What does a HOFer have in common with a bunch of journeymen? (Okay, maybe a few are more than just journeymen).

That’s the question for this quiz involving the only players since 1901 with a particular career quirk. Can you spot it?

Our HHS readers were all over this one. Kudos to Artie Z for being first to articulate the basic idea that the quiz players had all played st least twice on teams in their final season in a city before relocating. The additional criterion which the group expressed in various ways is that only these players have also played for at least 3 different franchises.

More on our peripatetic pros after the jump.

Continue reading →

Roy Halladay retired yesterday after signing a one-day contract with his long-time team, the Toronto Blue Jays. A classy touch by a classy pro.

More on the good Doctor after the jump.

Continue reading →

This post is for voting and discussion in the 39th round of balloting for the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats (COG).  One year ago, in December, 2012, we started the Circle of Greats voting by selecting our first inductee from among the players born in 1968.  Since then we’ve moved backwards in time with the birth years we’ve added, and as of now we’ve reached the 1938 birth year.  But with a full twelve months of voting now complete since we began, we can add a later birth year, while remaining within the original parameter of inducting only players 44 years old or older.  So this round, in honor of the first anniversary of the beginning of the COG voting, adds to the ballot those players born in 1969. Rules and lists are, as usual, after the jump. Continue reading →

Two of the longest-enduring star pitchers of modern times led the voting this round, with Phil Niekro winning out over Gaylord Perry to become the 38th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats.  More on Niekro and the voting after the jump. Continue reading →

In 2013, a particular batting feat occurred for the 11th game in the past 10 seasons, in the games shown below. Prior to 2004, this same batting feat had happened only 24 times in major-league history.

What is this unusual batting feat that has become more commonplace (relatively speaking) in recent years?

Hint: 1994 is the only other season with multiple games

Congratulations to John Autin! He correctly identified that a player recorded his 1000th extra-base hit in each of these games. More on this under-appreciated milestone after the jump.

Continue reading →

This post looks at the distribution of standout position players across decades, both Hall of Famers and others. The seed was birtelcom’s recent “Hall of Famers by Final Year in the Majors,” and more precisely, from an exchange we had in those comments, which I’ll summarize (with apology for any loss of context to birtelcom’s quote):

• John: The number of teams has grown from 16 to 30 since 1961, so you’d expect eventually to see more HOFers per decade in the post-expansion era.
• Birtelcom: Just because you have more teams doesn’t necessarily mean you get more of the greatest players.

Continue reading →

Who are the best starting pitchers of the past 60+ years? One way to answer that question is using RE24, the measure of how much a pitcher reduces his opponent’s’ run expectancy with each batter faced.

Starting from each of the 24 base-out states (ranging from nobody on, nobody out to to bases loaded, two out), there is an expected number of runs a team will score in the remainder of that inning, based on average hitters facing average pitchers. With the result of each plate appearance, a pitcher is credited with the resulting change in run expectancy (which can be positive or negative) less any runs allowed.

RE24, then, tells you how many runs a pitcher saved or cost his team relative to the average pitcher in the same base-out situations. Over the course of a career, the batters each pitcher faces will collectively approximate an average batter, allowing some reasonable basis for comparing different pitchers (with the possibly large caveat that RE24 does not adjust for park factors, team defense or other factors).

After the jump, the top 50 since 1950.

Continue reading →

There’s been some recent discussion in comments on these pages, particularly those involving the Circle of Greats, about underrated and overrated players.  I don’t consider myself any more qualified to determine how individual players are “rated” than anyone else, but a few years ago on my personal blog, I tried to take an objective approach to this question.  I concluded that, from 2009 through early 2011, Michael Bourn was the game’s most underrated player and Carlos Lee was its most overrated.

Continue reading →

All of these players are well known singles hitters. But, among all power-starved batters to play their entire careers since 1901, what career accomplishment distinguishes these retired players?

Bonus: Who is the one active player on pace to join this group?

Howard got the bonus question, and Richard Chester was most of the way there with the solution. But they didn’t quite put all the pieces together. The solution is after the jump.

Continue reading →

Hey, remember me? I own this joint 🙂

Now that the season’s over and I’m mostly done with our commitments to USA Today Sports, I’ve been working on a side project that I expect a lot of you will enjoy–Quantum Leaf.

It’s a game for 1 to 4 players that uses a single tessellating shape–a leaf–to tile a surface. I’ve developed prototypes and will be running a Kickstarter campaign in early 2014 to roll out the product version.

Click on the image above to check out the game. Over on the Quantum Leaf site, to can submit your email address if you want to be updated on when our Kickstarter launches.