Hey guys — and I mean “guys” in a non-gendered way, like saying, “Hey people,” but maybe that is not enough, maybe I should just say, “Hey, people” —

Hey friends, something sorta crappy happened to me the other day. We all have crappy days; I hope your day is better than the day that I had the other day. So, we — the Pittsburgh Pirates, I mean — played a really long extra innings game. It was 19 innings long. It took over six hours to play, and I caught the whole game. It was pretty cool, ’cause we won and all, and it was a big game against the Cardinals and they’re always a tough team to beat.

“That’s awesome! I like pink, too!”

But me, personally, I didn’t get a hit. I didn’t get to base at all and I went up to bat eight times. Eight. I mean, you’d think something would break right, right? Think I’d work a walk or force an error. Nope. One of those at-bats was even a double play, so I made nine outs — three whole innings worth! — in just eight trips.

I mean here we are, playing this tight game — crucial game against the Cards — Jeffy’s pitching great, and here I am just making all these outs. I was in bummer city, friends, and I’m normally a pretty positive guy — super positive guy.

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As Eno Sarris pointed out a few weeks ago, hugs are on the rise among MLB players this year.

Yesterday, during the Phillies-Brewers matchup at Miller Park, there was an exciting new development in #MLBHugs:

That’s right. Hugdowns.

You see, normally #MLBHugs happen between current teammates — when something dramatic happens — or, as per the very existence of the twitter entity MLB_HugRumors, between recently ex’d teammates — when freshly traded players were being hugged goodbye in dugouts, midgame.

But this new sub-species of #MLBHug is between opponents. While they are competing.

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Table of Contents
Here’s a clickable Table of Contents that completes the study that I introduced on Monday and of which I did the National League version yesterday.

1. American League Team Scores
2. AL Hitter Scores
3. AL Pitcher Scores
4. Conclusions and a Suggestion

Again, as ever, all charts herein are sortable by category.

 
American League Team Scores
The categories for the team scores were explained in yesterday’s post, so check there if you’ve forgotten how this works.

I did forget to mention that the “Market” numbers refer to a teams position within the entire league, not just the teams considered in this “study” — but that might have been obvious.

The Orioles place at the top of this chart shouldn’t surprise anyone. Despite the fact they have just the third “sweetest” hitter and a negligible pitcher entry, they come out “ahead” based on the fact that they’ve had one of the worst winning percentages of any team in the league, not just the remaining postseason contenders that I looked at for this “study.” They haven’t been to the World Series since 1983, and they certainly haven’t won a playoff series in the last decade. Plus, no argument about it, they have the awesomest cap in MLB.

Since I posted the intro to this series on Monday, many people whose teams are “out of it” have commented that they are adopting the Oakland A’s as their team. I myself am torn between the O’s and the A’s. It was less than ten years ago than Billy Beane put together an 100-win team, and they have a decent regular season record despite a lack of playoff success. Their second-place finish here is bolstered by the fact that the have the second-worst media market of any team in the Majors, and that they have exciting, young players as the base of this surprise contender. Oh, and they themselves have a sweet visual aesthetic.

Was the author biased?

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Table of Contents
Picking up where I said I would today about a very loose “study” that I introduced yesterday.

Here’s a clickable Table of Contents, so that you can skip over any crap you want to skip, or skip to other crap as you see fit. I put the Team Scores first for convenience.

All charts herein are sortable by category.

1. National League Team Scores
2. NL Hitter Scores
3. NL Pitcher Scores
4. Conclusions and a Suggestion

 
National League Team Scores
In the chart below, “PSA” is the team’s most recent postseason appearance, “DT” is most recent division title, “WSA” is most recent World Series appearance, “PSV” is postseason series victories in the last ten years (2002-2011), “W%” is regular season winning percentage in the last ten seasons (2002-2011), “Market” is the market size that the team has (per these rankings), H-Score is they score assigned their sweetest hitter, and P-Score is the same for the sweetest pitcher. Finally, “Score” is a combination of all of the above, using the rotisserie scoring method.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, on the strength of the worst ten-year winning percentage of the teams in question, edge out the Washington Nationals.

It’s worth noting, I think, that in “beta version” of this same study, the Nationals were ahead of the Pirates. That version included most recent World Series Win and most recent postseason series win, which heavily weighted things toward the Nats, who, as a franchise, have never won a playoff series. I opted to replace those two with postseason victories in the past ten years, which maybe I shouldn’t have done. Sorry.

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This is an introductory bit to a “study” that will manifest over the next couple of days at NotGraphs.

The Aim of the So-Called “Study”
What it aims to do is guide readers (and thus, baseballing fanatics) who might otherwise feel ambivalent to results these waning days of Major League Baseball’s regular season and during the postseason especially. It seeks to guide such readers towards enthusiasm for a team or teams for which they would not have otherwise have had enthusiasm for in said waning days.

I don’t guarantee, of course, that if you are one of the aforementioned ambivalent parties, that this “study” will be imbue a new energy to you. I cannot ensure that the “findings” or any suggestions that I might make based on the findings will be surprising or insightful, merely that they will be interesting or fun. Further, I am aware that some of you will not like whatever these findings — or their author — suggest, because you, like almost all fans, I imagine, will be prejudiced against certain teams to begin with, or because you will disagree with my methodology, or because you dislike me, or because you dislike your life and thus dislike most things that comprise it.

Rather, this “study,” while it aims to direct ambivalent readers towards energetic fanaticism once again, mostly aims to provide fun info.
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OMG are you looking at what I’m looking at? B/c it’s a-MAZ-ing!

Hoo, hoo, ahhhhhhhhh!

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You may not know it, but Aaron Cook, who takes the hill tonight for the Boston Red Sox, is in the midst of a[n] historic season.

The 25 men listed in the table* below have the lowest seasonal K/9 among pitchers who have completed at least 40 innings in a season during the expansion era (1961-present).
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It was a wild ride at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington last night. The visiting Angels took a 10-7 lead in the top of the tenth inning capped by a two-run Albert Pujols shot.

The home team was not to be out-done. Their rally began in the bottom of the tenth with a mammoth solo HR by Nelson Cruz, who was met back in the dugout by an excited Elvis Andrus:

Elvis Andrus nodding approvingly and enthusiastically, arms akimbo and wagging, yawping endearingly, and, finally, clapping one time

Andrus himself would later hit a walk-off single as the Rangers went on to win 11-10. Isn’t it joyous? Isn’t he handsome?

[If the above GIF is running slow, check out the video I made.]

According to Bob Lemon, “Baseball was made for kids, and grown-ups only screw it up.”

In these dog days of the MLB season, I imagine it might be difficult for players — whether they are under the stress of a pennant race, or whether their team has already conceded to a losing season — to find the inner child and have fun both with baseball and in their lives outside of baseball.

A few players, namely those players featured in the images below, are trying to rekindle their love of the game and resurrect their wonder at being alive by acting like kids again. Hooray!!!

Num-num, I love all the flavors.

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Oh hi. I didn’t see you there. I’m Ruben Amaro, Jr. and I was just leaning on this railing, thinking about a couple of things that I really enjoy: the color green, and trading major league outfielders.

Hehehehe. Hi.

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