Betcha Didn’t Know – 2014 AL Edition |

Continuing from an earlier post on the NL, here are some statistical oddities to watch for as the 2014 season winds down.

Betcha didn’t know that …

Starting in the East this time.

Orioles – Nelson Cruz has already set a new Oriole single-season HR record for the DH position. Last season’s home run leader Chris Davis is on pace to become Baltimore’s first player to hit 20 home runs while batting under .200, a feat achieved so far only 7 times, all since 1991.

Yankees – Derek Jeter‘s farewell tour is on pace (could happen by the end of the weekend) to be the first qualifying season by a Yankee aged 40 or older. With teammate Ichiro, the Yankees are already the first AL team with two players that old playing 100+ games, doubling the franchise total for such seasons over the previous 113 years.

Blue Jays – Mark Buehrle passed 3000 IP this year and could reach 200 wins by season’s end. But, his streak of 13 straight seasons of 200 IP is in jeopardy, as the veteran lefty needs to average 7 IP over 7 more starts to extend. The longest such streak since 1901 is 17 years by Warren Spahn (1947-63), although Don Sutton and Phil Niekro would have streaks of 20 and 19 years respectively, if given a mulligan for the strike-shortened 1981 season.

Rays – Evan Longoria is struggling through the worst season of his career, and may not surpass the 2.5 WAR total that he put up in less than half a season in 2012. What ails Evan? For one thing, his .128/.607/.282 slash on 3-ball counts, shockingly lower than his career line of .262/.620/.496.

Red Sox – What a difference a year makes. As was the case last season, only two Boston players under 30 will post a qualifying season in 2014. Difference is those players were Pedroia and Ellsbury (12.3 WAR) last year, compared to Boegarts and Holt (1.6 WAR) this time round. With the 30 and over group a year older, that’s all it takes to go from penthouse to cellar.

In the Central.

Royals – Kansas City is on pace to have as many as 8 players post a qualifying season, tied with three other teams (two in strike-shortened seasons) for the most in franchise history. Problem is only one of those eight is currently sporting a 100 OPS+ (though two others are at 98 and 99), tied with four other teams for the franchise low, save for the 2004 team which had none and lost 104 games.

Tigers – Max Scherzer‘s record streak is over at 187 starts without a CG to begin a career. He, Justin Verlander and David Price make for 3 former CYA winners on the Tiger staff, a first for Detroit and tied with a host of Brave teams plus the 1980 Rangers (Perry/Jenkins/Lyle), 1981 Orioles (Palmer/Flanagan/Stone), 1998 Red Sox (Martinez/Saberhagen/Eckersley), 2000 Yankees (Clemens/Cone/Gooden), 2001 Red Sox (Martinez/Cone/Saberhagen) and 2009 Giants (Zito/Lincecum/Johnson). Any others? Of those clubs, these Tigers are the first to have CYA winners from the 3 preceding seasons.

White Sox – Jose Abreu is on pace to record the highest WAR total by a Chicago rookie since Tommie Agee posted a 6.4 score to take RoY honors in 1966. Abreu could also become the first rookie on any team to lead his league in HR, SLG and OPS (Mark McGwire led in the first two in 1987, Fred Lynn in the last two in 1975).

Twins – Joe Mauer‘s transition from catcher to first base is the first for the franchise in more than 100 years. Boileryard Clarke was the Senators’ regular backstop in 1901 and 1902, before playing 88 games at 1st base in 1903. But that’s where the similarity ends as Clarke also caught 37 games that season, and played only as catcher in 1904. Patsy Gharrity, who never played 50 games at first in any season, is the only other Senator/Twin with 100 career games at both positions.

Indians – Cleveland currently has four qualified batters (Michael Brantley / Lonnie Chisenhall / Yan Gomes / Carlos Santana) with 125 OPS+ and double-digit home run totals, tied with 3 other teams for the most in franchise history. Two of those other clubs (1954, 1995) were pennant winners and the third (2001) won a division title.

Out west.

Angels – Los Angeles has had 3 pitchers (Ernesto Frieri / Joe Smith / Huston Street) record double-digit save totals this season, the most in franchise history. Of 17 other teams to do the same, eight (47%) made the playoffs, including the world champion 1972 As.

Athletics – Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss have each passed 20 home runs and each is on pace to exceed 125 OPS+, just as they did last year. If they do repeat, it would be the first time that’s happened for the As’ corner infielders since Sal Bando and Gene Tenace on the world championship teams of 1973-74.

Mariners – Seattle is hanging tough despite having to cobble together an outfield to man spacious Safeco Field. They have a converted second baseman (Dustin Ackley, courtesy of Robinson Cano) in left field, have 3 players (Endy Chavez / Stefen Romero / Michael Saunders) with 25 games in right, and will soon have the same in center (Abraham Almonte / Austin Jackson / James Jones). The Mariners have used 3 players for 25+ games in both center and right on four prior occasions (last in 1987), but this will be the first time involving 6 different players.

Astros – Houston has two qualified batters (Jose Altuve / Chris Carter) with 125 OPS+ and two others (Dexter Fowler / George Springer) at that level who should exceed 400 PA. Four such batters with 400 PA has been achieved by only 5 Astros teams, four of which finished above .500. Barring injury, Jose Altuve should obliterate the current Astro single-season hit record of 210, set by Craig Biggio in 1998, Houston’s next-to-last year in the Astrodome and its only 200-hit season.

Rangers – Adrian Beltre just keeps rolling on. He passed the 2500 hit mark this season, the 36th player to do so by his age 35 season. How many of those players are retired but weren’t selected for the Hall – only Pete Rose and Vada Pinson. Beltre also this season passed Eddie Mathews to rank first among third basemen in games played through the age 35 season. By the end of the season, he should stand 5th among third sackers in career games played, trailing only Robinson, Nettles, Gaetti and Boggs.

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Dr. Doom

9 years ago

It strikes me that Beltre should have no trouble playing 3 more seasons. Let’s say He ALSO shouldn’t have trouble managing 300 hits in the next two seasons combined. That puts him at 2900. One more season, 100 hits. Even in part time duty with diminished skills, he should manage it. That would put him at 3000, and easy Hall of Fame induction. Huh. Neat.

Editor

John Autin

Reply to Dr. Doom

Doc, I don’t think there are any sure bets with a guy over 35. Beltre’s on pace to finish this year with close to 2,600 hits. But consider these guys through age 35: — Ed Delahanty had 2,545 hits through age 34, still a superstar, but he died during the next season. — Frank Robinson had 2,555 hits and still looked strong. But he fell short of 3,000. — Richie Ashburn had 2,574 hits and had just batted .306 with a .424 OBP, but life with the ’62 Mets was enough to drive him from the game. — Nellie Fox… Read more »

Thomas

Reply to John Autin

I hope Beltre isn’t going near Niagra Falls anytime soon.

bells

Reply to Thomas

ooooh, too soon, too soon.

Reply to bells

Delahanty’s demise is the subject of one of my favourite HHS exchanges:

http://www.highheatstats.com/2012/08/it-happened-on-tuesday/#comment-35576

David P

The Twins have used a player named Kendrys (Morlaes) and Kennys (Vargas) though never in the same game.

oneblankspace

Reply to David P

They had a Dennys and a Perkins at the same time (D. Reyes, Glen P.)

Cy Young made it 19 straight years over 200 innings (1891-1909). The first 15 of those were over 300 (320, actually). Crazy. I’m guessing you only included 1901 and later, and that’s why Spahn came out on top.

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this here before, but the 200 inning threshold is particularly cruel to Greg Maddux, who made it 21 straight years over 194. He had 199.1 in 2002, 198.0 in 2007, and 194 in 2008. He’s right up there with the rest of these guys, though.

bstar

I’m amazed that Maddux was able to keep his streaks of at least 15 wins and 200+ IP alive during the ’94-’95 strike. Maddog was baseball’s only pitcher to log 200 innings in 1994.

Reply to bstar

And it was only possible because he threw five complete games in his last seven starts (going eight innings in the other two), finishing off with a three-hit shutout in Colorado on the final day of the season to reach 202 IP.

Author

Doug

Good catch, Dr. Doom.

Yes, I was just looking at seasons since 1901.

Luis Gomez

I tought Mike Schmidt would lead third sackers un games played, or at least be on the top five.

Reply to Luis Gomez

Luis, Schmitty is #6, 3 games behind Boggs. He retired as #3 in 3B games. He might still be #3, but they played him at first base in 1985, because they thought Rick Schu could play. Those 106 games at 1B in ’85 are the difference between him being 3rd and 6th in games at 3B.

Could you (or Doug) help me understand this? Baseball-reference (http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/Gm_3b_career.shtml) says that Beltre’s ALREADY third in games played at 3B with 2312, and trails only Nettles (2412) and Robinson (2870). He should pass Nettles next season (barring major injury or unforeseen position change), though he won’t get to Robinson, probably ever. It’d take three-and-a-half more years of full-time play AFTER this year to get him in the neighborhood, and I’m just not sure he’ll make it. Point being, is there some other source for info about Beltre’s number of defensive games at 3B that I’m missing? Or is he number… Read more »

Dr. Doom, I’ll defer to Doug on Beltre’s rank for games played at 3B. Both the B-R leaderboard and the Play Index say that he’s #3.

I also ran a P-I for total games played by a career third baseman. That puts Beltre 11th right now, likely 8th by year’s end.

You’re right Dr. Doom.

The P-I query I ran (played 2000 games at 3rd base) apparently is showing total games played by those who meet the query criteria. Beltre should stand 5th on that list by season’s end.

Should just have referred to the B-R Leaders page as John mentioned.

Mark

Smallest curiosity here…if I’m reading correctly the implication that the Yankees have had two prior 40-or-older’s to play 100+ games in a season, one of them would be Raul Ibanez just in 2012, right? He came quickly to mind for me, but I have no real guesses at all for the other. Avid reader and very occasional commenter here, always like to take the opportunity to thank y’all for all the fun here!

Reply to Mark

The other is Deacon McGuire, who played 101 games as a 40-year-old for the New York Highlanders in 1904… as the club’s primary catcher. Only Bob Boone and Carlton Fisk have played 100+ games at an older age with their primary position being catcher.