DrungoHazewood

Lowest OPS+, played at least 75% of games at 1B, qualified for batting title, since pitching distance moved to 60' 6": Rk Player OPS+ Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Pos 1 Ivy Griffin 47 1920 23 PHA AL 129 507 467 46 111 15 1 0 20 17 49 11 13 3 3 .238 .281 .274 .555 *3/4H 2 John Ganzel 53 1901 27 NYG NL 138 562 526 42 113 13 3 2 66 20 32 9 7 6 .215 .256 .262 .518 *3 3 Chris Davis 54 2018 32 BAL AL 107 436 391 35 66 10 0 16 44 35 2 160 6 0 4 5 2 0 .169 .245 .317 .563 *3/DH 4 Johnny Walker 54 1921 24 PHA AL 113 442 423 41 109 14 5 2 46 9 29 3 8 5 0 .258 .278 .329 .607 *3/2H 5 Hughie Miller 54 1914 27 SLM FL 132 533 490 51 109 20 5 0 46 27 57 1 15 4 .222 .264 .284 .548 *3/H 6 Jack Boyle 55 1895 29 PHI NL 133 625 565 90 143 17 4 0 67 35 23 5 20 13 .253 .302 .297 .600 *3 7 Howie Schultz 57 1947 24 TOT NL 116 430 404 30 90 19 1 6 35 21 70 1 4 11 0 .223 .263 .319 .582 *3/H 8 Johnny Sturm 58 1941 25 NYY AL 124 568 524 58 125 17 3 3 36 37 50 3 4 10 3 5 .239 .293 .300 .592 *3 9 Bud Sharpe 58 1910 28 TOT NL 119 490 455 32 108 14 4 0 30 14 33 1 20 4 .237 .262 .286 .547 *3/H5 10 Charlie Grimm 59 1920 21 PIT NL 148 580 533 38 121 13 7 2 54 30 40 4 14 7 8 .227 .273 .289 .562 *3[/quote]

Lowest batting average, qualified for batting title, since they moved the pitching distance back to 60' 6": Rk Player BA Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS OBP SLG OPS Pos 1 Bill Bergen .139 1909 31 BRO NL 112 372 346 16 48 1 1 1 15 10 50 0 16 4 .163 .156 .319 *2 2 Bill Bergen .159 1906 28 BRO NL 103 372 353 9 56 3 3 0 19 7 43 0 12 2 .175 .184 .359 *2 3 Billy Sullivan .162 1909 34 CHW AL 97 302 265 11 43 3 0 0 16 17 50 5 15 9 .226 .174 .400 *2 4 Red Kleinow .168 1908 30 NYY AL 96 312 279 16 47 3 2 1 13 22 31 3 8 5 .237 .204 .441 *2/H4 5 Chris Davis .169 2018 32 BAL AL 107 436 391 35 66 10 0 16 44 35 2 160 6 0 4 5 2 0 .245 .317 .563 *3/DH 6 John Henry .169 1914 24 WSH AL 92 309 261 22 44 7 4 0 20 37 47 1 10 7 3 .274 .226 .500 *2 7 Bill Bergen .175 1908 30 BRO NL 99 320 302 8 53 8 2 0 15 5 31 0 13 1 .189 .215 .404 *2/H 8 Bert Adams .176 1918 27 PHI NL 84 247 227 10 40 4 0 0 12 10 26 1 9 5 .214 .194 .408 *2/H 9 Dan Uggla .179 2013 33 ATL NL 136 537 448 60 80 10 3 22 55 77 2 171 9 0 3 7 2 0 .309 .362 .671 *4/HD 10 Rob Deer .179 1991 30 DET AL 134 539 448 64 80 14 2 25 64 89 1 175 0 0 2 3 1 3 .314 .386 .700 *9/HD

Minimum 10 starts, median ERA+ of pitchers with: > 10 K/9: 134 9-9.99 K/9: 107 8-8.99: K/9: 105 7-7.99 K/9: 101 6-6.99 K/9: 93 < 6 K/9: 103 (but also by far the smallest of any of the groups). Can you be a good starter with a below average K rate? Sure, it's possible. Is it far more likely that a good pitcher has a high strikeout rate? Absolutely. It's as true as it has always been that pitchers with the highest strikeout rates tend to be the best pitchers.

He might be the pitching version of Ryan Flaherty*. Random journeyman bit player who suddenly and inexplicably finds himself on a Hall of Fame track. * Yes, Flaherty is in a four game, 2-for-17 skid that's seen his OPS drop over 150 points, but I'm sure he'll be back to hitting .365 in no time.

Like he was going to beat out Ryan "Rogers Hornsby" Flaherty in Atlanta. Sure, he was gone from there long before Flaherty showed up, but that's called planning ahead.

One of Peterson's top comps on bb-ref is a guy named Boze Berger. Played in the 30s, went to UMD as a multi-sport star, highly regarded prospect. Didn't really do much in the majors, after a big year in the high minors at 24. Maybe some of you Terps know him from an annual award they give (or used to give) named after him. Career was kind of winding down in 1941-42, signed to play with the IL Orioles but then WWII happened. Was in the reserves, got called up after Pearl Harbor, served for 20 years in the Army and then the Air Force. Eventually commanded both Iwakuni and Bolling AFB and got a Bronze Star. Not really related to anything, but I thought it was kind of cool. SABR bio here.

Prior to this year Ryan Flaherty had appeared in six major league seasons. His batting average every single year was between .202 and .224. His OBP was between .258 and .302. His slugging .318 to .390, except last year when it was .237. He's a very consistent player. He just can't hit. If he becomes a serviceable everyday player at 31 it'll be frankly amazing.

Once you escape the tyranny of Oriole hitting coaches the shackles are off. Is .424/.507/.696 that far out of reach for a man of Ryan Flaherty's ability in a decent coaching environment?

Wait... are you saying he's not going to end the year hitting like Rogers Hornsby after six years of being Kiko Garcia? You just blew my mind.

Then it is true, he's become the new, improved Melvin Mora. Random utility guy in his 20s, MVP candidate in his 30s. Good for him.

The part of baseball I like the most/least is April. Because it's so hard to tell what people mean when they talk about 31-year-old .219 hitters going 8-for-their-first-16. Do they mean that this is an almost miraculous, divinely inspired change in their ability and they've somehow gone from barely passable to highly productive at an advanced age? Or are they just remarking how cool it is that something with a 21% chance of happening can sometimes occur 50% of the time if you give it enough four game trials?

No. Well, any reference to Rutherford B. Hayes is a little tongue-in-cheek, but I think post-Civil War Presidents look a lot cooler than the modern ones who are deathly afraid of facial hair because polls and stuff.

Love the beard. Keep it, Jim. It's dignified, like Rutherford B. Hayes.

Yea, I forgot. Cal had a mildly controversial slip 40-some years into being a public figure. There are others in the public eye who eclipse that by 12:15 am every day.

I guarantee if I had to talk to the media several hours a day I'd say something impolite or ill-advised pretty often. I don't have Cal Ripken's strange ability to speak to the press for decades without ever saying anything even slightly controversial. The 27th time someone asked me about Ryan Mountcastle's plate discipline I'd either start babbling nonsense about alien hypnotism, or just leave and go be a chicken farmer.

"Playing baseball is fun. If I could play, I'd never retire. But managing is work. It's constant decisions of whose feelings you want to hurt all the time." "You must remember that anyone under 30 - especially a ballplayer - is an adolescent. I never got close to being an adult until I was 32. Even though I was married and had a son at 20, I was a kid at 32, living at home with my parents. Sure, I was a manager then. That doesn't mean you're grown up." “I gave Mike Cuellar more chances than my first wife." "You can't help loving (players), yet you can't afford to. You're the person who decides all the worst things in their life." - Earl Weaver

He's a 21-year-old kid. He is a blockhead to some degree. I was. You probably were.

I don't know that I'd characterize Buck's interview as embarrassing Mountcastle. I think he was having trouble getting through to him, and changed strategy a bit. If Mountcastle is a little embarrassed I think that's the point. And if you, as a leader, can't get through to 100% your charges with your preferred method of communication maybe that's sometimes because you've been given a blockhead.

No, I probably wouldn't go that route. But I'm open to different approaches to different people. Maybe Mountcastle is the kind of guy who responds to getting ribbed on social media when his manager talks about him swinging at everything.

If you're one of the vets it's too late. Chris Davis is no Jimmy Sheckard. Nobody is going to radically change their approach at 32.

Rickard is a cautionary tale. Even with great plate discipline walk rate doesn't always translate. With Mountcastle he apparently doesn't yet realize that a 3.2% walk rate is the result of someone who can't tell a pitch you can drive from one that's going to one-hop the backstop, and that also means you're not going to hit well enough to play in the major leagues. You basically have to have hit and power tools that are absolutely off the charts to be an impact hitter at 3B while you walk 2% of the time. If you make a list of the most successful MLBers who walked in 3% of PAs or less you'll get luminaries like Alvaro Espinoza, Boss Schmidt, Tim Anderson, Paulo Orlando, Whitey Alpermann, Jay Kirke... Basically the only good players who walk that little were pitchers who could hit a little, and guys who played back when it was 8 or 9 balls for a walk.

You know that teams much more heavily weight last year in their calculations. See: Hosmer, Eric. Last year Cashner's FIP/ERA difference was over a run a game. His contract is for about a win over replacement per year, which is very much in line with his 2017 FIP.

Explain how Andrew Cashner was signed to a contract that seems to much more closely align to his FIP-based value than his ERA-based value? Have the Orioles (and by extension the other MLB teams looking for starters) fallen for the ruse?

Fangraphs is just a plant from the MLB deep state. Purposely spreading fake stats to try to get nerds to take over otherwise manly pursuits.

I think teams use FIP and other ball in play metrics to inform their decisions on potential signings. I'm sure the Orioles know all about Cashner's delta between ERA and FIP or xFIP, and know and accept that he's very likely to regress this year in ERA terms. Otherwise why weren't they offering him a richer contract based mostly on his 3.40 ERA?