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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This post is for voting and discussion in the 50th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats.  This round adds to the ballot those players born in 1930.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

Since the Circle of Greats was first proposed, with its birth-year based voting, followers of the process have been watching for the 1931 voting, with its extraordinary collection of birth-year talent. Sure enough, the 1931 voting has now graced the COG with two of the true all-time finest performers in the sport: Mickey Mantle from last week’s vote and Willie Mays from this week’s. More on Willie and the voting, after the jump. Continue reading →

Hal W. Smith was born in 1930 and was a starting catcher in 648 major league regular season games, in a career running from 1955 to 1964.  In 1960, Hal W., playing for the Pirates against the Yankees, hit a Game 7, eighth inning, come-from-behind, three-run homer that might have been remembered as one of the most important hits in World Series history, if it hadn’t been followed an inning later by his teammate Bill Mazeroski’s Series-ending walk-off home run.  Hal W. had originally been signed by the Yankees, but they’d traded him away after the 1954 season, as part of the huge, multi-player deal that brought Don Larsen, among others, to New York. Continue reading →

The other day I was having a chat with Graham and Dan about Bill Dahlen, Jack Glassock, and the 2016 Pre-Integration Committee ballot. You know, like normal young men do.

Graham asked me if Dahlen’s case is still strong if you don’t use WAR. I replied…

@grahamdude @leftfielddan Only non-Hall SS with 2000+ H and 110+ OPS+: Dahlen, Glasscock, Trammell, McKean (perhaps worst defender ever).

— Hall of Stats (@HallOfStats) February 28, 2014

That’s a neat little fact about my three favorite non-Hall of Fame shortstops… and Ed McKean. So Graham asked about McKean (who I called one of the worst defenders ever):

@HallOfStats @LeftFieldDan I see Ed McKean as having 4.1 dWAR. Is he bad through some other metric?

— Graham Womack (@grahamdude) February 28, 2014

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No, I’m not lamenting the unwritten rule that’s deprived us of left-throwing shortstops ever since Ragtime was the rage and hot dogs came with gloves — not right now, anyway. This is for the left-only batter, a species that’s become almost as rare.

Left-swinging Arky Vaughan came to bat for the 5,000th time in 1939, and Cecil Travis followed in ’46. That made four LHBs out of 41 shortstops with 5,000 plate appearances to date. Now let’s play a game: Of the 78 shortstops to cross 5,000 PAs since then, think of one who hit left-handed only.

Got one? You’re sure? All right, then — I will now divine your answer:

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The latest new toy from Baseball-Reference’s Play Index is the ability to condition a search to include only World Series-winning, or pennant-winning, or post-season-participating, teams.  After the jump, a first shot at a very simple search with the new capability.  Continue reading →