16 Responses to “Less Than 25 Home Wins Within 1st 120 Games Of Season – Since 1996”

1. Tmckelv Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 10:47 am

   Interesting that the Pirates are not on this list at all.

2. Shawn Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 11:12 am

   I was surprised to not see the White Sox on here, given that we completely suck at home and are way above average on the road. I looked at the White Sox page and it says that they have 26 home wins, so they just missed being on here.

3. nightfly Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 11:29 am

   Woof, those '03 Tigers were atrocious. I'm half-convinced that part of Alan Trammell's difficulty in getting into the Hall of Fame comes from the fallout of this bomb of a team: their pitching staff *as a whole* was replacement level (-0.2 WAR), their offense was only 0.6 WAR, and they were butchers afield (-4.5 WAR). It's the very definition of "replacement-level performance." Geez laweez.

   Then, they fired him and immediately went to the Series in 2006. ZOMG Jim Leyland is teh awsumz !!!one!@two! And maybe he is, but poor Trammell.

4. Zachary Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 11:51 am

   Marlins season ticket holders? They exist?!

5. alvin115 Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 12:47 pm

   Re:the '97 Phillies. It's good to be reminded how bad this team was- it helps make the good times now that much better.

6. Joe Garrison Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 1:04 pm

   That 1999 Royals team had a team ERA of over 4.00 in those home wins. They had one of the better outfields in recent memory (Damon, Dye, Beltran) and a young Mike Sweeney. But as they say, good hit no pitch. Their season record was more than ten games below Pythagorean Expectations.

7. jiffy Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 2:34 pm

   Interesting to see 2003 Milwaukee on there given their crazy success at home this year. Guess they figured out the ballpark by now.

8. n17317 Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 5:56 pm

   It's "fewer" than 25 games, but thanks a lot for this.

   It's interesting how many teams on this list are so bad that I remember them specifically. The '03 Tigers had to get hot at the end of the year to hit 40 (!!) wins. The '04 D-backs cost Randy Johnson a Cy Young. SI dissed the '01 Reds in their season preview because Elmer Dessens was their best pitcher. Eric Milton threw a no-no against the Angels that had much more to do with the lineup than the pitcher. So many bad teams on this list.

9. DoubleDiamond Says:
   August 15th, 2011 at 8:46 pm

   I count one team with a World Series championship just two seasons in the future, two with World Series championships only three seasons in the future, and one more (the one that leads off the list) with a World Series appearance just three seasons in the future.

10. JoshG Says:
    August 15th, 2011 at 9:50 pm

    @4 - They do, but they never show up

11. Neil L. Says:
    August 15th, 2011 at 9:51 pm

    Sean does not define "elite" hitter in his NY Times article. That should be noted.

    At risk of oversimplfying, I think that what is the heart of Sean's thinking is the fallacy of using RBI, on its own, as a measure of the quality of a hitter.

    We can pick at some of the specifics of the article, but the fact remains that a batter cannot control the number of runners on base when he comes to the plate. He only has control over turning himself into an RBI with the long ball.

    RBI is a stat, like wins for a pitcher, that is used by those uninclined to dig a little deeper. Look at the amount of weight it is given by MVP voters!

    Think about it for a minute before you go off on me. Is it possible that there is some similarity between how Joe Carter was viewed at the time and how Ryan Howard is seen today? Hold on, hold on, hear me out.

    Ryan Howard is a much more productive hitter than Carter ever was. However, just as Carter's reputation was inflated by his RBI totals, so may Howard's today.

    Sean's article is provocative, but don't lose sight of his main point, in my opinion.

    I think the table posted in this blog is not a good follow-up to the NY Times article. It tends to obscure the RBI issue as it relates to Howard rather than illuminating it.

12. Neil L. Says:
    August 15th, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    @11
    Sorry, please disregard. Wrong blog.

13. Kahuna Tuna Says:
    August 16th, 2011 at 1:19 am

    From 1919 to 1995, team won, at home, in team's first 120 games, sorted by smallest number of games in a single season matching the selected criteria:

    • 1956 Athletics and 1961 Phillies, 13 wins
    • 1939 Browns and 1962 Mets, 15 wins
    • 1940 Phillies, 1944 Phillies, and 1969 Padres, 16 wins
    • 1919 Athletics, 1924 Phillies, 1928 Braves, 1937 Athletics, 1953 Browns, and 1981 Blue Jays, 17 wins

14. Detroit Tigers Links: Delmon Young trade is ‘low-risk’ | Detroit News Says:
    August 16th, 2011 at 9:48 am

    [...] home. But it’s not the all-time record. You’re never going to guess who owns this one. [Baseball-Reference] Article source: [...]

15. John Garrett Franklin Says:
    August 16th, 2011 at 11:32 pm

    It is interesting to see that among the teams listed above that the 2011 San Diego Padres have had the lowest ERA in their wins by a wide margin. This is further testament to how weak their offense has been this season, requiring nearly perfect pitching to muster a win.

16. Kahuna Tuna Says:
    August 17th, 2011 at 4:03 am

    JGF, the Padres' announcing team tonight kept trumpeting the fact that the Padres lead the National League in runs scored since the All-Star break. They really have done much better in the past five weeks:

    First half: 40-52, 304 RF, 338 RA (3.30 R/GF, 3.67 R/GA), 3 games scoring 10+ runs, 15 times shut out

    Second half: 15-17, 164 RF, 139 RA (5.12 R/GF, 4.34 R/GA), 4 games scoring 10+ runs, 1 time shut out