If you don’t know Ian Stewart, he is a third baseman, playing mostly for the Rockies, but currently with the Cubs. He’s never had a qualifying season but has exceeded 400 PAs twice in his career. In the equivalent of 3 full-time seasons, he has career totals including 66 doubles, 10 triples and 59 homers. His career slugging percentage is almost 200 points higher than his batting average, and he has more strikeouts than hits in every season of his career.

Nondescript though that synopsis may be, Ian enjoys the distinction of achieving a certain offensive feat more often than every other major-leaguer who has played his entire career since 1916. What is this unusual feat?

It’s approaching midnight Eastern, 27+ hours after this quiz was posted, so I’m calling this one a stumper. The HHS readers were quick to identify that the quiz was about appearing in an opening day game on a player’s birthday, but failed to note the batting feat that Ian Stewart has achieved more often than any other player. That feat is to get a hit in an opening day game on your birthday, something that Stewart has done twice and 24 others have managed only once, including Daniel Murphy of the Mets this season.

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@Giants 1, Cardinals 0: Barry Zito kicked off the champs’ home schedule, and his possible walk year, with 7 shutout innings and a perfect night at the plate, including a sacrifice that set up the only run. In a sign of respect for Zito’s role in the title run, he was left in to try for the last out in the 7th with 2 aboard — and he got it.

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In his Game Notes for April 3rd games, John Autin identified that Michael Brantley had reached based 7 of 9 times in the first two games of the Indians’ series in Toronto. Turns out it wasn’t the first time Brantley has found Rogers Centre to his liking – in fact, he has been a Blue Jay killer just about every game he’s played there.

After the jump, more on players who really take a shine to some ballparks, and also those who would prefer to miss trips to certain cities.
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Phillies 2, @Braves 0: A streak-buster on two fronts. Atlanta had won Kris Medlen‘s last 23 regular-season starts, back to May 2010. Cliff Lee had lost his last 9 decisions when backed by 0-2 runs. The veteran was completely dominant, allowing just 2 singles, one of them promptly erased, in posting his highest Game Score since mid-2011.

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@Diamondbacks 10, Cardinals 9 (16): Ian Kennedy‘s pinch-sac-bunt, which was followed by Cliff Pennington‘s game-winning single, was valued at -0.013 WPA. Pardon the Snakes if they disagree. Arizona’s tying sac fly in the 12th was also set up with a sacrifice, by Gerardo Parra. He also homered, tripled and stole a base, becoming the first since Kenny Lofton ’92 with that assortment.

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If you subscribe to USA Today Sports Weekly (which grew from Baseball Weekly) or buy it in your local news stand, you may have noticed that High Heat Stats is now a contributor:

This week’s piece is about high-leverage RBI as a fraction of a player’s total RBI, and shows how much better Prince Fielder was than Miguel Cabrera, and why the Angels might be in trouble.

Please pick up a copy locally if you’re not already a subscriber!

Here are some quick thoughts on Yu Darvish’s near-perfecto last night.

Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports

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Cardinals 6, @Diamondbacks 1: After three 2-out walks by Jaime Garcia, Edward Mujica got the game’s biggest out, slipping a called strike three past Jason Kubel in the home 6th to preserve a 3-1 lead. The Cards promptly rang the Bell and pulled away. Garcia hasn’t gone past 6 innings in 3 starts against the Snakes, but he’s won them all. Here he allowed just 2 hits by Miguel Montero, including a HR.

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As of the end of the 2012 season, there were 200 hitters since 1901 with a career bWAR score of 43 or higher, and 98 pitchers at or above the same WAR level for the same period. Of those 298 players, eight were featured on the roster of the 2012 Yankees, the 11th straight year the Yankees have led the major leagues in having the most such players on one team. In fact, the fewest such players the Yankees have featured in any of those 11 years is 6 in 2011, a figure exceeded in the period only by the 2004 Astros (and, of course, the other 10 Yankee clubs).

One would expect teams to do well when stocked with high career WAR players (or players who will go on to accumulate high career WAR). After all, such players must be doing something right and will probably be a help to your ball club at just about any point in their careers (with the possible exception of the very beginning or very end of a career). Sure enough, the Yankees have been a perennial contender for the past 11 years but yet have recorded just one world championship, something of a drought by Yankee standards.

So, what’s gone wrong with the Yankees’ formula for success? More after the jump.

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Fresh from the humidor, it’s … The inaugural edition of Game Notes 2013!

[Cue Gene Rayburn & the funky “Match Game ’77” music. All game feats are “since 1916,” unless noted.]

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