FanNation - The Republic of Sport

By Bill Chuck

Stats as of games ending Wednesday, July 2

1. Angel Berroa of the Dodgers has been up 60 times this season and Andy Marte of the Indians has been up 55 times. Each is still looking for his first RBI. Minnesota pitcher Livan Hernandez has been up twice and he has one RBI.

2. Kevin Youkilis, the Greek God of Walks, in the first half of 2006, drew 55 walks; in the first half of 2007, Youk drew 40 walks; in the first half this season, he walked just 27 times.

3. After the victory over Detroit on June 20, the Padres had a chance to reach the .500 mark since they were 8-8 after their very first 16 home games in 1969. On June 20 they were 1,568-1,569 at home. Since then they have lost seven straight home games.

4. In the last 25 years, the only hitter to collect 210 or more hits while walking fewer than 25 times is Kirby Puckett, with 234 hits and 23 walks in 1988. Nationals shortstop Cristian Guzmán is on a pace to join him.

5. The Pirates have experimented this week with the pitcher batting eight in the lineup and Jack Wilson batting ninth. The last time the Bucs had a pitcher bat anywhere other than ninth was April 18, 1957, when manager Bobby Bragan batted starter Luis Arroyo eighth ahead of Bill Mazeroski in a game against Brooklyn at Ebbets Field.

6. The Brewers Ryan Braun leads the majors with 12 dome homers (are they called “domers?”)

7. This season, the AL beat the NL interleague play, 149-102. Of the 84 series, there were 23 sweeps, with AL winning 17. Only the Mets, the Reds and the Braves had winning records.

8. Greg Maddux is not having a great season by any stretch of the imagination with an ERA over four and a 3-6 record. But it should be noted that he still has his great control, having walked just 21 in his 18 starts.

9. AL pitchers hit .109 (30- 275) with 11 RBIs and 13 runs scored in interleague play; this include King Felix Hernandez’ grand slam. The Yankees, Blue Jays, Tigers and Angels pitchers were hitless, but none worse than the 0-for-25 Red Sox.

10. The Cardinals’ 136 runs in June were the most of any team in the National League.

11. NL Designated Hitters combined to hit .242 with 20 homers and 69 RBIs in interleague play.

12. Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Johan Santana are a combined 3-20 in interleague play.

13. When it comes to RBI, White Sox left fielder Carlos Quentin is the leading hittee in the majors – he’s been hit three times this season with the bases loaded, driving home three in the process.

14. The Phillies are 14-3 in Kyle Kendrick starts and were 3-14 when Brett Myers, who was just sent down, started.

15. The gas crunch is not having any effect in getting fans to the ballpark. MLB set a new record for total and average attendance during Interleague Play (8,893,312 and 35,573, respectively). This season’s current intraleague average is 30,689 per game.

16. The Rockies and the Marlins came into the league together in 1993 and are tied 65-65 in head-to-head games, but the Marlins lead 2-0 in World Championships.

17. The Pirates have gone 15-27 against teams currently in first or second place, winning two series, losing eight and tying four.

18. The Cubs’ Rich Hill pitched Tuesday against rookie leaguers in an Arizona League game, and did another Steve Blass imitation, lasting only one-third of an inning, allowing five runs on one hit with three walks and a hit batter. In 26 innings in Triple A Iowa, he walked 28 and hit two and had an ERA of 5.88

19. The Cubs lead the major leagues in on-base percentage with a .361 mark, in part because they lead the majors in walks with 347. The Cubs haven’t led the National League in OBP since 1937.

20. The Reds hit .218 as a team for the month of June. That’s the lowest average for a single month since they hit .217 in May 1996.

21. The Rockies’ Aaron Cook is definitely having an All-Star year for a bad ballclub. Tuesday night he threw the first complete-game shutout of his career, and he did it throwing only 79 pitches. He completed the game in only one hour, 58 minutes, the first sub-two-hour nine-inning game in Coors Field history. Cook has thrown about the same number of pitches as John Maine and Jon Lester but has thrown 27 innings more than Maine and 17 more than Lester. Over the past three seasons, there have been only two complete games in the majors pitched with fewer than 80 pitches — both by Aaron Cook against the Padres at Coors Field.

22. Mariano Rivera is a great saver, but not a great tie-holder. He has not given up a run in 22 save situations this season. But in 14 innings and 13 non-save situations, he has allowed 10 hits and four runs.

23. Sophomore slump, say hello to Troy Tulowitzki. The runner-up in voting for the 2007 National League Rookie of the Year, is hitting .168.

24. Rivera lost Tuesday night to the Rangers after Ian Kinsler led off the 9th with a double. Rangers base running coach Gary Pettis, timed Rivera to the plate with his delivery and flashed six fingers at Kinsler, “That meant [Rivera] was taking 1.6 seconds to get to the plate, plenty of time to steal bases,” Kinsler said. Kinsler stole third and forced the Yankees to bring the infield in, meaning the soft bouncer that Michael Young hit up the middle went through for a hit and the game winning run.

25. A new national survey shows the Milwaukee Brewers’ Miller Park is the only baseball stadium to sell more sausages than hot dogs. Miller Park is expected to sell 775,000 brats, Polish, Italian and chorizo this season and only about 350,000 hot dogs.

26. Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel is batting .043 (2-for-46) over his last 15 games.

27. The Tigers have a 34-5 record when they get 10 or more hits.

28. Grady Sizemore has 99 homers and 99 steals. Sizemore is the first American League player with 20 homers and 20 stolen bases this year. Joe Carter is the only Indian who finished his career with over a hundred in each category with the Tribe – he had 151 homers and 126 steals.

29. Leadoff hitters matter –The Reds are 13-9 with Jerry Hairston leading off, and 23-38 with anyone else in that spot.

30. Since May 18, the NL West leading Diamondbacks are 14-27, bringing their overall mark to one game under .500.

31. Willy Tavares now has 38 stolen bases – 15 more than the entire Padres team combined.

32. The two one-run wins in the first two games of the Rangers/Yankees series were the 14th and 15th in 36 years of playing at the Stadium. They lost 35 one-run games there.

33. The Cardinals are 11-11 at home since May 13, and 17-16 since April 19.

34. On May 15, the Indians led the Central by 1.5 games. They’ve gone 15-28 since then and are in last place by one game

35. The Red Sox are 4-13 on the road vs. divisional opponents, including 0-6 to the Rays. They are also 3-15 in games played indoors.

36. The Angels are 10-14 against teams over .500 and 18-17 against teams below.

37. Jose Reyes, in 678 games, is just one triple shy of the Mets Mookie Wilson’s franchise record of 62 in 1,116 games.

38. Not only does Colorado’s Aaron Cook have 11 wins, but he’s hitting .265. Mike Hampton had the highest average for a Rockies pitcher, hitting .344 in 2002.

39. The Padres’ Kevin Kouzmanoff has been hit by a pitch 11 times this season, two short of the club record set by Gene Tenace in 1977.

40. The Orioles have now lost 12 of 13 games on Sundays.

Have a great long weekend everyone!

Bill Chuck is the creator of Billy-Ball.com (www.Billy-Ball.com) and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales,” with a Foreword by Jon Miller, published by ACTA Sports, and available worldwide. Autographed first editions are available by contacting, Bill@billy-ball.com or order directly from Acta Sports or from your favorite bookstore.