(*) MASTER NOTES: June 2019 Quiz Time!

We’re more than one-third of the way through the 2019 fantasy baseball season, and as we put our second month into the books, there’s no better way to mark the occasion than with the regular monthly Master Notes feature “Quiz Time.”

By now, you should be familiar with the rules. There will be 25 questions: 15 about hitters, seven about starting pitchers (SP) and three about relief pitchers (RP). To qualify for questions about rate stats (BA, OBP, ERA, etc.), hitters need at least 70 PA in the month. All hitters were included in questions about who got the most of a counting stat. Not that it mattered.

To qualify as SPs, pitchers must have only started games, and averaged at least 19 batters faced per game. That eliminated the “openers,” who are changing the game but not the quiz. Not yet, anyway. Any pitcher who didn’t qualify as a SP was classified as an RP.

As always, give yourself as many points as you think you deserve for your right answers. Penalize yourself appropriately for wrong answers, but don’t be a bully. If you have a terrifically high score, call your local paper, if there still is one where you live, and tell them. Phrase all your answers in the form of answers.

The answers are grouped for your convenience at the end of the quiz.

Ready? Begin!

Hitters

H1. Nolan Arenado of COL led all qualified hitters with a 1.262 OPS in the month.  Put these other COL hitters in the correct order of their May OPS, from highest to lowest (note that they are not in sequence, like 4th-5th-6th-7th): Charlie Blackmon,  Ian Desmond, Ryan McMahon, Trevor Story.

H2. Arenado also led May with a .425 BA. Which breakout star in the NL Central rang up a .390 BA for second spot?

H3. Within five, of the 251 qualified hitters, how many had OBPs of .400 or higher for the month?

H4. Which Red Sox slugger led BOS in May BA and was fourth overall in the month?

H5. Which AL East catcher had the lowest BA of all qualified hitters?

H6. Which former all-star was jettisoned by his AL Central team after posting an MLB-worst .186 Slg for the month, the lowest among all qualified hitters?

H7. Quick—who had the highest Slg in May among Miguel Cabrera, Adam Frazier, José Peraza and Victor Robles?

H8. Three players belted a dozen HRs in May. PIT 1B Josh Bell and HOU 3B/SS Alex Bregman were two. Which NL Central hitter was the third?

H9. Mike Trout tied for the lead in May with 22 unintentional walks. Which AL Central hitter tied with Trout in that category?

H10. Match the Garcia to his May achievement:

A. Avisail (TAM)

B. Greg (SD)

C. Leury (CHW)

X. 90+ PA and only one walk

Y. 100 PA, 1.037 OPS

Z. .375 OBP in 72 PA

H11. Among players who had at least 4 HR and 4 SB in May, Trevor Story of COL led with a combined 12 (8 HR and 4 SB). Christian Yelich had 11 (7+4) combined swipes and taters (swaters?), which tied him for second place with what AL East OF?

H12. Two hitters, both of whom play in the same city, struck out more than 40 times apiece in May. Who were they?

H13. Among qualified hitters, Andrelton Simmons (LAA), Michael Brantley (HOU) and Justin Turner (LA) were 1-2-3 in May in what percentage metric?

H14. Not much of a surprise that Trout (19.7%) and Joey Gallo of TEX (19.4%) were 2-3 in highest walk percentage among qualified hitters in May. But what NL Central hitter was #1?

H15. What AL West leadfoot led the majors in grounding into double-plays (GIDP) in May, with eight rally-killers?

Starters

SP1. Hyun-Jin Ryu of LA was the talk of baseball with a 5-0, 0.59/0.68 line in May. From this alphabetical list, pick out the three other SPs who had ERAs and WHIPs under 1.00 for the month: Tyler Glasnow, Frankie Montas, Charlie Morton, Jake Odorizzi, Brad Peacock, Aníbal Sánchez, Mike Soroka, Julio Teheran and Brandon Woodruff.

SP2. BOS SP Chris Sale ran away with the May strikeout race, fanning 66 hitters in his six starts. That was 15 more than what AL Central SP in second place?

SP3. Sale also led the SP pack by striking out 43.1% of opposing hitters. What AL West SP was second in that race?

SP4. Ryu and HOU SP Gerrit Cole were first and fourth in the lowest walk rates for May, at 1.8% of hitters and 2.6% respectively. ARI SP Zack Greinke tied for second with which inaccurately monikered NL West SP?

SP5. Among SPs with 4+ starts, which Central division SPs tied for the highest walk rate in May, at 14.1% of batters faced?

SP6. Some analysts, including this one, believe Control Ratio (Ctl) should not just assess bb/9, but should also count HBP, Wild Pitches, and Balks, all of which put runners on or advance runners. Using that formulation, which NL West SP showed the worst “enhanced” Ctl in May?

SP7. Which two NL East pitchers were in the top-five of HRs allowed, with 11 and 10?

Relievers

RP1. These seven RPs had at least 10 IP in May: Jesse Chavez (TEX), Kyle Crick (PIT), Josh Hader (MIL), Matt Magill (MIN), Evan Marshall (CHW), Adam Ottavino (NYY) and Emilio Pagán (TAM). Of these seven, six did not allow an earned run. Which of them did give up an earnie?

RP2. Ten RPs had May Dom rates of 14.5 K/9 or higher. One was SF RP Will Smith. How did Smith stand out from this crowd of heavy heaters?

R3. Which AL closer led the majors in May with the lowest BA against?

 

And that’s it! Check your answers below. You’ll have to scroll down a page or six.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Answers

Hitters

H1. 8th, Blackmon, 1.126; 13th, Desmond, 1.027;  22nd, Story, .991; 52nd, McMahon, .896.

H2. Breakout star Josh Bell of PIT was second in BA for the month with that .390 mark.

H3. Twenty-four hitters had .400 OBPs in May. You’d be right if your answer was from 19 to 29.

H4. The productive Carmine was catcher Christian Vasquez, who slashed .373/397/.560.

H5. TOR catcher Danny Jansen had a .143 BA for the month (9/63).

H6. CLE OF Carlos Gonzalez  had a .186 Slg for May, so it’s little wonder the team, struggling to keep the ship afloat, threw CarGo overboard.

H7. Ha! Trick question. All four slugged .352.

H8. The third HR king for May was Derek Dietrich of CIN, who also led all qualified hitters by posting a .571 ISO for the month.

H9. The other walkmeister was CLE 1B/DH Carlos Santana.

H10. A-Y, B-Z, C-X. Avisail’s 1.037 OPS in 100 PA was 11th among qualified hitters. Greg’s .375 OBP in 72 PA was 82nd in OBP for the month. Leury was the only hitter with 90+ PA and only one walk.

H11. Kevin Kiermaier of TAM also had 11 swaters, with 4 HR and seven bags.

H12. The chief whiffers were Yoán Moncada of CHW with 44 Ks and Javier Báez of CHC with 42.

H13. Simmons, Brantley and Turner were the win, place and show horses in the race for lowest strikeout percentage, 5.6%, 6.5% and 7.5% respectively. Brandon Lowe of TAM and Wil Myers of SD tied for the highest K-rate, at 37.5% of their PAs.

H14. The top walker by percentage in May was Eric Thames of MIL, at 21.5%.

H15. Albert Pujols of LAA bounced into eight GIDP, one more than teammate Simmons and two more than Daniel Robertson of TAM and Marcell Ozuma of STL.

Starters

SP1. The other sub-1.00 guys were Soroka, (0.79/0.76), Odorizzi (0.94/0.87) and Teheran (0.98/0.98). All those other guys were close, too.

SP2. Shane Bieber of CLE was second in Ks for May, with 51, nosing Stephen Strasburg (WAS) and Zack Wheeler  (NYM), who had 50 apiece.

SP3. The runner-up in K% for May was Gerrit Cole of HOU, at 41.2%.

SP4. Walker Buehler of LA and Greinke both had walk rates of 2.4%.

SP5. Doling out the free passes were Brad Keller of KC and Chris Archer of PIT. Give the tiebreaker to Keller, who had 19 walks to Archer’s 14.

SP6. The spray-gun belonged to SF SP Drew Pomeranz, who allowed 9 walks, 2 HBP, and 1 WP in 10.1 IP, for an enhanced Control Ratio of 10.5/9. The only other pitcher even in the same zip code of horrendous control as Pomeranz was literally in the same zip code as Pomeranz: Andrew Suárez of SF posted 7 walks and 2 WP  in 10 IP for an 8.1 enhanced Control. The lowest marks in the month were by Ryu, Greinke and Buehler, all under 1.0.

SP7. The gopherball specialists in the NL East were Mike Foltynewicz of ATL with 11 and Jerad Eickhoff of PHI with 10. The other top HR giver-uppers were Kyle Freeland (COL), with 11, and Carlos Carrasco (CLE) and David Hess (BAL), each with 10. If we scale the homers to 9 IP, the HR/9 leader was Pomeranz again, at an astounding 5.2 HR/9. Six SPs gave up no HRs in May in 25+ IP: Kevin Gausman, Keller (too busy giving up walks), Frankie Montas, Tanner Roark, Ryu and Teheran.

Relievers

RP1. Surprisingly, the one RP from the list to give up an earned run was Hader.

RP2. Smith didn’t walk any of the 37 hitters he faced in the month. The other nine RPs on the high-Dom list had at least two walks each (Josh James of HOU had seven).

R3. CHW closer Alex Colomé allowed opponents only an .063 BAA, just ahead of erstwhile TEX closer José Leclerc (.095) and Hader (.098). On the other end of that scale, PIT swingman Nick Kingham made his opponents look like George Brett, allowing a .391 BAA.

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