Saturday, May 31, 2008

Extreme Career BABIP

If you're unfamiliar with the acronym in the post title, it stands for Batting Average on Balls In Play. Basically it can be used to judge how lucky or unlucky a particular hitter or pitcher has been. You can read a very good overview of BABIP here, but suffice it to say that guys who hit a lot of line drives will have a higher BABIP and those who hit a lot of fly balls and pop ups will have a lower BABIP.

Now, I don't have information on batted-ball types for years and years of baseball history, so I can't speculate why some guys in the past have high or low BABIP's, but I'd guess it follows the same principle. The actual formula for BABIP looks like this,

BABIP = \frac{H-HR}{AB-K-HR+SF},

but strikeouts have only been consistently recorded by all major leagues since 1913. Sacrifice flies have only been recorded by both leagues since 1954. Since there are a lot more strikeouts than sacrifice flies, I've looked at the numbers recorded after 1913. I don't believe sacrifice flies would make a big difference for players caught in the period 1913-1953, but consider this a disclaimer.

Here is a chart of BABIP in the majors since 1913. The vertical line midway through is the year SF's were first recorded.


(click to enlarge in new window)

With all of that in mind, I want to look at the guys who posted the highest and lowest career BABIP, just for kicks. I'm going to use a standard minimum for leaderboards: 3000 career plate appearances (after 1913; any stats from earlier are thrown out). I haven't included any 2008 numbers. I'm also going to list each player's BABIP out to four decimal places just to try and avoid ties due to rounding. Finally, I haven't adjusted any of the numbers to reflect league averages for each player's era so guys from the 1960's, especially from the AL, are at a disadvantage.

Highest Career BABIP, Minimum 3000 PA, 1913-2007
  1. Ty Cobb, .3785
  2. Rogers Hornsby, .3655
  3. Derek Jeter, .3613
  4. Rod Carew, .3585
  5. Ichiro Suzuki, .3572
  6. Miguel Cabrera, .3538
  7. Harry Heilmann, .3511
  8. Joe Jackson, .3507
  9. Tris Speaker, .3503
  10. Bill Terry, .3500
  11. Bobby Abreu, .3489
  12. Ron LeFlore, .3466
  13. Riggs Stephenson, .3459
  14. George Sisler, .3458
  15. Kiki Cuyler, .3456
  16. Ross Youngs, .3454
  17. Wade Boggs, .3438
  18. Roberto Clemente, .3429
  19. Kirby Puckett, .3421
  20. Tony Gwynn, .3414
Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, and Tris Speaker all played before 1913, but like I said, I threw out their stats before that season. This bumped Cobb's BABIP up and Jackson and Speaker's down. There are an awful lot of good hitters on this list, but that's to be expected. Ron LeFlore had the lowest OBP of everyone on that list at a respectable .342.

Lowest Career BABIP, Minimum 3000 PA, 1913-2007
  1. Wayne Gross, .2393
  2. Dave Duncan, .2400
  3. Jim King, .2403
  4. Curt Blefary, .2430
  5. Buck Martinez, .2434
  6. Graig Nettles, .2454
  7. Ossie Vitt, .2455
  8. Eddie Miller, .2457
  9. Bob Swift, .2481
  10. Ed Herrmann, .2483
  11. Del Crandall, .2486
  12. Bobby Wine, .2489
  13. Eddie Lake, .2496
  14. Joe Pepitone, .2498
  15. Darrell Evans, .2499
  16. Ed Brinkman, .2500
  17. Ron Hansen, .2501
  18. Gorman Thomas, .2507
  19. Clay Dalrymple, .2509
  20. Gus Triandos, .2510
On this list, Ossie Vitt is the only player who had time in the majors before 1913 but over 3000 career PA after the start of the 1913 season. Graig Nettles and Darrell Evans both had over 2000 career hits. Granted they played in the 1970's and 1980's when league average BABIP's weren't very high but I wonder how many hits they would've had if they had upped their number to even .275 or so. Well, maybe it's possible to figure it out. Using the denominator of the BABIP formula, we can find out how many plate appearances resulted in a ball in play. For Evans, he had 7239 such PA and 1809 of them resulted in hits. If we bump up his BABIP to .275, which would still be below league average for his career but not as much, he winds up with 1991 hits in those plate appearances, or a new overall total of 2405. If we do the same for Nettles, raising his career BABIP to .275 as well, he would wind up at 2446 career hits. Of course this is all hypothetical and just for fun but what would baseball be without having fun with numbers?

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Most Team Hits in a Loss

Reading the most recent "JoeChat" entry on Fire Joe Morgan, I was intrigued by this question: "When is the last time you saw a team get 18 hits (the Rays) and lose?" Well, it turns out the Rays are the only team to lose this year while collecting eighteen hits, but five teams pulled off the feat last season. In fact, a team has knocked out eighteen hits and lost 105 times since 1956. Looking all that up made me wonder what team holds the record for most hits in a loss. Again, this is a record that will be skewed by extra innings so I'll post separate lists for regular and extra-inning games.

Most Team Hits in a Loss (10+ innings), 1956-2008

TeamOpponentScoreDateHitsOpp.
Hits
Innings
Cleveland Indians
Philadelphia Athletics
17-18
7/10/1932
33
25
18
Chicago CubsPhiladelphia Phillies22-235/17/19792624
10
Kansas City AthleticsNew York Yankees9-107/27/19562616
14
Montreal ExposSan Diego Padres8-115/21/19772513
21
Boston Red SoxSeattle Mariners7-89/3/19812324
20
San Francisco GiantsSan Diego Padres16-175/23/19702321
15
St. Louis CardinalsCincinnati Redlegs15-197/1/19562320
10
Atlanta BravesHouston Astros11-128/2/20072211
14
Detroit TigersChicago White Sox16-179/14/19982219
12
Minnesota TwinsTampa Bay Devil Rays12-134/13/19982219
14
Pittsburgh PiratesLos Angeles Dodgers10-118/12/19952217
11
Texas RangersBaltimore Orioles11-145/14/19832219
11
Boston Red SoxToronto Blue Jays6-710/4/19802217
17
Baltimore OriolesChicago White Sox10-118/21/19762215
12
Cincinnati RedsSan Diego Padres9-125/25/20082118
18
Seattle MarinersDetroit Tigers10-118/21/20042115
11
Baltimore OriolesSeattle Mariners4-69/5/20032114
13
Minnesota TwinsOakland Athletics11-124/24/19972119
11
Chicago CubsColorado Rockies13-145/4/19932117
11
Texas RangersOakland Athletics12-137/1/19792129
15
Oakland AthleticsBaltimore Orioles5-64/26/19742110
15
Philadelphia PhilliesCincinnati Reds11-126/1/19582116
13



Most Team Hits in a Loss (≤9 innings), 1956-2008

TeamOpponentScoreDateHitsOpp.
Hits
Innings
Baltimore OriolesTampa Bay Devil Rays12-137/22/20062217
9
Chicago CubsCincinnati Reds12-159/12/20022217
9
Oakland AthleticsMinnesota Twins11-204/27/19802220
9
Detroit TigersChicago White Sox9-134/13/20062117
9
Chicago CubsMontreal Expos15-165/14/20002116
9
Colorado RockiesChicago Cubs7-95/14/19982115
9
Seattle MarinersBaltimore Orioles13-145/17/19962121
9
Chicago CubsLos Angeles Dodgers12-145/5/19762116
9
Philadelphia PhilliesCincinnati Reds17-198/3/19692125
9
Milwaukee BrewersPittsburgh Pirates10-178/24/20022016
9
Cleveland IndiansToronto Blue Jays10-115/5/20002013
9
Montreal ExposColorado Rockies10-114/19/19992011
9
New York MetsColorado Rockies11-125/6/19972014
9
San Diego PadresColorado Rockies12-148/4/19952012
9
Atlanta BravesMontreal Expos14-167/15/19902014
9
Minnesota TwinsTexas Rangers10-146/10/19862017
9
Chicago CubsMontreal Expos15-179/24/19852017
9
Seattle MarinersCleveland Indians11-178/30/19812016
9
Pittsburgh PiratesSan Francisco Giants11-135/30/19702015
9
New York MetsAtlanta Braves10-157/26/19642019
9
Boston Red SoxWashington Senators10-114/24/19602013
9

Monday, May 26, 2008

Team PA in a Game

So it's been a week again since I've posted. I'm going to try and get back to a more regular posting schedule soon. Today I want to look at the number of plate appearances by a team in a single game. Obviously extra-inning games will be atop the list (often both teams are next to each other on the list) so I've included the number of innings in each game. The date links to the box score. TOB means Times on Base, or H + BB + HBP + times reached on errors.

Most Team PA in a Game, 1956-2007

TeamOpponentDatePATOBInnings
Chicago White SoxMilwaukee Brewers5/8/19841043225
New York MetsSt. Louis Cardinals9/11/19741032925
St. Louis CardinalsNew York Mets9/11/1974992925
New York YankeesDetroit Tigers6/24/1962963022
Detroit TigersNew York Yankees6/24/1962953322
Montreal ExposSan Diego Padres5/21/1977943421
Milwaukee BrewersChicago White Sox5/8/1984943125
San Francisco GiantsNew York Mets5/31/1964932823
Washington SenatorsCleveland Indians9/14/1971933420
New York MetsAtlanta Braves7/4/1985934019
Minnesota TwinsMilwaukee Brewers5/12/1972923022
New York MetsSan Francisco Giants5/31/1964912623
Atlanta BravesPhiladelphia Phillies5/4/1973913320
Seattle MarinersBoston Red Sox9/3/1981903320
New York MetsHouston Astros4/15/1968881624
Minnesota TwinsSeattle Pilots7/19/1969883518
Los Angeles DodgersHouston Astros6/3/1989882522
Houston AstrosLos Angeles Dodgers6/3/1989882722
Houston AstrosNew York Mets4/15/1968871924
San Diego PadresMontreal Expos5/21/1977872821
Atlanta BravesNew York Mets7/4/1985873219
Florida MarlinsSt. Louis Cardinals4/27/2003873120

Monday, May 19, 2008

2008 NL LOB Data, 1/4 of the Way In

The 2008 MLB season is a little over a quarter finished, with the average major league team having played 45 games to this point. I thought it'd be a good time to look at how all the teams are doing in terms of runners left on base and bringing runners in scoring position around to score.

For starters, I want to make clear what I consider baserunners. Baseball-Reference.com allows you to find the number of players to reach base in each game for each team (Times on Base), and I use that number minus the team's home runs hit to find the number of baserunners for that team. That way only players who actually spent time on the basepaths are included rather than rewarding teams that hit a lot of home runs (especially solo home runs). That's not to say hitting home runs are a bad thing (far from it), but I'm looking more at how teams bring players on the bases around to score. To that end, I've also only looked at the number of runs scored by those baserunners. I find this number by taking total runs scored minus home runs. Thus runs scored by players driven in by homers are counted, but not the run scored by the player who actually hit the home run. All this means I'm looking at how well each team has brought players who reached base around to score.

I haven't finished the American League numbers yet, but I have the National League numbers complete. First up is the list of National League teams sorted by the percentage of baserunners left on base. This is pretty easy to find. I simply add up the Left on Base number on Baseball-Reference.com for each team, and divide by the sum of the Times on Base for each game played by each team minus that team's home runs. It looks like this: LOB/(TOB-HR).

2008 NL LOB Data, Sorted by LOB%
Through 5/19/2008
  • Los Angeles Dodgers, 54.96%
  • Arizona Diamondbacks, 56.40%
  • Houston Astros, 57.52%
  • Pittsburgh Pirates, 57.84%
  • New York Mets, 58.76%
  • Chicago Cubs, 58.97%
  • Atlanta Braves, 60.18%
  • NL AVERAGE, 60.37%
  • Washington Nationals, 60.66%
  • Colorado Rockies, 60.85%
  • San Francisco Giants, 61.13%
  • Cincinnati Reds, 61.52%
  • Florida Marlins, 62.04%
  • Milwaukee Brewers, 62.40%
  • Philadelphia Phillies, 63.04%
  • St. Louis Cardinals, 63.07%
  • San Diego Padres, 67.25%
San Diego is having a hard time bringing runners around to score, it seems. I do think it's interesting there's a pretty good mix of teams at or near the top of their division at the top of the list (Los Angeles, New York, etc.) and at the bottom of the list (Florida, Philadelphia, St. Louis).

It's my own theory that baseball fans don't tend to get very worked up about high numbers of runners left on first base at the end of an inning. What really gets fans mad is when a team can't seem to score runners from second and/or third. Fans, broadcasters, and journalists talking about leaving too many runners in scoring position is usually a good sign that a team is losing. With that in mind, I've looked at the percentage of runners who reach scoring position who actually score, no matter what way they do it.

2008 NL RISP Scored Data, Sorted by RISP Scored %
Through 5/19/2008
  • Los Angeles Dodgers, 47.76%
  • Pittsburgh Pirates, 47.40%
  • Arizona Diamondbacks, 44.54%
  • Chicago Cubs, 44.47%
  • Houston Astros, 43.71%
  • New York Mets, 43.66%
  • NL AVERAGE, 40.99%
  • Atlanta Braves, 40.42%
  • Washington Nationals, 39.88%
  • Milwaukee Brewers, 39.49%
  • Cincinnati Reds, 39.48%
  • Florida Marlins, 39.44%
  • Colorado Rockies, 38.46%
  • Philadelphia Phillies, 38.24%
  • St. Louis Cardinals, 37.79%
  • San Francisco Giants, 35.87%
  • San Diego Padres, 33.90%
San Diego's numbers are ghastly in this category as well. Winning and losing teams are jumbled in this list as well, but the obvious conclusion that teams plating a higher number of runners in scoring position will win more seems to be borne out pretty well despite Pittsburgh's best efforts.

For the actual raw numbers that generate these percentages, click here to look at a spreadsheet I've put up on Google Docs with percentages for a variety of related categories, including RISP Scored split by outs. I'm going to try and keep that spreadsheet updated regularly throughout the season and I hope to add the American League numbers soon.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Don't Give Up Without a Swing

Yesterday I posted about Eddie Collins and Ray Chapman, two of the most prolific sacrifice bunters in baseball history. Today I want to look at the other side of the same topic: players who never had a single sacrifice hit. Unsurprisingly, many active players and guys who retired recently are on top of the list of most plate appearances without a sacrifice hit.

Most Career Plate Appearances with Zero Career Sacrifice Hits, 1895*-2008
(active players in red)
  1. Frank Thomas, 9938
  2. Harmon Killebrew, 9831
  3. Carlos Delgado, 8021
  4. Mike Piazza, 7745
  5. Eric Karros, 7100
  6. Tim Salmon, 7039
  7. Vladimir Guerrero, 6991
  8. George Bell, 6586
  9. Mo Vaughn, 6410
  10. Cecil Fielder, 5939
  11. Sean Casey, 5491
  12. Richie Sexson, 5413
  13. Troy Glaus, 5372
  14. Eric Chavez, 5156
  15. Pat Burrell, 4913
  16. Tony Clark, 4894
  17. Aubrey Huff, 4349
  18. Richard Hidalgo, 3927
  19. Mark Teixeira, 3413
  20. Terrence Long, 3325
* - Sacrifice Hits have been recorded since 1895

Simply by choosing a convenient year to end the search can change this list dramatically. I chose 1980 because it's a round number and only one member of the previous list appears on the new leaderboard. If a player got a sacrifice hit after 1980, however, I took him off the list. Not fair, perhaps, but that's okay, I'm cherry-picking anyway. :)

Most Career Plate Appearances with Zero Career Sacrifice Hits, 1895*-1980
  1. Harmon Killebrew, 9831
  2. Willie Aikens, 1171
  3. Pancho Herrera, 1108
  4. Brant Alyea, 982
  5. Danny Walton, 881
  6. Hawk Taylor, 766
  7. Jim Beauchamp, 730
  8. Jouett Meekin, 645*
  9. Tim Harkness, 632
  10. Bill McGhee, 583
  11. Jerry Davanon, 574
  12. Carlos Paula, 492
  13. Larry Elliot, 486
  14. Amos Rusie, 475*
  15. Carmen Mauro, 456
  16. Dave Schneck, 443
  17. Charlie Manuel, 432
  18. Heinz Becker, 412
  19. Clint Hartung, 403
  20. George Tebeau, 388*
  21. Frank Baker, 384
*Meekin, Rusie, and Tebeau all played before 1895, so they could have had sacrifice hits that went unrecorded. Tebeau was a regular position player for five seasons prior to his final season in 1895 so I included the player below him on the list since I'm leery of assuming he actually had zero sacrifices. Meekin and Rusie had a number of seasons after 1895 in which they had zero sacrifices.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Sacrificial Lambs

I had intended to have a (hopefully) much more interesting post to explain not putting up anything new for a week, but I didn't quite get that done. Instead I've got a trip down baseball's memory lane.

People in sabermetrics circles have been decrying the tactic of bunting to advance runners for a long time. The argument goes that moving a runner from first with zero or one out to second with one or two outs often actually lowers the expectation of scoring and also winning the game. In a time when almost any major league hitter can hit a home run and games regularly feature five or more runs by each team, it's hard to argue against playing for more than one run. It wasn't always that way, however. In the early part of the twentieth century, sacrifice hits were extremely important. In games that often ended 3-2 or 2-1, every run was vitally important. The all-time leader in sacrifice hits, Hall of Fame second baseman Eddie Collins, played from 1906-1930 and topped 30 sacrifice hits six times. For comparison's sake, no one in the major leagues last season had more than five sacrifices.

Collins was by no means the most prodigious bunter of his day, however. Much like Hank Aaron, his record was not achieved by leading the league year after year, but rather through longevity. Collins never led the league in sacrifice hits but played for twenty-five years. Despite his long playing career, if not for an unfortunate pitch from Carl Mays it's possible Collins wouldn't hold the sacrifice hits record.

On August 16, 1920, the Cleveland Indians came to the Polo Grounds in New York to square off against the Yankees. Mired in a tight, three-way pennant race (for a visual display, see this cool site) along with the Chicago White Sox, the third-place Yankees saw the late-season series against the Indians as a crucial time to make up ground. Taking the mound for the New York club was ace Carl Mays who would end up with 26 wins for the season. Unfortunately, the game became known for much more than being a contest between two good teams. During the game, a pitch from Mays hit Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman in the head. Chapman lost consciousness soon after and died following emergency operations to remove pieces of his skull in an attempt to relieve pressure caused by brain swelling. As the New York Times reported,
The shock of the blow had lacerated the brain not only on the left side of the head where the ball struck but also on the right side where the shock of the blow had forced the brain against the skull, Dr. Merrigan said."

Though Mays protested the beaning wasn't intentional, many figured his prior reputation as a head-hunter meant hitting Chapman in the head was a planned incident. Whatever the case, Mays thereafter had to deal with harassment from the stands. Though his claims aren't necessarily backed up by his overall numbers (only 207 wins, to point out one example), Mays often claimed the fatal beaning was used to keep him out of the Hall of Fame. For much more on both the beaning and the whole baseball landscape in 1920, I suggest you read The Pitch That Killed by Mike Sowell.

The reason I bring up this unpleasant time in baseball history is because of the victim. Chapman was 29 when he died, with any number of years left to play in his career. He still has three of the top fifteen single-season marks for sacrifice hits, including the single-season record with an amazing 67 sac bunts in 1917. Though his playing career was so suddenly ended, he is now sixth on the list of most career sacrifice hits with 334. Though it's obviously hard to figure how the end of the deadball era after 1920 would have changed his numbers, it's not hard to see another few years in the league placing Chapman at the top of the career list. Five more years of his by then usual 40+ SH per year would have put him comfortably above Collins' eventual career mark of 512.

It's extremely unlikely anyone will ever again challenge Collins' mark or even Chapman's. The active career sacrifice hits leader, Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel, has 233 bunts. He's forty-one years old and still over one hundred bunts behind Chapman. Only six active players total, none less than 38, have more than one hundred career sacrifice hits. It just is another example of how some records are unbreakable, not because of a lack of skill on the part of others, but rather because of the changing strategy in the game.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Hitters' Performance in Team Wins and Losses

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal's regularly updated baseball blog, beat writer Tom Haudricourt recently noted slugger Prince Fielder's performance seemed to be an integral part of the team's wins and losses (link). This idea was later put into a print article (web version). It fell to fellow slugger Ryan Braun to debunk the idea that Fielder was mostly responsible for the team winning and losing. Braun said,
"When you lose close games, you're facing better pitchers in the bullpen, the set-up guy, the closer," he said. "Whereas when you're squaring balls up and scoring runs, you might get the last guy in the bullpen.

"It would be almost impossible for it to be the other way around."
Indeed, it is rare to find a regular player who managed to hit better in team losses than he did in team wins. In fact, of the 280 players who had 300 or more plate appearances in 2007, only six had a higher OPS in team losses. Twenty-six players had a drop of .400 or more in their OPS from team wins to team losses.

If you look at all players who had at least 200 plate appearances in team wins, the composite hitter put up a .319/.392/.527 line, good for a .919 OPS. Pretty darn good when you consider that's about what David Wright has done in his career. Part of that can be explained by the .343 BABIP for those hitters (more on BABIP can be found here). Given that the MLB BABIP in 2007 was .303, this means hitters on teams that won games had hits fall in more often than usual. This makes sense - how many games can you recall turning on bloop hits here and there? Similarly, players with 200+ PA in team losses had worse luck: their BABIP was only .276. Those hitters put up a composite .242/.307/.373 line, good for a .681 OPS - about the same level of production as Endy Chavez.

So which players declined (or, in the case of the aforementioned six, improved) the most when going from team wins to team losses? Below is a table of the players with the twenty largest drops in OPS from wins to losses along with their corresponding BABIP. Beneath that table is another showing the twenty smallest declines in OPS from wins to losses (negative numbers correspond to OPS and BABIP increases).

20 Largest OPS Differences (Wins-Losses), 2007
Minimum 300 Plate Appearances
NameTeamTotal
PA
OPS
Diff.
BABIP
Diff.
Miguel CabreraFLA680.599.178
Matt HollidayCOL713.577.137
Kenny LoftonTEX/CLE559.521.341
Xavier NadyPIT470.497.143
Matt KempLAD311.482.134
Chris DuncanSTL432.476.057
Josh WillinghamFLA604.465.169
Bobby AbreuNYY699.462.159
Hunter PenceHOU484.451.087
Magglio OrdonezDET679.450.128
Jack CustOAK507.449.135
Mark GrudzielanekKCR486.448.130
Marlon ByrdTEX454.448.105
Brad HawpeCOL606.447.090
Jim ThomeCHW536.439.097
Chase UtleyPHI613.429.081
Gary Matthews Jr.LAA579.425.149
Vernon WellsTOR642.423.125
J.D. DrewBOS552.421.123
Travis BuckOAK334.418.094

Many of the players on that list are pretty good hitters overall. I think it's interesting to see guys like Marlon Byrd and Mark Grudzielanek up there, too, since they're not anyone's idea of great hitters. Nevertheless, they raked whenever the Rangers and Royals won.

I just want to note one final time that negative numbers in the table below actually indicate an increase in OPS or BABIP from team wins to team losses.

20 Smallest OPS Differences (Wins-Losses), 2007
Minimum 300 Plate Appearances
NameTeamTotal
PA
OPS
Diff.
BABIP
Diff.
Miguel OlivoFLA469-.068-.028
Greg DobbsPHI358-.042.030
Shawn GreenNYM491-.024.027
Nate McLouthPIT382-.013-.009
Andre EthierLAD507-.008-.073
Mike JacobsFLA460-.003.030
Ryan TheriotCHC597.006.002
Jose VidroSEA625.022-.015
Aaron HillTOR657.023.064
Wily Mo PenaBOS/WSN317.028-.014
Lyle OverbayTOR476.031.028
Placido PolancoDET641.033.022
Ryan GarkoCLE541.042-.041
Josh BardSDP443.044-.003
Ron BelliardWSN557.046.029
Brian GilesSDP552.051.026
Dave RobertsSFG443.055.012
Melvin MoraBAL527.057.037
Casey BlakeCLE662.060.038
Corey PattersonBAL503.067.032

Nothing seems to have fazed Nate McLouth or Ryan Theriot last season. They just kept on putting up their regular numbers regardless of whether the team won or lost. Dobbs, Green, and Jacobs are interesting because their OPS increased while their BABIP decreased. All in all, the second list doesn't seem as impressive as the first list in terms of hitter quality. It's kind of cool that Florida had the guys with the largest and smallest declines in OPS from team wins to team losses.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Most Extra Base Hits Allowed in a Season

Before the 2008 season began, I had two posts listing the most doubles allowed in a season and the most triples allowed in a season (both were written before the B-R Play Index included 1956 data). It's easy to find a list of the most home runs allowed in a season. For whatever reason, I never put all three together...until today. Here are the pitchers who have allowed the most extra base hits in a single season since 1956.

Most Extra Base Hits Allowed in a Season, 1956-2007

NameTeamYearXBH
Allowed
IP
Robin RobertsPHI1956117297.1
Rick HellingTEX2001116215.2
Jose LimaHOU2000108196.1
Darrell MayKCR2004105186.0
Eric MiltonCIN2005102186.1
Brad RadkeMIN1996101232.0
Rick HellingTEX2000100217.0
Bert BlylevenMIN1986100271.2
Mickey LolichDET197399308.2
Rick HellingTEX199998219.1
Chris CapuanoMIL200697221.1
Phil NiekroATL197997342.0
Mickey LolichDET197496308.0
Robin RobertsPHI195796249.2
Brett TomkoSTL200395202.2
Jeff SuppanKCR200095217.0
Mike MussinaBAL199695243.1
Jim PerryMIN197195270.0
Jim MerrittCIN197095234.0
Jim MerrittCIN196995251.0

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Career HR Leaders by State

A few weeks ago I put together a list of career home run leaders by height. Today I want to do the same for players born in each U.S. state and the District of Columbia.

StatePlayerHRActive LeaderHR
AlabamaHank Aaron755Marlon Anderson63
AlaskaJosh Phelps64Josh Phelps64
ArizonaShea Hillenbrand
Jack Towell
108Chris Duncan46
ArkansasBrooks Robinson268Pat Burrell227
CaliforniaBarry Bonds762Jason Giambi369
ColoradoJohnny Frederick85Mark Johnson16
ConnecticutMo Vaughn328Brad Ausmus76
DelawareJohn Mabry
Randy Bush
Dave May
96Kevin Mench89
District of ColumbiaDon Money176Emmanuel Burriss0
FloridaFred McGriff493Gary Sheffield482
GeorgiaFrank Thomas516Frank Thomas516
HawaiiMike Lum90Shane Victorino20
IdahoHarmon Killebrew573Jason Schmidt7
IllinoisJim Thome513Jim Thome513
IndianaGil Hodges370Scott Rolen262
IowaHal Trosky228Casey Blake109
KansasTony Clark244Tony Clark244
KentuckyJay Buhner310Brad Wilkerson118
LouisianaMel Ott511Vernon Wells161
MaineDel Bissonette66Tim Stauffer0
MarylandBabe Ruth714Mark Teixeira174
MassachusettsJeff Bagwell449Mark Sweeney42
MichiganKirk Gibson
John Mayberry
255Jason Varitek151
MinnesotaDave Winfield465Dan Johnson42
MississippiEllis Burks352Dmitri Young167
MissouriYogi Berra358Ryan Howard135
MontanaJohn Lowenstein116Rob Johnson0
NebraskaWade Boggs118Alex Gordon18
NevadaMarty Cordova122Justin Leone6
New HamphirePhil Plantier91Sam Fuld0
New JerseyEric Karros284Derek Jeter195
New MexicoRalph Kiner369Cody Ross27
New YorkAlex Rodriguez522Alex Rodriguez522
North CarolinaRay Durham187Ray Durham187
North DakotaTravis Hafner145Travis Hafner145
OhioMike Schmidt548Aubrey Huff161
OklahomaMickey Mantle536Matt Holliday107
OregonDave Kingman442Richie Sexson300
PennsylvaniaKen Griffey Jr.597Ken Griffey Jr.597
Rhode IslandPaul Konerko281Paul Konerko281
South CarolinaJim Rice382Orlando Hudson63
South DakotaMark Ellis60Mark Ellis60
TennesseeTodd Helton306Todd Helton306
TexasFrank Robinson586Lance Berkman268
UtahDuke Sims100Chris Shelton35
VermontCarlton Fisk376Chris Duffy6
VirginiaWillie Horton325David Wright102
WashingtonRon Santo342Geoff Jenkins213
West VirginiaGeorge Brett317J.R. House3
WisconsinAl Simmons307Eric Hinske91
WyomingMike Devereaux105John Buck55

A few things to note about the active list:
  • The active leader for California could potentially change a number of times this year. Though Giambi currently has 369 home runs, Jeff Kent is right behind him at 368, and Jim Edmonds has 363.
  • I listed the active leader for Colorado as Mark Johnson even though he hasn't been in the majors since 2004 because he's currently catching for AAA Memphis in the St. Louis Cardinals' farm system. See the quote under the site title above to see how much they think of him. The only other Colorado-born player to have played in the majors since 2004 with a home run is pitcher Brian Lawrence who now pitches for the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League.
  • Only two people born in Maine have played in the majors and are still active: Tim Stauffer, on the list, is on the Padres' 60-day disabled list and Matt Kinney pitches for the Seibu Lions in Japan.
  • Pitchers Brian Wilson, Chris Carpenter, and Chad Paronto are tied with Sam Fuld among active players born in New Hampshire. Lefthander Taylor Tankersley is tied with Rob Johnson among Montanans.
  • Orlando Hudson is tops among active South Carolinians so long as Reggie Sanders and Preston Wilson stay unsigned.
  • Daric Barton is right behind Chris Duffy among Vermonters with five home runs.