July 14, 2011

SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 12 comments

Stupid baseball stat I discovered while playing around with an idea on Baseball-Reference:

Octavio Dotel has pitched for 13 seasons, and played with 11 different teams.
Russell Branyan has played for 14 seasons, and played with 10 different teams.

All 21 of those teams are different.
There is no overlap at all.

posted by grum@work at 09:16 AM on July 14, 2011

Cody Franson is a 3rd of July Parade kind of guy

posted by tommybiden at 10:06 AM on July 14, 2011

Animated Dock Ellis LSD-no-hitter (via Boing Boing)

posted by kokaku at 10:08 AM on July 14, 2011

grum, that's up there w the stat they put up when Tim Wakefield pitched against Houston - he has a win against every team except Houston, Pittsburgh, and Boston. Unfortunately he lost the game against Houston, but I thought it'd be pretty cool to have beaten every team except the two you've played on.

EDIT - also, you're crazy with the stats crunching

posted by kokaku at 10:09 AM on July 14, 2011

Cool fan footage of the tying Wambach goal in US/Brazil. Megan Rapinoe does her own one-woman celebration outside of the broadcast camera shot.

posted by rcade at 11:41 AM on July 14, 2011

EDIT - also, you're crazy with the stats crunching

It was part of an idea that I came up with.

What is the shortest list of active players (played at least one game in MLB in 2011) whose list of teams played for would cover all 30 current MLB teams.?

My criteria:
1) Minimum number of players possible.
2) Minimum number of duplicate teams (conversely, maximum number of teams where only one of those players played)

The best I could do was 5 players:

Octavio Dotel, Russell Branyan, Livan Hernandez, Carlos Pena, and Nick Markakis (though any Orioles-only player would do).

That covers all 30 MLB teams, with 25 of those teams having only one of these players.

(bold indicates unique team)

Dotel:
Braves, Astros, Dodgers, Yankees, White Sox, Pirates, Royals, Blue Jays, Rockies, Mets, A's

Branyan:
Reds, Indians, Angels, Brewers, Phillies, Padres, Mariners, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Rays

Hernandez:
Marlins, Twins, Giants, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Mets

Pena:
Red Sox, Cubs, Tigers, Rangers, A's, Rays

Markakis:
Orioles

There are no players in MLB history that have played for Marlins+Twins+Giants+Orioles, otherwise I'd have shrunk it to 4 players (by ditching Pena, Hernandez and Markakis, and adding Matt Stairs and that mystery player).

You can play around with multi-team/franchise players on your own by using the Baseball-Reference tool here.

This challenge was a spin-off from a discussion about Matt Stairs and Bruce Chen, who have played for a lot of teams. That was a spin-off from a discussion about active players (at least 1 MLB game in 2011) who played for the Montreal Expos:

Brian Schneider (Expos 2000-2004)
Maicer Izturis (2004)
Jamey Carroll (2002-2004)
Juan Rivera (2004)
Endy Chavez (2002-2004)
Orlando Cabrera (1997-2004)
Jon Rauch (2004)
Luis Ayala (2003-2004)
Scott Downs (2000, 2003-2004)
Livan Hernandez (2003-2004)
Javier Vazquez (1998-2003)
Bartolo Colon (2002)
Carl Pavano (1998-2002)
Bruce Chen (2002)
Milton Bradley (2000-2001)
Guillermo Mota (1999-2001)
Miguel Batista (1998-2000)
Ted Lilly (1999)
Matt Stairs (1992-1993)

posted by grum@work at 12:06 PM on July 14, 2011

BTW, one off-shoot of the "last Expos" discussion was trying to decide who will be the "last Expo" in the majors.

The consensus seems to be either Maicer Izturis (utility infielders can play for a long time) or Jon Rauch (left-handed relievers last forever).

posted by grum@work at 12:10 PM on July 14, 2011

The consensus seems to be either Maicer Izturis (utility infielders can play for a long time) or Jon Rauch (left-handed relievers last forever).

Good logic, but for the fact that Rauch is a righty.

posted by holden at 12:40 PM on July 14, 2011

Dear grum, may I have some of your idle time? You clearly have been allotted too much.

posted by kokaku at 12:50 PM on July 14, 2011

Good logic, but for the fact that Rauch is a righty.

Ha! For some reason, I thought he was a lefty because of his volatile nature.

Dear grum, may I have some of your idle time? You clearly have been allotted too much.

I don't hang out with people at lunch, and my wife is away at a course this week. I just happen to waste my time doing this instead of interacting with other human beings. ;)

posted by grum@work at 12:59 PM on July 14, 2011

Cool fan footage of the tying Wambach goal in US/Brazil.

The good stuff starts here.

posted by NoMich at 01:11 PM on July 14, 2011

Mark Reynolds is Internet Famous.

posted by yerfatma at 10:01 PM on July 14, 2011

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