By Ray Flowers
November 26, 2009 11:54am CST

"Numbers constitute the only universal language."
-- Nathanael West, Author/Screenwriter


CATCHER

* Only eight catchers had enough plate appearances (502) to qualify for the batting title, and of that group, two hit .300 (Joe Mauer .365 and A.J. Pierzynski .300).

* Jason Kendall was ninth at the position with 452 at-bats, but he was tied for 49th with two homers, tied for 19th with 43 RBI and he was 15th with 48 runs scored.

* Speaking of runs scored, there were only 13 catchers who scored 50 runs and 17 who hit 10 home runs. Moreover, only 11 backstops were able to hit 10 homers while scoring 50 runs.


FIRST BASE
* Long the domain of sluggers, only four first baseman managed to hit .300 with 30 homers and 100 RBI: Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Derrek Lee and Kendry Morales. Prince Fielder just missed out, as he had 46 homers, 141 RBI and finished one hit short of .300 at .299.

* Only four first basemen managed to cross home plate 100 times: Pujols (124), Ryan Howard (105), Mark Teixeira (103) and Fielder (103). Pujols' run total led all of baseball, regardless of positions.

* Six first sackers got on base at better than a 40 percent rate: Pujols (.443), Todd Helton (.416), Joey Votto (.414), Kevin Youkilis (.413), Fielder (.412) and Adrian Gonzalez (.407). Pujols' mark led the NL but was one point behind major league leader Joe Mauer (.444).


SECOND BASE

* Only one second baseman, one, hit .300 with more than 20 homers and that was Robinson Cano at .320 and 25 homers. Of the five other full-time second basemen to hit 20 homers, Aaron Hill, Chase Utley, Ian Kinsler, Dan Uggla and Jose Lopez - none managed to hit even .285.

* Four second basemen produced 180 hits: Cano (204), Hill (195), Felipe Lopez (187) and Dustin Pedroia (185). Though Hill was second at the position in hits, 48 more than Luis Castillo, he fell 16 points behind the speedy second sacker in batting average (.286 to .302).

* There were eight second basemen that went 20/20 last season, nine if you include Ben Zobrist. Of course, we're talking about second sackers who hit 20 homers while knocking 20 doubles and not a 20/20 effort of the home run/steal variety. If we up the list to 20/30, we wind up with six men, and at 20/40 it shrinks to just two - Jose Lopez and Robinson Cano.


THIRD BASE

* Chone Figgins led the position with 42 steals (David Wright was second with 27 thefts). Figgins also led the way with 17 caught stealing, as no other third sacker was nabbed more than nine times (Wright, Mark Reynolds and Emilio Bonifacio).

* Three third sackers managed to post a rather prodigious .900 OPS: Youkilis (.961), Pablo Sandoval (.943) and Alex Rodriguez (.933). At the other end of the spectrum, there were three third basemen who qualified for the batting title but failed to post even a .700 OPS: Pedro Feliz (.694), Jhonny Peralta (.690) and Emilio Bonifacio (.611).

* There was only one third baseman who hit 20 homers, with 30 doubles and five triples and that was Sandoval (25, 44 and five). In fact, there were only four other third basemen who hit even five triples: Figgins (seven), Casey Blake (six), Bonifacio (five) and Andy LaRoche (five).


SHORTSTOP

* Two is the number of shortstops that managed to hit better than .300 with an OBP of at least .390: Hanley Ramirez (.342/.410) and Derek Jeter (.334/.406).

* Of the five full-time shortstops to score 100 runs, only one failed to hit at least 18 homers or to knock in 65 runs, and that was Marco Scutaro (12 homers, 60 RBI). The others in the group were Jeter, Troy Tulowitzki, Ramirez and Jimmy Rollins.

* Jeter led AL shortstops with 212 hits while the NL leader was Miguel Tejada with 199, two more than Hanley Ramirez. There were only four other shortstops who produced 162 hits on the season: Orlando Cabrera (185), Ryan Theriot (171), Rollins (1668) and Rafael Furcal (165).


OUTFIELD

* The land of dynamic options, the outfield produced 26 players who swiped at least 20 bases. Of those 26, 12 failed to reach double-digits in homers, Willy Tavares and Josh Anderson each hit only one long ball, while seven others went 20/20: Matt Kemp (26/34), Shin-Soo Choo (20/21), Curtis Granderson (30/20), Jayson Werth (36/20), Justin Upton (26/20), Nelson Cruz (33/20) and Ryan Braun (32/20).

* There were only four outfielders who scored 100 runs, led by Braun's total of 113. The others were Johnny Damon (107), Jason Bay (103) and Shane Victorino (102). That was Braun's first 100-run effort, Damon's 10th (in 12 years), Bay's fourth and Victorino's second straight year with both seasons ending up in 102 runs scored.

* There were 34 outfielders who racked up at least 100 punchouts in 2009. Of that group, Jack Cust led the way with (185), Adam Dunn was second (177) and Bay was third with 162. There were only two batters who played the outfield and struck out more than 100 times while hitting fewer than 10 homers and they were Jason, I mean Michael, Bourn (three homers, 140 strikeouts) and Dexter Fowler (four homers, 116 strikeouts).


STARTING PITCHERS

* The list of pitchers that won 15 games while posting an ERA under 3.50 with more than 200 strikeouts was small in 2009 with eight - or was it a small number? Here are a look at number of hurlers who reached all three levels in a season in the year listed.

1999: three
1989: five
1979: three
1969: twelve
1959: two
1949: zero
1939: one
1929: zero
1919: zero
1909: one

* Three men completed at least six games: Roy Halladay (nine), Cliff Lee (six) and Zack Greinke (six). Let's take our every decade look and see how that total of three compares.

1999: six
1989: thirty-one
1979: sixty-five
1969: sixty-three
1959: fifty-eight
1949: ninety-four
1939: seventy-nine
1929: eighty
1919: eighty-six
1909: ninety-one

* There were 36 men who tossed at least 200 innings in 2009. Of that group only three men failed to win at least 10 games: Doug Davis (nine), Matt Garza (nine) and John Lannan (nine). Surprisingly, only one of the remaining 33 hurlers didn't win at least 11 games, as Jeremy Guthrie was the only man in the group who won exactly 10 games.


RELIEF PITCHERS

* There were 28 relievers who saved at least 20 games last season. Of that group there were six guys who clearly didn't open the year as the closer, and that group doesn't include guys like Kevin Gregg (23) and Fernando Rodney (37), who appeared to be the closer but clearly hadn't locked the job down heading into the year.

* Closers are supposed to be able to rack up the saves while providing tremendous ratios - right? Therefore, would you consider it a surprise that out of that group of 20-save men that only three were able to accrue at least 20 saves while posting an ERA under 2.00 and a WHIP below 1.00? Two of the men are widely considered the best closers in their leagues' history in Mariano Rivera (1.76 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 44 saves) and Trevor Hoffman (1.83, 0.91 and 37), while the other was a rookie who functioned as a middling starting pitcher before being moved to the bullpen in Andrew Bailey (1.94, 0.88 and 26).

* Three is the number of full-time relievers who managed to post triple-digit strikeout marks: Jonathan Broxton (114 in 76 innings), Michael Wuertz (102 in 78.2 innings) and Rafael Soriano (102 in 75.2 innings). Amongst pitchers who have appeared in at least 70 games in a season, Broxton's 13.50 K/9 mark is the fourth best mark in the history of the game (Eric Gagne holds the record with a 14.98 mark in 2003).