It's 300th Blog Entry Spectacular!
Or just another random list.
Biggest surprise about this list is how little Ken Griffey Jr. shows up on it but he did spend a lot of years in the hitter friendly Kingdome.
Top 20 Center Fielder Seasons since 1979 (per Win Shares)
1. Carlos Beltran, 2006 - New York Mets 38.3 Win Shares
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+---
Now on to relief pitchers and it's not surprising the majority of these season come before the Dennis Eckersley era of closers. In fact you won't find Eck or Mariano Rivera in the Top 20 but the list should give you a better appreciation for Dan Quisenberry. Maybe the most impressive season on the list though is by Eric Gagne's 2003 year as he did it in only 82 1/3 innings. Also reminds you how far he has fallen.
Top 20 Relief Pitcher Seasons since 1979 (per Win Shares)
1. Dan Quise
You've seen the rest, now you'll see...more of the rest. It's my own personal college football Top 25 that shouldn't be read by anyone. I did this for about a month last year before getting Bored with it and I expect the same this year.
We're not even halfway through the season but were already down to 13 BCS conference unbeatens and 18 total in Division I-A. My feeling is at this point if you are still undefeated I'm going to rank you, regardless of schedule and conference affiliation. Al
I know that you are all thinking, "The regular season ended four days ago and I've already forgotten who was good and who sucked this year." Well my friends the annual Bored Player Rankings are here to help you!
Starting with position players, each list includes 30 players who had the most plate appearances at each position. Now these lists always end up including players who weren't true everyday players and end up populating the bottom of the list. So this year I'm going to highlight the
I'm throwing the Designated Hitter rankings in this entry as they don't need their own entry. For the DH list it is made up of the top 14 in plate appearances
And now see the pain I had to go through in watching prized prospect Daric Barton be a colossal flop in his rookie year.
First Basemen Rankings
1. Albert Pujols, Cardinals
35.1 Win Shares
96.8 VORP
13.5 WARP3
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF
This is the third straight year that Utley has topped the rankings.
Second Basemen Rankings
1. Chase Utley, Phillies
29.8 Win Shares
62.2 VORP
10.6 WARP3
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
2008 29 PHI NL 159 607 113 177 41 4 33 104 14 2 64 104 .292 .380 .535 133 32
Hey look another position where the A's had the worst everyday player! How I got through this season without slitting my wrists, I'll never know.
Third Basemen Rankings
1. David Wright, Mets
29.1 Win Shares
66.2 VORP
10.6 WARP3
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
2008 25 NYM NL 16
Is Hanley Ramirez the most underrated player in baseball right now? Of course playing for the Marlins doesn't help him.
Shortstop Rankings
1. Hanley Ramirez, Marlins
32.5 Win Shares
80.7 VORP
10.9 WARP3
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
2008 24 FLA NL 153 589 125 177 34 4
This week I spent five minutes working on the poll instead of the usual ten.
1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. Penn State
4. Oklahoma State
5. Oklahoma
6. Georgia
7. Florida
8. Utah
9. USC
10. Ohio State
11. LSU
12. TCU
13. Pittsburgh
14. Boise State
15. Texas Tech
16. Missouri
17. Georgia Tech
18. Boston College
19. Minnesota
20. South Florida
21. Northwestern
22. BYU
23. Florida State
24. Ball State
25. Tulsa
Finally, it's over. The list includes the top 120 pitchers in games started.
Starting Pitcher Rankings
1. C.C. Sabathia, Indians/Brewers
26.1 Win Shares
76.2 VORP
11.1 WARP33
Year Ag Tm Lg W L G GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP BFP IBB BK ERA *lgERA *ERA+ WHIP
+--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+------+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+---+-----+---+---+-----+-----+----+-----+
2008 27 TOT 17 10 35 35 10 5 0
I'm always happy with the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot is announced as it means content for my blog! I'll be doing profiles on each the first year nominees over the next few weeks but before I get to what I wanted to talk about in this entry, here are links to old profiles I did for the returnees on this year's ballot listed in order of where they finished in the voting last year.
1. Jim Rice 72.2% (15th and final year)
2. Andre Dawson 65.9% (8th)
3. Bert Blyleven 61.9% (12th)
4. Lee
Dan Plesac, Relief Pitcher
Milwaukee Brewers 1986-1992
Chicago Cubs 1993-1994
Pittsburgh Pirates 1995-1996
Toronto Blue Jays 1997-1999, 2001-2002
Arizona Diamondbacks 1999-2000
Philadelphia Phillies 2002-2003
Awards
None
All-Star Selections: 3 (1987, 1988, 1989)
League Leader
None
Career Ranks
Games: 6th
Saves: 59th
K/9: 10th
K/BB: 61st
Best Performance
April 25, 1990 - Kansas City at Milwaukee
Comes in with the bases loaded, none out in th
Greg Vaughn, Left Fielder
Milwaukee Brewers 1989-1996
San Diego Padres 1996-1998
Cincinnati Reds 1999
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2000-2002
Colorado Rockies 2003
Awards
1998 NL Silver Slugger - OF
All-Star Selections: 4 (1993, 1996, 1998, 2001)
League Leader
None
Career Ranks
Homeruns: 73rd
Best Performance
September 7, 1999 - Cincinnati at Chicago (Game 2 of DH)
Hits three homeruns against the Cubs.
Hall of Fame Stats
Gray Ink: Batting - 22 (928)
David Cone, Starting Pitcher
Kansas City Royals 1986, 1993-1994
New York Mets 1987-1992, 2003
Toronto Blue Jays 1992, 1995
New York Yankees 1995-2000
Boston Red Sox 2001
Awards
1994 AL Cy Young
All-Star Selections: 5 (1988, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999)
League Leader
1988: W/L Pct.
1990: Strikeouts, K/9, K/BB
1991: Strikeouts, K/9
1992: Shutouts, K/9
1995: Innings
1998: Wins
Career Ranks
Strikeouts: 22nd
Games Started: 99th
W/L Pct: 95th
H/9: 62nd
Jay Bell, Shortstop
Cleveland Indians 1986-1988
Pittsburgh Pirates 1989-1996
Kansas City Royals 1997
Arizona Diamondbacks 1998-2002
New York Mets 2003
Awards
1993 NL Gold Glove - SS
1993 NL Silver Slugger - SS
All-Star Selections: 2 (1993, 1999)
League Leader
None
Career Ranks
None of note
Best Performance
July 27, 1991 - Pittsburgh at Houston
Goes 4 for 5 with two home runs, four runs scored, and four rbi.
Hall of Fame Stats
Gray Ink: Bat
While I'm still trying to figure out what to do next with this blog, King Kamala's post about the A's 20th straight win in 2002 in offseason thread reminded me that I recently tripped upon some old A's highlights. This past season was the A's 40th year in Oakland and they had some Top 40 Moments poll, which I didn't even realize until after the season, but I guess on MLB.com at one point they posted a ton of old A's clips. I think they've been taken down off the A's site since then but by accide
As I've mentioned previously I love original televised footage of classic games and I recently added two more DVD sets to my collection one for the Pittsburgh Steelers and one for Oklahoma Sooners football. First off regarding the Oklahoma set, I probably should have actually looked up the scores to the games on the set before purchasing it as only one of the five games was decided by single digits (1976 Orange Bowl), but oh well. There is a bonus feature "The Best of the Barry Switzer Show" whi
Another day, another OMG BASEBALL IS DEAD story. But I'm here to help the healing begin with a distraction. It's time to decide who was the worst team of my lifetime!
In a desperate need for content for this blog I've decided to run a simulation using Strat-O-Matic to crown the worst team of last 30 years. Each MLB franchise will be represented with their worst team from the last 30 seasons. I'll be using the 2008 MLB schedule as a guideline for the league as no way I'm going to take the ti
The Loser League is underway! See the orignal entry on how the league will work. I'll do entries for each completed month.
Through April the '79 Blue Jays are bringing up the rear in the A.L. East as they rank dead last in runs scored, highlighted by Danny Ainge who's hitting .186/.208/.229 in 70 at bats.
NEWSPAPER STYLE RECAP FOR 2008 American League Date: 5/1/2008
TEAM WON LOST BATTING AVERAGE HOME RUNS RUNS BATTED IN
2002 TBA 18 10 T.Long
The '79 Blue Jays followed up an awful April with an even worse May and now have a commanding nine game "lead" in the cellar of the A.L. East. Their year-mates the '79 A's had a brutal May as well and have committed a league worst 74 errors in 56 games.
TEAM WON LOST BATTING AVERAGE HOME RUNS RUNS BATTED IN
2002 TBA 32 25 K.Hrbek MNA .404 E.Murray BAA 16 A.Huff TBA 54
1990 NYA 29 28 J.Orsulak BAA .363 K.Hrbek MNA 15 B.Grich LAA 49
1988 B
Unrelated to the Loser League, I did finish my Top 100 MLB players of my lifetime list and it will be coming to a blog (this one) soon!
The '79 Blue Jays continue to be in a class of their own in the A.L. East as they now have a 10 1/2 game "lead" over the '88 Orioles and might as well start printing their postseason tickets to Exhibition Stadium. The losers of the month though in the A.L. were the '82 Twins who went a stomach turning 5-22 to move ahead/behind the '03 Tigers in the Central
This is something I've wanted to do for a while and have tried a couple of similar lists before but ended abandoning them. I once had an almost completed list for the top 100 players since 1986, which I consider my sports lifetime, but I ran into problems when it came to evaluating players who may have had their peak occur after 1986 but had played several years before 1986. I also felt the list I had compiled was overly subjective and I just simply was not satisfied by my results.
Now of c
Not a whole lot of movement in the A.L. as the division "leaders" are still the '79 Blue Jays, '82 Twins, and '79 A's with the '03 Tigers holding down the Loser Card spot. Only in the Loser League could Emil Brown lead the league in RBI.
TEAM WON LOST BATTING AVERAGE HOME RUNS RUNS BATTED IN
1990 NYA 63 46 A.Huff TBA .362 A.Belle CLA 30 E.Brown KCA 87
2002 TBA 56 52 E.Brown KCA .343 E.Murray BAA 26 A.Belle CLA 83
1992 BOA 56 53 R
With a month left in the season the '79 Blue Jays have an outside chance of losing more games in the Loser League than they did back in 1979. That would truly be an astonishing feat of futility. We finally had a "lead" change in the West as the '80 Mariners eeked by the '79 A's by one game setting up what should be a thrilling finish. The '03 Tigers still cling to the Loser Card by two games over the '88 Orioles.
TEAM WON LOST BATTING AVERAGE HOME RUNS RUNS BATTED IN
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