1984 Topps #666 Tigers Leaders - Lou Whitaker and Jack Morris

OK…let’s get one of the big franchises out of the way. The Tigers are another team that joined MLB in 1901 (although they were founded in 1894). In 111 years, the Tigers have had only 12 first-place finishes. Three of them came in 1907 to 1909 but they lost the World Series each year. They made 7 more World Series and won it in 1984, 1968, 1945, and 1935. Continue reading →

Wish I had more time for this. Here I try to cover some of the teams that don’t always make it into the roundup.

@Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 1: Paul Goldschmidt hit RBI doubles in his first 2 ABs, then closed the scoring with his 7th HR in the 7th. Wade Miley (7-2, 2.53) has won 4 of his last 5 starts, averaging 7 IP and 1 walk; here he set a new personal best with a 77 Game Score.

• Goldschmidt weathered a rough April that had some folks saying he needed more seasoning. His bat woke up on April 30 and hasn’t slept since, lifting his BA/OPS from .185/.540 to a healthy .288/.872. He leads the team’s regulars in BA, SLG and OPS, as well as doubles and HRs.
• Since scoring at least 11 runs in 3 straight games last week, the Rox have scored a total of 10 in their next 5 games.

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@Yankees 7, Rays 0: Wow, Andy Pettitte! He shut down Tampa on 2 walks and 2 singles — one infield, one grounder into right — through 7.1 IP, with 10 strikeouts, including 5 straight. The Rays had 3 ABs against him with a runner in scoring position, and Andy fanned ’em all.

• It was exactly 2 years since Pettitte’s last 10-K performance.
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Josh Hamilton crushes a homer against the Orioles a few weeks ago / Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE

Let’s take a look at the Texas Rangers, including their years as the second version of the Washington Senators.

When the Senators came into the league in 1961, they were pretty bad. In their first four seasons, they lost at least 100 games every season. They didn’t finish higher than 6th until their 9th season in 1969, and that’s only because the leagues were split into divisions. From 1972 to 1993, the relocated Rangers finished 2nd six times and were in first when the season was aborted in 1994.

The Rangers finally made the playoffs for the first time in 1996 and had a nice run of 3 post-season appearances in 4 seasons, but won only 1 game over all the series. They didn’t make the playoffs again until 2010, when they made the World Series, a feat they duplicated last year. The franchise is at its peak right now.
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@Athletics 10, Rangers 1: Oakland cruised after an 8-run 2nd — 3 more than their previous high inning — while rookie Jarrod Parker held the Rangers hitless through 7 IP before Michael Young‘s clean single up the middle.

• Through 9 career starts, Parker has allowed 13 runs in 54.1 IP for a 2.15 ERA. Six runs came in one start; in the other 8, he went 5+ IP on 2 runs or less. Crank up the Play Index … Parker tied Dave “Boo” Ferriss for the most such starts (since 1918) within the first 9 career games. And his 6 starts of 5+ IP and 1 run or less also ties the known record, shared by Zach Britton and Andy Rincon. (Always bear in mind that breaking in as a starter is a relatively recent phenomenon; even someone as proven as Lefty Grove relieved in 60% of his rookie games.)
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1974 Topps #130 Reggie Jackson

Well, we’re back into the truly classical era now, moving to a franchise that was founded in 1901. For our purposes, this poll includes the Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland A’s.

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With the First-Year Player Draft going on as we speak in baseball, I read an interesting tweet from Jay Jaffe a little while ago. Jay tweeted:

last time Astros had 1st pick, they passed on Derek Jeter, took Phil Nevin. Scout/HOF P Hal Newhouser quit in disgust nyti.ms/Ks4x9M.

— Jay Jaffe (@jay_jaffe) June 4, 2012

It got me interested, and it turns out Jeter fell to the Yankees with the sixth pick in 1992. The Astros deserve some slack. The teams that drafted second through fifth picked far worse than they did.

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Here’s a treat for you. Following is a graph of Tony Gwynn‘s rolling batting average throughout his career for each 162-game period. The first data point is at his 162nd-career game and gives his batting average for his first 162 games.

Click on the image for a slightly larger version.

I’ve labeled many of the high and low points. Right away, you’ll notice that Gwynn hit .402 over a 162-game period ending in 1995. From July 27th 1993 through May 13, 1995, Gwynn appeared in 162 games, and had 704 plate appearances. He had 624 at-bats with 251 hits (.402 BA), as well as 15 HR, 100 RBI, 121 runs scored, a .457 OBP and a .563 SLG.

Other notes about the fabulous Mr. Gwynn:

• It’s hard not to think of Ted Williams‘ 1941 at this point. That year, Williams batted .406 while leading the league with 37 HR, a .553 OBP, a .735 SLG, and a 235 OPS+. Gwynn was obviously not the same kind of hitter as Williams, never showing that same kind of power. Still over the 1994 season (all of which was encompassed in his .400 season) Gwynn had an OPS+ of 169, his career high. Gwynn also gets high marks for maintaining his average over 624 at-bats. In Williams’ season, he had only 456 at-bats thanks mainly to his very high walk total (and the fact that he didn’t play 162 games.)
• The lowest “rolling-162” batting average of Gwynn’s career was .290 (actually .28952), which he had after the game on August 1, 1992. His full stat line for the preceding 162, covering back to June 23, 1991, was 702 PAs, 639 at-bats, 8 HR, 51 RBI, 88 runs scored, with a slash line of .290/.348/.388. Decidedly un-Gwynnish, but a “worst” career line that hundreds of ballplayers would gladly take, especially the .348 OBP.
• Dude closed out his career batting .343 in his final 162 games, slightly higher than his career mark of .338.
• Those 251 hits Gwynn got over his .400 “season”–that’s an extremely high number. Ichiro had 262 in 2004 (with the benefit of 704 at-bats) and before that the last guy to have so many in a regular season (within a single year) was Bill Terry, with 254 in 1930.

Yankees 5, @Tigers 1: Derek Jeter hit the game’s first pitch over the wall in right, Phil Hughes tossed a 4-hitter for the first 9-inning CG of his career, and Justin Verlander lost a 3rd straight start for the first time since 2008.

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A few notes on Saturday’s games.

Orioles 2, @Rays 1: For the first time since last Saturday, the O’s managed to ferry a lead to their lights-out bullpen. Pedro Strop frayed some nerves after inheriting 2 men on with 1 out in the 8th, moving them up with a wild pitch and loading the bases with a walk. But Ben Zobrist hit the first pitch for a GIDP, and Jim Johnson pitched a perfect 9th to snap Balto’s 6-game slide and notch his MLB-high 17th save.

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