On Sunday, in their most recent appearances, Craig Kimbrel and Fernando Rodney again avoided surrendering any extra-base hits. Rodney and Kimbrel have each allowed only four extra-base hits all season. For Rodney, that means he’s allowed an extra base hit on average about one every 17.6 innings he’s pitched this year. For Kimbrel it’s about one in every 14.6 IP. Where those numbers fit historically is described after the jump. Continue reading
Pick any 2012 MLB team. There’s just about a 50-50 chance that that team has a pitcher with a complete-game loss this year. Behold the percentage of all starts that have ended in a CG-loss:
Back in 1918, nearly a quarter of all starts ended in CG losses. That’s because most starts were completed, and a lot of those were on the losing side. It was fairly unusual for a pitcher to get lifted at all.
In 2012, though, the percentage has fallen all the way down to 0.4%, meaning that only about 1 out of every 250 starts ended in a complete game loss. This is the lowest rate in major-league history, even after a bump up in the rate in 2010 and 2011.
One reason why CG losses are so rare is, of course, because complete games themselves are so rare. Only about 3% of all 2012 starts have ended as complete games, just about the lowest rate in history. In 1918, 63% of all starts turned into CGs.
These days, managers follow a pretty strict strategy will bullpens. It’s obvious when they’re ahead–a middle-relief guy in the 7th if needed, then then 8th inning setup guy and the closer for the 9th. But when they are behind, they are just as likely to bring in a middle reliever either mid-inning to try to stem the tide of a rally, or to start the 6th or 7th to prevent a new rally from starting.
Anyway, whenever you see a complete game loss, try to appreciate it. Soon, like the dodo, it may be extinct.
Indians 15, @Royals 4: Deja Vin all over again. The game was still close when Vin Mazzaro entered. Four batters and no outs later, the rout was on. It wasn’t quite a reprise of his last Tribal meeting, but you can’t expect to make history every time out.
In a recent post looking at pitchers recording higher ratios of unearned to total runs, some commenters wondered about the effect that official scorer bias may have on such results. More specifically, would official scorers be more inclined to score errors on debatable plays when the home team is fielding (thereby protecting the home team’s pitchers’ ERAs), and score hits on similar plays when the home team is batting (thereby enhancing the home team’s batters’ batting stats)?
After the jump, I’ll take a look at this question, and see what the numbers tell us.
Continue reading
In Saturday’s White Sox-Angels game, a balk was called on Jose Quintana. Here’s the clip; here’s the situation:
Too much going on for a full report, but I’ll just hang it up there and see how y’all whack it.
@Angels 6, White Sox 2: Chicago’s 3rd straight loss cut their division lead to 1 game in the loss column. In their last 4 games, they have 4 HRs and 8 runs. Angels gained a game on Oakland in the WC chase, but they’re 4 back in the loss column with no games left against the teams to need to catch.
ESPN.com reported that the Rays set the AL single-season record for staff strikeouts last night. The previous record was 1,266 by the 2001 Yankees and after last night the Rays’ team total was 1,275.
Strikeouts across MLB have increased at a ridiculous rate. In 2011, the MLB average was a record 7.1 strikeouts per 9 innings. That was an all-time record. This year? It’s 7.5 per 9.
Calculating out to another significant digit, 2012’s number is 7.54 K/9. In 2011, it was 7.13. That’s a 5.8% increase over what was already a record number–and there are no obvious rules or game changes that would account for it.
To put it in further perspective, the 2012 Rays broke the season record despite having 11 games–6.8%–of their season left to play. They are on pace to finish with 1,367 strikeouts, which would break the old record by 8%. That’s as crazy as Mark McGwire hitting 70 homers to break the previous record of 61.
Want a little bit more? In addition to the Rays, this year’s staffs on the Tigers and Yankees are also on pace to break the 2001 record, and the Rangers’ is on pace to tie it. That’s 4 out of 14 AL teams on pace to tie or break the record.
It’s a dramatic shift, folks. The big questions are–how much further will strikeouts increase in the coming years and how will it change the game?
Note: Information that came out after the original post reveals that your humble narrator’s judgment was hasty. See bottom of post for update.
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The Associated Press reports that Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached an agreement that evades the possibility of drug-suspended Melky Cabrera being recognized as the National League batting champion:
Since Major League Baseball went to an alignment of three divisions in each league, back in 1994, there have been a total of 550 post-season games played. A simple list of the number of those games won by each franchise is after the jump. Nothing complicated, just a format for expressing recent baseball history in a somewhat different manner than usual. Starting at the beginning of the six-division era represents a particularly harsh dividing line for Toronto. The Blue Jays were coming off back-to-back World Series Championships just when MLB shifted to the current three division per league alignment, but they haven’t been back to the post-season since. Continue reading
Orioles 3, @Mariners 1 (11): Well, naturally.