from Amazon
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The Mariners Play Boring Baseball
In the greatest feature column in America, a new thing we learn is that the Mariners have not been involved in any close game, according to Studes’ definition. This can be better expressed with Leverage Index. The average LI is 1.00. The Mariner hitters’ average LI is 0.71, their starters are 0.83, and their relievers are 0.31. Heck, their closer has an LI of 0.18!
All this of course is small sample sizitis. Eventually, the Mariners will be involved in some thrillers. The Yankees for example are playing in thrilling baseball games, with an LI of around 1.2
Studes also has a list from SABR-L about Sammy Sosa types (years between playing for the same team). Being the biggest Tim Raines fan ever, I thought: couldn’t they have extended the list to “top 10”. So, here’s my list.
One guy that came up was Nick Altrock:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/a/altroni01.shtml
He played for Washington until 1909, 1915, 1919, 1931, 1933. He last played at the age of 56.
Jimmy Archer has a 14-year gap.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/a/archeji01.shtml
I’ll check for more.