Repeating the Triple Crown

By Blaidd Drwg

Miguel Cabrera currently leads the American League in batting average (by a lot) and RBI (by a handful) and is second in HR (by a few), so I think it is safe to talk about the possibility of Miggy repeating his Triple Crown feat of 2012. The triple crown has been completed only 16 times in 125+ years of baseball and only 2 players have done it twice – Rogers Hornsby and Ted Williams. It got me thinking, how close has anyone actually gotten to completing back to back Triple Crowns? Thanks to baseball-reference.com, I can take a look:

Player	Triple Crown Year	Next Season	Next Season AVG	Next Season HR	Next Season RBI	AVG Behind(Ahead)	HR Behind(Ahead)	RBI Behind(Ahead)
Cabrera	2012	2013	1	2	1	(.027)	5	(5)
Yastrzemski	1967	1968	1	7	8	(.011)	19	35
F Robinson	1966	1967	2	4	3	.015	14	27
Mantle	1956	1957	2	3	6	.023	8	20
Williams	1947	1948	1	6	3	(.014)	14	28
Williams	1942	1946	2	2	2	.011	6	4
Medwick	1937	1938	4	6	1	.020	15	(6)
Gehrig	1934	1935	6	3	2	.020	6	51
Foxx	1933	1934	7	2	4	.029	5	35
Klein	1933	1934	*	5	*	.051	15	55
Hornsby	1925	1926	*	7	6	.036	10	27
Hornsby	1922	1923	1	5	*	(.013)	24	42
Cobb	1909	1910	2	2	2	.001	2	29
Lajoie	1901	1902	1	9	*	(.002)	9	56
O’Neill	1887	1888	1	9	4	(.014)	8	5
Hines	1878	1879	1	5	5	(.009)	7	10

A couple of notes about the chart:

Next season refers to the season following their Triple Crown.
Next season AVG, HR, RBI refers to their league rank in each category in the season following their Triple Crown. An * means they were not in the top 10 in that category.
AVG, HR, RBI Behind (Ahead) refers to how far behind the leader they were in the season following the Triple Crown in each category. If the number is in (), it is how far ahead of the 2^nd position they were in that category.
Cabrera’s ranks are through August 18^th.
Ted Williams did not play in 1943 due to military service (or 1944 or 1945, which is why I used 1946).

It is interesting that no player has really come close to repeating the Triple Crown. Ty Cobb would be the one who was probably the closest, but he was a distant 2^nd in the RBI race, so it really wasn’t all that close. You could make the argument that Ted Williams was closer, but it wouldn’t technically be back to back because of the 3 year gap. I wasn’t surprised to find that BA was the category that the player was most likely to lead the league in the next season, but it was a bit surprising to find that no triple crown player lead the league in HR the next season. I have a feeling that for most of these guys, their Triple Crown season represented their career year, which would go a long way to explaining that.

Can Miggy do it? It will be a fun ride over the next month and a half to find out.

How Not to Run the Bases

By Iron Chef Leftovers

From the LA – CIN game on July 25th. This play almost never works, but it worked well enough to fool Shin Shoo Coo. Added bonus: you get to hear it called by the great Vin Scully.

The embedded video doesn’t seem to want to work, so here is the link:http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_07_25_cinmlb_lanmlb_1&mode=video&content_id=29143039&tcid=vpp_copy_29143039

http://undefined/shared/flash/video/share/ObjectEmbedFrame.swf?content_id=29143039&width=400&height=254&property=mlb

How Not to Throw a Baseball

By Blaidd Drwg

I do like Raul Ibanez, he has had a decent career and seems like a genuinely nice guy. He is, however, a horrible fielder. Teams have been taking extra bases on him all season because of his terrible arm and he really should be playing DH at this point. The August 6^th game against the Blue Jays may have been a new low for his defense. In case you have not seen it, this is just embarrassing:

Edit: It was a bad day for posting videos. Here is the link since the original isn’t working anymore: http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=29489041

Hmmmm…

By Blaidd Drwg

I saw this in the transactions on espn.com this morning:

Twins: Placed 1B Justin Morneau on revocable waivers.

Generally, once you get past the trading deadline, teams do not announce when they have put a player on revocable waivers (and will usually put their entire team on waivers just to see who gets claimed). Basically, the way it works is that you put a player on revocable waivers for 48 hours. If anyone claims him, you have 3 options:

1) Work out a trade with that team

2) Let him go to that team for nothing in return. (The other team assumes the entire remaining contract for that player)

3) Pull him back off waivers. (You then can’t trade him until the season is over)

If there is more than one team that makes a claim, the only team you get to negotiate with is the one with the worst record at the time of the claim. If no one claims the player during the waiver period, you can then trade him to any team you would like, just like you could before the trade deadline.

Seeing this makes me think there is a deal in place for Morneau and he might be on the move. We shall see.

Disappointment at the Trade Deadline

By Iron Chef Leftovers

The trade deadline is always interesting in baseball, but this year just seemed plain boring. Sure there were a couple of bigger trades and I am happy with the move the Red Sox made in getting Jake Peavy for Jose Iglesias, but beyond that, it was the moves that didn’t get made (and one that did but I can’t figure out why) that were odd.

The Diamondbacks, just 2 ½ games out of first place, traded Ian Kennedy to San Diego. Granted, Kennedy’s 5+ ERA has not looked great this year, but there are things to consider – his stats suggest that his ERA should be about a run lower than it is and he is probably better than whoever the D’Backs are going to plug into their rotation to replace him. It is possible that the D’backs see something in Kennedy that scared them into making a deal with one of their division rivals, but they effectively dealt a decent starting pitcher for a LOOGY (Joe Thatcher), a mid-level prospect and a 2nd round draft pick. Not a great haul. What am I missing here?

The Mariners decided to stand pat despite having a few moderately tradable commodities. It seems that management is trying to keep fans by winning a few more games than they would if they dumped Morales/Ibanez/Perez. Well, I am not sure that winning 80 games will keep the fan exodus from happening any more than winning 70 games will. I suspect the reason is that they are trying to win at least 76 games – so they can make the bullshit argument that they improved over last season and that the 3…er 5…er 7 year plan is still working. The M’s are effectively out of it – 12.5 games back of the A’s for the division lead and 9.5 back of Cleveland for the 2nd wild card spot. Even if they get close to .500, they are still going to be playing to a mostly empty stadium come September, so why not deal Ibanez and Morales (they are both free agents at the end of the season) for something more than a bucket of balls and just play the kids and see what happens.

Box Score Mania – Hops win in 19!

By Blaidd Drwg

On July 7th, the Hillsboro Hops and Vancouver Canadians played a single game double header plus, going 19 innings in just a hair under 5 and a half hours. You can view the box score here.

The most interesting thing in the game, as told by Rich Burk’s Blog:

Hops outfielders recorded only two putouts in the 19 innings, both by center fielder Taylor Ratliff. Left fielder Jordan Parr fielded four Vancouver base hits, and Ratliff fielded two (their only other hit was a bunt single). Hops right fielder Zach Esquerra never touched the ball in 19 innings.

Amazing that in a game where the opponents had 70 plate appearances, the right fielder did not touch an in-play ball a single time in 19 innings. Just amazing.

A Seattle Send-off for Mo

By Blaidd Drwg

What looking down the barrel of a loaded gun is like.

It is somewhat rare for a player to call it a career while still performing at a high level. Mariano Rivera is a player who is doing just that. Mo is hanging it up after the season. He is going to be 44 in November and has decided it is time to spend more time with his family. Mo should end up his career with 1100+ appearances, 650+ saves, an ERA around 2.25 and a WHIP around 1, not to mention that he is arguably the greatest post season pitcher in MLB history. In 2018, you should be hearing Mariano Rivera’s name called at the podium in Cooperstown.

How good has Mo been in his age 43 season? How about 28 saves, 8.3 K/9 Innings, 4.83 K/BB ratio and a 1.44 ERA. Granted, his WHIP is 1.21 (which would be the highest of his career as a closer), but the guy is still one of a handful of guys I would want on the mound with the game on the line.

A few weeks ago, the Yankees were in town for their only time this season. Mo entered the game in the bottom of the 9th on the last game of the series, giving everyone one last chance to see him. This fact was not lost on several people sitting in my section – people who are Mariners season ticket holder and fans. There were several of us who gave Mo a standing ovation as he entered into the game, giving him the proper recognition he deserves. I couldn’t possibly dislike any team more than the Yankees, but Rivera has been something special for the better part of 2 decades and that needs to be recognized.

I decided to snap the picture in this post, trying to catch the delivery. The batter? Another old geezer – Raul Ibanez who is also north of 40. It is not every day in baseball that you get to see 2 40 year olds square off at the plate.

A Trip Down (Draft) Memory Lane

By Blaidd Drwg

The baseball draft has passed, and, while it will be a few years before you know how well your favorite team did, there are a ton of great “hindsight” stories that have come out of the draft. Dave Schoenfield hit on a few of them in a recent article. Here are a few of my favorites:

1966: Reggie Jackson falls into A’s lap
In one of the more famous draft blunders, the Mets’ had the No. 1 pick and passed on Arizona State outfielder Jackson to select a high school catcher named Steve Chilcott, who would battle injuries and never reach the majors. “It was a position pick,” said Joe McDonald, a Mets executive at the time. “We did not feel we had an adequate catching prospect in the organization.”

Position pick my butt – the real story behind this was that the Mets were concerned about Jackson (who is actually half black-half Mexican) having a white girlfriend. Keep in mind this was 1966 at the height of the civil rights movement.

1966: Braves draft Tom Seaver
The Braves? Yep. Atlanta selected Seaver in the now non-existent January secondary phase of the draft (for players who had previously been drafted). Seaver, pitching at USC, had been drafted the previous June by the Dodgers, but didn’t sign after the Dodgers turned down his $70,000 asking price. The Braves took him with the 20th pick of the January phase, setting off a weird chain of events. The Braves signed Seaver for $40,000, but commissioner Spike Eckert ruled Seaver was ineligible to sign because USC had already played two exhibition games (Seaver didn’t pitch). But the NCAA then declared Seaver ineligible, because he had signed a pro contract. So Eckert ruled that any team willing to match the Braves’ offer would enter a lottery. The Mets, Phillies and Indians matched, and the Mets won the lottery.

This one is little known. Talk about a big SNAFU – the signing disaster probably cost the Braves a couple of pennants and is directly responsible for the Mets winning a couple of them and for one of the most memorable teams ever – the 1969 Miracle Mets. Yes, Seaver was that good. It kind of made up for not drafting Reggie.

1976: Trammell and Morris … and Ozzie (sort of)
In 1976, the Tigers had one of the great drafts ever, selecting Steve Kemp in the January phase and then Alan Trammell (second round), Dan Petry (fourth round), and Jack Morris (fifth round). Trammell and Morris aren’t in the Hall of Fame yet, but both could get there someday. No team has ever drafted (and signed) two future Hall of Famers in the same draft. The kicker: They also drafted Ozzie Smith in the seventh round, but he didn’t sign, and the Padres selected him the following year.

I had no idea about this one. That is one hell of a draft even if Ozzie did not sign. I don’t think Morris is a HOFer, but he was one heck of a 5th round pick.

1988: Dodgers draft Mike Piazza … in 62nd round
Maybe the most famous late-round pick, Piazza was the Dodgers’ final pick that year — the 1,390th pick overall out of 1,395.

Yep, 5 players drafted after him and the Dodgers only picked him as a favor to his father. Spent 4 seasons in the minors raking the ball and got called up in late 1992 and stuck around the majors for another 15 seasons. Had a career 59.2 WAR according to baseball-reference.com, and posted a higher career WAR than any player taken in the first round of the 1988 draft. Only Robin Ventura was close at 55.9. The next highest was Brian Jordan at 32.7. How did no one scout this guy?

The Week of the Reliever

By Blaidd Drwg

Jim Caple runs a section of his Off Base column on espn.com titled “Box Score Line of the Week”. Each week, he picks and interesting performance and writes about it. It is usually some pitcher absolutely getting his head beat in. This week, he had tons to choose from:

Arizona starter Ian Kennedy allowed 10 runs last Thursday (4 IP, 13 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 2 BB, 4 K), while Pittsburgh’s Jeff Locke allowed just one hit but also walked seven batters on Sunday (5 1/3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 7 BB, 6 K). But it’s the relievers who put in the real effort this week, thanks in large part to all of those extra-inning marathons.

Mariners reliever Blake Beavan faced the minimum number of batters in 6 2/3 innings Thursday (6 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K), which might have been the winning line had it not been for the Rangers’ Ross Wolf, who also pitched 6 2/3 innings of relief (6 2/3 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) on Saturday. Which also might have won had Miami’s Kevin Slowey not pitched seven scoreless innings in relief on Saturday (7 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K).

But even he lost because of the Mets’ Shaun Marcum, who pitched eight innings in relief the same game. He lost the game, but he wins this week’s award:
8 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K

That was the longest relief outing since Scott Sanderson in 1989.

In case you were wondering, Sanderson came into the game in the 10th inning against the Pirates after Calvin Schiraldi, Steve Wilson and Mitch Williams failed to hold the lead in the 9th. Sanderson’s line was 8 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1ER, 2 BB, 5 K. He lost the game on a HR by Jeff King in the bottom of the 18th.

Interesting to note in that game – the Pirates managed to tie the game in the 9th without a hit, thanks to 4 walks, a wild pitch and a sac fly.

Either way, it was a freaky week for relief pitching.

Revisiting the 2001 Baseball Prospectus Top Prospects

By Blaidd Drwg

Recently, I was in a conversation with someone regarding the Baseball Prospectus Top Prospects list that comes out annually. We were essentially talking about how much talent made their debut in 2001 so I decided to go back and look at the list to see how well, 12 years later, the guys at BP did. The full article is here and it is worth reading especially with discussion about Ichiro, Nick Johnson and Ryan Anderson.

Below is the top 40 list if you don’t care to read the article:

1. Ichiro Suzuki, RF
2. Sean Burroughs, 3B
3. Ryan Anderson, LHP
4. Corey Patterson, CF
5. Ben Sheets, RHP
6. Antonio Perez, SS
7. Jimmy Rollins, SS
8. Roy Oswalt, RHP
9. Vernon Wells, CF
10. Jose Ortiz, 2B
11. Jon Rauch, RHP
12. Joe Crede, 3B
13. Josh Hamilton, CF
14. Chris George, LHP
15. Bobby Bradley, RHP
16. Austin Kearns, OF
17. Brad Wilkerson, OF
18. C.C. Sabathia, LHP
19. Kevin Mench, OF
20. Bud Smith, LHP
21. J.R. House, C
22. Keith Ginter, 2B
23. Alex Escobar, CF
24. D’Angelo Jimenez, SS
25. Adam Dunn, OF
26. Nick Johnson, 1B/DL
27. Luke Prokopec, RHP
28. Hee Seop Choi, 1B
29. Albert Pujols, 3B
30. Adrian Hernandez, RHP
31. Craig Wilson, C/1B
32. Michael Cuddyer, 3B
33. Mike Bynum, LHP
34. Luis Rivas, SS
35. Jack Cust, 1B
36. Wilson Betemit, SS/3B
37. Brian Lawrence, RHP
38. Marcus Giles, 2B
39. Dee Brown, LF
40. Nick Neugebauer, RHP

There are a couple terrible misses on this list, particularly in the top 10. Sean Burroughs, Corey Patterson, and Antonio Perez never really got it together in the majors, although Perez will probably be best remembered as one of the guys the Mariners got for Ken Griffey. Ryan Anderson had all sorts of arm trouble and never made the majors. Beyond that, they did pretty well with the list. Ichiro, say what you want about him, has posted a 57.8 career WAR, won an MVP and a ROY award. Ben Sheets posted a 25.6 WAR in 8 seasons before his arm fell off. Jimmy Rollins has a career 41.9 WAR and an MVP award. Roy Oswalt has a career 50.8 WAR and finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting 5 times. Even Vernon Wells, as overpaid as he is, has posted a 30+ career WAR.

The guy on this list that they underrated the most? Some guy at #29 who was a 21 year old 3B for the Cardinals who had one minor league season under his belt; Albert Pujols.