not-at-all-trivial trivia 2013

pujols is correct!

the other two are harder -- one was in the 70s, one was earlier this century

Yeah, just looked up Robinson--monster year, but short on the slash stats.

.290/.379/.558, 38 HR, 143 OPS+ (lower than Soto right now...).

Scott Rolen? Bellinger?

i guessed buster posey, but he came up a little short in OBP. i cheated and looked up the 2000s answer and never would have guessed it, ever

...or the other one, from the 70s.

yeah, the other two are pretty obscure -- and neither won rookie of the year!

bernie carbo, 1970
austin kearns, 2002

austin kearns, 2002: .315/.407/.500, monster defense in the OF

2002 NL rookie of the year Jason Jennings: 16 wins

bernie carbo, 1970: .310/.454/.551 in f'in 1970 hitting environment

1970 NL rookie of the year Carl Morton: 18 wins

wins: forming the primary element of terrible arguments since before john smoltz was even born

morton was at least fairly close in WAR; jennings was not

today's trivia, part 2

name the one player in baseball history has won AL LCS MVP, NL LCS MVP and World Series MVP

note: LCS MVPs have only been named since 1977 (NL) and 1980 (AL)

Cu*t Sch*ll*ng?

solid guess, but n0

Never would have guessed Bernie Carbo in a million years. Not sure I even knew who Austin Kearns was.

I don't think the voters were wrong in 1970. Carbo had 365 AB; Morton threw 284 innings, and in a huge hitter's year and pitching for a 73-win, second-year expansion team, was under a hit per inning--barely, albeit--and had an ERA of 3.60.

yeah, i guess. he also led the league in walks, but that's a *lot* of solid innings

in f'in 1970 hitting environment

You would think so, but while surrounded by big pitchers' years (including '68), 1970 was some kind of bizarre blip--probably the biggest hitters' year of my lifetime until either 1987 or the PED-era.

Average runs scored per team in the NL:

1968 - 558
1969 - 658
1970 - 731
1971 - 633
1972 - 605

No idea why--it was '69 when they lowered the mound, and I don't think there were any changes along those lines in '71 or '72--but '70 has always fascinated me.

yeah, i was just looking into that here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/bat.shtml
i was totally wrong! i had always just assumed that the year of the pitcher kind of extended on a bit through the early 1970s, but that's not the case at all. baseball is weird

With his next hit, Albert Pujols will be the ninth player to get 1000 hits in both leagues. Who are the other eight?

Clues: three are HOFers, two were on the HOF ballot this year but weren't elected, two others have yet to appear on the ballot (one of whom has a very good HOF case), and one retired in 2011 and was primarily a shortstop.

Frank Robinson
Bill Buckner

Robinson yes, Buckner no.

Is Beltre the "very good case"?

No, he's not--949 hits in the NL.

Raines must be one of them.

I should clarify that all eight of these guys are retired.

Not Rained or Beltre.

Raines

Raines had 966 AL hits. I'm evidently working on a shadow list of the guys who came the closest without actually doing it.

Anyway, the three HOFers are Robinson, Winfield, and Vlad Guerrero. The two guys who weren't elected to the HOF this year are McGriff and Carlos Lee. The two not yet eligible are Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Beltran. The last one is Orlando Cabrera.

I remember p much nothing about Cabrera and Lee.

btw the AL LCS + NL LCS + WS MVP was . . . orel hershiser

I gave up after my near misses. If I'd thought about it, I'm sure I would have gotten Winfield and Vlad eventually. McGriff, probably not. The others, no. Good question.

A friend gave me this the other night: who was the last Cy Young winner to win 20 and hit .300? (Prompted by Max Scherzer, who was hitting .288 going into tonight's game--he's 1 for 2 tonight.) Not that hard if you think about it--I missed on my first guess, got it on the second. I found a page that list all seven HOF pitchers who did both in the same season (including the answer to the question). The page says seven non-HOF pitchers did it too. So a second question: who was the last guy (maybe--the last HOF'er, anyway) to win 20 and hit .300 in the same season?

my go-to for 'pitchers who could hit' is always former pirate great rick rhoden, who never won 20 games or had a significant cy young showing (fifth once)

so what i'm saying is that i have no idea

first guess that come to mind was dontrelle willis

Rhoden was 14-9 in '84, hit .333; Willis won 22 in 2005 and hit .261. So good guesses both, but no. I'll leave the question open till tomorrow.

Glavine?

Just checked -- it's not him, he never hit .300 in any season and was under .240 in his Cy Young years.

I'm going to go with Mike Hampton for my second guess (can't remember if he won the Cy during that one really good year he had, but he could hit).

Fernando "El Toro" Valenzuela?

Hampton finished second in the voting in 1999, won 22 games, and hit over .300. He might be the answer to #2 (not a HOFer though).

xp those are solid guesses, but i don't think it can be anyone (even) that recent

i'm sorry, 'el toro' is clearly former pirate great pedro alvarez's nickname

Glavine was my first guess too, NoTime. And Hampton is more recent than the answer I had for the second question (one of those seven non-HOF'ers)--good job.

The correct answer to the first question is Bob Gibson, who hit .303 in his Cy-winning '70 season. The HOF answer to the second question was a year later (and extra tough because an AL pitcher just prior to the DH): Catfish Hunter won 21 in 1971 and hit .350!

Some others: http://www.baseballbunts.com/index.php/the-club/299-pitchers-in-the-hall-of-fame-with-20-wins-and-300-batting-average-in-a-season

bob gibson is the answer to so much!

good quiz

Holy crap, I didn’t know that about Gibson! I knew he was a fine hitter, but dang.

The big surprise to me was Catfish Hunter--that .350 mark was in 103 AB. He was pretty good for his whole career (.226), even if you eliminate 1971 (still above .200). He only got two more PA after the DH came in; batted 1.000 in 1973 in one AB.

I wouldn't have guessed Gibson. I was sure it was somebody more recent.

https://enlightenment.rip/

this was discussed on the fangraphs podcast - it's a tool to discover the first MLB player who was younger than you and the last player older than you

for me it's rick ankiel and bartolo colon

Mine are Ed Nunez (journeyman AL reliever) and Julio Franco

I always thought the first younger was Jose Oquendo, but Nunez beat him by a year

ankiel/bart for me as well