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Your Suggestions

Posted by Sean Forman on April 17, 2009

Trying to get the suggestions thread up and running. Let us know what you'd like to see here.

42 Responses to “Your Suggestions”

  1. purplerox Says:

    I was listening to a game the other day and an announcer said something about a 3 run home run and for some reason I wondered who was the all time 3 run home leader? Then what about solo home run leader, two run home run leader, etc. Then season leaders and all time leaders...

    Thanks
    purplerox

  2. adarowski Says:

    I like purplerox's idea... similar to that perhaps the all time leaders in 1-out saves, 2-out, 3-out, etc. up to ... well, whatever the longest save is.

    The other recommendation is one you can't plan for, and one you're basically doing already. When something interesting happens, a post that puts it in historical perspective is always a welcome sight.

    Love the blog. Great work!

  3. dave Says:

    What about adding the new Yankees and Mets stadiums to the ballpark menu for the PI game finders?

  4. dave Says:

    What about making a total game index as well?
    (Most/fewest of any stat in a game by both teams...)

    Highlight the current streaks in the PI streak finders...

  5. kicking222 Says:

    Adarowski's comment makes me want to know, simply, what the longest saves ever are. I mean, theoretically, the longest save could be 27 outs- home team gets lead in the top of the first, starter and first reliever come out without retiring a batter, second reliever goes all the way- but there's no chance the official scorer would ever give the win to the first reliever. So what is it? 12?

  6. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    Longest save since 1954 is 8 innings, by Dick Hall of Baltimore in 1961. The starter pitched 1/3 IP and was knocked out. A reliever came in to finish the first. In the top of the 2nd, the Orioles take the lead, making the 1st reliever (Wes Stock) the pitcher of record. Hall takes over in the bottom of the 2nd and goes the rest of the way, preserving the lead and thus earning a save. Stock was a reliever and probably used to warming up quickly. Hall had some starting experience, so I guess they then went to him knowing there were 8 more innings to go.

    Obviously, most save records have been set since 1954, so the limitations of the game finder don't matter. But it seems possible an odd situation like this might have been matched prior to 1954. Since '54 there have been 17 saves of at least 5 IP. Most recently, Joaquin Benoit went 7 IP in 2002.

  7. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    I have played around before looking at most multi-inning saves in a career, season. I think the changes in bullpen management are very interesting and there's so much interesting stuff you can find about it on this site. But I won't use up all the good ideas for possible future entries... 🙂

  8. kingturtle Says:

    it would be nice for someone to do a SOTD on Fidrych. There must be some neat things someone can come up with on him.

  9. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    Here's one: Fidrych has the 2nd most complete games (24) of any first-year pitcher in the live ball era (since 1920). #1 is Dave Ferriss, with 26 in 1945. Ferriss wasn't just a creation of weakened war ball, because in '46 he was just as good, going 25-6, 3.25, and another 26 CG. But he faded after that, only 19 more wins the rest of his career. Arm trouble, I suppose.

  10. TheGoof Says:

    Any chance we can get Win Shares or managers' postseason records?

    Essential? No. But they would be nice. I know some people criticize Win Shares, but I find them extremely useful in player evaluation.

  11. leatherman Says:

    Can someone please tell me how to post a link? I emailed Sean and he said it was fixed, but I still cannot do it. Thanks.

  12. dave Says:

    I got an idea!

    In the batting/pitching season finders make it so that you can generate a list of things without having a minimum or maximum amount.

    Such as most strikeouts, walks, and extra-base hits by a Pirates player in a season but none of the "less than or greater than" help in parameters.

    To explain even more:
    Sammy Sosa is the last player (and the only one since 1937) to have at least 100 strikeouts, walks, and extra-base hits in a season. But what if you were able to eliminate the "at least 100" part of the query!

    There's gotta be a way to total the stats for a query instead of the "at least" or "at most"

  13. ImAShark Says:

    Could you list all the players that have been suspended so far in 2009, and for the 2008 season? Thanks.

  14. WanderingWinder Says:

    I was wondering if someone could look up the maximum combined runs scored and allowed by a team in a single year and a single game. (i.e. the Yanks lost 22-4 today, so that would be a total of 26 for the game; if a team scores 1017 runs and gives up 892, that would be 1909 for the year). I'd be interested in seeing the highest single games overall, as well as maybe how that progresses from year to year. I'd also like to see the highest seasons overall (as a Ranger fan, I'm sure that they've got to have some of the highest totals) as well as how the league leaders progressed year-to-year. It might also be interesting to see the low totals for the seasons, though clearly for individual games it's going to be 1-0 shutouts every time.

    I'm not sure how to do this with the PI, or even if it's possible, but I'm pretty interested.

  15. dave Says:

    "I was wondering if someone could look up the maximum combined runs scored and allowed by a team in a single year and a single game. (i.e. the Yanks lost 22-4 today, so that would be a total of 26 for the game"

    It appears...
    The most runs scored total in a game (back to 1901) was 49 runs on August 25, 1922 between the the Phillies and the Cubs (26-23 Cubs win)
    Also, May 17, 1979 the Phillies beat the Cubs in extra innings 23-22

  16. gerry Says:

    Re comment 1 above, through 1995 Babe Ruth was the career leader in 3-run home runs, with 98; Aaron had 97, Foxx had 95. Of course, a lot has happened since 1995. Ruth also led in 2-run HR, 252 to 242 for Aaron and 225 for Killebrew. Aaron had 400 1-run HR, Mays was 2nd at 365.

    I know there have been several games in which there were 4 bases-loaded walks in an inning because this has recently been reported. Have there ever been 5 (or more) bases-loaded walks in an inning?

  17. mrcannon44 Says:

    Someone really screwed up Baseball Reference.....get me a magnifying glass to see the numbers.

  18. admin Says:

    Mrcannon44,

    This is easy to fix. Just hit ctrl-+ What i think has happened is that the old version had larger than average default font, so folks had shrunk it down and now the font is of a standard size, and the browsers remember the old setting and it appears way too small. ctrl-+ should fix this for all-time.

  19. Hardcase Says:

    Any way to find out how many players stroked a 3-RBI single?

  20. ddcmlb Says:

    What I'd like to see is a breakdown of all the double plays turned in baseball history: what is the most common (probably 6-4-3, 4-6-3), what are the most unlikely? Haven't figured out how to do that with the downloads...

  21. gerry Says:

    David Smith did a study of all the 4708 double plays turned in the 2000 season. 6-4-3 and 4-6-3 were indeed the most common, 1169 of the former and 1022 of the latter, followed by 5-4-3 (625 of those). That year there were 173 types of double play, 86 of which occurred only once each, so the question of "most unlikely" may not have a useful answer.

  22. BEEarl Says:

    I was wondering how often a player hit more home runs in a season than singles. I know Barry Bonds did it in 2001 and Mark McGwire did it in 1998 and 1999. Dave Kingman came close in 1973, but never accomplished it in his career. In 1996, Rob Deer had twice as many HR as singles (4 to 2), but in only 64 PA. He also did it in 1984 when 3 out of his 4 hits for the year were HR in 32 PA.

    So I was wondering how often it has happened in a season, even with a small number of PA.

  23. wboenig2 Says:

    Okay, here's a strange one ... I seem to recall hearing once that Vic Power had two streaks of over 90 PA in one season in which he put the ball into play every time -- no walks, strikeouts or HBP. Does anybody want to follow up on that with some more complete reasearch? Or maybe find the record of that type for each franchise? Call it the "guys who love to make contact" search.

  24. jmharvey Says:

    How about single-inning records? Johnny Damon and Gene Stephens each had 3 hits in an inning, and Fernando Tatis had 2 grand slams. Has anyone ever stolen 3 bases in an inning? Or made all 3 outs? Or been caught stealing twice? How about the most different hitters for one team in the same inning (due to pinch hitting or pinch running)? Or the most men sent to the plate without getting a hit?

  25. tomepp Says:

    Finding out if anyone has has made all 3 outs for a team in an inning shouldn't be hard if you can filter out only games in which a team scored 13 runs in one inning. (I don't know if b-r can do that...) I imagine that there can't be more than a handful of games that qualify. When the Indians scored 14 vs the Yankees the other day, they mentioned that the last time the Tribe did that was in 1950, so it's pretty rare.

  26. gerry Says:

    Many players have stolen three bases in an inning (no one has stolen four or more). Maybe the most recent was Eric Young, for the Rockies, 3rd inning, 30 June 1996. Several players have been caught stealing twice in an inning (no one has been caught three times). Maybe the most recent was Larry Walker, for the Rockies, 8th inning, 30 April 1998.

  27. tomepp Says:

    Unrelated to the ideas for future posts, I must say that I liked the old name of this feature, "Stat of the Day", better. "Blog" is such an ugly and over-used term. I'm glad to see you still use the "old" term in the navigation breadcrumbs.

  28. Jgeller Says:

    I'd like to see an ability to do season finders for players based on the number of wins or losses their team had. Basically who was the best loser, or something like that.

  29. tomepp Says:

    I wrote in a suggestions e-mail that I'd like a way to find players who were born (or died) in a particular year or month/year combination. For example, all players born in July 1959.

  30. dave Says:

    Look on the batting and pitching game finders.
    When it says “in team’s first (blank) games of the season” if I select "home" does that mean it has to be a home opener that is also a season opener or does that mean it’s the first home game(s) after the season opening road trips…

  31. Jgeller Says:

    What would also be nice for the game finder is to be able to search for games on days of weeks, like on Saturdays. I've had a partial season ticket plan for the Yankees for about a decade and i'd like to search easily for the games I went to.

  32. dave Says:

    Why aren't the new New York facilities listed for the game finders?

  33. dave Says:

    I just noticed that the Pirates had 3 players in 2003 with a hitting streak of 20 or more games.
    How close is that to a record?
    Most players in one season for one team with a hitting streak of 20 (or another total) games or more...

  34. dave Says:

    Streak finders should be game specific (such as searching for streaks that are over 5 games long)
    I don't call 1-2 games a "streak".

  35. rkochan2 Says:

    Here's something I'm curious about. Which pitchers have the most 3 hit games in the modern era? The other day, I noticed that Carlos Zambrano went 3 for 4, and although you've discussed his RBI exploits in the past, I can remember him having quite a few 3 hit games now.

  36. Raphy Says:

    Zambrano has 6. Among active pitchers he trails Livan Hernandez by 2. Here are the leader since '54 :
    http://www.bb-ref.com/play-index/shareit/wQJz

  37. fabio Says:

    Does anyone have any info on Pitching starts for which IP/Runs (allowed) combo has the best correlation with Wins? I started fooling around with Santana, Lincecum and Webb for 2008 and 7/2 came in low, 6/3 came in close. 7/3 also came close. 6/3 came in high. So it seems that its a horse race between 6/2 and 7/3.

  38. fabio Says:

    Also... has any team duplicated what the White Sox staff did in the 2005 ALCS - 4 CG in a row - since they pulled it off?

  39. Raphy Says:

    Fabio, I once started tabulating those IP/Runs numbers. Maybe one of these days I'll finish it off...

  40. Raphy Says:

    Regarding 38. In the 3 years since the White Sox threw 4 complete games, there has been 1 post-season complete game.

  41. Raphy Says:

    Regarding 32.

    Dave I disagree. Just today I was looking at players who threw 2 consecutive 1 hitters.

  42. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    Fabio, I assume you mean what is the most common "type" of start to get a win, not which has the highest correlation. Obviously 9 IP and 0 runs would get more wins than 7/2.

    Raphy, I assumed Fabio was asking if any team has had 4 straight CG at any time, not just in the postseason. Unsurprisingly, the answer is no -- it appears several teams have had back-to-back CGs, but no more than that. The last team to have 4 in a row was Boston in 1992 (G. Harris, Darwin, Viola, Clemens). The last with more than that was Oakland in 1981, and the longest in the Retrosheet era is Detroit '68 with 12. There's no question that there are longer streaks before that -- almost every start was completed back in the 1880s.