Some 2010 Odds and Ends

2010 was the year of the pitcher...supposedly. The league's 4.08 ERA was down quite a bit from previous years. The strikeouts per game finished over 7 per nine for the first time in history. So those two perspectives do seem to support the idea of a more pitching-dominant season than others of the past. Most other pitching stats were pretty much static. The walks per nine, homers per nine and hits per nine were generally in line with most other years. But there were some interesting statistical feats this year.

• Mark Reynolds and Carlos Pena finished their quests to become only the third and fourth players in the last forty years with more than 25 homers and a batting average under .200. They joined Mark McGwire and Rob Deer in that exclusive club.
• Mark Reynolds also did something else that's never been done before. His season was the first time in history that someone who qualified for the batting title (in terms of plate appearances) that a batter had more strikeouts than batting average.
• Three teams finished with a team ERA over 5: The Pirates (5.35), the Diamondbacks (5.16) and the Royals (5.22). There is little doubt as to why these three teams finished with more than 95 losses.
• Five teams finished with a team ERA under 4: San Diego, St. Louis, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Oakland. As you can see, Oakland was the only AL team to do it.
• LOOGY of the Year Award: Pedro Feliciano led the majors in appearances this year with an amazing 92. But he only pitched 62.2 innings. Now that's a LOOGY! Randy Choate led the AL in appearances with 85 but pitched only 44.2 innings. Wow.
• Tim Llincecum led all starting pitchers with 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings. That's not a surprise. But Yovani Gallardo and Jon Lester tying for second at 9.7 is a huge surprise.
• Rodrigo Lopez gave up 37 homers easily pacing the league in that category and with his 1.7 homers per nine innings. James Shields of the Bay Rays gave up 34 homers, leading the AL.
• Cliff Lee (in perhaps the coolest stat of the year) walked only 18 batters in 212+ innings or 0.8 walks per nine innings pitched. He was matched by only two relief pitchers. Wilton Lopez of the Diamondbacks only walked five batters and had a walks per nine of 0.7 and Edward Mujica of the Padres who walked only six batters and finised at 0.8.
• Edward Mujica led the majors with a 12-1 strikeout to walk ratio.
• Mark Buehrle and James Shields tied for the most hits allowed by pitchers with 246. Dan Haran was a surpising second at 245.
• Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants led the majors with 96 walks allowed.
• The Seattle Mariners finished with a team OPS+ of 79. The Pirates and the Astros tied for second at 83. At least the Pirates and Astros had pitchers hitting. Seattle had the "benefit" of the DH.
• The Blue Jays finished with 257 homers. Amazing.
• Four players finished with 100 or more walks: Prince Fielder (114), Daric Barton (110), Albert Pujols (103) and Jose Bautista (100). Bartin led the majors in unintentional walks with 108.
• Dexter Fowler led the majors in triples with 14. He only had 114 hits (.260 BA) which means that an amazing 12.3% of his hits were triples.
• Adrian Beltre led the majors with 49 doubles. Jayson Werth, Delmon Young and Evan Longoria all hit 46.
• Juan Pierre was caught stealing 18 times to lead the majors. The number matched how many doubles he hit. He finished with a 78 OPS+. Nyjer Morgan was caught stealing 17 times (he had many less successful steals than Pierre) and he too matched his doubles total of 17. He had a 73 OPS+.
• Rickie Weeks led the league with 25 Hit By Pitches.
• Billy Butler easily led the majors by hitting into 32 double plays. Yeesh.
• The Nationals and Pirates led the league with 127 errors. The Yankees led the majors with only 69.
• Ian Desmond led the majors with 34 errors.
• Alexei Ramirez of the White Sox led the majors with 499 assists. Geez, he couldn't have gotten one more?
• Robinso Cano was fourth in the league in assists, had 766 chances and only made three errors. Yet he gets no love in fielding metrics. Don't get it.