The Braves are one of the National League’s founding franchises, operating continuously since 1876. But, its origins go back even further than that, to the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association, a team that was itself formed from the remnants of the Cincinnati Red Stockings when that club, baseball’s first all-professional team, folded prior to the National Association’s first season in 1871.

The Red Stockings changed their nickname to the Beaneaters in 1883, to the Doves in 1907, the Rustlers in 1911 and finally the Braves in 1912. Except for the 1936 to 1940 seasons when Boston was known as the Bees, the Braves nickname has remained in use ever since, even through two franchise moves, first to Milwaukee in 1953 and then to Atlanta in 1966.

The Braves are the fifth of the original NL clubs in our Mount Rushmore series. Your task is to choose the four players who best represent this franchise. Have fun!

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The Pittsburgh Pirates trace their beginnings to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, one of the American Association’s original teams in 1882. The Alleghenys joined the National League in 1887 and adopted the Pirates nickname in 1891. When the National League contracted from twelve to eight teams in 1900, Barney Dreyfuss acquired a controlling interest in the Pirates and brought to Pittsburgh many of the best players from his former club, the now defunct Louisville Colonels. Included was the gentleman at left, the legendary Honus Wagner.

The Pirates are the fourth of the original NL clubs in our Mount Rushmore series. Your task is to choose the four players who best represent this franchise. Have fun!

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Following up from an earlier post on starting pitchers, this post looks at 2014 results for relief pitchers for metrics provided by Pitch FX, the measurement system used by MLB to track every pitch thrown in every major league game. Part 1 looks at reliever results based on pitches thrown in the strike zone and outside of it. Part 2 will look at results based on pitch type, movement and velocity.

Using PitchFX data available at FanGraphs.com, I’ve compiled a series of tables and charts highlighting the 2014 pitching leaders in a variety of statistical categories. Some of the results will make a lot of sense but others may be more surprising. Take a look after the jump.

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The Cincinnati Reds trace their origins to an independent club formed in 1881 that became a charter member of the American Association in 1882, before transfering to the National League in 1890 (an earlier NL Cincinnati Reds club was the progenitor of the AA club, but is considered a separate franchise owing to a year’s gap in the operation of the two entities). More popularly, the Reds identify themselves with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, formed in 1866 and a member of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) from 1867 to 1870, the latter two years operating as a fully professional club.

The Reds are the third of the original NL clubs in our Mount Rushmore series. Your task is to choose the four players who best represent this franchise. Have fun!

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Our readers may be aware that COG balloting has been temporarily suspended in the middle of the 1910 round. To tide us over until Part 2 of that round, here’s a quiz involving players born in 1910 and who also share the distinction of a certain seasonal batting accomplishment. What might that be?

Not much interest in solving this one, so I’ll cut to the chase. These are the only players born in 1910 to have a season with matching double-digit totals for walks and RBI and who also played, at some point in their careers, on the same team as another such player. More after the jump.

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Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks

The Cubs are the second of the original NL clubs in our Mount Rushmore series. Your task is to choose the four players who best represent this franchise that has operated continuously since the NL was founded in 1876. Have fun!

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Most of our readers are probably familiar with PitchFX, the computerized measurement system used by MLB to track every pitch thrown in every major league game. The system provides a wealth of statistical data, ranging from type of pitch, pitch velocity and break (vertical and horizontal) as well as pitch location and resulting swing and contact rates.

Using PitchFX data available at FanGraphs.com, I’ve compiled a series of tables and charts highlighting the 2014 pitching leaders in a variety of statistical categories. Some of the results will make a lot of sense but others may be more surprising. Take a look after the jump.

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Two years ago, Andy did a series on choosing the top 4 players representing each major league franchise. Andy finished the American League teams and had started with some of the National League expansion franchises. Those posts and the voting results can be found here.

Since we’ve now begun a long off-season, I thought it might be fun to finish that series by running through the original NL franchises.

To start, readers are asked to choose the 4 players that best represent the Philadelphia Phillies. No rules other than that. Have fun! Continue reading →

Tonight, the Royals and Giants take the field for game 7, the 37th time the Fall Classic has had a winner-take-all final game. Home teams are riding a 9 game winning streak in game 7 that goes back to 1982. But, before that, it was a very different trend with the visitors posting a 13-3 game 7 record from 1952 to 1979. Overall, it’s a narrow 19-17 edge for home team in game 7.

More on game 7 after the jump. Continue reading →

What do a few modern pitchers have in common with several old-time hurlers? That’s for you to consider in Quiz #1 on this World Series off day.

Quiz #2 is entirely frivolous and inspired by the Fox network when they made mention that Game #4 was the first ever in a World Series with both starters having a surname starting with the letter V. Thus, your job in Quiz #2 is to determine the starting pitchers in a World Series game whose first and last initials can combine to form the words shown. Bolded and underlined words have more than one solution. How many other words can you come up with?

Congratulations to John Autin on solving Quiz #1 and to several of our readers (particularly Luis Gomez, Steve, Scary Tuna and Richard Chester) on having some fun with Quiz #2. The answer to Quiz #1 was that only the quiz players authored a no-hit game for a pennant-winning team but failed to start a game in that year’s World Series. More after the jump.

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