The Stat Blast segment (formerly known as the Play Index) is a recurring feature of the podcast revolving around a statistical question put forth by the segment host or a listener.
Play Index era[]
The Play Index was originally started by Sam, as part of listener email episodes, though it was not a Baseball Reference-sponsored segment until Episode 391, and dealt with the drop in triples in the American League since the 1970s.
Stat Blast era[]
Around the time of the show's transition to FanGraphs, the Play Index sponsorship was ended and the segment was continued by Jeff but without an official name.
On Episode 1146 in December 2017, Jeff had decided on "Stat Blast" as the name of the segment. An intro theme performed by Ben's wife Jessie Barbour was later added to the segment in Episode 1152.
Hosting of the Stat Blast segment transitioned back to Sam when Jeff left the podcast, and was then inherited by Ben after Sam's second departure.
During the baseball shutdown of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ben used performances of the Stat Blast theme contributed by listeners. See Facebook group: 2020 Season for details.
Stat Blast theme[]
Lyrics[]
| They'll take a data set sorted by something like ERA- or OPS+ And then they'll tease out some interesting tidbit, Discuss it at length, and analyze it for us In amazing ways Here's today's Stat Blast! |
The lyrics are printed on the back of the Stat Blast T-Shirt. The front of the T-shirt is adorned with names of advanced statistics and numbers which the podcast has obsessed over:
- OPS+
- ERA−
- wOBA
- 105: Ryan Webb's games completed without a save.
- .247: Khris Davis's season batting average for four years in a row.
- 1.422: Barry Bonds's record OPS in his 2004 season.
Covers[]
In 2020, a member of the Facebook group invited people to create their own covers of the Stat Blast theme, offering a CAD$50 prize. Many of the entries were used on the podcast to introduce the Stat Blast segment.
Stat Blast consultants[]
In the Play Index era, Sam did the research for most of the Play Index segments.
When he was co-host, Jeff did the research for most of the Stat Blasts.
From Episode 1532 to Episode 1687, Adam Ott served as the principal Stat Blast consultant. He stopped contributing upon being hired as a data scientist for Cleveland's R&D department.
From Episode 1740 to the present, Ryan Nelson has served as the principal Stat Blast consultant.
Ben occasionally enlists the assistance of others in researching Stat Blast segments:
- Kenny Jackelen from Baseball Reference
- Dan Hirsch from Baseball Reference
- Lucas Apostoleris from Baseball Prospectus, particularly with questions that involve pitch-by-pitch results or pitch-tracking data
- Robert Au from Baseball Prospectus, particularly with questions involving minor league data
Sponsors[]
- Episode 391 to ??: Baseball Prospectus.
- Episode 1834 to Episode 1925: Stathead, part of the Baseball Reference family of sports statistics sites.
- Episode 1994 to Episode 2021: Topps Now collectible trading cards.
- Episode 2059 to Episode 2085: Topps Now collectible trading cards.
List of Stat Blasts[]
- (Note: This list is incomplete and currently being compiled.)
Some of the topics listed below were not formally considered Stat Blasts, but they nevertheless fit the mold. We try to remember to mark those entries with asterisks.
2019[]
| Ep | Subject |
|---|---|
| 1317 | Willians Astudillo's strike out rate |
| 1317 | The best players to never play a full season |
| 1317 | Lineups in alphabetical order |
| 1319 | The least and most consistent winning percentages |
| 1322 | The biggest gaps between best and second-best years |
| 1322 | The Yankees playing the tallest lineup of all time |
| 1326 | Mariano Rivera fun facts |
| 1330 | The worst drafts of all time |
| 1335 | Max Muncy vs. Robbie Grossman |
| 1335 | Major award winners with no votes in the previous/subsequent seasons |
| 1346 | The heights of managers |
| 1349 | The most "2-year-old friendly" inning |
| 1349 | Player who made the most starts only in September |
| 1354 | Longest streak of one team ahead of another in final standings |
| 1356 | Longest season start of perfect 5.000 OPS |
| 1356 | Most MLB games in one day |
| 1356 | Longest gap before a battery reunites |
| 1356 | Most pitches to start a game without a ball in play |
| 1358 | Most season-starting outings by a pitcher without getting an out |
| 1358 | Investigating true wins |
| 1361 | Sending the runners with the bases loaded |
| 1364 | Where have all the older pitchers gone? |
| 1368 | Winning percentage of teams who bat the DH 7th or later |
| 1370 | Batters drawing walks after being behind 0–2 |
| 1370 | Trends in leverage index for pitcher plate appearances |
| 1373 | Which is more impressive, a no-hitter or a true win? |
| 1376 | Are there more hustle doubles this season? |
| 1379* | Highest number of distinct lineups in a season |
| 1379 | Seasons with the fewest games with more walks than strikeouts |
| 1382 | StatCast no-hitters (no batted ball with over 50% chance of being a hit) |
| 1385 | Age profile of top 20 players by WAR over time |
| 1389 | Roy Smalley's 1979 season |
| 1389 | Cody Bellinger's worst- and best-case scenarios for the second half of the season |
| 1391 | Players named Ryne |
| 1391 | Teams whose records were close to .500 for long stretches |
| 1391 | Pitchers with most bases-loaded no outs without giving up a run |
| 1394 | Changes in platoon advantage based on the ball/strike count |
| 1399 | Charlie Blackmon's extreme home/road batting splits |
| 1401 | What would Ohtani's stats be if he faced only himself? |
| 1405 | Pitchers who have thrown both immaculate and minimum innings |
| 1410 | Sending the runners on 3-2 counts |
| 1410 | Who has played in the most stadiums? |
| 1414 | Correlation between number of walk-off wins and team quality |
| 1414 | GIDP rates for pitchers batting with bases loaded and one out |
| 1418 | Mike Trout's performance against pitchers he faced exactly once |
| 1418 | Teams whose winning percentage at home were best and on the road were worst in MLB |
| 1420 | Receiving Rookie of the Year award votes in a 1-season career |
| 1423 | Most common career stolen base total |
| 1423 | Most career plate appearances without a stolen base |
| 1423 | Players with exactly one career stolen base |
| 1426 | Teams with highest career cumulative WAR |
| 1429 | HBP and BABIP trends on 3-0 counts |
| 1435 | Overall rise in home runs among qualified hitters |
| 1438 | Teams with the highest share of WAR generated by foreign-born players |
| 1443 | The rate of increase of reliever usage in the postseason |
| 1456 | The closest combined AL/NL MVP races by WAR |
| 1462 | The Mariners' lack of intentional walks in 2019 |
| 1462 | Batters with more HBP than BB in a season |
| 1465 | The worst innings for team pitching staffs, as measured by tOPS+ |
| 1470 | The most statistically similar players |
2020[]
| Ep | Subject |
|---|---|
| 1484 | The positional patterns of multi-position players |
| 1488 | Striking out every hitter on an opposing team in a game at least once |
| 1490 | Quickest/slowest franchises to have an alum in the Hall of Fame |
| 1493 | Intentional leadoff walks |
| 1493 | Plate appearances by Hall of Famers by franchise |
| 1493 | Do managers call for replay review more often on good teams? |
| 1502 | Instances of walk-off catcher's interference |
| 1516 | The history of teammates with the same name |
| 1519 | The worst player to debut in their teens and retire in their 40's |
| 1523 | The longest opening day streaks for players in a position |
| 1525 | The most lopsided WAR league leaders |
| 1528 | Franchises with head-to-head tie records |
| 1528 | Can a star pitching rotation carry a replacement-level team to the playoffs? |
| 1532 | Would-be Major Leaguers we'll never see play because of the pandemic |
| 1534 | The highest Championship Leverage Index |
| 1538 | Is there a home/away bias in official scoring? |
| 1541 | Defensive indifference leaders |
| 1541 | Winning pitchers giving up more earned runs than the losing pitcher |
| 1541 | Perfect batting averages in both a debut and final game |
| 1544 | How much could you expand foul territory to offset shorter home run distances |
| 1544 | The least valuable World Series MVP's |
| 1547 | The lowest scoring games despite "double cycle" offense |
| 1547 | Hitless career batter vs. pitcher matchups |
| 1550 | The most repeatedly drafted players |
| 1552 | Mark Buehrle facing the minimum 27 batters a record three times |
| 1552 | Players with the least service time compared to their career length |
| 1553 | Players on the most World Series winning teams without playing in a WS game |
| 1556 | The value of Billy Hamilton as an extra-inning runner |
| 1571 | The variety of Mike Trout's black ink categories |
| 1574 | Quasi-walkoffs immediately before rain delay that led to called games |
| 1575 | The longest hitless innings |
| 1577 | How many more HR players would have hit had they batted earlier in the lineup |
| 1579 | Longest team vs. team losing streaks in the regular season and postseason |
| 1580 | The Mariners' 4 best pitchers in team history having identical ERA |
| 1580 | The most pitches thrown in a 1-2-3 inning |
| 1580 | Games with "half no-hitters" thrown by both teams |
| 1584* | Players with the all-time highest and lowest BMI |
| 1584 | What if every team traded as prolifically as Jerry Dipoto? |
| 1584 | Most identical final scores on the same day |
| 1584 | Hitters who have struck out 4 times on 12 pitches in one game |
| 1586 | Players responsible for the most balls out of play due to foul balls or homers |
| 1586 | The most times a player has been traded away by the same team |
| 1586 | Records for number of consecutive pitches thrown of each type |
| 1587 | Teams with the most 1-run games in a season |
| 1587 | Players who hit in the same lineup spot for an entire season |
| 1591 | Teammates with the same first name who both had 5+ bWAR |
| 1591 | Are pitchers more likely to go 7.0IP in a 7-inning doubleheader game? |
| 1594 | Did pickoff attempts increase with no fans in the stands? |
| 1600 | The biggest height mismatches between starting pitchers in a game |
| 1603 | Trends in % of runs scored on non-homers |
| 1609 | Ranking teams that lost the World Series |
| 1612 | Players who have hit a HR from every spot in the lineup |
| 1615 | Fake player names used as examples in the MLB rules |
| 1616 | What pair of infielders have collaborated for the most putouts? |
| 1618 | Who was the first ever LOOGY? |
| 1623 | The longest span of time of two playing careers that overlap |
| 1623 | Do doubles and triples have different Statcast profiles? |
| 1631 | Follow up from 1101: The ultimate journeyman players |
| 1633 | Low OBP hitters who still were league-average or better hitters |
2021[]
| Ep | Subject |
|---|---|
| 1642 | Did demand for baseball increase after the 1919 pandemic? |
| 1645 | Players with the longest gaps between World Series hits |
| 1649 | Most prolific pitcher-catcher battery mates |
| 1651 | Leroy Stanton's consistent career splits |
| 1654 | Least productive positions for a franchise over the last 5 years |
| 1659 | Teams with every player on the roster over 30 years old |
| 1659 | Players responsible for the majority of a team's WAR at one position |
| 1666 | Teams that scored the highest percentage of their runs in one game |
| 1681 | Hitter-runner combos with the most runs scored |
| 1683 | Most common and uncommon defensive position and lineup spot combinations |
| 1685 | Players with high black ink/grey ink but low WAR and vice-versa |
| 1686 | The AL West spelling "ASSHAT" and most common division ordering |
| 1687 | Most successful pitchers with a runner on 2nd and no outs |
| 1687 | Pitchers with 'stupid wins' (win after blowing a save) |
| 1689 | Most consecutive pitches taken |
| 1689 | Pitcher appearances where no balls ended up in play |
| 1691 | Most lopsided trades of all time based on post-trade WAR |
| 1696 | Players who have participated in the most no-hitters |
| 1698 | Players with extreme home/road splits |
| 1701 | Players who have contributed highest % of team's runs |
| 1709 | Ship of Theseus: Quickest starting lineup turnover |
| 1717 | Fewest pitches before a grand slam in a game/inning |
| 1720 | Notable instances of under/overperforming a run differential |
| 1723 | Homestand perfect record droughts |
| 1725 | Team streaks where all wins were started by a single pitcher |
| 1729* | Players who were able to sustain reverse batting splits |
| 1729 | The players named in Flood v. Kuhn, the original Remember Some Guys |
| 1733 | Most times a player has been called up/sent down in a single season |
| 1733 | Streaks of games where two teams matched wins and losses |
| 1737 | Does the outgoing or incoming pitcher issue the intentional walk? |
| 1737 | Players who hit a walk-off for their only career home run |
| 1740 | Most runs scored in a game without an earned run |
| 1740 | Longest streak of consecutive pinch hitters |
| 1740 | Most outs made with runners in scoring position |
| 1743* | Miguel Cabrera's ranking in pitchers faced/home runs ratio |
| 1743* | Players who go 0 for 4 in a game with no strikeouts or walks |
| 1743 | Longest path to 162 career games played |
| 1743 | Worst best player for a division winner |
| 1748 | Are all relievers "failed starters", or have some always been a reliever? |
| 1748 | The Pirates' record futility at securing a sweep |
| 1752 | Longest innings streak of a team not holding a lead |
| 1752 | MVPs of both leagues not making the playoffs |
| 1757 | How many player debuts has Royals announcer Denny Matthews seen in his career? |
| 1771 | Ship of Theseus: Highest postseason usage of players who recently joined the team |
| 1771 | The most common batter/pitcher matchups |
| 1773 | Going to a game in every Major/Minor league ballpark in one year |
| 1780 | Most times a team has acquired/re-signed the same player |
| 1780* | Teams who debuted the most or fewest players in 2021 |
| 1790 | How long it typically takes for every player from a given game to leave MLB for good |
| 1791* | Most home runs in a player's final MLB season |
| 1791* | Teams with only one 100-inning pitcher in a season |
| 1791* | Brother batteries |
| 1791* | Catching consecutive shutouts |
2022[]
| Ep | Subject |
|---|---|
| 1801 | Biggest intra-season player performance gaps between Triple-A and MLB |
| 1804 | Times when the best players in each league played in the same city |
| 1807 | The longest "home run trees" |
| 1807 | The modern equivalent of “Three-and-Two Jack” Graney |
| 1807 | Whether MLB player performances adheres to the Pareto Principle |
| 1809 | Batting a 300-homer player toward the bottom of the order |
| 1819 | Minor league team streaks of sending an alum to the World Series |
| 1825 | "Ghost players" with streaks of not fielding the ball or putting it in play |
| 1827* | "Busy players" with streaks of consecutive fielding events |
| 1829* | Do Scott Boras's puns lead to more money for his clients? |
| 1829* | "Ghost catchers" who went the longest without touching the ball |
| 1830* | Highest single-season combined WAR by two players on a team |
| 1831 | Largest age difference between older player and younger manager |
| 1832 | One-for-one-trades of players of the same age at the same position |
| 1834 | Players who were most overpaid, underpaid, or appropriately paid |
| 1835* | Most debuts in first week of the season |
| 1835* | Player reaching base 5 times and making 3 errors in a game |
| 1835 | Relievers who blew the most no-hitters |
| 1835 | Batters who broke up the most no-hitters |
| 1835 | Starters who lost the most no-hitters in late innings |
| 1838* | Batters with highest and lowest "expected no-hitters subtracted" |
| 1839* | Players who opened their career with consecutive "reached base on error" |
| 1839* | Lowest WAR of a multiple-time All Star |
| 1839 | Shrinking velocity gap between max-effort and average-effort fastballs |
| 1840 | Are higher pitch counts the primary reason for longer games? |
| 1840 | Teams who have cornered the market on players with a specific first name |
| 1840 | Team games with no outfield putouts |
| 1840 | Most unassisted putouts by a player in a game |
| 1841 | Most lopsided shutout |
| 1841 | Best run differential despite losing series |
| 1841 | Players whose team winning percentage changed the most when they played |
| 1842 | Players whose team winning percentage changed the most when they started |
| 1845 | Pitchers with ERA+ higher than batters faced |
| 1845 | The best offensive performance by a player whose team got no-hit |
| 1845 | Players who failed to "hit their weight" |
| 1845 | Home run distribution by day of week |
| 1846* | Teams with highest/lowest player speed variability |
| 1847 | Highest total single-game WPA |
| 1847 | Largest distance between release points of consecutive pitchers |
| 1848 | Players who performed best against future Hall-of-Famers |
| 1849* | Effectively wild pitchers with walk rate above 20% |
| 1850 | Most consecutive trades by a single team in a day |
| 1850 | Single-day records for away wins and home wins |
| 1850 | Most back-to-back home runs in a season for a team |
| 1850 | Players who participated in every set of a team's back-to-back home runs |
| 1851 | Most common player first names over time, and the rise/fall of Tyler and Taylor |
| 1852 | Pitchers facing players they were traded for |
| 1852 | Streaks of two back-to-back hitters with identical PA outcomes |
| 1852 | Pitchers most helped/hurt by bullpen handling of inherited runners |
| 1853* | Batters whose OBP increases when behind in the count |
| 1855 | Pitchers who have recorded a loss against every current franchise |
| 1855 | Evolution of fraction of starts that lead to wins or losses |
| 1855 | Game times which exactly match start times |
| 1855 | Winning team scoring more runs in one inning than the losers do all game |
| 1856 | Both starting pitchers making their MLB debuts |
| 1856 | Pinch hitter striking out twice in one inning |
| 1856 | Pitcher with consecutive full innings with the same pitch count |
| 1862* | Biggest gap between home run leader and second place |
| 1862* | Hitters with ≥46 HR and BB ≥ HR + K |
| 1862* | Highest total division winning and losing streaks |
| 1864* | Consecutive three-pitch strikeouts |
| 1865 | Ship of Theseus: Substituting out every starting player in a game |
| 1865 | Losing pitcher making the last out of the game |
| 1868 | Pitchers with earned runs concentrated in one inning per game |
| 1872 | Teams with losing seasons despite having two 7+ WAR players |
| 1872 | Pitcher with most even distribution of pitch types |
| 1873* | Parks most/least likely to have a hit that would be a home run only in that park |
| 1875 | Trends in manager longevity |
| 1875 | Consecutive uniform numbers |
| 1875* | Best pitchers who failed to qualify for the ERA title |
| 1879 | Biggest year-to-year home run outages (Follow-up in 1885) |
| 1880 | Split doubleheaders with mirrored scores |
| 1880 | Non-hit walk-off victories |
| 1880 | Cleanup hitters with no RBIs |
| 1880 | Bases cleared during a plate appearance |
| 1880 | Managers who managed the most players |
| 1880 | No-LOB shutouts (minimum batters faced in complete game) |
| 1880 | Most career-starting home runs off the same pitcher |
| 1880 | Franchises who have debuted the most countries |
| 1880 | Franchise-leading closers facing each other for opposite teams |
| 1880 | Making two outs in one inning |
| 1880 | "Adam Dunn cycle" (K, ꓘ, HR, BB) |
| 1880 | Consecutive no-hit innings by a pitcher against a team |
| 1881 | Longest pitching career before first start |
| 1881 | Starting cleanup hitters with no RBIs |
| 1883 | Major leaguers facing each other in the minors on rehab |
| 1884* | Teams trading for each other's closers |
| 1885* | 28-run game with no player getting many hits |
| 1887* | Hardest-thrown sliders |
| 1888 | Worst starting pitcher game score |
| 1888 | Most times released in a single season |
| 1888 | Longest gap of a college sending players to the majors |
| 1888 | Most single-day/single-game home runs by players with the same first name |
| 1888 | Games where all pitchers recorded the same number of outs |
| 1888 | Longest sub-.500 win streak |
| 1888 | Performance of youngest teams in the league |
| 1890 | How many perfect innings is as impressive as a no-hitter? |
| 1890 | Most innings pitched before allowing a batter to reach base four times in a game |
| 1892 | Most first round picks used in a game by a single team |
| 1892 | Consecutive games with same final score |
| 1892 | Highest WAR despite negative WPA |
| 1893* | Highest offense rating despite negative WPA |
| 1894 | Playoff team slumps |
| 1894 | Teams who had the league leader in all types of hits |
| 1894 | Pitchers with biggest change in Game Score in consecutive starts |
| 1894 | Longest string of starts with a different number of ER allowed |
| 1894 | Most non-hit RBI to start a career |
| 1895* | Most consecutive strikes to start a game |
| 1896* | Worst best ERA for a pitcher who played on three or more teams in a season |
| 1898* | Largest gap between home run leader and second place |
| 1898 | Pitchers with 3 BF who got all three true outcomes in minimum pitches |
| 1898 | Fewest pitches required to get the first time through the batting order |
| 1898 | Players with a higher age than wRC+ |
| 1898 | Players with the same number of home runs as their uniform number |
| 1898 | Greatest two-out rallies |
| 1898 | Fewest runs scored despite batting around |
| 1899* | Check-swing call variability among umpires |
| 1903 | Most total bases by a player in a game without an RBI |
| 1903 | Shohei Ohtani's hitting splits in pitching and non-pitching games |
| 1905* | Number of times per season a pitcher is pulled with an active no-hitter |
| 1907* | Biggest gap between stolen base leader and second place |
| 1907* | Worst drop in team win/loss record in day games vs night games |
| 1907 | How many pitchers would be affected by the pitch clock? |
| 1907 | Does a fast-working pitcher improve the defense? |
| 1909* | Batter who received the most consecutive secondary pitches in a game |
| 1909* | Is RBI redundant as a Triple Crown stat? |
| 1909 | Why does Atlanta have such an extreme day/night split? |
| 1909 | Box scores that match the Fibonacci sequence |
| 1909 | Player substituted after one PA in both ends of a doubleheader |
| 1909 | Substitution completing a cycle started by the first player |
| 1909 | Player with the most unique dates with a home run |
| 1909 | Pitchers who were "cruising" and then "let the game get away from them" |
| 1912 | Worst best player on a team |
| 1912 | Percentage of players who eventually play in a postseason/World Series game |
| 1912 | Mike Trout tweet emoji analysis |
| 1916* | Rate of come-from-behind walk-off homers in the postseason |
| 1921 | When total homers outnumbered total stolen bases |
| 1921 | Pitchers pinch running for their own DH |
| 1921 | Most hits before getting a pinch hit |
| 1922* | Teams with the lowest total negative WAR |
| 1922* | Teams with fewest innings by worse-than-average ERA pitchers |
| 1922* | How different the results would be if best teams always made the World Series |
| 1924 | How umpire ball/strike accuracy affects offense (revisited in 1925) |
| 1927* | How the 2022 postseason cLI compared to other years |
| 1928* | Third time through the order effect in 2022 World Series |
| 1931* | Players who were teammates with both league MVPs in the same season |
| 1933 | Biggest WAR difference between team's best and second-best players |
| 1933 | What fielder has put out the most unique players |
| 1933 | Team hitting into double plays in most consecutive innings |
| 1933 | Most common inning for game-winning run to score |
| 1934* | Quantifying the advantage of scoring the first run |
| 1936 | Players similar to Shelby Miller: Stellar two seasons, then extended mediocrity |
| 1937* | Visitor team effects on attendance |
| 1938* | Teams with oldest two pitchers in starting rotation |
| 1941* | Batter with largest percentage of team's season strikeouts |
| 1944 | Trends in free agent contract lengths |
| 1944 | Longest gap between 30-start seasons |
| 1946 | Most distinct batters in a half-inning |
| 1946 | Batter with most distinct ways of reaching base in a game |
| 1946 | Highest/lowest team payrolls after adjusting for MLB salary inflation |
| 1947* | Lowest playing time despite being on the roster all season |
| 1947* | All time most clutch player |
| 1947 | Teams with only one qualifying hitter |
| 1947 | The decline of 700 PA hitters |
| 1947* | Replay challenge success rates |
| 1949* | Effect of zombie runners on player PAs per season |
| 1949* | Year-to-year correlation in replay challenge success rates |
| 1949* | Kevin Gausman's BABIP and effect of defensive shifts |
| 1949* | Win/loss records of players with two or more homers in a game |
| 1949* | Highest number of unique lineups used by a DH team in a season |
| 1949* | Team with the most walk-off two-out grand slams in a season |
2023[]
| Ep | Subject |
|---|---|
| 1950* | Most rookies on a team to homer in a single game |
| 1952* | Fewest games to reach -1.0 WAR in a season |
| 1952 | The surprising longevity of Nate Colbert's Padres franchise HR record |
| 1955 | Duos with the most assist/putout pairs |
| 1955 | Position players who played only one defensive position |
| 1958* | Does it help to pitch a ball with the logo away from the hitter? |
| 1958 | Players who moved to premium defensive positions late in their careers |
| 1961* | Jeff Kent's rate of double play completion |
| 1962 | Pitchers with the best career ERA+ |
| 1962 | How successful are reliever-to-starter conversions? |
| 1962 | Batters who most dominated a specific pitcher |
| 1963* | Starting pitchers with ERA- below 100 and a lower K%+ than Zack Greinke |
| 1964* | Batters with longest on-base streak against a specific pitcher |
| 1966 | Best player from each team whose number hasn't been retired |
| 1966 | Most selective/generous teams for jersey number retirement |
| 1966 | Worst players to have their number retired |
| 1969 | Highest number of future All-Stars in a team's farm system |
| 1969 | Percentage of minor leaguers who make the majors |
| 1984 | Player whose name is the highest value mash-up of two other player names |
| 1986 | Greatest disparity in WAR between opening day game's two starters |
| 1986 | Best and worst to miss/make the opening day starting lineup |
| 1988* | Streak of different opening day starter in a specific position |
| 1991 | Biggest pitch velocity difference in a game |
| 1991 | Biggest pitch velocity difference in consecutive pitches |
| 1991 | Most consecutive starts with a decision in each |
| 1991 | Hardest-hit line drives caught by an infielder |
| 1991 | Latest in a season in which every team in a division subsequent held first place |
| 1992* | Teams who opened the season 10-0 |
| 1992* | Teams with highest run differential over 11 games |
| 1993* | Rate of hitting for the cycle and uneven distribution across teams |
| 1995* | Worst pitching debut, minimum ⅓ inning |
| 1995* | Worst career ERA, minimum ⅓ inning |
| 1995* | Worst team ERA after 17 games |
| 1997 | The ultimate swingman pitcher |
| 1997 | Longest stretch of matched win/loss sequences |
| 1997 | Is there an advantage to driving up the starter's pitch count? |
| 1998* | Worst run differential after 23 games, or any 23-game stretch |
| 1998 | Topps Now card distribution and correlation with team success |
| 1998 | Teams with matching win/loss sequences at any point in any season |
| 1998 | Pitcher most resistant to the pitch clock |
| 1998 | Late-career shortstops |
| 1998 | MLB trends in paternity leave |
| 1999* | Increase in catcher interference in recent years |
| 2001 | Worst players to be the best on a team for exactly one season |
| 2001 | Most players used in a game at one position |
| 2001 | The pitch clock drastically reducing variability in game length |
| 2004 | Pitcher who has struck out the most active managers |
| 2004 | Most pitches in a plate appearance without a full count |
| 2004 | Longest losing streak while remaining in first place |
| 2004 | Most games in which a team went nine up and nine down to open a game |
| 2004 | Pitcher facing two batters that separately share his first and last names |
| 2004 | Most games lost after scoring first |
| 2004 | Consecutive years of falling stats with increasing plate appearances |
| 2009 | An entire division leading another entire division in the standings |
| 2009 | Players who batted without an official defensive position |
| 2009 | Team streaks of starting pitchers with same handedness |
| 2012 | Most and least common defensive position changes |
| 2012 | Most players on a team who had played for the same other team |
| 2013 | How extra innings and the zombie runner affect home field advantage |
| 2015* | Season record high K% and record low BB% |
| 2018 | Biggest difference between longest and shortest homers by a player in a game |
| 2018 | Droughts of a team not hitting a home run against a same-handed pitcher |
| 2018 | Players who make teammates hit better with runners in scoring position |
| 2018* | Players in the situation described by the Billy Joel song Pressure |
| 2021 | Largest number of unique pitch speeds for a pitcher during a career |
| 2021 | Biggest difference in career performance between AAA and the majors |
| 2021* | Most home runs in the Prostate Cancer Foundation's Home Run Challenge |
| 2023 | Most simultaneous active winning or losing streaks |
| 2023 | Longest adjacent streaks of opposite kinds (winning and losing) |
| 2023 | Longest streaks of opposite kind in a season (winning and losing) |
| 2029* | Players with wRC+ ≥ 120 but negative WAR |
| 2030 | Most baserunners allowed while facing the minimum |
| 2030 | Low-scoring division leaders |
| 2030 | Teams who won more on the road than at home |
| 2030 | Players traded shortly after debuting |
| 2030 | "Up-and-down" players with most seasons playing in both the majors and minors |
| 2030 | How bad are pitcher at throwing to fielders? |
| 2030 | Are official scorers boosting batting averages by assigning fewer errors? |
| 2030 | Does Shohei Ohtani hit worse when Mike Trout doesn't follow him in the lineup? |
| 2033 | Longest season-opening streak of extra-inning losses |
| 2033 | Does a manager ejection really fire up a losing team? |
| 2033 | Biggest comeback after a manager ejection |
| 2033 | Most lopsided score at the time of a manager ejection |
| 2033 | Latest inning in which a manager was ejected |
| 2042 | Most/pull pull-prone home run hitters and pulled home run streaks |
| 2042 | Most bat right/throw left players on a team |
| 2042 | Pitcher with the most pitches whose velocity equals the pitch number |
| 2042 | Most/least common MLB player birthdays |
| 2042 | Players involved in the most deadline trades |
| 2045* | Playoff teams without any qualifying .300 hitters |
| 2051 | Streaks related to pairs of teams being above or below .500 |
| 2051 | Longest streak of one team with better winning percentage than another |
| 2051 | Fewest games played to catch up from being 10 games behind |
| 2051 | Team with longest active drought of three consecutive homers |
| 2051 | MVPs who didn't make that year's All-Star Game |
| 2051 | Most unlikely count to attempt to bunt for a base hit |
| 2051 | 2023 balk rate in perspective |
| 2051 | Players taking the extra base when they could've hit for the cycle |
| 2051 | Why are there more wild pitches and passed balls this season? |
| 2052* | Relievers who had to "wear it": 90+ pitches, 10+ runs allowed |
| 2057 | Players who are "compilers" |
| 2057 | Player with most combined homers and steals in a single season |
| 2057 | Teams with longest streak of unique team WAR leaders |
| 2059 | Pitchers with worst season win-loss record with positive WAR |
| 2059 | Players who hit more homers in a season than their team had losses |
| 2059 | Games with homers from two players age 40 or older |
| 2059 | Most walk-off balks in a season |
| 2059 | Most innings with a homer from one team to start a game |
| 2059 | Player with highest WAR while playing for 3 or more teams in a season |
| 2059 | Player on-base streaks against a specific team |
| 2059* | Switch hitters who sometimes intentionally gave up the platoon advantage |
| 2060* | Longest streak of not losing by more than 3 runs |
| 2063 | On-base streaks to start a career |
| 2063 | Years with highest league-wide power-speed number |
| 2063 | Pitchers who make switch-hitters sacrifice the platoon advantage |
| 2063 | Players with the biggest year-over-year change in wRC+ |
| 2066 | Unlikeliness of the Twins 18-game postseason losing streak |
| 2068* | Success of teams with a 54% winning percentage over a decade |
| 2069 | The best set-up man |
| 2069 | Worst single-season wRC+ |
| 2069 | Two teams cornering the top four MVP finishers |
| 2069* | Historical correlation between payroll and win total |
| 2069* | Most top prospects promoted to the majors in a two-year span |
| 2069* | Teams who improve by 25 wins, and then improve more in the next season |
| 2069* | Are prospects being promoted faster nowadays? |
| 2072 | Postseason performance of players who missed all of September |
| 2072 | Comparison of regular-season and postseason rate stats |
| 2074* | Pace of play and pitch clock violations in regular season vs postseason |
| 2075 | The least and most exciting postseasons (follow-up in 2079) |
| 2077 | Decline in starters going the third time through the order in the postseason |
| 2081 | Best player pound-for-pound (or inch-by-inch of height) |
| 2081 | Extreme all-offense no-defense players |
| 2082* | Metallica Men: Gold Glove + Silver Slugger + Iron Man (162 games) |
| 2084 | Resurgence of bunting |
| 2084 | Correlation between age and pitch clock violations |
| 2085* | Teams above/below their "expected" number of championships |
| 2085 | Were baserunners less aggressive this postseason? |
| 2085 | Trends in postseason winning percentage of teams who score first |
| 2085 | Players who won a lot of championship rings without a lot of playing time |
| 2085 | Players who lost the most WAR |
| 2089* | Oldest first-time 20-20 player |
| 2089 | Has WAR caused awards voting to be less diverse? |
| 2093 | Players with more WAR than home runs |
| 2093 | Using interdivisional records to assess strengths of divisions as a whole |
| 2093 | Most pitches thrown in a game before a swing-and-a-miss |
| 2094 | Most pitches thrown in a game before a swing-and-a-miss, follow-up |
| 2094 | Most consecutive pitches (both teams) without a swing-and-a-miss |
| 2099 | Longest gap between being teammates in the minors and teammates in the majors |
| 2101 | Players who changed teams the most |
| 2101 | Ben's all-time Yankees lineup he created at age 13 |
| 2101 | Did the new balanced schedule improve attendance? |
| 2105* | Most times hit by a pitch in first few career games |
| 2105* | Fewest pitches in a win |
| 2105* | Worst pitcher game score in an outless appearance |
| 2105* | Most batters faced in an outless appearance |
| 2105* | Most batters faced in a season without getting any outs |
| 2105* | Most pitches without getting a single out (from Discord group) |
2024[]
| Ep | Subject |
|---|---|
| 2106 | The decline of the "innings eater" |
| 2111 | The best players from each franchise who never won a major award |
| 2111 | Tiered Hall of Fame |
| 2111 | Hall of Famers leading their league at their position over any 7-year span |
| 2114 | Pitchers with the same number of strikeouts with 0, 1, and 2 outs |
| 2114 | Minimum journeymen (least playing time for any team) |
| 2114 | Longest palindromic win/loss sequences |
| 2114 | Most consecutive games starting as catcher, trends over time |
| 2117* | Position player on multiple teams in a season with no plate appearances |
| 2123 | A player's best second-best team |
| 2123 | Teams who had the most hometown Hall of Famers play for them |
| 2123 | Repeated surname/uniform number/team combinations |
| 2125 | Age of active leader in games pitched |
| 2125 | Most hits by a batter off unique pitchers in a game |
| 2127 | Which MLB cities are in the Midwest? |
| 2127 | Pitchers who were opening day starters in their final season |
| 2127 | Physiological advantage to throwing and hitting with opposite handedness |
| 2129 | Debunking a false but oft-repeated Greg Maddux fun fact |
| 2131 | Biggest changes in WAR when a uniform number is reassigned |
| 2133 | Cemeteries with most WAR buried in them |
| 2140 | Lineups with three consecutive 140 wRC+ hitters |
| 2140 | Lineups where nearly all of the players were former shortstops |
| 2146 | Seasons with the most first-time Opening Day starters |
| 2146 | Pitchers who were much better with one team than they were overall |
| 2146 | Games in which both teams scored more runs than they had hits |
| 2146 | Lowest player-value trades involving three or more teams |
| 2151 | Players with inside-the-park and over-the-fence homers in the same game |
| 2151 | Games where one team's pitches were nearly all faster than the other team's |
| 2151 | Highest player winning percentage in starts |
| 2154 | Teams with the same batting average exiting a game as entering it |
| 2154 | Batter's last name begins with the same letter as the next batter's first name |
| 2154 | Most consecutive outs from pickoff or caught stealing |
| 2154 | Most consecutive left-handed starting pitchers to start a season |
| 2154 | Most blown Quality Starts |
| 2154 | Pitcher giving up a homer to his first batter faced |
| 2154 | Consecutive seasons with more and more (or fewer and fewer) games played |
| 2154 | Percentage of steals of home that are straight steals of home |
| 2163 | Players who have hit for the lifetime cycle in the most ballparks |
| 2163 | Worst record when entering the bottom of the ninth ahead 1-0 |
| 2163 | Highest number of both strikeouts and earned runs allowed in an outing |
| 2163 | Game where the two teams have the lowest combined winning percentage |
| 2163 | Pair of teams whose games are most/least consequential |
| 2163 | Most career outs recorded before allowing a hit |
| 2164* | Most RBIs to start a season all from solo homers |
| 2164* | Lowest RBI/HR ratio in a season |
| 2164* | Hapless runner picked off in most consecutive times on base |
| 2169 | Lowest OBP during a hitting streak |
| 2169 | Games where all of a team's extra-base hits were triples |
| 2169 | Consecutive appearances without a walk, win, loss, or save |
| 2169 | Longest time spent admiring a home run |
| 2169 | Best team constructed of players who played only for that franchise |
| 2174* | Longest streak of a team not getting shut out |
| 2188* | Seasons with the highest fraction of days with teams at .500 |
| 2189* | Teams who got no home runs from a position |
| 2189* | Fewest games played in season so far by an All Star |
| 2189* | Current season performance vs career performance in choosing All Stars |
| 2189* | Nth player in MLB history who debuted at age N = years × 1000 + days |
| 2190* | Do players use phantom IL stints to avoid the All Star game? |
| 2196 | Most WAR traded away by a team at the deadline |
| 2198* | Pitchers with most consecutive starts with a strikeout |
| 2199* | Best/worst franchise ratio of seasons played per postseason appearance |
| 2200* | Type of player who hits the season's longest Statcast home run |
| 2202* | Players most often intentionally walked with bases empty |
| 2202 | The decline of switch-hitting |
| 2202 | Correlation between lefty and righty slumps for switch hitters |
| 2202 | Did a manager win or lose their last game before a mid-season firing? |
| 2202 | Are intra-division trades becoming more common? |
| 2203* | Age gaps between MLB fathers and sons |
| 2204 | Which is more harmful, giving up a lead-off walk or a lead-off single? |
| 2204* | Teams with the most pitchers to undergo Tommy John surgery |
| 2205* | Highest N-N (steals and home runs) season |
| 2205* | How many pitcher starts would not satisfy the proposed 6-inning rule? |
| 2205* | Handedness and position correlations between MLB fathers and sons |
| 2205* | Is it better to bunt over the zombie runner or swing away? |
| 2206 | Are teams who are dependent on home runs more prone to slumps? |
| 2206 | Hitters who saw the highest fraction of all pitches in a half-inning |
| 2206 | Players who lost the most slugging percentage when playing for the Rockies |
| 2206 | Who is the greater disappointment, Kris Bryant or Anthony Rendon? |
| 2206 | Do catchers hit fewer infield singles after August 1? |
| 2213* | Highest single-month power-speed number |
| 2214* | Trend in rate of hit by pitches on the head or hands |
| 2214* | Pitchers with at least as many appearances in a season as outs recorded |
| 2214* | Did PitchCom reduce hitter effectiveness with runners on second base? |
| 2214* | Shifting balance between head-first and feet-first slides |
| 2222* | Hitters with largest home-road OPS splits |
| 2222* | Longest two non-homer hits by a batter in a game |
| 2222* | The best power-speed number, adjusted for era |
| 2222* | Breakdown of head-first vs. feet-first slides by base |
| 2223* | Lowest ERA for a reliever with at least 70 IP |
| 2223* | Head-first vs. feet-first slides split by whether it is a stolen base attempt |
| 2227* | Lowest career ERA- and FIP- |