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ESPN Stats & Information continues its weekly stat-based roundup of notable moves from the past week.

Washington Nationals Sign Edwin Jackson
Last season Jackson posted an ERA of 3.79 despite ranking seventh in MLB in hits allowed. How unusual was that combination of run prevention and baserunners? He was the only qualifying pitcher in the majors with an ERA below 4.00 that also gave up at least 10 hits per nine innings pitched.

Jackson managed that feat by allowing an OPS of .869 with the bases empty and a .665 mark with runners on. That was the largest difference among all qualifying pitchers that had a higher OPS with the bases empty versus with runners on.

A 120-point spread in his BABIP allowed with nobody on base compared to all other plate appearances may explain part of that difference.

However, opponents didn't seem to hit the ball much harder versus Jackson in either situation.

According to video review by Inside Edge, batters hit the same percentage of "well-hit" balls (24%) against Jackson regardless of whether there were men on base or not.

So what can Nationals expect out of Jackson in 2012? Only four other pitchers since 2000 finished with an ERA under 4.00 while also giving up 10-plus hits per nine innings.

The good news is that one of those pitchers was Andy Pettitte in 2001, who went on to post a 3.27 ERA the following season and a 3.78 ERA over the final nine seasons of his career.

The bad news is that the other three pitchers were Carlos Silva (2005), Josh Towers (2005) and Aaron Cook (2008) – who combined for zero sub-4.00 ERA seasons following their unusual low-ERA/high-hit total year.
-- Katie Sharp

Cleveland Indians Sign Casey Kotchman
Kotchman, at least last season, fared better than what the Indians had at first base in 2011.

Kotchman upped his on-base percentage from .280 in 2010 to .378 in 2011, with a batting average on balls in play that improved from .229 to .335 and a walk rate that improved slightly.

Kotchman's BABIP went up because his number of ground ball hits nearly doubled, going from 30 to 58, though his ground balls hit only increased by 41 from the previous season.

Kotchman and Texas Rangers catcher/first baseman Mike Napoli led the majors with the largest on-base percentage jump (98 points) in the majors, among the nearly 150 players who had at least 400 plate appearances in each season.

Indians first basemen had an on-base percentage of .302 and .319 over the last two seasons, the latter ranking 23rd among the 30 major-league teams in 2011.

Defensively, the Indians two primary first basemen, Matt LaPorta and Carlos Santana combined for 69 Good Fielding Plays and 41 Defensive Misplays & Errors in 1,367 innings.

That's based on video review from Baseball Info Solutions, which watches and tags plays into more than 80 categories of good/bad. A good play for a first baseman might be something like scooping a throw out of the dirt. A misplay may be for something such as dropping a return throw from a teammate on a double-play attempt.

Kotchman had fewer Good Fielding Plays (55), but had less than half as many Defensive Misplays & Errors (20) in a similar number of innings (1,222).

Kotchman’s average of one Defensive Misplay & Error per 61 innings was third-best among major-league first basemen who played at least 900 innings (approximately 100 games) at first base.
-- Mark Simon

On Wednesday, MLB players combined to hit 47 home runs. That is the highest single-day total this season. Five batters had multi-HR games: Matt Holliday, Martin Prado, Buster Posey, Casey Kotchman and Adam Dunn (who hit three). Dunn had been in a 12-game homerless drought prior to Wednesday's outburst. We break down a change in Dunn's approach this season in this edition of The Closer:

Hitter of the Night

Adam Dunn, WSH: 3-4, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 3 R

Dunn is the second player this season (Edwin Encarnacion) to homer on three different types of pitches in a game, as he homered off Jon Garland's changeup in the first inning, Garland's fastball in the third inning and Joe Thatcher's slider in the eighth inning. The homers off Garland reflected a trend this season for Dunn, who has been more aggressive in his approach. Dunn's swing percentage on the first two pitches he sees is up from 29.0 last year to 32.1 pct this season, and he's seen strong results.


On a homer-heavy day, there were starters who had success:

Why Tim Lincecum won:

- Lincecum's average fastball velocity was 93.3 MPH, his highest in a start this season. Lincecum started 20 hitters off with fastballs (71.4 pct of AB).
- The Giants righty threw his changeup 23 times on Wednesday, getting Brewers hitters to miss on eight of their 12 swings - the best miss pct (66.7) in a start this season for Lincecum's changeup.
- He especially turned to his changeup with two strikes: He threw 17 pitches with two strikes, eight of which were changeups. Lincecum managed six strikeouts with his change, all swinging. Overall with two strikes, Brewers hitters put just one ball in play, a groundout.


Why David Price won:

- Threw 99 fastballs out of 111 pitches (89.1 pct), a season high. Entering Wednesday, Price had thrown 70.3 pct fastballs on the season. The Red Sox missed on 19 of their 60 swings against Price's fastball (31.7 pct). For the season, the Red Sox miss pct vs fastballs is 13.1.
- Through six innings, Price had thrown 83 of 87 fastballs. In his final two innings, eight of Price's 24 pitches were offspeed. Price started 27 of the first 29 hitters he faced with a first-pitch fastball.
- Price threw five of his 12 offspeed pitches with two strikes. He also threw five of his 12 offspeed pitches to Marco Scutaro. Scutaro is a .300 hitter this season against fastballs from LHP; .241 against offspeed pitches from LHP.
- Price's strike pct of 74.8 was a season high, and he threw just one pitch all night out of a three-ball count.
- With runners in scoring position, Price threw 14 pitches; only one was an offspeed pitch.


Why Josh Johnson won:
- Challenged hitters in the strike zone. Johnson threw 75 of his 117 pitches in the strike zone (64.1 pct- a season high). As a result, Johnson's chase pct (4.8 pct) was almost half of his previous season low in a start (9.4 pct).
- Johnson threw 46 of his 76 fastballs in the strike zone, and Dodgers hitters showed patience, chasing only one of 30 fastballs out of the zone. However, they also only went 2-15 (.133) on fastballs in the strike zone. The MLB average on fastballs in the zone is .302.
- Worked efficiently. Johnson retired all eight leadoff men he faced, and 22 of his 31 batters faced saw four pitches or less.

Quick Hits: With Todd Helton and Joe Mauer in opposing dugouts this week, it has highlighted the fact that neither slugger has hit a home run at home this season. Some other intriguing home/road notes:

• Denard Span is hitting .378 at home and .172 on the road. That .206 discrepancy is the largest in baseball.
• On the other hand, Ryan Braun is hitting .370 on the road, but just .216 at home, the largest discrepancy in the other direction.
• Chris Young has hit 10 of his 12 home runs at home. Paul Konerko is next, having hit seven more homers at home.
• Nine of Justin Morneau’s 11 home runs have come on the road, while David Wright has hit eight more homers on the road than at home. Meanwhile, all seven of Ian Stewart’s homers are away from Coors.
• Of Ryan Sweeney’s 28 RBI, 23 have come at home.
• At .391, Martin Prado is on track for the highest home batting average since teammate Chipper Jones hit .399 at home in 2008.
• Over the last 55 years, only two Yankees have posted a higher home batting average than Brett Gardner’s .385: Paul O’Neill (.409 in 1994) and Mickey Mantle (.387 in 1957).
• Casey Kotchman’s .175 batting average at home would be the fifth worst among qualifying players over the last 50 years.
• Jason Heyward has 17 more walks on the road than at home, the biggest difference in the majors.

Today’s Trivia: If Alex Rodriguez returns to the lineup against Jamie Moyer on Wednesday, it will mark the second time that a player with 500 career home runs has faced a pitcher who has allowed 500 long balls. The only other instance occurred in 1966. Who were the players involved?

Today’s Leaderboard: The best hitters at home this season? A pair of players that could find themselves playing elsewhere in a couple months. Who knows if Paul Konerko will still be calling U.S. Cellular Field home after the trade deadline, but for now Konerko is crushing the ball at home. His 1.201 OPS at home is the best in baseball, and is on track to be the best since Barry Bonds in 2004. Second on the list is Kelly Johnson’s 1.133 OPS.

Key Matchups: David Ortiz faced Rodrigo Lopez each year from 2003 to 2006 as AL East foes. In 50 plate appearances, he’s hitting .326 with a .932 OPS. That includes a memorable two triple game in 2004, the only in Ortiz’s career. However, one thing has eluded Ortiz against Lopez: A home run. Ortiz is homerless in 50 plate appearances, the most he’s faced any pitcher without going deep. Even stranger? Despite that .932 OPS, Ortiz only has one RBI against Lopez.

Alex Rodriguez is expected back in the Yankees’ lineup on Wednesday, and he’ll face Jamie Moyer in a matchup that dates back to 1996. They’ve faced each other 59 times in total, and A-Rod is a .389 hitter against Moyer with a 1.218 OPS. This will be the first meeting since 2005, but in his last nine at-bats against Moyer, Rodriguez is 7-9 with four home runs.

Trivia Answer: When Willie Mays stepped in against Robin Roberts on August 6, 1966, he had 529 home runs to his credit. In his previous start, Roberts became the first pitcher to allow 500 career home runs when Hank Aaron took him deep. It was Aaron’s 429th career home run.

The Mariners front office threw their fans for a loop on the first team workout of the spring when second baseman Jose Lopez trotted out to third base while newly-acquired third baseman Chone Figgins positioned himself at second. As Dave Cameron noted on this blog, “More and more, teams are realizing that if you can play a quality third base, you probably have the skills to transition to second, and vice versa.” But if it doesn’t matter who’s playing where, why bother?

Fast forward to the first week of the season: Rajai Davis hit a sharp ground ball off Doug Fister that sped toward the 3B/SS hole. Lopez, playing in on the grass with the chance of a bunt from the speedy Davis, dove to his left but missed the ball by inches. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “I’d bet that Adrian Beltre or Chone Figgins would have come up with that ball, and Lopez just cost them a base hit.” Before I could finish the thought, shortstop Jack Wilson flew into the picture, backhanded the ball, set his feet and launched a rocket to first, just in time to get Davis. Wilson bailed out Lopez, Fister, and the Mariners on a play that Figgins might have made (had he been playing third).

Sure, it’s just one play, but this example illustrates that playing two good fielders on the left side of the infield could cause some overlap, effectively making the total less than the sum of the parts. On some ground balls, both the third baseman and the shortstop could make the play, but only one needs to.

I created a model of the Mariners’ infield using each player’s 2009 performance. I’ll spare you the long explanation for now (I’m running over my word count as it is), but I projected the distribution of ground balls allowed by Mariner pitching in 2009 onto their projected infield before and after the swap. Since I didn’t have a model for Lopez and Figgins at their new positions, I used average third basemen (Melvin Mora, Kevin Kouzmanoff) and above-average second basemen (Dustin Pedroia, Chase Utley, Aaron Hill) as proxies at their respective positions.

For example, let’s compare the Mora/Wilson/Pedroia/Casey Kotchman infield to Figgins/Wilson/Lopez/Kotchman. Adding up the full season of plays, the drop-off at third was significant, but Jack Wilson reached most of the grounders anyway. In fact, Mora (Lopez’s proxy at third base) covers an estimated 58 fewer plays than Figgins, but Wilson’s elite defense makes up 45 of those from shortstop! Add in the 18-play increase from Lopez to Pedroia (Figgins' proxy) at second base, and it’s a net gain of five plays for the team. Using similar infield proxies at third and second, the Mariners’ improvement ranges from zero to 15 plays per season as a result of the swap. Even though it’s not a huge improvement, every run could make a difference in the competitive AL West.

Regardless of the reasons, the (very) early returns on the position swap are positive: Figgins has saved one run at second according to Baseball Info Solutions, while Jose Lopez has accumulated eight Runs Saved, leading all third basemen. So far, so good in Seattle.

When Seattle traded for Casey Kotchman on Jan. 7, the general reaction was a shrug of the shoulders. Of course the Mariners acquired a guy who is considered one of the best defensive first basemen in the league; Jack Zduriencik has shown almost as much affection for quality glove guys as he has for his wife and kids.

However, the M’s don’t just expect Kotchman to play a nice first base in his age-27 season. The coaching staff also believes it can tap into some of the offensive potential he showed earlier in his career, and as a left-handed hitter, they believe that the friendly right-field porch in Safeco Field should help him finally deliver on some of his potential power.

The park is much friendlier to left-handed bats than right-handed hitters, who suffer the most from its asymmetrical alignment. However, there’s one problem in hoping that Kotchman takes advantage of the proximity of the right field wall -– he prefers to pound the ball into the ground.

For his career, 52.7 percent of all of his balls in play have been hit on the ground. Last year, Kotchman hit the ball in the air at the same rate as guys like Scott Podsednik and Melky Cabrera. In fact, among first basemen with at least 400 plate appearances in 2009, Kotchman hit the fewest fly balls by far –- his 29.5 percent mark was nearly five percent behind Nick Johnson, the next runner-up.

If the Mariners are going to contend in 2010, they’re going to have to get offensive production from Kotchman, and he won’t be able to take advantage of how Safeco Field is configured by driving the ball into the ground. Hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo’s biggest job this spring may just be to convince Kotchman to get under the ball once in a while.

Dave Cameron is managing editor of FanGraphs.