The Melky Way

From today's New York Times:

Cabrera could still win the NL batting title. He has 501 plate appearances, one less than the minimum required to win a batting championship for a player on a team playing 162 games. However, under 10.22(a) of the Official Baseball Rules, he would win the batting title if an extra hitless at-bat is added to his average and it remains higher than that of any other qualifying player.

I hope this happens, not because I condone doping but because I like big, soul-searching messes, especially when they have to do with batting titles. You thought people were upset with Reyes when he sat out after clinching his title, wait until you see this!

Who's that slugger?

The players on this list
have muscles all around.
They got them by syringe,
and now they're sorrow-bound.

I've listed season totals
of hitters' bags by four.
You'd think with all that juicing
F.P. would have hit more.

So match the season totals
with the cheater's dirty name,
and don't appeal to Baseball Ref,
or tarnish our fair game.

1. 16, 25, 24, 19, 33, 25, 34, 46, 37, 33, 42, 40, 37, 34, 49, 73, 46, 45, 45, 5, 26, 28

2. 6, 20, 20, 27, 33, 43, 38, 41, 41, 12, 32, 37, 14, 32, 13, 6, 13, 1

3. 2, 3, 10, 12 20, 5

4. 0, 1, 4, 0, 0, 26, 33, 25, 13, 3

5. 4, 5, 10, 2, 33, 20, 27, 16, 42, 21, 22, 34, 43, 36, 25, 39, 36, 34, 6, 25, 19, 10

6. 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 4, 2, 3, 1, 4, 2, 1

The OPS Alligators

As an NL loyalist who is deeply suspicious of constant interleague play as the first step to implementing the DH across all of baseball, I've put together a puzzle below to honor those pitchers who take their hitting duties seriously.  There are four pitchers below - each of them has a better and worse OPS (non-adjusted) than a member of the position player pool.  Be the first to correctly fill in all the blanks to win a prize.  For example, at a .581 OPS on the season Jordan Zimmermann sports a better mark than Orlando Hudson (.575), but is a few points below league-favorite John Buck (.591):

Orlando Hudson < Jordan Zimmermann < John Buck

The pitchers:

_________ < Jaime Garcia < __________

_________ < Cole Hamels < __________

_________ < Mike Leake < __________

_________ < Stephen Strasburg < __________

'Less than' player pool:

Melky Cabrera

Todd Helton
Nyer Morgan

Scott Rolen

'Greater than' player pool:
Ryan Braun
Ryan Howard

Jordan Schafer

Chris Young

Where Home Run Kings do their damage

There are 22 active players with more than 300 home runs. I'm going to list the five parks in which a player most frequently homered and the number of homers in each, and you identify the player. I'll leave the name of the first park blank, so it's not too much of a cakewalk.

Example:


a. ______________, 216
b. Chase Field, 13
c. Dodger Stadium, 13
d. Olympic Stadium, 9
e. Busch Stadium, 9


Answer: Todd Helton


Here we go!

1.
a. ________________, 124
b. Rangers Ballpark, 98
c. Kingdome, 60
d. Yankee Stadium III, 49
e. Safeco Field, 40


2.
a. _______________, 88
b. Yankee Stadium III, 75
c. Turner Field, 21
d. Network Associates Coliseum, 20
e. Angel Stadium, 20

3.
a. _______________, 124
b. PNC Park, 40
c. Minute Maid Park, 22
d. Miller Park, 22
e. Great American Ball Park, 14

4.
a. _______________, 126
b. Nationals Park, 39
c. Wrigley Field, 27
d. US Cellular, 21
e. Cinergy Field, 21

5.
a. _______________, 87
b. Dolphin Stadium, 65
c. Jacobs Field, 11
d. US Cellular, 10
e. Kauffman Stadium, 9

6.
a. _______________, 222
b. Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, 33
c. Shea Stadium, 19
d. Dolphin Stadium, 16
e. Coors Field, 13

7.
a. _______________, 83
b. Camden Yards, 73
c. Minute Maid Park, 18
d. SkyDome, 17
e. Rangers Ballpark, 15

8.
a. _______________, 74
b. Busch Stadium, 34
c. Great American Ball Park, 27
d. Busch Stadium II, 19
e. SkyDome, 13

9.
a. _______________, 245
b. Comerica Park, 17
c. Metrodome, 16
d. Kauffman Stadium, 16
e. Jacobs Field, 14

10.
a. _______________, 166
b. Olympic Stadium, 17
c. Veterans Stadium, 15
d. Yankee Stadium III, 14
e. Chase Field, 13