trivial occurrences 2018

I've been wondering about the answer to this: which pitcher has the highest career WAR who never received a single Cy Young vote? Does anyone with better search skills than me know how to find the answer? Obviously we're talking about pitchers in the era of Cy Young awards in both leagues, i.e. 1967 and onward.

I've found a few notable pitchers who earned downballot votes in a single year (e.g. Javier Vazquez, 45.9 career WAR). For all I know the answer might be a middle reliever.

I just plowed through the list of WAR leaders manually, and the answer seems to be a little below Vazquez: Tom Candiotti, career WAR of 42.5 with no Cy Young votes. Mark Buehrle and Chuck Finley were both around 60.0 and only had one mid-ballot finish each.

For closers, I know that Henke never got a Cy vote, and he finished with a career WAR of 23.0; that could be the highest for a closer, I don't know. (Also one of the best final seasons ever: 36 saves, 1.82 ERA, and exactly one 10th-place MVP vote.)

What’s always been funny to me historically is how well closers have done in MVP balloting vs starting pitchers. I’m not saying they always do better but they always nab a decent number of votes and since 1980 in the AL they’ve taken home three trophies (vs SPs who have won a pair.) and I mean I doubt any of them deserved to be in the top 5 or even 10. That goes for the Cy Young as well.

Willie Hernandez have a 4.8 WAR (according to BR) and pitch in 80 games and 149 innings in 1984 as a closer. He was 4th on the Tigers in WAR, but ahead of Jack Morris who was 8th w/ 2.5 WAR.

Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, and John Lackey were three of the names I checked (Angels starters seem to have a talent for this). Candiotti seems like a reasonable answer!

Willie Hernandez likely deserved his award, as would anyone pitching 150 innings in relief with a sub-2.00 ERA (if such a thing still happened in today's game). I don't think that WAR values these types of players correctly.

trivia: first player to hit a HR as a grandfather (that sounds odd, but i mean that they were a grandfather when they hit the HR)

i'm gonna need hints for that

one big one: I'm watching my fav team right now

and it's a player that most people have heard of

http://mlb.mlb.com//assets/images/5/5/2/148734552/MusialRockingChair_vfs05b0p.jpg

oic

I found about 22 instances of a relative pinch hitting for another, s.1908.

We don't have player anniversary dates, so some of the in-laws may not have been related at the time of PHing. Big gap in our dataset.https://t.co/OMMJtamjT3

cc: @Bencjacobs @dougcutchins pic.twitter.com/J5WqL5TBV9

— Sean Forman (@sean_forman) September 12, 2018

the son-in-law PH is vital trivia

That it's only happened once in the last 15 years (and 9 years ago) reflects on how the game is even more competitive now and there will be fewer opportunities for this to occur in the future.

X-post on Musial: his grandson had been born earlier the same day, and it was his first AB as a grandfather.

http://www.mlb.com/cut4/stan-musial-once-hit-a-homer-after-becoming-a-grandfather/c-148537416

Orlando Arcia bunted for a double yesterday. it was the 23rd bunt double on record (since 1988). it was the sixth by a right-handed batter. it was the first with multiple baserunners

— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) September 15, 2018

I attended the '85 matchup

When Jacob deGrom (1.71 ERA) faces Chris Sale (1.96) today, it will be MLB's first matchup of starters with sub-2.00 ERAs and at least 100 IP since Dwight Gooden (1.74) faced the Cardinals' John Tudor (1.95) at Shea Stadium in 1985, per Elias.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) September 16, 2018

so sweet my god

https://www.mlb.com/brewers/video/arcias-2-run-bunt-double/c-2487986383

more of this sort of thing. PARTICULARLY against the shift and particularly if it's BAD FOR BASEBALL

xpost

is this the game? turned out to be a pitcher's duel, unsurprisingly: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198509110.shtml

tudor pitched 10 innings and had a game score of 91; gooden pitched 9, game score 81

Yep! Orosco entered in the 10th and immediately yielded a solo HR by Cesar Cedeno.

Keith Hernandez made a great play on a bunt to the third base side of the mound (looks like by Tudor in the 7th) and got an out at third. Never saw a first baseman do that before or since.

on that same day, pete rose passed ty cobb

yes, at least until they recounted Cobb's hits

john tudor, whom the pirates famously dealt to the cardinals the previous winter for joggin' george hendrick, who hit .230/.278/.313 with two homers in 69 games before being dispatched to anaheim for a bag of balls

i mean look at this (57-104) 1985 pirates team: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PIT/1985.shtml

they traded *for* johnnie lemaster, who had already posted -1.1 bWAR in *23 games* with last-place san francisco and cleveland that season. there is a guy who has to be among the worst ever to play 1000 major league games

about all you can say is that rick reuschel had a great year at age 36

yes i'm still bitter

-1.1 bWAR in *23 games*

now that's amazing

Is it? James Shields' 2016 season seems as dismal...

it's pretty impressive for a utility infielder (or any non-pitcher). he only played the entire game in six of those 23, btw

he went 3-for-36 (all singles) with one walk, one run scored, one caught stealing and 11 strikeouts. also made three errors in 61 total chances at shortstop

by fangraphs WAR johnnie lemaster is indeed the second-worst position player of all time to play 1000 games, behind former mets great doug flynn

i would like to play major league baseball as a SS for 23 games, just so i could demolish the record for negative WAR

i would probably get hit by a changeup in the leg and die, though

Dee Gordon has eight walks and nine hit-by-pitches. the last qualified batter to have more hit-by-pitches than walks was Ollie O'Mara (1918)

— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) September 18, 2018

Deadball Dee

I need help from the Twitterverse!

Tuesday's walkoff HR in LA: Chris Taylor (No. 3 in your program) off Adam Ottavino (No. 0)

As @dakern74 mused, this is probably the lowest hitter/pitcher walkoff HR uniform total ever

If you can find the "record" I'll credit you in my column!

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) September 20, 2018

That is one stupid thing to get paid to do, Jayson Stark. I guess that's why you're outsourcing the work.

i just responded with a couple lower ones because i have NOTHING to do at work right now

xpost lol embarrassing

oh and i missed "walkoff" double embarrassing

Eh don't mind me I have a permanently sour mood.

don't feel too bad, i used to give jayson stark shit (on ILX, of course, which i'm sure he reads) for appearing to land a gig where he gets paid by the word and has no limit on his word count

i saw him speak once at a SABR convention and he seemed... smarter than online

b-ref dude ftw

Lowest batter/pitcher number combination for a walkoff home run. Note we don't have pbp for every home run, so this isn't definitive. (cc:@jaysonst)https://t.co/8wNkqXNF7K pic.twitter.com/XE4Cz5qA7x

— Sean Forman (@sean_forman) September 20, 2018

in the thread he also lists highest number combo plus tallest/shortest/youngest/oldest combos lol

turk wendell references are always good

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24747024/yankees-set-major-league-record-most-players-10-hrs

Clevinger is likely to get 200 Ks this season, he's four away. That would give Cleveland four 200 K pitchers. does that tie a record or set a record? I'm sure it's been done before at some point.

just randomly checking, the 90s braves never got close. a few teams had *two* 200 K pitchers in '68 and '69

wouldn't be surprised at all if it's a record -- there just haven't been strikeouts on this scale before

the 90s braves

yeah, as dominant as maddux was, he only reached 200 strkekouts once (1998, with 204)

found this from baseball roundtable, a 2014 article:

With the recent “feel-good” publicity surrounding pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training, BBRT took time to reflect on some unique accomplishments involving major league batteries – specifically looking at teams that could boast 200-strikeout performances by three pitchers in the same season. It’s only happened three times in major history, and the nine hurlers involve make up a pretty diverse bunch:

Five have at least one MLB no-hitter on their resume, with two of those having fashioned multiple no-hit games;
One is on a streak of five consecutive 200+ strikeout seasons, while five notched only one (well-timed for this list) 200+ strikeout seasons in their careers;
One was only the eighth rookie to notch 200+ whiffs, and never came close to the mark again in a 14-season MLB career;
One won sixteen consecutive Gold Gloves, while another is one of only eight pitchers to capture the Cy Young Award and league MVP in the same season;
One threw 17 no-hitters in high school (while racking up a 52-1 won-lost record);
One celebrated his eighteenth birthday by making his first major league start and striking out Willie Mays to end his first major league inning;
One is one of only two pitchers to strikeout four batters in a single post-season inning;
Four, at one time, led their league in wild pitches, including one who led his league in wild pitches and hit batters two consecutive years.

1967 Minnesota Twins: Dean Chance (220 Ks), Jim Kaat (211), Dave Boswell (204).
1969 Astros: Don Wilson (235), Larry Dierker (222), Tom Griffin (200).
2013 Tigers: Max Scherzer (240), Justin Verlander (217), Anibel Sanchez (202).

Most consecutive quality starts in a season, MLB history:

1. Jacob deGrom, 23
2-t. Bob Gibson, 22
2-t. Chris Carpenter, 22

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) September 22, 2018

wow