The Yankees have hit a goodly number of home runs this season, as you have presumably noticed. Through last night’s games the (well-nicknamed) Bombers lead the majors with 207 dingers, through game 138 of the season.  That’s a pace that would generate about 243 homers if maintained over 162 games, which is impressive but it is hardly unprecedented. A 243-homer season would tie for the 11th-most team homers in a major league season.

Where the 2012 Yankees are on record or near-record pace is in hitting home runs off of left-handed pitchers. Details after the jump. Continue reading →

This season, Paul Konerko, David Ortiz and Adam Dunn have joined the 400 HR club that now boasts 50 members. But, it’s not entirely clear who the next club member may be.

After the jump, I’ll look at the history of the 400 HR club, and what may lie ahead? Continue reading →

@Orioles 10, Yankees 6: It took just 4 pitches to erase all the momentum of New York’s 5-run, game-tying 8th. David Robertson meant to climb the ladder with a 1-and-2 fastball, but he missed a rung or two, and by the time the fireworks were through — 3 HRs in a span of 14 pitches, capped by a casual left-on-lefty’s-curveball blast — Baltimore had climbed back into a first-place tie, with a leg up in the season series. Their 6 HRs for the game set a new club high against the Bombers.

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Vance Worley / USPRESSWIRE

Vance Worley had a wonderful start to his major-league career with the Phillies.

Through his Age 23 season (2011) he pitched 144.2 innings with 8.1 K/9, a 1.203 WHIP, and a 135 ERA+.

Here are some similar players. These guys all threw between 100 and 190 innings through their Age 23 season and had an ERA+ between 125 and 145: Continue reading →

@Nationals 9, Cubs 1: Through Monday, 387 games had been played at Nationals Park, and only one team had ever hit 5 HRs there. Now the Nats have hit 6 HRs in consecutive home games. Bryce Harper hit 2 for the 2nd time in a week (giving him 15 Runs and 15 RBI in his last 16 starts) and Adam LaRoche connected for the 3rd game in a row (2nd time this year, 3rd career) as Washington won their 4th straight, putting them on pace for 100 wins.

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Thurman Munson, 1947–1979 (Image via Wikipedia)

When building the Hall of wWAR, the most exhilarating part of the process was seeing who the most overlooked players were in baseball history. Many of these players became pet cases of mine for the Hall of Fame. I wrote about many of them at length at Beyond the Box Score—19th Century stars Bill Dahlen, Deacon White, and Bob Caruthers, ballot holdovers Jeff Bagwell, Edgar Martinez, Tim Raines, and Alan Trammell, and players with cases that are now left to the Veterans Committee in Kevin Brown, Lou Whitaker, Ted Simmons, Bobby Grich, and Dick Allen. That’s a lot of players to support. And to be honest, there’s actually more.

Today, I want to have a little chat about one of those players—Thurman Munson. Munson hasn’t always been near the top of my list of pet cases. But I’ve… evolved my feelings towards him.

I’ve actually been working on a new Hall of Fame-related project that builds on the Hall of wWAR. Through that project, I’ve identified what I believe should be the Hall of Fame borderline. Thurman Munson sits right on that borderline. Of course, that’s significant for a big reason—Munson never got to finish his career. We lost him at age 32 when a small plane he was piloting crashed in Canton, OH. The fact that he sits on the borderline without the opportunity to finish his career says to me that Thurman Munson was a Hall of Famer. Continue reading →

UPDATE: We have found 5 new writers, to be announced shortly.

High High Stats is looking to add some new writers. I have a few people in mind, but haven’t approached anybody yet, so if you’re interested, please drop me an email.

Here are some of the details:

• Our blog averages 30-35 comments per post, so you’re guaranteed to reach a good, responsive audience with your posts.
• You can contribute as much or as little as you like. If you want to write once a month, great. Once a day, great. Whatever works for you works for us.
• You can promote your own blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page, etc.
• We won’t be paying anything for now, although that might change. I do regularly engage in profit sharing, although lately I have been reinvesting profits in server upgrades.
• When we add the new authors, we will be adding a new author profile page where you can highlight yourself as much (or as little) as you choose.

We’ve got quite a nice community here, and I am looking to continue to build it. I have an eventual goal of taking this thing to a larger stage, so hop on board if you’d like to be part of it!

The Game Notes hard drive died of a nostalgia overdose after watching music videos from the 1970s & ’80s. Je ne regrette rien….

@Rays 4, Yankees 3: In the slim annals of Yankee lead-blowing, there is no sequence as haunting as the one that put the Rays in front Monday: “Roberts steals 2B … Single (groundball); Roberts scores.”

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The Giants have opened up a solid lead in the NL West and have the third best record in the NL. It’s been nearly five full seasons since Barry Bonds, the greatest generator of positive sabermetric statistics since Babe Ruth, was left unsigned by the Giants (or anyone else), after an historic 15-year run in San Francisco.  As far as winning games is concerned, the Giants have barely lost a beat since Barry left.  Some comparative win-loss numbers and other team stats after the jump. Continue reading →

On this date in 1975, according to the Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen entry for today:

On the final pitch of his Hall of Fame career, Cardinals great Bob Gibson gives up a grand slam to Pete LaCock. It will be LaCock’s only bases-loaded homer of his career.

I have heard this fact many times–it’s a sad thing.

But a fellow on Twitter named Al Yellon (@bleedcubbieblue) pointed out to me that this “fact” is not a “fact” at all.

Take a look at the box score for the game.

In the 7th inning of the game, here’s how it went:

Bob Gibson replaces Larry Lintz (PR) pitching and batting 9th
Fly ball
Walk
Single
Walk
Ground out
Wild pitch
Intentional walk
Home run (by Pete LaCock)
Ground out
(end of inning)

Mike Wallace replaced Bob Gibson to start the top of the 8th.

So, the grand slam clearly did not come on the last pitch of Gibson’s career, since he recorded a ground out following the home run.

What gives? Why does this story about Gibson persist when it is so obviously false?