I wouldn’t want to predict that this will be Jamie Moyer‘s final season. But, if it is, it will be interesting if, as the oldest player in baseball, he gets a chance to appear in a game with the youngest player. Incidentally, Moyer has previously done exactly that, most recently on July 15, 2010 for the Phillies against Starlin Castro and the Cubs.

Presently, the youngest player to appear in an NL game this year is Jose Altuve of the Astros, just 6 weeks younger than Castro. The Astros and Rockies started the season against each other, and both Moyer and Altuve appeared in that series but, alas, not in the same game. But, the season is young – that opportunity may yet arise. The only younger AL player to play so far this year is Drew Hutchison of the Blue Jays – but Toronto and Colorado are not scheduled to meet this year.

After the jump, I’ll look at a few games from the past where the torch was passed.

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To win 2 tickets to the game Tuesday 5/1 Athletics at Red Sox, all you need to do is post a comment below (not anonymously) with a guess of which player will be the first one to hit a home run in today’s MLB games. Keep in mind that the first game starts at 12:05 ET (less than 2 hours from now.)

You can make up to 3 guesses. The winner will be the first person with the correct guess, determine by either their post here or their tweet @HighHeatStats. If you are going to tweet guesses, your tweet must also include a link to this blog post. Guesses must be submitted by 12:00 (noon) today.

In the event a game is eventually rained out, I will still count the winner as the player who homered before the rain stoppage.

Playing a little catch-up here; thirty teams generate a lot of box scores! Any neglect of your team is unintentional….

Tuesday — Nationals 3, Padres 1: Yowza! At 13-4, Washington remains on pace with the franchise’s best start (and last playoff edition), the 1981 Expos. They also lowered their team ERA to 2.21, half a run below the next-best NL team, and have allowed just 3 HRs all year. Continue reading →

Derek Jeter has started of so hot that I wanted to look at the first 16 games of each of his seasons:

Year   BA/ OBP/ SLG   2B   3B   HR   RBI   BB   K
2012 .411/.436/.644    5    0    4    13    4   6
2011 .219/.282/.234    1    0    0     4    6   5
2010 .333/.368/.500    3    0    3    11    3   6
2009 .290/.388/.522    4    0    4    11    5   8
2008 .277/.309/.369    2    2    0    12    2   5
2007 .324/.392/.366    3    0    0     4    6   6
2006 .350/.473/.600    5    2    2    15   14   6
2005 .350/.473/.484    4    0    1     8   13   9
2004 .209/.284/.254    3    0    0     5    5   9
2003 .309/.347/.485    4    1    2     7    4  12
2002 .271/.329/.386    2    0    2    10    6  10
2001 .306/.370/.375    3    1    0    10    8   6
2000 .304/.360/.464    3    1    2     8    5  14
1999 .424/.541/.881    4    4    5    14   13   7
1998 .257/.303/.386    3    0    2     8    5  16
1997 .338/.456/.492    3    2    1     7   13  15
1996 .314/.435/.412    0    1    1     8    9  12

As you can see for yourself, other than a higher OBP in 2005 and 2006, Jeter’s off to his best start since 1999. It’s also noteworthy, though, that his walk rate is quite low–his excellent SLG so far could be a small-sample-size hiccup from Jeter being less patient, putting the ball in play more, and getting a few more extra-base hits.

Last Tuesday, Arizona’s Joe Paterson came in to pitch the 8th inning and surrendered hits to the first two men. Although he escaped that jam, the fact that those hits came from the Pirates — the worst-hitting team so far, one that’s already had two games of 2 hits or less — gave a hint that his really bad week was just getting started.

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Orioles 3, Angels 2: Baltimore is the first team this year with 9+ hits and all of them singles.

• Darren O’Day faced one batter and got two outs, on a DP grounder. But Dan Otero went one better the day before, with a lot of help from his backstop. Otero came on in the 8th inning of the Giants-Mets game with Jason Bay at bat, two men aboard and no outs.  Buster Posey first picked off Ike Davis at 1B, then threw out David Wright stealing 3rd two pitches later; then Otero retired Bay on a groundout. Otero’s outing was the first time since April 2009 that a pitcher faced one batter and got 3 outs.

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With its win yesterday, Texas became just the 41st team since 1918 to start a season with 13 or more wins in its first 16 games. What might this hot start presage for the rest of the Rangers’ season?

I’ll take a look at that question after the jump.

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It’s a light day, what with all the rainouts and everyone suffering perfect-game hangover. Let’s see what we can stir up.

Blue Jays 5, Royals 3: I take no joy in reporting that KC’s 10-game skid includes all 9 home games this year. They’ve lost 10 straight at home dating to last year, which is a new franchise record. Continue reading →

“In Defense of the RBI” was the title of Graham Womack’s provocative post here at HHS on Thursday, a post that led to much interesting discussion on the topic of Runs Batted In and alternative statistics. Let’s suppose we want a stat that does what the RBI stat does, but narrowing some of its flaws. How might that be done? One approach is after the jump. Continue reading →

(Trying out a different format here; let me know how it plays. I can only scratch the surface of all that happened on this crazy day.)

Phil Humber‘s perfect game was the first CG shutout this year by a non-Giants pitcher.

I still haven’t seen a clear angle on that last pitch, but I think Brendan Ryan might be feeling what Dale Mitchell always felt. (Go to the 2:50 mark.)

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