As TCM noted yesterday, Bloguin has been transitioning to a new server, and it's hit a few bumps in the road that haven't quite been resolved yet. While I don't blame them for anything and am looking forward to eventually being on a faster server (I hope), I don't feel inclined to write a long post that might disappear at any time (or not appear at all). So instead, here's a collection of what I think are some really interesting bits of baseball trivia I've learned recently:

• Did you know that the Phillies used to be called the Blue Jays? I suppose that might be one of those things that lots and lots of people know, but that I just never came across somehow. But anyway, it's true. From 1943 to 1949. It was never their official nickname, but apparently it's good enough for BBREF. My other favorite forgotten nicknames -- Chicago Orphans, Boston Beaneaters, Cleveland Naps, etc. -- all come from a good three decades earlier.
  
  
• Billy Wagner has never started a game in the major leagues, as you'd probably guess. Before being called up to the majors, though, he never pitched in a game that he didn't start. He's made some relief appearances in rehab stints since then.
  
  
• Del Ennis' real first name was Delmer. Del Unser's real first name was Delbert. Six big leaguers have had the first name Delbert, including three others who went by "Del" (Del Bates, Del Rice and Del Wilber). There have been five Delmers, and all five went by Del (the others are Del Baker, Del Paddock and two guys named Del Young). Delmer was Del Lundgren's middle name (his first name was Ebin, improbably). Other Dels have been named Delphia (Del Bissonette), Delmar (Del Crandall), Dellos (Del Gainer), George Elmer?! (Del Howard), Adelbert (Del Mason), and Derrill (Del Pratt). Delwyn Young and Delmon Young, whose first names are both unique in MLB history, are missing a golden opportunity to run the historical Del Young count to four.
  
  
• Since 1920 (and skipping that weird Retrosheet dark period from 1940-51), only 15 pitchers in history have had two consecutive games of at least 10 strikeouts without a walk, and nobody's ever done it thrice in a row. Which makes it pretty impressive that Stephen Strasburg did that twice in his first three career starts, and then on Wednesday missed doing it a second time in a row by one strikeout. What's more, those 15 names (with the arguable exception of James Shields and Rich Harden) were all really, really, really good pitchers: Santana, Schilling, Unit, Brown, Clemens, Ryan, etc. Strasburg is part of a slightly less exclusive club that's gotten at least nine strikeouts with no walks two games in a row. There are 35 of those, but again, nobody's done it three times in a row. Something to keep in mind for his next start, scheduled for next Monday night on ESPN against the Braves (who, notably, are quite a bit more patient than the Pirates, White Sox or Royals, and actually lead the majors in walk rate).
  
  
• Speaking of Strasburg, this isn't a fact so much as a link, but the link has a lot of facts in it: Maury Brown has a feature called The Strasburg Tracker where he tracks all sorts of fascinating information about each Strasburg start, encompassing both his performance and (more interestingly) the impressive effect he's had on attendance and ticket prices. Check it out.