Happy Pi Day 2013!

If you’ve been reading the VORG for a while, you know that our favorite day of the year, aside from Opening Day, would be Pi Day.  Pi Day (3.14) celebrates the magic and wonder of this numerical constant.

For those of you who have forgotten your high school trig/geometry:

The number π  is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and is approximately equal to 3.14159. It has been represented by the Greek letter “π” since the mid-18th century, though it is also sometimes written as pi. π is an irrational number, which means that it cannot be expressed exactly as a ratio of two integers (such as 22/7 or other fractions that are commonly used to approximate π); consequently, its decimal representation never ends and never settles into a permanent repeating pattern.

In the past, we’ve given you the annual “Pi Young Awards” for the pitchers with ERAs closest to 3.1415927 and last year we gave you the games with the inning-by-inning scores that were closest to 3-1-4-1-5-9-2-7 in sequence.   This year, we’ll celebrate with an examination of those players with various stat ratios of 3.14.

Pitchers with at least 1,000 IP and career 3.14 K/BB rate.  There is only one:

There have been three pitchers to have a 3.14 BB/9 rate for their career:

While no pitcher allowed a mere 3.14 hits per 9 or had a 3.14 WHIP in their career, there have been some to K that few, about 80-90 years ago:

Only one pitcher has turned every opposing batter into a .314 hitter (minimum 1,000 innings pitched):

For good measure, here are the pitchers with a career BABIP of .314 over at least 1,000 innings:

On the batter’s side, there has been only one hitter to strike out exactly once every 3.14 at-bats in his career:

We’ve had quite a few hitters compile a career .314 BABIP (min. 3,000 PAs):

There has been only one batter with 3,000 or more plate appearances and 3.14 times as many strikeouts as walks:

There hasn’t been anyone with 3.14 times as many walks as strikeouts, regardless of the number of plate appearances.