Saturday game notes (long division edition)

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Tigers 6, @Twins 4 / Rays 10, @White Sox 4: Each Central challenger had their ace on the hill for the last time in the regular schedule. The veteran and reigning MVP left in the 8th with a 6-0 lead, allowing no ER for the 3rd time in his last 4 outings and collecting his 5th September win. The youngster had his worst and shortest start, departing in the 4th and charged with 5 ER. The Tigers came away with a 2-game lead.

— Miguel Cabrera‘s 3-run HR in the 8th gave him (for now) a share of the HR lead. It also gave him 368 Total Bases, 5th all-time for a third baseman and 12 away from Vinny Castilla‘s 1998 record; and 83 extra-base hits, 4 shy of Chipper‘s 3B record.

Ryan Doumit drove in all 4 Minnesota runs for the 2nd straight game. Elias can probably tell you the last time something like that was done; here’s what I’ve got in my amateur way: Doumit’s consecutive 4-RBI games is the 8th such streak this year (Brandon Inge did it twice); the lowest team run total for the others was 13 for Ryan Ludwick‘s Reds. There are now 23 such “streaks” from 2008-12; in none of the others did the player drive in all his team’s runs even once.
The last streaks of more than 4 RBI in 2 straight (Raul Ibanez) and of 4+ RBI in three straight games (Cody Ross) both came in 2008.
Detroit’s bullpen ERA this month: 5.24.

— Matt Joyce pinch-hit a HR in the 7th, stayed in and homered again in the 8th. The last hitter to enter as a PH and hit 2 HRs was Raul Ibanez … one week ago. The last to do it in exactly 2 PAs was Scott Hairston, in a 3-2 loss last July.

Highest qualifying OPS+ years by a player with 40+ games at both SS and 2B: (1) 203, Nap Lajoie, 1904. (2) 138, Ben Zobrist, 2012 (through Friday). (3) 127, Bobby Grich, 1972. Zobrist has played 58 G at 2B (46 starts) and 42 at SS (all starts).
For 2009-12, Zobrist ranks 2nd in WAR to Pujols (26.5-26.1). Leaving out defense, he’s 16th over all in Rbat, and 2nd to Cano in Rbat among middle infielders (107-94; Tulo is 3rd with 74, Utley 4th with 60, Pedroia and Hanley 5th with 58; Reyes 7th with 42). Tampa controls his contract for the next 3 years, at a total of $20 million, with only $8.5 million guaranteed. That’s got to be the most valuable contract to any team right now, right? Pedroia is controlled for 3 years and $31 million ($20.5 mm guaranteed); Cano is entering his $15mm option year; Kinsler will average $14mm a year for the next 5, Tulo $17.5mm for the next 8, Reyes $18.2mm for the next 5. (All salaries from B-R.)

@Athletics 7, Mariners 4: While 5 A’s relievers held Seattle to 2 baserunners in 5.2 IP, Brandon Moss led them back from a 4-0 hole. He drove in the first 2 runs with a single in the 4th (sharing credit with Yoenis) and a double in the 8th (with Stephen Drew showing why he hadn’t tried to score from 1st on a double in 4 prior chances this year). After Josh Donaldson tied it in the 9th on a 2-run HR — his first tying or go-ahead RBI that late — Moss stepped in with 2 aboard in the 10th and launched the first pitch over the RF wall for Oakland’s MLB-high 14th walk-off win.

In two games since a 10-day absence from the batter’s box, Coco Crisp is 7 for 10 with 5 runs.
In his 11 HR-free starts, Jason Vargas has allowed 12 ER and averaged 7 IP.
In the first 2 games of this series, Stephen Pryor has retired 1 of 6 batters, been charged with 3 ER, and let in all 4 inherited runners. In the minors this year, he allowed 4 ER in 39 IP.

@Blue Jays 3, Yankees 2 / @Orioles 4, Red Sox 3: So the AL East comes down to the last 4 games — unless….

— Two sac flies in the 1st were all the Yanks could muster. They left the bases full that inning, then got bupkes out of no-out threats in the 2nd (man on 2nd) and 3rd (loaded, ending with a sparkler). They would finish 2 for 11 with RISP, both nonscoring singles.

A leadoff walk in the 4th was followed by 3 FC grounders. The first two reached in the 5th, but Raul Ibanez ended that threat with a pinch-DP. They rested in the 6th, then resumed the dance in the 7th: leadoff hit, SO looking, PO/CS, single, out. In the 8th, 1-out error, pinch-CS (bad call). In the 9th, last gasp with Ichiro’s 2-out bingle, but A-Rod flied out to end it.
Meanwhile, Rajai ended Andy‘s scoreless September with a poke to left, then squared matters with 2 gone in the 5th on a roller to third, his 7th straight hit. In the 6th, Joba relieved Andy with a 2-2 score, 2 out and 2 on; and on a 2-2 count, 2B Adeiny Hechavarria beat him with a 2-base drive off the RF wall for the go-ahead run. Casey Janssen, who may end Toronto’s revolving door at closer, avenged his last blown save, especially by popping up Jeter for the 2nd out.

— Manny Machado knocked in the first run with a single through the middle and the last with a line-drive HR leading off the 7th — his 7th HR, all at home. The bullpen logged 4 faultless innings

Machado has started every game since his promotion, and the O’s are 31-16.
Jim Johnson now has more saves than anyone with more saves than Ks (49, 40).
With a win Sunday, the O’s would be 13-5 against the BoSox, matching their best record in the divisional era (1970).

— Yanks and O’s fans know this all too well, but your distracted correspondent has just realized what’s at stake in their fight: The winner gets the home edge in a first-round series against the deeply flawed Central winner. The loser gets a play-in game against (most likely) Oakland, conceivably on the road (the A’s are 1 GB the other wild card); and if they survive, a first-round meeting against hungry Texas, with only 2 home games. (Did I get that right?)

Nats 6, @Cards 4 (10): Kurt Suzuki paid off an intentional walk to Danny Espinosa with a big 2-run double on an awful 2-2 pitch, and Washington set a franchise record with their 96th win, taking over MLB’s best mark as a bonus. Bryce Harper had his 5th straight multi-hit game, raising his lines to .296/.932 in 45 games since his last game off. If the Dodgers cash their 3-0 lead on the Rockies, the Cardinals’ wild-card lead will be 2 games.

Babe Herman, meet Mike Morse. But Babe didn’t have the benefit of video review.

@Brewers 9, Astros 5: Milwaukee’s hopes stayed on life support, as they jumped out to an early 7-0 lead with 2 Corey Hart HRs, then rode Marco Estrada‘s brilliance into the 9th.

Home run #27 gave Aramis Ramirez 80 extra-base hits for the 2nd time, joining Troy Glaus as the only 3Bs to repeat that feat; 11 others have done it once. On the all-time 3B list, Aramis ranks 9th in HRs (tied with Santo) and 9th in XBH.
The last of Livan? With 2 outs and a 9-0 lead, he served up 3 HRs to his last 4 batters, good for 5 runs, and was lifted with a 6.42 season ERA and 15 HRs in 67.1 IP.

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Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Your analysis of the Al East race sounds right.
Is the rule of not allowing having a wild card team play the ALDS within division still in effect?

Also, how is a tie dealt with?
The Yankees and Orioles are 9-9 head to head.
What is the next tiebreaker?

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Zoomo – Wikipedia has an article on the tiebreakers. Teams tied for the Divisional lead still play a one-game playoff: “Beginning in the 2012 season, two teams that are tied for a division championship play a tie breaking game even if both teams have already qualified for the postseason. The team losing the tie-break would qualify for a wildcard berth only if its regular season record is one of the two best records of teams from each league that are not division champions. If the losing team’s regular season record is tied with a team outside the division for the… Read more »

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Jayson Stark had a recent column about possible AL tie scenarios:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/stark_jayson/id/8423777/american-league-playoff-tiebreakers-nightmare-scenarios-mlb

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Yes, and he showed how completely idiotic it is. Virtually no account is taken for head to head, in-season records between tied teams, other than home field advantage, opting instead for an utterly byzantine system of one-game playoffs and arbitrary decisions (e.g. the loser of a 1 game Yanks-O’s playoff to determine the East winner is automatically the #1 WC team–WHY??)

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Jim – Actually it says the opposite: “Meanwhile, the Angels and A’s would kick off the wild-card tiebreaker festivities by facing each other Thursday in Oakland. The winner of that game would be considered “the first wild-card team.”” Let’s say all four teams finish 92-70. The Yankees and O’s play to determine the division and the Yankees win (for example). They would then be the division winner and the O’s would have a 92-71 record. And let’s say the A’s beat the Angels. That would give the A’s a 93-70 record. If the O’s then beat the Angels for the… Read more »

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Yep, I had it backwards, thanks Ed. Still completely idiotic though.

At least a four way tie is now highly unlikely, given that the Angels are 2.5 to 3.5 back of the other three teams with five to play (including a DH today at Texas), although all three possible two-way ties for division titles is still a possibility, and even two three-way ties, and various possible two and three-way wild card ties.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I read the whole thing and am still confused. Does a tiebreaker loss count in the standings. I’m trying to put together a scenario where with all kinds of ties, a team with more loses after all the tiebreakers are played, moves on in the playoffs over a team with a better record. That is after all tiebreakers are played.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Timmy, I’m 95% certain that, no, the tie-breaker records will not let you pass or lose ground to a team that had already established itself as a wild-card winner. The WC team that had qualified before the tiebreaker games will not be pushed out of its spot.

Evan

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

All of MLB’s current tiebreaking procedures can be found here:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120907&content_id=38029316&vkey=news_mlb_nd&c_id=mlb

12 years ago

Robinson Cano is on the verge of pulling of a very rare feat, something that only two other players have done: BA equal to or greater than .300, HR equal to or greater than 30, doubles equal to or greater than 40, RBIs under 90. He just has to keep his BA above .300 and avoid an RBI spree. The other two players to pull off this feat are Hank Aaron in 1965 and Raul Mondesi in 1997. Three other players have been extremely close, meeting three of the criteria and falling just short of the fourth. Alfonso Soriano in… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I didn’t check anybody else on the list, Ed, but as far as Cano goes the cause for his RBI shortage is quite simple: he’s simply had a horrible year driving in runners. And it’s not for lack of opportunities; the only other player in baseball to come to the plate with more runners on base is Josh Willingham of the Twins with 459. Cano has 454 and has only driven in 11.7% of those runners, a rate so bad it would make a leadoff hitter blush. Here’s the info, Cano is on page 3:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/sortable/index.php?cid=1093491

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Cano’s splits are actually quite strange. With no one on base, his slash line is about what you’d expect: .300/.352.526. His stats with men on are actually better than that: .306/.391/.528. But look at the individual breakdowns for how he’s done with men on base. With a single runner in first or a single runner on second, he’s destroyed the ball: 1st only: .364/.407/.671 2nd only: .386/.557/.614 Which means that in the other “men on base” situations, he’s basically been awful. I guess the best you can say is that at least he’s generally moving the runners along, even if… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

We seem to be on the same plane often here lately, but I looked at the same numbers last night also. It’s interesting to me how you can actually form a narrative for either point. You can find numbers that support the argument that Cano’s actually been good with runners on, but a closer look indicates he’s been dreadful.

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Looking at Cano’s career splits, he’s always struggled with runners in scoring position. He has a career .891 OPS with the bases empty but it drops to .770 with runners in scoring position. His numbers this year almost exactly mirror his carer numbers (.879 vs. .767). Now here’s where it gets interesting. Cano’s problem seems to mostly consist of hitting with runners on 1st and 2nd. In that situation his career OPS is a dreadful .606 in 455 PAs. His next lowest OPS with runners on base is .775. I can’t begin to understand why a batter would struggle so… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Yeah, there’s always a tradeoff. You can be better than you normally are with runners on, but that means you’re going to be stinking it up with no one on base. In Cano we have an example of this: tOPS+ of 90 with runners on, 109 with no one on for his career. An example of the opposite would be Ryan Howard’s career numbers: 85 with no one on, 114 with ROB.

Is there something going on in Cano and/or Howard’s head to cause this? I doubt it.

12 years ago

Yankees have 10 players with 14 or more HRs. Is this a record? (there are some things I can trick the PI into giving me, but team seasonal data isn’t one of them).

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Yes it is. Go to PI, batting season finders, find teams with players matching criteria and set HR => 14.

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Yes, that is the record. The Yankees are also tied for most players at 15+ HR, so if Andruw can get one more, they will have that mark alone too.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Thanks Doug and Richard! Unfortunately, as a non-subscriber to the PI, the first 10 entries are blanked out for me. As I mentioned, I’ve developed some workarounds for individual players but those workarounds don’t work when searching team results.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I did the same thing with workarounds when I was a non-subscriber but you are limited as to what you can do. It’s really worth it to subscribe.

RichW

12 years ago

Record within the division which I believe goes to the Orioles.

12 years ago

While many people are rooting for Cabrera to win the Triple Crown, I’m rooting for an even rarer feat, something that’s never happened before. Catchers winning both batting titles! With Cabrera withdrawing, Posey only has to hold off McCutchen to win the NL crown. In the AL, Mauer has a bit of catching up to do to pass Cabrera.

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Some possible Cabrera/Mauer BA scenarios: Cabrera 0-16 = .3184 0-15 = .3189 0-14 = .3194 1-16 = .3200 1-15 = .3205 1-14 = .3210 2-16 = .3216 2-15 = .3221 2-14 = .3226 3-16 = .3232 3-15 = .3237 3-14 = .3242 4-16 = .3248 4-15 = .3253 4-14 = .3258 Mauer 4-16 = .3181 4-15 = .3187 4-14 = .3193 5-16 = .3199 5-15 = .3205 5-14 = .3211 6-16 = .3218 6-15 = .3223 6-14 = .3229 7-16 = .3236 7-15 = .3242 7-14 = .3248 8-16 = .3254 8-15 = .3260 8-14 = .3266 9-16 = .3272… Read more »

oneblankspace

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Don’t count out Yadier Molina, who’s still in the top 5 with an average of .31983 — maybe too far off, but still within shouting distance.

12 years ago

Reply to oneblankspace

Not sure it’s possible for Molina to make up 17 points in 4 games, particularly since both he and Posey will likely be rested some to make sure they’re fresh for the playoffs.

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Hunter Pence: 102 RBI, .426 SLG. He’d be the first since 2000 with 100+ RBI and SLG<.430.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

But clearly Pence has risen to the occasion by slugging .434 with runners in scoring position! 🙂

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Not sure if anyone saw this, but I posted the other day that Pence has more RBIs in his stint with the Giants this year than he did when moving to the Phillies last year, despite having a batting average 100 points lower and sporting an OPS+ of 93 compared with 159 post-trade last year. *cough* RBI totals are virtually meaningless *cough*.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Jack Morris and Joe Carter used to rise to the occasion.

Nash Bruce

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

After well over a year on here, there’s no way that I could read the last couple comments, and not think,”Joe Carter”. Thanks guys!

Mike Felber

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

No on the idea that most players rise to the occasion, & no on Morris. That meme has been thoroughly debunked. I have seen splits of tons of game score situations for him, it is a myth. And forget that one great game: even counting it for the post season, he was mediocre overall. Though without too many opportunities, it does not mean too much. Willie Mays & Ted Williams did not sink to the PS occasion, & in a few AB, anything can happen well or badly. Especially if injured, or those few appearances do not come in your… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Votto is .341 .477 .573

with 459 PA

He’ll probably finish with about 470.
Not likely to (officially) catch Melky.

Even so, he’s got OBP locked up, and has a shot of passing Braun for OPS.

Leviathan

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Would Votto have enough PAs to still win the rate stats even when the deductions occur?

Jimbo

12 years ago

Looks like Cabrera will finally have 200 hits in a season, after so many seasons of coming so close. I guess the credit for that would be having Prince batting behind him?

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Jimbo

Cabrera had a higher BA last year; I would credit it to Cabrera missing (one?) game this year only…thus a career high in AB.

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Cabrera’s walks are also down quite a bit this year. A drop of 43 (and only a drop of 6 in intentional). So it could be that pitchers are a bit more cautious about walking him this year than last year.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I almost mentioned that, Ed, but really what’s happened is Cabrera’s walk rate has returned to “his normal”. He had a career-high in walks last year, over 100 for the first time. But look at two of his prior years before that, almost mirror images of his 2012:

2005 158G 198H/613AB .323 64BB
2009 160G 198H/616AB .324 68BB
2012 157G 199H/609AB .327 65BB

What I’m suggesting is that 2012 is a more typical year for Cabrera than 2011 because of the high walk total last year.

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

I saw that too Bstar. What I don’t know, without looking through the various years of Cabrera’s career, is whether there’s been any change in the quality of hitters hitting behind him. It’s possible that the reason he drew more walks in 2011 is because he had poor hitters behind him whereas in prior years he didn’t. It’s also possible that he was learning to be more patient and take more walks (don’t most hitters walk more as they age?). And then the presence of Fielder reversed that and pitchers decided to be more aggressive with him this year because… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

I thought Miggy was starting to infuse a high walk rate into his offensive game the last two years, which certainly supports what you said about hitters learning patience later on in their career. But you make a great point about how with Prince behind him, perhaps pitchers aren’t pitching around him as much.

Certainly the walk total helped his OPS+ and his WAR in 2011. He might win the Triple Crown this year but have a worse OPS+ than last year’s 181 mark.

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Yep. Cabrera has 51 batting runs this year compared to 65 last year. And 55 two years ago.

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Ed, Victor Martinez hit behind him last year and had a great year. If pitchers were pitching around Cabrera, to get to Victor, he made them pay–and it was a major part of the Tigers success. Not as many homers as Fielder this year however.

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Jimbo

And now we can give Prince a little credit for his own batting feats.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25225651

Cabrera & Fielder began the day ranked #1 and #5 the AL in Situational Wins (WPA/LI). Fielder began the day hitting .370 in high-leverage situations.

There’s plenty they don’t do well. But having them together in a batting order is lots of fun.

Hartvig

12 years ago

Our Tigers continue to do their damnedest to give it away. An error on a play that a Little Leaguer makes 99 times out of 100, an overpriced setup man who can’t find the plate, even the immortal Al Alburquerque looked… well, mortal. Even with a 2 game lead the only slight bit of reassurance I can find is that the White Sox still have to face the Rays one more time.

And speaking of the Rays, if Zobrist’s contract is the most valuable one out there, then Longoria’s is a close second

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Remember, in the Central you have to work at it if you want to be the worst. And the Sox are just working harder at it right now.

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

My goodness, Hartvig, how I wish I’d have turned it off after Peralta’s error! Benoit’s outing was enough to make me swear off professional baseball entirely — even the one out he got, he made an awful throw on that come-backer.

And then to realize that Alburquerque, our ONE good reliever, is himself as liable to walk the ballpark … If they do make the tourney, we’ll have to adopt a strict policy of “no regrets/nothing to lose.” Otherwise it will be agony.

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Then you should not have seen Thursday John… wherein when Gene Lamont, in his infinite wisdom and astute judgement, gives Prince Fielder the windmill with such force that he risks a dislocated shoulder, on a grounder to left, even though Gordon was about 100 feet from the infield dirt at that point, was picking the ball up, and Fielder had not yet hit 3rd base. Result: out by 25 feet. To prove that this was just a fluke, he repeats +/- the same thing with Cabrera in Friday’s game, with roughly the same result, with the Twins’ Ben Revere doing… Read more »

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

I score it a tie between Gordon getting the ball and Prince touching 3rd, but … yeah.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25128509

Geez, Gordon had 20 OF assists last year, 16 this year, both times leading all MLB left fielders by a substantial margin. That was madness!

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Let’s see if we can find statistical evidence of Lamont’s misjudgments:

— Detroit is a little below average in extra bases taken (39%), but 3rd in most outs on bases.

— They lead the AL with 14 runners thrown out trying to score from 2nd on a single, while ranking 9th in the percentage of scoring on such hits.

The early indicators aren’t good for Mr. Lamont.

Phil Gaskill

12 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Guess you never saw “Suicide” Mazeroski, with the Mariners in the late ’70s, early ’80s.

oneblankspace

12 years ago

In the two AL Central games in the race, the losing team got all of their runs from a grand slam.

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to oneblankspace

… in the 8th inning.

oneblankspace

12 years ago

Some of the broadcasters at the Nats-Cardinals game were suggesting that when they sent Morse back to the batters box to run the bases after his grand slam/single, he should have called his shot (à la Ruth) before swinging without the bat.

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to oneblankspace

Oh, excellent thought! And can we manage to invoke any other Babes in this discussion? I see that Babe Birrer once gave up a grand slam….

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to oneblankspace

Speaking of announcers: When Casey Fien came in for the Twins to face Cabrera with 2 on, the Fox crew mentioned (as I’m sure I would have done) that he’d allowed just 1 HR in 33 IP all year. They didn’t mention that it had come in his previous appearance…. Anyway, he gave up 2 HRs in the inning.

12 years ago

If Price and Cueto both win today, there will be five 20 game winners, the most since 2002.

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I’ll confess: I’m rooting for Price to allow 4 ER in 7 IP, raising his ERA to 2.645 and giving Verlander the crown at 2.643.

I can’t decide if a Price win on those terms would hurt or help JV’s CYA chances. Obviously it would help Price’s chances, but it would undermine Weaver’s support.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John – Would Detroit start Verlander again on Wednesday if it was a must win? Or do they have sufficient confidence in Scherzer?

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Ed, I wouldn’t dare to guess at such questions. Anything they might have said so far means nothing. No one knows if Scherzer will be OK to pitch Wednesday. And no one can anticipate all the dynamics. I am reminded of the 2008 Mets, who were in the process of blowing another playoff spot. With 2 games left, they were 1 game behind Milwaukee for the wild card. Johan Santana was slated to pitch the Sunday finale, and had never started with just 3 days’ rest from a prior start. But, as the legend goes, he went to Jerry Manuel… Read more »

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

If they must win and Scherzer can’t go, they really have no choice but to use him, unless you want to put it in Smyly’s hands, which I can’t imagine.

Nash Bruce

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Looked at Johan’s player page, and was surprised to see that he already has more black ink than an average HOF’er. This despite having only six seasons of more than 25 starts (and a seventh of exactly 25), years lost to injury, being buried for way too long in Minnesota’s bullpen(still don’t understand that), etc. If we can add on AB’S, PA’S and so on, to assure that a player wins the award that they deserve(??), then I say, let’s pad Johan’s numbers, by adding 10 complete, average (WAA of 0.0), injury free seasons to Johan’s career totals, and then… Read more »

Nash Bruce

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

……somehow. Dude was DOMINANT in his moment.

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

We all know that pitcher wins aren’t all they’re cracked up to be — except, of course, when it comes to my team’s ace. 🙂 So I’ll just throw this out there:

Since 1961, the most wins in a pitcher’s first 232 games:
– 129, Gooden
– 128, Clemens
– 126, Marichal
– 125, Seaver
– 124, Verlander and Mussina
– 120, McLain
– 116, Palmer, Pettitte and Oswalt

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Justin Verlander: 232 G, 128 ERA+, 124 wins.
Matt Cain: 235 G, 124 ERA+, 85 wins.

Just to remind you of the first part of your sentence 🙂

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to RJ

A very welcome reminder, RJ. May we have the mutual good fortune to see them square off in the World Series.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

That would be wonderful. BTW even in the postseason Verlander still manages to have more wins than Cain, 3 to 2, despite one sporting an ERA of 5.57 and the other checking in at, uh, 0.00. Verlander’s one October quality start? Game 5 of the ’06 WS (he says, quickly realising that he need not go on about this any longer…)

Author

John Autin

12 years ago

Two unusual facts about Mike Minor: (1) In 11 of Minor’s 30 starts, the Braves have scored 2 runs or less. In those games, Minor is 4-6 with a 2.22 ERA. That’s outstanding. They were shut out twice behind Minor. In his 9 games backed by 1 or 2 runs, Minor is 4-4, 2.14. Atlanta is 10-32 when scoring 1 or 2 runs: 4-5 when Minor starts, 6-27 behind anyone else. (2) The relationship between his hits and HRs allowed (151-26) is very unusual. – It would be the 18th qualifying season with BA=.400. – It would be the 10th… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Before his last start, Minor was 4th in the NL in ERA over the second half (Kris Medlen is first). Minor has gone from the staff whipping boy to probably the third starter for the Braves, beating out Paul Maholm for the start in game 2 of the NLDS if Atlanta beats the Cards in the coin flip game.

12 years ago

Albert Pujols is now one double shy of his 3rd season with 50 or more doubles and 30 or more home runs. Surprisingly to me, this feat has only been accomplished 21 times before, with most of the them happening post-1995. First person to do this was Gehrig in 1927. Looks like Chuck Klein is the only other person to do it more than once.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Great minds, Ed, great minds. I posted about this about a week ago (the 50-double part). If he gets to 50, Pujols will be the second player ever with at least 3 50-double seasons. Tris Speaker has 4.

12 years ago

Odd random Miguel Cabrera factoid. He’s played against 18 different teams this year. Against 10 of those teams his OPS is above .981. Against the other 8 teams, his OPS is .730 and below. So he’s either destroyed teams or struggled against them, with no in-between.

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John Autin

12 years ago

Have we touched on Trout’s chance of 30 HRs/50 SB? He got the HR today, needs 2 more SB to match the feat achieved only by Eric Davis (37/50 in ’87) and Bonds (33/52 in ’90).