Tired of hearing about Albert Pujols’ prowess with the bat?  Little exasperated with Albert Pujols leading the league in most meaningful offensive category in the NL?

Maybe this story will cheer you up (but probably won’t).

Today, Pujols set the National League record for assists for a firstbaseman with 181 passing Mark Grace’s record set in 1990. 

In typical fashion, Pujols was quite humble, passing the credit on to his teammates:

"That’s good," Pujols said of the record. "That will tell you that our pitchers are keeping the ball down and keeping me busy at first."

…and a bit sheepish as well…

"I also made an error that cost us the game right there," Pujols said. "That’s part of the game. It just gave me a bad hop and that’s it."

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Posted in: Records by The Baseball Zealot
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Last night in a game against the Orioles, Derek Jeter passed Lou Gehrig on the all-time list. The fact that Gehrig was a revered Yankee player and that Jeter got his hit in front of 46,000+ fans added to the significance of the event in the eyes of the media.

That puts him #53 on the all-time list.  With 2,722 hits, Jeter still needs a couple hundred more plus a few more if he wants to meet the goal of the magical 3000.  At the age of 35, barring any major injury, he’ll most likely accomplish that goal.

Where does Jeter fall on the all-time lists in other offensive categories?  Here is a quick breakdown:

Oh yeah, he’s 47th in singles with 2,005 but that seemed like kind of a back handed compliment. 

These numbers are very good but they don’t really jump out at you.   That said, Jeter’s hit total is second (behind Ken Griffey) among active players.  The difference is that Jeter is only 35. 

I’m sure there will be plenty out there who will be comparing Jeter’s hitting stats to others claiming East Coast bias and Jeter-hype.  Those will no doubt be the same who will bring up the argument of Jeter’s reputation of mediocre defense (fair or unfair). 

But let’s face it.  Barring a major scandal, Jeter’s bid for the Hall is pretty much secure when the time comes, like it or not.  The phenomenon of Derek Jeter, a player who played his whole career for the Yankees, became their team captain and helped them win in the postseason, counts for more than any stat or fact that you can analyze. 

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Wilver Stargell was a menacing figure when he stepped into the batter’s box in the 70s, windmilling his bat around, as he waited for the pitcher to summon up the courage to send the sphere plateward.  Stargell played 21 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he hit 7 of the 16 balls hit completely out of Forbes Field and several into the upper tier at Three Rivers Stadium.  Willie finished his career with 475 homers and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1988.

He hit 296 home runs in the 70s, more than anyone else.  As the decade comes to an end, who will be the all-time home run hitter for this decade?

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Posted in: Records, Statistics, Trivia by Teddy Ballgame
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Jacoby Ellsbury tied a record for most putouts, 12, by a centerfielder in a nine inning game, last night in Boston versus the Blue Jays. Ellsbury now shares this record with the late, Minnesota Twins Lyman Bostock, May 25, 1977, and Boston Braves Earl Clark, May 10, 1929.

Marco Scutaro, the first batter of the game, jumped on the second pitch he saw, lining it to Jacoby Ellsbury in center. Aaron Hill drove the first pitch he saw to the warning track, where Ellsbury hauled it in with an impressive over the shoulder catch. Before his night was through, Jacoby would snare a dozen flyballs, including the last out of the game.

“I could feel it a little bit in the legs. It’s just a day’s work, I guess,” said Ellsbury. “I’ll be feeling just the same tomorrow—feeling good.”

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Posted in: Records by Teddy Ballgame
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Mark my words, when they put out the video entitled "The Chicago Cubs’ 2008 Championship Season", Sunday’s night game will be portrayed as the "the game that turned things around" for the Cubs.

Carlos Zambrano hadn’t pitched in over 12 days due to a sore rotator cuff.  In his first day back, he no-hits division rivals Houston and allows only 2 base runners.  For good measure, he went 1 for 3 with a run scored.  It was pretty much a Carlos Zambrano show.  He even called for a pop-up that D Lee would have normally gotten.  Z is like that. 

It was first Cub no-no since Milt Pappas’ gem 36 years ago.  It was also the first no-hitter ever in a neutral park.  The only downside was that the game was not televised outside of Chicago.  But 23,000+ of the faithful showed up on short notice to cheer the good guys on.

At recent Cubs Conventions, Pappas had been telling Zambrano that he would be the next.

Every year at the Cubs Convention, Milt Pappas greets Carlos Zambrano with the same statement.

"He keeps telling me, ‘You will be the next one. You will be the next one,’" Zambrano said.

For the record for anyone who might be interested/worried, Zambrano threw 110 pitches.  That’s a high count for anyone let alone someone coming off a rotator cuff injury.  I bet Zambrano was flying through the last few innings though. 

Yes, Sunday’s game is the stuff legends are made and just what the Cubs needed.  Ted Lilly got the memo that the losing ways of the past is over.  He even attempted to emulate Carlos and nearly succeeded.  Lilly got through six without a hit today.  It didn’t matter that Mark Loretta got one through.  We won 6-1 and that magic number is rapidly dissipating.

Carlos Zambrano’s No-hitter Box Score

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K-Rod: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K (SV)

Seattle was Francisco Rodriguez’ victim as he broke the all-time single season record for saves. 

F Rodriguez (S, 58)  was the entry in the boxscores this morning as K-Rod eclipsed Bobby Thigpen’s old record of 57.  Rodriguez will most likely be the first 60 save reliever.  Who was it that had the all-time record BEFORE Thigpen?  I’ll give you a second to think about it.

While I do, check out Baseball-Reference’s Progressive Leaders for saves (the answer’s there).  B-R’s Progressive Leaders board is fun to look at for any stat.  It lists 4 columns for EACH year going back to 1876; career leader, single-season leader, active player career leader, and yearly leader.  It sounds rather mundane as I describe it but when you look at all four columns together, you get a sense of how the stat (in this case, saves) "progressed".  Try other stats, too!

Oh, the answer is Dave Righetti with 46 saves in 1986.

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Albert Pujols:  1 for 5, 2B, run, rbi

Eight 100 rbi seasons to begin his career

Albert had what should had been a memorable game.  I guess it was but not for the reasons it he’d like it to be. 

In the sixth inning against the Cubs, Albert Pujols hit an rbi double.  That rbi put him precisely at 100 for the season and he’s now had eight consecutive seasons where he’s reached that mark since he’s come to the bigs. 

Unfortunately, the press won’t be talking about that so much.  Pujols made a costly error which turned a potential DP into a 2-0 Cubs lead. 

In addition, Pujols popped up to end the game against the Cubs, who eventually won the game 3-2.  That reminds of a kid cartoon I saw was a child.  I think it was a "Tiger" comic.  The kids were playing a baseball game and the first kid is up and swings, "Steeerike Three!  Yeeer Out!"  The second kid is up.  "Steeerike Three!  Yeeer Out!".  Then Tiger is up.  "Steeerike Three!  Yeeer Out!  Game Over!"  In the final frame of the cartoon, the first two kids look at Tiger and say in unison, "It’s your fault we lost!". 

Ok, not so funny but it makes a point.  Winning is a team effort and though the Cardinals as a team only scored two runs, Pujols (literally) makes headlines for making the last out.

By the way, Albert’s in pretty good company with his eight season record.  Only Al Simmons and Ted Williams have accomplished that.  Simmons streak extended to eleven years. 

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Congrats to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for being the first MLB team to clinch a playoff berth.  A special congrats go to my buddy DonS who is an avid Angels fan. 

With a current 87-57 record, the Angels won all season, everywhere, anytime.  Their road record was even slightly better than their home record (.606 to .603).  Not counting their 0-1 March, their worst months were May and August when they had a winning percentage of "only" .536.  Their first half they won 60% of their games.  To follow up, they now have a .612 winning percentage in the second.  Win, win, win.

They have to feel to feel good about the fact that they currently have a 8-1 record against the Red Sox.  Hopefully, that will bode well if they face them in the playoffs.  And oooh, a 3-6 record against the pesky Rays. 

Francisco Rodriguez got his 56th save against the Yanks in today’s important game leaving him one behind Bobby Thigpen’s single-season record for saves.  I’m not a fan of the save stat but count me in a one fan rooting for K-Rod to break Thiggy’s record. 

Nice going, Halos!  Way to get the job done quick!

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Gary Sheffield: 2 for 5, 2 HR, 2 runs, 5 rbis

Gary Sheffield’s two homer, five rbi performance against the A’s had special meaning on Monday.  If it is to believed, it was the 250,000 homerun in major league history. 

Baseball Reference has the complete list of milestone homers complete with Sheffield’s round-tripper.

As if one milestone isn’t enough, Sheff is now four homers away from the coveted 500 mark. 

Sheffield efforts on Monday contributed to Detroit’s 14-8 win over the A’s.

Posted in: Linescores of the Day, Records by The Baseball Zealot
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Teddy Ballgame pointed out to me over the phone the importance of Cliff Lee’s 2008 season.  Here we are just entering September and the Tribe hurler has already hit the 20 win mark with only 2 losses.  Teddy asked me if I knew who the last Cleveland pitcher to get 20 wins was.  I admitted ignorance. 

According to Tedd, it was the ol’ spitballer himself, Gaylord Perry.  I looked it up and Tedd was right (he always is).  The last Indian pitcher with 20+ wins before this year was Perry in 1974 when he had 21. 

As of today, Lee has the highest Win % of all pitchers with 20+ wins.  Here are the Top Five:

  1 Cliff Lee            .909   20-2 2008  CLE*
  2 Ron Guidry           .893   25-3 1978  NYY
  3 Lefty Grove          .886   31-4 1931  PHA
  4 Preacher Roe         .880   22-3 1951  BRO
  5 Joe Wood             .872   34-5 1912  BOS

*as of Sept 3, 2008

Tedd noted that Cleveland acquired Lee as a prospect which sent Bartolo Colon to the Expos. Oh, the Tribe got one other prospect in the deal.  Who would that be? 

Grady Sizemore. 

As Tedd said, "The Indians did their homework".

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