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May 18, 2012

Kerry Wood career highlights

It was stunning, but not surprising, news. On the morning of Friday May 18, 2012, news broke that Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood intended to retire. He’d been having a very rough time of it in 2012 after years of battling injury.

Now that his career is over, it makes sense to take a look back. Below are Wood’s career highlights; these are his bests (and worsts): most important games, milestones, and other odds and ends from his career:
Click for more...

Posted by: Chris Jaffe

October 28, 2011

Shortstops, GMs and the Cubs

Last week, Theo Epstein took over running the Cubs and Roy Smalley Jr. died. That got me thinking about Wid Matthews and Starlin Castro.

Perhaps I should explain.

I have spent my entire baseball consciousness following the Cubs, and they have spent that entire time without a championship. That hardly makes me unique among the under-110 set, but as the Theo Epstein era dawns, I'm among the dwindling number who remember the Wid Matthews era.

If you don't count a couple of short-term, interim placeholders, that was 10 general managers ago. (I know, they aren't calling Epstein GM in the new bureaucracy, and Matthews was "director of player personnel," but you get the point.) The Cubs had won the wartime pennant of 1945, lost the World Series, and saw their fortunes drop rapidly. They brought in Matthews in 1950, coming off two last-place finishes.

Matthews inherited a team with one semi-star (Andy Pafko, whom he would trade to the Dodgers in an awful fleecing of the Cubs), and just a few young prospects. As is the case with Epstein, the brightest of those was a shortstop entering his third season. His Starlin Castro was Roy Smalley.

Smalley was tall (6-foot-3 in the days when shortstops were nicknamed Pee Wee and Scooter) and had terrific range in the field. But...

Let me stop here to pay my respects. By all accounts, Smalley was a fine human being. He served his country in the Navy during World War II, his marriage to Gene Mauch's sister Jolene lasted a lifetime, and he fathered major leaguer Roy Smalley III. He was part of the first Cubs infield I remember, a fond memory.

Okay, but.

The Cubs had signed Smalley as a 17-year-old. (And Castro at 16.) Smalley broke in just before his 22nd birthday, having lost a season-plus to military service. Castro was 20.

Smalley led the league in errors his first two seasons. He also didn't hit. Then came 1950, year one of the Matthews regime. Smalley made 51 errors, leading the league again. No one has approached that number since. But such was the state of the seventh-place Cubs that he started at shortstop in every one of their 154 games.

Smalley also struck out 114 times. Now, that doesn't seem like many in the age of Drew Stubbs (205 Ks in 2011), but that was a different time. The shortstop of the NL champion Phillies, Granny Hamner, struck out 35 times in 685 plate appearances. Phil Rizzuto, shortstop for the World Series-winning Yankees, fanned 39 times in 735 plate appearances. His teammate, Yogi Berra, playing nearly every game, struck out 12 times all year!

It didn't get any better. Smalley slipped to part-time play with the Cubs after that year, lost his job to Ernie Banks in late '53, and played out his major league career in Milwaukee and Philadelphia, never reaching a .250 batting average in 11 seasons. Final line: .227 batting average, .300 on-base percentage, four stolen bases in his career.

The new guy's guy at shortstop, over two seasons: Second and first in the league in errors (27 and 29), .304 average and .343 OBP at the plate in two pitching-leaning years, 32 stolen bases, lots of expectations.

Matthews lasted until 1956, his Cubs teams never finishing out of the second division. When his manager, Cubs icon Phil Cavarretta, told owner P.K. Wrigley during spring training one year that his players weren't very good, Matthews fired him. (Be careful what you wish for, Ryno.)

And Smalley? His major league days over, he went back to Triple-A ball in Minneapolis. His team wound up in the Junior World Series, American Association champs versus International League winners, Smalley's team playing at Havana. Accompanied by a posse armed with machine guns, a bearded man appeared in the visitors' dugout.

Yep. Castro.

References and resources:

Statistics from Baseball-Reference.com
Biographical details from the Green Valley (Ariz.) News and Sun
Posted by: Joe Distelheim

August 05, 2011

Matt Stairs’ career highlights

Matt Stairs recently announced his retirement, which didn’t come as much of a surprise to those who knew he was still playing, but possibly jolted many who figured he left years ago.

He was a late bloomer, not making it to 100 games in a season until he was 29 years old, but then proceeded to play in 100-plus games for 12 straight seasons. He didn’t always start, though. In fact, he appeared as a pinch hitter in 521 of his career 1,895 games played. And he was a pretty good pinch hitter, launching a record 23 pinch-hit home runs.

But that’s not what he’s most famous for. He’s a ridiculously well-traveled player, spending time with 12 different clubs. Or 13, depending on how you count it. He began with the Expos in 1992-93, and ended with that same franchise in 2011, by which time the Expos were the Washington Nationals. Incredibly, that’s the only franchise he ever repeated with, and even then he didn’t repeat the same nickname, town, time zone, or nation. In all, Stairs played for at least one team in all six divisions, and at least two teams in all but the NL West.

That said, if you get a chance, make sure you check out his Baseball-Reference.com page. The highlight isn’t the stats, it’s the row of uniform numbers he had. There are 19 entries, which as far as I know is the most for any player on the site.

But he’s done now. In memory of him, I thought I’d assemble a list of career highlights. These are personal bests, impressive games he played in, and a lot interesting and irregular moments he was personally on hand for.

Here they are in order, presented by team-by-team that he played for:


Stairs and the swing that kept him in the game for years

Click for more...

Posted by: Chris Jaffe

June 23, 2011

Taking one for the team and victory

When the Mets' Justin Turner dug in as a Brad Ziegler pitch violated his personal space, the home town fans got to celebrate a 3-2 victory over the Oakland nine*. Since this happened in the media mecca that is New York, it was called unusual.

* We can call them that, since they are playing in the National League with no DH. right. What, they used relievers in the game? I don't care. I like the sound of it.

Unusual? I happens about once a year. According to the play-by-play data from Retrosheet, 50 times since 1950 a game has ended with a bases loaded hit by pitch. Extra inning games account for 27 of those games. Game-ending balks and game-ending bases loaded triples are unusual. This, not so much.

Ziegler should not be upset, though. He joins a group of 49 pitchers who have ended a game by hitting the batter. Yep, somebody has done it twice.

Randy Moffitt, collect your prize!

Aug. 26, 1972: Moffitt came on to start the 10th inning of a 9-9 game. After two singles, he got a strikeout and then intentionally walked Ron Santo to load the bases*. Moffitt then hit Joe Pepitone, allowing Jose Cardenal to score the 10thand final run. CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!

* There were men at first and third. This tactic baffles me.

May 20, 1978: Moffitt at least didn't load the bases this time. Gary Lavelle came in at the top of the ninth inning of a 2-2 tie between the Dodgers and the Giants. After a double, an intentional walk, a sacrifice bunt, and another intentional walk, Lavelle handed Moffitt a bases loaded and one out situation. Bill Russell took one for the team and Billy North scored the winning run.

Posted by: Mat Kovach

June 01, 2011

Marmol worries

As a dedicated Carlos Marmol watcher, I've been biting my tongue about something. But I can't any more. Something's wrong.

Take a look at the speed of every fastball Marmol has thrown since 2007 (based on my own pitch classifications). He's had dips, but nothing like this.



This doesn't even include last night, and he took what looked like another step down during what has got to be the worst outing I have ever seen out of him. He's thrown a lot of innings for a reliever, appearing in just about half of the Cubs' games since 2008. Maybe he's overworked. Maybe he's hurt. Either way, I'm worried and I can't hide it anymore.
Posted by: Harry Pavlidis


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