Pujols on a Tear

My man Albert Pujols is unconscious lately; 16 for 30 (.533) in the 7 games preceding today, and starting today's game with a two-run homer. In those 31 at bats, he has 6 doubles, 4 homers, and 12 RBIs. He's raised his average from .342 to .357, just two point behind Chipper Jones' major-league leading .359, and his slugging from .599 to .638 (tops in the majors).

Zambrano's Amazing Hitting

Carlos Zambrano's having one of the greatest offensive years for a pitcher in a long, long time. Not only is he a top-notch pitcher (13-5, 3.29) but he's batting .361 (26 for 72)with 4 doubles, a triple, 4 homers, 13 RBI and an incredible .611 slugging pct.!

Cards get 26 hits, including 4 by pitchers

The Cards just went 26 for 44 against Braves pitching tonight! That's a .591 avg! For the team for a whole game! THe Cards also walked 9 times, for a total of 35 baserunners, for, I believe, a .660 on-base percentage. The bottom of the order (7, 8 and 9) were 12 for 16 (.750), including 4-5 for Yadier Molina, 4-5 for Cesar Izturis, 3-5 for starting pitcher (and killer hitter) Adam Wainwright, and 1-1 on a ground-rule RBI double for reliever Joel Pineiro. The Cards had 21 singles and 5 doubles. They hit into 2 double plays, lost two runners consecutively on caught stealings, and had one sacrifice and one sacrifice fly, and did not bat in the bottom of the ninth, thus explaining why they only had 18 outs counted against them in figuring the batting average. Oh, yeah, they won the game 18-3. It was ace Wainwright's first start since June 7 due to injury. He looked sharp.

Toughest Batters to Strike Out This Year

Strike outs have continued to occur at an all-time high rate the last couple of years, but they're not spread around equally. While a guy like Jack Cust is striking out once every 2.38 AB(156 in 372 AB), these guys are putting the ball in play (Most AB/SO):

8. 13.42 Casey Kotchman(33 in 443)
7. 13.56 Placido Polanco (34 in 461)
6. 13.60 Bengie Molina: (30 in 408)
5. 13.75 Yadier Molina (28 in 385)
4. 14.86 Cesar Izturis (21 in 312)
3. 16.76 Yuniesky Betancourt (25 in 419)
2. 17.11 Juan Pierre (19 in 325)
1. 18.50 Jeff Keppinger (18 in 333)

Pierre has led the NL in this category the past 5 years and 6 of the last 7.

McCovey Cove is a Dry, Lonely Place Now

The Barry-less SF Giants have only 69 homers in 125 games so far this year. Leading home run hitter Aaron Rowand has only 12. Thus, the punchless Giants are on pace to become the first team since 1993 (Marlins-94) to hit fewer than 100 homers in a complete, 162-game season (The Royals just made it with 102 last year. The Phillies had 94 in the strike-shortened, 144-game 1995)

How Are the "New Guys" Doing?

Griffey Jr.'s first homer for the White Sox made me wonder: how are the big name guys traded before the trade deadline doing with their new team? The older guys: not so well. The younger ones: smokin'! 36-year-old Ivan Rodriguez is only 8 for 35 with all of one RBI since coming over from Detroit to the Yankees. And 38-year-old Ken Griffey Jr. had only 9 singles in 43 AB for his new club before striking today.

On the other hand, 29-year-old Jason Bay is 24 for 70 (.343) with 18 runs and 17 RBI's in 17 cames for the BoSox, while eternally youthful (36-year-old) Manny Ramirez is an incredible 26 for 63 (.413) with 6 homers and 21 RBIs in 17 games for the Dodgers. Manny's on-base and slugging percentages are .500 and .746, respectively. You may not like the dude, but he can flat out play when he wants to ...

Sub-.600 Slugging Leader

Alex Rodriguez is currently the slugging percentage leader in the AL with .598. There hasn't been a league leader in that category under .600 since 1992 (Mark McGwire, AL, .585). A-Rod notched exactly .600 to lead the AL in 2003.

By the way, that over-or-under .600 mark for league slugging leaders provides quite a contrast for before and after the current juiced ball/juiced ballplayer era began in 1993. Whereas the past 30 league leaders since 1993 have all been .600 or higher, only 2 of 20 league leaders from 1982-1991 reached .600 or higher.

We had a mini offensive swell from 1977-1981 (7 of 10 leaders over .600), but 1974-76 were some of the deadest years of the post-deadball era, with no one notching a slugging mark higher than .576 in those three years.

C.C. Rider

C.C. Sabathia is knockin' 'em dead! After just 8 starts in the NL since the trade, he's tied for the league lead in complete games with 4! He's also tied, with Halladay, for the major league lead with 7. I guess there are two of them still around who still believe in finishing what they started, and have convinced their managers to let them!

Chris Dickerson's "cycle"

A 26-year-old Cincinnati rookie named Chris Dickerson just led off the bottom of the first against my Cards with his first career big-league homer. He's now 4 for 10 in 2+ games in the majors, and has already completed a "career cycle"! (a single, a double, a triple and a home run). Oh, wait, he doesn't have the single!--"just" 2 doubles, a triple and a homer! BTW, his slugging pct. so far: 1.300! Whew! Flash in the pan or real deal? Time will tell...

Old Players in Recent Years

Is it my imagination, or are more players excelling into their mid-40's these days than before? I decided to check; found I'm not imagining it. Last year there was a 48-year old (the ageless Julio Franco, by my research the oldest regular (not novelty or emergency replacement) roster position player in the 133-year history of the big leagues. Two regular pitchers that exceeded him, that I know of, were Jack Quinn and Hoyt Wilhelm). Last year there also were three pitchers at 44 (Clemens, Moyer, and Wells) and four guys (all but Bonds a pitcher) 43. This compares to ten years earlier (1997) when there was one 43, two 42 and two 41-year olds.

Most impressive is that 44-year old class of last year. There were six (add Fassero, Mulholland, and Borders) of that cohort still playing at 42 and 5 (minus Borders)at 43. It appears that Moyer is the one representative of that class still going at 45.

In the last 20 years, Jilio Franco is the oldest at 48. The next 4 oldest in that time(46) are all pitchers: Tommy John, Nolan Ryan, Charlie Hough and Jesse Orosco. Catcher Carlton Fisk joins Moyer as playing at age 45, and 44 includes Rickey Henderson as well as pitchers John Franco, Clemens and Wells. The next two oldest position players in that time were Dave Winfield and Andres Galarraga, each 43.

So, in that 20-year period, only 4 position players other than Julio Franco played to age 43; Julio played on past that another five years!

Also, only 11 plyers in those 20 years played to age 44; three of them (Clemens, Moyer and Wells) reached that age in the same cohort last year.

As for youngest players in those 20 years? Only A-Rod (in 1994) played at age 18; among those playing at 19 were Griffey, Jr., Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriquez, Andruw Jones, Rick Ankiel (as a pitcher) and a dozen or so other guys, a large portion of them foreign-born, and most of the pitchers among them failing to go on to a memorable or lengthy career. Interesting that of the last three players age 19, tow of them are brothers B.J. (in 2003) and Justin (last year) Upton; they are also, amazingly enough, by my figuring, the only two American-born, non-pitching 19-year olds in the majors since Griffey way back in 1989!

Two Ex-Card Sluggers Reborn of Late

The careers of two ex-Cardinal faves of mine were seemingly dead in the water earlier this year, but both have resurrected their game with dramatic turnarounds.

First, Jim Edmonds: after six great years in St Louis followed by two declining years, he went to San Diego at age 37, where he proceeded to look done for (.178 with just 1 homer and a dismal .231 slugging in 90 AB). But since arriving in Chicago, he's batted .275 with an amazing 15 homers, 14 doubles and 42 RBI in 182 AB for the Cubs, slugging .610. Talk about a turnaround! (And the Cubs had to show some faith and patience, because he didn't come alive right away, going only 3-24 with no etra-base hits in his first 2 weeks with them.)

Second, Fernando Tatis: the Dominican enjoyed one great season with teh Cards at age 24 in 1999, batting .298 with 34 HR, 104 runs and 107 Ribbies, and combining with McGwire for 99 HR's as a teammate duo, one of the highest ever. Since then, though, his numbered steadily dropped before culminating in a horrid .194 and 2 homers in 175 AB for the Expos in 2003. After 2 years out of pro ball here (overseas?), he returned to the minors with the Oriole organization in 2006 (and batted .250 in a month of limited play back in the bigs), then joined the Mets AAA club in '07. 12 homers in 120 AB there this year earned a promotion at age 33 in mid-May; he's proceeded to regain (almost) his 1999 form, but, again, it took patience and faith--hi was just at .253 with one homer in 87 AB through June. But since July 1, he's raised his average to over .300 while hitting 9 HR in 118 AB. Yeah, Fernando--I'm glad you're realizing your potential at last!


And one more player (not an ex-Card) who is back from the dead:
Jolbert Cabrera (older brother of Orlando, both from Columbia) had not played in the bigs since 2004 (and baseball-reference still has his "final game" listed then!). He didn't even play in the minors in 2005-06 (overseas perhaps?), but returned there last year, and after two more organization changes, a .288 avg. for the Reds' AAA club earned a promotion. He went an impressive 7 for 18 (.389) in a 9-day stint in June, then, since coming back on July 18, he's 8 for 25 for a combined 15 for 43 (.349) in limited playing, including pinch-hitting.

Most Undeserving All-Star?

I just came across this: Bill Freehan, a middling to just-above-average catcher for most of his career, made an incredible 11 All-Star games! By my figuring, his offensive stats deserved All-Star accolades only 4 or 5 of those years. The nadir was reached in his "All-Star" year of 1973, when he batted .234 with 6 homers, 33 runs and 29 RBIs in 380 AB. His slugging percentage? .313!

Then here's the really weird part: the next year, 1974, he raised his slugging percentage an amazing 166 points to a career-high .479, along with a .297 average (2nd best of his career), 18 HR and 60 RBIs. His reward? He was unexplicably left OFF the All-Star roster that year!

Pitchers: Relief Awards, All-Stars

Most times winner of Rolaids Relief Award (started in 1976):
5-Dan Quisenberry (1980, 82-85)
4-Rollie Fingers (1977-78, 80-81)
4-Mariano Rivera (1999, 2001, 04-05)
3-Lee Smith (1991-92, 94)

Most years picked for an All-Star game, pitchers:
14-Warren Spahn
12-Tom Seaver
11-Roger Clemens
10-Steve Carlton, Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson
9-Juan Marichal, Goose Gossage (most for reliever), Carl Hubbell
8-Whitey Ford, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, Bob Feller, Catfish Hunter, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Mariano Rivera, Nolan Ryan, John Smoltz (possibly more alphabetically after Smoltz)

Silver Slugger-Gold Glover Combo

Unlike football, baseball doesn't have offensive and defensive platoons (although some predicted the designated hitter was a first step in that direction). So a player who excels both offensively AND defensively is especially valuable. So I checked to see which players, since the advent of the silver slugger awards at each position in 1980, has been selected for BOTH offensive and defensive awards in the same year. It's not as uncommon is you'd think, which probably reflects that players well-known because of their hitting exploits benefit from that name recongnition when it cames to selecting the best fielders. Anyway, here are the players who've won both in the same year the most times:

7: Barry Bonds, OF (1990-94, 96-97)
7: Ken Griffey, Jr., OF (1991, 93-94, 96-99)
7: Ivan Rodriguez, C (1994-99, 2004)
6: Mike Schmidt, 3B (1980-84, 86)
6: Ryne Sandberg, 2B (1984-85, 88-91)
5: Kirby Puckett, OF (1986-89, 92)
4: Andre Dawson, OF (1980-81, 83, 87)
4: Dale Murphy, OF (1982-85)
4: Roberto Alomar, 2B (1992, 96, 99-2000)

It seems to have become less common on recent years, with no one achieving it more than twice so far in the new century. Also of note: Mike Hampton is the only pitcher to win the gold glove and silver slugger in the same year (2003); Matt Williams is the only player to achieve it in both leagues (1993-94 in NL, 1997 in AL). No one has achieved it at more than one position. Only twice (the NL in 1998 and 2000) has a league had NO ONE win both awards in the same season! The fewest ever to do it in the majors? Two, in 2000-01, 04 and 06. The most? Nine, in 1984.

This list might also support Hall of Fame considerations for Dawson, Murphy and Alomar.

EDIT: It would seem worth mentioning that Schmidt also won a Gold Glove in the four years preceding the start of the Silver Slugger awards (1976-79), and almost certainly would have won a Silver Slugger for thirdbasemen in three of those years (all but 1978), thus giving him a hypothetical total of 9. Of course, if one starts to speculate how many Silver Sluggers earlier players would have earned, you gotta figure that Willie Mays would have earned a lot of them in his 12 Gold Glove years, maybe 9 or 10.

HR Leaders' Monthly Breakdown

Here's the monthly (April, May, June, July, August so far) home run totals for the four top home run hitters to date this year:
Dunn: 4-10-6-12-0 = 32
Howard: 5-10-5-10-1 = 31
Braun: 3-11-6-9-1 = 30
Quentin: 7-7-5-9-1 = 29

Interesting that all four show a pattern of being weaker in April and June, stronger in May and July. Don't know what to make of that, but...

20-game winners Disappearing

Turns out that gorillas aren't nearly as in danger of going exstinct as previously thought. But the news isn't so hopeful when it comes to 20-game winners. Here's the number of 20-game winners for the past 12 years:
1996-3
1997-4
1998-4
1999-3
2000-4
2001-7
2002-5
2003-5
2004-3
2005-4
2006-0
2007-1

The past 2 years have produced the lowest number of 20-game winners of any years not interupted by strikes. There has alos been no pitchers with 250+ innings pitched the past 3 years, whereas 260 was still fairly common in the 1990's. That may not seem like a big difference, but pitching 6 or 7 innings instead of 7 or 8 results in a lot more no decisions for starters.

This year? Two with 15 and 3 with 14 wins so far. There could be as many as 4 or 5 20-game winners, but 1 to 3 is more likely, I predict.