February 17, 2011
Catchers are trying to remember their signals
41 days until Opening Day
Loser trivia: Today is Mike Maroth’s birthday. Maroth was the last pitcher to be pinned with 20 losses in a season (he was 9-21 in 2003 for Detroit). Since 1950, three pitchers who ended up in the Hall of Fame had a season with at least 20 losses; who are they?
Midwestern bias: You may have heard about Albert Pujols’ contract negotiations ending. It’s a big deal. It’s forcing Department of Justice employees into retirement. His stats are just fascinating. So you’ll forgive me for revisiting it again and again.
Although the impact of impending free agency on a player’s season (the “contract year” effect) is still up for debate, it’s fun to imagine what will happen if Pujols responds to the contract situation with his best season ever. What would that look like? I took his highest total from any season for various stats and added just one (for instance, the most home runs he has hit is 49, so I have it here as 50), and this is what you get in this hypothetical perfect 2011 season:
162 games, 138 runs, 213 hits, 52 doubles, 50 home runs, 138 RBI, 17 stolen bases, .360 batting average, .463 OBP, 395 total bases. That’ll give your fantasy team a boost.
Enter Sandman: On this day in 1990, the Yankees signed 20-year old Mariano Rivera as an amateur free agent. I will spend another day looking at Rivera’s otherworldly stats, but I wonder: bottom of the ninth, Cardinals down by one, man on second, Pujols in the aforementioned perfect season comes to the plate, 1999 Rivera (of the 45 saves and 0.884 WHIP) on the mound…who wins?
Strong start: 193 players have homered in their first career game. Only 4 have hit 2 in their first game (J.P. Arencibia, Mark Quinn, Bret Campaneris, Bob Nieman). Heard of any of those guys other than Campy? Yeah, me neither. I guess your first game is not necessarily an indicator of future success.
Catchers are trying to remember their signals
41 days until Opening Day
Loser trivia: Today is Mike Maroth’s birthday. Maroth was the last pitcher to be pinned with 20 losses in a season (he was 9-21 in 2003 for Detroit). Since 1950, three pitchers who ended up in the Hall of Fame had a season with at least 20 losses; who are they?
Midwestern bias: You may have heard about Albert Pujols’ contract negotiations ending. It’s a big deal. It’s forcing Department of Justice employees into retirement. His stats are just fascinating. So you’ll forgive me for revisiting it again and again.
Although the impact of impending free agency on a player’s season (the “contract year” effect) is still up for debate, it’s fun to imagine what will happen if Pujols responds to the contract situation with his best season ever. What would that look like? I took his highest total from any season for various stats and added just one (for instance, the most home runs he has hit is 49, so I have it here as 50), and this is what you get in this hypothetical perfect 2011 season:
162 games, 138 runs, 213 hits, 52 doubles, 50 home runs, 138 RBI, 17 stolen bases, .360 batting average, .463 OBP, 395 total bases. That’ll give your fantasy team a boost.
Enter Sandman: On this day in 1990, the Yankees signed 20-year old Mariano Rivera as an amateur free agent. I will spend another day looking at Rivera’s otherworldly stats, but I wonder: bottom of the ninth, Cardinals down by one, man on second, Pujols in the aforementioned perfect season comes to the plate, 1999 Rivera (of the 45 saves and 0.884 WHIP) on the mound…who wins?
Strong start: 193 players have homered in their first career game. Only 4 have hit 2 in their first game (J.P. Arencibia, Mark Quinn, Bret Campaneris, Bob Nieman). Heard of any of those guys other than Campy? Yeah, me neither. I guess your first game is not necessarily an indicator of future success.
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| Some old logos should be brought back. |
Trivia answer: Phil Niekro had two 20-loss seasons (1977 and 1979), Steve Carlton had one (1973), and Robin Roberts had one (1957).
New feature! Correct trivia answers from yesterday: Mark
New feature! Correct trivia answers from yesterday: Mark
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