A story told by way of recent game notes….

Saturday

@Angels 10, Tigers 0: Rick Porcello retired 1 of 11 batters, and even that GDP couldn’t save him. The 9 runs he allowed — and they were all directly off him, capped by a first-time serving of salami a la Trout — is the most since 2007 for a starter knocked out in the 1st.

Porcello threw first-pitch strikes to 9 guys, and 8 of them reached safely. With a chance to choke it off at 4 runs, he got a 1-2 count on Brendan Harris, but the light-hitting SS fouled off 3 in a row, worked the count full, and singled to restart the carousel. After a couple of infield hits filled ’em up again, Trout fouled off an 0-2 pitch and then slammed the door on the young Tiger’s workday.

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We’ve been discussing just how commons shutouts have been in recent years, particularly in 2013 so far. Here’s a little bit of a look at the numbers.

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This post is for voting and discussion in the sixteenth round of balloting for the Circle of Greats. This round adds those players born in 1955 who were not added in the previous round. Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

With no one new on the ballot capturing the fancy of the voters, Tom Glavine emerged as a strong winner among the holdovers. Glavine becomes the 15th inductee into the Circle of Greats. Get more on Tom and the voting merely by clicking on that magic “Read the rest…” button. Continue reading →

Pitching trends are constantly evolving. Part of the reason is changes in game strategy, player usage, or even equipment. Part of it is improvement in players’ skills which, in turn, results in changes in expectations of player performance.

This quiz identifies pitchers who, like James Fenimore Cooper’s Mohican, were the last of a breed. In our case, “breed” is a statistical “feat” that the pitcher accomplished during a season of play.

Thanks to those who played and succeeded in solving 6 of the 10 quizzes (bolded). Here is the solution, for pitcher seasons since 1901:

1. Hank Wyse (1950) is the last pitcher (of 38) with twice as many walks as strikeouts (min. 162 IP).
2. Hugh Mulcahy (1937) is the last pitcher (of 7) to both start and relieve in 25 or more games.
3. Omar Daal (1995) is the only pitcher to appear in 20 or more games and not start or finish any of them
4. David Wells (1998) is the last pitcher (of 41) to have more shutouts than losses (min. 162 IP)
5. Byron Houck (1913) is the only pitcher with an ERA+ lower than 100 times his W-L% (min. 162 IP)
6. Elmer Jacobs (1917) is the last pitcher (of 10) with an ERA under 3.00 that is greater than 10 times his W-L% (min. 162 IP)
7. Ted Wingfield (1927) is the only pitcher with a WHIP higher than his strikeout total (min. 20 games)
8. Bill Lee (1945) is the last pitcher (of 23) with a WHIP higher than his SO/9 ratio (min. 162 IP)
9. Carl Lundgren (1907) is the only pitcher with a BB/9 ratio 3 times as high as his ERA (min. 162 IP)
10. Matt Keough (1982) is the last pitcher (of 7) with a HR/9 ratio twice as high as his SO/BB ratio (min. 162 IP)

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Just a few seed shells tossed off as I head to the big right-handers’ rodeo in Flushing….

11 games on the schedule Thursday, 32 HRs. Teams that won the derby went 5-1. There have been 449 HRs hit so far through 450 team-games, about 6% more than the comparable point last year, with an equal rise in the HR% (per PA). Last year’s season HR% was higher than that of 1994, ’95 and ’97.

• Miami has 4 HRs through 16 games. The last team with such a slow power start was the ’96 Royals. The last team with a slower start was the ’85 Pirates, 2 HRs in their first 16 games; they finished with 80 HRs and 104 losses, then hired Jim Leyland to help turn them around.

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These would have reached you sooner, but I missed the cutoff man.

Tigers 2, @Mariners 1 (14): In case you didn’t stay up for the slam-bang finish (and didn’t pay your cable bill)….

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This week’s Sports Weekly piece by High Heat Stats was written by our own Adam Darowski. You can read it online here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/04/17/team-defense-plays-large-role-in-era/2091049/

As you can see from the URL, it’s about the role that team defense plays in a pitcher’s ERA.

Wednesday

Royals 1, @Braves 0: It had to be Frenchy, right? The ex-local hero had hacked at Mike Minor‘s first 2 offerings with 2 on and 2 out in the 4th, then got an inexplicable 0-2 fastball down the pipe — nearly the target set by Evan Gattis — and lashed it into left for the game’s only run.

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Left-hander Paul Maholm is one of the reasons Atlanta has but a single loss this season, and is currently riding a 10-game win streak. In 3 starts, Maholm has allowed nary a run, and hardly a baserunner (0.787 WHIP).

So, which other starting pitchers are off to hot starts in 2013? Quite a few, actually. In fact, if you’re a starting pitcher with at least 12 IP so far, your ERA needs to be under 2.00 to crack the top 25.

After the jump, more on pitchers who are strong out of the gate – this year and in the recent past.

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