The players in this quiz include a number of all-time greats, some sabermetric favorites, and a  couple of other guys.

So, what seasonal feat have only these players accomplished since 1901?

Hint: none of these players accomplished this feat more than once.

Congratulations to Phil, RJ and Richard Chester! They teamed up to identify these hitters as the only players since 1901 to have a qualifying season with more walks than hits, 25 or more HRs and 100 or fewer RBI. Despite the somewhat modest RBI totals, that is a pretty potent combination as 9 of the 10 seasons (listed in comment #30) scored 130 OPS+ or better, including two seasons over 200. Evidently, pitchers were justified in pitching around these guys frequently.

Belated happy 82nd birthday, Willie! May 6 is otherwise a dull day in MLB birthday history: no one else had more than Dick Wakefield’s 56 HRs, 315 RBI or 334 Runs, Walton Cruise’s 644 hits or 49 SB, or Mike McCormick’s 748 games (the ’40s OF, not the pitcher). Gerardo Parra and Jose Altuve, you have something to shoot for.

To the games we go!

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• A starting nine to honor the Kentucky Derby winner: Orber Moreno, Neal Ball, Joe Circle, Jimmy Ring, Emil Planeta, Joshua Glober, Richard Circuit, Pablo Sandoval, and this mysterious fellow. (Fight song and epic poems supplied by Henri Rondeau.)
• Unless KC wins their next 4 games, this will be 2nd straight year that no team won more than 20 of their first 31 games. The last such year was 1996.

And now to the games. As always, I’m sorry if your faves are neglected; no slight is intended.

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This post is for voting and discussion in the eighteenth round of balloting for the Circle of Greats.  This round adds those players born in 1953. Rules and lists are after the jump.  Continue reading →

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067128/

Voters got Carter, Gary Carter, as the 17th inductee into the Circle of Greats.  It is sad indeed that Gary is the first of our inductees to be voted in posthumously.  More on Carter and the voting after the jump. Continue reading →

@Marlins 2, Phillies 0: Youth shall be served. At the very least, with Miami, youth shall get playing time. Jose Fernandez (20) earned his first victory with a dazzler, allowing a hit to the 2nd batter and no more through 7 innings, while 22-year-old slugger Marcell Ozuna supplied the only run needful with his first career HR. Fernandez fanned 9, and sent 17 straight to the dugout between the hit and his only walk, both by Freddy Galvis. The other run off Cole Hamels was career HR #2 for Chris Valaika, who added a hit-saving play.

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This just in – strikeouts are up again in 2013, averaging more than 7.5 per 9 innings. This is the 10th year-over-year increase in the past 14 seasons, and the 5th straight year setting a new all-time high. Not news to most readers here. Question, though, is this – is it good for the game? Does striking out a lot as the price for belting more homers really help a team score more runs? At what point, if any, does the cost outweigh the benefits?

What follows is a visual statistical analysis of strikeouts and home runs, the relationship between the two, and how that relationship contributes to or detracts from run scoring. No heavy lifting, but I hope you may come away with some new insights on this very pervasive influence on today’s game.

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@Giants 2, Dodgers 1: LA is 13-15, but games like this make it seem like they’re 10 games under. A typical effort by Clayton Kershaw (1 run in 7 IP) went for nought as the bats failed time and time and time again to get the timely hit. They parlayed 18 baserunners (11 hits, 7 walks) into a single run, scored by Kershaw himself after he opened the 5th with a double, their only extra-base hit.

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(Didn’t have much time for this set, alas.)

Padres 4, @Cubs 2: If it wasn’t for the two pitching changes, you could say the Pads’ 2-out, 4-run rally in the 8th happened quickly: With 2 on already, it went RBI single, pitching change, first-pitch tying passed ball, walk, pitching change, RBI single, steal, RBI single, and at last, the always-defensible frustration plunking of Carlos Quentin.

• All kidding aside … Travis Wood took a tough loss, reaching 2-2 with a 2.50 ERA and 0.91 WHIP through 6 starts. His ERA in 4 “not-wins” is 2.93.
• Travis also pulled off the second twirler’s burglary of the young season; there were but 3 all last year. In the opposing dugout was the other 2013 yegg, Andrew Cashner.
• Thanks to the fine efforts of Shawn Camp and Brad Brach in this contest, the ROOGYs claimed an early 11-10 lead in the always-hilarious “walked-the-only-guy(s)-they-were-brought-in-to-face” battle. The LOOGYs dominated the competition last year, 61-37. I see TBS summer filler potential.

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Nationals 2, @Braves 0: On the heels of his 1-hit, 1-0 shutout of the Reds, Jordan Zimmermann stiffed Atlanta for 8 innings on 2 hits, a single by Justin Upton in the 1st and a double in the 3rd by Paul Maholm. Continue reading →