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Remember a few years back when Doug Mirabelli was flown in by the Red Sox to catch Tim Wakefield, after the Red Sox realized that Josh Bard couldn't catch the knuckleball?

Personally, I have always found it hard to believe that Mirabelli's defense was worth all the trouble. (See below for further discussion on "the trouble.") It's true that Josh Bard had a lot of trouble himself early that season, allowing a number of passed balls. But I really wonder if Boston wouldn't be better off training a young catcher in the off-season to handle the knuckle, rather than continuing the trot Dougy out there.

First of all, here are the worst batting averages for players with at least 400 PAs over the last 3 seasons:

  Cnt Player              **BA**    PA  From  To   Ages   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS  OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+---------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
    1 Mark Bellhorn        .198     661 2005 2007 30-32  222   567   71  112  31   2  16   58   88   1  207   2   0   4   7    3   0  .306  .344  .650 /4536D9   TOT-SDP-CIN
    2 Doug Mirabelli       .206     481 2005 2007 34-36  171   433   38   89  17   0  17   59   40   0  148   7   1   0   8    2   0  .283  .363  .646 *2/D      BOS-TOT
    3 Brian N. Anderson    .216     459 2005 2007 23-25  160   416   52   90  25   1  10   36   32   2  109   5   3   3   7    5   7  .279  .353  .632 *8/7D9    CHW
    4 Jason LaRue          .216     847 2005 2007 31-33  248   721   74  156  41   0  26   94   85  16  218  25  11   5  17    2   0  .318  .381  .699 *2/95     CIN-KCR
    5 John Mabry           .216     550 2005 2007 34-36  247   490   46  106  24   2  14   62   48   1  130   1   6   5  12    0   0  .285  .359  .644 /3975D    STL-CHC-COL
    6 David Newhan         .217     475 2005 2007 31-33  191   423   54   92  14   1  10   45   37   2   86   5   5   5   7   15   4  .285  .326  .611 /8795D43  BAL-NYM
    7 Tomas Perez          .220     430 2005 2006 31-32  193   400   48   88  19   0   2   38   16   2   71   2   7   5   9    2   0  .251  .283  .534 /563497   PHI-TBD
    8 Joe Borchard         .221     484 2005 2007 26-28  206   430   53   95  18   1  14   47   49   6  133   5   0   0   9    4   4  .308  .365  .673 /97D83    CHW-TOT-FLA
    9 Nick Green           .221     509 2005 2007 26-28  180   439   65   97  20   2   7   33   44   0  129  12  11   3   7    4   5  .307  .323  .630 *4/5693   TBD-TOT-SEA
   10 Scott Thorman        .222     440 2006 2007 24-25  175   415   50   92  29   0  16   50   19   3   91   3   1   2   6    2   1  .260  .407  .667 *3/7      ATL

Thank goodness for Mark Bellhorn, or maybe more people would realize that Mirabelli has given Boston absolutely NOTHING offensively.

Now, when Boston originally traded away Mirabelli, they got Mark Loretta in return. During his one year in Boston, Loretta put up .285/.345/.361, a rung below his career averages, and then he walked as a free agent. Not a bad trade considering how worthless Mirabelli is (particularly to a team with no knuckleball pitchers,) but certainly nothing to write home about.

But to get Mirabelli back, the Red Sox had to send Josh Bard and Cla Meredith (plus some cash) to the Padres.

Since, Bard has put up an OPS+ of 122 in 1.5 seasons with the Padres and he looks like a decent player. Meredith put up a 0.711 WHIP in 2006 along with an ERA+ of 380. Last year, he came back down to earth with a 1.393 WHIP and an ERA+ of 115. If he can perform somewhere in the middle in 2008, he'll be just great.

In any case, both players have more value than Mirabelli. I just cannot believe that Boston uses one of 25 roster spots on this guy.

Most current baseball fans will recognize the name Cody Ross. Even if not, perhaps you should familiarize yourself with him on his main Baseball-Reference.com page. First of all, in his major league career of 486 at-bats, he's got 26 HR, 91 RBI, and .829 OPS and a 114 OPS+.

But here's an interesting tidbit. Most total bases in a season from 1998 to 2007 with at most 200 PAs:

 Cnt Player             **TB**  PA Year Age Tm  Lg  G   AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Cody Ross           113   197 2007  26 FLA NL  66 173  35  58 19  0 12  39  20   3  38   3   0   1   2   2  0  .335  .411  .653 1.064 *89/7     
    2 Greg Colbrunn       107   185 2002  32 ARI NL  72 171  30  57 16  2 10  27  13   1  19   0   0   1   5   0  0  .333  .378  .626 1.004 *3/5D     
    3 Richie Sexson       103   183 1998  23 CLE AL  49 174  28  54 14  1 11  35   6   0  42   3   0   0   3   1  1  .310  .344  .592  .936 *3/7D     
    4 Shawon Dunston       95   193 2001  38 SFG NL  88 186  26  52 10  3  9  25   2   0  32   2   2   1   2   3  1  .280  .293  .511  .804 987/D3    
    5 Craig Wilson         93   183 2001  24 PIT NL  88 158  27  49  3  1 13  32  15   1  53   7   1   2   4   3  1  .310  .390  .589  .979 392/D7    
    6 Rick Ankiel          92   190 2007  27 STL NL  47 172  31  49  8  1 11  39  13   0  41   0   1   4   3   1  0  .285  .328  .535  .863 *98/7     
    7 Erubiel Durazo       92   185 1999  25 ARI NL  52 155  31  51  4  2 11  30  26   1  43   1   0   3   1   1  1  .329  .422  .594 1.016 *3        
    8 Juan Encarnacion     92   175 1998  22 DET AL  40 164  30  54  9  4  7  21   7   0  31   1   0   3   2   7  4  .329  .354  .561  .915 *98/7D    
    9 Carlos Quentin       88   191 2006  23 ARI NL  57 166  23  42 13  3  9  32  15   2  34   8   1   1   6   1  0  .253  .342  .530  .872 *9/7      
   10 Jason Varitek        85   198 2001  29 BOS AL  51 174  19  51 11  1  7  25  21   3  35   1   1   1   6   0  0  .293  .371  .489  .860 *2        
   11 Doug Mirabelli       84   182 2004  33 BOS AL  59 160  27  45 12  0  9  32  19   0  46   3   0   0   5   0  0  .281  .368  .525  .893 *2/D      
   12 Robb Quinlan         84   177 2004  27 ANA AL  56 160  23  55 14  0  5  23  14   0  26   2   0   1   1   3  1  .344  .401  .525  .926 *53/7D9   
   13 Marcus Thames        84   184 2004  27 DET AL  61 165  24  42 12  0 10  33  16   0  42   2   0   1   3   0  1  .255  .326  .509  .835 *79/D     
   14 Toby Hall            84   196 2001  25 TBD AL  49 188  28  56 16  0  4  30   4   0  16   3   0   1   5   2  2  .298  .321  .447  .768 *2        
   15 Mike Difelice        84   191 1999  30 TBD AL  51 179  21  55 11  0  6  27   8   0  23   3   0   1   1   0  0  .307  .346  .469  .815 *2        
   16 Freddy Garcia        84   193 1998  25 PIT NL  56 172  27  44 11  1  9  26  18   3  45   2   0   1   3   0  2  .256  .332  .488  .820 *5/3      
   17 Russell Branyan      83   182 2004  28 MIL NL  51 158  21  37 11  1 11  27  20   0  68   2   0   2   1   1  0  .234  .324  .525  .849 *5/3      
   18 Fernando Seguigno    83   175 2000  25 MON NL  76 162  22  45  8  0 10  22   9   0  46   3   0   1   5   0  1  .278  .326  .512  .838 379/D     

He's way out in the lead there, although he's helped by having had very close to, but not quite, 200 PAs. Notice that Rick Ankiel got on there too, although some questions his accomplishment given his mention in the Mitchell Report. Notice that both Boston catchers made it (#10 and #11) although that was Mirabelli's last productive season.

On another post, kingturtle remarked that Sid Fernandez was incredibly effective in his career until the 5th of 6th inning of starts. I remember hearing that something about Fernandez' windup or delivery made it tough for batters to pick up the ball, and that they usually needed a couple of at-bats in a game against Fernandez to get accustomed to it.

An easy way to look at that is to check out Fernandez' pitching splits, specifically his average against based on the number of times he has faced a guy in a game. For his career, guys facing him for the first time in a game hit .186 / .264 / .308 against him, whereas the batting average climbed to .204 in the second PA, and .246 in the 3rd or greater PA.

To me, these numbers back up kingturtle exactly. 5th or 6th inning would usually mean 2 PAs by most players, and Fernandez allowed a combined .194 batting average over the first 2 PAs by each player.

If you break it out by years, from 1985 to 1993, batters were collectively under .200 every single year in their first PA against Fernandez. Wow!

That being said, one important factor is that Fernandez' career batting average against is just .209 and he is third all-time in fewest hits allowed per 9 innings.

But compare him to pitchers most statistically similar:

Jose Rijo allowed a .243 average in his career, broken out as .239 in the first PA, .254 in the second PA, and .236 in the third+ PA. Certainly quite a different breakdown from Fernandez.

Bob Ojeda allowed a .257 average in his career. It was .250 in the first PA, .253 in the second PA, and .272 in the third+ PA. This is a similar trend to Fernandez, but the numbers split across PA# are all closer to the average for Ojeda.

Gary Peters allowed a .243 average in his career. It was .233 in PA #1, .238 in PA #2, and .258 in PA #3+. This is somewhat closer to Fernandez' model.

I remember that Fernandez was a notorious fly-ball pitcher and he did allow more homers on average. But I guess he allowed many fewer singles!

I've heard many times that Jack Morris is the winningest pitcher of the 1980s, but who was the losingest? Jim Clancy.  Those early 1980s Jays teams just couldn't hit.

Going back,

1870s: Bobby Mathews, 164
1880s: Pud Galvin, 242
1890s: Amos Rusie, 163

1900s: Vic Willis, 172
1910s: Walter Johnson, 143

1920s: Dolf Luque, 146

1930s: Paul Derringer, 137
1940s:  Dutch Leonard, 123

1950s: Robin Roberts, 149
1960s: Jack Fisher, 133
1970s: Phil Niekro, 151
1980s: Jim Clancy, 126

1990s: Andy Benes, 116
2000s:  Jeff Weaver, 102

I see the Phillies are close to signing Geoff Jenkins.

Here's the good news. Most seasons by an active player since 1999 with an OPS+ of at least 130:

http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/CJgb

(sorry, had to use a link because something buggy made the post go blank before.)

So Jenkins is one of just 32 players with at least 4 such seasons.

The "bad" news is that Jenkins averaged 103 in the other 5 intervening seasons, including 101 in each of the last 2. He's by no means a bad player, but it seems he's likely pretty average in that regard.

The other day, in a previous post, I stumbled onto just how good Mario Soto was from 1982 to 1985. Click through for some statistical proof of that. Read the rest of this entry »

Here's an interesting little report that you can run with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Game Finder - the number of games, in this case, during 2007, where a team had their starting pitcher go six innings or more:

 Tm  Year Games Link to Individual Games 
+---+----+-----+-------------------------+ 
 CLE 2007   123 Ind. Games 
 CHW 2007   123 Ind. Games 
 BOS 2007   108 Ind. Games 
 LAA 2007   105 Ind. Games 
 TOR 2007   104 Ind. Games 
 ARI 2007   103 Ind. Games 
 OAK 2007   102 Ind. Games 
 MIN 2007   102 Ind. Games 
 HOU 2007   102 Ind. Games 
 SFG 2007   101 Ind. Games 
 SDP 2007   100 Ind. Games 
 PIT 2007   100 Ind. Games 
 MIL 2007   100 Ind. Games 
 TBD 2007    99 Ind. Games 
 PHI 2007    98 Ind. Games 
 COL 2007    98 Ind. Games 
 CIN 2007    98 Ind. Games 
 CHC 2007    98 Ind. Games 
 SEA 2007    96 Ind. Games 
 NYM 2007    96 Ind. Games 
 NYY 2007    93 Ind. Games 
 ATL 2007    91 Ind. Games 
 DET 2007    90 Ind. Games 
 LAD 2007    89 Ind. Games 
 BAL 2007    89 Ind. Games 
 STL 2007    87 Ind. Games 
 KCR 2007    80 Ind. Games 
 FLA 2007    73 Ind. Games 
 WSN 2007    72 Ind. Games 
 TEX 2007    69 Ind. Games

Games found: 2,889.

Note:  This does not reflect the "quality" of those six-plus innings in a start.  But, it does tell you which team's starters ensured that their bullpen was not over-worked last season.

Here are all the pitchers since 1901 to finish their careers with an ERA+ between 99 and 101, as well as a W-L% between .490 and .510:

  Cnt Player              **IP**   ERA+  W-L% From  To   Ages   G   GS  CG SHO  GF  W   L   SV   H    R   ER   BB   SO    ERA   HR   BF  IBB HBP  BK  WP Teams
+----+-----------------+----------+----+-----+----+----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+------+---+-----+---+---+---+---+-----------+
    1 Rick Wise           3127      101  .509 1964 1982 18-36  506 455 138  30  15 188 181   0 3227 1455 1281  804 1647   3.69 261 13157  83  44   9  49 PHI-STL-BOS-CLE-SDP
    2 Elam Vangilder      1715.2    100  .493 1919 1929 23-33  367 187  90  13 120  99 102  19 1894 1012  815  699  474   4.28  92  7694      42   3  22 SLB-DET
    3 Tom Underwood       1586      100  .497 1974 1984 20-30  379 203  35   6  68  86  87  18 1554  772  685  662  948   3.89 130  6814  38  28  12  62 PHI-TOT-TOR-NYY-OAK-BAL
    4 Bob Muncrief        1401.1    100  .494 1937 1951 21-35  288 165  67  11  72  80  82   9 1503  669  592  392  525   3.80 108  5968      15   1  19 SLB-CLE-TOT-NYY
    5 Dan Schatzeder      1317      100  .504 1977 1991 22-36  504 121  18   4 117  69  68  10 1257  617  548  475  748   3.74 128  5569  64  23   5  56 MON-DET-TOT-MON-HOU-TOT-KCR
    6 Mike Fornieles      1156.2    100  .496 1952 1963 20-31  432  76  20   4 195  63  64  55 1165  567  509  421  576   3.96  98  4983  32  32   2  34 WSH-CHW-TOT-BOS
    7 Carl Pavano         1049      100  .492 1998 2007 22-31  186 168   6   4   3  62  64   0 1126  549  498  291  677   4.27 113  4506  36  58  13  13 MON-TOT-FLA-NYY
    8 Scott Karl          1002      100  .491 1995 2000 23-28  178 161   5   1   4  54  56   0 1164  594  536  369  513   4.81 120  4444  18  33   3  26 MIL-TOT
    9 Bill Lohrman         990.2    101  .504 1934 1944 21-31  198 121  47   9  36  60  59   8 1048  479  406  240  330   3.69  70  4176      13   2  19 PHI-NYG-TOT
   10 Don Hood             848.1    101  .493 1973 1983 23-33  297  72   6   1  84  34  35   6  840  412  357  364  374   3.79  57  3651  32  19  10  40 BAL-CLE-TOT-STL-KCR
   11 Bob Miller           822      101  .500 1949 1958 23-32  261  69  23   6  79  42  42  15  889  406  362  247  263   3.96  72  3547  24  16   4  20 PHI
   12 Steve Ridzik         782.2    101  .506 1950 1966 21-37  314  48   4   1  99  39  38  11  709  392  330  351  406   3.79  93  3368  19  36   1  18 PHI-TOT-NYG-CLE-WSA-PHI
   13 Ira Hutchinson       610.2    100  .507 1933 1945 22-34  209  32   7   2  96  34  33  13  628  289  255  249  179   3.76  33  2648      12   1  10 CHW-BSN-BRO-STL
   14 Whitey Moore         513.1    100  .508 1936 1942 24-30  133  60  18   4  42  30  29   4  450  243  214  292  228   3.75  25  2258      24   1   9 CIN-TOT
   15 Roberto Novoa        141.2    100  .500 2004 2006 24-26  131   0   0   0  23   7   7   0  149   84   71   63  115   4.51  23   635  11   8   1   9 DET-CHC
   16 Dewey Robinson        53.1    101  .500 1979 1981 24-26   30   0   0   0  13   2   2   0   42   27   24   28   35   4.05   4   220   3   0   0   0 CHW
   17 Rufe Clarke           11.1    100  .500 1923 1924 23-24    7   0   0   0   2   1   1   0    9    5    5   11    3   3.97   0    52       2   0   0 DET

These guys are seriously average.

Let's relax the criteria a bit but require more innings:

  Cnt Player              **IP**   ERA+  W-L% From  To   Ages   G   GS  CG SHO  GF  W   L   SV   H    R   ER   BB   SO    ERA   HR   BF  IBB HBP  BK  WP Teams
+----+-----------------+----------+----+-----+----+----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+------+---+-----+---+---+---+---+-----------+
    1 Rick Wise           3127      101  .509 1964 1982 18-36  506 455 138  30  15 188 181   0 3227 1455 1281  804 1647   3.69 261 13157  83  44   9  49 PHI-STL-BOS-CLE-SDP
    2 Joe Bush            3087.1     99  .516 1912 1928 19-35  489 366 225  35  93 195 183  20 2992 1443 1205 1263 1319   3.51  96 13185      62   1  90 PHA-BOS-NYY-SLB-TOT-PHA
    3 Willis Hudlin       2613.1    102  .503 1926 1944 20-38  491 328 155  11 105 158 156  31 3011 1491 1281  846  677   4.41 118 11546      44   9  41 CLE-TOT-SLB
    4 Rube Benton         2517.1    101  .510 1910 1925 20-35  437 305 145  24  83 150 144  21 2472 1115  863  712  950   3.09  52 10539      95   6  66 CIN-TOT-NYG-CIN
    5 Tim Belcher         2442.2    101  .510 1987 2000 25-38  394 373  42  18  13 146 140   5 2423 1253 1130  860 1519   4.16 264 10422  43  58  10  73 LAD-CIN-TOT-DET-SEA-KCR-ANA
    6 Mike Caldwell       2408.2     99  .513 1971 1984 22-35  475 307  98  23  77 137 130  18 2581 1182 1020  597  939   3.81 218 10156  62  35   9  65 SDP-SFG-TOT-MIL
    7 Livan Hernandez     2371      100  .511 1996 2007 21-32  351 350  43   7   0 134 128   0 2549 1206 1119  830 1546   4.25 271 10260  62  65  11  31 FLA-TOT-SFG-MON-WSN-ARI
    8 Scott Erickson      2360.2     98  .511 1990 2006 22-38  389 364  51  17  10 142 136   0 2586 1306 1203  865 1252   4.59 228 10284  32 103   3  68 MIN-TOT-BAL-LAD-NYY
    9 Larry Benton        2297       98  .498 1923 1935 25-37  455 258 122  13 113 127 128  22 2559 1190 1029  691  670   4.03 109  9864      25   1  47 BSN-TOT-NYG-CIN-BSN
   10 Fritz Peterson      2218.1    101  .504 1966 1976 24-34  355 330  90  20   9 133 131   1 2217  947  813  426 1015   3.30 173  9103  75  42   6  33 NYY-TOT-CLE
   11 Bill Singer         2174       99  .482 1964 1977 20-33  322 308  94  24   7 118 127   2 1952  944  819  781 1515   3.39 132  9143  50  63  11  67 LAD-CAL-TOT-TOR
   12 Joaquin Andujar     2153       99  .518 1976 1988 23-35  405 305  68  19  37 127 118   9 2016  955  857  731 1032   3.58 155  9008  65  51  33  33 HOU-TOT-STL-OAK-HOU
   13 Pat Dobson          2120.1    100  .486 1967 1977 25-35  414 279  74  14  51 122 129  19 2043  939  833  665 1301   3.54 197  8872  76  26   5  51 DET-SDP-BAL-TOT-NYY-CLE
   14 Jeff Suppan         2071.1    101  .511 1995 2007 20-32  351 335  16   5   6 118 113   0 2272 1155 1060  680 1162   4.61 265  9022  39  77   5  70 BOS-TOT-KCR-STL-MIL
   15 Hal Carlson         2002       99  .487 1917 1930 25-38  377 238 121  17  96 114 120  19 2256 1013  883  498  590   3.97  93  8522      36   2  18 PIT-PHI-TOT-CHC

Wow, is there a more average pitcher these days than Jeff Suppan? I'm surprised to see guys like Belcher, Hernandez, Erickson, and Andujar on there. These are guys who had some good years, who I would have expected to at least have W-L% slightly higher than the requirement.

Only 5 pitchers in baseball have, summed over 2005, 2006, and 2007, totaled at least 650 innings pitched and 550 strikeouts. How many can you get? Answers after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »