Happy Labor Day to everybody. Here are some notes on pitchers who have labored the most so far this season (through Saturday): Read the rest of this entry »

Jerry Crasnick, for my money one of the best baseball journalists around, wrote an interesting piece on ESPN.com about players with the most seasons having at least 30 HR and no more than 70 strikeouts. I used the PI to reproduce his list (a simple batting season finder sorted by players with most seasons):

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Hank Aaron        1957 1973 23-39      10 Ind. Seasons                   
 Lou Gehrig        1929 1937 26-34       9 Ind. Seasons                   
 Ted Williams      1939 1957 20-38       8 Ind. Seasons                   
 Mel Ott           1929 1942 20-33       8 Ind. Seasons                   
 Joe DiMaggio      1937 1950 22-35       7 Ind. Seasons                   
 Albert Pujols     2002 2007 22-27       6 Ind. Seasons                   
 Barry Bonds       1992 2004 27-39       6 Ind. Seasons                   
 Stan Musial       1948 1955 27-34       6 Ind. Seasons                   
 Gary Sheffield    1992 2003 23-34       5 Ind. Seasons                   
 Willie Mays       1954 1959 23-28       5 Ind. Seasons                   
 Vladimir Guerrero 1999 2006 23-30       4 Ind. Seasons                   
 Frank Thomas      1993 1997 25-29       4 Ind. Seasons                   
 Frank Robinson    1960 1969 24-33       4 Ind. Seasons                   
 Ted Kluszewski    1953 1956 28-31       4 Ind. Seasons                   
 Roy Campanella    1950 1955 28-33       4 Ind. Seasons                   
 Babe Ruth         1929 1932 34-37       4 Ind. Seasons                   
 Chuck Klein       1929 1932 24-27       4 Ind. Seasons                   
 Aramis Ramirez    2004 2006 26-28       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Magglio Ordonez   1999 2001 25-27       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Don Mattingly     1985 1987 24-26       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Billy Williams    1968 1972 30-34       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Hank Sauer        1949 1954 32-37       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Ralph Kiner       1948 1951 25-28       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Johnny Mize       1940 1948 27-35       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Hal Trosky        1934 1937 21-24       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Earl Averill      1931 1934 29-32       3 Ind. Seasons                   
 Rogers Hornsby    1922 1929 26-33       3 Ind. Seasons                  

This is his list, extended out for players with at least 3 such seasons. It's amazing to me that the only players on here who played from the 1980s in are Pujols, Bonds, Sheffield, Guerrero, Thomas, Ramirez, Ordonez, and Mattingly. I would have thought that with so many more players hitting 30 HR these days, there would be more opportunities for some players to make it under the 70-K barrier.

After all, here are the total number of player seasons with 30+ HR by decade:

2000-2007: 241
1990-1999: 235
1980-1989: 117
1970-1979:  100
1960-1969: 118
1950-1959: 95
1940-1949: 38
1930-1939: 62
1920-1929:29 (9 by Babe Ruth alone, he missed only in 1925 when he played just 98 games)

As we know, Babe Ruth set the new season record of HR at 29 in 1919, so clearly no players hit 30 prior to 1920.

Isn't it amazing how 2000-2007 already has the most 30+ HR seasons, even with 2 full seasons to go? Not to mention the 35 players who at the moment have 22 to 29 HR and could hit 30 in 2007?

This data just serves to bring home Crasnick's point stronger. As 30 HR seasons have gotten more common, so have strikeouts, making Pujol's feat more impressive, not less impressive.

asdas

Reasonably quietly, Jimmy Rollins has put together a very good first 7 years of his career. His offensive game is more akin to shortstops of yore, as opposed to the power production of more recent SS's such as Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada, and Alex Rodriguez.

I did a Play Index Batting Season Finder search for seasons by shortstops (minimum 80% of games played there) with at least 30 stolen bases, 80 runs scored, and 50 extra base hits. Here are all players with at least two such seasons:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Honus Wagner      1903 1912 29-38       7 Ind. Seasons
 Jimmy Rollins     2001 2006 22-27       6 Ind. Seasons
 Derek Jeter       1998 2006 24-32       5 Ind. Seasons
 Barry Larkin      1991 1998 27-34       4 Ind. Seasons
 Rafael Furcal     2003 2006 25-28       3 Ind. Seasons
 Alex Rodriguez    1997 1999 21-23       3 Ind. Seasons
 Orlando Cabrera   2003 2006 28-31       2 Ind. Seasons
 Cristian Guzman   2000 2001 22-23       2 Ind. Seasons
 Alan Trammell     1986 1987 28-29       2 Ind. Seasons

An additional 15 players have done it once. Rollins is right up there, behind only the great Honus Wagner. Rollins and Wagner alike have gotten their extra base hits with a nice mix of doubles, triples, and homers.

This season (2007), Rollins already has 117 runs scored (#1 in the NL) and 73 XBHs (tied for #1 in the majors with Prince Fielder, Matt Holliday, and Curtis Granderson.) He needs just 3 more stolen bases to achieve a 7th such season above, tying Honus Wagner.

His extra base hits this season are quite a mix: 34 doubles, 15 triples, and 24 homers.

In fact, Rollins already has the record for most seasons by a shortstop with double digits for 2B, 3B, and HR:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Jimmy Rollins     2001 2007 22-28       5 Ind. Seasons
 Robin Yount       1980 1983 24-27       3 Ind. Seasons
 Zoilo Versalles   1963 1965 23-25       3 Ind. Seasons
 Rafael Furcal     2003 2005 25-27       2 Ind. Seasons
 Neifi Perez       1999 2000 26-27       2 Ind. Seasons
 Nomar Garciaparra 1997 2003 23-29       2 Ind. Seasons
 Arky Vaughan      1934 1935 22-23       2 Ind. Seasons
 Glenn Wright      1925 1930 24-29       2 Ind. Seasons

An addition 14 players have done it once, but among the notables who have never done it are Jeter, A-Rod, Tejada, and Trammell.

Have you seen Pat Burrell's batting splits for pre-All-star and post-All-star this season?

Very interesting:

 I Split         G   GS  PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF ROE GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  BAbip sOPS+ tOPS+ Split
+-+------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------------+
   1st Half      81  69 291 228  32  49 11  0 11  37  58   1  58   3   0   2   2   7   0  0  .215  .378  .408  .786  .236   112    73 1st Half
   2nd Half      44  44 181 145  25  51 11  0 11  37  31   0  35   1   0   4   0   1   0  0  .352  .459  .655 1.114  .388   188   142 2nd Half

He has had an OPS more than 300 points higher, and has the same number of HRs and RBIs in each half (in many fewer PAs in the second half.) If the Phillies make the playoffs, it will be in part thanks to Burrell, as well as Ryan Howard's resurgence and Chase Utley's return from injury (not that Tadahito Iguchi did poorly in Utley's absence--quite the opposite.)

And by the way, Burrell's second half stats don't include his 2 HR and 3 RBI from yesterday. Burrell must have loved his key homer off Billy Wagner yesterday given their nasty history.

By the way, Burrell is not one of those players who always hits better in the second half. Prior to this season, his first-half and second-half numbers over his career were very similar. He's had a couple of years where he hit significantly better in the first half.

Having some fun with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Post-Season Batting Event Finder...looking at Sacrifice Bunts in Postseason.

Did you know that there have been 1,179 Sac-Bunts in the Post-Season?  Three players are tied for the most, with eight each: Derek Jeter, Scott Brosius, and Rafael Belliard.  Betcha Jeter owns this record someday.

Here's a fun slice - there have only been ten times in World Series history where a pinch-hitter laid down a Sac-Bunt.  Here's the list:

  Car#  G# Date          Series G Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       soP eoI BO Df Result Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.+-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+--+--+------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+ 

     1   1 1969-10-15    WS     4 J.C. Martin       NYM  BAL Pete Richert      tied   1-1    0     9  11 RoE    b10 12-   0   -       0 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (throw to 1B)/Sacrifice Bunt; Gaspar Scores/unER/No RBI; Weis to 2B; Martin to 1B  

     2   1 1970-10-11    WS     2 Angel Bravo       CIN  BAL Moe Drabowsky     down   5-6   -1     9  11 Out    b 7 1--   0   -       0 Bunt Groundout: 1B-2B/Sacrifice; Cline to 2B  

     3   1 1971-10-17    WS     7 Tom Shopay        BAL  PIT Steve Blass       down   0-2   -2     9  11 Out    b 8 12-   0   -       0 Bunt Groundout: P-2B/Sacrifice; Hendricks to 3B; Belanger to 2B  

     4   1 1972-10-19    WS     4 Julian Javier     CIN @OAK Ken Holtzman      down   0-1   -1     9  11 Out    t 8 1--   0   -       0 Bunt Groundout: 3B-1B/Sacrifice; Concepcion to 2B  

     5   1 1975-10-15    WS     4 Ed Armbrister     CIN  BOS Luis Tiant        down   4-5   -1     9  11 Out    b 9 1--   0 0-1   2   0 Bunt Groundout: P-2B/Sacrifice; Geronimo to 2B  

     6   1 1980-10-17    WS     3 Greg Gross        PHI @KCR Dan Quisenberry   tied   3-3    0     1  11 Out    t10 1--   0 1-0   2   0 Bunt Groundout: 1B unassisted/Sacrifice; Boone to 2B  

     7   1 1981-10-21    WS     2 Bobby Murcer      NYY  LAD Terry Forster     ahead  1-0    1     9  11 Out    b 7 12-   0 0-0   1   0 Bunt Groundout: P-1B/Sacrifice; Cerone to 3B; Randolph to 2B  

     8   1 1987-10-20    WS     3 Terry Pendleton   STL  MIN Juan Berenguer    down   0-1   -1     9  11 Out    b 7 12-   0 2-0   3   0 Bunt Groundout: 3B-1B/Sacrifice; Oquendo to 3B; Pena to 2B  

     9   1 1991-10-22    WS     3 Jeff Treadway     ATL  MIN Carl Willis       tied   4-4    0     9  11 Out    b 9 1--   0 0-0   1   0 Bunt Groundout: 1B-2B/Sacrifice (Weak 1B); Belliard to 2B  

    10   1 2006-10-26    WS     4 So Taguchi        STL  DET Fernando Rodney   down   2-3   -1     2  11 RoE    b 7 -2-   0 0-0   1   0 Reached on E1/Sacrifice Bunt; Eckstein Scores/No RBI/unER; Taguchi to 2B

There's a trivia question for you:  Who is the only batter in baseball history to have a pinch-hit Sac-Bunt in a World Series game when his team was leading the game at the time of the pinch At-Bat?  The answer:  Bobby Murcer in 1981.

Here's another fun list -  Sacrifice Bunts in Post-Season, made during innings 7 or later, when the score was tied, by a Designated Hitter:

  Car#  G# Date          Series G Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       soP eoI BO Df Result Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.  

+-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+--+--+------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+  

     1   1 1980-10-19    WS     5 Keith Moreland    PHI @KCR Dan Quisenberry   tied   3-3    0     5  10 Out    t 9 -2-   0 0-0   1   0 Bunt Groundout: 1B unassisted/Sacrifice; Unser to 3B  

     2   1 1981-10-07    ALDS   2 Cliff Johnson     OAK @KCR Mike Jones        tied   1-1    0     3  10 Out    t 8 1--   0   -       0 Bunt Groundout: 3B-1B/Sacrifice; Murphy to 2B  

     3   1 1984-10-03    ALCS   2 Johnny Grubb      DET @KCR Dan Quisenberry   tied   3-3    0     7  10 Out    t 9 1--   0 0-0   1   0 Bunt Groundout: P unassisted/Sacrifice; Jones to 2B  

     4   1 1985-10-11    ALCS   3 Hal McRae         KCR  TOR Jim Clancy        tied   5-5    0     4  10 Out    b 8 1--   0 0-0   1   0 Bunt Groundout: P-2B/Sacrifice; Brett to 2B  

     5   1 1990-10-06    ALCS   1 Harold Baines     OAK @BOS Tom Bolton        tied   1-1    0     4  10 Out    t 8 1--   0 0-0   1   0 Bunt Groundout: 3B-2B/Sacrifice (Short 3B Line); Canseco to 2B  

     6   1 1991-10-20    WS     2 Lonnie Smith      ATL @MIN Kevin Tapani      tied   2-2    0     1  10 Out    t 8 1--   0 0-0   1   0 Bunt Groundout: 1B-2B/Sacrifice (Weak 1B); Belliard to 2B  

     7   1 1992-10-20    WS     3 Dave Winfield     TOR  ATL Mark Wohlers      tied   2-2    0     4  10 Out    b 9 12-   0 0-0   1   0 Bunt Groundout: 1B-2B/Sacrifice (Weak 2B-1B); Alomar to 3B; Carter to 2B

Wow.  We saw that happen 3 years in a row, from 1990 to 1992 - and not again since that time.  Then again, it does take a lot for a big bat guy to square around in a big spot in a big game.  Give credit to these seven guys for doing what had to be done and checking their ego at the door.

8 Home Runs in Postseason, Deciding Game and as last play of game - Baseball-Reference PI

The Play Index is now fully integrated with postseason data.  Within the event finder you can find all of the various events in the postseason for every team or by individual team.   You can also select by type of series and game in the series (including the last game of the series).

The game finders and streak finders also now include postseason data and allow you search by series type and game as well.

I have seen a lot of stats mentioned in different places about various records of Red Sox pitchers vs the Yankees, and the reverse. (Many over at Peter Abraham's LoHud Yankees Blog.)

Let's take a look. First, Red Sox starters this year against the Yankees:

  Pitcher         G  GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP    ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB IBB  SO HBP
+--------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
  Schilling        3  3  0  0  1  0  0   0  18     7.00  29  15  14  6   2   0  10   0 
  Matsuzaka        3  3  0  2  1  0  0   0  19.1   6.98  19  15  15  3   8   0  16   3 
  Beckett          3  3  0  1  1  0  0   0  19.2   5.49  30  13  12  1   6   0  18   0
  Wakefield        3  3  0  0  3  0  0   0  14    10.93  19  17  17  4  17   0   7   1
  Tavarez          2  2  0  2  0  0  0   0  10.2   4.22   6   5   5  1   6   0   4   0 

There you have it, folks. Julian Tavarez, your Yankee-killer. (Joking aside, I think Tavarez has done a great job for Boston this year. He's got fantastic stats as a #5 starter and has helped keep their bullpen fresh.)

Now, as turnabout is fair play, the Yankee starters' performance against Boston this year:

  Pitcher         G  GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP    ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB IBB  SO HBP
+--------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
  Pettitte*        6  5  0  2  1  0  0   0  30.1   4.75  36  16  16  4  12   0  19   1 
  Wang             3  3  0  2  1  0  0   0  18     4.50  23   9   9  2   8   0   7   2 
  Mussina          2  2  0  0  1  0  0   0  11.2   9.26  19  12  12  4   5   1   3   0 
  Clemens          1  1  0  1  0  0  0   0   6     1.50   2   1   1  1   5   0   2   1 
  Karstens         2  2  0  0  1  0  0   0   4.1  14.54  11   7   7  1   2   0   1   0 
  C. Wright        1  1  0  0  0  0  0   0   3    12.00   5   4   4  4   3   0   3   0 

*Numbers include 1 scoreless inning in relief on 4/22/07

I guess the Yankees' numbers are somewhat better, especially that the three truly unimpressive performances above are by guys not currently in the rotation.

Here are the total lines for pitching by each staff (not just starters) against the other team:

Pitching Team      G   W   L   S   CG SHO   IP     ERA    H    R   ER   HR  BB  IBB  SO  HBP
+-+------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+------+------+----+----+----+---+----+---+----+---+
Yankees (vs BOS)   14   7   7   4   0   0  122     5.61  145   79   76  21   68   5   75   7
Boston  (vs NYY)   14   7   7   4   0   0  121     5.43  135   75   73  18   59   0   86   7  

Pretty similar, although the edge goes to Boston.Their bullpen has been a lot better than the Yankees' in their head-to-head matchups.

Now, those 7 HBP by each team are a bit ominous...

Last night, Santana lost his fourth game against Cleveland this year.

If you go to his splits page, you can see his data against Cleveland this season:

G:    5
IP:  33
ER:  15
ERA:  4.09
H:   30
BB:   6
K:   40
W:    0
L:    4

Those numbers don't look so bad (especially the K/BB) until you look at the rest of his numbers in 2007 against all other teams:

G:   23
IP: 155
ER:  49
ERA:  2.85
H:  126
BB:  35
K:  160
W:   14
L:    6

It's sort of crazy that he has a WHIP of 1.09 vs. Cleveland but still comes out with a 4.09 ERA. There must have been a few timely hits in there.

Harold Baines, Yankee-Killer. I heard that one all the time growing up. Did Baines actually dominate the Yankees, though? I used his PI splits page to get the following data. tOPS+ is Baines' split OPS compared to his overall OPS.

Split    G     GS     PA     AB      R     H    2B   3B    HR    RBI    BB   IBB     SO       BA      OBP      SLG      OPS    BAbip   tOPS+ Split
OAK    214    208    905    781    105   236    49    5    24    132   107    16    114    0.302    0.385    0.470    0.855    0.325    109    OAK
MIN    213    189    809    716    112   209    41    4    32    127    78    13    101    0.292    0.356    0.494    0.850    0.297    106    MIN
TOR    221    202    848    773     89   230    29    4    38    131    71     9    106    0.298    0.356    0.493    0.849    0.304    106    TOR
TEX    209    195    825    734    110   213    27    4    33    117    85    13    119    0.290    0.363    0.473    0.836    0.307    104    TEX
SEA    213    193    832    737    100   213    39    5    29    132    82    20    113    0.289    0.355    0.474    0.829    0.303    102    SEA
MIL    183    175    744    678     84   204    33    3    26    108    54     4     93    0.301    0.349    0.473    0.822    0.313    100    MIL
NYY    213    182    802    713     92   203    30    5    29    124    82    19    117    0.285    0.357    0.463    0.820    0.304    100    NYY
KCR    203    193    824    748     91   220    42    2    27    101    71    19    114    0.294    0.353    0.464    0.817    0.315     99    KCR
CLE    202    192    825    740    100   213    36    4    28    117    75    14     99    0.288    0.350    0.461    0.811    0.297     98    CLE
DET    213    199    854    753     95   210    27    4    30    148    91    20    112    0.279    0.352    0.445    0.797    0.290     95    DET
BAL    168    161    681    619     86   178    35    2    22     98    54    13     81    0.288    0.342    0.457    0.799    0.299     94    BAL
ANA    215    189    829    757     87   217    43    5    24    115    64    10    108    0.287    0.341    0.452    0.793    0.306     93    ANA
BOS    210    191    823    731     93   207    33    1    24    105    86    15    104    0.283    0.357    0.430    0.787    0.301     93    BOS
CHW     85     71    309    269     42    65    14    1    12     44    40     2     42    0.242    0.340    0.435    0.775    0.247     89    CHW
TBD     27     17     80     71      6    18     4    0     2     15     9     0      9    0.254    0.338    0.394    0.732    0.267     80    TBD
Tot   2830   2579  11092   9908   1299  2866   488   49   384   1628  1062   187   1441    0.289    0.356    0.465    0.821    0.303    100    Tot

As you can see, Harold Baines' OPS against the Yankees was right on par with his performance against all other teams. But those A's, boy did he take it out on those A's.

As for teams Baines struggled against, Tampa Bay and Chicago lead the way. That makes sense because he would have played against both those teams later in his career, as he was slowing down.

Reader denniscookfanclub posed the question of how many times a team has scored at least 10 runs while at least half were unearned. I've done a search for almost this: a pitching game finder where at least 10 runs were allowed, but no more than 5 were earned. (This is actually slightly more restrictive than denniscookfanclub's idea.)

I was shocked to see how many such games there have been. The full list is shared here. There have been a whopping 352 such games since 1957! Here is a sample:

Read the rest of this entry »