For your Memorial Day weekend, here’s my first “Thirty Clubs/Thirty Nuggets”:

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

Boston Red Sox -

The Red Sox have batted around in every inning except the 5th and 9th this season. Last year, they not only batted around in every inning, but they were one of only three teams to do it at least TWICE in every inning. The Rays and Phillies were the other two.

—————————————————————————————————————————–
New York Yankees -

124 different major league hitters have seen 75 or more changeups this season, but none have handled the change worse than Derek Jeter, who is 1-for-23 with six strikeouts against it (+1.27 quality points per pitch; Keep in mind that positive quality points always favor the pitcher). Here are the bottom three against the change (min. 75 seen):

+1.27 – Derek Jeter, NYY
+1.07-  Colby Rasmus, STL
+1.04 – Jason Bartlett, SD

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Tampa Bay Rays -

Opponents are batting just .108 (8-for-74) against Jeremy Hellickson the first time through the order, the lowest such average in the majors among starting pitchers:

.108 – Jeremy Hellickson, TB
.120 – James Shields, TB
.122 – Ervin Santana, LAA

Average against Hellickson the second time through? .306, 22-for-72 with 12 extra base hits including four home runs.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Baltimore Orioles -

The home run by the A’s Josh Willingham on Friday night was the 15th allowed by the Orioles to the opponent’s cleanup batter this season, the most in the majors:

15 – Orioles
11 – Royals
11 – Mets

Since the start of the 2008 season, the O’s have allowed 123 HR to opponent cleanup batters, 16 more than any other team.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Toronto Blue Jays -

In his 10 starts this season, Kyle Drabek has averaged 5.3 full counts, the highest average in the majors (min. 8 starts):

5.3 – Kyle Drabek,TOR
4.6 – Jon Lester, BOS
4.5 – Derek Lowe, ATL

The Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter (1.9) has averaged the fewest full counts per start so far. Last season, John Lackey had the highest average full counts per start (4.3; min. 20 starts).

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Cleveland Indians -

The Indians have hit just 12 home runs on the road this season, tied with Texas for the fewest in the majors. They’ve hit 38 homers at home.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Detroit Tigers -

Detroit catcher Alex Avila is 14-for-27 with four home runs (OPS: 1.593) in at-bats lasting one or two pitches this season, the highest in the AL (min. 25 such AB):

1.593 – Alex Avila, DET
1.447 – Ben Zobrist, TB
1.410 – Jose Bautista, TOR

Avila’s career OPS in those AB entering this year was just .683.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Chicago White Sox -

White Sox lefty John Danks has allowed four home runs to left-handed hitters this season, the most such homers allowed in the majors. He allowed only two homers to lefty batters during all of last season.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Kansas City Royals -

Luke Hochevar (and the Royals relievers) have allowed just 11 RBI in the 43 innings where he’s retired the first batter, an average of 0.26 per inning.. However, in the 23 innings where the first batter has reached base against Hochevar, Royals opponents have a whopping 34 RBI (1.48).

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Minnesota Twins -

Twins pitchers have faced 36 batters with the bases loaded this season and allowed 39 RBI, an average of 1.08 RBI per plate appearance, the highest in the majors:

1.08 – Twins
0.94 – Tigers
0.94 – Brewers

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Texas Rangers -

The Rangers have allowed just a .196 average on ground balls this season, second best in the majors:

.195 – Rays
.196 – Rangers
.201 – Nationals

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Los Angeles Angels -

The Angels have gone longer than any other team without batting around on the road:

9/15/2010 – Angels
10/1/2010 – A’s
4/9/2011 – Rangers

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Seattle Mariners -

The Mariners beat the Yankees on Friday night, 4-3. It was just the second one-run game in the last 33 meetings between the two teams dating back to 2007. Seattle won the other one as well, 3-2, in 2009.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Oakland Athletics -

Since the beginning of last season, A’s lefty Brett Anderson has faced 207 left-handed hitters without allowing a home run, the most in the majors without a homer in that span.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Philadelphia Phillies -

The Phillies have not allowed a triple in their last 27 games, the longest current streak in the majors and their longest since 2007. Their longest streak of triple avoidance ever is 57 games (1994).

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Florida Marlins -

The Dodgers clubbed two home runs on Friday, snapping the Marlins’ streak of six road games without allowing a homer. It was the Marlins longest road streak of home run avoidance in club history.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Atlanta Braves -

Atlanta’s Jason Heyward is batting .366 in the 7th inning or later this season, good for second best in the league so far (Reds’ Jay Bruce .380) and is on pace to challenge for the highest by a Brave since they began tracking the stat in 1974 (min. 100 such PA, except Heyward who is listed despite 49 so far):

.371 – Ken Griffey, Sr., 1986
.366 – Jason Heyward, 2011
.364 – Willie Montanez, 1976

Since 2000, no Brave has hit higher than .317 after the 7th inning in a season (Dave Martinez, 2001).

—————————————————————————————————————————–

New York Mets -

Among pitchers who have thrown at least 50 changeups this year, the Mets’ Francisco Rodriguez’ change has been the most effective this season, averaging +1.75 quality points per pitch. He’s finished 23 plate appearances with it and opponents are just 2-for-22 (.091) with 13 strikeouts and one walk. Here are the top three changeups so far (min. 50 thrown):

+1.75 – Francisco Rodriguez, NYM
+1.34 – David Pauley, SEA
+1.29 – Felix Hernandez, SEA

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Washington Nationals -

Opponents have just six stolen bases against the Nationals in May, the fewest in the majors. What’s more, they’ve thrown out 50% of opponent attempts this month, the top CS% in the NL.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

St. Louis Cardinals -

The Cardinals have 103 two-out RBI already this season, fifteen more than any other team in the majors:

103 – Cardinals
88 – Red Sox
84 – Rangers

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Milwaukee Brewers -

The Brewers have at least one extra base hit in their last 37 games, the longest current streak in the NL. They are quite a ways from the club record streak of 113, set in 2008.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Cincinnati Reds -

The Reds’ Jay Bruce has struck out on three pitches 14 times this year, tied for the most in the majors (Peter Bourjos, LAA). Bruce only had 19 such strikeouts in all of 2010 and just 12 in 2009.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Pittsburgh Pirates -

Neil Walker has hit six home runs with two strikes this season, tied with Toronto’s Jose Bautista and New York’s Curtis Granderson for the most such homers in the majors so far. No Pirate has broken double figures in two-strike HR since Jason Bay hit 10 in 2005.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Chicago Cubs -

In seven of his last nine starts, Carlos Zambrano has had to work through at least two plate appearances that lasted eight or more pitches. He never had more than one such plate appearance against him in any of his previous 35 starts.

Note this: On April 27, Royals batters forced Cleveland’s Josh Tomlin into 8+ pitches five times, the most in any single pitching appearance this season.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Houston Astros -

Houston pitchers have allowed three home runs to opposing pitchers already this season. No other club has allowed more than one. No team allowed more than two such home runs during the entire 2010 season.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

San Francisco Giants -

Giants’ pitchers have fallen behind 3-and-0 on 77 batters this season and 67 of them have reached base (.883 OBP), the highest such OBP allowed in the majors:

.883 – Giants
.840 – Rockies
.802 – Diamondbacks

It’s on pace to be the highest such OBP allowed since they began tracking the stat in 1988 (’02 Phillies, .843).

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Arizona Diamondbacks -

Since the beginning of last season, Stephen Drew has had 30 plate appearances that lasted eight or more pitches and his OPB in those is just .233 (one hit and six walks). That’s the lowest such OBP in the majors in that span (min. 25 long PA).

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Colorado Rockies -

The Rockies’ Dexter Fowler has batted a respectable .272 against opponent fastballs this season, but he leads the majors with 60 swings-and-misses against heaters (foul tips included as swings-and-misses in my calculations).

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Los Angeles Dodgers -

Through Friday night, the Dodgers are hitting .226 as a team in May, the lowest mark in the league. It’s on pace to be their lowest May batting average ever:

.2256 – May, 2011
.2258 – May, 1968
.2262 – May, 1960

—————————————————————————————————————————–

San Diego Padres -

Going into Friday, Mike Adams had started 22 innings for the Padres in 2011 and had retired the leadoff batter in all 22. Until he allowed Washington’s Mike Morse to lead off the 9th inning with a walk-off home run last night.

—————————————————————————————————————————–