Thank you, voters, for turning out in strong numbers again. There was significant interest—and more weird symmetry—in Ichiro Suzuki’s final 2011 batting average. Here is what your cumulative totals look like: Ichiro’s BA Percentage Under .280 3.1% .280-.300 45.6% .300-.320 45.6% .320-.340 1.9% Over .340 3.8% It seems a bit odd that exactly the same […]

Starting off the Indians-Tigers game today, Michael Brantley scored a Little League home run*—a triple with an error allowing him to score. Brantley’s started two games recently with triples. Once, he later scored the only run in a 1-0 Indians victory.Then the Little Lague home run today. * I have to give Paul Hoynes of […]

I’m gonna be honest here: I didn’t want any games last night. Instead I watched “Serenity,” which seemed necessary after finishing up the entire 14-episode run of “Firefly” on the treadmill over the past couple of weeks.  The verdict: not bad, but I liked the series better. As “Star Trek: The Next Generation” showed, when […]

What follows are some team statistics from this season. Hat tip to Fangraphs for the tables. The Astros’ starting pitchers really hate ground balls. They have rolled over just 37.6 percent of batted balls, the lowest rate in the league. Conversely, Astros relievers want nothing to do with fly balls. They’ve allowed the fewest in […]

Tigers 4, Indians 0: If often seems like the game Justin Verlander is playing is unfairly easy when the game everyone else is playing is so damned hard. A no-hitter into the eighth, a two-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts overall. Rays 4, Red Sox 0: James Shields with a five-hit shutout. Carl Crawford’s return to […]

I had every recap done this morning, hit “save” and then just as that happened something barfed on itself in Google Chrome and I lost it all. So if these recaps seem superficial, it’s only because I’m trying to type them with one fist punched in the monitor. Tigers 2, Rays 1: A wilder one […]

Late last week, Chris Jaffe provided a nice statistical summary for Jim Northrup, the fine Tigers outfielder who was suffering from Alzheimer’s and finally succumbed to a seizure at the age of 71. In addition to being a versatile outfielder and the owner of a short and sweet left-handed swing, Northrup was a cult favorite […]

Ichiro Suzuki’s career Major League Baseball batting average heading into the 2011 season was .331. His best single-season mark was .372 in 2004, and his worst was .303 just a year later. Ichiro has been baseball’s best hitter for average since Tony Gwynn. However, so far in 2011, Ichiro is batting .258. Through May 18, […]

Brewers 4, Cardinals 3: Milwaukee makes a statement, sweeping the formerly-first-place Cardinals. Sean Marcum pitched seven strong innings and the Brewers came back from being down 3-0 after five and a half innings to taking the lead after six. The Brewers are the hottest team this side of Boston, methinks. Speaking of them … Red […]

Cubs fans of long standing have come to expect two kinds of teams: Disappointing and just plain bad. This year’s team, of which little was expected and less has been delivered, fits without question in the latter category. But how bad? This bad: At its current pace, you can make a case that the 2011 […]