Following up on a post by birtelcom concerning the continually increasing trend to more strikeouts in the game, I noticed that there is likely to be a lot of action on the strikeout milestone list this year. After the break, I’ll take a look at today’s career strikeout kings and their predecessors.
Monthly Archives: June 2012
The unremarkably remarkable career of DeWayne Wise
DeWayne Wise is 34 years old. He’s played for 6 teams over 10 years, has never had as many as 200 plate appearances in a season, and has an abysmal 62 OPS+.
And yet, for a guy whose baseball card tells a truly unremarkable story, the guy has been involved in quite a few memorable events:
- In 2009, he made an incredible catch in the top of the 9th inning to preserve Mark Buerhle’s eventual perfect game.
- A few days ago, an umpire made an incredible mistake by ruling that Wise had caught a foul ball that he clearly did not.
- Last night, he recorded the last two outs in the 9th pitching for the Yankees.
Taken separately, none of these 3 things is all that unusual. Put together, though, and Wise is going to be remembered far longer than most other players with similar numbers.
Random player notes – Friday
No time for full game recaps. Here’s what I’ve got from players in action Friday:
Aaron Hill is the only player since at least 1918 to have 2 cycles with no other cycle(s) in between by anyone else.
Jim Johnson held on, and the Orioles are now 14-6 in one-run games, while the Tribe fell to 12-4. The run allowed by Johnson raised his ERA to 1.30, while Pedro Strop lowered his to 1.25. The only teammates with 60+ IP and ERAs of 1.35 or lower were Jack Pfiester and Carl Lundgren of the 1907 Cubs (team ERA 1.73).
“Quiz”: Guess that WPA!
This isn’t really a quiz, just a wry chuckle about the limitations of Win Probability Added (WPA) for measuring a player’s game impact.
In Thursday’s 5-2 win, Miguel Cabrera went 4 for 5 with a HR and a double. His only out was a line drive; he was never picked off or caught stealing; and he made no errors.
So what was his WPA?
Quiz – Ewell Blackwell
Sidearmer Ewell Blackwell was a top NL pitcher of the late 40s and early 50s (he may also possibly be a relative of Don “Ears” Mossi, don’t you think?). Nicknamed “The Whip” for his unusual delivery, Blackwell’s best season was 1947, when he led the senior circuit in wins and strikeouts, was the All-Star game starter and, in a close MVP vote, placed 2nd to Bob Elliott of the Braves. That season, Blackwell also nearly duplicated Johnny Vander Meer’s 1938 feat of consecutive no-hitters. After no-hitting the Braves on June 18, Blackwell took a no-hitter into the 9th inning against the Dodgers on June 22, only to be foiled by an Eddie Stanky single.
Blackwell is the subject of today’s quiz because of a peculiar singularity. He is the only pre-expansion pitcher in the game-searchable era to accomplish a particular feat.
What is it that Blackwell achieved, and that no other pitcher from 1918 to 1960 could duplicate?
Congratulations to Richard Chester! He identified that Ewell Blackwell in 1950 was the only pitcher from 1918 to 1960 to record more hit batsmen than wild pitches in a season with 10 or more of each.
My oh my, how closing times have changed
25 years ago today, on June 29th 1987, Steve Bedrosian recorded a save in a 6-5 Phillies win over the Pirates. It was the 19th save of his Cy Young-winning season, and it was the 12th straight appearance where he recorded a save.
Read the last part of that last sentence again…he got a save in 12 straight appearances. That doesn’t sound too unusual, right? Can you believe that at the time, he had just set the MLB record for most consecutive appearances with a save?
The card above actually celebrates that very streak. Read the back of the card, posted at the bottom here. At the time, Bedrosian’s record-breaking performance supplanted that of Sparky Lyle from 14 years prior.
In the 25 years that followed Bedrosian’s record, here are the longest streaks where a pitcher recorded a save in every appearance:
Rk | Strk Start | End | Games | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | John Wetteland | 1996-05-31 | 1996-07-14 | 24 |
2 | Todd Jones | 2005-07-19 | 2005-09-13 | 23 |
3 | Lee Smith | 1995-04-28 | 1995-06-25 | 19 |
4 | J.J. Putz | 2011-08-12 | 2011-09-25 | 18 |
5 | Lee Smith | 1993-05-24 | 1993-06-28 | 17 |
6 | Randy Myers | 1993-09-03 | 1993-10-03 | 16 |
7 | Jose Valverde | 2008-08-09 | 2008-09-10 | 15 |
8 | Chad Cordero | 2005-06-05 | 2005-07-02 | 15 |
9 | Jose Mesa | 2004-09-26 | 2005-05-10 | 15 |
10 | Trevor Hoffman | 2001-07-19 | 2001-09-01 | 15 |
11 | Kazuhiro Sasaki | 2000-06-20 | 2000-07-28 | 15 |
12 | Jeff Shaw | 1997-08-25 | 1997-09-19 | 15 |
13 | Doug Jones | 1988-05-13 | 1988-07-02 | 15 |
14 | Mariano Rivera | 2003-08-19 | 2003-09-19 | 14 |
15 | John Smoltz | 2002-06-03 | 2002-07-01 | 14 |
16 | Rod Beck | 1998-06-28 | 1998-07-26 | 14 |
17 | Mariano Rivera | 1998-06-02 | 1998-07-11 | 14 |
18 | Jose Mesa | 1995-05-20 | 1995-06-17 | 14 |
19 | Jeff Montgomery | 1994-07-08 | 1994-08-09 | 14 |
20 | Ryan Franklin | 2009-08-07 | 2009-09-05 | 13 |
21 | Joakim Soria | 2008-09-06 | 2009-04-22 | 13 |
22 | Francisco Rodriguez | 2008-04-14 | 2008-05-13 | 13 |
23 | Francisco Rodriguez | 2005-09-17 | 2006-04-10 | 13 |
24 | Bob Wickman | 2005-08-23 | 2005-09-23 | 13 |
25 | Trevor Hoffman | 2005-04-30 | 2005-05-29 | 13 |
Rk | Strk Start | End | Games | |
26 | Troy Percival | 2003-06-08 | 2003-07-09 | 13 |
27 | John Wetteland | 2000-05-12 | 2000-06-05 | 13 |
28 | Jeff Montgomery | 1998-06-17 | 1998-07-24 | 13 |
29 | Lee Smith | 1993-10-01 | 1994-04-30 | 13 |
30 | Rod Beck | 1993-05-21 | 1993-06-21 | 13 |
31 | Dennis Eckersley | 1992-04-25 | 1992-05-29 | 13 |
32 | Steve Bedrosian | 1987-05-25 | 1987-06-30 | 13 |
33 | Jonathan Broxton | 2010-05-07 | 2010-05-30 | 12 |
34 | Jason Isringhausen | 2004-08-05 | 2004-09-01 | 12 |
35 | Mariano Rivera | 2004-05-26 | 2004-06-15 | 12 |
36 | Joe Borowski | 2003-09-04 | 2004-04-09 | 12 |
37 | Troy Percival | 2002-06-02 | 2002-07-03 | 12 |
38 | Rod Beck | 1996-09-28 | 1997-04-27 | 12 |
39 | Mark Davis | 1988-10-01 | 1989-04-29 | 12 |
40 | John Franco | 1988-07-05 | 1988-07-30 | 12 |
You can see Bedrock ran his streak to 13 games, but since setting his record, it’s been tied or broken 31 times. Insane.
The way that closers get used now is so exclusively in save situations, that any guy who doesn’t get a blown save for a couple of months will rack up a streak that ties Bedrosian’s 1987 record.
I don’t even really know where to begin with the stupidity of how closers are used today. The dumbest thing of all is a road team saving a closer for when they have a lead. If it’s the bottom of the 9th (or 10th or 11th, etc) and the score is tied, managers just about never use their closers. They “save” him (ironically enough) for the next inning in the hopes that their team scores in the top of the inning so they can then bring in the closer to protect the lead. That means that the manager puts in a lesser reliever to pitch that inning, and if he gives up a run, the game is over while your closer is still sitting on his ass, having never come into the game.
I do miss the days of Goose Gossage, who routinely came in during the 7th or 8th inning to pitch 2 to 3 innings to close out games. It seems to make a lot more sense. I understand, though, that limiting a closer to 1 inning (and usually fewer pitches) means he’ll throw harder, batters have less opportunity to see the pitcher, and generally he will be more effective. But I can’t help but feel that managers have swung too far in the other direction, limiting the user of closers far too much.
When Joe Torre started using Mariano Rivera in the playoffs in the 8th inning, I had hoped that this would carry over to the regular season and that Rivera would be the first of a new breed of closers who would come in for as many as 6 outs. But this hasn’t happened, presumably because on the rare occasions when a closer blows a game in such circumstances because he’s lost an MPH or two off his fastball, managers feel like they would have been better off saving him for the 9th. But the current prevailing strategy has been shown to be monumentally flawed…
It takes time I suppose. I feel pretty confident in saying that in another 10 years time, closers will not be used in such restricted circumstances. Joe Madden will probably be the first guy to figure it out.
If you’ve read this far, you get a prize. Take a look again at the picture of Bedrosian on the front of the card at the top of this post. Notice anything unusual?
There is a Montreal Expo in the background who is not a baserunner, but an infielder. This means that the photo can only be from the 1987 All-Star game, and that must be Hubie Brooks.
Thursday short-stack recap – Expanded
Tigers 5, @Rays 2: Huzzah! For the AL strikeout leader finally got his ERA below 5! It’s been a slow, careful descent for Max Scherzer, who gave up 7 runs in 2.2 IP in his first start. Austin Jackson and Miguel Cabrera each rapped out 4 hits, and all 3 Detroit relievers pitched a scoreless inning, not an everyday event for the team ranked 11th in AL bullpen ERA. James Shields allowed 14 hits, tying a Tampa club record done thrice before (most lately by Edwin Jackson, who coincidentally got knocked around last night).
- Detroit is the only team that has not been blanked in 2012. Their scoring streak of 144 games is the longest since 2001.
- Continue reading
Wednesday mini-roundup — Expanded
@Yankees 5, Indians 4: On a day that left a big hole in the pinstriped rotation, Freddy Garcia and Robinson Cano made sure that the Wins column, at least, got filled. Garcia cleaned up the last of a mess made by 3 pitchers in the 5th, when Cleveland grabbed the lead, and retired all 7 men he faced through the 7th. Cano got the lead back with his 10th June HR, a 2-run drive in the 6th on a 1-and-2 pitch from Ubaldo Jimenez.
17 RBI, by just 4 hitters
Mets 17, @Cubs 1: All the Mets’ runs were batted in by just 4 men, distributed 4, 4, 4 and 5. Never before did the Mets have more than 2 players with 4+ RBI in a game, and just once had 4 players with 3+ RBI.
Stuck in Park: Homerless Hit Streaks
Of major league history’s five longest hit streaks (that is, sequences of consecutive games with at least one hit), three have come with the hitter hitting zero homers through the entire streak.
The five longest hit streaks in the majors have been:
Joe DiMaggio (1941), 56 games, 15 homers
Willie Keeler (1896-97), 45 games, 0 home runs
Pete Rose (1978), 44 games, 0 homers
Bill Dahlen (1894), 42 games, 4 home runs
George Sisler (1922), 41 games, 0 home runs
More on homerless hit streaks after the jump. Continue reading