Kurkjian noted how unusual it is for a player to have at least 20 homers and 10 sac hits in the same season.

Here are the 25 most-recent such seasons:

  Cnt Player            Year HR  SH Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+--+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Randy Winn        2005 20  10  31 TOT ML 160 683 617  85 189 47  6  63  48   4  91   5   3  11  19 11  .306  .360  .499  .859 *78/D
    2 Juan Uribe        2004 23  11  24 CHW AL 134 553 502  82 142 31  6  74  32   1  96   3   5  10   9 11  .283  .327  .506  .833 *465/D
    3 Derek Jeter       2004 23  16  30 NYY AL 154 721 643 111 188 44  1  78  46   1  99  14   2  19  23  4  .292  .352  .471  .823 *6
    4 Marcus Giles      2003 21  10  25 ATL NL 145 635 551 101 174 49  2  69  59   2  80  11   4   7  14  4  .316  .390  .526  .916 *4
    5 Jose Valentin     2000 25  13  30 CHW AL 144 648 568 107 155 37  6  92  59   1 106   4   4  11  19  2  .273  .343  .491  .834 *6/9
    6 Roberto Alomar    1999 24  12  31 CLE AL 159 694 563 138 182 40  3 120  99   3  96   7  13  13  37  6  .323  .422  .533  .955 *4/D
    7 Kevin Elster      1996 24  16  31 TEX AL 157 596 515  79 130 32  2  99  52   1 138   2  11   8   4  1  .252  .317  .462  .779 *6
    8 Craig Biggio      1995 22  11  29 HOU NL 141 673 553 123 167 30  2  77  80   1  85  22   7   6  33  8  .302  .406  .483  .889 *4
    9 Ron Karkovice     1993 20  11  29 CHW AL 128 453 403  60  92 17  1  54  29   1 126   6   4  12   2  2  .228  .287  .424  .711 *2
   10 Brady Anderson    1992 21  10  28 BAL AL 159 749 623 100 169 28 10  80  98  14  98   9   9   2  53 16  .271  .373  .449  .822 *7/89
   11 Steve Buechele    1991 22  11  29 TOT ML 152 600 530  74 139 22  3  85  49   4  97   7   3  14   0  5  .262  .331  .440  .771 *54/6
   12 Devon White       1987 24  14  24 CAL AL 159 696 639 103 168 33  5  87  39   2 135   2   2   8  32 11  .263  .306  .443  .749 *98/7
   13 Alan Trammell     1986 21  11  28 DET AL 151 653 574 107 159 33  7  75  59   4  57   5   4   7  25 12  .277  .347  .469  .816 *6/D
   14 Wally Joyner      1986 22  10  24 CAL AL 154 674 593  82 172 27  3 100  57   8  58   2  12  11   5  2  .290  .348  .457  .805 *3
   15 Dwayne Murphy     1982 27  12  27 OAK AL 151 660 543  84 129 15  1  94  94   2 122   3   8   8  26  8  .238  .349  .418  .767 *8/6D
   16 Willie Upshaw     1982 21  10  25 TOR AL 160 646 580  77 155 25  7  75  52   8  91   1   3  11   8  8  .267  .327  .443  .770 *3/D
   17 Roy Smalley       1979 24  15  26 MIN AL 162 729 621  94 168 28  3  95  80   8  80   4   9   9   2  3  .271  .353  .441  .794 *6/3
   18 Bobby Grich       1979 30  12  30 CAL AL 153 609 534  78 157 30  5 101  59  10  84   2   2  14   1  0  .294  .365  .537  .902 *4
   19 Butch Hobson      1977 30  10  25 BOS AL 159 637 593  77 157 33  5 112  27   4 162   4   3  17   5  4  .265  .300  .489  .789 *5
   20 Rusty Staub       1970 30  11  26 MON NL 160 699 569  98 156 23  7  94 112  11  93   3   4   7  12 11  .274  .394  .497  .891 *9
   21 Bobby Tolan       1969 21  10  23 CIN NL 152 691 637 104 194 25 10  93  27   2  92  15   2   9  26 12  .305  .347  .474  .821 *89
   22 Paul Blair        1969 26  13  25 BAL AL 150 685 625 102 178 32  5  76  40   0  72   2   5  11  20  6  .285  .327  .477  .804 *8
   23 Max Alvis         1967 21  16  29 CLE AL 161 697 637  66 163 23  4  70  38   1 107   4   2  13   3 10  .256  .301  .403  .704 *5
   24 Jim Lefebvre      1966 24  10  24 LAD NL 152 610 544  69 149 23  3  74  48   6  72   3   5  10   1  1  .274  .333  .460  .793 *45
   25 Johnny Callison   1963 26  13  24 PHI NL 157 692 626  96 178 36 11  78  50   4 111   2   1   8   8  3  .284  .339  .502  .841 *9/78

Since the steroids era started in 1992 or so, a bunch of speed guys have done it. Before that, it was really quite rare.

And here are all the guys to do it at least twice:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Rogers Hornsby    1921 1929 25-33       7 Ind. Seasons
 Lou Gehrig        1925 1930 22-27       5 Ind. Seasons
 Mel Ott           1929 1939 20-30       4 Ind. Seasons
 Hack Wilson       1927 1930 27-30       4 Ind. Seasons
 Babe Ruth         1926 1930 31-35       4 Ind. Seasons
 Ken Williams      1921 1925 31-35       4 Ind. Seasons
 Jim Bottomley     1925 1929 25-29       3 Ind. Seasons
 Jack Fournier     1923 1925 33-35       3 Ind. Seasons
 George Kelly      1921 1925 25-29       3 Ind. Seasons
 Joe Adcock        1954 1956 26-28       2 Ind. Seasons
 Alvin Dark        1953 1954 31-32       2 Ind. Seasons
 Gil Hodges        1949 1950 25-26       2 Ind. Seasons
 Whitey Kurowski   1944 1945 26-27       2 Ind. Seasons
 Al Simmons        1929 1930 27-28       2 Ind. Seasons
 Lefty O'Doul      1929 1930 32-33       2 Ind. Seasons
 Don Hurst         1929 1932 23-26       2 Ind. Seasons
 Babe Herman       1929 1930 26-27       2 Ind. Seasons
 Jimmie Foxx       1929 1930 21-22       2 Ind. Seasons
 Dale Alexander    1929 1930 26-27       2 Ind. Seasons
 Chick Hafey       1928 1930 25-27       2 Ind. Seasons
 Bill Terry        1927 1930 28-31       2 Ind. Seasons
 Bob Meusel        1921 1925 24-28       2 Ind. Seasons

So it's really an unusual thing. Nobody has done it twice since the 1950s.

(Note: if you don't know what TK notes are, please refer back to this post.)

Note #2 is in regards to a 2005 start by John Halama, where he was yanked by Frank Robinson in the 1st inning after giving up just 1 ER. The Nationals went on to lose 12-1, and Halama got the loss, but perhaps undeservingly since he did give up just that one run.

I did a PI search for fewest pitches in a start when giving up just 1 run. Here are the results. Halama, with 24 pitches ties for "only" 57th on this list. Pedro Astacio wins, though, with a 1-pitch start giving up 1 ER. He must have gotten injured, of course, either by the batted ball or by pulling a muscle or some such.

By looking at the "batters faced" column, you can find games where the pitcher was likely pulled, as opposed to being removed due to injury. Here's one that was a doozie. Todd Stottlemyre gave up 1 first-inning run on 2 hits and a walk. In the bottom of the first, that man (Pedro Astacio again) started the game with 3 straight singles and a 3-run homer. So Stottlemyre was off the hook, but he didn't come back for the second inning, instead being replaced by the ageless Mike Morgan.

Anyway, check out that list. There are tons of neat games on there.

I already mentioned Tim Kurkjian’s “Is This a Great Game, or What?” previously. I just finished the book, and I highly recommend it. While I read the book, I made notes about some great stats that he mentioned. I'm going to make a bunch of "TK notes" here in honor of Tim Kurkjian's fine book.

Note #1 is about intentional walks. Kurkjian mentioned something that I had never noticed: there is a huge disparity in intentional walks issued by team. A disparity for which teams receive the most IBBs would be less surprising (hello, Barry Bonds,) but TK points out that some managers love the IBB and some managers hate it.

Check out the 2007 pitching splits. Boston issued the fewest IBBs with just 20, followed by Anaheim with 22 and St Louis with 25. To be sure, those teams issued fewer IBBs in part because they were better teams and in fewer stickier situations that required IBBs. But, the league leader in IBBs was Atlanta, also a good team, with 89. Bobby Cox is obviously a true believer. Next highest total was 62, from both Philadelphia and Houston.

There are lots of gems like this in Kurkjian's book.

Inspired, by a comment in post #1 of this btf thread, I thought I'd look up who the best AL outfielders of the 1950s were.  Mantle, and Williams are obvious #s 1 & 2.  But can you guess any of the Top 5?  How 'bout Top 10?

Here's a fun nugget for you via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Event Finder - there were 69 "four-pitch" bases loaded walks allowed in 2007.  And, Aaron Fultz was the leader of the pack in that he allowed 3 of the 69 last season.  And, twice, Fultz did it with 2 outs.

That's not exactly a way to get yourself in good with your manager, or, the fans, for that matter, is it?

I've been reading Tim Kurkjian's "Is This a Great Game, or What?", a book I have enjoyed so far, and he mentions on page 17 that Joey Devine was the first player to give up grand slams in each of his first two career relief appearances.

Using the PI, we can confirm this.

First, here are all the reliever to give up homers in each of their first two relief appearances. 42 guys have done it. Devine gave up a granny in extra innings in the first game. Interesting, in the second game, he did give up a grand slam, although only 3 of the runs were charged to him because he came into the game with a runner on first. (This still matches what Kurkjian wrote.)

Since Devine did it in 2005, only Mauro Zarate has given up homers in each of his first two games. But he "only" gave up a solo homer to Ryan Howard and a three-run job to Todd Helton.

Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but I went to the Cardinals-Orioles spring training game yesterday and posted some photos of the stadium and game here. It should help you get in the mood!

It's not as fun sounding as "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra," but, you have to wonder about "Carmona and Colon at Fenway."  Playing around with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index today, I was looking for really bad starts (by a pitcher) in the post-season.  And, applying some criteria, this is what I found:

  Cnt Player            Date          Series G 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 Fausto Carmona    2007-10-20    ALCS   6 CLE @BOS L  2-12 GS-3  ,L   2    6  7  7  4  2  1  63  33   14       15 11  1  0   0   0  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  0  31.50 
    2 Brad Penny        2003-10-08    NLCS   2 FLA @CHC L  3-12 GS-3  ,L   2    7  7  7  2  0  2  54  33   12       15 12  0  0   0   0  1  0   0  1  0  0  0  0  31.50 
    3 Russ Ortiz        2002-10-20    WS     2 SFG @ANA L 10-11 GS-2       1.2  9  7  7  0  0  1  46  29    9       14 14  2  0   0   0  0  0   0  2  0  0  0  0  37.80 
    4 Bartolo Colon     1999-10-10    ALDS   4 CLE @BOS L  7-23 GS-2  ,L   1    6  7  7  1  1  2  44  27   13       10  9  1  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0  63.00 
    5 Todd Stottlemyre  1996-10-14    NLCS   5 STL  ATL L  0-14 GS-1  ,L   1    9  7  7  0  1  0  38  24    8       12 12  2  1   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0  63.00 
    6 Tom Glavine       1992-10-13    NLCS   6 ATL  PIT L  4-13 GS-1  ,L   1    6  8  7  0  0  2  35  24   11       11  9  2  0   0   1  1  0   1  0  0  0  0  0  63.00   Games found: 6.

Note that the two worst "starts" in American League history happened in Fenway Park.  And, both times it happened to Cleveland Indian pitchers.

That's a bummer for Tribe fans, no doubt.

I got a new column up at The Hardball Times today that would've been a nightmare to reserach if I didn't have a PI account. 

I looked up 147 different splits for every team from 1957-onward.  Without a PI account, the only way to do it would be to go team-by-team, looking up the splits page for every farking one of those 1,270 teams. 

PI makes it infinately easier.  Go to 1957's standing page (either AL or NL, makes no difference).  Go to where it says splits and choose Major Leagues.  Once there, pick the splits you like, and click the red text.  BANG - how each team did by that split appears.  Now you can move it into excel so much easier. 

(Sadly, for myself, I started the research last year before the league splits had the red text feature that gave you all team splits, and I had to get NL offensive splits by going team-by-team.  TRUST ME when I say the Play Index makes this sort of thing tremendously easier).

In today's spring training debut game for the Phillies, they pitched two guys with great names for pitchers:

1. Lincoln Holdzkom, whom I assume specializes in holds

2. Joshua Outman, whom I assume just gets people out.

Thanks to my friend Eric for pointing this out.

A recent comment by fabio in my "Unexpected At-Bats" post got me thinking about pinch hitters who were pulled. Unless I'm missing something (please let me know) a pinch hitter can end a game with 0 plate appearances in one of 5 ways.

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