All-Time F.I.P.’er Greats – Update
By popular demand here is an update to the “All-Time F.I.P.’er Greats“. The last three weeks of the baseball season saw two new additions to the club. Both coming from the AL West.
The parameters*:
- 220 strikeouts
- 4.50 K/BB
- HR/9 allowed < 0.66
Player Year SO SO/W HR9 Jon Lester 2014 220 4.58 0.66 Corey Kluber 2014 269 5.27 0.53 Clayton Kershaw 2014 239 7.71 0.41 Felix Hernandez 2014 248 5.39 0.61 Roy Halladay 2011 220 6.29 0.39 Clayton Kershaw 2011 248 4.59 0.58 Zack Greinke 2009 242 4.75 0.43 Randy Johnson 2004 290 6.59 0.66 Mark Prior 2003 245 4.90 0.64 Pedro Martinez 2002 239 5.98 0.59 Pedro Martinez 1999 313 8.46 0.38 Kevin Brown 1998 257 5.24 0.28 Pedro Martinez 1997 305 4.55 0.60 Randy Johnson 1995 294 4.52 0.50 Roger Clemens 1988 291 4.69 0.58 Tom Seaver 1971 289 4.74 0.57 Sandy Koufax 1963 306 5.28 0.52 Walter Johnson 1913 243 6.39 0.23 Ed Walsh 1908 269 4.80 0.04 Christy Mathewson 1908 259 6.17 0.12
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/18/2015.
*seasons since 1901
BBWAA to Larry Walker: “Sorry For The Confusion”
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America do not have much respect for Larry Walker‘s hall-of-fame candidacy. This year the Canuck garnered fewer HOF votes than Jeff Kent and Fred McGriff. His future chance of election by the writers is very slim.
The lack of support for Walker can be explained partially by the ten player ballot limit and mostly by anti-Coors Field sentiment. Writers point to his monster season of 1997 and say “He benefited from hitting baseballs in Denver so he really wasn’t that great”.
If he wasn’t that great then why did you select Walker as MVP that very season?
Despite the Rockies 3rd place finish LW received 92% of the writers NL MVP votes.
Maybe instead of Slugging .720 and hitting 49 home runs the right fielder should have only slugged .600 and hit 40 bombs.
Walker’s video game-like numbers are used to justify not voting for him as a hall-of-famer when the very same numbers were used to justify voting for him as MVP.
The Mariners’ Mr. Durability
In each of his nine full major league seasons Felix Hernandez has made at least 30 starts. For such a young pitcher to be so durable seems remarkable. “King Felix” has not yet turned 29.
Here are the most seasons, all-time with at least 30 games started through age 28:
Name Yrs From To Age Felix Hernandez 9 2006 2014 20-28 Bert Blyleven 9 1971 1979 20-28 Walter Johnson 9 1908 1916 20-28 Christy Mathewson 9 1901 1909 20-28
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Tulo…A Super Fine Power Hitter
If you are worried about Troy Tulowitzki performing away from Coors Field, don’t.
Over the last four seasons the Rockies shortstop has hit 36 home runs on the road. He’s averaging one homer every 20 at bats. This is nearly identical to that of teammate Carlos Gonzalez. So far so good.
Using the a broader indicator of batting power we find his Isolated Slugging Percentage at a cool .218 away from home. This is really freakin’ good. Check this out from Baseball-Reference…
Highest ISO, 2011-2014, MLB hitters on the road (min. 30 HR’s):
Rk Player ISO AB 2B HR 1 Brandon Moss .269 643 32 45 2 Chris Carter .269 648 34 46 3 David Ortiz .267 921 40 68 4 Jose Bautista .265 974 46 70 5 Carlos Quentin .260 622 51 37 6 Mike Napoli .255 825 45 53 7 Giancarlo Stanton .246 979 52 61 8 Mike Trout .238 977 58 49 9 Miguel Cabrera .237 1217 79 70 10 Josh Hamilton .236 1009 66 54 11 Edwin Encarnacion .232 1032 56 61 12 Paul Goldschmidt .230 871 64 44 13 Chris Davis .229 909 50 52 14 Mike Morse .229 850 46 49 15 Curtis Granderson .226 1012 40 55 16 Matt Kemp .225 912 57 44 17 Ryan Braun .225 966 58 49 18 Albert Pujols .224 1128 68 61 19 Mark Reynolds .224 955 41 57 20 Mark Trumbo .222 1038 53 57 21 Troy Tulowitzki .218 716 42 36 22 Nelson Cruz .218 1056 61 55 23 Pedro Alvarez .215 903 36 52 24 Hunter Pence .214 1306 67 64 25 Andrew McCutchen .214 1175 61 56
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/8/2014.
The Last Jonathan Lucroy Post of The Year
In the second to last game of the Milwaukee Brewers season Jonathan Lucroy finally did it.
The catcher hit his 53rd double of the season and 46th as a receiver. This total exceeding former record holder Ivan Rodriguez.
The Phillies Pitching Problem
The Philadelphia Phillies are finishing this season in last place primarily because of poor starting pitching.
Cole Hamels did have a wonderful season and Cliff Lee was on his way to a solid year before going down with an elbow injury at the end of July. Outside of their two horses the starting staff has given almost nothing to Ryne Sandberg.
Philly is the first MLB team since 2012 with two pitchers making 30 starts and finishing with an ERA+ of less than 85.
Year Lg Tm #Matching 2014 NL Philadelphia Phillies 2 A.J. Burnett / Kyle Kendrick 2012 AL Cleveland Indians 2 Ubaldo Jimenez / Justin Masterson 2012 AL Kansas City Royals 2 Bruce Chen / Luke Hochevar 2012 NL San Francisco Giants 2 Tim Lincecum / Barry Zito 2011 NL New York Mets 2 Chris Capuano / Mike Pelfrey
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/26/2014.
The Second to Last Lucroy Watch
Jonathan Lucroy passed Yadier Molina Thursday night in St. Louis for most doubles hit by a catcher in NL history (45).
Here is the video of the record breaker.
Lucroy’s next double as a catcher will pass Ivan Rodriguez for the all-time MLB record.
Chasing History: Jonathan Lucroy Update
Jonathan Lucroy now has 44 doubles hit this season as a catcher. He stands one double away from tying the all-time mark set by Ivan Rodriguez in 1996.
See this post from last week for the full list of catchers with 40+ two-baggers in a single season.
The Power Outage of 1988
You think we don’t have home runs today. Think about baseball fans of 1988. The entire National League saw just two players hit 30 long balls. No team averaged one HR/game that season.
This was on the heels of a record-setting 1987 when 19 teams averaged one homer per night.
Twenty-eight players hit thirty bombs in ’87 including:
- 40 year-old Darrell Evans
- 21 year-old Ruben Sierra
- Larry Sheets….a man who hit more career HR’s in the minors than the big leagues
Catcher Interference 