In his short career, Angels rookie closer Jordan Walden has now appeared in 42 games. In all but 2 of those games, Walden has pitched exactly one inning. In the other 2 games Walden retired one batter. Those 42 consecutive games without throwing more than one inning at the start of a career are by far the most from any pitcher since 1919 (and probably before, as well.) Here are the longest streaks since 1919 (through yesterday's games).
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A list for discussion purposes: It's all active players with at least 1,000 games played between 1996 and 2011 (to date). And, it's their "WPA Clutch" ranking in those games played since 1996.

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In a 9-inning game, a baseball team had:

• 14 hits;
• 1 HR;
• 4 walks;
• 2 stolen bases, with no caught stealing; and
• a hit with a runner in scoring position.

How many runs did they score?

(Hint: How closely did you read yesterday's box scores?)

Answer: One run.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN201105300.shtml

The Rockies made the least of their opportunities yesterday, scoring only on Ty Wigginton's HR. Their other 17 baserunners went for naught; 3 were wiped out on GDPs, 1 was thrown out at the plate, and 13 were left on base. They put the leadoff man on base in every inning from the 2nd through the 8th, but not once did that runner score.

It was just the 2nd 9-inning game since 1919 in which a team scored 1 run with 14+ hits and a HR:

It was the 3rd time since 1919 that a team scored 1 run with a HR and 18+ baserunners:

Following on my earlier post about Yovani Gallardo, here are the players since 1901 with the highest ratios of runs scored to times on base.

Each of these guys has a runs scored total that's at least 55% of their times-on-base total, minimum 400 PAs:

Quite an eclectic group, huh?

I suspect that most of these guys hit in front of big run-pruducers. Matsui, for example, spent most of the year hitting ahead of Holliday & Helton, and later bumped up one spot to be ahead of Tulowitski as well.

Mondesi hit right ahead of Carlos Delgado.

And how about Jack Smith, who makes this list 4 times? Well most of the time over those 4 years, he was hitting ahead of Rogers Hornsby.

Note, too, that most of these guys had a lot of stolen bases--that helps. There are also a lot of high doubles and triples totals--that helps too.

Check out pitchers this year who have scored runs at least half their times on base (minimum 10 plate appearances):

Gallardo hasn't actually scored every single time he's been on base, but he's close. On April 17th he singled and was stranded, and on April 27th he reached by a bunt groundout and later scored. However, his other 5 runs came from times he got on base himself.

If you look all-time, here are the leaders for most runs scored per time on base:

Some of these guys scored more runs than times they were on base. How is that possible? Just like Gallardo, they got on base via a fielder's choice or they entered some games as pinch-runners. To find out who scored every time on base, we'd need to look at each guy's batting game log. I looked at a few but couldn't find anybody who actually did score each time on base. (Note that the above list is for pitchers only!)

Shout out to reader Tim B., who emailed in with this idea moments after I started writing it. He and I were on the same page.

Mike Napoli had a big game Monday that was more in character than Sunday's romp around the bases, hitting 2 HRs and a double for Texas. It was his 3rd straight day with a HR, and gave him 10 HRs in 104 AB this year, and 102 HRs in 1,654 career AB. Only one catcher with at least 100 HRs has a higher HR% than Napoli (HR as % of AB):

• Mike Piazza, 6.18%
• Napoli, 6.17%

Now, it's not fair to compare Napoli to catchers whose careers are over, since he has yet to experience his decline phase. But even if we restrict the search to "through age 29" or "first 6 seasons," only Napoli and Piazza meet the criteria of 100 HRs and a 6% HR rate.

Napoli's not a great player, of course. By all accounts, he's a poor defensive catcher; he's had negative dWAR in each of his 5 prior seasons, and the Angels essentially dumped him last winter, preferring to enter the season with a historically bad offensive catcher who's no Gold Glover, either. But Napoli is a better offensive player than most people realize. Besides the raw power, he takes some walks, adding almost 100 points of OBP to his modest .250 BA. He's not slow, stealing a few bases a year and occasionally making the highlight reel with his wheels. He averages just 10 GDP per 162 games, which is darn low for a RHB catcher.

But he reminds me of Piazza's last few years, in terms of posing a positional dilemma for their clubs. Their offense is excellent for a catcher, but the defense is a serious problem. If you put them at 1B or DH, their offensive edge at the position takes a big hit; a 120 OPS+ is only average for a 1B. And they're not exactly going to help you with the glove at 1B, either. Piazza's dWAR in 2004, when the Mets tried to convert him to 1B, was about as damaging as his worst years behind the plate.

I'd rather have the Rangers' dilemma with Napoli than the Mets' with Piazza. Nobody is expecting Napoli to play every day or to anchor any one position; Texas has started him in 15 games behind the plate, 11 at 1B and 5 at DH, and he's not interfering with any well-established players at those positions. And so far, it's working; they're 18-13 when he starts, 11-12 when he sits.

If you ran a club with Napoli on the roster, what would you do with him?

P.S. Here are the 7 catchers who, in their first 6 seasons, had at least 50 HRs and a 5% HR rate:

Bartolo Colon tossed a 4-hit, no-walk shutout in Oakland Monday. It was the first individual shutout by a Yankees pitcher since CC Sabathia did it on 2009-05-08, over 2 years ago. Every other team had at least 1 CG shutout in that span.

Before CC, the last shutout by a Yankees pitcher was in 2006 by Chien-Ming Wang. Colon's last shutout was also in 2006. Since 2006, Bartolo Colon has as many shutouts in 55 starts as all other Yankees pitchers have in 854 starts.

Of course, the dearth of individual shutouts during the latest Yankee dynasty is not really a reflection on the starting pitchers. Rather, it shows that they usually have a strong bullpen, and they're always looking beyond today's game towards the postseason.

Incidentally, 2004 was the first full-schedule season in Yankees history that they did not have a CG shutout; they also did not have one in 1981 and 1994.

Here are the Yankees pitchers with the most shutouts since 1991. (Scott Sanderson?)

John Danks got crushed yesterday and moved to 0-8 on the season in his 11 starts.

Since 2001 here are the longest streaks to start a season where the pitcher did not register a win:

Danks has been pretty unlucky compared to the rest of this group. He's pitched to a better ERA than most but ended up with more losses than most (on a per-start basis, at least.)

Yesterday's blowout was the worst start of Danks' career by most measures, including Game Score:

Incidentally, Jo-Jo Reyes has a 10-game winless streak to start the season, and his streak goes all the way back to 2008.

Jose Bernabe Reyes currently leads the NL with 17 doubles and 8 triples. The last player to lead the NL in both categories was Lou Brock in 1968.

After a 4-hit, 2-triple Sunday, Reyes has what would be career highs with a .335 BA, .382 OBP and .493 SLG.

Reyes also leads the NL with 19 SB; Brock in '68 also led the NL in SB.

Reyes is on pace for 53 doubles 25 triples.  No MLB player has ever reached both those totals in a season. Stan Musial is the only one with 50 doubles and 20 triples, hitting both on the nose in 1946.

I'm going to be sad when the Mets trade him.

With a comeback win Sunday, the Arizona Diamondbacks have won 6 straight for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. With 12 wins in their last 13 games, they have reached 5 games over .500 (29-24) for the first time since 2008, which was also the last year they had a win streak of at least 6 games. Arizona's longest win streak last year was 4 games.

While Pittsburgh's 2010 road record got all the attention, Arizona's 25-56 (.309) mark was also dreadful. This year, they're 13-14 on the road.

Arizona pulled ahead with a 3-run 8th. J.J. Putz tossed a perfect 9th for his 16th save in as many tries this year. Putz has a 1.57 ERA and 0.83 WHIP so far; Arizona's primary closers last year (Juan Gutierrez and Chad Qualls) had a combined 6.37 ERA and 1.63 WHIP.