Perhaps the most fascinating of this year’s award debates is the National League Cy Young race. Johnny Cueto, RA Dickey, Gio Gonzalez, and Clayton Kershaw all have compelling cases, and if voters are looking for dominance over accumulated value, Ar

oldis Chapman, Craig Kimbrel, Kris Medlen, and Stephen Strasburg are worth discussing as well.

A quick look at fangraphs’ pitching WAR leaderboard suggests that Cliff Lee may have a place in this conversation as well. Lee ranks third in fWAR, just .6 wins behind Kershaw and .5 behind Gonzalez. Baseball-reference ranks Lee eighth, bunched up with five other pitchers behind Kershaw, Cueto, and Dickey at the top. After the jump, I’ll examine 12 candidates based on some key numbers.

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The 2011 card image on the left identifies Omar Vizquel as a third baseman. Vizquel, though, wrapped up his 24-year career this week as the all-time leader in games played at shortstop, a mark that Derek Jeter may surpass in 2014 or later. Over his career, Vizquel has competed against rival shortstops ranging from Alan Trammell to Elvis Andrus. Among all those opponents, I was curious which one, paired with Vizquel, represented the most combined game experience ever at the position.

After the jump, I’ll look at the question of which historical games featured  starters having the most combined games experience at each position.

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@Athletics 12, Rangers 5: The turnabout’s complete. Call it comeback or collapse, the AL West is draped in gold and green. Trailing Texas by 9 at the Break, and by 4 with 6 to play after a split in Arlington, Oakland won out, while the mighty Rangers — two-time AL champs, preseason favorites, alone in 1st from April 9 through October 1 — lost 5 of 6, and went 15-16 from September 1.

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In the wake of last night’s sterling hurling by the O’s and Rays, here’s a look back at the six previous Baltimore games in which both teams had 2 hits or less. (Why Baltimore games? Well, I could bluster, “Because history is written by the winners!” Or I could just note that Tuesday’s was the first such game in Tampa history.)

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Curt Schilling rates as the 16th best pitcher of all time, according to wWAR. (Photo via Wikipedia)

Last month, I asked you to talk about David Cone, a pitcher who my latest version of wWAR (weighted WAR) deems as Hall-worthy. What makes Cone unique is that he accumulated quite a bit of value in a limited amount of time. It’s not that he didn’t have a long career—it’s just that injuries limited the number of innings he threw.

For example, Cone ranks 50th all time in Wins Above Replacement but 40th all time in Wins Above Average. So, he didn’t last forever and pad his numbers, but he still provided value above average on par with many all-time greats.

Today I want to talk about somebody who is similar to Cone, but takes things to a whole new level.

Let’s talk about Curt Schilling.

Curt Schilling is a polarizing figure. There’s the bloody sock. There’s 38 Studios. There’s the outspokeness. There’s the postseason dominance.

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I’m just gonna toss stuff up on the fly here, for whatever it’s worth.

Orioles 1, @Rays 0: The game’s lone run scored when Chris Davis extended his HR streak to 6 games, tying a franchise record set in July 1976 by Reggie Jackson. Miguel Gonzalez kept Tampa off the board into the 7th, allowing 2 hits in his 3rd straight win and 4th straight Quality Start. But will it pull them even? Things are happening awfully fast up in the Bronx.

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Now with infinitely more Shanty Hogan mentions!

Astros 3, @Cubs 0: Houston’s last back-to-back shutouts of 4 hits or less came 2 years ago. Their

last-but-one came in brighter days, a fun streak with a memorable capper.

• Lucas Harrell finished the 2nd half with a 2.87 ERA in 15 starts.

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A miscellany of numbers on David Wright, Boston Red Sox pitching and a slugging second baseman, all after the “Read the rest of this entry” thingie. Continue reading →

Now with all a moderate amount of new material!

Astros 7, @Brewers 0: Jordan Lyles is the first since 2009 to throw a shutout before his 22nd birthday, the first pitcher since 2010 to homer in his shutout, and the first since 1968 to combine those feats.

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This season has witnessed offensive contributions from the catcher position at levels seldom seen before.

After the jump, I’ll look a bit closer at the different dimensions of this phenomenon.

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