Daily Tracker, 9/30

Apologies for not updating these yesterday - the numbers today reflect both days.

These posts are a collection of things I'm interested in (feel free to make suggestions) from day-to-day during the season.

• Ryan Braun Update:
  
  • Tonight in the box score: 3-8, 2 2B, 2 BB, 3 K, 4 R, RBI
    
  • Current line on season: .324/.370/.634 (492 PA)
  • Line adjusted for leaderboards: .317/.363/.620 (502 PA)
    
  • Leaderboard ranks: 12 (--)/ 29 (+4)/ 1 (+1)
    
    
• Johnny Estrada Swing Index: Done for the year.
• See here for his final data.
  
  
• See the entry behind the tracking of Langerhans and Borchard.
  
• Ryan Langerhans was 1-1 as a defensive replacement over the weekend.
  
• MLB numbers: 64 TB, 81 SO, 210 AB
  
• AAA numbers: 19 TB, 15 SO, 51 AB
• Total numbers: 78 TB, 96 SO, 259 AB
• As of now, he joins the list in the linked entry.
  
• Joe Borchard is done for the year.
  
  • MLB numbers: 56 TB, 60 SO, 179 AB
  • AAA numbers: 53 TB, 11 SO, 72 AB
  • Total numbers: 109 TB, 71 SO, 251 AB
    
    
• Jimmy Rollins was 3-7 this weekend. He finished the season with 212 hits in 716 at bats. He officially makes the list of players amassing 200 hits in season while batting below .300, though he places above Juan Pierre's record for the lowest batting average. He also set the record for most plate appearances in a single season with 778 (passing Lenny Dykstra's 773 in 1993).
  
  
• Rickie Weeks was 2-9 with a walk. His batting average stayed at .235 and his on base percentage slid to .374. A while ago I put up an entry dealing with similar players. I also posted one about the highest slugging percentages among players with low batting averages.
  
  
• Cubs catchers (with/without Barrett):
  
• Tonight in the box score: 4-7, 2 2B, BB, K, 2 R, RBI
  
• Through June 19: 290 PA, 264 AB, 62 H, 8 HR, 30 RBI, 20 BB, 46 K, 98 TB, .235/.287/.371, .658 OPS
• Since June 19: 373 PA, 327 AB, 79 H, 6 HR, 40 RBI, 32 BB, 53 K, 120 TB, .242/.316/.367, .683 OPS
• Season Line: 663 PA, 591 AB, 141 H, 14 HR, 70 RBI, 52 BB, 99 K, 218 TB, .239/.303/.369, .672 OPS
  
  
• Brewers catchers (splits for continuity with Cubs):
• Tonight in the box score: 1-6, 2B, 2 BB, K, 2 R
  
• Through June 19: 298 PA, 283 AB, 77 H, 6 HR, 28 RBI, 9 BB, 32 K, 113 TB, .272/.300/.399, .699 OPS
• Since June 19: 368 PA, 342 AB, 88 H, 9 HR, 50 RBI, 17 BB, 51 K, 131 TB, .257/.288/.383, .671 OPS
• Season Line: 666 PA, 625 AB, 165 H, 15 HR, 78 RBI, 26 BB, 83 K, 244 TB, .264/.293/.390, .684 OPS
  
  
• 2007 MLB Average Catcher's Line: .254/.317/.392, .709 OPS
  
  
• Players making their MLB debut today (links go to The Baseball Cube):
• Drew Macias, OF, San Diego (Saturday)

On to the playoffs!

Thunderfoot!

Not too long ago I pointed out the top pitchers in MLB at allowing baserunners to steal. Three Padres pitchers appeared in the top ten, and today's starter Chris Young was second. Prince Fielder stole seven bases in 2006 but had none in 2007 coming into today. By the time the fourth inning was complete, he'd have two.

That makes him the heaviest listed player in baseball history to have multiple stolen bases in one game. He's also the heaviest listed player to have more than one stolen base in his career, edging out Frank Thomas by three pounds. Unless, that is, you think Baseball Reference is accurate with Walt Goldsby's vitals.

100+ RBI, OBP under .300

This was inspired by Khalil Greene's season line: .252/.290/.462 with 93 RBI. There's only been nine players ever to collect 100 or more RBI with an on base percentage under .300. Greene likely won't do it, but he's the closest to the feat this season.

1. Joe Carter, 1990, 115 RBI, .290 OBP
   
2. George Bell, 1992, 112, .294
   
3. Tony Batista, 2004, 110, .272
   
4. Tony Armas, 1983, 107, .254!!!
   
5. Joe Carter, 1989, 105, .292
   
6. Jeff Francoeur, 2006, 103, .293
7. Joe Carter, 1997, 102, .284
8. Ruben Sierra, 1993, 101, .288
9. Joe Pepitone, 1964, 100, .281

Pepitone was pretty lonely there on the list for a while. It's pretty interesting how Carter placed on the list three times (Tony Batista missed a second appearance by one RBI in 2003). I think it underscores this Beyond the Box Score article about 100 RBI not always being a benchmark for greatness.

Highest Slugging Percentage, AVG under .240

In the Daily Tracker posts, I keep pointing out Rickie Weeks's uncommon season in relation to batting average and on base percentage. In honor of his two home runs last night giving him fifteen for the year, I decided to look up players with the highest slugging percentage with a batting average under .240. Why .240 and not something more round like .250? Simply because I wanted to keep it close to what Weeks will end up with. I made the report only return qualifiers for the batting title (usually 502 PA, though strike years are different) since it's almost the end of the season. Weeks likely will end up qualifying as he needs 11 plate appearances in three games and he bats leadoff. His current batting line is .235/.375/.432.

Here's the top 20 slugging percentages by players with batting averages below .240:

Name	Year	AVG	SLG
Jose Canseco	1998	.237	.518
Mickey Tettleton	1995	.238	.510
Phil Plantier	1993	.240	.509
Dave Kingman	1976	.238	.506
Rob Deer	1986	.232	.494
Dave Kingman	1975	.231	.494
Adam Dunn	2006	.234	.490
Mark McGwire	1990	.235	.489
Carlton Fisk	1985	.238	.488
Jeromy Burnitz	2003	.239	.487
Mike Cameron	2004	.231	.479
Mike Pagliarulo	1987	.234	.479
Jose Valentin	2004	.216	.473
Gorman Thomas	1980	.239	.471
Gus Zernial	1957	.236	.471
Pat Seerey	1946	.225	.470
Mickey Tettleton	1992	.238	.469
Mark McGwire	1989	.231	.467
Darryl Strawberry	1989	.225	.466
Mike Pagliarulo	1986	.238	.464

Rickie Weeks' .432 slugging average this year would place him into an exact tie with Rob Deer's 1990 for 63rd place (both would have .431818181818 and so on).

One At Bat, One Base, Please.

Mike Rivera of the Milwaukee Brewers has an outside chance of setting an odd major league "record" and slightly more of a chance placing on the list for his exploits this September. I am referring, of course, to the list of players with the most plate appearances and a slugging percentage of 1.000 or more. Only 583 seasons of one or more plate appearances exist, and only seven players managed to do it over 10 or more plate appearances.

Here's the list, sorted by PA:

1. Greg Walker, 1982, 1.000 SLG, 19 PA
2. George Puccinelli, 1930, 1.188, 16
3. Rick Wrona, 1994, 1.200, 12
4. Damon Minor, 2000, 1.444, 11
5. Mark Carreon, 1988, 1.111, 11
6. Armando Rios, 1998, 1.429, 10
7. Jack Roche, 1914, 1.111, 10

Rivera currently has a 1.000 SLG in 10 plate appearances. If he makes the list, he would become the second Brewers player, joining Rick Wrona. The Giants are currently the only team with two players on the list (Minor and Rios).

For the curious, the top pitchers in terms of PA were Lance Clemons (1971), Fred Green (1960) and Belve Bean (1930), with nine.

Bonds vs. Aaron (vs. Ruth)

A simple, non-controversial title for this post. Baseball-Reference.com has a pretty neat thing on all their player pages that allows you to "neutralize" a player's statistics or drop them onto any team since 1901. It then adjusts their number through a process described here and spits out what the player would have done had he been on that team in that league during that year for his entire career.

I think it's pretty cool and want to take a lighthearted look at the Bonds vs. Aaron (vs. Ruth) debate using that tool. I know it's not scientific and I don't mean it to be, but the way I went about "transporting" the players was in the following manner: To replace Hank Aaron with Barry Bonds, I first took Aaron's plate appearances for each season and determined what percentage of his career was made up by that season; then I took Bonds' adjusted career home runs if he could have played his whole life in that season and multiplied it by the percentage to determine the home runs for that season. Summing up each of Bonds as Aaron's season totals gives his career number. I should note that the Baseball Reference tool doesn't have 2007 data, so to give a career home run number I averaged those of the previous five seasons. Crude but whatever.

An example:

In 1962, Hank Aaron had 667 PA, or 4.8% of his career total. When Bonds' career is placed into 1962 for the Braves, he ends up with 781 home runs. 781 x .048 = 37. Thus he is said to have hit 37 home runs in 1962.

Here's the results:

Babe Ruth replacing Hank Aaron (1954-1976): 658 career HR
Babe Ruth replacing Barry Bonds (1986-2007): 696 career HR
Hank Aaron replacing Babe Ruth (1914-1935): 788 career HR
Hank Aaron replacing Barry Bonds (1986-2007): 779 career HR
Barry Bonds replacing Babe Ruth (1914-1935): 779 career HR
Barry Bonds replacing Hank Aaron (1954-1976): 739 career HR

Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron both tied for the highest single season, each hitting 55 in 1921 as they replaced Babe Ruth. The highest total Ruth had in a single year was 40 in 1997 and 1998 as Bonds.

Milwaukee Home Runs

Much ado has been made about the 2007 Brewers setting a franchise record for the most home runs in a season (the record was 216; the team has 219 coming into today) but I want to look at former Milwaukee teams and see what they did. With heavy hitters like Aaron, Mathews and Adcock, I bet the Braves put up some good years. I'll list the team, the number of games in their season, their total home runs, and what they would have done in 162 games at the same rate.

Team	Games	Home Runs	HR per 162
1878 Milwaukee Grays (National League)	60	2	5
1884 Milwaukee Brewers (Union Association)	12	0	0
1891 Milwaukee Brewers (American Association)	36	13	59
1901 Milwaukee Brewers (American League)	137	26	31
1953 Milwaukee Braves	154	156	164
1954 Milwaukee Braves	154	139	146
1955 Milwaukee Braves	154	182	191
1956 Milwaukee Braves	154	177	186
1957 Milwaukee Braves	154	199	209
1958 Milwaukee Braves	154	167	176
1959 Milwaukee Braves	154	177	186
1960 Milwaukee Braves	154	170	179
1961 Milwaukee Braves	154	188	198
1962 Milwaukee Braves	162	181	181
1963 Milwaukee Braves	162	139	139
1964 Milwaukee Braves	162	159	159
1965 Milwaukee Braves	162	196	196

Loser Teenagers

People always like celebrating winners, so I figured I'd turn the tables and look at the guys who lost the most games as teenagers. There's a mix of being good enough to stay in the league and debuting while relatively young in placing on the list. Also, baseball-reference says a player's age during a season is their age as of June 30th of that season, so even though the top man on the list, Pete Schneider, turned 20 on August 2, his whole season applies. It's a little erroneous, but what can you do?

Without further ado, these are baseball's top loser teens:

1. Pete Schneider, 32 losses, 1914-15
2. Bob Feller, 21, 1936-38
3. David Clyde, 17, 1973-74
4. Larry Dierker, 17, 1964-66
5. Ray Keating, 15, 1912-13
6. Chief Bender, 14, 1903
7. Mike Morgan, 13, 1978-79
8. Curt Simmons, 13, 1947-48
9. Frank Shellenback, 12, 1918
10. Earl Hamilton, 12, 1911
11. Jim Waugh, 11, 1952-53
12. Mike McCormick, 10, 1956-58
13. Milt Pappas, 10, 1957-1958
14. Cal McLish, 10, 1944
15. Hal Newhouser, 10, 1939-40

Hey, three of those guys went on to be Hall of Famers! Interestingly, only 152 pitchers have ever lost even one game in their teenage years. Only 329 pitchers made an appearance before their age 20 season.

Here's a trivia question for you: Who are the only two pitchers since 2000 to lose one or more games before their age 20 season, as defined by Baseball-Reference?

Run, Run, Rudolph...

There are four pitchers in the major leagues this year who have thrown over 100 innings while allowing 10+ steals and not having a single attempt thrown out (excluding pickoffs). Some of this is their catchers' fault, but as manager Ned Yost noted recently about one of the four: "Benny's [Sheets] a little slow to the plate." Perhaps that has something to do with the other guys as well.

Here's the list:

• Dustin McGowan, Toronto, 159.1 IP, 28 SB
• Chris Young, San Diego, 156.0, 36
  
• A.J. Burnett, Toronto, 153.1, 29
• Ben Sheets, Milwaukee, 141.1, 21

I wonder if Johnny Estrada, Gregg Zaun and Josh Bard get together in the offseason and compete to see who can throw an egg against a wall the most without it breaking.

So what pitchers have allowed the most steals? Here's the guys with 100+ IP and 20+ steals against:

1. Tim Wakefield, Boston, 39 (Surprised?)
2. Chris Young, San Diego, 36
3. Greg Maddux, San Diego, 33
4. A.J. Burnett, Toronto, 29
5. Dustin McGowan, Toronto, 28
6. Brandon Webb, Arizona, 26
7. Daniel Cabrera, Baltimore, 24
8. Jose Contreras, Chicago (AL), 23
9. Rich Hill, Chicago (NL), 22
10. Jake Peavy, San Diego, 21
11. Mike Mussina, New York (AL), 21
12. Ben Sheets, Milwaukee, 21
13. Byung-Hyun Kim, National League, 21
14. Roy Halladay, Toronto, 20

Note Rich Hill is the only left-hander on the list. What's going on there?

Five players have at least five pickoffs in 100+ innings this year:

1. Doug Davis, Arizona, 6
2. Wandy Rodriguez, Houston, 6
3. Mike Maroth, Detroit/St. Louis, 6
4. Andy Pettitte, New York (AL), 5
5. Mark Buehrle, Chicago (AL), 5
   

Expanded Rosters are a Boon

The Daily Tracker for today will post tomorrow morning sometime, but I wanted to point this out. The Philadelphia-St. Louis game tonight went fourteen innings with the Phillies winning 7-4. That's not the interesting part, per se. What is astounding is the sheer number of players in the game: 53!

The box score is here. The Phillies used 25 players, including eight pitchers and, according to MLB Gameday, all their position players. The Cardinals used 28 players, including 11 pitchers and left Chris Duncan, Jim Edmonds and Gary Bennett on the bench. No pitcher threw more than 3.0 innings in the contest. There were 481 pitches thrown - 209 by the Phillies and 272 by the Cardinals.