Surprising and not-so-surprising MLB numbers of July

Between the All-Star break, the Hall of Fame inductions and the trading deadline, there was plenty going on between the the white lines, as well.

Let’s take a look at the surprising and not-so-surprising numbers of July:

• The Pirates, Yankees, and Royals had 17 wins in July more than another teams; no team had a better winning pct. than the 17-7 Yankees (.708).

• Two teams had only nine wins in July: the Rockies (9-15) and the Rays (9-16), the latter had the worst winning percentage at .360.

• AL East went 59-65, only the Yankees (17-7) finished over .500). NL East went 58-68, the Mets and Phillies (honest) with the best record at 13-12. AL Central went 69-63 with the Royals going 17-11 and Chicago White Sox going 16-10. NL Central went 71-59 with the Pirates 17-9, the Cardinals and Cubs going 15-12, and the Brewers were 13-12. The AL West went 58-65 with the Angels going 14-10, the only team over .500. The NL West went 63-56 with Dodgers going 14-9, Giants 14-10, and the Padres and D-backs going 13-11.

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• Home teams went 210-166 with the Royals (12-5) and the Pirates (11-3) excelling while the 4-9 Rangers struggled.

• A pair of Sox — On the road in July, the White Sox went 10-2 while the Red Sox went 1-8.

• The Cardinals staff (2.78) had the best ERA, while the Rangers (6.22) the worst. The Cardinals starters had a 2.61 ERA (the Dodgers starters had a 2.64 ERA and the Mets 2.71) the best in baseball; the Rangers (6.61) were the worst. The Arizona bullpen had an MLB-best 1.78 ERA, while surprisingly, the Dodgers bullpen 6.29 ERA was the worst in the game.

• The Rockies bats led the majors hitting .286 in July while the Nationals (yes, the Nationals!) hit .213, the lowest BA in the majors.

* Mike Trout had a staggering 1.323 OPS in July in part because of his huge .861 slugging pct. But don’t minimize Carlos Gonzalez who had 74 total bases in July.

• Four batters hit over .400 in the month: Gerardo Parra, who went from the Brewers to the Orioles at the deadline, (.435), Joey Votto (.405), and Buster Posey and DJ LeMahieu each hit .400.

• Five batters hit under .170 in July: ROY-candidate Kris Bryant (.168), Brandon Moss (who went to the Cardinals in a deal, hit .165), All-Star Stephen Vogt (.163), Starlin Castro (.156), free-agent to-be Justin Upton (.162), and Starlin Castro who hit .160.

• Wei-Yin Chen made six starts, faced 159 batters in 36.0, and allowed nine homers. Johnny Cueto, who was traded by the Reds to the Royals, also made six starts facing 160 batters in 40.0 IP and allowed no homers. Neither did Mike Leake (he too was traded by the Reds to the Giants at the deadline) who pitched 36 innings in five July starts, faced 135 batters.

• Three pitchers had ERAs under 1.00: Scott Kazmir (0.26) for Oakland and Houston and the Dodgers dynamic duo of Clayton Kershaw (0.27) and Zack Greinke (0.95). Three starters had ERAs over 8.00: Kyle Kendrick (8.47), Chad Bettis (8.55), and Michael Lorenzen (8.61).

• Batters hit only .134 against Zack Greinke and Scott Kazmir, but found it easy to hit Alfredo Simon with a whopping .341 BAA.

• With Derek Norris behind the plate, San Diego pitchers had only a .210 BAA.

• No starter threw more innings than the Tribe’s Corey Kluber with 46.1 in July (he also led everyone throwing 676 pitches); Jon Lester was next with 43.1 and he led everyone with 50 strikeouts. No reliever threw more innings than the Yanks’s Dellin Betances with 16.1 in July and he led all relievers with 25 strikeouts.

Mark Buehrle made five starts, threw 34.2 innings, faced 138 batters, and walked just one. Yovani Gallardo made six starts, threw 31.1 innings, faced 151 batters, and walked 20 of them.

• Kris Bryant, who led all batters whiffing 37 times, tied with Michael Taylor for the most Ks against starters with 25, while Nick Castellanos struck out 17 times against relievers.

• Cameron Maybin grounded out 53 times in the month.

• Trevor Plouffe banged into seven inning-ending double plays. Yasmany Tomas and Nick Castellanos ended 15 innings by striking out.

• Ian Kinsler led all batters in July with 41 hits while Xander Bogaerts led all batters in July with 34 singles.

• Melky Cabrera led with 13 doubles, but Jay Bruce and Gregory Polanco each had 10.

• Arizona’s David Peralta hit six triples in July, only 10 teams had more than six triples in the month.

• Mike Trout led July batters with 12 homers, edging Carlos Gonzalez who had 11. Yankee teammates Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira were next with nine each.

• Joey Votto walked 26 times (in 25 games) to lead the month, while Eddie Rosario came to the plate 92 times and walked just once.

• Joe Panik in 95 PA only whiffed four times; the A’s struck out only 150 times (they also walked only 43 times).

• Michael Brantley swung at 177 pitches and only missed nine. Kris Bryant swung at 218 pitches and led the majors swinging and missing 88 times.

• Adam Jones chased 110 pitches out of the strike zone in 109 PA; while Adam Eaton in 116 PA watched 107 called strikes go by (he saw 512 pitches in the month, the most of anyone).

• Michael Bourn, Dee Gordon, and Jose Reyes (who was traded by Toronto to Colorado) each stole three bases in a game in July.

• Melky Cabrera led the majors with 13 hits with runners in scoring position, but Justin Bour of the Marlins was Mr. Clutch going 11-19 (.579) with runners in scoring position. The Cubs’ Dexter Fowler was Mr. No-Clutch going 0-18 with RISP.

• The Orioles will appreciate that Gerardo Parra led the majors with 20 hits leading off an inning, and Mr. Lead-off Walk Dexter Fowler drew 12 bases on balls to start an inning.

• Shin-Soo Choo was the only batter to hit for the cycle in July; it was his only triple of the month and it’s the only game he’s had four hits all season.

• Prior to this month, in the entire history of the Mets (born in 1962), no Mets player had ever hit three homers in a home game. On July 12, Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit three and then on July 29, Lucas Duda hit three at Citi Field.

• Cole Hamels threw the month’s only no-hitter and before he could make another start, the Phillies traded him to the Rangers.

• And, in case you forgot, Mike Trout hit a leadoff homer and was the MVP as the AL beat the NL, 6-3, in the All-Star Game. In four All-Star Games, in four first at bats, Trout has now hit for the All-Star cycle.

Finally, two nights before the trading deadline, young Mets infielder Wilmer Flores was on the field in tears thinking that he had been traded by the team he had signed with at age 16. The deal fell through and in the first game following the passing of the deadline, Flores hit a walkoff homer against the Mets rival Washington Nationals. Proving once again that often the best deals are the ones you don’t make.

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