On the Nines

With today's date being what it is, it seems logical to play with that a little bit. That's the great thing about having a blog. It's like having your own sandbox. And so here is a little "Nine" play to honor the date.

Pitching:

There are currently fifteen pitchers in the majors with nine wins: Barry Zito, Jarrod Washburn, Chris Volstad, James Shields, Matt Scherzer, Brad Penny, Matt Palmer, John Lackey, David Huff, Rich Harden, Tommy Hanson, Jon Garland, Johnny Cueto, Joe Blanton and Nick Blackburn. But Matt Scherzer is the only one who is a perfect 9-9.

Seven pitchers have hit nine batters this year: Jeff Suppon, Matt Scherzer (hmm...), Kevin Millwood, A. J. Burnett, Tim Wakefield (who has also yielded only nine homers), Jamie Moyer and Ubaldo Jiminez. Wakefield and Moyer's HBP shouldn't count as they don't hurt anyway.

Five pitchers have thrown nine wild pitches: Luke Hochever, Ryan Dempster, Mike McDougal (in only 44 innings), Clayton Kershaw and Tim Lincecum.

Kyle Lohse and Matt Palmer (him again!) have given up exactly 99 hits.

Fielding

Gerald Laird of the Detroit Tigers has given up nine passed balls. Second in the majors.

Fifteen players have nine errors. And nine is the league average for all players: Ryan Raburn, Mike Lowell, Alberto Gonzalez, Michael Young, Mark DeRosa, Ian Stewart, Kelly Johnson, Casey Blake, Jack Wilson (who had to make two to get there last night), Asdrubal Cabrera, Luis Castillo (including that pop up that cost them the game), Erick Aybar, Miguel Montero, Billy Butler and Albert Pujols.

Jeff Baker, a part time second and third baseman has 99 assists.

Landon Powell, a catcher for the Oakland Athletics, gets a special award. When he's caught games this year, nine base runners have been successful stealing and he's thrown out the other nine.

Batting

Ten players have been thrown out nine times when attempting to steal: David Wright, Denard Span, Mark Reynalds, Brandon Phillips, Hunter Pence, Kosuke Fukodome (in 15 attempts!), Dexter Fowler, Jacoby Ellsbury, Emilio Bonafacio and Clint Barmes.

Six players have nine triples: Stephen Drew, Angel Pagan (who knew?), David DeJesus, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dexter Fowler (those two showed up in the last list) and Denard Span (so did he).

Nine players have been hit by pitches nine times: Nyjer Morgan, Fernando Tatis, Willie Harris, Matt Diaz, Milton Bradley, Marlon Byrd, Paul Konerko, Russell Branyon and Carlos Pena (the last of which ended his season). Of these nine, three have also hit into nine double plays: Byrd, Bradley and Morgan.

Corey Hart and Mike Napoli have played in 99 games.

Troy Tulowitzki, Orlando Cabrera and Nick Markakis have all hit nine sacrifice flies.

Eight players have put down nine sacrifice bunts. Only three of them are not pitchers: Denard Span (there's that guy again), Martin Prado and Nick Punto.

Only one player has only nine walks with more than 300 at bats: Delmon Young. He owns this year's distinction as the hardest man in baseball to walk.

Have a great nine nine nine day everybody.