This quiz identifies the only players with a season since 1961 achieving a particular offensive feat. What is this unusual achievement?

Congratulations to Dan Mallon! He correctly identified that these are the only players having a qualifying season since 1961 with more times caught stealing than extra-base hits, “burning” their own teams with their speed and lack of offensive punch. Those seasons are after the jump.
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Number 1 and Number 2 in the majors in pitches thrown during each regular season, 2009-2013:
2013 Justin Verlander 3,692, James Shields 3,657
2012 Justin Verlander 3,768, James Shields 3,617
2011 Justin Verlander 3,941, Dan Haren 3,774
2010 Dan Haren 3,749, Justin Verlander 3,745
2009 Justin Verlander 3,937, Felix Hernandez 3,633

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This Circle of Greats (COG) vote is not to induct anyone into the Circle, but only to select two players who will be restored back on to the main ballot after having been previously been dropped from eligibility.  This fourth “redemption round” (we also held such rounds after the 1960, 1950 and 1940 rounds of voting) gives voters a chance to reconsider past candidates who have been rejected.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

This post is for voting and discussion in the 51st round of balloting for the Circle of Greats.  This round adds to the ballot those players born in 1929.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

After two rounds of balloting in which he received powerful voting support but fell short of induction, coming in behind first Mickey Mantle and then Willie Mays, Eddie Mathews this week rose to the top to become the 50th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats.  More on Eddie and the voting after the jump. Continue reading →

While there can be many ways to measure a position player’s offensive value, one method could be to evaluate the proportion of his team’s runs that are attributable to his own offensive contributions, a quantity that might be described as “Run Share”. That approach identifies these players as most valuable to their teams in 2013.

• AL – Mike Trout, 19.1% run share
• NL – Paul Goldschmidt, 18.7% run share

Those selections were based on FanGraphs‘ version of Runs Created (wRC), represented as a proportion of the actual runs that the player’s team scored. After the jump, more on Run Shares as a measure of offensive value.

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Today is Pi Day, March 14, 3/14, which seems to have become a thing.  It ‘s kind of odd, really, to rely on a simple three-digit calendar designation to commemorate a mathematical phenomenon the most intriguing aspect of which is its status as an irrational number.  But, hey, any occasion that celebrates two of my favorite things, numbers and bakery products, is OK with me.

Pi taken out to the fifth decimal place is 3.14159.
Joey Votto’s current career batting average taken out to the  seventh decimal place is .3141509.   Joey wins this year’s Archimedes Closest to Pi award.

Other baseball 314’s are after the jump. Continue reading →

Roy Halladay, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera had the three highest career pitching WAR numbers among all pitchers who were active in the majors during 2013.  (As usual in my posts, WAR here is Wins Above Replacement in the baseball-reference.com version).  Halladay, Pettitte and Rivera have all announced their retirements, leaving Tim Hudson as the current leader in career WAR among pitchers expected to be active in 2014. Continue reading →

In birtelcom’s post on Willie Mays‘ induction into the Circle of Greats, a comment was made that Mays is one of only two players to play in 150+ games for 13 consecutive seasons (the other, flying under our radar, is Bobby Abreu). This prompted a general discussion of players who most consistently answered the bell, day in and day out, year after year.

After the jump, record holders in games played for every age range.

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In 1944-45, the height of the wartime talent depletion, some hitters had good years far above their career norms. Which ones were the most out of context?

This, of course, is “the Snuffy Stirnweiss question.” His first two full years in the majors, 1944-45, were both excellent offensive seasons for any hitter, and — because he was also a slick keystone fielder — rank second all-time in WAR for a player’s 2nd & 3rd years combined. In the rest of his career, Stirnweiss was a solid player, but a below-average hitter.

Do any other players fit that mold?

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