DrungoHazewood

Eddie appears to be the all time leader in bases loaded sac flies, with 42 in 302 PAs. Oddly, both Bret Boone and Bob Boone had 25 bases loaded sac flies.

Trailers in OPS with bases loaded, nobody out, min 30 PA: Rk I Player Split From To OPS G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG 1 Jason Varitek 0 out 123 1998 2011 .291 38 38 30 24 3 1 0 0 18 0 0 3 11 .100 .158 .133 2 Bill Freehan 0 out 123 1963 1975 .347 30 31 26 10 4 0 0 0 13 0 0 2 8 .154 .194 .154 3 Will Clark 0 out 123 1986 2000 .351 30 30 23 18 4 1 0 0 17 0 0 0 7 .174 .133 .217 4 Jeff Francoeur 0 out 123 2005 2016 .377 37 38 30 20 4 1 0 0 18 0 0 2 6 .133 .211 .167 5 Jim Thome 0 out 123 1992 2012 .399 44 44 36 44 6 1 0 0 26 0 0 2 17 .167 .205 .194 6 Matt Kemp 0 out 123 2006 2020 .401 31 31 25 16 3 0 0 1 15 0 0 1 9 .120 .161 .240 7 Derek Bell 0 out 123 1992 2000 .422 35 35 31 17 6 0 0 0 23 0 0 1 6 .194 .229 .194 8 Fred Lynn 0 out 123 1975 1989 .432 33 33 24 25 3 0 0 1 26 0 0 3 3 .125 .182 .250 9 Yadier Molina 0 out 123 2004 2021 .462 35 35 30 26 7 0 0 0 23 0 0 1 2 .233 .229 .233 10 I Joe Gordon 0 out 123 1938 1950 .475 41 40 36 26 5 1 0 1 27 0 0 4 4 .139 .225 .250 11 I Irish Meusel 0 out 123 1918 1926 .506 30 30 22 17 5 1 0 0 23 0 0 2 1 .227 .233 .273 12 Eric Chavez 0 out 123 1999 2013 .522 31 31 27 16 7 1 0 0 17 0 0 0 7 .259 .226 .296 13 I Frank Malzone 0 out 123 1957 1965 .527 31 32 26 17 7 1 0 0 18 0 0 0 2 .269 .219 .308 14 I Bill Dickey 0 out 123 1929 1946 .531 38 36 31 23 7 0 0 0 30 0 0 4 1 .226 .306 .226 15 I Roberto Clemente 0 out 123 1955 1972 .538 31 31 25 36 6 1 0 0 18 0 0 2 8 .240 .258 .280 16 I Bobby Doerr 0 out 123 1938 1951 .541 45 46 43 36 8 0 1 1 36 0 0 3 3 .186 .239 .302 17 I Ted Kluszewski 0 out 123 1948 1961 .550 34 34 32 16 7 1 0 1 30 0 0 0 3 .219 .206 .344 18 Graig Nettles 0 out 123 1969 1988 .550 45 45 36 34 9 2 0 0 27 0 0 2 7 .250 .244 .306 19 I Ben Chapman 0 out 123 1930 1941 .562 33 33 27 36 6 1 0 0 27 0 0 4 4 .222 .303 .259 20 Rod Carew 0 out 123 1967 1985 .573 33 32 24 37 6 1 0 0 20 0 0 3 3 .250 .281 .292 21 Ryan Zimmerman 0 out 123 2006 2021 .583 33 32 24 19 7 1 0 0 22 0 0 1 10 .292 .250 .333 22 Torii Hunter 0 out 123 1999 2015 .592 37 37 28 33 8 1 0 0 26 0 0 2 2 .286 .270 .321 23 Carlton Fisk 0 out 123 1972 1992 .593 37 37 31 35 8 2 0 0 24 0 0 1 6 .258 .270 .323 24 Andre Thornton 0 out 123 1974 1987 .594 39 40 31 21 6 1 0 2 30 0 0 1 7 .194 .175 .419 25 Nelson Cruz 0 out 123 2006 2022 .602 36 36 29 18 7 3 0 0 22 0 0 2 9 .241 .257 .345 Seven HOFers and a number of others who could be.

I think there are some cases where sac flies made a difference in who won the batting title. Eddie hit a sac fly once every 35 PAs in high leverage situations, and once every 257 PAs in low leverage situations.

Rk I Player Split From To OPS G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG 1 I Dusty Baker 0 out 123 1972 1986 1.595 35 34 28 35 17 3 0 3 43 0 1 2 2 .607 .559 1.036 2 Edwin Encarnacion 0 out 123 2005 2019 1.506 43 42 34 23 15 3 1 5 48 0 0 3 4 .441 .476 1.029 3 Barry Bonds 0 out 123 1986 2007 1.480 44 43 32 46 20 5 0 1 56 0 0 6 1 .625 .605 .875 4 Albert Belle 0 out 123 1989 2000 1.460 37 37 26 15 12 2 0 4 41 0 0 2 8 .462 .460 1.000 5 I Hank Greenberg 0 out 123 1933 1947 1.433 33 32 28 23 11 2 1 4 46 0 0 3 3 .393 .469 .964 6 Alex Rodriguez 0 out 123 1996 2016 1.417 60 60 48 53 24 2 0 6 67 0 0 4 8 .500 .500 .917 7 Brian McCann 0 out 123 2006 2019 1.413 40 40 27 26 14 3 0 3 41 0 0 4 3 .519 .450 .963 8 I Rusty Staub 0 out 123 1963 1984 1.406 51 51 39 36 19 5 1 4 63 0 0 2 4 .487 .431 .974 9 Bobby Abreu 0 out 123 1997 2012 1.400 35 35 24 42 11 4 0 3 45 0 0 3 5 .458 .400 1.000 10 Eddie Murray 0 out 123 1977 1997 1.357 75 73 50 47 24 6 0 6 85 0 0 5 3 .480 .397 .960 11 Carlos Pena 0 out 123 2001 2013 1.342 30 30 19 22 8 3 1 1 30 0 0 7 8 .421 .500 .842 12 I Bill Skowron 0 out 123 1954 1967 1.331 31 31 27 21 13 3 0 2 41 0 0 2 3 .482 .516 .815 13 J.D. Martinez 0 out 123 2011 2022 1.323 30 30 23 17 9 4 0 3 33 0 0 1 4 .391 .367 .957 14 Bill Buckner 0 out 123 1971 1989 1.317 32 31 24 25 14 6 0 0 38 0 0 1 0 .583 .484 .833 15 Frank Thomas 0 out 123 1990 2008 1.315 45 45 28 48 14 5 0 2 47 0 0 5 2 .500 .422 .893 16 I Henry Aaron 0 out 123 1955 1975 1.309 54 53 40 55 18 2 0 5 60 0 0 4 6 .450 .434 .875 17 David Ortiz 0 out 123 1997 2016 1.288 39 40 37 44 17 6 1 2 45 0 0 1 4 .460 .450 .838 18 I George Foster 0 out 123 1971 1986 1.283 43 44 35 26 17 1 1 3 47 0 0 3 7 .486 .455 .829 19 Mo Vaughn 0 out 123 1991 2002 1.282 35 36 28 22 10 0 0 5 40 0 0 3 10 .357 .389 .893 20 David Segui 0 out 123 1990 2004 1.275 30 30 24 14 11 4 0 2 29 0 0 1 4 .458 .400 .875 21 Mike Piazza 0 out 123 1992 2007 1.272 44 43 34 29 13 4 0 4 47 0 0 5 3 .382 .419 .853 22 I Ron Santo 0 out 123 1960 1974 1.271 41 40 28 22 13 4 0 2 41 0 0 5 3 .464 .450 .821 23 Travis Fryman 0 out 123 1991 2002 1.260 32 32 25 24 14 2 0 1 37 0 0 2 4 .560 .500 .760 24 Jermaine Dye 0 out 123 1996 2009 1.258 36 34 26 21 10 3 0 3 36 0 0 4 8 .385 .412 .846 25 I Joe DiMaggio 0 out 123 1936 1951 1.254 59 59 54 35 22 4 1 5 75 0 0 5 1 .407 .458 .796 I think the split data gets less complete prior to WWII, and isn't available at all before 1901ish.

Which is better, a very good hitting 3B who is elite defensively, or an elite hitting shortstop who is average defensively? An average SS OPS's .693 this year, while a third baseman is more like .730. An average defensive shortstop who OPSes .900 is an MVP candidate almost every year. Jeter was a poor defensive shortstop who played through the steroid era and only OPS'd .900 twice and he was a first-ballot HOFer. Mateo is 27, has a .664 OPS this year, a .658 for his career. Which is fine if he can continue to be an elite defender. He's a 2-3 win player. I don't think I'd put elite free agent resources (i.e. $100M, $150M+ for a lot of years) towards a shortstop with Henderson, Mateo, and Holliday in the system.

Are they blunders, or did they just get thrown out? The optimal amount of being thrown out on the bases is not zero. If you're never thrown out it's because you're being so conservative that you're leaving runs on the table. For base stealing the break-even point is something like 75% in an average situation. You can make similar calculations for baserunning, too.

You're asking if I'd sign a 31-year-old first baseman/DH with a 115 career OPS+ coming off a 2-win season to a free agent contract? With a roster that includes Mountcastle, Rutschman, Santander, Stowers, Vavra, and soon to be Cowser, Westburg,and others? Knowing that a typical player peaks at 27. At this point his role would be a glorified Delmon Young. Maybe you think about it on a 1/8 kind of deal? I'm sure Mancini is going to want a starting spot and as many years as he can get. I don't think there's a match.

For a little context, in 2022 the entire league hits .334/.335/.532 with the bases loaded and nobody out. With a sac fly about once every six PAs. Eddie was great in those situations, but an average batter hits like Ty Cobb with them loaded and nobody out. And, yes, OBP is (H+BB+HBP)/(AB+BB+HBP+SF). Why do they count sac flies as a time up, but don't count sac bunts or catcher's interference as anything? I don't know, I guess it made sense to someone.

Nah, I'm just being stupid, extrapolating out the date where everyone as good as the worst current HOFer will be inducted.

In a few years I doubt we'll still be obsessing over whether they should have traded future value for somewhat improved chances of making the 2022 playoffs. We'll have more of peak Gunnar. Who am I kidding, someone is going to moan about that until we're all in the old folks home.

How many people from other countries are really into US college sports? MLS is a 2nd- or 3rd-tier soccer league. Someone from Germany watching MLS would be like me and the 10s of others like me who get up at 7am to watch the German 3rd division. There are probably 127 people in Asia who're aware the Norfolk Tides and Bowie Baysox exist.

They did stop the game for maybe 15 minutes that time Christian Erikson had a cardiac arrest and died on the field and the trainers had to resuscitate him. But the clock kept going and they just added that on to the end of the half. And on the topic of faking injuries... it's all about incentives. If the pitcher got ejected every time he hit a batter you can guarantee that there would be protracted delays reviewing whether or not someone was nicked by a pitch, and batters adamantly claiming they'd been hit when they probably hadn't. Because of cards and fouls that result in PKs in soccer there are strong incentives to make sure the ref knows you were fouled. Also, have you ever been kicked in the leg or stepped on with a cleat by a good adult athlete? It's not all fake. I've had foot-sized bruises on my legs for weeks.

I'm sure it's just a matter of time until they start playing commercials on the JumboTron* during each pause in play. Kind of like when you're getting gas at the Wawa and you're bombarded by ads and you take a screwdriver out of the car and obliterate the display on the pump by stabbing it over and over and it's still playing and your ears are bleeding and you grab a lighter and turn the nozzle into a flame thrower and you have a go at the whole station like you're one of the Ex-Presidents in Point Break. I'm sure that's a common thing. * Has anyone called it a JumboTron since the 1990s?

There are 711 non-pitchers in history with 15 to 30 WAR (not including Negro Leaguers with shorter schedules). Three of them are in the Hall. Tommy McCarthy, Lloyd Waner, and Freddie Lindstrom. The Hall has been voting on players since 1936, so a 15-30 WAR non-pitcher is inducted about once every 29 years. That means that (if trends hold) all 711 current players in this range (and I think we can assume all of the more productive players such as Keith Hernandez as well) will be inducted by the year 22,318. Yes, I understand that more 15-30 WAR players will be created every year over the next 22,000 odd years but we're going to ignore that for the purposes of this stupid exercise.

Yes and no. They play 38 league matches. But all English teams are also involved in the FA cup until/unless they're eliminated, the top four divisions are in the League Cup, the top seven teams in the Premier League are in either the Champions League, the Europa League, or the Europa Conference League. So many/most teams play twice a week for much of the year. There are also what the Germans call Englisherwoche or "English Weeks" where everyone plays a midweek fixture in addition to the weekend league match. Then there are international breaks every so often and the National teams play 2-3 games during those weeks. And the regular soccer season for most of the world is August-May, with many summers packed with World Cup or Euros and other competitions. So a good player on a good team will play more like an NBA or NHL number of games a year. So TV ratings might be more relevant if you compared to Wizards or Caps.

Just wait, I have a tenuous connection to Orioles' history here... In this clip Perry is talking to David Letterman about throwing the spitter. It's 1983. That's the same year my Dad's work arranged a bus trip to Memorial Stadium to see a doubleheader between the Royals and the Orioles. Perry started game one. One of the buses had mechanical troubles and we didn't get there until the 7th or 8th inning, but I think Perry was still on the mound when we walked in. The Orioles scored twice on a Joe Nolan double and a Jim Dwyer groundout. Then they took Dan Quisenberry apart (for once) and scored three times in the 9th to win it. They won the nightcap 3-1 behind a Jim Dwyer homer and seven strong innings from Storm Davis. Game one box here, two here. Just look at Gaylord, he's 44 there, in his last MLB season. But he could pass for 65 easy.

If you look at the under 50 demographic that's more true for baseball than soccer. And baseball is doing fine. For now. But the trend lines are going in opposite directions.

Mine was a joke, too! I'm genuinely curious, and you seem to know stuff.

He's here, he's there, he's every ___ing where. An average Premier League match on NBC's platforms gets about 500k viewers. The average O's or Nats game on MASN gets less than 50k. I'm going to guess that if MASN was available all over the country like NBC those numbers would go up by several dozen.

Substitute "Sports Guy" for "no one" and I think you're on to something here.

So maybe you can explain something to me. Last week DC United started a guy named Matai Akinmboni, who was born in October 2006, a few months before my oldest kid who's a sophomore in high school. He's 15 and he's signed to a fully professional contract. Freddy Adu did something similar in 2004 when he was 14. I guess it's just a CBA rule or gentleman's agreement with MLB that they won't sign anyone under 16 or 18, depending on where they're born?

Phillips was the new Gil McDougald. And McDougald was an echo of the players from the early days of small rosters when King Kelly and Buck Ewing were big stars who'd play six or seven different positions.

But on the other side you have @Can_of_corn who would have called him up when he was in the 7th grade.

Probably, but I'm having visions of a super Ben Zobrist or Tony Phillips.

Yes. And Keith Hernandez* on the Indians, too. * Wally Backman is going to rule over the Vet's Committee with an iron fist in 2033.