As I was pouring over stats for an article I’ll publish tomorrow, I found some very interesting tidbits that I thought I’d share with everyone:
-The Philadelphia Phillies are the only team to have had the same five pitchers start every game this season. Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer, Adam Eaton and Kyle Kendrick make up the team’s 74 starts.
-Of those qualified for the ERA title, there are 42 pitchers with an ERA below 4.00. All of 2007 saw 40 such pitchers.
-Coming into April 14th, Jason Kendall was hitting .405 across his first 37 at-bats. He is hitting .254 after compiling another 176 at-bats.
-Carlos Quentin is on pace for 38 home runs, 127 runs batted in and nine stolen bases. Eric Byrnes is on pace for 13 home runs, 51 runs batted in and nine stolen bases.
-With an 0-for-3 effort on today, Marcus Thames’ home runs in a streak is still alive. The torrid pace (last eight hits have been home runs) helped give him a nine at-bats per home run rate! Obviously, that’ll even out as he garners more and more playing time, but it is pretty impressive. Here are the top in AB/HR from a pool of the top 40 home run hitters so far this season:
-We all knew it at the time, but as the season wears on the Miguel Tejada trade just looks better and better for Baltimore. Tejada has been his regular declining self on pace for 20 home runs, which is fine enough. Baltimore got centerpiece Luke Scott, who is on pace for 28 home runs and looks to be finally putting it all together. In addition, they got Matt Albers and Dennis Sarfate who have contributed 75 strong innings out of the bullpen. Troy Patton was also a part of the deal, but has yet to pitch for the O’s. Albers, Sarfate and Scott have been three key players in Baltimore’s very surprising success that has them two games over .500.
-Three players have over 30 stolen bases so far this season (Jacoby Ellsbury, Willy Taveras and Ichiro Suzuki with 34, 31 and 30, respectively). This time last year, Reyes was blowing away the field with 38 and the next closest total was a trio with 22 stolen bases.
-In their best year ever, Carl Crawford has actually been one of the worst performers on the Tampa Bay Rays. After three straight seasons of .800+ OPS, he is at .681 through Wednesday.
-Adrian Gonzalez is on pace for 44 home runs. He hit a total of 54 in 2006 and 2007 combined.
-On May 11th, Emil Brown had 33 RBIs… he has 4 since.
-Freddy Sanchez has the worst OPS amongst players qualified for the batting title with a .564. He posted an .851 in 2006 when he won a batting title and then a solid, if unspectacular follow-up of .785 last year. Off-season shoulder surgery is the likely culprit for a busted 2008.
-Of those qualified for the batting title, nobody is below .200. Last year, Richie Sexson ( .198 ) and Elijah Dukes ( .191 ) were below the Mendoza Line at this point in the season. They are doing their best to get there against as Dukes is hitting .226 and Sexson is at .219.
Look for a study on starting pitchers to come out tomorrow in this space…
Baseball By Paul 