The Mount Rushmore of the Cleveland Indians

1952 Bowman #115 Larry Doby

The Indians joined the American League in 1901 but were known as the Blues that year. In 1902 they were called the Broncos, and in 1902 they were called the Naps. They stuck with that name until 1915, when they were finally branded as the Indians.

From 1901 to 1947, the Indians finished first just once, in 1920, when the won the World Series. They won it again in 1948, and made it but lost in 1954. They then went through a terrible stretch in the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s when they were routinely one of the worst teams in the league (hence why they were the subject of the movie Major League). Come 1994, though, they had a core of good young players. The Indians were the first team to lock up young players prior to free agency, giving them above-market contracts for arbitration-eligible players, and it paid off. After a 2nd-place finish that year, they rung off 5 straight 1st-place finishes (although they made the World Series twice, they lost both times.) Since then, it’s been up-and-down, with additional playoff appearances in 2001 and 2007, but no titles since 1948.

Let’s take a look at who belongs on their monument. Continue reading

Unlucky no more – Matt Cain is perfect

Matt Cain recorded the first ever perfect game for the Giants’ franchise, as San Francisco bombed Houston 10-0 at AT&T Park. Cain’s 14 strikeouts tied Sandy Koufax for the most ever in a perfecto. The key defensive play came on a deep fly ball by Jordan Schafer leading off the 7th, as right-fielder Gregor Blanco made a diving catch on the warning track. The final out was recorded on a true Joaquin Arias throw from deep behind 3rd base, on a weak grounder by pinch-hitter Jason Castro.

Cain’s gem is the 9th no-hitter in Giants history, following former teammate Jonathan Sanchez who no-hit the Padres without a walk on July 10th, 2009. Earlier this season, Cain logged a one-hit 1-0 shutout against the Pirates, with opposing starter James McDonald the only Buc to reach base.

This is the second perfect game this season, following Philip Humber of the White Sox who blanked Seattle on April 21st. Two perfect games in a season has happened only twice before – in 2010 by Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay, and way back in 1880 by Lee Richmond and Monte Ward. This is also the 5th perfect game in the past 4 seasons, the most concentrated grouping of perfectos ever. In comparison, the 5 preceding perfect games occurred over 14 seasons, from 1991 to 2004.

Wednesday wanderings

[Curse you, human need for sleep! Fortunately, Doug covered the big story.]

Nationals 6, @Blue Jays 2: So what else is new? Six strong by Strasburg (8 Ks, just 89 pitches); two scoreless by Stammen (4 Ks); six straight wins over all for Washington, and 7 straight against three erstwhile AL East powers.

  • Strasburg is the first pitcher to 100 strikeouts this year. He also leads the majors in K rate, 11.7 SO/9.
  • Continue reading

Tuesday tidbits (expansion edition)

Padres 5, @Mariners 4: Hang on, I’ll think o’ something….

  • Everth Cabrera had the 13th known game with at least 3 steals and a triple, but no more than 1 run scored, and just the 2nd such game since 1991. Of the others, special mention goes to Tony Scott, who did it with 5 hits, including a double (1979-05-09); and to Vince Coleman, who had 2 hits, a walk and four steals, but never scored in a shutout loss to the Mets (1986-06-30).
  • Continue reading

Monday game notes — complete coverage!

Nationals 6, @Red Sox 4: Washington is 5-2 in interleague play, with a scoring margin of 36-23, which just happens to be their season record. Edwin Jackson continued his strong year with 8 innings of 2-run ball; he has a 1.01 WHIP in 12 starts (prior career average 1.48).

  • The Nats have 4 qualified starters with an ERA+ of 130 or better. Dropping the threshold to 125, the only team to do that since WWII was the 1997 Braves.
  • Continue reading

The Mount Rushmore of the Minnesota Twins

1970 Topps #62: AL Batting Leaders / Rod Carew, Reggie Smith, & Tony Oliva

The Twins began life in MLB as the Washington Senators, joining the AL in 1901 along with a bunch of other teams. It took until their 24th season in 1924 to make the playoffs, but they won the World Series that year. They made the World Series, losing both times, twice in following 9 years.

In 1961, the franchise moved to Minnesota and renamed itself the Twins.  The team was a force in the late 1960s, finishing first or second 5 times between 1965 and 1970, but losing in the playoffs each year. The Twins won it all in 1987 and again in 1991, and then went into a period of suffering as a small market team. That changed in 2002 when the team posted a 1st place finish (one of 6 between ’02 and ’10) but again the team has lost all 6 times in the playoffs.

In 2011, the Twins turned suddenly dreadful, losing 99 games, and they have been only a bit better so far in 2012.

Let’s take a look at this team’s long list of great players.

Continue reading

Weekend game notes

SUNDAY

@Pirates 3, Royals 2Ladies and gentlemen, your first-place Bucs! Winning 12 of 15 (including 4 of 6 from Cincinnati), they’ve surged from 5th place to forge a tie with the Reds. We can celebrate it, but we can’t explain it. Their offense is last in the majors in scoring and in OPS+, they’ve been outscored by 17 runs, the cleanup spot has been a black hole (.200, 4 HRs), and they have just one player with an OPS+ of 100 or better — not just one regular, but one player, period.

The 10 worst ERAs of all time

Responding to a reader question, here are the 10 worst seasonal ERAs for pitchers who qualified for the ERA title:

Rk Player ERA Year Tm G GS W L IP H R ER BB SO ERA+ HR
1 Les Sweetland 7.71 1930 PHI 34 25 7 15 167.0 271 164 143 60 36 71 24
2 Jim Deshaies 7.39 1994 MIN 25 25 6 12 130.1 170 109 107 54 78 66 30
3 Jack Knott 7.29 1936 SLB 47 23 9 17 192.2 272 174 156 93 60 73 15
4 Jose Lima 6.99 2005 KCR 32 32 5 16 168.2 219 140 131 61 80 63 31
5 LaTroy Hawkins 6.66 1999 MIN 33 33 10 14 174.1 238 136 129 60 103 76 29
6 Jose Lima 6.65 2000 HOU 33 33 7 16 196.1 251 152 145 68 124 75 48
7 Greg Harris 6.65 1994 COL 29 19 3 12 130.0 154 99 96 52 82 75 22
8 Darryl Kile 6.61 1999 COL 32 32 8 13 190.2 225 150 140 109 116 88 33
9 Chubby Dean 6.61 1940 PHA 30 19 6 13 159.1 220 136 117 63 38 67 21
10 Nels Potter 6.60 1939 PHA 41 25 8 12 196.1 258 163 144 88 60 71 26
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/11/2012.

That’s an interesting set, considering that all 10 seasons are from either 1930-1940 or 1994-present.

Let’s look, instead, at the 10 worst ERA+ values, which corrects for overall scoring and ballpark:

Rk Player ERA+ Year Tm G GS W L IP H R ER BB SO ERA HR
1 Rube Bressler 56 1915 PHA 32 20 4 17 178.1 183 133 103 118 69 5.20 3
2 Gene Wright 58 1903 TOT 23 20 6 15 162.2 195 123 90 74 79 4.98 3
3 Pol Perritt 61 1913 STL 36 21 6 14 175.0 205 123 102 64 64 5.25 9
4 Elmer Myers 62 1917 PHA 38 23 9 16 201.2 221 122 99 79 88 4.42 2
5 Oscar Jones 62 1905 BRO 29 20 8 15 174.0 197 121 90 56 66 4.66 6
6 Dan Griner 63 1913 STL 34 34 10 22 225.0 279 150 127 66 79 5.08 12
7 Jose Lima 63 2005 KCR 32 32 5 16 168.2 219 140 131 61 80 6.99 31
8 Happy Finneran 63 1918 TOT 28 15 3 8 128.0 156 69 63 43 36 4.43 7
9 Irv Young 64 1907 BSN 40 32 10 23 245.1 287 131 108 58 86 3.96 5
10 Tom Fisher 64 1904 BSN 31 21 6 16 214.0 257 165 101 82 84 4.25 5
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/11/2012.

So now these guys are all from 1918 or earlier, with the exception of Jose Lima in 2005, who made both lists. This tells you that a lot of bad pitchers were allowed to keep on pitching early in baseball history. (I should mention that both of these lists are 1901-present.)

I think that the first list above basically tells you when the two high-scoring eras of baseball were, and the second list basically tells you that pitchers were used differently (i.e. not allowed to finish out the year if they were horrible) come the 1920s.