SUNDAY
@Pirates 3, Royals 2: Ladies and gentlemen, your first-place Bucs! Winning 12 of 15 (including 4 of 6 from Cincinnati), they’ve surged from 5th place to forge a tie with the Reds. We can celebrate it, but we can’t explain it. Their offense is last in the majors in scoring and in OPS+, they’ve been outscored by 17 runs, the cleanup spot has been a black hole (.200, 4 HRs), and they have just one player with an OPS+ of 100 or better — not just one regular, but one player, period.
Nyjer Morgan went 44 games to start this season, before recording his first RBI.
How unusual is that? I’ll take a look after the jump.
Responding to a reader question, here are the 10 worst seasonal ERAs for pitchers who qualified for the ERA title:
| Rk | Player | Year | Tm | G | GS | W | L | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Les Sweetland | 7.71 | 1930 | PHI | 34 | 25 | 7 | 15 | 167.0 | 271 | 164 | 143 | 60 | 36 | 71 | 24 |
| 2 | Jim Deshaies | 7.39 | 1994 | MIN | 25 | 25 | 6 | 12 | 130.1 | 170 | 109 | 107 | 54 | 78 | 66 | 30 |
| 3 | Jack Knott | 7.29 | 1936 | SLB | 47 | 23 | 9 | 17 | 192.2 | 272 | 174 | 156 | 93 | 60 | 73 | 15 |
| 4 | Jose Lima | 6.99 | 2005 | KCR | 32 | 32 | 5 | 16 | 168.2 | 219 | 140 | 131 | 61 | 80 | 63 | 31 |
| 5 | LaTroy Hawkins | 6.66 | 1999 | MIN | 33 | 33 | 10 | 14 | 174.1 | 238 | 136 | 129 | 60 | 103 | 76 | 29 |
| 6 | Jose Lima | 6.65 | 2000 | HOU | 33 | 33 | 7 | 16 | 196.1 | 251 | 152 | 145 | 68 | 124 | 75 | 48 |
| 7 | Greg Harris | 6.65 | 1994 | COL | 29 | 19 | 3 | 12 | 130.0 | 154 | 99 | 96 | 52 | 82 | 75 | 22 |
| 8 | Darryl Kile | 6.61 | 1999 | COL | 32 | 32 | 8 | 13 | 190.2 | 225 | 150 | 140 | 109 | 116 | 88 | 33 |
| 9 | Chubby Dean | 6.61 | 1940 | PHA | 30 | 19 | 6 | 13 | 159.1 | 220 | 136 | 117 | 63 | 38 | 67 | 21 |
| 10 | Nels Potter | 6.60 | 1939 | PHA | 41 | 25 | 8 | 12 | 196.1 | 258 | 163 | 144 | 88 | 60 | 71 | 26 |
That’s an interesting set, considering that all 10 seasons are from either 1930-1940 or 1994-present.
Let’s look, instead, at the 10 worst ERA+ values, which corrects for overall scoring and ballpark:
| Rk | Player | Year | Tm | G | GS | W | L | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rube Bressler | 56 | 1915 | PHA | 32 | 20 | 4 | 17 | 178.1 | 183 | 133 | 103 | 118 | 69 | 5.20 | 3 |
| 2 | Gene Wright | 58 | 1903 | TOT | 23 | 20 | 6 | 15 | 162.2 | 195 | 123 | 90 | 74 | 79 | 4.98 | 3 |
| 3 | Pol Perritt | 61 | 1913 | STL | 36 | 21 | 6 | 14 | 175.0 | 205 | 123 | 102 | 64 | 64 | 5.25 | 9 |
| 4 | Elmer Myers | 62 | 1917 | PHA | 38 | 23 | 9 | 16 | 201.2 | 221 | 122 | 99 | 79 | 88 | 4.42 | 2 |
| 5 | Oscar Jones | 62 | 1905 | BRO | 29 | 20 | 8 | 15 | 174.0 | 197 | 121 | 90 | 56 | 66 | 4.66 | 6 |
| 6 | Dan Griner | 63 | 1913 | STL | 34 | 34 | 10 | 22 | 225.0 | 279 | 150 | 127 | 66 | 79 | 5.08 | 12 |
| 7 | Jose Lima | 63 | 2005 | KCR | 32 | 32 | 5 | 16 | 168.2 | 219 | 140 | 131 | 61 | 80 | 6.99 | 31 |
| 8 | Happy Finneran | 63 | 1918 | TOT | 28 | 15 | 3 | 8 | 128.0 | 156 | 69 | 63 | 43 | 36 | 4.43 | 7 |
| 9 | Irv Young | 64 | 1907 | BSN | 40 | 32 | 10 | 23 | 245.1 | 287 | 131 | 108 | 58 | 86 | 3.96 | 5 |
| 10 | Tom Fisher | 64 | 1904 | BSN | 31 | 21 | 6 | 16 | 214.0 | 257 | 165 | 101 | 82 | 84 | 4.25 | 5 |
So now these guys are all from 1918 or earlier, with the exception of Jose Lima in 2005, who made both lists. This tells you that a lot of bad pitchers were allowed to keep on pitching early in baseball history. (I should mention that both of these lists are 1901-present.)
I think that the first list above basically tells you when the two high-scoring eras of baseball were, and the second list basically tells you that pitchers were used differently (i.e. not allowed to finish out the year if they were horrible) come the 1920s.
No one can better grasp the meaning of Bart Giamatti’s famous description of baseball than a Mets fan watching his team play the Yankees.
Friday’s best and worst in Win Probability Added (WPA):
Pitchers — C.J. Wilson, 0.382 (8 IP, 1 R in a game that was fairly close until the 9th); Brian Fuentes, -0.909 (4th-worst of the year; he also owns the worst — see below).
Hitters — Ryan Roberts, 0.956 (see below); Colby Rasmus, -0.238 (0-5 in a close game, including the last out of the 9th with the go-ahead run on 3rd).
Since the Mets finally got over the hump to record a no-hitter last week, the question has been “What took them so long?” After all, they have had no shortage of capable pitchers over the years, including several who had no-hitters for other teams, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, David Cone and Al Leiter among them.
But, actually, it’s a lot more than several – 16 pitchers who have played for the Mets have thrown no-hitters for another team or teams, but not for the Mets. So, why is that? After the jump, I’ll take a look at ballparks and see what (if anything) might be learned.
Beginning next season, Houston will move to the AL West and there will be two leagues of 15 teams, each with three five-team divisions. Although my plan for how to handle this new arrangement is no more likely to be adopted than a re-make of Love Story with Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee in the roles of Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw, I’ll share it after the jump. Continue reading
Cardinals 14, @Astros 2: Lance Lynn hardly needed the run support to become the second 9-game winner, as he had a career-best 11 strikeouts in just 6 innings. David Freese had his first 2-HR game, NL leader Carlos Beltran snapped a 9-game tater famine, and the Cards won a series for the first time in 2 weeks.
1984 Topps #666 Tigers Leaders - Lou Whitaker and Jack Morris
OK…let’s get one of the big franchises out of the way. The Tigers are another team that joined MLB in 1901 (although they were founded in 1894). In 111 years, the Tigers have had only 12 first-place finishes. Three of them came in 1907 to 1909 but they lost the World Series each year. They made 7 more World Series and won it in 1984, 1968, 1945, and 1935. Continue reading
Wish I had more time for this. Here I try to cover some of the teams that don’t always make it into the roundup.
@Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 1: Paul Goldschmidt hit RBI doubles in his first 2 ABs, then closed the scoring with his 7th HR in the 7th. Wade Miley (7-2, 2.53) has won 4 of his last 5 starts, averaging 7 IP and 1 walk; here he set a new personal best with a 77 Game Score.