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November 03, 2011

Matty Alou career highlights

Recently, the world heard the sad news that former major league outfielder and 1966 batting title champion Matty Alou died at age 72.

The main tragedy is the loss of the person. Others can speak of that loss better than I (including THT's Bruce Markusen). What I can do is a career retrospective, some career highlights.

The list includes several types of games. There are the most important games he appeared in, some of the greatest games he saw, his personal highlights, some lowlights, and some of the stranger and more unusual things Alou was on hand for.

Here they are, divided up by teams he played for:
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Posted by: Chris Jaffe

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

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Posted by: Chris Jaffe

July 20, 2011

Roberto Alomar career highlights

This weekend, Roberto Alomar receives the game’s highest honor: induction into Cooperstown. Recently, I've posted a series of career highlights about baseball figures upon their deaths—this gives me the chance to do something like that under far more cheerful circumstances.

The career highlights include a player's best (and worst) games, most memorable moments, most important games—as well as some oddities and interesting moments he happened to be on hand for, even if he didn't really take a leading role in them. They're all moments from the career of Roberto Alomar.


This weekend's new Hall of Famer.


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Posted by: Chris Jaffe

July 12, 2011

Dick Williams’ career highlights

Dick Williams died last week at age 82. Many have already covered Williams life in various places, including our Bruce Markusen. I want to spend some time going over his career highlights as big league manager with the Red Sox, A’s, Angels, Expos, Padres and Mariners. I did similar things for Harmon Killebrew, Paul Splitorff, and Jim Northrup and feel the Hall of Fame skipper deserves similar treatment. (If not for SABR, this would’ve been done days ago.)

The following helps highlight memorable games he took part in and interesting incidents he was on hand for.
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Posted by: Chris Jaffe

May 26, 2011

Promoting Anthony Rizzo is a bad idea

Over the next several weeks, we should see major league clubs promote a variety of interesting prospects. One of the players most internet pundits assume will be promoted is Anthony Rizzo.

It looks like an open and shut case. The Pacific Coast League is known as a hitter's league, but Rizzo is killing the competition. His .366/.442/.720 triple slash performance screams for promotion. He has decent plate discipline with an 11.6 percent walk rate (22 walks with five intentional passes and two hit by pitch) and a 22.1 percent strikeout rate. He's shown huge power via a .356 isolated power mark. He has even swiped five bags in six attempts.

So what are the Padres waiting for?
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Posted by: Brad Johnson


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