Daily News and Notes

By Richard Van Zandt: BaseballEvolution.com

 

Notes through games of Thursday, September 21

 

Boo Birds – About 1,000 upset fans walked out in protest of Baltimore owner Peter Angelos Thursday afternoon in Baltimore.  At 5:08 p.m. – symbolically meant to represent Oriole icons Brooks Robinson (5) and Cal Ripkin (8) – fans wearing shirts and carrying signs that read “free the birds” and “for pete’s sake” (a reference to Angelos) got up and walked out to voice their disapproval of the way Angelos has led the O’s during his tenure, missing Baltimore’s come-from-behind win over the Tigers.  The protests’ organizers had hoped to attract 3,000 to 10,000 fans but fell short of that goal.  Nevertheless they got the attention of both the players on the field and the brass upstairs.  "Whoever joins that protest has no comprehension of what it costs to run a baseball team,” Angelos later told the Associated Press. “When you get down to facts, putting together a team that can compete in the AL East means having a payroll between $100-110 million. That money comes from the consumer, and I have chosen to keep ticket prices to a minimum.”  The Orioles payroll this season is $75 million.

 

Friday List Pt I – With today’s first list, DN&N takes a look at the pitchers who rank among the leaders in allowing extra-base hits.  Among the things we find are that in addition to his NL leading 33 HR allowed, Jason Marquis has given up a whopping 84 extra base hits this season, including a major league leading 10 triples.  In the AL, a closer inspection of the numbers reveals a lot about the White Sox plummet from the peak.  And though an exhaustive internet search has thus far failed to reveal an all-time single season leader, DN&N can tell you that Chris Capuano’s ML leading total of 59 doubles allowed this year is 9 behind teammate Rick Helling’s 2001 total of 68 which ranks as the highest total allowed in the last 7 seasons.  In 2000, Helling also led the majors with 66 doubles allowed, the second highest total during that span. 

 

Any reader who may happen to know the answer to that question is highly encouraged to write in to let us know! (Triples too!)

 

AL – Home Runs Allowed                                  NL – Home Runs Allowed

1. Carlos Silva – Min – 35                                                   1. Jason Marquis – StL – 33

2t. Josh Beckett – Bos – 34                                                2t. Ramon Ortiz – Was – 31

2t. Mark Buehrle – ChW – 34                                             2t. Bronson Arroyo – Cin – 31

4t. Freddy Garcia – ChW – 31                                            4t. Livan Hernandez – Ari – 29

4t. Rodrigo Lopez – Bal – 31                                              4t. Eric Milton – Cin – 29

(Jon Garland – t -14^th w/25)                                             4t. Ian Snell – Pit - 29                                                                          

AL – Triples Allowed                                                         NL – Triples Allowed

1. Jeremy Bonderman – Det – 10                                       1. Jason Marquis – StL – 10

2. Jose Contreras – ChW – 7                                              2t. Josh Fogg – Col – 9

3t. Paul Byrd – Cle – 6                                                         2t. Tim Hudson – Atl – 9

3t. Kevin Millwood – Tex – 6                                             2t. Matt Morris – SF – 9

5t. Seven tied with 5                                                            2t. Scott Olsen – Fla – 9

(Freddy Garcia & Jon Garland are among the seven with 5, Javier Vazquez – 4)

 

AL – Doubles Allowed                                                        NL – Doubles Allowed

1t. Curt Schilling – Bos – 50                                               1. Chris Capuano – Mil – 59

1t. Jarrod Washburn – Sea – 50                                         2. Zach Duke – Pit – 56

3. Joel Pineiro – Sea – 49                                                     3. Aaron Harang – Cin – 52

4t. Jon Garland – ChW – 48                                                4t. Matt Morris – SF – 51

4t. Rodrigo Lopez – Bal – 48                                              4t. Roy Oswalt – Hou – 51

(Mark Buehrle – 9^th w/45, Freddy Garcia –  t – 10^th w/44 – Jason Marquis 19^th w/41)

 

Doubles Trivia Question – DN&N may not know who served up the most doubles in a single season, but we do know which player hit the most two-baggers in a single season in professional baseball history.  Do you?  (Answer below)

 

The Chase is Wild

 

The White Sox are all but done after failing to capitalize on losses by both Detroit and Minnesota on Thursday, losing 9-0 to the Mariners in Chicago.  Jake Woods held the Sox scoreless through seven and got support from Raul Ibanez (29^th home run, 1,000^th career hit) and a surging Adrian Beltre (9^th inning grand slam) to keep the defending champs 5 ½ games off the pace of the Wild Card leading Twins and six back of the Tigers with just 9 games left on their schedule. 

 

The Sox demise means that Detroit – baring a collapse the likes of which baseball has not seen in 32 years – will likely be playing in October even if they fail to hold off the hard charging Twins.  Detroit continued to stumble to the finish line of Thursday with Fernando Rodney failing to hold a 3-2 lead in the 8^th as the O’s came back from a 3-0 early deficit to beat the Tigers 4-3.  Detroit is just 8-11 in September.

 

The Twins for their part failed to take advantage of the Tigers loss despite having their ace Johan Santana on the mound in Boston.  Santana had an off night – his MVP chances taking a slight hit – allowing 4 runs (2 earned) on six hits in five innings and received his first loss since July 9 as Boston beat the Twins 6-0.  It was just the seventh time this season the Twins have lost in 33 starts by Santana.  Josh Beckett tossed 8 shutout innings and got two home runs from David Ortiz (#’s 51 & 52 on the year to set a new Red Sox club record) as he set a new career high in wins with 16. 

 

Santana, despite the below par start continues to lead not only the American League but the entire major leagues in the three pitching triple crown categories.  Should he maintain his advantage in wins, ERA and strikeouts, he would become just the 15^th AL pitcher, and 35^th overall, to accomplish the rare feat.

 

AL Wild Card

Minnesota        – 90-62 –

Chicago            – 85-68 5.5

 

Pennant Race History Lesson – It was 32 years ago Thursday when Chico Ruiz stole home in the sixth inning to score the only run in the Reds 1-0 win over Gene Mauch’s Phillies.  That loss was the first of 10 straight that wiped out the 6.5 game lead Philadelphia had at the close of play on September 20, costing them the NL pennant.

 

The Phillies were idle on Thursday yet lost ground to both the Dodgers and Padres as the two NL West teams continue to fight to the finish line.  They got some good news however when the Astros – 6-5 winners over St. Louis Thursday behind two home runs from Lance Berkman off of Cy Young candidate Chris Carpenter – announced that future HOF’er Roger Clemens will make one final start at Minute Maid Field on Sunday while going on three days rest which means the Rocket will not face the Phils on Monday.

 

San Diego meanwhile maintained their one game lead over Los Angeles by beating Cy Young candidate Brandon Webb and the D’Backs 3-1 behind 5 2/3 strong innings from Woody Williams and Trevor Hoffman’s 477^th career save. 

 

Los Angeles held their ground with San Diego and re-took the lead in the Wild Card by scrapping out a 5-2 win over the plucky Pirates Thursday.  Chad Billingsley allowed just the two runs in 5 innings and the bullpen slammed shut the door – Takashi Saito collecting his 20^th save of the season – to help the rookie pitcher earn his sixth win of the year.

 

The Marlins, struggling to stay in the race, got seven more strong innings from rookie Anibal Sanchez and scored 4 runs in 5 innings (3 earned) off of Pedro Martinez to help beat the Amazin’s 5-2 and stay within 4 games of the Dodgers.  Sanchez in his last 10 starts has a 1.83 ERA and for the season in 16 starts that mark is 2.31.

 

The Giants lost for the 5^th time in six games – all on the road – to drop 4 ½ back and are now all but done.  In those six games they have allowed 65 runs on 76 hits while issuing 36 walks, including 6 in just the 5^th inning of their 9-4 loss to the Brewers in Milwaukee.

 

NL Wild Card

Los Angeles     – 80-73 –

Philadelphia      – 80-72 0.5

Florida             – 76-77 4.0

 

Staying Put – With the Braves creeping towards .500 (they are 75-78 after beating the Rockies on Thursday), management announced on Thursday that they would exercise their $8 million option on John Smoltz for the 2007 season.  The move was made a day after the team re-signed closer Bob Wickman for next year.

 

Quick Hits

 

Beltre - .265, 20 HR overall – is finishing with a flourish, having hit safely in 11 straight games while batting .383 (18-for-47, 4 HR) and slugging .681 during that span.

 

Chris Gomez has hit safely in all 14 games he has batted in September, posting a .429 batting average (24-for-56) for the month. 

 

Lyle Overbay has hit safely in 11 straight games, batting .366 (15-for-41) and racking up a .447 OBP since September 9.

 

Brian Schneider finished the month of August by going 9-for-20 (.450) and hitting safely in the final six games of the month.  After going 0-for-12 to begin September, he has caught fire again, hitting safely in his last 11 while batting .361 (13-for-36).

 

Mike Lieberthal has hit safely in seven straight, batting .480 (12-for-25, 4 HR, 10 RBI) and slugging 1.080.

 

Esteban German – the Royals second baseman with Mark Grudzielanek sidelined – has hit in 8 straight games, batting .485 (16-for-33) with a .553 OBP and a .818 SLG.  German began the season by batting .447 (17-for-38) in his first 17 games of the season.

 

Antonio Perez went 0-for-3 in the A’s win over Cleveland on Thursday and in doing so saw his season average drop back off the interstate to .099 (9-for-91).  He has been on the A’s roster since opening day and was the last such player to get a hit, beginning the year 0-for-24 until he got his first of the year May 14.

 

Doubles Trivia Answer – In 1924 – seven years before Earl Webb would set the major league mark for doubles in a single season with 67 – Lyman Lamb set the professional baseball record for doubles in a season by hitting a whopping 100 in 168 games for the Tulsa Oilers.  That incredible season capped an amazing three-year run in which Lamb hit 239 doubles, all in the minors (68 in ’22 and 71 in ’23 to go with his even 100).  Lamb had 11 doubles in a 158 major league at bats in 1920 and ’21 for the St. Louis Browns.

 

Friday List Pt II – And with today’s second list, DN&N takes a closer look at the best and worst pitchers at preventing stolen bases.  Once again the White Sox don’t shine in this category and Chris Young of the Padres certainly doesn’t help Mike Piazza out with a slow delivery, though we suspect it’s Piazza who has more to do with Jake Peavy’s spot on that dubious list.  But while Capuano may allow a lot of doubles, when runners do get on they don’t often test their luck against him and his strong pickoff move is the reason.  But as good as he has been base runners are well advised not to even think of straying too far from the bag on Zach Duke and Paul Maholm.

 

AL – Stolen Bases Allowed                                               NL – Stolen Bases Allowed

1. Freddy Garcia – ChW – 38                                             1. Chris Young – SD – 39

2. Tim Wakefield – Bos – 23                                               2. Derek Lowe – LAD – 25

3. Randy Johnson – NYY – 21                                           3t. Greg Maddux – LAD – 24

4t. Jose Contreras – ChW – 20                                          3t. Jake Peavy – SD – 24

4t. Roy Halladay – Tor – 20                                                3t. Brandon Webb – Ari – 24

 

AL – Caught Stealing Against                                         NL – Caught Stealing Against

1. Chien-Ming Wang – NYY – 11                                      1t. Zach Duke – Pit – 11

2t. Kelvim Escobar – LAA – 10                                         1t. Paul Maholm – Pit – 11

2t. Rodrigo Lopez – Bal – 10                                              3. Brandon Webb – Ari – 9

2t.Barry Zito – Oak – 10                                                      4t. 5 tied with 8

5. Randy Johnson – NYY – 9                                             (Harang, J. Johnson, Olsen, Penny and Wright)

 

AL – SB % Allowed                                                           NL – SB % Allowed

1. Justin Verlander – Det – 16.7 (1/6)                                1. Chris Capuano – Mil – 25.0 (1/4)

2. Kenny Rogers – Det – 20.0 (1/5)                                   2. Chris Carpenter – StL – 30.0 (3/10)

3. Mark Buehrle – ChW – 36.4 (4/11)                                3. Tom Glavine – NYM – 36.4 (4/11)

4. Ervin Santana – LAA – 38.5 (5/13)                                4. Carlos Zambrano – ChC – 40.0 (2/5)

5. Barry Zito – Oak – 41.2 (7/17)                                        5. Roy Oswalt – Hou – 45.5 (5/11)

 

AL – Pickoffs                                                                       NL Pickoffs

1. Mark Buehrle – ChW – 9                                                1. Paul Maholm – Pit – 9

2. Justin Verlander – Det – 8                                              2. Jamey Wright – SF – 7

3. Jon Lester – Bos – 6                                                        3t. Chris Capuano – Mil – 6

4. Scott Kazmir – TB – 5                                                      3t. Zach Duke – Pit – 6

5. James Shields – TB – 4                                                   5t. Joe Beimel – LAD – 5

                                                                                                5t. Jeff Francis – Col - 5

 

"They both show a lot, but not everything." – Former Indians infielder Toby Harrah on bikinis and statistics