This past week saw the first signs of the offseason hobbling (gingerly, ever so gingerly) towards its terminus: pitchers and catchers officially reported to Spring Training this past Tuesday. Of course, in today's baseball environment the date is pretty much in name only, as most pitchers and catchers are already in camp by the deadline, not to mention a fair number of position players, too. Still, though, it remains the first milepost in my head on the road to a long-awaited spring thaw. Let the BSOHL articles commence!
As you've no doubt guessed by now, pitchers and catchers are the theme of today's Saturday Sporcle, namely: how many of the opening day starting pitchers and starting catchers can you name since 1980? We've covered opening day starting pitchers before, but catchers will add a twist to that. Still, my hope is that you'll all improve on your scores from last time, at least as it relates to starting pitching. Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- As always, last names accepted in addition to both first and last. A couple of trickier spellings warrant just the first name of the player accepted as well.
- You'll have ten minutes to attempt completion.
- For hints, I've provided the season and the position: I've also (at least on Sporcle's website) arranged it to display in columns in the hope that it will help you to keep track of where you're at. If you've having difficulties doing the quiz on this site, I'd recommend clicking the direct link.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confound, and/or confuse your friends:
- .354: the highest WPA logged by a catcher on this list. (2-4 with a home run and 3 RBI in a 5-3 win against the Red Sox, in 1981...probably no surprise who this is)
- -.157: the lowest WPA logged by a catcher on this list. (0-5 with 5 Ks in a 3-2 loss to the Mariners in 1996)
- For pitchers: the highest WPA logged was .584 in 2005 (8 IP, 2H, 5 K, 0 R in a 1-0 win), while the lowest was by the same player in 2008: -.517 (1 2/3 IP, 7 runs on 7 hits in a 10-8 loss)
All data from baseballreference.com
