Well I just learned something neat. I was going to post this in a comment but it's so interesting that I decided to make a new post.

A few days ago I made this post about Tim Raines, commenting on his recent interview with Baseball Prospectus. I (incorrectly) stated that Raines erred when he said his first MLB at-bat came against Nolan Ryan on July 25th, 1980, when it clearly game against Dick Tidrow on May 28, 1980. I figured this out since May comes before July. But, I was absolutely wrong, and Raines was right.

Baseball author David Laurila pointed out my error and explained what actually happened. It turns out that the game Raines "first" batted in was a suspended game. Raines batted only when the game was resumed later in the season, and this was on a date after he had already faced Nolan Ryan in his first at-bat. Because of baseball rules, all the statistics get recorded as having occurred on the original date of the game. So, in B-R.com's databases (and all other baseball databases), Raines is shown as having batted on May 28, 1980 when in fact he never batted on that date.

So now that means the worst thing I can say about Tim Raines is insisting that his name be shown as "Rock Raines" on several of his baseball cards.

You may recall this same rule coming up earlier this season. After Alex Rodriguez hit his 499th career homer versus Kansas City, stories ran noting how he may have already hit his 500th homer because the Yankees had to complete a suspended game against Baltimore later in the season. Had he homered in the remainder of the completed game, it was have been recorded as a homer earlier in the season, bumping up his total by 1, meaning the homer in KC was actually his 500th.

One more anecdote, and I apologize up front for not remembering where I heard this. Earlier this season when the A-rod 500th homer issue came up, someone pointed out that baseball made an exception to this rule in 1985. Apparently, the statistics from a suspended game aren't recorded until the game is completed (or permanently called.) When Pete Rose was approaching the all-time hit record, he had 1 or 2 hits from a suspended game earlier in the year, and MLB made an exception by counting those in his total during the run-up to passing Ty Cobb, prior to the game being completed. If anybody knows the source or has a link to a recount, please post it. (I couldn't find it in a quick search.)

This is a pretty simple Pitching Game Finder PI search, setting batters faced to 27, innings pitched to 9, and base runners >= 1. This list therefore cannot include any perfect games (since at least one batter reached base) but can include no-hitters where base runners were erased by double plays, caught stealings, or pickoffs.

I'd like to post the full list, and since it's a little long, I'm putting it after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Anderson batted in 10 runs against the Yankees yesterday.

Here are the links to other 10+ RBI games since 1957:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  R  H 2B 3B HR **RBI** BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+-------+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 Mark Whiten       1993-09-07(2) STL @CIN W 15-2   5  5  4  4  0  0  4    12    0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 6th CF        

    2 Alex Rodriguez    2005-04-26    NYY  LAA W 12-4   5  5  3  4  0  0  3    10    0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th 3B
    3 Nomar Garciaparra 1999-05-10    BOS  SEA W 12-4   5  4  3  3  0  0  3    10    1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th SS
    4 Fred Lynn         1975-06-18    BOS @DET W 15-1   6  6  4  5  0  1  3    10    0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th CF
    5 Reggie Jackson    1969-06-14    OAK @BOS W 21-7   7  6  2  5  1  0  2    10    1   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd RF

I'll add a link later to Anderson's game once the site is updated for yesterday's games. (UPDATE: here is the link)

I think that these performances are noteworthy, but not really individual. You need to have a lot of runners on base to bat in 10 runs, and often times you even need a pretty decent hitter behind you to ensure you get so many pitches to hit in one game.

UPDATE: I made a mistake in explaining how the leaders were calculated. I have made the correction below, or just read this summary post for the explanation.

UPDATE: Here are the correct guesses so far:

C: GARY CARTER
1B: EDDIE MURRAY
2B: RYNE SANDBERG / STEVE SAX
3B: WADE BOGGS
SS: JULIO FRANCO
OF: KIRBY PUCKETT
OF: TONY GWYNN
OF: JIM RICE
P: DWIGHT GOODEN / FERNANDO VALENZUELA
DH: HAL McRAE

We got a strong response to the last trivia question that was posted, so I have cooked up another one for you:

Which players lead their respective defensive positions (including pitcher and DH) with the most hits in the first 10 years of their career, over the years 1975 to 1995?

A few points of explanation:

• It is the first ten years of each individual player's career, as long as they fall between 1975 and 1995. Any years that fall outside of that range are not considered. (So if a player started in 1973, then his hits from 1973 and 1974 are not counted, but 1975 and on are counted. Note also that year 1973 and 1974 don't even count as part of his career, so if he played 10 more years from 1975 on, all 10 are counted. If a player started his career prior to 1975, those count against his years for this study. So for example a player beginning his career in 1973 can be considered for this study for only 8 seasons, from 1975 to 1982. Also, years 1996 and on are not counted.)
• The hits are total for the player, regardless of what position they were playing at the time of the hit. Each player gets categorized by whichever position they played the most in the years 1975-1995.

So, the idea here is that the leaders are mainly the leaders from the 1980s, but by expanding the year brackets I am not penalizing players who didn't happen to have a career centered exactly on the 1980s. Many of the results are VERY surprising.

Please feel free to guess one player for each position, and up to three players in the outfield. (Or just make one or two guesses if you don't want to guess all positions.) I'm not sure that all the specific outfield defense data (LF vs CF vs RF) is available, so I'm going to group all outfielders together. I ask that you not use the PI to cheat, unless you wish to do that and keep the results to yourself.

Post a comment with your guesses! I'll post periodic updates with those that have been guessed correctly, and sometime afterwards, I'll make a new post with leaderboards for each position.

Through some research for WasWatching.com, I came across a game from 1976 where the Yankees Catfish Hunter and the Angels Frank Tanana started against each other – and they both went 13 innings in the contest.  This got me curious as to how many other games were played since 1957 where both starting pitchers went 13+ innings in the game.  Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Gamelog Finder, it’s easy to find all games since 1957 where a starter went 13+ innings.  Then, cutting and pasting the results into Excel allows us to see that there have been just nine games since 1957 where both starters threw 13+ innings in the contest:

May 21, 1957 - Ray Moore vs. Jim Bunning 
June 5, 1958 - Ralph Terry vs. Camilo Pascual 
July 2, 1963 - Juan Marichal vs. Warren Spahn 
June 6, 1964 - Jim Bouton vs. Dean Chance 
October 2, 1965 - Chris Short vs. Rob Gardner 
September 24, 1971 - Ken Forsch vs. Clay Kirby 
May 26, 1973 - Stan Bahnsen vs. Gaylord Perry 
June 14, 1974 - Luis Tiant vs. Nolan Ryan 
August 27, 1976 - Frank Tanana vs. Catfish Hunter 

Pretty cool list, huh?  There are some brand-name hurlers among these 18 pitchers. 

That October 2, 1965 game was something – It was the next to the last day of the season, second game of a double-header, both starters went 15 innings, the game went 18 innings, and was called a tie, 0-0, after eighteen.  You don’t see that everyday.

Mark your calenders for August 27, 2007.  That date will be the 31st anniversary of the game between Hunter and Tanana – which is the last time that two starting pitchers went 13+ innings in the same game.  Based on the way that baseball is played today, I suspect that contest may be the very last time ever where two starting pitchers went 13+ innings pitched in the same game.

This post is basically about Jorge Posada, but includes some other thoughts about catching.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joba-mania is huge now in Yankeeland, as a result of Joba Chamberlain's first five games with the Yankees:

 CarGm TmG Date       Opp DR GmReslt Pitcher Result  IP   H  R ER BB SO HR   ERA  BF Pit Str GmSc IR IS Situat. In/Out Inn Rnr O Scr  SB CS Pk AB 2B 3B IW HB SH SF RE DP

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

     1 113 Aug  7    @TOR  - W  9-2   8-9f           2    1  0  0  2  2  0   0.00  8  33  19       0  0  8b --- 0 a 7   9b end   a 7   0  0  0  6  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  1 

     2 115 Aug 10    @CLE  2 W  6-1   7-8  ,H  1     2    0  0  0  0  4  0   0.00  6  21  14       0  0  7b --- 0 a 3   8b 3 out a 5   0  0  0  6  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 

     3 118 Aug 13     BAL  2 W  7-6   8-8  ,H  2     1    0  0  0  0  2  0   0.00  3  14   9       0  0  8t --- 0 a 1   8t 3 out a 1   0  0  0  3  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 

     4 122 Aug 17     DET  3 W  6-1   9-9f           1    1  0  0  0  1  0   0.00  4  10   7       0  0  9t --- 0 a 5   9t end   a 5   0  0  0  4  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 

     5 124 Aug 19     DET  1 W  9-3   7-7  ,H  3     1    0  0  0  0  2  0   0.00  3   9   8       0  0  7t --- 0 a 1   7t 3 out a 1   0  0  0  3  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0

Looking at Chamberlain's stats, I was curious as to what other relief pitchers started their career with the same results as him. So,  I went to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Streak Finder and asked it to find the "Longest Streak with IPouts<=2, SO>=1 From 1957 to 2007, as Reliever, To start career."  The results of the query pointed me towards the start of Todd Wellemeyer.  Check out the stats for Wellemeyer's first five games in the big leagues:

CarGm TmG Date       Opp DR GmReslt Pitcher Result  IP   H  R ER BB SO HR   ERA  BF Pit Str GmSc IR IS Situat. In/Out Inn Rnr O Scr  SB CS Pk AB 2B 3B IW HB SH SF RE DP 

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

     1  40 May 15    @MIL  - W  4-2  17-17f,S  1     1    0  0  0  0  3  0   0.00  3  18  14       0  0 17b --- 0 a 2  17b end   a 2   0  0  0  3  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 

     2  41 May 16    @STL  0 L  4-7   7-8f           2    0  0  0  0  1  0   0.00  6  26  16       0  0  7b --- 0 d 3   8b end   d 3   0  0  0  6  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 

     3  45 May 21    @PIT  4 L  2-5   6-7            1.2  1  0  0  0  2  0   0.00  5  19  12       2  1  6b 12- 1 d 4   7b 3 out d 5   0  0  0  5  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 

     4  50 May 26     PIT  4 L  0-10  9-9f           1    1  0  0  0  3  0   0.00  4  18  13       0  0  9t --- 0 d10   9t end   d10   0  0  0  4  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 

     5  54 May 31     HOU  4 W  1-0  15-16f,W  1-0   2    0  0  0  0  4  0   0.00  6  31  19       0  0 15t --- 0 tie  16t end   tie   0  0  0  6  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0

The totals look close, no?   Here's the tale of the tape for their first 5 big league games:

Wellemeyer: 7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K's
Chamberlain:  7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 11 K's

I guess a hot start is not always a lock for future stardom, huh?  Todd Wellemeyer is still out there, today, chucking - on a rehab stint, actually - but, it's not like he's crafting a Cooperstown resume in the process.  As a Yankees fan, I hope things work out better for Joba.  I think the catch here is the number of pitches thrown each time out.  Chamberlain seems to have the edge there - which indicate that control is better, or, at least it's been better in this five game start comparison.

Following up on my post about the most hitters used in a game, here's a list of the most pitchers used by one team:

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  IP   H  R ER BB SO HR Pit Str IR IS  BF  AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk **Ptchrs**   ERA
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+----------+------+
    1 1992-09-25    SEA  TEX W  4-3  16   16  3  3  8 18  0 265 168 10  0  71  61  3  0   3   0  2  0   0  2  1  1       11     1.69 

    2 2006-09-30    COL  CHC W 11-9  14   15  9  9  5 11  0 237 156  7  4  63  57  1  1   0   0  0  1   0  2  0  1       10     5.79 
    3 2006-09-30    CHC  COL L  9-11 14   11 11 11 10 14  4 286 167  0  0  64  50  3  2   1   0  3  1   0  0  0  0       10     7.07 
    4 2006-09-16    ARI  COL W  7-6  16   10  6  5  5 12  1 250 165  0  0  63  56  2  1   0   0  1  1   1  1  0  1       10     2.81 
    5 2006-08-15    CHC  HOU W  8-6  18   16  6  6  6 12  0 294 181  4  2  75  66  4  1   2   2  1  0   0  1  1  1       10     3.00 
    6 2004-09-12    BAL  NYY L  7-9   9   11  9  9 14  5  2 220 110  8  0  53  38  1  0   1   0  0  1   0  1  0  2       10     9.00 
    7 2004-09-11    PHI  NYM W 11-9  13   15  9  7  7 10  0 233 145  3  1  60  51  2  0   0   0  0  2   3  0  0  1       10     4.85 
    8 2003-09-27    ATL  PHI L  6-7   9.1 14  7  7  3  7  2 145  90  2  1  43  40  4  0   0   0  0  0   2  3  0  1       10     6.75 
    9 2000-08-22    COL  ATL W  7-6  12   14  6  6  7  4  2 201 112  5  1  57  47  1  0   1   1  1  1   1  3  0  1       10     4.50 
   10 1998-09-14    DET  CHW L 16-17 12   19 17 13 11  8  3 276 160  9  4  68  54  3  0   2   1  1  1   1  3  0  0       10     9.75 
   11 1995-09-28    HOU  CHC L 11-12 10.1 19 12 12  5  8  2 238 143  5  2  54  44  3  1   0   0  2  3   0  1  1  1       10    10.45 
   12 1993-09-01    TEX  BOS W  9-7  12   15  7  6  6 12  1 214 130 14  3  59  48  3  0   1   2  1  2   1  1  0  0       10     4.50 
   13 1986-04-20    CHC  PIT L  8-10 17   16 10  9  7 14  2          4  2  71  63  2  0   2   0  0  1   0  0  2  0       10     4.76 

I'm quite impressed that the 11 pitchers used by the Mariners only gave up three runs in 16 innings.

The only nine inning game to make the list was thrown by Baltimore in 2004 (line six).

The award for least efficient use of ten pitchers goes to the Braves (line eight), whose pitchers averaged only 14.5 pitches.  Mike Hampton started and went two innings.  Five pitchers recorded holds.  John Smoltz blew the save, Ray King put the winning run on base, and Trey Hodges let it score.  Shane Reynolds was the most productive pitcher, allowing no runs in two innings (the third and fourth).

There is an absolutely fantastic interview with Tim Raines over here at Baseball Prospectus (shout out to the guys over at The Book for pointing it out.) I'll let you read the interview on your own, but I'll use the PI to point out a few of the things that Raines mentions. Read the rest of this entry »

With September only two weeks away, I was interested to see how many hitters from a 40-man dugout managed to play in the same game. Since NL box scores include pitchers in the lineup, I limited my search to AL games since 1973.

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS LOB **Batrs**
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 1973-09-24    OAK  MIN L  6-7   41  34  6 10  3  0  1   6  5   1  4   1  0  1   0   1  1  0   8      23   

    2 1975-09-20    OAK @KCR W 16-4   53  46 16 18  3  0  3  15  6   1  6   0  1  0   4   1  2  1  10      22   

    3 1991-09-14    KCR  SEA L  3-4   46  40  3  8  2  0  0   3  5   0  4   0  1  0   1   1  0  0  10      21   
    4 1975-09-24    OAK  CHW W 13-2   43  38 13 13  1  1  2  12  5   0  4   0  0  0   1   0  0  0   6      21   

    5 1995-07-29    KCR  DET W  5-4   68  63  5 22  0  0  1   4  3   1  2   1  1  0   1   2  4  1  17      20   
    6 1992-09-25    TEX  SEA L  3-4   71  61  3 16  3  0  0   3  8   3 18   0  2  0   0   0  2  1  20      20   
    7 1991-09-13    KCR  SEA W  3-2   55  40  3  9  2  0  0   3 12   2 11   1  2  0   0   1  1  0  17      20   
    8 1989-09-09    CLE  TOR L  5-7   62  57  5 11  2  0  3   5  4   1 14   1  0  0   0   0  1  1   9      20   
    9 1988-09-15    MIN  CHW W 10-3   41  33 10  8  2  0  1   9  7   0  9   1  0  0   2   1  0  0   7      20   
   10 1981-10-01    DET  BAL L  4-5   46  43  4 13  0  0  1   4  3   0 10   0  0  0   0   0  2  0  12      20   
   11 1975-09-27    OAK  CAL W  6-3   36  33  6 12  2  0  3   5  3   0  4   0  0  0   0   2  2  1   6      20   
   12 1974-06-05    OAK @DET W  9-1   44  34  9  9  3  0  2   9 10   1  3   0  0  0   0   1  2  0   8      20   
   13 1973-09-22    KCR  TEX W  5-3   60  49  5 11  0  0  2   4  9   1  7   1  1  0   0   2  1  0  14      20   
   14 1973-09-17    OAK  CAL W  3-2   56  39  3 10  1  0  0   3 11   5  8   0  4  2   1   1  0  1  15      20   

Limiting the search to the past ten years yields the following list, for which the top game was played with the usual 25-man roster:

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS LOB **Batrs**
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 2000-06-28    BOS  BAL L  7-8   52  42  7 11  2  0  0   6  8   1  8   0  2  0   1   0  0  1  12      19  
    2 1999-10-03    BOS @BAL W  1-0   38  34  1  5  0  0  0   1  3   0 13   1  0  0   0   0  1  0   7      19  
    3 1997-09-24    MIL  KCR W  4-3   60  51  4 12  0  0  2   4  9   1  9   0  0  0   0   3  0  1  12      19   

    4 2006-09-09    BOS  KCR L  4-10  50  41  4  9  2  0  1   4  7   2  5   0  1  1   0   1  0  0  10      18  
    5 2004-10-03    BOS @BAL L  2-3   35  34  2  7  1  0  0   2  1   0  4   0  0  0   1   1  0  0   6      18  
    6 2004-09-11    ANA  CHW L  6-13  37  35  6 10  0  0  1   6  2   0  2   0  0  0   0   0  1  0   4      18  
    7 2002-09-29    OAK @TEX W  8-7   43  35  8  9  1  0  1   8  7   0  8   1  0  0   0   1  1  0   8      18  
    8 2002-09-29    MIN  CHW W  3-1   34  32  3  9  3  0  1   3  2   0  4   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   7      18  
    9 2000-10-01    DET  MIN W 12-11  46  38 12 19  3  0  1  12  5   0  5   0  3  0   1   2  0  1  10      18  
   10 2000-09-30    OAK  TEX W 23-2   58  48 23 24  5  0  4  23 10   0 10   0  0  0   0   0  0  0  11      18  
   11 2000-09-15    BOS @DET W  7-6   44  37  7 12  1  0  0   7  7   0  5   0  0  0   0   0  1  0  10      18  
   12 1999-09-22    BOS  TOR L  9-14  42  37  9 10  4  0  1   9  4   0  4   1  0  0   1   1  0  0   6      18  
   13 1998-09-25    TEX @SEA L  4-15  36  32  4  8  1  0  2   4  4   0  7   0  0  0   1   4  1  0   5      18  

Finally, here's a list of teams, both AL and NL, that used the most total hitters, including pitchers.

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS LOB **Batrs**
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 1972-09-19    OAK  CHW L  7-8   68  60  7 17  3  0  1   7  7   3 14   0  1  0   1   0  1  2  16      30   

    2 1982-09-13    LAD  SDP W  4-3   68  59  4 15  0  0  1   4  4   1  9   1  3  1   1   0  1  0  17      28   

    3 1991-09-16    LAD  CIN W  6-5   54  40  6 11  3  1  0   6  9   2  5   0  3  2   1   0  1  0  14      27   
    4 1986-09-28    LAD @SFG L  5-6   69  58  5  8  3  0  1   5  7   3  9   2  1  1   4   0  4  0  16      27   
    5 1986-09-02    CHC  HOU L  7-8   75  63  7 12  2  0  3   7  9   4 12   1  1  1   1   0  3  1  14      27   
    6 1978-09-21    CHC  PIT L  2-3   58  54  2 16  2  0  0   1  3   2  7   0  1  0   0   2  1  1  14      27   
    7 1974-09-13    PHI  STL L  3-7   69  60  3 10  2  1  0   3  7   2  6   0  2  0   4   1  2  1  15      27   
    8 1970-09-29    MIN  KCR L 13-14  62  54 13 20  2  0  0  12  7   0 10   1  0  0   2   4  1  0  13      27   
    9 1969-09-10    KCR @CAL L  4-11  42  34  4  8  3  0  0   4  7   0  8   1  0  0   0   1  0  0  11      27