Tuesday, February 07, 2012
A baseball card mystery: Bill Sudakis and the strange light
Posted by Bruce MarkusenDiehard Yankee fans of a certain age will remember Bill Sudakis. Tall, muscular, and blond-haired, Sudakis brought a defined and distinctive look to the baseball field.
He had the appearance of a California surfer. He also reminded me of the actor David Soul, who famously played Detective Ken Hutchinson in the 1970s cop drama, “Starsky and Hutch.”
As a ballplayer, Sudakis was a journeyman. At one time, he appeared to be a star third baseman in-the-making, part of a young and promising Dodgers team known as “The Mod Squad.” But the Dodgers had depth at third base and felt that Sudakis could withstand the strains of catching, so they tried him behind the plate.
Unfortunately, the Dodgers were wrong; Sudakis developed knee trouble. He also struggled in making the transition to catching, particularly when it came to throwing out opposing baserunners. In 38 games behind the plate in 1970, Sudakis threw out six percent of base stealers. That’s no misprint, six percent.
During the spring of 1972, the Dodgers tried to slip the switch-hitting Sudakis through waivers, but the Mets put in a claim, sent the waiver fee to the Dodgers, and made him part of their bench. Continuing knee problems derailed his time with the Mets, who ended up trading him to Texas.
From there, he returned to New York, this time with the Yankees, where he became a third-string catcher behind Thurman Munson and Rick Dempsey.
Sudakis' tenure with the Yankees would become memorable, not for his role as a utility man-DH, but for a vicious fistfight with Dempsey at the famed Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. Late in the 1974 season, Sudakis and Dempsey engaged in a knockdown brawl, even launching pieces of hotel furniture at each other like flying projectiles. (According to one report, one of the combatants threw a lamp as if it were a javelin.)
Remarkably, neither man suffered a serious injury. A peace-loving Bobby Murcer broke up the fisticuffs, only to suffer a broken pinky finger in the process. The loss of Murcer, one of the best players on the team, ended up costing the Yankees, who were desperately trying to win the American League East on the final weekend of the season.
Sudakis’ 1975 Topps card has always intrigued me, especially in regard to the lighting. I cannot tell whether this photograph was taken at the height of a sunny afternoon or during a night game.
At first glance, it looks like a night game, with the bright light around the plate magnified by a stanchion located up above. Topps, however, almost never took pictures of players during night games. Almost all of their photographs were taken during the daytime, either before or during afternoon games.
So perhaps this is a case of the cameraman snapping the shot of Sudakis while looking into the sun, making the light around home plate appear almost artificial in its brightness.
The other question has to do with the location. I cannot figure out which ballpark provided the setting for this photograph. I’m tempted to say Texas, or perhaps Baltimore, but I’m not sure. Or maybe it was taken in Milwaukee, the site of Sudakis’ great Yankee infamy.
So where did this take place? And was it taken during the night or the daytime?
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
20,000 days since Hank Aaron’s worst game
Posted by Chris JaffeEveryone has their bad days on the job. Everyone has terrible days on the job. Thus it’s no surprise that the best baseball players have absolutely rotten games. And 20,000 days ago, one of the game’s best had maybe his worst game ever
It was Hammering Hank Aaron, playing for the Milwaukee Braves against the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 6, 1957.
He should’ve been feeling good heading into the day. The day before he’d gone 4-for-5 with a double and a homer. Two days before that he’d missed the cycle by a single. The day before that he’d gone 5-for-6. Yeah, that’s pretty good. But all yins must have their yang, and today would be that day for Aaron.
It started off generically enough. In the first inning, he harmlessly flew out against a 20-year-old Don Drysdale, making just his 15th big league start.
Two innings later Aaron got another chance against Drysdale. With the Braves trailing 3-1 and a runner on first, Aaron represented the tying run. However, this time he helplessly fanned on four pitches. Well, it’s not an ideal start but he still had plenty of time left.
In the fifth, it was still a 3-1 Dodger leader when Aaron came up in a crucial situation. The Braves had two on and two out against a struggling Drysdale. This was Aaron's chance to do some damage. He quickly fell behind, no balls to two strikes, but then battled Drysdale for several pitches evening the count. Then Aaron hit one into play – only to see it turn into an inning-ending double play. No, that can’t be what he hoped would happen.
Later, in the seventh, Aaron came up a fourth time against Drysdale, and again it was a crucial situation. It proved to be the highlight of Aaron’s day. With runners on second and third and two out, Drysdale pitched around Aaron, walking him to load the bases. The Dodgers went to their bullpen and got out of the jam.
And on the game went. In the ninth, Aaron came up for the fifth time on the day. At this point, the game was tied 3-3 and Milwaukee had the winning run on first base with two out. Aaron couldn’t help him though, and an easy fly out ended the inning. To date, he’d come up with six runners on base, advanced none, and driven in none. He’d also ended two innings.
But the game went into extra innings, and wouldn’t you know it—in the 11th inning Aaron came up. (As it happens, it’s the sixth straight odd-numbered inning for him to appear in.) Again there were runners on base—first and second this time—and again there were two outs. Aaron grounded out to second base to end the inning. He was now 0-for-5 on the day with a walk.
Both teams scored once in the 12th, and the game soldiered on. It wouldn’t be an odd-numbered inning without an Aaron appearance, and sure enough he came up with two out and a runner on first in the 13th frame. This time he meekly tapped one back to pitcher Roger Craig for the ground out.
A Dodger homer in the 14th ensured there wouldn’t be another chance for Aaron to come up.
Here was Aaron’s day: seven times up, one walk, but no hits in seven plate appearances. There was at least one runner on base in six of his seven plate appearances – nine runners hoping to score in all. None of them scored, and Aaron never advanced a single one. He ended four separate innings with an out.
Yeah, that’s a bad day. He’d have four other 0-for-6 games, but this was the only one in which he also hit into a double play along the way. In all but one of them he also drew a walk (and in the remaining game he reached base on error, stole a base, and scored a run). In all, it was a perfectly miserable day that saw him blow multiple chances to help his team win.
But, being Hank Aaron, the day’s disappointment left no lingering effect. The next day he was 2-for-4 with a triple. He wound up winning the NL MVP that year.
Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since the first reversal of a home run call since baseball began officially using replay for home runs. An Adam LaRoche homer against St. Louis is overturned.
1,000 days since Gerardo Parra of the Diamondbacks homers in his first big league at bat. He becomes the 100th player to do it.
1,000 days since Ken Griffey Jr. endures his worst game ever, according to WPA. He is 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and a GIDP as Seattle falls to Texas 6-5. His WPA on the day: -0.460.
2,000 days since Ken Griffey Jr. sets a personal record. Against Jeff Weaver, he homers on the 12th pitch of an at bat, his longest battle to result in a dinger.
3,000 days since the Cardinals trade first baseman Tino Martinez to Tampa.
4,000 days since the Dodgers trade Devon White to Milwaukee for Marquis Grissom.
5,000 days since Cliff Floyd loses a home run. Though replay won’t officially be around for 4,000 more days or so, umpire Frank Pulli uses it anyway to deprive Floyd of a homer, as his Marlins end up losing 2-1 to the Cardinals.
6,000 days since Kirby Puckett enjoys his 13th and final multi-home run game.
6,000 days since Jorge Posada makes his big league debut. Less impressively, Mark Loretta also debuts on this day.
6,000 days since Albuquerque Dukes player Ron Maurer plays all nine positions during a 4-2 loss to Las Vegas.
6,000 days since Robin Ventura hits two grand slams in one game as the White Sox thrash Texas, 14-3. In all, Ventura is 3-for-5 with a double, two homers, a walk, and eight RBIs.
7,000 days since a busy day of free agent signings. The big news is Barry Bonds signing with the Giants, ending his days in Pittsburgh. In other news, the Marlins land Charlie Hough, Kansas City gets David Cone, the White Sox get what’s left of Dave Stieb, and Toronto signs Dave Stewart and also trades Kelly Gruber to the Angels.
10,000 days since George Brett hits his second and final career grand slam.
10,000 days since Baltimore’s Jim Traber makes an interesting big league debut. His on-field performance is nothing noteworthy, but he sings the National Anthem before the game.
10,000 days since Reggie Jackson lays down his first sacrifice bunt in 12 years. He’ll never do it again.
15,000 days since baseball holds its 1971 winter draft. The most notable players drafted include: Phil Garner by the A’s, John Wathan by the Royals, and Jerry Remy by the Angels. Those guys will all sign with those clubs. The most prominent guys drafted who will not sign on this occasion include: Roy Smalley, who the Red Sox drafted; Rich Dauer, who the A’s drafted, and Rick Langford, who the Cardinals drafted.
25,000 days since Joe Medwick sets a personal best by driving in six runs in one game. He’s 3-for-5 with a double and home run as his Giants torch the Dodgers, 12-0.
25,000 days ago Sweet Lou Piniella is born.
Also, at some point today it’ll be 1,000,000,000 seconds since Gary Carter legs out his second and final career inside the park home run.
Anniversaries
1876 Pat Moran, one of the best managers not in the Hall of Fame, is born.
1881 The Providence Grays sign free agent pitcher Old Hoss Radbourn. This is a good move. A really good move.
1899 Earl Whitehill, 200 game winner, is born.
1899 Now that the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Dodgers have the same owners, the best Baltimore players are sent to the bigger city. Joe Kelley, Wee Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, and manager Ned Hanlon all head north. The only stars left behind in Baltimore are John McGraw and Wilbert Robinson.
1905 In Lynn, Massachusetts A’s pitcher Rube Waddell prevents a fire by carrying a burning stove out of a store and throwing it in a snow bank.
1908 The St. Louis Browns purchase the highly talented by mentally erratic pitcher Rube Waddell from the A’s.
1921 The Chicago Cubs release former star pitcher Claude Hendrix.
1937 Juan Pizarro, pitcher, is born.
1942 The Braves purchase Ernie Lombardi from the Reds.
1949 Joe DiMaggio makes financial history, becoming the first ballplayer to sign a $100,000/year contract.
1950 Starting pitcher Burt Hooton is born.
1953 Dan Quisenberry, brilliant 1980s reliever, is born.
1957 Carney Lansford, one of the only players to participate in the Little League World Series and the actual World Series, is born.
1958 The Dodgers officially become the “Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc.”
1959 White Sox president Dorothy Rigney agrees to sell the team to Bill Veeck.
1959 Hall of Fame second baseman Nap Lajoie dies at age 84.
1962 Boston hires ex-Indianapolis Clowns scout Ed Scott as their first full-time black scout.
1979 The Dodgers sign what’s left of Andy Messersmith. He left the team a few years earlier at the very beginning of baseball free agency.
1985 Baseball owners approve of auto dealer Marge Schott gaining controlling interest in the Reds. She had been a limited partner since 1981. This decision won’t end well for anyone.
1994 The Indians sign free agent catcher Tony Pena.
1994 The White Sox sign basketball star Michael Jordan to a minor league contract.
1996 Dave Winfield, 3,000 hit man, officially retires.
1997 The White Sox sign free agent swingman Danny Darwin.
1999 El Presidente Dennis Martinez announces his retirement.
2005 Detroit signs free agent outfielder Magglio Ordonez. This works out pretty well for them.
2005 Milwaukee signs free agent Jeff Cirillo.
2008 Brian McNamee gives a seven-hour deposition to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about performance enhancing drugs in baseball.
2009 Sports Illustrated breaks a story that Alex Rodriguez once tested positive for steroids in 2003.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Monday, February 06, 2012
Super at the right time
Posted by Joe DistelheimThe message may be: Never give up.
Or perhaps it's: We live in an age where mediocrity is good enough.
Over the past year in sports:
- The New York Giants won the Super Bowl after barely making the playoffs with a 9-7 regular-season record.
- Alabama won the college football championship, such as it is, after not even qualifying for the Southeastern Conference championship game.
- The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship after finishing second in their division.
- Connecticut won the NCAA basketball tournament after going 9-9 in the Big East.
- And finally, getting to our sport, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series after barely making the postseason, not winning their division and having only the eighth-best regular season record in the majors.
Joe Distelheim is chief copy editor for The Hardball Times website. He welcomes comments and suggestions via e-mail.
Would the Nationals consider holding back Strasburg?
Posted by Brad JohnsonThe signing of Edwin Jackson presents the Nationals with the kind of problem that every club strives for—they have more starting pitchers than rotation slots. They actually have a LOT more starting pitchers than spots. Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, and Jackson are all locks while Chien-Ming Wang, John Lannan, and Ross Detwiler will battle for the last spot. Tom Gorzelanny makes for an above-replacement-level also ran.
The Nationals have another rotation-related problem. They are on the cusp of relevance. Their improvements this offseason should put them within shouting distance of the Wild Card (especially if there are two in 2012). Few will be surprised if the Nationals are playing for a playoff berth when the calendar turns to September.
That's not the problem, though. The problem is, their ace, Strasburg, is expected to be on a fairly strict innings cap in 2012 that will expire right as the team is pushing for the playoffs.
But what if the Nationals solved one problem with another by optioning Strasburg to extended spring training, using two of Lannan, Wang, and Detwiler through April, and then activating Strasburg once his innings cap stretches into October?
There are certain attractive elements to that plan. While a win is a win no matter what month it comes in, knowing Strasburg is available late in the season to stifle the competition could serve as a rallying point for the team. And the team's financial planners probably like the idea of Strasburg pitching in meaningful September games in front of a full house. The Nationals traditionally draw poorly in September.
More importantly, Strasburg would be available to pitch in the postseason. The club would find it hard to resist the urge to use Strasburg—innings cap or no—but a delayed start to 2012 means he could throw deep into games against the Phillies, Diamondbacks, or whatever other team reaches the postseason.
Of course, many of you out in reader land are shaking your head, and you are probably right to do so. Despite certain alluring qualities, this plan has its share of problems.
To the best of my knowledge, no club has tried this before. The Nationals could and should be wary about wading into uncharted waters with their generational talent. It's also unclear if the club could successfully run Strasburg through a delayed spring training. They would have to design a unique, delayed schedule, which could have unexpected consequences.
Holding him back also changes the club's incentives. If Strasburg reaches his innings cap in late August, the club is more likely to stick with the original plan of shutting him down. If he reached his limit in late September, the club would have an awfully difficult time shutting him down right before the playoffs.
The Nationals could always thumb their nose at their innings cap. Research has repeatedly shown that the Verducci Effect is largely hogwash. Clubs probably shouldn't limit their pitchers based purely on innings, but rather on a robust personal evaluation of each player. Warning signs like reduced velocity or movement, physical fatigue, and release point consistency should be monitored closely. By the end of August, the Nationals may be satisfied that Strasburg has the physical durability to continue into October.
The Nationals may consider such an idea when trying to solve their two "problems." Or it may never cross their minds. At the end of the day, it would be a shame for the Nationals to reach the postseason for the first time only to have their best pitcher unavailable because of an innings cap.
Follow Brad on Twitter @baseballAteam. Email him at pitchin432 AT Yahoo.com
Friday, February 03, 2012
10,000 days: 500th homer for Mr. October
Posted by Chris JaffeTen thousand days ago, Reggie Jackson made a bit of baseball history for himself. On Sept. 17, 1984, the most feared slugger of his generation did something long expected of him, bashing his 500th career home run.
It came in the seventh inning off current Padres manager Bud Black. It was the only bad pitch Black threw that night, as he led the Royals to an easy 10-1 win over Jackson’s Angels.
That shot, though, made Jackson the 13th member of the 500 home run club. There are currently 25 members, so exactly as many men have joined the club since Reggie Jackson did as joined it before him.
Perhaps you wouldn’t expect that. After all, there have been only 27 seasons since Jackson hit No. 500. But it’s worth noting there have been nearly as many homers hit from Opening Day 1985 as beforehand. In those last 27 seasons, baseball has had 120,775 homers, which is 46 percent of all homers hit in baseball history.
Then again, maybe you would expect there to be that many homers hit in recent times. There is expansion, PEDs, and possibly juiced ball (league-wide home rates went up rather oddly prior to the 1998 home run race and all that).
It’s also worth noting that the upsurge in members of the 500 home run club actually isn’t a new thing. It also happened during Jackson’s career. A month before Jackson debuted, Mickey Mantle became the sixth member of the club. Four years and four months later, Frank Robinson became the 11th member. The club more than doubled in five seasons with Mantle, Robinson, Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews, Harmon Killebrew and Hank Aaron all joining it. And Willie Mays entered the club just a little before them, too.
As for Reggie, he ended his career with 563 dingers. His favorite victim was former White Sox knuckleballer Wilbur Wood, who surrendered eight blasts to Jackson.
Jackson’s 563 home runs included 10 walk-off homers and four inside-the-park shots. In fact, one homer was both a walk-off and an inside-the-park homer. That came against Boston’s Sonny Siebert in the second game of a doubleheader on Aug. 22, 1971. It was the last of his career inside-the-park homers.
Jackson also belted six pinch-hit homers in his career. Two of them were grand slams. Once pinch-hit slam came off Chicago’s Terry Forster on Aug. 22, 1976—exactly five years after his inside-the-park walk-off blast. Reggie really liked Aug. 22, I suppose. In all, he blasted 11 slams, pinch-hit or otherwise.
Despite that, according to WPA, his clutchest home run was neither a grand slam nor a walk-off home run. It was a three-run homer in the top of the ninth with two outs and his Angels trailing Toronto 6-4 on June 18, 1983. That gave California a 7-6 lead and gave Jackson a value of 0.724 WPA with one swing.
It’s interesting that his best WPA home run would come against a Blue Jay. In general Jackson had trouble homering off Toronto pitchers. He faced longtime Blue Jay Jim Clancy 62 times without ever homering against him. That’s the most plate appearances he ever had against a pitcher without a homer. The runner-up with 55 PA is Dave Stieb, Clancy’s longtime teammate.
Regardless, Jackson did get to 500 homers, and it happened exactly 10,000 days ago.
Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to just skim the list.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Zack Greinke loses 1-0 and sees his ERA rise to 0.51.
4,000 days since Bill Rigney, longtime baseball manager, dies.
5,000 days since Cleveland signs amateur free agent Willy Taveras.
6,000 days since Paul O’Neill hits three home runs in one game for the Yankees.
6,000 days since Mike Moore appears in his final game.
9,000 days since Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams wins his 1,500 big league game. He’s the 13th manager to do so. His record: 1,500-1,366.
9,000 days since Mike Schmidt collects his 2,000th hit. He does it in style, too, with three home runs in this game. It’s the third time he’s had at least three homers in one game.
9,000 days since the Reds release veteran pitcher Jerry Reuss.
10,000 days since Harold Baines belts three home runs in one game for the second time in his career.
15,000 days since Elmer Flick, Hall of Famer, dies.
20,000 days since Hank Aaron gets five hits in a game for the second of three times in his career.
20,000 days since Roy Campanella experiences his worst WPA game: -0.617 WPA. He is 0-for-7 with a K, and a GIDP as the Cards top the Dodgers 3-2 in 16 innings.
20,000 days since Robin Roberts fans 13 batters in one game, his personal best. His line: 9 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K. He beats the Cubs. 4-2.
25,000 days since the A’s lose their 20th consecutive game. They lose this one in the bottom of the ninth to the White Sox. Then they win the second game of the doubleheader to end the losing skim, 8-1.
25,000 days since Carl Hubbell appears in his final game.
Anniversaries
1885 Slim Sallee, pitcher, is born.
1886 Former pitcher and future Hall of Famer Albert Spalding opens his sporting good company with $800.
1890 Hall of Fame executive Larry MacPhail is born.
1898 The Reds trade Red Ehret, Dummy Hoy, and Claude Ritchey to Louisville for Bill Hall.
1900 Rival forces vie to claim Union Park Ball Grounds in Baltimore. John Grounds men camp around a fire they created at third base. Ned Hanlon’s guys group at first base.
1910 The Reds trade Miller Huggins and two other players to the Cardinals for a pair of players.
1920 Rube Foster forms the Negro National Baseball League.
1934 The Cardinals and Browns agree to cease broadcasting their home games on the radio in hopes of building their attendance.
1938 The Dodgers sign free agent outfielder Kiki Cuyler.
1942 Baseball owners okay President Roosevelt’s suggestion for more night games. There will be 14 per year for the 11 teams with lights, which is double the previous limit.
1947 Joe Coleman, pitcher, is born.
1952 Fred Lynn, center fielder, is born.
1954 The Milwaukee Braves release Walker Cooper.
1961 The Yankees say they’ll stay at the same spring training hotel despite that fact that it won’t allow blacks there, stating “We don’t run the state of Florida.”
1977 The Phillies sign free agent second baseman Davey Johnson.
1978 F. J. “Steve” O’Neill buys the Indians.
1979 Minnesota trades veteran infielder Rod Carew to the Angels.
1983 Baltimore signs free agent defensive specialists Aurelio Rodriguez.
1986 The Players Association files a grievance against the owners, charging collusion.
1987 The Expos trade Jeff Reardon to the Twins.
1989 Bill White named the new NL president.
1990 Darryl Strawberry is admitted to an alcohol treatment center in New York City.
1993 Marge Schott is fined $250,000 and banned from day-to-day operation of the Reds for a year.
1996 The White Sox sign free agent pitcher Kevin Tapani.
1998 Brian Cashman becomes the new Yankees GM.
1999 After 16 years, the Mets don’t ask announcer Tim McCarver to return to their broadcast booth. Tom Seaver will replace him.
2006 The Padres sign free agent catcher Mike Piazza.
2006 The Giants rename their stadium AT&T Park.
2011 The Yankees sign free agent pitcher Freddy Garcia.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Edwin Jackson finally signs
Posted by Matt FilippiFans had been waiting patiently for the last chip to fall. All of the big free agents had signed (Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, C.J. Wilson, etc.) except for one. That one was Edwin Jackson, and he signed with the Washington Nationals yesterday for one year worth somewhere around $10 million. At first glance, this looks like a pretty good deal for the Nats.
First, let’s take a look at it from Jackson’s point of view. No teams were biting on his original request for five years and $60 million, and a lot of teams didn’t even want him for three years. Despite the small amount of very good starting pitching on the market, teams didn’t want to overpay for someone as inconsistent as E-Jax.
His strikeout and walk rates seem to fluctuate by about one per nine innings every season, and despite his FIP being in the threes both of the last two seasons, he’s still a gamble because of his unpredictable inputs. He was still able to get good money for the lone year that he signed for, and he’s able to hit the market again next offseason at the still ripe age of 29 for hopefully a longer and more lucrative deal.
This all being said, the Nationals definitely got the better part of the deal. They are getting a 28-year-old pitcher who has made 30-plus starts each of the last five seasons and whose numbers are trending upward. Jackson will join a very young rotation headlined by Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, and Jordan Zimmermann. This should prove to be a very strong staff, and it gives the Nationals some pitching.
With a full rotation, it’s not a far-fetched idea that they could move a starter and turn it into something else. I’m not sure how much they can get back for John Lannan since he’s not a high strikeout guy, but he could definitely have some value to a team that needs a back-end piece.
With a solid team, a weak National League, and another wild card being added to October, the Nats definitely can’t be counted out, so expect them to contend for a playoff spot in 2012. The great part of this deal is that Washington gets Jackson as an innings eater, and they don’t have to worry about him sustaining his strikeout or walk numbers over a long period of time because it’s only a one-year pact.
It’s a good move all around, and now with the last big fish of the offseason being fried, we can finally look forward to the start of spring training.
Matt Filippi is the creator of Yankees Talk Blog; you can email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and you can follow him at @Matt_Filippi.
THT Forecasts - 2012 fantasy price guides
Posted by Greg TamerIn addition to the Oliver database, reports, projections, and watch lists, THT Forecasts also has a fantasy price guide that you can customize with your league specifications (although note that not all stat categories you can imagine are present yet; we'll work on that!).
Also, the fantasy price guides are updated as the season progresses and new data are added to the Oliver database, thus changing the projections for the remainder of the season to assist you with waiver wire pick-ups, trades, etc.. You can then return to your price guide at the end of the season to evaluate players and see what they should have been worth before the season started (thus best to transfer and save your pre-season fantasy price guide for comparison).
Note that the fantasy price guide lists players according to their dollar values for an auction draft, but the rankings can still be applied to a snake draft. For a league that uses a points structure, you can switch to the customizable reports, download and open them with your favorite spreadsheet, and then include your stat-cat modifiers to calculate point totals for the players.
Finally, using Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball's default league auction and roto settings, here are the top projected offensive players:
Pos Players 2012 Value C Mike Napoli $34 1B Albert Pujols $55 2B Dan Uggla $30 3B Jose Bautista $40 SS Troy Tulowitzki $32 OF Matt Kemp $57 OF Mike Stanton $47 OF Ryan Braun $44 Util Miguel Cabrera $52 Util Joey Votto $46THT Forecasts is available for the 2012 season, with Brian Cartwright's Oliver database providing over 9000 projections for major and minor leaguers. Visit Forecasts today to learn more and sign up for only $14.95!
Greg Tamer is the Manager of THT Forecasts. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions via e-mail.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
A baseball card mystery: Ken Holtzman’s 1974 Topps card
Posted by Bruce MarkusenWhether you call it gold or mustard or just plain old yellow, the color simply glows on the 1974 Topps card of the underrated Ken Holtzman. A’s owner Charlie Finley liked to refer to this color as “California Gold,” which may or may not be available at your local paint store.
By 1972, the A’s switched from a button-down, vested look to a pullover design, but retained the green and gold color scheme. They generally wore white pants, switching the jersey color from green to gold on a given day. For Sunday home games, the A’s wore all-white uniforms. Only occasionally during the 1973 and ‘74 seasons did the A’s sport the all-green or the all-gold look, the latter being quite evident on Holtzman’s 1974 card.
Given the relatively few number of times that the A’s used the all-gold uniforms, I’m wondering if it’s possible to pinpoint the exact date of the game seen on the Holtzman card. We have only a few clues. The photo, presumably from the 1973 season, appears to have been taken at the Oakland Coliseum. Obviously, it is a day game. We can assume that it is not a Sunday afternoon game, due to the absence of the all-white uniforms. We also know that Reggie Jackson, seen in the background, was playing the outfield that day, most likely in right field.
This might be our most challenging baseball card mystery to date. Most of the time, I’ve been confident that our sharp readers would come up with a correct answer, and they have. But this time, I’m not so sure due to the lack of information. Do we have a sufficient number of clues to pinpoint the date? Well, it’s worth a shot.
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
10,000 days since Carlton becomes Phillies win leader
Posted by Chris Jaffe10,000 days ago (a “day-versary” as I call it), Steve Carlton made a bit of history for himself.
On Sept. 14, 1984, he pitched 6.2 IP to earn a victory over the Expos. In was his 312th career victory, and more important for today’s item, it was win No. 235 with the Philadelphia Phillies. That win made him the all-time franchise leader with one more than fellow Hall of Famer Robin Roberts.
Among other things, it’s the last time any of the pre-expansion franchise teams gained a new all-time franchise win leader.
Of the elder 16 teams, two have an all-time winner whose career took place entirely in the deadball era: The Giants and A's with Christy Mathewson and Eddie Plank. The all-time winner for four more began in the deadball period: Detroit, Washington/Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati had Hooks Dauss, Walter Johnson, Wilbur Cooper, and Eppa Rixey respectively.
Both Chicago all-time winners pitched in the years between the world wars: Charlie Root with the Cubs, and Ted Lyons on the South Side. Cleveland’s Bob Feller also began before WWII.
Among the pitchers shortly after WWII, only two are all-time franchise champions: The Braves’ Warren Spahn, and Whitey Ford.
Since Whitey Ford began all-time franchise win leader in the late 1960s, only four pre-expansion franchises have changed their all-time win leader. The Orioles actually did it twice. In 1971, Dave McNally passed up previous leader Urban Shocker. Six years later, Jim Palmer surpassed McNally on his way to 268 Baltimore wins. In 1972, Bob Gibson became the all-time Cardinals leader. In 1979, Don Sutton became the all-time Dodgers leader.
So it happened four times to three pre-expansion franchises in the 1970s, but since then it has only happened once, with Steve Carlton and the Phillies. Obviously, there’s one clear explanation for this: Free agency. Keeping a terrific pitcher for a prolonged period of time has gotten much harder.
In fact, there have been only three pitchers who debuted in the free agency era who have won 200 games for one franchise. Andy Pettitte won 203 with the Yankees and longtime teammates Tom Glavine and John Smoltz accrued 244 and 210 wins each with the Braves. (It should be noted that Glavine won enough games to be franchise leader for most pre-expansion teams, but not the one he happened to play for.)
Getting back to Steve Carlton, his franchise-record setting win was near the end of the line for him. He’d pitch another year and a half with the Phillies, posting a record of 6-16 in the process. Still, his 241 wins as a Phillie is not only their record, but it’s also tied for 14th most any pitcher has ever had with a franchise. Here’s the all-time leaderboard
Wins Pitcher 417 Walter Johnson 372 Christy Mathewson 356 Warren Spahn 329 Kid Nichols 284 Eddie Plank 268 Phil Niekro 268 Jim Palmer 266 Bob Feller 260 Ted Lyons 254 Red Faber 253 Carl Hubbell 251 Bob Gibson 244 Tom Glavine 241 Steve Carlton 241 Cy Young
Cy Young’s 241 wins came with the Cleveland Spiders, a team that no longer exists. But it’s not bad for Carlton to be tied with him.
Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold for those who prefer to skim the list:
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Eric Wedge manages his 1,000th big league game. His record so far: 507-493.
1,000 days since Bob Melvin also manages his 1,000th big league game. His record: 493-507.
1,000 days since Todd Helton homers on the 14th pitch of an at bat against Osiris Matos. Incredibly, it’s not the longest battle he’s ever had to end in a homer. He had a 15-pitch at bat on May 13, 2000 that resulted in a homer.
2,000 days since Mark Prior pitches in his last big league game.
2,000 days since Curt Schilling allows nine doubles in one game against the Royals. It’s the most doubles allowed by a pitcher in one appearance since (at least) 1920. His overall line: 7.1 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 7 K.
3,000 days since the Twins trade catcher and deeply unpopular teammate A.J. Pierzynski to the Giants for Joe Nathan, Boof Bonser, and Francisco Liriano. The Twins benefit from this trade while the Giants will cut Pierzynski outright because they didn’t like him personally.
6,000 days since Barry Larkin hits his 100th career home run.
7,000 days since Houston signs free agent pitcher Doug Drabek. This doesn’t work like they hoped it would.
10,000 days since Charlie Hough wins his 100th game. His record: 100-87.
25,000 days since Phil Rizzuto’s only five-hit game. He’s 5-for-6 with a double, and stolen base as the Yankees beat the Senators, 17-7.
Anniversaries
1845 Bob Ferguson, nicknamed Death to Flying Things, is born.
1857 The publication “Spirit of the Times” refers to baseball as “the national pastime.”
1893 George H. Burns born.
1896 Charlie Robertson, pitcher who once threw a perfect game, is born.
1919 Jackie Robinson, Hall of Famer and sports icon, is born.
1926 Lou Bierbauer, the guy who caused the Pittsburgh club to get its nickname when they pirated him from another team, dies.
1927 Cleveland releases veteran centerfielder Tris Speaker, who is immediately signed by the Senators.
1927 Judge Landis rules that Rogers Hornsby can’t own stock in the Cardinals and play for the Giants.
1931 Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, is born.
1931 Hank Aguirre, one of the worst hitting pitchers of all-time, is born.
1940 The Red Sox release catcher Moe Berg, the smartest player in baseball history.
1947 Johnny Kling, catcher for the Tinker-Evers-Chance Cubs, dies.
1947 Nolan Ryan, all-time great fastball pitcher, is born.
1950 Pittsburgh signs high school pitcher Paul Pettit to a record bonus of $100,000.
1952 US federal jury awards Mexican League owner Jorge Pasquel $35,000 for breach of contract by ex-Dodger catcher Mickey Owen.
1956 Buck Weaver, Black Sox who demanded a separate trial, dies at age 65.
1956 St. Louis trades pitcher Brooks Lawrence to the Reds.
1959 Joe Cronin is officially elected to a seven-year term as AL president.
1961 Houston voters approve of a bond to finance a luxury-domed stadium.
1962 The Mets sign Ralph Kiner as an announcer, joining Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy.
1963 Ossie Vitt, former player and the manager the 1940 “Cleveland Crybabies” club rebelled against, dies.
1965 Houston signs amateur free agent Bob Watson.
1965 Japanese pitcher Masanori Murakami says he won’t return to the Giants, instead pitching for the Nankai Hawks. This spurning will result in no other Japanese players in America for 30 years.
1969 The AL and NL agree to an experimental rule change allowing a DH in spring training games.
1969 The DH is approved for use in the Eastern League, Texas League, International League, and New York-Pennsylvania League.
1980 Houston signs free agent Joe Morgan. So long, Cincinnati.
1982 Yuniesky Betancourt is born.
1983 The Phillies sign Tony Perez.
1984 Josh Johnson, pitcher, is born.
1990 Pittsburgh signs free agent Wally Backman.
1994 St. Louis signs free agent Rick Sutcliffe for his final season.
1994 California signs free agent Bo Jackson, who is near the end of his line.
2000 John Rocker is suspended until May 1 for his Sports Illustrated article comments.
2001 A Wall Street Journal article quotes 1951 Giants survivors Monte Irvin, Sal Yvars, and Al Gettel. They admit they stole signs in the 1951 pennant race, those Yvars said it only happened in the best-of-three playoff games against the Dodgers at the end of the season.
2003 The Dodgers sign free agent pitcher Wilson Alvarez.
2003 New Comiskey Park is renamed U.S. Cellular Field.
2003 Pittsburgh signs free agent pitcher Jeff Suppan.
2006 Minnesota signs free agent Ruben Sierra.
2006 Oakland signs free agent Frank Thomas. He leaves the White Sox after a lengthy and excellent stay there.
2008 Florida signs free agent Luis Gonzalez for what will be the last year of his career.
2008 The Yankees sign free agent Morgan Ensberg.
2008 Seattle signs free agent player Brad Wilkerson.
2011 Tampa Bay signs a pair of big name, past their prime free agents: Johnny Damon, and Manny Ramirez.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Juan Pierre, Domonic Brown, and plans
Posted by Brad JohnsonLast week, the Phillies signed Juan Pierre to a minor-league contract. Pierre’s most likely role with the club is as the fifth or sixth outfielder. His primary duty might be to pinch run when Jim Thome reaches base in the late innings. Once Ryan Howard returns from his Achilles injury—projected sometime in May—Pierre may be designated for assignment.
What makes this minor move interesting is what it tells us about the Phillies’ plan for Domonic Brown. National media coverage seems to view the Pierre addition as the Phillies placing “another obstacle” in the way of Brown. This is a misunderstanding of the situation in Philadelphia.
Brown appears to be behind John Mayberry Jr. , Laynce Nix, Ty Wigginton, and Pierre on the club’s left field depth chart. With the possible exception of Mayberry, these names all share one commonality—they will NEVER block a prospect.
So no, Pierre does not add another obstacle for Brown to overcome. The obstacles in Brown’s path are solely personal.
First and foremost, he must greatly improve his outfield defense, a task that is accomplishable but requires a lot of repetition. All aspects of his defensive presence appear to need work. His route running in Philadelphia was comical. He has a strong arm but occasionally became overzealous with his throws. He also made throws to the wrong location, demonstrating a need to improve his game awareness of base/out states.
wRC+ found Brown’s offensive contributions in 2011 to be one percent above league average, and a .276 BABIP certainly did not help. However, scouts, spectators, and talking heads unanimously agree that Brown has plenty of room to work on his plate approach. Another spin with Triple-A Lehigh Valley is not likely to harm his offensive progress and will almost certainly help.
And that brings us back to Pierre’s purpose. Rather than an obstacle, Pierre provides additional depth to ensure that the Phillies do not need to thrust Brown into major league duty until he is completely ready.
Philadelphia has yo-yoed Brown around the past two years, and it is clear the Phillies have recognized the potentially damaging impact this could have on their prospect and have taken steps to rectify the situation.
When Brown is ready—that is, when his defensive presence catches up with his tools and his bat is prepared to shoulder the burden of a left-fielder—he will walk onto the roster virtually unopposed.
Follow Brad on Twitter @baseballAteam. Email him at pitchin432 AT Yahoo.com
Friday, January 27, 2012
Outfield assist of another kind
Posted by Bojan KoprivicaIn a sense, there has been an air of spring training atmosphere around September baseball in Oakland for a while now. Only without the hope part.
The weather is great. The games don’t really decide anything. And not too many watch them to start with.
So, when Jeff Francoeur and his 59-83 Royals rolled into town to take on the 64-77 Athletics last September, the world wasn't exactly holding its collective breath.
But what the world was thinking didn't matter one iota to the Oakland crowd, if you’ll excuse the loose use of the word. And why should it? In a sense, a September game that decides nothing is what baseball is all about.
It's about watching a game with your friends, enjoying a slow-paced timeout from the pressures of the everyday life. It's about hearing the crack of the bat, watching them run, slide and dive, knowing both your players and the opponent's ones. It's about jumping up and cheering during a rally, sharing a hope for a win, even if it's only a 60th or 65th, with not too many more to come.
It is also about a certain sense of intimacy: being close to the other fans, but also to the players, like in no other major sport. Where else can you have a nice chat with a relief pitcher during a game or heckle an outfielder for hours?
Oakland’s "bleacher bums" can shout with the best of them. And they can drum. And they wave the flags, win or lose, against the Yankees and against the Royals alike. Say what you want about the overall attendance numbers, but the core is there, all the time, like a family. Or FANily, as they call themselves.
Jeff Francoeur heard them shout, just as he did in the previous visits. But unlike most players, he didn’t pretend not to hear the good-natured ribbing. Rather, he waved back and even engaged in an occasional exchange with the fans.
The message they had for him was simple - it was a Bacon Tuesday in the right field bleachers in Oakland.
Because, you know, everything is better with bacon.
They cooked and baked, from regular bacon to home-made chicharron with fresh cheese. All the way up to the chocolate-covered bacon. Seriously. They ate and they drummed, they shouted and had fun, they cheered and they ate some more. And when the game was over, there was a spare plate left for Jeff Francoeur.
Just like that. Because Frenchy is a nice guy, they said.
Francoeur seemed touched. He signed baseballs and ticket stubs, chatted with them, took the bacon, said thank you and left. But not before he made sure the same fans would be coming to the Wednesday game, too.
The next day, he walked out to his position before the game, carrying a signed baseball in his hand. He spotted the familiar faces, smiled and threw the baseball over the fence.
There was a hundred dollar bill rubber-tied to the baseball. And an inscription: "Beer or Bacon Dog on me. Jeff Francoeur."
And then he strolled back to right field, fielded a sharp grounder by Michael Taylor and threw him out at first base.
Photo: Anson Casanares
After playing, coaching and umpiring more than 500 games all over Europe, Bojan realized that it's actually writing about baseball that can be most easily done while holding a beer in a hand. If you want to discuss either baseball or beer with him, drop him a line.
30th anniversary: The Ryne Sandberg trade
Posted by Chris JaffeThirty years ago today, one of the more one-sided trades of the 1980s occurred. It was one of the worst trades the Phillies ever made, and one of the best trades the Cubs ever made.
At the time, the three-player transaction didn’t look like a big deal. If it was at all interesting to people, it’s because it was a challenge trades, in which the clubs swapped their veteran starting shortstops, with Chicago’s Ivan DeJesus going to the Phillies and longtime Philadelphia fixture Larry Bowa going to the Cubs.
Based purely on name value, the Cubs were coming out ahead. Bowa was a five-time All-Star who had won a pair of Gold Gloves. DeJesus? Well, he’d started for each of the last five seasons and once led the league in runs (in 1978, with just 104), but that’s about it.
In fact, in terms of recent performance, the gap favored Bowa by an even greater degree. In the strike-shortened 1981 season, he batted .283. Admittedly, it was with just 17 extra base hits (none of which were homers), and 26 walks. But back in those days a lot of shortstops had little to offer behind batting average.
And having batting average put Bowa well ahead of DeJesus. In 1981, while playing every day, DeJesus hit a puny .194. Oh, and he had even less power than Bowa—eight doubles, four triples and zero home runs.
To be fair, in 1980 they were more evenly matched at the plate. Batting average, the favored stat of the day, preferred Bowa, but DeJesus won in OPS+. In 1979, DeJesus had a far superior year at the plate, out-hitting Bowa by 42 points.
And one more thing: DeJesus was several years younger than Bowa. To be precise, he was seven years and one month younger. Thus even though Bowa had the reputation and the name value and the Gold Gloves, in order to pull off the shortstop swap the Phillies had to throw in a second player.
And that’s where the deal became a disaster for Philadelphia.
On the face of it, the Phils sent the player they could most afford to lose. They sent Chicago a young prospect who played third base. Folks, it’s January 1982 and the Phillies are pretty well settled at third base, thank you very much. They had a guy named Mike Schmidt and he’d just won his second consecutive NL MVP Award.
So the Phillies decided that if all they needed to do to get younger at shortstop was get rid of the prospect they’d never need, why not.
And thus a young Ryne Sandberg joined Larry Bowa in the trade to the Cubs for Ivan DeJesus.
When you describe it like that, it all makes sense. Yup, in fact many trades that work out horribly actually have a logic behind them—the results just don’t mesh with the logic.
What happened was simple. Sandberg had a nice rookie season at third base in 1982, and then the Cubs decided to move him to second for 1983. He blossomed. He won a Gold Glove in his first year at second, and the next year claimed an MVP. He became a perennial All-Star from that point onward.
In terms of shortstops, the trade also didn’t go the way Philadelphia wanted it to, though it wasn’t a disaster. Despite his age, Bowa actually lasted a little longer with his new team—three and a half years with Chicago while DeJesus lasted three seasons in Philadelphia.
Then again, while Bowa lasted longer, he wasn’t very good. WAR considers him barely above replacement level and his batting average cracked .250 only once in Chicago; rather bad for a guy whose game was based on getting hits.
But DeJesus was also a disappointment. He was never as bad as his 1981 season, but he was never as good as his 1978-79 performance.
Yeah, DeJesus was a little better than Bowa, so the format for the challenge trade makes sense. To even out the trade the Phillies should’ve sent a fungible player to the Cubs alongside Bowa. But it turns out that the guy they sent over was light years above fungible.
Aside from that, today many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is an event occurring X-thousand days ago). Here they are. I’ll put the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to skim.
Day-versaries
6,000 days. Ken Griffey Jr. belts the first of five career walk-off home runs.
9,000 days. The Yankees trade Joe Niekro to the Twins.
10,000 days. The longest hitting streak of Eddie Murray’s career peaks at 22 games. He’s 34-for-77 with a AVG/OBP/SLG line of .442/.551/.727.
10,000 days. The baseball debut of pitcher Zane Smith.
10,000 days. The major league debut for Billy Hatcher, outfielder.
20,000 days. Baseball adopts a new rule stating that base runners can’t interfere with batted balls in the field. This is caused by recent incidents in which Reds base runners fielded the ball and intentionally threw it away to help their team.
At some point today it’ll be one billion seconds since the birth of Austin Kearns.
Anniversaries
1899 Bibb Falk, good hitting outfielder, is born.
1927 Judge Kenesaw Landis clears Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker from alleged involvement in a fix of a Sept. 24, 1919 game.
1927 The Detroit Tigers release longtime star Ty Cobb.
1937 The Braves sell starting pitcher Ben Cantwell to the Giants.
1937 The worst flood in the history of Cincinnati puts Crosley Field underwater. Home plate is under 21 feet of water.
1943 The Cubs purchase veteran workhorse starting pitcher Paul Derringer.
1944 Construction magnates Lou Perini, Guido Rugo and Joseph Maney buy the Boston Braves. Perini owns half.
1944 Casey Stengel resigns as Braves manager. (Or the Braves fire him; I have different sources saying different things).
1947 John Lowenstein, one of Earl Weaver’s longtime platoon specialists, is born.
1949 Fred Saigh buys out Robert Hanngean’s interest in the Cardinals, giving him control of 90 percent of the club.
1953 The Philadelphia A’s trade Ferris Fain and another player to the White Sox for Eddie Robinson and a pair of others.
1956 The New York Giants football team moves from the Polo Grounds to Yankee Stadium. There is rampant speculation that the baseball team will soon leave as well.
1966 Wisconsin state circuit judge Elmer W. Roller rules that the Braves must stay in Milwaukee or else the NL must promise the city an expansion team for 1966.
1968 It’s the January draft. The A’s claim George Hendrick, the Dodgers get Davey Lopes, the Giants nab Garry Maddox and George Foster. All those players sign with their teams, but others are not so lucky. The Orioles draft Dave Kingman, the White Sox draft Mickey Rivers, and Cincinnati drafts Chris Chambliss – but none of those guys will sign with those teams.
1976 The Pirates sign amateur free agent Pascual Perez.
1983 Gavin Floyd, pitcher, is born.
1992 The A’s sign reliever Rich Gossage.
1995 The Royals sign aging free agents Steve Balboni and Dave Henderson.
1996 Atlanta signs reliever Kerry Ligtenberg from the Prairie League.
1997 The Reds sign free agent third baseman Terry Pendleton.
2005 Boston trades first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz and cash to the Mets for a minor leaguer.
2005 The White Sox sign middle infielder Tad Iguchi.
2005 Tampa signs free agent Hideo Nomo.
2006 Boston trades Andy Marte, Kelly Shoppach, Guillermo Mota and a player to be named later to the Indians for Coco Crisp, Josh Bard and David Riske.
2006 The World Baseball Classic sets pitch limits and mercy rules.
2008 Longtime catcher Mike Lieberthal announces his retirement.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
It’s THT Dispatch
Posted by Dave StudemanWe've got a new feature here at the Hardball Times. It's called THT Dispatch, and it's a newly featured blog on the site (you can view a link for it in the links at the top of the page—between THT Live and THT Forecasts). The idea behind THT Dispatch is that our writers will regularly post something—such as a pitching profile, trade commentary or pitch breakout—based on our own interpretation of the the latest pitch tracking technology.
PITCHf/x data is terrific, but it's not perfect. There can be differences between parks, subpar pitch identification and other issues. Over the years, THT writers have worked hard to improve the data. In particular, Harry Pavlidis has delved into the nooks and crannies of the data on a regular basis. We think our current version provides a solid framework for commentary and analysis, and THT Dispatch is where you'll find it.
We've incorporated THT Dispatch into our RSS feeds and you'll find a link to the most recent post on our home page each day. Check it out when you get a chance.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
THT Forecasts - 2012 Oliver projected-WAR starting lineup
Posted by Greg TamerUsing the 2012 Oliver database, here is the top-projected-WAR starting lineup:
Pos Player 2012 Projected WAR
P Yu Darvish 7.0 (Wow!)
C Joe Mauer 3.5
1B Albert Pujols 5.5
2B Robinson Cano 4.5
3B Evan Longoria 4.6
SS Troy Tulowitzki 5.6
LF Ryan Braun* 4.6
CF Matt Kemp 4.9
RFl Jose Bautista 3.9
-----
44.1
* - If Braun indeed suspended for 50 games, will then substitute in Matt Holiday, 4.2 projected WAR.
Think you could construct a lineup with other players that will out-WAR the above lineup in 2012? Perhaps worth an investigation after the season!
THT Forecasts is available for the 2012 season, with Brian Cartwright's Oliver database providing over 9000 projections for major and minor leaguers. Visit Forecasts today to learn more and sign up for only $14.95!
Greg Tamer is the Manager of THT Forecasts. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions via e-mail.
40th anniversary: Dave Winfield and the NCAA basket-brawl
Posted by Chris JaffeForty years ago today, one of the ugliest moments in the history of college basketball occurred. It’s an event that has largely been forgotten and probably would be completely forgotten if it wasn’t for the odd fact that one of the people involved in the ugliness later went on to become a Hall of Fame baseball player—Dave Winfield.
On Jan. 25, 1971, the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes in what appeared to be a fairly mundane game. With 36 seconds to go and Minnesota trailing by six, the Buckeye's Luke Witte was fouled hard and knocked down to the ground.
What happened next didn’t last especially long but was violent enough to put three Ohio State players in the hospital. Making this even more shocking, the violence just seemed to come from nowhere. With Witte trying to get up from his foul, Minnesota player Corky Taylor walked up an extended his hand to Witte, as if trying to help him up. Instead, he got Witte up just to knee him in the groin hard and then punch him in the head. Witte was knocked back down but good.
Then all hell broke loose. Players started scrambling after each other all over the court. With Witte lying immobilized on the ground, Minnesota’s Ron Behagen came up to him and stomped him into unconsciousness. Witte’s teammate Dave Merchant tried to help but was hit in the back by Golden Gopher Jim Brewer.
As for Winfield, just 20 years old at the time, he attacked Ohio State player Mark Wagar from behind, landing several punches to his head. It was all over in about a minute, but the officials declared the game over, the last 36 seconds be damned.
Witte would spend several days in the hospital, including one day in intensive care. His cornea was scarred, permanently affecting his career. He also had 29 stitches in his face.
There was no clear provocation for what happened. Witte had elbowed Minnesota’s Bobby Nix on the way to the locker rooms at halftime, but what happened was well out of line by any standards. Some blamed Minnesota coach Bill Musselman for trying to work his players into an extreme emotional state for their games.
The Big Ten suspended Taylor and Behagen, but no action was taken against the University of Minnesota basketball program itself.
Witte went on to a brief NBA career. Minnesota’s Brewer had a more successful NBA career, lasting nearly a decade. Less successfully, head-stomper Behagen just three weeks ago was sentenced to three years probation for stealing money from an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
But Winfield is the biggest name to come out of it. His future lay in baseball, obviously, and he was never known for getting in any fights there (unless you count the time his throw to the infield flukishly kill a bird in midair). But he was part of this ugly NCAA brawl - now on Youtube - that happened 40 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other events celebrate an anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that occurred X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Royals catcher John Buck legs out two triples in one game.
2,000 days since Baltimore trades Javy Lopez to the Red Sox.
2,000 days since former pitcher Elden Auker dies. He was the last living man who’d surrendered a home run to Babe Ruth. Late in life, he gained prominence in things like ESPN’s “Sportscentury” documentaries because he was a lucid living link to the pre-WWII era.
4,000 days since authorities implode Three Rivers Stadium.
5,000 days since Mike Blowers hits for the cycle.
5,000 days since two class action lawsuits are filed against the Marlins. One is for breach of contract, and another is for false advertising. This is due to the great sell-off after the 1997 world championship.
6,000 days since, after more than 7,700 career PA, Tony Gwynn finally hits his first grand slam. He’ll get more after this.
7,000 days since Reds employee Sharon Jones accuses team owner Marge Schott of making anti-Semitic and racist remarks.
10,000 days since Carney Lansford collects his 1,000th his in 872 games.
10,000 days since Bobby Grich belts his 200th home run.
10,000 days since Dave Winfield’s career-best hitting streak peaks at 20 games. In that time, he’s 32-for-75 with five doubles, two triples and five home runs with 18 walks. His AVG/OBP/SLG line is: .427/.532/.747.
40,000 days since Phillies pitcher Doc White fans four batters in one inning versus Brooklyn.
Anniversaries
1863 Danny Richardson, early baseball star, is born.
1899 The Cubs trade star shortstop Bill Dahlen to Baltimore for Gene DeMontreville.
1918 Ernie Harwell, legendary Tigers announcer, is born.
1939 Abner Dalrymple, 1880s star outfielder, dies.
1943 The Boston Braves purchase Lefty Gomez from the Yankees.
1943 The Army Air Corps calls Enos Slaughter to active duty.
1945 Larry MacPhail, Dan Topping, and Del Webb purchase the New York Yankees from Col. Jacob Ruppert for $2.8 million.
1945 Wally Bunker, 1960s phenom pitcher, is born.
1961 Cincinnati trades veteran pitcher Joe Nuxhall to the Kansas City A’s.
1966 Yankee infielder Tony Kubek announces his retirement.
1967 George Gibson, Pirates catcher from the early 20th century, dies.
1974 McDonalds maven Ray Kroc purchases the San Diego Padres for $12 million.
1977 The Angels sign past-his-prime starting pitcher Mike Cuellar
1978 Texas trades star pitcher Gaylord Perry to the Padres for Dave Tomlin and $125,000. Perry will win a Cy Young Award in San Diego.
1983 The two Chicago teams make a six-player trade. The Cubs get Steve Trout, and the White Sox receive Scott Fletcher and Dick Tidrow.
1991 Texas signs free agent Rich Gossage, who didn’t play in the majors at all in 1990.
2001 Anaheim signs free agent Wally Joyner, allowing him to return to his old stomping grounds for his final season.
2010 Mark Loretta announces his retirement after 15 years.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Fast goes Astro
Posted by Dave StudemanThe Internet is abuzz with the news that baseball analyst extraordinaire Mike Fast has been hired by the Astros. Mike will report to Sig Mejdal, who was made famous by Sam Walker's book Fantasyland. They promise to be powerful contributors to the Astros' braintrust.
The press release states that Mike is a Baseball Prospectus writer, which is true. But Mike also wrote for the Hardball Times for three years before moving over to BPro. You can read the archives of his articles starting here. Mike also wrote for several editions of the Hardball Times Annual. Mike's analysis was always interesting, clear and thoughtful. These are attributes that will serve him well in Houston.
With this move, the circle is complete, sort of. Fantasyland also gave my first baseball site some notoriety, when Walker wrote that it was one of the favorite sites of Brian Cashman. That notoriety was one of the reasons I was asked to help found the Hardball Times, where Mike honed his craft.
Mike joins other THT alumni, such as Josh Kalk, Dan Fox and Carlos Gomez, who have gone on to join major league teams. That's a record we're proud of, and we plan to continue to offer you the finest in baseball writing. In the meantime, congrats to Mike and the Astros on the beginnings of a beautiful relationship.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
A baseball card mystery: Bob Didier and Cleon Jones
Posted by Bruce MarkusenIt is very appropriate that Bob Didier’s 1973 Topps shows him in a defensive position. The switch-hitting Didier didn’t hit much--in fact, he never hit a home run in his six-year big league career--but he was an excellent fielder and a strong thrower. In 1969, he finished fourth in the National League Rookie of the Year race, as he helped the Braves to the first ever National League West title.
Didier might have had a career along the lines of defender extraordinaire Jim Sundberg, but injuries derailed him. Back problems, In particular prevented Didier from becoming an everyday player. After his rookie season of 1969, he never played in more than 57 games in a season, and by 1974, his major league career was over.
Of the few Topps cards that portrayed Didier, his 1973 Topps is by far the most interesting. This rough-and-tumble action shot shows him trying to apply a tag to Mets outfielder Cleon Jones (wearing No. 21), who is sliding hard into home plate as one of the Mets’ catchers (either Jerry Grote or Duffy Dyer) looks on from the background. Didier seems confident that he has tagged Jones out in time, but is still awaiting the call from the home plate umpire. So is Jones, the Mets' fleet footed starting left fielder, out or safe?
The Didier card raises another interesting question. Normally, Topps cards portray scenes from the previous season, so we would assume that this picture was snapped in 1972. But there’s a problem. Didier is not wearing the Braves’ blue-and-white road uniform that was adopted in 1972. Instead, he is wearing the road gray, which was last used by the Braves in 1971.
A check of Didier’s 1972 playing log confirms our suspicions. Didier played in only 13 games in ‘72, and none against the Mets. So it is likely that the Didier/Jones play took place sometime in 1971.
So we know it’s Shea Stadium, likely in 1971. What was the date, and was Jones safe or out?
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
20,000 days since the Phillies integrate
Posted by Chris Jaffe20,000 days ago, the Phillies belatedly got with the program.
On April 22, 1957, in the eighth inning of an otherwise entirely forgettable loss to the Dodgers, Philadelphia inserted a young player name John Kennedy into the game as a pinch runner. Kennedy’s noteworthiness has little to do with the fact he shares a name with the then-US Senator from Massachusetts. No, this Kennedy has something much more notable to contribute to baseball history.
You see, in a very real sense Kennedy’s entrance marked a new chapter in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies. In one key way he was unlike any previous player in the history of the Phillies.
John Kennedy was black.
By entering the game, he became the first black to ever play for the Phillies. Ten years after Jackie Robinson integrated all of baseball (and several months after he played his last game), the Phillies became the last NL team to integrate their roster.
That didn’t mean all baseball had integrated. Over in the AL the Tigers and Red Sox still fielded all-white lineups, but the senior circuit’s integration was now complete.
The NL had always been at the forefront of integration. The Dodgers, Giants, and Braves had been especially aggressive in integrating their teams, playing stars such as Robinson, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, Monte Irvin, Hank Aaron, and others. Not so coincidentally, those teams won every NL pennant from 1951-59.
The other teams, though, had also uncovered some amazing talents. By 1957, Ernie Banks was already the Cubs’ shortstop, Frank Robinson was an instant sensation in Cincinnati, and the Pirates had a young outfielder bursting with talent named Roberto Clemente.
St. Louis hadn’t found a big star black player yet, but by the end of the decade they’d begin playing Curt Flood, Bill White, and Bob Gibson.
The Phillies were the slowest of the NL teams to move forward. Yes they did integrate with Kennedy, but he only played five games with the club. Twice he was a late game infield defensive replacement, and the other trio of appearances came as a pinch runner. Philadelphia wouldn’t land their first real star African-American until Dick Allen arrived in 1964.
I have no idea why the Phillies were so comparatively slow to integrate. Racism is one obvious answer, but it could just have been managerial incompetence. They are, after all, historically the worst franchise in history. When Jackie Robinson integrated baseball the Phillies were finishing a stretch of 31 seasons in which they had 30 losing records (and went 78-76 in the other year).
They were actually good in the late 1940s and early 1950, and that could’ve deceived them into thinking they didn’t need to recruit blacks. They won the pennant in 1950 with an all-white roster – maybe they thought they (finally) had figured out how to put a team together.
Regardless, the last NL team did integrate – exactly 20,000 days ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events celebrate their “day-versary” or anniversary today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to skim the list.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Yovani Gallardo leads Milwaukee to a 1-0 win by throwing a shutout and belting a home run.
1,000 days since Zack Greinke’s scoreless inning streak comes to an end at 43 innings, but he still beats Toronto, 11-3.
5,000 days since David Wells tosses his perfect game, as the Yankees top Minnesota, 4-0.
10,000 days since Danny Tartabull makes his big league debut.
10,000 days since Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Cronin dies.
15,000 days since the Giants trade Ron Hunt to the Mets.
25,000 days since Yankee infielders Phil Rizzuto and Joe Gordon execute seven double plays in an 11-2 win over Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s.
Anniversaries
1900 NL officials hold a secret meeting in Cleveland to discuss dropping four of the league’s 12 teams: Cleveland, Washington, Louisville, and Baltimore. Sure enough, they’ll all be dropped in the off-season.
1901 Flint Rhem, pitcher, is born.
1916 Jack Brickhouse, longtime announcer for the Cubs on WGN, is born.
1931 The Yankees sign free agent Joe Sewell.
1934 In a conversation about the upcoming season, Giants manager Bill Terry jokes “Is Brooklyn still in the league?” He’ll live to regret that statement.
1941 Tommy Bond, great pitcher from the first decade of the NL, dies.
1955 Baseball announces a new rule. From now on, a pitcher is to deliver the ball within 20 seconds after taking a pitching position. This rule has almost never been enforced.
1958 Atlee Hammaker, 1983 NL ERA winner, is born.
1958 Neil Allen, pitcher who once threw three consecutive complete game shutouts, is born.
1960 Russ Ford, one of the originators of the shineball, dies.
1961 The Orioles and A’s engage in an eight-player trade, in which the Orioles get Whitey Herzog.
1962 The Southern Association announces it’s suspending operations. Its attendance is down, the Memphis and New Orleans franchises have pulled out, and the league refuses to integrate.
1963 The Reds trade Don Zimmer to the Dodgers.
1964 Rod Dibble, hard throwing Reds reliever, is born.
1969 Tom Zachary, the guy who surrendered Babe Ruth’s 60th home run in 1927, dies.
1975 The Royals sign ex-Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew.
1980 Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon buy the Mets for a little over $21 million from the Payson family.
1984 Scott Kazmir, pitcher, is born.
1985 In free agency compensation draft picks, Toronto claims Tom Henke from Texas and California lands Donnie Moore from Atlanta.
1990 Atlanta trades Jim Presley to the Mariners.
1997 Anaheim purchases Shigetoshi Hasegawa from Orix in Japan.
2000 Yankee prospect D’Angelo Jimenez suffers a broken neck when the car he’s driving collides with a bus in the Dominican Republic.
2003 Colorado signs free agent Jose Hernandez.
2003 The White Sox sign free agent pitcher Esteban Loaiza. This move will work out well for them.
2006 An announcement is made that thousands of pieces of Joe DiMaggio memorabilia, most notably his 1947 MVP plaque, will be auctioned off in May.
2007 The White Sox sign free agent Darin Erstad, a player they’ve wanted for years.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Carmona points out an MLB inequity
Posted by Mat KovachGoodbye Fausto! Hello Roberto!
As reported last week, 28-year-old Fausto Carmona is Roberto Hernandez Heredia and perhaps 31 years old.
There are implications here for Carmona-Heredia, for the Indians and, most importantly, for professional baseball and the uneven way it deals with international players.
Since being released on bail, The Sinkerballer Formally Known as Fausto has been apologetic but tight-lipped. He reportedly paid for a false identity that may have incorrectly represented his age. He may have been making periodic payments to maintain the false identity. He eventually balked at paying and somebody talked, leading to his arrest.
He is not the first Latin-American player to take this route. (Last year's most publicized example was Leo Nunez.)
So Heredia lied. But did he do anything wrong to the game of baseball? Does lying about your age and name affect anything about playing the game?
It does not.
While the lies are certainly deplorable, they do not affect the player's ability on the field. People will say that, because his age is uncertain, it could be advantageous for him to have people think he is younger. It could lead to larger bonuses and salaries. He’ll appear more successful since his ability will be compared to that of players younger than him.
But these are issue of deceit based on the current economic model and do not affect the play on the field.
If the same player was actually three years YOUNGER, would we be willing to rectify the situation financially? What happened, as before, is a player found a way to take advantage of the economic system in baseball. For him to be successful, he still had to demonstrate ability and skill.
In doing so, he allegedly broke laws in at least two countries* but he never de-skilled the game. While the misreported younger age would have been helpful during his development, the lying did not give him specific extra ability, or his ability to ignore Lake Erie Midges that Joba Chamberlain could not. Carmona’s lies do not hurt the on-field play of baseball.
* I have no idea if Canada would say anything about a player such as Carmona entering the country with false paperwork. I’m not even sure Canada would prosecute, but I am fairly certain that it is against Canadian law.
When looking at a situation like Carmona’s, I look directly at those running Major League Baseball and the teams. Lying about one’s identity is so advantageous for a specific set of players that it outweighs the risk of punishment. Instead of demonizing players like Carmona and Nunez, it is time to look at the system.
In Japan, younger players are able to develop in a system that gives them the ability to play in their homeland with the possibility of moving to the major leagues in America. In Latin America, players feel the need to break the law to be part of the system. So in one week, Yu Darvish, who has never pitched in even the minor leagues in America, got a $60 million contract after a team paid $51.7 million for the right to give him that contract. During that same week, we learned that, once again a player lied about his identity in an effort to get a portion of that amount of money.
In the end, both players will succeed or fail based on what they do on the field. How they got the opportunity doesn’t affect their ability on the field.
Major League Baseball needs to address the differences. If baseball officials are going to continue to encourage teams to deal individually with international players, they need to address the extreme differences in the system. It is not an easy task. How can baseball expect players not to take the route of Carmona and Nunez when the Darvish situation points out the inequity?
As for the Indians:
While Carmona has not lived up to the promise he flashed in 2007, he has shown, when healthy, to be able to provide a decent set of 30-plus starts and 200-plus innings each year.
In conjunction with this news, it appears the Indians finally pulled the trigger on obtaining Kevin Slowey. The Indians have been interested in him anyway, so this was not in direct relation to Carmona’s issues, but the trade was probably hastened. Carmona will likely end up on the restricted list, leaving the Indians with a hole in the rotation but with an extra $7 million. The Indians gave up Zach Putman, a young pitcher who may have competed for a bullpen position this year.
The Indians have other options for the rotation. David Huff and Jeanmar Gomez will be among those who compete with Slowey for spots behind Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Josh Tomlin and Derek Lowe. In the end, the Indians' depth should be able to cover for Carmona's absence with limited hardship.
Indians fan, member of the Duane Kuiper Fan Club, Spitball Researcher, Contact me on twitter, @siddfinch, via email or avian carrier
Career highlights: Orlando Cabrera
Posted by Chris JaffeA fewdays ago, longtime shortstop Orlando Cabrera announced he’s retiring from baseball after 15 seasons.
When news like this happens, it’s natural to look back on a player’s career, and for me that means putting together a list of career highlights. This list includes the greatest and most memorable games Cabrera played in, his personal bests (and some worsts), as well as some oddities he was on hand for and great moments by other players that occurred in games in which he participated.
Cabrera in his element - fielding the ball.
Basically, it’s a list of Orlando Cabrera’s best “I was there for that game.” Here they are, in order:
Expos tenure
Sept. 3, 1997: Cabrera makes his major league debut, and it comes in a great game, too. The Expos top the Red Sox, 1-0, in a game featuring a total of three hits. Montreal only has one against Boston’s Aaron Sele, but it’s a home run. Meanwhile, Montreal pitcher Carlos Perez tosses a two-hit shutout. Entering as a mid-game replacement, Cabrera grounds out weakly to the pitcher and then strikes out.
July 21, 1998: Against Philadelphia’s Mark Portugal, Cabrera belts the first of 123 career homers. It’s a solo shot in the bottom of the third inning.
July 30, 1998: Cabrera is off to the races. For the only time in his career, he triples twice in one game. In all, he goes 3-for-4 with a double, two triples, three runs, a sacrifice fly, an RBI and a strikeout as the Expos easily handle the Giants, 12-6.
May 31, 1999: As far as WPA is concerned, the clutchest swing of Carbrera’s career comes right here. At the plate with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth with his team trailing Arizona, 5-2, Cabrera swings at the first pitch from Byung-Hyun Kim and sends it to the seats for a game-tying home run.
July 18, 1999: David Cone makes history by throwing a perfect game against the Expos as the Yankees win, 6-0. Cabrera bats ninth and thus become the 27th out when he pops up in the ninth.
May 14, 2000: It’s one of the wildest slugfests of all time, and the Expos win it, topping the Cubs, 16-15. Montreal wins by scoring three in the bottom of the ninth, which came right after Chicago got four in the top of the ninth, which came right after Montreal got four in the eighth. I told you it was wild. Cabrera is 2-for-5 with an RBI single in the eighth.
July 1, 2000: How fitting. On Canada’s Independence Day, two Canadian-born pitchers square off—and in Canada. Montreal hosts the Marlins. Montreal’s Albertan starting pitcher, Mike Johnson, doesn’t have his stuff, allowing Florida and British Columbia’s very own Ryan Dempster to win it, 6-5.
July 3, 2000: This is probably the greatest performance of Cabrera’s career. He goes 4-for-5 with a pair of home runs, scores four times and drives in five as Montreal devastates the Phillies, 17-1. Cabrera ties personal one-game highs in hits, runs, and home runs. His 10 total bases is also a personal best, and with no ties this time.
Oct. 1, 2000: It’s as ugly a way to end a season as you can imagine. Montreal records its 95th loss of the year when the team loses in 13 innings to the Mets, 3-2. The winning run scores on a walk-off error committed by Cabrera’s infield mate, Geoff Blum.
May 13, 2001: Coming to the plate with the bases loaded against Colorado’s Pedro Astacio, Cabrera hits a three-run triple. It’s the only bases-clearing triple of his life. He never hit a grand slam in his 190 times up with the bases loaded—this is as close as he’ll ever come.
May 17, 2001: There will be 296 times Cabrera leads off the game for his team, but this will be the only time he connects for a leadoff homer. It comes against LA’s Eric Gagne (before he became a closer, obviously). His WPA on the swing is 0.493. Despite his heroics, Montreal loses in 10 innings, 8-5.
June 17, 2001: Cabrera belts his first career walkoff home run. It comes with two on and none out in a 1-1 game in the top of the ninth against Toronto’s Paul Quantrill. Despite hitting only 123 career long balls, Cabrera will end his career with five walk-off home runs.
Sept. 20, 2001: According to WPA, this is the greatest game of Cabrera’s career. He goes 3-for-5 with a pair of double, five RBIs and a run as Montreal beats Colorado, 8-3. He singles home the tying run in the bottom of the seventh and hits a three-run double in the eighth to give Montreal the lead.
Sept. 22, 2002: It isn’t quite Cal Ripken, Jr., but it’s still rather impressive. After missing the previous pair of games, Cabrera takes the field today to begin a streak of 317 consecutive games played for the shortstop. He’ll start 312 of those games and appear as either a mid-game replacement or pinch hitter in the other five.
April 11, 2003: The Montreal Expos play their first home game of the season, and they’re nowhere near Montreal. In a first, a big-league game takes place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In front of 17,906, “Montreal” wins, 10-0, over the Mets. Cabrera is 0-for-4.
July 27, 2003: Behind Cabrera’s bat, the Expos top the Braves, 13-10. He goes 3-for-5 with a homer, stolen base and a career-best six RBIs. He hits a two-run homer and a pair of two-run scoring singles.
June 20, 2004: Almost exactly three years since the first time he did it, Cabrera launches a walk-off home run. It’s a two-run shot that gives the Expos a 4-2 win over the White Sox.
Red Sox tenure
Sept. 22, 2004: For the second time this year and third time ever, Cabrera hits a walk-off home run. It’s a solo shot in the bottom of the 12th inning against Baltimore for a 7-6 win. It’s the latest he ever homers in a game.
Oct. 8, 2004: ALDS Game Four: Cabrera has a legitimately lousy performance in a legitimately great game. A 10th-inning, two-run, walk-off homer by David Ortiz gives Boston an 8-6 win over the Angels to finish the sweep of the LDS. Cabrera, though, goes 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
Oct. 16, 2004: ALCS Game Three: It is Cabrera’s best personal postseason performance, but it happens in maybe the ugliest loss any of his teams ever endure in October. He’s 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs, but Boston loses 19-8 to the Yankees. That gives New York a seemingly insurmountable three-games-to-none lead in the series. But we all know what happens next, right?
Oct. 17, 2004: ALCS Game Four: Boston begins its historic comeback here. Cabrera drove in the first run and scored Boston’s second tally back in the fifth inning, but heading into the bottom of the ninth they trail, 4-3. Shortly after an RBI Bill Mueller single ties it, Cabrera comes to the plate with runners on the corners and only one out. Instead of being the hero, Cabrera fans on three pitches in a very ugly looking at-bat. Boston wins in extra innings as Cabrera is 1-for-6 in the game.
Oct. 18, 2004: ALCS Game Five: For the second straight game, Boston stages a late comeback and wins in extra innings to keep its dream alive. Again, Cabrera helps out early as he singles and scores to give Boston it’s first run. Though he gets two singles and a walk, he has his most trouble in his most crucial at-bat. With two on and one out in the bottom of the 11th, Cabrera bounces into an inning-ending double play.
Oct. 19, 2004: ALCS Game Six: It’s the Bloody Sock game, as Curt Schilling pitches Boston to a 4-2 win to even the series. Cabrera helps out by going 2-for-4 with a stolen base and scoring a run. The Red Sox will win the next game to clinch the pennant.
Oct. 27, 2004: World Series Game Four: Boston finally does it, clinching its first world title since 1918 by finishing off St. Louis with this 3-0 victory. On a personal note, it’s Cabrera’s least impressive offensive performance of the World Series, as he’s 0-for-5, but he becomes a world champion. It’s the only world championship of his career.
Angels tenure
April 21, 2005: For the third time in fewer than 12 months, Cabrera smacks a walk-off home run. It’s a bottom-of-the-10th solo shot for a 6-5 win over Cleveland.
June 13, 2005: In the bottom of the fourth, Cabrera singles against Washington starting pitcher Esteban Loaiza for career hit No. 1,000. It took him 1,025 games. He’ll get his 1,001st hit later today, too.
Oct. 12, 2005: ALCS Game Two: It’s one of the stranger and more controversial postseason games in recent times. With two outs and none on in the bottom of the ninth in a game tied, 1-1, White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski appears to strike out when he swings and misses at a ball in the dirt, but he decides to run for first. The ump agrees it’s a wild pitch, and Angels catcher Josh Paul has forgotten this rule, as he’s jogging off the field. Given new life, Chicago quickly scores for a 2-1 win.
For his part, Cabrera is 2-for-4 with a double in the game, though he flew out with two outs and a runner on third in the eighth inning.
Oct. 14, 2005: ALCS Game Three: For the only time in his life, Cabrera drills a postseason homer, driving in teammate Adam Kennedy in the sixth inning. Unfortunately, that’s all the Angels can do, as they lose, 5-2, to the White Sox. They’ll lose the next pair of games to end their season.
The Angels win, 4-1, with Cabrera lacing a pair of singles, scoring a run and driving in another.
Sept. 22, 2006: This year, Cabrera will lead the AL in sacrifice hits for the first of three times. Today, he lays down two in one game, the only time he ever does that.
June 18, 2007: Cabrera has a nice game, going 2-for-5, but he’s completely overshadowed by the man hitting just in front of him in the batting order, Chone Figgins, who has one of the best games in Angels history. Figgins is 6-for-6 with a stolen base, double, and triple—and not just any triple, but a walk-off triple for a 10-9 win over Houston.
Aug. 15, 2007: No matter that he’s 32 years old, Cabrera still has his best day ever on the bases, going 3-for-3 in steal attempts. He also successfully stole three bases on July 31, 2005, but also was caught once that day.
Sept. 16, 2007: Cabrera gets to see some baseball history, but I’m sure he doesn’t enjoy it. White Sox DH Jim Thome belts his 500th career homer, and it comes at a good time for Chicago. It’s a two-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth for a 9-7 win. For his part, Cabrera was 2-for-4 with a sacrifice hit.
Oct. 5, 2007: ALDS Game Two: Cabrera gets an RBI double for Anaheim in the second inning, but it’s not enough. Tied 3-3 entering the bottom of the ninth, Manny Ramirez belts a three-run, walk-off homer. Boston will win the next game to complete a sweep, and this series ends Cabrera’s days in Anaheim.
White Sox tenure
May 27, 2008: In the sixth inning against Cleveland, the White Sox do something no major league team has done in 21 years—pull off a triple steal, though it’s not intended. Reliever Ehren Wassermann tries to pick off the runner at first, but the runner bolts for second, and it’s off to the races with everyone advancing safely. Cabrera batted in the inning for Chicago but fanned.
Sept. 30, 2008: It’s the Blackout Game. The White Sox have apparently confused major league baseball with March Madness basketball, but no one minds. They need to win their last game of the season to force a replay of a rained-out game. When they win both of those, they end the year tied with the Twins for the AL Central. That forces this game at Comiskey, in which all fans show up wearing black in a sign of solidarity with the club. Chicago wins, 1-0, on a Jim Thome solo shot, and Cabrera is 1-for-4, but the ChiSox lose in the first round of the postseason.
A’s tenure
July 19, 2009: Oakland’s Brett Anderson flirts with perfection against Anaheim, retiring the first 20 batters he faces. Unfortunately for him, Anaheim’s John Lackey is about as good, and the Angels win, 1-0, in 10 innings. Cabrera is 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a sacrifice hit.
July 20, 2009: Oakland gets redemption after yesterday’s tough loss. After falling behind 12-2 early to the Minnesota Twins, the A's storm back to win, 14-13. Cabrera has three of the game’s 39 hits, including two doubles. He doubles in two runs in a seven-run seventh inning and scores a few minutes later on a Matt Holliday grand slam.
Twins tenure
Aug. 13, 2009: The longest hitting streak of Cabrera’s career peaks at 22 games. It began back when he was with Oakland and is six games longer than any other stretch in his career. He’s gone 34-for-97 with nine doubles, a triple and a homer during this spell. That said, this is also what WPA considers to be the worst game of his career, as he goes 1-for-5 with a GIDP for a –0.379 WPA. With Minnesota trailing KC, 5-4, in the sixth inning, Cabrera bounced into an inning-ending double play.
Aug. 23, 2009: Cabrera’s Minnesota teammate Michael Cuddyer makes a bit of history for himself, banging out two home runs in the seventh inning during the Twins victory over KC. In between those blasts, Cabrera drives home a run of his own with a sacrifice fly.
Oct. 6, 2009: It’s one of the greatest games of the ages as Minnesota tops the Tigers, 6-5 in 12 innings, in a winner-take-all Game No. 163 for the AL Central title. Discussing all the dramatics would take far too long, but one key moment must be mentioned. With the Tigers up 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh and a runner on first, Cabrera steps to the plate and hits the most important home run of his career to give Minnesota a 4-3 lead.
Oct. 9, 2009: ALDS Game Two: It’s a rough loss for Cabrera and the Twins, as the Yankees score twice in the bottom of the ninth to tie it, 3-3, and then win it two frames later. It’s rough for Cabrera personally, as in the eighth and 10th innings, he comes up with two out and two runners on and both times makes the final out to end the inning. They’ll lose the next game as New York will finish off the sweep.
Reds tenure
May 5, 2010: For the first time in a little over five years, Cabrera hits a walk-off home run. It’s against the Mets in the 10th inning for a 5-4 Reds win.
May 11, 2010: Cabrera doesn’t play in this game, which may have had a big impact on the day as it turns out. Against the Pirates, Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Cueto has the game of his life, retiring 27 of the 28 batters he faces. The only baserunner comes in the third inning when Ronny Cedeno hits an infield grounder off the glove of shortstop Paul Janish, the man replacing Cabrera in the lineup.
July 6, 2010: Johan Santana doesn’t need any teammates. Today, the Mets starting pitcher belts a home run and tosses a complete-game shutout against Cincinnati. Cabrera gets one of the three hits Santana allows all day.
July 10, 2010: This just might be the best pitchers' duel of the 21st century. The Phillies top the Reds, 1-0 in 11 innings, but neither starting pitcher allows any runs. Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay allows five hits and a walk while fanning nine, but Travis Wood does better. He fans eight and allows just one baserunner in nine innings, a ninth-inning double by Carlos Ruiz. For his part, Cabrera has one of the best days of any batter, going 2-for-5.
Oct. 6, 2010: NLDS Game One: Roy Halladay makes history as he no-hits the Reds, baseball’s second postseason no-hitter. Halladay surrenders one walk on the day, but his longest battle comes in the seventh inning when Cabrera stretches an at-bat for eight pitches before grounding out. For the fourth consecutive year, Cabrera is in the postseason, and with a different team each time.
Indians tenure
April 30, 2011: Cabrera hits a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 13th inning to give the Indians a 3-2 win over the Tigers. Including his handful of walk-off homers, this is Cabrera’s 14th and final career walk-off hit. He has a half-dozen walk-off singles and a trio of walk-off doubles as well as his five walk-off homers.
June 12, 2011: It’s a nice milestone for a player not normally known for his bat. In the top of the second inning against he Yankees, Cabrera hits one to the right side of Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter and comes away with an infield single for his 2,000th career hit.
June 20, 2011: Let’s try something new. In his 1,919th career game, Cabrera starts at second base. It’s his first career game there. He plays the full game in the first of five stops at that slot.
June 25, 2011: It’s one of the weird moments in baseball. The Indians lose, 1-0, to the Giants with the only run scoring on a balk. Yeah, that doesn’t happen too often. Cabrera is 0-for-4 on the day.
July 7, 2011: It’s one of the better ninth-inning comebacks you’ll see. Cleveland enters the bottom of the ninth trailing Toronto, 4-0. They rally for five runs, the last four scoring on Travis Hafner’s walk-off grand slam. That makes Cabrera feel better about his ending an eighth-inning rally by grounding into an inning-ending double play.
Giants tenure
Sept. 23, 2011: Playing in his final game, Cabrera joins a select group of baseball veterans: those who homered in their swan song game. Cabrera does it in the fifth inning, joining Don Mattingly, Jackie Robinson, Tony Phillips, Ray Lankford, Todd Zeile, Albert Belle, Jim Edmonds, Will Clark and Ted Williams as men who took one out in their last game.
While some of those guys homered in their last at-bat, Cabrera came up twice more. He singled for his 2,055th and final hit in the seventh and then flew out in the ninth to end his career. There are worse ways to finish up one’s diamond days.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Craig Counsell career highlights
Posted by Chris JaffeIt wasn’t particularly surprising to hear, but it’s now official. Last week, veteran infielder Craig Counsell decided it was time to call it a career, announcing his retirement.
Craig Counsell in action
Let’s take a bit of time here to review his career. Below is a list featuring the most important and greatest games he ever participated in, his personal highlights, milestones, achievements and lowlights.
Also included are some oddities, memorable moments and teammates' great performances he was on hand for. They're all things he can claim to have seen or done.
Here they are, arranged chronologically and broken up by what team he played for at the time.
Rockies tenure
Sept. 17, 1995: Counsell makes his major leauge debut in a big win for the Marlins. Unfortunately, he isn’t playing for them yet.
Counsell is a late-game replacement in a 17-0 demolition of the Rockies. Counsell grounds out in the bottom of the seventh. It’s one of only four games he ever plays for Colorado, and it’s his only plate appearance with them.
Marlins tenure
Aug. 24, 1997: Counsell’s first career home run is a memorable one,—a grand slam. Not bad. It comes in the first inning off St. Louis’ Todd Stottlemyre.
Sept. 17, 1997: Against his old team, Counsell kicks off a dramatic bottom of the ninth. With Colorado up, 6-5, Counsell singles for Florida to lead off the frame. He advances to third a little later but is thrown out at the plate on an infield grounder for the second out of the inning.
A little later, with the bases loaded, Bobby Bonilla steps to the plate. He quickly gets two strikes against him, but then he fouls off five consecutive pitches before making good contact and hitting a walk-off grand slam home run for a 9-6 Marlins win.
Sept. 30, 1997: NLDS Game One: With the score tied 1-1 entering the bottom of the ninth in the first postseason game of his life, Counsell singles to lead off. He makes it to third base, and the Marlins have the bases loaded with one out, but then Jeff Conine is force at home on a grounder to second. Immediately after that, however, Edgar Renteria drills a walk-off single for a 2-1 Marlins win over San Francisco.
Oct. 1, 1997: NLDS Game Two: For the second straight day, it’s a walk-off postseason victory for the Marlins. This time, Counsell is readying himself in the on-deck circle when Moises Alou singles home Gary Sheffield for Florida’s 7-6 win. They’ll win the next game to complete the sweep.
Oct. 14, 1997: NLCS Game Six: Florida wins its first franchise pennant with a 7–4 victory over the Braves. Counsell goes 2-for-4 with an intentional walk and strikeout in the effort. He also drives in two runs on the day.
Oct. 26, 1997: World Series Game Seven: Counsell gets to live out the fantasy of any schoolboy. He comes to the plate in the bottom of the ninth in Game Seven of the World Series with his team trailing 2-1 and the tying run on third base. Against Cleveland’s star closer, Jose Mesa, Counsell hits a sacrifice fly to tie the game, 2-2. Florida wins two innings later with Counsell reaching base on an error and scoring the championship-clinching run.
April 1, 1998: The world champion Florida Marlins may have sold off many of their best players in the offseason, but Counsell has had a nice start to his year. He tripled in yesterday’s season opener and does so again today. Florida loses, 10-3, to the Cubs, and that proves to be more indicative of the upcoming season than Counsell’s triples outburst.
April 2, 1998: Counsell’s triples streak comes to an end with what WPA claims is the worst game of his life. As the Cubs top the Marlins, 8-7, Counsell is 0-for-3 with two walks and a whiff for an overall –0.414 WPA.
His walks are unimportant, but some of his outs are killer. In the bottom of the seventh, he comes up with runners on the corners and one out with the game tied, 7-7. He flies out, and the lead runner is gunned down at the plate for an inning-ending double play. Two innings later, he comes to the plate with runners on second and third and strikes out to end the game.
April 16, 1998: Counsell’s second career home run is just like the first one—a grand slam in the first inning. That’s right, each of his first career two homers come with the bases loaded. He’ll only do it once more in his career.
July 24, 1998: According to WPA, this is Counsell’s best game. In fact, it might be the most amazing regular-season game Counsell ever plays in. The Marlins lose, 7-6, in a 12-inning contest in which the Phillies just refuse to die. Philadelphia scores twice in the ninth to tie it, and then when the Marlins score once in the top of the 10th, 11th, and 12th inning, Philadelphia matches them in the 10th and 11th, and then bests them with a pair of runs in the 12th.
Counsell goes 3-for-5 with a 10th-inning solo home run, sacrifice hit, and three RBIs. His WPA on the day is 0.502. While it’s the best of his career, it’s only the second-highest in the game, as Philadelphia center fielder Doug Glanville has a 0.527 WPA in the wild contest.
Aug. 3, 1998: In the bottom of the eighth, Houston pitcher C.J. Nitkowski loses his control, and Counsell pays the price. After Derrek Lee laces a leadoff single, Nitkowski plunks three consecutive batters. Counsell is the third plunked and the one hardest hit. He’s forced to leave the game and is injured so badly he won’t play again all season.
May 31, 1999: Cliff Floyd blasts a two-run homer for the Marlins in the bottom of the fifth against St. Louis. Wait, check that. After initially signaling it was a home run, home plate umpire Frank Pulli opts to use TV replay to review the call. He reverses it, and Floyd’s homer is no more. Florida loses, 2-1. In the inning of Floyd’s non-homer, Counsell struck out two batters before Floyd came to the plate.
Dodgers tenure
July 3, 1999: LA is in a slump, having just lost their last four games. To break out of it, Counsell and his teammates burn some of their caps before today’s game against the Giants. They lose anyway, 9-1, with Counsell going 0-for-1 as a late-game replacement.
Sept. 7, 1999: It’s the first all-Canada pitching duel in 26 years as Florida’s Canadian-born Ryan Dempster takes on fellow Maple Leaf flagger Eric Gagne of the Dodgers. LA loses, 2-1, with Counsell going 0-for-3 with a GIDP.
First Diamondbacks tenure
March 25, 1999: Getting ready in spring training, Counsell’s teammate Randy Johnson kills a bird with a poorly timed flight pattern. He flies into the path of one of the Big Unit's pitches.
May 17, 2001: It just might be the worst game of Counsell’s career. He goes 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. It’s the only four-K game of his career. On the bright side, he also draws a walk.
July 6, 2001: Almost. A’s starter Mark Mulder almost pitches a perfect game. After retiring the first 21 batters, he allows a single to Arizona’s teammate Danny Bautista, and that proves to be the only D'backs baserunner. As leadoff hitter, Counsell is the only Diamondback to come to the plate four times, and he goes 0-for-4.
Oct. 4, 2001: The longest hitting streak of Counsel’s career peaks at 13 games. He goes 15-for-51 with four doubles in this stretch. His AVG/OBP/SLG is .294/.362/.373 in that period.
Oct. 12, 2001: NLDS Game Three: Not normally much of a power hitter, Counsell has a rare moment of being the big man in the lineup, as he belts a three-run homer for Arizona in the top of the seventh. It proves to be the difference, as they beat the Cardinals, 5-3.
Oct. 16, 2001: NLCS Game One: Arizona tops Atlanta, 2-0, and Counsell scores both of Arizona’s runs against Greg Maddux, singling in the first and doubling in the fifth. This game proves to be a harbinger, as Arizona wins the NLCS in five games.
Oct. 27, 2001: World Series Game One: Counsell belts a first-inning home run off Mike Mussina to kick off what turns into a 9-1 Arizona rout of the Yankees.
Oct. 31, 2001: World Series Game Four: It’s one of the most famous games in World Series history, as the Yankees tie it in the bottom of the ninth on a two-run Tino Martinez homer and then win it next inning on a Derek Jeter walk-off shot.
For Counsell, it’s historic for a different reason. He ties a World Series record with a trio of sacrifice hits. Joe Tinker did it once in 1906, and Counsell here, and that’s it in the history of the Fall Classic. Consider this Exhibit A for why people have problems with Bob Brenly’s in-game managing decision. Counsell, for what it’s worth, never had two sacrifices in any regular-season game (let alone three) any time in his career.
Nov. 1, 2001: World Series Game Five: For the second straight game, the Yankees tie it on a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth and win it in extra innings. Counsell has a disappointing night, going 0-for-6 with two Ks. Most notably, he grounded to third with a runner on third and none out in the eighth, and that runner ended up dying at third.
Nov. 4, 2001: World Series Game Seven: Once again, Counsell comes to the plate in the bottom of the ninth in a historic World Series game. This time, he’s facing Mariano Rivera with one out. Just before Counsell came up, shortstop Tony Womack doubled to tie the game, 2-2. Counsell keeps the rally alive by getting hit by a pitch to load the bases. Two pitches later, Luis Gonzalez hits a single to win the championship for Arizona.
April 30, 2002: Playing third base, Counsell scores Arizona’s only run in a 10-1 Mets victory. With this win, Mets starting pitcher Al Leiter becomes the first hurler to defeat all 30 major league franchises.
Aug. 3, 2002: For the only time in his career, Counsell belts a pinch hit homer. It’s a nice clutch one, too. It’s a solo shot that ties the score, 5-5, against the Mets in the ninth inning. Oh, and it came on a full count, too, against New York closer Armando Benitez.
May 28, 2003: Counsell bats leadoff for Arizona in one of the best pitching duels of the 21st century. After nine innings, San Francisco and Arizona are tied, 0-0, with a combined four hits. Arizona’s Miguel Batista has allowed one hit and, opposing him, Jason Schmidt has allowed only three. Both pitchers are pulled in the 10th, and San Francisco scores for a 1-0 win. Counsell is 0-for-4.
July 9, 2003: Counsell hits a home run for the second consecutive game. He never did that before and never does it again.
First Brewers tenure
April 23, 2004: For the first time in his big league career, Counsell laces a walk-off hit. He singles with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth against St. Louis in a game tied 1-1. The game ends, obviously, in a 2-1 Milwaukee victory.
Aug. 5, 2004: Here’s one I don’t get at all. For the 12th time in his career, Counsell reaches base via catcher’s interference. Twelve times? If you look at 100 long-lasting players, you might—might—find one guy who had it happen three times, but 12? It’s the sixth time it’s happened this season. Must be something Counsell is doing at the plate. Whatever he’s doing, he stops doing it, because there is no No. 13 for him. (If anyone cares, Pete Rose did it 29 times, which is far, far more than anyone else I know of.)
April 15, 2005: In the top of the eighth, Houston reliever Brandon Backe strikes out the side on nine pitches. The batters he fans are Bill Hall, Scott Podsednik and Counsell. Milwaukee wins anyway, 6-2.
Second Diamondbacks tenure
May 20, 2005: Normally no one’s idea of a power hitter, Counsell gets a trio of doubles in a 4-for-5 performance with a sacrifice fly and two RBIs as Arizona tops Detroit, 6-2. It’s the only time he ever gets three extra-base hits in a game.
Aug. 7, 2005: It might be the greatest game of Counsell’s career. He goes 5-for-5 for the only time and scored three runs. Oh, he also steals three bases, also a personal best. He has a weird late peak on the bases. At the end of 2002, he was 32 years and six weeks old and had only 21 steals. Then he steals 69 more bases from 2003-06.
May 19, 2006: For the second and last time, Counsell gets a walk-off hit to end the game. With the score tied, 9-9, and the bases loaded against Atlanta, Counsell singles for the 10-9 win.
June 14, 2006: Counsell plays in his 1,000th career game, and he does it in style, going 3-for-5 and scoring a run. One thousand games? Not bad for someone who didn’t get his first real shot in the majors until he was 26 years old. Yet, he still has 600-plus more games left.
Second Brewers tenure
Sept. 6, 2006: Congratulations Anibal Sanchez. On this day, the young Florida hurler no-hits Milwaukee for a 2-0 win. Counsell appears as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning and draws one of the four walks Sanchez surrenders. Immediately afterwards, Orlando Hudson hits into an inning-ending double play.
June 12, 2007: For the second straight year, the Brewers are no-hit. This time it’s by Justin Verlander, who leads Detroit to a 4-0 win. Counsell goes 0-for-4 with two Ks.
Sept. 9, 2007: Milwaukee makes history as Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, and Ryan Braun begin the game with back-to-back-to-back home runs. With a nice, easy lead, they eventually bring in Counsell as a late-game pinch hitter. He fans, but Milwaukee wins, 10-5.
Sept. 27, 2007: It’s one of the ugliest games in Milwaukee history. With the NL Central sitting there for the taking, the Brewers are melting down under manager Ned Yost. They’ve lost several games lately, and Yost has been ejected a few times in the last week. Tonight, they not only lose, 9-5, but they commit five errors in the process, leading to six unearned runs. Counsell appears as a pinch hitter, going 0-for-1 in the mess. The Brewers end up finishing second to a mediocre Cubs team in the division race.
July 13, 2008: Earlier this year, CC Sabathia homered for the Indians in an interleague game, and today he goes deep for the Brewers. In doing so, he becomes the first pitcher to homer for a club in each league in one season since Earl Wilson did it in 1970. Despite that, later in the game, Milwaukee uses Counsell as a pinch hitter for Sabathia. Counsell gets an RBI sacrifice fly to help Milwaukee win, 4-3.
Aug. 16, 2008: In the 1,256th game of his career, Counsell collects career hit No. 1,000. It comes as a single off LA’s Derek Lowe in the second inning. Counsell gets his 1,001st hit later in the game, too.
Oct. 8, 2008: NLDS Game Two: For the only time in this postseason series against the Phillies, Counsell plays a complete game. He goes 0-for-4 with an RBI and a strikeout as Milwaukee falls, 5-2. Milwaukee will lose this series. It’s the first time Counsell plays in the postseason and doesn’t end up with a championship ring.
July 29, 2009: Washington’s Josh Willingham steals the show, belting grand slams in consecutive innings (the fifth and sixth) against Milwaukee. He also doubles as the Nationals win, 14-6. Playing third, Counsell goes 1-for-5.
April 18, 2010: It’s just like old times. Counsell does something he hasn’t done in a dozen years—belt a grand slam. It’s only his 40th career home run. He never did have much power.
Sept. 7, 2010: Counsell is on hand when history is made. With him manning the shortstop position, Trevor Hoffman nails down a 4-2 win over the Cardinals for his 600th career save. He’s the first pitcher to reach the 600-save marker.
April 19, 2011: Let’s see if the old dog can do a new trick. In the bottom of the eighth, the 40-year-old Counsell is put in left field. It’s the only time he ever plays the outfield in his big-league career. He doesn’t have to make any plays out there.
Sept. 17, 2011: For the last time, Counsell plays a full game. He goes 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs in a nice 10-1 Brewer win over the Reds.
Sept. 28, 2011: Counsell is a late-game replacement in a 7-3 Brewer win over the Pirates. It’s the last game of Counsel’s career—well, last regular-season game anyway, as Milwaukee will play in the postseason this year.
An inning before Counsell enters the game, Prince Fielder makes an odd sort of history. He steps to the plate with a .299 batting average on the season—and draws a walk. He’s the only person to qualify for the batting title, bat exactly .299 and draw a walk in his final regular-season plate appearance. All the other guys swung for it in an effort to make it to .300.
Oct. 7, 2011: NLDS Game Five: Once again, Counsell comes to the plate late in a winner-takes-all postseason game. He appears as a pinch hitter to lead off the bottom of the ninth in a game tied, 2-2, against Arizona. Counsell lines out, but a little later, Milwaukee scores to win 3-2 and advance to the NLCS.
Oct. 16, 2011: NLCS Game Six: Counsell makes his final appearance in a big-league game. He comes to the plate as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the seventh with Milwaukee trailing the Cardinals, 11-6. Counsell grounds out back to the pitcher, and that ends his career.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
SABR Analytics Conference
Posted by Dave StudemanThe Hardball Times is proud to be one of the sponsors of a brand new thing, the SABR Analytics Conference. We're sponsoring this conference along with other well-known baseball organizations and websites such as Bloomberg Sports, Baseball Reference, Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs.
The conference, to be held in Mesa from March 15-17, is available to anyone and will feature research presentations, panels and guest speakers. Speakers will include a slew of major league insiders. Plus, there is going to be a case competition, in which teams from many undergraduate and graduate schools present their analysis and recommendations for a baseball business case. Yours truly will be on the panel of judges for the case competition. Bribes will be accepted.
Here's the registration webpage. Lower fees are still available for early registration. This event is highly recommended for all baseball nerds and easy to fit into a spring training tip, to boot. I hope to see you there.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
A baseball card mystery: Thurman Munson and who?
Posted by Bruce MarkusenJorge Posada’s impending retirement has me thinking about great Yankee catchers. I’m not old enough to have seen Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra or Elston Howard in live action, but I’ve been fortunate to see both Posada and Thurman Munson up close and personal.
Posada will be an interesting case for Hall of Fame discussion. His late start, coupled with his defensive shortcomings, will hurt his chances, though perhaps not irrevocably.
Munson’s case for the Hall of Fame is a tougher sell. Due the ravaged state of his knees, he was already in decline by the time of the horrific plane crash and fire that took his life in 1979.
His three phenomenal seasons of 1975 to 1977 constitute an impressive peak—he was arguably a better player than Carlton Fisk during that stretch—but three straight Hall of Fame seasons are not enough, at least not by themselves, to gain entrance to Cooperstown.
Munson received his own action card in the 1972 set; he was one of 72 players to merit an action photo, complete with red banners all the way around. Technically speaking, we don’t really see Munson in action here, but rather in conference with one of his pitchers.
Those conferences on the mound could become rather heated, with Munson loudly imploring his pitchers to pick up the pace, knock a hitter off the plate or simply throw some damn strikes.
That brings us to this week’s baseball card mystery. It’s a two-parter, involving both location and identity.
First off, the Yankees are clearly wearing their road grays, so we know that this photo was not taken at the old Yankee Stadium. Given the absence of the “Green Monster,” I think it’s safe to say that it’s not Fenway Park, either.
That leaves us with 10 other choices, including old RFK Stadium in Washington, home of the Senators.
Second, I’m left wondering which Yankee pitcher is standing on the mound next to Munson. His face is bathed in shadow, making an indentification difficult. His glove is not evident on his left-hand, so it is likely a southpaw.
It could be Fritz Peterson, but I’m not certain. Other possibilities on the 1971 Yankees are Mike Kekich (whom I remember as being thinner than the pitcher on this card) and four relatively obscure relievers: Alan Closter, Rob Gardner, Gary Jones and Terry Ley.
So who is it? And where is it?
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
10th anniversary: Randy Winn’s greatest shot
Posted by Chris JaffeTen years ago, professional baseball player Randy Winn had maybe his best moment in sports. The neat part was, it had nothing to do with baseball. And Winn certainly didn’t expect to do anything memorable.
No, he was just going to watch a basketball game in his home town of Los Angeles. He had tickets to that night's Clippers-Cavaliers game in LA and just intended to see star Clippers players Elton Brand, Lamar Odom, and Corey Maggette play.
The night turned out to be a bit more exciting for Winn, though. In the grand tradition of halftime entertainment, the Clippers promotional staff roped one random fan out of the stands to see if he could do the unlikely, sink a shot from half court in one, and only one, try. Oh, and just to make things interesting, a prize would be offered. A nice prize—a new car.
As it happens, that lucky random fan was Winn. Well, from the point of view of the Clippers team and the car company, Winn is about as bad a random pick as you could hope for. He was something of a ringer. First, he was a professional athlete, as he was the starting right fielder for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the time.
Second, he wasn’t just a baseball player. In college he played basketball in Division I. Winn was a college teammate of Steve Kerr at Santa Clara. In 1993, their team became the second 15th seed in history to win a game in the annual NCAA tournament.
And now Winn was given a chance to sink a basket from half court to win a new car.
You know how this ends. It wouldn’t be much of a story if he missed. Of course, Winn’s aim was true, and he won himself a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer. Since Winn was already a millionaire by this time, he didn’t really need the car, but he knew just what to do with it. He gave the new set of wheels to his mom.
Oh, and the Clippers won, 109-103.
Aside from that, today many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is an event that occurred X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
2,000 days since Luke Scott hits for the cycle.
5,000 days since Randy Winn makes his big league debut.
5,000 days since Ivan Rodriguez gets his 1,000th hit.
6,000 days since Ron Darling plays in his last game.
6,000 days since Reggie Sanders of the Reds hits three homers in one game.
6,000 days since Kirby Puckett belts his best WPA home run. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Minnesota trailing by two run, he connects for a three-run homer and a 7-6 Twins lead over the Mariners. His WPA for the home run: 0.892.
8,000 days since owners drop their demands on arbitration and salary consessions during the 1994-95 work stoppage.
9,000 days since the White Sox beat the Red Sox, 8-6, despite an odd quirk. Despite getting 11 guys on base, Chicago ends the game with zero runners left on base. Eight score, two are out in double plays, and the remaining baserunner is caught stealing.
10,000 days since Tony Perez hits the 11th and final walk-off home run of his career. It’s his sole pinch-hit walk-off home run. His homer gives the Reds a 7-5 win over Pittsburgh in 11 innings.
15,000 days since fire damages the abandoned Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
20,000 days since many players make their big league debuts, including Roger Maris, Dick Drott, Sam Mele, and Jim Landis.
25,000 days since pitchers Whitlow Wyatt and Manny Salvo go after each other after exchanging beanballs in a 2-0 Braves win over the Dodgers.
Anniversaries
1896 Bill McGowan, Hall of Famer, is born.
1934 Dizzy Dean confidently predicts the Cardinals will win the pennant, with himself winning 25 games and younger brother Paul notching 18-20 victories.
1938 Curt Flood, super fielding center fielder, is born.
1947 Pittsburgh purchases Hank Greenberg for $75,000. He’ll play one year there and then retire.
1952 The White Sox accept the resignation of GM Charles A. Comiskey, Jr. after his request for more money is turned down.
1954 Scott McGregor, pitcher, is born.
1961 Schoolboy Rowe, former Tigers pitcher, dies.
1964 Brady Anderson, unlikely 50-homer guy, is born.
1969 Washington hires Ted Williams as its manager. He’ll be the last manager in Senators history.
1971 Pittsburgh signs amateur free agent Tony Armas.
1972 Mike Lieberthal, longtime Phillies catcher, is born.
1973 Boston signs free agent Orlando Cepeda. He'll be the team's DH.
1985 The Brewers, Rangers, Mets, and Royals engage in the rare four-team trade. Texas gets Don Slaught, Milwaukee lands Danny Darwin and Tim Leary, KC gets Jim Sundberg, and the Mets receive Frank Wills.
1994 Baseball owners approve of a revenue plan that is keyed to a salary cap. This will need player approval, and that will cause that year’s strike.
1995 With the strike still going on, 55-year old Phil Niekro says a team contacted him and his 50-year-old brother Joe Niekro about possibly returning to the mound in 1995. He won’t say which team asked.
1995 Former baseball umpire and best-selling author Ron Luciano commits suicide at age 57.
1999 Five are injured when a fiberglass panel falls from the roof of Olympic Stadium in Montreal during the setup for an auto show.
2002 San Diego signs free agent Ron Gant.
2006 Pitcher Danny Graves returns to Vietnam, where he had been born in 1973. It’s his first visit there since 1974. He’s there to teach kids baseball.
2008 The White Sox sign amateur free agent Alexei Ramirez.
2008 Seattle signs free agent reliever Arthur Rhodes.
2011 Detroit signs free agent pitcher Brad Penny.
2011 Gil Meche announces his retirement, opting to forego the final year of his contract.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
10,000 days since Buddy Bell walk-off slam
Posted by Chris Jaffe10,000 days ago, one of baseball’s more underrated talents did one of the coolest things a player could do. On Aug. 31, 1984, Buddy Bell belted a walk-off grand slam to cap an impressive rally for his Texas Rangers.
On that day, Texas hosted the Milwaukee Brewers, and things didn’t go the home team’s way for most of the day. The Brew Crew busted out to a 6-1 lead, largely thanks to a four-run sixth inning. (In that frame, Texas stopped the Milwaukee rally by calling on a young relief pitcher name Tom Henke, who made only his 30th big league outing on that day).
Heading into the bottom of the ninth, it was still 6-1 and Milwaukee could seemingly sleepwalk to victory. However, reliever Jack Lazorko had lost his edge. After pitching three scoreless innings in relief (it was a different time), Lazorko began his fourth frame by surrendering back-to-back singles.
Well that’s no good for Milwaukee, so skipper Rene Lachemann made a change, calling on Rick Waits to finish off the game. Waits was no better, however, as he also allowed back-to-back singles.
Now the score was 6-3, with the tying run at the plate and still nobody out. Optimists in Arlington’s crowd of 9,404 started to wonder if Texas really could do it.
Probably not. Milwaukee now brought in Pete Ladd, and he quickly got two outs. First he fanned Alan Bannister, and then he made leadoff hitter Mickey Rivers send a meek pop foul to the third baseman.
Now Texas was down to its last out. Sure enough, they appeared doomed when Gary Ward, Texas’ last hope, hit a grounder to Milwaukee’s superstar shortstop Robin Yount. It should’ve been an easy out to end the inning and game. Should’ve.
But Yount pooched the play somehow, and all hands were safe. That brought up Buddy Bell for his big moment. Bell was never a huge power hitter, but he had enough oomph to make teams respect him. He’d belted over 140 homers in his career and was a good enough all-around player to win selection to five All-Star games – including one earlier this year.
Though he hadn’t belted a grand slam in three years, he’d hit five in his career. In fact, a dozen years earlier his first home run was a grand slam home run.
And sure enough, he took a nice swing and drove the ball over the fence. It completed a wild comeback and gave the Rangers a 7-6 win over the Brewers, with the final runs officially unearned due to Yount’s error.
Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversaries and “day-versraries” today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to skim the list:
Day-versaries
5,000 days since the Marlins lose, dropping Jim Leyland’s career record under .500 (956-957). He remains under .500 until the very end of the 2011 season when he finally goes back over it.
7,000 days since the A’s trade Walt Weiss to the Florida.
7,000 days since the Reds trade Norm Charlton to the Mariners for Kevin Mitchell.
7,000 days since the NL expansion draft for the Marlins and the Rockies.
The Rockies pick up: Eric Young from the Dodgers, Joe Girardi from the Cubs, Andy Ashby from the Phillies, Vinny Castilla from the Braves, Brad Ausmus from the Yankees, and future big league manager Eric Wedge from the Red Sox.
The Marlins pick up: Trevor Hoffman from the Reds, Greg Hibbard from the White Sox, Jeff Conine from the Royals, Carl Everett from the Yankees, Brian Harvey from the Angels, and Darren Jackson from the Pirates.
9,000 days since Mike Young has the best known WPA game by a Baltimore bat. He goes 3-for-4 with two homers in an extra-inning 8-7 win over the Angels. Young homers in the 10th and 12th inning in the game.
9,000 days since Joe Carter belts three home runs in a game for the second time in his career. He’ll do it three more times in his career.
20,000 days since Jack Coombs, former 30-game winner, dies.
Also along these lines, at some point today it will be one billion seconds since Larry Bowa legs out the only inside the park home run Tom Seaver ever allows.
Anniversaries
1888 The American Association admits the Kansas City Cowboys to the league to replace the defunct New York Metropolitans.
1895 Andrew Freeman buys controlling interest in the Giants.
1895 St. Louis and Pittsburgh swap pitchers. The Pirates send Red Ehret and $3,000 to St. Louis for Pink Hawley.
1905 Ray Cunningham, who becomes one of the only ballplayers to live to the age of 100, is born. He’ll play 14 games for the 1931 Cardinals.
1915 The Cleveland Plain Dealer announces that the local AL team will now be called the Indians, replacing the Naps as their nickname.
1931 Don Zimmer, baseball lifer, is born.
1937 Cleveland trades pitcher Oral Hildebrand and two others to the Browns for three players. Hildebrand is guy who could’ve done much better for himself if he didn’t have the utterly horrible Browns defense behind him.
1939 Ed Barrow becomes Yankee president, replacing the recently deceased Jacob Ruppert.
1952 Darrell Porter, All-Star catcher, is born.
1952 Tigers owner Walter Briggs Sr. dies, making his son Walter “Spike” Briggs the big boss.
1960 Chili Davis, long-lasting outfielder, is born.
1970 Curt Flood files a $4.1 million lawsuit against baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
1970 In the January amateur draft, the following teams claim the following players: Cleveland gets Chris Chambliss, San Francisco gets Chris Speier, Boston gets Rick Burleson, Baltimore gets Doug DeCinces, Kansas City gets Greg Minton, and Washington gets Bill Madlock.
1979 Danny O’Brien signs a contract as president and CEO of Seattle nine days after resigning as Texas GM.
1983 Boston purchases Brian Kingman from Oakland. With Oakland, Kingman went 8-20 in 1980, and for a long time was baseball’s last 20-game loser.
1984 In the January draft, many teams draft prominent names that they won’t sign at this time, including: St. Louis drafting Jeff Blauser and Greg Vaughn; Houston drafting Greg Hibbard; and Minnesota drafting Mark Grace. On a happier note, some teams draft players they will sign, most notably Pittsbugh with Jay Buhner and the Yankees with Tim Belcher.
1984 The Milwaukee Brewers release longtime infielder Don Money.
1999 The Giants sign free agent catcher Scott Servais.
2000 Tampa Bay signs free agent pitcher John Burkett.
2002 Bud Selig says Washington DC is a “prime candidate” for relocation if any team moves in the near future.
2002 Milwaukee signs free agent infielder Eric Young.
2002 David Wells signs with the New York Yankees, returning to the team he previously won a world title with.
2004 Former 1940s star pitcher Harry Brecheen dies.
2005 The Indians sign what’s left of Juan Gonzalez.
2008 Baseball owners vote unanimously to extend Bud Selig’s commissioner contract through 2012.
2011 The Rockies sign free agent slugger Jason Giambi.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Some thoughts on Moscoso
Posted by Lucas ApostolerisPart of the Rockies’ return package for Seth Smith is right-hander Guillermo Moscoso, who made 21 starts for the Athletics in 2011. Moscoso had some cups-of-coffee with the Rangers as a reliever in 2009 and 2010, but last year was the first time we got a good look (128 innings) at what Moscoso he has to offer.
In short, he has a decent fastball and underwhelming off-speed pitches. He’ll throw his four-seamer a little under 91, backing it up with a high-70s changeup and slurvey curveball (the change goes against lefties, while batters from both sides will see his curve). At the end of July, Moscoco brought a mid-80s cutter into his repertoire as another weapon against righties (Dan Lependorf made note of this last summer).
Moscoso’s ERA last year was a very solid 3.38, but I’m lukewarm on his chances of replicating that mark. Over his career he has shown decent control (3.1 walks and hit batsmen per 9 innings), an unspectacular strikeout rate (5.6 strikeouts per 9), and an extreme flyball tendency (career ground ball rate of around 25%). His fastball has generated a swing-and-miss on nearly 17 percent of swings; that rate is league-average for four-seamers. However, none of his offspeed pitches have a rate over 21 percent, leaving him without a reliable out-pitch. He doesn’t really have anything that stays on the ground either:
pitch x gb% Fastball 222 16% Curveball 103 41% Changeup 44 26% Cutter 13 38%
Moscoso’s batting average on contacted pitches was .248 last year, lowest in the majors among pitchers with at least 100 innings. It’s fair to attribute some of this to the nature of Oakland Coliseum. As Greg Rybarczyk made note of in the 2011 THT Annual, Oakland’s colder-than-average temperatures help prevent home runs, and the park’s large amount of foul territory gets pitchers a lot of extra outs on balls hit into the air.
What does this mean for Moscoso’s new team? Coors Field is a notorious slugger park and that does not fit Moscoso’s profile very well at all. The Rockies have plenty of starting pitchers (including Jhoulys Chacin, Jorge De La Rosa, Juan Nicasio, Jason Hammel, Drew Pomeranz, Kevin Slowey, Tyler Chatwood, and the other player in the Smith deal, Josh Outman), so I doubt Moscoso even gets a look in the rotation at this point.
Two notes – a) pitch IDs are by Harry Pavlidis (thank you, Harry); b) my dataset unfortunately is missing Moscoso’s last three 2011 starts, so the numbers in this article reflect his previous outings.
You can read more of Lucas's work at Beyond the Boxscore and Don't Bring In The Lefty. Also, you can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or on Twitter @DBITLefty.
Monday, January 16, 2012
PED injustice and the Hall
Posted by Mat KovachHall of Fame vote is frustrating. Something is wrong with either the procedure or the people involved in the voting. This became clear when Barry Larkin’s deserving, and late, induction became a second tier story to who did not make it and the ongoing assault about the role of steroids or PEDs*.
* For the remainder, I’ll refer to PEDs to include steroids, HGH, etc.—anything that has been considered Performance Enhancing Drugs. It will also refer only to those performance enhancing drugs that are banned and/or tested for.
The leaking of Ryan Braun’s positive drug test, currently in appeal means at some point we’ll be forced to hear the opinion of members of the Baseball Writesr Association of America (who do the Hall voting) on the validity of numbers, the historical content of PEDs, and the presentation of evidence about PED usage by players. Even if Braun’s appeal is successful, we’ll hear writers' opinion about what should have been done if Braun was actually suspended.
There has to be more reason for this constant discussion than what is presented on the surface.
There are writers who say using drugs is illegal and people using PEDs* are therefore breaking the law which lacks integrity as well as specific rules of baseball. Despite that writers will vote for players, and support active players, even when they break the rules of baseball or demonstrate a lack of integrity.
* When I use the term "‘using PEDs" or "PED user" i am talking about people who have admitted to using PEDs and those who are simply suspected of using PEDs. It is impossible to tell if the writers are concerned if there is a difference. Given that I’ll group the convicted and suspected together for my discussion about writers.
The Hall of Fame includes admitted spitballer Gaylord Perry. Whitey Ford's plaque stands in the Hall despite his admission to throwing doctored baseballs, including in the 1962 All-Star game to strike out Willie Mays. Writers use the cheaters excuse inconsistently, so when they do trot it out, safely dismiss it.
A standard is set. Writers often use the statistical standard of the players in the Hall in arguments for or against players. They will use bad behavior only as a reason to not vote for somebody, ignoring substantial information that cheaters and other bad people are already in.
So writers will set various levels of badness to rules, allowing some to be broken without incurring penalty. Given the example of Perry and Ford, I have never heard of a writer who voted them into the Hall advocating allow the spitball to be part of the game. If one argument is that cheaters should not be in the Hall, how can the next argument be that people who didn’t cheat that badly can still be considered. Logically this does not sense.
When Derek Jeter feigned being hit by a pitch, even to the point of allowing the trainer to inspect him for injuries, writers, fans, and even the manager on the opposing team thought it was a good baseball move. Willfully lying to the umpire, a lie that because of the nature of the play could not visually determine if the ball hit Jeter, is good? I wonder if this commercial played during that game. Jeter’s action did the exact opposite of what we teach about integrity. This was not attempting to deceive another player or team but the people you want to make the right call on the field. If this lack of integrity is a good baseball move, then how can you argue that integrity is needed for be eligible for an award or getting into the Hall of Fame. People will point to Jeter's fake injury as a reason that he deserves to be in the Hall.
Writers' claims of PED users as cheaters lacking integrity still have not given a reason why they won’t vote for a PED user. They have a different agenda when they ostracize PED users.
Let’s remember PED users took advantage of a tool that allowed them to train better. The increased training made them better athletes, allowing them to improve their baseball skills. They used something that baseball, their own union, and the players themselves did not feel strongly enough about to eliminate by testing the players.
PEDs are no magic pill; you have to work hard to get any advantage from them. A number of players who used PEDs achieved little of note in baseball. At the very least, players who used PEDs and are in consideration of seasonal or lifetime awards worked very hard to get there. The reason they are in consideration is because of the hard work. You may feel the PEDs increased their numbers* but ignoring those numbers is ludicrous.
* This is questioned by many sources. If the effects of PEDs were well known it would be easy to regress players' numbers. Without solid evidence on the effects of PEDs one can’t unauthenticate the statistics except arbitrarily. But arbitrary denouncements are what we are trying to avoid.
The underlying issue seems almost personal. That underlying issue is so important that writers, seemingly, want to rewrite history.
So where do we look for an underlying issue.
Easy.
The Twilight Zone.
Based on a 1950 short story by Damon Knight, Rod Serling’s teleplay of To Serve Man described how Michael Chambers happened to be on a spaceship. Told in flashback form, the cryptographer talks about Kanamits' visit to Earth. To Serve Man models a history of writers and PEDs.
The Kanamits, nine-foot aliens that communicate telepathically, visit the Earth uninvited. They use the United Nations to assure that they come with good intentions. To prove this the Kanamits help end world hunger, provide a cheap energy source, render nuclear weapons harmless, help cure diseases, and help to bring world peace.
The Kanamits* did leave a book at the U.N., but given the difference in languages, only the title had been determined, To Serve Man. Despite government and military insistence to decrypt the entire book to find out the true intention of the aliens, many people including Chambers assume that Kanamits have the best moral intentions and soon start signing up to visit the Kanamits' home planet, touted as a paradise. People assumed that To Serve Man was a message about how they wished to serve mankind.
* Fun note: Richard Kiel played the Kanamit. Also Jaws in several James Bond films.
Only, when Chambers is boarding the spaceship to travel to the Kanamits’ home planet is it revealed that To Serve Man is a cookbook. By then, it is too late for Chambers, and he is soon forced to accept his fate of becoming an alien dinner.
Many quality points to learn from the story. I am going to focus on Chambers as today’s baseball writers who were writing during the PEDs era of baseball. Kanamits are home runs and fans are the masses of people either traveling unknowingly to become a Kanamitian dinner or left to face the future on Earth.
Michael Chambers had a simple, yet important job; using his cryptology skill to decipher To Serve Man. However, failing to question the actions of the Kanamits, he assumed their motives were good. They must be moral and humane, they want to serve mankind. Those who did question their motives were trivialized. Chambers went along for the ride. In the end his lack of critical thinking and questioning the motives affected not only him but all of mankind.
This is the situation with PEDs. We expected the writers to turn their critical eye to the game of baseball. The home runs were the Kanamits. We, as fans, expected the writers to let us know if something was wrong. If the reporters, in the clubhouse, were not questioning things, why should we? Writers treated the offensive explosion just as Chambers viewed his encrypted cookbook, with complacency.
- It is easy, in retrospect, to see the questions Chambers should have asked himself to motive himself to crack the book.
- How can we put human values on aliens, including ones that communicate in a completely different way then we do?
- The Kanamits went to great lengths to make sure that mankind was fed, healthy, and not killing each other. Why did we just assume that they had our best interest when they clearly went out of their way to visit us?
- Why in the heck were they so concerned about the weight of people when they were loading the spaceship? Given the advanced language and technology they surely did not need this information for a technical reason.
Clearly Chambers fell down on his job. When we comeback from the flashback we see the Kanamits encouraging him to eat, so we doesn’t lose weight, and Chambers slowly is resigned to his fate and eats.
Baseball writers, as the offense numbers started to rise, stopped critical thinking and went along for the ride. They lost the ability or desire to look for the reason behind the increase in offensive numbers. They were, quite simply, acting like Michael Chambers looking forward to a pleasant trip with the Kanamits to the benefit of themselves. They were not thinking that they were being misled when their job is, specifically, is not to be misled. The fans were falling in love with the home run and they went along with the ride.
It didn't end until Jose Canseco starting running around saying, ‘To Serve Man’ is a cookbook.
The writers are now Chambers sitting on a spaceship left to think about their own inaction each time a vote comes around. Instead of accepting their fate, as Chambers does when he starts to eat, they are insisting on blaming others. They blame the home runs and the players who hit them.
The Kanamits didn’t do anything but benefit from Chambers, and others, basically assuming that the Kanamits wanted to server mankind. PED users got by only because the writers lacked common sense. The Kanamits provided things which we can compare to the statistics generated during the PED era. Eliminating them is an attempt to retroactively change history to an image we desire.
The reporters need to follow Chambers' lead and resign themselves to a history they enabled. Not taking into account the relative value of the players in relation to the era they played in continues to harm the history of the game. This point is curiously ironic. Reporters will argue that Jack Morris belongs in the Hall of Fame since we was the best pitcher in the '80s. His numbers are lacking compared to pitchers who have been elected but he is worthy despite, well, being worthy.
If Jack Morris can be worthy despite his lack of credentials, how can other players with credentials be seen as unworthy because somebody cheated when they played*.
* Which should not be referred to as "The Jeff Bagwell" voter effect.
Most importantly, the writers will continue to discredit players like Barry Larkin by relegating their stories behind the controversy. That is just another shame they need to learn to deal with and correct.
Indians fan, member of the Duane Kuiper Fan Club, Spitball Researcher, Contact me on twitter, @siddfinch, via email or avian carrier
THT Forecasts: Players’ comments…rollout!
Posted by Greg TamerFrom now until the middle of February, THT Forecasts will be adding commentary (analysis, opinion, information) to at least a thousand players' cards. We've thus far made available commentary for ~40 players on both the Red Sox and Athletics.
We will also post announcements in the near future regarding features added to Forecasts (hopefully including fielding reports, a blog, a downloadable six-year MLE database, etc.). If you have an idea, or ideas, for what we can add to Forecasts, please send them to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)!
THT Forecasts is available for the 2012 season, with Brian Cartwright's Oliver database providing over 9000 projections for major and minor leaguers. Visit Forecasts today to learn more and sign up for only $14.95!
Greg Tamer is the Manager of THT Forecasts. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions via e-mail.
10th anniversary: Rangers sign Chan Ho Park
Posted by Chris JaffeToday marks the 10th anniversary of one of the worst free agent signings in baseball history. On Jan. 16, 2002, the Texas Rangers ownership opened up its pocketbooks to give a gaudy five-year, $65 million contract to starting pitcher Chan Ho Park. At the time, it was one of the richest contracts ever given a pitcher.
The Rangers thought they’d landed themselves a winner. Park had a career 80-54 record as a mainstay in the Dodger rotation with a respectable ERA of 3.80. He’d done especially well in the last two seasons, going 33-21 with a 3.38 ERA.
This signing was part of a big push for the Rangers. The year before they posted a tepid 73-89 record despite a high-powered offense led by Alex Rodriguez, Ivan Rodriguez, and Rafael Palmeiro because they lacked pitching. Their 2001 staff posted a league-worst 5.71 ERA.
Park was the centerpiece in an effort to revitalize their staff. It didn’t work. It really didn’t work. There were a few issues the Rangers didn’t account for. First, Park was a pitcher whose performance was heavily dependent on his home ballpark. With LA, Park had gone 42-24 with a 2.98 ERA in Dodger Stadium but 38-30 with a 4.74 ERA on the road. Dodger Stadium was a pitcher’s park that perfectly suited Park. Texas’s facility was the opposite, a hitter haven.
Second, Park’s success had been partially due to the defense behind him. In 2000, he led the league in fewest hits allowed per inning. While that was partially due to his ability to strike out batters (217 whiffs in 226 innings that year), it was also due to the guys catching balls behind him. Please note 2000 wasn’t an aberration. Park had the third-best hits-per-nine innings rate in 2001 and second-best in 1998. Texas, however, did not have such a fine defense.
The contract had all the makings of a disaster, and sure enough, it was. Park went 9-8 with a horrible 5.75 ERA in 2002, and that turned out to be the high-water mark for him in Texas. The next year he was 1-3 and sat almost all of the season with injury. He pitched a little more for the team until being traded in mid-2005, having posted an overall line of 22-23 with a 5.79 ERA with the Rangers.
When a lot of people think of huge contracts for the Rangers, they think of Rodriguez, but Park had a far, far worse contract. Rodriguez provided value on the field. Park just gave the club a depleted bank account.
For me at least, this deal belongs in part of a time capsule in the self-image of the sabermetric community. I don’t think there was ever such a sense of knowing more or being the wave of the future as their was among the stat community back then. I remember discussions on the late, great Rob Neyer Message Board where we blasted this trade as an obviously bad one. We knew about park factors and Voros McCracken, but apparently the Rangers didn’t.
Looking back, this was the same off-season Billy Beane put the Moneyball A’s together, signing Chad Bradford, Scott Hatteberg and players like that. While the book and movie oversimplify things in telling their story of stats vs. scouts, there was a definite sense a decade ago of stat mavens having the edge. That sense hasn’t gone away, but it isn’t as strong since the A’s fell into irrelevance and "stats vs. scouts" has become "stats and scouts."
Aside from that, today many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is an event occurring X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you prefer to skim the list:
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte jointly makes history. Rivera closes out a Pettitte win for the 57th time, breaking the old record held by Bob Welch and Dennis Eckersley.
1,000 days since the Indians turn double plays in six consecutive innings.
2,000 days since the Indians trade Ben Broussard and cash to the Mariners.
6,000 days since Will Clark bops his 200th home run.
6,000 days since the Twins retire Kent Hrbek’s number.
6,000 days since Cal Ripken has his worst game ever according to WPA. He posts a WPA of –0.510.
7,000 days since the Rockies sign free agent Andres Galarraga.
9,000 days since Dave Winfield mashes the 10,000th home run in Yankee franchise history. (This includes the 1901-02 Baltimore years, as that is part of franchise history).
10,000 days since Dale Murphy gets his 1,000th hit.
40,000 days since Pittsburgh loses four straight runners to baserunning gaffes. They win anyway, topping the Giants, 4-0, as Jack Chesbro’s shutout beats Christy Mathewson.
Anniversaries
1870 Jimmy Collins, Hall of Famer third baseman, is born.
1890 Samuel Gompers, American’s top labor leader, and three other labor bosses pledge their support to the new Players League.
1904 Brooklyn purchases Bill Bergen, the worst-hitting position player ever, from Cincinnati.
1905 The Red Sox get Hall of Fame outfielder Jesse Burkett from the Browns for George Stone.
1910 Dizzy Dean is born.
1913 The White Sox purchase outfielder Davy Jones from the Tigers $2,500.
1916 Charles Weegham buys the Cubs from Charles B. Taft. The Wrigley family becomes a minority shareholder.
1936 Brooklyn signs free agent and future (ill-deserving) Hall of Famer Freddie Lindstrom.
1957 Steve "Bye-Bye" Balboni, first baseman, is born.
1964 American League owners vote down Charles O. Finley’s plan to move the A’s from Kansas City to Louisville by a 9-1 vote. They tell him to sign a lease in KC or surrender his team.
1966 Black Jack McDowell is born.
1970 Ron Villone is born.
1975 Minnesota releases Harmon Killebrew.
1977 Baby Doll Jacobson, 1920s Browns outfielder, dies.
1980 Albert Pujols, Angels first baseman, is born.
1996 MLB executive council approves of interleague play for the 1997 season.
2001 Anaheim signs free agent Jose Canseco.
2002 The Mets sign free agent pitcher Pedro Astacio.
2003 Baseball honchos establish a new minimum age for batboys, 14 year old. This is caused by the near run-over of young Giants batboy Darren Baker in the 2002 World Series.
2003 Baseball owners vote unanimously that the All-Star Game will determine home-field advantage in the World Series.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Is there an asterisk in Brandon’s future?
Posted by Steve TrederDoing a little research in preparation for doing the comments on San Francisco Giants players in this year's THT Forecasts (yes, Greg, I will make the deadline!), I stumbled across a nugget of very interesting trivia.
Brandon Belt put together the following batting line in his partial major league season with the Giants in 2011:
G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
63 209 187 21 42 6 1 9 18 20 57 .225 .306 .412 .718And another player in a partial major league season from many years ago put up this line: G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
51 202 182 26 41 5 1 9 27 17 33 .225 .287 .412 .699Belt's was about as close to an exact replica of the earlier one as practically possible. Do you know who that second player was?
Why, it was none other than Roger Maris.
That snippet of Maris's performance came in the first couple of months of the 1958 season, for the Cleveland Indians, prior to his being notoriously traded to Kansas City in mid-June. Maris was 23 years old, playing every day in the majors for the first time.
Belt in 2011 was also 23 years old. Unlike Maris, Belt wasn't given an opportunity to play regularly on a sustained basis. His 209-PA stint was compiled over three separate stretches on the big league roster, and included more pinch-hitting and other partial-game appearances than Maris in 1958. But, wow, the bottom-line performance delivered was uncannily similar.
The only distinction between the two lines that isn't trivial is that strikeout column, where Belt was whiffing almost twice as frequently as Maris. But a lot of that is explained by the different styles of play exhibited by these two leagues more than half a century distant: in the 1958 American League, batters struck out at a rate of 4.9 per 9 innings, while in Belt's 2011 NL, the rate was 7.3. Just about everybody nowdays strikes out a lot more often than was typical in Maris's era, and they also hit the ball a lot harder when they do put it in play, which is what Belt had to do in order to match Maris's totals of singles, doubles, triples, and homers with 24 fewer balls in play.
This isn't to suggest that Brandon Belt is the second coming of Roger Maris. Not necessarily, anyway. But in wondering just how this young left-handed slugger might (or might not) develop over the coming years, we have one highly intriguing comp with a famous left-handed slugger of long ago, just staring us in the face.
Let's put it this way: if the next thing that happens is the Giants trade Belt to Kansas City, don't say you weren't warned.
Steve Treder can often be found spending way too much time talking baseball at Baseball Primer. He welcomes your questions and comments via e-mail.
Friday, January 13, 2012
The Yankees’ finest hour
Posted by Nick FlederBrian Cashman had the whole of the baseball world out of the loop for the past several months, showing fleeting and passive interest in some free agent pitchers and bluffing his contentment with a flawed rotation. Fear no more, Yankee fans. The mystery has been unveiled.
Jesus Montero, the Yankees’ top prospect, has seemingly always been a part of trade flirtations and was nearly a centerpiece in the failed Cliff Lee trade-deadline swap in 2010. One AL scout was quoted in a September 2011 Daily News article as saying, “I'm sure the [Mariners] would like a do-over.”
The scout refers, of course, to general manager Jack Zduriencik’s decision to trade for Justin Smoak instead Montero in the Lee sweepstakes, and his never-ending pursuit of offense led him back to to his favorite reject—only for a much, much heftier price.
Pineda is a stud in the making after putting up a 3.4 WAR season in his rookie campaign and was the Robin to Felix Hernandez’s Batman. Pineda owns a wickedly fast four-seamer—hitting 94.2 mph on average and garnering a +9.6 pitch value per Fangraphs—and throws an 84 mph slider that is also rated as well above averge (+9.0 pitch value). Pineda mixes in a power-change at roughly 87-88 mph roughly six percent of the time, keeping hitters off-balance with his overpowering stuff enough to garner an 11.8 percent swinging strike percentage and a robust 9.0-plus strikeouts per nine innings.
The only thing holding Pineda back, one might wager, is his ability to pitch away from Safeco, and departing Safeco permanently, this might end up being a pretty big concern. His home/away splits were worrisome to say the least—a 2.92 ERA in Seattle was rivaled by a 4.40 ERA away from Safeco—though Pineda did have a lower home run rate away from Safeco.
Still, homers might ultimately bite Pineda in New Yankee Stadium. He had a nine percent HR/FB rate and gave up 18 in only 171 innings and now will live with a very, very short porch in right field – as he owns a 44.8 percent fly ball rate, good (or bad, depending on your outlook) for sixth in the majors. Jered Weaver, however, is just one of the few above Pineda on the FB% list to have built an okay (alright, excellent) career with extreme flyball tendencies.
Oh, but don’t forget about the often-forgotten Hiroki Kuroda, who was signed to a one-year deal between $10 and $11 million dollars in the same hour. Kuroda has some red flags, notably a groundball rate that dropped nearly eight percent after three years of near-perfect consistency, and a home run rate that similarly went up conspicuously.
Still, through four major league seasons, Kuroda has been worth no fewer than 2.1 WAR and twice more than 3.6 WAR. His strikeout rate remained above seven per nine innings for the second straight year, and he should be a more-than-serviceable No. 3 in the Yankees' dandy new rotation.
Three hours ago, the thought of A.J. Burnett, Phil Hughes, Hector Noesi, and Freddy Garcia scrambling for the last three spots in the Bombers’ rotation was not a warming thought. Each has glaring question marks and, suddenly, the remaining three look entirely expendable with Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos warming at Triple-A.
The offensive juggernauts just went on a pitching spending spree, and turned a "weakness into a strength," as Jon Heyman of CBS put it simply. Who's next, Carlos Pena?
Nick Fleder has been a die-hard Yankee fan since birth and has played fantasy baseball obsessively since around the age of ten. He can be reached for all inquiries or comments at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). You can ask him any baseball or fantasy baseball related questions on Twitter: @fishfle
Thursday, January 12, 2012
On Ryan Madson: Parsing Boras’ comments
Posted by Greg SimonsPhiladelphia general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. and super-agent Scott Boras are having a skirmish of words regarding the Phillies' non-signing of closer Ryan Madson. Boras seems to be saying the Phillies reneged on their offer of $44 million over four years, while Amaro says, "there never was an agreement."
Obviously, since Madson is now a Cincinnati Red, Amaro is correct that there never was an agreement—at least not one so formal that it led to a signed contract. However, there may have been a verbal agreement, a handshake deal, a nod-and-wink, nudge-nudge, say-no-more pact that simply needed to be put to paper and submitted to Major League Baseball's offices for confirmation.
Or there may not have been. If we read exactly what Boras said, it becomes clear that he did not say that he and the Phillies had agreed to a four-year, $44 million contract.
Boras first stated, "We never rejected any offer from Philadelphia at four years and $44 million. We advised Philadelphia that we would agree to such a proposal." He followed that comment up with, "We agreed to a four-year, $44 million offer, and Philadelphia decided to sign someone else."
Let's take a look at the first sentence. While he and Madson never rejected the contract in dispute, Boras didn't say the Phillies made such an offer. You can't reject an offer that isn't made, so Boras may not be lying. Also, "never rejected" is not the same as "accepted."
His second sentence says they would have taken such a deal. Hey, so would I, but no one made me such an offer and, again, maybe the Phillies didn't make one to Boras for Madson's services.
The last sentence uses "we" vaguely. Which "we" agreed to the four-year, $44 million contract he mentions? It could be that "we" is Boras and Madson. Perhaps those two men decided between themselves that such an offer would be acceptable. Good for them, but if the Phillies never tendered such a deal, there was nothing for Boras to accept.
Scott Boras obviously is a phenomenally successful agent. He has made his clients billions of dollars and himself a nice cut of those salaries. He produces gold-lettered, platinum-laced, diamond-encrusted binders to demonstrate how clients such as Alex Rodriguez and Prince Fielder are the greatest athletes in the history of the universe and should be paid like minor deities. Boras does his job extraordinarily well.
But his success does not come from blunt directness. It comes from deception, obfuscation and borderline flat-out lying. Boras knows where that borderline is, and he has no fear of going up to it and nudging his toes right up against that line. It's what he gets paid so well to do.
Greg Simons continues to hold out hope that some major league team will have need of a past-his-prime left-handed shortstop. If you know of such an opportunity, or want to contact him for any other reason, he can be reached at gregbsimons AT yahoo DOT com.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
THT Forecasts
Posted by Dave StudemanYou may have noticed that we're having a couple of technical problems with THT Forecasts. Hopefully, these will be fixed soon.
UPDATE: THT Forecasts is working again. Thanks for your patience.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
If you could change anything in baseball…
Posted by Nick FlederMy conversation with Dan Okrent —in which I asked which three things he would fix about baseball—got me to thinking what I might change in the game should I be magically granted that power. These may be idealistic, but isn't that the whole point of the exercise? Let me know what you think, and what you might change in the sport.
1. Adopt the NBA/NHL playoffs system (do away with divisions)
"Aaron Boone's walk off-home run, big gap, Evan Longoria's walk off-home run"
Above is a fictional answer to the question, "What are you favorite baseball memories of the last, say, two decades?" Which Evan Longoria home run? This one, of course. The game wasn't too shabby, either, and the drama on the last day of the season was tremendous. This graph tells the whole story—the most epic collapse in baseball history, one might say.
That said, even as a total Yankees homer, I’m of the mind that the boys from Boston should have been the fifth seed in the AL East rather than having respective seats on their respective couches in October. A 90-win team should always make the playoffs, and the top six to eight teams in each league should always make the playoffs. Depending on the number you decide on—eight out of 15 teams in each league in the NHL and NBA works well—you could very well assign a first-round bye for the top two teams.
The argument was brought up in a 2010 Chicago Tribune online post. Bill Kline wrote, in explaining the small-market disadvantage that might result:
For some small-market teams, that would mean goodbye forever to the playoffs. No way the Pirates ever beat out 11 other NL teams to make the playoffs. But occasionally there is a chance the Pirates can scrape together, say, 83 wins, and beat the other five teams in the NL Central in a down year. Please, baseball, no division revision.I think this is a false concern. The St. Louis Cardinals are a realistic example. One might argue that a team like the Cardinals, who snuck into the playoffs with an 83-78 record in 2006, might not make the playoffs, might not go on a tear, and might not win the World Series. To those people, I say you are wrong.
The Cardinals would have been the fifth seed last year, and in any other case, the argument can be extended to, “Does the team even deserve to be in the playoffs if they win a terribly weak division as a barely above-average team?” I can’t figure out for the life of me why they would. Then again, I’m a Yankee fan.
2. Take away All-Star Game home-field advantage
This strikes me as the biggest no-brainer. I understand what Selig & Co. were aiming for with this rule; obviously, putting more on the line will make the game tense, and gripping drama and, thus, raise TV viewership and revenue. This may be the cause. Fewer people were tuning into the Midsummer Classic, and throwing the World Series home-field advantage on the line was a clear (albeit illogical) way to drum up interest.
There are a few basic problems here. First, how the hell can you justify making the game so incredibly important if you let the fans vote for the players? "If fans vote, they’ll watch" and "If a ton is on the line, they’ll watch," are separately logical conclusions but when put together, totally contradictory. Secondly, it hasn’t worked.
Check out this article. It’s all the MLB should need to do away with the ridiculous rule.
As for all of you, what changes would you make?
Nick Fleder has been a die-hard Yankee fan since birth and has played fantasy baseball obsessively since around the age of ten. He can be reached for all inquiries or comments at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). You can ask him any baseball or fantasy baseball related questions on Twitter: @fishfle
Monday, January 09, 2012
A baseball card mystery: Alan Trammell and George Vukovich
Posted by Bruce Markusen
Whether he’s a deserving Hall of Famer or not, Trammell was unquestionably a very fine player for the Tigers in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. He was a good clutch hitter with power, ran the bases well, and formed a lyrical double play combination with the similarly underrated Lou Whitaker. Trammell was featured on a number of baseball cards during that time, including some wonderful action shots of him at the plate and in the field. Perhaps my favorite is his 1985 Fleer card, which is seen here. The photo was taken during the 1984 season, when Trammell batted .314 with a .384 on-base percentage as one of the essential cogs of the Tigers’ world championship team.
In this card, we see Trammell standing at second base, waiting to make a play on George Vukovich, an outfielder with the Indians. Vukovich, not to be confused with either the late John Vukovich or Cy Young winner Pete Vuckovich, was mostly a journeyman outfielder whose brief career lasted from 1980 to 1985. When this photograph was taken in 1984, Vukovich was in the midst of putting up career best numbers. The principal right fielder for the Indians that summer—he played mostly against right-handed pitching, platooning with the wonderfully named Carmelo Castillo—Vukovich batted .304 with an OBP of .354 and a slugging percentage of .439. Those weren’t mind-numbing numbers, but for George Vukovich, they represented just about the peak of his performance.
Vukovich’s Indians played Trammell’s Tigers 13 times in 1984. Six of those matchups took place at monstrous Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, where this photograph was snapped. So here’s the mystery. In which of the six games did this play occur? Was this a ground ball force play at second base, or was Vukovich trying to steal the base? (He went a paltry 1-for-5 in stole base attempts that year.) And finally, was Vukovich safe or out? Trammell appears to be in the ready position, with his glove low to the ground in preparation of making the tag, but it’s not clear to me that he has the ball in his glove. Is he really ready to make the tag, or is he tricking Vukovich into thinking that he has the ball, so as to make Vukovich slide into the bag?
These are the questions. Will the box scores provide the answers?
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
Me vs. reality: 2012 edition
Posted by Chris JaffeThis year, as is my annual tradition, I predicted how the BBWAA Hall of Fame vote will go. I don't just say in/out, but give actual predicted percentages. Well, the vote is out, so how did I do? Let's see.
Below is a chart comparing the actual BBWAA vote totals versus my predictions for the 2012 elections - plus the difference between the two (saying how high/low my predictions were compared to reality).
Name BBWAA Me Diff. Barry Larkin 86 82 -4 Jack Morris 68 65 -3 Jeff Bagwell 56 54 -2 Lee Smith 51 52 1 Tim Raines 49 52 3 Edgar Martinez 37 39 2 Alan Trammell 37 32 -5 Larry Walker 23 27 4 Mark McGwire 20 24 4 Fred McGriff 24 24 0 Dale Murphy 15 19 4 Don Mattingly 18 18 0 Rafael Palmeiro 13 15 2 Bernie Williams 10 12 2
14 guys predicted, and I was within five percentage points with all of them. I was off by an average of 2.6 percentage points. Yeah, I like that.
In all:
Guessed perfectly twice (Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff).
Off by one percentage point once (Lee Smith).
Off by two percentage points four times (Jeff Bagwell, Edgar Martinez, Rafael Palmeiro, Bernie Williams)
Off by three percentage points twice (Jack Morris, Tim Raines)
Off by four percentage points four times (Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Mark McGwire, Dale Murphy)
Off by five percentage points once (Alan Trammell).
That's another year I can claim to know what I'm talking about.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Barry Larkin career highlights
Posted by Chris JaffeThe news came down earlier today. As predicted here at THT, Barry Larkin is the newest member of the Hall of Fame.
In honor of that grand honor, it’s only fitting to spend some time looking back at the career that got him into Cooperstown. The list below contains many of Larkin’s most memorable moments.
In it are his best (and sometimes worst) moments, the best and most important games he played in, and his key postseason events. Also, to provide some color, some of the stranger and more interesting games he was on hand for, as well as some noteworthy accomplishments his teammates or opponents had in games in which Larkin played.
If Cooperstown's calling, it's no fluke.
With that said, here they are:
Career highlights
Aug. 13, 1986: Larkin makes his big league debut. He appears in the top of the fifth inning as a pinch hitter. He grounds out to short but drives in a run in the process. It’s the beginning of a nice comeback. Cincy was down 5-0 to the Giants when Larkin stepped to the plate but ended up winning, 8-6. As it happens, the pitcher Larkin faces is also a rookie, in fact, a rookie whose career will last longer than Larkin's. It’s a young Terry Mulholland on the mound.
Aug. 17, 1986: Out with the old and in with the new. Pete Rose makes his final appearance in a major league game, striking out as a late-game pinch hitter in a loss to the Padres. This game is also Larkin’s first full game at shortstop for the Reds. Oh, and he belts the first of his 198 career home runs in the game, as well.
Sept. 2, 1986: Larkin plays second base for the last time. It’s only the third time he’s been slotted in that position, but from here on out Larkin will play only shortstop. He goes 2-for-4 with a triple. He’s allowing normal second baseman Ron Oester to take the day off.
Sept. 10, 1986: In just the 25th game of his career, Larkin sets a personal best of the rest of his career by reaching base six times. He’s 4-for-4 with a pair of walks. He scores twice and drives in three as Cincinnati stomps San Francisco, 14-2.
April 17, 1988: Larkin leads off the game with a home run, one of nine times he ever does it. This one is especially notable because it comes off Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. It’s the only leadoff homer Ryan allows after 1975. Two days later, Larkin swats another leadoff home run. He’ll get another in early May and have four on the season.
June 3, 1988: The Reds lose, 15-3, to the Dodgers in a record-setting game. The Dodgers collect 22 hits, but none for extra bases. It’s the grandest singles-only hit-fest by any team in the lively ball era. Larking goes 2-for-5 for the Reds. Fittingly, both hits are singles.
July 6, 1988: Larkin gets hit by a pitch twice in one game. The same thing happened to him just 15 days earlier, but it never happens to him again.
Sept. 10, 1988: Orel Hershiser sets a record in late 1988 by tossing 59 consecutive scoreless innings, but Larkin nearly ends the streak at 16 innings in this game. In the third inning, Larkin hits a two-out single with none on. He advances to second when Chris Sabo singles and then makes it to third when Hershiser walks Kal Daniels. Hershiser hunkers down with the bases loaded and fans Eric Davis.
Four innings later, Larkin has another chance to end Hershiser’s stretch. He comes to the plate with a runner on third and two outs but strikes out on four pitches.
Sept. 16, 1988: Tom Browning becomes one of the few men in baseball history to pitch a perfect game, defeating the Dodgers, 1-0. It’s actually a double no-hitter duel between Browning and LA’s Tim Belcher until Larkin doubles with two outs in the sixth. A few minutes later, Larkin scores on a Chris Sabo single (and an error by Dodger third baseman Jeff Hamilton). On defense, Larkin cleanly fields four grounders hit to him.
April 23, 1989: Larkin’s longest career hitting streak peaks at 23 games. In that stretch, he’s 34-for-89 with four doubles and a pair of homers. His AVG/OBP/SLG line: .382/.394/.494.
July 4, 1989: On Independence Day, Reds pitcher Tom Browning nearly becomes the first pitcher to toss a pair of perfect games. He retires the first 24 batters he faces before allowing a pair of hits and a run. Cincinnati defeats the Phillies, 2-1. Barry Larkin goes 1-for-4 with a single.
June 8, 1990: It’s one of the best pitchers duels Larkin ever plays in. Browning and Mike Scott go at it, and after nine innings it’s tied, 0-0. Scott has done better, fanning 14 while allowing one hit, but in the 10th his magic runs out. Larkin hits a one-out single off Scott and, after a walk, scores on another single. Unfortunately for Cincinnati, reliever Randy Myers doesn’t have it, and he allows a three-run homer for a 3-1 loss.
Sept. 13, 1990: With no outs in the bottom of the ninth, Larkin hits a walk-off home run against Houston. His solo shot turns a 5-5 tie into a 6-5 Cincinnati win.
Oct. 4, 1990: NLCS Game One: The surprising Cincinnati Reds have won the NL West and today square off against the Pirates to determine the pennant. Larkin goes 0-for-2 in his first postseason game but draws a pair of walks and scores a run. The Pirates, however, win, 4-3.
Oct. 5, 1990: NLCS Game Two: The Reds even the series one game apiece with a 2-1 win, and Larkin plays a key role. He begins the game with a walk then steals second and later comes home to score the game’s first run. In the fifth, he connects for his first postseason hit and though he’s later forced at second, he begins a rally that results in the second Cincinnati run of the game.
Oct. 10, 1990: NLCS Game Five: A win gives the Reds the pennant, and Larkin again gets things started off on the right note. He leads off with a double and a little later comes around to score for an early 1-0 Reds lead. However, Pittsburgh rallies to win, 3-2, forcing a sixth game.
Oct. 12, 1990: NLCS Game Six: With the Reds up three games to two, Cincinnati leadoff hitter Larkin begins the first with a single, steals second and later scores for an early 1-0 lead. It proves to be the difference, as the Reds win, 2-1, to clinch the pennant. Larkin will go to the World Series to face the heavily favored Oakland A’s.
Oct. 16, 1990: World Series Game One: Larkin draws a walk and scores a run, as the Reds rough up the AL champion A’s, 7-0, to win the first game of the series.
Oct. 17, 1990: World Series Game Two: The A’s take a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but in the bottom half of the frame, Larkin leads things off with a ground-rule double. He scores the game-tying run a few minutes later on a Billy Hatcher two-bagger. Larkin adds another pair of singles, but is stranded in scoring positions both times. However, the Reds win in 10 innings, 5-4, to take a commanding two-games-to-none lead in the series.
Oct. 19, 1990: World Series Game Three: A massive October upset seems imminent as the Reds torch the A’s, 8-3, in a game that isn’t as close as its score. Larkin continues his fine October, getting a single and an RBI triple on the day.
Oct. 20, 1990: World Series Game Four: Larkin and the Reds have done it, sweeping the A’s to become world champs. Yet again, Larkin is a key contributor. With the A’s up 1-0, he leads off the top of the eighth with a single. He later scores as the Reds rally with two runs that inning for a 2-1 final score.
April 28, 1991: Larkin goes 1-for-4 and scores a run as the Reds top the Cubs, but the story on the day is reliever Rob Dibble. Upset over something, Dibble throws the ball into the stands from the mound and hits a teacher named Meg Porter. Dibble apologizes but receives a three-game suspension and a $1,000 fine.
June 15, 1991: In just the second big league appearance of his career, Phillies starting pitcher Andy Ashby makes history by becoming one of the few pitchers in baseball history to strike out the side on just nine pitches. It comes in the fourth inning, just one frame after Larkin belts a two-run homer off him. That proves to be the difference, as Cincinnati wins, 3-1.
June 28, 1991: Larkin ties a big league record during what might be the greatest game of his career. One game after Larkin smashes a pair of homers, Larkin belts three more today, giving him five long balls over two games, and that ties a record. He also gets six RBIs in one game as the Reds top the Astros, 8-5.
Aug. 30, 1991: For the second time, a pitcher strikes out the Cincinnati side on nine pitches. They are the only team in baseball to endure this twice in one season. David Cone for the Mets does it in the fifth inning. In the sixth inning, Larkin scores a run, but the Reds lose, 3-2.
Sept. 17, 1992: Larkin goes 1-for-4 in Cincinnati’s 3-2 win over the Dodgers, but that’s not the important part. The memorable moment comes after the game, when manager Lou Piniella and reliever Rob Dibble get in a fight in the clubhouse in front of all the Reds.
June 18, 1993: Larkin achieves a career milestone by collecting his 1,000th career hit, and he does it with flair. The milestone comes on a game-winning walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the tenth for a 4-3 Reds win over the Dodgers. Earlier in the game, Larkin struck out against a young Dodger reliever named Pedro Martinez.
July 7, 1993: Larkin suffers one of his worst days ever, going 0-for-4 with a trio of GIDPs. Then again, he gets an RBI sacrifice fly in a game the Reds win by one, 4-3, over the Cubs. Larkin’s teammate Tom Browning has a memorable view of the day’s festivities. Bored in the bullpen, Browning leaves Chicago’s Wrigley Field to watch the game on a rooftop from across the street.
July 13, 1993: It takes a heckuva player to displace a perennial All-Star and first-ballot Hall of Famer from the starting lineup of the All-Star game, and Larkin has done just that. For the last ten straight years, baseball fans had voted Ozzie Smith to start for the All-Star game for the NL, but that streak ends tonight. As the league’s first-string shortstop, Larkin goes 0-for-2 with an RBI sacrifice fly before leaving. (As it happens, Smith’s run as NL shortstop is bookended by Reds. Cincinnati’s Dave Concepcion started the game before Smith’s reign began).
Aug. 28, 1995: Larkin racks up another career milestones, hitting his 100th career home run. The solo shot adds an insurance run for the Reds in their 5-2 win over the Cardinals.
Sept. 5, 1995: Larkin goes 1-for-4 as Houston easily beats the Reds, 10-1, but the big news is the bad blood and fighting. Umps eject Houston’s Pat Borders and Cincinnati’s Ron Gant in the sixth inning. In the bottom of the seventh, Houston pitcher Xavier Hernandez begins the frame by plunking Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell on back-to-back pitches, earning his ejection. In the top of the eighth, Houston pitcher Doug Drabek returns the favor, hitting Benito Santiago on the first pitch, getting his ejection. All four ejected players plus both managers earn suspensions.
Sept. 28, 1995: Well, this is different. In the penultimate game of his 703-appearance career, veteran Expos reliever Greg Harris decides to do something original. Pitching in the ninth inning with the Reds up by a half-dozen, Harris decides to become a switch-pitcher, tossing the ball with his right had to two batters and as a southpaw to two others. Larkin is not among the batters Harris faces, but he went 1-for-4 on the day.
Oct. 3, 1995: NLDS Game One: In his first postseason game in five years, Larkin picks up where he left off with his terrific play from the 1990 World Series. Against the Dodgers, he goes 2-for-4 with a walk, two stolen bases, and a run as the Reds cruise to a 7-2 victory.
Oct. 4, 1995: NLDS Game Two: The Reds win by one run, 5-4, and a Larkin eighth-inning RBI single provides the difference. His shot puts the Reds ahead for a good in a game that was tied until that moment.
Oct. 6, 1995: NLDS Game Three: Larkin has another great day with a pair of singles and a pair of steals as Cincinnati routs the Dodgers, 10-1, to complete their NLDS sweep.
Oct. 10, 1995: NLCS Game One: Larkin continues to be a force in the postseason with a single, double, and run for the Reds against the Braves. Unfortunately, his run is the only one Cincinnati gets, and they lose, 2-1, in 10 innings.
Oct. 11, 1995: NLCS Game Two: Yet again, Larkin plays great in the postseason. This time he gets two singles, a double and a stolen base. However, the team again falls in extra innings to the Braves.
Oct. 13, 1995: NLCS Game Three: Larkin has an off day, going 1-for-5. Even his hit is nullified, as he’s caught stealing. The rest of the Reds also have trouble, and they fall 5-2 to the Braves.
Oct. 14, 1995: NLCS Game Four: The Braves complete the sweep with a 5-0 win. The only time a Red even makes it to third base comes in the fourth inning when Larkin does it. He has a walk and single, but the Reds lose, and this will be his last postseason game.
May 28, 1996: Larkin hits his only career inside-the-park home run. It’s a solo shot against Chris Hammond of Florida. Despite that, the Marlins win easily, 6-2.
July 29, 1996: Oops. In the second inning of a 2-1 loss to the Astros, Larkin’s goggle-clad teammate Chris Sabo has his batter shatter in a pop up, and a bunch of cork spills out. Sabo is ejected for his illegal (and ineffectual) doctoring of his bat. Larkin doubles and scores Cincinnati’s only run in the loss.
Sept. 18, 1996: According to WPA, Barry Larkin endures the worst game of his career: a –0.429 total. He goes 0-for-6 with two double plays grounded into and a strikeout. Also, he hits into a fielder’s choice that causes a runner to get tossed at the plate. Pittsburgh wins, 5-3.
Sept. 24, 1996: Larkin is part of an impressive power display by the Reds. In the eighth inning, Eddie Taubensee, Reggie Sanders, Jeff Branson, and Larkin hit home runs in a seven-run frame. The homers launch the Reds to a 9-5 win over the Rockies (but the game took place at the normal altitude of Cincinnati, not the rarified air of Colorado).
June 23, 1998: Larkin, at 34 years of age, legs out two triples in one game. He’ll end the year with 10 triples, the only time he ever gets more than six in one season.
Sept. 27, 1998: The Reds end the season on a familial note. In the campaign’s last game, Cincinnati skipper Jack McKeon goes with an all-brother infield. Larkin plays short while kid brother Stephen Larkin mans first, and Aaron Boone plays third while brother Bret plays second. Three of these guys have legitimate big league careers, but it’s Stephen’s only game. The foursome goes 2-for-12, but Cincinnati wins anyway, 4-1.
May 7, 1999: Larkin experiences his best game as far as WPA is concerned. He goes 3-for-4 with a double, walk, and two RBIs in Cincinnati’s 3-2 win over the Cubs for a 0.833 WPA. His biggest blow is a game-ending, walk-off double off Rob Beck that scores two runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Aug. 16, 1999: Larkin has a terrific game during one of the odder moments in the 1990s Reds history. Larkin goes 2-for-2 with a trio of walks, but the attention focuses on new Reds pitcher Juan Guzman. In the game Guzman is cruising along, allowing only five hits and two runs through seven innings when he has to leave the game because his shoes are too small. He recently came to Cincinnati and has to pitch in shoes a size too small, and his feet start blistering. The bullpen holds on for an easy 9-2 win over the Pirates.
Oct. 4, 1999: The regular season ended with the Mets and Reds tied for the wild card with identical 96-66 records, so today they face off in a play-in game. Alas for Cincinnati, the Mets win handily, 5-0. Larkin goes 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
June 24, 2000: Larkin has the only five-hit performance of his career, going 5-for-5 with two home runs, four runs, and four RBIs. With Larkin leading the way, the Reds trash the Padres, 11-5.
Aug. 21, 2000: Larkin reaches his latest career milestone, belting an RBI double in the fourth inning for his 2,000th career hit.
April 20, 2001: It’s taken 1,823 games and 7,712 plate appearances, but Larkin finally collects his first career grand slam when he goes deep against Al Leiter of the Mets in the second inning. It’s his 142nd time facing a pitcher with the bases loaded. It proves to be the difference as Cincinnati wins by four, 9-5.
May 8, 2001: It’s the best pitching performance Larkin ever faces. Randy Johnson strikes out 20 batters in nine innings. Normally, it would be a record-tying performance, but it falls through the cracks. Johnson fans 20 in nine innings, but the game goes into extra frames. Twenty would tie the nine-inning game record, but 21 is the record in extra frames. Larkin strikes out three times in three at-bats with a walk.
Aug. 2, 2002: In the space of 19 pitches, Cincinnati Reds catcher Jason LaRue allows three passed balls. That’s right, a knuckleball pitcher is on the mound (Jared Fernandez). Larkin goes 0-for-3 with a GIDP as the Reds lose.
March 31, 2003: The new year brings a new stadium for the Reds. Larkin missed last year’s final game in Riverfront Stadium, but he’s on hand for the inaugural game at the Great American Ballpark. In fact, he’s the first Red to come to the plate there, which results in a fly out. The game is a bad one, though, as the Reds lose 10-1 to the Pirates, and Larkin goes hitless.
May 6, 2003: For the second and last time in his career, Larkin swats a walk-off home run. This one turns a 5-4 Cardinals lead into a 6-5 Reds win with one out in the bottom of the ninth. As an added bonus, this is a pinch-hit home run for Larkin, one of only four pinch-hit home runs in his career.
July 28, 2004: It took Larkin 15 years to get his first grand slam, but it takes only three more seasons for his second. In the bottom of the fifth, he connects for a pinch-hit grand slam against the Cardinals. Despite Larkin’s big blow, the Reds can’t overcome an early seven-run deficit and lose, 11-10. In fact, that same topsy-turvy game provides us with Scott Rolen’s best game, as he goes 4-for-6 with two doubles and two homers.
Oct. 3, 2004: This is it, Barry’s Larkin’s last game. He draw and walk and then, in his last big league at-bat, grounds into a rally-killing double play. The Reds remove him from the game in the top of the fourth, assuredly to the loud cheers of the 30,854 fans attending the game in Cincinnati.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Jorge Posada career highlights
Posted by Chris JaffeOn Saturday, news surfaced that Jorge Posada intends to retire after 17 years in baseball. In that time, he combined two things that rarely go together. He was a longtime New York Yankee, and he was constantly underrated. Players for the game’s marquee franchise usually get at least their share of attention yet, somehow, Posada slipped through the cracks.
In honor of the recently retired catcher, let’s take a look at his career, his best and worst moments, the greatest and most significant games he played in, terrific performances he viewed, and some weird oddities he was on hand for.
One thing I should note: Normally I try to include as many playoff games as I can in these career highlight bits, but he played in 125 postseason affairs. Some notable October moments might get left out to keep this from going too long.
Career highlights
Sept. 4, 1995: Posada makes his big league debut, replacing starting catcher Jim Leyritz in the top of the ninth of a game the Yankees win, 13-3. It’s his only appearance at the major league level during the regular season
Oct. 4, 1995: ALDS Game Two: Though he barely played in the regular season, the Yankees still include Posada on the postseason roster. His only appearance in a postseason game occurs at a key moment. In the bottom of the 12th inning, with the Yankees trailing Seattle, 5-4, the Yankees insert Posada as a pinch runner after the aging Wade Boggs walks. Posada scores a little later, and the Yankees go on to win, 7-5, in 15 frames.
Sept. 25, 1996: In the second game of a doubleheader against Texas, Posada enters the Yankee starting lineup for the first time. He goes 1-for-4 with a run and a strikeout. His single to left off Scott Karl is Posada’s first career hit.
Sept. 11, 1997: In the fifth inning against Baltimore, Posada lays down a sacrifice bunt. In his 7,150 career PA, this is the only time he ever does that.
May 17, 1998: With Posada calling the pitches, David Wells becomes the second Yankee in history to toss a perfect game. He fans 11 Twins as New York wins, 4-0. It’s the only no-hitter Posada will ever catch.
July 17, 1998: Posada enjoys the first of 17 multi-home run games with a pair of solo shots off Seattle in a 5-3 Yankee win.
Sept. 4, 1998: Though it might be the worst game of his career, Posada has one reason to be happy when it’s over. He goes 0-for-5, tying a personal worst with five strikeouts on the day. But the Yankees triumph, 11-6, over Chicago for their 100th victory of the season. No team has ever done it so early in the year. They are 100-38 at the moment.
Sept. 20, 1998: In the top of the first in Baltimore, the Yankees notice that manning third base for the home team is someone not named Cal Ripken. After 2,632 consecutive games played, Ripken opts to end the streak on his terms. Posada and his Yankee brethren go to the top of their dugout and give Ripken a standing ovation.
Oct. 6, 1998: ALCS Game One: Posada gets his first start in a postseason game, and he makes the most of it. In his first at-bat, he smacks an RBI single, the first of 42 postseason RBIs for him. Later, he belts a solo home run, the first of 11 he hits in his playoff career. New York tops Cleveland, 7-2.
Oct. 7, 1998: ALCS Game Two: It’s not a very fun experience for Posada. With the game tied, 1-1, in the bottom of the ninth with runners on first and second and one out, Joe Torre calls on Posada to pinch hit for starting catcher Joe Girardi. Rather than become the hero, Posada bounces into an inning-ending double play, and the Yankees lose in extra frames. In extra innings, the winning run scores for the Indians when Yankee Chuck Knoblauch argues an interference call instead of picking up the ball.
April 30, 1999: People are cranky in Kansas City. Three thousand fans show up at Kaufmann Stadium in “$hare the Wealth” T-shirts protesting payroll disparity in baseball. The game refuses to go along with the storyline as the Royals and their $23.8 million payroll stomp the $85 million Yankee team, 13-6, as Posada goes 0-for-3 with a pair of walks.
May 7, 1999: It’s a first. Both teams start Japanese pitchers in a U.S. big league game as Seattle’s Mac Suzuki faces New York’s Hideki Irabu. The latter wins, 10-1. Posada is 1-for-2 with a pair of walks.
Aug. 22, 1999: It’s a strange way to miss the cycle. Posada homers in his first at-bat, triples in his second, and then doubles in his third. But he strikes out in his final trip to the plate and never does get that single as the Yankees top Minnesota, 5-3.
Aug. 31, 1999: As far as WPA is concerned, this is the worst day Posada ever plays. He’s 0-for-4 with a walk, but his big moment comes with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 11th when he strikes out. He scores –0.393 with WPA.
Oct. 18, 1999: ALCS Game Five: With the Yankees on top of Boston three games to one, New York wins, 6-2, to claim a second consecutive pennant. Posada points the exclamation point on the victory by smashing a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning.
Oct. 27, 1999: World Series Game Four: For the first time, Posada gets to catch the game the Yankees clinch the world title. New York completes an October sweep, topping the Braves, 4-1. Posada drives in one of the runs with a third inning single. He is behind the plate when Mariano Rivera coaxes Keith Lockhart to fly out for the final out, giving the Yankees another world title.
April 23, 2000: Jorge Posada and fellow switch hitter Bernie Williams make history, becoming the first pair of teammates to homer from each side of the plate in one game. Yankees 10, Blue Jays 7.
May 5, 2000: Stepping to the plate with two on and no outs in the bottom of the ninth with New York trailing Baltimore, 10-9, Posada belts a walk-off home run.
Sept. 8, 2000: It’s ghastly. At the end of a routine Yankee win over the Red Sox, Ryan Thompson hits a liner that smashes into the face of reliever Bryce Florie. Florie has to leave the game with a fractured cheek and broken eye socket. As it happens, Thompson is out on the play anyway. Florie will return to pitch a little in 2001, though. Posada led off the ill-fated inning and was 1-for-4 on the day.
Oct. 14, 2000: ALCS Game Four: With Posada calling all the pitches, the opposing Seattle Mariners are held to just one hit, as the Yankees romp to a 5-0 win. New York pitcher Roger Clemens fans 15. It’s the most punchouts any Yankee pitcher has ever had in a postseason game, and the most Ks any pitcher ever had in a Posada-caught game, regular or postseason.
Oct. 17, 2000: ALCS Game Six: A win gives the Yankees their third straight pennant, but early on it appears that will not happen as Seattle takes a quick 4-0 lead. Posada, however, drives in two with a bases-loaded double in the fourth inning, and the Yankees rally for a 9-7 win and the pennant.
Oct. 26, 2000: World Series Game Five: For the second year in a row, Posada is behind the plate when the Yankees clinch a world title. He was 1-for-3 with a walk and a run in the Yanks 3-1 win over the Mets.
Oct. 13, 2001: ALDS Game Three: It’s one of Posada’s shining postseason moments. With the Yankees facing elimination down two games to none against the A’s, Posada belts a solo home run in the fifth inning, and that proves to be the game’s only run.
Later on, Posada is involved in one of the most famous plays in recent Yankee history. In the seventh inning, Oakland DH Jeremy Giambi is attempting to score form first on a double, to right, when the throw to home is offline. Shortstop Derek Jeter scrambles over from the other side of the infield, gets the ball and flips it to Posada for the out to preserve the slender 1-0 lead. New York ends up taking the series in five games.
Oct. 30, 2001: World Series Game Three: With the Yankees down two games to none versus Arizona, Posada comes up big. He belts a solo homer for the Yankees as they win, 2-1.
Oct. 31, 2001: World Series Game Four: Here’s where the World Series starts to become great. The Yankees rally from a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the ninth courtesy of a two-run Tino Martinez homer and win it the next inning on a Jeter walk-off shot. Posada comes to bat right after Martinez and draws a walk, but he doesn’t score.
Nov. 1, 2001: World Series Game Five: It’s déjà vu all over again for the Yankees. They rally to win in extra innings despite entering the bottom of the ninth trailing by two. This time, Posada kicks off the rally as he doubles to begin the ninth inning.
Nov. 4, 2001: World Series Game Seven: This time, the Diamondbacks rally in the bottom of the ninth to win the game and with it take the World Series to end one of the greatest Fall Classics ever. Posada goes 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
July 5, 2002: Posada connects for his 100th career home run. It’s a two-run dinger off Esteban Loaiza.
July 13, 2002: It might be the most rewarding battle of his career. Facing Cleveland’s Jake Westbrook with the bases loaded and two outs, Posada quickly falls behind, 0-2. Then he fouls off four more pitches while taking three for balls. Once in a full count, Posada knocks one over the fence for a grand slam; a nice reward for a 10-pitch at-bat.
Aug. 26, 2002: Posada is the start of a new era. Today’s 10-3 Yankee victory over the Rangers is the first ballgame to be available as streaming video on the internet. Posada goes 2-for-5 with a double.
June 11, 2003: For the first time in nearly a half-century, the Yankees are no-hit. It happens in bizarre fashion against the Astros. Starting pitcher Roy Oswalt has to leave after one frame, but five relievers hold off the Yankees for the rest of the game. Posada receives one of the three walks on the day, but obviously goes hitless.
Sept. 10, 2003: Posada has maybe his best game ever with a career-best seven RBIs by going 3-for-4 with a walk and a grand slam in New York’s 15-5 win over Detroit.
Oct. 11, 2003: ALCS Game Three: Right after Posada scores a run for New York, all hell breaks loose. After he comes home on a Hideki Matsui ground rule double in the fourth inning to give New York a 3-2 lead, Boston pitcher Pedro Martinez plunks the next batter, Karim Garcia. Benches empty and—rather memorably—aged Yankee coach Don Zimmer foolheartedly charges Martinez, who easily pushes the old man to the ground. New York holds on to win, 4-3.
Oct. 16, 2003: ALCS Game Seven: Posada, for one, approves of Boston manager Grady Little’s decision to bring Pedro Martinez out for the eighth inning and then keep him in despite allowing a pair of doubles and a single to the first four batters he faces in the frame. That allows a completely tanked Martinez to serve up an easy pitch for Posada to swat for a game-tying double. New York goes on to win the game and take the pennant on a walk-off home run by Aaron Boone.
July 1, 2004: It’s one of the greatest regular-season games in Yankee-Red Sox history, and New York wins, 5-4, in 13 innings. Most famously, Jeter makes a diving catch into the stands for a great defensive play. Posada is a key contributor to the win, going 2-for-4 with a pair of walks, double and solo home run.
Oct. 9, 2004: ALDS Game Four: The Yankees take the series from Minnesota with a 6-5 win in 11 innings in which they came back from a 5-2 deficit late in the game. For Posada, it’s a personally forgettable game as he goes 0-for-5 with three Ks. According to WPA, this is the worst postseason game of his career, as he scores a –0.319. He comes to the plate with a runner on third in the eighth and ninth innings and fans both times.
Oct. 17, 2004: ALCS Game Four: The Red Sox begin their quest to become the first team to rally from a three-games-to-none deficit in this game. Posada does his part, going 2-for-4 with a pair of walks, but Boston ties it with a run in the bottom of the ninth and wins it on a David Ortiz homer in the 12th.
Oct. 18, 2004: ALCS Game Five: Boston keeps its season alive with a late comeback and extra-inning win. Again, Posada has a nice game, going 2-for-6 with a walk, but Boston wins, 5-4.
Oct. 19, 2004: ALCS Game Six: Curt Schilling and his bloody sock holds Posada hitless as Boston wins, 4-2, to even the series. They’ll win handily the next night to clinch the pennant.
June 21, 2005: The Yankees explode for 13 runs in the eighth inning against Tampa. Posada, the ninth batter of the inning, belts a home run and a little later Gary Sheffield, Alex Rodriguez, and Hideo Matsui hit three consecutive homers. New York wins, 20-11.
Aug. 20, 2005: Posada pastes a ground-rule double off former teammate Orlando Hernandez for his 1,000th career hit.
May 16, 2006: In a wild, 13-12 win over the Rangers, Posada has what WPA deems the best game of his career. He’s 2-for-3 with a walk, a pair of sacrifices and—last but not least—a walk-off two out, two run homer in the bottom of the ninth. Posada’s WPA score is 0.930.
April 17, 2007: It’s a milestone for Posada, his 200th career home run. He knocks a two-run dinger against Cleveland’s Jake Westbrook.
May 20, 2007: The longest hitting streak of Posada’s career peaks at 15 games. He’s .473/.517/.764 during his run with seven doubles and three homers.
Aug. 4, 2007: With Posada looking from the Yankee dugout, Alex Rodriguez achieves an impressive milestone, getting his 500th career home run. Posada walks twice and scores twice as well as the Yankees enjoy a 16-8 laugher over the Royals.
Oct. 5, 2007: ALDS Game Two: New York has suffered harder losses in the postseason, but they may never have endured such a weird loss. The Indians beat them, 2-1, in extra innings, with the key moment occurring when an eighth-inning bug infestation rattles Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain, and he surrenders the game-tying run. Posada is his catcher on the night and goes hitless for New York.
Oct. 8, 2007: ALDS Game Four: In the last game Joe Torre ever manages for the Yankees, Posada is the last batter to come to the plate. Cleveland closer Joe Borowski fans him on three pitches, ending the Yankees’ season and Torre’s tenure with the team.
April 1, 2008: The Yankees set a new big league record by winning their 11th consecutive home opener as they top Tampa, 3-2. For the eighth time in that span, Posada is the starting catcher. New York will lose their next one to end the streak.
April 16, 2009: Posada becomes the first Yankee to hit a home run at the New Yankee Stadium. In debut day for the new park, Posada goes deep in the fifth inning, but that’s about it for New York as the Yanks lose badly, 10-2.
June 2, 2009: Yesterday, New York set a record by playing its 18th straight game without any of its players committing an error. Today the streak ends when Posada makes an error. Despite that, New York wins handily over Texas, 12-3.
June 20, 2009: In the third inning, hurler A.J. Burnett and backstop Posada play catch. Burnett strikes out the side against the Marlins on the bare minimum nine pitches. Florida has the last laugh, winning 2-1, though Posada scores the only Yankee run.
Aug. 31, 2009: Against Baltimore, Andy Pettitte flirts with perfection, retiring the first 20 batters before Adam Jones reaches on an error. Pettitte allows three hits but gets the win. Posada does a better job calling pitches than hitting them today, as he goes 0-for-4.
Oct. 19, 2009: ALCS Game Three: According to WPA, it’s Posada’s best postseason game ever, yet the Yankees lose anyway. In the eighth inning, with New York trailing, 4-3, Posada swats a solo homer to tie it. (Damn shame a pinch runner had just been caught stealing or New York would’ve won the game). However, California wins it in 11 frames, 5-4. Posada’s WPA: 0.258.
Nov. 4, 2009: World Series Game Six: With Posada behind the plate, the Yankees take their first World Series crown in eight years, beating the Phillies, 7-3. Posada is 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
June 13, 2010: The old man is on a role. For the second consecutive game, Posada mashes a grand slam home run. It’s the ninth of ten such blasts in his career.
July 23, 2010: With a first-inning double, Posada joins the 1,000-RBI club. He gets another one later in the day as the Yankees steamroll the Royals, 7-1.
July 9, 2011: Derek Jeter joins the 3,000-hit club in style, going 5-for-5 with a double, stolen base, and home run. Posada isn’t nearly as effective, going 0-for-4, but the Yankees win, 5-4 over Tampa.
Aug. 25, 2011: It’s a historic game for the Yankees and an odd game for Posada. The Bronx Bombers belt a record three grand slams in one game en route to a 22-8 beating of the A’s. With their huge lead, the Yankees get creative and in the ninth inning call on Posada, who had the day off, to play second base. It’s the only time he plays that position.
Sept. 28, 2011: The last regular-season game of Posada’s career is one of baseball’s greatest regular-season contests. New York plays Tampa, and the latter needs a win to hopefully clinch the AL wild card. Early on, it looks impossible as the Yankees hold a 7-0 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. Then Tampa rallies furiously for a stunning 8-7 win in 12 innings. Posada didn’t start but enters the game later as designated hitter to rest starting player Robinson Cano. Posada is 0-for-3 with a walk.
Oct. 2, 2011: ALDS Game Two: In the bottom of the ninth with the Tigers comfortably ahead of the Yankees, 40-year-old Jorge Posada, in his 481st career postseason PA, gets his first October triple. He only has 10 regular-season ones. New York loses anyway.
Oct. 6, 2011: ALDS Game Five: The Yankees lose to Detroit, 3-2, and with it ends Posada’s career. He’s 2-for-4 with a strikeout, and in his last at-bat grounds out.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
30th anniversary: Tony C’s heart attack
Posted by Chris Jaffe30 years ago today was a bad day for one of baseball’s most ill-fated individuals. On Jan. 9, 1982, former Red Sox star Tony Conigliaro suffers a stroke that nearly kills him. He’s only 37 years old when it happens. He survives, but not before falling into a coma. He’ll spend two months in the hospital trying to recover.
It’s just one in series of incidents causing someone who started out so blessed to end up seemingly cursed. Born in Massachusetts, Conigliaro appeared to live every boy’s dream when the high school baseball star was signed by the local team. He was just 17 years old when the Red Sox claimed him in 1962.
Conigliaro's fortune continue after that. He roared through the minors as an 18 year old in 1963, batting .363 with 70 extra-base hits in just 83 games, and that earned him a slot on the big league roster the next year. Boston stationed him in center field on Opening Day 1964, right alongside their other hot young outfielder, Carl Yastrzemski.
Though one of the youngest starters in Red Sox history, Conigliaro played like he belonged. In the first four months, he swatted 20 homers with a nice .280 average. The first ominous sign of his future came in late July when a pitch broke his wrist, knocking Conigliaro out of commission for 40 days. He never was very good at avoiding the inside pitch.
No matter. At the time, it seemed like a fluke, and he kept hitting upon his return. In 1965, at the tender age of 20, he led the AL in home runs. Two years later, he became the youngest player to hit his 100th career long ball. The world seemed his.
Then came Aug. 17, 1967. In the fourth inning against the Angels, a fastball got away from pitcher Jack Hamilton, and Conigliaro couldn’t get out of the way. He turned toward it and got the ball flush in his face, right in his eye socket. He was done for the year. In fact, he was done for next year.
He suffered serious damage to his eye socket, and though he returned to baseball in 1969, he never really recovered. A career that promised Cooperstown ended in disappointment in the 1970s.
In January of 1982, Conigliaro was in Boston getting ready for an interview as an announcer for his old club. That’s when the heart attack struck. It wasn’t a small one, either. He went into a coma and didn’t regain consciousness for months.
Eventually he was released, but Conigliaro was unable to take care of himself. He spent the rest of his days living with his parents. A man whose body once gave him fame and adulation was now immobilized. He died of pneumonia in early 1990, at the young age of 45.
Tony Conigliaro suffered many setbacks after his impressive start, but the biggest setback came 30 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that occurred X-thousand days ago). Here they are with the better ones in bold if you just want to skim through the list:
Day-versaries
1,000 days since the White Sox sign free agent Scott Podsednik. It’s a return to the team for which he hit a World Series home run.
1,000 days since Yuniesky Betancourt lays down a rare walk-off sacrifice hit as the Mariners edge the Angels, 3-2.
2,000 days since Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens face off in Wrigley Field. Both men already have won 300 games prior to the contest, and today Clemens has the better of it, winning 4-2. For Maddux, it’s his 200th career loss. I attended this game. At one point, Maddux got a standing ovation for his fielding, as he made numerous plays on grounders.
3,000 days since David Wells has to leave the mound early in a start in Game Five of the 2003 World Series. He pulls a muscle, a problem partially caused by his poor conditioning. It comes at the worst possible time for the Yankees, who seek to rest their bullpen after losing in extra innings the previous game. They lose here, too, 6-4 to the Marlins.
4,000 days since Texas signs Alex Rodriguez to a contract worth $252,000,000.
5,000 days since Jeff Kent lays down the last sacrifice hit of his career. He’ll have 6,433 more PA.
7,000 days since the Rockies sign amateur free agent Neifi Perez.
7,000 days since Drayton McLane, Jr. buys the Houston Astros.
7,000 days since the Mariners name Lou Piniella as their new manager.
10,000 days since Charlie Robertson, who threw a perfect game in 1922, dies.
15,000 days since Rick Helling is born.
Anniversaries
1892 Slide Kelly Slide becomes the first baseball song to make the popular music charts.
1894 Boston catcher Charlie Bennett loses both of his legs in a horrific train accident.
1903 Gambler Frank Farrell and ex-NYC police chief Big Bill Devery buy the AL’s Baltimore Orioles for $18,000 with the intent of moving the club to New York.
1903 The AL and NL begin meeting to create a truce between the two leagues.
1908 Detroit names Frank Nevin the team’s president.
1915 Baseball’s national commission (the ruling body before the commissioner position was created) declares University of Michigan senior George Sisler to be a free agent. This ends a two-year fight over Pittsburgh’s claims on him.
1918 The Pirates trade Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes and two other players to the Dodgers for Casey Stengel and another player.
1924 The Yankees release third baseman Frank Baker, ending his career.
1927 The Giants, Dodgers and Phillies engage in a three-team trade. The Dodgers send Burleigh Grimes to the Giants, the Giants send Fresco Thompson and Jack Scott to the Phillies, and Philadelphia sends George Harper to the Giants and Butch Henline to the Dodgers.
1936 Ralph Terry, who gave up Bill Mazeroski’s Game Seven walk-off homer in the 1960 World Series, is born.
1952 Ted Williams is recalled to active duty with the marines due to the Korean War.
1953 Ivan DeJesus, once traded for Ryne Sandberg, is born.
1957 The Indians release Bob Feller, ending his career.
1959 Speedster Otis Nixon is born.
1960 The White Sox sign free agent Chico Carrasquel.
1961 Los Angeles signs former manager Leo Durocher as a coach for some “creative tension” between Durocher and current skipper Walter Alston.
1961 Calvin Griffith settles with the American Association's Minneapolis team for territorial rights to the Twin Cities. He gives them $500,000, and in return his Washington Senators will become the Minnesota Twins in three months.
1971 Elmer Flick, Hall of Fame outfielder, dies.
1974 In the early year draft, the following teams draft players they will later sign: Texas gets Roy Smalley and Bump Wills, Boston gets Bob Stanley, Detroit gets Tom Brookens, and California gets Willie Mays Aikens.
1976 Charles Ruppert, Giants vice president and son-in-law to team owner Horace Stoneham, announces the sale of the club to a group based out of Toronto. The city of San Francisco will get an injunction to stop this.
1979 In the January draft, the Tigers draft Howard Johnson, Toronto gets Mark Eichhorn, and California drafts Gary Pettis and Otis Nixon. All these players except Nixon will sign with the club after this draft.
1989 Hall of Famer Bill Terry, the last National Leaguer to bat .400, dies at age 92.
1989 Texas signs free agent Buddy Bell.
1990 The owners announce a lockout will begin on Feb. 15.
1990 Spud Chandler, mid-century Yankees pitcher, dies.
1991 St. Louis signs free agent pitcher Jamie Moyer.
1996 Oakland trades Todd Stottlemyre to the Cardinals.
1996 San Francisco signs free agent infielder Shawon Dunston.
1997 Detroit signs free agent Vince Coleman, who will play six games for them and then be gone.
1998 The White Sox sign free agent Ruben Sierra.
2003 The Mets sign free agent outfielder Cliff Floyd.
2004 Colorado signs free agent Jeromy Burnitz.
2006 Pittsburgh signs free agent Jeromy Burnitz.
2006 Boston signs free agent first baseman J.T. Snow
2006 The Cubs trade one-time centerfielder of the future Corey Patterson to the Orioles.
2006 Seattle signs free agent starting pitcher Kevin Appier.
2007 Arizona trades starting pitcher Randy Johnson to the Yankees for Alberto Gonzalez, Steven Jackson, Ross Ohlendorf, and Luis Vizcaino.
2008 Kansas City signs free agent pitcher Hideo Nomo.
2009 The Cubs sign free agent outfielder Milton Bradley to a three-year, big-money deal.
2009 Dave Roberts, 1970s pitcher, dies.
2010 Texas signs free agent Vladimir Guerrero.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Morris vs. Blyleven
Posted by Dave StudemanThe Hall of Fame results will be announced next week, and the subject of Jack Morris continues unabated. I admit that it's hard for me to take the Morris Hall of Fame campaign seriously, but Chris Jaffe predicts he'll get 65 percent of the vote. That's astonishing to me.
A lot of people have written a lot about Morris, and I'm not going to repeat it all here. But one of the things I've heard from a Morris defender is this: Now that Bert Blyleven's in the Hall, Morris should be, too. I'd like to put that notion to rest.
First, there are the surface stats: Blyleven pitched 4,970 innings, struck out 3,701 batters and had a 3.31 ERA. When you compare his ERA to his contemporaries (and adjust for ballpark), his ERA+ is 118. That means that the adjusted league-average ERA was 18 percent higher than his.
Morris pitched 3,824 innings, struck out 2,478 batters (5.8 per nine innings vs. Blyleven's mark of 6.7 per nine innings) and had a 3.90 ERA. His ERA+ was 105, which means that the league-average ERA (adjusted for ballpark) was five percent higher than his. Morris was a fine pitcher, but he was no Blyleven.
Some people then say, "Fine, but Morris was a winner." It's true that, statistically, Morris had a better winning percentage than Blyleven. Morris won 254 games and lost 186 for a winning percentage of .577, while Blyleven won 287 games and lost 250 for a winning percentage of .534. The implication is that Morris was a "winner," and Blyleven wasn't. This perception is enhanced by Morris' fantastic performance in the seventh game of the 1991 World Series.
This is ridiculous. Minnesota in the early 1970s (Blyleven's prime) was a .500 team. Detroit in the early 1980s (Morris' prime) was a .540 team (I'm just guesstimating here, but I don't think I'm off by much). Morris typically pitched for much stronger offenses than Blyleven did. The difference in their win/loss records has everything to do with context and nothing to do with pitching performance.
Still, the perception persists. I've heard it said that Morris was better than Blyleven at "pitching to the score." This typically means that, sure, Morris sometimes gave up six runs, but only when Detroit scored 10. He matched his performance to his surroundings.
Better baseball analysts than I, such as Bill James and Joe Sheehan, have already picked this argument apart. But I'd like to do it one more time, the easy way. I'd like to show the difference in each pitcher's Win Probability Added (WPA).
WPA is discussed here. The upshot is that players are given credit for helping their teams win games based on what they did on every single play. You can find WPA stats at both Fangraphs and Baseball Reference; it's easy to find and easy to understand. Plus, it captures performance and context. It reflects someone "pitching to the score."
Let me give you a few examples from 1974, one of Blyleven's finest years.
On April 20, Blyleven lost a 1-0 game against the Rangers, giving up the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. He pitched extremely well but ultimately gave up the winning run, resulting in a WPA of just 0.15. His contribution was very positive, and his WPA was positive, but it didn't result in a win. Given that a winning team compiles 0.5 WPA points in total at the end of a game, this was a good-not-great total.
On the other hand, on Sept. 25, the Twins beat the A's 1-0 with Blyleven pitching a complete-game shutout. His WPA total was a fantastic 0.77, one of the best totals you can achieve in a game. He pitched extremely well AND he gave up fewer runs than his team scored. As a result, his WPA total was 0.62 higher in this game than on April 20.
On June 24, the Twins beat the Rangers, 8-4. Blyleven pitched just six innings and left with a 4-3 lead. Bill Hands shut down the Rangers, and the Twins scored four more runs to put the game away. Blyleven's WPA in this game was 0.01—average.
Lastly, on July 13, the Twins won a 2-1 game against the Indians in 11 innings. Blyleven pitched nine innings and gave up just one run, keeping the Twins in the game until they won it with Bill Campbell on the mound. Blyleven's WPA total was 0.41, an excellent total matching his performance with the context of the game and ultimately resulting in a win. Note that even if the Twins had lost the game, Blyleven's WPA would have remained 0.41, as he was off the mound when the final outcome was determined.
The point is that WPA totals reflect both performance and context. It does a much better job of uncovering how well pitchers pitched to the situation than won-loss record does. (As an example, Campbell picked up the win in that July 13 game; Blyleven got a no-decision). Short of examining each game one-by-one (which James and Sheehan did), it's the single best way of capturing how well pitchers "pitched to the score."
Here are the WPA totals for Morris and Blyleven, by age:
Age Morris Blyleven 19 0.3 20 3.4 21 1.7 22 -0.1 3.5 23 -0.9 3.7 24 2.3 4.2 25 1.3 4.1 26 1.8 2.1 27 1.4 0.3 28 1.4 -0.2 29 1.2 -1.0 30 3.0 1.9 31 3.2 -0.3 32 3.6 0.5 33 0.1 3.4 34 -1.9 2.5 35 -2.7 0.0 36 2.1 1.6 37 2.1 -2.9 38 -2.0 4.5 39 -1.0 -1.1 41 -1.7 Total 15.0 30.6
It's not close. Blyleven's career total is twice Morris', and his peaks were higher, too. Blyleven had seven years with a WPA total above 3.0; Morris had three. Blyleven topped 4.0 three times; Morris never did.
Unlike some folks I know, I'm willing to give Morris some credit for his fantastic seventh game heroics. But that still doesn't make the comparison between these two great pitchers close. Only one is a Hall of Famer.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
Melvin Mora career highlights
Posted by Chris JaffeAs 2011 came to a close, former Baltimore Oriole Melvin Mora announced his retirement. This isn’t too surprising since Arizona (his last team) cut him midseason and no one picked him up. Still, Mora’s recent decision to out-and-out retire makes it official.
Mora had an impressive career for someone who was such a late bloomer. Only seven men who debuted in their age-27 season or later have ever played in over 1,500 games: Jimmy Austin, Bob Johnson, Ichiro Suzuki, Davey Lopes, Bill Bruton, Earl Averill and Mora.
Many of those guys had circumstances delay their start. It was the race line for Bruton, the Pacific Ocean for Ichiro, and Averill was a Pacific Coast League star before the minor leagues were fully tamed. Mora was just a late bloomer.
Now that he’s gone, let’s look back on his career with the Mets, Orioles, Rockies, and Diamondbacks. Listed below are his career highlights—his best and worst performances, the greatest and most important games he played in, as well as incredible and unusual occasions he was on hand for. Here’s the list:
Mets tenure
May 30, 1999: At age 27, Mora makes his big league debut. He plays shortstop and bats eighth in a game against Arizona. He flies out to center his first time up, and goes 0-for-3. He plays seven innings before the Mets, trailing 10-1, puts in a replacement for the latter innings.
June 9, 1999: The seventh game of Mora’s career is a memorable one: Bobby Valentine Fake Mustache Night. Ejected from the game, the Mets manager puts some of those sunblock stickers players wear under their eyes under his nose as a fake mustache, along with some sunglasses, and sneaks back on the bench to manage the Mets to a comeback, extra-inning victory. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Mora grounds out while pinch-hitting for the pitcher.
July 25, 1999: For the only time all season, Mora plays a complete game for the Mets. He plays in 66 games for the Mets during the 1999 campaign, but will only have 39 plate appearances because he’s normally just a late-inning replacement or pinch-hitter. He’s 0-for-3 in a 5-1 Mets win over the Cubs.
July 27, 1999: It’s the first ever Turn Ahead the Clock Night game. Mora is a late-inning defensive replacement for Rickey Henderson as the Mets and Pirates wear some ghastly, futurist-style uniforms.
Oct. 4, 1999: It’s Game No. 163. The Mets and Reds end the regular season in a tie for the wild card and play in this one-game showdown. New York wins, 5-0, with Mora appearing as a late-game defensive replacement.
Oct. 5, 1999: NLDS Game One: Mora will appear in three of the four games in the NLDS, but this features his only plate appearance. In the ninth inning of a 4-4 game, Mora comes up with runners on first and second and one out and draws a walk. A few minutes later, he scores on a grand slam homer by Edgar Alfonzo. The Mets win the game and take the series in four games to advance to the NLCS.
Oct. 12, 1999: NLCS Game One: It’s arguably the greatest postseason series of all-time, and Mora will play a notable role, appearing in every game. In Game One, he draws a pinch-hit walk as the Mets lose to the Braves, 4-2.
Oct. 13, 1999: NLCS Game Two: Something happens to Mets left fielder Rickey Henderson. Shortly after fielding a single in the second inning, the Mets replace him mid-inning with Mora. Making the most of it, Mora goes 1-for-2 with a home run—his first big league homer. The Mets lose the game, 4-3, but Mora’s play earns him considerable playing time in the rest of the series.
Oct. 15, 1999: NLCS Game Three: For only the second time in his life, Mora plays a complete game for the Mets. He goes 2-for-4 but the team loses, 1-0. Only twice do the Mets get a runner as far as third base, and Mora is involved in both. He singled to third in the second inning, and two frames later singles Mike Piazza to third. The Mets are now down three games to none but will make things very interesting from here on out.
Oct. 16, 1999: NLCS Game Four: Mora doesn’t start but still plays a key role in the first Mets victory of the series. With the team trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the eight, Mora appears as a pinch hitter with a runner on first and two outs. After the runner steals, Mora draws a walk. A little later, Mora is the back end of a crucial double steal. It’s crucial because it allows a John Olerud single to drive in both runners. When Mora crosses the plate, the Mets have a 3-2 lead, and that’s the final score.
Oct. 17, 1999: NLCS Game Five: It’s one of the most famous games ever, ending on Robin Ventura’s walk-off grand slam single for a wild Mets 4-3 win in 15 innings. Mora plays the full game, going 1-for-6. Fun fact: Mora is the guy on deck when Ventura hits the walk-off blast.
Oct. 18, 1999: NLCS Game Six: It’s another all-time classic game, but this time the Mets lose in extra innings to end the series. Mora appears in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter and belts an RBI single to give the Mets a brief 8-7 lead. He stays in the game, and in the 10th singles a runner to third, where he’ll score on a sacrifice fly for a 9-8 lead. However, the Mets lose on a walk-off walk, 10-9 in 11 innings.
Not only was the 1999 NLCS the greatest postseason series Mora ever plays in, it’s also the last one.
March 30, 2000: It’s the longest road game of his career, as the Mets play the Cubs in the Toyko Dome in Japan. More appears as a late-game replacement. In the 11th inning, he draws a walk and scores a run when Benny Agbayani hits a grand slam for a 5-1 Mets win.
April 20, 2000: Having already hit a postseason homer, Mora belts his first regular season one. It’s not just any homer, either, but a walk-off shot. He swats a solo shot off Curt Leskaniac of the Brewers for a 5-4 win in 10 innings. Mora will hit 170 more homers in his career after this one, but only one will be a walk-off.
June 30, 2000: It’s revenge for the NLCS as the Mets have a memorable win over the Braves. The Mets trail, 8-1, heading into the bottom of the eighth but pull off an insane rally, scoring 10 times in the eighth. Mora walks in the inning and scores the tying run.
July 15, 2000: In an interleague game against the Red Sox, Mora is playing shortstop when one of the most bizarre on-field incidents of the 2000s occurs. Mercurial Red Sox slugger Carl Everett gets in an argument with the home plate umpire and head butts the official.
Orioles tenure
July 29, 2000: The Baltimore Orioles have been around since 1954, and as 2011 concludes, Mora is tenth all-time on their games played list. Well, this is the first of his 1,256 games played as an Oriole. It’s also the second as the O’s play a doubleheader against the Indians. Mora gets a single and a double. He will turn out to be a nice return after the Orioles trade Mike Bordick to the Mets for him.
April 4, 2001: In the season’s second game, the Orioles are no-hit by Boston’s Hideo Nomo. Mora goes 0-for-3 with a fly out to deep center, a grounder to third, and a strikeout. There are two other times in Mora’s career in which his team plays in a no-hitter, but Mora will sit out both of those games. (On Sept. 1, 2007, Boston’s Clay Buchholz does it to Mora’s Orioles. On April 17, 2010, Mora’s Colorado teammate Ubaldo Jimenez no-hits the Braves).
April 5, 2001: One day after the team didn’t get a hit against Boston, Mora helps get some revenge despite not getting a hit. In the bottom of the ninth in a 1-1 game, Mora receives the only walk-off walk of his career.
July 18, 2001: The regularly scheduled Orioles game today has to be postponed because not too far from Camden Yards a train carrying toxic chemicals derails. The July 20 game also will need to be rescheduled.
April 7, 2002: Mora suffers probably the worst game of his career, as he goes 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in Baltimore’s 4-1 loss to Boston. Well, at least the first two Ks were to Pedro Martinez.
April 11, 2002: Baltimore falls behind to Tampa early, 6-1, but then wins it big, 15-6, thanks largely to a 12-run bottom of the sixth. Mora is one of only two Orioles not to get a hit in the inning as he flies out and draws a walk, becoming the 11th run to score that inning. On the day, Mora is 2-for-4 with a pair of walks.
July 18, 2002: Ow! Mora takes one for the team today—and then another one, and then still another one. He gets hit by pitches three times in all. He’ll end the year with 20 HBP, second most in the AL behind only David Eckstein. Mora will endure 117 career plunkings, which is 47th-most in baseball history.
May 1, 2003: Mora plays center field in the first game of a doubleheader against Detroit when Baltimore reliever B.J. Ryan does the unlikely—he records the win without throwing a single pitch. In the bottom of the seventh of a game Detroit leads 2-1, Ryan appears with a runner on first and two outs and promptly picks off the runner to end the inning. Baltimore scores a pair of runs right after that, with a Mora single helping the rally, and that gives Ryan the win.
May 25, 2003: Mora has the only 5-for-5 game of his career. He also draws a walk for a personal-best six times on base in one game. He leads Baltimore past Texas, 13-10.
June 12, 2003: The longest hitting streak of Mora’s career peaks at 23 games. His next-longest streak is just 14 games. In this spell, he was 43-for-93 with five doubles, a triple and six homers. His AVG/OBP/SLG in this period: .476/.541/.739.
July 15, 2003: A late bloomer gets his reward. Mora appears in his first All-Star game. He scores a run as a pinch runner in the eighth inning. He’s the first of three runs to cross the plate in that frame, as that rally gives the AL a 7-6 win.
July 31, 2003: Mora appears as a pinch runner late in a game the Orioles lose in horrible fashion, 10-9, to the Twins in extra innings. Minnesota is batting in the bottom of the ninth with runners on first and second and Baltimore is one out from victory. They appear to get a game-ending strikeout, but the ball gets away from the catcher for a wild pitch.
Not only does the runner get to first, but everyone’s so fixated on nailing him they forget all about lead runner Doug Mientkiewicz, who scores all the way from second to tie the game. In the 10th inning, Jacque Jones pokes a grounder through a five-man infield to score the winning run.
Sept. 5, 2003: Mora plays all over the diamond in his career, but his 1,256 games in Baltimore features only one time at first base. It comes right here, as Mora plays first for the final four innings of a 13-inning game. After he leaves Baltimore, he’ll play more games at first.
June 4, 2004: Mora connects for the first of five career grand slams. This comes off Tampa’s Victor Zambrano. Mora also walks three times on the day, but Tampa wins, 8-7 in 10 innings.
July 12, 2005: Appearing in his second and final All-Star game, Mora has his only All-Star at-bat. He fans on four pitches against Brad Lidge, but the AL wins anyway, 7-5.
July 15, 2005: Mora goes 2-for-5 with a double and a home run but is overshadowed by a teammate who also has two hits on the night. Designated hitter Rafael Palmeiro joins the 3,000-hit club. The milestone blast is a double that scores Mora. Mora will also be on hand when Palmeiro plays his last game six weeks later.
Sept. 27, 2005: Mora achieves a nice little milestone for himself, belting his 100th career home run as the Orioles trample the Yankees, 17-9.
April 5, 2006: Mora homers in his fifth consecutive game, a streak that began at the end of the 2005 season.
April 13, 2006: According to WPA, Mora hits the clutchest homer of his life in this game. With two outs in the top of the ninth and Baltimore trailing Tampa 5-4, Mora hits a two-run homer off Dan Miceli. WPA rates it at 0.711 as Baltimore wins, 6-5. As a result of that shot, this is also Mora’s best one-game WPA score: 0.757. He had a single and a double earlier on the day.
May 31, 2006: Mora belts a walk-off single, the second of four walk-off hits in his career. It gives Baltimore a 6-5 win over Tampa Bay in 11 innings.
Aug. 22, 2006: Mora goes 1-for-4, but the man hitting right in front of him in the line up has a much better day than that. Nick Markakis belts three solo homers for Baltimore, who beat the Twins 6-3.
April 7, 2007: Mora has one of the best performances of his career, but it isn’t enough. He belts a bases-loaded double and a two-run homer for five RBIs on the day. Oh, and the home run is also his 1,000th career hit.
However, Baltimore loses 10-7 to the Yankees, largely due to Alex Rodriguez, who posts the best-known one-game WPA performance any Yankee hitter has ever had. A-Rod goes 3-for-4 with four runs and six RBIs, including a walk-off grand slam with two outs in the ninth.
Aug. 22, 2007: Well, that could’ve gone better for Baltimore. At home against the Rangers, the O's lose by the historically dreadful score of 30-3. Mora is 1-for-3 with a walk and strikeout. Less than two weeks later, Baltimore will be no-hit, but Mora will sit that game out.
Sept. 28, 2007: Mora gets the third of his four career walk-off hits when he pokes an RBI single with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth against the Yankees for a 10-9 Orioles win.
Aug. 17, 2008: Against Detroit, Mora has probably the best game of his career. He goes 5-for-6 with a pair of doubles and a pair of home runs for a half-dozen RBIs and four runs as Baltimore trounces the Tigers, 16-8. Mora sets personal bests in RBIs, extra base hits and total bases, and he ties his best one-game tallies for hits, runs, homers and doubles. It’s the last of seven career multi-home run games for Mora.
June 30, 2009: The Orioles pull off their greatest comeback ever. At the seventh inning stretch, they trail Boston 10-1 but score five times in the bottom of the seventh and five more times in the eighth for an improbable 11-10 win. Mora’s contribution to the rally is to get pulled from the game and watch his backup hit a three-run homer in the seventh and then single and score in the eighth.
July 11, 2009: For the first time since his days as a Met, Mora connects for a walk-off home run. It’s a solo shot in the bottom of the 12th against Toronto for a 4-3 win. It’s the latest Mora ever homers in a game.
Aug. 30, 2009: Andy Pettitte flirts with perfection but doesn’t quite get there. He retires the first 20 Orioles he faces, but then a runner gets on base via an error to end the perfect game. Immediately after that, Pettitte allows a hit to end the no-hitter. In the next inning, Mora belts a homer off Pettitte to end the shutout. Pettitte still gets the win, though, 5-1.
Rockies tenure
Aug. 25, 2010: For the second year in a row, Mora plays in a game in which his team wins after trailing 10-1. This time, instead of being one of the guys pulled, Mora is one of the mid-game replacements. He singles in the eighth inning but is forced at second, but Colorado takes the lead that inning.
Sept. 2, 2010: Only in Colorado. For the second time in one homestand, a Rockies game features a massive late rally for a win. This time, however, the other team pulls it off. Philadelphia wins, 12-11, thanks in large part to a nine-run seventh inning. Mora gets three singles but leaves the game in a double switch after Philadelphia’s big inning.
Sept. 26, 2010: Mora hits the second pinch hit homer of his career, which turns out to be the 171st and final home run he’ll hit overall. It comes in the eighth inning off San Francisco’s Matt Cain and turns a 4-0 Giants lead into a 4-2 score, which is how the game ends.
Diamondbacks tenure
April 1, 2011: It’s Opening Day, and Mora makes his debut as a Diamondback. It’s as bad a debut as you can envision. In fact, it’s Mora’s all-time worst one-game WPA score: -0.449. He is 0-for-5 with two GIDP, including an inning-ending GIDP in the eighth inning of a tie game. In the tenth, he hits into a fielder’s choice that kills a runner at the plate. Fortunately, Arizona wins in 11 innings, 7-6, over Colorado.
June 19, 2011: Mora’s career is starting to wind down. It’s the last time he ever starts a game, last time he plays a complete game, and also the last time he gets a hit as he goes 1-for-4 against the White Sox.
June 29, 2011: Mora makes his last stand, appearing as a pinch hitter for Arizona. He strikes out against Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco and Arizona releases him later that same day.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
A baseball card mystery: Aaron’s golden moment
Posted by Bruce MarkusenOn April 8, 1974, millions of fans watched one of the most historically significant moments in the history of the game.
I was privileged to be one of those fans who witnessed the hallmark accomplishment on a special Monday night broadcast delivered by NBC TV.
In the fourth inning, Hank Aaron came to bat against Dodgers left-hander Al Downing. “The Hammer” needed one home run to break Babe Ruth’s career record of 714 home runs, a mark that some observers had once considered unbreakable.
With the Braves trailing 3-1, two men out and a runner on first, Aaron patiently watched Downing’s first pitch, a change-up in the dirt. Now behind in the count, Downing threw Aaron a slider. The pitch was low, but down the middle.
It might have been a strike if Aaron let it go. Aaron did not. Using his classic top-hand swing, Aaron lifted the pitch deep toward left-center field. The ball had only moderate height, typical of Aaron, who usually hit line drives instead of towering fly balls.
As the ball carried, outfielders Bill Buckner and Jimmy Wynn raced toward the warning track, converging just a few feet from the outfield wall. Placing his arms on top of the wall, Buckner tried to prop himself above the boundary of the fence, but his valiant attempt fall well short.
Both “Billy Buck” and “The Toy Cannon” watched the ball land in the glove of reliever Tom House, who would eventually deliver the ball to Aaron.
Two exuberant fans, who might be best described as “hippies” (according to the parlance of the day), accompanied Aaron on his tour around the bases. Thankfully, they carried neither weapons nor ill intentions. (They would, however, have to spend the night in an Atlanta jail before eventually becoming friends with the new home run king.) By the time Aaron reached home plate, his entourage of followers and well-wishers numbered nearly a dozen.
The umpires temporarily halted the game in Atlanta, allowing for an on-field ceremony that lasted 11 minutes.
During the proceedings, Aaron spoke to the crowd in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium. “I’m happy it’s over,” Aaron said of his grueling chase of Ruth’s record, which was marred by hate mail and repeated death threats.
“Now I can consider myself one of the best. Maybe not the best because a lot of great ones have played this game—DiMaggio, Mays, Jackie Robinson—but I think I can fit in there somewhere.”
In the moments after hitting the home run, a photographer snapped the picture that appeared as part of Topps’ 2001 “Golden Moments” series.
So here’s the mystery. Who are the other people in this photograph? I should know who they are, but I really don’t.
There are two players in front of Aaron, applying a bear hug. There is also an African-American player to the far right, and a white player on the far left. Who are these mysterious members of the Atlanta Braves?
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
Don Mueller career highlights
Posted by Chris JaffeLast week former New York Giants outfielder Don Mueller died at age 84.
His playing days predate a large majority of our readership at THT, but he had a nice career for himself, almost entirely with the New York Giants. The right fielder was a career .296 hitter, albeit without tremendous power or many walks.
In fact, he was the consummate contact hitter. He was so good at poking balls through holes he earned the nickname “Mandrake the Magician.” In 4,594 career plate appearances, he had only 167 walks and 146 strikeouts. That’s 313 walks plus strikeouts in a full 12-year career. Adam Dunn had 306 walks and strikeouts in the 2006 season alone.
Others can eulogize the man better than I can. Here, I’ll just review his career highlights. The list below contains his personal bests (or worst) performances, the greatest and most important games he took part in, and some of the oddities he was on hand for, as well as great moments by others. I've done this before for other recently departed baseball players.
So here it goes:
New York Giants tenure
Aug. 2, 1948: Don Mueller makes his major league debut. It doesn’t come under the most pleasant of circumstances. He pinch hits for a pitcher in the bottom of the fourth with the Giants already trailing 9-1. He drives home a run with a single, but St. Louis scores eight more runs in the top of the fifth en route to a 21-5 beat-down of the Giants. It’s the most lopsided loss of Mueller’s big league career.
Aug. 15, 1948: It’s the only known time that corner outfielder Mueller plays in center. It’s an interesting game. Starting center fielder Whitey Lockman breaks up a no-hitter in the seventh inning with a triple and then scores. Shortly after that, Mueller takes his place in the game, which New York loses, 8-1. Lockman plays later that day in the second half of a doubleheader, so taking him out was more a reward than a sign he was injured.
Aug. 25, 1948: Mueller bashes his first career home run. It’s a pinch-hit homer, one of three such shots he’ll hit in his career. It’s a three-run shot as he pinch hits for Bobby Thomson. The Giants top the Cubs, 9-4.
Sept. 9, 1948: Rex Barney, pitcher for the archrival Dodgers, no-hits the Giants for a 2-0 win. Mueller is 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
July 8, 1949: From a sociological point of view, this is the most important game of Mueller’s career. The Giants start Hank Thompson at second base, integrating the team for the first time. Later that day, Thompson’s fellow former Negro Leaguer Monte Irvin draws a walk in a pinch-hit attempt. Mueller also comes up as a pinch hitter, but makes an out.
Aug. 5, 1950: Giants pitcher Jim Hearn records 27 outs without allowing a hit. Unfortunately those 27 outs come after allowing a leadoff single in the first. Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Bob Dillinger gets a hit to begin the game and that’s the only hit Hearn surrenders in his 5-0 shutout. Mueller is New York’s offensive hero, as he goes 3-for-4 with two runs, a double, and an RBI.
Aug. 16, 1950: Mueller hits his first career grand slam. It comes off Brooklyn’s Dan Bankhead who three years earlier made history as baseball’s first black pitcher. Also in this game, Mueller’s teammate Hank Thompson hits two inside the park home runs. Mueller scores on the first one, and the second comes immediately after Mueller’s grand slam. New York wins easily, 16-7.
Aug. 17, 1950: One day after hitting his first slam, Mueller suffers through his worst WPA game. He goes 0-for-4 with WPA of –0.409 as the Dodgers top the Giants, 8-6. The first pitch Muller sees on the day punks him, in possible retaliation for yesterday’s game. Three times he comes to the plate with a runner on third, and he never advances the runner. Most notably, he hits into a bases-loaded double play in the eighth, ending the inning.
Sept. 13, 1950: New York’s star pitcher Sal Maglie has an amazing streak come to an end. In the top of the seventh against Pittsburgh, Gary Bell blasts a home run off Maglie, ending a 43-inning scoreless streak that dates back to Aug. 16. Mueller is stationed in right in the Polo Grounds when the ball clears the fence.
April. 30, 1951: For the only time in his career, Mueller draws a bases loaded RBI-walk. Earl Mossor of the Dodgers is the pitcher and it occurs in the first inning with only one out. New York wins, 8-5.
May 17, 1951: Mueller hits the only inside the park home run of his career. It comes off Pittsburgh’s Murry Dickson in the sixth inning of a contest the Giants lose, 12-7. In all, Mueller is 3-for-4 with a walk and strikeout. It’s one of only 18 games in his career he walks and strikes out.
May 25, 1951: Willie Mays makes his big league debut. To make room for him in center, the Giants shift Bobby Thomson from center to left, put left fielder Monte Irvin in right, and leave the left fielder on the bench. Mueller is that left fielder. He appears as a pinch hitter later in the game.
July 4, 1951: The Giants and Dodgers square off on a holiday doubleheader and Brooklyn manager Charlie Dressen gets ejected from both games. I guess he’s trying to fire up his team, which is swept on the day, but he needn’t worry. Even with the sweep at the hands of their archrival, the Dodgers still lead New York by six games in the playoff race.
Aug. 9, 1951: It’s an ugly game as the Giants and Dodgers combine for 24 walks. The Dodgers win 6-5 despite issuing 15 of those free passes. Every member of the Giants starting lineup draws a base on balls—except the walk-phobic Mueller, who is 0-for-5. With this win, the Dodgers now lead the Giants by 12.5 games. Man, is this pennant race over or what?
Aug. 11, 1951: Mueller goes 1-for-4 but Robin Roberts and the defending NL champion Phillies blank the Giants, 4-0. New York is now 13.5 games behind Brooklyn, the Giants' worst deficit of the year. Though they lost today, the Giants won’t lose again for quite some time.
Aug. 27, 1951: New York sweeps a doubleheader from the Cubs, giving it 16 consecutive wins. The Giants will lose the next day, but the winning steak has breathed new life into them. Mueller played in every inning of the winning streak, and went 2-for-9 today with one of his 19 walks on the season.
Sept. 2, 1951: Mueller has by far the greatest game of his life—and the second greatest game, too. In a doubleheader against those darn Dodgers, Mueller belts five home runs and drives in 10 runs. Behind Mueller’s big bat, New York sweeps the Dodgers 8-1 and 11-2 to pull within five games of Brooklyn with a month to play. He drives in five runs in each game. In the rest of his games, he never does better than that and equals it once.
Mueller’s performance on this day becomes even more interesting when, over a half century later, it's revealed that the 1951 Giants had an elaborate sign-stealing mechanism in place that helped them in the pennant race. This game takes part in the pennant race at home and Mueller undoubtedly received tip-offs. In the other 1,243 games of his career, he’ll have just one other multi-home run game.
Sept. 13, 1951: The Giants play in a doubleheader. Sort of. Well, they play one game and their opponent plays two. On this day, St. Louis becomes the first team of the 20th century to play two opposing clubs in one day in an atypical doubleheader. Mueller goes 2-for-4 with a double and a run as St. Louis beats New York 6-4 before losing 2-0 to the Braves.
Sept. 30, 1951: The Giants win, which along with a Dodger win later in the day means the regular season ends in a tie, causing a best-of-three games playoff to take place. In this 3-2 win over Boston, Mueller singles home the go-ahead run in the third inning.
Oct. 3, 1951: It might be the most famous game in baseball history and Mueller helps kick off its most famous inning. The Giants and Dodgers split the first two games of the playoff, and in this winner-take-all contest, Brooklyn takes a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning. After Alvin Dark leads off with an infield single, Mueller comes to the plate. So far Mueller is 1-for-12 in the series, but he laces a single out to bring the tying run to the plate.
When Lockman doubles a few minutes later, Mueller breaks his ankle sliding into third. Thus pinch runner Clint Hartung scores a little bit later when Bobby Thomson homers to win the pennant for the Giants. Mueller will not, obviously, play in the World Series, which the Giants lose in six games to the Yankees.
July 1, 1952: Braves batter Earl Torgeson does something rather stupid in this game. He tries to attack Giants catcher Sal Yvars in the Giants’ dugout. Yeah, that doesn’t sound too well thought out. Mueller goes 0-for-5 with a K as the Giants win 6-3.
Sept. 10, 1952: Mueller hits the only walk-off home run of his career. He belts a solo shot in the bottom of the 12th inning off of Murry Dickson (the same guy he hit his only inside-the-park homer against) for a 3-2 win. As a bonus, this comes two days after Mueller belted a walk-off double for another 3-2 Giants win. In between those games, Mueller hit one of his only two career leadoff home runs. Nice little streak.
Sept. 6, 1953: Dodgers right fielder Carl Furillo gets hit by a pitch, and is sure it’s intentional. Rather than charge the pitcher, though, he takes aim at the man who told the pitcher what to do. Furillo goes after Giants skipper Leo Durocher in the dugout. Mueller watches from right field as his teammates beat up Furillo. Getting into fights against the Giants was the popular thing to do in the early 1950s.
May 2, 1954: Mueller enjoys one of the greatest games of his career. It’s the only time he goes 5-for-5, as he collects a double, a triple, and three singles against St. Louis. He also drives in two runs and scores three times as New York tops the Cardinals, 9-7. In New York’s eight-run fourth inning, Mueller has a triple and a single, scores twice, and drives in both of his runs.
July 11, 1954: In the first game of the doubleheader versus the Pirates, Mueller hits for the cycle. He doubles, triples, singles, and saves the home run for last as New York rolls to a 13-7 win.
July 14, 1954: Mueller is selected to his first All-Star team and gets in the action. He pinch hits for starting pitcher Robin Roberts in the top of the fourth and smacks an RBI double as the NL tops the AL, 11-9.
July 17, 1954: They don’t come much wilder than this. New York takes a seemingly insurmountable 9-0 lead on St. Louis, but danged if the Cardinals don’t rally. They tie the game 9-9, sending it into extra innings. New York manages to win anyway, thanks to an RBI sacrifice fly in the 11th inning by Mueller. He ends the day 2-for-5 with two runs, three RBIs, and a double.
Sept. 18, 1954: Mueller achieves one of his most impressive milestones. With a three-hit performance in today’s game, he ends the day with precisely 200 hits. It’s the only time he ever hits the big round number. He ends the season with a league-leading 212 hits, the only time he leads the league in any category. His 200th hit is a single, but in his first at-bat of the day he belts a home run.
Sept. 22, 1954: The Giants are on the receiving end of one of the greatest pitching debuts in history. Brooklyn’s Karl Spooner pitches a three-hit complete game shutout with a debut record 15 strikeouts. Mueller, as is his nature, doesn’t strike out in two at-bats. Then again, the Giants take him out of the game in the third inning and his replacement, Bill Taylor, fans twice. Mueller also misses the next game so he probably dinged himself here.
As for Spooner, he’ll fan 12 batters in his next start, also a complete game shutout, but then win only eight more games in his career.
Sept. 26, 1954: It’s the last game of the season and Mueller is dueling for the batting title with star teammate Willie Mays. When the sun rises, Mueller has a narrow lead, .343 to Mays’ .342. Mueller goes 2-for-6 on the day, and most times that would be enough—but Mays bats 3-for-4. Mays wins the battle for the batting title: .345 to .342.
Sept. 29, 1954: World Series Game One: Unlike 1951, Mueller plays in every game in this one. Game One is a classic as Mays makes his famous catch of a Vic Wertz deep fly to deep center. The game also has a great ending as Dusty Rhodes hits a three-run walk-off home run in the 10th inning for a 5-2 Giants win. Mueller led off that 10th inning with a strikeout, his only one of the World Series.
Mueller’s contribution came earlier as in the third inning he drove in the team’s first run and then a little later scored its second. That was all of New York’s offense until Rhodes’ blast.
Sept. 30, 1954: World Series Game Two: New York beats the highly favored Indians (who went 111-43 in the regular season) again, this time by a score of 3-1. Mueller goes 0-for-4.
Oct. 1, 1954: World Series Game Three: The Giants are on the verge of a major postseason upset after their 6-2 win puts them just a game away from the team’s first world title in 21 years. Mueller scores the team’s first run in the game, and then scores a few innings later as an insurance run. He gets two singles in five at bats on the day.
Oct. 2, 1954: World Series Game Four: Incredibly, the 97-57 Giants not only defeat the mighty 111-43 Indians, but they sweep them in four games. New York takes the early lead here and cruises to a 7-4 victory. Mueller goes 3-for-4 with three singles and a sacrifice hit. Mueller scores in the fifth inning off an aging Hal Newhouser on Monte Irvin’s single.
May 15, 1955: Mueller gets a hit in his 24th consecutive game, the longest streak of his career. He’s 44-for-102 with only seven extra base hits and two walks in the span (as well as just a pair of strikeouts). His line in this streak: .431/.438/.520. That’s Mueller at his most Mueller.
July 12, 1955: Selected to his second straight All-Star team, Mueller has the honor of starting for the Senior Circuit in right field. He goes 1-for-2 before getting lifted for his backup—Milwaukee’s Hank Aaron.
Sept. 25, 1955: The Giants' season closes in a bizarre and unlikely manner. Trailing Philadelphia 3-1 in the season finale, the Giants hit into a game-ending and season-finishing triple play in the bottom of the ninth. Second baseman Bobby Hofman hits into it. As for Mueller, he is 0-for-1 and Durocher pulls him after two innings. This games turns out to be the last Durocher will manager for the Giants.
May 2, 1956: The Cubs and Giants square off in an incredible marathon. They play 17 innings, setting a record by using 48 players along the way. Mueller is one of those players as he goes 0-for-2 as a late game replacement. The game also features a record 11 intentional walks. Chicago’s Don Hoak sets an unwanted record by fanning six times. Each strikeout comes against a different pitcher, a seemingly unbreakable record. The Giants win, 6-5.
May 12, 1956: Brooklyn’s Carl Erskine no-hits the Giants in a 3-0 win. He surrenders just two walks, a first inning one to Willie Mays and another to Alvin Dark later in the contest. Mueller appears as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning and lines out to Pee Wee Reese at shortstop.
June 16, 1957: According to WPA, this is Mueller’s greatest game (since at least 1950, when we have WPA info). The day consists of exactly one plate appearance, a pinch-hit home run that drives in three runs for New York in their 4-3 win over the Reds. WPA on the day (and blast): 0.613.
Aug. 17, 1957: Of all the sports incidents that involve sending an elderly grandmother to the hospital, today’s Phillies-Giants game as the most humorous one. Star Phillies center fielder Richie Ashburn fouls one into the stands nd it hits an old woman in the face. She wasn’t watching the ball because she was adjusting the hat on her young grandson. As she’s taken away on a stretcher, the game resumes. Ashburn fouls another one off—and it hits the same dear sweet lady.
Ashburn is horrified, of course, and he later gives the grandkids a tour of the clubhouse and a ball autographed by the entire team—the works. The kids are so happy they ask their grandmother if she can take them to an Eagles game and get hit by a football.
Oh, and Mueller? He’s 2-for-4 with a pair of singles as the Giants lose, 3-1.
Aug. 25, 1957: Mueller belts a pair of home runs in one game, the only time aside from that 1951 doubleheader he does that. As it happens, he’ll never homer again in the big leagues. The Giants stomp the Reds, 10-1.
Sept. 29, 1957: This is it. The San Francisco-bound Giants complete their 76th and final season as a New York franchise. Fittingly, it at least ends as with home game. The Giants get killed by Pittsburgh, 9-1. Mueller becomes the answer to a trivia question by scoring that last Giants run. It comes in the first inning on an odd double play. With Mueller on third and Mays on first, Rhodes flies to center. Mueller beats the throw to the plate but then Pittsburgh’s catcher fires to second to nail Mays off the bag.
Mueller also leads off the bottom of the ninth for New York, flying out. That turns out to be his last at bat as a Giant. He won’t join them in San Francisco next year. The Chicago White Sox purchase him in the offseason.
White Sox tenure
July 16, 1958: The Orioles outslug the White Sox thanks to an unlikely power hitter. Baltimore pitcher Jack Harshman belts a pair of homers and drives in four. In his day job Harshman pitches a complete game victory, topping Chicago 6-5. Mueller can’t compete with Harshman’s deeds, mustering just one single.
Sept. 4, 1958: Mueller gets his last career start and plays a full game for the last time. He is 0-for-3 with a walk. He’ll play the next day, but only twice more the rest of the season. He’ll have a handful of appearances in 1959, his final year.
May 2, 1959: Mueller plays in his final game, 11 days since his last appearance (in which he got his 1,292nd and final hit, Mueller flies out to right when pinch hitting for the pitcher.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Golden anniversary: Astrodome groundbreaking
Posted by Chris JaffeFifty years ago, a big moment in the history of sports stadiums occurred. On Jan. 3, 1962, the groundbreaking occurred for the Astrodome in Houston. It famously would become the first domed stadium in baseball.
Nicknamed the eighth wonder of the world, the stadium would be the first to play baseball indoors and protect the players from the elements. Plans for an indoor stadium had been around for years. The Dodgers wanted one for themselves in Brooklyn before opting to leave for Los Angeles instead. Houston decided to build one due to the extreme summer weather of the region. Protecting fans from the dog days of a Texas summer would make fans more willing to check out the team.
Sure, other sports had indoor stadiums. All hockey and basketball games are played indoors, but they weren’t the size and scope of Astrodome. It seated over 42,000 when it finally opened. Its dome was over 200 feet over the field and over 700 feet long. It was also capable of being home to a football team, making it one of the first stadiums intended to host multiple sports.
Nowadays, multipurpose stadiums have a bad reputation. Their popular image is of a sterile place lacking in distinctive character, purely functional without any charm. It should be noted that when the multipurpose wave began, they generally were quite well regarded. They had far better amenities than the previous stadiums (which often seemed like dumps in comparison). They were more advanced and seemed like the wave of the future.
Obviously, the Camden Yards generation of stadium pushed the multipurpose ones in the past. The Astrodome itself is generally in terrible shape. It no longer hosts any sports and is deteriorating. It has been cited for numerous code violations, and only maintenance workers and security guards have been allowed to enter the place since 2008. Simply put, a huge place like the Astrodome requires considerable effort to maintain, and there’s far less incentive to keep it in good shape now that it doesn’t host any teams.
The present (and future) for the Astrodome is bleak, but its past is memorable, and that past began 50 years ago today.
Aside from that, plenty of other events celebrate their anniversaries or “day-versaries” (which is an event occurring X-thousands days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you prefer to skim the lists:
Day-versaries
A thousand days since Milwaukee’s Yovani Gallardo becomes the only pitcher to ever homer off Randy Johnson. It’s a three-run shot in a game the Brewers win by two runs, 4-2.
To thousand days since the Reds trade Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez and Ryan Wagner to the Nationals for Royce Clayton, Brendan Harris, Gary Majewski and two other players.
Two thousand days since Mark Teixeira hits three homers in one game for Texas.
Two thousand days since Tampa’s all-time cumulative record hits .500 (11-11), and it’s been under it ever since.
Five thousand days since the Tigers trade David Wells to the Reds.
Six thousand days since John Kruk hits a single—and then immediately retires from baseball. He’s pulled for a pinch runner as he really does leave the game in the middle of a game.
Six thousand days since the Twins trade pitcher Kevin Tapani to LA.
Six thousand days since the Mets trade pitcher Bret Saberhagen to the Rockies
Six thousand days since San Diego trades Andy Benes to Seattle.
Nine thousand days since pitcher Luke Sewell dies.
Twenty thousand days since the Kansas City A’s and Pittsburgh Pirates play in a spring training game that ends in a scoreless tie after 18 innings. It ends by mutual consent of both teams. Only 432 fans paid to see the game.
Thirty thousand days since the Braves trade two players and send cash to the Los Angeles team in the Pacific Coast League for star center fielder Wally Berger. This turns out to be a really good move for Boston.
Thirty thousand days since Jimmy Piersall, baseball player who had the movie Fear Strikes Out made about him, is born.
Thirty thousand days since Hall of Fame starting pitcher Iron Man Joe McGinnity dies.
Forty thousand days since 200-game winning pitcher Jack Powell surrenders two inside the park homers in one game.
Anniversaries
1899 Doc Adams, largely forgotten founding father of baseball, dies in New Haven, Conn..
1906 Gus Suhr, infielder, is born.
1910 Frenchy Bordagaray, who for a long time was the last player to have facial hair, is born.
1911 A new rule bars players from taking part in barnstorming off-season tours.
1912 Cliff Melton, a pitcher who once started over 20 double header games in one season, is born.
1913 The American Association's Louisville club trades Mordecai Brown to the Reds.
1920 Boston’s sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000 is made public.
1923 Boston trades George Pipgras to the Yankees.
1943 Hall of Fame second baseman Bid McPhee dies.
1961 Frank “Trader” Lane quits his job as Cleveland general manager to becomes GM for the Kansas City A’s.
1966 Baltimore releases veteran pitcher Harvey Haddix.
1973 George Steinbrenner purchases the Yankees from CBS for $10 million.
1974 The Yankees hire Bill Virdon as their manager.
1977 A.J. Burnett, pitcher, is born.
1977 Kansas City releases veteran pitcher Lindy McDaniel.
1978 Joe McCarthy, arguably the best manager in baseball history, dies at age 90.
1984 Oakland signs amateur free agent Felix Jose.
1985 In the January draft, Houston takes Mel Stottlemyre, who it will sign, while St. Louis drafts Todd Stottlemyre, who it will not sign. Also drafted (and later signed) are Chuck Finley by the Angels and John Wetteland by the Dodgers. Pittsburgh drafts Greg Vaughn, but won’t sign him.
1985 San Diego signs free agent Jerry Royster.
1991 Hall of Fame shortstop “Old Aches and Pains” Luke Appling dies.
2000 The Mets release slugger Bobby Bonilla.
2002 Seattle signs free agent Ruben Sierra.
2004 “Daddy Wags” Leon Wagner dies.
2005 The Angels announce that they will be known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
2005 The White Sox sign free agent Orlando Hernandez.
2006 The Nationals sign free agent Tony Armas Jr.
2006 Florida signs free agent Joe Borowski.
2007 Baltimore signs free agent Aubrey Huff
2008 Oakland trades Nick Swisher, star of the 2002 Moneyball draft, to the White Sox for Gio Gonzalez, Ryan Sweeney and Fautino De Los Santos.
2011 Baltimore pitcher Alfredo Simon surrenders to the police in the Dominican Republic over an accidental fatal shooting on New Year’s Eve.
2011 Texas signs what’s left of Brandon Webb.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
2011 A’s vs. 1997 Marlins
Posted by Greg SimonsIn 1997, the Florida (now Miami) Marlins won the World Series, bringing joy and enthusiasm to the team and its fan base. Days later, the destruction of the team began as management shipped off nearly every high-priced veteran it could to save money.
The excuse was that the team couldn't afford such a large payroll without a larger fan base, and more fans would come only if the team got a new stadium. Well, it took nearly 15 years, but that new stadium is finally a reality, and it looks to be a stunning ballpark, though the structural integrity and financing of the facility have been called into question.
In 2011, the Oakland A's went 74-88. There were no victory parades, but the team's teardown has been as thorough as the Marlins' was 14 years ago.
Starting pitchers Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez have been shipped off to the Diamondbacks and Nationals, respectively, in return for a gaggle of hot prospects. Middle reliever Craig Breslow joined Cahill in the move to Arizona, while closer Andrew Bailey and outfielder Ryan Sweeney were just sent to Boston for three more promising youngsters.
Josh Willingham, David DeJesus, Coco Crisp and Hideki Matsui—all solid, if unispiring, offensive contributors—will not be returning to Oakland. The roster has been stripped so bare that at one point Sweeney was listed on the A's official Web site depth chart as the starting outfielder at all three positions.
Like the Marlins, the A's say they need a new ballpark to compete. And with the Angels signing Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, and the Rangers coming off back-to-back World Series appearances and acquiring the rights to Yu Darvish, they certainly need something to keep pace.
Rumors abound that the team soon will be allowed to move to San Jose, though Bud Selig's Blue Ribbon Committee that has been studying the issue for a few years now has not made any formal proposals. Given how long the Marlins waited for a new facility, A's fans shouldn't hold their breath.
When the Marlins tore things down, they shaved massive financial commitments from their books, but at least they had a title to show for their investment. The A's are dealing away young, cheap, cost-controlled talent for even younger, even cheaper, cost-controlled potential. And they have nothing to show for their efforts other than the possibility of being the cheapest, most anonymous ball team since the 1998 Marlins.
Things were awful in South Florida in '98, as the team fell from 92 victories the season before to a mere 54 wins. The A's starting point is 74 wins. An equal 38-game dropoff would yield a 36-126 record that would make the 1962 Mets look like world beaters.
Oakland is unlikely to be quite that bad in 2012 and beyond, but it's going to be horrendously ugly for the next few years. It may even be so bad that this monstrosity will look good by comparison.
Greg Simons continues to hold out hope that some major league team will have need of a past-his-prime left-handed shortstop. If you know of such an opportunity, or want to contact him for any other reason, he can be reached at gregbsimons AT yahoo DOT com.
10,000 days since baseball’s nastiest beanball war
Posted by Chris Jaffe10,000 days ago (a “day-versary” I call it), baseball witnessed its nastiest and ugliest beanball war in memory. It led to over a dozen ejections, multiple bench clearing brawls, and ended with police in riot gear stationed by each dugout.
It was Aug. 12, 1984, and the fun began on the very first pitch of the Padres-Braves game. Leading off for the visiting Padres was second baseman Alan Wiggins, and he took the game’s first pitch in the ribs.
San Diego was sure that this wasn’t simply a pitch that got away. For one thing, Atlanta pitcher Pascual Perez had a bad reputation as an immature jerk. He was showing up hitters, regularly gesturing on the mound. Second, Alan Wiggins tortured the Braves the night before with a pair of bunt singles en route to the Padres’ 4-1 win.
Besides, there was a sense the Braves, who won the NL West in 1982 and came in second in 1983, were upset over the fact that the upstart Padres had a comfortable division lead.
San Diego was sure Perez intentionally plunked Wiggins, and all these years later its pretty clear he did. No team managed by Dick Williams was going to take that lying down, and retaliation was just a matter of time.
The Padres had their chance in the second inning when Perez first came to the plate. Padre pitcher Ed Whitson threw at Perez, but while Perez may have been an immature jerk, he was no dummy. He knew it was coming and started backing away from the plate as soon as Whitson released the ball. Upshot: San Diego couldn’t hit him because Perez moved himself too far from the plate. Instead, Whitson threw a wild pitch before finally fanning Perez.
Home plate umpire Steve Rippley issued a warning to Whitson and San Diego manager Dick Williams, but for now that was all. He, and the Braves, must’ve hoped that the intent to hit Perez was enough for the Padres. No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t even close.
If the fourth inning, Perez came up again. Whitson threw three balls at him, but Perez kept wheeling away from the plate sooner rather than later. The umpire thumbed Whitson and manager Dick Williams, as Perez eventually walked.
In fact, a little later Perez advanced to second base on a wild pitch—right where HBP victim Alan Wiggins was. Perez, always classy and always charming, started jawing with Wiggins right there. Instead of a fight, Wiggins opted to walk away. He didn’t expect the night to get as brutal as it did. He said after the game that he wished he had gone at it with Perez right there.
Unfortunately for everyone, Perez was actually pitching a pretty good game, so Braves manager Joe Torre left him in the game. Thus, Perez came to the plate again in the bottom of the sixth. Again San Diego tried to drill him, but by now Perez had his dodge technique perfected. He avoided the ball, but two more men got ejected: Padre pitcher Greg Booker and the coach who took over for Dick Williams.
And the game went on. In the top of the eighth, Joe Torre made a big mistake and let Perez bat again. Yes Perez was pitching a nice game, but Atlanta had a 5-1 lead, Perez was fading, and oh yeah—you’re just waving a red cape in front of a very angry bull. What did Torre think was going to happen when Perez came to the plate?
You can figure this one out, right? Yup, current Padre pitcher Craig Lefferts threw at him. And for once, finally made contact. He plunked Perez, and Perez charged the mount. That’s when the benches first cleared. After an ugly fight and the ejection of Lefferts, another Padre coach, and mound-charger Perez (and possibly some other brawlers—I’m not sure who got ejected here, and who got ejected later), the game went on.
Well, that should be the end of it, right? Wrong. Leading off the top of the ninth, Atlanta relief pitcher Donnie Moore immediately nailed the Padres’ first batter of the inning, Graig Nettles.
And then one of the nastiest fights in baseball history occurred. Usually baseball fights are messy shoving matches, but these two teams wanted blood. A half dozen or so players got ejected, including San Diego’s Champ Summers and Bobby Brown, and Atlanta’s Rick Mahler, Steve Bedrosian, and Gerald Perry Oh, Donnie Moore also got tossed of course, and I believe Nettles was as well.
It wasn’t just the players who wanted blood, either. Some drunken Atlanta fans charged the field in the mess. Padre player Kurt Bevacqua got hit in the face with a beer glass. Things were seriously in danger of spiraling completely out of control. That’s when the cops came in and were stationed by both dugouts in riot gear.
The game finally ended and both managers blamed the other one. Dick Williams was furious at Joe Torre for reigniting matters in the top of the ninth, and Torre thought Williams should be ashamed for having his team throw so many pitches at one player.
Both managers received fines and suspensions—though it was a heavier punishment for Williams. 10,000 days later, and I don’t think baseball has had that ugly a beanball war since.
Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” today. Here they are, with the better items in bold if you’d prefer to skim the list.
Day-versaries
2,000 days since Jason Vargas pitches the longest relief outing in the franchise history of the Marlins: 6.1 IP.
3,000 days since Joan Kroc, Padres owner, dies.
3,000 days since the Marlins blank the Cubs 4-0 in Game Five of the NLCS as Josh Beckett tosses a complete game two-hit shutout.
6,000 days since the Dodgers sign amateur free agent Eric Gagne.
9,000 days since Chris Speier hits his second grand slam of the week, which is neat because he’d previously gone 15 years without one.
9,000 days since Eddie Murray homers from both sides of the plate for the second consecutive game. He becomes the first person to do that in the big leagues.
25,000 days since the Braves release Tony Cuccinello.
40,000 days since Nap Lajoie hits the first grand slam in the history of the Cleveland Indians.
Anniversaries
1916 Ed Doheny, a turn-of-the-century pitcher, dies at age 43.
1937 One time Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga is born.
1938 The Boston Braves purchase Al Simmons from the Senators for $3,000.
1942 Star pitcher Red Ruffing is inducted the armed services. He’s 38 years old, and is missing four of the toes on his left foot from a mining accident, but he’s inducted anyway. He’ll do non-combat duties for the armed forces.
1947 Washington releases catcher Rick Ferrell.
1949 Detroit signs Charlie Keller, previously a great slugger whose career has been derailed by back problems. There is no revival for Keller in Detroit, though.
1962 Devon White, outfielder, is born.
1973 Theo Epstein, former Red Sox GM and current Cubs honcho, is born.
1974 Richie Sexson is born.
1975 Jaret Wright, pitcher with a reputation as a headhunter, is born.
1977 Sports Illustrated writer Melissa Ludtke sues MLB, the Yankees, and New York City for denying her access to the locker room during the 1977 World Series.
1995 The Padres sign free agent Rickey Henderson.
1999 Texas signs free agent Kenny Rogers
2002 Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field (formerly known as Riverfront Stadium) is imploded. It opened in 1970.
2005 Washington signs free agent starting pitcher Ramon Ortiz.
2006 Florida signs free agent infielder Aaron Boone.
2006 San Francisco signs starting pitcher free agent Barry Zito to a huge contract.
2009 The Mets sign free agent outfielder Jason Bay.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
A baseball card mystery: Gary Gaetti’s 1993 Topps card
Posted by Bruce MarkusenI vaguely remember Gary Gaetti playing for the California Angels.
He also played for the Royals, Cardinals, and Cubs as he lingered aimlessly on the major league scene throughout the 1990s, far past his prime seasons of 1986, ‘87 and ‘88 with the Twins.
But I have absolutely no recollection of Gaetti playing five games for the Red Sox in 2000, when he went hitless in 11 plate appearances before announcing his retirement.
One would have to be a true Red Sox diehard to remember Gaetti’s early-season cameo at Fenway Park.
More vividly than his tenures with the Red Sox and Angels, I remember Gary Gaetti as the consummate free swinger. For his career high, he averaged 54 walks per a season. Most years, his totals were in the twenties or thirties. A power hitter who loved to rip—he struck out two-and-a-half times for every walk he drew—Gaetti rarely met a pitch he didn’t like.
Nicknamed “The Rat” for his long nose and weak chin, Gaetti was also an aggressive baserunner.
It was an attribute that Topps captured on his 1993 baseball card.
On this play, we see Gaetti going toe-to-toe with Indians catcher Junior Ortiz, who was noted for his strong defensive play.
As the ball arrives in Ortiz’ mitt, Gaetti has already begun his slide into the plate.
(And if you've seen Ortiz' card, you'll know that it shows the same play, but only at a different juncture.)
So here’s the question: Was Gaetti safe, or was he out? Was this one of the 41 runs Gaetti scored during the 1992 season, when this photo was taken? Or was it one of the 402 putouts that Ortiz recorded as the Indians’ backup catcher to Sandy Alomar that summer?
Gaetti’s Angels and Ortiz’ Indians met 12 times in 1992. Six of those meetings took place at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, where Topps snapped this photograph. Perhaps a definitive answer lies in the box scores.
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Who will be out of the Nats’ rotation?
Posted by Lucas ApostolerisThe Nationals’ acquisition of Gio Gonzalez gives them six major-league pitchers vying for five spots in the 2012 rotation. Gonzalez joins a crew of starters that includes Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg, John Lannan, Ross Detwiler, and veteran Chien-Ming Wang, who is returning to Washington on a one-year contract.
In a conference call on Friday, Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo implied that the rotation jobs of Gonzalez, Zimmermann, and Strasburg are safe; according to Rizzo, it is “fair to say” that Lannan, Wang or Detwiler will end up in the bullpen at the beginning of next season.
Purely speculation, but Lannan and particularly Detwiler could net some value if the Nats decide to go that route. Anyway, the point is that either by a move to the bullpen, a demotion, or a trade, there’s going to be an odd man out somehow. But which one should go?
First, ponder some splits for all three pitchers. Throughout their careers, all three are similar at bat-missing and strike-throwing (not great); Detwiler is average at getting groundballs, while Wang and Lannan have been well above-average.
pitcher No. of pitches Ball/pitch Wwhiff/swing GB/BIP Wang 11,008 .377 .143 .599 Lannan 11,835 .379 .145 .543 Detwiler 2,791 .382 .147 .442
Lannan, 27, has been solid in the Nationals’ rotation since 2008, averaging 179 innings per season with an ERA around four . Wang, who will be 32 before Opening Day, is trying to revive his career after injuries put things on hold from him from 2008 to 2010. When he’s right, he’ll kill a lot of worms with his sinker, but his lack of a true out pitch has always prevented him from being an ace.
Detwiler is the youngster of the group, turning 26 in March. He’s bounced up and down between the majors and minors since 2007 (the year he was drafted) and has posted unspectacular numbers during his minor league career (3.97 ERA, 3.8 BB+HBP/9, 7.7 K/9). His 2011 stint in the rotation featured lower strikeout and walk numbers and, ultimately, a similar K/BB of around two.
Of the three, Wang had the most impressive peak, though it was half a decade ago. He’s a clear injury risk. Lannan is the most established, which probably gives him a bit of a head start in front of the other two, even if he has the least upside. Detwiler has the most impressive velocity, often at 91-92 with his two-seamer, with the ability to bump it up into the mid-90s, but he’s been unable to find much success.
At this point, my guess is that Detwiler will be the one out of the rotation at the beginning of the season, but there are certainly many options to weigh. What do you think the Nationals’ rotation will look like in three months?
You can read more of Lucas's work at Beyond the Boxscore and Don't Bring In The Lefty. Also, you can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or on Twitter @DBITLefty.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
A baseball card mystery: Johnny Bench’s 1973 Topps card
Posted by Bruce MarkusenMan, this is a terrific card. It’s part of the iconic 1973 Topps set, depicts a Hall of Fame player in his prime, and shows him attempting to make a fine running catch near the opposition's dugout.
Johnny Bench is the best defensive catcher I’ve ever seen. Keep in mind that I never saw defensive stalwarts like Roger Bresnahan, Mickey Cochrane, or Jim Hegan play, but I have seen receivers like Bob Boone, Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, and Jim Sundberg over the last 35 to 40 years.
I suppose strong arguments could be made for Josh Gibson as the greatest catcher of all time, but I never saw him play, and the Negro Leagues statistics are sufficiently lacking as to do him little justice.
But let’s get back to the card. Thanks to the magic of Topps, we see Bench in full action, near the end of a sprint toward the first-base dugout, as he attempts to finish off a two-handed basket catch of a foul ball.
Due to the timing of the photo by the cameraman, we don’t know for sure if Bench makes the catch, if he crashes into the enemy dugout, (which appears to belong to the Giants), or both.
So here’s the mystery. Did Bench actually make the catch in this game at Candlestick Park, or did he drop the ball? If he dropped the ball, would the official scorer have dared to give Bench an error?
And by the way, who is that Giant sitting in the darkness of the dugout? Bobby Bonds, perhaps?
The Reds played nine games in San Francisco during the 1972 season. This play must have taken place in one of those games. Time to dig.
Bruce Markusen is the author of seven books on baseball, including the award-winning A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, the recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He has also written The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tales From The Mets Dugout, and The Orlando Cepeda Story.
Happy 100th birthday, Josh Gibson
Posted by Chris JaffeToday marks the 100th birthday of one of the most famous players never to play major league baseball: Josh Gibson.
Gibson was a leading slugger in the Negro Leagues, but you probably already knew that. With the exception of Satchel Paige, no name is more closely associated with the Negro Leagues than that of Gibson. When Cooperstown began inducting Negro Leaguers, Gibson was one of the very first ones they brought in.
He broke into the Negro Leagues in the early 1930s, mostly with the Homestead Grays, and gained a reputation as a fearsome slugger. His power became mythic, in part because hard data for the Negro Leagues is difficult to pin down.
Yet, an effort to collect as many boxscores as possible from the Negro Leagues came up with 510 games in which Gibson played. He belted 115 homers with a .359 batting average and .648 slugging percentage. The home run totals may not live up to the lore, but it’s still some rather nice power. Gibson's numbers are also affected by his leaving the country to play ball in the Dominican Republic and Mexico during his prime.
Gibson died very young, at age 35, of a brain tumor. In fact, he died in early 1947, just a few months before Jackie Robinson integrated baseball. Despite dying before Robinson’s Brooklyn debut, Gibson is actually a little younger than another famous Negro Leaguer, Buck O’Neill, who died just a few years ago. Gibson died fewer than two weeks before Nolan Ryan’s birth.
What was the world like when Gibson was born? Well...
The month he was born, China was in the midst of a revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty (the Qing) and established a short-lived republic. In the midst of that confusion, Mongolia declared independence eight days after Gibson’s birth.
There were only 46 stars on the American flag. A month later, New Mexico made it 47, and Arizona became number 48 shortly after that.
Are you familiar with the old movie character actor Lee J. Cobb? He played the mob boss in On the Waterfront, the bad guy juror in 12 Angry Men, and the cop in The Exorcist. Well, Cobb was 13 days older than Gibson.
Speaking of movies, ever seen Titanic? Sure, who hasn’t. Titanic the ship was still in port when Gibson was born. It hit the iceberg when Gibson was five months old.
Gibson was born in Buena Vista, Georgia on Dec. 21, 1911. That same day, halfway across the state, a black man was lynched in the town of Donald for murder. It was one of four lynchings that month in America. A month later, there was a lynching on an accused black rapist in Cordele, Georgia, which is 60 miles from Gibson’s place of birth.
Ever driven a Chevy? The first Chevrolet hit the roads a month before Gibson did. It was an attempt to compete with the new popular Model T Ford.
Gibson is older than Eva Braun, Hitler’s longtime mistress. He’s older than Woody Guthrie, the famous folk singer who died in the 1960s. Gibson is also a hair older than Kim Il Sung, the long-dead dictator of North Korea whose son, Kim Jong Il, is the recently deceased dictator of North Korea.
Flipping the above paragraph around, the following individuals were still alive when Gibson was born: Civil War nurse Clara Barton, Dracula novelist Bram Stoker, Underground Railroad “engineer” Harriet Tubman, and Martha, the world’s last known surviving passenger pigeon.
Aside from that, many days celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is an event occurring X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you just want to skim them.
Day-versary
3,000 days since one of the greatest days in the history of the postseason as two separate great games occur.
First, the Red Sox, facing elimination while trailing Oakland two games to none in the ALDS, rally to beat the A’s, 3-1, in 11 innings. Oakland blows the game due to some bad base running and an uncalled fielder interference.
That same day, Florida advances to the NLCS by beating San Francisco, 7-6, in Game Four of the NLDS. It’s 5-5 in the middle of the eighth, and Florida scores twice in the bottom of the eighth for the lead. In the top of the ninth, San Francisco rallies by scoring once, and the game ends with the would-be tying run thrown out at the plate.
5,000 days since Ken Griffey belts his 300th home run. It’s just 23 months since No. 200.
5,000 days since Lee Stevens, Texas Ranger, swats three homers in one game.
6,000 days since umpires eject the public address announcer for the Abilene Prairie Dogs. He read a commercial for LensCrafter eyeglasses right after the umpire ejected a player.
9,000 days since nominal free agents are forced to sign with their old teams one month into the 1987 season. They couldn’t find any takers in the offseason due to collusion. The main free agents are Montreal’s Tim Raines, New York’s Ron Guidry, California’s Bob Boone, and Montreal’s Bill Campbell. All had to miss the entire first month of the season.
20,000 days since Cleveland rejects a million dollar offer the Red Sox made the day before for pitcher Herb Score.
25,000 Coakler Triplet of the Phillies engages in some memorably bad base running. He tries to steal an occupied base, and when the teammate notices it, he takes off as well and gets caught stealing. Realizing what he’s done, Triplet gets sick of himself and stomps off back to his original base—and is tagged out.
25,000 days since Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi belts a walk-of homer off of Paul Derringer in the 10th inning.
Anniversary
1887 Cy Williams, centerfielder, is born.
1891 Boston obtains centerfielder Hugh Duffy, who is under league control.
1912 The Yankees select first baseman Frank Chance off waivers from the Reds, who claimed Chance from waivers just a month earlier from the Cubs.
1925 Bob Rush, pitcher, is born.
1927 The Yankees sign free agent pitcher Stan Coveleski.
1948 Dave Kingman is born.
1952 Joaquin Andujar, workhorse pitcher with volatile emotions, is born.
1957 Tom Henke, closer nicknamed “The Terminator,” is born.
1960 Andy Van Slyke, centerfielder part of one of great outfields alongside Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla in Pittsburgh, is born.
1960 The Cubs announce their dreadful College of Coaches idea.
1960 Roger McDowell, pitcher, is born.
1970 Houston Astros star centerfielder Jimmy Wynn is stabbed by his wife in a domestic dispute. He will need abdominal surgery but will start the season.
1971 Atlanta releases former AL MVP Zoilo Versalles.
1972 Dustin Hermanson, pitcher, is born.
1972