Baseball is Poop

Just Write Down Papi's Back
Big Papi has woken up. Through the first two months of the season David Ortiz was batting .185 with 1 homer and 18 RBI in 178 at bats. Since the beginning of June Papi is batting .310 (with a 1.060 OPS) with 6 homers and 16 RBI in only 58 at bats.

Paulie's Neat-O Stat of the Night
A few years ago the Mets lost 3 straight 2-1 games and I thought the circumstance was quite amazing, but 2-1 is a fairly common baseball score. Which is why I was fascinated to see that 3 times within a 5 game span the Kansas City Royals lost a game by the score of 12-5. And we were so close because one of the other games, the score was 10-5.

It's Not the Stadium
Perhaps topping the above 12-5 example in sheer statistical unlikelihood is the home run totals of Adam Dunn for the past four years:
2005: 40
2006: 40
2007: 40
2008: 40 (even a midseason trade couldn’t derail him)

But some (not me) were worried this streak would come to an end because in 2009 Dunn is playing his home games in spacious Nationals Park compared to the bandbox he used to play in as a member of the Reds. But so far this year Dunn has 18 homers in only 71 games, putting him on pace for 41. But I have a strong feeling he’ll slow slightly and end up with his 5th straight (exactly) 40 homer season.

Last in Your Baseball Encyclopedia, First in Your Slugging Percentage Leaders
Tampa Bay second baseman Ben Zobrist is the surprising AL leader in slugging percentage at .632. At 16 homers in only 204 at bats Zobrist is making himself a household name. Albeit one that is way down the list alphabetically in major league history. Only 12 players in history are behind him in the alphabetical rankings, one is active -- Joel Zumaya.

Random Side Note
For years, Hank Aaron was the first player alphabetically in baseball history. But then David Aardsma came along and ruined all that.