Orioles Feat You've Never Seen

[WillyM]

On 4/1/2020 at 5:35 PM, Frobby said:

Some plays I’d like to witness by the O’s:

1.   A straight steal of home.  I’ve seen a couple of double steals, but I’ve never seen an Oriole just make the mad dash and get away with it.

2.   An unassisted triple play.    Ron Hansen did it for the O’s about 60 years ago.   Time for another.    I didn’t see that one.   

Hansen broke in with the Orioles and was the Rookie of the Year for them in 1960.  However, he did not execute his unassisted triple play until 1968, by which time he was playing for the Washington Senators.

Interestingly, the man he tagged for the third out of that triple play was Russ Snyder.  Snyder by then was playing for Cleveland, but he will forever hold the distinction of being the man who scored the first World Series run in Orioles history, riding home on Frank Robinson's homer after Snyder walked in the first inning of Game 1 in 1966.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Never seen the Orioles play a game this decade. 

[DrungoHazewood]

15 hours ago, Frobby said:

Until you wrote this, I hadn’t realized how long it had been since anyone hit .350.    Last qualifier to do it was Josh Hamilton in 2010.     

In 1880 the average batting average of the 55 qualifiers was .256, and the standard deviation was 0.037.

In 1893 the average was .290 and the standard was still 0.037

In 1941 the average was .282 and the standard deviation .033.

In 2000 the average was .282 and the standard deviation 0.028.

In 2019 the average was .272 and the standard deviation was .027.

That may not seem like so much of a difference, but George Gore was 2.8 standard deviations above the (qualifier) average when he hit .360 in 1880.  Ted Williams was 3.8 when he hit .401, but he was a freak.  Tim Anderson was 2.3 last year.

Since the peak of the 1990s average have fallen about 20 points, while the spread continues to tighten up as it has since the beginning of time.  As players get better the distance between best and worst gradually shrinks.  To hit .400 today a batter would be almost five standard deviations above the qualifier average.  I'm reasonably sure that's never happened.  Hugh Duffy was less than three when he hit .440 in '94.  Tony Gwynn was only at 3.48 when he hit .394 in 1994, and that was in a short season.  Just hitting .350 today is almost three standard deviations from the qualifier average.

Yaz was about 2.6 above the AL mark in '68 when he hit .301.