Homers at age 45+

Another interesting bit of trivia from Baseball Almanac online:

Of the 25 homers ever hit in the majors by a player age 45 or older, 20 of them were hit in recent years by one player: Julio Franco. The ageless one hit 8 at age 45 (Cap Anson hit 3 at that age way back when, and Carlton Fisk, one), 9 at age 46 (including two in one game, and one grand slam)(ageless pitcher Jack Quinn also hit one at 46), 1 at age 47 and 2 at age 48, the last at age 48 years and 254 days on May 4 last year.

As a sidenote, I'm grateful to have seen the ageless wonder hit an RBI double in a game for the Mets against his former teammates in Atlanta at age 47 in 2006. He also stole a base in that game!

Ty Cobb Stealing Home

I just came across a list of Ty Cobb's record 54 steals of home in Baseball Almanac. Starting in 1907, he had at least one steal of home in every year but one (1925) through 1928, for a total of 21 years with a steal of home. His high for a year was 8 in 1912. The 54 were accomplished through 5 triple steals, 24 double steals and 25 stand-alone steals of home (beating the pitch to the plate). For his last steal of home, he was 41 years old! And it was the fearless, slide and hope the batter doesn't take your head off by swinging at the pitch variety!

Best Hitting Pitchers of All-time

The Hall of Fame posts got me wanting to expand the thought to include pitchers NOT in the Hall. Here's my version of the best-hitting pitchers of all-time:
1. Wes Ferrell: record 38 HR in only 1176 AB; 208 RBI, 175 runs, .280 avg., .341 OBP, .446 slugging.
2. George Uhle: record .289 avg. (for those with 500+ AB), .330 OBP, .384 slugging, 21 triples and only 112 SO in 1360 AB.
3. Red Ruffing: .269 avg., .300 OB, .389 slugging, 98 2B, 36 HR and 273 RBI in 1937 AB.
4. Earl Wilson: Tops in power, with 35 HR (and 111 RBI) in only 740 AB! Only batted .195, though.
5. Don Newcombe: .271 avg., .334 OBP and .367 slugging with 15 HR and 108 RBI in 878 AB.
6. Bob Lemon: .232 avg., .386 slugging, 37 HR in 1183 AB (a converted outfielder)
7. Red Lucas: .281 avg., .331 OBP, pinch-hitter extraordinaire; walked almost as many times (124) as he struck out (133) in 1439 AB.
8. Schoolboy Rowe: .263 avg., .320 OBP, .382 slugging, 18 HR and 153 RBI in 909 AB.
9. Ken Brett: .262 avg., .406 slugging on 10 HR and 18 2B in just 347 AB.
10. Walter Johnson: .235 avg., 24 HR, 41 3B and 94 2B in 2324 AB with 255 RBI.

Special mention for mostly reliever Terry Forster, who retired with a career batting average of .397 (and slugging of .474) with 31 hits in 78 AB and only 9 strike outs.

Best recent retiree (I guess he's retired--hasn't played since 2005): Mike Hampton, with .242 avg. and .354 slugging on 15 HR in 664 AB. Best active pitcher with a few years under his belt: Carlos Zambrano: .234 avg., .369 slugging on 13 HR in 458 AB.

Best recent arrivals:
Adam Wainwright: .278 avg., .407 slugging on 3 HR and 5 2B in just 108 AB.
even better: Micah Owings: .299 avg., an incredible .542 slugging with 5 HR, 9 2B (and a 3B), 15 runs and 18 RBI in just 107 AB.

Hall of Fame Pitchers as Hitters, Part 2

Continuing with yesterday's subject: it occurred to me that slugging pct. is probably the best measure of comparing one player to another in hitting ability. So I did some calculations:

Top 20 Career Slugging Pct. among Hall of Fame Pitchers:
.389 Red Ruffing
.386 Bob Lemon
.382 Al Spalding
.342 Walter Johnson
.319 Amos Rusie
.319 John Clarkson
.310 Clark Griffith
.306 Burleigh Grimes
.301 Dizzy Dean
.301 Bob Gibson
.300 Kid Nichols
.297 Mickey Welch
.295 Don Drysdale
.287 Catfish Hunter
.287 Warren Spahn
.285 Ted Lyons
.285 Early Wynn
.282 Cy Young
.281 Hoss Radbourn
.280 Chief Bender

And the 10 worst (among those with 500+ AB's):

.116 Sandy Koufax
.134 Nolan Ryan
.157 Don Sutton
.159 Lefty Gomez
.161 Red Faber
.164 Gaylord Perry
.186 Vic Willis
.188 Addie Joss
.198 Dazzy Vance
.200 Whitey Ford

Notice that the 3 worst are all post-1950.
Of the best 8, Bob Lemon (1941-58) is the most recent.
I should have mentioned Walter Johnson's hitting prowess in the earlier post. Among his highlights: .235 avg., 255 RBI's, 94 doubles, 41 triples and 24 homers (in deadball era!) in 2324 AB.

Best Hitting Hall of Fame Pitchers

Why? Cause the batting records are there, easily accessible on ESPN's baseball site, ripe for picking. And I can't resist arcane, completely off-the-wall stats comparisons.

Best hitters among Hall of Fame pitchers: Red Ruffing with a .269 average,98 doubles, 36 homers and 273 ribbies in 1937 AB's, some of them as a pinch hitter.

Bob Lemon with 54 doubles and an incredible 37 homers in 1183 AB's: 148 runs and 147 RBI's, .232 average.

Others with good power include Don Drysdale: 29 homers in 1169 AB; Warren Spahn: 35 homers in 1872 AB; and Bob Gibson: 24 homers in 1328 AB.

Another with a great average in Al Spalding, who played from 1871-1875 in the American Association, predecessor to the NL. He batted .313 in 1958 AB, some of them as a position player, I believe.

Amos Rusie had an incredible 29 triples in 1730 AB (third base coaches probably get fired these days for bringing pitchers on toward thrid on balls hit in the gap or down the line). Rusie also had a decent .247 average.

As for worst-hitting Hall of Fame pitchers, it's a tie between two relievers: Bruce Sutter (.088 avg., zero extra-base hits--that means a .088 slugging avg., too!--and 50 strike outs in a limited 102 AB) and Hoyt Wilhelm (identical .088 career batting avg., and all of five extra-base hits in 432 AB) Hoyt is famous for being one of a select group of major leaguers who homered in their first career at bat. Hoyt never hit another one in 1069 subsequent games!

Lowest average among career starters is Sandy Koufax: .097, followed by the .110 compiled by Nolan Ryan over 27 seasons.

Don Sutton sets the standard for power futility with no homers (and only 16 extra-base hits) in 1354 AB. Right behind him are Joe McGinnity (no homers in 1297 AB), Waite Hoyt (none in 1287 AB) and Lefty Gomez (no homers and a paltry 11 extra-base hits in 906 AB).

Best Winning Pct. Before the Slide Began

The following is the top ten career winning percentages for pitchers, minimum 150 wins, majority of career post-1900:

.692 211-94 Pedro Martinez (active)
.690 236-105 Whitey Ford
.680 300-141 Lefty Grove
.665 373-188 Christy Mathewson
.660 194-100 Sam Leever
.658 354-184 Roger Clemens
.655 165-87 Sandy Koufax
.651 170-91 Ron Guidry
.650 288-155 Randy Johnson (active)
.649 189-102 Lefty Gomez

But this is one of those stats (batting average is another) where your number can go DOWN from it's high. In fact, pitchers USUALLY win less often as they get near the end of their career. So I've compiled the top ten winning percentages, 150+ wins, at the end of a season in one's career (before it fell lower when later years are added in):

.720 216-84 Whitey Ford
.712 166-67 Pedro Martinez
.712 195-79 Lefty Grove
.694 154-68 Ron Guidry
.694 200-88 Grover Alexander
.688 170-77 Juan Marichal
.685 263-121 Christy Mathewson
.681 169-79 Mordecai Brown
.679 224-106 Randy Johnson
.667 328-164 Roger Clemens

You can see that a lot of guys at .667 or better well into their careers fail to sustain such a percentage on through the end of their careers.

150+ wins and ? Saves

150 wins seems to be a threshold beyond which few pitchers also have a notable number of saves. A couple of exceptions stand out: Dennis Eckersley, who won over 150 as a starter before turning into perhaps the greatest closer up to that time. And John Smoltz pulled an even trickier trick, turning into a closer after an injury in his mid-30's for a little over three years, then returning successfully to starting in his late 30's. But full-time relievers never quite reached 150 wins, even when it was more common for relievers to pitch 2+ innings a game (and thereby be involved in more decisions). So here's my top ten on saves for 150-game winners.

390 saves (197 wins) Dennis Eckersley
154 saves (210+ wins) John Smoltz
61 saves (216 wins) Charlie Hough
57 saves (247 wins) Jack Quinn
57 saves (164 wins) Wilbur Wood
55 saves (300) Lefty Grove
52 saves (237) Waite Hoyt
49 saves (239) Mordecai Brown
49 saves (182) Allie Reynolds
44 saves (191) Dennis Leonard

And these that fell just short of 150 wins:

227 saves (143 wins) Hoyt Wilhelm
172 saves (141 wins) Lindy McDaniel
157 saves (138 wins) Tom Gordon
103 saves (146) Ron Reed
101 saves (148) Firpo Marberry

HR Turnarounds of Late

Three guys struggling mightily to hit HR's like they're paid to early in the year have found the long ball stroke of late; in fact, each hit one out today.

Troy Glaus had all of 2 homers in 187 AB's with his new team, the Cards, through May 30. Cards must have wondered if they'd obtained a washed up has-been. Not so quick. Since May 31, Glaus has hit 8 HR's in 71 AB. And we're suddenly reminded: "Hey, he's only 31!"

Similarly, former Card J.D. Drew was foundering with 4 HR in 149 AB for the Red Sox through May 31. (And he'd only hit 11 his first year in Boston last year.) But June's been good for him, too--10 HR in 66 AB, a .424 avg. and 1.045 (!) slugging pct.

Then there's Vladamir Guerrero, who, despite being a streak hitter all his life, has been a picture of consistency when it comes to all-star caliber season totals. But the .320-something career hitter was only batting .249 with 7 HR in 201 AB as of June 1 when he missed several games (due to injury I presume). Since returning on June 6,he's hit 6 HR in 54 AB and hit .444 to raise his season avg. to a respectable .290. Oh, and Vladdie, like Glaus and Drew, is only 32--maybe it just starts to take a little longer to get the kinks out and hit your stride is you move on in your 30's...

Saves Percentage

Major League baseball made save opportunities an official stat in 1999, but I've seen little done with it. Aside from Greg Gagne's incredible record of 55 saves in 55 opportunities in 2003, save opportunities have been mostly ignored. It would seem to me it should be used to calculate save percentages. Since we have almost 10 years of stats to use now, here's my list of best relievers in converting save opportunities since 1999:

92.57% Eric Gagne (187/202)
90.24 Mariano Rivera (379/420)
90.23 Trevor Hoffman (351/389)
89.95 Joe Nathan (179/199)
87.74 Joe Papelbon (93/106)
87.39 Billy Wagner (312/357)
87.29 Bobby Jenks (103/118)
86.47 Bob Wickman (230/266)
86.14 Francisco Rodriguez (174/202)
85.78 Keith Foulke (187/218)
85.71 Troy Percival (222/259)
85.07 Jose Valverde (114/134)
84.21 Chad Cordero (128/152)
83.93 Brad Lidge (141/168)
83.77 Jason Isringhausen (289/345)
83.72 Armando Benitez (252/301)
83.04 J.J. Putz (93/112)
81.75 Todd Jones (215/263)
79.50 Francisco Cordero (190/239)

Had John Smoltz stuck with closing, he'd rank 2nd with 91.67% (154/168)
Gagne's was even more impressive before his struggles the past two years (was 161 for 167, an incredible 96.41% through 2006).

There are a lot of guys bunched around 85-87 %, all quality relievers. Guys like Nathan, Hoffman and Rivera are a notch even above them in dependability in nailing down saves. Guys below 85% are only marginally effective in my opinion, costing their teams several games a year.

Glavine Has Never Relieved

Tom Glavine has set an all-time record by pitching in 681 games without a ONE of them being in relief! That's right, 681 straight starts since the beginning of his career! Next closest is Roger Clemens with only 2 games in relief among his 709 games pitched (one each in the first and last of his 24 year career).

Other starters in recent years with extremely low relief totals include Randy Johnson (10 in relief among 576 games), and Greg Maddux(4 games in relief among 726 games, all four in the first two years of his career).

It didn't used to be that way, with star pitchers used exclusively as starters. Walter Johnson pitched 136 games in relief among his 802 games; Warren Spahn 85 among 750 games; Early Wynn 79 among 691; Robin Roberts 67 among 676; and Pete Alexander 97 in relief among 696 games pitched. And each of these examples is not a case of a guy switching to relieving late in his career, or starting out in the bullpen before catching on as a starter. No, there was a time when managers used star pitchers in relief whenever they were in a pinch. And these starters often had several saves a year. (Other guys thought of mainly as starters, such as Ed Walsh and Mordacai (3-finger) Brown, often led the league in saves in the days before closer specialists.)

Silva's Top Control Pitcher Season

Don't know how I'd missed hearing of this until now, but did you know that Carolos Silva set an ALL-TIME record for lowest rate of walks per 9 innings in 2005? That year he issued a grand total of 9 walks in 188 1/3 innings for an incredible rate of 0.43 walks issued per 9 innings pitched, and this at the young age of 26 when many pitchers are still trying to find the plate with any level of consistency!

The previous record was 0.616 set way back in 1920 by Babe Adams. The next best in MY lifetime was Bret Saberhagen's ).660 in the strike-shortened 1994 season. No pitcher had a rate may than half as low as Silva's record in the 58 years between 1933-1992!

Unfortunately for Carlos, his incredible control has not translated into a highly successful career. He is only 3-8 in wins-losses so far this year, likely headed toward his third straight losing season, although his career record still stands above .500 at 58-54.

Francisco Rodriguez

The Angel's closer has 28 saves in 70 games, on pace to break Bobby Thigpen's 18-year-old season saves record of 57. At the time of Thigpen's record, the previous high was 46. Since then, 46 has been eclipsed 19 more times, over one a year, but none of those times have yet reached 57 again.

Rodriguez is also a rarity in racking up so many saves at a young age. At age 26, he already has 174 saves, and is likely to have 200 before the year is over. The youngest so far to reach 200 was Thigpen at age 28; many great closers don't even get started on racking up big saves numbers until their late 20's.

Mussina

No starting pitcher has ever been elected to the Hall of Fame without winning 20 games at least once. Mike Mussina looked like he might be on his way to being the first, entering this year with a 250-144 won-loss record, a hall-of-fame caliber .635 won-loss percentage. Don't look now, though--at age 39, he just won his 10th game in the 69th game of the season, on course to win 20 at that rate!

He would also be the oldest fist-time 20-game winner, breaking Jamie Moyer's record, who did it at age 38 back in 2001.