Batters faced

Last updated

In baseball statistics, Batters Faced (BF), also known as Total Batters Faced (TBF) or Batters Facing Pitcher (BFP) [1] is the number of batters who made a plate appearance before the pitcher in a game or in a season.

Contents

For a given game, the number of plate appearances for an offense is 3×(Innings) + (Runs scored) + (Runners left on base).

Major league records

The major league record for batters faced in a career belongs to Cy Young, who faced 29,565 batters between 1890 and 1911. [2] Will White of the Cincinnati Reds holds the single season record; he faced 2,906 batters in 1879. [3] The last pitcher to face 1,500 or more batters in a single season was Wilbur Wood of the 1973 Chicago White Sox. [4]

On May 1, 1920, Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Robins faced 96 Boston Braves batters, an MLB single game record dating back to at least 1901. [5] Oakland's Steve McCatty is the last pitcher to face 50 or more batters in a game. McCatty pitched to 51 batters in a 14-inning complete game loss to the Seattle Mariners on August 10, 1980. [6]

Mike Myers made 314 appearances in which he faced just one opposing batter per game, also a record. [7]

No batters faced

It is possible for a pitcher to participate in a game without officially facing a batter. This can happen when a baserunner is picked off or caught stealing to end either the inning or the game. For example, in a game between the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies on August 4, 2016, San Francisco's Sergio Romo entered the game in the bottom of the 9th inning with the game tied and 2 out. Romo threw four pitches to Aaron Altherr before César Hernández was caught stealing second base to end the inning, after which Romo was replaced. The Giants went on to win the game in extra innings and Romo was the winning pitcher despite never officially facing a batter. [8]

A pitcher could also not record a batter faced if he gets injured and has to be replaced before the completion of a plate appearance. Larry Yount holds the distinction of being the only pitcher in major league history to appear in the record books without ever having officially faced a batter. [9] In Yount's case this was also true in a literal sense as he was injured while throwing a warm-up pitch on his debut and never entered the game, but was credited with doing so due to having already been announced. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

At bat Baseball term for a valid batting attempt

In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batter is credited with an at bat only if that plate appearance does not have one of the results enumerated below. While at bats are used to calculate certain statistics, including batting average and slugging percentage, a player can qualify for the season-ending rankings in these categories only if they accumulate 502 plate appearances during the season.

Base on balls In baseball, reaching base on four balls

A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls, and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08(a). It is considered a faux pas for a professional player to literally walk to first base; the batter-runner and any advancing runners normally jog on such a play.

Double (baseball) Two-base hit in baseball

In baseball, a double is the act of a batter striking the pitched ball and safely reaching second base without being called out by the umpire, without the benefit of a fielder's misplay or another runner being put out on a fielder's choice. A double is a type of hit and is sometimes called a "two-bagger" or "two-base hit". For statistical and scorekeeping purposes it is denoted by 2B.

Save (baseball) Credited to a pitcher who finishes a game for the winning team under certain circumstances

In baseball, a save is credited to a pitcher who finishes a game for the winning team under certain prescribed circumstances. Most commonly a pitcher earns a save by entering in the ninth inning of a game in which his team is winning by three or fewer runs and finishing the game by pitching one inning without losing the lead. The number of saves or percentage of save opportunities successfully converted are oft-cited statistics of relief pitchers, particularly those in the closer role. The save statistic was created by journalist Jerome Holtzman in 1959 to "measure the effectiveness of relief pitchers" and was adopted as an official MLB statistic in 1969. The save has been retroactively measured for pitchers before that date. Mariano Rivera is MLB's all-time leader in regular-season saves with 652, while Francisco Rodríguez earned the most saves in a single season with 62 in 2008.

Randy Johnson American baseball player

Randall David Johnson, nicknamed "The Big Unit", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (1988–2009) for six teams, primarily the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks.

In baseball, an extra-base hit, also known as a long hit, is any base hit on which the batter is able to advance past first base without the benefit of a fielder either committing an error or opting to make a throw to retire another base runner. Extra-base hits are often not listed separately in tables of baseball statistics, but are easily determined by calculating the sum total of a batter's doubles, triples, and home runs. Extra-base hits are particularly valuable because they ensure that there will be no runners on base that will be forced to advance on the next fair ball.

Andy Hawkins American baseball player & coach

Melton Andrew Hawkins is an American former professional baseball pitcher and coach. Hawkins spent most of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the San Diego Padres, and also played for the New York Yankees and briefly for the Oakland Athletics.

Eddie Rommel American baseball player

Edwin Americus Rommel was an American right-handed pitcher and umpire in Major League Baseball. He spent his entire playing career (1920–1932) with the Philadelphia Athletics. He is considered to be the "father" of the modern knuckleball.

Jim Maloney American baseball player

James William Maloney is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played with the Cincinnati Reds (1960–70) and California Angels (1971). One of the hardest-throwing pitchers of the 1960s, Maloney boasted a fastball clocked at 99 miles per hour (159 km/h), threw two no-hitters, won ten or more games from 1963 to 1969, and recorded over 200 strikeouts for four consecutive seasons (1963–66).

Terry Lane Felton is a former pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. Felton holds some of the most dubious pitching records in Major League Baseball (MLB) history, including the most consecutive losses to start a career, most career losses without a win (16) and most innings pitched without a win (138.1).

Leon Cadore American baseball player

Leon Joseph "Caddy" Cadore was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1924.

Lawrence King Yount is a former professional baseball player. Yount holds the unique distinction of being the only pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) history to appear in the official record books without ever actually having faced a batter. In his only major league appearance—on September 15, 1971—he had to leave the game during his warm-up pitches due to injury.

The 1959 Major League Baseball season saw the Pittsburgh Pirates finish in fourth place in the National League at 78–76, nine games behind the NL and World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Pirates set the record for most extra innings victories in a season, winning 19 of their 21 extra inning games.

The 1930 New York Giants season was the 48th in franchise history. The team finished third in the National League with a record of 87–67, 5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals.

Base running In baseball, the act of running from base to base, performed by a member of the team at bat

In baseball, base running is the act of running from base to base, performed by members of the team at bat.

In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player has gained with hits. It is a weighted sum for which the weight value is 1 for a single, 2 for a double, 3 for a triple and 4 for a home run. For example, three singles is three total bases, a double and a home run is six total bases, and three triples is nine total bases.

2018 Houston Astros season Major League Baseball season

The 2018 Houston Astros season was the 57th season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in Houston, their 54th as the Astros, sixth in both the American League (AL) and AL West division, and 19th at Minute Maid Park. The Astros were the defending World Series champions, after winning the 2017 World Series four games to three over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Houston began the season March 29 against the Texas Rangers and finished the season on September 30 against the Baltimore Orioles, capping off an unprecedented second consecutive 100-win season.

The 2018 National League Wild Card Game was a play-in game during Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2018 postseason between the National League's two wild card teams, the Colorado Rockies and the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs earned home field advantage by virtue of having a better regular season record. The game occurred on October 2, 2018, with the Rockies victorious by a score of 2–1 in 13 innings—the longest winner-take-all game in MLB postseason history. The Rockies advanced to face the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Division Series.

References

  1. ↑ Schwartz, John. "New Measures for Pitchers". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Pitching Season & Career Finder: Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, From 1871 to 2020, (requiring BFP>=20000), sorted by greatest Batters Faced". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Pitching Season & Career Finder: For Single Seasons, From 1871 to 2020, (requiring BFP>=2500), sorted by greatest Batters Faced". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Pitching Season & Career Finder: For Single Seasons, From 1900 to 2020, (requiring BFP>=1500), sorted by most recent date". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Pitching Game Finder: In years 1901 to 2020, (requiring BF>=85), sorted by greatest BF". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Pitching Game Finder: In years 1976 to 2020, (requiring BF>=50), sorted by greatest BF". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Pitching Game Finder: In years 1901 to 2020, (requiring BF=1), sorted by greatest number of games in all seasons matching the selected criteria". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  8. ↑ "San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Box Score, August 4, 2016". Baseball Reference. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Pitching Season & Career Finder: Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, From 1871 to 2020, (requiring BFP=0), sorted by most recent date". Stathead. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  10. ↑ Kepner, Tyler (April 30, 2016). "Padres Count on a Career .200 Hitter to Guide Them to Contention". The New York Times. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.