Hitting Like It's 40 Years Ago

The month of June comes to an end tonight.  We're a couple games shy of the halfway point of the Major League Baseball season.  So many times, it is easy to jump on absurd patterns halfway through a season, only to see another abnormal second half going the other way that causes things to even out.

Nonetheless, it is hard to grasp just how odd things look this year.  One of only two MLB franchises never to win a pennant holds the best record in the National League.  A 37-year old knuckleball pitcher is on pace to win the Cy Young.  Meanwhile, the league as a whole is hitting the worst it has in 40 years at a combined .254.

Four individuals are currently batting over .350 for the season.  This may not sound too odd, and to be fair, we are less than halfway through the season, but fact of the matter is the last time four individuals hit over .350 in a season was back in 2000.  Perhaps more remarkable are the players doing it, or at least the top three.

Currently, the Mets' David Wright leads the league with hitting by sporting a .361 batting average.  While Wright had a few stellar years early in his career, most know his production has dropped in recent seasons.  In fact last year he hit a mediocre .254 for the year, and his on-base percentage of the last two seasons have been lower than his current batting average (.354 and .345).

Next we have Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz who prior to this season sported a career batting average of .265.  Yet this season, he has been pretty much the only offense to show up in Philadelphia, especially as Chase Utley and Ryan Howard fought back from injuries.  Ruiz has hit 11 home runs with a stunning OPS of 1.000 for the season, a remarkable feat for a player who never hit more than 9 home runs in a full season before now.  All the while, he has posted an excellent .357 batting average.

Next we have Melky Cabrera who resides on his fourth team in as many seasons.  In Cabrera's case there was at least a sign of better things to come, even if it was small.  Cabrera was a .265 lifetime hitter following the 2010 season in Atlanta.  However, last year in Kansas City, he did eclipse .300 for the first time in his career.  Nevertheless, in his first seasons with the San Francisco Giants, he his hitting a tremendous .354 on the season while leading the league in hits with 109.

The lone other playing hitting over .350 would be former first base MVP, Joey Votto.  In fact, Votto is currently the only player in the top ten for batting average who finished in the top ten last season (10th).  This is not a category that rotates in all fresh new faces each year, so one has to wonder where the Miguel Cabrera's, Adrian Gonzalez's, Michael Young's, Jose Reyes, and Ryan Braun's of the world are.

Perhaps the more telling aspect of this is that I mentioned initially, this season is on pace to be the worst for hitting (batting average) in forty years.  The batting average across the league this year is .25388.  Despite a couple close calls in 1988 and 1989 (both years finished a hair above .254), no batting average has been worse until you go back to when the league hit a paltry .244.  It leaves for little argument to suggest that the game is still favoring hitters as it has the previous couple of decades leading to now.

It's worth noting that last season, MLB only hit .255.  2011 saw the lowest OPS and runs scored per game since 1992, and 2012 is right on the heels of 2012.  This of course could change by the end of the season, but for now it is safe to say the pattern still holds that we are headed into another small ball era.

Did I Miss Anything?

As mentioned a couple weeks ago, I was going to be away for awhile on various trips, leaving me less time to post anything.  Well, it seems I picked a bad few weeks to fall out of the loop here.  The Los Angeles Kings won their first ever Stanley Cup over my New Jersey Devils on an arguable call (Kings did deserve to win overall), the Heat led by LeBron James came back against the Celtics to land in the NBA Finals a second straight year, and no-hitters appear to be contagious in Major League Baseball.

Of course the biggest thing to me was the no-hitter by New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana against the St. Louis Cardinals.  As you may have seen in a previous post, I had given the Mets the Curse of Nolan Ryan for trading away the Hall of Fame pitcher in the 70's only to see him pitch a record seven no-hitters in his career.  Meanwhile, the Mets went over 8,000 games without accomplishing the feat, closing in on a Philadelphia Phillies' record for the longest streak without one.  However, that run abruptly came to an end on June 1st as Santana went the distance against the St. Louis Cardinals in an 8-0 victory.

Santana was helped along the way, not only by his teammates, but by one poor call by an umpire midway through the game.  Former Met, Carlos Beltran hit a line drive down the left field line ruled foul.  Upon reviewing replays, the ball did clip part of the foul line and therefore should have been ruled fair, likely resulting in an extra-base hit.

It wasn't the worst call in sports by any means, but it was the wrong call.  Some might say the Mets didn't deserve the no-hitter because of it, but I don't think those people appropriate weigh all the individuals calls that go into the course of one baseball game, or a sporting event in general.  It's easy to focus on the ones that make the difference such as the Carlos Beltran foul ball, or Jim Joyce robbing a perfect game and no-hitter from Armando Galarraga by ruling a player safe at first that was clearly out.

However, before you can truly deem that these bad calls alone were the deciding factors, you would need to really analyze every single play/pitch for the game.  My memory certainly isn't 100% for Galarraga's game, but I seem to recall him seeing quite a few pitches called in his favor that might not be considered strikes every other day of the week.  On the flip side, how often to pitcher's throwing a no-hitter end up on the wrong side of a call when they give up a walk, or a called strike goes unnoticed only to see the hitter get another chance?

I don't believe many umpires (Angel Hernandez being an exception) having an agenda against a team to truly make calls constantly one way, and in the grand scheme of things it usually balances out.  That said, I'm a Mets fan, so perhaps I'm biased on Santana accomplishing the feat and breaking the Mets run.  However, if you don't believe my theory that all evens out, look no further than last night's Mets game when they visited the Tampa Bay Rays.

In the first inning with two outs, the Rays B.J. Upton hit a ground ball to third baseman David Wright.  Wright tried to barehand the ball, dropped it, and Upton reached safely.  The play was deemed an infield hit although from watching it, the majority would clearly argue it was an error.  Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey recorded the final out of the inning, and the whole thing seemed inconsequential.  Well, that was until eight innings later when Dickey was still on the mound behind a Mets 9-0 lead.  Dickey didn't give up another hit, and in fact didn't walk a batter all night.  Had the play been ruled an error, the Mets would have recorded a no-hitter in Tampa Bay last night.  In the end, Dickey was credited with a one-hitter in a 9-1 victory.  The lone run coming from a David Wright throwing error in the ninth and two passed balls by Mike Nickeas, and being unearned.

Why I like LeBron James: Part I

So maybe I don't like LeBron James, but I certainly don't hate him.  If anything, the only reason I've become a fan (and I use the word fan extremely loosely here) is because of the hate so many have for him.  As anyone who knows me, or has bothered to read my posts here, basketball is not my sport.  It just wasn't one that I played or watched.  The funny part is, most people I know find it almost as arbitrary as I do.  While the NBA has dwindled in popularity, and most sports fans don't so much as have a team they follow, the one thing all sports fans do have is animosity.  It turns out, you don't have to like the NBA to hate a LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, or the Boston Celtics.

While the NBA seems filled with little more than egos and refs betting on games, I never had any true disdain for an individual or team.  However, as the bonfire of hatred for LeBron James has grown, I can't help but want to cheer for the guy.  Is he egotistical?  Definitely, but that's all part of being in the NBA these days.  Does he make my life miserable?  Nope.  If other people who normally couldn't careless about the Miami Heat are made miserable by him because he is simply himself, then I think it's rather humorous.

Suffice to say, I don't get it.  The superstars of any league are going to be hated by many whether the reasons are fair or not.  I get that, but what exactly has he done?  He has cheated on his wife and then driven his car into a tree Tiger Woods style?  Is he an alcoholic like Miguel Cabrera?  Used steroids as home run kings Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez?  Maybe gone the Lawrence Taylor route who has hired prostitutes, left the scene of an accident (multiple times), used drugs, and had sex with a 16-year old?  While most won't ever admit to liking these athletes, few will admit to hating them more than LeBron James.

James' greatest crime so far is leaving the city of Cleveland.  That's it.  We should note that he didn't demand a trade or walk away from his team Bobby Petrino-style.  He left as a free agent to play with another franchise.  While a number of people look down at Albert Pujols for leaving the Cardinals this year for a bigger paycheck, few despise him more than James.  Why not?  Pujols was paid handsomely by a franchise he was the face of that was competitive every season.  James was the only cog that made the Cleveland Cavaliers competitive.  When free agency rang, he left for a team that spent money to show it was committed to winning, and in the process turned down higher offers from the New York area.

Maybe some people truly enjoy St. Louis and Cleveland, but is ludacris to suggest more people might like southern California and southern Florida more?  I feel for the fans of Cleveland, and they have every right to be upset (as do the Cardinals fans of St. Louis), but beyond that?  Why is a guy who spent seven years with a team that did little to support him criticized by so many people who normally wouldn't care because he chose in free agency to go with another team?  Higher salary?  Better chance of success?  How many people would turn down career choices when those options are presented?

James certainly isn't a fantastic personality to me.  I'm sure he is an ass to many, but I'm sure plenty of people think that about me as well, so who am I to judge?  I think adults like to pretend that sports, specifically athletes, were different when they grew up.  It might seem like that if for no other reason you didn't pay attention to their lives outside of the court/field.  Truth be told, Michael Jordan was a jackass.  It was only a couple years ago he was elected to the Hall of Fame, and wrote a speech mocking all those around him during his career.  He had gambling problems.  He retired multiple times, the first of which included the infamous minor league baseball stint.  To this day, plenty of non-Chicago fans are ready to defend Jordan to the death when James is compared to him.

I just don't see it myself.  I see a guy who played on the hometown team for seven years because they drafted him when he was obviously the best pick in his draft class.  I see a franchise that was futile for five years leading up to drafting James, and are just as bad if not worse since he left.  I see a player who is arguably among the most elite the game has ever seen who went to free agency like countless other athletes have for many decades.  I see a player who took slightly less money to play for a team that he felt gave him a better chance to win than a New York Knicks or New Jersey Nets did.  I see a guy who hasn't been caught doing anything illegal and is engaged to the woman he has two children with, not one who the courts have to force child support out of.

Ironically enough, people who point to James are being the root of all evil generally have the same disdain for Tim Tebow, another guy who truly is hated for no reason what so ever.  In any event, I'll keep my fingers crossed that James and the Heat win an NBA title in the upcoming weeks.  If Tebow ever leaves the Jets (I really hate the Jets), I'll do the same for him when it comes to winning a Super Bowl.  Until then, I'll just enjoy seeing so many people make themselves upset over an athlete that they dislike only because it is the popular thing to do.

Note that I am all for hearing reasons that people dislike LeBron James, so feel free to share.  As I said, I'm not an NBA fan, so perhaps I am missing something big.  Until then, count me as a guy who wants to see #6 succeed.

Update: Finally

I've posted a few updates on Toronto FC's bid to have the worst start in MLS history.  Three weeks ago, they secured that spot then they lost at home to D.C. United, and last week ran their streak a game longer by losing on the road to D.C. United for a record of 0-9-0, the worst start in MLS history.  Today, Toronto FC hosted the Philadelphia Union, and finally put their poor streak to rest.  Toronto beat Philadelphia 1-0 with a goal in the 88th minute.  It was only Toronto's 8th goal scored this season compared to the 21 goals given up so far.

Philadelphia hasn't exactly been off to a great start themselves, and would clearly be identified as the worst team in the league early this year aside from Toronto.  Like Toronto, they too have only scored eight goals this year, and have only won twice while playing in two more games. 

Six of One; Half Dozen of the Other

It's been awhile.  I was on the road for business this past week, and will be out of town for the first week and a half of June, leaving me less time to continue here.  However, I'm going to try to keep cranking these out.  With that said, an interesting interleague statistic for you baseball fans...

A rather odd statistic I came across while looking at interleague records earlier this season.  The Toronto Blue Jays and Colorado Rockies have an all-time 6-6 record with one another.  Interestingly enough, the Blue Jays are 6-0 in Toronto while the Rockies are 6-0 in Colorado.  Evidently, home field advantage is a major advantage when these two teams meet.  As far as I can tell, these are the only teams to have undefeated records at home against a particular team, yet never get a win on the road versus the same team.

This one isn't quite as peculiar, but still interesting.  The Blue Jays will face the New York Mets this month for the first time since 2000.  Fortunately for Toronto, the series is being played in Toronto where the Blue Jays hold a 5-4 record over the Mets.  In New York, the Blue Jays are a disappointing 0-9 to the Mets.

Second Chance

As you've probably figured out by now, I am all about odd occurrences in sports.  These abnormalities are what makes sports, more specifically, sports statistics interesting.  Los Angeles Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson started tonight...against his former team the Texas Rangers...for a second consecutive day.  As most baseball fans know, in today's game, pitchers start once every five games, generally breaking down to once every six days.  A full season consists of 33-36 games started.  Pitch counts rarely go beyond 110 pitches in a game.  Therefore, it becomes quite obvious that starting in two consecutive games for a pitcher is quite rare.

To be fair, it wasn't as if Wilson threw many innings both days.  In fact, he only pitched one third of an inning yesterday, albeit it with poor results.  After striking out Rangers lead off hitter Ian Kinsler, he gave up three singles in a row to Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton, and Adrian Beltre (allowing one run to score), then walked Michael Young to lead the bases before the game was suspended for rain.  When the game restarted, Jerome  Williams was put into pitch.  The Rangers could score five more runs in the first inning, four of them earned for Wilson.

Given that Wilson had only thrown 22 pitches in his fraction of an inning, the Angels decided to use him for a second straight day this afternoon.  Wilson would throw 93 more pitches today over 5.2 innings, giving up only two runs.  Not a bad day.  Certainly not an impressive record, but definitely a rarity.

Only 102 times since 1957 has a pitcher started a game on zero days rest as was the case today with Wilson.  The vast majority of those occur when a player pitches a relief inning, and then starts the next day.  Quite a few of those relief appearances occurred in games that were long in extra innings the night before, usually leaving no pitchers left.  The media was quick to jump on Wilson being the first pitcher to do this since Aaron Myette in 2002.  While it is true that Myette started in two consecutive games for the Texas Rangers, this is kinda a stretch.  Not only did Myette not complete an inning in his first start, he didn't even complete a batter.  After only two pitches to Baltimore Orioles lead off hitter Melvin Mora, he was ejected and replaced by Todd Van Poppel.  Myette would start the following day for the Rangers going only three innings while giving up five runs.

The last time a pitcher started consecutive games, and stuck around to face more than a batter was more than thirty two years ago in 1980.  Oakland Athletics pitcher Steve McCatty record two outs to start the game against the Seattle Mariners, but then loaded the bases, only to escape the first inning with a line drive out.  In the second inning, he wouldn't be so lucky.  Again he loaded the bases while recording the first two outs of the inning, but then gave up two hits scoring four runs.  A wild pitch to the next batter scored another, followed by allowing another hit.  He would be pulled before the second inning was over.

One day later, McCatty was again given the start for the A's, and this time threw eight shutout innings before allowing three runs in the ninth to the M's.  The A's won 12-3 on the day, and McCatty went 8.1 innings.

Oh C'mon!

50 years ago, Bo Belinksy threw a no-hitter for the Los Angeles Angels.  It was a 2-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in front of less than 16,000 fans.  The Los Angeles Angels became the California Angels, and saw Clyde Wright throw a no-hitter.  Then four more by flame thrower Nolan Ryan, then a perfect game by Mike Witt on the final day of the season in 1984.  A half dozen years later, Mark Langston threw seven innings of no-hit ball with two more innings by Mike Witt to close out the game.  The California Angels became the Anaheim Angels, and more recently the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  Last summer, Ervin Santana threw a no-hitter for the franchise, and last week, Jered Weaver threw the 10th no-hitter in Angels history.  Ten no-hitters in less than 52 years of existence.

Now a couple weeks ago, I did a post on how some sports curses really are a reach (the Vancouver Canucks not winning the Stanley Cup in the two years they won the President's Cup); however, they are some curses they do seem to exist and this is one of them.  Forty years ago, the New York Mets traded away a package of players for Angels shortstop Jim Fregosi.  Fregosi was a perennial All-Star with the Angels, but was a disappoint for the year and a half he spent in New York before being sold to Texas.  This curse deals with one of the players who was part of the package for Fregosi:  Nolan Ryan.

The Mets are in their 51st year of existence (41st since trading Ryan), and are one of two franchises never to throw a no-hitter.  Tonight marked their 8,000th game in team history.  Nolan Ryan would go on to pitch seven no-hitters with the Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers.  To be fair, the other team suffering from the lack of a no-hitter, the San Diego Padres, are long overdue as well (44th season), and I can't connect any such player to them.

The thing is, the rate of no-hitters has not changed since the expansion era began in 1961.  Using 1962 as a dividing point (Mets expansion season), the math shows that no-hitters occurred on average once every 9.9 seasons for each team prior to 1962.  Since 1962, that average has hardly increased to once every 10.1 seasons per team.

Aside from the Mets and Padres who completely lack the accomplishment, only two other teams are averaging worse than once every twenty years.  Those teams being the Milwaukee Brewers who have one no-hitter to their name in their 44 year history, and the Toronto Blue Jays who have only one in their 36 year history.  On the flip side, three franchises have ten no-hitters just since 1962:  Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Houston Astros who came into the league the same year as the Mets.  Meanwhile, the Angels have only been in MLB for one year longer than the Mets.  Merely coincidence that Nolan Ryan spent the majority of his career with the Angels and Astros after being traded by the Mets?

In fact, for all the poor luck the Mets have had, the Astros were the complete opposite picking up four no-hitters in their first eight seasons as a franchise, and two in their first three seasons.  Mind you that is before Nolan Ryan came to the Astros of which he only pitched one despite spending more seasons there than anywhere else.  The Astros rate has cooled over the more recent decades, but still stands among the best in the league with one every 5.1 seasons.

Rate of No-Hitters for Each Franchise (Once Every # of Seasons):

1.  Florida Marlins - 5.0 seasons

2.  Houston Astros - 5.1 seasons

3.  Los Angeles Angels - 5.2 seasons

4.  Los Angeles Dodgers - 5.3 seasons

5T.  Boston Red Sox - 6.2 seasons

5T.  Chicago White Sox - 6.2 seasons

7.  Arizona Diamondbacks - 7.5 seasons

8T.  Cleveland Indians - 8.0 seasons

8T.  Oakland Athletics - 8.0 seasons

10.  Cincinnati Reds - 8.9 seasons

11.  Atlanta Braves - 9.8 seasons

12.  San Francisco Giants - 10.0 seasons

13.  New York Yankees - 10.2 seasons

14.  Texas Rangers - 10.4 seasons

15.  Chicago Cubs - 10.5 seasons

16T.  Kansas City Royals - 11.0 seasons

16T.  Washington Nationals - 11.0 seasons

18.  Philadelphia Phillies - 11.8 seasons

19.  St. Louis Cardinals - 12.1 seasons

20.  Baltimore Orioles - 12.4 seasons

21.  Tampa Bay Rays - 15.0 seasons

22T.  Detroit Tigers - 16.0 seasons

22T.  Minnesota Twins - 16.0 seasons

24.  Seattle Mariners - 18.0 seasons

25.  Colorado Rockies - 20.0 seasons

26.  Pittsburgh Pirates - 21.0 seasons

27.  Toronto Blue Jays - 36.0 seasons

28.  Milwaukee Brewers - 44.0 seasons

29.  New York Mets - never

30.  San Diego Padres - never

Even if the Mets or Padres pitched a no-hitter tomorrow, they would still be at the tail end of this list.  Baseball had added ten more teams since the Mets have joined, and the Padres are the only team younger than them not to throw one.  A drought is one thing, but considering that the four most recently added teams (Marlins, Rockies, Rays, and Diamondbacks have combined for eight in their short histories, it seems that this half century plus of history can be called a curse.

Just to really rub salt in this old wound, there have been 18 complete game no-hitters thrown by 11 pitchers who at one point pitched for the Mets...


1.  Nolan Ryan (7)
2.  Hideo Nomo (2)
3.  Dean Chance (1)
4.  John Candelaria (1)
5.  Tom Seaver (1)
6.  Mike Scott (1)
7.  Bret Saberhagen (1)
8.  Scott Erickson (1)
9.  Al Leiter (1)
10.  Dwight Gooden (1)
11.  Dock Ellis (1)

...in addition to three perfect games thrown by pitchers who would at one point pitch for the Mets...

12.  Kenny Rogers (1)

13.  David Cone (1)

14.  Philip Humber (1)

...not to mention four pitchers who pitched in relief as part of a no-hitter effort...

15.  Alejandro Pena (1)

16.  Ricardo Rincon (1)

17.  Octavio Dotel (1)

18.  Billy Wagner (1)

The current twenty-eight other Major League teams have produced a grand total of 247 no-hitters in the history of baseball.  The Mets have been stifled to 35 one-hitters over the course of their history.  Three ttimes, Tom Seaver took no-hitters into the ninth inning (once a perfect game), but gave up hits after recording one or two outs each time.  Now 8,000 games after the franchise began in 1962, this team still looks for that accomplishment.

One last bit of trivia, the longest drought without a no-hitter does not belong to the Mets, but rather than Philadelphia Phillies at 8.945 games between the 1906 and 1964 seasons.  As would be expected from as a Mets fan, streak was broken in 1964 when Jim Bunning pitched his second career no-hitter and first perfect game against...the New York Mets.