This post is about prodigal baserunners, those players who just don’t make it home very often. Even if they get on base fairly frequently.
After the jump, I’ll take a look at who these players are, and how infrequently they actually do score.
Here is a list of pitchers representing 3 distinct eras: before 1920; the 1960s; and the past 20 years.
What is it that pitchers have achieved only in these periods, and that only these pitchers have accomplished in a qualifying season (min. 162 IP) since 1901?
| Player |
|---|
| Walter Johnson |
| Smoky Joe Wood |
| Rube Waddell |
| Don Drysdale |
| Dean Chance |
| Francisco Liriano |
| Dan Haren |
| Kevin Brown |
| Gavin Floyd |
| Felix Hernandez |
Hint: Three of these pitchers accomplished this feat in multiple seasons, including one who did so in consecutive seasons.
Congratulations to Artie Z! He correctly identified (in just 59 minutes) that these are the only pitchers since 1901 with a season (min. 162 IP) of double-digit wild pitches and hit batters, combined with a K/BB ratio of 3.0 or better (in fact, nobody has done that in fewer than 162 IP, either). Here are those seasons.
Which teams have had the most (or least) to be thankful for at holiday time?
Just for fun, here are a list of significant Thanksgiving Day transactions. Not surprisingly, there hasn’t been a lot of activity on this holiday, but there have been a few transactions of note.
Here is a list of mainly better hitters, including batting champions and several current and future HOFers.
Since 1920, what is the seasonal feat that only these hitters have accomplished before the age of 30?
| Rod Carew |
| Jason Kendall |
| Craig Biggio |
| Gregg Jefferies |
| Barry Bonds |
| Tim Raines |
| Tony Gwynn |
| Willie Randolph |
| Mitchell Page |
| Richie Ashburn |
| Kiki Cuyler |
Congratulations to John Autin and Richard Chester! They teamed up to identify these players as the only under 30 hitters since 1920 with a season scoring less than 100 runs despite a .400+ OBP and 25 or more steals. Here is the list.
One of the less well-noted happenings prior to the 2012 season was a change in one of the career pitching leaderboards. With the retirement of Tim Wakefield, there was a new active leader in career wild pitches, one Allan James Burnett.
A.J.’s ascension to the top rung was well-deserved, coming on the heels of 3 seasons with the spectacular aggregate total of 58 wild pitches. To put that number in perspective, at least five pitchers, at the time they became active leaders in this category, had compiled career wild pitch totals not exceeding A.J.’s three-year mark. For the curious, those players were Freddie Fitzsimmons (1935, 1942), Bill Hallahan (1935), Bump Hadley (1939), Johnny Allen (1942), and Warren Spahn (1959).
After the jump, a look at where A.J. fits into the pantheon of the game’s wildest hurlers.
Below are a list of similar hitters. Except for maybe one, that first guy. All but Pepi have had seasons of 40 HRs, over 100 RBI, or over 100 Ks.
So what is it that only this group of hitters has accomplished in a full season (502 PA) since 1901?
| Player |
|---|
| Joe Pepitone |
| Dave Kingman |
| Juan Gonzalez |
| Frank Howard |
| Harmon Killebrew |
| Ryan Howard |
| Sammy Sosa |
| Mark McGwire |
| Barry Bonds |
Congratulations to Paul E. He correctly identified these players as the only hitters since 1901 having a season (502 PA) with home runs comprising more than 55% of runs scored. Here’s the list.
What is the 4×100 season? I’m talking about seasons with triple-digit totals for runs, RBI, walks and strikeouts. There were no such seasons in 2012, and only four seasons by three players in the past 5 years, which is quite a departure from the recent past.
After the jump, a bit more on another sign of the changing face of the game.
Tom Glavine was among the finest pitchers of his time, compiling a distinguished 20-year, 300-win career likely to be recognized with his enshrinement in the HOF. Among Glavine’s many accomplishments was a season performance which, at the time, had not been achieved in either league in almost 60 seasons. What was this accomplishment?
Clues:
Congratulations (and welcome back) to Raphy, with an assist from Richard Chester. Raphy identified search criteria satisfying the above clues. The season I had in mind was Glavine’s 2004 campaign with 200+ IP, ERA+ >= 100, zero wild pitches and zero hit batsmen. The list of pitchers to do this since 1901 satisfies the above clues.
We are now in the tenth decade of the live-ball era, generally acknowledged to have begun in 1920. Offensive and defensive periods have come and gone within this era, even to extremes like the 1960s, sometimes referred to as the second dead-ball era, and the homer-happy 1990s and 2000s.
With those changes, the use of starting pitchers has also changed. This post will explore those changes and look at the pitchers who have most frequently exceeded and most frequently fallen short of the changing performance standards expected of starting pitchers.
The highest WPA-rated hitting performance by a pitcher in 2012 was this game by Anthony Bass, the only pitcher with a game WPA score above 0.3.
| Rk | Player | Age | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA | RE24 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthony Bass | 24.185 | 2012-05-04 | SDP | MIA | L 8-9 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.345 | 2.634 | 1.463 |
After allowing 5 runs on 4 hits (incl. 2 HR) in the opening frame, Bass redeemed himself with a two-out bases-loaded triple in the 3rd inning to put the Padres ahead 6-5 and chase opposing starter Josh Johnson. Bass left after 6 innings with a lead that the bullpen promptly surrendered en route to San Diego’s loss in 12 innings.
The last pitcher with a WPA score above 0.4 was in this game.
| Rk | Player | Age | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA | RE24 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Stanton | 26.342 | 1994-05-10 | ATL | PHI | W 9-8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.433 | 1.326 | 3.635 |
Stanton was the Braves’ seventh pitcher of the game, entering in the 12th inning and pitching four scoreless frames. He singled leading off the 14th but was stranded. In the 15th, Stanton came up with two out and runners at 1st and 2nd. After Deion Sanders stole 3rd, Stanton delivered a walk-off bunt single on the next pitch.
Neither of these games, though, makes the top 10 of pitchers’ WPA games for the available data, which are mostly complete since 1950 with some games as early as 1948. After the jump, I’ll take a closer look at those top 10 games, and also at changes in how pitchers have batted in past 60 years or so.