@Blue Jays 8, Yankees 1: I confess — I did not pencil in Kyle Drabek for 7 strong IP against the Yanks. In 3 prior starts (13.2 IP), they pummeled him for 12 runs and 27 baserunners.
Ellis Burks, once a great Rockie, in a photo from spring 2012 when he was coaching the Reds / Presswire
Here are the Colorado Rockies. The way I see it, this is a discussion of just the final two faces on their Mount Rushmore as Todd Helton and Larry Walker clearly get the top two spots. Let’s look a little more at who gets #3 and #4.
Josh Johnson / Presswire
Here’s another toughie, as most of the great players for this franchise didn’t stick around for more than a few years. I’m calling them the Florida Marlins since that’s how they were known for virtually their entire existence. Continue reading
Just a few notes tonight, alas. Feel free to fill in the gaps!
Indians 5, @Twins 0: Derek Lowe‘s improbable season reached an implausible extreme with a 6-hit shutout, his first since 2005 and first CG since ’08. Lowe began the night with 13 walks and 13 Ks in 43.2 IP, then walked 4 without a strikeout. Lowe got 19 groundball outs, 4 of them DPs, and 2 of the hits were infield singles.
— Starlin Castro ranks 12th in MLB with a .333 BA … and 64th with a .349 OBP. Through 35 games, he has 48 hits and 4 walks in 152 PAs, putting him on pace for 222 hits and 18 walks. No Cub since 1937 has topped 210 hits. No one has ever had more than 212 hits with less than 22 walks. And just two players have had 200+ hits with 12 times as many hits as walks.
— Ben Zobrist, the anti-Castro, has a .218 BA, but a .377 OBP and 6 HRs. He leads the AL with 30 walks. The highest qualifying OBP ever with a BA under .220 is .377, by Jim Wynn in 1976 (.207 BA, 127 walks).
Luis Gonzalez and Randy Johnson / Presswire
Time for us to figure out who is on the Mount Rushmore of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Continue reading
Will Middlebrooks has started off really well in the first 10 games of his MLB career. Just to play devil’s advocate, though, check out the list of players in the last 20 years to have at least 4 HR in their first 10 career games: Continue reading
Carl Crawford / Presswire
Following on Graham’s original post (which itself expands on an idea tweeted by Buster Olney), I’ve decided to go through baseball’s 30 teams and talk about who might be on each team’s Mount Rushmore.
Much like the real Mount Rushmore, the criteria used for selecting the 4 honorees isn’t totally straightforward. Just like with presidents, it’s tough to rate who was “best” in any measurable way, and similarly tough to figure who was most well-liked, most important, or most influential.
I’m also going to run down these teams in reverse order of length of franchise existence, so the first few are going to be toughest. You’ll see what I mean right away when we look at the Tampa Bay Rays.
Relief pitching as a specialization has become increasingly refined in the past 50 years. Today we have closers, setup men, long relievers, middle relievers, loogies and possibly other sub-specialties.
However, in the live ball era since 1920, these are the only relief pitchers to accomplish two related feats.
| Player |
|---|
| Jeff Russell |
| Alan Mills |
| Rich Gossage |
| Bill Henry |
| Ryan Franklin |
| Andy Hassler |
| Eddie Watt |
| Moe Drabowsky |
What are those two related feats that no other relievers have accomplished since 1920?
Congratulations to John Autin and Brandon who jointly identified the feats that only these eight pitchers have accomplished since 1920. These are the only pitchers with seasons of 30 or more relief appearances and no starts that include one of more seasons averaging less than one inning per appearance and also one or more seasons averaging two or more innings per appearance.
Nationals 2, @Reds 1: Jordan Zimmermann (HQS with 9 SO, 1 BB) trimmed his ERA to 2.14 in 7 starts and even got his 2nd win in the bargain. He has 33 starts since 2011, a season’s worth. Here are his numbers and where they rank out of 101 pitchers with 30+ starts in that span: 2.95 ERA (13th-tie), 130 ERA+ (13th-tie), 1.11 WHIP (14th), 1.7 BB/9 (8th) and 4.0 SO/9 (9th-tie).