1983 O-Pee-Chee #163 Cal Ripken – It is absolutely impossible not to love this card with an absolute passion.

This Mount Rushmore takes a look at the original Milwaukee Brewers. After joining the American League in 1901, the Brewers relocated to St. Louis for the next season and re-branded themselves as the Browns. Following the 1953 season, the franchise moved one last time, this time moving to Baltimore. They took the name of a previous franchise that played there (and later moved to New York…) and called themselves the Orioles.

For years, this was a pretty bad franchise. From 1901 to 1943, they didn’t have a single first-place finish (in just an 8-team league!) They had only 2 second-place finishes in that time too. After finishing first and losing the World Series in 1944, the team embarked on another went another 21 years without another top finish. Then, in 1966, their fortunes changes. The Orioles won the World Series that year, made 3 more finals in 1969-1971 (including another win in 1970) and proceeded to make the playoffs 4 more times from 1973-1983, capping off with yet another World Series win in that final season.

Since 1983, the pickings have been pretty slim. They’ve made the playoffs just twice (in 1996 and 1997, losing in the  ALCS each time) and are way under .500 for that period. So far, 2012 has been the best season in years for the team, with them clinging to 2nd place in the AL East.

Anyway, the franchise has had some pretty awesome players over the years. Let’s dig in.

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Saturday

@Cubs 4, Diamondbacks 1: The 5th straight scoreless start by Ryan Dempster matched the longest since Orel Hershiser‘s record run of 6 in 1988; only Brandon Webb has had 5 in a row in any season since.

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Nobody can possibly do what John Autin does with his amazing game reviews, but he’s been quiet for a couple of days, so I humbly chip in a few notes on yesterday’s games, and welcome others to add their own.

–Felix Hernandez’s Game Score of 93 was the highest against the Rangers since a Johan Santana 17K, 0BB game in August 2007.
–Jeff Francoeur of the Royals actually had two hits, a walk and an RBI, all in the same game, for the first time since April last season.
–Craig Kimbrel has now had 21 appearances in a row in which he has pitched at least one full inning and also allowed zero walks. There have been only five longer such streaks in MLB history (two by Mariano Rivera), the longest being a 26-game streak by John Smoltz that ran from September 2003 to June 2004.
–Oakland got home runs from four different hitters for the first time since they got homers from five guys on September 11, 2009.
–The Braves have now scored at least 7 runs in their last four games against the Mets and won all four. The last team to do that to the Mets was Arizona in 2002. The only team to beat the Mets five times in a row while scoring 7 or more every time was the Milwaukee Braves back in 1964.
–Andrew McCutchen has a homer and at least one additional time on base in each of his last three games. The last Pirate to do that three games in a row was Ryan Doumit in 2008.

The 1983 Yankees (the “Pine Tar Game” Yankees) started a left-handed pitcher in 127 of their regular season games. That’s the most lefty-starter games by any team in one season in the b-ref Play Index searchable era (1918-current).  Ron Guidry, Dave Righetti and Shane Rawley, all lefties, were the three primary starters for the Bombers all season long (this was the season Righetti pitched his no-hitter).  The fourth and fifth spots in the rotation were covered by a number of guys, but more than anyone else by two other lefties, Bob Shirley and, after he was called up from the minors in late June, Ray Fontenot.  The 1983 Yankees won 91 games, but in the pre-wild card era that wasn’t enough to get them to the post-season.   More lefty-heavy starting staffs after the jump. Continue reading →

There has been discussion here at HHS about the fact that even today, half a century after the first wave of major league franchise expansion, generally speaking the fourteen teams that have been created from the 1960s on have a tougher time being consistently successful than the sixteen teams that date back to the beginning of the 20th century or before.  It follows that serving as manager of one (or more) of the those fourteen expansion franchises can be a task with special challenges.  Mike Scioscia has handled that task as well as anyone. Indeed, Scioscia needs just four more more wins as manger of the Angels to become the winningest expansion franchise manager ever.  The numbers are after the jump. Continue reading →

Still 26 hours before Counting down to the next pitch that really matters (Friday 1:20pm CDT). Some empty calories will help pass the time….

2012-04-18 — Only game this year where both starters went 9+ scoreless innings. Also the only game in 7 years where one starter went 10+ scoreless frames. Here’s the last time both starters went 10+ scoreless.

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(Wait … you mean there’s pro baseball going on right now?)

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Using the Day by Day Database over at David Pinto’s Baseball Musings blog, one can do leader boards covering specific in-season time periods, without being bound by the beginning and ends of seasons. So, for example, one can (and I do, after the jump) compare the MLB On-Base Percentage leader for each of the past four full seasons (502 PA minimum) with the OBP leader for each of the the past four year-long periods running from All-Star Break to All-Star Break (same 502 PA minimum): Continue reading →

@Rangers 4, Twins 3 (13): Ian Kinsler‘s game-winning gapper was his 2nd career walk-off, both against Minnesota. The other one was a home run off R.A. Dickey.

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“Who am I?” In my 9th year, and 3 years after being jettisoned by my original team, I currently have career highs in BA, SLG and OPS+.

@Cardinals 5, Marlins 4: Another Heath Bell crunch. Austin Kearns had put the Fish out front with a 3-run pinch-clout in the 7th, but the Redbirds scored 3 in the 9th to win. Rafael Furcal brought home the last two with a 1-and-2 single to left, as leadfoot David Freese slipped under a high tag. Furcal got his chance when Bell couldn’t finish .223-hitting Daniel Descalso, who battled from an 0-2 hole in a 10-pitch AB that ended with a walk.

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