Mike Morse has played in the big leagues every year since 2005. Granted, he's never appeared in 100 games in any one season.

That's likely to change, though, based on how he's swinging the bat in 2011. Before today's performance (2 RBI coming on a homer) he's already got 40 RBI in his first 61 games and a 147 OPS+.

In fact, for players who have debut since 2005, here are the top guys (ranked by plate appearances) with an RBI total at least 14% of their plate appearance total. Another way to look at it is that these are the guys to have averaged 1 RBI per 7 plate appearances:

There are a couple of other surprising names on there, but for the most part this is a list of the best young run-producers in the game. Morse is actually one of the oldest players on here, along with Hamilton, Cruz, Jacobs, and Garko.

It looks like Morse is a full-time player now, though, and deservedly so. He's another piece of a Nationals team that is looking like their best team since 2005.

-- There was an intriguing pitching matchup in tonight's D-backs/ChiSox game in Arizona: Daniel Hudson vs. Edwin Jackson. The game mimicked the overall results since the two were traded for each other at the 2010 deadline: Jackson was OK, allowing 4 runs on 8 hits in his 6.2 IP; but Hudson was excellent, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and a walk in his first career CG, even adding an RBI double.

• Hudson is now 15-6 with a 2.76 ERA since joining the Diamondbacks, averaging almost 7 IP in his 26 starts. Jackson is 8-8 with a 3.90 ERA in 25 starts with Chicago.
• Hudson's gem was the 2nd straight Game Score of 81 by a D-backs pitcher. On Thursday, Ian Kennedy fanned 10 and allowed one unearned run on 4 hits in 8 IP against the Giants, lowering his ERA to 2.98. It's the first time Arizona has had back-to-back Game Scores of 80+ since Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling did it August 15-16, 2002.

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The Orioles matched a live-ball record for offensive inefficiency Friday night, scoring 4 runs on 18 hits in losing to the streaking Nationals in D.C.

It was the 3rd regulation game since 1919 in which a team had 18+ hits without topping 4 runs; all three teams had exactly 4 runs on exactly 18 hits:

More oddities from this game:

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Through June 16, there were 16 qualifying hitters [see note at end of post] with a .300+ BA and .500+ slugging average.

The Tigers have 3 of those 16, plus another regular at .298/.505:
[June 17 update: Jhonny Peralta made it 4 such players by going 2-4 tonight, with a HR and 4 RBI.]

Boston is the only other team with 2 such players.
Here's the complete 2011 list of qualifying batters with .300+ BA and .500+ SLG:

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Nothing fancy about this list - it's those with 100+ career "Fielding Runs" aka Rfield.

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Here's a quick rundown of players with the given first name of Adrian (sometimes properly spelled Adrián):

There are two active players in the majors with that first name--Adrian Beltre and Adrian Gonzalez. Both pretty good ball players. (Well, one pretty good and one who looks like the AL MVP.)

Some of you probably remember Adrian Hernandez, El Duquecito, who was supposed to be the next Orlando Hernandez.

But there are a couple more you might not know...

• Adrian Joss, better known as Addie Joss
• Adrian Constantine Anson, better known as Cap Anson

I bet some of you remember another Adrian---Adrian Devine. But his real first name is Paul!

See the full list of Adrians here.

The Braves and Mets took turns trying to give away Thursday night's game, but in the end, the guest Mets were more generous than the host Braves.

The winning run for Atlanta scored in the bottom of the 10th on a balk by D.J. Carrasco. The Mets, on the verge of a sweep and their first day above .500 since the opening week, were turned away in Turner Field yet again.

I don't think the Play Index / Event Finder can find balks in any sort of direct way; at least, I can't do it. Andy had a couple of posts on walk-off balks last year, in which commenters posted some of those events:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/6512
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/4487

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Yesterday's start by Josh Beckett was the best of his career, at least going by Game Score:

He's also having his best season, although his BAbip is currently so low (.217) that he'll probably regress a bit as the year goes on.

How many times since 1954 have there been 2-out game winning HBP? Here is the list:

It almost never happens - yet, in 2002, it happened on back-to-back days. Ain't baseball great?

Last year, 3 teams lost 97 games or more: Pittsburgh, Seattle and Arizona. 
This year, each of those teams has a winning record through June 15.

Here are the records of those teams last year ... this year (through June 15) ... and their projected win differential if they maintain their current pace:

• Pirates:          57-105 ... 34-33 ... +25 wins
• Mariners:        61-101 ... 35-34 ... +21 wins
• Diamondbacks: 65-97 ... 37-32 ... +22 wins

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