This past season, the Athletics’ Seth Smith passed career milestones for 2000 total PAs and 200 PAs as a pinch-hitter. Among all players meeting both those criteria since 1950, Smith is easily the majors’ most proficient pinch-hitter. Which is ironic, considering that pinch-hitting has declined to record lows, in terms of both frequency of use and the effectiveness of the strategy.
More on the decline of pinch-hitting after the jump.
To qualify for these lists, a player must have been born in 1984 or later (“Under 30”):
Under 30, Most Career Regular Season Plate Appearances:
1. Prince Fielder 5,612
2. Jeff Francoeur 4,959
3. Ryan Zimmerman 4,943
4. B.J. Upton 4,509
5. Brian McCann 4,354
6. Melky Cabrera 4,236
7. Billy Butler 4,208
8. James Loney 4,082
9. Delmon Young 3,936
10. Matt Kemp 3,897
After the jump, two more Top Tens for the “Under 30” set, but more quality than quantity based. Continue reading
In an article in this past Saturday’s New York Times, Tyler Kepner mentioned that Seattle is the only current major league city that has not hosted a World Series game. One might get technical and argue that the city of Miami, where the Marlins now play, has also never hosted a Series game, because all of the Marlins’ World Series home games to date have been played in their old park located in the suburban community of Miami Gardens. Yes, yes, we know what Tyler meant. But the reference sent me back to look at which cities have hosted now many World Series games over the years. The table after the jump lists all 28 cities or towns that have been the location of at least one World Series game. Continue reading
What does a HOFer have in common with a bunch of journeymen? (Okay, maybe a few are more than just journeymen).
That’s the question for this quiz involving the only players since 1901 with a particular career quirk. Can you spot it?
| Rk | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Billy Gilbert |
| 2 | Don Mincher |
| 3 | Elmer Valo |
| 4 | Jim Gosger |
| 5 | Paul Lindblad |
| 6 | Diego Segui |
| 7 | Jack Aker |
| 8 | Eddie Mathews |
Our HHS readers were all over this one. Kudos to Artie Z for being first to articulate the basic idea that the quiz players had all played st least twice on teams in their final season in a city before relocating. The additional criterion which the group expressed in various ways is that only these players have also played for at least 3 different franchises.
More on our peripatetic pros after the jump.
Roy Halladay retired yesterday after signing a one-day contract with his long-time team, the Toronto Blue Jays. A classy touch by a classy pro.
More on the good Doctor after the jump.
This post is for voting and discussion in the 39th round of balloting for the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats (COG). One year ago, in December, 2012, we started the Circle of Greats voting by selecting our first inductee from among the players born in 1968. Since then we’ve moved backwards in time with the birth years we’ve added, and as of now we’ve reached the 1938 birth year. But with a full twelve months of voting now complete since we began, we can add a later birth year, while remaining within the original parameter of inducting only players 44 years old or older. So this round, in honor of the first anniversary of the beginning of the COG voting, adds to the ballot those players born in 1969. Rules and lists are, as usual, after the jump. Continue reading
Two of the longest-enduring star pitchers of modern times led the voting this round, with Phil Niekro winning out over Gaylord Perry to become the 38th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Niekro and the voting after the jump. Continue reading
In 2013, a particular batting feat occurred for the 11th game in the past 10 seasons, in the games shown below. Prior to 2004, this same batting feat had happened only 24 times in major-league history.
What is this unusual batting feat that has become more commonplace (relatively speaking) in recent years?
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apr 10, 2013 | LAA | OAK | L,5-11 |
| 2 | Aug 12, 2011 | ATL | CHC | W,10-4 |
| 3 | Aug 29, 2009 | CHW | NYY | L,0-10 |
| 4 | Aug 4, 2009 | NYM | STL | L,7-12 |
| 5 | Sep 2, 2008 | NYY | TBR | W,7-2 |
| 6 | Jun 7, 2008 | FLA | CIN | W,8-7 |
| 7 | May 27, 2008 | BOS | SEA | L,3-4 |
| 8 | Aug 22, 2007 | TOR | OAK | L,1-4 |
| 9 | Jul 2, 2007 | HOU | PHI | W,7-5 |
| 10 | May 3, 2007 | TEX | NYY | L,3-4 |
| 11 | Aug 28, 2005 | CIN | PIT | W,7-2 |
Hint: 1994 is the only other season with multiple games
Congratulations to John Autin! He correctly identified that a player recorded his 1000th extra-base hit in each of these games. More on this under-appreciated milestone after the jump.
This post looks at the distribution of standout position players across decades, both Hall of Famers and others. The seed was birtelcom’s recent “Hall of Famers by Final Year in the Majors,” and more precisely, from an exchange we had in those comments, which I’ll summarize (with apology for any loss of context to birtelcom’s quote):
Who are the best starting pitchers of the past 60+ years? One way to answer that question is using RE24, the measure of how much a pitcher reduces his opponent’s’ run expectancy with each batter faced.
Starting from each of the 24 base-out states (ranging from nobody on, nobody out to to bases loaded, two out), there is an expected number of runs a team will score in the remainder of that inning, based on average hitters facing average pitchers. With the result of each plate appearance, a pitcher is credited with the resulting change in run expectancy (which can be positive or negative) less any runs allowed.
RE24, then, tells you how many runs a pitcher saved or cost his team relative to the average pitcher in the same base-out situations. Over the course of a career, the batters each pitcher faces will collectively approximate an average batter, allowing some reasonable basis for comparing different pitchers (with the possibly large caveat that RE24 does not adjust for park factors, team defense or other factors).
After the jump, the top 50 since 1950.