 124 524 423 66 121 26 0 89 95 14 138 4 0 2 8 0 1 .286 .420 .582 1.002 *739/D
7 Adrian Gonzalez 162 33 2009 27 SDP NL 125 531 434 71 118 21 1 74 93 18 87 2 0 2 20 1 1 .272 .401 .553 .954 *3/D
8 Prince Fielder 163 33 2009 25 MIL NL 124 548 450 77 137 27 2 110 83 14 106 8 0 7 11 2 3 .304 .416 .593 1.009 *3
9 Albert Pujols 188 40 2009 29 STL NL 124 542 436 98 138 30 1 106 94 37 54 7 0 5 20 12 4 .317 .441 .665 1.106 *3/D
Of course, he's way up there in RBI. The real issue is that he's not drawing walks, and a lot of that may be due to Jayson Werth usually hitting behind him. Also Raul Ibanez has had a terrible August and that doesn't help any.
Howard's walk totals have dwindled over the last 4 seasons, from 108 and 107 in 2006 and 2007, down to 81 in 2008 (in more games) and projecting to fewer than 80 this year. You can see this trend in his BB% right here. Of note is that his walk dropoff seems to be due mainly to fewer intentional walks, going 37, 35, 17, and just 3 this year.
Anyway, this is the second straight year that Howard will finish with monster HR and RBI numbers but an OPS+ under 140 (although he's historically had massive Septembers, especially last year with 11 HR and 32 RBI.)
Let's see if he has his huge September again and pushes those averages up. Otherwise, I fear that the gap between Howard and Albert Pujols is going to widen over the coming years.
Posted in Season Finders | 8 Comments »
Posted by Raphy on August 27, 2009
Tonight, when Vladimir Guerrero notched his 1000 hit as Angel, he joined a select group of players to have 1000 hits for more than one franchise. I have pulled out the others from this PI search.
| Buddy |
Bell |
TEX |
CLE |
| Eddie |
Collins |
PHA |
CHW |
| Joe |
Cronin |
WSH |
BOS |
| Carlton |
Fisk |
CHW |
BOS |
| Jimmie |
Foxx |
PHA |
BOS |
| Frankie |
Frisch |
STL |
NYG |
| Vladimir |
Guerrero |
MON |
LAA |
| Rafael |
Palmeiro |
TEX |
BAL |
| Manny |
Ramirez |
CLE |
BOS |
| Tris |
Speaker |
CLE |
BOS |
| Joe |
Torre |
ATL |
STL |
| B.J. |
Surhoff |
MIL |
BAL |
| Dave |
Winfield |
NYY |
SDP |
Posted in Season Finders | 5 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on August 26, 2009
Every year, The Book co-author Tom Tango comes out with a ballot whereby fans of a specific team are asked to vote on the defensive ability of that team's players -- without the aid of statistics. It's called the Fans' Scouting Report, and the results are always very informative; in fact, when used in concert with one of the more advanced defensive metrics out there, I believe that you can get a very accurate read on a player's defensive skill level. But in order to get said results, many fans have to vote (and vote honestly). So grab a ballot and get to work on your favorite team's players... With your help, this year's Souting Report will be the best yet.
Posted in Bloops | 1 Comment »
Posted by Raphy on August 26, 2009
According to Elias Ryan Howard recently became the fastest player (in terms of games) to 600 RBI since Ted Williams in 1956 1946.
Here are the players since 1954 with the most games with at least 1 RBI in their first 700 career games. Howard still has 6 more games to play before reaching 700.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Game Finders | 2 Comments »
Posted by Raphy on August 26, 2009
Elias is reporting that Carlos Zambrano has become the first pitcher since Milt Papas in 1973 to hit 20 career home runs. Overall, among players who have played at least half their games at pitcher, Zambrano is now tied for 12th in career home runs. (BTW Babe Ruth had 14 home runs as a pitcher.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Leaders, Season Finders | 2 Comments »
Posted by Andy on August 26, 2009
Josh Beckett recently had a bad (and very unusual) start in which he pitched 8 innings but allowed 8 earned runs. Here are the starts since 1980 in which the pitcher has gone at least 8 but also allowed at least 8 runs:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP ERA
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+
1 Josh Beckett 2009-08-23 BOS NYY L 4-8 GS-8 ,L 8 9 8 8 0 5 5 120 87 37 33 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9.00
2 Carlos Silva 2006-04-18 MIN LAA L 2-8 GS-9 ,L 8.2 12 8 8 1 1 1 109 78 28 37 35 3 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 8.31
3 Paul Byrd 2002-09-09 KCR CHW L 6-10 GS-8 ,L 8 10 10 10 2 3 4 112 74 23 35 31 3 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 11.25
4 Randy Johnson 1998-07-05 SEA @TEX L 4-8 CG 8 ,L 8 9 8 8 2 12 3 141 84 42 35 33 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 9.00
5 Pat Hentgen 1997-06-25 TOR BOS L 12-13 GS-8 ,L 8 13 11 11 0 4 5 76 47 16 38 37 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 12.38
6 Pat Hentgen 1996-08-07 TOR @BOS L 0-8 CG 8 ,L 8 9 8 8 1 5 3 103 69 36 34 31 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 9.00
7 Ben McDonald 1992-06-21 BAL NYY L 2-8 GS-9 ,L 8.2 6 8 8 4 7 4 136 76 43 36 32 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8.31
8 Mark Williamson 1988-05-25 BAL @OAK L 1-8 CG 8 ,L 8 9 8 8 2 7 2 129 84 37 35 32 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9.00
9 Mike Morgan 1987-04-10 SEA MIN L 1-8 GS-8 ,L 8 11 8 8 0 3 3 31 33 32 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 9.00
10 Floyd Youmans 1986-10-02 MON NYM L 2-8 CG 9 ,L 9 8 8 8 3 10 2 46 36 33 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 8.00
11 Fernando Valenzue 1986-05-09 LAD @MON L 4-8 CG 8 ,L 8 11 8 8 1 6 3 33 35 33 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 9.00
12 Britt Burns 1985-07-13 CHW @BAL W 10-8 CG 9 ,W 9 8 8 8 5 4 3 38 37 32 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 8.00
13 Chris Codiroli 1983-06-12(2) OAK CHW L 1-8 CG 9 ,L 9 11 8 8 4 4 0 33 42 38 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8.00
14 Jack Morris 1981-09-25 DET MIL L 6-8 GS-9 ,L 8.2 9 8 8 4 7 3 37 38 33 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 8.31
15 Rick Langford 1980-10-02 OAK @CHW L 4-9 CG 8 ,L 8 15 9 8 1 2 1 19 39 34 1 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 9.00
16 Mike Norris 1980-09-26 OAK MIL L 7-10 CG 9 ,L 9 17 10 10 1 9 4 21 45 44 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 10.00
17 Byron McLaughlin 1980-08-16 SEA OAK L 3-8 GS-8 ,L 8 9 8 8 5 2 3 29 37 32 2 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 9.00
18 Mike Norris 1980-06-16 OAK @BOS W 11-8 CG 9 ,W 9 12 8 8 2 3 3 32 41 39 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8.00
These are mostly pretty good pitchers. Hentgen and Norris are on there twice.
Britt Burns and Norris actually won a game under these circumstances!
Posted in Game Finders | 5 Comments »
