Fun with OOTP

[BradG223]

Originally Posted by dynaboyj

A request: What pair of players hit the most back-to-back home runs?

No requests, this is MY thread. Kidding, all are welcome to ask away!

Here are the duos with more than twenty.

Nick Fitzgerald and Luke Hendrickson have gone back-to-back more than any other pair in ABL history, and it isn't that close. Interestingly enough they nearly split the order in which they were hit. 14 times Fitzgerald hit before Hendrickson, and 15 times Hendrickson led the way.

Nick Fitzgerald had an extraordinary start to his career, but began tapering off after his age 26 season. He is still active, but I think he is about to retire at 33 years old.

Hendrickson, on the other hand, is 3rd in all-time home runs (712), and is still going strong at 37. I don't think he is going to break the home run record, but bless his heart I bet he tries. He just hit 35 home runs, so I won't disparage his power now, but he would need to maintain that level of performance for three more seasons.

If you are interested in preserving order, Juan de la Torre followed by Danny Cantera have the most back-to-backs in one particular sequence with 22. You might have seen me mention de la Torre on here before, he is the all-time home run leader (806). This dude managed to show up twice, with two different teammates. I think this guy gets the crown for the best batter in ABL history.

[BradG223]

Originally Posted by stevem810

Still trying to digest his propensity to induce the K year after year. Is there a way to reproduce his ratings, or, describe how he was built?

Yup, among others, pitching ratings are included in the year-to-year exports.

I think this might be helpful. Here are his true ratings from the 2028 season, perhaps his most dominant. I might be mistaken in what these numbers represent, but it appears his overall stuff was 281. I had no idea it was possible for ratings to exceed 255, but I don't know of another way to interpret this.

I think the velocity rating corresponds to 97-99 MPH, and the arm slot is normal(3/4).

That year, according to OSA scouts his stuff, movement, and control were 80, 40, 50.

[BradG223]

In 2132, Luke Hendrickson hit a remarkable 64 home-runs. However, he fell short of leading the league, as he was bested by Pat Rust who hit for 69. 64 is the highest total by someone who did not lead the league, and 133 is the highest combined total from the top two leaders. This plot shows how the race evolved throughout the season. On the bottom, I try to display the daily totals.

These two can be found in the chart at the top of the page, as they both were half of the greatest power duos in history.

[BradG223]

Perhaps the tensest moment in ABA history came in the 2089 World Series between the Brooklyn Seals and the Las Vegas Goats. I cooked up the champion leverage for each play in each playoff game, and the play with the greatest expected change in championship win probability was found in the 8th inning of game 9.

The blue line shows Las Vegas's win probability as the series progresses, the green bars show the championship leverage. That peak is when Cody Benfield stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, down a run with 1 out in the bottom of the 8th.

Benfield had a pretty boring career. He was a good last resort batter, but a poor fielder. With around 223 GS and a WAR around 8, he didn't leave too much for fans to remember him by. That is until this at-bat came around. He etched himself into ABL lore when he hit a liner off Sergio Porchas little ways over second base, giving his team the lead.

Leverage is a cool stat, and it definitely helps to find some great moments. However, there are plenty of limitations to it. It ignores the context that can enhance the excitement of particular moments.

[BradG223]

Who doesn't love a good comeback story? Here are the teams in ABL history furthest out of a playoff spot at various game intervals, who eventually turned around and made the playoffs. That first row tells us that 10 games into the 2061 season, the Denver Pioneers were 6 games behind a playoff spot. This Denver team is certainly one of the more interesting comeback scenarios, but far and away my favorite belongs to the 2067 Brooklyn Seals.

47 years deep into the league and Brooklyn had nothing to show for it, other than a couple disappointing playoff outings every couple of years. Brooklyn the year prior actually had the fewest runs scored and the most runs allowed in the entire ABL. Dreadful. Who in their right mind would be hopeful for them when they found themselves in 9th place, and 16 GB the wildcard spot more than halfway into the 2067 campaign? Well, it doesn't matter.

Maybe it's because young 2B Brian Weinberg started hitting the ball a little bit better. Maybe it's because rookie manager Danny Olivas lit a fire underneath his squad. Maybe the dice just landed their way. Whatever you attribute it to, the Seals started winning games. Enough games for them to overtake tough teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles, and St Louis Sluggers, and make it into the playoffs.

After this miraculous comeback, Brooklyn still wasn't all that threatening. After all, they still had a negative run differential. The other three playoff teams had differentials ranging from 150-220. High-quality baseball teams. Yet, the Seals did not care. They walked over the Eastern Conference Championship 4-1 over Boston. Then, they walked over the Western Conference Champs, the Phoenix Flames, 5-2.

This takes the cake for the biggest roller coaster ride in ABL history. It's hard to put together a coherent narrative for why everything started going Brooklyn’s way. It didn't take long for a return to normalcy for Brooklyn. Just two years later, 2069, they posted a win-loss record of 43-99.

[BradG223]

A potentially unbreakable record I just stumbled across: consecutive number of plate appearances without a strikeout.

This record was set pretty recently. In 2132, a fella named Ernesto Legnano had 259 straight PAs before striking out.

[BMW]

Joe Sewell didn't strike out from May 19 to Sep 19, 1929. 521 consecutive plate appearances over that stretch. Sewell was in a league of his own in not striking out.

[BradG223]

Originally Posted by BMW

Joe Sewell didn't strike out from May 19 to Sep 19, 1929. 521 consecutive plate appearances over that stretch. Sewell was in a league of his own in not striking out.

Hahaha, I think we can all agree that nobody in this league is going to hold a candle to that record.




I was digging a little deeper into Ernesto Legnano, and found something pretty cool. His career spanned 2120-2137. During that time, he amassed the second-most stolen bases ever. Who did he come up short to? His contemporary Orlando Gomez, who played from 2120-2138. A few posts earlier I showed off a seasonal home run race. This here shows the total number of SBs for each player at the end of each year in ABL history. Gomez got off to a quicker start and maintained a pretty good cushion over Legnano for this race.

This next is pretty much fan-fiction, but what the heck.

Look at the smile on Orlando's face. That's the look of the guy who worked hard and succeeded. He's not the best of all-time, no, but his name will live on forever.

Now look at the stern face Ernesto has on. It's a look of bitter resentment if you don't mind my conjecture. Purely number-wise, Ernesto accomplished much more than Orlando has in his career, but lacks the same satisfaction. Why would that be?

Orlando Gomez won three rings during his time with Minneapolis. All consecutive, and he helped to build the dynasty. Where did Ernesto's lone ring come from? Well, like Orlando he was part of a three-pete. However, he jumped on the Brooklyn bandwagon the year after they won their second straight title. He joined a dynasty in progress.

Orlando knows where his home is, it is in Minnesota. Ernesto? He doesn't have an easy answer. I think that hurts him. I think he is jealous of Orlando.

[lnpgaceta]

Originally Posted by BradG223

Alright time to look at some grand slam numbers.

In the ABL Alejandro Roman is the career leader in total grand slams.

Simply put: the dude could slug dingers. He is the all-time leader in ISO, and is in the 25th spot for career home runs.
However, Roman was relatively weak in other facets of the game. His career strikeout percentage (.291) is nearly enough to match his career OBP (.314).

I haven't been following this thread as closely as I probably should be, but I do have a question for you: how'd you pull their grand slam numbers? Did you go to each player's profile, or is there a place in their hitting data?

[BradG223]

I'm working with a different league here, but I think this is in line with the spirit of the thread.

In the 120-something years of the North American Baseball Association, there are two instances of a pitcher striking five (5) batters in an inning. The one in focus happened recently relative to the league's timeline, occurring September 25th, 2138 during a playoff game between the Denver Mounties and Phoenix Suns.