What is the 4×100 season? I’m talking about seasons with triple-digit totals for runs, RBI, walks and strikeouts. There were no such seasons in 2012, and only four seasons by three players in the past 5 years, which is quite a departure from the recent past.
After the jump, a bit more on another sign of the changing face of the game.
Tom Glavine was among the finest pitchers of his time, compiling a distinguished 20-year, 300-win career likely to be recognized with his enshrinement in the HOF. Among Glavine’s many accomplishments was a season performance which, at the time, had not been achieved in either league in almost 60 seasons. What was this accomplishment?
Clues:
Congratulations (and welcome back) to Raphy, with an assist from Richard Chester. Raphy identified search criteria satisfying the above clues. The season I had in mind was Glavine’s 2004 campaign with 200+ IP, ERA+ >= 100, zero wild pitches and zero hit batsmen. The list of pitchers to do this since 1901 satisfies the above clues.
We are now in the tenth decade of the live-ball era, generally acknowledged to have begun in 1920. Offensive and defensive periods have come and gone within this era, even to extremes like the 1960s, sometimes referred to as the second dead-ball era, and the homer-happy 1990s and 2000s.
With those changes, the use of starting pitchers has also changed. This post will explore those changes and look at the pitchers who have most frequently exceeded and most frequently fallen short of the changing performance standards expected of starting pitchers.
The highest WPA-rated hitting performance by a pitcher in 2012 was this game by Anthony Bass, the only pitcher with a game WPA score above 0.3.
| Rk | Player | Age | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA | RE24 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthony Bass | 24.185 | 2012-05-04 | SDP | MIA | L 8-9 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.345 | 2.634 | 1.463 |
After allowing 5 runs on 4 hits (incl. 2 HR) in the opening frame, Bass redeemed himself with a two-out bases-loaded triple in the 3rd inning to put the Padres ahead 6-5 and chase opposing starter Josh Johnson. Bass left after 6 innings with a lead that the bullpen promptly surrendered en route to San Diego’s loss in 12 innings.
The last pitcher with a WPA score above 0.4 was in this game.
| Rk | Player | Age | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA | RE24 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Stanton | 26.342 | 1994-05-10 | ATL | PHI | W 9-8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.433 | 1.326 | 3.635 |
Stanton was the Braves’ seventh pitcher of the game, entering in the 12th inning and pitching four scoreless frames. He singled leading off the 14th but was stranded. In the 15th, Stanton came up with two out and runners at 1st and 2nd. After Deion Sanders stole 3rd, Stanton delivered a walk-off bunt single on the next pitch.
Neither of these games, though, makes the top 10 of pitchers’ WPA games for the available data, which are mostly complete since 1950 with some games as early as 1948. After the jump, I’ll take a closer look at those top 10 games, and also at changes in how pitchers have batted in past 60 years or so.
www.wikipedia.org
For a frivolous interlude, some random musings on baseball’s connections to presidents.
Of course, presidents have been known to throw out ceremonial first pitches on Opening Day and, more recently, at All-Star games. And, one president has been credited with inadvertently instituting the tradition of the seventh-inning stretch. But, there are more connections than that.
Some musings after the jump.
Here is a list of all-time greats, plus one player who presumably doesn’t belong with this group. Except that he does belong.
These are the only players since 1901 to accomplish what feat.
| Player |
|---|
| Ty Cobb |
| Nap Lajoie |
| Tris Speaker |
| Harry Heilmann |
| George Sisler |
| Rogers Hornsby |
| Bill Terry |
| Ed Morgan |
| Lou Gehrig |
| Stan Musial |
Hint: the feat is in multiple parts.
I have managed to stump our esteemed panel here (a pretty rare feat). The answer is that the above players are the only ones with a season since 1901 of 120 runs, .600 slugging, and HRs of less than one-third of extra-base hits.
This past spring, birtelcom wrote a piece about Greg Maddux, looking at his pitching efficiency in terms of pitches thrown per inning. As pitch count data are consistently available only since the late 1980s, his analysis was limited to the period of the past 25 seasons or so. That being said, Maddux was clearly in a class of his own in terms of minimizing pitches thrown per inning pitched.
In this post, I will approach the same topic a bit differently to extend the analysis through the entire history of professional baseball. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the name Greg Maddux again figures very prominently.
Sad and shocking news today that Pascual Perez was killed during a home invasion robbery in his native Dominican Republic. Here is a brief tribute to one of the most entertaining players of his (or any other) time.
Perez came up in the Pirates’ organization, getting off to an impressive start in 1981, going 2-0 with 1.38 ERA in his first 3 starts. But, it was all downhill from there, going 0-7, 5.07 the rest of the way. Starting 1982 in the minors, the Pirates dealt Perez to Atlanta in mid-year, where he posted a fine half-season of 123 ERA+ and only 1.9 BB/9. That showing earned Perez a rotation spot in a fine 1983 season that garnered him an All-Star selection in his first year as a full-time regular.
In 1984, his performance started to slide, down to 103 ERA+, although he finished the season on the upside with a 3.00 ERA in August and September. The wheels came off in a dreadful 1985 season of 1-13, 6.14, and the Braves released Perez in the spring of 1986.
The 2012 World Series has come and gone, with a number of players on both teams (Joaquin Benoit, Jose Valverde, Prince Fielder, Marco Scutaro, among others) making their World Series debut. Other players, though, have gone their entire careers without ever having a moment on baseball’s biggest stage. This piece is a tribute to those men.
The Yankees were dismissed by the AL champion Tigers, who not only swept the Bombers, but never allowed them to take a lead at any point in the 4 games.
How unusual is that? Let’s find out.