Fun stat I learned recently.

In 2015, Bryce Harper batted .466 vs SP the third time thru the order. That’s the highest since Rod Carew in 1977 (.481)!!!

Believe It or Don’t!


edit: in a non-strike shortened season. Tony Gwynn batted .530 vs SP the third time thru the order in 1994

Posted by d_rock97 on 7/6/2020 2:55:00 PM (view original):
Fun stat I learned recently.

In 2015, Bryce Harper batted .466 vs SP the third time thru the order. That’s the highest since Rod Carew in 1977 (.481)!!!

Believe It or Don’t!


edit: in a non-strike shortened season. Tony Gwynn batted .530 vs SP the third time thru the order in 1994

Holy crap. It's too bad we don't see (a) batters hitting for contact or (b) pitchers that go deep into ballgames anymore.

We'll never see another significant hit streak or realistic push for .400 ever again.

Cy Young's 511 wins is out of reach. Pete's hit mark will stand for a long time. Triples records are unlikely to fall. Just about everything else is possible. Stars align every now and then. Imagine a Nolan Ryan that thinks like Greg Maddux. It could happen...

There will probably never be another Secretariat or another Robert Gordon Orr, but I will camp out for tickets if they do show up.

The old-time pitching marks (career wins, shutouts, complete games, innings pitched) are all out of reach. And you're right, trends come and go - if the nerds figure out that base-hits can be more valuable than the 3 true outcomes, we may get another hit king (let's face it, if Ichiro played his entire career in MLB, he'd be king).

I do think Joe D's 56 game streak is unreachable - he only faced 55 different pitchers (some multiple times of course) -that breeds familiarity through repetition. I saw something from a couple years ago where Jackie Bradley Jr. (of all people) had a 29 game streak in 2016 - he faced 65 different pitchers in about half as many games.

Just won an opening game in a 90M theme league courtesy of a pinch hit 3-run homer.

Batter was 1908 Buck Herzog. Real life: 0 HR in 225 PA.

Pitcher was 1906 Three Finger Brown. Real life: 1 HR allowed in 296 IP.

Park was Polo Grounds (IV): -1/-1 for HR.

Believe It or Don't!

Quite a dramatic TOC run we've had a with a 90M theme team (Random Captain):

In the first round we won the opening two games before being forced to win the deciding game 3-1, coming back late from a 1-0 deficit.

In the second round we again blew a two game lead before winning the deciding game 1-0 on a Hideo Nomo no-hitter.

In the third round we fell behind two games to none before taking the final three games, two by shutouts and the last by an 8-7 score. Thus bumping our record in elimination games to 5-0.

In the fourth round, a best of 7, we fell behind three games to none, at which point I posted in the league message forum: "Well, all we have to do is win 4 straight elimination games and we're in the final!" Guess what? We're in the final.

All four rounds went the distance, our pitchers are tired as hell, and we're facing a very good, rested team. We'll probably lose.

Still ... 9-0 in elimination games!

Believe It or Don't!

Posted by crazystengel on 8/1/2020 2:31:00 AM (view original):
Quite a dramatic TOC run we've had a with a 90M theme team (Random Captain):

In the first round we won the opening two games before being forced to win the deciding game 3-1, coming back late from a 1-0 deficit.

In the second round we again blew a two game lead before winning the deciding game 1-0 on a Hideo Nomo no-hitter.

In the third round we fell behind two games to none before taking the final three games, two by shutouts and the last by an 8-7 score. Thus bumping our record in elimination games to 5-0.

In the fourth round, a best of 7, we fell behind three games to none, at which point I posted in the league message forum: "Well, all we have to do is win 4 straight elimination games and we're in the final!" Guess what? We're in the final.

All four rounds went the distance, our pitchers are tired as hell, and we're facing a very good, rested team. We'll probably lose.

Still ... 9-0 in elimination games!

Believe It or Don't!

Holy crap, time to buy a lottery ticket. The “ never say die” team just may pull this off

Posted by crazystengel on 8/3/2020 5:12:00 PM (view original):
So far everything's going according to plan. We lost the first two games.

Your post reminds me of my second ever TOC win. I posted this thread (hard to believe it was ten years ago...)

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=413465

Update on the TOC never-say-die team:

In the final we fell behind 3 games to none, as is our wont, and were trailing in game 4, 2-1, heading into the bottom of the 9th. Starter 1904 Addie Joss was on the mound for our opponent, pitching a gem. But Joss wouldn't record another out: single, error, and a triple by 1992 Barry Bonds, and we'd won our 10th elimination game in this TOC.

Believe It or Don't!

The fat lady finally showed up in game 5, and she brought a megaphone. We got crushed 9-3.

It was fun while it lasted...

In the $120 mil theme of the WISC, my league had, as expected, 5 1908 Addie Joss’ that finished in the top 5 for Cy Young voting. 4 of them ended with exactly a 1.00 WHIP

54

54

32

17

0

0

369.3

1483

4785

288

79

4

81

102

.209

.257

.256

1.00

1.93

49

49

27

10

0

0

378.3

1511

4805

322

79

2

56

76

.226

.258

.262

1.00

1.88

54

54

25

14

0

0

384.7

1533

4916

319

83

4

66

82

.222

.259

.258

1.00

1.94

54

54

32

13

0

0

353.7

1412

4554

291

90

9

64

73

.219

.257

.273

1.00

2.29

Believe It or Don’t!

I recently had an AAA 2B in a theme league put together an interesting string of plate appearances. In real life he's 1890 Bill Greenwood who slashed .225/.327/.312, so I never expected much from him. But I did give him back to back starts to rest my #1 guy.

First game, the rookie went 0-4 his first four times at bat, then in the bottom of the 10th came up with the bases loaded and walked. Got player of the game for that effort.

Second game, he went 0-0 with 5 walks. Scored three runs and knocked one in.

That's 6 straight walks from a crappy player.

Believe It or Don't!

P.S. The MLB record for consecutive plate appearances with a walk is 7, shared by the following players:

Billy Rogell, Detroit Tigers – August 17 through 19, 1938
Mel Ott, New York Giants – June 16 through 18, 1943
Eddie Stanky, New York Giants – August 29 and 30, 1950
José Canseco, Oakland Athletics – August 4 and 5, 1992
Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants – September 24 through 26, 2004

In the recently filled Champs league, I started a 200K pitcher in a home game with six rookies in the field behind him. Checked off for relief work were two more 200K pitchers and our two AAA pitchers (all would see action in the game). Our opponent used his regular players, and on the mound had a starter with a 2.72 ERC#.

That starter did fine, allowing 4 runs in 6.2 innings before being pulled with a 3 run lead.

By the bottom of the 9th that lead had been extended to 13-4.

At which point things got a bit goofy. Three relievers tried to close out the game for the visitors, all rested and with decent ERC#'s (1.84, 2.60, 2.07). 9 hits and 2 errors later, they left the stadium in defeat.



Believe It or Don't!

Posted by crazystengel on 8/14/2020 2:31:00 AM (view original):
In the recently filled Champs league, I started a 200K pitcher in a home game with six rookies in the field behind him. Checked off for relief work were two more 200K pitchers and our two AAA pitchers (all would see action in the game). Our opponent used his regular players, and on the mound had a starter with a 2.72 ERC#.

That starter did fine, allowing 4 runs in 6.2 innings before being pulled with a 3 run lead.

By the bottom of the 9th that lead had been extended to 13-4.

At which point things got a bit goofy. Three relievers tried to close out the game for the visitors, all rested and with decent ERC#'s (1.84, 2.60, 2.07). 9 hits and 2 errors later, they left the stadium in defeat.



Believe It or Don't!

Thanks for not mentioning this debacle was against my team. Good grief, it's certainly worthy of your "believe it or don't" post. Ha.