Peter Abraham points out that Chien-Ming Wang has the most wins in baseball since the start of the 2006 season. A quick PI Pitching Season Finder, using cumulative totals, confirms it:

  Cnt Player             **W**  From  To   Ages   G   GS  CG SHO  GF  L   W-L%  SV   IP     H    R   ER   BB   SO    ERA  ERA+  HR   BF  IBB HBP  BK  WP Teams         BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  OPS+  SH  SF  2B  3B GDP  SB   CS  Pk
+----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+-----+---+------+----+----+----+----+----+------+----+---+-----+---+---+---+---+-----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+---+
    1 Chien-Ming Wang      31   2006 2007 26-27   53  52   3   1   1  11  .738   1  347.2  361  144  140   85  137   3.62  120  18  1428   5   8   1  11 NYY          .272  .319  .373  .692   84   5   4  67   6  54   15  17   1 
    2 Johan Santana        30   2006 2007 27-28   56  56   2   1   0  14  .682   0  381.2  301  131  120   82  401   2.83  157  47  1509   0   7   2   9 MIN          .214  .260  .370  .630   64  10   6  64   7  17    8   9   3 
    3 Carlos Zambrano      30   2006 2007 25-26   56  56   1   0   0  14  .682   0  364.1  282  153  139  180  338   3.43  133  37  1543   6  18   1  12 CHC          .213  .314  .355  .669   75  14   7  63   7  35    3   3   2 
    4 Josh Beckett         29   2006 2007 26-27   53  53   1   0   0  16  .644   0  336.2  310  172  164  101  281   4.38  104  45  1407   1  13   1  12 BOS          .241  .302  .416  .718   84   4   4  80   5  27   24   3   0 
    5 Brad Penny           29   2006 2007 28-29   56  55   0   0   0  11  .725   0  331    332  137  132  101  247   3.59  126  23  1391   6  11   0  11 LAD          .263  .322  .387  .709   86  11   8  83   2  40   30  11   2 

Man, Zambrano's hits/9 is incredible, although it is offsetby his much higher walk rate than rest of this group.

How about most wins going back to 2005 (up to present): Read the rest of this entry »

I got a question as to which pitchers have combined for the most wins and saves. Since our db goes back 50 years, this is almost certainly the all-time top list. This is a list I did special and can't be done on the Play Index. Read the rest of this entry »

Baseball Digest Daily News

A really good post showing some of the year over year analysis you can do with the game finders and the sorting option of "Players Matching/Year".

The Yankees hit 8 HRs in their game against the White Sox last night. ESPN.com news services reports that:

"The last time the Yankees hit eight homers was June 28, 1939 against the Philadelphia Athletics. Joe DiMaggio and Babe Dahlgren hit two each in that contest."

The PI cannot search that far back, due to the lack of complete box score coverage. However, here are all the games since 1957 in which one team has hit 8 HR:

  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 1987-09-14    TOR  BAL W 18-3   48  44 18 21  2  0   10    18  4   0  4   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   6    14 

    2 1999-09-04    CIN @PHI W 22-3   56  47 22 19  3  0    9    22  8   0  8   1  0  0   2   0  0  0   7    16 

    3 2007-07-31    NYY  CHW W 16-3   44  39 16 16  2  0    8    16  4   0  2   0  0  1   1   0  0  1   4    12 
    4 2006-06-18    DET @CHC W 12-3   43  39 12 13  1  0    8    12  2   0  6   1  1  0   1   0  0  0   4    12 
    5 2006-05-28    ATL @CHC W 13-12  56  51 13 18  3  0    8    13  4   0 18   0  1  0   2   1  0  0  10    19 
    6 2005-06-30    TEX  LAA W 18-5   47  39 18 15  3  0    8    17  8   0  9   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   5    11 
    7 2005-05-21    TEX  HOU W 18-3   45  40 18 17  3  0    8    17  5   0  9   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   3    12 
    8 2004-07-16    CLE @SEA W 18-6   55  46 18 21  5  0    8    18  5   0  5   3  1  0   0   0  0  0  10    12 
    9 2002-05-23    LAD @MIL W 16-3   50  44 16 19  3  0    8    16  4   1  7   0  1  1   0   0  0  0   7    15 
   10 2000-06-20    DET @TOR W 18-6   50  41 18 18  3  1    8    18  9   0  3   0  0  0   0   4  0  0   5    14 
   11 1997-04-25    CLE @MIL W 11-4   45  37 11 14  4  0    8    11  7   0  6   0  1  0   0   2  0  1   7    10 
   12 1996-06-27    OAK @CAL W 18-2   57  45 18 17  3  0    8    17 12   0  8   0  0  0   2   0  1  1  12    12 
   13 1978-07-30    MON @ATL W 19-0   57  51 19 28  6  0    8    19  3   0  6   1  1  1   1   1  0  0  11    14 
   14 1977-07-04    BOS  TOR W  9-6   36  34  9 11  0  0    8     9  2   0  3   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   3    12 
   15 1963-08-29(1) MIN @WSA W 14-2   49  45 14 20  1  1    8    14  2   0  4   0  2  0   0   0  0  0   8    11 
   16 1961-04-30    SFG @MLN W 14-4   47  39 14 14  2  1    8    14  4   0  2   2  2  0   2   2  0  0   6    11 

Last night's Yankees game is #3 on that list.

There are a few interesting things about this list:

• All of the teams hitting 8 or more HR won, most in blowouts, although last year the Braves just barely beat the Cubs 13-12. If you look at the box score for that game, you'll that the Braves 8 HR were one each by Brayan Pena, Marcus Giles, Ryan Langerhans, and Andruw Jones, and two each by Edgar Renteria and Adam LaRoche. Amazingly, the Cubs scored 12 runs without hitting a single homer! In fact they had just 3 extra base hits in the game, but they did rack up 16 hits, 4 walks, and a hit-by-pitch.
• Game #14 on that list is amazing too. Boston hit 8 HR but scored only 9 runs. There were 7 solo homers and 1 two-run job to account for all the runs. (I would have to guess that 7 solo homers in a game is a record.) The homers included one each by Jim Rice, Butch Hobson, Bernie Carbo, and Carl Yastrzemski, and two each by Fred Lynn and George Scott. In the game, the Red Sox had "only" 11 hits and 2 walks, and no other base runner. They had no extra base hits other than the 8 HR.
• I'm assuming it's Game #2 on that list that has the most different players (eight) homering for the same team in one game. The Reds hit 9 in all, including two by Eddie Taubensee, and one each by
  Jeffrey Hammonds, Peewee Reese, Greg Vaughn, Mark Lewis, Aaron Boone, Brian Johnson, and Dmitri Young.

I was curious as to which batters in baseball were swinging hot sticks in this past month (of July 2007).  So, I went to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index and looked up the leaders in hits, via Batter Events, for this season - using a filter for July.  This is what I found:

Robinson Cano 42
Edgar Renteria 42
Hideki Matsui 39
Melky Cabrera 39
Jimmy Rollins 39
Derek Jeter 38
Ryan Braun 38
Hanley Ramirez 36
Chipper Jones 36
Bobby Abreu 36
Delmon Young 36
Curtis Granderson 36

Those on the leader list here in bold are on the New York Yankees.    This means that the Top 5 guys in the A.L. - for most hits in the month of July 2007 - were all members of the Yankees.   That's some hit parade, huh?

These two were traded for each other, and it was neat to sue Ty's batter-vs-pitcher page to find the three times he faced Dan:

  Car# Year Date          Tm   Opp Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit Play Desc.
+-----+----+-------------+---+----+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
     1 2004 2004-09-03    PIT @HOU down   6-8  t 8 ---   1 1-1   3 Flyball: CF               
     2      2004-09-05    PIT @HOU down   5-10 t 9 ---   0 0-2   4 Flyball: LF               
     3      2004-09-10    PIT  HOU ahead  5-1  b 8 -23   0 2-2   3 Groundout: SS-1B          

They all happened when Wigginton was with Pittsburgh. I can't believe they never met in any exciting interleague battles between Houston and Tampa Bay!

I also like that Wigginton's B-R abbreviation is "wiggity". Wasn't that a hit for the Fresh Prince? 🙂

He's in the news as a new Met this trade line.  Strange career - how many guys in this day & age have OBP higher than their SLG? 

One fun thing you can do with the PI is find similar players and see how they aged to get an idea how Castilo might age. 

Let's look at guys who from ages 23-31, played at least 1150 G at key defensive positions (2B, SS, 3B, & CF - I'm leaving out catcher because it's a very different position) who had SLG under .370 and OBP over .350.

I'm aware Castillo's on the border of many of that criteria, but think that's actually appropriate here.  He'll have more games played by the end of the year, his SLG should be higher than those I'm comparing him to because of the era adjustment, and I want a higher OBP to toss out the real no-hit Belanger types. 

Here are his similar hitters.  Clyde Milan fell apart at age 33.  Randolph was good through 32, but then was hit-of-miss thereafter.   Bucky Harris disintegrated at age 31.  Donie Bush flopped in his early 30s and completely fell apart at ag 33. I think he's slightly better than Bush, definately better than Harris, but nowhere near as good as the other two.  I'd expect him to flop next year.

I have no idea if he's under contract next year, mind you, but this is the sort of thing you can look up ith PI.

There's a fellow named Rasmussen who has been in the news with regards to the Tour de France, which made me think of former pitcher Dennis Rasmussen (no relation, as far as I know.)

Looking at Dennis Rasmussen's main B-R.com page, did you know that he was twice the "player to be named later" in a trade? Once in a trade for Tommy John, and the other in a trade for John Montefusco.

Just for curiosity, who hit the most homers of Rasmussen?

The answer isTom Brunansky with 5, followed by George Bell with 4, and several guys with 3.

Top OPS vs. Rasmussen, minimum 25 PAs?

The answer is Lloyd McClendon, with a robust 1.408 OPS over 26 PAs (11 hits, 3 2Bs, 2 HRs, 5 RBI in 23 ABs), followed by Larry Herndon at 1.293 and Alan Trammell at 1.217.

And finally, a positive stat: lowest OPS vs. Rasmussen, again minimum 25 PA:

Four guys have OPS under .400:

                    PA  AB  H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG   **OPS**   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss

+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
 Lance Parrish      25  23   2  0  0  0   0   2   7  .087  .160  .087    .247     0   0   0   0   0
 Spike Owen         33  30   3  0  0  0   2   3   7  .100  .182  .100    .282     0   0   0   0   1
 Craig Biggio       32  29   4  0  0  0   0   3   6  .138  .219  .138    .357     0   0   0   0   1
 Alfredo Griffin    38  34   5  0  0  0   1   3   8  .147  .216  .147    .363     1   0   0   0   0

On second thought, maybe Craig Biggio isn't a Hall of Famer (just kidding.)

If you didn't catch Sunday's Astros-Padres game, you missed history being made.  Astros starter Jason Jennings allowed 11 runs (all earned) and got only 2 outs.

Using PI, we can find the pitchers who allowed the most runs in a game while not getting even three outs. We see that Jennings joins Luke Hudson as the only guys to allow even 10 runs (let alone 11) while not pitching an inning.

You might recall that Hudson's 2006 start made news, as he was the first pitcher since Hall of Famer Kid Nichols to allow 11 runs in the first inning of a game. But neither Hudson nor Nichols can match Jenning's 11 earned runs allowed in the first inning. Based on my research, Jennings is the first pitcher to allow 11 earned runs to start a game since Tony Mullaneallowed SIXTEEN earned runs in the first inning on June 18, 1894, against Boston. Sorry, baseball-reference.com doesn't have that box score online quite yet.

And oh yeah, lost in all the hubbub of Jennings doing something that hasn't happened in 113 seasons, we almost missed the fact that Jeremy Bonderman also gave up 11 runs on Sunday night. Thanks to PI, we can find the other dates since 1957 where two different pitchers each allowed 11 runs or more; just search for pitchers who allowed 11+ runs, then sort by date:

This means that Sunday was just the third day since 1957 where two pitchers each allowed 11+ runs; the others were:

4/29/1999: Mel Rojas (DET, 11 runs) and Roy Halladay (TOR, 11 runs)
8/24/2002: Jose Lima (DET, 11 runs) and Jose Cabrera (MIL, 11 runs)
7/29/2007: Jeremy Bonderman (DET, 11 runs) and Jason Jennings (HOU, 11 runs)

Notice a trend there? Maybe Tigers fans will.....

I've read that the Yankees are 2-13 this season against left-handed starters on the road.  That's a big reason why their overall W-L record this season is not great.  But, I was curious as to what happened in those 13 losses.  So, I turned to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Game Log Finder and set it for "For 2007, Against NYY, Throws LH, Team Won, At Home, as Starter" and this is what I found - sorting the results by Game Score for the starter facing New York:

Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB SO HR Pit Str **GmSc** IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA   

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

1 Erik Bedard       2007-06-27    BAL  NYY W  4-0  GS-7  ,W   7    2  0  0  1  8  0 108  62     80         24 23  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00   

2 Jarrod Washburn   2007-05-11    SEA  NYY W  3-0  GS-8  ,W   8    6  0  0  1  6  0 109  69     75         32 31  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00   

3 Jeff Francis      2007-06-20    COL  NYY W  6-1  GS-7  ,W   7    5  1  1  1  9  0 100  59     71         26 25  2  0   0   0  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  0   1.29   

4 Scott Kazmir      2007-07-13    TBD  NYY W  6-4  GS-6  ,W   6    4  1  0  4  7  0 117  71     65         25 21  1  0   0   0  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  0   0.00   

5 Brian Burres      2007-07-28    BAL  NYY W  7-5  GS-6  ,W   6    4  1  1  3  7  1  98  58     64         24 20  0  0   0   1  0  0   1  2  1  0  0  0   1.50   

6 Oliver Perez      2007-05-18    NYM  NYY W  3-2  GS-8  ,W   7.2  5  2  2  2  5  1 111  67     64         28 26  0  0   0   0  0  0   1  1  0  0  0  0   2.35   

7 Jorge de la Rosa  2007-07-26    KCR  NYY W  7-0  GS-6  ,W   5.1  6  0  0  2  5  0  96  56     59         26 23  2  0   1   1  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  0   0.00   

8 Horacio Ramirez   2007-05-13    SEA  NYY W  2-1  GS-7  ,W   6.1  5  1  1  1  1  0  82  50     59         25 24  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  0   1.42   

9 Scott Kazmir      2007-04-24    TBD  NYY W  6-4  GS-7       6.2  5  3  1  2  5  1 108  59     59         28 25  1  0   0   1  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  0   1.35   

10 Noah Lowry        2007-06-24    SFG  NYY W  7-2  GS-6  ,W   5.2  2  1  1  5  2  0  91  52     58         22 17  0  0   0   0  0  0   2  0  0  0  0  0   1.59   

11 John Danks        2007-05-16(1) CHW  NYY W  5-3  GS-7  ,W   6.1  7  2  2  2  7  1  88  56     56         28 26  2  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   2.84   

12 Tom Glavine       2007-05-19    NYM  NYY W 10-7  GS-6  ,W   6    9  3  3  2  2  1 101  58     42         26 24  0  0   0   0  0  0   3  0  0  0  0  0   4.50   

13 Casey Fossum      2007-04-23    TBD  NYY W 10-8  GS-6  ,W   5.2 10  6  6  1  2  2  82  51     26         26 21  3  0   0   1  1  2   3  0  0  0  0  0   9.53

In the top 6 games listed here, you could say that the Yankees just ran into a pitcher who shut them down - period.  And, in the last 2 games listed here, you could say that the Yankees pitching staff was more to blame for the loss than New York's hitters.

The five games in the middle are the really interesting group. Four of the five games here were situations where it was the Yankees' "last game of the series and the day to leave town."  (These dates being 4/24, 5/13, 6/24, and 7/26.)  Could the issue here be that the Yankees just checked out of a series mentally before it was actually over - and that's the reason for their poor performance in these losses?  It's possible.  There have been reports this year that the Yankees lack focus at times.

So, take the bottom two games listed here in the list of thirteen (where the Yankees pitchers were to blame) and make them wins (instead of losses).  And, then take two of the four "mental checkout" losses and make them wins.  This makes the 2-13 record "against lefties on the road" read to be more like 6-9...which is not great...but, it's a lot better than 2-13.  And, with a 6-9 mark, it does not paint the "Can't beat lefties on the road" pitcture like the 2-13 record would suggest here.

The Yankees' 2-13 record in these may have more to do with the Yanks' pitching and their ability to focus than it does with which hand the other team is using to throw and where the games are being played.  I stress "may" - still, it's something to consider here.