October 6, 2008
Preorder the 2009 Annual The 2009 Hardball Times Annual, to be shipped in early November, is ready for preorder. This year's Annual will, once again, be the best yet. We're beefing up our articles to include 40 prominent writers, such as Craig Wright, Rob Neyer, Joe Posnanski, Don Malcolm, Tangotiger, MGL, and many others. Please support THT and order it directly from ACTA today. 
Rich Barbieri John Barten Sal Baxamusa John Beamer Brian Borawski John Brattain Craig Brown Matthew Carruth Derek Carty Alex Eisenberg Mike Fast David Gassko
Brandon Isleib
Chris Jaffe Josh Kalk Chris Neault Dave Studeman Steve Treder Bryan Tsao Tuck! John Walsh Geoff Young And here's the full roster.
Or you can search by:
THT's ToolboxStubHub is where fans buy and sell Yankees Tickets, Red Sox Tickets, White Sox Tickets, Mets Tickets and all other baseball tickets. If you are looking for World Series Tickets, ALCS Tickets or NLCS Tickets, you can find them at StubHub! More hot selling tickets include: Cubs Tickets, Astros Tickets, Dodgers Tickets, Angels Tickets and Detroit Tigers Tickets. Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets. 
All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a
Creative Commons
License.
|
Baby Pictures (Part 2)by John BrattainNovember 10, 2006 Would somebody kindly do something? Anyone? (sigh) Post World Series, pre-hot stove league, and I’m bored, uninspired (yeah yeah, so what else is new?) and worst of all: I didn’t procrastinate and I’ve still got bupkis. Heck, even David Samson hasn’t provided me any new material. Oh well. Back to baby pictures. I thought I’d do a bit of a twist. We’ve all heard about the next big thing. The "can’t miss" who invariably did (Jeffrey Hammonds anyone?). Although today’s quartet made the major leagues, they fell just a weeeee bit short of projections—although in the case of the last guy on the list, it was injury that short circuited "what could’ve been." When healthy, he has had some terrific years (four seasons over 130 OPS+ in at least 400 PA). So, for the second time in as many weeks; without further ado, our flab four: James Baldwin, Roger Cedeno, Danny Clyburn and Cliff Floyd.
Um, wow. Where to start? In fairness, Baldwin has had some flashes of brilliance (the early part of 2000 which led to an All-Star selection) but they’ve been just that—flashes. He enjoyed pretty good control over his career: 3.3 BB/9 IP—despite leading the AL in wild pitches in 1997—but never developed into an overpowering pitcher (major league career K/9 of 5.74) despite averaging a whiff per inning at the time the above was written. Expect low hit games? He averaged over a hit an inning in over 1300 IP. On the bright side, he pitched pretty well in his only postseason start (6 IP/1 ER) against the Mariners in the 2000 ALDS but didn’t get a decision. Baldwin finished his career with an ERA over five (5.01; 91 ERA+).
Over my years surfing various baseball message boards I’ve probably seen his name punctuated by more expletives than any other player (other honorees: Timo Perez, Neifi Perez, the New York Mets from 1992-98). Such is the life of whom much was expected and little delivered. “Can’t: hit homers yet”? Well after hitting 40 over 11 seasons I think the waiting is over. “Expect: good on-base percentage”? His .340 was over the league average over the same span (.337)—that was a textbook 'damning with faint praise'. “Don't Expect: a bust”? Over 3000 AB and an OPS+ of 88? That’s a bust of Dolly Parton proportions. For what it’s worth, Cedeno is 11 for 31 in the postseason.
Lemme guess: Your first thought was—Who? Well, let’s see…
Shoot, I'd buy him a beer if we ever met.
Man, what could’ve been: “Will: dominate” “Can't: miss” “the potential to be one of the top sluggers in the game” “been likened to such players as Barry Bonds” When this was written, the Expos were just starting to get very good. He played 100 games on the 1994 Expos—didn’t play particularly well but they really didn’t need him … yet. Then the collision in 1995 with Todd Hundley that broke his wrist gruesomely. Other injuries followed. Since 1995, they have cost him at least 600 games—almost four full major league seasons. When healthy he’s had some terrific seasons; he’s been 20-20 a couple of times, he’s had seasons of at least 40 doubles/20 HR three times and launched 31 dingers in one of them. Despite playing the bulk of his career in poor hitters’ parks (Olympic Stadium, Pro Player Stadium, Shea Stadium), he’s hit 317 doubles and 213 HR. The forecast was on target, the talent was (and is) there. He’s my personal Pete Reiser. I’ll cheer him until he hangs up the spikes. He’ll be 34 soon, and I pray the twilight of his career will be a healthy one. He could’ve been amazing. Hopefully by next week something interesting will have happened. C’mon David—tell us why South Florida should give you almost a half billion dollars of free money. Tune in every Wednesday at 4:40 PM EST on ESPN 1450's The Mike Gill Show and Fridays at 5:40 PM on “The Locker Room with Kevin Williams” on Fox Sports Radio 1310AM and 1160 WOBM-AM where I'm a weekly guest. For a distinctive Canadian flavour you can read my coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays (as well as other baseball matters) at Sympatico/MSN Sports. Also be sure to check out baseball’s hottest blog as mentioned by the voices inside my head: The Progenitor of Severe Gluteal Discomfort. Please forward all flames, complaints, whining, accusations about my mother, inferences of habouring an Oedipus complex, demands to engage in coprophagy before shuffling off this mortal coil, and anatomically impossible suggestions here. Do you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. Please include your whole name and location to be considered. If you have a comment about this specific article, please email the writer. Next Article: Feast or Famine>> <<Previous Article: What Went Wrong with the Tribe? (Part 5) |
