erik lundegaard

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Sunday April 05, 2009

Opening Day

Welcome to my favorite day of the year. Here are your active career leaders, with all-time rankings in parentheses:

Batting:

  • Games: Omar Vizquel, Tex.: 2680 (30th)
  • At-Bats: Omar Vizquel, Tex.: 9745 (30th)
  • Runs: Ken Griffey, Jr., Sea.: 1612 (39th)
  • Hits: Ken Griffey, Jr. Sea.: 2680 (58th)
  • Doubles: Ivan Rodriguez, Hou.: 524 (34th)
  • Triples: Johnny Damon, NYY: 92 (193th) — second place, only two behind, is Jimmy Rollins, Phi., who was 29 years old last season.
  • Home Runs: Ken Griffey, Jr., Sea.: 611 (5th)
  • RBIs: Ken Griffey, Jr., Sea.: 1772 (18th)
  • Walks: Jim Thome, CWS: 1550 (15th)
  • Strikeouts: Jim Thome, CWS: 2190 (3rd)
  • Stolen Bases: Juan Pierre, LA: 429 (56th)
  • Caught Stealing: Omar Vizquel, Tex.: 156 (19th)
  • Batting Average: Albert Pujols, Stl: .334 (20th)
  • On-Base Percentage: Todd Helton, Col.: .428 (10th)
  • Slugging Percentage: Albert Pujols, Stl: .623 (4th)

Pitching:

  • Games: Trevor Hoffman, Mil: 930 (18th)
  • Games Started: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 682 (11th)
  • Complete Games: Randy Johnson, SF: 100 (395th)
  • Shutouts: Randy Johnson, SF: 37 (58th)
  • Innings Pitched: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 4413 (29th)
  • Hits: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 4298 (24th)
  • Walks: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 1500 (12th)
  • Strikeouts: Randy Johnson, SF: 4789 (2nd)
  • Wins: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 305 (21st)
  • Losses: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 203 (43rd)
  • Saves: Trevor Hoffman, Mil.: 554 (1st) — Mariano Rivera is second, 72 behind.
  • ERA (5 yrs. minimum): Mariano Rivera, NYY: .228 (17th)

Some quick observations:

1) A lot of 1990s Mariners on the list. Would that they’d stayed together to win something. Or one thing.

2) A quarter of the traditional pitching categories are negative (hits, walks, losses), while only 2/15 of the traditional batting categories are (strikeouts, caught stealing). Seems like a raw deal for pitchers. But I guess the options for positive results from a batter (single, double, triple, homer) are so much more varied than for a pitcher (out, strikeout). Still, seems odd to tabulate the number of hits a pitcher gives up and a batter gets, but not the number of outs for both. I’ve been a fan of the game most of my life and I never realized this?

3) Jim Thome leads all active players in both strikeouts and walks, and has 541 career homeruns. Meaning in only about half (52%) of his 9029 plate appearances did the ball land in an area where a fielder had a shot at it. Wonder where he ranks in this non-category?

4) Whenever anyone talks about unbreakable career records in baseball and doesn’t mention triples (for batters) and complete games (for pitchers)? They don’t know what they’re talking about.

5) Play ball!

Posted at 10:25 AM on Sunday April 05, 2009 in category Baseball