These are the only players since 1901 with a particular seasonal batting feat, first introduced by Jim Wynn. A batter before his time, Wynn had been out of baseball for a decade before any of these other hitters had played a full season.

What is the seasonal batting feat Wynn pioneered that is now coming into vogue?

Congratulations to Richard Chester! He correctly identified that these are the only players since 1901 having a qualifying season with more strikeouts than hits, and with a run total exceeding 80% of the hit total. This combination of modest hits and immodest strikeouts surprisingly resulting in lots of runs is, aside from Jim Wynn, a very recent phenomenon.

More after the jump.

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After spending the better part of the past few seasons climbing baseball’s Mount Everest only to run out of steam just shy of the peak, the Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers have decided enough is enough. Those 90-95 win seasons and deep playoff runs that don’t quite bear fruit will no longer be tolerated. The time to go for it is now, and no move quite emphasizes that mindset than the Prince Fielder–Ian Kinsler swap.

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Which players had the best games of the 2013 season batting from a certain lineup spot? That idle thought crossed my mind, so I thought I’d find out, and then see what kind of a team I could put together with just those players.

More on these All-Stars for a day after the jump.

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This Circle of Greats (COG) vote is not to induct anyone into the Circle, but only to select two players who will be restored back on to the main ballot after having been previously been dropped from eligibility.  This third “redemption round” (we also held such rounds after the 1960 and 1950 rounds of voting) gives voters a chance to reconsider past candidates that have been rejected.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

This post is for voting and discussion in the 37th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats.  This round adds to the ballot those players born in 1939.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

Having fallen short of induction by the smallest of margins in the 1941 and 1940 Part 1 rounds of balloting, Pete Rose broke through with the narrowest of victories in the 1940 Part 2 round.  After a chaotic finish to the voting, including an unprecedented recount and a barely disqualified late vote, Pete becomes the 36th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Great.  More on Rose and the voting after the jump.   Continue reading →

Tiger shortstop Jose Iglesias was the AL RoY runner-up, turning in a .300 hitting campaign to go with solid defense (0.989 fielding). That by itself would be an unusual rookie campaign for a shortstop, but a mid-season trade from the Red Sox to Detroit made Iglesias’ season more unusual still.

I was curious how often a rookie who had established himself as the “regular” shortstop (i.e. not necessarily an “everyday” player, but the player used at his position more frequently than any other) had been traded to another team to became its regular shortstop. I figured it was probably unusual, but I wouldn’t have guessed it had happened only once before in the live ball era.

After the jump, more on rookies who establish themselves only to get traded mid-season.

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For my first offseason time-killer, I assembled lists of the best seasons in certain stats by batting order position, retrieved with the Batting Split Finder. The idea was spawned by discovering that Jimmie Foxx mainly batted 5th for his first five full seasons, including a near-Triple Crown in 1932. (The Athletics’ 3rd and 4th men from 1928-32 were Mickey Cochrane and Al Simmons.)

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One of the best kept secrets of the 2013 season was this – among only a handful of previous occasions, this season ended with two players having current 13 year or longer streaks of 20 or more stolen bases. Those players were Ichiro Suzuki and Juan Pierre. And, if not for an injury-plagued 2010 season that held him to just 17 thefts, Jimmy Rollins would have been a 3rd player with that distinction.

More after the jump on players who maintain stolen base proficiency throughout their careers.

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The “Expansion Era Committee” of the Hall of Fame will consider twelve candidates for induction this year. Those candidates who appear on 75% of the ballots of the sixteen committee members will be inducted into the Hall in July, 2014.  The results of the committee’s voting will be announced on December 9.

Four of the twelve candidates being considered were long-time managers: Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, Tony La Russa and Billy Martin.   Evaluating managerial performance is not easy — it is very difficult to separate the contributions a baseball manager makes to winning from those of his players.  But what we can do is evaluate what kinds of records have led previous managers to be inducted into the Hall.  I’ve found that the following formula is very good as a description of which managers have made it into the Hall:

–First, take the number of games over .500  a manager’s teams have been during the regular season overall for his career.
–Then add to that a number equal to 100 times the number of AL and NL pennants the manager’s teams won.
–Then add a bonus of  85 times the number of World Series won.

Let’s call the result HOF Manager Index Points (“MIPs”).  After the jump is a table of the top MIP totals in major league history.  Checking the table you’ll see that of the of the top 27 MIP totals (540 MIP points or more), 26 managers are either in the Hall of Fame (elected either as managers, executives or players) or are on the current Expansion Era Committee ballot.  The only manager with more than  540 MIPs who is not in the Hall, or on the current ballot, is Ralph Houk, who is down at 25th on the list with 558 MIPs. Continue reading →