Neat and/or soul crushing stats about baseball thread

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:36 pm

I don't think we have a separate place for this, not on this Swamp anyway.

Via B-R play index, this table shows the number of relief pitchers (defined as GS=0) who faced 400 batters or more during a given season, over various five-year periods. In parentheses is the leader for that time period. Keep in mind, there were 24 teams at the beginning of this comparison.

1969-1973: 39 (Mike Marshall, 746 in 1973)
1974-1978: 83 (Marshall, 857 in 1974*)
1979-1983: 77** (Bob Stanley, 694 in 1982)
1984-1988: 84 (Mark Eichhorn, 612 in 1986)
1989-1993: 47 (Duane Ward, 508 in 1990)
1994-1998: 20*** (Joe Boever, 463 in 1995)
1999-2003: 17 (Scott Sullivan, 470 in 1999)
2004-2008: 5 (Scot Shields, 454 in 2004)
2009-2013: 1 (Brian Bass, 400 in 2009****)

* Marshall deserves his own category if not his own planet. He skews the results a bit: there's only one other instance of a guy going over 700.
** Includes a strike-shortened season
*** Includes two strike-shortened seasons
**** It's so much better for symbolic purposes that it's one dude, right at 400, in the first year of the 5-year period, than if it were 0.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:49 pm

This is why I can't figure out why so many "old-school" types who love the crack of the bat and the smell of the grass also love the save. The save was invented by a newspaper in the 1970s and is beyond stupid. Yet, here we are. YOU BROUGHT YOUR CLOSER IN WITHOUT A LEAD!!!!

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:50 pm

What's more amazing is that the terms "overused bullpen" (without quotes) turns up 1,310,000 entries on Google. In 1978, that number was zero!

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:10 pm

I want to check something similar but not similar to validate "overused bullpen". Give me 5 ...

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:19 pm

Pitchers with 70+ appearances ...

1969-1973: 18
1974-1978: 32
1979-1983: 33
1984-1988: 44
1989-1993: 72
1994-1998: 100
1999-2003: 177
2004-2008: 218
2009-2013: 211

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:26 pm

The two definitely go hand in hand. The bullpen has more work (you can do the same BF comparison with starters and find similar trends) and yet at the same time, the multi-inning bullpen workhorse is dead.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:00 pm

I'm totally jinxing it, but Wade Davis has given up 18 hits this year, all singles. With another inning, it could be the longest stretch in baseball history without giving up an XBH.

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:30 pm

Barry Bonds's career stats adjusted to Coors Field for the 2000 season (h/t Grant Brisbee):

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:43 pm

Brontoburglar wrote:I'm totally jinxing it, but Wade Davis has given up 18 hits this year, all singles. With another inning, it could be the longest stretch in baseball history without giving up an XBH.

Wil Myers has never given up an XBH.

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:44 pm

I see that in 2001 Bonds would have stolen 17 bases if playing full-time at Coors. Impressive at age 36. But how many times would he have been caught stealing?

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:45 pm

Brontoburglar wrote:I'm totally jinxing it, but Wade Davis has given up 18 hits this year, all singles. With another inning, it could be the longest stretch in baseball history without giving up an XBH.

Why has Davis been so good over his career as a relief pitcher, but so bad as a starter?

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:49 pm

DC47 wrote:Why has Davis been so good over his career as a relief pitcher, but so bad as a starter?

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?pl ... #pitchtype" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 6:32 pm

Rex wrote:…and yet at the same time, the multi-inning bullpen workhorse is dead.

This guy says, "HEY!!!"

(4.1 IP in two days; by today's standards…)

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:02 pm

Relief stints of 2 innings or more in 1983: 2,801
1993: 2,388
2003: 2,228
2008: 1,921
2013: 1,621

2014 pace is about 1,520.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:12 pm

Relief stints of 1 inning or less in 1983: 3,010
1993: 6,434
2003: 9,173
2008: 10,717
2013: 11,288

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:43 pm

No wonder they discontinued the Rolaids award.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 8:20 pm

Babe Ruth, Yankee killer:

194 PA, 12 HR, .337/.438/.663
17-5, 2.21 ERA, opponents hit .215/.281/.266

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 3:34 pm

The 1993 Braves used 13 pitchers. Not at any one time--for the entire season. This includes Pedro Borbon who faced 11 batters.

The Big 4 of Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Avery faced almost two-thirds (66.5%) of all batters faced by the entire staff.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 3:41 pm

The 1965 Dodgers think that is pretty weak though. 12 pitchers for the entire year, including Bill Singer who faced 7 batters. Koufax, Drysdale & Osteen combined to face 62% of all batters faced by the staff.

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 3:54 pm

Rex wrote:The 1965 Dodgers think that is pretty weak though. 12 pitchers for the entire year, including Bill Singer who faced 7 batters. Koufax, Drysdale & Osteen combined to face 62% of all batters faced by the staff.

That is immediately where my thoughts went; beat me to it. Ron Perranowski! (one of the first autographs I ever got, maybe the first.)

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 4:59 pm

Complete Games

2014 so far - 96
1980 Athletics - 94

If it wasn't for Kershaw (and Dallas Keuchel!), the A's might have held on

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 5:49 pm

Steve Avery is one of the all time "Hey, what happened to that guy?" guys for me. For a while it looked like he was set to be as good as Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz, but then he burned out by his mid-20's.

To Ryan's point, I'm also pissed about the effect relief-specialist fetishism has had on the modern game. Not just the near-extinction of complete games, but how it ended the 70's-80's golden age of multi-inning relief aces. I blame Tony LaRussa.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 6:49 pm

Greg Maddux in 1997 threw 2,634 pitches, faced 893 batters and recorded 232.2 innings pitched.

Erik Bedard in 2004 threw 2,663 pitches, faced 633 batters and recorded 137.1 innings pitched.

(And Bedard had a 99 ERA+, it's not like he was a disaster.)

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 6:50 pm

So if you're wondering if pitching in the 2004 AL East was hard...

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 7:06 pm

Eck in 1990: 960 pitches, 262 BF, 73.1 IP
Grant Balfour so far in 2014: 971 pitches, 230 BF, 50.1 IP

(Balfour is in fact a disaster.)

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 7:13 pm

Rex wrote:Greg Maddux in 1997 threw 2,634 pitches, faced 893 batters and recorded 232.2 innings pitched.

In 2010 it took Ubaldo Jimenez 3,600 pitches to deal with 894 batters.

In 2009 it took Adam Wainwright 3,614 pitches to record 233.0 innings pitched.

(Both of those were great seasons, ERA+ exceeding 150. Both finished 3rd in Cy voting that year.)

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 7:28 pm

That's insane on Maddux. Less than 3 pitches per batter?

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 7:36 pm

I should probably look for a way to confirm that. B-R says it only has pitch count data going back to 2000, but if you look at players' individual pages, you can get it going back to the late '80s. I can confirm that in 2003 he threw 218.1 innings with 2,935 pitches, so the 1997 number seems plausible considering the rest of his stats.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Aug 29, 2014 7:41 pm

B-R also says that Maddux in '97 was at 3.15 pitches per plate appearance, so something is amiss there. I like to dump my questionable stats on Friday nights.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:36 am

Our current OBP leaders are VMart and Stanton (.402 and .401). This could be just the second season since 1901 when nobody reaches the .400 mark. (1965 - Mays and Yaz). There have only been 8 <.400 league leaders in that span.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:48 am

Voters are going to actually use WAR this year and hand Alex Gordon the MVP, aren't they. That would be rough.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:57 am

And Juan Lagares

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:00 am

maybe they can close their eyes and imagine that Stanton is already playing for an AL contender?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:38 am

This is percent above the average for each type of hit, where the average is for the entire timespan from 1947 to present. The graph would change dramatically if you moved the start year into any other decade, which probably underlines the volatility/cyclic nature of these particular stats.

But I'll solve the the problem anyway. Bigger ballparks.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:47 am

Or move second base closer to the standard SS position.

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:49 am

I'm surprised singles haven't declined more dramatically.

What are those averages measuring - the number of singles (or whatever) per year, or the number of singles per AB or PA, or something like the number of singles per total hits each year?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:53 am

Steve of phpBB wrote:I'm surprised singles haven't declined more dramatically.

What are those averages measuring - the number of singles (or whatever) per year, or the number of singles per AB or PA, or something like the number of singles per total hits each year?

The underlying stat is singles (or whatever) per team game. The post-integration average is 6.19.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:57 am

If you're looking to see a historically representative offensive game featuring black guys, head to 1985. Stats deviated 1%, 0%, 0%, and 1% from the average. Very strange.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:57 am

Do this with PA result too ... hit, FP*, ground out, fly out, line out, strike out, other

* Some day this will catch on and "free pass" will replace "walk" in terms of WHIP and SO/BB and all that. HBP matter, motherfuckers!

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:14 am

Interesting...it looks like HBPs would make up about 10 percent of FPs. Should intentional walks count?