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May-22-11
 | | Phony Benoni: The Tigers nearly pulled off <JB>'s favorite piece of baseball strategy today. Their statted threw eight innings of one-hit ball, making only 84 pitches. So they brought in the closer for the ninth, and he let the tying runs into scoring position before getting the third out. |
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| May-22-11 | | Jim Bartle: Oh man, that sounds bad.
I found this from Jim Leyland:
"I know it's worth a second guess for everybody in America, but to me, it was a no-brainer. Unless a guy is absolutely lights out, your closer is supposed to be better than your starting pitcher who has just pitched eight innings on a pretty hot day." |
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| May-23-11 | | playground player: <Esteemed colleagues> I wonder how Bob Gibson would have reacted if his manager took him out after pitching eight innings of one-hit ball. I hate this "closer" fetish! |
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| May-23-11 | | Jim Bartle: Seems to me there are very few sure Hall of Famers (on current accomplishments) playing today. I only see six: Pujols, Ichiro, Jeter, ARod, Thome and Rivera. Chipper Jones and Ivan Rodriguez are likelies, and Helton, Guerrero, Vizquel are maybes. There's not even a pitcher with 200 wins. |
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May-23-11
| | Phony Benoni: <playground player> Leyland has a sense of self-preservation, not to mention a wife and children. And he did have one caveat, saying he might make an exception if the starter was absolutely dominating and "lights out". But Rick Porcello, who was the Tigers starter yesterday, is not that kind of pitcher. He's more of a Gregg Maddux type without Maddux's craft and experience, and has shown a tendency to tire in a hurry. He might have stayed in had the Tigers had a larger lead than just 2-0; you have to get that experience sometime! There's another factor. With just a two-run lead, the closer is going to be warming up in any event. And the general thought today is that warming up is as much strain as pitching, so you might as well bring the closer in. Somebody should do a study of the good old days and see how often a starter blew the win in the ninth inning. I'd predict that the closer system would be found better at protecting leads--and, after all, isn't winning what it's all about? |
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| May-24-11 | | playground player: <Phony Benoni> You did some research along those lines, some months ago. Using records that went back to 1915 (I think), you found that the team that was leading going into the 9th inning almost always wins, no matter who pitches. According to the research you cited, the closer didn't have much of an effect, statistically. I know it seems counter-intuitive--every starter, after all, is not Bob Gibson--but there it is. It seems to me that if you were fortunate enough to be leading, say, 6-5 after eight innings with Snipe Hansen on the mound, and you could bring in Dick Radatz to pitch the ninth, you should just about always win easily... But now I'm talking like somebody who's played too much Strat-O-Matic... |
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| May-24-11 | | Jim Bartle: Maybe Gibson wasn't quite "Bob Gibson!" in 1964, but in three games in the 1964 World Series he gave up 7 runs in innings 1 through 8 and 8 runs in the ninth innings. So maybe he should have been taken out. |
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May-24-11
| | Phony Benoni: <playground player> You know you're kibitzing too much when others remember what you write better than you do! |
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| May-25-11 | | Jim Bartle: Mariano Rivera becomes the first pitcher to appear in 1,000 games for the same team. What does that mean to you, Mariano?
"It means I'm old." |
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| May-25-11 | | technical draw: Expanding on the above:
"After Robertson and Chamberlain did their parts, Mariano Rivera took care of the ninth – it wasn’t a save situation, but he needed to get some work in. It was his 1,000th career appearance, and like most of them was largely uneventful – single, fly out, fly out, strikeout. What does 1,000 appearances mean to you?, Kim Jones asked him after the game. “It means I’m old,” Rivera said." |
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| May-25-11 | | Jim Bartle: Robertson and Chamberlain? Is this baseball or the NBA in the 60s? |
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May-25-11
| | Phony Benoni: Naturally, I had to look up the other pitchers with 1000 appearances. Rivera is the 15th to reach that mark; here are the top 25: 1. Jesse Orosco 1252
2. Mike Stanton 1178
3. John Franco 1119
4. Dennis Eckersley 1071
5. Hoyt Wilhelm 1070
6. Dan Plesac 1064
7. Mike Timlin 1058
8. Kent Tekulve 1050
9. Trevor Hoffman 1035
10. Jose Mesa 1022
11. Lee Smith 1022
12. Roberto Hernandez 1010
13. Michael Jackson 1005
14. Rich Gossage 1002
15. Mariano Rivera 1000
16. Lindy McDaniel 987
17. Todd Jones 982
18. David Weathers 964
19. Rollie Fingers 944
20. Gene Garber 931
21. Eddie Guardado 908
22. Cy Young+ 906
23. Sparky Lyle 899
24. Jim Kaat 898
25. Tom Gordon 890
I've heard of most of these guys, but who in the heck is Eddie Guardado? Another interesting list is the top 25 in games started. This may surprise you a bit: 1. Cy Young+ 815
2. Nolan Ryan+ 773
3. Don Sutton+ 756
4. Greg Maddux 740
5. Phil Niekro+ 716
6. Steve Carlton+ 709
7. Roger Clemens 707
8. Tommy John 700
9. Gaylord Perry+ 690
10. Pud Galvin+ 688
11. Bert Blyleven+ 685
12. Tom Glavine 682
13. Walter Johnson+ 666
14. Warren Spahn+ 665
15. Tom Seaver+ 647
16. Jamie Moyer 628
17. Jim Kaat 625
18. Frank Tanana 616
19. Early Wynn+ 612
20. Robin Roberts+ 609
21. Randy Johnson 603
22. Pete Alexander+ 600
23. Fergie Jenkins+ 594
24. Tim Keefe+ 594
25. Bobby Mathews 568
A large majority of these pitchers had their careers in the post-1960 era, when complete games started falling out of favor. Concidence? |
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| May-25-11 | | Jim Bartle: Funny thing about the two lists. The most games list includes quite a few players who weren't exactly average, but certainly not exceptional: Plesac, Stanton, Timlin, Weathers, etc. On the other hand, the most started list is almost all great pitchers. |
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May-25-11
| | Phony Benoni: An unusual lead-off home run:
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... |
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May-25-11
| | Phony Benoni: This home run by inning thing is becoming interesting. For instance, Mark McGwire hit two game-winning home runs in the 16th inning--in successive games! http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... The next day, the A's lost a double header. |
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May-26-11
 | | perfidious: <PhonyBenoni> 'Everyday Eddie' Guardado: http://www.baseball-reference.com/p.... The one who gets me is Michael Jackson at 13-he was chiefly a long/setup man, though a good one. Who knows how many games Galvin and Keefe might have started had they pitched later on? Back then, when one started, one finished as well. Tremendous numbers of innings-the best starters pitched far more often then-and a short career, when measured in seasons. |
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| May-26-11 | | Jim Bartle: Harmon Killebrew as leadoff hitter. Now I've seen everything. When Detroit had both Kaline and Colavito, did Colavito usually play left field? Seems like a waste for a guy with such an arm. |
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May-26-11
| | Phony Benoni: In 1960, his first year in Detroit, Colavito played right field and Kaline moved to center. In 1961, the Tigers picked up a true center fielder in Billy Bruton, and Colavito moved to left for the rest of his time with the team. Even when Kaline wasn't playing, Colavito stayed in left. With other teams, both before and after the Tigers, he was normally a right fielder. |
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May-26-11
| | perfidious: <PhonyBenoni> Strange lineup for Tigers also in that '60 game: Amoros hit third while doing nothing all season, was PH for by someone making his final appearance in a ML game, and Kaline didn't start at all. For <Jim>, <PB>, et al: Was thumbing through my old copy of The Boys of Summer last night and was reminded of the following game, with one especially curious feature: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/.... |
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| May-26-11 | | Jim Bartle: Hodges LF?
And Kaline CF? That just looks like a misprint. |
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| May-26-11 | | Jim Bartle: Reds and Phillies must be thrilled to be playing a day game today after playing a six-hour game last night, longest Cincinnati game ever. |
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May-26-11
| | Phony Benoni: <perfidious> Preacher Roe's only major league home run? Even Sandy Koufax, not a particularly good hitter with a short career, had two. The first must have been memorable: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... Hodges had quite a bit of experience in the outfield, and played his first couple of years at 3B and catcher. |
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May-27-11
| | perfidious: <Phony Benoni> That's two HOFers-at least-who hit their first off Spahn, lol. Mays, of course, was the other. Yes, Roe's only HR in over 600 ABs. The way he describes it is entertaining, to put it mildly. |
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May-27-11
| | Phony Benoni: <perfidious> Baseball.reference also has HR Logs for pitchers. Scanning Spahn's, I see he also gave up #2 to Roberto Clemente and #3 to Ron Santo. |
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May-27-11
| | Phony Benoni: Then there was <Ben Wade>, pitcher for the Dodgers. No, I don't remember him either. But he had one good day against Spahn: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... |
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