Official Useless, Fun, and/or Interesting Baseball Facts

rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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I oftentimes stumble upon baseball facts that I find to be fun or crazy or stupid or whatever, and I don't really know if or when to share them. To rectify that - and to hopefully give us a thread to discuss random points of interest - I figured I'd make a thread for it. Because ... why not?

What provoked this, you ask? The simple fact that Joey Votto has never won a Silver Slugger.

That's crazy, right? It's a nonsense award that isn't talked about all that often, so it's not surprising that I've never noticed before - but it's still shocking that a player that's in the argument for best hitter of this decade (and one of the best hitters ever, ranking 17th all-time in OPS+) was never regarded as the best hitter at his position. He has led the NL in OBP in six of his nine full seasons, and OPS+ twice. He's finished top-five in batting average six times (which I'm sure the voters look at), and has several top-ten finishes in home runs and RBI. Votto also won the MVP in 2010. And he ranks 2nd among all players in wRC+ since 2007 (his first season).

Here are the players that won it over him in his full seasons:

2008 - Albert Pujols
2009 - Albert Pujols
2010 - Albert Pujols
2011 - Prince Fielder
2013 - Paul Goldschmidt
2015 - Paul Goldschmidt
2016 - Anthony Rizzo
2017 - Paul Goldschmidt

It makes a bit more sense when you consider that company. Pujols deservedly had it on lock for those three years, and there are some great individual seasons in there. An argument could be made that he only really deserved it the last three years - but, still, he was better than the winner (and every other NL first baseman) in each of the last three years by a comfortable margin.

Does this mean anything at all? Probably not. But it's kind of amazing to me that there's a very real chance that one of the best hitters of an era could retire without a Silver Slugger.
 
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rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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I found this amazing, too:

Rickey Henderson worked a leadoff walk 796 times in his career; and by that I mean leading off an inning, not necessarily the game. That's more than Tony Gwynn, Joe DiMaggio, Ernie Banks, Mike Piazza, and literally thousands of other players walked - as in total walks - in their careers. Those 796 walks would be good for 261st all time.
 
UncleBen59

UncleBen59

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Here's a few I saved from a reddit thread about it a few months ago:


Vin Scully called games that featured Connie Mack (born in 1862) and Julio Urias (Born in 1996)

Sammy Sosa has 3 of the top 6 HR seasons. Yet in all 3 of those seasons he did not lead the league in HR.

Roger Maris was never intentionally walked in his 61 HR season.

Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his career and only 310 saw a 3-0 count. 177 of those were intentional walks.

Derek Jeter only played 4 "meaningless" games in his 20 year career. "Meaningless" in the sense that the Yankees were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.

Mariano Rivera pitched in 32 playoff series, appearing 96 times, and throwing 141 innings. With that in mind, more men have walked on the moon (12) then than scored an earned run on Mo in the postseason. Twice as many men in US history (4) have killed presidents than those that have hit a postseason HR off of Mo (2)
 
E

edhoo

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Silver Slugger voting is so weird. There was zero reason for Votto and Trout not to win one this past season.
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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edhoo said:
Silver Slugger voting is so weird. There was zero reason for Votto and Trout not to win one this past season.
Click to expand...
It's kind of funny when you compare Joey Votto's 2012 and Mike Trout's 2017 in that respect.

In 2012, Votto played in only 111 games and amassed just 475 PA due to injury; nevertheless, his 178 wRC+ led the majors by 11 points, and his 4.8 oWAR led all NL 1B. Trout played in only 114 games last year, and had just 507 PA ... his 181 wRC+ led the majors by 8 points, and his 7.4 oWAR led all CF.

Adam LaRoche won the 1B Silver Slugger in 2012, with a 127 wRC+. He was worth just 3.1 oWAR. George Springer won the CF Silver Slugger in 2017, with a 140 wRC+ and 5.2 oWAR.

So, in short, both players had massive edges in offensive production over the guys that won the awards - and that applies to both rate stats (wRC+) and counting stats (oWAR). The obvious "reason" is that the voters penalized both for missing so much time ... but they were still far better hitters than their counterparts from whatever angle you look at it.
 
UncleBen59

UncleBen59

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Found another one: According to Jason Varitek's wife, Jason has never (and will never) signed the famous photo of him shoving his glove in the face of Alex Rodriguez.
 
D

drfk

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Feb 5, 2018
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That's crazy that Votto has never won a Silver Slugger.

Maybe I'm not looking at it objectively because baseball is the only sport I follow nowadays, but as someone who also used to follow the NBA and NHL for many years (and has been a lifelong Blue Jays fan), it seems MLB has so many more weird, quirky stats and oddities than other pro leagues. It's one of the many things about the game that makes me absolutely love it.

Man, I thought I had a whole bunch of MLB oddities stored in the memory bank, but I'm drawing a blank right now as to what some of my favourite ones were. The only one that comes to mind is that the Jays were in last place in the AL East the entire 2017 season until the very last day of the season (although a few times they were tied for last place). Like I needed to remind myself. #-o
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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This is one of my favorites:

Hank Aaron had 6856 total bases in his career, the most in the history of the game. Stan Musial is second with 6134. That means we could subtract 180 home runs from Aaron's ledger and he'd still be first all-time in total bases.

Or, if you want to go really in-depth, we could remove all of Aaron's home runs, which would leave him at 3836 total bases. That'd put him 113th all-time, ahead of several Hall of Famers, including Ryne Sandberg, Ron Santo, Tim Raines, and Mike Piazza.
 
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MrMVP91

MrMVP91

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rocknrollsisyphus said:
This is one of my favorites:

Hank Aaron had 6856 total bases in his career, the most in the history of the game. Stan Musial is second with 6134. That means we could subtract 180 home runs from Aaron's ledger and he'd still be first all-time in total bases.

Or, if you want to go really in-depth, we could remove all of Aaron's home runs, which would leave him at 3836 total bases. That'd put him 113th all-time, ahead of several Hall of Famers, including Ryne Sandberg, Ron Santo, Tim Raines, and Mike Piazza.
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That's crazy. Just for comparison's sake:

Arron TB/game through first seven seasons: 2.21
Trout TB/game through first seven seasons: 2.07

FWIW, Trout did start playing as a 19-year-old while Aaron started at 20.
 
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rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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MrMVP91 said:
That's crazy. Just for comparison's sake:

Arron TB/game through first seven seasons: 2.21
Trout TB/game through first seven seasons: 2.07

FWIW, Trout did start playing as a 19-year-old while Aaron started at 20.
Click to expand...
The best rate that I could find among the all-time greats is - unsurprisingly - Babe Ruth. He had 5793 TB in 2503 games, which is an average of 2.31.
 
johnnyflash

johnnyflash

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I always liked this one

Who is the only player to ever hit a home run and score a touchdown in the same week?

Deion Sanders. He is also the only person to ever play in a World Series and a Superbowl
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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Here's one that I discovered today, out of my own curiosity:

The last time that Bartolo Colon faced a batter that was older than him was on April 13, 2014, when he faced Raul Ibanez. And Ibanez got the better of him, going 1-for-2 with a solo home run and a walk. 2014 was also the last season in which there was a position player in the majors that was older than Colon.
 
RKO-Cutter

RKO-Cutter

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The Curse of the Bambino, people think it was broken with the Sox winning the 2004 World Series, but that's not how curses work. You break the curse, then you can win the World Series


The curse was actually broken on August 31st, 2004 when Manny Ramirez hit a foul ball into the stands and smacked a 16 year old Lee Gavin in the face. Lee resided in Babe Ruth's Sudbury farm, and therefore had a spiritual connection for the Sox to exploit. Later that same day The Yankees lost to the Indians 22-0, their worst loss in franchise history, clearly feeling shockwaves from the curse being broken

You can't make this stuff up
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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Aaron Judge hit his 60th career home run tonight, in his 197th game. That makes him the fastest player to that mark in MLB history.
 
J

Joruus_CBaoth

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Jul 20, 2005
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Here's a more recent one. There have been three no-hitters so far in 2018, and all three were in different countries:

Sean Manaea (4/21) - Oakland, USA
Dodgers combined (5/4) - Monterrey, Mexico
James Paxton (5/8) - Toronto, Canada
 
UncleBen59

UncleBen59

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Chris Davis tied Cal Ripken Jr. Orioles all-time strikeout record — in 2,029 fewer games.

In case anyone's wondering, Ripkin never even finished close to the top 10 in a season for most strikeouts. Davis already has 8 more strikeouts this season than Ripkin ever had in a full season.
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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In 2002, the Indians traded the then 29-year-old Bartolo Colon to the Expos for:
  • Cliff Lee, in his age-23 season
  • Brandon Phillips, in his age-21 season
  • Grady Sizemore, in his age-19 season
Bartolo Colon is the only one that's still playing.

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In 1973, Nolan Ryan struck out 383 batters, which led the majors. Bert Blyleven finished second with 258. Alternatively, Ryan led the majors with 10.6 K/9; Tom Seaver was second at 7.8 K/9.

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In 1982, Rickey Henderson led the majors with 130 steals. Tim Raines finished in second with 78. Raines and Lonnie Smith (who finished third) combined for 146 stolen bases.

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In 1931, Earl Webb set a major league record by hitting 67 doubles - that record still stands today. My two favorite bits of trivia about that:
  • Webb only hit 155 doubles in his career, so he's not even in the top-1000 all-time. As per FanGraphs, there are 100 active players with more career doubles.
  • Only ten players have come within ten doubles of that single-season record. The most recent and closest player was Todd Helton, back in 2000.
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Rico Petrocelli is the worst player to post a 10 WAR season. He did so in 1969, when he hit .297/.403/.589 (168 OPS+) with 40 HR, with strong defense at shortstop. That season accounted for:
  • 11.8% of his career hits
  • 19.0% of his career HR
  • 25.5% of his career WAR
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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A few quick hits:
  • Barry Bonds is the all-time leader in intentional walks, with 688. Albert Pujols and Hank Aaron are second and third, respectively ... and they have a combined 603. ([URL='http://www.ign.com/boards/members/nbaman619.2238520/']@NBAman619[/URL] / @Capcom.boy)
  • Pete Rose hit 3215 singles in his career (the most ever), which would place him 14th on the all-time hit list.
  • Nolan Ryan walked 2795 batters in his career. That's more than John Smoltz (1010), Greg Maddux (999), and Mike Mussina (785) combined. That trio threw 12044 total innings.
 
NBAman619

NBAman619

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rocknrollsisyphus said:
A few quick hits:
Click to expand...
This post is well worth the read: https://cespedesfamilybarbecue.com/2014/07/24/my-25-favorite-barry-bonds-facts/

I don't want to spoil #1, but I think #7 is my personal favorite:

7. From 2001-2004, Barry Bonds played in 573 games and reached base in 539 of them. That’s 94% of his games.
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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A total of 1,006 players have accumulated at least 5,000 PA in their careers. Among those players, Neifi Perez has the ignominious distinction of the lowest career WAR, checking in at ... wait for it ... -3.3 WAR.

How did he get there?

In 5,510 PA, Perez hit .267/.297/.375, which translates to a 58 wRC+. For those of you not familiar with that stat, it basically means that his offense was 42% worse than the average hitter over the course of his career. If you remove his 1619 PA in Coors Field (where he hit .321/.346/.481) from his line, it drops all the way to .245/.272/.330.

He was also a poor base-runner, with 57 SB in 102 attempts (a 55.9% success rate), and a -4.3 score in FanGraphs' BsR, which seeks to capture a player's performance on the basepaths (e.g., avoiding double plays, going from first to third).

Perez stuck around for so long due to his defense, which was solid at shortstop. He wasn't a stud or anything, but he was average to above-average for the majority of his career. He was also capable of handling second and third. He was not good enough, however, to justify racking up so many plate appearances.
 
UncleBen59

UncleBen59

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rocknrollsisyphus said:
A total of 1,006 players have accumulated at least 5,000 PA in their careers. Among those players, Neifi Perez has the ignominious distinction of the lowest career WAR, checking in at ... wait for it ... -3.3 WAR.

How did he get there?

In 5,510 PA, Perez hit .267/.297/.375, which translates to a 58 wRC+. For those of you not familiar with that stat, it basically means that his offense was 42% worse than the average hitter over the course of his career. If you remove his 1619 PA in Coors Field (where he hit .321/.346/.481) from his line, it drops all the way to .245/.272/.330.

He was also a poor base-runner, with 57 SB in 102 attempts (a 55.9% success rate), and a -4.3 score in FanGraphs' BsR, which seeks to capture a player's performance on the basepaths (e.g., avoiding double plays, going from first to third).

Perez stuck around for so long due to his defense, which was solid at shortstop. He wasn't a stud or anything, but he was average to above-average for the majority of his career. He was also capable of handling second and third. He was not good enough, however, to justify racking up so many plate appearances.
Click to expand...

So he was Stephen Drew before Stephen Drew?
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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UncleBen59 said:
So he was Stephen Drew before Stephen Drew?
Click to expand...
Stephen Drew was Perez-ish in 2014, but he was otherwise a perfectly adequate player for most of his career. It's kind of staggering that a mediocre player's worst season is basically a copy of Perez's baseline.
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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A few random tidbits:
  • Walter Johnson is the only pitcher in the top-30 in WAR to spend his entire career with one organization. If you expand that to the top-60, five more pitchers (Ted Lyons, Red Faber, Jim Palmer, Bob Gibson, and Bob Feller) make the cut.
  • Nellie Fox has the lowest strikeout rate of any player that debuted post-integration, at 2.1%. He struck out 216 times in 10,349 PA. Three players (Mark Reynolds, Adam Dunn, and Chris Davis) have struck out more than that in a single season.
  • Nap Lajoie had the best 0-home run season ever in 1906, slashing .355/.392/.465, good for a 163 wRC+. By B-R's measure, it was a 10 WAR season.
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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Johnny Estrada is the only player in MLB history with more than 2,000 PA (he had 2,244) and 0 stolen base attempts. I don't know why I find that so fascinating ... but I do.
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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As of this morning, 103 players have come to the plate at least 500 times. Among those, only Joey Gallo has fewer than 56 singles ... he has 37.
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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I don't know if this fits here, but I thought it'd be fun: I put together a team of the best players to never make an All-Star game ... and I feel like it's a pretty great team. For position players, I put their 162-game average:

Ca - Rick Dempsey - .233/.319/.347, 9 HR, 43 RBI, 87 OPS+
1B - Richie Hebner - .276/.352/.438, 17 HR, 76 RBI, 119 OPS+
2B - Tony Phillips - .266/.374/.389, 12 HR, 61 RBI, 109 OPS+
3B - Eric Chavez - .268/.342/.475, 26 HR, 90 RBI, 115 OPS+
SS - John Valentin - .279/.360/.454, 18 HR, 82 RBI, 109 OPS+
LF - Dwayne Murphy - .246/.356/.402, 20 HR, 73 RBI, 115 OPS+
CF - Garry Maddox - .285/.320/.413, 11 HR, 70 RBI, 23 SB, 101 OPS+
RF - Tim Salmon - .282/.385/.498, 29 HR, 98 RBI, 128 OPS+
DH - Travis Hafner - .273/.376/.498, 29 HR, 100 RBI, 134 OPS+

I'm not including Kirk Gibson because he was selected twice but declined to go.

Dempsey is the only bad hitter of the group, and he's regarded as one of the premiere defensive catchers of his day. Strong defense is kind of a theme here, overall, as Hebner, Chavez, Murphy, and Maddox were all great at their positions, too.

The pitching isn't as great, but it's more than serviceable. You'd have John Tudor (124 ERA+ for his career), Bill Hands (114 ERA+), Tom Candiotti (108), Charlie Leibrandt (108), and Danny Darwin (106) in the rotation, and Mark Eichhorn (142) closing games.
 
rocknrollsisyphus

rocknrollsisyphus

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UncleBen59 said:
How about the 'worst' players to make (at least) one ASG?
Click to expand...
I know that Mike Williams had the highest in-season ERA of any All-Star back in 2003. He made the team with the following line at the break:

36.1 IP, 41 H, 22 BB, 19 K, 6.44 ERA, 5.67 FIP

He finished the season with a 6.14 ERA (69 ERA+ - nice), and didn't play in the majors after that year. Williams was the Pirates mandatory one representative at the game, so you could kind of blame it on that rule; he also had 25 saves, which obviously means he was clutch - but Brian Giles was still on the Pirates then, and he was slashing .306/.444/.512 (150 wRC+) at the break. They also had Jason Kendall (.308/.488/.407 at the break).
 
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