Following up on Last Year's Posts

Following up on some posts from last year: on 8/22/06 I speculated that the low ERA in 2006 among qualifiers (162+ IP) might be the highest ever (the record high low being Lefty Grove's 2. 81 in 1929. Well, Johan Santana just slipped under that with 2.77, the highest the major-league low has been since 1951, when it was a tick higher at 2.78. Here are the top ten highest Major-league leading ERA's:
1. 2.84 1929 Lefty Grove
2. 2.78 1951 Saul Rogorin
3. 2.77 2006 Johan Santana
4. 2.76 1987 Nolan Ryan & Jimmy Key
5. 2.71 1979 J. R. Richard and
1950 Sal Maglie
7. 2.67 1960 Frank Baumann
8. 2.66 1938 Bill Lee (NOT Bill "Spaceman" Lee)
9. 2.63 1925 Dolf Luque and
1922 Phil Douglas

It's interesting to me that the years are spread so much--you might think a particular high-scoring era would be overrepresented on the list.

Back on 8/25/06 I speculated that 2 or 3 players would reach 50 homers by the end of the year, with a possible high of about 58. I nailed that: Ryan Howard led with 58. Big Papi David Ortiz was the only other over 50, with 54, while Albert Pujols just missed with 49.