One True Outcome: December 21, 2021

There’s not much in terms of news at the moment in Major League Baseball. We’ll be bringing up different ideas to try and keep you guys engaged with the sport.

With the lockout in full effect, it’s time to look for alternate forms of content. For the foreseeable future I’ll be doing a weekly trivia series, covering everything from the absolutely shocking to the complete mundane - With no further ado let’s begin.

1) How many active relievers have a higher career bWAR than Ryan Howard?

• (A) 2
• (B) 5
• ( C) 6
• (D) 7
• (E) None

2) In the history of the sport, only one time has there ever been an inside-the-park walk-off grand slam. Who hit it?

• (A) Willie Mays
• (B) Ty Cobb
• (C ) Tris Speaker
• (D) Grady Sizemore
• (E) Roberto Clemente

3) Who was the first hitter to win the batting title and Rookie of the Year award in the same season?

• (A) Ichiro Suzuki
• (B) Tony Oliva
• (C ) Bill Madlock
• (D) Nomar Garciaparra
• (E) Rod Carew

4) As he finished the 2019 season with 11 stolen bases, Mike Trout reached the career total of 200 and in doing so, he joined a very select group of three players ever to have 200+ stolen bases, a .250+ ISO and a .400+ OBP. One of the other two names on that list is a rather obvious one in Barry Bonds, but I find that the other one eludes several people. Who is he? (min. 5000 PA)

• (A) Brian Giles
• (B) Mickey Mantle
• (C ) Alex Rodriguez
• (D) Jeff Bagwell
• (E) Larry Walker

5) In the live ball era there is only one pitcher to average fewer than four batters faced per inning pitched, with a minimum of 2000 innings. Who is he?

• (A) Clayton Kershaw
• (B) Pedro Martinez
• (C ) Johan Santana
• (D) Max Scherzer
• (E) Randy Johnson

Answers:

1: (C ) Ryan Howard has more or less become the poster child for that superstar name with a very pedestrian WAR, you wouldn’t think that someone with a 14.7 career WAR would even enter the ballots of Hall of Fame voting.

In the case of Howard it’s really a perfect storm, between his steep and early decline, and also being a somewhat late bloomer with a rookie season at the age of 25 among other factors, Howard’s WAR probably doesn’t reflect the perception of his career from the general public, whether you agree with that or not is a whole different conversation.

If you were curious, the six relievers are Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, Darren O’Day, Tyler Clippard, and David Robertson, all in respective order of their career WAR total.

One last note: This number could change soon as there are a further six relievers within 2.0 WAR of the former Philly.

2. (E) Roberto Clemente. The date was July 25th of 1956. The Pirates right fielder was up in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded against Jim Brosnan, a reliever for the Cubs. Clemente jumped on the first pitch and was able to circle the bases of Forbes Field with the ball still in play to walk it off.

3. (B) Tony Oliva won the rookie of the year in 1964 and also took home the batting title with a .323 average. Oliva also led the league in several other categories such as hits, doubles, total bases, runs created, extra base hits and runs. The only other player to accomplish such a feat since was Ichiro Suzuki in 2o01 who took it a step further and also won the MVP award

4. (E) Larry Walker. The Hall of Famer had for his career, a .252 ISO, .400 OBP and 230 stolen bases.

Fun fact: the closest one out of the other four alternatives is actually Jeff Bagwell, he has the stolen bases and OBP, he is just a little short on the ISO (.244).

5. (A) Clayton Kershaw. In nearly 2500 innings the future first ballot hall of famer has averaged 3.938 batters faced per inning pitched. A couple of relievers and a starter didn’t make the cut because of a lack of innings, but even if they did, Kershaw would still be number one ahead of them,