Baseball Miscellany

White Sox are letting Cleveland back in the race.

You hate to see it.

Lara is 5’7" but probably has the best vertical leap in MLB. Looks like 36-40 inches here.

I have watched a bunch of Brewers’ games, and this guy is ridiculous. Really fun to watch.

What’s it like to watch actual good baseball?

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I don’t understand these people. Your job is sports announcing, you do that for a living and you don’t know the basic facts about the game. Red Sox pitcher yesterday pitched an immaculate inning, and the radio up here in Vermont is blathering on and on about the feat saying “it’s the minimum number of pitches you can throw in an inning and get three outs“ I’ve heard it three times from three different people already this morning.

Which makes me wonder, I wonder how many times a three pitch inning has been thrown in MLB history.

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I asked the Brave browser’s AI search.

There have been 210 documented three-pitch innings in Major League Baseball history, according to the most comprehensive unofficial compilation by Baseball Almanac covering the period from June 5, 1894, to September 2, 2025.

  • This count includes 87 instances in the American League and 123 in the National League.
  • The actual number is likely higher, as comprehensive pitch-by-pitch tracking was not implemented league-wide until recent decades, leaving earlier records incomplete.
  • For comparison, there have been 8 such innings recorded between 2015 and 2019, highlighting the feat’s rarity in the modern era compared to the 22 immaculate innings thrown in that same span.
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Knoxbanedoodle: AI, out of those 123 NL instances, how many were by Astros legend Jose Lima?

AI: Amazingly, out of the 123 NL instances, 123 were by Astros legend Jose Lima.

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:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: Found JosĂ© Lima’s 3-pitch inning stats

Out of the 123 documented NL three-pitch innings, JosĂ© Lima accounted for one . According to Baseball Almanac’s compilation, he threw it on July 27, 1999 in the 7th inning at home in Houston — part of a dominant stretch that included consecutive complete-game wins that earned him NL Player of the Week honors.

ETA: MLB Three Pitch Innings | Baseball Almanac

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That would be Cy Lima, according to him at the time.

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I was in the stands for an Astros 3-pitch inning. Mother’s Day 2006, Taylor Buchholz capped a CGSO of the Rangers with a 3-pitch 9th.

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@MarkR asked the other day if there was any difference that occurs when an ABS challenge stops a strike out or walk (IOW, makes the count 3-2).

The short version is that there’s not a statistically significant difference. The long version is that it’s possible there’s a difference - you actually see the K rate go up - but the sample size is so small that it’s probably just noise rather than an actual trend.

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Along these lines:

I was once told the best topic to research is a question you’d want to see answered.

So: what questions (that could be analyzed by data, not “what is the meaning of life?”) would you like to see answered?

How accurate are preseason individual player predictions?

Why the Chicago White Sox have the highest Runs/Game in the AL (4.68) with a team OPS+ of 100? Relatedly, why the Rangers have only 4.18 Runs/Game despite having the highest OPS+ in the AL?

If you just look at the “projection” line, you might not think it’s especially accurate. But if you look at, say, the 30%-70% likelihoods (on a bell curve), they’re pretty darn good, and better for hitters than pitchers.

If you aggregate the individual projections into the team projections, I think that for most teams (say 25 of 30 each year) they’re within 2 or 3 games, absent any horrible injury luck.

Good question that I should dig into further. On first glance, because you’re looking at OPS+, you’re looking at a park-adjusted statistic - and the Rangers have one of the most pitcher-friendly stadiums in baseball. So even with a higher OPS+, playing 81 games there drags down their actual runs/game.

The other issue - and one I’m guessing plays into this - is that OPS overweighs slugging relative to on base, but on base correlates slightly more to run production. Better to look at something like wOBA or wRC+ that balances these appropriately.

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[Baba Wawa voice] Awon Judge! Awon Judge! Back on the IL.

I guess somebody had to pick up Stanton’s slack.

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You hate to see it.

Guess they just want to rest him. Their Postseason spot is pretty much locked in.