Reese Kaplan -- Baseball Isn't Always About Awards

As the season winds down for non contending teams sometimes the focus shifts from wins and losses for the team into more individual performance metrics that matter more to players than you might think.  Most of us sit here and watch guys in their 20s starting off with a salary over $600K per year and think what a great way that is to start a career, but like anyone in a regular job making that kind of money there's no guarantee it will last forever nor that it will be spent and invested wisely.

Consequently, the first major milestone for ballplayers to achieve is a full ten years of service time.  You'd be surprised how many ballplayers never made it to that kind of playing duration.  On the Mets when the season began there were several, including pitchers Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Carlos Carrasco and Adam Ottavino.  Outfielder Starling Marte would also be on that list but most of the rest of the roster despite being considered an older team would not.  

At the decade mark in major league baseball you are entitled to long term health care and other benefits that come as a reward for the longevity as an athlete.  In the case of players with five consecutive years with one club who cross that ten year anniversary they also get the right to veto any trades to other teams that don't appeal to them.  However, it is the sheer magnitude of the effort and the rarity that a full 90% of major leaguers never cross that threshold.  

A little known benefit for eight years of service time is known as a Gold Card, a special form of ID that entitles the holder and his guest to free tickets to any baseball game at any time in any of the 30 major league ballparks.  I guess in the business world it's kind of like getting permission to use the company gym or a key to the executive washroom.  It's not a necessity nor is it critical to one's survival for the rest of your life, but it's a nice perk to get having been a steady ballplayer.

One of the rarest metrics for offensive ballplayers is the appearance in 160 of a 162 game schedule.  There are some healthy and steady players who make a play for that standard year after year, but occasionally it's under a literal handful of baseball professionals who can achieve that steady lineup presence.  Take catchers out of the mix immediately as their defensive effort requires much more physical effort than the other offensive positions.  Still, injuries, slumps and simple exhaustion often have the manager removing one of his steady regulars from playing day after day after day.  

On the pitching side of the ledger there's the increasingly rare 200 innings mark.  Think about how we grew up praising 20 game winners.  They almost never happen anymore.  The proliferation of bullpen usage has removed the number of games in which a starter has gone more than five innings and can entrust someone else for the last inning or two both to preserve a victory and to aggregate the number of innings pitched overall.  Yes, the normally healthy pitchers like Tom Seaver and nowadays Max Scherzer were good for racking up far more than 200 innings, but it's becoming a rarity.

Another odd metric to watch is one familiar to Mets fans, the 100 strikeout relief pitcher.  Last season Edwin Diaz stood alone with this achievement, but other high level relievers who fan quite a few and remain healthy have done so as well.  For a pitcher who gets into say 50 games per season, you're looking at that effort resulting in an average of two strikeouts per game.  If you're a one-inning pitcher, that's asking quite a lot.  

What are some of your favorite (and more obscure) baseball performance metrics?  Let's not go with the number of home runs, RBIs, batting average, stolen bases, wins, losses, saves, no hitters or strikeouts.  What oddball achievements have you tipping your cap to someone?  Is it a player who logs time at 8 (or even 9) positions on the field?  Is it first game home runs by rookies?  Is it something even more inventive to track?