As noted by Raphy in the previous post, Baseball-Reference’s Play Index Split Finder is out of beta and now available in more polished form to the general Play index subscribership. One quick use of that new tool produces the following list of the players with the most career, regular-season major league home runs in a single ballpark: Continue reading
I’ve been having a lot of fun playing around with the new PI tools. Here are some of the things I have found.
When it comes to allowing unearned runs, are pitchers masters of their own fate, or innocent victims of circumstance (or, perhaps, not so innocent)? That is the question I’ll look at in this second installment on unearned run prevention.
In Part 1 of this series, I looked at what evidence there might be to support the hypothesis that unearned run avoidance was a skill that some pitchers could consistently demonstrate over their careers. The major conclusion was that, since 1961, team ERA and team unearned run prevention showed positive correlation. That is, of those teams successful in limiting unearned runs, the proportion with better pitching (i.e. lower ERAs) was higher than for groups of teams having less success in preventing unearned runs. This conclusion also seems intuitively correct – pitchers who are good at preventing earned runs are probably also good at preventing unearned runs.
In Part 2, I’ll take the next step and try to identify those pitchers who seem most and least adept at the skill of preventing unearned runs. Yes, I called it a skill because, while some errors lead immediately and unavoidably to runs scoring, many times the consequences are not so dire, affording pitchers the opportunity to work out of jambs caused by their defense. Whether because of temperament or determination, some pitchers seem to do this quite well, while others … well, not so much.
After the jump, more on pitchers and unearned runs.
Who would you say is the best player in MLB history? Well, before answering, you might ask me to specify an age. If you’re looking for someone under 25, it would have to be Ted Williams, right? Somebody in their early 30’s? That must be Babe Ruth. How about the best player in their late 30s to 40s? Clearly it’s Barry Bonds.
But what if you didn’t have to choose? What if we picked the best year by any player at each age, and put them all together to build the perfect player? That’s just what we do after the jump.
Towards the end of this coming season, we may see something that hasn’t ever happened before. At least not involving players on the same team.
This something (whatever it is) has occurred involving players on opposing teams only rarely, including in the following games.
Cardinals 4, Nationals 2 – Aug 27, 2010
Yankees 4, Braves 3 – June 28, 2006
Mariners 5, Rangers 2 – June 27, 1999
Orioles 6, Twins 5 – July 2, 1966
Giants 11, Braves 10 – Sept 19, 1961
So, what is this something?
Hint: if it doesn’t happen this year, it won’t happen next year, either.
Congratulations to ATarwerdi96! He correctly identified that, with a 40 home run season this year, Prince Fielder would join Tiger teammate Miguel Cabrera in the 300 HR club and do so when both are aged 30 or younger. As far as I can tell, it would be the first time a team has had two such players. The closest so far has been the 1962 Braves, with Eddie Mathews, aged 30, at 399 home runs, and 28 year-old Hank Aaron with 298 round-trippers.
After the jump, more on precocious home run hitters, including the players represented in the box score clues.
Here is a list of well-known ballplayers, all connected by a common seasonal batting achievement.
Your job: find that common batting feat, and identify the missing ballplayers needed to complete this list.
Note: there is no significance to the multi-column list; a single column list would have worked just as well
Congratulations to Ed on identifying these hitters as the record holders for home runs in a season at a specific age. After that, it was a true team effort to identify the remaining mystery players, shown in red above. So, thanks to everyone for playing.
Interestingly, there is a single HR record-holder for every age – no ties. See the complete list of these record HR seasons after the jump.
This Circle of Greats vote is not to induct anyone into the Circle, but only to select two players who will restored back on to the main ballot after having been previously been dropped from eligibility. The intent is to help assure that deserving guys who have may have been dropped during a particularly talent-heavy era get another chance in a different context where they might be more competitive. Continue reading
This post is for voting and discussion in the tenth round of balloting for the Circle of Greats. This round adds players born in 1959. Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading
Cal Ripken, Jr. is our ninth inductee into the Circle of Greats. Cal’s astounding iron man record evidences an extraordinary combination of mold-breaking talent plus discipline, luck, stubbornness and, self-referentially, the very allure of baseball records themselves. More on Ripken, and the 1960 voting results, after the jump. Continue reading
While not much remarked upon, in 2012 the Yankees completed their eighth consecutive season with a left-side infield of Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. At this juncture, it seems likely it will be nine seasons running with this trio in 2013. In that time, the Yankees have claimed just a single pennant, which was cashed in for a WS championship in 2009. Despite that pennant drought (by Yankee standards), the Yankees did make the playoffs in all but one of those eight seasons.
This Yankee trio is in the same class for longevity as the 1970s Dodgers who famously featured Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey (and Steve Garvey at 1B) from 1973 to 1981, a period during which the Dodgers claimed four pennants, but only one World Series title.
Usually when a team maintains the same infield year in and year out, defense is at least part of the reason why. But, that hasn’t been the case for the Yankees. After the jump, I’ll explore this topic in a bit more depth.