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For 8 1/3 innings on Friday night, Detroit Tigers P Justin Verlander was unhittable, thanks largely to a nasty curveball that the Pittsburgh Pirates could not touch. Just when he was on the brink of joining rarified air, though, it was a breaking ball that got in the way of history.

Verlander lost a no-hit bid on a Josh Harrison single with one out in the ninth when Harrison smacked a hanging slider into center field. Prior to Harrison’s hit, which came after he trailed 0-2 in the count, hitters were 3-36 (.083) with 21 strikeouts this season after being down 0-2 to Verlander. It was the only hit he allowed.

As has become the norm with the towering righty, Verlander’s velocity increased as the game went on. Interestingly enough, his fastball averaged just 91.4 mph in the first three innings, the lowest it has been through three in the last four seasons. From the seventh on, not one fastball was below 97 on the gun.

While his heater was strong, it was Verlander’s curve that baffled Pittsburgh. He threw it in the zone early in the count, then got batters to chase by tossing six of the eight curveballs he threw with two strikes out of the zone. Four of his punchouts were via the curve.

Verlander, who threw 109 pitches and walked two batters in the Tigers’ 6-0 victory, struck out 12 Pirates, tying for the second-most strikeouts in his career. With this effort, he joins an exclusive club of pitchers to throw shutouts allowing one hit or fewer with at least 12 strikeouts in interleague play. The only other time it was done? In 2007, by Justin Verlander.

That performance came during his no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers. Had Verlander finished the job Friday, he would have become the first player with multiple no-hitters in interleague play.

According to Elias, Verlander is only the second Tigers pitcher to toss a shutout in which he gave up no more than one hit and fanned 12 or more hitters. Hall of Famer Jim Bunning did it for Detroit against the Boston Red Sox in 1958.

History was right at Verlander's fingertips. He was two outs away from becoming just the sixth pitcher in major league history to throw at least three no-hitters, joining a club that includes Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller, Larry Corcoran and Cy Young. He also would have become the Tigers’ all-time leader in no-hitters, passing Virgil Trucks.

Given the fact that he has taken five no-hit bids into the eighth inning, it would come as a surprise to no one to one day see Verlander’s name on that list.

It was a long wait for Albert Pujols to hit his first home run of 2012.

It wasn’t quite as long a wait for the Baltimore Orioles-Boston Red Sox marathon game on Sunday to end, but it was quite entertaining.

And then the day was capped off by a teenage phenom stealing home on Sunday Night Baseball.

Let’s review the most noteworthy nuggets regarding each of these Sunday storylines.

Pujols, finally!
Albert Pujols homered on his 111th at-bat of the season, on a 2-2 slider from Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Drew Hutchison.

Thus ended, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the longest homerless drought to begin a season by any player who entered that season with at least 400 career home runs.

The previous mark was set by Eddie Murray, who was homerless in his first 109 at-bats of the 1996 season.

It also marked Pujols’ first extra-base hit of the season on an offspeed pitch. He entered Sunday with only five hits on offspeed pitches all season.

Through the first 28 games of last season, Pujols was only hitting .245, but he had seven home runs.

His fewest home runs through his first 28 games in a season was five, in 2002 and 2008.

He’s hit as many as 15 home runs in his first 28 games, doing so in 2006.

Orioles Magic lives at Fenway Park
The Orioles completed a three-game sweep of the Red Sox, but it took a remarkable effort by a position-player pitcher to finish Baltimore’s first sweep at Fenway Park since 1994.


Chris Davis started the day as the designated hitter and his afternoon at the plate was a forgettable one— 0-for-8 with five strikeouts and a double play.

But the conclusion to his afternoon, one that lasted more than six hours, was memorable. Davis became the first American League position player to earn a win since Rocky Colavito of the 1968 New York Yankees, triumphing thanks to a three-run home run by teammate Adam Jones off Red Sox position player turned reliever, Darnell McDonald.

Elias had two amazing notes from Davis’ day:

Davis became the first player to go 0-for-8 in a game in which he pitched since Leon Cadore for the 1920 Brooklyn Robins against the Boston Braves. The neat thing about that: Cadore pitched 26 innings in a game that finished in a tie.

He was also the first player to go 0-for-8 and earn a win since Hall-of-Famer Rube Waddell for the 1905 Philadelphia Athletics against those same Red Sox. Waddell not only won-- he pitched a 20-inning complete game.

Harper Does Something Unusual
Bryce Harper has had a knack for wowing fans through his first eight games and did so again on Sunday night. He stole home as the Philadelphia Phillies attempted a pickoff at first base.

It was the third steal of home on a pickoff attempt over the past two seasons. The success rate on players attempting to steal home in any fashion over that span is 29 percent.

Elias noted that the 19-year-old Harper became the first teenager to steal home since the Angels’ 19-year-old Ed Kirkpatrick of the Los Angeles Angels against the Philadelphia Athletics on May 5, 1964, nearly 48 years to the day.

It took a great pitching performance from Chicago White Sox starter Gavin Floyd to end the Boston Red Sox six-game winning streak.

Sunday marked the fourth time in Floyd’s career that he carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, but he’s yet to finish one off. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that Floyd’s four such bids are the third-most among active pitchers.

How did Floyd pitch so well?

Our pitch-performance data showed that he got five of his nine strikeouts on pitches that were out of the strike zone. He finished off all 15 hitters on whom he got a two-strike count.

Floyd’s curveball was working in those two-strike counts. He threw 11 curveballs in two-strike situations and got five strikeouts with them.

The White Sox were bidding to become the first team with two regular-season no-hitters in the same season since the 1973 Angels, who got two from Nolan Ryan. The 2010 Phillies are the last team with two no-hitters, if you combine regular season and postseason (both by Roy Halladay).

Floyd is 7-0 with a 2.75 ERA in eight career starts against the Red Sox. He’s the first pitcher to win his first seven career decisions against the Red Sox since former Minnesota Twins right-hander Kevin Tapani.

Other notable performances from Sunday included:

The day’s best pitchers
Johan Santana threw six scoreless innings in his Coors Field debut, in the New York Mets wild win over the Colorado Rockies. Santana has now pitched 22 scoreless innings against the Rockies, which (via Elias) is the longest streak by any pitcher to start his career.

CC Sabathia beat the Tigers to remain undefeated this season. The Tigers right-handed hitters were 1-for-21 against him. Sabathia got five strikeouts with his slider. He’s had at least five with that pitch in all five of his starts this season.

Speaking of sliders, Chicago Cubs starter Matt Garza got 10 outs with his, and notched six strikeouts with the pitch, in a 5-1 win over the Phillies.

Also chiming in with impressive efforts were Arizona Diamondbacks starter Wade Miley, who is 6-1 with a 2.47 ERA in his last eight starts dating back to last season after beating the Diamondbacks, and Cleveland Indians starter Derek Lowe, who beat the Los Angels of Anaheim with an efficient effort- he threw single-digit pitch totals in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.

The day’s best hitter
Rightfielder Jay Bruce homered for the fourth straight game, the longest streak by a Cincinnati Reds player since Adam Dunn homered in five straight games in May, 2008.
The streaky Bruce has had another hot week, hitting .476 with an OPS of 1.685 since Tuesday. His last three home runs have come on pitches over the outer-third of the plate. Bruce has 40 home runs on outer-third pitches since 2009, sixth-most in the majors in that span.

The New York Yankees travel to Arlington to take on the Texas Rangers in Monday Night Baseball (ESPN, 7 ET). The Yankees have won seven of the last eight games against the Rangers, but have won only three of the last eight games in Texas.

Pitching Matchup
CC Sabathia will take the mound after he had his Sunday start against the Boston Red Sox postponed by rain. Sabathia is 4-0 with a 4.84 ERA in six starts against the Rangers since joining the Yankees (including playoffs).

Sabathia has a 5.59 ERA in three starts this season. His April ERA is 4.16, his highest for any calendar month from April to September (his September ERA of 2.77 is his lowest).

Sabathia has averaged 91.5 miles-per-hour with his fastball in 2012. That’s down a full mile-per-hour from what he averaged in both 2010 and 2011.

Hitters have swung and missed at the pitch at about a rate of one for every eight pitches thrown. In April, 2011, he got misses on about one of every six swings versus his heater.

With his 57th pitch on Monday, Sabathia will have thrown 20,000 pitches (combining regular season and postseason) since 2007, the most of anyone in the majors.

Derek Holland takes the mound for the Rangers. In six career appearances (five starts), Holland is 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA against the Yankees, his worst ERA among teams he’s faced more than once.

Unlike Sabathia, Holland has one of the best fastballs among left-handed starters this season; only three lefties have more strikeouts with the fastball than Holland, who has 10.

Battle of the Bullpens
Yankees relievers have gotten a lot of work this season, with 54⅔ innings pitched in 15 games.

David Robertson again has been a magician for the Yankees. He’s pitched eight scoreless innings this season and held opponents to 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position (they were 13-for-93 against him last season in those spots).

The most impressive thing about the Rangers bullpen might be the strikeout-to-walk ratio. In 38⅔ innings, Rangers relievers have struck out 36 and walked only three. Alexi Ogando, put back in the bullpen, has 10 strikeouts and no walks in relief this season.

The Yankees’ bullpen has excelled at getting strikeouts, striking out a league-high 28.6 percent of all hitters they’ve faced. Yankees relievers have 65 strikeouts, only 12 fewer than the team’s starters have.

The Yankees and Rangers are the top two bullpens this season in Win Probability Added, which aggregates the change in a given team’s win probability after every batter. Each bullpen has added close to two wins to its team’s win probability so far this season.

Stat of the Game
The Rangers have a run differential of +52, the best in baseball (the St. Louis Cardinals are second at +36).

Jeremy Lundblad and Mark Simon contributed to this post

Sunday’s pitchers lacked the flash or pizzazz of Saturday’s, when the top three vote getters in last year’s AL Cy Young race, and the top two finishers in the NL Cy Young race took the mound.

And there was no Philip Humber coming out of nowhere to pitch a perfect game.

But there were some pretty good pitching performances.

Let’s take a look at some of Sunday’s pitching highlights:

Redbirds soar with Lohse
Winning pitcher Kyle Lohse allowed one run in six innings. He has gone six innings and allowed one earned run or fewer in each of his first four starts this season.
The last Cardinals starter to have four games in a row to start the season of at least six innings pitched and one earned run or fewer allowed was Larry Jaster in 1968.

Want to have a good game? Pitch against Pirates starter Erik Bedard. In four starts this season, the Pirates have scored just three runs for Bedard, managing one against the Cardinals on Sunday.

Magic Wandy
Wandy Rodriguez pitched seven scoreless innings, yielding just three hits to shut down the red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers and Matt Kemp.
Rodriguez’s curveball was sharp, netting him 10 outs. He had six strikeouts with the hook on Sunday, matching the total he had with the pitch in his first three starts of the season.

Of the 15 pitches Rodriguez threw Kemp, only two were fastballs. Kemp fouled out on a changeup, flied out on a curve, and then struck out swinging at a curve against Rodriguez. His 10-game hitting streak was snapped.

The 12-0 win marked the Astros largest margin of victory in a shutout win over the Dodgers in franchise history.

All Smyles, but no win
The Elias Sports Bureau confirmed that Drew Smyly is the first Detroit Tigers pitcher ever to start his first three career games and allow one run or fewer in each of them. Smyly got a no-decision in the Tigers loss to the Texas Rangers.

Josh Hamilton homered again for the Rangers, giving him seven in the team's first 16 games. He's the fifth player in Rangers history with that many home runs in that few team games, joining Pete Incaviglia, Alex Rodriguez, Ian Kinsler, and Nelson Cruz.

The Buck (and his team) stops Pujols
Albert Pujols was 0-for-4 and his homerless streak to start the season now sits at 65 at-bats after his Los Angeles Angels lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2.

Pujols was 0-for-11 in the series with three fly outs, three ground outs, three strikeouts, and a lineout. He did reach base once on an error.

Looking ahead to Monday
Bigger names take the mound Monday, with the most attention being paid to Tim Lincecum.
Tim Lincecum will start for the San Francisco Giants against the New York Mets in the second game of Monday’s doubleheader at Citi Field. Lincecum is 0-2 with a 10.54 ERA in his first three starts of the season, but is 3-0 with three earned runs allowed in 28 innings in his last four starts against the Mets.

Lincecum’s fastball velocity has averaged 90.2 miles-per-hour in the first two starts of the season, down two miles-per-hour from his average in 2011. His strike percentage with his fastball is 58 percent. It has consistently been either 63 or 64 percent in each of the three previous seasons.

Hitters have also feasted on Lincecum’s breaking pitches, with 10 hits against them in the first three starts. Last season, in his first three starts, he allowed only two hits with his breaking balls.

The Texas Rangers put on an awesome offensive display in Tuesday's 18-3 win over the Boston Red Sox. But tonight's pitching matchup features a pair of starters with a history of shutting down their opposition.

Let's take a closer look at Derek Holland's and Josh Beckett's performance so far this season as they prepare for this Wednesday Night Baseball meeting (7 pm ET, ESPN2).

Holland successful early
Holland has a 3.37 ERA and 0.83 WHIP through his first two starts in 2012. In particular, he's rated well in getting ahead of hitters early in the count, throwing his first pitch for a strike 67 percent of the time. In each of the previous three seasons, Holland's first-pitch strike rate has hovered between 56 and 58 percent.

Holland's fastball has averaged 93.9 miles-per-hour since the start of last season, a hair behind David Price for the distinction of hardest-throwing lefty starter in the majors. His fastball averages almost a mile-per-hour more than that of CC Sabathia and Clayton Kershaw.

Holland has faced the Red Sox three times previously, winning twice and posting a 2.95 ERA. In his last start against them, he pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits in a 10-0 win at Fenway Park.

Matchup to watch: Holland has won seven of the eight head-to-head battles he's had with Dustin Pedroia, holding him to just one base hit. Pedroia has worked his share of deep counts against Holland, but did not reach base in any of the three instances in which the count ran to 3-2.

Beckett's unusual start
Beckett's fastball velocity has been an early-season storyline.

Beckett's fastball is averaging 90.6 miles-per-hour through two starts. In his 1st 2 starts, Beckett has a total of four strikeouts in 12⅔ innings pitched. It’s the first time since June 2007 that Beckett has gone consecutive starts with less than four strikeouts. Beckett has never gone three consecutive starts without registering at least four strikeouts in a game.

Beckett has been able to get to two strikes on hitters, but has not finished them off at his usual success rate.

The four whiffs have come on 24 two-strike counts, a strikeout success rate of just 17 percent. From 2009 to 2011, Beckett fanned 43 percent of hitters against whom he got a two-strike count.

Since the start of the 2010 season, Rangers hitters have the lowest strikeout rate in the majors-- having fanned in just 15 percent of their plate appearances (the average major league hitters strikes out about one out of every 5.5 plate appearances.

Matchup to watch: Josh Hamilton is 6-for-14 with two home runs in his career against Beckett, with both home runs coming in 2010. Hamilton hit a 469-foot home run in Tuesday's win, the second-longest tracked home run at Fenway Park since the start of the 2006 season (Vladimir Guerrero hit a 484-foot home run there in 2006).

Hamilton has five home runs this season, all against pitches over the inner-third or middle-third of the plate. He's also 10-for-27 (.370 BA) in at-bats ending against pitches on the outer-third of the plate or further outside. Last season, Hamilton hit .262 against pitches thrown to that area.

Hamilton hasn't hit a home run against a pitch on the outer-third of the plate this season. But Beckett allowed three home runs on outer-third pitches to lefties in his first start of the season against the Tigers.

Mark Simon also contributed to this post

Albert Pujols and the Los Angeles Angels make their first trip of the season to the Bronx this weekend, opening a three-game series today with the New York Yankees at 1:05 ET.

This will be Pujols’ debut at the new Yankee Stadium, having previously played an Interleague series at the old stadium in 2003 and in the 2008 All-Star Game. Pujols is 6-for-21 (.286) with two homers and three RBI in six career games against the Yankees but hasn’t faced them since 2005.

Let’s take a closer look at the matchup this afternoon:

Pujols vs Hiroki Kuroda
Hiroki Kuroda takes the mound for the Yankees, making his second start of the season after getting roughed up for six runs (four earned) in his debut last week. Kuroda has never allowed six-or-more runs in consecutive starts in his career.

Pujols is 3-for-15 with a homer and four strikeouts in his career against Kuroda. With no walks, Pujols has an on-base percentage of .200 against Kuroda, his fifth-worst versus any pitcher he has faced at least 15 times.

Kuroda has done a good job of keeping the ball down against Pujols, throwing 60 percent of his pitches to him in the lower third of the zone and below. Of the eight non-strikeout outs that Pujols has made versus Kuroda, six have been groundouts.

Angels and Yankees Head-to-Head
Last season the Angels lost the season series to the Yankees, 5-4, marking the first time they had lost the season series since 2003.

Since the divisional realignment in 1994, the Angels are the only AL team that has a winning record against the Yankees (92-85). The Angels are also the only AL team during that span to have a non-losing record against the Yankees in the Bronx (43-43).

Yankees Home Opener
This afternoon’s game is also the home opener for the Yankees after the team started the season with six straight road games. The Yankees have won 18 of their last 20 home openers, and their 11-1 record since 2000 is the best in the majors during that span, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

This is the third time the Yankees have played the Angels in their home opener. In 1968, Mel Stottlemyre threw a four-hit shutout as the Yankees beat the Angels 1-0; in 2010, the Yankees won 7-5 behind six scoreless innings from Andy Pettitte and home runs by Derek Jeter and Nick Johnson.

Stat of the Game
The Yankees are 6-0 all-time in home openers played on April 13.

Don’t look now, but the Washington Nationals have zoomed to the top of the NL East following their 3-2, extra-inning win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday afternoon.

The Nationals improved to 5-2, their best start since moving to Washington, and also win their first home opener since 2008. This is just the second time in the last 15 seasons the franchise has won five of its first seven games. In 2001, the Montreal Expos were 6-1 after seven games.

The Nats took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning but Brad Lidge blew the save, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks. Lidge had allowed just one run over his previous 16 appearances dating to August of last year.

The Nationals won it in the 10th inning thanks to a wild outing by Reds reliever Alfredo Simon. Simon hit Ryan Zimmerman to lead off the inning and Zimmerman eventually came around to score four batters later on Simon’s wild pitch with Roger Bernadina at the plate.

This was the Nationals’ fifth win on a game-ending wild pitch since moving to Washington in 2005. Entering Thursday, the Nats had lost their last six extra-inning games against the Reds and were 0-5 in one-run games versus Cincinnati over the last two season.

Gio Gonzalez got a no-decision but deserved the win, tossing seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and just two hits allowed.

Gonzalez had success going low as Reds hitters went 0-for-11 in at-bats ending with pitches down in the zone or below. Gonzalez also did a good job finishing off batters, allowing zero hits in 13 at-bats that reached a two-strike count.

Around The Diamond
• The Minnesota Twins came back from a six-run deficit against the Los Angeles Angels thanks to home runs from both Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. It was the first time that Morneau and Mauer homered in the same game since July 6, 2010.

• Matt Garza fell one out short of a shutout when he was pulled after 119 pitches in the ninth inning of the Chicago Cubs 8-0 win. Garza had his slider working, throwing 31 of them, as the Milwaukee Brewers were hitless including five strikeouts in nine at-bats ending with the pitch.

• The Detroit Tigers improved to 5-1 this season with a win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Austin Jackson scored a run and has now crossed home plate in all six games this season, the longest streak to start the season by a Tiger since Darrell Evans scored in the first eight games in 1986.

• Madison Bumgarner took a no-hitter into the sixth inning as the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 4-2. Bumgarner recorded a career-high 14 ground-ball outs (including a double play) with eight of them coming in at-bats ending in sliders.

The New York Mets, the recipient of so much bad news over the past couple of seasons, got some good news on Tuesday with the return to the mound of ace starter Johan Santana.

Santana, who did not pitch for the Mets in 2011 due to a shoulder injury , threw 29 pitches and allowed one hit in two scoreless innings in the Mets win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Here’s a quick statistical snapshot of his performance, based on video review data from Inside Edge.

• Santana threw 23 fastballs, ranging from 86 to 89 miles-per-hour, averaging 87. In 2010, Santana’s fastball averaged just over 89 miles-per-hour.

• Santana threw 15 of those 23 fastballs for strikes, including 8-of-9 to left-handed hitters.

• Santana’s other six pitches were four changeups and two sliders and he threw two of his six offspeed pitches for strikes. He typically threw those pitches for strikes about two-thirds of the time in 2009 and 2010.

• Santana got a pair of swings-and-misses- one on an 88-mile-per-hour fastball to Matt Holliday, the other on a 77 mile-per-hour changeup to Yadier Molina that Molina told the media looked like a vintage Santana changeup.

Santana’s changeup historically has been a huge key to his past success. In 2009 and 2010, Santana got 286 swings-and-misses on his changeup, fourth-most of any pitcher in baseball.

A.J. Burnett is on the verge of going from the franchise with one of the best marks in baseball over the last two decades to the one with one of the worst.

The New York Yankees have had 19 straight winning seasons, including three with Burnett. The Pittsburgh Pirates have had 19 straight losing seasons. Their last winning season came in 1992, when now-retired pitcher Tim Wakefield was a rookie.

Burnett’s career with the New York Yankees ends with the following distinctions:

• Among those who pitched at least 500 innings with the Yankees, Burnett has the second-highest career ERA (4.79), the second-highest HR per 9 rate (1.25), the second-most wild pitches (58) and the fifth-worst opponents OPS (.783).

• Burnett’s fastball velocity declined from an average of 94.1 miles-per-hour in 2009 (his first season with the Yankees) to 92.6 in 2011.
• In 2009, about one in every five Burnett pitches registered 95-miles-per-hour or faster on Pitch F/X’s radar-gun readings. In 2011, that rate was one in every 250 pitches.

When Burnett did throw a fastball over 95-miles-per-hour, he only got misses on about one of every eight swings, a miss rate that rated third-worst in the majors over the last three seasons (among 77 pitchers who met the criteria of at least 500 such pitches).

Burnett did strike out 8.2 batters per 9 innings last year, which ranked 10th among American League pitchers who qualified for the ERA title (ie: minimum 162 innings pitched).

Burnett also led the majors in strikeouts with his curveball with 123.

Burnett’s new team, the Pirates, had the worst strikeout rate in the majors last season (5.6 per 9 innings). The Pirates also got the second-fewest innings from starting pitchers in the majors last season- 923 1/3.

Burnett is one of eight AL pitchers who threw at least 185 innings in each of the last four seasons.

Last season, Burnett gave up 177 fly balls, of which 29 went for home runs (two of his homers came on balls deemed to be line drives).

Burnett’s rate of allowing a home run on 17 percent of his fly balls (about one of every six) was the highest in the majors among those who qualified for the ERA title.

Only three other pitchers—Jake Arrieta, Bronson Arroyo, and Chris Volstad, had a rate of 15 percent or higher.

Yankee Stadium rated among the most homer-friendly ballparks in baseball, but Burnett actually had a lower home runs per fly ball rate at home (16.0%) compared to on the road (19.0%) last season.

Burnett finished last season with a 5.15 ERA. Burnett’s xFIP (a stat that attempts to estimate a pitcher’s ERA based on strikeouts, walks, and fly balls allowed) was 3.86.

The gap of 1.29 between Burnett’s ERA and xFIP (which stands for expected Fielding Independent Pitching) was the fourth-largest in the majors.

Burnett is going from a home ballpark in Yankee Stadium that statistically rates as the second-friendliest for home run hitters in the majors over the last three seasons to one that rates considerably less homer-friendly.

There have been 388 home runs hit at PNC Park since 2009, compared to 441 in Pirates road games. PNC Park’s three-year Park Factor of 87 rates tied for ninth-lowest in the majors.

Scott Beaman also contributed to this post

Prince Fielder has agreed to terms on a nine-year, $214 million contract with the Tigers.

This will be the fourth-largest contract, in terms of total value, in MLB history, trailing the two contracts signed by Alex Rodriguez ($275 million and $252 million) and the contract signed by Albert Pujols this offseason ($240 million).

Fielder ranks second in the majors with 200 home runs since 2007, and also ranks in the top five in that span in RBI, slugging percentage, and OPS.

In 2011, he ranked in the top two in the majors in games, home runs, RBI, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.

Fielder joins a Tigers team that had a lineup spot to fill after it lost Victor Martinez to a torn ACL. The Tigers finished in the top four in the American League in runs scored, batting average, and OPS last season, and were seventh in the AL with 169 home runs.

Fielder averaged 20 home runs per season at Miller Park over the last six seasons, but will now play his home games at Comerica Park.

Since Comerica opened in 2000, the most home runs hit by a left-handed hitter there is 14, by Carlos Pena in 2005.

Since 2009, left-handed hitters hit 209 home runs at Miller Park, and hit 174 in Brewers road games, giving the park a Ballpark Factor of 116 for left-handed hitters, sixth-highest in the majors.

In the same span, left-handed hitters hit 191 home runs at Comerica Park and 213 home runs in Tigers road games, giving Comerica Park, a Park Factor of 89. That's eighth-lowest in the majors for left-handed hitters.

Last season at Miller Park, Fielder hit 77 fly balls, 22 of which went for home runs. On the road, he hit 85 fly balls, 13 of which were home runs.

Fielder ranks among the game's top hitters in terms of situational offensive contribution, with almost identical numbers as Pujols.

Over the last three seasons, Fielder ranks third among all players in Win Probability Added, which rates player performance on a play-by-play basis. Fielder added approximately 17.5 wins to his team with his offensive production, trailing only Joey Votto (19.9 wins) and Albert Pujols (18 wins).

Fielder ranks fifth among first baseman in the advanced metric, Wins Above Replacement, with 15.3 wins contributed over the last three seasons, trailing Pujols (21.5), Votto (18.9), new teammate Miguel Cabrera (18.9), and Adrian Gonzalez (18.0).

Fielder’s defensive value can be evaluated with the metric Defensive Runs Saved, which rates players based on the skills most pertinent to their position. That stat shows that Fielder has cost his team 48 runs since 2006, 10 more than any other first baseman in that span.

Prince will become one of several notable father-son pairs to play for the same team at some point in their career, joining the likes of the Bonds’ (San Francisco Giants) and Griffey’s (Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners).

Prince’s father, Cecil Fielder, hit 245 home runs as a first baseman for the Tigers in the 1990s. That ranks fifth-most in team history. For Fielder to match his father, he would have to average approximately 27.2 home runs per season.

Carlos Zambrano: Traded to Miami Marlins
Zambrano’s batting average on balls in play was nearly identical in 2010 and 2011 (.309 vs .307). So what was the issue that led to his ERA jumping by nearly 1.5 runs?

Zambrano’s home run rate soared in 2011. He went from allowing a home run for every 20 fly balls allowed in 2010 to yielding a home run for every nine fly balls allowed in 2011.

His success has historically come when he kept the ball down. Zambrano’s percentage of pitches in the lower-third of the strike zone and below dropped from 43 percent in 2010 to 38 percent in 2011.

Zambrano’s pitches in the middle and upper part of the strike zone got hit harder. His opponents OPS on such pitches jumped from .673 (in 2010) to .813 (in 2011).

Those numbers coincide with a decline in the effectiveness of Zambrano’s slider and splitter. Batters missed on 38 percent of their swings against those pitches in 2010, but that number dropped to 26 percent in 2011.

The best illustration of the difference for Zambrano is in where he threw his slider and splitter most often to lefties, as noted in the heat maps above and in the chart on the right. Zambrano’s fine tuning the location of his pitches will be something to watch for in 2012.
-- Mark Simon

Chris Volstad: Traded to Chicago Cubs
Volstad is clearly not an elite pitcher. The only other pitcher to throw at least 150 innings and post an ERA of 4.50 or higher in each of the last three years is Fausto Carmona.

But Volstad was likely not as bad last season as his 4.89 ERA might indicate. Though his ERA ranked 98th out of 107 pitchers with at least 150 innings last year, his 3.64 xFIP ranked a more palatable 34th.

One reason for the large differential between the two numbers was a homer-to-flyball ratio of 15 percent that was seventh-highest among MLB starters and nearly double his rate of 8.5 percent from last year.

Most of the damage came against lefties, who hit 19 of the 23 homers he allowed in 2011. Nearly one of every four flyballs he allowed to lefties went over the fence, a rate that was the highest among major-league starters. Last year, only one of every 10 flyballs he gave up to lefties became homers.

The primary culprit was a flatter changeup that averaged almost an inch less break both horizontally and vertically in 2011 compared to 2010, and which led to nearly a 150-point increase in slugging percentage vs his changeup by lefties.
-- Katie Sharp

Coco Crisp: Signed 2-year deal with Oakland Athletics
Crisp’s bat last year was below average (91 OPS+), but he was still a valuable part of the Athletics lineup because of his smart baserunning and penchant for making game-saving plays in the outfield.

Crisp tied for the American League lead with 49 steals and ranked sixth in the majors in Baseball Info Solution’s Net Gain baserunning stat. Crisp gained 43 bases more than the average player, combining his stolen base successes with his extra-base advancement on things such as hits, wild pitches, and sacrifice flies.

The Athletics capitalized on his speed by showing a willingness to let him run late in close games. Crisp was 10-for-12 in steal attempts that came in the eighth inning or later, with the Athletics either tied or trailing by a run. No other player had more than six steals or seven attempts.

Twice those steals led to the tying run being scored in eventual wins: April 7 against the Blue Jays and May 16 against the Angels.

Crisp has rated as an above-average defensive outfielder in terms of turning batted balls into outs over the last two seasons, but it’s his ability to make extraordinary plays at the wall that has set him apart.

Since the start of 2010, only two players have more home run robberies than the three that Crisp has: Peter Bourjos and Franklin Gutierrez both have four.
-- Katie Sharp and Mark Simon

Each Sunday, ESPN Stats & Information provides a statistical recap of notable transactions from the week.

Nationals trade for LHP Gio Gonzalez
Gonzalez became known in Oakland for his nasty curveball. Over the past two seasons, he’s thrown his hook nearly 30 percent of the time, the third-most-often among left-handed pitchers. His 212 strikeouts with the pitch in that span are the most in the majors.

One thing that Gonzalez did last season was change his approach against right-handed hitters. In 2009, when he was ahead 0-2 or 1-2 on a righty, he threw his fastball only 25 percent of the time.

In 2010, he upped that rate to 35 percent, then upped it again to 47 percent last season.

By the end of 2011, he’d struck out more right-handers with his fastball (73) than his curveball (71), a dramatic swing from a year prior, when he whiffed 98 with his curve and 33 with his fastball. The heat maps above show where Gonzalez located his two primary pitches when in 0-2 and 1-2 counts.

The change worked, as noted by Gonzalez’s effectiveness in the chart on the right.
-- Mark Simon/Lee Singer

Reds acquire LHP Sean Marshall in trade from Cubs.
Marshall had a statistically superb season in 2011, his second straight strong year.

Over the last two seasons, Marshall has averaged better than 10 strikeouts per nine innings, with a strikeout-to-walk rate of better than four-to-one. He’s the only one of the 176 pitchers who threw at least 150 innings in that span to be able to hit both of those benchmarks.

Marshall’s combination of strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed was so good that he led the majors in fielding independent pitching (2.07 FIP) over the last two years. He was valued at 5.0 wins above replacement combining 2010 and 2011, the best for any relief pitcher.

What makes Marshall so good?

Marshall succeeds because he gets hitters from both sides of the plate out at a high rate. He’s one of three lefties to hold both left-handed and right-handed hitters to a sub-.600 OPS over the last two seasons (minimum 200 batters faced on each side) along with Jonny Venters and Clayton Kershaw.

Marshall does this primarily with his breaking pitches. He threw the lowest percentage of fastballs of any left-handed pitcher over the last two seasons (just under 40 percent), relying on a curveball and slider, the former of which has the biggest horizontal break of any from a lefty in the majors.
--Mark Simon

Twins sign Jason Marquis
The pitch-to-contact righty Marquis will fit perfectly into the Twins' rotation, which last season had the lowest swing-and-miss rate and highest in-play percentage in the majors.

Batters missed on one of every six swings against Marquis and put the ball in play nearly 50 percent of the time when taking a cut last year.

More than half of his opponents' at-bats resulted in a grounder (this was true for each of his three primary pitches -- fastball, slider, changeup), putting Marquis among the top 10 ground-ball specialists in the league.

Marquis has posted an ERA below 4.00 just once in his career as a full-time starter, and will be challenged to achieve that performance level this year with the Minnesota Twins.

In 2011, Minnesota’s infield defense cost the team 45 runs, the worst mark by any major league team.

The Twins did slightly upgrade at the shortstop position this offseason.

The four shortstops that accounted for minus-27 defensive runs saved in nearly 1,500 innings in 2011 will be replaced by 37-year-old Jamey Carroll, who had minus-5 defensive runs saved in 504 innings at shortstop last year.
--Katie Sharp

After spending the past seven seasons on the East and West Coast, Carlos Beltran is headed back to the Midwest. Beltran agreed to a two-year deal with the world champion St. Louis Cardinals Thursday, according to sources. The six-time All-Star batted .300 and hit 22 home runs with 84 RBI last season with the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants.

This will be Beltran's second stint with a team in the state of Missouri. He spent seven seasons with the Kansas City Royals winning Rookie of the Year in 1999.

While he’s no longer a borderline MVP-candidate, Beltran’s track record of productivity can be matched by few in the National League since 2005. Beltran ranks sixth in the NL among position players in Wins Above Replacement over that span.

Besides his offensive and defensive skills, Beltran has a history of excelling in the postseason. No player in MLB history with a minimum 75 plate appearances has a higher OPS in the postseason than Beltran's 1.302.

With Beltran joining the Cardinals, St. Louis now has the two best offensive switch-hitters in the majors from last year. Lance Berkman's OPS was .959 last season while Beltran's was .910.

Meanwhile, the Oakland Athletics traded All-Star pitcher Gio Gonzalez to the Washington Nationals for four prospects according to sources. The Nationals receive pitchers Brad Peacock, A.J. Cole, Tom Milone and catcher Derek Norris. Gonzalez had a career best in wins (16), ERA (3.12) and strikeouts (197) last season, but also led the league in walks (91).

Few pitchers have provided a greater value for the dollar than Gonzalez. Over the last two seasons, 13 pitchers have won at least 30 games. Of those, Gonzalez has been the most cost-effective option, earning $26,613 for every win since 2010.

Gonzalez is under team control through 2015, but he's about to get more expensive. MLBtraderumors.com projects a $4.2 million salary in 2012, the first of Gonzalez's four arbitration-eligible years.

With the acquisition of Gonzalez, the Nationals now have three pitchers (Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann) who will all be age 26 or younger in 2012. They join two other franchises (Braves, Diamondbacks) who have at least three starters – all of whom were 25 or younger in 2011 - who posted a cumulative ERA better than 4.00 since the start of the 2010 season.

Each Sunday, ESPN Stats & Information reviews significant moves from the past week.

Diamondbacks trade with Athletics for P Trevor Cahill
Cahill is coming off a disappointing season, in which his ERA rose more than a run from 2010, even though his strikeout-to-walk ratio and home run rate were almost identical in both seasons.

The difference in Cahill’s performance over the last two seasons was a BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) that rose from an MLB-low .236 in 2010 to .302 in 2011.

Was his 4.16 ERA last year a product of bad luck?

Cahill is a ground-ball specialist, ranking first among AL starters in ground ball rate over the last two seasons (56.4 percent).

Last season, he struggled to locate his signature sinker down in the zone, especially against righties.

Only one-third of his sinkers thrown to right-handed hitters in 2011 were located in the lower-third of the strike zone or below the knees, compared to 43 percent in 2010.

The effectiveness of the pitch was much worse last season compared to the previous year, as noted in the chart on the right.

Cahill continued to challenge hitters with his sinker in 2011 despite its ineffectiveness, throwing it more than 50 percent of the time compared to less than 40 percent in 2010.

Cahill recorded double-digit ground outs in just two of his 14 starts in the second half, after doing so in half of his 20 starts before the break.

The heat map at the top of this piece shows the difference in the effectiveness of Cahill’s sinker in each of the last two seasons.
--Katie Sharp

Angels sign C.J. Wilson
Wilson pitched like an ace last year, with the fourth-highest WAR and seventh-best ERA among AL pitchers.

There is a thought that in 2012 Wilson could post even better numbers than he did in 2011, when his ERA ranked seventh-best.

He’ll be moving from the hitter-friendly Rangers Ballpark to Angel Stadium, which last year reduced run-scoring by an AL-high 16 percent according to ESPN.com’s Park Factors.

However, Wilson must now face the Texas Rangers lineup likely four or five times in 2012. The Rangers ranked among the AL’s top three in batting average, slugging percentage, runs and OPS.

Last year, just four of his 34 starts came against the Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Detroit Tigers, which ranked first, second and fourth, respectively in OPS in the league.

Via Baseball Prospectus, the opposing hitters that Wilson faced had a combined .728 OPS, lowest among pitchers who threw at least 150 innings last season.

Wilson could be replacing his six starts against the Angels with six against the Rangers. He had a solid 2.65 ERA against his current team last season, but will be challenged to repeat that against Texas in 2012.

Last season 17 pitchers made at least three starts against the Rangers. Only four of them posted an ERA below four, led by Cahill’s 3.10 in six starts.
--Katie Sharp

Brewers sign SS Alex Gonzalez
The Milwaukee Brewers signed Gonzalez to replace Yuniesky Betancourt at shortstop.

It's an even move offensively; Gonzalez has a career on-base percentage of .291 and slugging percentage of .399. Betancourt’s career numbers are .292 and .391, respectively.

But over the past two seasons -- according to Baseball Info Solutions’ stat Defensive Runs Saved -- Gonzalez has saved his teams 31 runs. Betancourt has cost his team 27.

If we use the sabermetric value of 10 runs equaling a win, that means Gonzalez has been worth nearly six more wins than Betancourt over the past two seasons with his glove alone.

That’s a big upgrade for a team that had its share of defensive issues during the postseason after finishing 11th in the majors in Defensive Runs Saved in 2011.
-- John Fisher