baseball notes

A beef I’ve always had with SOM is that the pitcher hitting cards are offered in basic format only. If you use them with the advanced game, then you’ve got a monochromatic, portrait-orientation pitcher card mixed in with the black/blue/red, landscape-orientation position-player cards. Yuck.

So, as a little Photoshop exercise, I created some pitcher hitting cards in the advanced style.

Right now the results are identical against left- and right-handed pitchers, but I may add some differences later and produce separate cards for RHB & LHB pitchers.

1. Derek Jeter
2. Jorge Posada
3. Scott Feldman
4. Doug Mathis
5. Adam Lind
6. David Robertson
7. Ryan Raburn
8. Tim Byrdak
9. Mark DeRosa
10. Leo Rosales
11. Michael Cuddyer
12. Rafael Betancourt
13. Rick Porcello
14. Julio Lugo
15. Jeff Niemann

No huge changes to the rating process this year, though I did make two fairly significant changes: better matchup data & a better representation of the average batter/pitcher. I rated a total of 219 batters and 196 pitchers.

Continue reading →

Ranking figures for 2010 keeps.

For batters, a positive change is an improvement.

          2009   2010   change
          ====   ====   ======
Howard     144    165    +21
Ramirez    122    133    +10
Zobrist    136    144    + 8
Hawpe      123    123      0
Victorino  105    105      0
Utley      134    128    - 6
Rollins    101     84    -17
Soto       113     68    -45

Rollins & Soto will ride the bench this season and hope for a return to form.

For pitchers, a negative change is an improvement.

          2009   2010   change
          ====   ====   ======
Jimenez    124    101    -23
Lilly      122    106    -16
Garza      126    122    - 4
Hamels     100    131    +31

Street     117     63    -54
Rhodes     155    120    -35

Cole will probably cool his heels on the taxi team. Not sure what to do with Garza.

The cards arrived today, one day earlier than last year.

During the 2009 season Perfectos batters faced more than twice as much left-handed pitching as in the previous season. Why the big difference?

                           2008    2009
                          ------  ------
   Lefty Innings Pitched:   9.6%   24.1%
            Lefty Starts:   5.6%   19.4%
Lefty Appearance in Game:  30.6%   61.1%

The legend grows…

Post profile on the Cardinal shortstop

Pictures from the Sunday September 5, 2009 game against the Cubs.

The exterior around the rotunda is attractive. The rest of the exterior looks like a generic college administration building.

The seats in right field were not bad, considering they’re about the worst you can buy. The extra-baseball areas were nice, especially the food court behind center field.

The rotunda was underwhelming. The Great Hall at Yankee Stadium was much more impressive. Also, Jackie Robinson was a great player and an important pioneer, but am I the only one a bit weary of MLB’s 42-glorification program? Exactly when did Jackie play for the Mets?

BOX SCORE

Nice article in the Times about the recent APBA Convention/Tournament. Includes a video.

Also spawned a blog entry about a 1956 replay.

Taken July 12th before the Sox beat the Royals 6-0. [box score]

I’ve been reading up on earned run rules and came across a strange situation.

Can a substitute pitcher face one batter who hits a home run, and have no errors committed, without that pitcher being charged with an earned run? Surprisingly to me, the answer is ‘yes.’ Here’s the sequence of an entire inning:

1. Pitcher 1 starts the inning.
2. Batter A singles.
3. Pitcher 2 replaces Pitcher 1.
4. Batter B singles, and A is forced at second.
5. Pitcher 3 replaces Pitcher 2.
6. Batter C homers, scoring B & C.
7. Pitcher 4 replaces Pitcher 3.
8. Batter D strikes out.
9. Batter E strikes out.
10. Batter F strikes out.

One earned run is charged to Pitcher 1, one earned run is charged to Pitcher 2, and no earned runs are charged to Pitcher 3!

Pitcher 1 is responsible for one runner when he leaves the game. Because A is out as the result of a batted ball (as opposed to being caught stealing or picked off), it does not reduce the number of runners for which Pitcher 1 has responsibility. Pitcher 2 allowed a single, so he’s responsible for one. When the home run scores two, those runs go to Pitchers 1 & 2, one apiece.

This might not be the only way it could happen, but I can’t think of any others off the top of my head.

The funky part of the sequence is #4, where there’s a single and a force out on the same play. How can this happen? The batter sends a line drive to shallow center. The runner on first believes it will be caught, so he stays close to first. The center fielder plays it on one hop and fires to second to get the force out. It’s rare, but it happens.

Now, if Batter B had grounded into a normal force play, Pitcher 2 would not be responsible for any runners, and when Batter C homered, the two earned runs would have been charged to Pitchers 1 & 3.

* * * * * *

If you allow an error, then it’s easy for a pitcher to give up a homer to the only batter faced and not be charged with an earned run. You just need a muffed foul ball error with two outs before the home run.

Incidentally, it doesn’t matter how many times the third out should have occurred but for errors before Pitcher 3 entered the game. Rule 10.16(i):

When pitchers are changed during an inning, the relief pitcher shall not have the benefit of previous chances for outs not accepted in determining earned runs.

Runs that score under such conditions will be earned for the substitute pitcher but not for the team.

Found a great collection of baseball songs at Withdrawn Records. Some of my favorites below.

Vida Blue - Albert Jones

Playing the Field - Tony Conigliaro

The Umpire - Phil Rizzuto, Tommy Heinrich, Ralph Branca, and Roy Campanella

Rick Dempsey, Johnny Bench, and the San Diego Chicken re-enact The Pine Tar Incident.

The ‘86 Dodgers get down.

Is this Cal player wearing a Dynasty League card on his forearm?

Nope, but a kid with tabletop baseball experience will feel right at home with this new system of giving signs.

As we all know, doubleheaders are a rarity these days, confined to make-up games. I was curious about how their frequency has declined over the years. A quick munge of the Retrosheet game logs produced the graph below. Note that this is percentage of dates that were doubleheaders, not games that were doubleheaders.

Looks like the frequency went up in the 1930s–don’t know why. The spike during WWII must be due to the travel restrictions. After the war it’s a pretty linear decline to 1990, where it bottomed out. The reasons for the decline certainly include the following:

• Air travel reduced the need for travel days.
• More night baseball.
• Owners figured they ended up losing money on twin bills.
• Players don’t like ‘em.

Flip Flop Fly Ball is a site with a collection of beautiful baseball charts and graphics.