Opening day in North America is tomorrow, April 4th. As with last week’s opener in Japan, doesn’t seem to be a lot of build-up by MLB. To wit, tomorrow’s debut of the Marlins’ new digs will share attention with 12 pre-season games, including at least one that will likely still be in progress when the first pitch is thrown in Miami.

One of the great rites of the start of the baseball season is the naming of opening day starting pitchers. This year’s roster includes several making their first opening day start, including Brandon McCarthy, Stephen Strasburg, Tommy Hanson, Justin Masterson, Johnny Cueto, John Danks, Colby Lewis, Wandy Rodriguez, Jake Arrieta and Bruce Chen.

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I recently posted on the very long-term and continuing growth in the prevalence of the strikeout in the major leagues over many decades. For example in 1982, there were an average of 5.04 strikeouts per game in the major leagues, as compared to 7.10 strikeouts per game in 2011. All the more remarkable, then, that Reggie Jackson has continuously held the all-time career strikeout record for a hitter since 1982, with the 30th anniversary of his setting the all-time record coming up in August. Details, and challengers to his record, after you click that clever little “Read The Rest of This Entry ” line. Continue reading →

You got the last quiz in less than 10 comments, so this one is tougher.

The pitchers in this quiz have done something that has happened in the AL only 13 times since 1930. That something is an event within a game.

The common thread connecting these pitchers is related to a career milestone most recently achieved in the 2011 season.

The list of pitchers is after the jump. What did these pitchers do?

The quiz has been solved in 82 minutes. The listed pitchers are those who, in an AL game since 1930, have surrendered the final career hit to a member of the 3000 hit club.

Congratulations to Topper009! And, honorable mention to stealofhome who was right on Topper’s heels.

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This past week, Jack Cust was released and later picked up by the Yankees on a minor-league contract. Cust, at 53.0%, is the active career leader in TTO% (three true outcomes – % of PAs resulting in BBs, Ks or HRs). Generally, those high on the TTO list (usually around 50% of PAs) need to be high up on each of the component lists, if not among the league leaders. If they are, they stand a decent chance of being positive contributors.

Strikeouts are customarily seen as unproductive outs and therefore something to be minimized. Of course, those with high strikeouts can mitigate their negative impact by providing power. I was interested, though, to find out if any players had made positive offensive contributions even when their power did not seem adequate to compensate for their strikeouts.

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Since records have been kept (from 1939) just 7 players have qualified for the batting title but never grounded into a double play:

It’s less impressive for the 3 guys who did it in 1994 since that was a shorter season.

Weird to see slowpoke Rob Deer on here, but that’s because he so often struck out or hit a fly ball.

Presswire

Despite what the back of his jersey says, Jamie Moyer’s not going to turn 50 until November of this year. Now that he’s been named to the Rockies’ starting rotation, however, he has the chance to set a lot of age-related records. Continue reading →

Livan Hernandez was cut by the Astros, but then immeidately signed by the Braves, a result that seems to represent progress for any player looking for a greater chance of being on a successful team in 2012. Livan has had an interesting enough career that it is quite easy to find statistical oddities about him. A few of those after the jump. Continue reading →

I have a specific idea for a cool feature I want to add to this blog but I lack the expertise in coding it. It involves pulling some data (with permission) from another website and displaying it here. If you (or someone you know) can help, please drop me an email. I will pay.

When the door opened for formal guests at British estates like Downton Abbey, the first face seen would be the butler’s.  On Opening Day, the first face in the batter’s box for a team’s new season is the visiting team’s starting leadoff batter.  A Butler has performed that duty in his team’s first game of a season more times than anyone else, going back at least to 1919:

Most “First Batter of the Game” Appearances by a Hitter on His Team’s Opening Day (1919-2011):
Brett Butler 10
Tim Raines and Kenny Lofton 9
Lloyd Waner and Delino DeShields 8
Rickey Henderson, Ray Durham and Johnny Damon 7

More on Butler and Opening Day greetings after the jump. Continue reading →

Actually, one of these guys wasn’t an All-Star, but that’s only because there weren’t such things in his time.

Regardless, the list after the jump is an impressive assortment of top baseball talent. And, it’s a very exclusive group because these are the only players since 1901 to accomplish a particular feat. What is that feat?

The quiz has been solved in just 63 minutes. Congratulations to bstar!

I’m going to have to go back to the difficult quizzes.

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