BP on Soriano, Papelbon

Rany Jazayerli, Doctoring The Numbers:

Leading off a player who's a threat to rap 100 extra-base hits in a season is crazy as it is, but it's certifiably insane in the NL. Not only does the pitcher make outs 85 percent of the time, but he's going to bunt a runner on first base over to scoring position as often as he can, negating the advantage of the extra-base hit over the single. Sure enough, last season, despite 33 homers, 42 doubles, and five triples, [Alfonso] Soriano finished the season with just 70 RBI. In major league history, no player with 75 or more extra-base hits has ever finished with so few:

Year  Player             2B  3B  HR  XBH  RBI
2007  Alfonso Soriano    42   5  33   80   70
2007  Curtis Granderson  38  23  23   84   74
1929  Johnny Frederick   52   6  24   82   75
2006  Grady Sizemore     53  11  28   92   76
1965  Zoilo Versalles    45  12  19   76   77
2000  Bobby Abreu        42  10  25   77   79
2007  Hanley Ramirez     48   6  29   83   81
1943  Stan Musial        48  20  13   81   81
1932  Paul Waner         62  10   8   80   82
2006  Jimmy Rollins      45   9  25   79   83

Apparently the use of Soriano in the leadoff spot [he had a .337 OBP in 2007] has sparked some sort of trend; five of the ten guys on this list played in the last two years ...

After a little over two seasons in the majors, [Jonathan] Papelbon's career line is a thing of beauty: 160 2/3 innings, 103 hits, 45 walks, 193 strikeouts, and an ERA of 1.62. It's been a long time since someone with that many career innings could boast of having a career ERA that low. In fact, you have to go back to 1916, when Walter Johnson’s career ERA stood at 1.61. (Obviously there's a slight difference between these two pitchers; at the conclusion of that season, the Big Train's 1.61 ERA had been amassed in 3148 innings ...

Since Johnson retired, here are the lowest career ERAs at the end of a season for a pitcher with at least 150 career innings:

Year  Pitcher             IP     ERA
2007  Jonathan Papelbon  160.2  1.62
1965  Bob Lee            268.1  1.71
1990  Rob Dibble         256.1  1.90
1977  Bruce Sutter       190.2  1.94
1985  Dwight Gooden      494.2  2.00

... Any way you slice it, Papelbon's career is off to one of the best starts for a relief pitcher -- or any pitcher -- in history.