Wow, yesterday was a very exciting day in baseball. I'll be back later today with a News & Notes post, but first I wanted to post on something cool I found.

Using the Team Batting Event Finder, I went on a hunt to see if a game has ever ended on a triple play. Read the rest of this entry »

After my last post, a reader asks what's the worst single-season ERA+ of all-time.  Well . . . . among guys with at least 162 IP, it's Jack Neagle from 1883, whoever the hell he was, with a 54.

Worst 20th century pitcher:  Rube Bressler,  56 in 1915.

Worst liveballer: Jose Lima, 62, 2005.  Given how many really old pitchers dominate the list, this might be the worst, in context of the era.

How 'bout worst by franchise?  Well that list has the bottom 200.  Let's see what teams I can find on it.  First AL then NL teams, alphabetical by current nickname:

American League:

Angels - Willie Fraser - 1988, 71

Athletics:  Rube Bressler - 56 in 1915

Devil Rays - Mark Hendrickson, 73, 2005

Indians - Bob Feller (!?!?) - 71 in 1952

Mariners - Joel Pineiro - 68 in 2006

Orioles/Browns: Willie Sudhoff - 66, 1904

Rangers/Senators - Phil Ortega - 68, 1965

Red Sox: Jack Lamabe, 65, 1964

Royals: Jose Lima 62 in 2005

Tigers - Joe Coleman, 72, 1975

Twins/Senators - Dolley Gray, 1909, 67

White Sox - Pat Carraway - 68, 1931

National League:

Astros - Jose Lima, 74, 2000.  He's the only person to be the all-time worst with two different clubs.  Well, that's some sort of accomplishment, I guess.

Braves: Curry Foley, 59, 1880.

Cardinals: Pol Perritt, 62, 1913

Cubs - Pat Luby, 70, 1891 TIED with Tex Carleton, 1938

Dodgers: Oscar Jones, 62, 1905

Expos: Javier Vazquez - 68, 1998

Florida - Scott Olsen, 72, 2007 - PRIOR TO TODAY, WHERE HIS NUMBERS IMPROVED

Giants: Mark Davis, 66, 1984

Mets - Jack Fisher, 1967, 72

Padres - Steve Arlin 68, 1973

Phillies: John Coleman, 63, 1883

Pirates: Kirtley Baker, 58, 1890.

Reds - Eric Milton, 69, 2005 TIED with Bill Phillips, 1901

Original 16 teams not listed: Yankees.  That's it.  Those bastards! Expansion teams not here (oldest to youngest): Pilots/Brewers, Blue Jays, Rockies, D-backs.  Marlins as of tommorrow won't be listed either.

Random Memory Day:

Once upon a time, in a blogosphere far far away, Aaron Gleeman wrote that Carlos Silva's ERA of 5.94 was the worst by any AL pitcher with at least 180 IP since 1969. (No, I don't remember quite when Gleeman wrote it; and I sure as heck ain't gonna check his site looking for it, either).

For no good reason, this quote stuck with me - was it true?  Why make 180 IP his benchmark (aside from the fact that Silva tossed 180.3 IP that is).  More strangely, why use 1969 as a benchmark?  I mean, 1963-8 was the new deadball era, so the worst score from 1969-onward should also be the worst score for an even longer time back.

Five minutes ago I realized the PI could solve the riddles for me.  Turns out, it is true.  (I'd love to do this as save'n'share it, but for some reason that function won't work for me at the moment):

1 Jose Lima         6.65 

2 Darryl Kile           6.61  

 3 Eric Milton           6.47  
 4 Pedro Astacio         6.23  
 5 Brian Bohanon         6.20 
 6 Jason Marquis         6.02  
 7 Carlos Silva          5.94 

A couple guys had worse years, but they were all in the NL.   

If you drop it down just 5 innings, he wasn't as bad as fellow Twin LaTroy Hawkins in 1999 (6.62 ERA) or Chris Carpenter (6.26 ERA) in 2000.

But who was the last AL pitcher to have an ERA higher than 5.94 in 180 or more innings?

Silva's the worst since expansion by those standards.

He's the worst since integration by those standards.

But, if you go back to 1939, you'll see Nels Potter of the Philadelphia A's under Connie Mack scoring a 6.60 ERA in 196.3 IP.  That's nothing.  In 1936 Jack Knott had a 7.29 with the Browns. 

Silva's is the seventh highest ERA in AL history by those standards, also trailing Sloppy Thurston's 1925, Pat Caraway's 1931, Jim Walkup's 1935, and Earl Caldwell's 1936.  Caldwell was Knott's teammate.  Some rotation, eh?

Does anybody out there know (I am not asking for guesses) what happens if the Phillies, Mets, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Padres all finish with the same record?

This is possible, based on the current standings and the remaining schedule.

I wanted to use some league-wide 2007 batting splits to emphasize a couple of points.

First, all the data I am citing can be found on the 2007 AL batting splits page and the 2007 NL batting splits page. This type of data is among my most favorite at B-R.com because there's a lot you can glean from such large sample sizes, and yet this data isn't easily available in many places.

Read the rest of this entry »

I knew there was something I forgot to mention in today's news & notes:

In yesterday's NYY-TBD game, both Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees and Jorge Velandia of the Rays hit grand slams.

So far this season, there have been 132 grand slams (boy, doesn't that seem like a lot?) and there have been 6 games featuring more than 1.

Here are the six games:

   Yr#    G# Date          Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-------+---+-------------+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
     58   1 2007-06-20    Bill Hall         MIL  SFG Barry Zito        tied   0-0  b 1 123   1 3-2   9   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Hart Scores; Hardy Scores; Fielder Scores
     59   2               Bengie Molina     SFG @MIL Claudio Vargas    down   0-6  t 6 123   0 3-1   5   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Winn Scores; Durham Scores; Klesko Scores

     90   1 2007-08-10    Marcus Thames     DET  OAK Joe Blanton       down   2-8  b 4 123   1 0-0   1   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Ordonez Scores; Guillen Scores; Casey Scores
     91   2               Jack Cust         OAK @DET Macay McBride     down   8-9  t 6 123   1 1-0   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF); Buck Scores; Stewart Scores; Swisher Scores      92   1 2007-08-11    Yuniesky Betancou SEA @CHW Gavin Floyd       ahead  3-1  t 4 123   1 0-0   1   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Sexson Scores; Johjima Scores; Lopez Scores
     93   2               Josh Fields       CHW  SEA J.J. Putz         down   2-7  b 9 123   0 0-0   1   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Hall Scores; Gonzalez Scores; Owens Scores

    108   1 2007-08-22(1) Marlon Byrd       TEX @BAL Brian Burres      ahead  6-3  t 6 123   1 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Catalanotto Scores; Kinsler Scores; Young Scores
    109   2               Travis Metcalf    TEX @BAL Rob Bell          ahead 16-3  t 8 123   0 2-0   3   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Vazquez Scores; Catalanotto Scores; Kinsler Scores

    119   1 2007-09-10    Kurt Suzuki       OAK @SEA Horacio Ramirez   ahead  1-0  t 2 123   1 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Johnson Scores; Hannahan Scores; Barton Scores
    120   2               Dan Johnson       OAK @SEA Ryan Rowland-Smi  ahead  5-3  t 9 123   2 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF-RF); Scutaro Scores; Swisher Scores; Ellis Scores

    131   1 2007-09-25    Alex Rodriguez    NYY @TBD Jason Hammel      ahead  1-0  t 3 123   0 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Damon Scores; Jeter Scores; Abreu Scores
    132   2               Jorge Velandia    TBD  NYY Brian Bruney      down   2-5  b 6 123   2 0-1   2   4 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Gomes Scores; Norton Scores; Iwamura Scores

Only Texas and Oakland have hit two in the same game, while the four other multi-slam games featured one by each team.

Just for laughs, I checked all the same stats for 2006:

There were, coincidentally, also 132 slams in 2006 (although it's pretty likely that 2007 will finish at somewhere between 133 and 135) with Travis Hafner and Richie Sexson leading the way with 6 and 5, respectively (boy, did both of those guys fall off the table this year or what?)

There were just three games featuring two slams (a two-slam game by the Mets, a Mets/Cards 1-slam-each game, and a Rockies/Braves 1-slam-each game, featuring a slam by possible 2007 MVP Matt Holliday.)

• Jimmy Rollins hit his 30th homer last night, joining the 30/30 club (the other 30 being stolen bases, in case you've been living under a rock since 1987.) Courtesy of some stats given out during the Phillies' radio broadcast of last night's game, Rollins becomes only the second Phillie ever to have a 30/30 season (Bobby Abreu has done it twice,) and just the 3rd full-time shortstop to do it. That should earn him a few more MVP votes.

• Manny Ramirez returned to the Boston lineup yesterday after missing 24 games with an oblique strain, but he batted 2nd instead of his customary 4th. I assume that Francona was trying to prevent Manny from swinging for the fences and instead just try to make contact, as Manny's oblique is almost certainly not fully healed. Anyway, before last night Manny had just 9 of his career 8331 plate appearances from the 2-hole, and most of those came in his early years with Cleveland. He has batted 4th the most by far, with 5474 PAs hitting cleanup.

• Matt Cain. It's too painful to even go into details of last night's game, but let's just say he was robbed again.

• Prince Fielder homered twice last night to give him 50 on the season, and now he and his Big Daddy are the only father-son combo to each have 50-homer seasons. However, I am very disappointed in both generations of Fielder for airing their family dispute publicly. Cecil has called Prince disrespectful, and now Prince says he's glad to stick it to his father. I understand that people sometimes have differences, but family issues should stay within the family. Public jabs like that only make everyone involved look increasingly immature and irrational.

UPDATE 3: I'm extending the voting until the end of the day on Tuesday for all you Matt Holliday lovers.

UPDATE 2: I'm extending the voting until the end of the day on Monday

UPDATE: please place your votes by noon on Monday (see below for instructions)

I think the National League MVP is one of the more interesting seasonal award races (although I don't like these awards all that much because I think the most deserving candidate rarely wins--which is one big reason why I like that Baseball-Reference.com lists shares of such awards--for example Eddie Murray is 21st career with 3.33 MVP shares despite never winning one.)

Anyway, as near as I can see it, here are the leading candidates for the award, in no particular order:

Chipper Jones
Matt Holiday
Chase Utley
Hanley Ramirez
Miguel Cabrera
David Wright
Prince Fielder
Jimmy Rollins
Adam Dunn
Ryan Howard
Jose Reyes

Certainly many other guys (including Uggla, Pujols, Byrnes, and Brandon Phillips) deserve a vote, but I think these are the only viable candidates to actually win the award.

I'm curious to see who you would vote for to win this award. Please fill out the ballot below (cut-and-paste it into a comment and fill in your votes, which can be any eligible players, not necessarily on the list above.) As with the real voting, you are required to vote for at least the top 3 and can vote for up to the top 10.

I'll tabulate the results and we can compare it to the real voting when the time comes. Try to pick with your baseball brain and not your fan heart.

Ballot:

1st place (14 points):
2nd place (9 points):
3rd place (8 points):
4th place (7 points):
5th place (6 points):
6th place (5 points):
7th place (4 points):
8th place (3 points):
9th place (2 points):
10th place (1 point):

A lot has been written about Matt Cain's unlucky season, but I just thought I'd add a few tidbits.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ryan Howard is poised to become the new all-time leader for strikeouts in a season. At the moment he is tied with Adam Dunn at 195. Here's the full list, and here are the leaders:

  Cnt Player             **SO** Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Ryan Howard         195   2007  27 PHI NL 138 623 508  88 134 26  0 42 125 103  31   5   0   7  13   1  0  .264  .388  .563  .951 *3/D      
    2 Adam Dunn           195   2004  24 CIN NL 161 681 568 105 151 34  0 46 102 108  11   5   0   0   8   6  1  .266  .388  .569  .957 *73/D     
    3 Adam Dunn           194   2006  26 CIN NL 160 683 561  99 131 24  0 40  92 112  12   6   1   3   8   7  0  .234  .365  .490  .855 *7/3D     
    4 Bobby Bonds         189   1970  24 SFG NL 157 745 663 134 200 36 10 26  78  77   7   2   1   2   6  48 10  .302  .375  .504  .879 *98/7     
    5 Jose Hernandez      188   2002  32 MIL NL 152 582 525  72 151 24  2 24  73  52   5   4   0   1  19   3  5  .288  .356  .478  .834 *6        
    6 Preston Wilson      187   2000  25 FLA NL 161 674 605  94 160 35  3 31 121  55   1   8   0   6  11  36 14  .264  .331  .486  .817 *8        
    7 Bobby Bonds         187   1969  23 SFG NL 158 720 622 120 161 25  6 32  90  81   3  10   3   4   9  45  4  .259  .351  .473  .824 *98       
    8 Rob Deer            186   1987  26 MIL AL 134 566 474  71 113 15  2 28  80  86   6   5   0   1   4  12  4  .238  .360  .456  .816 *793/D    
    9 Jose Hernandez      185   2001  31 MIL NL 152 592 542  67 135 26  2 25  78  39   8   2   5   4   9   5  4  .249  .300  .443  .743 *6/87     
   10 Jim Thome           185   2001  30 CLE AL 156 644 526 101 153 26  1 49 124 111  14   4   0   3   9   0  1  .291  .416  .624 1.040 *3/D      
   11 Pete Incaviglia     185   1986  22 TEX AL 153 606 540  82 135 21  2 30  88  55   2   4   0   7   9   3  2  .250  .320  .463  .783 *9D/7     
   12 Jim Thome           182   2003  32 PHI NL 159 698 578 111 154 30  3 47 131 111  11   4   0   5   5   0  3  .266  .385  .573  .958 *3/D      
   13 Cecil Fielder       182   1990  26 DET AL 159 673 573 104 159 25  1 51 132  90  11   5   0   5  15   0  1  .277  .377  .592  .969 *3D       
   14 Ryan Howard         181   2006  26 PHI NL 159 704 581 104 182 25  1 58 149 108  37   9   0   6   7   0  0  .313  .425  .659 1.084 *3        
   15 Mo Vaughn           181   2000  32 ANA AL 161 712 614  93 167 31  0 36 117  79  11  14   0   5  14   2  0  .272  .365  .498  .863 *3D       
   16 Mike Schmidt        180   1975  25 PHI NL 158 674 562  93 140 34  3 38  95 101  10   4   6   1   7  29 12  .249  .367  .523  .890 *56       

One amazing thing is that Howard's played in just 138 games so far, missing 18 games to this point. If he'd played those 18 and struck out at the same rate, he'd have 220 K's already!

As it stands, unless something unusual happens, he's going to finish with over 200. Of course, with 42 HR and 125 RBI, it's manageable. But it's not quite as impressive as getting 200 walks in a season.