Manny Machado and the Grand Slam

[Frobby]

I don’t know who saw Manny’s grand slam yesterday, but it was crushed.   No doubt about it off the bat.   

Jim Hunter mentioned that Manny has 7 career grand slams.   That’s a lot for a 25-year old player with only  138 homers.    Here’s a list of notable players who were active in 2017, including the top 10 in total homers and some others (total homers in parentheses):

Howard 15 (382)

Pujols 14 (614)

Cano 11 (301)

Beltre 10 (462)

Encarnacion 10 (348)

Cruz 9 (323)

Granderson 8 (319)

Davis 8 (267)

Machado 7 (138)

Holliday 6 (314)

Braun 6 (302)

Bautista 5 (331)

Gonzalez 5 (311)

Stanton 5 (267)

Cabrera 4 (462)

Trout 4 (201)

Harper 3 (150)

Jones 1 (251)

That said, grand slams can be pretty episodic.   6 of Manny’s 7 grand slams have come in the last two seasons, and last year all three came in an 11-day window.    The all-time leader for grand slams in a season is Don Mattingly, who hit 6 in 1987.    His career total?    6.    Funny how things happen sometimes.   

 

[joelala]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I don’t know who saw Manny’s grand slam yesterday, but it was crushed.   No doubt about it off the bat.   

Jim Hunter mentioned that Manny has 7 career grand slams.   That’s a lot for a 25-year old player with only  138 homers.    Here’s a list of notable players who were active in 2017, including the top 10 in total homers and some others (total homers in parentheses):

Howard 15 (382)

Pujols 14 (614)

Cano 11 (301)

Beltre 10 (462)

Encarnacion 10 (348)

Cruz 9 (323)

Granderson 8 (319)

Davis 8 (267)

Machado 7 (138)

Holliday 6 (314)

Braun 6 (302)

Bautista 5 (331)

Gonzalez 5 (311)

Stanton 5 (267)

Cabrera 4 (462)

Trout 4 (201)

Harper 3 (150)

Jones 1 (251)

That said, grand slams can be pretty episodic.   6 of Manny’s 7 grand slams have come in the last two seasons, and last year all three came in an 11-day window.    The all-time leader for grand slams in a season is Don Mattingly, who hit 6 in 1987.    His career total?    6.    Funny how things happen sometimes.   

Our Davis?

[OFFNY]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

o

 

I don’t know who saw Manny’s grand slam yesterday, but it was crushed. No doubt about it, right off the bat.   

Jim Hunter mentioned that Manny has 7 career grand slams. That’s a lot for a 25-year old player with only 138 career homers to-date. Here’s a list of notable players who were active in 2017, including the top-10 in total homers, and some others also (total homers in parentheses):

 

Howard 15 (382)

Pujols 14 (614)

Cano 11 (301)

Beltre 10 (462)

Encarnacion 10 (348)

Cruz 9 (323)

Granderson 8 (319)

Davis 8 (267)

Machado 7 (138)

Holliday 6 (314)

Braun 6 (302)

Bautista 5 (331)

Gonzalez 5 (311)

Stanton 5 (267)

Cabrera 4 (462)

Trout 4 (201)

Harper 3 (150)

 

Jones 1 (251)

 

That said, grand slams can be pretty episodic. 6 of Manny’s 7 grand slams have come in the last two seasons, and last year all three came in an 11-day window. The all-time leader for grand slams in a season is Don Mattingly, who hit 6 in 1987. His career total is 6. Funny how things happen sometimes.   

 

o

o

 

I was actually at Adam Jones' one grand slam.

It was at Yankee Stadium, in 2008. The Orioles had already knocked Mike Mussina out of the box. Adam's granny made the score 10-0, Orioles.

Jeremy Guthrie and company coasted to an easy, 13-4 victory.

And believe it or not .......... I was surrounded by Oriole fans at Yankee Stadium. )  

Just by coincidence, a bunch of them were sitting all around me (behind me, and beside me.)  ))) 

 

o

[Frobby]

20 minutes ago, joelala said:

Our Davis?

Yes, our Davis.

11 minutes ago, OFFNY said:

I was actually at Adam Jones' one grand slam.

It was at Yankee Stadium, in 2008. The Orioles had already knocked Mike Mussina out of the box. Adam's granny made the score 10-0, Orioles.

Jeremy Guthrie and company coasted to an easy, 13-4 victory.

It’s kind’ve pathetic that Jones has only hit one grand slam out of 251 homers, and that was in a meaningless situation 9 years ago.  Generally speaking, Jones has hit for decent average but little power in bases loaded situations: .281/.298/.386 in 131 PA.   Manny has the unusual line of .333/.283/.765 in 60 PA.    The reason his BA is much higher than his OBP is that he has 9 sac flies in his 60 PA with the bases loaded.  

[Redskins Rick]

Cal Jr hit many homers in his career, 431, only managed a career 8 Grand Slams.

Just for Shoots and Giggles.

A-Rod has the record for career at 25. Ironhorse is next at 23.

Don Mattingly hit a total of 6 in a single season, and holds the single season mark, and surprisingly, the only ones in his career.

And pulling a Drungo here:

 

Quote

Roger Connor is believed to have been the first major league player to hit a grand slam, on September 10, 1881, for the Troy Trojans.

 

[jtschrei]

I feel like anytime I think about grand slams and Orioles, I go back to Eddie. He had 19 GS, 4th most in MLB history. Pretty good. He was second when he retired, behind only Lou Gehrig with 23. Alex Rodriguez and Manny passed him in recent years. 

[theocean]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Yes, our Davis.

It’s kind’ve pathetic that Jones has only hit one grand slam out of 251 homers, and that was in a meaningless situation 9 years ago.  Generally speaking, Jones has hit for decent average but little power in bases loaded situations: .281/.298/.386 in 131 PA.   Manny has the unusual line of .333/.283/.765 in 60 PA.    The reason his BA is much higher than his OBP is that he has 9 sac flies in his 60 PA with the bases loaded.  

Jones typical spot in the lineup recently hasn't helped with that.

[wildbillhiccup]

My stomach is grumbling so my mind when straight to Denny's when i read the title of this post. 

[Frobby]

21 minutes ago, theocean said:

Jones typical spot in the lineup recently hasn't helped with that.

I’m not sure what you mean by that.    Jones has had 131 PA with the bases loaded.  In his career, he hits a HR about once every 25 PA.    So, 5-6 grand slams would be about his expected norm, given his opportunities.    

Chris Davis has 8 grand slams in only 102 PA with the bases loaded.    That’s a very high rate.  

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Redskins Rick said:

Cal Jr hit many homers in his career, 431, only managed a career 8 Grand Slams.

Just for Shoots and Giggles.

A-Rod has the record for career at 25. Ironhorse is next at 23.

Don Mattingly hit a total of 6 in a single season, and holds the single season mark, and surprisingly, the only ones in his career.

And pulling a Drungo here:

 

 

The Roger Connor bit is a little surprising.  1881 was the 6th year of the National League, and the 11th year of MLB if you include the old National Association*.  In those first six years of the NL there were 283 homers hit.  There were a ton of baserunners in many of those seasons, as league fielding percentages were around .900 or even lower.  It's odd that it took about 275 homers for the first grand slam.

Also, it appears that the Tattersall/McConnell Home Run Log doesn't include the NA.  So no records prior to 1876.  Doing a little digging, I did see a random note that George Zettlein allowed the first grand slam in NA history, getting knocked around by Boston's Charlie Gould.  You want to see an odd line, at least to modern eyes, look at Zettlein's numbers from the first professional season of 1871: 28 starts, 240 innings, 233 runs, 73 earned, 25 walks, 22 Ks, 24 wild pitches.  2.73 ERA, 8.71 RA.

* There is some dispute as to whether the NA was a major league or not.  In reality, professional baseball evolved greatly from the end of the Civil War through the early 1900s.  The NA was chaotic and primitive.  But the 1876 NL was only slightly less like a Rookie League game played on the county fair grounds.

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

The Roger Connor bit is a little surprising.  1881 was the 6th year of the National League, and the 11th year of MLB if you include the old National Association*.  In those first six years of the NL there were 283 homers hit.  There were a ton of baserunners in many of those seasons, as league fielding percentages were around .900 or even lower.  It's odd that it took about 275 homers for the first grand slam.

Also, it appears that the Tattersall/McConnell Home Run Log doesn't include the NA.  So no records prior to 1876.  Doing a little digging, I did see a random note that George Zettlein allowed the first grand slam in NA history, getting knocked around by Boston's Charlie Gould.  You want to see an odd line, at least to modern eyes, look at Zettlein's numbers from the first professional season of 1871: 28 starts, 240 innings, 233 runs, 73 earned, 25 walks, 22 Ks, 24 wild pitches.  2.73 ERA, 8.71 RA.

* There is some dispute as to whether the NA was a major league or not.  In reality, professional baseball evolved greatly from the end of the Civil War through the early 1900s.  The NA was chaotic and primitive.  But the 1876 NL was only slightly less like a Rookie League game played on the county fair grounds.

Awesome stuff.   I love the 233 runs, 73 earned runs stat.  Yeah, I’d say the game has changed a bit.  

[Redskins Rick]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

The Roger Connor bit is a little surprising.  1881 was the 6th year of the National League, and the 11th year of MLB if you include the old National Association*.  In those first six years of the NL there were 283 homers hit.  There were a ton of baserunners in many of those seasons, as league fielding percentages were around .900 or even lower.  It's odd that it took about 275 homers for the first grand slam.

Also, it appears that the Tattersall/McConnell Home Run Log doesn't include the NA.  So no records prior to 1876.  Doing a little digging, I did see a random note that George Zettlein allowed the first grand slam in NA history, getting knocked around by Boston's Charlie Gould.  You want to see an odd line, at least to modern eyes, look at Zettlein's numbers from the first professional season of 1871: 28 starts, 240 innings, 233 runs, 73 earned, 25 walks, 22 Ks, 24 wild pitches.  2.73 ERA, 8.71 RA.

* There is some dispute as to whether the NA was a major league or not.  In reality, professional baseball evolved greatly from the end of the Civil War through the early 1900s.  The NA was chaotic and primitive.  But the 1876 NL was only slightly less like a Rookie League game played on the county fair grounds.

MLB did not recognize the old National Association, according to what I was reading on Connor.

Connor was a terrible fielder, 60 errors in 83 games, before a shoulder injury moved him to first.

 

[DrungoHazewood]

2 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

MLB did not recognize the old National Association, according to what I was reading on Connor.

Connor was a terrible fielder, 60 errors in 83 games, before a shoulder injury moved him to first.

 

I don't remember what MLB recognizes, but they've made several frankly absurd decisions on that front.  Most notably anointing the 1884 Union Association MLB status, despite the fact they lasted one year and had a single franchise (St. Louis) that was anything like MLB quality.  Sureshot Fred Dunlap, the Brian Roberts of the 1880s, hit .412 in the UA that year.

I don't know that Connor was a terrible fielder for his time.  The record for errors in a season from that era is well over 100 despite playing shorter schedules.  Connor's rookie year he played third and fielded .821.  But in the time before gloves there were full-time regulars who fielded in the .700s.

[Redskins Rick]

2 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I don't remember what MLB recognizes, but they've made several frankly absurd decisions on that front.  Most notably anointing the 1884 Union Association MLB status, despite the fact they lasted one year and had a single franchise (St. Louis) that was anything like MLB quality.  Sureshot Fred Dunlap, the Brian Roberts of the 1880s, hit .412 in the UA that year.

I don't know that Connor was a terrible fielder for his time.  The record for errors in a season from that era is well over 100 despite playing shorter schedules.  Connor's rookie year he played third and fielded .821.  But in the time before gloves there were full-time regulars who fielded in the .700s.

The Giants got their name from him:

 

Quote

He later played for the New York Gothams, and, due to his great stature, gave that team the enduring nickname "Giants". Connor hit baseball's first grand slam on September 10, 1881. His grand slam came with two outs and his team down three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, a situation known today as a walk-off home run. George Vecsey, in The New York Times wrote: "Roger Connor was a complete player — a deft first baseman and an agile base runner who hit 233 triples and stole 244 bases despite his size (6 feet 3 inches and 200 pounds)."^[6]

 

[DrungoHazewood]

An ultimate grand slam as the first grand slam in National League history seems too good to be true, but it's confirmed by the home run log.  Retrosheet only has game logs going back to about 1913, but the guys doing the home run log have pretty complete information going back to 1876.

He hit it off Lee Richmond, who'd thrown baseball's first perfect game the year before.  Which was pretty astonishing, since his Worchester team averaged 4.2 errors/game, and his WHIP was about 1.000.  So an average Richmond start saw about 13 baserunners.  Connor's grand slam may have been aided by Richmond being at the end of a game, near the end of a season where he'd thrown 50 complete games, (57 the year prior).  Sure, he was limited to mostly sidearm pitching, but he'd probably thrown about 15,000 pitches over the preceding two seasons.