15. It seems only right that catcher A.J. Pierzynski would start his 17th season in Boston. After hitting .272 with an OPS of .722 to go with it for Texas, where else would a catcher, who had spent 7 seasons as a White Sox earlier in his career, play? He’ll don the jersey number 40 though, as Carlton Fisk, Red Sox Hall of famer, had his 27 retired long ago. In 2005, the White Sox having already his number 72, additionally dedicated a statue to Fisk during Pierzynski’s first year with the club.
14. Billy Williams, the Cub Hall of Fame outfielder, seems to go the unsung route outside of those friendly confines of Wrigley & the Chicago area. Here’s some numbing numbers for the unfamiliar: He was born in ’38, played his last game at 38 years of age, won the N.L. Rookie of the Year award in ’61 with a .298 ave, 25 HR, 86 RBI, and three-38 OBP. In 16 full season plus a combined 30 games played in ’59 & ’60, he had a .290 ave, 426 HR, 434 2B, 88 3B, 1,475 RBI, and .361 OBP. Whereas today’s power men have K totals tripling their BBs (or worse), he only struck out 1 more time than he walked (1,046 to 1,045) He also led the N.L. in LF assists 4 times and had double digit OF assists 7 times. He played his last 2 seasons in Oakland (’75 & ’76).
13. In 2012, Mike Trout became the first player ever to hit .320+, 30+ HRs, and have 45+ SB while coming up just 1 swiped bag away from the exclusive 30 HR-50 SB Club, whose only members are Eric Davis (’87) and Barry Bonds (’90). Not bad for a rookie, perhaps he will join them in ’13.
12. You know you’re talented when you hit .285 with a .930 OPS, 31 2Bs, 43 HRs, 103 R, and 128 RBI in a rather durable 148 games and people are somehow disappointed with those stats in a contract year. If anybody other than Josh Hamilton had those numbers in ’12, we’d be raving solely about how great of a season it was instead of focusing on his ‘bagg-AGE‘ and ‘unworthiness’ to $20+ mil per year. Time will tell.
11. For any fans who became disenfranchised with the seemingly commonality of the home runs being hit due to smaller parks, poor pitching in the late 90s and early 2000s, and whatever effect of PEDs, just remember that there are still only 25 members of the 500 Home Run Club. In addition, with David Ortiz’ 2012 membership to the 400 Home Run Club, there are, rather neatly, 25 members in that club. 50 players at 400 HRs is still beyond exclusive.
10. Pete Rose, Carl Yastrzemski, Hank Aaron, Rickey Henderson, Ty Cobb, Eddie Murray, Stan Musial, and Cal Ripken Jr. make up the 3,000 games played club. It’s no surprise that the list is made up of exclusively HOF-caliber and legendary icons. However, only 642 players all-time have appeared in as many as 1,500 games in the Bigs, which in comparison, is a mere 9 full seasons and 40 games in the 162 game era.
9. Many of the game’s top starting pitchers easily average 100 pitches while averaging 6 innings pitched per start. That’s an average of 16.67 pitches per inning. So why worry about innings pitched for guys coming off Tommy John surgery? It’s the pitches that count, not innings thrown, according to the modern philosophy. If that concern is so great for Stephen Strasburg, (at 139-2/3 IP entering 8/21), and he is shut down at say 170 innings (as the Nats insist he will be at the 160 to 180 IP range), he should have thrown only 6 warm up pitches in between those 170 innings instead of the traditional 8. Why? Well, that would have saved him 340 pitches. He then could have applied them to an additional 20 game innings at that same pace of 16.67 pitches per innings. Obviously, those 20 innings are another 3 to 4 decent starts, which would get him to the end of the regular season. Finally, at that point, how could anyone think of not starting him in a likely maximum 5 more playoff starts? Play the game.
8. Johnny Pesky’s number 6 is the only BoSox retired number despite not meeting the team pre-requisite of being named to the HOF. His Number 6 was dedicated in 2008. In ’42, he was #2 in batting average as a rookie at .331 as Ted Williams paced the AL at .356. Pesky also had 200+ hits in each of first 3 seasons.
7. In case anyone doubts the HOF qualifications of the likes of Kirby Puckett, his Rookie of the Year, 10 straight All-Stars, 6 Gold Gloves, and 6 Silver Sluggers should erase them. As for Gary Carter, his 324 HRs,11 All-Stars, 3 GGs, and 5 SSs should do the same. And Don Sutton’s 324 Wins, 3.26 ERA, and 3,574 K’s support his enshrinement. Phil Niekro put up 318 W’s, a 3.35 ERA, and 3,342 K’s to qualify. Jim Rice is merely the only player with consecutive 35+ HR, 200+ hit seasons and he has 382 HRs and 373 2Bs along with 1,451 RBI to represent his dominance. And Bert Blyleven is 5th all time in K’s at 3,701 and has 287 Ws to accompany a compact 3.31 ERA. Fortunately, the BBWAA annually has nearly 600 voters instead of just one.
6. Kerry Wood retired as a Cubbie on 5/18/12 after he fittingly struck out the lone batter he faced on 3 pitches. His career had many highlights of explosive strikeouts, but perhaps none can top his 5th career start when he fanned 20 Astros as a 20 year old on 5/6/98. In ’03, he led the NL with 266 K’s, which, minus Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, are the most since Jonh Smoltz had 276 in ’96.
5. On 5/8/12, the #1 player for the season in A.L. batting ave., HRs, & RBI, Josh Hamilton, produced an amazing 2 game 3.17 OPS after hitting 4 HRs with 8 RBI in that second game, to become the 16th player with a four homer game & he wore jersey #32.
4. Roberto Clemente won zero Gold Gloves in the first four seasons of the Gold Glove Award era. He won 12 GG’s in his next 12 and final seasons from 1961 to ’72.
3. Hank Aaron hit a homer every 16.4 AB’s; Babe Ruth every 11.8. Aaron had 3,965 more AB’s than Ruth. If Ruth had the extra AB’s and maintained just the average of both of their HR rates at 14.1, say at the beginning of his career, he’d have another 281 HRs. That would put him just 5 shy of a grand. If only he hadn’t pitched for 5 years….
2. Since 2003, twenty-three teams have fewer than Roy Halladay’s 61 complete games.
1. Duke Snider had 19 HRs off Robin Roberts, most all-time vs. one pitcher.