As first pitch is just hours away, here are some memorable opening day performances, some by notable players and some not.

Included is Raul Mondesi’s 1999 monster game (for which the card at left was issued) and lots more. Have some fun with a tour down opening day memory lane.

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Below is a list of noteworthy players of the past half-century. Among all players to play their entire careers since 1961, what is the common trait shared only by these players?

Hint: the common trait is a career “accomplishment”.

Congratulations to Ed and Birtelcom! They teamed up to identify these players as the HOFers to player their entire careers since 1961 and who played with 10 or more other HOF teammates. Tops on this list is Gaylord Perry with 17 HOF teammates, approaching half of the 41 HOFers from this period.

The true power pitcher has long been the province of the celebrated elite of the pitching fraternity. In its most elemental form, baseball is a competition between the batter and the pitcher, with every pitch a renewal of that contest. Long celebrated are those few pitchers who can, when most needed, blow the ball past the hitter to secure the key out. But those days may now be past.

In today’s baseball of K marks littering the scorecards of most ballgames, what once was a rare pitching skill is now just a commodity. Most every pitcher is now expected to be able to retire at least a handful or more of batters each game without aid of his defense.

After the jump, more on the demise of power pitching as an elite skill.

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In this quiz, I’m presenting the core of a dream pitching staff. The reason I’ve selected these seven pitchers is that they alone  have distinguished themselves among all pitchers since 1961 (min. 1000 IP in that period) in a certain, two-part career accomplishment.

What is this career accomplishment that separates these pitchers from all others?

Hint: both parts of the quiz answer involve traditional pitching statistics

It seems I have stumped our esteemed panel. As you quickly noted the above pitchers were noteworthy for both their strikeouts and their control. But, the characteristic that distinguishes them from their brethren is that, since 1961, only these pitchers (min. 1000 IP) have career SO/9 and BB/9 that are both more than 1 better (i.e. more than 1 strikeout, and more than 1 walk) than the MLB average marks during the years of their careers.

What are the make or break years for major-leaguers? While there is obviously no 100% rule that applies to every player, a good rule of thumb is 3/15/25. Come again? What I mean is that players who compile at least 15 total WAR over three seasons, aged 23, 24 and 25, will usually have long and productive careers. But, those who don’t – well, not so much.

After the jump, I’ll explain further and preview some of the current breed of future stars.

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When it comes to allowing unearned runs, are pitchers masters of their own fate, or innocent victims of circumstance (or, perhaps, not so innocent)? That is the question I’ll look at in this second installment on unearned run prevention.

In Part 1 of this series, I looked at what evidence there might be to support the hypothesis that unearned run avoidance was a skill that some pitchers could consistently demonstrate over their careers. The major conclusion was that, since 1961, team ERA and team unearned run prevention showed positive correlation. That is, of those teams successful in limiting unearned runs, the proportion with better pitching (i.e. lower ERAs) was higher than for groups of teams having less success in preventing unearned runs. This conclusion also seems intuitively correct – pitchers who are good at preventing earned runs are probably also good at preventing unearned runs.

In Part 2, I’ll take the next step and try to identify those pitchers who seem most and least adept at the skill of preventing unearned runs. Yes, I called it a skill because, while some errors lead immediately and unavoidably to runs scoring, many times the consequences are not so dire, affording pitchers the opportunity to work out of jambs caused by their defense. Whether because of temperament or determination, some pitchers seem to do this quite well, while others … well, not so much.

After the jump, more on pitchers and unearned runs.

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Towards the end of this coming season, we may see something that hasn’t ever happened before. At least not involving players on the same team.

This something (whatever it is) has occurred involving players on opposing teams only rarely, including in the following games.

Cardinals 4, Nationals 2 – Aug 27, 2010

Yankees 4, Braves 3 – June 28, 2006

Mariners 5, Rangers 2 – June 27, 1999

Orioles 6, Twins 5 – July 2, 1966

Giants 11, Braves 10 – Sept 19, 1961

So, what is this something?

Hint: if it doesn’t happen this year, it won’t happen next year, either.

Congratulations to ATarwerdi96! He correctly identified that, with a 40 home run season this year, Prince Fielder would join Tiger teammate Miguel Cabrera in the 300 HR club and do so when both are aged 30 or younger.  As far as I can tell, it would be the first time a team has had two such players. The closest so far has been the 1962 Braves, with Eddie Mathews, aged 30, at 399 home runs, and 28 year-old Hank Aaron with 298 round-trippers.

After the jump, more on precocious home run hitters, including the players represented in the box score clues.

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Here is a list of well-known ballplayers, all connected by a common seasonal batting achievement.

Your job: find that common batting feat, and identify the missing ballplayers needed to complete this list.

Note: there is no significance to the multi-column list; a single column list would have worked just as well

Congratulations to Ed on identifying these hitters as the record holders for home runs in a season at a specific age. After that, it was a true team effort to identify the remaining mystery players, shown in red above. So, thanks to everyone for playing.

Interestingly, there is a single HR  record-holder for every age – no ties. See the complete list of these record HR seasons after the jump.

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While not much remarked upon, in 2012 the Yankees completed their eighth consecutive season with a left-side infield of Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. At this juncture, it seems likely it will be nine seasons running with this trio in 2013. In that time, the Yankees have claimed just a single pennant, which was cashed in for a WS championship in 2009. Despite that pennant drought (by Yankee standards), the Yankees did make the playoffs in all but one of those eight seasons.

This Yankee trio is in the same class for longevity as the 1970s Dodgers who famously featured Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey (and Steve Garvey at 1B) from 1973 to 1981, a period during which the Dodgers claimed four pennants, but only one World Series title.

Usually when a team maintains the same infield year in and year out, defense is at least part of the reason why. But, that hasn’t been the case for the Yankees. After the jump, I’ll explore this topic in a bit more depth.

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Here are what might appear to be a random collection of ballplayers. Represented are players from each of the past 7 decades.

But, there is a common batting feat that connects the following list of players. What is that feat?

Hint: these are only retired players to achieve this feat since 1946

Congratulations to Insert Name Here and Richard Chester. INH identified these players as the only retired players with careers of 1500 or fewer hits that included a season since 1946 of 200 hits and 50 RBI. Of the 102 retired players with a 200 hit season since 1946, only 11 failed to parlay that success into a career of more than 1500 hits. Those 11 include the 10 players in our quiz plus Bob Dillinger, whose 200 hit season produced only 44 RBI. Dillinger’s career was only 753 games, the only player of those 102 not to reach 1000 games, which was the alternative solution to the quiz identified by Richard Chester.