Just a handful of games remaining, and five division winners are confirmed, and the sixth nearly so. The NL wildcard teams are also essentially confirmed, but a different story in the AL with three teams chasing two spots, and none of them close to being safe and dry. This post looks at the NL contenders, with its AL companion to appear shortly. More after the jump.
Justin Verlander no-hit the Blue Jays on Sunday, allowing just one walk and retiring the final 26 batters in order. He becomes just the fifth pitcher since 1893 with three no-hit games, joining Nolan Ryan (7), Sandy Koufax (4), Bob Feller (3) and Cy Young (3). More on Verlander’s gem is after the jump.
There is a wealth of technical data available today on pitching, the basics like the type of pitch and its location, and the exotic, covering everything from velocity to movement (vertical and horizontal) to spin rate. But, what may be lost in all of the numbers is which pitches were most or least effective in getting batters out. More on the best pitchers and their best pitches is after the jump.
Most player milestone games are well documented, at least for the past 75 years or more. That, of course, is because the milestone is anticipated, often making the game when the milestone is reached somewhat anti-climatic. But, I’ll be looking at a different type of milestone game in this post, milestones that are not anticipated, not even by the players involved. More on these mystery milestones are after the jump.
Home runs and strikeouts are both on the rise this year, to new record levels. So, what else is new, you say. Find out after the jump.
The eyes of the baseball world briefly turned to the Dominican Summer League (DSL) yesterday, where the DSL Yankees trounced the DSL Twins by a score of 38-2. After a scoreless first inning the Yankees tallied in every subsequent frame.
The scoreline was reportedly record-breaking. MilB.com wrote that the DSL Yankees “are believed to have broken the all-time Minor League record for runs in a game, set by Rookie Advanced Ogden in a 33-10 Pioneer League romp over Helena on Aug. 27, 1995.”
I can tell you of at least one game that featured more runs than that.
Continue readingHHS contributor “no statistician but” continues his look at Hall of Famers who maybe shouldn’t be. Specifically, he’s examining those HOFers with a Hall of Stats rating under 100. Earlier posts looked at position players. This post concludes the series with a look at pitchers. More after the jump.
Michael Hoban closes out his series on the CAWS Career Gauge with this last installment identifying the players, both those who achieved Hall-worthy career performance as measured by CAWS and those who did not. More after the jump.
HHS contributor Michael Hoban has written a comprehensive paper on assessing career value for players of the past century (since 1920), commonly known as the live ball era. In Part 1. Michael introduced his CAWS metric, which stands for Career Assessment Win Shares, based on the Win Shares system developed by Bill James. In Part 2, Michael examines the relationship between CAWS and Hall of Fame-worthy careers.
For a quick diversion, here’s a list of ten notable starting pitchers of the modern era (since 1901). Which career accomplishment (min. 250 decisions) distinguishes these players among all retired pitchers of the modern era?
| Rk | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | James Shields |
| 2 | Kevin Tapani |
| 3 | Kevin Millwood |
| 4 | Earl Moore |
| 5 | Mike Flanagan |
| 6 | Rube Walberg |
| 7 | Mickey Lolich |
| 8 | Rube Marquard |
| 9 | George Mullin |
| 10 | Doug Drabek |
Congratulations to Bob Eno. He knew that only these pitchers compiled a .550 W-L% in 200+ decisions over their first 10 seasons, but then slid below .450 in 50+ decisions for the rest of their careers. More after the jump.