
Everyone knows who led the league in homers, runs batted in and strikeouts. But what about some of the more obscure leaders in 2019? Ray Flowers has a list of those types of players and their totals in a myriad of categories.
HITTERS
DOUBLES
Nicholas Castellanos had 58, Rafael Devers 54, Xander Bogaerts 52.
No one else had 45.
In total, 15 men hit 40 doubles.
TRIPLES
The league leaders had 10 – Whit Merrifield, Hunter Dozier and Eduardo Escobar.
Yes, Merrifield and Dozier were teammates.
Escobar and Ketel Marte (9) almost both got to double-digits as well.
HIT BY PITCH
Anthony Rizzo 27, Victor Robles 25, Jeff McNeil 21 and Peter Alonso 21 were the four men over 20.
Alex Gordon just missed out at 19.
WALKS
Seven guys went for 100 walks – Alex Bregman (119), Rhys Hoskins, Mike Trout, Yasmani Grandal, Juan Soto, Carlos Santana, Josh Donaldson.
Bryce Harper missed by one walk.
INTENTIONAL BASES ON BALLS
Eight men had double-digits in this one.
Cody Bellinger 21, Christian Yelich 16, Mike Trout 14, Josh Bell 13, Carlos Santana 12, Nolan Arenado/Freddie Freeman/Bryce Harper 11.
Peter Alonso had six, Eugenio Suarez had four and Jorge Soler had three. Those were the top-3 men in baseball in homers this season.
BB/K
Alex Bregman had a remarkable 1.43 mark.
The only other qualifier for the batting total at 1.00 was Carlos Santana, at 1.00.
The following five men were all at 0.19 or lower: Tim Anderson, Leury Garcia, Danny Santana, Javier Baez and Freddy Galvis.
CAUGHT STEALING
The ”leaders” here were Whit Merrifield and Amed Rosario with 10 (they had 20 and 19 steals).
Here are the men who were caught nine times: Ronald Acuna, Jonathan Villar, Victor Robles, Mallex Smith, Rougned Odor.
Christian Yelich was masterful at 30-for-32.
Did you see that Rafael Devers went eight steals and eight caught stealing? Flipping awful.
SARAFICE FLIES
Nick Ahmed, Jose Abreu 10, Elvis Andrus 10, Eduardo Escobar 10.
GROUNDED INTO DOUBLE PLAYS
Yoan Moncada grounded into just one all season long.
Ozzie Albies and Kolten Wong had a two.
Jose Abreu and Manny Machado turned into a double play 24 times, one more than Starlin Castro and two more than Tommy Pham & Michael Brantley.
PITCHERS
*Minimum 160 IP
GAMES STARTED
The following men all had 34 starts: Justin Verlander, Madison Bumgarner, Trevor Bauer, Aaron Nola, Marco Gonzales and Eduardo Rodriguez.
COMPLETE GAMES
3: Shane Bieber, Lucas Giolito
2: Justin Verlander, Walker Buehler, Mike Minor, Sandy Alcantara, Zach Eflin, Mike Leake, Ivan Nova
SHUTOUTS
2: Shane Bieber, Lucas Giolito, Sandy Alcantara
Nineteen others had one shutout.
FEWEST HOMERS
14: Mike Soroka
15: Charlie Morton, Brad Keller
17: Hyun-Jin Ryu, Sonny Gray
18: Max Scherzer, Marcus Stroman
WILD PITCHES
The following men did not throw a wild pitch: Hyun-Jin Ryu, Max Scherzer.
1: Kyle Hendricks, Anibal Sanchez, Zach Eflin
GROUND BALL RATE
Dakota Hudson 56.9, Luis Castillo 55.2, Brett Anderson 54.5, Marcus Stroman 53.7, Max Fried 53.6
INFIELD FLY BALL RATE
Clayton Kershaw 16.6, Lucas Giolito 14.7, Reynaldo Lopez 14.3, Mike Soroka 14.3, Jacob deGrom 14.2, Kyle Gibson 14.2
HOMER TO FLY BALL RATIO
Marco Gonzales 9.3, Lance Lynn 9.9, Brad Keller 10.2, Charlie Morton 10.4, Kyle Hendricks 10.4
RUN SUPPORT PER NINE
Eduardo Rodriguez 7.88, Martin Perez 7.68, Gerrit Cole 7.50, Max Fried 7.50, Rick Porcello 7.49, Clayton Kershaw 7.17, Kyle Gibson 7.14.
FIRST PITCH STRIKE RATES
Max Scherzer was the only pitcher in baseball with a mark of 70 percent (70.3).
Madison Bumgarner (69.6), Masahiro Tanaka (68.8), Zach Eflin (68.2) and Rick Porcello (67.6) round out the top-5.
ZONE PERCENTAGE
Lucas Giolito led the way at 47.2, followed by Reynaldo Lopez (46.8), German Marquez (46.6), Walker Buehler (46.5) and Yusei Kikuchi (46.3).
THE BEST PITCHER IN BASEBALL
Right now, the best pitcher in baseball is Gerrit Cole, and any argument otherwise is incorrect.
Let me count the ways.
1 – He lost his streak of having one strike over 73 consecutive innings Thursday night. The previous record was 40-straight (Pedro Martinez in 1999).
2 – His total of 25 strikeouts in the Division Series is a record. The only pitcher with more is Bob Gibson in the 1968 World Series.
3 – He has at least 10 strikeouts in an MLB record 11-straight games. His last game with less than 10 punchouts was August 1st.
4 – He has back-to-back starts in the playoffs of 7.2 innings, four or less hits, and 10 strikeouts. The only other pitcher ever to do that is Sandy Koufax in the 1965 World Series.
5 – Cole faced 54 batters in the series against the Rays. He struck out 25 of the batters, allowed six hits, and had 52 swings and misses.
Just remarkable.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday-Thursday 8-10 PM EDT, and Friday’s from 10-12 PM EST and Sunday’s at 9-11 pm EST on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). Follow Ray’s work on Twitter (@baseballguys) and be sure to listen to his podcast work too.