Earlier tonight Barry Lamar Bonds became the all-time baseball home run king.  I could wait until tommorrow when the game goes in the b-ref info before doing a write up, but if I do that, odds are Andy will beat me to it anyway.  So, with apologies to Dave Studenman, here are ten things I learned about Bonds from b-ref's PI:

1) Longest stretch without a homer: 27 games.  Way back in the 1980s, when he was a young'un he did it twice.  In the Big Head era, it's only 14 games.  Happened earlier this year in fact.  No fun getting old.

2) Who has he gone deep on the most?  Well, five guys are tied for that honor with 8 dings allowed each.   Future HoFers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Curt Schilling.  Also there's Capt'n Crafy: Terry Mullholland.  Better homer off him or be exposed to that killer pick off move.  Plus there's Chan Ho Park.  And really, who hasn't hit at least 8 homers off him?  Nick Punto has 7 off Park.

3) Who faced him the most without allowing any homers?  A man also known for taking chemical substances on the job, Rick Sutcliffe.  In the case of the ESPN announcer, his are most certainly not performance enhancing drugs.  The link is organized least to most homers, and then most to least PA within that bunch.  Scroll down and you'll see El Presidente allowed only 1 homer in 100 PA.

4) He had trouble against Sid Fernandez for some reason.  Check the link in #3.  He hit 1 homer off Fernandez in 80 PA (just below Dennis Martinez).  Fernandez was a flyball pitcher.  An extreme flyball pitcher.  Hell, Davey Johnson used to start Howard Johnson at short when he pitched because there was so little need for infield D on those days.  As the all-time home run king, you'd think Bonds would be likely to hit flyballs.  Put it together, it should be a helluva lot more than 1 homer in 80 PA.  Bizarre.

5)  He's hit 10 walk-off homers.  Three were in 2003 alone.   Surprisingly, only one came off of Jose Lima.  Then again, when you pitch like Lima does, you're not going to be in there very off in the ninth inning holding a narrow lead.

6)  He's hit more away homers than home ones.  Folks, that's not supposed to happen.  From memory, 52% of homers are hit at home.  For Barry it's 380 on the road, and now 376 at home.

7) He's had four 3-homer games.  All but one have come this millenium.  Two were in Coors.

8) He's hit 3 inside-the-park homers.  Two to left, and one to right.  Two were in 1997.  Uh, OK.  Eons ago I heard that Hank Aaron had one.  So he's still the all-time king of hitting them out.   For now.

9) Longest streak of hitting at least one homer a day: 7.  Actually, I think I remember that, but I'll add it in anyway.

10) Hate to break up the theme of homers, but I gotta check his other record.  He once was walked in19 consecutive games.  He once was intentionally walked 6 straight games.  I would've guessed that streak would be higher, but it only takes one blow out and it's not worth giving him a free pass.

Oh, and an 11th thing - just between you and me (looks around in all directions) - (whispering) - he's the all-time home run king.

The preview for tonight's Boston-LosAngelesAngelsOfAnaheim game (posted on ESPN.com and provided by STATS LLC) points out that Tim Wakefield has a decision in every one of his starts so far this season. His main page agrees, citing 22 game starts, 13 wins, and 9 losses. His game log for 2007 tells more of the story, showing that he's allowed 2 or 3 ER in only 3 starts this season, allowing fewer than 2 or more than 3 in all the rest. So basically he's either on fire or gets bombed. That's how you get decisions in all of your starts.

It got me to thinking about which pitchers have made the most game starts in a season without getting a single no-decision. Read the rest of this entry »

Ortiz is having a truly bizarre season.

He, like teammate Manny Ramirez, has only 19 HR to this point. He projects to 28 HRs and 101 RBIs, which although fine numbers, are far below his typical production for the Red Sox. Over 2004 to 2006, Ortiz averaged 47 HR and 141 RBI.

Meanwhile, however, his BA and OBP are currently far better than any figures he's previously posted for Boston. His batting average stands at .323 (previous high for Boston is .301) and his on-base percentage is .435 (previous high for Boston is .413.)

So what are the possible reasons for Ortiz' change? (I don't want to say "decline" because it's pretty tough to imply that a season with 100 RBI, .320 BA, and .430 OBP is not an excellent season.)

There are a bunch:

• First and foremost is his knee injury. He revealed that his knee has been injured since last year but that it is bothering him far more this year. This alone could be the difference, limiting his ability to drive the ball, but having no impact on his overall hitting ability.
• The next most obvious factor is Manny Ramirez' decline. Here, it really can be called a decline. He's on pace for 28 HR and 105 RBI, both well below his averages with Boston. While his BA and OBP are toward the lower end of his historical performance with Boston, his SLG has fallen off the table, currently more than 80 points lower than his previous worst with the Sox. What's the fallout? Well, you'd think that Ortiz would see fewer pitches to hit since he bats ahead of Manny. But the numbers don't immediately back that up: Ortiz is on pace to walk 108 times in 152 games, right along his career averages the last few years.
• The next issue would be baserunners. Players tend to hit better with baserunners, because they usually get more pitches to hit. With Julio Lugo having such a rough first half, maybe Ortiz batted with fewer runners on. But his splits don't support that theory. Over 2004-2006, Ortiz had 276, 289, and 284 at-bats with runners on base (incredibly consistent Boston offense..geez!) This year, he's got 200 such at-bats now, projecting to 298 for the season. With runners in scoring position, 2004-2006 he had 160, 162, and 156 at-bats, and projects this year to 159. So the data simply doesn't support the idea that he's hitting with fewer baserunners.
• Even the RBIs with men on still work out. With men on (in any configuration), Ortiz averaged about .310/.420/.590 from 2004 to 2006. His numbers were very consistent. This year, he's hitting .345/.452/.565. His SLG is off a little, due to less power, but his BA is very high. We already established in the previous point that the overall number of baserunners is the same. Yet, in 2004-2006 he knocked in 116, 119, and 104 baserunners (this is RBIs in at-bats with baserunners, so that includes knocking himself in on a HR), but this year is on pace for only 85 RBI. That difference of about 20 RBI is just about the same as the number of homers he's missing. If he had 30-35 HR now, he'd be on pace for 115 or so RBI when hitting with baserunners on, right on his recent average.

I conclude, therefore, that there's nothing "wrong" with David Ortiz. He's getting his usual number of hits and walks, and he's hitting just as well with runners on. The only thing he's not doing is hitting the ball out of the park. That may be due to the knee injury and/or the possibility that he's adjusted his approach to focus on line drives. The fact of the matter is that he's still creating a ton of runs and remains an extremely valuable player.

In case we have any newbies, that's most consecutive plate appearances without grounding into a double play.

To some degree, grounding into double plays is a team thing. Obviously, teams with more baserunners ground into more double plays (but also score more runs.) It's also out of a player's control whether he faces more ground ball pitchers or fly ball pitchers. But in general, players certainly have some impact, and some are certainly better than others at avoiding GIDP.

For 2000 to present, here are the longest streaks without grounding into a double play: Read the rest of this entry »

If I ask you what the record is for most stolen bases in a season without getting caught (since 1957), a bunch of you will probably shout out "Kevin McReynolds, 1988", and you'd be right. McReynolds was not a particularly fast base runner (he topped double digits in steals only 3 times), but by all accounts he was a very skilled base runner.

Here are the top seasons since 1957 with no caught stealings:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Kevin McReynolds     21    0 1988  28 NYM NL 147 600 552  82 159 30  2 27  99  38   3  56   4   1   5   6  .288  .336  .496  .832 *7/8
    2 Paul Molitor         20    0 1994  37 TOR AL 115 515 454  86 155 30  4 14  75  55   4  48   1   0   5  13  .341  .410  .518  .928 *D/3
    3 Gary Thurman         16    0 1989  24 KCR AL  72 105  87  24  17  2  1  0   5  15   0  26   0   2   1   0  .195  .311  .241  .552 897
    4 Jimmy Sexton         16    0 1982  30 OAK AL  69 154 139  19  34  4  0  2  14   9   0  24   1   2   3   0  .245  .289  .317  .606 *6/5
    5 Davey Lopes          15    0 1984  39 TOT ML  88 290 247  37  63 12  1  9  36  37   1  41   1   2   3   8  .255  .351  .421  .772 94/8D75

I don't know a thing about Jimmy Sexton (feel free to tell me about him in the comments), and we've already discussed McReynolds. Certainly the other guys on this list were all great base-stealers. Although, Gary Thurman's problem was that he couldn't steal first base, and otherwise got on base at a rate of just .297 in his career.

If we relax the CS criterion to allow one caught stealing, here are the leaders since 1957:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Carlos Beltran       31    1 2001  24 KCR AL 155 680 617 106 189 32 12 24 101  52   2 120   5   1   5   7  .306  .362  .514  .876 *8/D
    2 Brady Anderson       31    1 1994  30 BAL AL 111 525 453  78 119 25  5 12  48  57   3  75  10   3   2   7  .263  .356  .419  .775 *78/9
    3 Chris Duffy          26    1 2006  26 PIT NL  84 348 314  46  80 14  3  2  18  19   1  71  10   4   1   1  .255  .317  .338  .655 *8
    4 Ken Griffey          23    1 1980  30 CIN NL 146 615 544  89 160 28 10 13  85  62   4  77   1   3   5   4  .294  .364  .454  .818 *9/8
    5 Jason Bay            21    1 2005  26 PIT NL 162 707 599 110 183 44  6 32 101  95   9 142   6   0   7  12  .306  .402  .559  .961 *78
    6 Jason Bartlett       20    1 2007  27 MIN AL  98 387 350  48  91 15  1  3  27  31   3  50   5   0   1   4  .260  .328  .334  .662 *6
    7 Stan Javier          20    1 1988  24 OAK AL 125 440 397  49 102 13  3  2  35  32   1  63   2   6   3  13  .257  .313  .320  .633 *789/3

Note, of course, that's Ken Griffey Sr., not Jr. But it is Stan Javier, not his father Julian. Check out Jason Bartlett's active streak at 20. He got caught stealing July 3 by Jorge Posada.

Once again, if we relax the criterion to allow for 2 CS's, here are the leaders:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Ichiro Suzuki        45    2 2006  32 SEA AL 161 752 695 110 224 20  9  9  49  49  16  71   5   1   2   2  .322  .370  .416  .786 *98/D
    2 Doug Glanville       34    2 1999  28 PHI NL 150 692 628 101 204 38  6 11  73  48   1  82   6   5   5   9  .325  .376  .457  .833 *8
    3 Amos Otis            33    2 1970  23 KCR AL 159 700 620  91 176 36  9 11  58  68   3  67   1   6   5   8  .284  .353  .424  .777 *8
    4 Jack Perconte        31    2 1985  30 SEA AL 125 542 485  60 128 17  7  2  23  50   0  36   3   2   2   9  .264  .335  .340  .675 *4
    5 Ichiro Suzuki        30    2 2007  33 SEA AL 109 497 455  77 156 16  5  5  45  37   8  46   2   2   1   5  .343  .394  .433  .827 *8/D
    6 Alfonso Soriano      30    2 2005  29 TEX AL 156 682 637 102 171 43  2 36 104  33   3 125   7   0   5   6  .268  .309  .512  .821 *4/D

Now you're really cooking. 45 steals with only 2 CS is a huge offensive boon It's like turning 40+ of your singles into doubles. And note that Ichiro makes the list (at least at the moment) for 2007 too.

Honorable mentions to Carlos Beltran and Dave Roberts, who in 2004 stole 42 and 38 bases, respectively, each getting caught only 3 times. Of course, as Red Sox and Yankees fans can both tell you, Roberts' most important stolen base in 2004 happened in the post-season.

Jorge Posada of the Yankees is on pace to catch 130+ games this season and have an OPS+ greater than 120.  And, this will not be the first time that he's reached these marks in a season since turning 30 years old.  But, the question is:  How many times has Posada done this - and what other catchers in baseball history have the 130+/>120 combo in a season at age 30 or older?  To answer this question, we turn to the Batting Season Finder function of Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index for the answer:

 Cnt                       OPS+ Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions+----+-----------------+---+----+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+

    1 Jason Varitek          121 2004  32 BOS AL 137 536 463  67 137 30  1 18  73  62   9 126  10   0   1  11  10  3  .296  .390  .482  .872 *2/D

    2 Jason Varitek          125 2005  33 BOS AL 133 539 470  70 132 30  1 22  70  62   3 117   3   1   3  10   2  0  .281  .366  .489  .855 *2

    3 Wally Schang           123 1921  31 NYY AL 134 513 424  77 134 30  5  6  55  78   0  35   5   6   0   0   7  4  .316  .428  .453  .881 *2

    4 Manny Sanguillen       135 1975  31 PIT NL 133 537 481  60 158 24  4  9  58  48  15  31   3   2   3  12   5  4  .328  .391  .451  .842 *2

    5 Ivan Rodriguez         124 2003  31 FLA NL 144 578 511  90 152 36  3 16  85  55   6  92   6   1   5  18  10  6  .297  .369  .474  .843 *2/D

    6 Jorge Posada           123 2002  30 NYY AL 143 598 511  79 137 40  1 20  99  81   9 143   3   0   3  23   1  0  .268  .370  .468  .838 *2/D

    7 Jorge Posada           146 2003  31 NYY AL 142 588 481  83 135 24  0 30 101  93   6 110  10   0   4  13   2  4  .281  .405  .518  .923 *2/D

    8 Jorge Posada           133 2004  32 NYY AL 137 547 449  72 122 31  0 21  81  88   5  92   9   0   1  24   1  3  .272  .400  .481  .881 *2

    9 Jorge Posada           127 2006  34 NYY AL 143 545 465  65 129 27  2 23  93  64   1  97  11   0   5  10   3  0  .277  .374  .492  .866 *2/D3

   10 Mike Piazza            137 1999  30 NYM NL 141 593 534 100 162 25  0 40 124  51  11  70   1   0   7  27   2  2  .303  .361  .575  .936 *2/D

   11 Mike Piazza            150 2001  32 NYM NL 141 573 503  81 151 29  0 36  94  67  19  87   2   0   1  20   0  2  .300  .384  .573  .957 *2/D

   12 Lance Parrish          122 1990  34 CAL AL 133 523 470  54 126 14  0 24  70  46   4 107   5   0   2  12   2  2  .268  .338  .451  .789 *2/3D

   13 Thurman Munson         121 1977  30 NYY AL 149 638 595  85 183 28  5 18 100  39   8  55   2   0   2  18   5  6  .308  .351  .462  .813 *2D

   14 Javy Lopez             121 2004  33 BAL AL 150 638 579  83 183 33  3 23  86  47   4  97   6   0   6  16   0  0  .316  .370  .503  .873 *2D

   15 Elston Howard          141 1963  34 NYY AL 135 531 487  75 140 21  6 28  85  35   4  68   6   1   2  17   0  0  .287  .342  .528  .870 *2

   16 Elston Howard          127 1964  35 NYY AL 150 607 550  63 172 27  3 15  84  48  12  73   5   0   4  10   1  1  .313  .371  .455  .826 *2

   17 Tom Haller             128 1968  31 LAD NL 144 534 474  37 135 27  5  4  53  46  13  76   2   3   9   3   1  4  .285  .345  .388  .733 *2

   18 Carlton Fisk           126 1978  30 BOS AL 157 658 571  94 162 39  5 20  88  71   6  83   7   3   6  10   7  2  .284  .366  .475  .841 *2/D7

   19 Carlton Fisk           134 1983  35 CHW AL 138 545 488  85 141 26  4 26  86  46   3  88   6   2   3   8   9  6  .289  .355  .518  .873 *2/D

   20 Bill Dickey            145 1937  30 NYY AL 140 608 530  87 176 35  2 29 133  73   0  22   4   1   0   0   3  2  .332  .417  .570  .987 *2

   21 Darren Daulton         156 1992  30 PHI NL 145 585 485  80 131 32  5 27 109  88  11 103   6   0   6   3  11  2  .270  .385  .524  .909 *2

   22 Darren Daulton         135 1993  31 PHI NL 147 637 510  90 131 35  4 24 105 117  12 111   2   0   8   2   5  0  .257  .392  .482  .874 *2

   23 Walker Cooper          141 1947  32 NYG NL 140 546 515  79 157 24  8 35 122  24   0  43   3   4   0  13   2  0  .305  .339  .586  .925 *2

   24 Gary Carter            143 1984  30 MON NL 159 669 596  75 175 32  1 27 106  64   9  57   6   0   3   8   2  2  .294  .366  .487  .853 *23

   25 Gary Carter            139 1985  31 NYM NL 149 633 555  83 156 17  1 32 100  69  16  46   6   0   3  18   1  1  .281  .365  .488  .853 *2/39

   26 Roy Campanella         155 1953  31 BRO NL 144 590 519 103 162 26  3 41 142  67   0  58   4   0   0  13   4  2  .312  .395  .611 1.006 *2

   27 Yogi Berra             121 1955  30 NYY AL 147 615 541  84 147 20  3 27 108  60   6  20   7   2   5  13   1  0  .272  .349  .470  .819 *2

   28 Yogi Berra             142 1956  31 NYY AL 140 597 521  93 155 29  2 30 105  65   7  29   5   1   5   8   3  2  .298  .378  .534  .912 *2/7

As you can see,  if Posada pulls it off this season, it will be the 5th time in his career for him.    No other backstop has done it more than twice.  When it comes to aging well as a catcher - in terms of durability and productivity - Jorge Posada is an exceptional case.

Mike Myers was designated for assignment by the Yankees today, and what at first seems a puzzling move makes sense when you look at the details.

At first, you say HEY he's got a 2.66 ERA (compared to league ERA of 4.29, he's got a reasonable WHIP of 1.33, and he's left-handed. Why the heck would the Yankees want to give up on him? Read the rest of this entry »

Congrats to Tom Glavine for his 300th win.

A few stats:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here's a totally frivolous bit of baseball knowledge for you.

I was a very early user of baseball-reference.com, starting back in 2000 when the site first went live. One of the greatest things I loved about Sean's implementation was the ability to look up any player by name. This seems trivial now but wasn't back then (such mechanisms were not available on ESPN.com or other sports web  sites.) That search has since become even more flexible where just the first few letters of a first name or last name can be looked up.

Anyway, when I started playing around with the names, I found that it was possible to start forming chains of names, since the last names of some players matched the first names of some other players. Here is the first such example chain. I'll periodically post others down the road.

Ken Griffey Junior Felix Jose Santiago Rosario Rodriguez

So this chain actually comprises 6 different major league players (actually 8, because there were 3 different guys named Jose Santiago.) Click on the appropriate link below to see that player's B-R page.

Ken Griffey Junior Felix Jose Santiago Rosario Rodriguez
Ken Griffey Junior Felix Jose Santiago Rosario Rodriguez
Ken Griffey Junior Felix Jose Santiago Rosario Rodriguez
Ken Griffey Junior Felix Jose Santiago Rosario Rodriguez
Ken Griffey Junior Felix Jose Santiago Rosario Rodriguez
Ken Griffey Junior Felix Jose Santiago Rosario Rodriguez

Who can figure out what Ken Griffey Jr and Rosario Rodriguez have in common? Post your guess in the comments.

In my gut, when my favorite team plays in extra innings, I've always felt like they have a better chance of winning when playing at home then on the road. I decided to find out if that's true or not. I'm sure this data is available somewhere, butI just used the PI Team Pitching Game finder to figure it out. This is what I did: Read the rest of this entry »