Numbers Show Cubs’ Dominance

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Whether or not it culminates in a championship, this has been a spectacular season for the Chicago Cubs. They entered Saturday with an MLB-best 90-50 record, and even that understates the team’s dominance.

So in this week’s contribution to USA Today Sports Weekly, I took a look at all the ways that the Cubs have lapped the rest of the league and went searching for comparable clubs. Maintaining their current pace for the next few weeks would put them in impressive company.

Aside from the link above, you can find this column in the print version of the magazine.

AL East Heats Up

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The new look Yankees have gone 17-9 since August 9th to join the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Orioles in the hunt for the AL East title. Both AL wild card spots are currently held by these teams, but with most of their remaining games against each other, that may not be the case much longer. For the AL East, it could well be just like the old days: win or go home.

A look at what should be a memorable pennant chase after the jump.

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Pitching Evolution: Starters and Relievers, Part 1

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On a recent post, one of our regular HHS readers wondered about whether today’s highly specialized relief corps really helped preserve wins or prevent losses. That seemed like an interesting idea for a post, one that I’ll look at in two installments. Part 1 looks at starters and relievers across all teams, while Part 2 will focus in on individual pitchers.

More after the jump.

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Late Season Oddities

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With the season finish line in sight, HHS readers have uncovered some odd seasonal achievements that would become even more unusual were they to continue for the full season. Or maybe it’s just an unusual player or team accomplishment in a recent game. If you’ve uncovered something interesting that’s happened recently, this is your opportunity to contribute.

More after the jump.

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Quiz – Baseball Match Game (solved)

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This quiz is about players with a connection to another player. There are two lists of players with each player in the first list matching a player in the second. Your job is to figure out the connection.

Congratulations to No Statistician But! He knew that the matching players were teammates in a season when both (or all) hit their 300th home runs. Those details are after the jump.

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More games starting with homers

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Fans tuning into this season’s MLB games from the very first pitch have been treated to plenty of early offense. Leadoff hitters are launching home runs left and right (and center) at an especially high rate, and producing more first-inning offense than we’ve seen in decades.

Contributing to USA Today Sports Weekly, our own Aidan Jackson-Evans (@ajacksonevans on Twitter) tries to explain the phenomenon. Here is the link to his column.

Every week during the season, HHS submits analysis like this to the magazine. Check it out online, or consider picking up a print copy.

The Vicious Circle – Home Runs, Strikeouts and Disappearing Baserunners

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The Astros and Blue Jays began this month with a four game series in Houston that produced a total of just 15 runs for the two teams, but a bumper crop of 105 strikeouts. The latter figure and Toronto’s share (61 whiffs) are both reported to be records for a four game series. Despite all the swings and misses, Toronto took the set 3 games to 1, outscoring Houston 10-5, with seven of those ten runs coming off solo home runs.

That series is an extreme example but an instructive one on the growing trend in baseball of games dominated by home runs and strikeouts, two of the “three true outcomes” or TTOs (the third is walks), so named because the defense can do nothing to affect the results of those events.

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