not-at-all-trivial trivia 2013

You can download the questions and answers from all rounds of last week's SABR convention contests at the bottom of this page:

http://sabr.org/latest/sabr-43-mike-caragliano-sets-another-convention-record-trivia-contest-championship

(I got a shockingly high 25/40 in the individual prelims, barely escaping entry into the next round.)

When you do this quiz at SABR, how much time do you spend on each question? Is there an honor system for phones?

There is def an honor system, backed up by a watchful proctor who reminds me of a character Joan Cusack could play ten years from now.

The trivia is always on Thursday and Saturday nights, I think. First rounds on Thursday are written. The second night has the finals for individual and team, with the contestants seated on the ballroom stage, and the format is very Jeopardy-like. It seems to me that "time" is called after maybe 20 seconds.

Assuming most of you haven't seen this yet, I wonder if you can name the six Phillies who have hit 40 or more HR in a season? I got 5.

howard, schmidt, chuck klein...utley?...

utley never hit more than 33

those first 3 are correct

I looked up the answer and never in a million years would I have guessed the fifth one. (Hint: a long time ago)

you mean the sixth one? yeah, the oldest was the one everyone but the scholars would miss.

I was proud of remebering the other 2 post-expansion ones, though. (Hint: Greg Luzinski is wrong.)

i don't even know where to look up the answer

well, you could search 'Phillies' on this

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hihr4.shtml

oh thome, acourse

and the one we haven't mentioned besides Cy Williams, Richie (Dick) Allen, 1966

live this evening!

The world-famous SABR Trivia Contest finals will be taking place tonight at SABR 44 in Houston, and it's always an entertaining and competitive battle to crown the individual and team champions.

We invite you to follow along with us live on Twitter beginning at 7:30 p.m. CDT/8:30 p.m. EDT on Friday, August 1 by visiting Twitter.com and searching for the hashtag #SABR44. We'll be live-tweeting questions (and answers if everyone gets stumped!), and you'll have your chance to test your knowledge online with other SABR members and friends.

The SABR Trivia Contest is moderated by D. Bruce Brown, co-chair of Horsehide Trivia with T. Scott Brandon and president of the Bob Davids Chapter in Washington/Baltimore. The questions are written and edited by Brown and Brandon, who also assembles the game boards, illustration and animation of the semifinal and final rounds.

The questions are presented in ascending difficulty. The early-round questions will be at a relatively easy starting point, while the late-round questions, though more difficult, will still interest casual fans.

Who are the 5 active pitchers with 25 or more career complete games? (All have pitched for teams in both leagues.)

guesses - buerhle, lee, burnett, kuroda?, colon?

sabathia?

good guesses, click when ready

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/CG_active.shtml

well, Kuroda only has 6, so you whiffed on that one

yeah shoulda pulled cc, and it did strike me that kuroda rarely gets that deep in games

CC was the first person i thought of and no idea how i didn't think of #5

My guess were: Colon Buerhle Burnett Lee and Hudson.

guesses.

since 1914, 16 pitchers have made 10 or more career opening-day starts. how many can you name?

Guesses all:

Spahn, Seaver, Clemens, Whitey Ford, Carlton, Randy Johnson, Maddux (doubtful about that one because of inter-staff competition), Phil Niekro, Sutton, Halladay, Blyleven, Morris, Mussina, Kaat, Walter Johnson (not sure of the timeline there...), Fergie Jenkins.

Sat there for 10 minutes typing that, and I'd be surprised if I got more than half.

i will deliver the answers tomorrow!

Other than picking HOF-level pitchers who also pitched forever, I don't really know how to approach this problem. Basing it on a list of 300-game winners is a good start:

Spahn, Seaver, Clemens, Ryan, Carlton, Randy Johnson, Maddux, Morris, Perry, Wynn, Grove, Halladay, Feller, Gibson, Pedro, Sabathia

Maddux has to be one I can't believe otherwise

From Clem's list I'm substracting Morris, Mussina and adding Pettite and Marichal. Somewhere Hubbell has to be in there somewhere.

Tom Seaver 16 NYM,CIN,CHW
Jack Morris 14 DET,MIN,TOR
Randy Johnson 14 SEA,ARI,NYY
Steve Carlton 14 PHI
Robin Roberts 13 PHI,HOU
Roger Clemens 13 BOS,TOR,NYY
Bert Blyleven 12 TEX,PIT,CLE,MIN,CAL
CC Sabathia 11 CLE,NYY
Dennis Martinez 11 BAL,MON,CLE
Walter Johnson 11 WSH
Fergie Jenkins 11 CHC,TEX,BOS
Pete Alexander 11 PHI,CHC,STL
Warren Spahn BSN,MLN
Juan Marichal 10 SFG
Roy Halladay 10 TOR,PHI
Bob Gibson 10 STL

Don Sutton, Rick Sutcliffe, Nolan Ryan, Steve Rogers, Brad Radke (!), Gaylord Perry, Phil Niekro, Livan Hernandez and Mark Buehrle have each started nine. (Niekro went 0-7 with a 7.31 ERA in those starts.) List: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/share.cgi?id=9KGd6

i saw one of radke's lol

For Seaver to be considered the best starter on his team for 16 years is pretty incredible

I would have been way off. Blue Jays fan will be able to tell me this: what are the chances of Buehrle entering this particular pantheon this year?

it's been dickey the last two years; could go either way, i guess

man the list of pirates opening day starters from like '94-'10

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PIT/opening.shtml

it's like a list of popes between gregory i and gregory ii, only half of them are sisinnius

dennis martinez is the most surprising name on the list, for me

he was the only one of the 16 that no one in my office guessed

i don't even know who Robin Roberts is.

'good morning america' anchor

jeezus man, he had 286 wins and I didn't even hafta look it up

Who is the only shortstop in history with 5000+ PA and less than ten stolen bases? (You know his name.)

he retired well over a decade before I was born! aside from that, his name never came up in trivia or anything else - looks like he was a fringy HOF'er. oh well... the more i know!
xpost

Led NL in WAR for pitchers every year 1950-54... Fringy!

http://joeposnanski.com/joevault/?p=116

ya - he did have a good run there – most of what he did looks like it was through sheer volume tho.

I should have had Roberts (I have his autograph on an old baseball book) and Alexander; I thought Gibson and Marichal had too short a prime, but I guess they were opening-day starters for the entire duration; Sabathia somewhat of a surprise; Martinez definitely a surprise.

Who is the only shortstop in history with 5000+ PA and less than ten stolen bases? (You know his name.)

my guess for this was close, but no cigar (15 SBs)

at least the answer knows his limitations -- some of these dudes should have run a lot less

Nomar?

nope

i read it in the new BP annual

Ah no. Nomar stole 22 bases in his rookie year alone.

Somebody from the 40's and 50's? I thought of Boudreau, but it's not him (51 SB's in his career).

Morb's hint "(You know his name.)" tells me it's either a modern player, or someone rather well known.

active!

I finally got it after ~5 or so guesses. for some reason I forgot he was a ss

my initial guess was saint cal, who was 33-for-66

What is a good filterable baseball stats site? If it's possible to home in on that answer at baseball-reference.com, I can't figure out how. Total database eejit.

took me five guesses after Morbs' latest clue.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/split_finder.cgi?type=b

i used fangraphs to find the answer (select "Career" under the "Batting Leaders" tab on the main page, click "SS" to restrict it to just SS PA's, set minimum PA's to 5000, then sort by SBs)

Jhonny Peralta was my first guess, just because i watch him play every game and can't imagine him ever stealing. but it turns out he's managed 15 successful stolen bases.

Thanking u mookie & Karl

Huh, I wouldn't have gotten that without looking it up.

I noticed Cabrera is just shy of .300/.400/.500 for his career right now, so searched out a list of players who retired with all three. Here's a Sporacle--harder than you might think. I got 17/22, with many incorrect guesses along the way. (Didn't miss anyone really obvious, though...maybe #7.)

http://www.sporcle.com/games/UnknownUser/mlb-all-time-300-400-500-club

Surprised Willie Mays isn't one of them!

I got 14. Actually only one of the ,300/3000 hit/300 hr club made the list. Those four are the firsts I went with.

Willie Mays didn't walk a ton.

corey seager is 6-for-6 with six RBIs in salt lol city today

the last player to perform such a feat in the majors was . . . barves' willie harris vs. cardinals, 7/21/07

(combined 25 runs on 36 hits in salt lake today: 5 homers, 7 doubles, 1 triple. joeks)

who is the oldest living player of your fave franchise?

(the Met is obvious yet surprising)

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/oldest-living-major-leaguers-mlb-teams-franchises-060215

each team's last walk-off grand slam:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJZqHyRWsAAWIky.png

http://www.hardballtimes.com/when-you-think-about-it-trivia-isnt-trivial-part-1

I'm part of team trivia contest every winter, and I always think at least half their (100) questions aren't trivia at all. I don't know what the exact dictionary definition, but to me, trivia and general knowledge aren't interchangeable.

https://i.imgur.com/GaP8EfK.png

At first I thought he was dumping the water on himself!

the only active player left who's homered off rick ankiel is . . . aj burnett

The Mets swept their three-game series against the Diamondbacks and scored all 13 of their runs on home runs. The last such series sweep in the majors--that is, three or more games with all runs driven in by homers--was played 55 years ago, with the Orioles sweeping three games at Detroit. Baltimore scored 13 runs in the series.

Nathan Karns is the first AL pitcher to homer in 4 years and the first to account for the only run in a game with a home run since 1962

I wonder how often a player is a triple short of a cycle and then actually gets a triple.

since 1914, there have been 244 instances of a player hitting for the cycle and 13,191 instances of a player ending up “a triple short of the cycle”

http://www.baseballessential.com/news/2015/04/16/least-likely-cycles

Pretty close but I guess what I'm getting at is obviously the triple is the hardest/least-likely part of the cycle to get, so if someone hits for the cycle, do they usually get the triple early in the process or is there no consistency about when the triple comes? Does that question make any sense?

i'm guessing there's not much consistency apart from maybe someone trying to stretch a double late if they've got the other three

I would imagine it's all random, though I wonder how many players a "triple short" try to leg out a 3B in that final at bat..

damn, killfiled by frogbs

But how could it be random if a triple is statistically less likely than a single, double, or homer? Seems like "a triple short of the cycle" would happen more often than a double short or a single short.

that is true (and it does). but it doesn't follow that ppl who actually get the cycle would hit the triple last

i think

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_to_hit_for_the_cycle

All you need is Baseball Reference, a spreadsheet, and a few hours.

i adore no-hitters compared to the jerkwad cycles.

a bit parochial, but

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2015/8/10/9111909/new-york-mets-trivia-teenagers

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2015/8/3/9084755/new-york-mets-trivia-40-year-old-players

@dennistlin
The Padres had come up one hit short of a cycle 361 times. They'd finished a triple shy 258 times.

Nice ceremony for the '85 Jays at today's game (Bell, Barfield, and Moseby specifically). I have even more nostalgia for the '83-87 group than the two WS winners.

Anyway, reminded me of something I'd forgotten. The '85 team clinched at home against the Yankees in the 161st game. What noteworthy thing happened in the meaningless 162nd game? (Not all that difficult.)

i assume a no-hitter.

Last night Bryce Harper became the 15th player in history to record 4 walks, 0 hits, and score 4 runs.

Right after becoming the all-time leader in major league games played by a native of the Dominican Republic, Adrian Beltre was ejected by home plate umpire Adam Hamari.

the Mets had never won a game 14-9 in their history; they did it twice in Denver this weekend.

Jack Brohamer hit the only major-league HR while wearing shorts

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/chicago-white-sox-shorts-1976-jack-brohamer-home-run-082115

According to Buck Martinez--who researches this stuff personally--Donaldson/Bautista/Encarnacion are the fifth trio of right-handed 30 HR/100 RBI-guys ever. No idea who the other four are.

@AdamRubinESPN
Elias: Tonight's #Mets-#Phillies game was the first in the modern era with 10 walks, 7 wild pitches and 4 hit batters.

@AdamRubinESPN
Elias: Steven Matz has 2nd-fewest regular-season pitching starts in MLB history entering an LCS start (6). PHL's Marty Bystrom has 5 in 1980

also, there has never been a World Series between "expansion teams" -- at least one has always been one of the "original 16." If Cubs drop, we'll have one.

40th anniv of Fisk Game 6, which i watched on the tv

@AdamRubinESPN
Michael Conforto will be 3rd to appear in Little League World Series, College World Series & World Series. Joins Ed Vosberg & Jason Varitek.

http://i.imgur.com/QUMUicJ.png

Jay Jaffe:

"[Franklin Morales] wound up retiring just one of the five batters he faced, leaving him with a 108.00 ERA for this World Series. Including his seven runs allowed in three innings for the Rockies in the 2007 World Series, he owns a 29.70 ERA in his World Series career, the highest for any pitcher with at least three innings thrown. With his ERA climbing from his previous mark of 21.00, he overtook Harry Gumbert, who allowed 12 runs in four innings over three World Series for the Giants (1936 and 1937) and Cardinals (1942), producing a 27.00 ERA, and Fred Green, who allowed 10 runs in four innings for the Pirates in 1960 en route to a 22.50 ERA."

name the eight players in mlb history who have hit 300 homers and stolen 300 bases

(i got four, could maybe have gotten one or two more, would never have gotten the last two)

just heard this on the BP podcast

i usta know at least 6/8

two are related

another of them is the oldest guy ever to play 100+ games in CF in a season

Guesses all: Mays, Barry/Bobby Bonds, Dawson, Larry Walker, Abreu, Biggio...not sure about the last three, will have to think about it some more. I want to say Henderson, but I think he came up a little short on HR.

your first four are correct

hint: two of the remaining are active

biggio and henderson were both very close but no cigar

Abreu was really close: 288/400.

Mike Trout? (That's a joke, I think.)

Yeah, Biggio and Henderson were even inside of Abreu.

the two active players are . . . on the same team

Looked them up. Of the two active players, should have gotten one for sure (the less celebrated player, actually--the more celebrated was a bit of a surprise). I could have guessed forever and a day on the other two and wouldn't have gotten them.

After these twos, I wonder how long will it take to have a new member. David Wright is at 293/195, Hanley at 210/267, Andrew McAwesome at 151/154 actually.

pretty sure david wright ain't stealing 100 more bases

Wright has 235 hr btw

i def remember it being noted when R Sanders and Finley accomplished this arbitrary round-number-obsessives' feat

mccutchen isn't going to get the steals (might not get the homers, either). trout has time to, but just isn't running much anymore

This was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

I thought Hank Aaron was one of them, but he had only 240 SB.

Five questions from Posnanski. (He sticks the answers right below the questions on his page, so I'll cut-and-paste them here and add a link for the answers.)

1. Only four players have hit 50-plus home runs for teams that won the World Series. Can you name the four?
2. Only one pitcher has hit more than five home runs in a season when he also won the Cy Young Award. Name that pitcher!
3. Two pitchers in baseball history had more 20 wins and 10 balks in the same season. Can you name them? (Hint, they are are both fairly prominent in the game today, one as an announcer and the other as a front office man).
4. Over the last 50 years, only one non-pitcher has won an MVP award with five or fewer home runs. Who was it?
5. In the last 50 years, which player had the most errors in a season? Hint: He’s in the Hall of Fame.

http://joeposnanski.com/trivia-questions-1/

The first one's my favourite kind of question: you'll get three right away, struggle with the fourth, probably give up, then think "Damn, should have had that" when you check the answer.

The second is my least favourite kind: the answer seems almost random to me, with no special significance.

I was blanking out on the most obvious guy in the answer to the first question (i.e. the one who did it first). It eventually came to me, but not before trying to remember whether Mays hit 50+ HR in 1954.

Kudos if you got the last one. I noticed the answer before I had a chance to think about it, but I probably would have been at for a while. The other question I really like is #4. Same thing: would have taken me a while if I hadn't seen the answer.

who is the only player to have started at least 100 games in each spot in the batting order

Someone who played for Jim Leyland.

Curtis Granderson? No real idea.

Not right, but not a bad guess:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=grandcu01&year=Career&t=b#lineu

hints:

- obviously an american league player of the last 40 years or so
- three-time all-star, four times in the top 10 for mvp, would be a charter member of the Hall of the Very Good
- played 20 seasons, none of which were below replacement level

(answer is here, about 40% of the way down)

and granderson is a seriously good guess

my first thought just now was Tony Phillips

Never would have guessed the answer.

he should be in the HOF i think

nice contrast with his longtime teammate among its weakest members

Pretty interesting, I'd imagine quite a few of the batting 8th and 9th was when he came up as that club had a big hitting lineup. His peak as a hitter was later than many.

Never would have guessed either--and when you think about the unusual shape of his career vs. the sometimes inverse fortunes of his team (especially in the early '80s), it does make sense.

My first thought after reading the hints was Omar Vizquel ... not close, really. Great question!

Robin Yount came close. Ben Zobrist may get there in time.

Six players in MLB history have appeared in games for all five teams in a current division. Who are they?

(answer)

'Rickey Henderson started 2,890 games in his Hall of Fame career, and not surprisingly 99.5% of those games saw him batting leadoff. His next highest count? He batted third eight times.'

Also Starling Castro just need around 250 games spread in the last 4 spots to join the club. Even closer than Zobrist.

Amazingly, while there have now been only 73 nine-inning games with game scores of 97 or higher in all Major League play since 1913 — less than one per season — this is actually the third time two such performances have come on the same day. Kerry Wood and Hideo Nomo both did in on May 25, 2001, and Randy Johnson and Jason Schmidt both did it on May 18, 2004.

btw only the 2nd time since 1900 that there are two 0-9 teams.

just saw that Harper is the 8th youngest to 100 HR. I can think of two of the younger 7, Mel Ott and Tony Conigliaro. OK, i guess Jr Griffey might be another.

i saw that list flashed on sportcenter, don't recall griff

arod was there, andruw jones, also johnny bench; pujols was right behind harper iirc

duh of course A-Rod and AJ

@based_ball
most strikes in a game with exactly 119 pitches

1. Max Scherzer, 96 (5/11/16)
2. Roy Halladay, 89 (6/30/10)
3(t). 88, five times

zone pounded

anyone thrown 100 strikes in 9 innings? w/ the old workloads i think they musta.

@AdamRubinESPN
Elias: Mets are the first team since the 1963 Washington Senators to have pitchers produce five extra-base hits in a five-day span.

@JamesSmyth621
Unique Box Score Line Alert
CC Sabathia 7 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
A first out of 975,000+ lines since 1913 in @baseball_ref Play Index

I wasn't aware that people tracked such things.

huh that doesn't seem like a very unusual line

By beating the Mets, Stephen Strasburg became the first National League pitcher to start a season 12-0 since Rube Marquard did it back in 1912, aka the year the Titanic sank.

The White Sox have become the first team since 1979 to turn three triple plays in a season.

Name the two remaining active players who appeared at Candlestick Park. (If you heard it on a broad/podcast this week, ineligible!)

expect beltre is one, dunno the other

dickey? prob not

Beltre correct!

The other was a Giant.

He's also a bit of a cheat, as he was in MLB this year but is presently only in a team's farm.

yup I looked it up, would've never come up w him

btw, Joe Nathan

@Buccigross
Cleveland is the first team in MLB history to have a game-tying HR and a walkoff inside the park HR in the same inning. #elias

three franchises' all-time home run leaders are active and still with the team. who are the hitters?

Papi, Stanton, Encarnacion?

maybe beltre instead of edwing

Don't think Edwin--gotta be Delgado...I doubt Ortiz, too; I'd say Williams. Which leaves...Stanton, probably; Longoria, surely; Votto or Braun?

I'll be happy if I even got one of them right. I'm terrible at sports trivia.

I checked--be happy.

clem pretty much otm: giancarlo, longoria and braun

who is the youngest active hitter with more career WAR than mike trout

Cabrera?

Just checked--tough question, easy guy to overlook.

my guess would be longoria

ah! longoria would have been right a couple of months ago

actually if you go by fan graphs i was right!

I automatically checked Baseball Reference--different answer.

My no-cheating guess was Tulo, but he's 4 WAR behind Trout. After that I looked it up -- it's a great question, and definitely not obvious.

for the record, the answer is dustin pedroia, who is seven years and 355 days older than mike trout

@sabr
A Golden Pitch is any pitch thrown when *both* teams could win or lose WS on one swing of the bat. 1912, '26, ’62, ’72, ’97, 2001, ’14, ’16.

mike montgomery became the eighth pitcher to throw one

@ajacksonevans
Barry Bonds homered on every day between Apr 1st-Sep 29th in his career, except Aug 5th

Aug 5th is the date Bobby Bonds homered on the most

i can't parse that, help?

oh its two different names

there are eight hall of famers* whose on-base percentage was higher than their slugging percentage. how many can you name?

*inducted as batters, not pitchers/managers/etc

(only two of them played during any of our lifetimes, and one just barely)

quite a few from Deadball i imagine, incl some notorious inductions from the 'Frisch' VC period of late '60s

dang, my first guess of rickey was .018 off

Pure guess for one of the modern players: Nellie Fox?

Nope--slugging .015 higher.

One of them has to be Ozzie.

Yes: .337/.328.

Billy Hamilton 	1888-1901	.344/.455/.432
Roger Bresnahan 1897-1915	.279/.386/.377
Johnny Evers 	1902-1929	.270/.356/.334
Ray Schalk 	1912-1929	.253/.340/.316
Rick Ferrell 	1929-1947	.281/.378/.363
Luke Appling 	1930-1950	.310/.399/.398
Richie Ashburn 	1948-1962	.308/.396/.382
Ozzie Smith 	1978-1996	.262/.337/.328

hmmm only 2.5 deadballers really

I remember during the first baseball strike as a hid, ESPN had on tv an old-timers game in DC and Luke Appling hit a home run and I think he was like 70 years old.

I knew Richie Ashburn hit a lot of singles, but I don't think I ever realized just how good he was--led the league in walks four times (high of 125), stole a fair number of bases in a station-to-station decade, a lot of triples, good defense. Must have been next among '50s CF after Mays, Mantle, and Aaron.

Snider, I meant to say.

name the two hall-of-fame pitchers who won world series games in stadiums that also hosted a super bowl

one has to be the lefty from Brooklyn

or maybe the righty from Van Nuys

one is indeed the righty from van nuys, in the la coliseum in 1959

weird that you didn't tell me to not mention football, though -- are you okay

i thought about it ;)

i thought the other park was in Florida, but that does not seem to be the case

btw the other (besides drysdale) is bert blyleven

guess which two i missed

(not the interim from the '60s)

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2017/2/27/14719378/new-york-mets-trivia-managers

first auto-IBB: yadier molina, with mike montgomery pitching

The Yankees' first 12 batters of the game either walked or struck out. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, they are the first team in the expansion era (since 1961) with a strikeout, walk or hit by pitch in each of their first 12 plate appearances of a game.

carlos 'true outcomes' martinez

A most unimpressive 8/15.

http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/mlb-baseball-trivia-quiz-random-players

I got 12/15. I did not know the guy on the Rays, missed on the Hunley/Hollingsworth and I got Shannon Stewart of the Twins wrong.

Stewart was one of the few I was 100% sure of.

What 2 MLB parks are tied for hosting the most all-time "cycles"? The answer is hi-larious.

it's Fenway and Coors.

ELIAS: The Dodgers have held leads at some point in their last 44 games. That's an MLB record. Previous high: 1906 Cubs (43 straight).

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 20, 2017

jaime garcia will soon make a start for his third different team in one season, something no pitcher has done since 2007.

who was that pitcher?

i don't know but i just saw that LAD trivia you posted and that is incredible

(the answer to the above question is the benighted Byung-hyun Kim)

but also

According to the Patrik Eliáš Sports Bureau, Jon Lester joined John Smoltz as the only pitchers since 1900 to hit a HR and record his 2000th strikeout in the same game.

According to @EliasSports, Jaime García is the 1st pitcher to make 3 straight app. as a starter for 3 diff. teams since Gus Weyhing in 1895.

— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) August 4, 2017

martin perez is the first rangers pitcher to fan four times in a game

Rich Hill's loss was only 40th time since 1920 a pitcher had a 90+ gamescore and lost. Warren Spahn did it 3 times: https://t.co/xqxGaLQjKa

— Ted Berg (@OGTedBerg) August 24, 2017

Chad Green is the first pitcher in @MLB history to have seven strikeouts while facing no more than eight batters in a game.

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) August 30, 2017

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2017/9/6/16265112/will-middlebrooks-rangers-triple-doubleheaders-first-player-in-history

Gary Sanchez second-fastest to 50 HR in his career, tied with Mark McGwire (161 G), behind Rudy York (153 G).

jacoby ellsbury now holds the record for most times reaching base due to catcher's interference, with 30

more info: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/baseball-has-a-new-all-time-record/

I was down at the Jays-Orioles game last night, and I saw Mark Trumbo lose a routine fly ball in the lights and overrun it by a factor of 2.715--I believe that's a record.

http://www.mlb.com/gameday/orioles-vs-blue-jays/2017/09/11/492246#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=492246

Maybe you can't link directly to MLB videos...It's in last night's video clips for the Jays-Orioles game.

New @SABRbioproject: Jamie Moyer, ageless wonder who faced nearly 9% of all batters in @MLB history https://t.co/3ZvfR0ADO0 @moyerfoundation pic.twitter.com/Bg3p81hX4n

— SABR (@sabr) September 15, 2017

I haven't verified this yet, if anyone would care to:

Travis d'Arnaud hit his 13th homer of the season last night.

The most hitters on one team with at least 13 home runs, in NL history:

9 by the 2017 Mets and the 2005 Reds
8 by the 1957 and 2006 Reds, 2016 and 2017 Cards, 2004 Phillies, 2009 Rockies, 2016 Nats and 2017 Brewers

i guess that can happen when half the team is hurt and the other half traded away

the brewers need two more from jonathan villar to join the mets with nine. the astros have 10. both of their contingents are all still with the team tho

Clayton Kershaw, Career:
IP: 1923.0
H: 1416
BB: 507
WHIP: *exactly* 1.000000000000000000000

— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) September 25, 2017

Matt Olson stuff from Jonah Keri:

-- Olson has now hit 46 home runs this season in 135 games -- 23 with Triple-A Nashville, 23 with the A's.
-- Olson is the first rookie in major league history to swat 15 homers over a 21-game span.
-- Olson has hit 12 homers in his past 17 games, eight in his past 11, and five in his past six.
-- Stats Inc. recently offered up a terrific comparison of all-time sluggers. Here are the all-time leaders in fewest at-bats per home run, minimum 150 plate appearances:

Babe Ruth 11.8
Cody Bellinger 11.5
Mark McGwire 10.7
Matt Olson 7.78
Rhys Hoskins 7.77

this is the third season since WW2 with no in-season managerial changes.

Guest:
I wonder what the most career hits is for a player to have > 50% XBHs? Right now, Stanton has 955 career hits, 477 singles, 478 XBH, which seems insane to me. Instagraph?

Jeff Sullivan:
Stanton is in second place all-time! From 2 through 5, it goes Giancarlo Stanton, Russell Branyan, Chris Carter, and Khris Davis

But while Stanton is second at 955, Mark McGwire is first, all the way up at 1,626

McGwire finished with 52% extra-base hits, mostly because, by the end, he could hardly leg out a single

For the first time ever, the four most-populated U.S. cities — New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston — are represented in the American League and National League Championship Series.

Unprompted, non-topical fun fact: Yankees center fielders have averaged 5.2 fWAR per season since 1925. That's a baseline of Carlos Correa's 2017 WAR, over a span of 93 seasons.

— Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) December 4, 2017

insane

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/allow-me-to-present-an-incredible-baseball-coincidence

for some reason earlier today i was wondering about how often the ball is hit to each position over the course of a season. i figured the stat would be pretty easy to find, but my googling failed. so i tried to do it myself using fangraphs defensive data, specifically their "BIZ" stat (Ballz in Zone, which is supposed to measure how often a ball is hit into the "zone" that a player fields, which is different from the number of plays actually made.)

Position	BIZ		%
1B		6239		10.1%
2B		10662		17.3%
3B		10021		16.3%
SS		11293		18.4%
LF		6742		11.0%
CF		9367		15.2%
RF		7157		11.6%
TOTAL	61481		100.0%

big caveat: BIZ doesn't seem to include the zone of the pitcher or catcher ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(^that's for 2017)

Please direct all Zone-related questions to these three guys.

http://www.shorescripts.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/stalker-7.jpg

(Sorry--that word has been permanently hijacked for me.)

clemenza for some reason i think you'll be especially excited about this:

earlier today alfred posted a link to oyez.org, which is a database of all sorts of useful supreme court information written concisely and using plain-language. there are biographies of each SC Justice (https://www.oyez.org/justices). bizarrely, each one includes a baseball quiz(?????) at the end, in this style:

https://i.imgur.com/4aJatTn.png
https://i.imgur.com/eqnbsOw.png

the baseball quiz is included for EVERY SINGLE JUSTICE.
https://i.imgur.com/P0gF4uy.png

i can't imagine the amount of work that went into comparing every single SC Justice to a baseball figure, but it might be appreciated here at least.

That's hilarious, thanks. Just got Clarence Thomas wrong. Correct answer: Lou Pinella, because they both "provided some punch to their respective franchises" (uh, okay), and because controversy has followed them. I intuitively guessed Joe Pepitone, because in Ball Four he put a piece of popcorn under his foreskin.

My own question: the two HOF pitchers who each won a Cy Young but never got a single Cy Young vote in any other season.

Eckersley and Drysdale?

Drysdale's one of them (half of his prime coinciding with a teammate's...). With the other guy, it's not really a meaningful measure--a lot of his career is pre-CYA.

Think I found it - Dean Chance

Chance is one of a number of pitchers who won a Cy but never got Cy votes in any other season--think I spotted at least 10. I was looking for the two HOF'ers, though.

Early Wynn

Speaking of whom, some awesome home movie footage of him warming up in his last year (starts at 1:17):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FHafsz-p-k

Yes--Early, part of the original Jays' broadcast crew. (He probably would have received Cy Young votes in '52 and '54 if the award had been around...Hard to say; there was only one award for both leagues, and he didn't receive any votes in '56 for a season that was better than either of those.)

i have a bit of baseball trivia in my own neighborhood, maybe mentioned here before: the owner of a pizza joint we sometimes grabs a couple pies from (and who's usually still behind the counter most nights) is one of a dozen or so people in MLB history whose sole career hit was a home run. I believe he went 1-4 total across a few games during his cup of coffee.

https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/st-louis-cardinals-san-francisco-giants-doug-clarey-one-done-092215

Keith McDonald had 3 hits, all homers, in his 8 game career: http://www.baseballroundtable.com/keith-mcdonald-2018-paciorek-award-winner-made-a-career-out-of-going-yard/

yeah but how is his pizza

six players in (known) history have played with more than 700 different teammates. edwin jackson is now second, with 763. name any of the other five and guess the leader:

A few guesses: Bartolo, Julio Franco, Ted Lyons, Phil Neikro.

for longevity and multiple teams, Rickey Henderson comes to mind

rickey is indeed one of them. (and also one of edwin jackson's teammates). none of clemenza's are.

i would never have gotten the number one guy, but the others are known guys who played fairly recently. one of them is canadian

is octavio dotel one of them?

Orosco?

steve pearce maybe as of today?

i rmeember thinking "i hope pearce plays for the red sox one day so he can be a trivia question about players who have played for the entire AL east" and sure enough! dunno how to look it up but i wonder if any other players have played for every team in a division...

steve pearce *is* about to complete his AL East collection in just six years, which is sort of impressive

eric hinske was close, but never got to baltimore

not orosco either, although two of them (besides rickey) did play for the mets

was dotel one of them tho? i feel REAL good abt that one

(also i have no other guesses if colon isn't in there)

dotel is a good try; he's in the high 600s

As far as I can tell, new Boston 1B/OF Steve Pearce will be just the 5th player to play for every team in a division, with Kelly Johnson (AL East), C. Izturis (NL Central), Mark McLemore (AL West), Steve Finley (NL West).

— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) June 29, 2018

Also Matt Herges in the NL West. (Thanks to Rob Morse of the Yankees' PR dept. for the correction.) https://t.co/KYOKvl5qnm

— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) June 29, 2018

1. Terry Mulholland 791 (11 teams)
2. Edwin Jackson 763 (13 teams)
3. Matt Stairs 725 (12 teams)
4. Rickey Henderson 725 (9 teams, not counting the A’s four times)
5. Carlos Beltrán 719 (7 teams)
6. LaTroy Hawkins 703 (11 teams)

(Octavio Dotel 654 (13 teams))

whoa, weird to see Beltran in there

My guesses weren't very good--all I thought about was longevity, overlooked the multiple-teams factor. Ted Lyons spend hit entire career (21 seasons) with the White Sox. I think I may have actually been thinking of multiple-teams with him but got him confused with Bobo Newsom.

spend hit = spent his...

Weird question, in that technically there's not a correct answer. But there's a link on Baseball Reference for "Historical Deadline Deals" where you can look at all the transactions on July 31 year-by-year. There's one year where I think there's an unmistakable spike in the number of transactions, and from that point forward it's never not an exceptionally busy day again.

What year? (Recent enough that you might have been aware of the spike at the time.)

I remember Randy Johnson getting traded literally minutes before the deadline in 1998, for whatever reason that year really stands out for me.

It was '95. Till '86, there are annually one or two transactions on July 31. There are four in '87, and it stays in that range for the next few years. In '95, there are suddenly 10 deadline transactions, and it's stayed that way ever since (with a high of 20 in 2015).

http://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/transactions.cgi?month=7&day=31

I don't know what brought on the change. You had a couple of expansion teams added in 1993--that was probably a factor. (I'd discount 1994 because of the impending mid-August strike.) Past that, I don't know, but something changed.

It must have been the wild card -- more playoff spots, more teams looking for help at the deadline, more deals.

more delusions, more trades

Wild card, of course. Duh...(Assume the spike would have happened a year earlier if the strike hadn't been looming.)

juan soto can become the fourth *national league* rookie to hit .300/.400/.500 (minimum 250 PA) since 1945

name the other three

First two guesses: Pujols and F. Robinson.

pujols is correct!

the other two are harder -- one was in the 70s, one was earlier this century

Yeah, just looked up Robinson--monster year, but short on the slash stats.

.290/.379/.558, 38 HR, 143 OPS+ (lower than Soto right now...).

Scott Rolen? Bellinger?

i guessed buster posey, but he came up a little short in OBP. i cheated and looked up the 2000s answer and never would have guessed it, ever

...or the other one, from the 70s.

yeah, the other two are pretty obscure -- and neither won rookie of the year!

bernie carbo, 1970
austin kearns, 2002

austin kearns, 2002: .315/.407/.500, monster defense in the OF

2002 NL rookie of the year Jason Jennings: 16 wins

bernie carbo, 1970: .310/.454/.551 in f'in 1970 hitting environment

1970 NL rookie of the year Carl Morton: 18 wins

wins: forming the primary element of terrible arguments since before john smoltz was even born

morton was at least fairly close in WAR; jennings was not

today's trivia, part 2

name the one player in baseball history has won AL LCS MVP, NL LCS MVP and World Series MVP

note: LCS MVPs have only been named since 1977 (NL) and 1980 (AL)

Cu*t Sch*ll*ng?

solid guess, but n0

Never would have guessed Bernie Carbo in a million years. Not sure I even knew who Austin Kearns was.

I don't think the voters were wrong in 1970. Carbo had 365 AB; Morton threw 284 innings, and in a huge hitter's year and pitching for a 73-win, second-year expansion team, was under a hit per inning--barely, albeit--and had an ERA of 3.60.

yeah, i guess. he also led the league in walks, but that's a *lot* of solid innings

in f'in 1970 hitting environment

You would think so, but while surrounded by big pitchers' years (including '68), 1970 was some kind of bizarre blip--probably the biggest hitters' year of my lifetime until either 1987 or the PED-era.

Average runs scored per team in the NL:

1968 - 558
1969 - 658
1970 - 731
1971 - 633
1972 - 605

No idea why--it was '69 when they lowered the mound, and I don't think there were any changes along those lines in '71 or '72--but '70 has always fascinated me.

yeah, i was just looking into that here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/bat.shtml
i was totally wrong! i had always just assumed that the year of the pitcher kind of extended on a bit through the early 1970s, but that's not the case at all. baseball is weird

With his next hit, Albert Pujols will be the ninth player to get 1000 hits in both leagues. Who are the other eight?

Clues: three are HOFers, two were on the HOF ballot this year but weren't elected, two others have yet to appear on the ballot (one of whom has a very good HOF case), and one retired in 2011 and was primarily a shortstop.

Frank Robinson
Bill Buckner

Robinson yes, Buckner no.

Is Beltre the "very good case"?

No, he's not--949 hits in the NL.

Raines must be one of them.

I should clarify that all eight of these guys are retired.

Not Rained or Beltre.

Raines

Raines had 966 AL hits. I'm evidently working on a shadow list of the guys who came the closest without actually doing it.

Anyway, the three HOFers are Robinson, Winfield, and Vlad Guerrero. The two guys who weren't elected to the HOF this year are McGriff and Carlos Lee. The two not yet eligible are Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Beltran. The last one is Orlando Cabrera.

I remember p much nothing about Cabrera and Lee.

btw the AL LCS + NL LCS + WS MVP was . . . orel hershiser

I gave up after my near misses. If I'd thought about it, I'm sure I would have gotten Winfield and Vlad eventually. McGriff, probably not. The others, no. Good question.

A friend gave me this the other night: who was the last Cy Young winner to win 20 and hit .300? (Prompted by Max Scherzer, who was hitting .288 going into tonight's game--he's 1 for 2 tonight.) Not that hard if you think about it--I missed on my first guess, got it on the second. I found a page that list all seven HOF pitchers who did both in the same season (including the answer to the question). The page says seven non-HOF pitchers did it too. So a second question: who was the last guy (maybe--the last HOF'er, anyway) to win 20 and hit .300 in the same season?

my go-to for 'pitchers who could hit' is always former pirate great rick rhoden, who never won 20 games or had a significant cy young showing (fifth once)

so what i'm saying is that i have no idea

first guess that come to mind was dontrelle willis

Rhoden was 14-9 in '84, hit .333; Willis won 22 in 2005 and hit .261. So good guesses both, but no. I'll leave the question open till tomorrow.

Glavine?

Just checked -- it's not him, he never hit .300 in any season and was under .240 in his Cy Young years.

I'm going to go with Mike Hampton for my second guess (can't remember if he won the Cy during that one really good year he had, but he could hit).

Fernando "El Toro" Valenzuela?

Hampton finished second in the voting in 1999, won 22 games, and hit over .300. He might be the answer to #2 (not a HOFer though).

xp those are solid guesses, but i don't think it can be anyone (even) that recent

i'm sorry, 'el toro' is clearly former pirate great pedro alvarez's nickname

Glavine was my first guess too, NoTime. And Hampton is more recent than the answer I had for the second question (one of those seven non-HOF'ers)--good job.

The correct answer to the first question is Bob Gibson, who hit .303 in his Cy-winning '70 season. The HOF answer to the second question was a year later (and extra tough because an AL pitcher just prior to the DH): Catfish Hunter won 21 in 1971 and hit .350!

Some others: http://www.baseballbunts.com/index.php/the-club/299-pitchers-in-the-hall-of-fame-with-20-wins-and-300-batting-average-in-a-season

bob gibson is the answer to so much!

good quiz

Holy crap, I didn’t know that about Gibson! I knew he was a fine hitter, but dang.

The big surprise to me was Catfish Hunter--that .350 mark was in 103 AB. He was pretty good for his whole career (.226), even if you eliminate 1971 (still above .200). He only got two more PA after the DH came in; batted 1.000 in 1973 in one AB.

I wouldn't have guessed Gibson. I was sure it was somebody more recent.

https://enlightenment.rip/

this was discussed on the fangraphs podcast - it's a tool to discover the first MLB player who was younger than you and the last player older than you

for me it's rick ankiel and bartolo colon

Mine are Ed Nunez (journeyman AL reliever) and Julio Franco

I always thought the first younger was Jose Oquendo, but Nunez beat him by a year

ankiel/bart for me as well

i also got bartolo colon

something is broken with it, i think?

i'm 35 btw

i got jose reyes, on the younger side

if you're younger than bartolo colon, the answer for the second part defaults to bartolo colon, because i guess it defaults to the oldest "last player older than you were to play in the majors"? i don't know, the first part is more interesting anyways

yeah, i guess the second question becomes more interesting once you're older than all of the active players. i'm working on it!

I got Melvin Upton. My friend I sent it to is going to get Pujols, which is really gonna fuck him up because Pujols Is Old has been a bit of a running joke w/ us

hell there are half a dozen managers younger than me now

Both sides of that are broken. It gave me Aramis Ramirez for first player younger than me. He was born about six months after I was. Several players were born between the two dates.

Fred Manrique on the young end--never heard of him. (Debuted in '81 for the Jays, also played for the Expos.) Julio Franco at the other end.

I got Alex Rodriguez (born ten months after me) and Colon (still older than me, so the dream of playing in MLB is alive).

Benji Gil / Raul Ibañez

I had done this before through Baseball Reference. Got same answer...

Alex Fernandez & Mariano Rivera

Jose Bautista (Braves, Mets, Phillies) will become the third player to appear for three teams in a single division in the same season. The others:

-Kelly Johnson, 2014 (Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles)

-Bob Reynolds, 1975 (Tigers, Indians, Orioles)

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) August 28, 2018

Both sides of that are broken. It gave me Aramis Ramirez for first player younger than me. He was born about six months after I was. Several players were born between the two dates.

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Friday, August 24, 2018 4:27 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but the players between, did they play before aramis did? the point is, it tells you who was the first player to suit up for a game who was younger than you. aka the first time you could turn on a game and say "oh i'm not younger than all ballplayers now." it's not just "who's closest to you in age."

also says on the side that as long as there's a player older than you, it'll just show the oldest active player. when all players are younger than you, that's when the second part becomes interesting.

Hmm, looks like you're correct. None of the guys in the interim debuted before Aramis.

mookie betts could become the fourth player to win an MVP, batting title, gold glove and silver slugger all in the same year. who were the other three?

(note: the silver slugger awards began in 1980)

Two quick guesses: Ichiro, Altuve.

ichiro is correct

there's no chance it's cabrera, is it? or trout? seems too easy

Matt Kemp?

i don't think anyone ever accused miguel cabrera of being a gold glover

one of these players is active

the other is retired, but there is an ILB thread bearing his name

holy shit, willie mcgee, '85! is there anything he can't do

^^^

the other is joe mauer, 2009

i just checked the 2001 bWAR leaders re MVP; Jason Giambi wuz robbed

(also Bret Boone higher than Ichiro w/ Seattle)

tru

still can't quite believe it wasn't obvious that Gooden was the MVP of '85

i only guessed miggy because a) i wasn't watching when he was young and who knows, and b) they've given some fairly dubious gold gloves before no?

James went on a big tirade in the '86 Abstract about McGee, but that was in defense of Dale Murphy, not Gooden. Strange, because the following year, he wrote a long piece analyzing the MVP cases for Clemens and Mattingly (base on their '86 seasons). Can't remember what he concluded, but he clearly was open to a pitcher winning (as he was in '78, when he wrote a similar piece analyzing Rice vs. Guidry).

WAR has McGee considerably higher than Murphy in '85. I'd have to go back and check, but I think I encountered resistance here a few years ago when I first suggested Verlander as an obvious MVP candidate in 2011 (Bautista seemed to be the preferred choice).

2011 AL MVP

The resistance shows up more in the vote totals (10-3 for Bautista) than the comments. There's one I could quote, though. But I won't.

if vlad jr. homers in the majors before june 1, he will become the youngest toronto blue jay to do so. who currently holds that record?

Good one. No idea...Danny Ainge?

indeed! nice

Total guess, based on the fact that he played for the Jays before he played in the NBA, so I figured he must have been young. I'm very impressed with myself.

for no particular reason, here are the top 50 defensive single seasons (since integration) by fangraphs' DEF metric

Season	Name	Team	Def
1975	Mark Belanger	Orioles	43.7
1999	Rey Ordonez	Mets	41.1
1989	Ozzie Smith	Cardinals	40.2
1999	Andruw Jones	Braves	38.5
1998	Andruw Jones	Braves	37.4
1968	Brooks Robinson	Orioles	36.9
1964	Ron Hansen	White Sox	36.7
1960	Luis Aparicio	White Sox	36.2
1987	Ozzie Guillen	White Sox	36
1967	Brooks Robinson	Orioles	35.9
1983	Gary Carter	Expos	35.6
1979	Buddy Bell	Rangers	35.6
1968	Mark Belanger	Orioles	35.5
1992	Devon White	Blue Jays	35.1
1973	Mark Belanger	Orioles	35
1998	Robin Ventura	White Sox	34.4
1970	Aurelio Rodriguez	- - -	34.1
1971	Graig Nettles	Indians	33.9
1961	Clete Boyer	Yankees	33.8
1963	Ron Hansen	White Sox	33.7
1996	Ken Griffey Jr.	Mariners	33.5
2009	Franklin Gutierrez	Mariners	33.4
2001	Rey Sanchez	- - -	33.4
1976	Mark Belanger	Orioles	33.1
1973	Bobby Grich	Orioles	32.9
1996	Ivan Rodriguez	Rangers	32.7
1959	Ernie Banks	Cubs	32.4
1992	Darrin Jackson	Padres	32.2
1984	Cal Ripken	Orioles	31.9
1991	Cal Ripken	Orioles	31.8
1962	Clete Boyer	Yankees	31.8
2006	Adam Everett	Astros	31.7
1967	Hal Lanier	Giants	31.1
1999	Pokey Reese	Reds	31
1976	Graig Nettles	Yankees	30.9
1990	Cal Ripken	Orioles	30.7
1964	Bobby Knoop	Angels	30.7
1966	Ed Brinkman	Senators	30.5
1995	John Valentin	Red Sox	30.4
1974	Mark Belanger	Orioles	30.4
1988	Ozzie Guillen	White Sox	30.4
1965	Gene Alley	Pirates	30.3
2007	Omar Vizquel	Giants	30.2
1989	Barry Bonds	Pirates	30.1
1956	Jim Piersall	Red Sox	30.1
1969	Ed Brinkman	Senators	30
1984	Kirby Puckett	Twins	30
1989	Cal Ripken	Orioles	29.8
1995	Cal Ripken	Orioles	29.7
1954	Chico Carrasquel	White Sox	29.6
1986	Jody Davis	Cubs	29.6
1980	Ozzie Smith	Padres	29.6
1970	Ed Brinkman	Senators	29.6

probably this is not obscure trivia, but i didn't realize until this morning that in 1981 the Reds and Cardinals had the best two records in the National League, and neither team made the playoffs.

Not only that, but the NL team with the 3rd best record (Los Dodgers) won the World Series, with a killer team:

Opening Day Lineup

Davey Lopes Second baseman
Ken Landreaux Center fielder
Dusty Baker Left fielder
Steve Garvey First baseman
Ron Cey Third baseman
Pedro Guerrero Right fielder
Mike Scioscia Catcher
Bill Russell Shortstop
Fernando Valenzuela Starting pitcher

most of the lower minor leagues play half-seasons like this, which sort of makes sense because there's so much roster turnover but also makes no sense at all because any decent players from the first-half champs will have been promoted and minor league playoffs are entirely pointless anyway

Yup, minor league allstars are the kings of cockblock.

I don't agree that they're pointless. Obviously, a team can be upended at any time by call-ups, but it's otherwise like any other competitive team sport - you try to win, try to beat your rivals, etc. I don't believe it's pointless to the players or to the fans of teams.

Due to a strike in mid-season, the season was divided into a first half and a second half. The division winner of the first half (denoted E1, W1) played the division winner of the second half (denoted E2, W2).

wow, I never knew about this! crazy

The Reds/Cardinals story was one of the many subplots in the split-season book I just finished. I knew about that, but what I'd forgotten was that baseball had boxed itself into a situation where, for the first time ever, it was theoretically possible that certain teams might benefit towards the end by throwing a game--either in picking their opponent for the extra playoff round, or even in determining whether or not they made the playoffs. Herzog and LaRussa were both asked by reporters if they would intentionally lose game if doing so would ensure a playoff spot, and both, without hesitation, said they would. Which of course sent Bowie Kuhn around the bend.

They scrambled around and came up with some fix that sort of worked.

I don't agree that they're pointless. Obviously, a team can be upended at any time by call-ups, but it's otherwise like any other competitive team sport - you try to win, try to beat your rivals, etc. I don't believe it's pointless to the players or to the fans of teams.

when MLB rosters expand on sept 1, most teams (well, not the mets or white sox or blue jays) call up their best triple-a and double-a players. so everyone else slides up a level to fill the vacuum, and suddenly you have minor league playoff teams whose rosters barely resemble what they were two weeks previously, let alone months earlier.

not to mention the things like josh donaldson 'rehabbing' for double-a akron in their playoffs, and the fact that school's back in and no one comes to the games -- triple-a columbus has actually let people in free for playoff games the last few years just so they might buy food.

winning is better and more fun than losing, sure, and players are obviously competitive. but team records and titles in the minors have no correlation to major league success. the point of playing in the minors is not to help the class a team win, it's to move up and help the big league team win get fucking paid

Your argument was that they are "entirely pointless," though, and I think they're clearly not, nor should they be. I understand that AAA playoff rosters can be affected even more by call-ups than a team normally is. But is there not a core of a team that generally remains? In any case, I am sure there's fun in the competition regardless and I am sure that the players enjoy that aspect of it, as do fans. There seems to be an element to your argument that minor league baseball in general is irrelevant, that the games are not "the point" of the whole enterprise, but I see no reason to put that negative slant on the whole thing and if I lived in a town with a minor league team it would be a lot more fun to root for them than not to bother.

Actually, I do live in a town with a minor league (AHL) hockey team. Players get called up and it affects things. There are pretty big rivalries between some of the teams in their division.

There seems to be an element to your argument that minor league baseball in general is irrelevant

feeling very seen lol

if fans derive pleasure from their local minor league teams winning, then that is wonderful; perhaps i am too cynical

Actually, I do live in a town with a minor league (AHL) hockey team.

The Gulls??!?!?!?! I recall sitting in the stands next to Kim Alexis, who at my 17 year old self, had never seen such a beautiful woman in such close proximity. She was very kind to us nerds!

Yes! Their biggest rival is Ontario.

By bWAR, Paul Goldschmidt has been seven times as valuable as any other #246 draft pick in baseball history. Oh, hang on. My mistake. He has been seven times as valuable as EVERY other #246 draft pick in baseball history, COMBINED. https://t.co/5vwR9t7ikt

— AZ SnakePit (@AZSnakepit) January 2, 2019

I remember we talked a bit about that two years ago, and karl malone linked to this SI piece:

http://www.si.com/mlb/strike-zone/2014/06/09/mike-piazza-keith-hernandez-albert-pujols-late-round-draft-picks

Goldschmidt's "DROP," by the way, has moved to 1964.9, which would put him 5th on the SI list, just shy of Kenny Rogers at 4th. If he puts up 4.0 WAR this year, he'd move up to 3rd. Catching Pizza for first (another 35 WAR) highly unlikely.