By The Numbers

November 13, 2009 10:16am CST

"Numbers constitute the only universal language."
-- Nathanael West, Author/Screenwriter


I know there hasn't been a "real" game played in a while, let alone a regular season tilt, but I thought it would still be nice to fall back on some numbers today. After all, you all know that numbers and I are like hot chicks and I on a Friday night (well at least the first comparison is accurate).

0: The number of pitchers who didn't allow an earned run while throwing at least nine innings, or one full game, in 2009. The league leader for shutout pitching was John Meloan who didn't allow a single earned run in 8.1 innings (he did allow one unearned run). Moreover, dating back to the 2008 season, Meloan has tossed 10.1 scoreless frames. Still, he allowed nine earned runs in 7.1 innings in 2007, so his career ERA sits at 4.58 in 17.2 innings.

2: The number of hitters who recorded double-digits in doubles, triples and home runs. Shane Victorino had 39 doubles, 13 triples and 10 homers while Stephen Drew had 29 doubles, 12 triples and 12 homers. Speaking of Drew, he has pulled off the trick each of the past two years (44 doubles, 11 triples and 21 homers in '08). Drew is the only man in the game who has gone 10-10-10 the past two years, and in fact, that is the second longest streak in baseball history for a shortstop behind the record of 3-straight seasons held by Zoilo Versalles (1963-65) and Jose Reyes (2006-08).

2.57: The difference between the major league leading ERA of Zack Greinke (2.16) and the next best mark on the Royals for a pitcher who tossed at least 100 innings (4.73 by Brian Bannister). By the way, the Royals pitching staff was so abysmal that they didn't have a single other hurler who qualified for the ERA title as the next best innings pitched total belonged to Bannister who finished eight innings short of the requirement of 162 innings. By the way Part II - the difference between those two Royals hurlers was larger than the full season ERA's of Chris Carpenter (2.24), Tim Lincecum (2.48) and Felix Hernandez (2.49).

4.32: The league's worst total for pitches thrown per batter, a mark that belonged to the often dominating Clayton Kershaw. Another potentially studly youngster, Max Scherzer of the D'backs, was second at 4.15 pitches per hitter followed by Yovani Gallardo (4.04) and Jon Lester (4.03). The best pitchers in the game, the ones that used the fewest pitches to retire each batter? Here they are - Joel Pineiro (3.41), Zach Duke (3.45), Nick Blackburn (3.52) and Roy Halladay (3.52). Not that wins-loses are a necessarily a good judge of how guys pitched, but let's just compare each group of four to the other.

Four that needed pitches: 45-39
Four that limited pitches: 49-49

It seems likely that throwing fewer pitchers per batter clearly allowed those hurlers to go deeper in games leading to a larger decision total.

10: The age that Reds prospect Yonder Alonso emigrated to the United States from Cuba. Now 22, Yonder hit a rather solid .292 in 84 minor league games. I just got back from watching the kid at the Arizona Fall League and was mighty impressed (he has 15 RBI in 17 games). To read my thoughts on the youngster visit AFL Impressions.

12.1: The major league leading HR/AB total of Carlos Pena and Albert Pujols. Only one other batter was able to better the 13 mark and that was Prince Fielder at 12.8. The only other man with at least 45 homers, Ryan Howard, came in fifth with a 13.7 mark. At the other end of the spectrum there were two men who came to the dish more than 400 times but failed to go deep even a single time in Luis Castillo (486 ABs) and Emilio Bonifacio (461 ABs).

17: The wild pitch total of both A.J. Burnett and Felix Hernandez, a total that led baseball. Only three guys were able to pitch 100-innings last season without issuing a single wild pitch - Brett Anderson, Jason Berken and Josh Greer.

22: The number of hits that Derek Jeter posted in the 2009 playoffs to lead all players. Jeter hit .344 in the post-season with a .995 OPS, and if we give him 150 games played at the pace he flashed in the playoffs he would end up with about 220 hits. Jeter had 212 hits during the regular season, the seventh time he has produced 200-hits in a season. In baseball history, no other shortstop has produced more than four 200-hit seasons (Michael Young).

Speaking of Young, he had 174 hits in 2009, his worst mark in seven seasons. Still, that seven year run of at least 174 hits is tied for the 10th longest streak in baseball history with the record being 16-straight seasons but the all-time hit leader, Pete Rose.

Charlie Hustle was a switch hitter, and last year switch hitter Pablo Sandoval batted .330, a mark that has been bettered in only 37 individual seasons in baseball history by a switch hitter (min. 502 plate appearance).

Speaking of guys who swing the lumber from both sides of the dish, Chipper Jones has produced numbers that clearly have him in the debate as to who the top switch hitter of all-time is (still gotta go with Mickey Mantle in this corner for his all-around abilities). Here is how he ranks in a myriad of categories.

AVG: .307, third (min. 1,500 plate appearances)
HR: 426, third
RBI: 1,445, third
Runs: 1,458, ninth
OPS: .947, third
Extra base hits: 935, fourth

24: For those of you in the rare leagues that count defense, this is the league leading error total of Mark Reynolds. The second worst total in the game belonged to Everth Cabrera who made 23 errors in just 102 games at shortstop with the Padres. Still, as bad as the raw total was, his .951 fielding percentage is light years behind the .968 mark of Rangers' shortstop Elvis Andrus who made 22 errors of his own.

25.4: The percentage of pitches that were a fastball from Doug Davis (there is no truth to the rumor that Davis' fastball was recorded as a change up because it was so slow - 85.1 mph on average). That's a shocking number really. Think of it, only a quarter of the time did David rear back and bring it. He did throw his cutter 45.1 percent of the time, and truthfully that's really a hybrid fastball (he threw it an average of 82.6 mph). There was only one other man in baseball who qualified for the ERA title (162 innings) and threw his fastball less than 40 percent of the time, and the name is guaranteed to shock you - Roy Halladay (31.7 percent). Like Davis his favorite pitch, in terms of usage, was the cutter (41.5), but Holiday's average cutter was 91 mph while his fastball topped out at 92.6 mph.

30: The number of double-plays induced on the ground by Ricky Romero, the largest total in baseball. The man who led baseball in groundball to flyball ratio, Joel Pinero, finished second with 29 GIDP.

44.9: The percentage of pitches that were fastballs to Ryan Howard. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the big fella obviously murders the heat, which has affectively forced hurlers to try and get him out some other way. The only other hitter in baseball who qualified for the batting title who received a fastball less than half the time was Alfonso Soriano (46.0 percent). At the other end of the spectrum, pitchers just reared back and fired the heat at Luis Castillo since they realize he has absolutely no shot at doing anything remotely impactful at the dish (16 extra base hits in 486 ABs). Here are the three men that faced the heater more than 70 percent of the time in 2009: Castillo (73.9), David Eckstein (73.8) and Jason Kendall (70.7).