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?

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.

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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.

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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?

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.

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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.

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All of these players are well known singles hitters. But, among all power-starved batters to play their entire careers since 1901, what career accomplishment distinguishes these retired players?

Bonus: Who is the one active player on pace to join this group?

Howard got the bonus question, and Richard Chester was most of the way there with the solution. But they didn’t quite put all the pieces together. The solution is after the jump.

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This past season, Miguel Cabrera turned 30 and passed the 350 home run and 1200 RBI milestones, while maintaining a career OPS+ above 150. Only four other players have done the same.

After the jump, more on Cabrera and what might lie ahead for him.

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All of these players are All-Stars who received MVP votes at least once in their careers. Beyond that, they may not appear to share many similarities. Yet, among players to play their entire careers since 1961, these are the only hitters with a certain career accomplishment.

What is this unusual batting feat?

Congratulations to Richard Chester! He correctly identified that, among players who have played their entire careers since 1961, these are the only hitters with a career total for intentional walks more than 50% higher than their GIDP total.

More on this unusual batting quirk after the jump.

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One of the metrics for evaluating situational hitting is RE24. For those of who aren’t familiar, that stands for Run Expectancy in the 24 base-out states.

RE24 is calculated as the difference in run expectancy before and after a PA, plus any runs that score as a result of the PA. The run expectancies in that calculation are based on empirical results for each base-out state, from nobody on, nobody out to bases loaded, two out. Run expectancy means how many future runs would expect to score in an inning starting from each base-out state, assuming a team of identical average hitters facing identical average pitchers. The run expectancies are pretty intuitive: the more runners on and the fewer the outs, the higher the run expectancy, and vice-versa.

RE24 for a PA can be positive or negative and thus can be summed over a game, a season, or a career. The results apply to both pitchers and hitters. Thus, a positive RE24 for a batter in a given PA is a negative RE24 for the pitcher, and vice-versa. One caveat is that RE24 scores are not adjusted for inning, game score, batting order position, platoon advantage, park effects, or anything else. Thus, RE24 is often most useful when comparing players on the same team.

More on 2013 situational hitting results after the jump.  Continue reading →

Derek Jeter has long had the nickname Captain Clutch, a moniker usually attributed to his post-season performance. Indeed, that post-season career reads pretty much like a a full season stat line. A very good stat line.

But, for regular season play, who are the top clutch performers in today’s game? I’ll tell you after the jump.

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These are the only players since 1901 with a particular seasonal batting feat, first introduced by Jim Wynn. A batter before his time, Wynn had been out of baseball for a decade before any of these other hitters had played a full season.

What is the seasonal batting feat Wynn pioneered that is now coming into vogue?

Congratulations to Richard Chester! He correctly identified that these are the only players since 1901 having a qualifying season with more strikeouts than hits, and with a run total exceeding 80% of the hit total. This combination of modest hits and immodest strikeouts surprisingly resulting in lots of runs is, aside from Jim Wynn, a very recent phenomenon.

More after the jump.

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