Baseball Reference has Split Finders Up

[DrungoHazewood]

In the play index on bb-ref they now have player and team tools to do searches based on splits, which is a sure way for me to avoid doing work for six weeks...

Anyway, in like an hour I've found all kinds of crazy stuff.

For example:

The 2012 Los Angeles Angels of Orange County Near Mexico were 1-for-7 with a SH when they had a lefty batter facing a lefty pitcher. Think about that for a minute.

In 1957, in the middle of Duke Snider's HOF prime, he had 27 at bats against lefties.

The '83 and '84 Orioles are in the bottom ten list of teams having lefties face lefties.

The 1942 Phillies scored 182 runs at home in 74 games. The '54 Orioles scored 231 in 77.

The 1996 Rockies scored 658 runs at home in 81 games. Their team OPS at home was .987.

The 1998 Orioles are only 9th in all time team plate appearances by players aged 36 or older. The 2004 Astros hold the record at 2448.

Tom Goodwin's 2 PAs for the 1994 Royals were the only 2 PAs all year by a Royal aged 25 or younger.

There have only been six seasons where a player had a .497+ OBP leading off the game (min 50 PAs). Two are Dom DiMaggio ('49-50) and two are Chuck Knoblauch ('95-'96). Joe Orsulak had a .491 leading off for the Pirates in '85.

In 2000 for the Orioles and White Sox Charles Johnson OPS'd 1.067 when batting 9th. In 1999 both Johnson and Brook Fordyce OPS'd over .800 when batting 9th. And in 2004 Larry Bigbie OPS'd .869 batting 9th. Way to really buy into the "batting order doesn't really matter" theory 100%.

In 1980 Terry Crowley had a 1.357 OPS in high leverage situations.

In 1964 Russ Nixon had the Taylor Teagarden year to end all Taylor Teagarden years. In med/low leverage situations he hit about .150 in 121 PAs. In high leverage situations he hit .429 with a 1.031 OPS.

Cal had a higher OPS the 2nd half of '99 than Frank did the second half of '66. But he only had 113 PAs.

Frank set the O's record for home OPS with 1.121. But in 1967.

In 1988 Brady OPS'd .395 at Memorial Stadium in 103 PAs. In 1975 Brooks OPS'd .432 at home, in over 250 PAs.

In 1956 Moose Skowron OPS'd .723 at Yankee Stadium, hitting .258 with six homers. On the road he hit .356 with 17 homers and a 1.086 OPS.

In 1996 Larry Walker OPS'd 1.248 in Colorado, and .523 on the road. He had 31 extra base hits at home, and 18 total hits on the road.

I could do this for weeks...

[PaulFolk]

In the play index on bb-ref they now have player and team tools to do searches based on splits, which is a sure way for me to avoid doing work for six weeks...

Anyway, in like an hour I've found all kinds of crazy stuff.

For example:

The 2012 Los Angeles Angels of Orange County Near Mexico were 1-for-7 with a SH when they had a lefty batter facing a lefty pitcher. Think about that for a minute.

That seems incredible to me, that the Angels only had 8 plate appearances by a left-handed batter against a left-handed pitcher the entire season. But, yep. They only had 5 lefty-only batters who appeared in any games, and those guys combined for a total of only 75 plate appearances all year. Everyone else, including all their regulars, were either right-handers or switch-hitters (who would bat right-handed against lefties).

Now that they have Josh Hamilton, they'll surpass last year's lefties-against-lefties plate appearances by probably the second week of the season.

[DrungoHazewood]

That seems incredible to me, that the Angels only had 8 plate appearances by a left-handed batter against a left-handed pitcher the entire season. But, yep. They only had 5 lefty-only batters who appeared in any games, and those guys combined for a total of only 75 plate appearances all year. Everyone else, including all their regulars, were either right-handers or switch-hitters (who would bat right-handed against lefties).

Now that they have Josh Hamilton, they'll surpass last year's lefties-against-lefties plate appearances by probably the second week of the season.

Now I want to go back and look at the O's gamelogs and transactions and see if there were any patented Duquette roster shuffles around Angels series to minimize the number of LOOGYs on the roster. The Angels basically took 1-2 roster spots away from the other team all the time. The Yanks had Clay Rapada, who literally turns an average righty into a star, so they have a 24-man roster when the Angels are in town.

The Angels may have caused Tony LaRussa to develop a facial tick even in retirement.

[CA-ORIOLE]

It's an early Christmas in Drungoland.

[Number5]

In 1980 Terry Crowley had a 1.357 OPS in high leverage situations.

Terry Crowley's lucky to be in the bleepin' major leagues fer crissakes. He was traded by the Cincinatta blankety blank Reds. He was traded by the Atlanta bleepin' Braves. He knows how to sit on the bleepin' bench for eight blankety blank innings and watch a bleepin' ball game and then come up in the bleepin' 9th and get a blankey blank base hit to win the bleepin' ball game.

[Frobby]

Do you have to pay money to use this function, or is it available to the non-paying public?

[murph]

I could do this for weeks...

Any my wife get's on me for just being on the OH to much, if she only know the level's one can reach....

Seriously, some interesting stuff there. Love the Walker home/road splits....wow.

[isestrex]

Do you have to pay money to use this function, or is it available to the non-paying public?

This was my question too.

[DrungoHazewood]

Do you have to pay money to use this function, or is it available to the non-paying public?

This was my question too.

You have to be a paying member of the site. I think it's $35 a year. For most folks that's probably a luxury they don't need. For me, I'd probably forgo a few meals a month to have access to it.

[DrungoHazewood]

The 1930 Phillies' relievers allowed 415 runs. The 1972 Orioles allowed 430 runs. The Phils pitched 383 innings, the O's 1371.

The 2012 Rockies pen threw 657 innings, 56 more than any other team in history. The distance between the Rockies and #2 (the '03 Rangers) is about the same as the distance between #2 and #55.

[DrungoHazewood]

The 2004 White Sox and Ozzie Guillen get the slow hook award. They got over 1000 innings from their starters despite an ERA of 5.17 from starters. Scott Schoenweis averaged almost six innings a start despite an ERA of 5.59. Dan Wright started four games, went 17.1 innings (or four+ per start) despite allowing a run an inning.

The 1945 Cubs had a record 732 innings from pitchers aged 36 or older. Those pitchers went 54-32 with a 3.05 and 46 complete games. They won the NL pennant before losing to the Tigers in the Series.

The 1961 Indians got 1271 of 1443 innings from pitchers 25 or younger.

The year before he was traded for Frank, Milt Pappas went 6-4, 1.64 in the 14 games he started where the O's scored 2 runs or less.

In 1930 Claude Willoughby was 1-6 in games where he received at least six runs of support.

Last year Darren O'Day set a record for most high-leverage innings (22) with three or fewer runs allowed. (i.e. Of everyone who allowed <=3 runs in high-leverage situations, O'Day pitched the most innings, at 22).

In 2003 the Orioles' Rick Bauer set a record by pitching in 61.1 innings but not recording a win, a loss, nor a save.

The '83 A's and the '82 Yanks each got a sub-.600 OPS out of their first basemen.

In 1968 the Giants' shortstops hit .193/.215/.222.

The 2011 Orioles' pitchers had the highest OPS (1.045) for any team's pitchers in history, minimum 3 PAs. The 2002 Rockies have the record for any non-DH team since WWII, at .610.

The '55 Phillies' and '76 Pirates' pitchers each hit six triples.

The '67 Dodgers and '77 Phillies had pitchers caught stealing nine times.

I'm not entirely sure what this means, but the 1975 Expos had their pinch hitters intentionally walked a record 17 times.

In 1950 both the Red Sox and Indians walked 30 times with the bases loaded, the most in history (by the way, "history" here usually means 1945-, that's as far back as the split data currently goes in most cases).

The '12 Rangers became the first team in the database with four 2-out, bases-loaded triples in one season. 22 teams have three.

The '99 Orioles are tied with the '04 Giants for the most bases-loaded HBP in a season, with seven.

The 1979 Astros had a 1.18 ERA in the 9th inning.

[Frobby]

Looks like you had some time on your hands today or over the weekend, Drungo.

I'm sorely tempted to shell out the required $$$ for this.

[nevadaO]

Looks like you had some time on your hands today or over the weekend, Drungo.

I'm sorely tempted to shell out the required $$$ for this.

I am too but I'm afraid I would never get any work done.

[DrungoHazewood]

Here's another interesting result. You can look up splits by starter or substitute. So you can make a list of all the best or worst teams by runs created by substitutes since 1916.

The best team was the 1995 Astros. Their subs OPS'd .850 with 82 runs created.

The worst was the 1985 Brewers, who's subs created 3 runs all year, putting up a .335 OPS with 1 double and 1 homer.

The 1960 Orioles are 9th, with 65 runs created. The 1983 Orioles are 86th with 51.

Over the last decade or so I've often railed against the Orioles lack of a bench, with them seemingly punting several roster spots on players who have no ability to hit (or often even field) at all. And I think the data backs me up. The '06 Orioles are 5th-worst in the database, with subs who only created five runs all year. The '02 team was 26th, with only 8 RC. '04 was 33rd-worst at 9 RC. '05, '07, and surprisingly '12 were all in the bottom 103 teams in the data. That makes for six O's teams in the last 10 years among the 103 worst offensive benches of the past 96 years.

[DrungoHazewood]

The 2006 Orioles were arguably the worst pinch-hitting team of all time. The data is squirrely or missing prior to about 1950, but since then the '06 O's hold the records for lowest pinch hitting batting average, OBP, and SLG. Their pinch hitters went 6-for-65 with no extra base hits and three walks.

Last year's O's pinch hitters went 12-for-71 with no homers. And their .441 OPS was 33rd-worst since 1950.