? No. 13: MVP tally

Today's question revolves around the MVP award. The Yankees, with 21, have claimed move MVP award winners than any other team. Second are the Cardinals with 18. That would seem to make sense, since those two franchises are Nos. 1-2 in terms of World Series rings. I want to focus on the other end of the spectrum. Since the MVP award debuted in the 1911 season (winners: the Cubs' Frank "Wildfire" Schulte and the Tigers' Ty "The Georgia Peach" Cobb), five franchises have had a lone winner. However, five other franchises have never had a winner. Three of those franchises are probably somewhat obvious, but the other two are not. Who are all five? (By the way, when I say "franchise," the Montreal Expos count as part of the Washington Nationals franchise, since the team moved from Montreal to Washington.)

Yesterday's Answer: Listmaker was right: Eric Young was but a distraction. He did walk 5 times in a game, but he's no Gold Glover. Bonds, who has walked five times in a game on three occasions, and Helton, who has done it once, are both Gold Glove winners. But the answer is Bagwell, who also won a Gold Glove in 1994.

? No. 12: A whole lotta walking going on

Over the past 50 years, only two players have walked six times in a single game. One of them was first baseman/designated hitter Andre Thornton, who in early May of 1984 walked six times as his Indians beat the Orioles 9-7 in a 16-inning game. Two of those were intentional walks. Oddly enough, he only scored one run, and that was due to a throwing error.

The other occurrence was in August of 1999 in another 16-inning game. This player was also intentionally walked twice and only scored one run in the game, which his team won 6-4. The opposing team was the Marlins, whose hurlers walked a mind-boggling 17 batters in the game. Starter Ryan Dempster walked 7 batters himself in 3-plus innings. Who was this Gold Glove-winning player?

A) Todd Helton
B) Jeff Bagwell
C) Barry Bonds
D) Eric Young

Yesterday's Answer: Craig Biggio. The dude could flat out hit for a catcher turned second baseman. He's past his prime now and will likely retire at the end of the year now that he's reached 3,000 hits. But in his late 20s and early 30s he was a premier second bagger — I'd even say nearly the equivalent of the vaunted Joe Morgan. He had speed, power, plate discipline — nearly the whole shebang.

? No. 11: Grace ain't that amazing

If you didn't already know this, you'll have it beaten into your head in a couple years when Mark Grace is eligible for the Hall of Fame: No hitter in the decade of the 1990s collected more hits than Gracie's 1,754. (Raffy Palmeiro is second, just seven hits away.) Grace also paces the majors in doubles for that time span with 364. Some (Cubs) fans will argue 'til they're blue in the face that he was the best pure hitter of the decade. His average over that time span was .310, a very respectable number no doubt but still only one percentage point higher than Rusty Greer and two points lower than Jason Kendall. Average doesn't tell the whole story of course. But anyway you cut it, there were several hitters better than old Grace in the '90s. Let's see how many I can name off the top of my head: Tony Gwynn, Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza, Edgar Martinez, Frank Thomas, Robbie Alomar, Jeff Bagwell, Bernie Williams, Barry Bonds, Jim Thome, Barry Larkin, Will Clark, Ken Griffey, Chipper Jones, Albert Belle, Juan Gonzalez, Gary Sheffield, Fred McGriff, the aforementioned Palmeiro. Do you want me to go on?

Well, there's one more player I'd definitely add to that list, and he's the subject of this trivia question. This player is third on the list of hits for the decade of the '90s, second in doubles, twelfth in walks, eighth in steals, third in times on base, and second in runs. He went to the playoffs three times in the decade, but his team never advanced past the first round. Who is he?

Yesterday's Answer: As of the end of Saturday's games, the four major leaguers on pace to qualify for the batting crown with a slugging percentage over .600 were Prince Fielder, Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Pena (no, really), and Chipper Jones. Leading the majors in OPS was our old standby, Barry Bonds, despite a very un-Bonds like slugging percentage in the mid-.500s. (The on-base percentage near .500 sure helps.)

? No. 10: '07 sluggers

A question about this baseball season. So far, we've seen some breakout seasons from young sluggers with something to prove, guys like Hunter Pence and Curtis Granderson. In the majors — as of end of games Saturday — only four players are slugging over .600 who have played in at least 55 games (and are on track to qualify for the batting crown). Two of them are oldies, and two of them are young'uns. You win if you can guess three of the four. (No peaking at a stats sheet!)

Bonus question: None of those four guys are currently pacing the majors in OPS. Who is?

Yesterday's Answer: Giants slugger Willie McCovey went by Stretch, Mac, and Big Mac. No responses on this question. Hmmm, I thought the All-Star festivities and all the talk of his cove might have him on the tip of your tongue.

? No. 9: Nicknames & hicknames

We're getting away from stats for today's question. Nicknames used to be commonplace in baseball, especially for the league's best players. Today, we mostly have boring variations on abbreviations – I-Rod, A-Rod, K-Rod. Blah. That's a far cry from Cool Papa, Wahoo Sam, Spaceman, Penguin, and Pudge. Did you know that Jim Hunter got his nickname – Catfish – from his team's owner, Charlie Finley, who thought his star player needed a "hickname" to add to his appeal?

The most common nickname in baseball is Lefty, to no real surprise. That's too easy for a question. Try this one: Prior to Mark McGwire, baseball had another Big Mac, who also went by Stretch. He's in the Hall of Fame. Who is he?

Yesterday's Answer: Two responses, and both were 2/3 of the way there. The other three players to land in the Top 5 in steals from 1980-89 are: 1) Tim Raines; 2) Willie Wilson; and 3) Ozzie Smith. Here's the top 11 for the helluva it:

1) Rickey Henderson, 838
2) Tim Raines, 583
3) Vince Coleman, 472
4) Willie Wilson, 451
5) Ozzie Smith, 364
6) Steve Sax, 333 (that was a good guess!)
7) Lonnie Smith, 331
8) Brett Butler, 307
9) Mookie Wilson, 293
10) Dave Collins, 284
11) Paul Molitor, 281

? No. 8: Relentlessly running in the '80s

Baseball Reference has this new research tool called the play index that is so cool. You can fool around with it for free, but you gotta pay to get the complete results of your search. (Just $29/year, a steal if you're a total stats nerd like me.) Today's question — like yesterday's — comes via this search engine.

If you grew up in the '80s like me, then you undoubtedly fell in love with the stolen base. It's not so much that there were more great basestealers from that era, but the stolen base as a weapon was certainly more valued. Or maybe that's just my own version of revisionist history, having rooted for the Runnin' Redbirds. At any rate, the benchmark for a stellar season on the basepaths nowadays is more or less 60 steals. That's enough to put you in the running for league honors. But for a bulk of the '80s — precisely from the 1980 season through the 1989 season — 60 steals would leave you a distant third. We all remember Rickey Henderson, who just got the nod as the Mets new hitting coach. And who can forget the other guy to top 100 swipes in a season that decade, Vince Coleman? But can you name the other three basestealers who round out the Top 5 in total steals from 1980 to 1989?

Here's a clue for each:
1) I played the entire decade of the '80s for a team that's now defunct.
2) I led the majors in triples hit during the '80s, and legged out 21 in 1985 alone. I also won a World Series ring in the '80s.
3) I'm the only Hall of Famer of the five.

Yesterday's Answer: (D) Believe it or not, Salomon Torres is the Ironman of baseball relievers. He's the only pitcher since 2000 to appear on the list of 90+ innings pitched three times. From 2004-06, he threw 92, 94, and 93 innings for the Pirates in a total of 256 games.

? No. 7: The Ironman of recent relievers

Another question with roots in Tom Adelman's The Long Ball. During the 1974 season, reliever Mike Marshall did something unheard of: He threw 208 innings — all in relief. The poor guy appeared in 106 games for Walter Alston's Dodgers — at one point in the season appearing in 13 successive games — and posted a 15-12 record and a 2.42 ERA. And that was coming off a season with the Expos in which he threw 179 innings of relief. It's no surprise that Marshall spent a good deal of the '75 season on the DL after being worked so heavily. Those innings pitched marks are by far the highest of any reliever of the past 40 years. Matter of fact, there are only five other relievers to have topped 150 innings pitched in that span, and no one has done it since Mark Eichhorn threw 157 innings for the Blue Jays in 1986.

I wanted to know who the modern day equivalent of Mike Marshall was. Here's what I found out: Since 2000, there have been only eight occurrences of relievers throwing 100 or more innings. I limited my search to pitchers who relieved in 95% of their appearances, meaning they were used almost exclusively from the pen. Using those parameters but lowering the innings pitched bar from 100 to 90 broadens the list to 39 occurrences. My question for you is which pitcher appears on that latter list the most times?

A) Scott Sullivan
B) Guillermo Mota
C) Brad Lidge
D) Salomon Torres

Yesterday's Answer: Xavier Nady. Leave it to the Mets fans to nail this one.