Over the past 4 years, Roy Halladay leads the majors with 77 wins, a 160 ERA+ (min. 500 IP), 969 IP and 27.7 bWAR. With 188 career wins through age 34, he’s the active wins leader (at least until Jamie Moyer takes the mound in a real game). He still in peak form, winning 19 last year while leading the NL in ERA+ and pitchers’ WAR.
What are his chances of winning 300?
That’s Shawon Dunston on a 1997 Pacific Silver card, showing him in action for the Giants in 1996.
In 1997 the Chicago Cubs reacquired Dunston and, for the first time in his career, played him at a position other than shortstop. Shawon played a few games in left field in ’97, played a bit in both the infield and outfield in ’98, and then played mostly in the outfield after that.
The quiz has been solved. Congratulations to Richard Chester.
Barring injury, Derek Jeter will this season likely pass Cal Ripken and Robin Yount to become the all-time career Hits leader among AL shortstops. Which means, of course, that he will then trail only Honus Wagner, the NL leader. So, will he catch Honus?
Just in case Jose Iglesias does become the Red Sox’s starting shortstop this year, here are the most recent guys to play sat least 100 games at SS in their Age 22 season:
Not every career is long and illustrious, never mind legendary. Many, of course, are short and unremarkable. But, sometimes, players have short careers that are quite unusual and worthy of a closer look. This post is about one of those players.
I happened upon Frank Fernandez recently. That’s his 1969 Topps card.
Frank was a catcher and outfielder in the late 60s and early 70s, mostly for the Yankees and As. A reserve, his career totals over 6 seasons (4 seasons really – he had cups of coffee in his first and last years) amount to about a season and a half as a regular.
Here’s his career line. Notice anything unusual?
| Player | WAR/pos | PA | From | To | Age | G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | Pos | Tm | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Fernandez | 5.9 | 908 | 114 | 1967 | 1972 | 24-29 | 285 | 727 | 92 | 145 | 39 | 116 | 164 | 231 | .199 | .350 | .395 | .744 | *2/97 | NYY-OAK-TOT-CHC |
In my first post, earlier today, I pointed out that the Yankees led the majors in regular season wins over the five-year periods from 2007 through 2011, 2006 through 2010 and 2005 through 2009 — with exactly the same number of total wins over each of those five-year periods. One can look at the full sequence of such five-year periods through baseball history, and by doing so look at which team, at the end of each season, was at that moment the “Best Team of the Past Five Years”.
This method gives a look at which team was most consistently around the top of major league baseball during various eras. After the jump, you’ll see a full list, beginning with 2011 and going back to the beginning of the 20th Century, showing for each year the team that had the best overall record over the five then-most-recent regular seasons. So, for example, when the list below shows the Yankees as the “Best Team of the Past Five Years” in every season from 2004 through 2011, that means the Yanks had the best five-season record overall during each of the following five-year periods: 2000 to 2004, 2001 to 2005, 2002 to 2006, 2003 to 2007, 2004 to 2008, 2005 to 2009, 2006 to 2010 and 2007 to 2011.
Are the Yankees actually Cylons in human form? The team does seem to be a machine perfectly constructed to achieve a .590 winning percentage. The evidence?
Over the five regular seasons from 2007 through 2011, the Yankees had the best overall regular season record in the majors, 478-332, for a.590 winning percentage over those five years.
Over the five regular seasons from 2006 through 2010, the Yankees had the best overall regular season record in the majors, 478-332, for a.590 winning percentage over those five years.
Over the five regular seasons from 2005 through 2009, the Yankees had the best overall regular season record in the majors, 478-332, for a.590 winning percentage over those five years.
This quiz may be a little tougher (I think). But you guys are sharp, so no doubt you’ll surprise me.
Here’s a list of really good players (okay, maybe one exception) from the last 50 years. No duds or cup-of-coffee guys here – all are recognizable names, even some HOFers.
But, these players, and only these players, have accomplished one particular feat.
Hint: the feat is in two related parts characterized by a common, non-sabermetric, statistic.
The quiz has been solved. Congratulations to Evil Squirrel. Continue reading
Here are the 2011 leaders for most games with at least 0.10 WPA in team losses: Continue reading
Don Mincher died a few days ago. He’s among a handful of players whose names instantly bring Jim Bouton‘s Ball Four to mind. Here’s a look at some of Mincher’s career achievements. Continue reading