High Heat Stats

I was leafing through the ol’ Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract recently, when one of the “historical” reprints spoke to me in a way that it never had before. This passage about Wildfire Schulte is from a 1910 book co-authored by Johnny Evers:

Schulte proved to be … one of the rarest baseball treasures, a “third batter.” The third batter in any team is the most important. He must hit long flies, hit hard, bunt and run, because ahead of him in a well constructed team are two batters who are on the team for their ability to “get on,” and the third man must be able either to move them up or hit them home. — Johnny Evers with Hugh Fullerton, Baseball in the Big Leagues (Reilly and Britton, 1910). (emphasis added)

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Jose Bautista / Presswire

Time for 1977′s other expansion team to get the Rushmore treatment.

Let’s get started.

First of all, can you guess which batter has the most career WAR for the Blue Jays? I bet you get it wrong. Read the rest of this entry

It is a logical assumption that it’s tougher to hit in the post-season than in the regular season, with back-of-the-rotation starting pitchers disappearing from view and the workloads of the very best pitchers being rationed less carefully.  No longer are the top arms being saved for more important occasions — those post-season games are the most important occasions.  The numbers back up the logical assumption, as you can see after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

@Indians 6, Mariners 5: A 2-out, 3-run Jake-jack by Jose Lopez tied it in the 8th, and a walk-fueled rally off Brandon League in the 11th culminated in Carlos Santana’s payoff/walk-off that produced Cleveland’s 4th straight win and a 4-game lead in the AL Central.

• League gave just 10 passes in 61 IP last year and hadn’t walked 3 in a game in over 4 years.
• Walks played a key role in all 3 scoring frames for the Indians, who drew 8 in all and are MLB’s runaway leaders in that category, averaging 4.6 per game; San Diego is 2nd at 3.8.
• Enjoy it while it lasts: The Tribe are 9-1 in one-run games, a big reason they’re in 1st place despite being outscored.

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Later this season, Scott Rolen, Adrian Beltre and Chipper Jones could all pass the 2000 mark for career games at third base. Actually, barring injury or retirement, it’s a virtual lock. How  unusual is that? Let’s find out.

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Just a great photo.

Courtesy of Presswire

"We don't need no stinkin' last names." -made up quote from Edgar and Ichiro / Presswire

Now that we’ve gotten the more recent expansion teams out of the way, we’re finally to our first team with at least 30 years of history. Unfortunately, it’s one that hasn’t even been to the World Series…

Let’s take a look at who the heroes of the Mariners are. Read the rest of this entry

@Blue Jays 8, Yankees 1: I confess — I did not pencil in Kyle Drabek for 7 strong IP against the Yanks. In 3 prior starts (13.2 IP), they pummeled him for 12 runs and 27 baserunners.

• Robinson Cano got his 300th double in game #1,090. In the game-searchable era, only 9 players got there faster. For all time, Cano is the 13th to reach 300 doubles within 8 seasons; one of those is his teammate, Mark Teixeira.
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Ellis Burks, once a great Rockie, in a photo from spring 2012 when he was coaching the Reds / Presswire

Here are the Colorado Rockies. The way I see it, this is a discussion of just the final two faces on their Mount Rushmore as Todd Helton and Larry Walker clearly get the top two spots. Let’s look a little more at who gets #3 and #4.

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Josh Johnson / Presswire

Here’s another toughie, as most of the great players for this franchise didn’t stick around for more than a few years. I’m calling them the Florida Marlins since that’s how they were known for virtually their entire existence. Read the rest of this entry