Posted by Chris J. on April 22, 2008
Today the Cubs won again. It was their fourth straight game they won by at least 6 runs. I had to check to see when that last happened.
B-ref is great for checking things like that. Each team's main page links to their schedule, and the right hand margin is a hash marker telling you how long their current win/loss streak is.
Upon checking, the last time they did this was . . . well, I got sick of checking after 1906. They hadn't done it in all that time, unless I missed something. This week the Cubs did something they haven't done in over a century. Wow.
Still, the first week of June 1930 might've been a more impressive stretch, though.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by Chris J. on April 22, 2008
Turns out, Giambi is not having a very good year in the Bronx.
One-eigthth the way through, he's barely hitting .100, with only 5 hits. Even more impressive, only one of those hits is a single.
He's got 59 PA. Has anyone ever had that many PA in a season with only one single? Let's leave pitchers out of this one.
Turns out, Jason Giambi is on the verge of history. The record is 61 PA with only 1 single in a season, held by former shortstop Lyn Lary.
Best part of that list? Giambi used to be teammates with John Jaha, #4.
'course there's a problem with the above logic. Giambi could go 60, 70, 100, 500 PA without another single, but the moment he does, he's off the list.
My advice: take 3 more PA, Jason, and then go wash Jeff Kent's truck. My settle for futility when history is right around the corner?
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Posted by Andy on April 21, 2008
Last night, Chase Utley homered in his 4th straight game.
The AP story on the game notes that the Phillies' team record for homers in consecutive games is 5, done most recently by Bobby Abreu in 2005.
Indeed, here are the 3 who have done it:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Bobby Abreu 2005-05-08 2005-05-12 5 16 6 10 1 0 5 7 3 6 1 0 .625 .727 1.625 2.352 PHI
Mike Schmidt 1979-07-06 1979-07-10 5 17 8 9 0 0 7 14 1 2 0 0 .529 .550 1.765 2.315 PHI
Dick Allen 1969-05-27 1969-06-01 5 21 7 10 1 0 5 10 6 3 0 0 .476 .542 1.238 1.780 PHI
The AP article also noticed that before Utley, Josh Willingham was the last player to hit homers in 3 straight games against the Mets. Here are the longest such streaks since 1993:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Ryan Howard 2006-08-17 2007-04-09 5 18 6 7 0 0 5 13 3 2 0 0 .389 .429 1.222 1.651 PHI
Chipper Jones 1999-07-04 1999-09-23 4 13 7 6 0 0 5 8 2 4 1 0 .462 .588 1.615 2.203 ATL
Andruw Jones 1998-09-05 1998-09-25 4 16 5 7 0 0 4 5 5 0 1 1 .438 .438 1.188 1.626 ATL
Larry Walker 1996-04-11 1996-04-19 4 15 6 6 0 0 4 7 2 1 0 0 .400 .471 1.200 1.671 COL
Chase Utley 2008-04-18 2008-04-20 3 11 4 6 0 0 4 6 2 2 0 0 .545 .615 1.636 2.251 PHI
Josh Willingham 2006-09-11 2006-09-13 3 13 5 8 1 0 3 6 3 1 0 0 .615 .643 1.385 2.028 FLA
Andruw Jones 2006-04-17 2006-04-19 3 12 4 5 0 0 4 7 2 0 0 0 .417 .385 1.417 1.802 ATL
Adam Dunn 2004-06-30 2005-04-04 3 10 5 7 2 0 4 8 3 3 0 0 .700 .769 2.100 2.869 CIN
Bobby Abreu 2004-07-08 2004-07-16 3 14 4 7 2 0 3 7 2 1 2 0 .500 .533 1.286 1.819 PHI
Hideki Matsui 2003-06-29 2004-06-27 3 11 3 3 0 0 3 6 4 1 0 0 .273 .333 1.091 1.424 NYY
Eric Young 2003-05-02 2003-06-05 3 11 4 5 2 0 3 3 1 0 0 0 .455 .455 1.455 1.910 MIL
Pat Burrell 2002-09-08 2003-05-20 3 10 4 5 1 0 4 7 4 3 0 0 .500 .615 1.800 2.415 PHI
Albert Pujols 2001-08-12 2002-04-24 3 10 4 3 0 0 3 4 2 2 0 0 .300 .417 1.200 1.617 STL
Scott Rolen 2001-07-29 2001-08-29 3 13 4 6 2 0 3 6 2 1 0 0 .462 .500 1.308 1.808 PHI
Rich Aurilia 2001-05-12 2001-08-24 3 13 6 8 1 0 3 7 0 0 0 0 .615 .615 1.385 2.000 SFG
Gary Sheffield 2001-08-17 2001-08-19 3 12 3 7 1 0 3 9 0 0 1 0 .583 .583 1.417 2.000 LAD
Jose Cruz 1999-06-08 2000-07-16 3 10 4 4 0 0 3 3 3 4 0 0 .400 .571 1.300 1.871 TOR
Vladimir Guerrero 1999-07-08 1999-07-22 3 11 3 5 0 0 3 4 1 1 0 0 .455 .500 1.273 1.773 MON
Vladimir Guerrero 1998-06-18 1998-07-10 3 14 6 5 1 0 3 5 0 1 0 0 .357 .400 1.071 1.471 MON
Damion Easley 1997-06-30 1997-07-02 3 12 4 4 0 0 3 3 1 0 1 0 .333 .333 1.083 1.416 DET
Sammy Sosa 1996-05-11 1996-08-05 3 13 4 5 0 0 3 4 3 0 0 0 .385 .385 1.077 1.462 CHC
Jerome Walton 1994-06-05 1995-05-07 3 8 4 4 0 0 3 6 1 1 1 1 .500 .556 1.625 2.181 CIN
Matt Williams 1994-04-23 1994-05-02 3 12 3 3 0 0 3 6 1 1 0 0 .250 .308 1.000 1.308 SFG
Glenallen Hill 1993-09-03 1993-09-05 3 9 3 3 0 0 3 6 2 0 0 0 .333 .333 1.333 1.666 CHC
Rick Wilkins 1993-06-07 1993-06-09 3 12 4 5 0 0 4 6 1 1 0 0 .417 .462 1.417 1.879 CHC
You can see Willingham and Utley both there at 3-game streaks.
Other long streaks against the Mets can be seen here and here. Bad Henry has a streak of 5 that matches Ryan Howard's.
Posted in Streak Finders | 1 Comment »
Posted by Andy on April 20, 2008
Bob Gibson had a pretty awesome year in 1968. He threw 304.2 innings and allowed only 198 hits, and walked just 62 too. (And struck out 268....)
For pitchers with at least 300 IP in a season, here are the fewest hits allowed. SOme of these seasons are a lot more impressive that others. For example, in 1974, Nolan Ryan allowed only 221 hits in 332.2 IP, but he also allowed a staggering 202 walks to go with his 367 strikeouts.
But anyway, in 1968, Gibson went only 22-9 despite a 0.853 WHIP, just about the lowest number I can imagine for a pitcher throwing so many innings. How in the heck did he lose 9 games?
Check out those 9 losses here. No fewer than 8 IP in all 9 games, and 1 or 2 ER in 6 of them. No more than 3 ER in any of them. Wow.
Posted in Season Finders | 4 Comments »
Posted by Raphy on April 18, 2008
In honor of last night's marathon , here are the players who had 9 PA in 4 different games in their careers (since 1956).
Dave Winfield 4 Ind. Games
Reggie Smith 4 Ind. Games
Ozzie Smith 4 Ind. Games
Gene Richards 4 Ind. Games
Don Mincher 4 Ind. Games
Willie Mays 4 Ind. Games
Chuck Knoblauch 4 Ind. Games
Bert Campaneris 4 Ind. Games
Winfield, Ozzie and especially Gene Richards benefited by playing on the 1980 Padres (who had 3 games of 17+ innings), but there are other interesting games here as well.
Two quick notes:
None of the players won or lost all 4 games .
Reggie Smith had the fewest hits in those games, Bert Campaneris the most.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by Andy on April 17, 2008
The Royals recently threw 2 consecutive complete games, one by Brian Bannister and one by Zack Greinke.
That makes them the 4th team to accomplish the feat since the beginning of the 2007 season:
Team StreakStart Streak End Games W L CG SHO SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
KCR 2008-04-13 2008-04-14 2 2 0 2 0 0 18 8 2 1 2 7 0 0.50 1 0 0 MIN,SEA
CHW 2007-09-19 2007-09-20 2 1 1 2 1 0 17 11 3 3 1 10 0 1.59 2 0 0 KCR
PIT 2007-08-12 2007-08-13 2 2 0 2 1 0 18 8 1 1 1 8 0 0.50 0 0 0 SFG
LAA 2007-07-30 2007-07-31 2 1 1 2 1 0 17 15 2 2 4 12 0 1.06 0 0 0 SEA
Going back to 1997, there are 4 teams who have had 3 CGs in a row:
Team StreakStart Streak End Games W L CG SHO SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
MIN 2004-07-05 2004-07-07 3 3 0 3 3 0 27 13 0 0 2 24 0 0.00 3 0 0 KCR
OAK 2000-09-08 2000-09-10 3 2 1 3 2 0 27 12 4 2 0 16 1 0.67 0 0 0 TBD
MIN 1999-07-30 1999-08-01 3 2 1 3 1 0 26 17 3 3 4 17 1 1.04 0 1 0 ANA
ATL 1998-06-14 1998-06-17 3 3 0 3 1 0 27 12 3 1 2 22 1 0.33 0 1 0 MON,FLA
And here are the leaders since 1956:
Team StreakStart Streak End Games W L CG SHO SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
DET 1968-09-06 1968-09-19 12 10 2 12 3 0 108 81 20 20 18 98 11 1.67 0 1 0 MIN,CAL,OAK,NYY
OAK 1980-08-09 1980-08-17 9 6 3 9 0 0 86.1 63 20 17 12 43 9 1.77 1 0 0 SEA,MIN
CHW 1956-09-16 1956-09-23 8 5 3 8 0 0 75 55 22 18 12 34 4 2.16 0 1 1 WSH,NYY,KCA
I would bet that if we could go all the way back to 1901, there were lots of times when teams when 20, 30, or more games in a row with CGs, since there were periods back then when use of relief pitchers was very rare. It's ironic the type of reversal we've seen. Back in the very early 1900s, it was probably a significant pain in the butt for the manager if he had to bring in a relief pitcher.
These days, most teams have a relief pitcher who is accustomed to throwing every 2 days, or 2 out of every 3, etc, and having a few complete games in a row could potentially mess up such players. Of course, that problem is easy to fix--you can always have a relief guy throw a bullpen session to keep his arm fresh.
Posted in Game Finders | 13 Comments »
Posted by Raphy on April 16, 2008
Well, now that all 3 pitchers (see No Runs to Start the Season) failed in their attempts to start the season with three consecutive runless starts, our attention turns to Justin Germano who tonight will attempt to start his third straight game without allowing an earned run. This would tie him for second with a dozen others who have started the season with three straight earned-runless starts.
The best part of this list is that it affords us the opportunity to look at the leader, and the crazy start he had to his season.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Posted by Raphy on April 15, 2008
The Royals are off to a flying start and I was wondering if we could use PI to figure out where it ranks in their history. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by Steve Lombardi on April 15, 2008
Here's a fun little list via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Game Finder - - Since 1956, games where the starting pitcher threw just one pitch and then left the game:
Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
Wade Miller 1 Ind. Games
Dennis Martinez 1 Ind. Games
Al Leiter 1 Ind. Games
Don Cardwell 1 Ind. Games
Chris Bosio 1 Ind. Games
Pedro Astacio 1 Ind. Games
Games found: 6.
As crazy as this may sound, I expected to find more games than this. Not a ton of games, mind you. But, I would have guessed that there were at least 20 games like this since 1956. But, it's just a half-dozen. Rare, indeed.
Posted in Game Finders | 5 Comments »
Posted by Chris J. on April 11, 2008
I didn't intend for this blog post to be about Frank Thomas making history. Honest.
I just did a completely random search, and it revealed that Frank Thomas was about the set an all-time MLB career record.
In the next several days, barring a miracle on injury, Thomas will become the man with the most plate appearances without having a single stinking sacrifice hit.
Heading into tonight, he's 8 PA behind Harmon Killebrew. He isn't in tonight's starting line-up, though.
Please note the SH wasn't kept until 1894, so all the earlier guys you see on that list shouldn't be there. Here's a better search, looking at 1894-onward only. It's a bunch of recent guys & Killebrew. He really sticks out. Hell, that's an understatement. Look at how the list looked when he retired in 1975, he had almost as many PA as the rest of the top ten combined. Clearly, the man could not lay down a bunt. My favorite guy on that list is Jouett Meekin at #8. He was a pitcher. What kind of pitcher can't lay down a bunt? Ever?
That list might understate it. In 1976, Jeff Burroughs finally laid down a bunt - two actually. Zisk got one in 1977.
By 1985, Killebrew was still the only one over 3,000 PA and no SH. Willie Aikens came close, but retired after that year. George Bell joined him in that category in 1988, over 4,000 in 1989, 5,000 in 1991, and 6,000 in 1992.
By then, Ron Kittle had become the third 3,000 PA, no SH man. Then came Cecil Fielder. The Big Hurt was the fifth member. Now there's 22.
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
