Chat here for World Series, Game 2

And here are a few items of pointless drivel to contemplate during the breaks.

 

Michael Wacha is the 7th-youngest pitcher to start Game 2 of a World Series. This table shows the 11 Game 2 starters under age 23; the IP and GS columns are their career regular-season totals of innings and starts at the time of the game in question. Wacha is the most inexperienced, with only Mel Stottlemyre also lacking at least one full season’s work.

Rk Player Age Date IP GS Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR
1 Jim Palmer 20.356 1966-10-06 300 36 BAL LAD W 6-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 4 0 0 3 6 0
2 Chief Bender 21.158 1905-10-10 703 76 PHA NYG W 3-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 4 0 0 3 9 0
3 Babe Ruth 21.246 1916-10-09 564 71 BOS BRO W 2-1 CG 14 ,W 14.0 6 1 1 3 4 1
4 Dwight Gooden 21.337 1986-10-19 745 99 NYM BOS L 3-9 GS-5 ,L 5.0 8 6 5 2 6 2
5 Waite Hoyt 22.027 1921-10-06 775 85 NYY NYG W 3-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 2 0 0 5 5 0
6 Al Downing 22.097 1963-10-03 186 23 NYY LAD L 1-4 GS-5 ,L 5.0 7 3 3 1 6 1
7 Michael Wacha 22.115 2013-10-24 65 9 STL BOS ??? GS
8 Bill James 22.212 1914-10-10 468 51 BSN PHA W 1-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 2 0 0 3 8 0
9 Ross Grimsley 22.282 1972-10-15 359 54 CIN OAK L 1-2 GS-5 ,L 5.0 6 2 2 0 1 1
10 Hal Schumacher 22.315 1933-10-04 378 48 NYG WSH W 6-1 CG 9 ,W 9.0 5 1 1 4 2 1
11 Mel Stottlemyre 22.330 1964-10-08 96 12 NYY STL W 8-3 CG 9 ,W 9.0 7 3 3 2 4 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used / Generated 10/24/2013.

____________________

Mike Napoli in hitter’s counts this year, including postseason:

  • Totals: 32 for 69 (.464 BA), 7 HRs, 8 doubles, .884 SLG.
  • 2-0 count: 7-13, 3 HRs, 3 doubles.
  • 3-0 count: 2-3, 2 HRs.
  • 2-1 count: 9-23, 2 doubles.
  • 3-1 count: 14-30, 2 HRs, 3 doubles.

____________________

Lastly, for no particular reason, the fewest career wins for a World Series Game 1 starter … because, where have you gone, Anthony Reyes? You beat my Tigers, and that was about the last good thing that happened for you in baseball.
(This is total career wins, not wins up to that Game 1 start.)

Car.
Wins
Player Age Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GSc
13 Anthony Reyes 25.005 2006-10-21 STL DET W 7-2 GS-9 ,W 8.0 4 2 2 1 4 1 91 67 69
30 Joe Black 28.236 1952-10-01 BRO NYY W 4-2 CG 9 ,W 9.0 6 2 2 2 6 1 71
34 Jose Santiago 27.050 1967-10-04 BOS STL L 1-2 GS-7 ,L 7.0 10 2 2 3 5 0 51
40 Mark Thurmond 28.027 1984-10-09 SDP DET L 2-3 GS-5 ,L 5.0 7 3 3 3 2 1 117 66 40
50 Mule Watson 26.360 1923-10-10 NYG NYY W 5-4 GS-2 2.0 4 3 3 1 1 0 36
56 Spec Shea 26.363 1947-09-30 NYY BRO W 5-3 GS-5 ,W 5.0 2 1 1 2 3 0 60
57 Joe Magrane 23.107 1987-10-17 STL MIN L 1-10 GS-4 ,L 3.0 4 5 5 4 1 0 59 30 28
65 Ernie Shore 24.198 1915-10-08 BOS PHI L 1-3 CG 8 ,L 8.0 5 3 3 4 2 0 58
65 Ernie Shore 25.197 1916-10-07 BOS BRO W 6-5 GS-9 ,W 8.2 9 5 3 3 5 0 52
66 Jim Konstanty 33.216 1950-10-04 PHI NYY L 0-1 GS-8 ,L 8.0 4 1 1 4 0 0 66
69 Scott Garrelts 27.349 1989-10-14 SFG OAK L 0-5 GS-4 ,L 4.0 7 5 4 1 5 2 76 47 34
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used / Generated 10/24/2013.
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birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago

Longest team World Series game winning streaks:
1. Yankees (1996-2000), 14 wins in a row
2. Yankees (1927-1932), 12 wins in a row
3. Yankees (1937-1941), 10 wins in a row
T4. Red Sox (2004-current) and Reds (1975-1990), 9 wins in a row

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Call it a premeditated jinx, on behalf of my family members from St. Louis.

donburgh
donburgh
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Couldn’t the Reds streak be listed as (1975-present)?

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  donburgh

True dat. The Reds haven’t been to the Series in 23 years, but they also haven’t lost a Series game since Carlton Fisk hit that body English homer, which I watched on TV with some Boston fans in my college dorm lounge.

Doug
Doug
10 years ago
Reply to  donburgh

Same for the Braves. They have the longest active WS losing streak at 8 games, and could break a tie with the Phillies in Atlanta’s next trip to the Classic.

The Phillies were swept in consecutive WS appearances that were only 35 years apart. But, that’s better than the Indians who had a 6-game WS losing streak that spanned 41 years.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

On tonight’s game they quickly posted a list, I think, of longest number of days between WS starts. Did anyone catch all of the names, there were only a few? Lackey was one.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

I got the same top ten by years, I did not do the number of days.

James Smyth
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

This got me to check out trailing-to-leading plate appearances in the World Series. Last night had two in the sixth inning or later (Ortiz HR and Carpenter’s sac fly/errors). It’s only the third WS game to feature two of these plays at that late stage. Game 1 – 1908 http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET190810100.shtml Cubs up 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th, but Ty Cobb’s at 1st and Wahoo Sam Crawford is at 3rd with 0 outs. Claude Rossman singles to tie the game, and when 2B Johnny Evers gets the relay he tries to throw out Cobb going from 1st to 3rd.… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago

Wow.
Trevor Rosenthal.
Just added a perfect inning to this postseason resume.
Look out Mo:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rosentr01.shtml#pitching_postseason::none

Daniel Longmire
Daniel Longmire
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Lost in this discussion (and the narrative of this Series so far) is the work put in by Koji Uehara this post-season: 10 IP, 5 H, 1 ER (that game-losing home run in Tampa), 13 K, and NO walks.

Since September 6th, his numbers become even more mind-boggling: 21 IP, 9 H, 0.86 ERA, 27 K, and STILL no walks!

Doug
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

And it’s only happened one other time in the other post-season series, by Baltimore in game 3 of the 1983 ALCS.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA198310070.shtml

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago

Yadier has now been the starting catcher in nine World Series game wins. The most starts as a catcher, other than for the Yankees, in World Series game victories: Mickey Cochrane 18 Roy Campanella 13 Johnny Bench and John Roseboro 12 Tim McCarver 11 Johnny Kling and Jimmy Wilson 10 Yadier Molina, Frank Snyder and Walker Cooper 9 Molina is hoping to be, sometime next week, the starting catcher in his third World Series-clinching win. Cochrane and Roseboro are to date the only non-Yankees to start at catcher in three WS-clinching wins. Dickey and Berra each had seven such starts… Read more »

Yippeeyappee
Yippeeyappee
10 years ago

John Autin, are Mike Napoli’s at-bats counted twice if he had a 2-0 count that subsequently went to 2-1?

Sure glad the Jays were able to get 17 saves from Frank Francisco after they acquired him for Napoli.

Jimbo
Jimbo
10 years ago

Fun WS fact that will get lost in history. The “home run” that Beltran “robbed” Ortiz of, would’ve tied Ortiz with Beltran at 16 post season home runs.

Didn’t bother Ortiz much, as within about 24 hours he had tied Beltran and passed him.

birtelcom
birtelcom
10 years ago

Most total WPA for a hitter over the 2013 post-season so far:
1. Carlos Beltran 1.490
2. David Ortiz .866
3. Jacoby Ellsbury .615
4. Carl Crawford .550
5. Pedro Alvarez .540
6. Victor Martinez .492
7. Marlon Byrd .491
8. Yoenis Cespedes .482
9. Jose Lobaton .450
10. Chris Johnson .394

Worst:
Stephen Drew -.879
Omar Infante -.711
Michael Young -.615

birtelcom
birtelcom
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Beltran is now at 2.727 post-season WPA for his career. Pete Rose, who Adam Darowski had as the all-time leader in post-season hitter WAR in a post at Beyond the Box Score two years ago, finished at 2.640 according to b-ref.

B-ref does not make it easy to calculate these numbers, but it looks like it may be that Beltran is currently the all-time leader in career post-season hitter WPA. Of course, this sort of WPA total can change dramatically in a single game.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

It could be done using PI. It would take about 20 PI searches and copying over 110 results spreadsheets and pasting them into an Excel spreadsheet.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

I was able to duplicate the list in post #25 using the PI and Excel spreadsheets.

birtelcom
birtelcom
10 years ago

What would be great if the PI Season Finder could add a Regular Season/Post-Season/Combined option.

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

So updating the list Szymborski posted, the top hitters all-time in career post-season Win Probability Added as of this morning are (assuming Szymborski’s list was right in the first place):
David Ortiz 3.10
Albert Pujols 2.91
Carlos Beltran 2.88
Lance Berkman 2.70
Pete Rose 2.63
Lou Gehrig 2.30
Charlie Keller 1.86
David Freese 1.82
Dave Henderson 1.79

no statistician but
no statistician but
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

JA: Here’s something I came across while looking for something else: From 1949 to 1968 the NL MVP selection was an African American 14 times. in the next 40 years AfAms won the NL award about half the time. Since 2007 there have been no AfAm winners in either league. The AL has run far behind in this regard except in the 1969-1978 decade, but it has produced more Hispanic and Hispanic-American MVPs. Don Newcombe won the first CY, but there have been very few AfAm winners since. I’m not clear about Sabathia’s ethic background, but if his heritage is… Read more »

JasonZ
10 years ago

John and NSB, RE: African Americans in MLB

The lack of recent African American regulars appearing in the WS is reflective of the decline
in general.

African Americans in MLB…

1974-27%
1995-19%
2013-8.5%

The best African American athletes in America
no longer play baseball.

Haven’t for many years.

They play football and basketball.

no statistician but
no statistician but
10 years ago
Reply to  JasonZ

Correct, JasonZ. African Americans don’t attend baseball games much either. I vaguely remember reading an article some years ago, at least ten, on the subject, but I don’t recall what social aspects were ascribed to causing the decline. I can say this with certainty: kids of all ethnic backgrounds have stopped playing pickup baseball in the parks. In fact, they’ve stopped using parks for much of anything once they’re beyond the playground age that isn’t organized into teams and leagues. We lived across the street from a smallish park in the late 1970s through the 1980s. The neighborhood grade-schoolers using… Read more »

Ed
Ed
10 years ago

NSB: I was born in 1969 and my childhood was much like yours (though more backyard football than baseball).

A year ago I walked through my old childhood neighborhood on a summer Sunday afternoon. I walked block after block after block and I saw a grand total of 2 kids playing outside. Sad….

JasonZ
10 years ago

Another factor is travel baseball.

Better have lots of time and money.

The committment they require is ridiculous.