Presswire
Despite what the back of his jersey says, Jamie Moyer’s not going to turn 50 until November of this year. Now that he’s been named to the Rockies’ starting rotation, however, he has the chance to set a lot of age-related records. Continue reading
Livan Hernandez was cut by the Astros, but then immeidately signed by the Braves, a result that seems to represent progress for any player looking for a greater chance of being on a successful team in 2012. Livan has had an interesting enough career that it is quite easy to find statistical oddities about him. A few of those after the jump. Continue reading
I have a specific idea for a cool feature I want to add to this blog but I lack the expertise in coding it. It involves pulling some data (with permission) from another website and displaying it here. If you (or someone you know) can help, please drop me an email. I will pay.
When the door opened for formal guests at British estates like Downton Abbey, the first face seen would be the butler’s. On Opening Day, the first face in the batter’s box for a team’s new season is the visiting team’s starting leadoff batter. A Butler has performed that duty in his team’s first game of a season more times than anyone else, going back at least to 1919:
Most “First Batter of the Game” Appearances by a Hitter on His Team’s Opening Day (1919-2011):
Brett Butler 10
Tim Raines and Kenny Lofton 9
Lloyd Waner and Delino DeShields 8
Rickey Henderson, Ray Durham and Johnny Damon 7
More on Butler and Opening Day greetings after the jump. Continue reading
Actually, one of these guys wasn’t an All-Star, but that’s only because there weren’t such things in his time.
Regardless, the list after the jump is an impressive assortment of top baseball talent. And, it’s a very exclusive group because these are the only players since 1901 to accomplish a particular feat. What is that feat?
The quiz has been solved in just 63 minutes. Congratulations to bstar!
I’m going to have to go back to the difficult quizzes.
Oakland beat Seattle 4-1 Thursday behind 3 late HRs, earning a split of MLB’s out-of-town preview. Bartolo Colon exploited Seattle’s aggressiveness to work 8 strong innings on just 86 pitches, allowing just 3 hits and a walk. The first 3 men in Seattle’s order went 0-12 with 4 Ks.
In a Grapefruit League game today, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Anthony Gose stole 2nd, 3rd and home in top of the 8th inning, scoring the eventual winning run as Toronto beat Boston to continue its torrid spring training winning spree.
This, of course, is a pretty unusual feat. I’ve found references to these previous times that this has been done.
What is special about Gose today was that he was the only baserunner of the inning. The two games above both involved a double steal in one of the 3 stolen bases.
Does anyone know of other games where this has happened?
By his standards, Ichiro Suzuki had a down season in 2011. For the first time since his MLB debut in 2001, the Seattle Mariners cornerstone failed to collect 200 hits, bat .300, or post better than replacement level WAR. Suzuki’s .272 clip, OPS+ of 84, and -0.4 WAR last year might all be signs the end is near for the future Hall of Famer and that the 572 hits needed for 3,000 might be too tall an order. Suzuki’s decline may also have subtler implications for a trend that’s been on the rise in baseball the past decade.
Since 2003, players have had 200 hits in a season 48 times. Of these instances, players have scored more than 90 runs 40 times, or 83.3 percent of the 200-hit seasons. That’s less than the historical rate of 89.6 percent and a marked decline from 1990 to 2002 when no player with more than 200 hits failed to score 90 runs. It’s a credit to a run environment that’s declined in baseball, in general, since tougher testing rules were enacted for performance enhancing drugs and amphetamines.
Game 3 of the 1941 World Series featured a World Series “first” — something that wouldn’t happen again for 50 years, and only once more since then. What was it? It has to do with the performance of one player in each game.
Congratulations to Kerry W. and to Ryan, who teamed up to provide the full answer; see comments #10 and #16 below.
Dave Gallagher played 9 years in the major leagues, including as the starting center fielder for the 1989 White Sox. He also played with the Indians, Orioles, Angels, Mets, Braves, and Phillies. He had great bat control in the minors and found the same skill in the majors, walking more than he struck out in the second half of his career.
We were lucky enough to (virtually) sit down with Gallagher and ask him some questions about his career and his stats.
Andy at High Heat Stats: First of all–growing up in central NJ: were you a fan of the Mets, Yankees, or Phillies?
Dave Gallagher: As a kid my favorite team was The Giants. My father told me stories of Willie Mays playing at the Polo Grounds. I imitated the Mays catch over and over and learned the line up for wiffle ball. McCovey, Mays, Dietz, Lanier, Hart, Brown, Fuentes, Marichal, Alou.