Random Notes for 7/17

Been a few days since I've posted anything -- blame work -- so let's look at a few bits you probably didn't notice.

-- In the history of the game, there has only been seven catchers who have started off their careers playing in at least 115 games and logging over 475 plate appearances in three of their first four seasons.

Butch Wynegar (all 4 seasons)
Benito Santiago
Jim Sundberg
Thurman Munson
Johnny Bench
Manny Sanguillen
Roy Campanella

This season, however, both Brian McCann and Kenji Johjima could both enter that list, barring any significant time lost, of course. Interestingly, Ronny Paulino of the Bucs could have also accomplished the feat had Pittsburgh not sent him down in early June.

The scary thing for fans of both the Braves and Mariners is how many times each of those players reached the mark over the remaineder of their career:

Wynegar: 2 times out of 9 seasons
Santiago: 5 times out of 16 seasons
Sundberg: 5 times out of 12 seasons
Munson: 6 times out of 7 seasons (of course, we all know about the seventh season...)
Bench: 7 times out of 13 seasons (was also playing around 20 games per season elsewhere)
Sanguillen: 3 times out of 9 seasons
Campanella: 3 times out of 6 seasons

So, 72 total seasons combined for those seven, and in less than half (31) were they able to keep up the pace they set early in their career.

-- Because you can never say enough good things about Chipper Jones: If he can reach 130 games this season, he will likely have his eighth season of 130 games played with an OPS+ over 130 and over 130 runs created. Only Barry Bonds (nine times) and Alex Rodriguez (eight times entering this season) have accomplished it more since 1995.

-- Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Lopez and the aforementioned Kenji Johjima could be on their way to a third consecutive season not totalling more than 65 walks combined. Considering those three have been in the box for almost 30% of the Mariners plate appearances over the past three seasons, it's easy to see how Seattle has been well below the league average in runs scored.

-- Assuming the Rays don't make a deal for a starting pitcher before the trade deadline and are content with their current stable of young guns, they could become only the fourth team in the past fifty years to have every game started by a pitcher who is under the age of 27.

1968 Oakland Athletics, 82-80 (6th place in AL)
1990 Chicago White Sox, 94-68 (2nd place in AL West)
1999 Minnesota Twins, 63-97 (5th in AL Central)
2003 Detroit Tigers, 43-119 (5th in AL Central)

The '69 Athletics missed the mark by only two games, but the incredible thing is they saw 35 starts from a 23 year old Catfish Hunter, four starts from a 19 year old Vida Blue and eight starts from a 22 year old Rollie Fingers. Also of note were a few other names present on their roster: Tony LaRussa, Dave Duncan, Tito Francona, Marcel Lacheman and Ed Sprague (whose son Braves fans will remember with rather unfond memories for Game 2 of the 1992 World Series).

-- There are currently four players in the Majors with an OPS+ of 180 or higher (Lance Berkman, Chipper, Albert Pujols and Milton Bradley). If those four can keep up the pace, it will be only the fourth season in ML history to see four players reach that mark.

1994: Frank Thomas, Barry Bonds, Jeff Bagwell, Kevin Mitchell, Albert Belle
2000: Carlos Delgado, Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez
1923: Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker, Rogers Hornsby, Harry Heilmann

Once again goes to show you just how special a season '94 could have been.

That's all for now, maybe I'll post some more stuff later. Also expect this week's Power Rankings to be up at some point.