In a recent quiz, I happened to stumble upon a tiny subset of hitters, namely those represented by the yellow area in the extreme upper right-hand corner of the chart below. In that post, I noted the recent increase in the number of such hitters and speculated on what might be causing this uptick.
More on batters with a high XBH to SLG ratio after the jump.
Baseball-Reference.com
Pro football HOFer Ace Parker died Wednesday in his hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia. Parker played professionally in baseball and football in the 1930s and 1940s, continuing in pro baseball into the early 1950s. At his death, Parker was the oldest living US-born major-leaguer.
More on Ace after the jump.
For 101 major league seasons (1901-2001), the players below were the only hitters to achieve a certain seasonal batting feat. In 2002, three more players achieved this distinction and, since 2002, 5 more players have done this a total of 7 times.
What is this batting feat peculiar to modern day hitters?
| Rk | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Medwick |
| 2 | Zoilo Versalles |
| 3 | Hal McRae |
Hint: Versalles’ season is the one you’re thinking of.
Don’t know whether I stumped you or just no interest. Anyway, the solution is that these players and the others from the current century all have a low slugging percentage relative to extra-base hits. In particular, they are the only players since 1901 having a season with an extra-base hit total of over 160 times slugging percentage. The seasons are after the jump.
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The off-season is upon us (sigh). Yeah, I know. It’s a letdown.
For some distraction, here’s a quirky bit of trivia. The players below have the only seasons since 1901 with a particular batting feat. And, if you look closely, only one of these players has had such a season in the expansion era. What is this feat that has become so rare?
| Rk | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nap Lajoie |
| 2 | Heinie Zimmerman |
| 3 | Babe Ruth |
| 4 | Tris Speaker |
| 5 | Ty Cobb |
| 6 | Zack Wheat |
| 7 | Bob Fothergill |
| 8 | Paul Waner |
| 9 | Mickey Vernon |
| 10 | Enos Slaughter |
| 11 | Keith Hernandez |
Hint: each of these players accomplished this feat only once
Congratulations to Christopher Kamka! He correctly identified that these are the only players having a qualifying .300/.400/.500 season with an equal number of HRs and triples. Those seasons are after the jump.
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The Red Sox go for all the marbles tonight. But to do it, they’ll have to find an answer to young Michael Wacha. In game 2, Wacha became the 16th pitcher to start and win 4 games in a single post-season. With another W tonight, Wacha can become the first starter to reach 5 (Randy Johnson won 5 games in 2001, one of them in relief; before recording the first decision of his regular season career, the Angels’ Francisco Rodriguez won 5 post-season games in 2002, all in relief). Wacha would also become the first starter with more career wins in the post-season than in the regular season.
For the Cardinals, it’s a bigger hill to climb. They will be trying to come back from 3-2 down, on the road. No team has done that since the 1979 Pirates (who came back from 3-1 down).
More after the jump.
The top WPA performance so far in the 2013 Series goes to David Ortiz, with a 0.386 score in a losing cause for the Red Sox in game 2. That mark just misses making the table below for the top WPA games by players on the winning and losing teams in each game of the World Series.
| Game | Winning Team | Date | WPA | Losing Team | WPA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kirk Gibson | 1988-10-15 | 0.870 | Larry Walker | 2004-10-23 | 0.600 |
| 2 | Ed Sprague | 1992-10-18 | 0.669 | Eddie Murray | 1979-10-11 | 0.392 |
| 3 | Scott Brosius | 1998-10-20 | 0.624 | Home Run Baker | 1914-10-12 | 0.370 |
| 4 | Charlie Keller | 1941-10-05 | 0.829 | Bobby Tolan | 1972-10-19 | 0.538 |
| 5 | Harry Hooper | 1915-10-13 | 0.617 | Tom Tresh | 1964-10-12 | 0.410 |
| 6 | David Freese | 2011-10-27 | 0.964 | Josh Hamilton | 2011-10-27 | 0.547 |
| 7 | Hal Smith | 1960-10-13 | 0.636 | Yogi Berra | 1960-10-13 | 0.383 |
| Deciding | Hal Smith | 1960-10-13 | 0.636 | Fred Schulte | 1933-10-07 | 0.404 |
| Home Team | David Freese | 2011-10-27 | 0.964 | Pedro Feliz | 2009-11-01 | 0.484 |
| Visiting Team | Charlie Keller | 1941-10-05 | 0.829 | Larry Walker | 2004-10-23 | 0.600 |
A look back at some memorable Series games after the jump.
After the twists and turns (and stumbles) of game 3, it’s on to game 4. What other series have run the same course of this one?
This is the 52nd World Series in which the the first two games were split and, of those, the 27th in which the home team won game 3. That game 3 winner went on to win 17 of those 26 earlier series, a .654 winning clip. While there have been 26 previous series that fit this year’s mold, this is only the 5th time it’s happened since another memorable series involving the Red Sox – their 1975 tilt with the Big Red Machine.
More after the jump on other series that have followed the pattern of the 2013 Classic.
The 2013 World Series is expected to be the first in 55 years with a particular quirk. Something happened in the 1958 series between the Braves and Yankees that has not occurred in any subsequent World Series. Until this one.
What is this unusual occurrence?
Congratulations to John Autin! He identified that this is the first World Series since 1958 in which the game 1 starters both have 95 career wins with a .600 career winning percentage, and have both previously appeared in a World Series clinching game playing for their current teams.
In fact, neither of those two answers was the unusual occurrence I had detected. So, I’ll add a third answer – that Adam Wainwright and Jon Lester, like Whitey Ford and Warren Spahn in 1958, are both 29 years old or older and, unlike 18 other pairs of age 29+ game 1 starters since 1959, Wainwright and Lester have both played for only one franchise.
On September 1st, Houston’s rookie starter Brett Oberholtzer shut out the Mariners 2-0 as the Astros became the last team to record a complete game in the 2013 season. This is the first time in 3 years that every team has recorded a complete game.
While it’s certainly not news that complete games have been on a seemingly never-ending decline, I thought it would be interesting to take a statistical look at some of the resulting impacts on the game.
More on the complete game and the ever-changing dynamics of pitching after the jump.
With one blip, pitching has dominated both LCS series. How much so?
The 15 total runs scored in games 1-4 of the NLCS? New low water mark.
13 total runs in games 1-3 of the ALCS? Never had less, and equaled only in Oakland’s 1970s dynasty years.
More after the jump.