A number of Win Probability aficionados have pointed out that So Taguchi was inacurately credited with -0.193 wins for his 8th inning lead-off walk. The problem has now been fixed and he has been accurately credited with 0.096 wins.

It’s worth noting that in this same game, Albert Pujols’ home run was worth 0.624 wins and it was the 4th time this season he’s had a single at-bat worth more than 0.5 wins. He’s the only player, in the five years of win probability data I have, that has 4 hits worth over 0.5 wins in a single season. Since 2002, he’s had 6 such regular season hits, which is also the most in the majors. Make it 7 if you count his one post-season hit worth 0.716 wins:

Playoff Win Probability graphs have been added for the 2002-2005 seasons. Relive the joy/pain of the 2003 Aaron Boone home run, or see just how close the Giants were to winning it all in 2002.

From now until the playoffs we’ll be updating the various sections of the site with playoff stats to compliment our regular season stats. Also, don’t forget that FanGraphs will continue to have daily updated Win Probability graphs and all the usual stats throughout the 2006 playoffs.

Tangotiger is doing his fourth annual fielding survey: The 2006 Scouting Report by the Fans for the Fans. The balloting ends soon, so don’t forget to fill out a ballot before the 2006 “Globe Gloves” are awarded.

As I was browsing the new leaderboards, I noticed that Albert Pujols has the 10th fewest strikeouts among qualified players with only 43. That’s pretty damn impressive for a guy who’s hit 45 home runs this season. Actually, it’s a little more than impressive as there’s only been six other players who have more home runs than strikeouts and have hit over 40 home runs.

Name            Season       HR       SO
---------------------------------------------
Mel Ott           1929       42       38
Lou Gehrig        1934       49       31
Lou Gehrig        1936       49       46
Joe DiMaggio      1937       46       37
Johnny Mize       1947       51       42
Johnny Mize       1948       40       37
Ted Kluszewski    1953       40       34
Ted Kluszewski    1954       49       35
Ted Kluszewski    1955       47       40
*Barry Bonds      2004       45       41

* - denotes MVP Season

Only Barry Bonds has accomplished the 40-plus home run season with fewer strikeouts since 1955 and he’s the only one to win an MVP award in the same season. Hitting 30 home runs with fewer strikeouts has been slightly more rewarding in the MVP department and is still a very exclusive club.

Name            Season       HR       SO
---------------------------------------------
Ken Williams      1922       39       31
Lefty O'Doul      1929       32       19
Al Simmons        1930       36       34
Joe DiMaggio      1938       32       31
*Joe DiMaggio     1939       30       20
Joe DiMaggio      1940       31       30
Ted Williams      1941       37       27
*Joe DiMaggio     1941       30       13
Willard Marshal   1947       36       30
*Stan Musial      1948       39       34
Joe DiMaggio      1948       39       30
Andy Pafko        1950       36       32
Yogi Berra        1952       30       24
Yogi Berra        1956       30       29
Ted Kluszewski    1956       35       31

* - denotes MVP Season

Is there a point to this? Not really, but it’s fun trivia and maybe fodder for your MVP discussions.

And speaking of the MVP, a few days ago (September 9th), Ryan Howard briefly overtook Pujols for the major league lead in WPA. Before that, Pujols led the majors in WPA since April 16th (145 days). Last night’s 2-run walk-off double put Pujols back on top by a margin of 0.73 wins.

I thought I’d give everyone a little sneak peak at our long overdue leaderboards. The 4 different stat pages for batters and pitchers include pretty much all of the stats in the usual player pages. All the stats are sortable; just click on the stat name and it will sort in ascending order first and then if you click it again, it will sort in descending order.

The leaderboards are not integrated into the regular site navigation yet, but you can access them if you click here.

If you find any problems or errors, please let us know and feedback (bad or good) is always welcome.