The Mets and Blue Jays have each had games this season, of 9 innings or less, where 16+ of their batters struck out. Since 1919, how many teams have had 2+ games in a season, of 9 innings or less, where 16 or more of their batters have whiffed?

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If you haven't seen this guy's YouTube channel already, you should check it out:

YouTube - laflippin's Channel

He basically takes a Casio EX-F1 camera to games and films batters and pitchers' mechanics at 300 fps. For instance, here's a behind-the-plate view of Adrian Gonzalez hitting a HR:

Likewise, here's Tim Lincecum's delivery in slo-mo:

It's pretty awesome to see everything slowed down like that.

Baseball StatHead: May 4, 2011

Today's Stathead entries include links to The Hardball Times, SweetSpot, and Baseball Analytics, plus many reactions to Liriano's no-hitter.

I just saw on the front page of Baseball-Reference.com that Bobby Thompson died. He had an unremarkable playing career, appearing in just 64 games, all in 1978, with the Rangers. I presume this is his only major-league baseball card.

But Thompson was a little bit more famous than the average cup-of-coffee major leaguer since his name is a homophone for that of a much more famous player--Bobby Thomson. Thomson died last year while Thompson, born 30 years after Thomson, died on April 25th of this year. I feel bad for Thompson, as Google searches for him invariably lead instead to Thomson.

Anyway, take a look at that photo above. It is a great example of what Topps was well-known for at this time: airbrushing of photos. Clearly the photo they had of Thompson must have shown him in a different uniform, or perhaps no uniform at all. They painted a Rangers cap on his head and blue and red stripes on his shirt, and left a large amount of space open on his jersey. It's kind of weird, and if you ask me I'd rather have the original photo even if it shows a different team. (Mind you, Thompson was drafted by the Rangers, so if he's wearing a different uniform, presumably it would be for a Rangers minor-league team.)

Though he was in the majors for just one year, Thompson had a few moments in the sun. In one June game, he stroked a walk-off single after the Blue Jays intentionally walked Bump Wills to get to Thompson. Bobby Bonds scored the winning run and the Rangers went over .500. In this May game, Thompson pinch ran for Richie Zisk, moved to third on a single, and then stole home with the winning run as part of a double-steal. A couple weeks earlier, he had been involved in three different innings in which the Rangers scored, his two RBI helping to hold off Reggie Jackson's homer and the Yankees.

The back of the card shows Thompson's entire professional career, including those 64 games in the majors with the Rangers. I love the backs of the 1979 set, and this card even mentions Nolan Ryan in the baseball dates quiz.

Rest in peace, Mr. Thompson.

As I watch to see if Liriano can finish this no-hitter, three things occur to me:

1. Holy cow, he has a very low strike percentage in this game--I guess that's one way of being unhittable

2. How fitting that Edwin Jackson was the opposing pitcher

3. I wonder if anybody ever had as bad an ERA+ at the time of throwing a no-hitter.

Cole Hamels hit a triple for the Phillies tonight, and as you might expect, it's pretty rare for a pitcher to launch a three-bagger.

Hamels is the first pitcher to do it in 2011 and the 16th since 2008:

Am I the only one to miss Dontrelle Willis and Micah Owings swinging the bat in the big leagues?

Willis tripled twice just 16 days apart in 2007. I wonder when the last time was a pitcher did that?

Well for one thing, here are the pitchers to triple twice in the same game:

And we can look at pitchers to have more than 1 triple in a season:

Of those:

• Backe's came 3 months apart
• Zambrano's game 4 months apart
• Burnett's came on April 7, 2005 and April 22 2005, so he actually beats out Willis!

What the heck is up with pitchers tripling in 2005?

Via Play Index, I worked up a list of all batters since 1973 to have a season where they qualified for the Batting Title and were between the ages of 34 and 36 in that season and where they also had an OPS+ of 120 or better.  Then, once I had that "set" of batters, I asked Play Index to tell me which of these batters then had a season where they qualifed for the Batting Title and were between the ages of 35 and 37 in that season where they had an OPS+ of 90 or less.

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Baseball StatHead: May 3, 2011

Today's Stathead entries feature research from Baseball Prospectus, Fangraphs, The Book, and a new edition of JQAS.

How many players had 35+ doubles, 50+ homeruns and 100+ walks in the same season?

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Just thought I'd post a quick PI Streak Finder leaderboard for the longest Dodger hit streaks since 1919:

Let's also take the time to marvel once again at the fact that Ethier is still just halfway to this streak: