It took a while for Circle of Greats voters to get past the limitations of Nolan Ryan’s somewhat un-nuanced approach to pitching.  But ultimately his undeniable talent for throwing pitches really hard and his extreme durability were enough to tie Pete Rose in a high-comment-generating scheduled voting round, and then to defeat Rose in a closely contested, head-to-head runoff.  Ryan becomes the 34th player inducted into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats.  More on Ryan, and the voting, after the jump (oh, and here, courtesy of Katz’s Deli, is the sandwich missing in this post’s title: Katz’s Sandwich . Continue reading →

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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.

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“Good young pitching” was a dominant theme of the 2013 MLB season, as discussed by fans and media. Ever skeptical of perceived trends, I had to ask: Were the numbers truly unusual, or was the discussion based on selective notice? And if the numbers do stand up to initial scrutiny, are they part of a trend, or just a random event? Here’s a quick study of pitchers and age since 1998, the last expansion year.

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According to Wins Above Replacement (WAR, baseball-reference version), the top two rookies in the National League this past season were Jose Fernandez (6.3 pitching WAR) and Yasiel Puig (5.0 WAR).   How often have two rookies in the NL both reached 5 or more WAR (baseball-reference version, pitching WAR for pitchers and overall WAR for everyday players) in the same season, prior to this year? Continue reading →

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?

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?

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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This post is for voting and discussion in the 35th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG).  This round begins to add those players born in 1940.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

Pete Rose and Nolan Ryan each appeared on exactly 26 of 58 ballots in the 1941 round of the Circle of Greats (COG) voting, just ahead of Jim Palmer, who appeared on 23 ballots.   To resolve the tie between Rose and Ryan, this post opens a runoff vote.  Unlike ordinary COG rounds, your ballots in this runoff should include one name, instead of the usual three names.  And unlike in ordinary rounds, where you have many choices of who to vote for, here you are choosing only between the two guys, Pete Rose and Nolan Ryan.  As always, feel free to explain why you are choosing who you are choosing, or if you merely prefer to state your choice without further explanation, that’s fine too.   Continue reading →

If Shane Victorino’s 3-run double in the 3rd made you think, Series over, the weight of history was in your corner. Twelve World Series teams won Game 6 on the road to level the Series when facing elimination, and six of those went all the way. But none of them overcame more than a one-run deficit in Game 6. Here’s the list; Series winners in bold:

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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.

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