All of these players were active in the 1960s or 1970s. All were journeymen, and all played for at least three franchises.

Besides the above, what is the more specific common thread that unites these players?

Congratulations to yippeeyappee! He identified (in just 28 minutes) that these players played for a 1960s or 1970s expansion franchise in its inaugural season, and are natives of that team’s state/province. Where there were multiple such players, these are the ones who played the most games in that season.

No players on the 1969 Royals or 1977 Blue Jays matched these criteria.

I have plunked down the $ to upgrade our server, so the site will now have faster load times, less downtime, etc. I hope this leads to more visits, more comments, etc. Enjoy!

First, an introduction: I’m Adam Darowski and I’m a longtime fan (and occasional commenter) of HHS and its previous incarnations. If you’ve seen my name before, it was likely related to the Hall of wWAR work that I’ve done. I also contribute to Beyond the Box Score and Baseball Past and Present. This is my first post at HighHeatStats, though I already have another project in the works. Hi, everyone!

When Baseball-Reference updated their Wins Above Replacement (WAR) framework, they included Wins Above Average (WAA). Personally, I found this to be a tremendous addition. I had recently started calculating and visualizing Wins Above Average based on Rally’s original WAR spreadsheets. While B-R rendered all of my underlying data useless, they at least had the decency to save me from redoing all my work.

As I’ve started using WAA, I’ve had people ask me:

• What’s the difference between WAR and WAA? and
• Why haven’t we just been using WAA all along?

While both metrics are similar, they do serve very different purposes.

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Mets 3, D-backs 1: Matt Harvey was 4 for 15 with a HR at Buffalo, so I guess he’s not just kidding around up there. In his MLB debut, Harvey went 2 for 2 with a double and then a single, each with 2 strikes. On the hill, the touted righty (picked 7th just 2 years ago) fanned the first man he faced, and went on to set a new Mets debut record of 11 strikeouts, 3 more than the old mark by Tom Seaver (who else?) and matched by Bill Denehy just 3 days later.

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In a recent post, John Autin identified that Jim Thome has the most career games with at least one of each of the TTO components – a walk, a strikeout and a home run. John called this phenomenon the “Thome Trifecta”, but I’m going to try a different moniker – triple-W, for a walk, a whiff and a whallop.

The leader in this category for 2012 is Adam Dunn of the White Sox, with 14 triple-W games so far this season, including 3 in a row against the Royals coming out of the All-Star break. After the jump, I’ll take a closer look at this phenomenon.

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H-Ram triples on the 1st pitch he saw as a Dodger / US PRESSWIRE

Hanley Ramirez got off to a nice start with his new team, but let’s take a bit of a look at his career arc. Continue reading →

@Cardinals 3, Dodgers 2 (12): Rafael Furcal had the game-winning hit, giving him 2 of their 4 walk-offs this year. But my focus is elsewhere.

• Hey, I remember this guy!
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ESPN reports that Miami has traded 3B Hanley Ramirez and RP Randy Choate to the Dodgers for SP Nathan Eovaldi and minor-league RP Scott McGough. No cash was reported in the transaction. Ramirez is signed through 2014, with $31.5 million coming in those next 2 years.

How the mighty are fallen, eh?

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On Tuesday, Fernando Rodney converted his 13th straight Save chance and 28th in 30 tries, while running his scoreless streak to 15 innings. Awaaay back on April 6, after the Rays-Yankees opener, some cynic wrote this:

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@Phillies 7, Brewers 6: It was 1-1 through 5. Four HRs later, Cliff Lee was staring at a 1-7 record. But one bullpen acid flashback after that, Lee was off the hook, and the Phils were going home with a happy sense of deja vu.

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