12 fun and crazy small sample size stats from the start of the 2015 season

Sure, it's early in the season and there's lots of fluky performances from hot starts, cold slumps and the inherent randomness of April/May baseball. After all, remember when Adrian Gonzalez was on pace for 270 home runs? 

Still, there's something fun about looking at the leaderboards at this time of year and thinking, what if? For example: What if Bartolo Colon never walks another batter? Isn't that fun to let your mind ruminate on that for hours on end?

That's what we're here to investigate today. Enjoy 12 of the stranger stats and streaks currently on the leaderboards: 

• Thanks to Bartolo Colon's computer firing mechanism, the pitcher has gone 34 2/3 innings without giving up a walk. At his average of 6 2/3 innings per start this year, he'll need 7 1/2 outings to reach Bill Fischer's streak of 84 1/3 innings without a walk. Even if he fails to do it, Colon's 34.00 K/BB rate is obliterating Phil Hughes' mark of 11.63, which he set last year. 

• Part of the reason for the Mets' success this year? They're not walking anybody, regardless of who is on the mound. The team leads the Majors with a 1.91 BB/9 rate. The last team to do that: The 1933 Reds, who walked a Major League-record 1.72 batters per nine. 

• After striking out a completely average 6.3 batters per nine innings last year, Nationals pitcher Tanner Roark went his first 12 1/3 innings before recording his first punchout. While that's unusual, that's nowhere near the record --- Ted Wingfield has the most consecutive innings without a strikeout at 66 2/3 innings in 1927. He finished the year with one. One strikeout.

Also of note: Sloppy Thurston went 30 2/3. But really, I just wanted to call attention to a man named Sloppy. (h/t Effectively Wild)

• Astros starter Dallas Keuchel, he of the 0.80 ERA, has not allowed a home run in 45 innings this season. While that sounds impressive, Dutch Leonard holds the post-integration record among starters with 161 2/3 innings without a home run from 1947-48.

Thought question: Is it the beard? 

• However, the record for relievers in the post-integration era belongs to Greg Minton, who once went 269 innings without allowing a home run between 1979-82. The Royals' Kelvin Herrera made a run at the streak, reaching 105 innings before giving up a home run to Lonnie Chisenhall on May 5. His teammate Wade Davis is still making a go of it, though: he's at 94 innings and counting. 

• Kyle Gibson has been impressive for the Twins, going 3-2 with a 2.97 ERA. Unfortunately, that also comes with a league-low 2.72 K/9 in 36 1/3 innings of work. The last pitcher to qualify for an ERA title with a strikeout rate that low was Kirk Reuter who struck out only 2.64 batters per nine while posting a 4.73 ERA in 2004. 

• Rockies outfielder Drew Stubbs has struck out in 53 percent of his plate appearances this season, K-ing 17 times in 32 trips to the plate. At his current rate, if he was to reach the 502 plate appearances necessary to qualify for the batting title, he would strike out 267 times, breaking Mark Reynolds' record of 223 that he set in 2009. 

• The last time a team posted an on-base percentage below .290 in a full season was 1972, when the Padres and Rangers did it. This season, five teams are at or below that threshold: Angels, Mariners, Pirates, Phillies and Brewers. 

• However, the Dodgers are absolutely crushing the ball. Hitting .262/.343/.484 on the season, their entire team is essentially Adrian Gonzalez in 2014. Their .222 ISO (Isolated power, or a measure of how often a player hits for extra bases) would best the all-time record of .206 held by the 2010 Toronto Blue Jays. 

• Danny Santana, Twins shortstop, went 98 plate appearances before drawing his first walk of the season on May 4. That's nothing, though. Mariano Duncan went 314 AB without drawing a walk in 1996, somehow ending up with seven at the end of the year. 

• Michael Brantley, hitting .341/.407/.512, has struck out in only 3.3 percent of his plate appearances for the Indians. The last player to do that: Tony Gwynn in 1995. Gwynn won the batting title that season, hitting .368.

In fact, Brantley is on a 10-game strikeout-less streak, having not gone down on strikes since April 26. The most recent player to pull that off was Juan Pierre, when he went 23 games without a strikeout in 2013. Naturally, in Gwynn's 1995 season, he went 39 games between Ks. 

• Dee Gordon is leading the league in hits with 52 and a .437 batting average, thanks in part to an absurd .491 BABIP. The only other player to have a BABIP that high or higher with more than 100 at-bats was David Dellucci whose .500 BABIP on 123 PA in 1999 helped him hit .394. Ty Cobb holds the record for a full season with a .444 mark in 1911, while Rod Carew has the "modern" record of .408, which he set in 1977. 

Will any of these hold up over the course of the year? Probably not. But they'll be fun to look out for, and they give you one more reason to tune in. You know, beyond your favorite team, your fantasy team, wondering how far Giancarlo Stanton will hit the ball, pondering whether anyone can get a hit off of Matt Harvey, the sheer excitement of watching Billy Hamilton run the bases, and so on and so on…

(Sources: Fangraphs, Baseball-Reference Play Index)