1957 BOS Team Splits: 2 outs Sorted by RBI - Baseball-Reference PI

I've now added the red split text to the team splits, so you can see all of the players who accumulated that split for the team. I've just implemented this, so there may be unforeseen kinks to work out, but so far it looks to me like it is working ok.

To get these reports, go to the team split page, and click on the red text.pi

When former major leaguer Clem Labine passed away earlier this year, I noticed on his main B-R.com page that with the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, he had 3 hits that all went for homers. He still managed just a .387 SLG since he had 28 other at-bats with no hits.

At that time (March 2007), the PI was in its infancy and I asked Sean how many times a player had all of his hits in a season go for homers. It's a pretty easy search actually:

  Cnt Player            Year  H  HR Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R  2B 3B RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+--+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Jorge Sosa        2006   3  3  29 TOT NL  46  32  24   4  0  0   3   2   0  11   0   6   0   0   0  0  .125  .192  .500  .692 *1
    2 Keith McDonald    2000   3  3  27 STL NL   6   9   7   3  0  0   5   2   0   1   0   0   0   0   0  0  .429  .556 1.714 2.270 /*2
    3 Clem Labine       1955   3  3  28 BRO NL  60  37  31   4  0  0   5   3   0  18   0   3   0   0   0  0  .097  .176  .387  .563 *1
    4 Ed Sanicki        1949   3  3  25 PHI NL   7  15  13   4  0  0   7   1   0   4   0   1   0   0   0  0  .231  .286  .923 1.209 /*98

    1 Robert Person     2002   2  2  32 PHI NL  17  29  24   3  0  0   7   2   0  17   0   3   0   0   0  0  .083  .154  .333  .487 *1

This is just for players with at least 2 HR. One hit for one homer in a season has been done 125 times, and there are four players (Hong-Chih Kuo, Terry Evans, Jeff Bailey, and Jason Schmidt) who have one hit so far in 2007 for a homer.

Incidentally, Person's 2 HR in 2002 came in the same game, which we previously discussed here.

The leaders for all hits in a season going for triples:

  Cnt Player            Year  H  3B Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R  2B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+--+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Mark L. Johnson   1998   2  2  22 CHW AL   7  24  23   2  0  0   1   1   0   8   0   0   0   0   0  0  .087  .125  .261  .386 /*2
    2 Chico Walker      1983   2  2  25 BOS AL   4   5   5   2  0  0   1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0  0  .400  .400 1.200 1.600 /*7
    3 Bobby Estalella   1936   2  2  25 WSH AL  13  13   9   2  0  0   0   4   0   5   0   0   0   0   0  0  .222  .462  .667 1.129
    4 Cecil Bolton      1928   2  2  24 CLE AL   4  15  13   1  0  0   0   2   0   2   0   0   0   0   0  0  .154  .267  .462  .729 /*3
    5 Limb McKenry      1916   2  2  27 CIN NL   6   5   5   0  0  0   2   0   0   1   0   0   0   0   0  0  .400  .400 1.200 1.600 /*1
    6 Ed Irvin          1912   2  2  30 DET AL   1   3   3   0  0  0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0  0  .667  .667 2.000 2.667 /*5
    7 Mike O'Neill      1907   2  2  29 CIN NL   9  32  29   5  0  0   2   2   0   0   0   1   0   0   1  0  .069  .129  .207  .336 /*7

And for doubles:

  Cnt Player            Year  H  2B Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R  3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+--+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Rikkert Faneyte   1994   3  3  25 SFG NL  19  29  26   1  0  0   4   3   0  11   0   0   0   1   0  0  .115  .207  .231  .438 /98
    2 Roger McDowell    1988   3  3  27 NYM NL  63   9   9   1  0  0   2   0   0   5   0   0   0   0   0  0  .333  .333  .667 1.000 *1
    3 Dennis Powell     1986   3  3  22 LAD NL  27  14  14   1  0  0   0   0   0   6   0   0   0   0   0  0  .214  .214  .429  .643 *1
    4 Jeff Reed         1984   3  3  21 MIN AL  18  24  21   3  0  0   1   2   0   6   0   1   0   0   0  0  .143  .217  .286  .503 *2
    5 Al Worthington    1966   3  3  37 MIN AL  65  11  11   2  0  0   3   0   0   6   0   0   0   0   0  0  .273  .273  .545  .818 *1
    6 Earl Hersh        1956   3  3  24 MLN NL   7  13  13   0  0  0   0   0   0   5   0   0   0   0   0  0  .231  .231  .462  .693 /7
    7 Alvin Dark        1946   3  3  24 BSN NL  15  13  13   0  0  0   1   0   0   3   0   0   0   0   0  0  .231  .231  .462  .693 *6/7
    8 Charlie Barnabe   1927   3  3  27 CHW AL  18  24  19   3  0  0   5   4   0   4   0   1   0   0   0  0  .158  .304  .316  .620 *1
    9 Verdo Elmore      1924   3  3  24 SLB AL   7  18  17   2  0  0   0   1   0   3   0   0   0   0   0  0  .176  .222  .353  .575 /9
   10 Henry Gehring     1908   3  3  27 WSH AL   5   5   5   2  0  0   5   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0  0  .600  .600 1.200 1.800 /*1

Roger McDowell?!?!?

Perhaps a more interesting one is all of a player's hits in a season going for singles:

  Cnt Player            Year  H   1B Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
   1 Jack O'Connor     1906  33      37 SLB AL  55 184 174   8  0  0  0  11   2   0   0   0   8   0   0   4  0  .190  .199  .190  .389 *2

   1 Lynn Nelson       1938  31      33 PHA AL  67 119 112  12  0  0  0  15   7   0  12   0   0   0   0   0  0  .277  .319  .277  .596 1
   2 Bill Stumpf       1912  31      20 NYY AL  42 143 129   8  0  0  0  10   6   0   0   1   7   0   0   5  0  .240  .279  .240  .519 *6/4583

   1 Mike Gallego      1995  28      34 OAK AL  43 132 120  11  0  0  0   8   9   0  24   1   2   0   3   0  1  .233  .292  .233  .525 465

   1 Frank Baumholtz   1956  27      37 PHI NL  76 112 100  13  0  0  0   9   6   0   6   1   2   3   3   0  2  .270  .309  .270  .579 9/8

   1 Dave Nelson       1969  25      25 CLE AL  52 137 123  11  0  0  0   6   9   1  26   1   2   2   2   4  3  .203  .259  .203  .462 *4/79
   2 Doc Farrell       1933  25      31 NYY AL  44 112  93  16  0  0  0   6  16   0   6   0   3   0   0   0  0  .269  .376  .269  .645 *64
   3 Otis Lawry        1916  25      22 PHA AL  41 137 123  10  0  0  0   4   9   0  21   1   4   0   0   4  0  .203  .263  .203  .466 *4/78
   4 Mordecai Brown    1908  25      31 CHC NL  46 128 121   5  0  0  0   4   2   0   0   0   5   0   0   2  0  .207  .220  .207  .427 *1

I checked as high as 40 and didn't find anyone above O'Connor's 33. Incidentally, the leader for 2006 was Chan Ho Park, with 11 hits, all for singles. He hit .286/.286/.286 that year.

This is just a sort of statistical oddity, but it's one of those things you start to notice when you look at enough B-R.com pages...

So previously we looked at the number of pitchers used in wins vs losses in 2006. Here, we look at something slightly different. This graph shows the average number of pitchers used (in any game, not specifically wins or losses) in 2006, vs several decades earlier. Here, the trends moving away from complete games are alarmingly apparent:

Note that I used curved lines on the graph to make it easier to read, but realize that only the actual data points are meaningful.

You can see that in 2006, almost 4 pitchers are used per team, per game. In 1996, the average was a little over 3. As recently as 1986, it was most common to use 3 pitchers, and the average was even less than 3.

Interestingly, if you compare 1966 vs 1976, you can see that use of 1 or 2 pitchers in a game was actually more common in 1976 than it was in 1966.

This is clearer from the plot below:

Here you can see that 1976 actually saw fewer average pitchers used per game than 1966 or 1986. Since 1986, the number of pitchers has been increasing pretty linearly. Of course, this can't continue. In 1986, most every team carried 9 or 10 pitchers per staff. By 1996, most teams had 11, and these days all teams have 12 or 13. But, it can't go much higher than that, unless teams are willing to give up one of just 3 or 4 bench player positions.

It would be interesting to look at the average number of pitchers used per game normalized to the average number of pitchers per roster. I am guessing that the rate is pretty constant since 1966.

Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News pointed out in his column today that the Phillies yesterday won for just the second time all year when scoring 3 runs or fewer. Turns out this is an easy search on the PI Team Batting Game Finder (set years to 2007, runs scored to =< 3, and reverse the sorting.)

 Tm  Year Games Link to Individual Games
+---+----+-----+-------------------------+
 PHI 2007     2 Ind. Games                
 FLA 2007     3 Ind. Games                
 NYY 2007     3 Ind. Games                
 TBD 2007     3 Ind. Games                
 COL 2007     6 Ind. Games                
 TEX 2007     6 Ind. Games                
 ATL 2007     7 Ind. Games                
 CIN 2007     8 Ind. Games                
 DET 2007     8 Ind. Games                
 KCR 2007     8 Ind. Games                
 SFG 2007     8 Ind. Games                
 CHW 2007     9 Ind. Games                
 CLE 2007     9 Ind. Games                
 HOU 2007     9 Ind. Games                
 STL 2007     9 Ind. Games                
 CHC 2007    10 Ind. Games                
 LAA 2007    10 Ind. Games                
 LAD 2007    10 Ind. Games                
 PIT 2007    10 Ind. Games                
 BAL 2007    11 Ind. Games                
 BOS 2007    11 Ind. Games                
 MIL 2007    11 Ind. Games                
 WSN 2007    11 Ind. Games                
 MIN 2007    12 Ind. Games                
 OAK 2007    12 Ind. Games                
 SEA 2007    12 Ind. Games                
 NYM 2007    13 Ind. Games                
 TOR 2007    14 Ind. Games                
 ARI 2007    16 Ind. Games                
 SDP 2007    19 Ind. Games                

I think this list is actually a very bad sign for playoff hopeful teams like Philly, the Yankees, the Rockies, and the Braves. In the playoffs, when teams regularly face the very best pitching around, it is difficult to win games by scoring a ton of runs, as both the Yankees and Phillies have been doing lately. If a team can't win low-scoring games, it isn't going to do well in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, some of the other playoff hopefuls like San Diego, Arizona, and the Mets might do quite well in the post-season if they can keep winning low-scoring games.

Freddy Sanchez won the National League batting title last year. His figure of .344 was the 2nd-lowest to lead the NL in the last 14 years. His full season last year was perhaps one of the least impressive ever for such a high batting average, due in large part to the fact that the Pirates were such a weak team.

Here's what I mean:

Read the rest of this entry »

Why him?  Why not.  Besides, Gleeman finally, after years of waiting, got back to his Top 40 Twins thingee today, and Aguilera is #18.

1) Batter he faced the most often (by far): Tim Raines.   Almost 25% more than anyone else.  Ohh-kay.  Makes sense.  Both came up in the NL in the East at the same time, and switched to the AL West around the same time.

2)  Gary DiSarcina was the man who faced him the most times without a hit. And please note the list (ordered first by PA against and then fewest hits against) indicates he owned Lou Whitaker, and Jay Buhner

3) Look at that link in #2 and scroll down to the guys who only had one hit.  He had Pete Rose's number.  Only 1 hit in 14 AB.  He also owned Trammell, Gwynn, Julio Franco (Gawd he's old), and Joe Carter

4) Scroll all the way to the bottom.  Tim Wallach mocked Rick and all his puny Aguileras.

5) Most homers allowed: Mark McGwire.  Sure, he's tied with Damion Easley (?) and  Darren Bragg (?!?), but McGwire's up on top.

6) He only allowed one Grand Slam.  B. J. Surhoff hit it.   Added bonus: it was a walk-off grand slam.  Aguilera came into the game with a 5-4 in the ninth and blew it badly.  He'd already let the tying run in when Surhoff went deep.

7) That was one of seven Walk off homers he allowed.  Of course as a closer you will get stuck for some of those.

8) Three times he ended the game with a bases loaded strike out.  It was never in really dramatic fashion with only a one run lead. Twice the lead was five runs.

9) However, four times he got the last out with the bases loaded and only a one-run lead.  Never got 'em with a K, but got 'em nonetheless.

10) Looking at his career splits,  his H/R splits look odd.  He had nearly identical Home & Road ERAs despit striking out more men at home, allowing fewer walks, & having a much lower BABIP.  Huh?  Well, he allowed more UER on the road.  His road RA was 4.05 and his home 3.87.  He also allowed slightly more homers at home.

If B-ref's PI can let you learn that about Rick Aguilera - imagine what it can do for a player you actually care about!

Josh Paul Byrd Lynn Nelson Norman Miller Huggins

Josh Paul Byrd Lynn Nelson Norman Miller Huggins
Josh Paul Byrd Lynn Nelson Norman Miller Huggins
Josh Paul Byrd Lynn Nelson Norman Miller Huggins
Josh Paul Byrd Lynn Nelson Norman Miller Huggins
Josh Paul Byrd Lynn Nelson Norman Miller Huggins
Josh Paul Byrd Lynn Nelson Norman Miller Huggins
Josh Paul Byrd Lynn Nelson Norman Miller Huggins

See Name Chain #1 for explanation

Wakefield continued his streak of getting a decision in every start last night, and this one was an excellent win, allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks in 8 shutout innings.

But boy is his season weird.

Check out this list of most starts in 2007 allowing 2 or 3 ER. Wakefield is 140th on that list, with just 4 starts out of 24 this season. This comes despite the fact that only 23 pitchers have started more games than he has (and as of this writing nobody has started more than 26 games compared to his 24.)

Now, add in the fact that he's tied for 13th with the most starts allowing 0 or 1 ER (9 such starts) and also tied for 7th with the most starts allowing 4+ ER (11 such starts.)

He's starting to feel like a rich man's Kip Wells.

Honestly, if you told me the Twins chose to let their starting pitcher bat so they could have Jason Tyner play the field and not hit, I'd believe you for a few seconds. But the truth is that Tyner (and his .319 career slugging percentage) has been the Twins' DH 14 times so far in 2007. How historically bad is that decision? Well, here's a list of the worst season OPS+ numbers for hitters in the past ten years with at least 200 PAs in a season and 10 starts at DH -- basically the playing time cutoff for Tyner so far in 2007.

  Cnt Player            **OPS+**  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 Randall Simon         41   214 2004  29 TOT ML  69 192  16  36  6  0  3  14  18   5  19   3   0   1   8   0  0  .188  .266  .266  .532 *3D
    2 Gregg Jefferies       48   225 1999  31 DET AL  70 205  22  41  8  0  6  18  13   1  11   4   0   3   9   3  4  .200  .258  .327  .585 *D/347
    3 Luis Alicea           55   273 2002  36 KCR AL  94 237  28  54  8  2  1  23  32   1  34   1   3   0   5   2  3  .228  .322  .291  .613 45D/3679
    4 Robert Fick           58   253 2004  30 TOT ML  89 226  14  45  5  2  6  26  22   2  36   3   0   2   2   0  0  .199  .277  .319  .596 D73/92
    5 Brian Jordan          58   233 2004  37 TEX AL  61 212  27  47 13  1  5  23  16   2  35   1   0   4   7   2  2  .222  .275  .363  .638 *9D/7
    6 Greg Vaughn           60   297 2002  36 TBD AL  69 251  28  41 10  2  8  29  41   1  82   3   0   2   5   3  2  .163  .286  .315  .601 *D7
    7 Shea Hillenbrand      61   204 2007  31 LAA AL  53 197  19  50  5  0  3  22   5   0  18   1   0   1   6   0  2  .254  .275  .325  .600 *D/3
    8 Dee Brown             61   406 2001  23 KCR AL 106 380  39  93 19  0  7  40  22   4  81   1   1   2  12   5  3  .245  .286  .350  .636 *7D/89
    9 Geronimo Berroa       61   217 1998  33 TOT AL  72 191  23  43  7  2  1  13  24   1  44   2   0   0   5   1  1  .225  .318  .298  .616 *D7/9
   10 Jay Gibbons           63   290 2007  30 BAL AL  84 270  28  62 14  0  6  28  15   1  52   2   0   3   5   0  0  .230  .272  .348  .620 *7D/9
   11 Terry Pendleton       63   254 1998  37 KCR AL  79 237  17  61 10  0  3  29  15   1  49   0   0   2   2   1  0  .257  .299  .338  .637 *D5
   12 Tim Salmon            65   206 2004  35 ANA AL  60 186  15  47  7  0  2  23  14   0  41   2   0   4   2   1  0  .253  .306  .323  .629 *D/97
   13 Willie Greene         65   248 1999  27 TOR AL  81 226  22  46  7  0 12  41  20   0  56   0   0   2   4   0  0  .204  .266  .394  .660 *D/59
   14 Rondell White         66   355 2006  34 MIN AL  99 337  32  83 17  1  7  38  11   2  54   4   0   3  11   1  1  .246  .276  .365  .641 *D7
   15 Orlando Palmeiro      66   270 2001  32 ANA AL 104 230  29  56 10  1  2  23  25   2  24   3   7   5   3   6  6  .243  .319  .322  .641 D97/8
   16 Marty Cordova         66   221 2000  30 TOR AL  62 200  23  49  7  0  4  18  18   0  35   3   0   0   6   3  2  .245  .317  .340  .657 79D
   17 Jason Kubel           72   235 2006  24 MIN AL  73 220  23  53  8  0  8  26  12   0  45   0   2   1  13   2  0  .241  .279  .386  .665 D7/9
   18 Cal Ripken            73   516 2001  40 BAL AL 128 477  43 114 16  0 14  68  26   1  63   2   2   9  15   0  2  .239  .276  .361  .637 *5D
   19 Aubrey Huff           73   434 2001  24 TBD AL 111 411  42 102 25  1  8  45  23   2  72   0   0   0  18   1  3  .248  .288  .372  .660 *5D3
   20 Wil Cordero           73   299 2001  29 CLE AL  89 268  30  67 11  1  4  21  22   2  50   4   2   3   8   0  0  .250  .313  .343  .656 *73D/9
   21 Carl Everett          74   343 2006  35 SEA AL  92 308  37  70  8  0 11  33  29   2  57   3   0   3   7   1  3  .227  .297  .360  .657 *D/79
   22 Jay Gibbons           74   380 2004  27 BAL AL  97 346  36  85 14  1 10  47  29   0  64   1   1   3  11   1  1  .246  .303  .379  .682 *9D3
   23 Luis Alicea           74   418 2001  35 KCR AL 113 387  44 106 16  4  4  32  23   0  56   4   3   1   6   8  6  .274  .320  .367  .687 *4D5
   24 Al Martin             75   258 2003  35 TBD AL 100 238  19  60 12  2  3  26  17   4  51   2   0   1   8   2  2  .252  .306  .357  .663 *D/793
   25 Joe Randa             75   636 2001  31 KCR AL 151 581  59 147 34  2 13  83  42   2  80   6   1   6  15   3  2  .253  .307  .386  .693 *5D/4
   26 Javy Lopez            76   364 2006  35 TOT AL  94 342  36  86 20  1  8  35  20   0  76   2   0   0  10   0  0  .251  .297  .386  .683 *D2
   27 Brian McRae           76   472 1999  31 TOT ML 134 403  47  88 17  2 12  48  57   2  86   9   1   2   8   2  7  .218  .327  .360  .687 *8D
   28 Jason Tyner           77   229 2007  30 MIN AL  76 211  29  57 10  1  1  16  11   0  19   5   1   1   9   7  3  .270  .320  .341  .661 79D/8

It's interesting that Tyner isn't even the worst player to have DH'd in 2007 -- both Shea Hillenbrand and Jay Gibbons have been worse. Also, two of Minnesota's 2006 DHs, Rondell White and Jason Kubel, performed worse than Tyner in '07. Of course, this whole analysis ignores the fact that Tyner's outperforming his career line, while many of the guys listed above him were setting career lows.

The news of Phil Rizutto's passing reminds me of how much game has changed. For those of you who aren't familiar with his career, among his many talents he was one of the very best bunters the game has ever seen. Checking out his main B-R page, he had 193 sacrifice hits in his career, which lasted just 13 seasons. To see the leaders over the last 13 years (1995 to present) click here. Scooter also had many, many bunts for base hits, and played a fantastic shortstop.

Younger fans will remember him as a broadcaster for the Yankees on WPIX in New York. I watched many of those games in the 1980s and remember what enthusiasm and energy he brought to the broadcasts. I also recall how he often mistook any man in the crowd with a big white beard for Kenny Rogers (the singer, not the pitcher.)

All baseball fans have announcers who helped light their own passion for the game. For me, growing up, it was Harry Kalas (who continues to light that passion for thousands and thousands today), and it was also Phil Rizutto. I'm very glad that he made it into the Hall of Fame in his lifetime, and I thank him for his many, many years of contribution to baseball.