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Monthly archives: April 2008

 

Stupid Humbug Stat Tricks - 'Scherzer nice way to start a career' edition
2008-04-30 09:14
by dianagramr

Diamondbacks pitching prospect Max Scherzer made his major league debut last night, relieving in the third inning of Arizona's 6-4 loss to the Astros. He retired all 13 batters to face him, seven by strikeout.

Going back to 1956, Scherzer's debut outing is the longest without allowing a baserunner. Here is the list of those retiring at least seven batters:

Player Date Tm Opp IP SO BF
Max Scherzer 4/29/08 ARI HOU 4.1 7 13
Jimmy Key 4/6/84 TOR @CAL 3.1 1 10
Steve Stemle 5/26/05 KCR @TEX 3 3 9
Felipe Lira 4/27/95 DET @SEA 3 4 9
Jim Nelson 5/30/70 PIT SFG 3 4 8
Stu Tate 9/20/89 SFG LAD 2.2 4 8
Dick LeMay 6/13/61 SFG LAD 2.2 2 8
Joel Peralta 5/25/05 LAA CHW 2.1 4 7
Dick Stigman 4/22/60 CLE @KCA 2.1 1 7
Stupid Humbug Stat Tricks - 'C.C. rider ... see what you have done' edition
2008-04-17 12:21
by dianagramr

2007 AL Cy Young award winner C.C. Sabathia has begun 2008 with four horrendous starts, yielding 46 baserunners (32 hits including 5 homers, plus 14 walks) in only 18 innings. He managed to escape with a no decision in his first outing, but got pegged with the loss in each of the last three. He now stands at 0-3, 13.50 ERA ... in his free agent walk year.

Sabathia got knocked around for nine earned runs for the 2nd consecutive start on Wednesday, losing 13-2 to the Tigers.

Since 1956, there have been only six instances of a pitcher giving up at least nine earned runs in consecutive starts (and Sabathia is of course the only one following up on a Cy Young award from the prior year):

Pitcher Start End Games W L IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
C.C. Sabathia 4/11/08 4/16/08 2 0 2 7.1 20 18 18 7 5 2 22.09
Jose Contreras 7/20/07 7/25/07 2 0 2 12 22 19 19 6 5 3 14.25
Mark Mulder 6/20/06 8/23/06 2 0 2 5.1 19 18 18 4 1 3 30.38
Jose Lima 4/27/00 5/2/00 2 0 2 9.2 26 22 21 6 11 8 19.55
Chris Holt 4/11/00 4/16/00 2 0 2 9.1 19 19 18 5 9 3 17.36
John Thomson 4/6/98 4/11/98 2 0 2 8 23 18 18 2 5 2 20.25

Of course, one must give some credit (or blame?) to Eric Wedge for allowing Sabathia to stay in there long enough in each of those games to cough up nine earned runs.

 

Stupid Humbug Stat Tricks - 'There must be ... 7 games to be a loser' edition
2008-04-09 10:50
by dianagramr

Much has been already written about the Tigers awful start. How no team starting 0-7 has made the playoffs and the like.

But let's look at the larger picture. Just about ANY team can have a 7-game losing streak at ANY point in the season. The Tigers added a starting pitcher and all-star third baseman to, and lost a couple of relievers from, the 88-win team of 2007. Its not like they turned into the '62 Mets.

I took a look at every non-strike, non-lockout season since the 162-game schedule was implemented in 1961. There were 337 instances in which a team had a 7-game losing streak at SOME point in the season.

Yes, the '62 Mets made the list, as well as the '03 Tigers. But there were four teams that still played .600 ball for the year:

TEAM / YR W L PCT
OAK 2001 102 60 .630
CHW 2005 99 63 .611
BAL 1983 98 64 .605
BOS 1977 97 64 .602

Another 26 teams won at least 90 games and 81 more played at least .500 ball.

[But the composite won-loss record of those 337 teams was 75-87 (.464). So maybe the Tigers ARE in a bit of trouble, from a historical perspective.]

Stupid Humbug Stat Tricks - 'Hit me 3 times baby ... hit me thrice today' edition
2008-04-08 12:26
by dianagramr

Chase Utley, who led the majors in being hit by pitches last year (25) despite missing a month .... as a result of one of those HBPs, has tied a Major League record this afternoon.

Utley got plunked, to paraphrase Monty Burns in the "Homer at the Bat" episode, "not once, not twice, but thrice" by the Mets in the Phils 5-2 win.

Here are the prior instances of a batter being hit three times in the same game (from 1956 to present).

 

Player Date Tm Opp PA AB R H
Nomar Garciaparra 7/3/2006 LAD ARI 5 2 1 1
Reed Johnson 4/29/2006 TOR @NYY 5 2 2 0
Reed Johnson 4/7/2006 TOR TBD 3 0 2 0
Jonny Gomes 8/15/2005 TBD NYY 4 1 1 1
Reed Johnson 4/16/2005 TOR @TEX 5 2 0 1
Corey Koskie 7/27/2004 MIN @CHW 5 1 1 0
Melvin Mora 7/18/2002 BAL @TOR 5 2 2 0
Damion Easley 7/16/2002 DET BOS 5 2 1 0
Richard Hidalgo 4/19/2000 HOU @LAD 6 3 1 0
Damion Easley 5/31/1999 DET @BOS 5 2 1 0
Glenn Davis 4/9/1990 HOU CIN 6 1 1 0
Craig Kusick 8/27/1975 MIN @MIL 5 2 0 0
Tito Fuentes 9/13/1973 SFG @SDP 5 1 2 0
Ron Hunt 4/29/1969 SFG CIN 6 2 0 1
Bill Freehan 8/16/1968 DET @BOS 4 1 0 0
Sherm Lollar 6/8/1956 CHW @BOS 4 1 0 1
Stupid Humbug Stat Tricks - Great Debuts in Game Score History
2008-04-05 15:07
by dianagramr

Reds phenom Johnny Cueto lived up to the hype in his first major league start this past Thursday, tossing 7 innings of 1-hit ball.

Using Bill James' "Game Score" calculation:

Start with 50 points. Add 1 point for each out recorded, (or 3 points per inning). Add 2 points for each inning completed after the 4th. Add 1 point for each strikeout. Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed. Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed. Subtract 1 point for each walk.

We find that Cueto's 1-hit, no walk, 10 K, 1 ER performance translates to a game score of 81.

Here are the best game scores in a pitcher's debut (since 1956), for pitchers going seven innings or less (you'll note the lack of quality in the careers of these hurlers)

Player Date Tm Opp Gm Reslt Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR GmSc
Johnny Cueto 4/3/2008 CIN ARI W 3-2 W 7 1 1 1 0 10 1 81
Carlos Hernandez 8/18/2001 HOU PIT W 3-0 W 7 2 0 0 1 7 0 79
Aaron Harang 5/25/2002 OAK TBD W 6-0 W 7 3 0 0 3 10 0 78
Mo Sanford 8/9/1991 CIN @SDP W 5-1 W 7 2 1 0 1 8 0 78
Brian Tollberg 6/20/2000 SDP @ARI W 3-1 W 7 1 1 0 3 7 0 77
Masato Yoshii 4/5/1998 NYM PIT W 7-0 W 7 3 0 0 1 7 0 77
Amaury Telemaco 5/16/1996 CHC HOU W 13-1 W 7 1 0 0 4 6 0 77
Sam Militello 8/9/1992 NYY BOS W 6-0 W 7 1 0 0 3 5 0 77
Ricky Bones 8/11/1991 SDP CIN W 13-0 W 7 2 0 0 2 6 0 77
Dan Smith 6/8/1999 MON BOS W 5-1 W 7 3 1 1 0 9 0 76

If we don't limit the starts to 7 innings or less, here are the top game scores (again, note the lack of career success for most of these pitchers):

Player Date Tm Opp Gm Result Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR GmSc
Juan Marichal 7/19/1960 SFG PHI W 2-0 W 9 1 0 0 1 12 0 96
Steve Woodard 1997-07-28(1) MIL TOR W 1-0 W 8 1 0 0 1 12 0 91
Jimmy Jones 9/21/1986 SDP @HOU W 5-0 W 9 1 0 0 0 5 0 90
Rudy May 4/18/1965 CAL DET L 1-4 9 1 1 0 5 10 0 88
Pedro Astacio 1992-07-03(2) LAD PHI W 2-0 W 9 3 0 0 4 10 0 87
Jim Cosman 10/2/1966 STL CHC W 2-0 W 9 2 0 0 2 5 0 86
Luis Tiant 1964-07-19(2) CLE @NYY W 3-0 W 9 4 0 0 4 11 0 86
Mark Brownson 7/21/1998 COL @HOU W 5-0 W 9 4 0 0 1 7 0 85
Jeff Pico 5/31/1988 CHC CIN W 4-0 W 9 4 0 0 0 6 0 85
Wayne Simpson 4/9/1970 CIN @LAD W 3-0 W 9 2 0 0 0 2 0 85
Tom Phoebus 1966-09-15(1) BAL CAL W 2-0 W 9 4 0 0 2 8 0 85
Danny Cox 8/6/1983 STL PHI L 0-1 10 7 0 0 2 8 0 84
Dave McNally 1962-09-26(1) BAL KCA W 3-0 W 9 2 0 0 3 4 0 84
Dave Morehead 4/13/1963 BOS @WSA W 3-0 W 9 5 0 0 4 10 0 83
Mike Remlinger 6/15/1991 SFG PIT W 4-0 W 9 3 0 0 3 4 0 82
Billy Rohr 4/14/1967 BOS @NYY W 3-0 W 9 1 0 0 5 2 0 82
Dick Rusteck 6/10/1966 NYM CIN W 5-0 W 9 4 0 0 1 4 0 82
Nick Willhite 1963-06-16(2) LAD CHC W 2-0 W 9 5 0 0 1 6 0 82
Lew Krausse 6/16/1961 KCA LAA W 4-0 W 9 3 0 0 5 6 0 82
Johnny Cueto 4/3/2008 CIN ARI W 3-2 W 7 1 1 1 0 10 1 81
Jason Jennings 8/23/2001 COL @NYM W 10-0 W 9 5 0 0 4 8 0 81
Kirk Rueter 7/7/1993 MON SFG W 3-0 W 8.1 2 0 0 3 5 0 81
Kevin Morton 7/5/1991 BOS DET W 10-1 W 9 5 1 1 1 9 1 81
Jeff Russell 8/13/1983 CIN SDP W 3-1 W 9 5 1 0 1 7 0 81
Mike Norris 4/10/1975 OAK CHW W 9-0 W 9 3 0 0 3 3 0 81
Charlie Beamon 9/26/1956 BAL NYY W 1-0 W 9 4 0 0 7 9 0 81
Reflections on Carlos Zambrano's Potassium Deficiency
2008-04-03 14:26
by Ember Nickel

Some go bananas.
Some need to go bananas.
Life balances out.

Score Bard's blog: now verse than ever!
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