Tag: MLB

The Veterans Committee is at it Again

By Bladd Drwg

The veterans committee gets to vote (and probably not elect) anyone this year again. Here is the blurb from espn.com of who they get to consider:

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Retired managers Joe Torre, Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox will join holdovers George Steinbrenner and Marvin Miller on the Hall of Fame expansion era committee ballot next month.
Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Billy Martin and Ted Simmons also are held over from the 2010 ballot, while Dave Parker and Dan Quisenberry have been added. Vida Blue, Ron Guidry, Al Oliver and Rusty Staub have been dropped.

The committee will meet at the winter meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., and its vote will be announced there Dec. 9.

Torre and Cox retired as managers after the 2010 season and La Russa after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to the 2011 World Series title.

None of the players on the ballot really deserve to be in the hall, unless you consider Billy Martin as a manager, and then you can make a case for him. Concepcion, Garvey, John, Simmons, Parker and Quiz all were excellent players during their careers but were never quite good enough to be considered greats and the hall would actually be worse off for electing any of them.

There is an interesting argument with the other 5 names. Torre, LaRussa and Cox all had hall of fame managing careers. Torre won 2300 games and 6 pennants and 4 WS titles over 29 seasons. Cox won 2500 games, 5 pennants and 1 WS title over 29 years. LaRussa won 2700 games, 6 pennants and 3 WS titles over 33 years (and is the only one of the 3 to win a pennant with more than one team). They rank 5th, 4th and 3rd respectively in career manager wins, behind only John McGraw and Connie Mack. They are also the only 3 managers in the top 10 in career wins that are not in the HOF. All three should be but I would bet only one of them makes it this year and my money is on Torre.

Steinbrenner and Miller are interesting cases – one was an owner (Steinbrenner) and one was the head of the players union (Miller). Both had significant impact on the game – Miller with leading the players union into the era of free agency and Steinbrenner, well, for being Steinbrenner. I really think Miller has a stronger case than Steinbrenner but both should eventually make it to the Hall. Getting them elected, well that might be harder since neither was particularly well liked by a segment of the voters, so we may never see a plaque with their names hanging in the gallery.

 

For your viewing pleasure, a cartoon by the late, great Bill Gallo and his classic George Steingrabber character:

Steingrabber

Robinson Cano and Free Agency

By Blaidd Drwg

I saw this piece on espn.com and my reaction was 3 words:

AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN!

Here are the details:

The gap between second baseman Robinson Cano and the New York Yankees on a new contract is enormous, with sources telling ESPN’s Buster Olney that the soon-to-be free agent is seeking approximately $305 million over 10 years.

Cano is going to be 31(ish) next season and, while he has been durible and excellent, he is on the wrong side of 30 and is more likely to get, at best, a 7 year $150 million dollar deal, and that is probably only if the Yankees bid on his services. He is due to decline, and I just don’t see any team willing to pay 30 million a year for a guy over 40, including the Yankees. It just won’t happen.

“I picked the wrong week…”

By Blaidd Drwg

I moved to Seattle from Boston 10 years ago today. With my beloved Red Sox playing well and looking like the front runners for winning the World Series, I came to the realization that if they pull it off again this year, it will be 3 World Series Championships in my lifetime, all of which occurred AFTER I left Boston.  It isn’t like the Sox weren’t good when I was living there, it is just that they were getting caught behind the Yankee dynasty and couldn’t overcome it. I will count 2003 as a year in Boston, since I was there for most of the time, but here is how the team fared in my time back east vs. my time in the land of salmon and rain:

 

Years W-L PCT World Series Playoffs Winning Seasons
1991-2003 1081-959 .530 0 4 9
2004-Current 898-702 .561 2 6 9

 

Not really a point to this, just marking the 10th anniversary of my move to Seattle with something vaguely sports related.

Oh, and this:


 

Let the HOF Debate Begin

By Blaidd Drwg

I happened to be watching the America’s Cup race (don’t ask, it is one of my guilty pleasures) and I noticed on the crawl that there were two retirements announced from baseball today: Vlad Guerrero, who actually hasn’t played in the majors since 2011, and Todd Helton, who made his effective at the end of the season.

Guerrero will always hold a soft spot in my heart. Back in 2003, in what would be Vlad Guerrero’s last game as an Expo, I remember him getting a 5 minute standing ovation from the crowd as he was replaced in right field by Ron Calloway. Everyone knew that Vlad, who was going to be a free agent at the end of the season, was going to sign somewhere else.  Vlad will also be remembered by me for being listed at 10-1 in Vegas for the 2004 AL MVP. Needless to say, my bet paid for my 2005 trip to Vegas.

Helton is an interesting case – he is a guy who put up some pretty good career numbers but played half of his games in Coors field.

Just for comparison, here is how they both stack up:

AVG HR RBI H SB OPS OPS+ WAR
Guerrero .318 449 1496 2590 181 .931 140 59.9
Helton .317 367 1397 2505 37 .954 133 61.1

 

They had very similar career numbers. Sadly, I doubt that either of them will end up in the HOF, although they both have a pretty strong case that they belong. Vlad would get my vote and I think Helton would get mine eventually – heck he is a much better choice than either Tony Perez or Jim Rice.

“Shall we play a game?”

By Blaidd Drwg

“How about global therm0nuclear war?”

No, well how about this?

Let’s say the season ended on September 3rd and we were going to vote on the Cy Young Award. Here are the AL WAR leaders according to Baseball-reference. Com:

1.

 Sale (CHW)

6.2

2.

 Scherzer (DET)

6.0

3.

 Iwakuma (SEA)

5.5

4.

 Hernandez (SEA)

5.2

5.

 Sanchez (DET)

5.0

6.

 Darvish (TEX)

5.0

7.

 Quintana (CHW)

4.1

8.

 Kuroda (NYY)

4.0

9.

 Holland (TEX)

3.9

10.

 Buchholz (BOS)

3.9

Let’s assume that is all of the contenders for the award. It is a pretty big spread between 6.2 WAR and 3.9 WAR, so let’s eliminate anyone with a WAR below 5.0. That leaves us with this:

1.

 Sale (CHW)

6.2

2.

 Scherzer (DET)

6.0

3.

 Iwakuma (SEA)

5.5

4.

 Hernandez (SEA)

5.2

5.

 Sanchez (DET)

5.0

6.

 Darvish (TEX)

5.0

While Iwakuma’s total numbers are good, he really has been pretty pedestrian since about mid-June, so let’s take him off the list. Besides, Felix is really the guy you would rather have on the mound for the Mariners anyway. I am going to eliminate Sanchez for a similar reason – he isn’t the best pitcher on his team. That leaves us with Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, Felix Hernandez and Yu Darvish.

Here is how they stack up:

W-L ERA SO WHIP ERA+
Chris Sale 10-12 2.97 199 1.055 144
Max Scherzer 19-2 2.88 209 0.940 146
Felix Hernandez 12-9 3.01 200 1.132 122
Yu Darvish 12-6 2.73 236 1.025 151

While Felix is having a good season, he hasn’t been dominating, so he probably finishes #3 or #4 in the voting with Chris Sale occupying the other spot. Sale has been outstanding, but voters will be turned off by his 10-12 record. That leaves it as a battle between Scherzer and Darvish. Both pitch for teams that are heading to the playoffs. Scherzer has benefited from outstanding run support, but he has also been pretty dominating in his own right – his WHIP leads the AL (Darvish is 3rd), he is giving up just under 6.3 hits per 9 innings (Darvish leads the AL with 6.1 per 9), he has a 4.5 to 1 strikeout to walk ration (good for 5th in the AL, Darvish is 8th at 3.9) and has the highest WPA of any starting pitcher in the AL. With how close the stats are between Darvish and Scherzer, it is going to come down to wins for the voters and that 19-2 record looks awfully nice, so Scherzer would win the award.

Given that, I have no idea what Jim Leyland is complaining about.

Maybe a nice game of chess is in order.

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 2nd position they were in that category.
  • Cabrera’s ranks are through August 18th.
  • 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 2nd 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 6th 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