I love the 1989 film Major League. I’ve seen it maybe 20 times since childhood to the point that watching it is now more or less an annual ritual. There’s no suspense for me at this point, I’ll admit, as I could probably transcribe much of the script from memory. I know well the story of how a ragtag Cleveland Indian team is culled from the Mexican League, correctional system, and beyond to deliberately lose to spur relocation and how the players begin to win after learning of the ruse. It’s Hollywood contrivance to a large degree, though I also assume there’s some truth in it.

I interviewed Joe Posnanski in 2010, and one thing he told me (that I left out of the interview I published) is that some of the hardships for the club in question, such as a dilapidated team plane, drew from the 1977 Indians. I also assume there’s enough decent players outside of the majors right now to stock a team. This post offers a 25-man roster of such players, life imitating Major League, we could call it.

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Ted Kluszewski was among the most feared NL hitters of the early and mid 1950s. In his best 4-year run from 1953 to 1956, he compiled 148 OPS+ while batting .315 with 171 HR and 464 RBI, ranking, respectively, 4th, 3rd, 1st and 2nd in the NL for those categories. 

Interestingly, though, Ted is a member of two quite different groups of hitters. After the jump, you’ll see what I mean.

Congratulations to JoshG and John Autin! JoshG identified that Ted Kluszewski is one of just 8 hitters since 1946 with a season of 30 or more HR and fewer strikeouts than HR (Kluszewski had 4 such seasons; only DiMaggio had more, with 6, including 5 in a row in 1937-41). John Autin got the second part of the quiz, identifying that Kluszewski also (probably surprisingly) is one of just 12 hitters since 1946 with a season (min. 502 PA) of 10 or fewer HR and also 25 or fewer of both strikeouts and walks. Kluszewski had such a season in 1949. Glenn Beckert and Don Mueller lead the way, each with 3 such seasons.

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I will be appearing on ESPN Radio 1510 AM in Kansas City tonight to discuss the results of our Royals Mount Rushmore poll. The folks from the Kansas City Baseball Vault have invited me on as a guest and I expect to be heard around 7:30 ET / 6:30 CT.

You can listen live at 1510.com or, if it’s already aired, check out the show archive at the link above.

I just did a manual workup of all 3-homer games since 1992, split out by team’s home stadium. Note that this doesn’t take into account stadium changes–for example the numbers for Washington include all 3-HR games by Expos or Nats hit at home, and all 3-HR games by visitors at the Expos’ or Nats’ home stadium.

Team   H    V   Total
CHC    9    8   17
COL    8    9   17
TEX    9    7   16
CIN    9    6   15
BOS    6    5   11
TOR    6    5   11
MIL    7    3   10
PHI    2    8   10
CLE    5    3    8
ARI    4    3    7
BAL    3    3    6
DET    3    3    6
KCR    0    6    6
NYY    5    1    6
WSN    2    4    6
ATL    1    4    5
CHW    1    4    5
HOU    2    3    5
LAD    3    2    5
SEA    2    3    5
STL    3    2    5
OAK    3    1    4
SDP    1    3    4
LAA    2    2    4
PIT    1    2    3
SFG    1    2    3
TBR    2    1    3
FLA    1    1    2
MIN    0    2    2
NYM    0    0    0

So these are 3-HR games by home-team players, and by visiting players, and the total.

Check out the disparities for the Brewers, who have hit a lot more at home than their visitors have, and the Phillies, who have yielded a lot more at home than they’ve hit.

(Updated … again … and again)

@Red Sox 6, Tigers 4: In last place through May 10, Boston has gone 14-5 since then, and find themselves … still alone in last place. (For those who don’t know, all statistical nuggets in these pages originate with me, unless attributed; I heard that one on SportsCenter and couldn’t resist.) The difference between their first 31 games (12-19) and these last 19 has been mostly on the defensive side; they allowed 5.8 R/G before, 3.4 since. Their own scoring is virtually unchanged at 5.3 R/G, but more level; in the first period they had 8 games of 10+ runs (7-1) but also 9 games of 2 or less (1-8). In the latter period, 15 of 19 games have fallen between 3 and 7 runs.

Meanwhile, what ails the Tigers? For one thing, the offense is mysteriously inefficient:

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(Some notes on a few Tuesday games, with a focus on the west coast games that often get left out of these reports.)

Brewers 2, @Dodgers 1: Playing without their 2nd-best hitter (Jonathan Lucroy’s broken hand will sideline him some weeks), the Crew beat baseball’s best record for the 2nd day in a row. Ryan Braun’s 2-run HR in the 1st stood up all the way home, and Michael Fiers became the first Brewer to win his big-league starting debut since Yovani Gallardo in 2007.

• It’s the sixth time that the 32-17 Dodgers have lost 2 in a row, but they’ve yet to slide any farther than that.
• The WPA “Bad Day at the Office” Award goes to LA’s Jerry Hairston, whose 0 for 4 included 2 chances to bring in the tying run from 2nd base, the latter a 9th-inning GIDP. His WPA of -0.475 is the worst of the day and 6th-worst of the season to date.

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I was watching a Blue Jays game the other night with Omar Vizquel starting at shortstop and Drew Hitchison starting on the mound. Vizquel, of course, is the oldest player in the AL this year, and Hutchison the second youngest, after Mike Trout. Vizquel and Hutchison also started for the Jays on April 26th (before Trout’s season debut) when Hutchison was the youngest player to appear in an AL game.

Anyway, following up from the post a few days ago on tenured teammates, I started thinking about other times when the youngest and oldest player in a league have been teammates. After the jump, I’ll take a look at this curiosity.

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1982 Fleer #461 Bobby Grich - I love '82 Fleer. The photos were quite unusual, and this one is no exception, showing Grich about to enter his stride. I also love the shot of the other photographer sitting in the background

Just to be clear, this poll includes all iterations of the Angels franchise, including the Anaheim Angels, California Angels, and Los Angeles Angels dating back to 1961.

This team had a couple of long post-season droughts from 1961 to 1978 and from 1987 to 2001. In 2002 they broke through and won the World Series, part of a string of 6 playoff appearances in 8 years. Lately, though, they’ve been playing second fiddle to the other 1961 expansion team, the Texas Rangers (whom we’ll look at next.)

Before you click through, see if you can guess who the all-time team leader in WAR is…hint: it’s a pitcher. Continue reading →

[Just in time for Tuesday night’s slate, here are a few notes on Monday games.]

White Sox 2, @Rays 1: To put it very mildly, ChiSox history is not replete with strikeout artists. From 1955 until yesterday, a pitcher had fanned 15+ in a game 210 times, but none of them were White Sox. Chris Sale ended that drought by posting just the 2nd ChiSox game of 15+ Ks in searchable history.

• Matt Moore whiffed 10, making it the first game this year in which both SPs reached double figures, and the first since 2007 involving 2 AL teams.
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I’ve given you guys some really tough quizzes in the last while, so here’s an easier one (I think).

After the jump is a list of sluggers. What distinguishes this group of players among all batters since 1901?

Congratulations to Stuart and Richard Chester! They identified that the hitters in this quiz all have at least 3 qualifying seasons with more extra-base hits than singles. Sixty-eight other hitters have one or two such seasons. All of these seasons are here.

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