Category Archives: Baseball
Like father like son
According to this LA Times article:
The Dodgers received confirmation from the Elias Sports Bureau that the lineup they fielded in a 13-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Friday made history.
That lineup was the first to feature an infield consisting of four sons of four former major leaguers: first baseman Scott Van Slyke, second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr., third baseman Ivan De Jesus Jr.and shortstop Dee Gordon.
Including center fielder Tony Gwynn Jr., the Dodgers had five sons of former major leaguers, which was also the most ever in the majors.
Cheers
SITW All-Star team
Major League Baseball (MLB) recently released the selections for the 2012 All-star game. Many deserving players made the team, but some of the selections don’t really make any sense to me. Therefore, I have decided to announce the StatsInTheWild (SITW) All-Star team for 2012 to try to give credit where credit is due to some players who were unjustifiably left off the team.
(Note: All stats as of July 3, 2012 at 11:49am)
Actual 2012 All-Start Starter
Actual 2012 All-Stars Reserve
Left off 2012 All-Star Team
Starters:
SITW AL All-Star starters 2012:
- C – Joe Mauer, MIN (.327/.417/.446 39R, 4HR, 37RBI)
- 1B – Paul Konerko, CHW (.335/.411/.551 38R, 14HR, 40RBI)
- 2B – Robinson Cano, NYY (.313/.373/.590 55R, 20HR, 47RBI)
- SS – Asdrubal Cabrera, CLE (.295/.374/.423 41R, 11HR, 40RBI)
- 3B – Edwin Encarnacion, TOR (.292/.375/.569 50R, 22HR, 55RBI)
- OF – Josh Hamilton, TEX (.314/.381/.643 51R, 25HR, 73RBI)
- OF – Mark Trumbo, LAA (.308/.360/.613 38R, 20HR, 55RBI)
- OF – Austin Jackson, DET (.322/.404/.524 47R, 8HR, 35RBI)
- DH – David Ortiz, BOS (.301/.388/.602 57R, 21HR, 54RBI)
SITW NL All-Star starters 2012:
- C – Carlos Ruiz, PHI (.356/.420/.579 38R, 11HR, 43RBI)
- 1B – Joey Votto, CIN (.350/.471/.632 50R, 14HR, 47RBI)
- 2B – Aaron Hill, ARI (.300/.359/.512 35R, 11HR, 38RBI)
- SS – Troy Tulowitzki, COL (.292/.360/486 33R, 8HR, 27RBI)
- 3B – David Wright, NYM (.354/.447/.560 53R, 9HR, 50RBI)
- OF – Andrew McCutchen, PIT (.354/.407/.600 50R, 15HR, 52RBI)
- OF – Carlos Beltran, STL (.308/.396/.571 49R, 20HR, 63RBI)
- OF – Matt Kemp (injured) – LAD (.355/.444/.719 30R, 12HR, 28RBI)
- OF – Ryan Braun (replaces Kemp) – MIL (.309/.390/.599 50R, 22HR, 55RBI)
- SP – Chris Sale – CHW (9-2, 2.27ERA, 0.965WHIP, 94K)
- SP – Jered Weaver – LAA (9-1, 2.13ERA, 0.936WHIP, 68K)
- SP – Justin Verlander – DET (8-5, 2.69ERA, 0.978WHIP, 121K)
- SP – Brandon Morrow (injured) – TOR (7-4, 3.01ERA, 1.004WHIP, 67K)
- SP – Jake Peavy – CHW (6-5, 2.96ERA, 0.994WHIP, 101K)
- SP – CJ Wilson – LAA (9-4, 2.33ERA, 1.169WHIP, 84K)
- SP – Andy Pettitte – NYY (11-3, 3.28ERA, 1.271WHIP, 101K)
- SP – Jarrod Parker – OAK (5-3, 2.46ERA, 1.22WHIP, 61K)
- SP – Jason Hammel – BAL (8-4, 3.43ERA, 1.204WHIP, 97K)
- SP – Felix Hernandez – SEA (6-5, 3.09ERA, 1.22WHIP, 114K)
- SP – Brandon McCarthy (injured) – OAK (6-3, 2.54ERA, 1.205WHIP, 52K)
- SP – Colby Lewis (replaces Morrow) – TEX (6-6, 3.51ERA, 1.080WHIP, 90K)
- SP – David Price (replaces McCarthy) – TBR (11-4, 2.92ERA, 1.223WHIP, 97K)
- RP – Chris Perez – CLE (23SV, 2.67ERA, 1.022WHIP, 32K)
- RP – Jim Johnson – BAL (23SV, 1.30ERA, 0.779WHIP, 22K)
NL Pitchers:
- SP – R.A. Dickey – NYM (12-1, 2.15ERA, 0.885, 116K)
- SP – James McDonald – PIT (8-3, 2.45ERA, 1.000WHIP, 90K)
- SP – Steven Strasburg – WSN (9-3, 2.81ERA, 1.075WHIP, 122K)
- SP – Brandon Beachy (injured) – ATL (5-5, 2.00ERA, 0.963WHIP, 68K)
- SP – Gio Gonzalez – WSN (11-3, 3.01ERA, 1.118WHIP, 112K)
- SP – Matt Cain – SFG (9-3, 2.53ERA, 0.950WHIP, 114K)
- SP – Clayton Kershaw – LAD (6-4, 2.65ERA, 1.049WHIP, 112K)
- SP – Zach Greinke – MIL (9-2, 3.08ERA, 1.176WHIP, 106K)
- SP – Ryan Dempster (injured) (3-3, 2.11ERA, 1.025WHIP, 66K)
- SP – Wade Miley – ARI (9-4, 2.87ERA, 1.064WHIP, 66K)
- SP – Johan Santana – NYM (6-4, 2.76ERA, 1.092WHIP, 93K)
- SP – Madison Bumgarner (replaces Beachy) – SFG (10-4, 2.85ERA, 1.057WHIP, 92K)
- SP – Ryan Vogelsong (replaces Dempster) – SFG (7-3, 2.26ERA, 1.109WHIP, 72K)
- RP – Craig Kimbrel – ATL (23SV, 1.50ERA, 0.767WHIP, 50K)
- RP – Santiago Casilla – SFG (21SV, 2.61ERA, 1.258WHIP, 30K)
- C – A.J. Pierzynski – CHW (.285/.331/.512 36R, 14HR, 45RBI)
- C – Saltalamacchia – BOS (.250/.301/.529 31R, 15HR, 37RBI)
- 1B – Adam Dunn – CHW (.210/.359/.507 44R, 24HR, 58RBI)
- 2B – Ben Zobrist – TBR (.253/.373/.457 45R, 10HR, 32RBI)
- SS – Elvis Andrus – TEX (.307/.383/.412 51R, 1HR, 32RBI)
- SS – Kyle Seager – SEA (.246/.308/.432 34R, 10HR, 46RBI)
- 3B – Miguel Cabrera – DET (.321/.382/.545 47R, 16HR, 65RBI)
- OF – Dexter Fowler – COL (.288/.381/.541 43R, 10HR, 35RBI)
- OF – Mike Trout – LAA (.339/.395/.542 51R, 9HR, 33RBI)
- OF – Jose Bautista – TOR (.243/.361/.555 57R, 27HR, 64RBI)
- OF/DH – Adam Jones – BAL (.298/.341/.549 52R, 19HR, 42RBI)
- OF/DH – Josh Willingham – MIN (.267/.380/.535 44R, 17HR, 56RBI)
NL reserves:
- C – Yadier Molina – STL (/309/.361/.513 35R, 13HR, 45RBI)
- C – Buster Posey – SFG (.303/.370/.480 32R, 10HR, 42RBI)
- 1B – Brian LaHair – CHC (.284/.362/.521 31R, 13HR, 28RBI)
- 2B – Dan Uggla – ATL (.234/.361/.409 52R, 11HR, 43RBI)
- SS – Jed Lowrie – HOU (.253/.338/.471 35R, 14HR, 33RBI)
- SS – Ian Desmond – WSN (.276/.308/.484 41R, 13HR, 43RBI)
- 3B – Martin Prado – ATL (.320/.383/.463 45R, 5HR, 32RBI)
- OF – Giancarlo (nee Mike) Stanton – MIA (.283/.364/.555 45R, 19HR, 50RBI)
- OF – Melky Cabrera – SFG (.352/.394/.514 53R, 7HR, 39RBI)
- OF – Matt Holliday – STL (.311/.394/.514 53R, 13HR, 51RBI)
- OF – Carlos Gonzalez – COL (.339/.398/.603 59R, 17HR, 58RBI)
- OF – Jay Bruce – CIN (.257/.332/.480 44R, 17HR, 54RBI)
State Capitals, Baseball, and an R scrape
Slate has an awesome sports podcast called “Hang Up and Listen” featuring Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca. Every week they do a trivia question, and this weeks question was:
What current major league player’s first and last name are state capitals.
(The answer is one of my top all-star snubs, if you need a hint.)
Anyway, I got to thinking if there were any other players who had state capital names. So I used R and the XML package to scrape baseball-almanac.com for a list of all major league players and then search each of their names for state capitals.
In alphabetical order of state I found:
- Montgomery (Al, Bob, Jeff, Monty, Ray, and Steve)
- Steve Phoenix
- There are 6 Little’s (Bryan, Harry, Jack, Jeff, Mark, and Scott) and 1 Rock (Les). So I’m going to count that for Arkansas. (I also found Rocky Stone who has been added to the Rip Torn hall of fame….)
- Denver Grigsby
- Bruce Hartford
- Gene and Mike Lansing
- There are 34 players with the last name Jackson, and one (Jackson Todd) with the first name Jackson.
- Jefferson (Jesse, Reggie, and Stan)
- Carson (Al, Kit, Matt, and Robert)
- Raleigh Aitchison and John Raleigh
- Juan Pierre, Pierre Roy, and Max St. Pierre
- There are 10 Austin’s. 6 with first name Austin (Jackson(!), Kearns, Walsh, Knickerbocker, McHenry, and Romine) and 4 with last name Austin (Jeff, Jim, Jimmy, and Rick)
- For Utah you’d have to go with Jarrod Saltamacchia, Salty Parker, or Jack Saltzgaver and one of the 4 Lake’s (Eddie, Fred, Joe, or Steve). Although, that is stretching it a bit.
- Richmond (Beryl, Don, John, Lee, Ray, and Scott)
- Madison (Art, Dave and Scotti). And of course Madison Bumgarner.
Cheers.
All-Star Snubs
I recently released the SITW 2012 All-Star Team, which hopefully, in some small way, makes players like Edwin Encarnacion and James MCDonald feel a little bit better. THe SITW All-Star Team is better than no All-Star Team, right? Anyway, here’s a list of the players who were snubbed this year in the All-Star selection and another list with the players who don’t deserve to be on the team below that. Also, here is an article from Bleacher Report: MLB All-Star Game: Fans Should Be Stripped of Right to Vote
All-Star Snubs
Hitters
- 3B – Edwin Encarnacion, TOR (.292/.375/.569 50R, 22HR, 55RBI)
- OF – Austin Jackson, DET (.322/.404/.524 47R, 8HR, 35RBI)
- 2B – Aaron Hill, ARI (.300/.359/.512 35R, 11HR, 38RBI)
- SS – Troy Tulowitzki, COL (.292/.360/486 33R, 8HR, 27RBI)
- C – A.J. Pierzynski – CHW (.285/.331/.512 36R, 14HR, 45RBI)
- C – Saltalamacchia – BOS (.250/.301/.529 31R, 15HR, 37RBI)
- 2B – Ben Zobrist – TBR (.253/.373/.457 45R, 10HR, 32RBI)
- SS – Kyle Seager – SEA (.246/.308/.432 34R, 10HR, 46RBI)
- OF – Dexter Fowler – COL (.288/.381/.541 43R, 10HR, 35RBI)
- OF/DH – Josh Willingham – MIN (.267/.380/.535 44R, 17HR, 56RBI)
- SS – Jed Lowrie – HOU (.253/.338/.471 35R, 14HR, 33RBI)
- 3B – Martin Prado – ATL (.320/.383/.463 45R, 5HR, 32RBI)
- OF – Matt Holliday – STL (.311/.394/.514 53R, 13HR, 51RBI)
Pitchers
- SP – Brandon Morrow (injured) – TOR (7-4, 3.01ERA, 1.004WHIP, 67K)
- SP – Jake Peavy – CHW (6-5, 2.96ERA, 0.994WHIP, 101K)
- SP – Andy Pettitte – NYY (11-3, 3.28ERA, 1.271WHIP, 101K)
- SP – Jarrod Parker – OAK (5-3, 2.46ERA, 1.22WHIP, 61K)
- SP – Jason Hammel – BAL (8-4, 3.43ERA, 1.204WHIP, 97K)
- SP – Brandon McCarthy (injured) – OAK (6-3, 2.54ERA, 1.205WHIP, 52K)
- SP – Colby Lewis (replaces Morrow) – TEX (6-6, 3.51ERA, 1.080WHIP, 90K)
NL Pitchers
- SP – James McDonald – PIT (8-3, 2.45ERA, 1.000WHIP, 90K)
- SP – Brandon Beachy (injured) – ATL (5-5, 2.00ERA, 0.963WHIP, 68K)
- SP – Zach Greinke – MIL (9-2, 3.08ERA, 1.176WHIP, 106K)
- SP – Ryan Dempster (injured) (3-3, 2.11ERA, 1.025WHIP, 66K)
- SP – Johan Santana – NYM (6-4, 2.76ERA, 1.092WHIP, 93K)
- SP – Madison Bumgarner (replaces Beachy) – SFG (10-4, 2.85ERA, 1.057WHIP, 92K)
- SP – Ryan Vogelsong (replaces Dempster) – SFG (7-3, 2.26ERA, 1.109WHIP, 72K)
- RP – Santiago Casilla – SFG (21SV, 2.61ERA, 1.258WHIP, 30K)
Over-rated All-Stars
Note: I guess I shouldn’t call these guys over-rated. Their numbers are very impressive, but there have just been several players better than them in the first half of the season so far.
Hitters
- SS – Rafeal Furcal – STL (.276/.343/.370 53R, 5HR, 32RBI)
- 3B – Pablo Sandoval – SFG (.300/.362/.471 26R, 6HR, 25RBI)
- 2B- Jose Altuve – HOU (.304/.347/.444 46R, 5HR, 23RBI)
- SS – Starlin Castro – CHC (.292/.315/.422 37R, 6HR, 40RBI)
- 1B/C -Napoli – TEX (.235/.335/.438 36R, 12HR, 30RBI)
- 1B – Prince Fielder – DET (.300/.380/.487 43R, 12HR, 53RBI)
- 3B – Adrian Beltre – TEX (.323/.355/.527 45R, 14HR, 52RBI)
- SS – Derek Jeter – NYY (.298/.348/.404 42R, 7HR, 25RBI)
- OF – Curtis Granderson – NYY (.244/.345/.503 54R, 23HR, 47RBI)
- C – Matt Wieters – BAL (.247/.333/.436 34R, 11HR, 38RBI)
- 2B – Ian Kinsler – TEX (.276/.451/.786 61R, 9HR, 40RBI)
- DH/1B – Billy Butler – KCR (.293/.363/.505 31R, 16HR, 48RBI)
Pitchers
- SP – Cole Hamels – PHI (10-4, 3.08ERA, 1.099WHIP, 111K)
- SP – Lance Lynn – STL (10-4, 3.62ERA, 1.247WHIP, 98K)
- SP – Matt Harrison – TEX (11-3, 3.16ERA, 1.244WHIP, 65K)
- SP – C.C. Sabathia – NYY (9-3, 3.45ERA, 1.271WHIP, 105K)
MLB Rankings – 7/2/2012
StatsInTheWild MLB rankings as of July 2, 2012 at 10:37am. SOS=strength of schedule
The last rankings came out on June 25, and since then the Dodgers have gone 1-6. Going back two weeks, to June 19, they are 2-11. As a result of this they fall 8 spots this week, landing them at number 18 in my rankings. TeamRankings.com has them even lower at 19, and, for some reason, ESPN has them ranked number 4 in their June 25 power rankings. (I’ll update the ESPN rankings as soon as they are posted.)
| Team | Rank | Change | Record | ESPN | TeamRankings.com | SOS | Run Diff |
| Texas | 1 | – | 50-30 | 1 | 2 | 13 | +100 |
| NYY | 2 | – | 48-30 | 2 | 1 | 5 | +61 |
| Boston | 3 | ↑2 | 42-37 | 10 | 6 | 6 | +57 |
| LA Angels | 4 | ↑3 | 44-35 | 6 | 4 | 8 | +44 |
| Toronto | 5 | ↓1 | 40-39 | 17 | 8 | 3 | +29 |
| ChiSox | 6 | ↑2 | 42-37 | 13 | 10 | 14 | +42 |
| Washington | 7 | ↑2 | 45-32 | 3 | 3 | 21 | +48 |
| TampaBay | 8 | ↓5 | 41-38 | 7 | 9 | 2 | -1 |
| Baltimore | 9 | ↓3 | 42-36 | 8 | 5 | 1 | -26 |
| Oakland | 10 | ↑1 | 38-42 | 20 | 18 | 7 | -2 |
| Detroit | 11 | ↑4 | 39-40 | 18 | 16 | 11 | -7 |
| Cincinnati | 12 | ↑1 | 43-32 | 5 | 7 | 30 | +33 |
| NY Mets | 13 | ↑3 | 43-37 | 11 | 12 | 17 | +22 |
| Atlanta | 14 | – | 41-37 | 12 | 11 | 16 | +21 |
| St. Louis | 15 | ↓3 |
41-38 | 16 | 17 | 28 | +57 |
| SF | 16 | ↑3 | 45-35 | 9 | 14 | 29 | +16 |
| Cleveland | 17 | ↑1 | 40-38 | 15 | 15 | 12 | -37 |
| LA Dodgers | 18 | ↓8 | 44-36 | 4 | 19 | 26 | +18 |
| Pittsburgh | 19 | ↑2 |
42-36 | 14 | 13 | 27 | +6 |
| Arizona | 20 | ↓3 | 39-39 | 19 | 20 | 25 | +13 |
| Seattle | 21 | ↓1 | 34-47 | 25 | 23 | 4 | -30 |
| Kansas City | 22 | – |
35-42 | 24 | 21 | 10 | -37 |
| Miami | 23 | ↑1 | 38-40 | 21 | 22 | 15 | -58 |
| Philadelphia | 24 | ↓1 | 36-45 | 22 | 26 | 18 | -15 |
| Milwaukee | 25 | – | 36-42 | 23 | 25 | 24 | -11 |
| Minnesota | 26 | – |
33-45 | 27 | 24 | 9 | -85 |
| Houston | 27 | – | 32-47 | 26 | 27 | 20 | -53 |
| Colorado | 28 | – | 30-48 | 28 | 28 | 23 | -56 |
| Chic Cubs | 29 | – | 29-49 | 29 | 29 | 19 | -71 |
| San Diego | 30 | – | 30-50 | 30 | 30 | 22 | -78 |
Past Rankings:
Cheers.
A comment on the LA Dodgers from May
Here is what I said about the LA Dodgers on May 28, 2012:
Some comments: ESPN ranking the Dodgers number 1 is an absolute joke. Yeah, they have the best record in baseball, but they also have the weakest schedule in baseball. 38 of their 47 games so far, almost 81%, have been against teams with a losing record. That is astonishing. Ranking the Dodgers number 1 is just one more reason why I don’t trust the “experts” at ESPN.
The Dodgers built the best record in baseball over the first part of the season by playing teams like Colorado and San Diego. They are currently 1-11 in their last 12 games in series against Oakland, LA Angels, San Francisco, and NY Mets. I guess it’s a lot harder to win when you not playing teams that are absolutely terrible.
Cheers.
MLB rankings – 6/25/2012
StatsInTheWild MLB rankings as of June 25, 2012 at 4:37pm. SOS=strength of schedule
| Team | Rank | Change | Record | ESPN | TeamRankings.com | SOS |
| Texas | 1 | ↑1 | 45-28 | 1 | 2 | 13 |
| NYY | 2 | ↓1 | 43-28 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Tampa Bay | 3 | – | 40-32 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Toronto | 4 | ↑1 | 37-35 | 17 | 8 | 1 |
| Boston | 5 | ↑1 | 38-34 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| Baltimore | 6 | ↓2 |
41-31 | 8 | 3 | 2 |
| LA Angels | 7 | – | 40-33 | 6 | 6 | 8 |
| ChiSox | 8 | ↑2 | 38-34 | 13 | 14 | 14 |
| Washington | 9 | – | 41-29 | 3 | 5 | 21 |
| LA Dodgers | 10 | ↓2 |
43-30 | 4 | 12 | 28 |
| Oakland | 11 | ↑1 | 35-38 | 20 | 18 | 7 |
| St. Louis | 12 | ↑3 | 38-35 | 16 | 17 | 29 |
| Cincinnati | 13 | ↓2 | 39-32 | 5 | 9 | 30 |
| Atlanta | 14 | – | 38-34 | 12 | 10 | 17 |
| Detroit | 15 | ↓2 |
35-37 | 18 | 20 | 11 |
| NY Mets | 16 | ↑1 | 39-34 | 11 | 11 | 16 |
| Arizona | 17 | ↑3 | 37-35 | 19 | 19 | 26 |
| Cleveland | 18 | – | 37-34 | 15 | 16 | 12 |
| SF | 19 | ↓3 |
40-33 | 9 | 15 | 25 |
| Seattle | 20 | ↓1 | 31-43 | 25 | 24 | 6 |
| Pittsburgh | 21 | ↑2 | 38-33 | 14 | 13 | 27 |
| Kansas City | 22 | ↓1 |
31-39 | 24 | 21 | 10 |
| Philadelphia | 23 | ↓1 | 34-40 | 22 | 23 | 18 |
| Miami | 24 | – | 34-38 | 21 | 22 | 15 |
| Milwaukee | 25 | – | 33-39 | 23 | 26 | 24 |
| Minnesota | 26 | – |
29-42 | 27 | 25 | 9 |
| Houston | 27 | – | 30-42 | 26 | 27 | 23 |
| Colorado | 28 | – | 27-44 | 28 | 28 | 22 |
| Chic Cubs | 29 | – | 24-48 | 29 | 30 | 20 |
| San Diego | 30 | – | 26-47 | 30 | 29 | 19 |
Past Rankings:
Cheers.
AL East
Just a reminder that all five of the teams in the American League East have positive run differentials. That’s one of many reasons why it’s insane that ESPN has Toronto and Boston ranked 15 and 17 in their power rankings.
I like my rankings or these rankings much better because it appears that some actual thought was put into them beyond just “put the team with the most wins at the top”. Do you really think the Pirates are better than the Red Sox?
Cheers.
ggplot2!
So I had lunch today with two stats post-docs, and the R package ggplot2 came up. So I started dabbling and here is my first graph. It’s the same as my one-hitter graph, but instead it was made with ggplot2. I think it looks a bit more professional.
Cheers.
Strikeouts on the rise
Someone recently mentioned to me that strikeouts in the major leagues were at an all time high. So I did what anyone would naturally do: Write some R code to scrape baseball-reference.com, collect team data for every team over the past 112 years, and plot it. The results are below:
Things to notice:
- The strikeout rate for the first 15 years of the 20th century was relatively flat at around 10%.
- There have been two major drops in strikeout rates. The first was from about 1915 through 1920, the second was between the late 1970s through 1980.
- The first drop in strikeout rates was around the beginning of Babe Ruth’s when power hitting became a more prominent part of the game.
- The second major drop followed a rules change where the mound was lowered from 15 inches to 10 inches for the 1969 season.
- These two small periods of rapid decline were both followed by long stretches of slowly increasing strikeout rates. Strikeout rates steadily climbed from about 1920 through the mid-1960s, and then again from 1980 to present.
- In 1973 the American League introduced the designated hitter (DH). Before 1973, the American and National leagues had very similar strikeout rates. After 1973, one can see a clear separation of the leagues as the National league, not surprisingly, has had a higher strikeout rate than the American league every year since the beginning of the DH era.
- The team with the highest strikeout rate in the last 112 years was the 2010 Arizona Diamondback who finished 65-97 with a strikeout rate of nearly 25%. Before 1980, the team with the highest strikeout rate was the 1968 New York Mets.
- The team with the lowest strikeout rate of the last 20 years was the 2002 Anaheim Angels who won the World Series that year. Since the mound was lowered, the 1980 Texas Rangers have the distinction of having the lowest strikeout rate for a season. The lowest strikeout rate for any team since 1901 was the 1901 Boston Americans with a strike out rate just over 5%
Cheers.
Stats in the Wild 
