Winter and Baseball

Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

Hall of Famer Phil Niekro lost 20 games in a season twice, and 18 games three times. 

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Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

In honor of Stan the Man’s recent passing, go ahead and look over his stats and be amazed. I’ve posted about his 1815 hits at home/1815 hits on the road split before, but there’s that and more.

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Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

Zoilo Versalles won the MVP in the American League in 1965. He was worth 7.1 bWAR that season. His career bWAR? 10.4. His next best season was worth 2.4.

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Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

Jeff Francoeur was worth 2.7 bWAR in 2011 and -2.7 bWAR in 2012.

Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

Earl Webb didn’t have an outstanding Major League career; he played for five different teams over seven years and only played about two full seasons. However, in 1931, he became the all-time single-season doubles leader with 67. He had never hit more than 30 before and never would again.

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Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

John Axford won the Rolaids Relief Award in 2011 for a season in which he saved 46 games and blew only two. This year, he has 27 saves and eight blown saves for a 77% save percentage. His brWAR has gone from 2.3 in 2011 to -1.2 this season. Oof.

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Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

I don’t have a lot to say about Dick Phelan other than LOOK AT HIS MUSTACHE. LOOK AT IT.

He may have played in only 107 games in his career, and he may have been worth -1.8 bWAR, but he deserves a Mustache MVP.

Also, b-r has him hitting three home runs in 1884, but not having any RBI. I’m sure this has something to do with incomplete stats being available from that time period but we know he has at least three, right?

But let’s get back to what’s important.

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Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

I posted earlier about how Babe Ruth only won one MVP during his career. That was a little cheap, since the MVP wasn’t even a thing until about halfway through it, with different rules. So here’s this:

Hank Aaron only won one MVP during his career. He usually finished in the top 5, but his only MVP award came during his third full season. The man is the all-time leader in RBIs (not to mention home runs, really). Now that is consistency. 

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Fun Baseball-Reference Fact of the Day

Jose Canseco pitched in a game once. It did not go well. He pitched one inning and gave up two hits, three walks, and three runs. However, he didn’t hit anybody, so I guess that’s good.

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