Tuesday, August 27, 2024

How did the White Sox go from a .195 winning pct vs. sub .500 teams to a .351 winning pct over night?

The White Sox were 8-33 against sub .500 teams (.195) thru Sunday.

Here were the lowest winning%'s vs. teams with a sub .500 record in the Stathead database thru Sunday. This year's White Sox were way ahead of (behind?) the pack.

CHW  2024  0.195
NYM  1963  0.250
PHA  1916  0.286
PIT  1917  0.288
PIT  1952  0.295
PHI  1938  0.295
CIN  1932  0.295
NYM  1965  0.296

Click here to see the Stathead results. The 2024 White Sox are not there anymore, for reasons explained below.

This only covers the years 1901-2024. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who finished 20-134, were 9-33 vs. sub .500 teams for a .214 pct.

BB Ref now shows the White Sox at 13-24 (.351) against sub .500 teams. Since they lost to the Tigers yesterday the Tigers are now at an even .500 so apparently the White Sox 1-9 record vs. the Tigers is taken out of the mix (actually what was previously 1-8 is taken out of the mix).

So they were 8-33 against sub .500 teams before Monday's loss to the Tigers. Take out the 1-8 against the Tigers and we get 7-25. It looks like the Rays and Cards both just slipped below .500. Sox are

4-2 vs. Rays
2-1 vs. Cards

That makes it look like they should now be 13-28. But the Sox are 0-4 against the Cubs. The Cubs just got to .500, so those 4 losses drop out of the mix and we are left with 13-24 (.351), which is not the all time worst record against sub .500 teams. 

If the Sox beat the Tigers tonite then the Sox record against sub .500 teams would become worse than it is right now. What would that record be?

The Sox would then be 2-9 vs. the Tigers. That would make them 15-33 vs. sub .500 teams for a .313 pct.

And all that assumes nothing changes with the Cards, Rays and Cubs (and no other teams on the .500 bubble). The Giants are at an even .500. Sox are 1-2 against them. If the Giants were to lose today, then that would change things, too.

Thursday, August 22, 2024

How did Carl Yastrzemski hit in Sept/Oct of 1967?

The Red Sox won the pennant by 1 game. They beat the Twins, the team they were tied with, on the final day of the regular season. In Sept/Oct, the Red Sox were never more than 1 game out or 1 game ahead. A very tight pennant race.

In his first 134 games thru Aug 31 in 1967 Carl Yastrzemski had

AVG .308
OBP  .401
SLG  .594
RBI 95

next 13 games

AVG .356
OBP  .442
SLG  .644
RBI 8

last 14 games

AVG .471
OBP  .557
SLG  .863
RBI  18

For all of Sept/Oct

AVG .417
OBP  .504
SLG  .760
RBI  26

Monday, August 19, 2024

Pitching triple crowns this year? Skubal & Sale are currently leading in all 3 stats

Last non-Covid season a guy won the pitching triple crown was 2011.  Both Kershaw and Verlander. See TRIPLE CROWN OF PITCHING from Baseball Almanac.

Stats below are from Baseball Reference.

AL pitching leaders

Wins

1. SkubalDET 14
2. LugoKCR 13

RodónNYY 13

RodriguezBAL 13

ValdezHOU 13
6. BurnesBAL 12

GilNYY 12

OberMIN 12
9. BelloBOS 11

BerríosTOR 11

BrownHOU 11

GausmanTOR 11

LópezMIN    11

ERA 

1. SkubalDET 2.49
2. BlancoHOU 2.89
3. GilbertSEA 2.96
4. HouckBOS 3.01
5. LugoKCR 3.04
6. BurnesBAL 3.10
7. SingerKCR 3.18

RagansKCR 3.18
9. ValdezHOU 3.20
10. MillerSEA 3.29

SO 

1. SkubalDET 185
2. CrochetCHW 176
3. RagansKCR 174
4. GilbertSEA 155
5. CastilloSEA 154

Kikuchi2TM 154
7. LópezMIN 152
8. KirbySEA 148

RodónNYY 148
10. RyanMIN 147

NL pitching leaders

Wins 

1. SaleATL 14
2. CeaseSDP 12

WheelerPHI 12
4. GraySTL 11

NolaPHI 11

ReaMIL 11

WebbSFG 11
8. AbbottCIN 10

KellerPIT 10

KingSDP 10

StoneLAD 10

SuárezPHI 10

ERA

1. SaleATL 2.62
2. WheelerPHI 2.72
3. GreeneCIN 2.83
4. ImanagaCHC 3.11
5. WebbSFG 3.17
6. KingSDP 3.19
7. NolaPHI 3.45
8. CeaseSDP 3.46
9. ManaeaNYM 3.46
10. SánchezPHI  3.46

SO

1. SaleATL 187
2. CeaseSDP 186
3. GlasnowLAD 168

GraySTL 168
5. GreeneCIN 162

PeraltaMIL 162

WheelerPHI 162
8. KingSDP 161
9. NolaPHI 142
10. WebbSFG  140

Other seasons with a pitching triple crown winner in each league

1905
1918
1924
2011

Chris Sale is 35. If he wins he won't be the oldest but he will be one of the oldest. Skubal is 27. Here are the guys who did at age 33+:

Cy Young was 34 when he won it in 1901.

Grover Cleveland Alexander was 33 in 1920 when he won his third triple crown.

Walter Johnson was 36 in 1924 when he won his third triple crown.

Roger Clemens was 35 in 1998 when he won his second triple crown.

Randy Johnson was 38 when he won it in 2002.

Monday, August 12, 2024

Christy Mathewson once pitched 1 and a third innings to get a relief win (3 days after getting a complete game win) and then pitched a complete game shutout the next day

He was born on this date in 1880.

Here is a stretch of his games from 1911:

5-23) Wins complete game with 2 runs allowed 

5-26) 1.2 IP for relief win (no hits or walks) (Grover Cleveland Alexander also pitched in relief in that 5-26 game)

5-27) Complete game shutout (that is the next day after the relief win)

Click here to see his 1911 game logs from Baseball Reference

NY Times headline about 5-26 game "'GIANTS IN PERIL; MATTY RESCUES THEM; With Score Tied and Two Men on Bases "Big Six" Breaks Up Phillies' Rally."

Click here to read The NY Times article. You might have to be a subscriber to read it.

The Phillies had two men on in the 8th and had scored 2 runs to tie the game at 3-3 when Matty came in. The Giants scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win 5-3. Matty pitched a scoreless 9th. The Giants came into the day in 2nd place, 1 game behind the Phillies.

Here are brief excerpts from the Times article:

 

 

He started 37 games that year (297.1 IP) and had 8 relief appearances. In relief he was 2-0 with 3 saves.

Here are some some relief stats:

IP  11
H  5
R  2
ER  0 (not sure if 0 is right since ERs were not tallied for all games)
SO  2
BB  2
AVG  .143
OBP  .143
SLG  .143

Five of his relief appearances were in September. The Giants were in a pennant race, beginning the month 3.5 games ahead. It fell to just 1.0 games and was still just a 4 game lead at the end of play on Sept. 14 with 26 games left.

Things eased up for the Giants because by the end of Sept. they were 6.5 games ahead. They actually played 12 regular season games in Oct. for some reason and were up by at least 7.5 games the whole month.

He pitched in 12 games from Sept. 1-Oct. 4. In 7 starts he had 60 IP. In those 5 relief appearances in Sept. he had 2.2 IP with 2 saves. Overall in the 62.2 IP, he allowed just 14 total runs, 49 hits and 7 walks.