Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The New Look MLB Leaderboards


Have you checked the MLB active leaderboards on baseball-reference lately?  Take a good look this week because by the start of the 2014 season, many names will be absent from the lists.

Todd Helton's name will be the most conspicuous by its absence on the top 10 of most offensive statistics.  Factor in the suspension of Miguel Tejada, and the most likely retirement of Jason Giambi, Lance Berkman and Manny Ramirez and the set of names on the top ten leaderboards for offense becomes a bit surprising at first glance.  (Who thought Adrian Beltre was this high on the lists. He's quietly having a pretty good career)

Here is what the leaderboards MIGHT look like at the start of 2014 with each players' debut year. Scary thought when you consider that a good number of players debuted this century! 

PLATE APPEARANCES

1995  Jeter (39)           11968
1994  A-Rod (37)        11336
1998  Beltre (34)           9359
2001  Suzuki (39)          9265
1997  Konerko (37)       9265
1998  Beltran (36)         8937
2000  Rollins (34)         8877
2000  Young (36)          8599
2001  Pujols (33)          8546
2000  Hunter (37)         8526

RUNS


A-Rod                 1919
Jeter                    1876
Pujols                  1425
Beltran                1345
Suzuki                1260
Rollins                1244
Ortiz (37)           1203
Beltre                 1172
Hunter                1158
Konerko             1146

HITS

Jeter                   3316
A-Rod               2939
Suzuki               2738
Beltre                2419
Young                2374
Pujols                2347
Konerko            2295
Beltran              2226
Pierre (35)         2216
Rollins               2169

HOMERUNS

A-Rod                    654
Pujols                    492
Dunn (33)              438
Konerko                433
Ortiz                      430
Soriano                 406
Beltre                    374
Cabrera (30)         365
Beltran                  358
A-Ramirez (35)    354

DOUBLES

Jeter                   525
Pujols                524
A-Rod               519
Ortiz                  519
Beltre                493
Soriano             465
Rollins              454
Beltran              445
A-Ramirez        441
Young               440

TOTAL BASES


A-Rod          5480
Jeter             4739
Pujols           4377
Beltre           4094
Konerko       4012
Beltran         3899
Ortiz            3862
Soriano        3787
Hunter         3623
A-Ramirez   3590

RBI

A-Rod          1969
Pujols           1498
Ortiz             1424
Konerko       1389
Beltran         1327
Beltre           1304
A-Ramirez   1276
Jeter             1261
Cabrera        1260
Hunter         1226

WALKS
Dunn           1245
A-Rod         1238
Ortiz            1085
Pujols          1067
Jeter             1047
Beltran         933
Konerko       910
Carlos Pena  813
Cabrera        799
Teixeira        754

Monday, September 23, 2013

FINAL Summer Recap - JUNE 21st thru Sept 22nd

Now that summer is official over, let's compare the actual days of this summer (full days: June 21st through September 22nd) to summers of the past. Maybe this final assessment will answer a few questions and dispel some perceptions that most of us had about this summer.

1. Was this summer as cool as what we thought?

2. Was the summer of 2013 one of the rainiest?

3. How did this summer rank when compared to recent summers?


I chose to compare 2013 to each summer since 1973 since a 40 year period is more recent in our memory. Since 1973 (last 41 summers), the summer of 2013 ranked 12th warmest. (The summers of 2005, 2010, 2011 and 2012 were warmer)


Interestingly, 21 of the last 40 summers have been COOLER than this summer!

How about the number of days below 75 degrees over the last 40 years? Surely, this past summer ranks high on the list over the last 40 right?  Nope.  

2013 had 26 days below 75 degrees which ranks 20TH!

Rainfall was a different story this summer. Summer of 2013 ranked 10th ALL-TIME in rainfall.