Some Nifty Perfect Games Facts

Roy Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in Major League Baseball history on Saturday night, blanking the Florida Marlins for his seventh win of the 2010 season. In the process, Halladay also lowered his ERA to 1.99 on the season.

Normals statistics aside, having thrown something as significant as a perfect game gives us the chance to discuss some other interesting items, mainly to compare the gem Halladay twirled to the other nineteen that came before him. Let's face it, what good are baseball statistics if you can't compare them against one another endlessly?

-         Halladay's perfect game was the second of the 2010 season, succeeding Dallas Braden's masterpiece against Tampa on May 9th. This marks just the second time in Major League history that two perfect games have been tossed in the same season. The first time it occurred was during the Dead Ball Era in 1880 when Lee Richmond of the Worchester Ruby Legs and John Montgomery Ward of the Providence Grays threw the first two perfect games in the history of the game.

-         Halladay struck out 11 batters in the game, which is the fourth time that the pitcher throwing the perfect game has struck out 11, joining David Wells (NYY, 1998), Len Barker (CLE, 1981), and Catfish Hunter (OAK, 1968) in achieving that feat. However, it is not the record for strike-outs for a perfect game. That belongs to Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers who struck out 14 in his perfect game on September 9, 1965. On a side note, the fewest strike-outs thrown in a perfect game was 3, done by Addie Joss of the Cleveland Indians on October 2, 1908.

-         Halladay needed only 115 pitches to get through his perfect game, despite striking out 11 batters, but it is nowhere near the fewest pitches thrown in a perfect game. Of the 17 perfect games with pitch counts recorded, the undisputed champion of efficiency is Addie Joss, who in that 1908 game needed just 74 pitches to spin his gem.

-         Halladay joins Jim Bunning as the second perfect game in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies, and club’s tenth no-hitter. Three other clubs, the Yankees, White Sox, and Oakland Athletics have more than one perfect game in their history. The Yankees are the only club with three, with David Cone, David Wells, and Don Larsen all twirling theirs for the game’s most storied franchise.

-         For all the talk about attendance issues in Florida, Halladay’s perfect game had 25,086 fans in attendance. That more than doubled the 12,288 who paid to see Braden’s earlier this year. The smallest recorded crowd to see a perfect game was also in Oakland, when only 6,298 were on hand when Catfish Hunter threw his perfect game against Minnesota in 1968.

-         Finally, this is the sixth time that a perfect game has been tossed where the game was won 1-0. The most runs scored by the winning team in a perfect game is six, done by the Phillies for Jim Bunning in 1964 and the Yankees for David Cone in 1999.

So there you are, armed with your new found knowledge of the perfect game. With plenty of baseball to be played, we still have a chance to have the first season with three perfect games, but let’s all not collectively hold out breaths waiting for it to happen.

Sources:

-         Perfect Games, Wikipedia.com

-         Roy Halladay Stats, Baseball-Reference.com

-         Phillies-Marlins Box Score, MLB.com

-         List of Philadelphia Phillies No-Hitters, Wikipedia.com

This post can also be seen at YouGabSports.com.

NBA Free Agent Summit Is Interesting Move

Alright folks, put your picket signs down and get your panties out of a bunch, I’m not talking about the G-8 Summit. No, that fun event and its protests will be in Huntsville, Ontario from June 25-27, 2010. Sorry for the confusion.

Rather, I’m referring to the recently announced super summit of NBA free agents, planned to occur sometime before the July 1^st start to free agent signings. Apparently Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Joe Johnson, and Chris Bosh are opting to meet in order to discuss their free agency plans in regards to where they hope to sign and what salaries they will demand.

For all intensive purposes, they are pooling their resources to ensure that they all get what they want and know how the dominoes will fall. But wait a second, aren’t they all already part of a union? Why the need to meet separately?

In reality, this sounds more like the other guys want to see what thought process Lebron James is following, so they can know how the fallout will shake out for them. Wade will likely be the next to go after James, with Bosh and Johnson likely to follow depending on the fates of fellow free agents Dirk Nowitzki and Amare Stoudamire, who are not confirmed for this “summit.”

The question is, why hasn’t someone else thought of this sooner? Maximizing salaries and predicting landing spots is something that agents are usually left in charge of. However, in these days of agents over estimating markets and failing to secure long-term deals in all sports, perhaps this is the best way to ensure that everyone gets their fair shake, especially considering the magnitude of the players available is perhaps unlike any previous class ever. No more worries about collusion to control salaries, just playing the game off the court like it is on the court, as a team, to get the best results.

Then again, based on the outcome of said meetings, these players can come off looking pompous and headstrong. They could demand astronomical deals or force “package” signings of multiple players because they know how the market will play out and they know how to leverage the teams based on what is out there.

If past NBA free agency is any indicator, the dominoes will fall fast, so Wade and his summit are doing their best to stay ahead of it. Only time will tell if the decision to act was a smart business move or an effort of futility.

2010 NBA Draft Board Top Five

When the National Basketball Association changed the age eligibility rules for the NBA Draft in 2006, requiring all eligible players to be at least one year removed from the completion of high school, they had to have foreseen the effect it would have on colleges and universities. As evidenced by the top ranked players on the 2010 draft boards, forcing players to go to college for one season doesn't change how these kids are viewed in the eyes of scouts, but rather it just delays the inevitable in regards to them starting their professional careers.


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Lebron James Speculation Is Officially Under Way

For the second consecutive season, the Cleveland Cavaliers have posted the best regular season record in the NBA.

Now, for the second consecutive season, the Cleveland Cavaliers were bounced from the NBA playoffs by a lower seed before reaching the NBA Finals, losing in the Eastern Conference finals to the Orlando Magic in 2009 and now being humiliated by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the 2010 playoffs.

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Realigning Major League Baseball For Better Competition

There has been a lot of talk amongst the press and amongst the fans in regards to baseball needing to realign in order to create more evenly competitive divisions. Most of this conversation has been generated on the belief that some teams will never be able to compete while stuck in a division with certain larger market opponents, where the belief is that dollars buy playoff appearances.


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Surprise, We're Here: MLB's Biggest Surprise Teams

Good or bad, every fan comes into the season with expectation for their teams. Some are on the money and some are over exaggerated by the clouds of loyalty and desire, but it all creates an early season basis of comparison for each and every team in the league.
It goes without saying that most of these teams won’t live up to the burdens placed on them by the fans and pundits alike. Some will rise to the occasion and grasp fate by the horns, while others will either exceed or fail to meet their full potential. And that is all that expectations are; an estimate of potential. Some realize it and others turn their backs on it.
Now that we’re close to completing our second month of the 2010 Major League Baseball season, it’s safe to say that we have an accurate window in which to view the separation discussed above. You take the good and you take the bad, and somewhere along the line you replace expectation with realization. For now, we’re going to examine which teams are realizing their potential beyond the expectations of the so-called “experts”.

Top 5 Surprise Teams

WashingtonNationals
2010 Record: 20-20, 3rd Place National League East

It would be difficult to not place the Nationals at the top of this list. They epitomize the term “surprise.”
This is a team that has never finished out of the basement of the NL East since they moved to Washington, has a run differential of -18, and ranks in the bottom half of all of baseball in hitting, pitching, and defense, yet they are currently in second place in the East. What they do well though is win close games, as only Cincinnati has a better record than Washington’s 8-5 mark in 1-run games.
Long term, the flaws listed above will probably catch up to them, but the expected arrivals of Drew Storen and Stephen Strasburg to the pitching staff may further their pitching efforts.

San DiegoPadres
2010 Record: 23-16, 1^st Place National League West

The Padres are another team that most pundits, myself included, didn’t credit with much of a chance in 2010. This is a team that is in cost cutting mode, had not managed its farm system properly, and entered 2010 with a lot of youth. Yet, they enter play on Wednesday tied for first place in what is arguable the best division in baseball. The Padres have done this by allowing the fewest runs in the National League, but despite scoring the third fewest runs in the NL as well.
It would be easy to write this off as an aberration, but this is also a team that was 36-52 at the All-Star break in 2009 and improved to 39-35 after it, when they jettisoned Jake Peavy, and started giving more opportunities to their young prospects. This may very well be a team that is coming into its own and Bud Black could be looking at a Manager Of The Year award rather than a spot on the hot seat.

CincinnatiReds
2010 Record: 23-16, 1^st Place National League Central

Quick, tell me who leads the NL Central. Is it the Cardinals, Cubs, Or Milwaukee? The answer is none of the above, as the Red stormed to the early season division lead. The Reds are 9-1 over their last ten games, so a lot of this success is based on a recent run, but its still unexpected from a team many pegged for fourth place.
Cincinnati currently has just a +3 run differential and owns a 10-5 record in one run games, showing just how close to the vest they are playing it right now. Neither the offense or the pitching staff has been stellar, but both have been efficient enough to maintain a run. If they have any hope of continuing along this path, the Reds will need Jay Bruce to continue to produce, the infield tandem of Orlando Cabrera and Brandon Phillips to step up and help, and pitchers Homer Bailey (5.21 ERA) and Aaron Harang (6.02 ERA) to lend some help to the pitching staff.

TorontoBlue Jays
2010 Record: 24-17, 3^rd Place American League East

Most experts felt that the American League East would be a three team race in 2010, but very few out there thought that the Blue Jays would be involved in the squabble while the Red Sox looked in from the outside. Even fewer gave the Jays much of a chance to be better than a fifth place team after they traded Roy Halladay to the Philadelphia.
So what has gotten into the Jays? The return of Shawn Marcum to the pitching staff has helped, but a number of near missed on no-hitters hasn’t hurt either. The biggest cog in this wheel has been the re-emergence of center-fielder Vernon Wells, who somehow opted to earn his big dollar contract in 2010.
While the Jays likely don’t stand much chance of winning the division or the wild-card with the Yankees and Rays looking as strong as they do, the Toronto fans can at least look forward to a year of exciting baseball.

OaklandAthletics
2010 Record: 20-20, 2^nd place American League West

Only in baseball’s worst division would we be talking about a team at .500 that is just two games removed from the division lead. Only in baseball’s worst division would that team have a -14 run differential. As a matter of fact, only the division leading Rangers, who have a differential of +9, can say that they’ve outscored their opponents for the season. Alas, here we are and the Oakland A’s are living the dream.
Many predicted the young pitching staff we saw a year ago would continue to step up and be a force in 2010, but most also agreed that this team would struggle to score runs due to a lack of any serious power. Well, in that regard, they haven’t disappointed, but the pitching staff, which has held its own, despite the loss of Brett Anderson. They also have the claim of the most exciting event of the season when Dallas Braden pitched a perfect game against Tampa.
The A’s aren’t likely to stick around, unless Billy Beane can pull some magic at the deadline. That is unlikely because the team has a vision in mind and a timeframe and its doubtful that Beane would move away from that to try and compete this season.