Monthly Archives: August 2014

Quiz – The Untouchables (stumped)

Yankee rookie Dellin Betances is having a season so far that puts him in the company of some of baseball’s all-time great relievers. What seasonal pitching feat has been achieved only by these players?

Hint: Betances will need to continue his strong performance the rest of the season to remain with this group.

Looks like I’ve stumped the panel on this one. The answer is that these are the only right-handed pitchers since 1901 to have a season with 80% of appearances in relief, 75+ IP and a ratio of ERA+ to WHIP exceeding 300. Betances’s ratio is currently at 347 times WHIP, so he has a good chance to still be on this list at season’s end. If he does, he will likely have the highest IP total for such a season (lefty or righty) since Bruce Sutter in 1977. More after the jump.

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RBI Masters: Manny being Manny or Answering the Belle

A common and legitimate criticism of using RBI as a measure of a hitter’s effectiveness is that RBI are opportunity-based and, therefore, good RBI totals may simply be an indicator of more RBI opportunities. To address this limitation in raw RBI totals, this post looks at players who are most proficient in driving in runs when they are presented with that opportunity (namely, when runners are in scoring position).

Using this approach, Albert PujolsAlbert Belle and Manny Ramirez emerge as the most proficient expansion era run producers with RISP, with Frank Thomas just a hair behind.

My thanks to regular HHS contributor Richard Chester for suggesting the idea for this post. More after the jump.

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Game Notes looks back from Monday, 8/25

Monday’s home teams went 2-8. That’s no big deal, but the MLB home win percentage is .520 this year, the lowest full-season mark since 1971. The past 10 years averaged .542 –a two-win difference over 81 games, compared to this year’s figure. Seven of the top 12 teams by overall W% have a better record on the road, including three division leaders.

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