Sometimes you can really get lost in the ocean of numbers that covers all of baseball. And by "you" I really mean "I". All it takes is some sort of slight statistical oddity to send me on some inconsequential goose chase, comparing percentages and making mental tallies.
Follow my latest contrail:
88 Topps Cards, a blog that features, well, 1988 Topps baseball cards, today talked about Jesse Orosco's card. Wanting to check out his career numbers I headed over to Jesse Orosco's Baseball-Reference.com page and scrolled through the numbers. I perused his batting stats (because I'm always interested in how well pitchers can hit) and noticed that in 1997 and 2002, despite being credited with zero at bats, he still managed to reach base. There's a number of
ways to accomplish this, but most common is the walk. And indeed, in Orosco's only plate appearances in those two seasons he was walked; once in '97, and once in '02. What's more, these two plate appearances were the last two of his career. What's further more, in 2002 not only did he take ball four in his only plate appearance of the year, he also came around to score. If you read the seventh inning play-by-play, it's amusing to imagine the 44-year-old Orosco huffin' from first to second on a base hit, huffin' from second to third on another base hit, then gladly walking home on a Brian Jordan grand slam.
So then I got to thinkin', what other pitchers have scored following their only plate appearance of the season where they reached base via a walk? That's a lot of criteria, and you might expect the answer to be "once by Jesse Orosco in 2002", but it's happened twenty-four times since 1900. The last person to do it was Brandon Lyon of the D-backs in 2006. In fact, he did it in his only career plate appearance to date. The first? Somebody named, and I'm not making this up, Farmer Burns of the 1901 Cardinals. Besting Lyon's effort (sort of), not only was this the only plate appearance of his career, this was his only Major League game EVER. He made the best of it though by stealing a base. Good ol' Farmer Burns.
That's another tangent altogether, isn't it? Stolen bases by pitchers. I'll get right on it.
Anyway, that's how I waste hours at a time.
Follow my latest contrail:
88 Topps Cards, a blog that features, well, 1988 Topps baseball cards, today talked about Jesse Orosco's card. Wanting to check out his career numbers I headed over to Jesse Orosco's Baseball-Reference.com page and scrolled through the numbers. I perused his batting stats (because I'm always interested in how well pitchers can hit) and noticed that in 1997 and 2002, despite being credited with zero at bats, he still managed to reach base. There's a number of
ways to accomplish this, but most common is the walk. And indeed, in Orosco's only plate appearances in those two seasons he was walked; once in '97, and once in '02. What's more, these two plate appearances were the last two of his career. What's further more, in 2002 not only did he take ball four in his only plate appearance of the year, he also came around to score. If you read the seventh inning play-by-play, it's amusing to imagine the 44-year-old Orosco huffin' from first to second on a base hit, huffin' from second to third on another base hit, then gladly walking home on a Brian Jordan grand slam.So then I got to thinkin', what other pitchers have scored following their only plate appearance of the season where they reached base via a walk? That's a lot of criteria, and you might expect the answer to be "once by Jesse Orosco in 2002", but it's happened twenty-four times since 1900. The last person to do it was Brandon Lyon of the D-backs in 2006. In fact, he did it in his only career plate appearance to date. The first? Somebody named, and I'm not making this up, Farmer Burns of the 1901 Cardinals. Besting Lyon's effort (sort of), not only was this the only plate appearance of his career, this was his only Major League game EVER. He made the best of it though by stealing a base. Good ol' Farmer Burns.
That's another tangent altogether, isn't it? Stolen bases by pitchers. I'll get right on it.
Anyway, that's how I waste hours at a time.
