15 Responses to “Bad Batter Starts To A Season”

1. John Autin Says:
   May 10th, 2011 at 9:19 pm

   Surprising to see Mark Reynolds with "just" 17 Ks in those 15 oh-fers; he averaged 1.68 Ks in such games. His K rate this year is down to a career-low 26.8% (previous career rate 33.6%). Fat lot of good it's done him so far.

2. DavidRF Says:
   May 10th, 2011 at 9:55 pm

   Several of those players recovered and had fine seasons. McCovey ended up with a 182 OPS+ in 1970. Nettles had decent years in both those seasons but 1970 was a particularly slow start. He was hitless in his first seven games with a .320 OBP. A fair amount of high-BB guys on the list. I see Ott and Yost.

   Ripken's start in 1982 was so bad he got benched twice. 🙂 He recovered to win ROY that year and didn't get benched again for a decade and a half.

3. mccombe35 Says:
   May 10th, 2011 at 10:05 pm

   I thought I'd see Ventura up there. I think he had an 0 for 49 streak?

4. Neil L. Says:
   May 10th, 2011 at 10:29 pm

   Two players from the current season. How much longer can they remain everyday players?

   Just shows how you can live on past reputation.

   But then again the Yankees are winning and it will cover one of the players on the 2011 list.

5. MikeD Says:
   May 10th, 2011 at 10:52 pm

   @4, a player can live on past reputation for so long. Since we're only 30 or so games into the new season, it's too early to give up on a player with a solid track record.

   In the case of Posada, he's in the last year of his contract, so the Yankees don't have a reason to stay with him forever and, of course, they have a potential high-impact replacement in Montero down at AAA. They'll give him through June, but if he does pick it up, the Montero era will begin.

   Reynolds? He doesn't have age as an excuse. Hard to say what Showalter will do and when. They'll give him plenty of rope.

6. Anon Says:
   May 11th, 2011 at 11:37 am

   Hansen only played 23 games total in 1966, 14 of which made this list. Excluding the those games, he went 13 for 28 with a 1.105 OPS.

7. steven Says:
   May 11th, 2011 at 12:22 pm

   Some pretty impressive ballplayers on this list. Off topic: Can Major League Baseball stop letting teams wear those ugly, generic black jerseys?

8. John Autin Says:
   May 11th, 2011 at 2:09 pm

   Off-off-topic ... or ... "About last night":

   -- Lincecum and Kennedy dueled to a draw, each going 8 scoreless innings in SF's 1-0 win. It was the first such game in the majors this year. Their pitching lines were eerily similar across the board; each yielded 4 hits, threw 76 strikes and had a 0.558 WPA.

   -- Kyle Farnsworth hadn't walked a single batter this year before last night. I guess that's why Joe Maddon felt comfortable intentionally walking Travis Hafner with runners on 1st & 3rd and 1 out. Farnsworth walked Michael Brantley to force in the winning run. Cleveland opened a 5-1/2 game lead in the AL Central.

   -- Pinch-runners played a vital role in at least 3 games:
   > SF's Darren Ford ran for Buster Posey after a leadoff walk in the 9th, stole second, and scored the game-winning run on a single.
   > Toronto's David Cooper ran for Yunel Escobar after the SS was hit by a pitch in the 6th. Cooper stayed in the game and hit a go-ahead HR in the bottom of the 8th -- the first of his young career, and the first this year off Daniel Bard. In his next time up, after Rajai put himself on 3rd with a single and 2 steals (against the virtually helpless tandem of Matt Albers and Jason Varitek), Cooper hit a game-winning sac fly.
   > Baltimore's Felix Pie ran for Luke Scott in the 8th, then stayed in the game. He doubled leading off the 10th, but was stranded on 3rd. In the 11th, with the O's down a run, Pie singled to tie the game and put the winning run on 3rd with 1 out, and Baltimore went on to win.

   -- 83 degrees in Miami, no rain, no NBA game, 2nd-place Marlins hosting the 1st-place Phillies with the dream pitching matchup of Halladay-Johnson -- and 22,000 tickets were sold. I don't think that publicly-financed new stadium is going to wind up a good investment.

9. Pageup Says:
   May 11th, 2011 at 4:19 pm

   man, 0 for 60, ouch

10. BobBobson Says:
    May 11th, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    This immediately made me think of Bob Buhl going 0 for 1962. That is, no hits in 70 at-bats as a pitcher; he somehow managed to walk 6 times, score twice, steal a base and drive a guy in that year without getting a single hit. Can anyone top that?

11. Neil L. Says:
    May 11th, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    @8
    JA, awesome catch on the PR common denominator for three different games last night! The David Cooper angle on the Red Sox-Blue Jays game was truly bizarre. And Escobar is back in the line-up tonight!

    Will you create a site where you post random notes on oddities about current games? I'm ready to subscribe.

12. MichaelPat Says:
    May 11th, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    @11
    Cooper is playing 1B tonight for the Jays. When he came into the game for Escobar last night, MacDonald moved from short to third, Encarnacion from first to third, and Cooper took first. (Adam Lind, Jay's reg. 1B is out with a sore back).

13. Neil L. Says:
    May 11th, 2011 at 9:15 pm

    @12
    Michael, got it. For Jays fans thank goodness for John McDonald. He can play anywhere.....apparently.

    But a strange confluence of circumstances in last night's game nevertheless.

14. Raymond Culpepper Says:
    May 13th, 2011 at 11:54 pm

    I was fascinated by this list, but I spot-checked a few...Roseboro, Posada, and Reynolds and ALL had several hits within their teams first 14 games...Where, oh where, did the info come from? I sure did not remember the two listed for this year.

15. Raymond Culpepper Says:
    May 14th, 2011 at 12:10 am

    Further details debunking 'Bad Starts':

    Instead of 0-for-52 in first 17 games of 1968, John Roseboro was 8-for-58 - albeit a bad start, not zeros...in 16th game, he was 5-for-5.

    Instead of 0-for-46 to start this year's first 15 games, Mark Reynolds was a 11-for-56 with five doubles and a homer.

    Instead of 0-for-45 in this year's first 14 games, Jorge Posada 7-for-43 and even had 5 homers!

    The author of this list should check his figures before putting out inaccuracies like these. Very Disappointing!