Recognize the player below? He is the subject of today’s quiz.

Your job is to identify him and explain why he belongs in the same group of live-ball era players listed below.

www.baseball-reference.com

Hint: this group is defined by a season accomplishment involving statistics displayed on B-R main player pages.

Congratulations to Richard Chester and Josh, who solved this two part quiz (with some help from their friends, including Hartvig who identified an alternative solution). The pictured player is Len Koenecke. He and the others in the list are the only players since 1920 with a first qualifying season (among their first two seasons) with a .300/.400/.500 slash, a 145 OPS+ or better (or 4 WAR or more) and 25 or fewer home runs.

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Joey Votto and Ryan Braun were born two months apart and both started their careers in 2007. Since then they’ve been nothing short of spectacular, so much so that both are now in the top 30 since 1901 in career efficiency (min. 3000 PA) producing WAR batting runs.

Thought they were good, but maybe not that good? You’re probably not alone. After the jump, I’ll look at bit closer at this pair and their lock-step career journeys.

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Stan Musial (1920-2013) is truly an inner circle HOFer. At his retirement, he was the NL career leader in hits, doubles, triples, runs and RBI and ranked 2nd in HR and walks. Today, 50 years after his last game, not a lot has changed – he’s still the NL career leader in triples, is 2nd in hits and doubles, 3rd in RBI, 4th in walks, 5th in runs and 10th in HR.

So, a few quizzes in memory of the Man. These may be toughies (unless I’ve been too generous with the hints).

Quiz #1 – What career accomplishment does Musial share with only the listed players? (Solved by GrandyMan)

Quiz #2 – What does Musial have in common with all of the players listed (and others too)? (Solved by Hartvig) 

Quiz #3 – Musial twice had seasons with 5 or more multi-HR games, as did all of the listed players. These players (but not Musial) have something in common with another player who had a season with 5 or more multi-HR games. Who is this other player and what do the listed players have in common with him? (Solved by Mort)

Congratulations to GrandyMan, Hartvig and Mort on solving the quizzes and thanks to everyone for playing.

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Donie Bush was the regular Tiger shortstop for 12 seasons, from 1909 to 1920. Over his career, Bush compiled totals exceeding 1800 hits, 1200 runs, 1100 walks and 400 stolen bases. Yet, he managed only a 91 career OPS+.

So, I wondered what other players there might be like Donie Bush. Let’s find out.

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Two rookie phenoms in 2012 had seasons for the ages, joining the very select group of players below.

Since 1901, what single season statistical feat has been accomplished only by these players?

Hint: several players on the list did this more than once.

Congratulations to Josh! He correctly identified these players as the record holders for seasonal WAR at each age, with a minimum of 2 WAR. That minimum covers the ages 19 through 42. The record seasons are after the jump, as well the best WAR seasons outside of this age range. Continue reading →

Jeff Cirillo is a true throwback player, the only player in the expansion era with an unusual batting feat, accomplished since 1935 only by these hitters. What is this now rare seasonal feat?

Hint: from 1920 to 1934, this feat was accomplished a total of 30 times by 20 different players.

Congratulations to Artie Z! He correctly identified the players in the quiz as those since 1935 to have one or more seasons driving in teammates and being driven in by them 100 or more times each. That is, R – HR and RBI – HR are both 100 or more. Jeff Cirillo, with 11 HR, 111 Runs and 115 RBI in 2000, is the first and only player since 1949 to accomplish this feat. The 43 times this has been done since 1920 are here. The 6 times this was done from 1901 to 1919 are here.

And, congratulations to Richard Chester! He solved the follow-up quiz, identifying Sammy Sosa’s 2001 season as the first and only season since 1949 with Runs plus RBI totaling to 300 or more. Here’s that list.
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Following up from my piece a few weeks ago on 2012 batting streaks, here is a review of the longest game streaks in 2012 for pitchers.

After the jump, check out long streaks for both effective and ineffective pitching performances in 2012. Which ones are most surprising or noteworthy for you?

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Yes, I did say Opening Day. As New Year approaches, we can also celebrate that winter’s end is in sight; the days are getting longer and Opening Day is now less than 100 days away.

Meanwhile, the folks over at Retrosheet.org continue their painstaking labor of poring through images of old newspapers and recording the published boxscores in the Retrosheet database. The database is available to all and the people at Baseball-Reference.com do the programming work so people like me can pull up boxscores online and run searches of these games.  This little preamble is by way of mentioning that, just in time for the holidays, B-R recently updated their games database to include all boxscores back to the 1916 season.

So, hold those thoughts, 1916 and opening day, and I’ll tell you more after the jump of an unusual opening day matchup that year and in some others as well.

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Despite a frustrating, injury-plagued season in 2012, Roy Halladay still managed to add some luster to his distinguished career. Last season, Halladay joined this elite group of pitchers who are the only hurlers in the live-ball era with a particular career accomplishment. What is that accomplishment?

Congratulations to Brooklyn Mick! With the help of other posters (particularly Josh, JA and Ed), Brooklyn identified that Roy Halladay made his 10th opening day start in 2012 to join an elite group of pitchers. For Halladay, it was his 10th straight opening day start, with his teams going 7-3 (including 7-1 for the last 8 years). Watch for both CC Sabathia and Mark Buehrle to join this group in 2013. Opening Day (or Opening Night, rather) is just 101 days away – countdown starts tomorrow.

And, sorry for not having the full list of names to start the quiz.

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Jim McKay famously uttered this catchphrase at the opening of the weekly TV sports anthology program, Wide World of Sports. In the opening film sequence, the “agony of defeat” was portrayed as a ski jumper losing his balance and falling off the ski jumping tower (ouch). But, what does agony of defeat look like in baseball?

In fact, there have been players to play their entire careers without ever appearing in a game for the winning side. Not surprisingly, all of those players are relief pitchers. None had a long career, of course, but probably longer than what you might guess.

After the jump, more on these most unlucky of ballplayers.

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