One and D'oh!

Al Michaels has always been one of my favorite announcers, and while many of you may think of him as a football announcer or asking the immortal question, "Do you believe in miracles?", I always loved his work in baseball.

Like many announcers, the Brooklyn-born Michaels has certain tells in their speech as to their background. With Michaels, I would always wait for the first pitch of an at bat to a batter to hear Michaels channel his inner not-yet-created Homer Simpson state, "The count is one and d'oh."

Here's a look at that first pitch ball.

The 1-0 pitch

Pitchers don't want to go 1-0. It's better than giving a hit on 0-0, but that's it. Everything else is worse. You fall behind and immediately give an advantage to the batter as a result.

The difference between 0-1 and 1-0

Split	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB
1-0 Count	4589	4439	751	1444	308	37	188	.325	.326	.538	.864	2390
0-1 Count	6106	5867	808	1836	347	29	166	.313	.320	.467	.787	2739

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/8/2013.

Who are the best 1-0 pitchers?

There are 10 pitchers who have held batters to under a .200 batting average against on 1-0 pitches.

Doug Fister has been incredible only allowing one hit, an infield single to Mark DeRosa on 4/11 in the midst of a Tigers blowout of the Jays.

Clay Buchholz has been equally effective only allowing a Vernon Wells single in a Red Sox victory over the Yankees on 4/3.

The Tribe's Zach McAllister has permitted just two hits on the 1-0 count. 

	Name	G	PA	AVG	OBP	SLUG	OPS
1	Doug  Fister  (DET)	12	21	0.053	0.143	0.053	0.195
2	Clay Buchholz (BOS)	11	12	0.083	0.083	0.083	0.167
3	Zach McAllister (CLE)	11	21	0.100	0.143	0.100	0.243
4	A.J. Griffin (OAK)	12	17	0.118	0.118	0.118	0.235
5	Travis Wood (CHC)	12	20	0.150	0.150	0.200	0.350
6	C.J. Wilson (LAA)	12	18	0.176	0.222	0.353	0.575
7	Nick Tepesch (TEX)	11	17	0.176	0.176	0.529	0.706
8	Jon Niese (NYM)	11	16	0.188	0.188	0.313	0.500
9	Lance Lynn (STL)	12	17	0.188	0.188	0.250	0.438
10	Jason Hammel (BAL)	13	22	0.190	0.182	0.286	0.468

The pitchers who struggle on 1-0

There are 24 pitchers who have a .400+ batting average against them on 1-0 counts. 

These are the seven worst.

		G	PA	AVG	OBP	SLUG	OPS
1	Kris Medlen (ATL)	12	13	0.667	0.667	1.000	1.667
2	Dillon Gee (NYM)	12	26	0.654	0.654	0.962	1.615
3	Ubaldo Jimenez (CLE)	12	15	0.571	0.533	0.714	1.248
4	Ryan Dempster (BOS)	12	12	0.545	0.500	1.455	1.955
5	Marco Estrada (MIL)	12	22	0.545	0.545	1.091	1.636
6	Adam Wainwright (STL)	13	30	0.483	0.483	0.621	1.103
7	R.A. Dickey (TOR)	13	26	0.480	0.462	0.960	1.422

Nine to Know

1. R.A. Dickey has thrown 166 1-0 pitches, Mark Buehrle 159, James Shields 148, constituting the three most 1-0 counts on batters.
2. R.A. Dickey has thrown 104 1-0 strikes, Mark Buehrle 107, and Jon Lester 100
3. Kevin Correia has had 39 1-0 plate appearances.
4. Dillon Gee has has surrendered 17 1-0 hits.
5. Marco Estrada and Kevin Correia have each allowed four 1-0 homers.
6. Cliff Lee has produced 17 foul balls 1-0 counts.
7. After 1-0, Jordan Zimmermann has gone 1-1 51 times, the most in the majors.
8. After 1-0, R.A. Dickey and Edinson Volquez have gone 2-0 62 times, the most in the majors
9. After 1-0, Jason Marquis has walked the batter 29 times, Tim Lincecum, Dickey, and Lucas Harrell 28 times each, the most in the majors.

There you go, my "one and d'oh" salute to the great Al Michaels.