Yu Darvish–yu stud!
Posted Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 at 8:22 am by Andy
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Here are some quick thoughts on Yu Darvish’s near-perfecto last night.
Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports
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Notes from last night’s Astros-Rangers game
Posted Monday, April 1st, 2013 at 8:55 am by Andy
Justin Maxwell / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
There’s Justin Maxwell, standing on third base after tripling, as he did twice last night. Here are the only other guys since 1916 to hit two triples on Opening Day:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Pena | 2007-04-02 | KCR | BOS | W 7-1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | Tommy Henrich | 1950-04-18 | NYY | BOS | W 15-10 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Arky Vaughan | 1941-04-15 | PIT | CHC | L 4-7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Bubbles Hargrave | 1924-04-15 | CIN | PIT | W 6-5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Tillie Walker | 1917-04-11 | BOS | NYY | W 10-3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
Tillie Walker didn’t score after either triple, but he did drive in 4.
Rick Ankiel hit a pinch 3-run homer. Although this is also a pretty rare Opening Day feat, George Kottaras did it last year for the Brewers.
Since 1916, he’s only the 11th player to hit a 3-run pinch-HR (or grand slam) on Opening Day:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA | BOP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Kottaras | 2012-04-06 | MIL | STL | L 5-11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 9 |
| 2 | Mendy Lopez | 2004-04-05 | KCR | CHW | W 9-7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.443 | 9 |
| 3 | Mark Sweeney | 1999-04-05 | CIN | SFG | L 8-11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.204 | 9 |
| 4 | Geno Petralli | 1992-04-06 | TEX | SEA | W 12-10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.589 | 1 |
| 5 | Terry Whitfield | 1984-04-03 | LAD | STL | L 7-11 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.120 | 6 |
| 6 | Bobby Murcer | 1981-04-09 | NYY | TEX | W 10-3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.029 | 8 |
| 7 | Norm Miller | 1970-04-07 | HOU | SFG | W 8-5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0.451 | 9 |
| 8 | Duffy Dyer | 1969-04-08 | NYM | MON | L 10-11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.030 | 8 |
| 9 | Charlie Maxwell | 1959-04-10 | DET | CHW | L 7-9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.442 | 8 |
| 10 | Frank Welch | 1925-04-14 | PHA | BOS | W 9-8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 |
These were all 3-run shots, save Bobby Murcer’s pinch homer, which was of the bases-full variety. Note there may be other players who entered as a pinch-hitter and amassed 3 RBI over more than 1 plate appearance, but these are the only guys to get at least 3 RBI on the homer.
Erik Bedard got a save the easy way, pitching 3+ innings in a game that was pretty much out of reach. He’s the first guy to get an Opening Day save while pitching at least 3 innings in a long time:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terry Adams | 2000-04-03 | LAD | MON | W 10-4 | 7-9f ,S | 3.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Kevin Jarvis | 1997-04-01 | CIN | COL | W 11-4 | 7-9f ,S | 3.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| 3 | Mike Perez | 1995-04-26 | CHC | CIN | W 7-1 | 7-9f ,S | 3.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | Terry Leach | 1993-04-06 | CHW | MIN | W 10-5 | 7-9f ,S | 3.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Wilson Alvarez | 1992-04-07 | CHW | CAL | W 10-4 | 7-9f ,S | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 6 | Jeff Robinson | 1988-04-05 | PIT | PHI | W 5-3 | 6-9f ,S | 3.2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| 7 | Bill Dawley | 1987-04-07 | STL | CHC | W 9-3 | 6-9f ,S | 4.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 8 | Mark Davis | 1986-04-08 | SFG | HOU | W 8-3 | 7-9f ,S | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Ron Robinson | 1986-04-07 | CIN | PHI | W 7-4 | 6-9f ,S | 3.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 10 | Bruce Sutter | 1984-04-03 | STL | LAD | W 11-7 | 7-9f ,S | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Before Sutter in 1984, as you would guess, it was done quite often.
The Astros played their first game as an AL team 15 years to the day after the Brewers played their first game as an NL team. In that game, Bob Wickman took the loss in the 9th as Kerry Ligtenberg won despite walking 4 while recording only 4 outs. I would love it if somebody could find a link between these two games–maybe a guy who coached in one but played in the other?
Announcing the High Heat Stats Player Quiz!
Posted Sunday, March 31st, 2013 at 3:01 pm by Andy
I’m very, very sorry to announce the High Heat Stats Player Quiz, as whatever free time you had is about to be sucked up.
This quiz is totally free (at some point you might have to watch a video ad when you begin a new session).
To learn more about the quiz, go to the quiz page. Note that you can reach this page from the button on the navigation bar at the top saying “Player Quiz”. From there, there’s a link to launch the actual quiz.
Thanks to Sean Lahman for the use of his database, and to Aaron M. for coding this to my specifications.
Go crazy, folks!
Happy Opening Day 2013! (part 3)
Posted Sunday, March 31st, 2013 at 9:00 am by Andy
Thanks to Adam D. for this poster concept.
Happy Opening Day 2013! (part 2)
Posted Saturday, March 30th, 2013 at 9:00 am by Andy
Happy Opening Day 2013!
Posted Friday, March 29th, 2013 at 9:22 am by Andy
@Fangraphs and @Baseball_ref unify their replacement level values
Posted Thursday, March 28th, 2013 at 1:24 pm by Andy
In an announcement on fangraphs.com, it’s been revealed that they and Baseball-Reference.com have unified the replacement level used for WAR calculations, meaning that bWAR and fWAR will now be the same.
I just chatted with our old friend @Neil_Paine about this and got some info:
- Previously, B-R used a win level of 51-52 per 162 games as the replacement basis.
- The new level is 47-48 wins per 162 games, which will be used by both sites.
- Thus fWAR levels for all players are going down, and bWAR levels for all players are going up.
- Previously, the longer a player’s career was, the larger the discrepancy existed between the two values.
- This means that players with long careers (like Jack Morris….sigh) will get larger bumps up in rWAR or bumps down in fWAR.
Life expectancy of a Hall of Famer
Posted Thursday, March 28th, 2013 at 10:46 am by Andy
In response to a question I was asked on Twitter, I figured out the age at death for all of MLB’s Hall of Famers. Click through for the info.
Padding the totals: highest percentage of low-leverage RBI
Posted Monday, March 11th, 2013 at 10:58 am by Andy
Here’s a very quick post that I still think you’ll find interesting. I found the top 100 players of all time in terms of RBI from low-leverage situations. Hank Aaron is #1, as you might expect, since he’s pretty much #1 in anything RBI-related. Then, I calculated the fraction those low-leverage RBI represented of their total career RBI. Let’s call this the “Alex Rodriguez RBI” stat, since he’s so often accused of driving in runs when they don’t really matter.
Click through for the large table of how these 100 guys stack up. Read the rest of this entry
Beta-testers wanted for a new feature
Posted Friday, March 1st, 2013 at 12:18 pm by Andy
I’m looking for a few beta testers for a new High Heat Stats feature–a stats-based game. If you want to try it out, and you’re available to spend a few minutes on it over this weekend, email me:
