High Heat Stats

Baseball America last week issued its annual list of top 100 prospects for 2015. At #8 on that list is 22-year-old Joc Pederson, who the Dodgers have penciled in as their starting center fielder this coming season. Pedersen put up very impressive numbers in AAA this past season, and was rewarded with a September call-up, though he started only three games for the big club. A question that occurred to me in considering the Dodgers’ choice, for now at least, of the rookie Pederson as their new starting center fielder is, historically, how have previous eighth-ranked prospects, as designated by Baseball America in its annual pre-season Top 100 prospects list, actually turned out? A history of that #8 spot in the Baseball America ranking is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

This post is for voting and discussion in the 86th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG).  This round completes the addition to the list of candidates eligible to receive your votes those players born in 1904. Rules and lists are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

A “ronin” in Japanese tradition is a samurai warrior who is homeless, wandering, unaffiliated, as a result of having lost his sponsoring feudal lord. Winning this election (after falling just short in the previous round) brings Joe Cronin out of the cold and into the Circle of Greats, as the 85th inductee into the COG. More on Joe and the voting after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

This is part two of my series on teams that had six 40-WAR players, age 30 or younger, with at least 1.0 WAR that year.
I had planned to take two at a time, but the 1931-33 Yankees deserve their own in-depth look.

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The 2015 season will be the NL Central Division’s 22nd year of play, having seen its first season of competition in 1994. 1994 was also the season the Pirates of the brand new NL Central Division signed the 16-year-old Aramis Ramirez to a pro contract. Ramirez has remained with NL Central Division organizations ever since, first with the Pirates, then the Cubs and, since 2012, the Brewers. On September 20th, 2014, Aramis played in his 2,051st career regular season game, breaking Craig Biggio’s record of 2,050 career regular season games played for NL Central Division teams.

Most Regular Season Games Played For NL Central Division Clubs
1. Aramis Ramirez 2,057
2. Craig Biggio 2,050
3. Lance Berkman 1,769
4. Albert Pujols 1,705
5. Jeff Bagwell 1,690
(credit: division-based leaderboards have been generated using the current edition of Lee Sinins’ Complete Baseball Encyclopedia)

More NL Central stats are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

This post is for voting and discussion in the 85th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG).  This round begins to add to the list of candidates eligible to receive your votes those players born in 1904. Rules and lists are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

Roberto Alomar finished fifth in our very first Circle of Greats voting round, back in December, 2012: COG Round 1 and COG Round 1 Results . In this his 63rd round of eligibility Alomar at last, albeit with a runoff victory needed, wins induction into the COG, as our 84th inductee. More on Robbie and the voting after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

Great news!

I am about to change over the website to a new theme that will run substantially faster and resolve some of the bugs that folks have been seeing. I will be getting rid of advertisements and also using fewer plugins.

Please bear with me on Monday evening as I get these changes in place.

We need a quick runoff vote to resolve the tie at the top in the 1905 voting. Voting closes Wednesday Friday night, so vote early. More after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

Following up on my prior post, I looked at teams with the most 40-WAR players (career), who were then 30 or younger and had at least 1.0 WAR that year.

Eight distinct teams had six such players (one of them had seven), totaling 12 such seasons. Three repeated, and one lasted a third year. Chronologically:

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