Wichita State ran its record to 40-13 tonight against Evansville, and sophomore ace Mike Pelfrey ran his record to 10-1. Pelfrey wasn’t at the top of his game tonight, though. In 7 2/3 innings, he gave up 3 runs on 11 hits. On the bright side, he struck out 7 while walking none, giving him […]

I’m watching the Dodgers-Phillies game, and the announcer just made an interesting comment — the Phillies started batting practice today with nine dozen baseballs, and finished with only 18. The announcer acted like this was an amazing thing, being left with only 18 baseballs after starting with 9 dozen. It doesn’t seem too overwhelming to […]

My colleagues did a nice job reacting to the Randy Johnson perfect game last night, but I just wanted to give everybody a sense of what it’s like in the newsroom of a paper when there’s a no-hitter (especially a perfect game) going on. As you may know, I work in the sports department at […]

I was so busy putting together the Win Shares report that I wasn’t able to develop any commentary for specific players or teams. But some of the Internet’s best writers are making up for my sloth. In particular, Jay Jaffe has a nice review of the Yankee’s Win Shares, and Jon of Dodger Thoughts did […]

After the perfect game, Randy Johnson has a 2.43 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 63 innings (11.6 per 9 innings). He’s currently on pace for 355 strikeouts and 70 walks in 276 innings — very similar to the numbers from his career year of 2002 (334 K’s and 71 walks in 260 IP). Looks to […]

That was great. In my forty-plus years of watching baseball, I’ve never seen a perfect game or no hitter live, even on TV. My closest experience was watching Tom Seaver throw his great game against the Cubs in 1969, which Jimmy Qualls broke up with a Texas Leaguer in the ninth. I remember that you […]

As I write this, Randy Johnson has just finished pitching the game of his life, a perfect game. The Braves went down 27-for-27, including thirteen strikeouts. Johnson threw 117 pitches in this span, as he beat Mike Hampton, who threw a complete game himself. This is the sixteenth perfect game in Major League history, and […]

When I worked for Bill James, one of my regular jobs was to scour the minor leagues for players the Red Sox might steal from other teams. In the process, I became particularly attached to a handful of guys, players that I thought were as good as a lot of major-league regulars at their positions, […]

I’m in Lawrence again, after spending the weekend in Wichita. In three days, I caught four Wichita State baseball games against conference rival Southwest Missouri State (Bill Mueller’s alma mater). The Shockers swept the series, including both ends of a Saturday doubleheader to clinch the regular-season conference championship. A few quick notes… – Friday night’s […]

In my Milwaukee Brewers season preview, I wrote, “If Ben could lower his hit rates a little further than he could become a very good pitcher, though it’s doubtful he’ll ever reach what Baseball America called, “a legitimate top-of-the-rotation pitcher the Brewers will build around.” Today, Ben Sheets went out to prove me wrong. I […]