Dice-K is 18-2 and set to throw one more time. I don’t think any pitcher has ever been 19-2.

Meaning on the Red Sox? Clemens in 2001 was as good as 20-1 before losing two decisions. But if we're being pedantic, no, he was never 19-2.

That's what I meant. No pitcher has ever been exactly 19-2 on a season. A bit Stark-ish, but I found it interesting.

Greg Maddox 1995.

I meant AL pitchers... from Japan.

The highest winning percentage for any AL pitcher with 20 or more decisions in a season is 18-2 by Randy Johnson, also in 1995.

And to throw more fuel on the fire...wasn't Cliff Lee 19-2 at one stage this season?

Do you think Pedroia has a shot at the MVP without that batting title? Yeah, I know the title doesn't mean much, but the voters like that kind of stuff. I like the 118 runs so far, best way to help the team is to score. R. Henderson never got enough credit for this when he was active.

Just updated the other thread. I think the batting title would help a lot as you note. I agree on the runs too. He hasn't lived up to my standards that I set out, but no one else has really stood out. Mauer and Sizemore would both deserve it but it doesn't seem like they're likely to win for various reasons (9 HR and .500 team, respectively). Maybe they just give it to K-Rod for the hell of it.

Maybe they just give it to K-Rod for the hell of it

Are you effing kidding me? Living overseas, one tends to only get information where one seeks it, hence I don't see alot of mainstream U.S. sports media. Is the mainstream making a big deal of those saves? Surely anyone can see that Rivera was pretty much the best closer this year anyway.

I would've thought that the everyman stature of Pedroia, plus his Jeter-like intangibles(the voters just love this sh*t) would put him over the line with respect to the voting.

Is the mainstream making a big deal of those saves? Surely anyone can see that Rivera was pretty much the best closer this year anyway.

Breaking the record got huge play on ESPN. But even then they compared Rodriguez's record to Thigpen's, noting Francisco's lack of 4+ out saves.

I am almost certain that Jed Lowrie has broken the rookie record for consecutive errorless games at SS from the start of a career, but I have no idea where to go to confirm that.

Re: posts 1-6, sort of:
Randy Johnson is the only pitcher in baseball history to post a 24-5 record.

There's a piece on unique W-L records in the Neyer/James pitchers book, I believe.

John Van Benschoten is the only pitcher ever to have a career W-L record of 2-13. Well, actually he's one of four pitchers to do that. But whatever.

--Papelbon’s 08 looks almost exactly like his 06.

except that he's given up double the earned runs (resulting in an era of 1 run higher), almost triple the runs, walked half as many, given up more than a third hits, and an era+ of less than half. and this is all in 25% more games finished.

you're right...his k/9 totals are exactly the same.

i'm waiting for a last-series surge from pedroia and hit 3 jacks to go 20/50/20. (and probably send his slugging over .500 - when was the last time we saw a red sox 2b slug over .500?!)

jacoby only needs 4 runs for an even 100 (in pseudo-part time duty too)

just like ir/is, i want to see a new stat for relievers: runners left on (yes, i'm looking at you javier lopez). it'd be great if it didn't double-count his inherited runners (to preserve face for the l/roogies - if they come in with a man on base and get the 1 guy they faced out, they shouldn't be dinged) but if that's too hard, so be it.


in the "compared to last year" department:

Tim Wakefield dropped his era by half a run (4.76 to 4.24) from last year. he's 9th in the AL in whip, and 3rd in h/9, but he's 10-11 instead of 17-12 from last year. he "lost" 0.28 runs of support from last year.

and i hate to say it, but as much as i hate julio lugo in the lineup, he's actually improved a lot since last year =P (.237/.294/.349/65 to .268/.355/.330/80) of course, i'd still rather see jed lowrie in there at .259/.340/.402/92

youk is close to doubling his home run total from last year (16 to 28), but his walk total is way down (91 to 77 to 62, all in 143-147 games). of course, his ba has gone up each year.

that's it for now...

Papelbon 06: 68.3 IP, 40 H, 3 HR, 13 BB, 75 K
Papelbon 08: 68.3 IP, 54 H, 4 HR, 7 BB, 76 K

He's no Eric Gagne, of course, but that looked pretty similar to me... despite the 25% difference in games finished.

Ellsbury steals #50 tonight, along with a 2/2 night with a HR. He's coming back to life at the right time.

19-8. The Yankess beat the Red Sox at Fenway 19-8?

Pretty funny? Well, I think so.

Ellsbury has 98 runs as of Saturday morning, I'd like to see 100.

His main offensive job is to score, so that'd be a real Grady Little
style dose of "confidence boostin'" for the lad.

Ellsbury's surge has made him almost as good of a hitter as Coco this year. Ha ha.

Casey has a shot at an over 100 OPS+, with zero HR's. Now that's
a milestone! Or is it a millstone?

I'm probably the biggest Coco fan on this board...don't ask me why.
He's been a decent ballplayer at the price this year.

Sox are a combined 45-16 when Dice or Lester start the game, 49-50 otherwise.

Cool. If we can just get past Beckett in game 1, we'll be good to go!

So the Angels picked the series that starts on Wednesday, meaning that both teams will be able to use 3 man roatations leaving the matchups as:

Beckett vs Lackey
Lester vs Santana
Matsuzaka vs Saunders

Honestly I prefer our pitcher in each of those, although the game 2/5 matchup is probably a toss up.

Youk at 29 HR. 1 more and he's MVP.

Lets just give Manny the MVP for both leagues. For kicks.

No 100 runs for Ells, no 30 HR for Youk, no 120 runs or batting title for Pedroia.