Part-time Closer

I wonder if the "part-time closer" will ever come back into vogue. It seems every team has just one closer who gets about 90% of the team's saves these days. i Knod of think it would be more democratic to spread the glory around a bit. The quintessential part-time closer of the 1980s was Tom Niedenfuer. He had between 9 and 19 saves every year from 1982-88. That's seven years in a row of being neither the full-time closer (who you would except to have at least 25 saves) or just a set-up or mop-up man (who would rarely have more than 5 saves). Niedenfuer finished his career with a respectable 97 saves in 484 appearances.

Team's Pitcher Hitting Staffs

OK, this is way too nerdy, but here goes: the stats for each National League team's hitting by pitchers so far this year.

Avg.:
.183 Rockies
.169 Mets
.156 Cardinals
.155 Padres
.151 Cubs
.141 Brewers
.139 Astros
.138 Dodgers
.137 Reds
.136 Braves
.130 Giants
.123 D-backs
.123 Pirates
.121 Phillies
.085 Nats
.081 Marlins

Slugging:
.224 Brewers
.221 Reds
.215 Cubs
.207 Rockies
.185 Pirates
.182 Phillies
.178 Cards
.177 Astros
.170 Dodgers
.169 Mets
.169 Padres
.160 D-backs
.148 Braves
.130 Giants
.099 Nats
.081 Marlins

Runs:
9 Cards
8 Braves, Brewers, Phillies
7 Rockies, Astros

HRs: 2, Brewers.

Update of AB per Double Career Leaders

Back several years ago I listed the following as the top 10 in ABs per Double:

1. 12.366, Todd Helton, 4971 AB, 402 2B
2. 12.872, Tris Speaker, 10195, 792
3. 13.563, Chick Hafey, 4625, 341
4. 13.702, Hank Greenberg, 5193, 379
5. 14.033, Edgar Martinez, 7213, 514
6. 14.035, Bobby Abreu, 5165, 368
7. 14.043, Babe Herman, 5603, 399
8. 14.044, Riggs Stephenson, 4508, 321
9. 14.139, Joe Medwick, 7635, 540
10. 14.324, Nomar Garciaparra, 4727, 330

Helton since then has slowed his pace, getting an additional 77 doubles in 1131 AB. He still is ahead of Speaker, but not by much, at 12.739 now (479 in 6102). David Ortiz and Albert Pujols are now 3rd and 4th on the all-time list, so that the list for the top 10 (minimum 320 doubles) now looks like this:

1. 12.739 Todd Helton, 6102 AB, 479 2Bs
2. 12.872, Tris Speaker, 10195, 792
3. 13.419, David Ortiz, 4777, 356
4. 13.503, Albert Pujols, 4726, 350
5. 13.563, Chick Hafey, 4625, 341
6. 13.702, Hank Greenberg, 5193, 379
7. 14.033, Edgar Martinez, 7213, 514
8. 14.043, Babe Herman, 5603, 399
9. 14.044, Riggs Stephenson, 4508, 321
10.14.139, Joe Medwick, 7635, 540

Abreu has fallen off the top-10 list, now at 14.384 (461 in 6631).

Among active guys with 175+ doubles, two more guys stand out to keep an eye on: Lyle Overbay has hit a double every 13.554 AB (224 in 3036), and Adam LaRoche's pace is one every 13.756 (180 in 2476)

3000 hits with no 200 hit seasons

Of the 27 guys to accumulate 300 hits in a career, how many do you suppose have done it without any 200-hit seasons? I asked this as I noticed that, not only is Ivan Rodriguez poised to become, in a couple of years, the first catcher to join the 3000 hit club, but he'll do it without any 200 hit seasons.

Turns out that 5 of the 27 never hit 200 in one season. The five, and their high hit season, are:

Carl Yastrzemski: high of 191 in 1962
Cap Anson: high of 187 in 1886
Eddie Murray: high 186 in 1980
Dave Winfield: high of 193 in 1984
Rickey Henderson: high 179 in 1980

Of the other 22, Pete Rose had 10 200-hit seasons; Ty Cobb, 9; Paul Waner, 8; Wade Boggs, 7; Stan Musial, 6; Tony Gwynn, 5.

After that beautiful 10-9-8-7-6-5 individual countdown, there's a logjam among 3000 hitters with 4 200-hit seasons, including Tris Speaker, Paul Molitor, Nap Lajoie, Lou Brock, Rod Carew, and Roberto Clemente.

Hank Aaron had 3; Honus Wagner Cal Ripkin, Jr. and George Brett had 2; and Eddie Collins, Willie Mays, Robin Yount, Craig Biggio, Rafael Palmeiro and Al Kaline each had just one 200-hit season.

Miscellaneous Useless Trivia

Of the 107 times pitchers have pitched in 80 or more games in a season, only two guys have done it more than three times: Paul Quantrill (5) and old rubber-armed submariner Kent Tekulve (4). Those who did it three times include Steve Kline, Ray King and Mike Stanton. The vast majority of folks on the list have done it only once. It would seem that one year of pitching every other game is enough to convince the pitcher and/or management to limit them to 60-75 the rest of their career.

If the only 8 times that 90-games pitched has been accomplished, six of the occasion are by just two players: Mike Marshall (3 times) and Tekulve (3). Wayne Granger also did it in an earlier generation, while only Salomon Torres, in 2006, has done it in the past 20 years.

Among pre-World War II players, finishing your career between 2900-3000 hits was just about as common as finsihing above 300 hits. Whereas 7 players founded the 3000 hit club before 1945 (in rough chronoligical order: Cap Anson, Nap Lajoie and Honus Wagner, Cobb, Speaker and Eddie Collins, and Paul Waner; 6 made 2900 but fell short of 3000 (Jake Beckley, Willie Keeler, Sam Crawford, Sam Rice, Rogers Hornsby, and Al Simmons).

Since 3000 became such a big deal post-WWII, 20 more have joined that Club, only two more (Frank Robinson and Barry Bonds) have joined the 2900-2999 group, and both of them had the consolation of 500 HRs.

Are those miscellaneous and useless enuf for ya?!

Number of Milestone HR Seasons by player

Players with most years 50+ HRs:
Ruth, McGwire and Sosa: 4
Alex Rodriguez: 3
Griffey Jr., Mays, Foxx and Kiner: 2

45+:
Ruth: 9
Bonds: 6
Killebrew, McGwire, Sosa, Griffey Jr. and A-Rod: 5
Gehrig, Mays: 4

40+:
Ruth: 11
Aaron, Bonds, Killebrew and A-Rod: 8
Griffey Jr. and Sosa: 7
McGwire, Mays, and Thome: 6

35+:
Ruth and Alex Rodriguez: 12
Aaron and Schmidt: 11
Sosa, Mays, Bonds, Palmeiro and Foxx: 10

30+:
Aaron: 15
Bonds: 14
Ruth and Schmidt: 13
A-Rod, Thome, Manny Ramirez and Foxx: 12
McGwire, Frank Robinson, Sosa, Mays, and Carlos Delgado: 11

Surprises to me: despite 50-HR season becoming commonplace from 1996-2005, only 4 players did it more than once in our juiced era.

Also, Thome and Schmidt's rankings in some of these categories.
And Carlos Delgado's appearance on the last list--that's an unheralded consistently powerful career there! He'll soon be one of the quietest additions to the 500 club.

And despite Bond's notoriety for 73 (26 more than Aaron's career high of 47), Bonds amassed 700 the same way Aaron and Ruth did: with buckets of 30-homer-on-up seasons.

Stolen Base leaders: breakdown of which bases they stole

Baseball Reference offers details for recent (1960's or 70's) players on steals and attempts to steal 2nd, 3rd, and home.

Here's the breakdown for modern careers steals leaders:

Rickey Henderson: 1406 total (of 1741); 2nd: 1080 (of 1338); 3rd: 322 (of 391);home: 4 (of 12)
Lou Brock: 938 (of 1245); 2nd: 856 (of 1119); 3rd: 79 (of 121); home: 3 (of 4)
Tim Raines: 808 (of 954); 2nd: 735 (of 867); 3rd: 71 (of 81) home: 2 (of 6)
Vince Coleman: 752 (of 929); 2nd: 559 (of 694); 3rd: 189 (of 221); home: 4 (of 14)
Joe Morgan: 689 (of 851); 2nd: 643 (of 791); 3rd: 41 (of 49); home: 3 (of 8)
Willie Wilson: 668 (of 802); 2nd: 603 (of 719); 3rd: 65 (of 79); home: 0 (of 4)
Bert Campaneris: 649 (of 848); 2nd: 518 (of 696); 3rd: 130 (of 147); home: 0 (of 4)
Kenny Lofton: 622 (of 782); 2nd: 505 (of 627); 3rd: 115 (of 150); home: 2 (of 5)
Otis Nixon: 620 (of 806); 2nd: 495 (of 655); 3rd: 123 (of 146); home: 2 (of 5)

Season leaders:
Henderson '82: 130 total (of 172); 2nd: 94 (of 120); 3rd: 34 (of 47); home: 2 (of 5)
Brock '74: 118 (of 151); 2nd: 112 (of 141); 3rd: 6 (of 9); home: 0 (of 1)
Coleman '85: 110 (of 135); 2nd: 78 (of 98); 3rd: 30 (of 34); home: 2 (of 3)
Coleman '87: 109 (of 131); 2nd: 85 (of 98); 3rd: 24 (of 29); home: 0 (of 4)
Henderson '83: 108 (of 127); 2nd: 79 (of 94); 3rd: 29 (of 33); home: none tried
Coleman '86: 107 (of 121); 2nd: 76 (of 84); 3rd: 31 (of 36); home: 0 (of 1)
Maury Wills '62: 104 (of 117); 2nd: 86 (of 97); 3rd: 16 (of 17); home: 2 (of 3)
Henderson '80: 100 (of 126); 2nd: 82 (of 101); 3rd: 16 (of 21); home: 2 (of 4)
Ron LeFlore '80: 97 (of 116); 2nd: 80 (of 93); 3rd: 16 (of 21); home: 1 (of 2)
Omar Moreno '80: 96 (of 129); 2nd: 91 (of 120); 3rd: 5 (of 9)
Wills '65: 94 (of 125); 2nd: 78 (of 105); 3rd: 16 (of 19); home: 0 (of 1)
Henderson '88: 93 (of 106); 2nd: 62 (of 73); 3rd: 31 (of 33); home: none tried
Raines '83: 90 (of 104); 2nd: 85 (of 98); 3rd: 5 (of 6)
Henderson '86: 87 (of 105); 2nd: 72 (of 86); 3rd: 15 (of 19)

Adrian Gonzalez's Ever-Increasing HR Power

San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez just hit another tater, giving him 14 HR in 35 games so far this year. His HRs and his ABs per HR has improved every year of his career, from:
1 HR in 42 AB in 2004
6 HR in 150 AB in 2005 (1 every 30)
24 HR in 570 AB in 2006 (1 every 23.75)
30 HR in 646 AB in 2007 (1 every 21.53)
36 HR in 616 AB in 2008 (1 every 17.11)
14 HR in 129 AB so far this year (1 every 9.21)

No telling how high he can go...

Perfect Base Stealer

A year or two ago it was Ichiro Suzuki who opened the year with an impressive streak of stolen bases without being caught (Actually--I checked, and it was the last 39 attemptes of 2006 and first 6 of 2007, for a total of 45 straight for Ichiro). This year Carl Crawford has, so far, is 22 for 22 in SB attempts (he made his last 2 attempts last year, too, for 24 straight across two seasons)--and in only 34 games! At that rate (which no one expects him to maintain), he would become the first to steal 100 bases since Vince Coleman 22 years ago, 1987. If he just gets 79, one more than Jose Reyes got two years ago, he'd have the most in a season since 1988. Crawford's career high is 59--respectable, but a long ways from 100. He had 14 in a string of nine straight games from April 28-May 6, including 1 in every game and 6 (!) on May 3 (Jayson Werth of Philly made big news yesterday stealing 4 including, 2nd, 3rd and home in one sequence in the 7th inning)

Bobby Abreu, who used to be known more for his now-absent power than for his speed, has opened a modest 13 for 13.

(P.S. It was Jimmy Rollins who opened 25 for 25 last year, before being caught stealing on July 26, three days after I jinxed him by mentioneing his 25 for 25 streak in this blog!)

(P.P.S. I jinxed Ichiro, too--he was caught the very next day after I mentioned his 45 straight streak on May 17, 2007. Keep an eye on how Crawford fares the next few games!)

Chris Davis, all or nothin'

Second year player Chris Davis of the Rangers is taking feast or famine to the extreme. You though Ryan Howard or Jack Cust were bad about striking out between the homers they are paid to hit? Check out this guy: Nine homers in 108 at bats00pretty darn good, right?! But get this--he has already struck out 50 times! That is once every 2.16 at bats! Unheard of! He struck out "only" 88 times in 295 AB (with 17 HR) last year: that's a K every 3.35.
Those other guys I mentioned? Their worst years striking out were:
For Ryan: 199 in 529 AB in 2007 (with 47 HR to show for it), which is a K every 2.66 AB.
For Cust: 164 in 396 AB in 2007 (with 26 HR), or a K every 2.41 AB (that's not counting his limited play in 2002, when he struck out 32 Xs in 65 AB, once every 2.03 AB)

501 (Levis?) and 105

Gary Sheffield hit home run number 501 for the Mets today against the Braves, while teammate Fernando Tatis hit number 105. Kind of poetic, don'tcha think? BTW, looks like Sheffield will be ending maybe just ahead of Eddie Murray (504) but behind the next guys in line (McCovey and Banks at 512) cause his career is about petered out (batting .196 with 2 homers after 51 ABs, age 40 and a half). I could be wrong, but we'll see...

My Man Albert

Pujols has been up three times tonight. Three hits. Scored all three times, on homers each time (the first time his own, 9th of year in 24th game. A pace that would give him 60 for the year.) Now batting .360. 29 RBIs: 195 pace. The man is a monster. Once in a lifetime talent. Thank God he's a Cardinal!

Worst Career Pitching won-loss records

Jack Nabors, 1-25, .038, 1915-17
Joe Harns, 3-30, .091, 1905-07
Jack Wadsworth, 6-38, .136, 1890-95
Ike Pearson, 13-50, .206, 1939-42, 46, 48
John Coleman, 23-72, .242, 1883-86, 89-90
Jim Hughey, 29-80, .266, 1891, 93, 96-1900
Buster Brown, 51-103, .331, 1905-13
Bill Hart, 66-120, .355, 1886-87, 92, 95-98, 1901
John Healy, 78-136, .364, 1885-92
Milt Gaston, 97-164, .372, 1924-34
Si Johnson, 101-165, .380, 1928-43, 46-47
Mike Morgan, 141-186, .431, 1978-79, 82-83, 85-2002
Chick Fraser, 175-212, .452, 1896-1909
Bob Friend, 197-230, .461, 1951-66
Bobo Newsom, 211-222, .487, 1929-30, 32, 34-48, 52-53
Jack Powell, 245-254, .491, 1897-1912


Most wins, losing career record:
1. Jack Powell, 245-254, .491, 1897-1912
2. Bobo Newsom, 211-222, .487, 1929-30, 32, 34-48, 52-53
3. Bob Friend, 197-230, .461, 1951-66
4. Jim Whitney, 191-204, .484, 1881-90
5. Tom Zachary, 186-191, .493, 1918-36
6. Chick Fraser, 175-212, .452, 1896-1909
7. Murry Dickson, 172-181, .487, 1929-30, 32, 34-48, 52-53
8. Danny Darwin, 171-182, .484, 1978-98
9. Bill Dinneen, 170-177, .490, 1898-1909
10.Pink Hawley, 167-179, .483, 1892-1901

Most Games Under .500, Career:
1. 67: Milt Gaston, 97-164, .372, 1924-34
2. 64: Si Johnson, 101-165, .380, 1928-43, 46-47
3. 58: John Healy, 78-136, .364, 1885-92
4. 56: Jack Russell, 85-141, .376, 1926-40
5. 55: Stump Wiedman, 101-156, .393, 1880-88
6. 54: Bill Hart, 66-120, .355, 1886-87, 92, 95-98, 1901
7. 53: Jack Fisher, 86-139, .382, 1959-69
8. 52: Buster Brown, 51-103, .331, 1905-13
9. 49: John Coleman, 23-72, .242, 1883-86, 89-90
9. 49: Bob Barr, 49-98, .333, 1883-84, 86, 90-91
9. 49: Kaiser Wilhelm, 56-105, .348, 1903-05, 08-10, 14-15, 21
9. 49: Jersey Bakely, 76-125, .378, 1883-84, 88-91

Highest at one time career batting avgs

As promised, pased on cumulativr records from Baseball-reference:

(This is actually only good for those with final career avgs of .320 or higher--it's possible some who finished below that would make the list).

Minimum 3000 plate appearances:

1. .385 Willie Keeler (1147 for 2981), ended up .341 (2932 for 8591)
2. .373 Ty Cobb (3264 for 8762), ended up .366 (4189 for 11434)
3. .365 Joe Jackson (986 for 2700), ended up .356 (1772 for 4981)
4. .364 Nap Lajoie (1086 for 2987), ended up .338 (3242 for 9589)
5. .363 Rogers Hornsby (2705 for 7454), ended up .358 (2930 for 8173)
6. .363 Al Simmons (1580 for 4349), ended up .334 (2927 for 8759)
7. .361 George Sisler (1498 for 4155), ended up .340 (2812 for 8267)
8. .361 Lefty O’Doul (974 for 2699), ended up .349 (1140 for 3659)
9. .359 Jesse Burkett (2227 for 6205), ended up .338 (2850 for 8421)
10..359 Chuck Klein (1209 for 3367), ended up .320 (2076 for 6486)
11..359 Paul Waner (1057 for 2946), ended up .333 (3152 for 9459)
12..356 Wade Boggs (1392 for 3913), ended up .328 (3010 for 9180)
13..355 Cap Anson (1163 for 3275), ended up .333 (3418 for 10277)
14..354 Pete Browning (1053 for 2971), ended up .341 (1646 for 4820)
15..354 Ted Williams (1294 for 3655), ended up .344 (2654 for 7706)
16..351 Billy Hamilton (1793 for 5103), ended up .344 (2158 for 6268)
17..351 Babe Ruth (1251 for 3564), ended up .342 (2873 for 8398)
18..350 Tris Speaker (3128 for 8942), ended up .345 (3514 for 10195)
19..348 Stan Musial (1225 for 3521), ended up .331 (3630 for 10972)
20..347 Dan Brouthers (1048 for 3020), ended up .342 (2296 for 6711)

Some of the big movers up on this list from the final career average list:

Wee Willie Keeler (I was surprised anyone passed Cobb), Chuck Klein (benefited from the live ball of the years around 1930 early in his career), and Wade Boggs (was far higher than Carew or Gwynn at one point before fading later in his career).