Expos scrapbook

[Chicoutimi CP]

Completely Useless Trivia (21)

* At 20 years and 143 days of age, centerfielder Don Hahn was the youngest starting Expo ever on an Opening Day, in 1969. Graig Nettles was the oldest, in 1988, at 43 years and 228 days old.

* Shane Andrews has hit the most career homeruns (25) for the Expos while batting out of the 8th slot in the line-up, even if he only ranks 10th in plate appearances (562).

* During his franchise record-setting season of 131 runs batted in in 1999, Vladimir Guerrero spreaded his ribbies between 89 hits (34 singles, 10 doubles, 3 triples, and 42 home runs), 2 sacrifice flies, and 9 ground outs. Vlad drove Rondell White home the most often with 17 RBIs.

*Tony Perez is mostly remembered as an excellent offensive player. People often forget how a good fielder he was. In 1978, he started the most double plays in a season for an Expos first baseman, with 18, despite the fact that he is a right-hander.

* In 1969, Dan McGinn compiled the highest ground outs to air outs ratio ever for an Expo pitcher in a single season (minimum 80 innings pitched), with 2.84. John Wetteland tallied the lowest with 0.47 in 1993. The best starter in that category was Bryn Smith with 2.29 in 1986 and the “worst”, Scott Sanderson with 0.57 in 1979.

As today is the start of 2011 season and that we’re starting the seventh season without our team, I suggest this link to a couple of posts I packed with numbers and facts from Expos opening day games four years ago. I recently added two new facts to post #6 (just scroll down till you see the Edit 2011 mention). Some of you also added interesting thoughts and memories that are still fun and interesting to read.

Source: Baseball-Reference.com Play Index.

[Chicoutimi CP]

Happy birthday, Claude Raymond. Frenchy turns 73 today. Even if you had your best seasons with the Astros (1964-65-66), I'll never forget 1970. Thanks for the good times, Sir. And for all those games on the radio and the tube.

[Chicoutimi CP]

In today's Baseball-Reference.com Blog, the Expos are mentioned because the Nationals set a few offensive records last night, scoring 17 runs. The most obvious is a table showing the 10 games in which the Expos scored 18 or more runs, but the rest of the article is interesting too. And short Have a good week end, everyone.

[Chicoutimi CP]

Hang in there, Kid. We love you.

[Chicoutimi CP]

Former Expo shortstop and now Cleveland Indians' Orlando Cabrera became the 262nd MLB player to join the 2000-hit club Sunday, when he hit a single off Yankees pitcher Freddy Garcia during the second inning of the Cleveland-New York dual. He is the 17th active player to achieve the milestone. As an Expo, O.C. had 877 hits, ranking 10th lifetime for the Montreal ball club. His two best seasons in Montreal were probably 2001 and 2003.

Cabrera ranks 19th in career Win Shares for the Expos with 88. He also comes at position #29 at Baseball-Reference.com's Wins Above Replacement (WAR) with 6.3 and ties at #23 at Fangraphs WAR formula with 12.

Keep up the good work, O-Dog!

[Chicoutimi CP]

As the 2011 baseball season right now is featuring inter-league games until the beginning of July, I thought it would be fun to get some numbers from this part of the Expos history. (Interestingly, today is the seventh anniversary of one of the games mentioned in these facts. On June 19th 2004, the Expos beat the White Sox 17-14 in one of those crazy games.)

Total inter-league record: 69-70
Best season: 1997, 12-3
Worst season: 1998, 6-10
Home record: 43-25
Away record: 26-45
Shutouts: 8-10
One-run games: 22-21
Most frequent opponents: Toronto 43 (19-24), Baltimore (9-6), Boston (7-8), and New York Yankees (6-9) 15 each.
Most runs: Montreal 17, Chicago White Sox 14, June 19th 2004.
Most runs by opponents: 15 (twice), April 6th 1998, Montreal 0, @ Boston 15; and June 3rd 2003, Montreal 4, Anaheim 15.
Most runs by two teams: 31 - Montreal 17, Chicago White Sox 14, June 19th 2004.
Fewest runs by two teams: 1 - 8 times, Montreal is 4-4 in those games.
Biggest blow out win: June 3rd 1999, Montreal 13, Boston 1.
Biggest blow out loss: April 6th 1998, Montreal 0, @ Boston 15.
Best attendance at Olympic Stadium: 32,965 – Sunday, July 15th, 2001 (Boston 8, Montreal 5).

Source: Montreal Expos 2004 Media Guide and Baseball-Reference.com

Any memories from particular games, anyone?

[Danielh41]

Thanks to David Cone, the Expos were 0-1 in interleague perfect games...

[Chicoutimi CP]

Happy Quebec's Fete nationale, everyone, or St-Jean-Baptiste Day or whatever you call it. Bonne Fête nationale, tout le monde. By the way, the Expos were 16-15 lifetime on June 24th, with 5 off days. They were 9-10 in Montreal (2-4 at Jarry Park and 7-6 at the Big O) and 7-5 on the road.

[Chicoutimi CP]

The recent drama regarding the Washington Nationals’ manager job --Jim Riggleman resigns, John McLaren comes in for a couple of games and goes back right away, then Davey Johnson gets the job-- sent me back to the Expos managers statistics. Did you remember that there had been eleven (11) of them?

Robinson's numbers include two years with the Nats, so his Montreal data should read: 5th most games, 486 games, 233-253 record (.479), -30 over/under .500, best and worst finishes still at 2 and 5, and average rank at 3.7.

[Chicoutimi CP]

This morning’s Baseball-Reference.com Blog post got my interest because it mentions a game that happened a couple of days ago when the Nationals’ Jordan Zimmerman threw a complete game that he lost 1-0 on an unearned run by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This was the 11th time it happened in the franchise history and a first since the Expos moved to DC. So here are all 10 games the Expos lost 1-0 yielding only an unearned run to the other team. The first four ones were complete games by Jim Britton and Howie Reed in 1969, Carl Morton in 1971, and Ray Burris in 1982. (Sorry if I’m too lazy to add all the links!)

[Chicoutimi CP]

As additional info to post #306, here are Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index cumulative individual stats for Expos inter-league games. Right now, they're ranked by total games played, but click whatever category you're interested in and the data will be sorted as such.

Here are the hitting numbers. Interesting to see that Peter Bergeron could hit AL pitchers, but nothing else!
Here are the pitching numbers.

[Chicoutimi CP]

One of today’s articles in the Baseball-Reference.com Blog is about the fact that, last night, Juan Perez of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched 9 strikes on 9 pitches during the 10th inning of the Phillies-Braves epic dual. If you look at the table mentioning the pitchers who did the same in a one inning outing, you’ll see that Ugeth Urbina did the same for the Expos in the 9th inning of the April 4th 2000 game. Shame it was in a 10-4 loss against the Dodgers in front of a small crowd of 12,143 fans at the Big O.

[Chicoutimi CP]

As it will be All-Star Game #82 tomorrow night, here is a link to a post I wrote five years ago. It includes numbers and facts about Expos players’ performances over the years at the Midsummer classic. I added four new items recently (just scroll down the first post until you see the EDIT 2011 mention). That’s why I’m bringing it to your attention again. Have a good week, everyone.

[VIBaseball]

New at the SABR BioProject:

John Boccabella
http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?...=3892&pid=1217

Jarry Park
http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?...3908&pid=19789

[Chicoutimi CP]

*Vladimir Guerrero swung on the first pitch in more than 40% of his plate appearances for the Montreal ball club. In those circumstances as an Expo, Vladdy had 305 career hits, 77 home runs, and 198 runs batted in. His best season at it was possibly 1998, with 18 first pitch home runs.

*While he was an Expo (1996-2003), Guerrero ranked first in MLB tied with Vinnie Castilla for most cumulative first pitch home runs; 4th with his 305 hits; and 2nd with his 198 ribbies.

*The Expos were 52-7 in games in which they had more runs than hits. Their opponents were 82-6.

*What do Tim Raines (July 16, 1988), Brett Barberie (August 2, 1991), F.P. Santangelo (June 7, 1997), Jose Vidro (July 3, 2000), and Geoff Blum (July 5, 2001) have in common? Those five are the only switch-hitting Expos who knocked a home run from each side of the plate during a game.

*The most games in a season during which Expos pitchers did not give a base on balls is 20, in 1985. Fewest is 2 games, in 1972 and in 1973.

Source : Baseball-Reference.com Play Index.

[Chicoutimi CP]

New at the SABR BioProject:

Jarry Park
http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?...3908&pid=19789

Very interesting piece. I particularly like the "splashdown home runs" anecdotes. I thought it was more frequent because I saw one by Ken Henderson of the Giants on August 20, 1971. It was my second game ever at Jarry. That was so amazing. After almost 40 years to the day, I still remember that very clearly. One of my best memories of an Expos game. Costello should have mentionned that the ball had to be hit OVER the scoreboard to reach the swimming pool.

[Chicoutimi CP]

On this day in Expos' history (September 3... and 5)


Taken from the Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen and mentioned in today’s Blog:

“ 1997 - 2B Mike Lansing's 3rd-inning home run is Montreal's only hit, but it's enough to give the Expos a 1 - 0 win over the Red Sox. Aaron Sele and Tom Gordon baffle the Expos the rest of the way, but Carlos Perez allows only two hits himself in blanking Boston “... Ah! The good old days of interleague play in September.

That game was one of only two won by Montreal despite getting only one hit in their history. By the way, that other one-hit win is two days from celebrating its anniversary too. It’s worth looking at the crazy ending of that game on the play by play.

Happy Labor Day week end, everyone!

[Chicoutimi CP]

Sent to me by the SABR chapter of Montreal, here is a YouTube tribute to many Expos players. Enjoy...

Gus, any news about Il était une fois les Expos Tome 2?

[Chicoutimi CP]

The books has been in bookstores for a few days now. I've read the first 100 pages or so and it is as interesting as the first part was.

[Chicoutimi CP]

Here is the complete video of a Game of the Week from the Big O. Matchup between Steve Rogers and Vidal Blue from May 1981. It's great to watch if for no other reason than to see 40,000 people in the Big O and a rookie named Tim Raines. You can also follow the play-by-play on Retrosheet. Once again, thanks again to the SABR Montreal chapter for sending me this.

[Chicoutimi CP]

Sent to me by the SABR Montreal chapter, interesting stuff about Le Grand Orange who was inducted a couple of weeks ago to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

[Chicoutimi CP]

Completely Useless Trivia (24)

Baseball is here again even if we are starting season no 8 without “Nos Amours”. Here are some more not too relevant numbers and facts, plus a link going to an old post of mine about Opening Day in Expos’ history (I didn’t update it this year, though).

* The earliest Opening Day for the Expos was March 31, 2003, in Atlanta, where the team won 10-2. In that victory, Orlando Cabrera became the only Expo who ever hit a home run during the third month of the calendar year.

* Game 6 of the last World Series let us see a struggling bullpen for the Texas Rangers, as three of their relief pitchers had blown saves. It’s something that happened only twice to the Expos in 5,702 games during the team’s history: in a 9-8 loss at Houston on June 6, 1991, and in a 5-4 defeat at Atlanta on September 24, 1995.

* Tim Foli (April 21-22, 1976 in Chicago) and Brad Wilkerson (June 24, 2003 vs Pittsburgh) both hit for the natural cycle in a game, which means a single, a double, a triple and a home run in chronological order. Foli did it in five at-bats over a two day period during a suspended game and Wilkerson, in four straight at-bats.

* Among the players with a minimum 500 PAs in a single season, Ron Fairly is the only Montreal batter who had at least twice as many walks as strike outs, with 86 BBs and 33 Ks in 505 PAs during the 1973 season.

* A 7-1 loss in Los Angeles on April 24, 1994, was the only game ever in which Expos batters did not get a walk AND did not strike out.

Source: Baseball-Reference.com Play Index.

[Chicoutimi CP]

Grand slams hit by a left-handed hitter off a left-handed pitcher

I'll break the silence after all these weeks of inactivity... Minutes ago, I watched the Rays’ Matt Joyce, a left-handed batter, hit a grand slam off the Red Sox’s Jon Lester, a left-handed pitcher. So, it made me think: how many times an Expos left-handed batter hit a grand slam against a left-handed pitcher? I would have expected quite a bit more than this.

[Chicoutimi CP]

Rock and the HoF

No one was admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame, earlier this week, but former Expo Tim Raines improved his voting share, garnering 52.2%, up from 48.7% last year. This was good for 5th place behind Craig Biggio (68.2%), Jack Morris (67.7%), Jeff Bagwell (59.6%), and Mike Piazza (57.8%). It was Raines’ sixth appearance on the ballot. As this graph shows, it is interesting to note that Rock’s total has doubled in the last four years. With still nine years of eligibility left, he seems to have a good shot at reaching 75% of the vote and making it to Cooperstown one day. (Thanks to the SABR Montreal chapter for sending me the link to the graph.)

[Chicoutimi CP]

Other former Expos and the HoF

If Raines seems to be doing fine, Larry Walker's candidacy does not seem to get any steam at all. At least for the moment. At his third year on the ballot, Walker got 21,62% of the vote compared to 22,86% and 20,31% two years ago and last year, respectively. On his third year, Raines had gained 8 points. Finally, Rondell White did not get a single vote in his first entry. He will not be on future years' ballot.