7 Yes, the Rays have lost (7) straight to fall a half game back of Boston - but if you are a Tampa fan the thing you need to keep telling yourself is that the former D-Rays are still 16 games above .500 at the All-Star break. Tampa needs to win only 15 games after the break to equal the franchise record for wins in a season - but forget about that, these guys think they can go from "worst-to-first" like the 1991 edition of the Twins and Braves.

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9 The New York Mets head to the break riding a (9) game winning streak. The Mets were three games under .500 a month ago, but today they are a season high seven games above the .500 mark. I know some people are giving Jerry Manuel all the credit - and he does seem to have the respect of his players, which says a lot - but what are we giving him credit for? Is there anyone out there who honestly believes the Mets would have gone the rest of the season without getting hot at least once if Willie Randolph was still at the helm? If the Mets are playing in October, then we can give him all the credit in the world.

25 Ian Kinsler heads to the All-Star game with a (25) game hitting streak for the Texas Rangers - the best in the majors this season. His teammate Michael Young is working on a 15 game hitting streak of his own, and for what its worth, the Rangers as a team are just plain hot. They lost 16 of 23 games to start the season, but since then they have won 16 of 23 series - not games - actual series, and they are four games over .500 at the break.

95 Josh Hamilton has (95) RBI in 93 games. I know everyone has been talking about what an incredible story he is this year, and for good reason, but the one thing that could really make this story beyond spectacular is for the Rangers to make the post-season - and then for Hamilton to light it up in October. Think it can't happen? I don't know - the entire buzz surrounding Hamilton seems to have affected Texas in a good way, and as a team they truly believe they will start the second half of the season with a legitimate shot. I say good for them - as a baseball fan, I'm pulling for the Rays and the Rangers in the second half.

495 It wasn't that long ago that the Diamondbacks had the best record in the N.L. - but they head to the break a game under .500 at 47-48, good for a (.495) winning percentage that would be no better than third place in any other division in baseball. Arizona is, of course, still in first in the N.L. West. The Rockies have lost four straight and are 18 games under .500, and yet they are only 8.5 back of the D-Backs.

574 The Chicago White Sox lead the Central Division with a 54-40 record - good for a (.574) winning percentage at the break. Ozzie Guillen, however, makes me wonder if the White Sox success comes despite their manager rather than because of their manager. I'm sure it must be frustrating to score 11 runs and get 22 hits, only to lose the game - which is what the White Sox did on Sunday - but after listening to the comments made by Guillen after the game I felt like someone should tell him that his players actually are professionals. Here is part of what he said: "This was the worst baseball game I've ever seen. The pitchers should look themselves in the mirror and be embarrassed. That was ugly. That's the worst I've seen in a long time."

 

 

You know those guys - every league has at least one or two - who will drop half their pitching staff on Saturday night and pick up practically any pitcher scheduled to start on Sunday just so they can assure victory in the strikeouts and wins categories in head-to-head fantasy leagues?

No offense if you are one of those guys, I'm only mentioning this to remind everyone that the baseball gods notice this sort of thing.

Case in point: Andrew Miller, the Florida Marlins starter against the Dodgers today.

I'm watching the game overseas via the American Forces Network - and while I normally would be aggravated about a 7-1 score in the second inning (I prefer to watch the 2-1 type ball games), I'm laughing my butt off watching the Marlins vs. Dodgers tonight.

Why?

Well, as it turns out, there is karma in fantasy baseball.

I'm going to lose my head-to-head match-up this week, mainly because my opponent used 25 different pitchers to amass a staggering number of wins and strikeouts (the other categories we pretty much split), but it won't be as bad as it could have been because one of the guys he picked up for today was Andrew Miller.

His line against the Dodgers: 1.2 IP, 5 H, 7 ER, 5 BB, 3K.

I can't do anything about losing the wins or strikeouts category - but he just handed me the ERA and WHIP.

 

 

By David Horne, Sports by the Numbers co-author

I am currently making a three week trip through Georgia and Florida promoting our MLB, NYY, and NASCAR titles just released by the Sports by the Numbers team - and as part of that trip I made a stop in Atlanta where I was able to take in the Braves vs. Mariners at Turner Field on Friday night.

I'll also be at the Rays vs. Red Sox series in a few days, and I'll be at the Daytona Speedway for the running of the Coke Zero 400 to wrap up my trip the weekend of July 4.

There were several highlights at Turner Field tonight - including the chance at a short conversation with Braves' pitching coach Roger McDowell, a presentation to Chipper Jones celebrating his 400th career homerun, and . . . the Braves unveiling a massive Chick-Fil-A cow that now leads the crowd in doing the Tomahawk Chop.

Okay, so maybe that last one wasn't exactly a highlight - but, it was mildly entertaining in a southern, cheesy sort of way.

There were two actual events from tonight's game that are worth describing here (the game was a 10-2 Mariners blowout, and so it misses the cut) - and they both involve young fans I met at the game.

I was among the first fans in the stadium, and immediately went to the Braves bullpen to see if anyone was throwing - and sure enough, Buddy Carlyle was working with pitching coach Roger McDowell.

There were only three or four other people standing above the bullpen (it was two-and-a-half hours prior to game time), and when McDowell acknowledged the fans I told him that he gave me a ball once back when I was a kid watching him in a bullpen session when he was pitching for the Mets - which is true by the way - and he laughed, then tossed a ball to the one kid standing there with his dad, and I thought that was way cool.

Just a moment later, Pete Moylan came walking into the bullpen and started talking with McDowell - and the kid who got the ball was standing there with his dad, and so his dad says to Moylan, "Hey, can you sign my kid's glove?"

Moylan said sure thing, and came over to the wall and reached up for it - so the kid, who I guess was maybe six or seven at the most, got really excited, and said to Moylan, "Are you Chipper?"

I guess Moylan misunderstood, because he replied, "Yeah, I'm a pitcher."

The kid went hysterical . . . let me tell you. He began to scream, "Chipper signed my glove! Chipper signed my glove!"

Then Moylan laughed, and said, "No, I'm a pitcher - my name's Pete."

The kid just kept screaming, "Chipper signed my glove!"

The dad apologized to Moylan, who I have to say was a good sport about it - and then he tried to explain to his son that Chipper was out on the field and was not the player who signed his glove, but I don't think the kid believed him.

Anyway, the other cool thing was sitting in the stands during the game, two brothers in front of me, who were also quite young, probably eight and ten, were actually keeping score in a scorebook - which I thought was just freaking awesome.

You don't see that much anymore - but man when my brothers and I were kids, we kept scorebooks for our whiffle ball games in the backyard, for the Braves games we listened to on the AM signal we got from Atlanta, and for every game we were lucky enough to see in person.

I swear that if math word problems in grade school had used baseball scenarios instead of those trains leaving cities at such and such time going such and such speed, we'd all have been at the top of the class.

We knew how to do math because we knew how to keep score, and we sure as heck knew how to do fractions, because that's what we used to figure our batting averages.

Anyway, I asked the kid where he learned to keep score - and he said his dad taught him. That's also way cool, and exactly as it should be.

Last of all, there was one very disturbing sight at the game tonight - I posted a video of it here.

6 The Detroit Tigers gave up four runs in the ninth on Sunday to the Dodgers, but held on for a 5-4 victory and a (6) game winning streak - their longest to date this season. Detroit began play on June 10 trailing the White Six by 11 games, but after winning six straight since then - including a three game sweep of the White Sox - they will begin Monday's interleague match-up against the Giants trailing Chicago by only six games. Tigers' fans should not celebrate just yet, but maybe the club is starting to come around. Manager Jim Leyland said on Sunday, "People buried us [after their horrendous start to the season] - and they should have. Now we've got a chance to get them excited again."

387 The Chicago Cubs are 45-25 after 70 games for the best record in baseball - thanks to an offense that leads the N.L. with (387) runs and a pitching staff that leads the N.L. with a 3.61 ERA. That makes for a pretty healthy combination - but whether their offense can continue to produce with slugger Alfonso Soriano out for up to six weeks with a broken bone in his left hand remains to be seen.

486 The Atlanta Braves are 34-36 after 70 games for a (.486) winning percentage - and they enter week 13 trailing the Phillies by 6.5 games in the N.L. East. Chipper Jones still leads baseball with a .402 average and the Atlanta pitching staff is second in the N.L. with a 3.72 ERA, but the Braves have the worst numbers in the league in three critical categories for any team that wants to be a playoff contender: 1-7 record (.125 winning percentage) in extra-inning games, 3-18 record (.143 winning percentage) in one run games, and a 9-25 record (.265 winning percentage) on the road.

554 Willie Randolph has now been at the helm of the New York Mets for (554) games - including the 68 games the Mets have played this season, during which time the club has posted a 33-35 record. The odds on Willie being at the helm through the All-Star break, much less the end of the season - his fourth with the club - seems to be increasingly stacked against him. New York has lost seven of ten, and with six of their next nine games being against bad ball clubs (Colorado and Seattle), these next two weeks could go a long way towards deciding Randolph's fate.

577 J.D. Drew is up to a (.577) slugging percentage for the Boston Red Sox. He hit only four homeruns during the first two months of the season - but he has hit seven homeruns in June, including five homeruns and ten RBI in his last eight games. His increased output on offense could not have come at a better time for Boston, as David Ortiz is already out of action for at least a month, and Manny Ramirez missed two games this weekend nursing an ailing hamstring.

585 Josh Hamilton only has one homerun and five RBI in his last ten games - but his (.585) slugging percentage is still the second best in the A.L. behind his teammate Milton Bradley. Hamilton, who hit 19 homeruns in 90 games for Cincinnati last year, leads the league with 18 homeruns and 73 RBI during his first 69 games this year. Bradley, by the way, has 15 homeruns, after posting totals of 13, 14, and 13 the past three seasons.

 

 

 

 

 

259 Coco Crisp is batting (.259) with two homeruns this season - and depending on your perspective, you could say his seven-game suspension for charging the mound against Rays' pitcher James Shields probably helps Boston. Crisp was wrong and he knows it - and good for Shields for hitting him, too bad five Rays' players got suspended while only three Red Sox players will have to sit out a bit. Tampa's Carl Crawford got suspended four games, and his response was to say, "Our guys got caught on tape." His manager, Joe Maddon, said, "I defend everything our guys did." Good for you, Joe - keep those "Devil" free Rays battling all year if you can.

4 The San Diego Padres became the first team in baseball history to win (4) consecutive games by a score of 2-1. Scott Hairston hit a walk-off homerun in the tenth inning on Saturday night to beat the New York Mets, leading catcher Michael Barrett to say, "We are on an unbelievable roll." Well, sort of, they have won four in a row and seven out of ten - and now they are only eight games out of first place with only the third worst record in the league.

5 Joe Crede hit (5) homeruns in three games this past week. The White Sox third baseman hit one on Wednesday, two on Friday, and two on Saturday - which is pretty impressive, but when I went online first thing this morning to check the box scores on mlb.com the first thing I saw was a headline that said, "Joltin' Joe hammers Twins." Now, come on - as impressive as his offensive numbers were this past week, referring to him as "Joltin' Joe" is truly offensive. He isn't wearing pinstripes, he isn't playing in the Bronx, and - no offense Joe - he isn't DiMaggio.

6 First the good news for Yankees fans - Johnny Damon did in fact get (6) hits on Saturday, including the game-winner against his old club as the Yankees rallied past the Royals for a 12-11 victory. Damon tied a club and league record by getting six hits in a nine-inning game. Now the bad news - Andy Pettitte gave up ten earned runs in six plus innings of work. Pettitte has won only twice in his last nine starts, while his ERA has soared from 2.45 to 4.99 during that stretch.

346 The Chicago Cubs scored (346) runs during their first 61 games - the highest total in the majors - but that rather large number apparently meant nothing on Friday to Dodgers' starter Hiroki Kuroda, who posted these rather tidy numbers in a 3-0 victory over Chicago: 9 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 Ks.

400 Chipper Jones hit career homerun number (400) on Thursday against the Florida Marlins. He became just the third switch-hitter in history to reach that plateau, and when asked about belonging to a group that includes Hall of Fame legends Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray as the only other members, Chipper said, "To be lumped in with those guys is what I'm shooting for. This is a step closer but still a long, long way from those guys - they set the bar really high."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manny Ramirez Career Retrospective

By David Horne, Sports by the Numbers co-author
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Manny finally got the milestone, and he wasted no time getting 501 - as he hit another bomb on Sunday, the day after he became only the twenty-fourth member of the 500-homerun club.

In his last 34 games prior to Saturday's historic big fly he had hit only three homeruns, so the milestone took some time in coming - but it was worth the wait. Manny said, "Every time you get to the hotel, people say, hey, when you gonna hit it? I'm just happy everything's done for now - I can go be myself and have fun."

Manny has been doing exactly that - being true to who he is as a person and a ballplayer - for a very long time, and having fun doing it. Now his numbers have fully cemented his place in Cooperstown - take a look at his career using Sports by the Numbers.

2 It only takes one - but Manny has (2) World Series titles. He lost his first Fall Classic in 1995, lost his second in 1997, but won with Boston in historic fashion in 2004, and then again in 2007.

3 There have been (3) players to reach the 500-homerun plateau in a Red Sox uniform: Jimmie Foxx (1940), Ted Williams (1960), and now Ramirez.

4 He has played in (4) World Series - and hit (4) World Series homeruns. Manny also holds the post-season record for career homeruns with 24.

5 There are (5) active players who belong to the 500-homerun club: Ken Griffey, Jr. (599), Alex Rodriguez (525), Frank Thomas (520), Jim Thome (517), and Manny (501).

7 Only (7) members of the 500-homerun club can boast 1,500 RBI, 1,000 walks, 475 doubles, and a .300 average: Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Frank Thomas, Mel Ott, and Manny.

9 He has (9) career homeruns against Mike Mussina - his highest total against a right-handed pitcher.

10 He has (10) career homeruns against Jamie Moyer - his highest total against any pitcher, right or left-handed.

11 Manny is an (11)-time All-Star who has hit 30 or more homeruns in (11) different seasons.

24 Manny is now a member of an exclusive club - only (24) members. Next on the list are Eddie Murray (504), Mel Ott (511), and Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks (512) - which means Manny should be among the top 20 homerun hitters in baseball history by season's end.

36 Manny just turned 36 years old - and of the 24 members of the 500-homerun club, he reached it the eighth fastest. It took him only 7,263 at bats.

43 He hit (43) homeruns in 2004 and beat out teammate David Ortiz by two for the only homerun title of his career.

45 Twice he hit a career high (45) homeruns - in 1998 for Cleveland, and in 2005 for Boston.

81 His historic homerun came on the first pitch of his at bat - something he has now done (81) times in his career. He has more first pitch homeruns than he does on any other count.

236 Manny hit (236) long balls as a member of the Cleveland Indians - the third highest total in franchise history behind Jim Thome (334) and Albert Belle (242).

265 Manny hit number 501 on Sunday - giving him (265) big flies as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Only Ted Williams (521), Carl Yastrzemski (452), Jim Rice (382), and Dwight Evans (379) have more.

312 He currently boasts a (.312) career batting average - only Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, and Jimmie Foxx, among members of the 500-homerun club, closed out their careers with a higher average.

349 Manny won the 2002 batting title when he hit (.349) - and he has posted ten seasons of .300 or better.

351 He hit a career high (.351) in 2000 - but placed third in the batting title race behind teammate Nomar Garciaparra and Angels outfielder Darin Erstad.

412 Manny hit (.412) during the 2004 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals - hit one big fly - and got his first ring, along with the hardware for World Series MVP.

697 His career high slugging percentage is (.697) - a mark he set in 2000, his last season with the Indians. His career slugging percentage is .590, one of the top ten in baseball history.

Oh, Manny - what a career. See you in Cooperstown.

 

 

 

 

 

607 The best winning percentage (.607) in the A.L. belongs to the team leading the East - no surprise there - but at 34-22, the Rays need one more win to get half their 2004 total when they won a franchise best 70 games. Yes, Yankee fans - the calendar now says June, and your club is 5.5 games back of a team that has never won more than 70 games in a season.

3 Joe Girardi has finally decided to give Joba Chamberlain the ball to start a game, thanks to some vocal prodding from Hank Steinbrenner. Joba has tossed five-plus innings of scoreless relief in his last (3) appearances as he prepares for his first start of the season this Tuesday. In his last three stints, Joba has given up only three hits, while striking out eight batters - and when asked about his first start, he said, "You're still going to see the same person - I feel great."

 

8 Mike Mussina leads the team with (8) victories on the mound - having won seven of his last eight starts. He has also given up two earned runs or fewer in five of those seven wins.

249 The NYY offense has scored (249) runs - only the sixth highest total out of 14 teams in the league - but the pitching staff has given up 252 runs, the ninth highest total in the league. Not good, Joe - not good, at all.

411 Andy Pettitte now leads the team with a (4.11) ERA - about all we can say is, that's not good either, Joe, not if your team leader is statistically no different than the league average.
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486 Bobby Abreu is hitting .298 with seven homeruns - good for a (.486) slugging percentage - and he is the team leader with 36 RBI through two full months of the season. Abreu got the game-winning hit for the Yankees on Saturday as the club won in extra-innings at Minnesota. It was the third straight win for New York, and the eighth win in ten games - so maybe things are looking up for the Bronx Bombers.

 

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12 The Royals, Mariners, and Rockies are battling it out as the second full month of the season draws to a close to see who can play the worst baseball - the Rockies have the lowest winning percentage in baseball, but the Royals get the prize after having lost (12) straight as action begins on the final day of May. This is a team that blew a five run lead in the ninth on Wednesday, and then made a huge base-running blunder on Friday that cost them a chance to tie the game - the team deserves to be 21-34, but the Royals' fans who remember better days with guys like Brett, White, Balboni, Quisenberry, Saberhagen, Black, and McRae deserve better.

1 Giants relief pitcher Keiichi Yabu came on against the Padres in the eighth inning on Friday night with runners on first and second and no outs - but he used only (1) pitch to get out of the inning. Padres 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a sharp grounder on Yabu's first pitch that third baseman Jose Castillo fielded near the bag. Castillo stepped on third to force out Brian Giles, fired to second to force out Adrian Gonzalez, and then second baseman Ray Durham relayed the ball to first baseman John Bowker for a 5-4-3 triple play. Yabu later said, "I was thinking groundball and double play, then we turned the triple play - unbelievable"

118 The Braves have a (.118) winning percentage after posting a paltry 2-15 record in games decided by a single run so far this season. Atlanta is doing a great job playing at home - they are 22-7 at Turner Field, which is the best home record in baseball - but they have no hope of contending if they do not start playing better on the road, where they are only 7-19, and if they do not start winning one run ballgames.

176 We like Joe Mauer, and we hate for it to seem like we keep picking on the guy - but the Twins' catcher has now batted (176) times this season and he has yet to hit a homerun. He is batting .318, but Joe, you are a 6' 5" 230 lb catcher - swing harder.

409 Chipper Jones is baseball's leading hitter with a (.409) average as May comes to a close - but he still needs two big flies for career homerun number 400. He has 12 on the season, and Braves' fans hope he stays healthy because his numbers this season so far are mind-boggling: among N.L. leaders he is 1st in average, 1st in on-base percentage, 4th in slugging, 2nd in OPS, 1st in hits, 3rd in times on base, and 6th in total bases.

625 The Chicago Cubs will begin June with a (.625) winning percentage after posting a 35-21 record during the first two months of the season - the best in baseball. The Cubs got some help on Friday when they came back from an 8-0 deficit against the Rockies, rallied for six runs in the seventh inning, and escaped with a 10-9 victory over the team with the worst winning percentage in baseball for the first two months of the season.

 

5 The Yankees carry a (5) game winning streak into the last week of May - it is their longest streak of the season to date, and it coincides with the return of A-Rod to the line-up. The club lost his first game back from the DL, but broke out of an offensive slump in a big way by scoring 41 runs as they won their next five games.

9 Jason Giambi is only hitting .230 but he does lead the club with (9) homeruns - a total that is currently the seventh best in the league. There are a couple of ways to look at Giambi though - one, he has four RBI in his last seven games, or two, all four of those RBI came on two swings of the stick, and in his last ten games those are the only runs he has driven in.

75 New York fell (7.5) games back on May 22, which makes talk of Willie Randolph's job being in jeopardy fairly interesting - and makes me wonder how long the Yankees can stay a .500 club until Joe Girardi starts to feel a little bit of heat..

333 A-Rod hit (.333) during his first six games back from the DL - going 7 for 21, with two doubles, two homeruns (should have been one double and three homeruns, but that's another story), five RBI, and six runs scored. He got at least one hit and scored at least one run in five of his first six games back.

439 Mike Mussina beat Seattle on Saturday for his sixth win in seven starts - and his ERA now stands at (4.39) as he improved his record to 7-4 overall. He is also the team leader in victories, having passed Chien-Ming Wang, who started the year 6-0, but who has now lost his last two decisions and hasn't won in his last four starts.

531 Just thought I'd mention it - but Joe Torre has a (.531) winning percentage in LA after posting a 26-23 record out west during his first 49 games with the Dodgers. His club is in second place, only 3.5 back of the Diamondbacks, despite dealing with several key injuries of their own.