Years with most 50-HR seasons - Baseball-Reference PI

Another new option on both the game and season finders allows you to find the seasons with the most players matching a certain criteria. For example, above are the seasons with the most players to hit 50 home runs. You can do things like seasons with most 3-HR games on the road, or seasons with most saves or seasons with most 10-SO games, etc. etc.

To do the 50-HR seasons, I used the Batting Season Finder, selected the years 1901-2007 and then in additional criteria set HR >= 50 and then Sorted By : "Years w/ most players" and get results.  Under the Matching your criteria in the Sorted By options are a number of special options to find the most times something happened.

Roger Clemens vs. Current Mets - Baseball-Reference PI

A new feature in the batter vs. pitcher tools now lets you select an opposing roster to face.  Select the opposing team in "vs. current" and then select what you want to sort on and the tool will show you the pitcher or batter vs. the opposition.  We also list the players that the pitcher has yet to face below this list.

In addition, you can now filter the lists on opposition handedness and whether the option is active or is in the Hall of Fame.

Kevin Youkilis recently had a streak of 9 straight games with at least two hits. If the Red Sox can get their way, that streak should get Yuke onto this year's All Star team.

Using the PI's Batting Streak Finder, here's a list of most consecutive games in the 2000's with at least 2 hits:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Bernie Williams    2002-08-09  2002-08-20    10     47    5   27   6   0   1   13    5    5    1   1  .574  .615  .766 1.381 NYY                                         

 Kevin Youkilis     2007-05-20  2007-05-29     9     40   11   19   8   0   3    8    6    2    1   0  .475  .500  .900 1.400 BOS
 Rusty Greer        2000-06-17  2000-06-27     9     41    7   19   5   0   0    2    7    1    0   1  .463  .476  .585 1.061 TEX

Youkilis was very productive over that 9-game stretch, with 11 runs scored, 8 batted in, and a .500 OBP. During the streak, the BoSox won 7 out of 9 games, losing 2 to the Yankees.

But man oh man, take a look at Bernie William's 10-game job in 2002.

Read the rest of this entry »

Andy Pettitte pitched a strong ballgame for the Yankees today in the Bronx:  8 innings, 1 run allowed, and on just 101 pitches.

And, this got me thinking: 

How many times, have the Yankees, won a game in the Bronx, under Joe Torre, where their pitchers worked really hard for a win in a 9-inning game where they did not give up a lot of runs?  To that end, I turned to the B-R PI Team Pitching Gamelog Finder and asked it show me:  "From 1996 to 2007, Playing for NYY, Team Won, At Home,  requiring Pitches >= 180, IP=9, and R<=3)" and the result was just two games:

 9/2/99:  Here, the Yankees threw 187 pitches in the game - led by El Duque who offered up 136 pitches in 6.2 IP. (Time of Game: 3:51)

8/28/05:  Here, the Yankees threw 190 pitches in the game - led by Senator Al who offered up 112 pitches in 6 IP.  (Time of Game: 3:23)

Orlando Hernandez and Al Leiter?  Any Yankees fans shocked by this?

Justin Verlander comes in 15th on this list. That was one heck of a performance, especially hitting 102 MPH on his fastball in the 9th inning.

Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB **SO**
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+------

    1 Nolan Ryan        1973-07-15    CAL @DET W  6-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  4   17  
    2 Nolan Ryan        1991-05-01    TEX  TOR W  3-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  2   16  
    3 Nolan Ryan        1974-09-28    CAL  MIN W  4-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  8   15  
    4 Don Wilson        1967-06-18    HOU  ATL W  2-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  3   15  
    5 Warren Spahn      1960-09-16    MLN  PHI W  4-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  2   15
    6 Nolan Ryan        1990-06-11    TEX @OAK W  5-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  2   14
    7 Sandy Koufax      1965-09-09    LAD  CHC W  1-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  0   14
    8 Randy Johnson     2004-05-18    ARI @ATL W  2-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  0   13  
    9 Eric Milton       1999-09-11    MIN  ANA W  7-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  2   13  
   10 Mike Scott        1986-09-25    HOU  SFG W  2-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  2   13  
   11 Jim Bibby         1973-07-30    TEX @OAK W  6-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  6   13  
   12 Don Wilson        1969-05-01    HOU @CIN W  4-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  6   13  
   13 Jim Maloney       1969-04-30    CIN  HOU W 10-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  5   13  
   14 Sandy Koufax      1962-06-30    LAD  NYM W  5-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  5   13  
   15 Justin Verlander  2007-06-12    DET  MIL W  4-0  SHO9  ,W   9    0  0  0  4   12  

I don't thing it's much of a secret that Royals phenom Alex Gordon has gotten off to a surprisingly bad start this year.  Heading into today's action, he was hitting .198 with an OBP & SLG both barely over .300.  Through 58 games, he has an OPS+ of 61.

Let's put this in perspective using the Play Index.

- Go to the Batting Season Finder and set the following qualifications:

- From years 1901 to 2007, when has a rookie (choice from first season to first season of a player's career in the far left column), among third basemen (since all positions come marked off, unmark all boxes except the 3B one).

- Search for an OPS+ of 65 or worse and games played at 50 or more.  I raised the OPS+ a bit and lowered the Games to get those a little better, er, a little less worse to put Gordon in the middle of the sample size.  You can choose a different criteria if you'd like.

With that search, it turns out that Gordon's only the fifteenth rookie at the corner to hit this poorly.  He has the 12th worst OPS+ of any with at least 50 games.  Ouch.

I used the PI's Batting Game Finder to get a list of starting pitchers who have had a least once plate appearance batting from the 8th position:

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
+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
Dontrelle Willis  2005-09-27    FLA  WSN L  1-11  2  1  0  1  0  0  0   0  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th P
Dontrelle Willis  2005-09-17    FLA  PHI L  2-10  3  3  0  0  0  0  0   0  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th P         

Tomokazu Ohka     2004-05-30    MON  CIN W  6-2   3  2  0  0  0  0  0   0  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th P         

Matt Morris       1998-09-27    STL  MON W  6-3   1  1  0  0  0  0  0   0  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th P
Manuel Aybar      1998-09-26    STL  MON L  6-7   2  2  0  0  0  0  0   0  0   0  2   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th P
Jose Jimenez      1998-09-25    STL  MON W  6-5   3  2  0  0  0  0  0   0  0   0  1   0  1  0   0   0  0  0 8th P
Donovan Osborne   1998-09-24    STL  MON W  6-3   2  2  0  0  0  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th P
Darren Oliver     1998-09-23    STL  HOU L  1-7   1  0  0  0  0  0  0   0  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th P

Most recently, Jack McKeon hit Dontrelle Willis 8th a couple of times, ahead of a no-hit shortstop. Before that, Frank Robinson batted Toma Ohka 8th ahead of 2B Jamey Carroll.

Prior to that, Tona La Russa actually batted his starting pitcher 8th for the entire second half of the 1998 season (I've only shown the last few games.) Usually, it was ahead of catch Eli Marrero. I'm not sure how effective it was, as his starting pitchers batted just over .100 in those games.

There were a few scattered instances of pitchers batting 8th prior to that, and then another long string in 1957. That year, Lou Boudreau batted his pitcher 8th all the time until he was fired in August.

Using a pretty simple PI game finder search, we were able to generate this list of the most RBIs in a game while batting 9th 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 Tony Cloninger    1966-07-03    ATL @SFG W 17-3   5  5  2  3  0  0  2     9    0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 9th P         

    2 Larry Bigbie      2004-09-17    BAL @MIN W 11-2   4  4  1  3  2  0  1     7    0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 9th LF
    3 Robert Person     2002-06-02    PHI  MON W 18-3   4  3  3  2  0  0  2     7    1   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 9th P
    4 Charles Johnson   2000-09-02    CHW  ANA W 13-6   4  4  1  3  1  0  1     7    0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 9th C
    5 Joe Girardi       1999-08-23    NYY @TEX W 21-3   6  6  0  4  2  1  0     7    0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 9th C
    6 Brian Giles       1990-05-17    SEA @TOR W 14-6   4  4  3  3  1  0  2     7    0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 9th SS 3B
    7 Jerry Grote       1981-06-03    KCR  SEA W 12-9   4  4  1  3  1  0  1     7    0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  1  0 9th C

This s a fun list, as many baseball fans will vividly remember at least 2 or 3 of these games.

A few notes and comments:

1) We all know about Tony Cloninger's game with 2 grand slams. Checking out the box score (click on the date next to Tony's name above) reveals some other interesting tidbits. Cloninger was joined going deep that game by both Henry Aaron and Joe Torre. Two different pitchers gave up big homers in the first inning--one 3-run job to Torre, and one of Cloninger's slams.

2) Interesting, but not all that surprising, that another pitcher, Robert Person, makes this list. Phillies fans will remember this game. Person hit a granny in the 1st, and a 3-run homer in the 5th for 7 RBI. I was listening to that game via the internet and I remember it sounding like Harry Kalas was going to pass out when Person hit his second tater.

3) You'll notice that all of these games have really high scores for the team with the stud 9th-place hitter. That's not too surprising...you have to score a lot of runs and get a lot of guys on base for your 9th-place hitter to have a chance at a bunch of RBIs. In fact, these teams all won their games, scoring an average of over 15 runs each.

4) Joe Girardi managed to bat in 7 runs from the 9th spot, without hitting a single homer. Of course, it helps when your team has 21 on 23 hits, on the way to a 125-win season and World Series victory. Girardi had 2 singles, 2 doubles, and a triple in this game, and three different Rangers pitchers gave up at least 5 earned runs. Back then, the Rangers perennially had terrible pitching. I'm sure they'd never allow that to continue for another 10 years (right? RIGHT?)

But Ben Petrick was as good once as he ever was.

On September 20, 2000, the San Diego Padres visited Petrick's Colorado Rockies in a pretty meaningless game -- the Padres were 74-78, the Rockies 76-75. The two teams were battling for the rights to not call themselves the worst in the NL West.

But on that fateful September night, Petrick accomplished something nobody else has in the last fifty years and perhaps ever: He racked up 4 RBI despite not getting a single hit.

The paradigm of Playing For The Team, Petrick advanced his teammate runners while advancing himself (by earning a walk) just once.

• In the bottom of the second, Petrick grounded out to the shortstop, scoring Todd Hollandsworth from third.
• In the fourth, Petrick sacrifice flied out to center field, again scoring Hollandsworth from third.
• In the sixth, Petrick grounded out again to the shortstop. This time, nobody scored. If Butch Huskey hadn't preceded Petrick's appearance with a home run, instead opting for the more honorable triple, Petrick would have two more RBI without a hit than anyone else in history.
• In the eighth, Petrick decided to change things up. He grounded out to second base this time, again scoring the selfish Hollandsworth.
• In the ninth, Petrick came up with the bases loaded. He walked, scoring Todd Walker and forever etching his name into the history books.

How did I get the PI Report in question?

1. From the Play Index home page, click on Batting Game Finder.
2. Once there, click on the dropdown tab in the far-right column called "Sorted by:" and change it to "RBI."
3. Directly below that, under "Additional criteria to match," click any of the dropdown tabs called "Choose a stat" and select "H" for hits. Since it's already set for H = 0 (no hits in the game), we'll leave the rest of that row alone.
4. We're done. Click "Get Results" in that same far-right column to pull up the same query I've linked to.

My inspiration for this post?

Travis Hafner, who has gotten two RBI with zero hits twice already in 2007. Once on May 16, once on June 9.

Yesterday, White Sox hurler Mark Buehrle won his 100th game. He first came up in the 2000 season. In that time only 16 men have won 100 games. Randy Johnson's top of the list.

To do that search, or one similar to it, go to the pitching season finder, in the top yellow bar, mark off where it says: Find Totals for Matching Seasons or Careers.

Then just search the years you're interested in for the stat you're interested in.