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Sports nostalgia and useless facts

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HOF Profile: Dave Concepcion

Dave Concepcion - Shortstop   Cincinnati Reds 1970-1988   14th year on the ballot   Past HOF Vote Results 1994: 6.81% 1995: 9.35% 1996: 13.40% 1997: 12.68% 1998: 16.91% 1999: 11.87% 2000: 13.43% 2001: 14.37% 2002: 11.86% 2003: 11.09% 2004: 11.26% 2005: 10.66% 2006: 12.50%   Awards 1974 NL Gold Glove - SS 1975 NL Gold Glove - SS 1976 NL Gold Glove - SS 1977 NL Gold Glove - SS 1979 NL Gold Glove - SS 1981 NL Silver Slugger - SS 1982 NL Silver Slugger - SS   All-Star Selections: 9 (1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982)   League Leader None of note   Career Ranks Games: 48th   Hall of Fame Stats   Gray Ink: Batting - 25 (863) (Average HOFer ≈ 144) HOF Standards: Batting - 29.1 (311) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Batting - 106.5 (136) (Likely HOFer > 100)   Similar Batters in HOF: 3 (Bobby Wallace, Pee Wee Reese, Luis Aparicio) Other Similar Batters: Omar Vizquel, Tony Fernandez, Bert Campaneris, Alan Trammell, Royce Clayton, Garry Templeton, Frank White   Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3)   1970: 5/1.9 1971: 4/0.9 1972: 6/3.5 1973: 16/5.9 1974: 25/10.7 1975: 19/8.0 1976: 23/10.2 1977: 19/8.7 1978: 25/8.8 1979: 24/10.2 1980: 17/6.1 1981: 20/9.7 1982: 17/8.3 1983: 8/4.2 1984: 11/3.1 1985: 12/2.8 1986: 8/2.4 1987: 8/3.6 1988: 2/0.8   Career Win Shares: 269 Career WARP3: 109.7   Would he get my vote?   No. I did give him more thought than I originally anticipated mainly due to his strong WARP3 number but he seems overrated by that measure. He was the best shortstop of his era which is definately worthy of some extra credit but he played in a dreadful era for shortstops. His career OPS+ is actually one point higher than Ozzie Smith's but Smith had 56 more Win Shares and 39.6 more WARP3 despite only playing a half season longer. He had some very good years in his prime but the level of performance just wasn't high enough to warrant a spot in the HOF.

Bored

Bored

 

Draftback: 1983 NFL Draft

Vern asked for it so here it is. All the attention goes to the quarterbacks in the draft but there are some pretty impressive players at other positions that came out of this draft. This draft did live up to the hype.   1. Baltimore - John Elway, QB, Stanford Right FBI Agent: Don't worry Mrs. Simpson we've helped hundreds of people in danger. We'll give you a new name, a new job, new identity.   Homer: (Raising hand) Oooh, I want to be John Elway! (Homer starts day dreaming about being John Elway. The ball is snapped to Homer and he dives over the pile into the endzone.)   Announcer: Elway takes the snap and runs it in for a touchdown! Thanks to Elway's Patanent last second magic the final score of Super Bowl XXX is Denver 7, San Francisco 56.   Homer:(Back to reality) Woo Hoo!   2. L.A. Rams - Eric Dickerson, RB, SMU Probably due to his numerous contract holdouts Dickerson gets left out a lot now when talking about the greatest running back of all-time but he deserves consideration. How about that the #1 and #2 picks lived up to the hype? Doesn't happen very often.   3. Seattle - Curt Warner, RB, Penn State A Penn State running back who wasn't a bust, strange. Had two 1400+ yards seasons.   4. Denver - Chris Hinton, T, Northwestern Obviously didn't stay in Denver as he was traded to Baltimore in the Elway trade. Seven time Pro Bowl selection.   5. San Diego - Billy Ray Smith, LB, Arkansas Took us to the 5th pick to find a non-Pro Bowl player but Smith was decent. Now an awful analyst on FSN's college football show that no one watches.   6. Chicago - Jimbo Covert, T, Pittsburgh Certainly sounded like an offensive lineman. Two Pro Bowl selections.   7. Kansas City - Todd Blackledge, QB, Penn State First true bust of the draft and it's fitting he was the one true bust of the famous quarterback class.   8. Philadelphia - Michael Haddix, RB, Mississippi State Now we're getting some busts. Career high in rushing yards was 311.   9. Houston - Bruce Matthews, G, USC Simply one of the greatest offensive lineman ever. Selected to 14 Pro Bowls.   10. N.Y. Giants - Terry Kinard, S, Clemson Decent, 31 career interceptions.   11. Green Bay - Tim Lewis, CB, Pittsburgh Had 12 interceptions in his first two years but a neck injury forced him into early retirement in 1986.   12. Buffalo - Tony Hunter, TE, Notre Dame Only lasted four years.   13. Detroit - James Jones, RB, Florida Hung around for a while but never cracked 1000 yards and only 3.6 career ypc.   14. Buffalo - Jim Kelly, QB, Miami Didn't join the Bills until 1986 as he spent three years in the USFL with the Houston Gamblers. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.   15. New England - Tony Eason, QB, Illinois You'll get differing opinions on whether Eason was a bust or not though he had a couple of good years but flamed out pretty quick.   16. Atlanta - Mike Pitts, DE, Alabama Played 12 years despite not being all that good.   17. St. Louis - Leonard Smith, DB, McNeese State Lasted nine seasons.   18. Chicago - Willie Gault, WR, Tennessee Never really broke out as a star but was a big time deep threat.   19. Minnesota - Joey Browner, S, USC 37 career interceptions, six Pro Bowls.   20. San Diego - Gary Anderson, RB, Arkansas Solid all-purpose back who had almost as many receiving yards as rushing.   21. Pittsburgh - Gabriel Rivera, DT, Texas Tech Paralyzed in an accident while driving drunk during his rookie year. Take a bow loser.   22. San Diego - Gill Byrd, CB, San Jose State Holds franchise record for interceptions with 42.   23. Dallas - Jim Jeffcoat, DE, Arizona State Never a star but lasted 15 seasons and had 102 career sacks.   24. N.Y. Jets - Ken O'Brien, QB, UC Davis I don't believe in '83 the draft had an audience yet but it would have been pretty fun to have seen Jets' fans react to them drafting a QB from UC Davis. Selected to two Pro Bowls.   25. Cincinnati - Dave Rimington, C, Nebraska Unspectacular seven year career.   26. L.A. Raiders - Don Mosebar, T, USC Played every o-line position in his 12 year career.   27. Miami - Dan Marino, QB, Pittsburgh Who?   28. Washington - Darrell Green, CB, Texas A&I Another all-time great to close out the first round.   Other Players of Note   32. L.A. Rams - Henry Ellard, WR, Fresno State 37. N.Y. Giants - Leonard Marshall, DT, LSU 39. Buffalo - Darryl Talley, LB, West Virginia 49. San Francisco - Roger Craig, RB, Nebraska 61. Kansas City - Albert Lewis, CB, Grambling 64. Chicago - Dave Duerson, S, Notre Dame 84. Washington - Charles Mann, DE, Nevada 110. L.A. Raiders - Greg Townsend, DE, TCU 167. Miami - Reggie Roby, P, Iowa 203. Chicago - Richard Dent, DE, Tennessee State 223. Miami - Mark Clayton, WR, Louisville 276. Cincinnati - Tim Krumrie, DT, Wisconsin 289. San Francisco - Jesse Sapolu, C, Hawaii 310. Denver - Karl Mecklenburg, LB, Minnesota 334. Miami - Anthony Carter, WR, Michigan

Bored

Bored

 

Random A's Highlights

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 accident I found them with a url to the Cubs website of all places.   Almost all the clips from the 70's and 80's were old MLB home video footage but there were some cool 90's and 2000's clips in there with many of them having the radio call by the legendary Bill King. Here are the more choice ones that I found, or were at least the ones that were still working. I was disappointed that the clip to Ramon Hernandez's game winning bunt single in Game 1 of the '03 ALDS was not working.   October 18, 1988 vs. Los Angeles - Mark McGwire's forgotten walk off in Game 3 of the '88 World Series   June 29, 1990 at Toronto - Final out of Dave Stewart's no hitter   August 15, 1990 vs. Boston - Mark McGwire walk off grand slam   October 1, 2000 vs. Texas - Final out of division clinching win -Was at this game and it was my birthday too.   August 12, 2001 vs. New York - Jason Giambi walk off to sweep the Yankees   September 1, 2002 vs. Minnesota - Miguel Tejada walk off for 18th straight win   September 4, 2002 vs. Kansas City - Scott Hatteberg walk off for record 20th straight win -Covered this game in a prior entry.

Bored

Bored

 

Loser League: August

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 1990 NYA  79  58    R.Kelly   NYA .339  A.Belle   CLA   36  A.Belle   CLA  109 2002 TBA  75  61    E.Brown   KCA .339  E.Murray  BAA   33  E.Brown   KCA  109 1992 BOA  74  63    R.Carew   LAA .337  K.Maas    NYA   32  J.Barfiel NYA  100 1988 BAA  61  76    A.Huff    TBA .334  K.Hrbek   MNA   31  B.Grich   LAA   92 1979 TOA  47  90    J.Orsulak BAA .329  A.Huff    TBA   27  K.Hrbek   MNA   92 1989 CHA  74  62    WINS                SAVES               ERA 2005 KCA  69  68    F.Tanana  LAA   16  T.Niedenf BAA   30  C.Hough   TEA 2.16 1991 CLA  68  68    R.Clemens BOA   15  E.Yan     TBA   25  R.Clemens BOA 2.27 2003 DEA  59  78    F.Martine LAA   13  G.Harris  TEA   24  F.Martine LAA 2.64 1982 MNA  54  83    C.Hough   TEA   13  B.Thigpen CHA   24  F.Viola   BOA 2.87                     G.Swindel CLA   13  M.Macdoug KCA   22  D.Aase    LAA 2.88 1980 LAA  86  50 1985 TEA  70  68    CUR HIT STREAK      STOLEN BASES        STRIKEOUTS 1979 OAA  63  74    A.Sanchez DEA   18  A.Sanchez DEA   53  R.Clemens BOA  197 1980 SEA  62  74    M.Lewis   CLA   13  R.Kelly   NYA   48  T.Underwo TOA  172                     C.Baerga  CLA   12  A.Cole    CLA   45  F.Bannist SEA  160                     B.Higgins DEA   12  S.Sax     NYA   36  D.Darwin  BOA  146                     A.Berroa  KCA   11  OTHERS TIED W   33  M.Perez   CHA  144 YESTERDAY'S GAMES   TODAY'S SCHEDULE AND PROBABLE STARTERS CHA  4  at  BOA  5  BAA-Bautist(8-6, 3.24) at BOA-Hesketh(7-5, 3.83) SEA  3  at  CLA  6  CHA-King(9-8, 3.66) at CLA-Nagy(10-13, 5.22) KCA  3  at  DEA  8  SEA-Honeycu(9-12, 4.11) at TEA-Hooton(7-5, 5.32) TEA  2  at  LAA  8 TOA  3  at  NYA 12 MNA  3  at  OAA  4 BAA  1  at  TBA  8 YESTERDAY'S BEST PERFORMANCES BATTER         TM OPP AB  R  H RB BB Ks HR SB B.Higginson   DEA KCA  3  2  1  2  2  1  1  1 W.Morris      DEA KCA  5  2  3  3  0  0  1  0 J.Barfield    NYA TOA  5  1  3  3  0  2  1  0 O.Velez       TOA NYA  3  1  2  1  1  0  1  0 B.Grich       LAA TEA  5  2  2  2  0  2  1  0 PITCHER        TM OPP  INN  H  R ER BB Ks HR WLS D.Heaverlo    OAA MNA  4.0  1  0  0  0  2  0   S P.Quantrill   BOA CHA  3.1  1  0  0  0  2  0 W   T.Felton      MNA OAA  3.0  0  0  0  0  1  0     T.Phelps      TBA BAA  2.2  1  0  0  1  3  0   S D.Pall        CHA BOA  4.0  2  2  0  3  3  0     WHO'S HOT - BEST IN LAST 10 DAYS BATTER         TM  AVG AB  H RB BB HR  PITCHER        TM IP  H ER BB Ks HR WLS C.Pena        DEA .344 32 11  7  8  4  D.Schmidt     TEA  5  1  0  1  4  0 100 K.Maas        NYA .321 28  9  6  5  4  J.Bautista    BAA  9  3  0  1  4  0 100 G.Ward        MNA .462 39 18  7  3  4  B.Milacki     BAA  9  3  0  3 10  0 100 B.Higginson   DEA .371 35 13 10  8  2  D.Heaverlo    OAA 11  5  0  2  7  0 102 E.Brown       KCA .400 35 14 11  2  3  R.Langford    OAA 23 22  4  1 12  1 200 WHO'S NOT - WORST IN LAST 10 DAYS BATTER         TM  AVG AB  H RB BB HR  PITCHER        TM IP  H ER BB Ks HR WLS R.Velarde     NYA .148 27  4  1  0  0  M.Mason       TEA  6 11 12  7  1  1 010 M.Mendoza     SEA .143 35  5  1  1  0  Z.Greinke     KCA 12 25 15  3  4  5 010 S.Sax         NYA .160 25  4  0  1  0  R.Dressler    SEA 10 20  8  1  3  2 020 R.Washington  MNA .211 38  8  0  0  0  C.Knapp       LAA  7  9  7  4  5  1 010 L.Sheets      BAA .179 28  5  0  1  0  M.Norris      OAA  6  9  7  5  4  2 000 INJURY REPORT P.Stanicek, Baltimore - 4 more games D.Pasqua, Chicago (AL) - 3 more games J.Browne, Cleveland - 11 more games S.Sax, New York (AL) - 1 more games E.Munson, Detroit - 6 more games   We have a three dead horse race in the N.L. Central as the '91 Astros pulled ahead of the '85 Pirates but a half game with the '81 Cubs making a late season charge, sitting three games back. Surprising development in the East as the '88 Braves and '98 Marlins haven't complete sucked ass in the last couple of months where there's now a chance the Loser Card might not come out of the division. Could this be a major choke job? And in the West the '93 Rockies are chipping away at the '81 Padres lead, now within three games going into the final month.   TEAM     WON LOST   BATTING AVERAGE     HOME RUNS           RUNS BATTED IN 2000 PHN  79  58    A.Galarra CON .386  R.Lankfor SLN   36  S.Rolen   PHN  116 1993 NYN  77  60    J.Mabry   SLN .356  B.Bonilla NYN   30  R.Lankfor SLN  111 2008 WAN  71  66    B.Gilkey  SLN .340  S.Rolen   PHN   30  A.Galarra CON   96 1998 FLN  57  81    B.Buckner CHN .339  E.Karros  LAN   28  D.Bichett CON   96 1988 ATN  55  82    S.Rolen   PHN .329  E.Murray  NYN   27  E.Karros  LAN   94 1995 SLN  80  57    WINS                SAVES               ERA 1982 CIN  75  63    M.Krukow  SFN   18  G.Olson   ARN   36  M.Krukow  SFN 1.86 2002 MLN  70  66    R.Reusche PIN   16  M.Dejean  MLN   36  R.Reusche PIN 2.50 1981 CHN  63  74    M.Soto    CIN   15  T.Henke   SLN   33  R.Person  PHN 2.65 1985 PIN  60  76    O.Daal    PHN   14  S.Garrelt SFN   29  D.Gooden  NYN 2.67 1991 HON  60  77    B.Sheets  MLN   14  D.Holmes  CON   28  T.Candiot LAN 2.73 1985 SFN  81  55    CUR HIT STREAK      STOLEN BASES        STRIKEOUTS 1998 ARN  74  62    E.Karros  LAN   20  B.Butler  LAN   53  M.Soto    CIN  236 1992 LAN  73  64    S.Rolen   PHN   10  E.Young   MLN   51  P.Harnisc HON  178 1993 CON  70  68    B.Jordan  SLN    9  V.Coleman NYN   49  B.Sheets  MLN  173 1981 SDN  66  70    A.Cedeno  HON    8  S.Finley  HON   47  D.Gooden  NYN  168                     OTHERS TIED W    7  A.Sanchez MLN   43  OTHERS TIED W  160 YESTERDAY'S GAMES   TODAY'S SCHEDULE AND PROBABLE STARTERS LAN  2  at  ARN  3  SLN-Morgan(10-5, 3.66) at ARN-Sodowsk(7-3, 4.43) SFN  4  at  CIN  9  HON-Deshaie(6-12, 5.55) at CHN-Krukow(12-13, 3.55) NYN  2  at  FLN  3  SFN-Krukow(18-3, 1.86) at CON-Harris(11-11, 4.87) SLN  6  at  HON  0  ATN-Mahler(9-14, 4.56) at FLN-Larkin(3-6, 5.75) MLN  5  at  PIN  6  SDN-Wise(6-7, 3.11) at LAN-Hershis(10-9, 4.37) CON  3  at  SDN  2  NYN-Tanana(8-8, 4.68) at MLN-Quevedo(9-9, 5.43) ATN  4  at  WAN  3  PHN-Wolf(13-9, 4.04) at WAN-Perez(7-9, 3.79) PHN  5  at  CHN  4 YESTERDAY'S BEST PERFORMANCES BATTER         TM OPP AB  R  H RB BB Ks HR SB T.Pena        PIN MLN  5  2  4  4  0  1  1  1 A.Trevino     CIN SFN  4  2  2  4  0  0  1  0 L.Smith       ATN WAN  3  2  1  1  1  1  1  1 T.Kennedy     SDN CON  3  1  2  1  0  0  1  0 B.Brenly      SFN CIN  4  1  1  3  0  0  1  0 PITCHER        TM OPP  INN  H  R ER BB Ks HR WLS M.Petkovsek   SLN HON  9.0  3  0  0  0  5  0 W   T.Glavine     ATN WAN  7.0  3  1  0  2  4  0 W   L.Hernandez   FLN NYN  8.0  5  2  1  3  7  0 W   A.Holland     PIN MLN  3.0  2  0  0  0  2  0 W   D.Capilla     CHN PHN  2.0  0  0  0  1  2  0     WHO'S HOT - BEST IN LAST 10 DAYS BATTER         TM  AVG AB  H RB BB HR  PITCHER        TM IP  H ER BB Ks HR WLS T.Pena        PIN .375 32 12 11  3  4  M.Petkovsek   SLN 11  5  0  0  7  0 300 B.Jordan      SLN .300 30  9 10  3  4  R.Delucia     SLN  5  1  0  1  5  0 000 E.Karros      LAN .400 35 14 10  5  3  P.Byrd        PHN  8  4  0  1  8  0 100 D.Strawberry  LAN .500 24 12 10  2  1  V.Padilla     PHN  6  2  0  0  2  0 000 B.Gilkey      SLN .370 27 10  6  6  2  B.Anderson    ARN 13  8  1  0  2  0 100 WHO'S NOT - WORST IN LAST 10 DAYS BATTER         TM  AVG AB  H RB BB HR  PITCHER        TM IP  H ER BB Ks HR WLS K.Orie        FLN .057 35  2  0  0  0  B.Caudill     CHN  8 21 15  7  9  1 020 J.Clark       CON .214 28  6  0  0  0  J.Sanchez     FLN  8 13 11  7  5  1 020 L.Gonzalez    HON .143 35  5  2  2  0  J.Alvarez     ATN  8 14 12  3  7  2 010 O.Smith       SDN .222 36  8  2  0  0  J.Cabrera     MLN  5 11  7  1  2  2 011 D.Hansen      LAN .179 28  5  2  1  0  C.Puleo       ATN  7 14  9  3  5  0 000 INJURY REPORT T.Blackwell, Chicago (NL) - 3 more games R.Jones, San Diego - 3 more games B.Evans, San Diego - 1 more games E.Davis, Los Angeles - 1 more games C.Hayes, Colorado - 2 more games D.Sheaffer, St. Louis - 8 more games T.Pagnozzi, St. Louis - 5 more games G.Zaun, Florida - 3 more games M.Lieberthal, Philadelphia - 2 more games A.Sanchez, Milwaukee - 1 more games A.Kearns, Washington - 14 more games   Now granted the '88 Braves have scraped together some wins lately but they still are the Braves and they are featured in our boxscore of the month for August. They were drubbed by that juggernaut that was the '08 Nationals 18-2 on August 29th as the Nats banged out 24 hits.   BOXSCORE: 1988 Atlanta Braves At 2008 Washington Nationals          8/29/2008   Braves             AB  R  H RBI AVG     Nationals          AB  R  H RBI AVG   J.Morrison 3B       4  0  1  0 .138     W.Harris 2B         6  4  3  2 .260     D.James LF          4  0  1  0 .263     C.Guzman SS         6  4  5  1 .319     G.Perry 1B          4  1  0  0 .331     D.Young 1B          4  2  2  2 .270     D.Murphy RF         3  1  1  0 .241     L.Milledge CF       5  0  5  5 .286     A.Thomas SS         4  0  2  0 .261     A.Gonzalez 3B       6  0  0  1 .183     O.Virgil C          4  0  2  2 .294     J.Flores C          4  2  2  1 .275     A.Hall CF           3  0  0  0 .238     E.Bonifacio RF      4  3  3  0 .305     J.Blauser 2B        4  0  1  0 .243     R.Bernadina LF      5  1  2  2 .381     K.Coffman P         0  0  0  0 .143     T.Redding P         5  2  2  2 .107     C.Puleo P           1  0  0  0 .118     M.Estrada P         0  0  0  0 .000   A-P.Runge PH          1  0  0  0 .136                                             J.Alvarez P         0  0  0  0 .273                                           B-L.Smith PH          1  0  0  0 .248                                             R.Mahler P          0  0  0  0 .045                                           C-T.Simmons PH        1  0  0  0 .203                                                                -- -- -- ---                            -- -- -- ---                Totals      34  2  8  2                 Totals      45 18 24 16 A-Pinch Hit For Puleo In 5th Inning B-Pinch Hit For Alvarez In 7th Inning C-Pinch Hit For Mahler In 9th Inning Braves.......... 0 0 0  1 0 0  0 0 1  -  2  8  0 Nationals....... 1 5 4  0 5 2  0 1    - 18 24  0 Braves (54-81)           IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA K.Coffman LOSS(5-4)       1 1/3   5   6   6   2   0   0  45   6.00 C.Puleo                   2 2/3   8   4   4   0   3   0  64   5.60 J.Alvarez                 2       9   7   7   1   2   1  71   4.52 R.Mahler                  2       2   1   1   1   1   0  38   4.56 Totals                    8      24  18  18   4   6   1 Nationals (70-65)        IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA T.Redding WIN(10-7)       8       8   2   2   1   2   0 122   2.88 M.Estrada                 1       0   0   0   0   0   0   5   3.12 Totals                    9       8   2   2   1   2   0 ATTENDANCE- 33,441 DATE- Friday, August 29th 2008 TIME- Night WEATHER- Bad T- 3:18 LEFT ON BASE- Braves: 7  Nationals: 8 DOUBLE PLAYS- Braves: 2  Nationals: 1 DOUBLES- D.Murphy(41st), C.Guzman(36th), L.Milledge(22nd), J.Flores(17th),          R.Bernadina(4th) HOME RUNS- W.Harris(17th) STOLEN BASES- W.Harris(17th) SACRIFICE FLIES- L.Milledge WALKS- A.Hall, D.Young-2, J.Flores, E.Bonifacio HIT BY PITCH- D.Murphy STRIKE OUTS- J.Morrison-2, J.Flores-2, R.Bernadina-2, T.Redding-2 GIDP- D.James, A.Gonzalez-2 WILD PITCHES- K.Coffman-2, J.Alvarez PASSED BALLS- O.Virgil, J.Flores WEB GEMS- Bot 4th: Jeff Blauser robbed Tim Redding of a base hit.

Bored

Bored

 

Award Redo: 1981 A.L. MVP

I had been looking for an excuse to do an entry on one of the most bizarre years in baseball history and the A.L. MVP pick in 1981 was controversial so might as well do a redo. 1981 featured the strike to end all strikes, until the 1994 strike trumped it of course. The players went on strike on June 12th that year over free agent compensation and did not comeback until August 9th, losing 712 games in the process.   Now the owners decided to come up with an idea to drum up some interest back in the sport to bring back a jaded fanbase after the strike ended: a split season. The standings as they were for games played before the strike would be considered the first half and then the second half would be the games played after the strike ended. An extra round of playoffs would be added where the division champ of the first half would meet the division champ of the second half. Now if the entire nation didn't say "What are they fucking stupid?" when the announced this, then they should have. My guess is the owners came up with this idea to try to recoup some of the revenue they lost from the strike by getting an extra round of playoffs.   You don't even have to be a baseball fan to see the obvious problems with the idea. First off the season restarted it meant all the division leaders thru June 11th had already clinched a playoff spot: Yankees, A's, Phillies, and Dodgers. These four teams had essentially nothing to play for beyond pride for two months as they already knew they were going to the playoffs. Doesn't really get the competitive juices flowing, you know? Second problem was the nightmare scenerio where teams who had better records overall for the entire season being left out of postseason play due the split season where otherwise they would have been division champions. Hey guess what? It happened.   St. Louis finished with a 59-43 record overall, 2 games better than second half N.L. East champion Montreal and 2 1/2 over first half champ Philadelphia. But it got much worse in the N.L. West. Cincinnati finished 66-42 overall, 4 games better than first half champ Los Angeles and 6 1/2 games better than second half champ Houston. The Reds had the best record in baseball in 1981 and did not go the playoffs. Let me repeat that, the team with the best record in baseball did not qualify for the postaseason. I'm surprised there wasn't riots in the streets of Cincinnati. The madness doesn't stop there as in the A.L. West, Kansas City won the second half title but finished the season 3 games under .500 overall. So we have the best team in baseball not in the playoffs and a team with a losing record in the playoffs. Almost makes you think they would have been better off shutting down the season like they would 13 years later.   Oh ya the A.L. MVP. Rollie Fingers won the award marking the first time a closer had won it. Already gone over this in the 1984 and 1992 redos that closers should not be winning the MVP. He would beat out Rickey Henderson in a very tight race. My only guess is that the resut was due to Fingers being the established, World Series hero while Henderson was only his second full season. It's also pretty rare for players with low homerun totals to win the award as he only hit six homeruns in the short '81 season. His teammate Tony Armas was the only other player to receive a first place vote and finished 4th overall despite being, ironically enough, the 4th best player on his own team that year.   Actual Results   1) Rollie Fingers 2) Rickey Henderson 3) Dwight Evans 4) Tony Armas 5) Eddie Murray 6) Carney Lansford 7) Dave Winfield 8) Cecil Cooper 9) Goose Gossage 10) Tom Paciorek 11) Dwayne Murphy 12) Kirk Gibson 13) Steve McCatty 14) Bobby Grich 15) Jack Morris 16) Al Oliver 17t) Buddy Bell 17th) Robin Yount 19) Bill Almon 20) Jerry Mumphrey 21t) Mike Hargrove 21t) Alan Trammell 23t) Steve Kemp 23t) Greg Luzinski 23t) Dennis Martinez 23t) Ken Singleton 27t) George Brett 27t) Dave Stieb   #10 .336/.389/.439, 68 RC, 133 OPS+, .301 EQA, 32.4 VORP, 18 Win Shares   #9 .294/.360/.464, 66 RC, 138 OPS+, .310 EQA, 34.7 VORP, 16 Win Shares   #8 .259/.348/.493, 62 RC, 146 OPS+, .308 EQA, 29.3 VORP, 20 Win Shares   #7 .326/.379/.509, 78 RC, 151 OPS+, .315 EQA, 39.6 VORP, 17 Win Shares   #6 .294/.360/.534, 73 RC, 156 OPS+, .319 EQA, 40.1 VORP, 21 Win Shares   #5 150 ERA+, 1.49 K/BB, 1.08 WHIP, 51.9 VORP, 18 Win Shares   #4 .304/.378/.543, 72 RC, 164 OPS+, .325 EQA, 49.1 VORP, 21 Win Shares   #3 .320/.363/.495, 75 RC, 151 OPS+, .316 EQA, 42.0 VORP, 22 Win Shares   #2 .319/.408/.437, 76 RC, 150 OPS+, .323 EQA, 45.6 VORP, 27 Win Shares   #1 .296/.415/.522, 90 RC, 163 OPS+, .333 EQA, 47.7 VORP, 26 Win Shares   Damn what kind of self hating A's fans am I to not give the award to RICKEY~? Also I'm taking an award away from a player who has his number retired by the A's. What have I done!?   Anyways as I mentioned in my entry about my first game that Evans has been very under valued over the years. Also have a couple of other good players who have been forgotten in Cecil Cooper and Bobby Grich. Hey and look STEVE McCATTY!!! What you don't remember Steve McCatty? Ya okay '81 was his only good year and he should have won the Cy Young. I guess a similar parallel would be 2003 when Esteban Loaiza blew away any other year he had but couldn't get the Cy Young. I did actually come close to putting Fingers at #10. Oh and that Tom Paciorek card is awesome.

Bored

Bored

 

Steelers DVDs: Super Bowl IX

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" which might actually be worth an entry if I ever get around to watching it.   The Steelers set has all five of their Super Bowl victories. Well it was supposed to have all five Super Bowls but my set showed up with no Super Bowl XL disk. Bang up job their NFL! If it had been any of the 70's Super Bowls I would have mailed it back. Since I had no intention re-watching that boring, horribly officiated, Jerome Bettis lovefest I decided not to bother with the hassle of returning it. And also NFL, get off your ass and release a 49ers Super Bowls set already.   Now Super Bowl X and XIII annually make All-Time Great Super Bowl lists and Super Bowl XIV might be one of the most underrated Super Bowls of all-time. But anyone can watch the good games, so I decided to watch Super Bowl IX which is just 60 minutes of the Steel Curtain destroying the Vikings' offensive line.   January 12, 1975 - Super Bowl IX: Pittsburgh Steelers (12-3-1) vs. Minnesota Vikings (12-4)   -There were several poor reviews for the set on Amazon due to the video quality of this game and Super Bowl X. The video quality ended up not being quite as bad as some the reviews painted it but it's not very good either.   -Sadly there are no player introductions on the disk and no postgame. Announcers for the game are Curt Gowdy, Al DeRogatis, and Don Meredith.   STEELERS OFFENSE LT: Jon Kolb LG: Jim Clack C: Ray Mansfield RG: Gerry Mullins RT: Gordon Gravelle TE: Larry Brown WR: Frank Lewis WR: Ron Shanklin QB: Terry Bradshaw RB: Franco Harris RB: Rocky Bleier   VIKINGS DEFENSE LE: Carl Eller LT: Alan Page RT: Doug Sutherland RE: Jim Marshall LLB: Roy Winston MLB: Jeff Siemon RLB: Wally Hilgenberg LCB: Jackie Wallace RCB: Nate Wright SS: Jeff Wright FS: Paul Krause   VIKINGS OFFENSE LT: Charles Goodrum LG: Andy Maurer C: Mick Tingelhoff RG: Ed White RT: Ron Yary TE: Stu Voight WR: Jim Lash WR: John Gilliam QB: Fran Tarkenton RB: Chuck Foreman RB: Dave Osborn   STEELERS DEFENSE LE: L.C. Greenwood LT: Joe Greene RT: Ernie Holmes RE: Dwight White LLB: Jack Ham MLB: Jack Lambert RLB: Andy Russell LCB: J.T. Thomas RCB: Mel Blount SS: Mike Wagner FS: Glen Edwards   FIRST QUARTER   -Vikings use a 14 man defensive huddle where they would run off three defenders after the Steelers break their huddle, a practice that is of course no longer permitted in today's game.   -On the Vikings first play on offense, Tarkenton completes a pass to John Gilliam on the sideline and as Gilliam is knocked out of bounds he runs over a cameraman who I'm pretty sure was Steve Sabol.   -Steelers would blow two scoring chances in the quarter after getting the ball on the Vikings' 44 and on their own 47. Roy Gerella missed an relatively easy field goal attempt and then the holder bobbled a second attempt.   -Curt Gowdy makes only one mention of Rocky Bleier being a Vietnam vet, playing with shrapnel in his body. I can only imagine how many times a modern announcer would make mention of fact like that during a game if an active player was a veteran. Good thing Tim Tebow isn't a Gulf War II vet.   -Gowdy also brings up the story Terry Bradshaw being pissed during the week because the media kept bringing up how he was viewed as a dumb player. Hasn't he pretty made a career out of this?   SECOND QUARTER   -Lynn Swan and John Stallworth were both in their rookie year and were not starters but they take almost every snap at wideout from the second quarter on.   -Vikings get their first opportunity to score after Bleier fumbles and the Vikings recover on the Steelers 24. But as would be the case through the much of the game, the Vikings could not move the ball and settle for a field goal attempt but kicker Fred Cox hits it wide right.   -After the Steelers were forced to punt on the ensuing possession, Vikings punt return Sam McCullum would field the punt on a hop inside his own 10. Al DeRogatis thinks it was a bad decision but there were two Steelers near by when he fielded the punt and I think they probably would have downed it inside the 5 anyways. Nevertheless this does lead to the first score of the game when what appears to be miscommunication between Tarkenton and fullback Dave Osborn as Tarkenton pitches it but Osborn doesn't even attempt to grab it. The ball gets kicked back, Tarkenton reaches the ball just before the goal line but slides into endzone where he is touched down by Dwight White for a safety.   -On the Vikings next possession, they put together their best drive of the game reaching the Steelers 25. But on a Tarkenton pass over the middle to Gilliam at the Steelers 5, Gilliam attempts to making a leaping grab but he is immediately nailed by Glen Edwards and the ball pops up in their air and is intercepted by Mel Blount. Game heads to the half with a 2-0 score.   THIRD QUARTER   -Huge break for the Steelers on the second half kick. Gerela slips just as he kicks the ball and it ends up being an accidental squib kick. One of the upbacks Bill Brown doesn't field it cleanly and the Steelers would recover on the Vikings 30. Three Franco Harris runs later and it was 9-0.   -There's a bizarre moment on the Vikings next possession. It was 4th and inches on their own 38 and lined up like they were going to run the play but are just trying to draw the Steelers offsides. As Tarkenton tries to draw them offsides a couple of Steelers players start pointing that one of the Vikings lineman flinched, although on the replay it doesn't appear anyone moved, and then the Steelers run across the line. The refs of course blow the play dead but none of them threw a flag. After a quick discussion, there's no false start on the Vikings, no offsides on the Steelers, no timeout was called by the Vikings, and essentially no play. It was like the refs all forgot to throw a flag and when then decided to just say "fuck it, no play." Vikings end up punting.   -Probably the most infamous play of the game happens on the Vikings next possession. L.C. Greenwood deflected a Tarkenton pass, which happened quite a bit in this game, that went right back to Tarkenton who catches it and then throws another pass to a wide open Gilliam for a huge gain into Steelers territory but that's of course that's a penalty. Gowdy doesn't appear to know the rule as he calls it like it's a huge play for the Vikings, all the while Don Meredith tries to correct him during the play. But considering a 14 year veteran in Tarkenton apparently didn't know you couldn't throw two passes on the same play, I guess Gowdy deserves a pass.   -Even though it's only 9-0 after three, the game already felt like a blowout.   FOURTH QUARTER   -Oh but the Vikings actually do have a glimmer of hope. Early in the quarter the Vikings recover a Harris fumble on the Steelers 47 and a pass interference penalty sets them up with a first a goal on the 5. But Chuck Foreman promptly fumbles the ball right back to the Steelers.   -Steelers can't move the ball and Matt Blair would block the punt which the Vikings recover in the endzone for a touchdown. But the Vikings can't do something good without screwing something else up so the kicker Cox shanks the PAT to keep it a three point game.   -The things we take for granted watching football today like knowing how much time is left in a quarter. We don't get a camera shot of the clock here until there is 9:52 left in the game. Although there's no plays missing from the disk, there are several times during the game where the time between a play is edited out so this made it very difficult to figure keep track of how long was left in a quarter.   -The Steelers would put the game away with what was really the only sustained drive of the game by either offense on a 11 play, 66 yard march that at up 7:02 of the clock that ends on a Bradshaw touchdown pass to tight end Larry Brown. There was some mild controversy earlier in the drive on a 30 yard completion to Brown where he appeared to fumble and it was initially ruled the Vikings had recovered but another ref ran in and changed the call. Replay shows that he was clearly down before the ball came loose though.   -Late in the game it's noted that L.C. Greenwood had signed with the Birmingham Vulcans of the short lived World Football League. He ended up changing his mind.   -As the game goes off the air, Gowdy notes that the Steelers were only going to get better. Okay announcers say that almost every time after a team wins a championship but guess one deserves credit when they actually are right in making that proclamation.

Bored

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2006 MVP Watch #1

It's Christmas time for stat geeks as Hardball Times has released the first Win Shares of the 2006 season and thus I can now I start tracking the MVP candidates for the season. Of coursing being that we are just a little over six weeks into the season this can all be taken with a grain of salt but hey I need excuses for entries. So every Tuesday now I'll have an updated Top 10 list for each league.   I'll start with the National League as let's face it, the race is alredy over. Barring injury everyone is running for second place behind Albert Pujols this season. He just completely blows away the field and didn't give a thought to anyone else at the top spot. What you will notice is the high placement of a couple of pitchers which didn't surprise me as with the small sample of games the more impact an individual starting pitcher can have. Those two pitchers are the least likely candidates to still be in the Top 10 come September.   #10 Chase Utley, Phillies .302/.372/.547, 25 RC, .277 EQA, 14.8 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #9 Bobby Abreu, Phillies .257/.437/.459, 27 RC, .288 EQA, 7.9 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #8 Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks 167 ERA+, 5.71 K/BB, 1.18 WHIP, 22.1 VORP, 7 Win Shares   #7 Morgan Ensberg, Astros .281/.401/.619, 30 RC, .291 EQA, 15.1 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #6 Carlos Delgado, Mets .298/.394/.610, 34 RC, .291 EQA, 15.9 VORP, 7 Win Shares   #5 Carlos Lee, Brewers .296/.392/.655, 34 RC, .296 EQA, 20.1 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #4 Bronson Arroyo, Reds 221 ERA+, 3.58 K/BB, 1.01 WHIP, 23.1 VORP, 7 Win Shares   #3 Lance Berkman, Astros .319/.384/.652, 37 RC, .293 EQA, 18.0 VORP, 10 Win Shares   #2 Tom Glavine, Mets 189 ERA+, 2.64 K/BB, 1.03 WHIP, 20.2 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #1 .333/.469/.833, 49 RC, .327 EQA, 33.1 VORP, 14 Win Shares     Now for the American League which could be a wide open race all year. As of right now DH's (or DH types) are dominating the field with the likes of Giambi, Thome, Hafner, and Gomes. Ramon Hernandez, Alexis Rios, and Jose Contreras all won't be there at the end and Contreras' stock will drop dramtically pretty soon with him on the DL. The two big candidates from last year, Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz, are both off to relatively slow starts but figure both will make a push at some point.   #10 Ramon Hernandez, Orioles .315/.385/.488, 29 RC, .280 EQA, 11.0 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #9 Nick Swisher, A's .305/.405/.664, 28 RC, .294 EQA, 18.4 VORP, 7 Win Shares   #8 Alexis Rios, Blue Jays .367/.386/.692, 30 RC, .294 EQA, 17.2 VORP, 7 Win Shares   #7 Vernon Wells, Blue Jays .358/.407/.642, 33 RC, .294 EQA, 24.7 VORP, 7 Win Shares   #6 Travis Hafner, Indians .314/.430/.628, 37 RC, .303 EQA, 21.6 VORP, 7 Win Shares   #5 Miguel Tejada, Orioles .361/.402/.613, 30 RC, .295 EQA, 25.7 VORP, 7 Win Shares   #4 Jonny Gomes, Devil Rays .288/.421/.648, 32 RC, .295 EQA, 18.7 VORP, 10 Win Shares   #3 Jason Giambi, Yankees .269/.480/.654, 38 RC, .311 EQA, 19.9 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #2 Jose Contreras, White Sox 335 ERA+, 1.91 K/BB, 0.87 WHIP, 24.3 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #1 .290/.438/.694, 43 RC, .304 EQA, 23.0 VORP, 11 Win Shares   I'm personally not sold that Thome will keep this up all year but you never know.

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Worst Pitcher Seasons since 1961

Back by popular demand, add another "Worst" list with the worst pitcher seasons since 1961 using ERA+. Checking baseball-reference.com, unlike qualifications for the batting title, it appears the qualification for the ERA title has never changed. In order to qualify a pitcher must pitch at least one inning per team game. Now I could have gone back to 1901 then but again it would been littered with too many early 20th century pitchers that most us have never heard of. The worst ERA+ of all-time was Rube Bressler of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1915 who posted an ERA+ of 56. To put that into context, he had an 5.20 ERA while the league ERA that season was 2.93.   I elected to go with 1961 since that was the beginning of the expansion era of MLB when the Angels and Senators (ver 2.0) were added to the American League. Now on the player lists there were a lot of ties and there would have been a ton for the pitcher list so to make it slightly less cluttered I break the ties by who threw more innings (as in who sucked in a larger sample). And the top of the list is someone who we could never forget, nor can we ever forget his wife's huge tits.   Top 25 Worst Pitcher Seasons since 1961 (per ERA+)   1. Jose Lima, 2005 - Kansas City Royals 63 ERA+ (6.99 ERA in 168 2/3 IP)   2. Jack Lamabe, 1964 - Boston Red Sox 65 3. Eric Milton, 2005 - Cincinnati Reds 66 (186 1/3 IP) 4. Rick Wise, 1968 - Philadelphia Phillies 66 (182) 5. Mark Davis, 1984 - San Francisco Giants 66 (174 2/3) 6. Bob Knepper, 1989 - Houston Astros/San Francisco Giants 66 (165) 7. Jim Deshaies, 1994 - Minnesota Twins 66 (130 1/3) 8. Warren Spahn, 1964 - Milwaukee Braves 67 9. Matt Keough, 1982 - Oakland A's 68 (209 1/3) 10. Steve Arlin, 1973 - San Diego Padres 68 (180) 11. Phil Ortega, 1965 - Washington Senators 68 (179 2/3) 12. Javier Vazquez, 1998 - Montreal Expos 69 13. Vida Blue, 1979 - San Francisco Giants 70 (237) 14. Frank Baumann, 1961 - Chicago White Sox 70 (187 2/3) 15. Pete Broberg, 1972 - Texas Rangers 70 (176 1/3) 16. Joel Pineiro, 2006 - Seattle Mariners 70 (165 2/3) 17. Terry Mulholland, 1995 - San Francisco Giants 70 (149) 18. Dick Ruthven, 1981 - Philadelphia Phillies 70 (146 2/3) 19. Willie Fraser, 1988 - California Angels 71 (194 2/3) 20. Bob Walk, 1993 - Pittsburgh Pirates 71 (187) 21. Bill Singer, 1975 - California Angels 71 (175) 22. Brandon Duckworth, 2002 - Philadelphia Phillies 71 (163) 23. Terry Mulholland, 1994 - New York Yankees 71 (120) 24. Jack Fisher, 1967 - New York Mets 72 (220 1/3) 25. Joe Coleman, 1975 - Detroit Tigers 72 (201)

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Tournament Randomness

-So Monmouth blew out Hampton 71-49 in the play in game tonight. Hampton had the worst RPI of any team with a winning record in the entire country and you can thank those conference tournaments for that. Now every year after this game ends the ESPN analyst has to talk about the school getting it's first ever NCAA tournament win, which always annoys me, and tonight was no different. Did Monmouth really win a tournamnet game? After all it is the "play in" game which by the wording of it seems to indicate that the winner of the game gets into the tournament. In my view Monmouth has now qualified for the tournament while Hampton has failed to do so. Monmouth will win its first real tournament game if it were to beat Villanova, which we know won't happen.   -The other postseason tournament started tonight, the NIT. I normally never pay attention to it but after a lackluster year Stanford finds themself in it, snapping their 11 year NCAA tournament streak. They beat Virginia 65-49 in their Opening Round game as UVA looked like a team that traveled 3000 miles for a game they didn't want to play which tends to happen in the NIT as motivation plays a big factor in how long a team lasts in it. Cardinal travel to play the biggest snub of the NCAA Tournament, Missouri State for their next game where they'll probably get slaughtered but hey for one night at least Stanford didn't look like mediocre team they are.   -Due to Stanford's lack of success they didn't have as many t.v. games as past years when they were a Top 10 team thus I paid a lot less attention to college basketball this year. This of course creates a problem filling out a bracket but sometimes less knowledge is a good thing. My typical formula is to look a trends for past tournaments. Things such as usually one 13, one 12, and one 11 seed will pull off a 1st round upset and at least one double digit seed will get into the Sweet 16. Of course this strategy is very hit and miss as it can really be a guessing game when it comes to picking true upset (#9 over #8, #10 over #7 aren't upsets). But I prefer doing this as I rarely play for money, including this year, so it makes it more interesting to try to have some low seed teams picked out that I can root for on the first couple of days. So here's my true upsets for the first round with very little actual research going into it:   Southern Illinois over West Virginia Bradley over Kansas Utah State over Washington   I then have Bradley beating Pittsburgh to become the 3rd #13 seed ever to get to the Sweet 16. Ya I've really lost it on that one. Northern Iowa is my #10 seed getting to the Sweet 16 after upsetting Ohio State. Other things of note is I having Syracuse beating Duke in the Sweet 16 which may just be my disgust for Duke but a #1 seed getting bumped for the Elite Eight is usually a strong bet. Everyone seems to be picking Tennessee to be an early exit so I put them into the Elite Eight before losing to UConn. I have Oklahoma reaching the Elite Eight which again I've probably lost it on that one. Then to finish it off I have Iowa getting all the way to the national championship game before losing to UConn.   -Annnnnnnnnnnd time to finish this off with some useless facts. Here's the biggest first round upset of every tournament since they expanded to 64 teams in 1985.   1985: #13 Navy 78, #4 LSU 55 1986: #14 Cleveland State 83, #3 Indiana 79 1987: #14 Austin Peay 68, #3 Illinois 67 1988: #14 Murray State 78, #3 N.C. State 75 1989: #14 Siena 80, #3 Stanford 78 1990: #14 Northern Iowa 74, #3 Missouri 71 1991: #15 Richmond 73, #2 Syracuse 69 1992: #14 East Tennessee State 87, #3 Arizona 80 1993: #15 Santa Clara 64, #2 Arizona 61 1994: #12 Wisconsin-Green Bay 61, #5 California 57 1995: #14 Weber State 79, #3 Michigan State 72 1996: #13 Princeton 43, #4 UCLA 41 1997: #15 Coppin State 78, #2 South Carolina 65 1998: #14 Richmond 62, #3 South Carolina 61 1999: #14 Weber State 76, #3 North Carolina 74 2000: #11 Pepperdine 77, #6 Indiana 57 2001: #15 Hampton 58, #2 Iowa State 57 2002: #13 UNC-Wilmington 93, #4 USC 89 OT 2003: #13 Tulsa 84, #4 Dayton 71 2004: #12 Manhattan 75, #5 Florida 60 2005: #14 Bucknell 64, # Kansas 63

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Loser League: June

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 by two games.   TEAM     WON LOST   BATTING AVERAGE     HOME RUNS           RUNS BATTED IN 1990 NYA  46  39    A.Huff    TBA .365  A.Belle   CLA   23  E.Brown   KCA   67 2002 TBA  43  40    E.Brown   KCA .359  E.Murray  BAA   21  A.Huff    TBA   66 1992 BOA  41  44    R.Carew   LAA .353  K.Hrbek   MNA   19  J.Barfiel NYA   65 1988 BAA  39  44    K.Hrbek   MNA .347  K.Maas    NYA   19  B.Grich   LAA   64 1979 TOA  29  55    R.Kelly   NYA .332  A.Huff    TBA   19  A.Belle   CLA   58 2005 KCA  49  35    WINS                SAVES               ERA 1989 CHA  47  36    F.Tanana  LAA   11  T.Niedenf BAA   18  C.Hough   TEA 1.77 1991 CLA  38  46    C.Hough   TEA   10  M.Macdoug KCA   16  A.Hawkins NYA 2.50 2003 DEA  34  49    F.Martine LAA    8  G.Harris  TEA   15  J.Bautist BAA 2.57 1982 MNA  32  51    R.Clemens BOA    8  E.Yan     TBA   15  R.Clemens BOA 2.69                     F.Viola   BOA    8  OTHERS TIED W   13  G.Swindel CLA 2.74 1980 LAA  56  27 1985 TEA  43  41    CUR HIT STREAK      STOLEN BASES        STRIKEOUTS 1980 SEA  37  45    R.Kelly   NYA   13  A.Sanchez DEA   34  R.Clemens BOA  123 1979 OAA  34  48    D.Slaught TEA    9  R.Kelly   NYA   33  T.Underwo TOA  106                     D.Gallagh CHA    9  J.Cruz    SEA   26  F.Bannist SEA  104                     B.Bochte  SEA    8  O.Guillen CHA   23  M.Perez   CHA   98                     T.Harrah  TEA    8  A.Cole    CLA   23  D.Darwin  BOA   91 YESTERDAY'S GAMES   TODAY'S SCHEDULE AND PROBABLE STARTERS KCA 13  at  BAA  1  KCA-Howell(1-2, 4.14) at BAA-Ballard(4-5, 3.57) CLA  5  at  CHA  6  CLA-Swindel(6-5, 2.74) at CHA-Dotson(7-4, 4.25) OAA 11  at  LAA 10  OAA-Keough(1-10, 6.03) at LAA-Tanana(11-1, 2.96) DEA 12  at  MNA  7  DEA-Bonderm(1-7, 6.52) at MNA-Havens(4-6, 4.81) TEA  4  at  NYA  2  TEA-Mason(6-9, 5.51) at NYA-Lapoint(7-3, 3.35) TOA  6  at  SEA  9  TOA-Huffman(3-10, 6.46) at SEA-Bannist(7-7, 3.10) BOA  7  at  TBA  4  BOA-Viola(8-7, 2.86) at TBA-Kennedy(6-5, 3.43) YESTERDAY'S BEST PERFORMANCES BATTER         TM OPP AB  R  H RB BB Ks HR SB J.Rudi        LAA OAA  5  2  2  4  0  0  2  0 D.Revering    OAA LAA  5  3  2  3  0  0  1  0 G.Gaetti      MNA DEA  5  1  3  4  0  0  1  0 A.Berroa      KCA BAA  5  2  2  4  0  0  1  0 T.Long        KCA BAA  5  3  4  1  0  0  1  0 PITCHER        TM OPP  INN  H  R ER BB Ks HR WLS C.Hough       TEA NYA  8.0  3  1  1  0  5  1 W   B.Thigpen     CHA CLA  1.0  0  0  0  0  1  0 W   G.Harris      BOA TBA  2.0  1  0  0  0  2  0   S V.Zambrano    TBA BOA  3.0  1  1  1  0  2  0     D.Carrasco    KCA BAA  8.0  5  1  1  3  0  1 W   WHO'S HOT - BEST IN LAST 10 DAYS BATTER         TM  AVG AB  H RB BB HR  PITCHER        TM IP  H ER BB Ks HR WLS K.Maas        NYA .385 26 10 12  5  5  D.Stieb       TOA  9  2  0  0  2  0 100 E.Brown       KCA .382 34 13 10  5  3  D.Bautista    KCA  9  4  0  1  9  0 100 B.Higginson   DEA .421 38 16 10  2  4  G.Harris      BOA  5  2  0  0  4  0 002 T.Paciorek    SEA .300 30  9  8  1  4  C.Hough       TEA 22 10  2  2 17  1 110 J.Barfield    NYA .324 34 11  9  9  2  T.McCarthy    CHA  5  1  0  1  2  0 100 WHO'S NOT - WORST IN LAST 10 DAYS BATTER         TM  AVG AB  H RB BB HR  PITCHER        TM IP  H ER BB Ks HR WLS T.Donohue     LAA .121 33  4  1  1  0  M.Mason       TEA  5 15 10  1  4  1 030 R.Santiago    DEA .100 30  3  2  2  0  J.Montague    LAA  6 13 10  4  0  1 021 R.Picciolo    OAA .172 29  5  2  0  0  T.Harper      TBA  6 13  8  1  4  4 020 M.Lewis       CLA .219 32  7  1  0  0  M.Roney       DEA  8 10  8  2  3  2 030 L.Cox         SEA .115 26  3  0  4  0  M.Young       BOA  7 15  9  2  7  1 010 INJURY REPORT W.Gross, Oakland - 3 more games F.Patek, California - 9 more games L.Roberts, Seattle - 6 more games S.Sax, New York (AL) - 3 more games T.Naehring, Boston - 4 more games E.Munson, Detroit - 2 more games   The losers of the month in the N.L. were the '91 Astros who after going 8-18 in June have charged to the bottom of the Central with a four game lead over the '85 Pirates. The '88 Braves and '98 Marlins continue to be the "class" of the league as it is almost a lock that the Loser Card will come out of the East.   TEAM     WON LOST   BATTING AVERAGE     HOME RUNS           RUNS BATTED IN 2000 PHN  49  34    A.Galarra CON .413  R.Lankfor SLN   26  S.Rolen   PHN   82 2008 WAN  47  37    J.Mabry   SLN .381  B.Bonilla NYN   21  R.Lankfor SLN   71 1993 NYN  44  39    B.Gilkey  SLN .354  S.Rolen   PHN   20  D.Bichett CON   61 1998 FLN  31  52    C.Biggio  HON .342  E.Murray  NYN   18  A.Galarra CON   58 1988 ATN  29  54    B.Butler  LAN .341  OTHERS TIED W   17  J.Bell    ARN   57 2002 MLN  47  35    WINS                SAVES               ERA 1995 SLN  45  39    M.Krukow  SFN   12  M.Dejean  MLN   22  M.Krukow  SFN 1.51 1982 CIN  45  40    R.Reusche PIN   11  G.Olson   ARN   21  D.Bird    CHN 1.91 1981 CHN  41  42    O.Daal    PHN   11  S.Garrelt SFN   18  R.Reusche PIN 2.21 1985 PIN  41  43    T.Candiot LAN   10  T.Henke   SLN   18  K.Gross   LAN 2.40 1991 HON  36  47    B.Sheets  MLN   10  G.Lucas   SDN   17  O.Daal    ARN 2.63 1985 SFN  51  32    CUR HIT STREAK      STOLEN BASES        STRIKEOUTS 1992 LAN  49  33    E.Young   MLN   14  B.Butler  LAN   36  M.Soto    CIN  135 1998 ARN  46  37    C.Biggio  HON   13  E.Young   MLN   34  P.Harnisc HON  127 1993 CON  42  41    L.Mazzill PIN   10  V.Coleman NYN   32  B.Sheets  MLN  113 1981 SDN  39  45    R.Reynold PIN   10  S.Finley  HON   31  D.Gooden  NYN  106                     OTHERS TIED W    9  E.Young   CON   27  A.Benes   ARN  100 YESTERDAY'S GAMES   TODAY'S SCHEDULE AND PROBABLE STARTERS MLN  5  at  ARN  3  MLN-Sheets(10-4, 3.99) at ARN-Telemac(8-3, 4.15) PIN  5  at  CIN  4  PHN-Wolf(8-5, 3.54) at ATN-Mahler(4-11, 4.63) SDN  9  at  CON  7  PIN-Tunnell(3-3, 3.89) at CIN-Soto(8-8, 3.16) WAN  3  at  FLN  2  SDN-Eichelb(5-8, 4.89) at CON-Harris(6-7, 4.97) LAN  7  at  HON  3  WAN-Baleste(6-3, 3.26) at FLN-Hernand(5-8, 3.54) NYN  3  at  SLN  7  LAN-Hershis(7-4, 4.36) at HON-Kile(3-4, 3.47) CHN  2  at  SFN  1  NYN-Hillman(7-2, 3.93) at SLN-Morgan(4-4, 3.74)                     CHN-Martz(2-7, 5.08) at SFN-Gott(4-3, 3.63) YESTERDAY'S BEST PERFORMANCES BATTER         TM OPP AB  R  H RB BB Ks HR SB S.Bream       PIN CIN  1  1  1  3  0  0  1  0 M.Kotsay      FLN WAN  3  2  2  1  0  0  1  1 R.Sexson      MLN ARN  4  2  2  1  2  0  1  0 R.Bass        SDN CON  4  1  1  3  0  1  1  0 S.Hemond      SLN NYN  4  1  1  3  0  0  1  0 PITCHER        TM OPP  INN  H  R ER BB Ks HR WLS J.Gott        LAN HON  4.0  0  0  0  0  4  0   S M.Krukow      SFN CHN  8.0  5  1  1  1  8  0     R.Reuschel    CHN SFN  7.0  4  1  0  1  3  0     J.Candelaria  PIN CIN  2.0  0  0  0  1  1  0 W   V.De Los SantoMLN ARN  2.0  0  0  0  0  1  0 W   WHO'S HOT - BEST IN LAST 10 DAYS BATTER         TM  AVG AB  H RB BB HR  PITCHER        TM IP  H ER BB Ks HR WLS E.Murray      NYN .500 26 13  7  2  4  B.Chen        PHN  8  2  0  0  8  0 002 J.Hernandez   MLN .407 27 11  9  6  3  F.Williams    SFN  6  1  0  1  6  0 000 W.Harris      WAN .304 23  7  5  4  3  M.Krukow      SFN 17  8  1  2 17  0 100 D.Bichette    CON .379 29 11 10  2  3  L.Smith       CHN  8  3  0  2  8  0 100 R.Lankford    SLN .361 36 13  9  3  4  J.Gott        LAN  7  3  0  1  6  0 001 WHO'S NOT - WORST IN LAST 10 DAYS BATTER         TM  AVG AB  H RB BB HR  PITCHER        TM IP  H ER BB Ks HR WLS R.Adams       SFN .040 25  1  0  0  0  T.Urbani      SLN  6  9  9  3  5  1 110 R.Gant        ATN .063 32  2  1  2  0  J.Deleon      PIN 13 23 15  7 17  4 010 C.Davis       SFN .156 32  5  0  1  0  R.Rhoden      PIN 14 27 14  5 10  1 020 J.Uribe       SFN .161 31  5  1  0  0  G.Harris      CON 13 19 13  6 13  2 020 A.Hall        ATN .138 29  4  2  1  0  D.Nied        CON  8 12  8  6  4  2 010 INJURY REPORT B.Bonds, Chicago (NL) - 1 more games A.Trevino, Cincinnati - 4 more games E.Davis, Los Angeles - 6 more games N.Liriano, Colorado - 6 more games E.Young, Colorado - 15 more games J.Burnitz, New York (NL) - 3 more games H.Johnson, New York (NL) - 2 more games A.Arias, Philadelphia - 4 more games M.Lieberthal, Philadelphia - 5 more games J.Fabregas, Milwaukee - 8 more games J.Hernandez, Milwaukee - 7 more games A.Kearns, Washington - 2 more games   The featured boxscore for June was a 20 inning interleague tilt between the '85 Rangers and '93 Mets where some how 42,000+ fans showed up. Must have been a bobblehead day. The infamous Anthony Young surrendered five runs in the final frame.   BOXSCORE: 1985 Texas Rangers At 1993 New York (NL) Mets             6/15/2008   Rangers            AB  R  H RBI AVG     Mets               AB  R  H RBI AVG   D.Walker RF         5  0  1  0 .200     V.Coleman LF        8  0  1  0 .274   G-A.Bannister PH,LF   4  0  0  0 .262     J.Orsulak CF,1B     6  1  2  0 .283     T.Harrah 2B         7  2  3  0 .265     E.Murray 1B         4  0  1  0 .305     P.O'Brien 1B        7  2  2  0 .233   B-R.Thompson PR,CF    2  1  0  0 .211     G.Ward CF           9  1  3  3 .305     J.Franco P          0  0  0  0 .000     D.Slaught C         5  0  0  0 .295   I-C.O'Brien PH        1  0  0  0 .353   D-G.Brummer C         3  1  1  0 .429     E.Hillman P         0  0  0  0 .000     S.Buechele 3B       8  1  1  3 .199   K-T.Fernandez PH      1  0  1  0 .231     C.Wilkerson SS      8  1  2  0 .230     A.Young P           0  0  0  0 .000     B.Jones LF,RF       8  0  2  1 .255   M-J.McKnight PH       1  0  0  0 .213     J.Russell P         3  0  0  0 .000     B.Bonilla RF        8  0  1  1 .282     R.Surhoff P         0  0  0  0 ----     H.Johnson 3B        5  1  1  2 .201     D.Rozema P          0  0  0  0 ----     J.Kent SS           8  0  3  0 .283   C-O.McDowell PH       1  0  0  0 .230     T.Hundley C         8  0  0  0 .225     D.Schmidt P         0  0  0  0 ----     C.Walker 2B         8  0  0  0 .192     B.Hooton P          0  0  0  0 ----     D.Gooden P          2  0  0  0 .152   E-L.Parrish PH        1  0  0  0 .287   A-D.Gallagher PH      1  0  0  0 .282     D.Stewart P         0  0  0  0 ----     M.Maddux P          1  0  0  0 .000   H-W.Tolleson PH       1  0  0  0 .348     J.Innis P           0  0  0  0 ----     C.Welsh P           0  0  0  0 ----   F-J.Burnitz PH,CF     3  0  1  0 .181   J-N.Capra PH          1  0  1  01.000                                             M.Mason P           0  0  0  0 .000                                           L-T.Dunbar PH         1  0  0  0 .167                                             C.Hough P           0  0  0  0 .500                                                                -- -- -- ---                            -- -- -- ---                Totals      72  8 16  7                 Totals      67  3 11  3 A-Pinch Hit For Gooden In 7th Inning B-Pinch Ran For Murray In 8th Inning C-Pinch Hit For Rozema In 10th Inning D-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Slaught In 11th Inning E-Pinch Hit For Hooton In 12th Inning F-Pinch Hit For Innis In 12th Inning G-Pinch Hit For Walker In 13th Inning H-Pinch Hit For Stewart In 14th Inning I-Pinch Hit For Franco In 15th Inning J-Pinch Hit For Welsh In 17th Inning K-Pinch Hit For Hillman In 18th Inning L-Pinch Hit For Mason In 19th Inning M-Pinch Hit For Young In 20th Inning INJURY: Don Slaught INJURED (for 2 more games) in 11th inning Rangers......... 1 1 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  0 1 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  0 5 -  8 16  0 Mets............ 0 0 0  0 0 0  0 2 0  0 1 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 -  3 11  0 Rangers (39-32)          IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA J.Russell                 7 1/3   3   1   1   5   5   0 123   5.95 R.Surhoff                 0       2   1   1   0   0   0  11   7.71 D.Rozema BS(2nd)          1 2/3   0   0   0   0   2   0  23   2.95 D.Schmidt                 1 1/3   1   1   1   0   1   1  22   1.62 B.Hooton                  0 2/3   1   0   0   0   0   0  13   5.22 D.Stewart                 2       1   0   0   1   3   0  34   3.35 C.Welsh                   3       1   0   0   0   2   0  49   5.36 M.Mason                   2       1   0   0   1   2   0  38   4.88 C.Hough WIN(9-3)          2       1   0   0   2   0   0  34   1.84 [1]Totals                   20      11   3   3   9  15   1 Mets (37-33)             IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA D.Gooden                  7       4   2   2   2   5   0  95   2.76 M.Maddux                  3 2/3   4   1   1   1   4   0  71   3.89 J.Innis                   1 1/3   1   0   0   0   2   0  20   6.03 J.Franco                  3       1   0   0   2   0   0  48   7.36 E.Hillman                 3       2   0   0   1   1   0  52   3.70 A.Young LOSS(5-4)         2       4   5   5   2   3   0  49   3.17 [1]Totals                   20      16   8   8   8  15   0 ATTENDANCE- 42,141 DATE- Sunday, June 15th 2008 TIME- Day WEATHER- Average T- 6:17 LEFT ON BASE- Rangers:12  Mets:14 DOUBLE PLAYS- Rangers: 2  Mets: 2 DOUBLES- D.Walker(1st), G.Ward(10th), G.Brummer(2nd), N.Capra(1st),          J.Kent(19th) TRIPLES- S.Buechele(4th) HOME RUNS- H.Johnson(9th) STOLEN BASES- T.Harrah(4th), G.Ward(11th), C.Wilkerson-4(13th), V.Coleman(28th),               J.Burnitz(1st) CAUGHT STEALING- P.O'Brien, S.Buechele, J.Orsulak SACRIFICE FLIES- H.Johnson WALKS- T.Harrah-2, P.O'Brien-2, G.Brummer, S.Buechele, C.Wilkerson, B.Jones,        V.Coleman, J.Orsulak-3, B.Bonilla, H.Johnson-3, J.Burnitz STRIKE OUTS- D.Walker-2, T.Harrah, G.Ward, G.Brummer, S.Buechele, C.Wilkerson-4,              B.Jones-2, J.Russell-3, V.Coleman-2, R.Thompson, C.O'Brien,              B.Bonilla-2, H.Johnson, J.Kent-3, T.Hundley, C.Walker, D.Gooden,              M.Maddux, J.Burnitz GIDP- P.O'Brien, T.Dunbar, H.Johnson, J.Kent BALKS- A.Young

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Bored's College Football Pick 'Em Encyclopedia

Here's a look back at the first two years of my contest. Also for the first time full BCS rankings from 2005, pre bowls. The post bowl rankings for 2005 will be used for the Preseason Top 10 for 2006 but I won't be posting those until the sign ups are done. Also at the end is the all-time records list.   2004 Standings (regular season)   Pac-8   1. UCLA (6-1, 8-5) 2. Boise State (5-2, 7-6) 3. Hawaii (4-3, 7-6) 4. Stanford (3-4, 8-5) 4. Washington State (3-4, 7-6) 4. Oregon (3-4, 7-6) 7. USC (2-5, 5-8) 7. Arizona State (2-5, 5-8)   Big MAC   1. Minnesota (6-1, 9-4) 2. Notre Dame (5-2, 9-4) 2. Bowling Green (5-2, 9-4) 4. Kent State (4-3, 6-7) 4. Michigan State (4-3, 5-8) 6. Ohio State (3-4, 7-6) 7. Michigan (1-6, 4-9) 7. Penn State (1-6, 3-10)   Mid South   1. LSU (5-2, 10-3) 1. Georgia (5-2, 10-3) 1. Auburn (5-2, 6-7) 4. Alabama (4-3, 6-7) 5. Texas (3-4, 6-7) 5. Florida (3-4, 5-8) 7. Tennessee (2-5, 5-8) 8. Oklahoma (1-6, 4-9)   Big Atlantic   1. Virginia (5-2, 10-3) 1. Boston College (5-2, 6-7) 1. Syracuse (5-2, 10-3) 4. Maryland (3-4, 7-6) 4. Rutgers (3-4, 4-9) 4. Miami (3-4, 4-9) 7. Florida State (2-5, 4-9) 8. West Virginia (1-6, 4-9)   2004 BCS Rankings (Before the bowls)   Note: The formula was different for the first year and produced bizarre results which was the plan on my part but with money involved people took the contest seriously thus I had to make adjustments the 2nd year.   1. Virginia - Edwin MacPhisto 2.00 2. Minnesota - Vern Gagne 3.00 3. UCLA - phoenixrising 4.67 4. Syracuse - CanadianChris 7.33 5. Washington State - bravesfan 7.67 6. LSU - teke184 8.67 7. Oregon - nogoodnick 9.00 8. Hawaii - Will Scarlet 10.00 9. Notre Dame - Lando Griffin 11.33 10. Maryland - MarvinisaLunatic 13.00 11. Texas - Flyboy 13.00 12. Stanford - Bored 13.67 13. Florida - Agent Bond34 13.67 14. Arizona State - Spicy McHaggis 14.33 15. Ohio State - Gert T 15.00 - one forfeit 16. Miami - Spaceman Spiff 15.33 17. Oklahoma - Damaramu 16.00 18. USC - Cartman 16.67 19. Alabama - AlwaysPissedOff 18.00 20. Auburn - Agent of Oblivion 18.33 21. Kent State - JHawk 19.00 22. Bowling Green - "Hail" bps21/iggymcfly 19.33 - two forfeits 23. Rutgers - the pinjockey 19.33 24. Georgia - Kingofthe909/A Mike_SC *dead team* 20.00 - three forfeits 25. Michigan - Mad Dog 21.67 26. Boston College - HarleyQuinn 22.67 27. Boise State - Rob E Dangerously *dead team* 23.00 - two forfeits 28. Penn State - threalworldschampion 23.67 - one forfeit 29. Tennessee - Kotzenjunge 26.00 - one forfeit 30. West Virginia - Loaded Glove *dead team* 27.00 (21/31/29) 31. Florida State - 2GOLD 27.00 (27/28/26) - one forfeit 32. Michigan State - Dangerous A * 28.33 (21/32/32) - two forfeits   2004 Bowl Results   MILFHunter.com Bored Bowl: #2 Minnesota (Vern Gagne, 11-4) 16, #1 Virginia (Edwin MacPhisto, 11-4) 15   Traditional Bowl presented by Adam & Eve's Anal Lube: #3 UCLA (phoenixrising, 10-5) 19, #4 Syracuse (CanadianChris, 10-4) 18   Oxycotton Bowl: #6 LSU (teke184, 12-3) 14, #5 Washington State (bravesfan, 7-7) 13   KFC PETA Bowl: #10 Maryland (MarvinisaLunatic, 8-6) 18, #8 Hawaii (Will Scarlet, 7-8) 15   Massengil Country Flower Douche Bowl: Bowling Green (iggymcfly, 10-4) 16, #7 Oregon (nogoodnick, 7-7) 14   Lucky Strikes Tar Bowl: Texas (Flyboy, 7-7) 16, #9 Notre Dame (Lando Griffin, 9-6) 14   Out Magazine Bowl: Ohio State (Gert T, 8-6) 17, Stanford (Bored, 8-6) 14     2005 Standings (regular season)   Pac-8   1. Hawaii (6-1, 7-6) 2. Oregon (4-3, 6-7) 2. Stanford (4-3, 6-7) 4. Arizona State (3-4, 7-6) 4. Washington State (3-4, 6-7) 4. San Diego State (3-4, 6-7) 4. USC (3-4, 6-7) 8. UCLA (2-5, 4-9)   Big MAC   1. Penn State (5-2, 8-5) 1. Illinois (5-2, 8-5) 3. Northwestern (4-3, 8-5) 3. Minnesota (4-3, 5-8) 5. Ohio State (3-4, 7-6) 5. Notre Dame (3-4, 6-7) 7. Kent State (2-5, 4-9) 7. Buffalo (2-5, 2-11)   Mid South   1. Alabama (8-0, 11-2) 2. LSU (5-3, 9-4) 3. South Carolina (4-4, 9-4) 3. Florida (4-4, 8-5) 3. Texas A&M (4-4, 8-5) 6. Auburn (3-5, 7-6) 6. Tennessee (3-5, 5-8) 6. Nebraska (3-5, 5-8) 9. Oklahoma (2-6, 6-7)   Big Atlantic   1. Syracuse (6-2, 9-4) 1. Miami (6-2, 9-4) 3. Georgia Tech (5-3, 7-6) 3. Virginia (5-3, 6-7) 5. Maryland (4-4, 8-5) 5. Connecticut (4-4, 7-6) 7. FIU (3-5, 5-8) 7. Rutgers (3-5, 5-8) 9. Troy (0-8, 1-12)   2005 BCS Rankings (pre bowls)   1. Miami - Spaceman Spiff 3.85 2. Alabama - AlwaysPissedOff 5.0 3. Syracuse - CanadianChris 5.1 4. LSU - teke184 5.9 5. Texas A&M - Secret Agent 6.65 6. Ohio State - Gert T 7.2 7. South Carolina - Cuban Linx 8.1 8. Florida - Agent Bond34 8.2 9. Georgia Tech - iggymcfly 9.6 10. Penn State - therealworldschampion 10.65 11. Hawaii - Will Scarlet 12.8 12. USC - Cartman 13.25 13. Northwestern - Kingofthe909 13.45 14. Stanford - Bored 14.55 15. Virginia - Edwin MacPhisto 16.55 16. Notre Dame - Lando Griffin 16.6 17. Maryland - MarvinisaLunatic 16.9 18. Illinois - Matt Young 17.55 19. Tennessee - Kotzenjunge 19.1 20. Auburn - Agent of Oblivion 19.4 21. Arizona State - Spicy McHaggis 19.6 22. Rutgers - the pinjockey 20.4 23. UCLA - phoenixrising 20.45 24. Oklahoma - Damaramu 21.0 25. Nebraska - Carnival 21.5 26. Washington State - bravesfan 21.6 27. Connecticut - DragonLordKaiba 22.0 28. San Diego State - Porter 22.95 29. Oregon - nogoodnick 23.1 30. Florida International - Vitamin X 26.9 31. Kent State - JHawk 28.1 32. Minnesota - Vern Gagne 28.15 33. Troy - Angel Grace Blue 30.35 34. Buffalo - Black Widow 30.65   2005 Bowl Results   BenchWarmer Bob's Bored Bowl #2 Alabama (AlwaysPissedOff) 17, #1 Miami (Spaceman Spiff) 15   Jack Osbourne's Oxycotton Bowl #5 Texas A&M (Secret Agent) 18, #3 Syracuse (CanadianChris) 17   Lucky Strikes Cigarettes Tar Bowl #4 LSU (teke184) 18, #10 Penn State (therealworldschampion) 17   Out Magazine Bowl #7 South Carolina (Cuban Linx) 16, #6 Ohio State (Gert T) 16; South Carolina wins by tiebreak   Meow Mix XNXX.COM Pussy Bowl #9 Georgia Tech (iggymcfly) 16, #8 Florida (Agent Bond34) 14   Traditional Bowl presented by Adam & Eve's Anal Lube Northwestern (Kingofthe909) 18, Hawaii (Will Scarlet) 18; Northwestern wins by tiebreak   KFC PETA Bowl Maryland (MarvinisaLunatic) 15, Arizona State (Spicy McHaggis) 11   Ex-Lax Toilet Bowl Connecticut (DragonLordKaiba) 15, Auburn (Agent of Oblivion) 12     All-Time Records (ordered by total wins)   Note: Results where replacements picks were used are thrown out.   1. teke184 22-8 2. CanadianChris 20-9 3. AlwaysPissedOff 19-9 4t. iggymcfly 17-8 4t. Edwin MacPhisto 17-11 4t. MarvinisaLunatic 17-11 7. Vern Gagne 16-11 8t. Lando Griffin 15-13 8t. Will Scarlet 15-15 10t. Bored 14-13 10t. Gert T 14-13 10t. phoenixrising 14-14 13t. Agent Bond34 13-14 13t. Agent of Oblivion 13-14 13t. bravesfan 13-14 13t. Spaceman Spiff 13-15 13t. Spicy McHaggis 13-15 13t. nogoodnick 13-16 19t. Kingofthe909 11-6 19t. Cartman 11-15 19t. therealworldschampion 11-17 22t. Cuban Linx 10-4 22t. Kotzenjunge 10-14 22t. JHawk 10-15 25t. A Mike_SC 9-3 25t. the pinjockey 9-17 27t. Secret Agent 8-5 27t. DragonLordKaiba 8-6 27t. Damaramu 8-15 30. Flyboy 7-7 31t. Porter 6-7 31t. HarleyQuinn 6-8 33t. Carnival 5-8 33t. Vitamin X 5-8 35t. Matt Young 4-2 35t. Dangerous A 4-7 35t. Loaded Glove 4-8 35t. 2GOLD 4-9 35t. Mad Dog 4-9 40t. "Hail" bps21 1-2 40t. Leena 1-7 40t. Angel Grace Blue 1-12 43. Rob E Dangerously 0-4

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HOF Profile: Don Mattingly

Don Mattingly - First Baseman   New York Yankees 1982-1995   7th year on the ballot   Past HOF Voting Results 2001: 28.16% 2002: 20.34% 2003: 13.71% 2004: 12.85% 2005: 11.43% 2006: 12.30%   Awards 1985 AL MVP 1985 AL Gold Glove - 1B 1985 AL Silver Slugger - 1B 1985 ML Sporting News Player of the Year 1986 AL Gold Glove - 1B 1986 AL Silver Slugger - 1B 1987 AL Gold Glove - 1B 1987 AL Silver Slugger - 1B 1988 AL Gold Glove - 1B 1989 AL Gold Glove - 1B 1991 AL Gold Glove - 1B 1992 AL Gold Glove - 1B 1993 AL Gold Glove - 1B 1994 AL Gold Glove - 1B   All-Star Selections: 6 (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989)   League Leader 1984: Batting Average, Hits, Doubles, OPS+ 1985: Doubles, RBI, Total Bases 1986: Hits, Doubles, Total Bases, Runs Created, Slugging %, OPS, OPS+   Career Ranks Doubles: 86th   Hall of Fame Stats   Black Ink: Batting - 23 (84) (Average HOFer ≈ 27) Gray Ink: Batting - 111 (185) (Average HOFer ≈ 144) HOF Standards: Batting - 34.1 (211) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Batting - 133.5 (95) (Likely HOFer > 100)   Similar Batters in HOF: 2 (Kirby Puckett, Jim Bottomley) Other Similar Batters: Cecil Cooper, Garret Anderson, Wally Joyner, Hal McRae, Will Clark, Tony Oliva, Jeff Conine, Keith Hernandez   Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3)   1982: 0/0.1 1983: 7/1.3 1984: 29/11.7 1985: 32/11.7 1986: 34/12.7 1987: 27/9.1 1988: 24/6.4 1989: 26/7.4 1990: 7/2.1 1991: 14/4.0 1992: 20/7.3 1993: 20/6.0 1994: 15/6.0 1995: 8/4.7   Career Win Shares: 263 Career WARP3: 89.1   Would he get my vote?   No. He was unbelievable from 1984-1986, very good from 1987-1989, and then just very ordinary from 1990-1995. His peak was just too short and back problems took away his power as he hit over 20 homeruns only once in the final eight years of his career. He was an excellent defensive first baseman but there's only so much of a bonus you can give for first base defense.

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HOF Profile: Jose Canseco

Jose Canseco - Rightfielder/Designated Hitter   Oakland Athletics 1985-1992, 1997 Texas Rangers 1992-1994 Boston Red Sox 1995-1996 Toronto Blue Jays 1998 Tampa Bay Devil Rays 1999-2000 New York Yankees 2000 Chicago White Sox 2001   Awards 1986 AL Rookie of the Year 1988 AL MVP 1988 AL Silver Slugger - OF 1990 AL Silver Slugger - OF 1991 AL Silver Slugger - OF 1998 AL Silver Slugger - DH   All-Star Selections: 6 (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1999)   League Leader 1988: Homeruns, RBI, Slugging %, OPS+ 1991: Homeruns   Career Ranks Homeruns: 30th RBI: 61st SLG: 66th AB/HR: 21st   Hall of Fame Stats   Black Ink: Batting - 15 (149) (Average HOFer ≈ 27) Gray Ink: Batting - 93 (245) (Average HOFer ≈ 144) HOF Standards: Batting - 38.1 (166) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Batting - 103.0 (138) (Likely HOFer > 100)   Similar Batters in HOF: 3 (Willie Stargell, Duke Snider, Willie McCovey) Other Similar Batters: Jim Thome, Gil Hodges, Dale Murphy, Juan Gonzalez, Jack Clark, Carlos Delgado, Tino Martinez   Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3)   1985: 4/1.0 1986: 21/5.1 1987: 17/6.6 1988: 39/12.5 1989: 14/3.7 1990: 26/8.6 1991: 31/9.4 1992: 16/6.1 1993: 8/1.5 1994: 16/6.9 1995: 15/4.9 1996: 13/4.7 1997: 8/2.5 1998: 15/4.8 1999: 13/4.8 2000: 8/2.5 2001: 8/2.1   Career Win Shares: 272 Career WARP3: 87.8   Would he get my vote?   No. Fuck him.

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Top 50 Most Replied TSM Sports Forum Threads

Hey its entry #200! Ya I had nothing special thought out. I've tried putting together a list of the Top 50 Oakland A's of All-Time but am never satisfied with the list when I put it together. I also tried putting together a list of the Top 100 baseball players of my baseball lifetime but that became too difficult and eventually too subjective as I made adjustments to it. So as a total cop out I decided to list the Top 50 most replied to threads in the Sports forum here at TSM which is pretty much the only forum I post in for the most part. I'd pull quotes from these threads but not even I'm not Bored enough to go through threads with thousands of posts to find something remotely funny although feel free to do it for me.   1. One & Only MLB playoff discussion thread 3616 replies Sarted September 27, 2003 by KingPK Most Posts: Choken One - 612   2. English Football 3483 Started June 22, 2003 by welshjerichomark Most Posts: TheFranchise - 893   3. The Official MLB Offseason Topic 2396 Started November 9, 2003 by Bored Most Posts: alkeiper - 448   4. Fantasy NBA League? 2264 Started October 1, 2003 by MarvinisaLunatic Most Posts: Lightning Flik - 415   5. The OAO NBA Playoffs/Finals Thread 2145 Started April 10, 2004 by Dangerous A Most Posts: Choken One - 203   6. And So it Begins 2132 Started October 28, 2004 by Bruiser Chong Most Posts: alkeiper - 238   7. The one and only NHL playoffs thread 1989 Started October 6, 2003 by Urban Warfare Most Posts: ???   8. The ALCS: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 1902 Started October 9, 2004 by The Dames Most Posts: Anglesault - 246   9. NFL Discussion Forumtable 1870 Started November 14, 2006 by Agent of Oblivion Most Posts: Porter - 144   10. Smartmarks Fake Baseball League 1714 Started October 18, 2003 by Evolution Most Posts: Evolution - 553   11. Another reason why ESPN sucks 1681 Started April 13, 2006 by KingPK Mosts Posts: Leena - 156   12. 2006-7 MLB Offseason Thread 1593 Started October 2, 2006 by Mik Most Posts: cheech13 - 182   13. 2006 NFL Off-Season 1558 Started January 3, 2006 by FFMS Most Posts: Carlito Brigante - 203   14. The OaO 2003-2004 NBA Thread! 1369 Started October 23, 2003 by Just J Most Posts: alfdogg - 167   15. The 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs thread 1317 Started April 4, 2004 by CanadianChris Most Posts: Lightning Flik - 99   16. The Official 2003 NBA Playoffs Thread 1246 Started April 16, 2003 by Crazy Dan Mosts Posts: ???   17. Official College Football thread 1229 Started September 2, 2003 by Vern Gagne Most Posts: Bored - 216   18. The NFL Offseason/Pre-Draft Thread 1177 Started January 22, 2005 by MrRant Most Posts: Vitamin X - 158   19. TSM Fantasy Baseball 2007 1150 Started January 12, 2007 by MJ Styles Most Posts: MJ Styles - 179   20. TSM 2006 NBA Playoffs thread 1140 Started April 17, 2006 by Dangerous A Most Posts: alfdogg - 105   21. The One & Only 2003 NFL Draft Thread 1126 Started April 25, 2003 by Flyboy Most Posts: ???   22. The Rose Bowl Thread 1112 Started December 3, 2005 by Bored Most Posts: Damaramu - 236   23. NBA Offseason Thread 1109 Started May 8, 2006 by Kingofthe909 Most Posts: alfdogg - 143   24. NBA Offseason News and Moves 1104 Started June 17, 2004 by NaturalBornThriller4:20 Most Posts: alfdogg - 106   25. 2006-07 MLB Offseason Thread (Part II) 1095 Started December 11, 2006 by alkeiper Most Posts: cheech13 - 154   26. NHL 2006 Playoffs thread... 1087 Started April 17, 2006 by Carlito Brigante Most Posts: CanadianChris - 165   27. NBA Roundtable Discussion 1056 Started December 7, 2006 by alfdogg Most Posts: Ripper - 145   28. Head 2 Head Fantasy Baseball 2005 1026 Started February 21, 2005 by Lightning Flik Most Posts: Lightning Flik - 205   29. NHL 2006 Off-Season... 1012 Started June 19, 2006 by Carlito Brigante Most Posts: Kingofthe909 - 134   30. NCAA Basketball Tournament Thread 1006 Started March 17, 2005 by Slayer Mosts Posts: Damaramu - 131   31. The OAO NHL 2003-2004 Season Thread 1003 Started December 2, 2003 by CanadianChris Most Posts: CanadianChris - 118   32. Super Bowl XL 996 Started January 22, 2006 by CanadianChris Most Posts: Hawk 34 - 67   33. NBA Offseason Stuff 953 Started May 31, 2005 by alfdogg Most Posts: alfdogg - 128   34. The One and Only Divisional Playoffs thread 917 Started January 10, 2004 by CanadianChris Most Posts: FrigidSoul - 102   35. College Hoops: NCAA Tournament Rounds 1 and 2 913 Started March 13, 2006 by SilverPhoenix Most Posts: Leena - 100   36. 2005-2006 MLB Offseason thread 891 Started October 19, 2005 by Mik Most Posts: FFMS - 138   37. Fantasy Football 871 Started July 7, 2003 by razazteca Most Posts: Lightning Flik - 162   38. The Official SmartMarks Fantasy Football Thread 869 Started July 28, 2002 by The Man in Blak Most Posts: ???   39. NBA Playoffs 2006: Conference Semifinals 867 Started May 6, 2006 by alfdogg Most Posts: naiwf - 89   40. TSM Head-to-head FantasyBaseball League~! 841 Started February 18, 2004 by Lightning Flik Most Posts: Lightning Flik - 216   41. TOAO NFL Week 2 Thread 813 Started September 13, 2003 by bps21 Most Post: tpww - 144   42t. Anyone up for Fantasy Football? 808 Started July 3, 2004 by LaParkaMarka Most Posts: Lightning Flik - 151   42t. 2005-06 MLB Offseason Thread (Part II) 808 Started Decmeber 11, 2005 by alkeiper Most Posts: alkeiper - 114   44. OAO 2004 MLB Games Thread 800 Started April 4, 2004 by HarleyQuinn Most Posts: Anglesault - 165   45. Yankees/Twins ALDS Thread 799 Started October 5, 2004 by alkeiper Most Posts: mike546 - 131   46. The ONE and ONLY World Series Thread 795 Started October 16, 2003 by alkeiper Most Posts: Mik - 179   47. The 2006 NFL Draft Thread 766 Started April 28, 2006 by Gert T Most Posts: teke184 - 100   48. World Cup 2006 in Germany 753 Started May 10, 2006 by CurryMan Most Posts: Kingofthe909 - 75   49. The 2004 NFL Draft 749 Started April 15, 2004 by JackBauer Most Posts: bps21 - 102   50. NBA Playoffs 722 Started April 17, 2005 by alfdogg Most Posts: The Electrifyer - 59

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Conference Tournaments are the Tool of the Devil!

Time to take a brief break from the nostalgia. On Tuesday the first conference tournaments in college basketball will tip off and thus starts the two weeks of the season that render the regular season meaningless. The idea that with two weeks left in the season that almost every team in college basketball has a chance to qualify for the tournament is insane. The majority of conferences every team qualifies for their conference tournament. It is technically possible for a team to go winless in its conference yet qualify for the field of 65. What is this the Special Olympics? Everybody is a winner!   First starting with the major conferences…what is the point? Almost every winner in the conference tournament of a major conference was getting into the tournament anyways. Really why should beating a conference team on a neutral court (well depending on where tournament is being played which I’ll get to) matter in qualifying for the tournament? You likely won’t meet another conference team in the real tournament until the Elite Eight or Final Four and typically a team who’s chances of getting into the real tournament are depending on how they play in their conference tournament aren’t going to get that far. Also if a major conference team goes undefeated in conference play, like Duke at the moment, what do they have left to prove? Why should they risk injury in essentially meaningless games for them? For a team like Duke the ACC tournament is almost like an exhibition because they’ve already wrapped up a #1 seed. Can you imagine what would happen if J.J. Reddick were injured in a nothing ACC first round game? Okay that would be worth just to see Dick Vitale openly weep on live television.   Now with the smaller conferences it does a get little more tricky. Defenders of the conference tournaments will say this is the only exposure they get which is a valid point. But what really bothers me about conference tournaments for smaller conferences is a team can have their entire season wiped out by one bad game or a team that has absolutely no business getting into the tournament can have one hot week qualify four the tournament just to get annihilated by a #1 seed. These smaller conferences where they will only get one bid there is always a chance a team with a losing record or just hovering over .500 will get into the tournament just because they won three straight games in early March in their weak conference. By not including the best team from every conference they are just devaluing the overall strength of the real tournament. If you actually included the truly best teams from all these smaller conferences maybe every once in a while we’d get an interesting #1 vs. #16 game.   A glaring problem with conference tournaments is that many are played at the same venue every year thus some teams get home court advantages ever year. Duke and North Carolina will always have more fans in the ACC tournament as its played Greensboro, NC every year. UCLA and USC will always have home court in the Pac-10 tournament as it always played in Los Angeles. It’s ridiculous especially in a conference like the Pac-10 where there is an NBA arena in every region of the conference that would be perfectly capable of hosting the tournament on a rotating basis. Why is there this refusal in most conferences to rotate where the tournament hosted? Sure it’s all about ticket sales but you can’t tell me in each conference there is only one venue that can put a decent number of people in the seats for a tournament.   I’d personally like conference tournaments to go away. You win your regular season title, you should get an automatic bid. If there was a system in place where if there was a tie for a regular season title that they had a one game playoff between the top two teams then that would be perfectly fine. In fact why can’t there just be a conference title game for every conference between the 1st and 2nd place teams (or division winners in conferences like the SEC and Big XII) in every conference this time of year rather than this nonsense where the 11th place team gets to extend its season? For smaller conferences most of them only get their title game televised by ESPN anyways. To be honest I’m not even sure all these small conferences should get a bid but that’s for another entry. But they’re here to stay and ESPN can romanticize them all want but really they’re celebrating how pointless it was to watch the last four months of games.

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2008 Bowl Bubble

Did this the last couple of years so might as well keep doing. This is just a conference-by-conference breakdown (plus Notre Dame) of where everyone stands when it comes to making bowl games.   I know last year you were all thinkg, "Hey they just aren't enough bowl games and I was outraged that 6-6 South Carolina didn't go to a bowl game last year." My friends, the NCAA and ESPN have listened to you and they added two more bowl games (Congressional and St. Petersburg Bowls) bringing the total number of bowl games to 34. That increases the odds even further this year that if you are 6-6 and play in a BCS conference, you will probably find a bowl bid some where. But for the sake of taking into account all possible scenarios I'm not going to consider all six win teams as locks just yet to make bowl games except in certain conferences which I'll get to.   Note Navy has already accepted a bid to the Congressional Bowl.   ACC   Bowl Tie-ins: BCS/Orange, Chick-Fil-A, Gator, Champs Sports, Music City, Meineke Car Care, Emerald, Humanitarian, Congressional   Locks: Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina   Bowl Eligible: Boston College, Maryland, Miami, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest   Bubble Teams: Clemson, Duke, N.C. State, Virginia   As usual the ACC is just one big entertaining, clusterfuck. Technically it is possible that all 12 teams will become bowl eligible as there just isn't a whole lot of difference in talent from 1 to 12 but the odds of that are very, very slim. The most important game among the bubble teams will be two weeks from now when Virginia hosts Clemson. Duke and N.C. State are both longshots.   Notre Dame   Bowl Tie-ins: Cotton, Gator, Sun   I'm going to mention the Irish before the Big East since what happens to them directly effects the Big East bids. With their loss last night the Irish's were officially eliminated from BCS consideration but if they run the table they could still get into the Cotton Bowl (note this would take away a bid from the SEC) although they'd have to win at USC to do so. 7-5 is more realistic but that also means beating Navy this week which isn't a given and if they do end up 7-5 they probably get an invite to the Gator Bowl or at worst the Sun Bowl, which if either happens the Big East loses a bid. At 6-6 it then gets a bit dicey for them as they then would need to rely on an open bid and hope they don't get gobbled up by 7-5 teams who don't have a bid. By rule any bowl that has a bid that couldn't be filled by one of their conference affiliations, they must invite an available 7+ win team over a 6 win team. If this happens and Notre Dame gets shutout of a bowl at 6-6, expect that rule to change.   Big East   Bowl Tie-ins: BCS, Gator/Sun, Meineke Car Care, International, Papajohns.com, St. Petersburg   Locks: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh   Bowl Eligible: Connecticut, South Florida, West Virginia   Bubble Teams: Louisville, Rutgers   Now that I've covered Notre Dame, it's very likely the Big East will have only five available bids instead of six so 7+ wins might be a must in this conference to go bowling. If everything goes to form, the Louisville/Rutgers game on 12/4 will be an elimination game for bowl eligibility. The Cardinals do have Cincinnati and West Virginia at home before then and its not out of the question they could spring an upset in one of those games.   Big Ten   Bowl Tie-ins: BCS/Rose (two bids?), Capital One, Outback, Alamo, Champs Sports, Insight, Motor City   Locks: Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State   Bowl Eligible: Iowa   Bubble Teams: Illinois, Wisconsin   As long as Ohio State avoids an upset in their final two games against Illinois and Michigan, they will give the conference a second team in a BCS bowl. Wisconsin has some bizarre scheduling this year as they finish the year against I-AA Cal Poly so you can put them down for win #6 there, if they don't do it this week against Minnesota. Illinois has much longer odds as they finish at home against Ohio State and then at Northwestern.   Big XII   Bowl Tie-ins: BCS/Fiesta (two bids?), Cotton, Holiday, Gator/Sun, Alamo, Insight, Independence, Texas   Locks: Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech   Bowl Eligible: Kansas, Nebraska   Bubble Teams: Colorado, Kansas State, Texas A&M   Unless something truly shocking happens, this conference will send two teams into the BCS. That also means that it doesn't look they'll fill the Texas Bowl bid and possibly not the Independence Bowl bid either. Kansas State has the easier road of the three bubble teams as they have Nebraska and Iowa State at home but a loss in either eliminates them.   Conference USA   Bowl Tie-ins: Liberty, GMAC, Texas, Armed Forces, New Orleans, St. Petersburg   Locks: Rice, Tulsa   Bowl Eligible: East Carolina   Bubble Teams: Houston, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss, UTEP   Outside chance that the conference won't fill the illustrious St. Petersburg Bowl bid as Marshall, Southern Miss, and UTEP all need two wins and they will all need to spring an upset to do so. Memphis is a near lock with only home dates against UCF and Tulane remaining.   MAC   Bowl Tie-ins: Motor City, GMAC, International   Locks: None   Bowl Eligible: BCS?, Ball State, Central Michigan, Western Michigan   Bubble Teams: Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Northern Illinois, Temple   The MAC is kind of a poor man's Big XII this year because the three best teams in the conference all play in the same division, that being the West divison. Now you probably are wondering how the hell can I say Ball State isn't a lock? Yes they are undefeated and it is not impossible that they could sneak into the BCS if both Utah and Boise State lose. But the problem is, is that they still have to play CMU and WMU. If they were to lose both games and then say the East division champ were to upset the West division champ in the MAC title game then Ball State could find themselves without a MAC affiliated bowl game to go to, if both CMU and WMU were invited over them. The odds are strongly against this and they likely find an open bid somewhere but again have to take into account all possible scenarios, however unlikely. This is also why CMU and WMU are not locks either in case there is a huge upset in the title game.   Mountain West   Bowl Tie-ins: BCS?, Las Vegas, Poinsettia, Armed Forces, New Mexico   Locks: Air Force, BYU, TCU, Utah   Bubble Teams: Colorado State, UNLV, Wyoming   As we all know, Utah will be going to a BCS Bowl (likely the Fiesta) if they finish undefeated which would give the conference five bids. UNLV and Wyoming will play an elimination game this week. The Rebels will be in great shape if they win as they finish the season against lowly San Diego State. Since all three bubble teams are 4-6, it is possible that the New Mexico Bowl will become an open bid if Utah does end up in the BCS.   Pac-10   Bowl Tie-ins: BCS/Rose (two bids?), Holiday, Sun, Emerald, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Poinsettia   Locks: Arizona, California, Oregon, Oregon State, USC   Bubble Teams: Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA   The reason why all eligible teams are already locks in this conference is because UCLA and ASU play an elimination game on 11/28 thus there can be no more than seven eligible teams for the conference. There is an outside shot at the Pac-10 getting two teams in the BCS because if Oregon State wins out, they win the conference by tiebreak over USC and get the Rose Bowl bid. The odds are against this because the Beavers still have Cal, Arizona, and Oregon left to play but it's certainly not impossible. Also, STANFORD~ will beat Cal to become bowl eligible...or at least they better win.   SEC   Bowl Tie-ins: BCS/Sugar (two bids?), Capital One, Cotton, Outback, Chick-Fil-A, Music City, Liberty, Independence, Papajohns.com   Locks: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina   Bowl Eligible: Kentucky, LSU   Bubble Teams: Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt   Just like the Big XII, it would be a shocker if the SEC doesn't send two teams into the BCS so you can put them down for ten bids. Now they might not fill them all as Mississippi State for one will need pull off the upset of the year at Alabama this week just to stay alive and Auburn will have to upset Georgia or Alabama to become bowl eligible. Mississippi should pick up win #6 against UL Monroe this week.   Sun Belt   Bowl Tie-in: New Orleans   Locks: None   Bowl Eligible: Troy   Bubble Teams: Arkansas State, FIU, Florida Atlantic, UL Lafayette, Middle Tennessee   Barring something unforeseen, the conference title should come down to the ULL/Troy game on 11/22. The conference this year does now have contingency bids with the Congressional Bowl, Papajohns.com Bowl and the Independence Bowl where if those bids are not filled by the primary conference, a Sun Belt team will be taken although I think they have to be 7-5 or better but I could be wrong about that.   WAC   Bowl Tie-ins: BCS, Humanitarian, Hawaii, New Mexico   Locks: Boise State   Bowl Eligible: San Jose State   Bubble Teams: Fresno State, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, New Mexico State   Boise State will be huge BYU fans on 11/22 as they need Utah to lose that game to get into the BCS, otherwise they play another glorified home game against a 6-6 ACC team in the Humanitarian Bowl. Now the conference does have a contingency bid with the Poinsettia Bowl if the Pac-10 doesn't fill it and popular speculation is that they will invite the Broncos to play BYU. Not sure that is much of a consolation prize though. The rest of this conference is a complete mess and I'm not even going to attempt to figure out how it will shakeout.

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So I had an A's preview typed up...

...and when I went to preview it, it told me to log back in. No biggie it has happened before with previous entries and I've always been able to hit the back button, copy the text, and log back in. But nope not this time. So I really don't feel typing that up again although I'd be even more pissed if this happend with my original A's preview idea where I'd talk about the entire team. I started typing it in a word file a couple of weeks ago but got Bored after seven players so I decided to go with a condensed version (or actually a lazy version) where I talked about six players in particular (Chavez, Zito, Harden, Bradley, Loaiza, Thomas) and that is what I had typed out in the entry. Oh well, I should have known I was gonna be timed out. I do actually have what I said about Chavez already in the Word file so here's that:     And this I had tacked on to the my original entry that I lost which was also in the world file, just stat lines for everyone on the 25 man roster, nothing special:   Jason Kendall   Age: 32 2005: 676 PA, .271/.345/.321, 79 RC, .249 EQA, 18.1 VORP, 14 Win Shares 2004: 658 PA, .319/.399/.390, 96 RC, .280 EQA, 47.5 VORP, 25 Win Shares (Pittsburgh)   Adam Melhuse   Age: 34 2005: 102 PA, .247/.284/.381, 12 RC, .234 EQA, 1.3 VORP, 2 Win Shares 2004: 231 PA, .257/.309/.463, 23 RC, .262 EQA, 9.4 VORP, 5 Win Shares   Mark Ellis   Age: 29 2005: 486 PA, .316/.384/.477, 78 RC, .301 EQA, 41.9 VORP, 21 Win Shares 2004: Injured 2003: 622 PA, .248/.313/.371, 63 RC, .246 EQA, 13.9 VORP, 18 Win Shares   Eric Chavez   Age: 28 2005: 694 PA, .269/.329/.466, 96 RC, .280 EQA, 35.5 VORP, 20 Win Shares 2004: 577 PA, .276/.397/.501, 91 RC, .311 EQA, 45.5 VORP, 18 Win Shares   Bobby Crosby   Age: 26 2005: 371 PA, .276/.346/.456, 48 RC, .283 EQA, 25.4 VORP, 12 Win Shares 2004: 623 PA, .239/.319/.426, 66 RC, .262 EQA, 23.0 VORP, 14 Win Shares   Frank Thomas   Age: 38 2005: 124 PA, .219/.315/.590, 17 RC, .299 EQA, 9.2 VORP, 3 Win Shares (Chicago-AL) 2004: 311 PA, .271/.434/.563, 58 RC, .333 EQA, 34.2 VORP, 12 Win Shares (Chicago-AL)   Marco Scutaro   Age: 30 2005: 423 PA, .247/.310/.391, 45 RC, .251 EQA, 11.0 VORP, 11 Win Shares 2004: 477 PA, .273/.297/.393, 45 RC, .240 EQA, 9.3 VORP, 11 Win Shares   Antonio Perez   Age: 26 2005: 287 PA, .297/.360/.398, 43 RC, .274 EQA, 15.7 VORP, 10 Win Shares (Los Angeles) 2004: 476 AB, .296/.379/.511 (AAA Las Vegas)   Nick Swisher   Age: 25 2005: 522 PA, .236/.322/.446, 63 RC, .269 EQA, 14.2 VORP, 12 Win Shares 2004: 443 AB, .269/.406/.537 (AAA Sacramento)   Mark Kotsay   Age: 30 2005: 629 PA, .280/.325/.421, 86 RC, .263 EQA, 23.2 VORP, 18 Win Shares 2004: 673 PA, .314/.370/.459, 100 RC, .289 EQA, 45.3 VORP, 21 Win Shares   Milton Bradley   Age: 28 2005: 316 PA, .290/.350/.484, 43 RC, .290 EQA, 24.0 VORP, 10 Win Shares (Los Angeles) 2004: 597 PA, .267/.362/.424, 74 RC, .274 EQA, 25.2 VORP, 16 Win Shares (Los Angeles)   Jay Payton   Age: 33 2005: 435 PA, .267/.306/.444, 57 RC, .261 EQA, 12.1 VORP, 12 Win Shares (Boston/Oakland) 2004: 511 PA, .260/.326/.367, 63 RC, .251 EQA, 9.5 VORP, 15 Win Shares (San Diego)   Bobby Kielty   Age: 29 2005: 433 PA, .263/.350/.395, 53 RC, .270 EQA, 12.9 VORP, 10 Win Shares 2004: 278 PA, .214/.321/.370, 32 RC, .249 EQA, -1.2 VORP, 4 Win Shares   Rich Harden   Age: 24 2005: 128 IP, 177 ERA+, 2.81 K/BB, 1.06 WHIP, 40.8 VORP, 12 Win Shares 2004: 189.2 IP, 117 ERA+, 2.06 K/BB, 1.33 WHIP, 41.3 VORP, 14 Win Shares   Barry Zito   Age: 28 2005: 228.1 IP, 116 ERA+, 1.92 K/BB, 1.20 WHIP, 41.8 VORP, 13 Win Shares 2004: 213 IP, 105 ERA+, 2.01 K/BB, 1.39 WHIP, 31.5 VORP, 12 Win Shares   Danny Haren   Age: 25 2005: 217 IP, 120 ERA+, 3.08 K/BB, 1.22 WHIP, 39.5 VORP, 13 Win Shares 2004: 128 IP, 4.15 ERA, 4.55 K/BB, 1.32 WHIP (AAA Memphis)   Joe Blanton   Age: 25 2005: 201.1 IP, 127 ERA+, 1.73 K/BB, 1.22 WHIP, 44.3 VORP, 13 Win Shares 2004: 1761.1 IP, 4.19 ERA, 4.21 K/BB, 1.32 WHIP (AAA Sacramento)   Esteban Loaiza   Age: 34 2005: 217 IP, 105 ERA+, 3.15 K/BB, 1.30 WHIP, 42.1 VORP, 12 Win Shares 2004: 183 IP, 84 ERA+, 1.65 K/BB, 1.58 WHIP, 2.8 VORP, 7 Win Shares   Huston Street   Age: 22 2005: 78.1 IP, 261 ERA+, 2.77 K/BB, 1.01 WHIP, 33.3 VORP, 16 Win Shares 2004: 57 IP, 1.58 ERA, 4.54 K/BB, 0.86 WHIP (University of Texas)   Justin Duchscherer   Age: 28 2005: 85.2 IP, 204 ERA+, 4.47 K/BB, 1.00 WHIP, 30.0 VORP, 11 Win Shares 2004: 96.3 IP, 143 ERA+, 1.84 K/BB, 1.22 WHIP, 30.2 VORP, 9 Win Shares   Kiko Calero   Age: 31 2005: 55.2 IP, 139 ERA+, 2.89 K/BB, 1.13 WHIP, 15.7 VORP, 5 Win Shares 2004: 45.1 IP, 151 ERA+, 4.70 K/BB, 0.82 WHIP, 14.7 VORP, 6 Win Shares (St. Louis)   Jay Witasick   Age: 33 2005: 63.1 IP, 163 ERA+, 2.52 K/BB, 1.30 WHIP, 13.6 VORP, 6 Win Shares (Colorado/Oakland) 2004: 61.2 IP, 125 ERA+, 2.19 K/BB, 1.35 WHIP, 11.1 VORP, 3 Win Shares (San Diego)   Joe Kennedy   Age: 27 2005: 152.2 IP, 77 ERA+, 1.52 K/BB, 1.68 WHIP, -17.5 VORP, 3 Win Shares (Colorado/Oakland) 2004: 162.1 IP, 138 ERA+, 1.75 K/BB, 1.42 WHIP, 36.0 VORP, 13 Win Shares (Colorado)   Kirk Saarloos   Age: 27 2005: 159.2 IP, 108 ERA+, 0.98 K/BB, 1.40 WHIP, 28.3 VORP, 9 Win Shares 2004: Pitched insignificant number of innings in AAA New Orleans, AAA Sacramento, and Oakland   So that's that, this blog will probably turn into an A's blog by the time the season startsso I'm sure I'll touch on some of the subjects from the entry I intended to post.   Oh and my prediction: A's win 97 games, finish first in the A.L. West, and finally win an ALDS series. Anything after that is gravy.

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2006 MVP Watch #2

ESPN is already doing the "Chasing Bonds" treatment for Albert Pujols but it really should be "Chasing Wagner." According to HardballTimes.com Pujols is on pace to tie Honus Wagner's single season record of 59 Win Shares set back in 1908. I am outraged the media is ignoring this potential historic event. Come on the homerun record has been broken twice in the last eight years, the Win Shares record hasn't been broken in 98 years! Don't you remember as a kid always wondering if someone would reach that magical #59?   Anyways no shock at all who's #1 in the N.L. still and I might as well give the entire Top 10 to Pujols. Not much else of note, two drop out and one of the "Most Overrated Players in Baseball" cracks to the Top 10.   Drop Outs: Carlos Delgado, Carlos Lee   #10 Bobby Abreu, Phillies .276/.447/.503, 36 RC, .316 EQA, 13.8 VORP, 10 Win Shares   #9 Chase Utley, Phillies .328/.406/.554, 35 RC, .298 EQA, 18.9 VORP, 10 Win Shares   #8 Bronson Arroyo, Reds 195 ERA+, 3.79 K/BB, 1.06 WHIP, 26.7 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #7 Carlos Beltran, Mets .259/.382/.600, 32 RC, .324 EQA, 20.6 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #6 Morgan Ensberg, Astros .272/.403/.627, 36 RC, .322 EQA, 20.8 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #5 Miguel Cabrera, Marlins .335/.432/.599, 41 RC, .338 EQA, 25.4 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #4 Tom Glavine Mets 167 ERA+, 2.32 K/BB, 1.13 WHIP, 23.0 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #3 Lance Berkman, Astros .296/.375/.605, 40 RC, .307 EQA, 17.1 VORP, 11 Win Shares   #2 Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks 191 ERA+, 6.00 K/BB, 1.10 WHIP, 28.1 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #1 .323/.450/.804, 58 RC, .365 EQA, 37.8 VORP, 17 Win Shares   On the A.L. side there's a lot of change with five players dropping out from last week with a couple of familiar faces jumping in including Baseball Jesus himself. But the #1 spot stays the same and even though Thome isn't blowing away the rest of the league like Pujols he definently has a comfortable edge right now. Of course a name you will not see anywhere on this list is the WORST PLAYER EVER, MR. UNCLUTCH A-FRAUD!!!!! God damn how is he not playing in Single-A now? How do the Yankees win any games with him dragging down the club?   Drop Outs: Jonny Gomes, Vernon Wells, Alexis Rios, Nick Swisher, Ramon Hernandez   #10 Jose Lopez, Mariners .292/.322/.497, 40 RC, .284 EQA, 15.8 VORP, 10 Win Shares   #9 Jose Contreras, White Sox 250 ERA+, 2.73 K/BB, 0.87 WHIP, 25.9 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #8 Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox .319/.432/.503, 36 RC, .318 EQA, 15.7 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #7 Miguel Tejada, Orioles .333/.391/.587, 35 RC, .325 EQA, 27.6 VORP, 8 Win Shares   #6 Jason Giambi, Yankees .260/.464/.583, 40 RC, .348 EQA, 19.6 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #5 Manny Ramirez, Red Sox .314/.441/.577, 36 RC, .337 EQA, 20.5 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #4 Derek Jeter, Yankees .348/.433/.519, 41 RC, .325 EQA, 27.6 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #3 Travis Hafner, Indians .311/.443/.627, 46 RC, .353 EQA, 26.6 VORP, 9 Win Shares   #2 Scott Kazmir, Devil Rays 199 ERA+, 3.19 K/BB, 1.28 WHIP, 26.2 VORP, 11 Win Shares   #1 .304/.440/.684, 51 RC, .351 EQA, 28.7 VORP, 12 Win Shares

Bored

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College Football in 1993

In the ongoing debate in college football of playoffs vs. bowls I certainly come on the side of playoffs. I personally think the bowls have out lived their usefulness and that any tradition left in the system was pissed away when the Big Ten and Pac-10 agreed to join the BCS a few years back thus no longer guaranteeing that those two conference’s champions would meet in the Rose Bowl. Since the creation of the BCS in 1998 it has only avoided controversy twice, in 2002 and 2005 simply because they lucked out by having two major conference, unbeaten teams left at the end of the year. Not surprisingly those are the only two years that the BCS title game hasn’t been terrible. It is only in years like 2002 and 2005 where the BCS “works” but if you look at college football’s history there are several years with scenarios where such a system would have been incapable of solving any controversy. One of those years was 1993.   After many near misses at a national title Bobby Bowden and Florida State came into 1993 the run away favorites to win the title. Led by the eventual Heisman trophy winner Charlie Ward, the Seminoles destroyed every team in their path. I had forgotten how dominate they were, just look at their jaw dropping results from that year.   8/28 vs. Kansas 42-0 9/4 at Duke 45-7 9/11 vs. Clemson 57-0 9/18 at North Carolina 33-7 10/2 vs. Georgia Tech 51-0 10/9 vs. Miami 28-10 10/16 vs. Virginia 40-14 10/30 vs. Wake Forest 54-0 11/6 at Maryland 49-20   Not even their tormenters from Miami could give them a real challenge. Then came a trip to South Bend. The Irish were also undefeated and came in at #2 in both polls. The Noles fell behind 24-7 but made a furious comeback to pull the game to 31-24. They had the ball on the Irish 14 for one final play but Ward could not connect in the endzone and it looked like FSU’s national title hopes had been dashed but a late season loss yet again. Now going into that weekend Nebraska was undefeated and #3 in the Coaches’ Poll and #4 in the AP Poll (Miami was #3). The Cornhuskers had not been nearly as dominate as the Seminoles and Irish, with one point wins over UCLA and Kansas. The coaches would move Nebraska to #2 ahead of FSU but the media would leave the Seminoles ahead of the Huskers.   Things then of course got really interesting the following week as after their triumph over Florida State and now with strangle hold on the #1 ranking in both polls, the Irish were stunned at home by Boston College in another classic on a last second field goal 41-39. FSU that weekend slaughtered another ACC foe, N.C. State 62-3, and in the media poll reclaimed the #1 spot while Nebraska grabbed the #1 spot in the coaches poll. The Irish dropped all the way to #4 in both polls behind two different interesting stories. In the coaches poll at #3 was a surprising West Virginia team had upset Miami that week to improve to 10-0 which finally earned them some serious respect, but they were #5 in the media poll. #3 in that poll was Auburn. Auburn was on probation and ineligible for postseason, they concluded their regular season undefeated but nothing to show for it. The final weekend of the regular season would play out with FSU and Nebraska disposing of their rivals, Florida and Oklahoma, while West Virginia edged Boston College 17-14 and thus ending the season with a serious poll controversy. Here’s how the regular season concluded in the polls.   AP 1. Florida State 11-1 2. Nebraska 11-0 3. West Virginia 11-0 4. Auburn 11-0 5. Notre Dame 10-1   Coaches 1. Nebraska 11-0 2. West Virginia 11-0 3. Florida State 11-1 4. Notre Dame 10-1 5. Auburn 11-0   This is was a complete nightmare. The coaches felt the right thing to do was put Nebraska and West Virginia at the top two spots but many didn’t think either was on the level of Florida State and Notre Dame. Of course the media poll was ripped to shreds as how could you have FSU at #1 and the Irish at #5, let alone have West Virginia below FSU when they beat Boston College, who beat Notre Dame, who beat Florida State. This was the type of scenario that only a playoff could have solved. Interestingly enough there was one poll left after the SEC title game, which with Auburn ineligible didn’t have much meaning on the national scene, the media bumped the Irish past Auburn even though neither played.   In the bowl selection process the Orange Bowl held all the cards as who they picked would likely decide that national title. Nebraska had the automatic invite with winning the Big 8 so after that they had the choice of Florida State, West Virginia, and Notre Dame. The would choose the Seminoles, Notre Dame would head to the Cotton Bowl against Texas A&M, and West Virginia to the Sugar Bowl against Florida. In the afternoon of January 1st the Irish edged A&M 24-21. West Virginia would prove their doubters right as they would get murdered by the Gators 41-7 and potentially helping the pollsters quite a bit. If Nebraska could beat Florida State they would get an undefeated and relatively undisputed national champion. They took a 16-15 lead with a little over a minute to go but Charlie Ward would march the Seminoles down the field in a drive that included a fourth down conversion and very controversial personal foul penalty for a field goal and an 18-16 lead with 21 seconds left. A celebration penalty though gave Nebraska life and get in field goal range but kicker Byron Bennett badly hooked the 45 yard attempt. Everyone waited for the polls the next day to see if Notre Dame jumped Florida State due to the way everything shook out but the Irish’s unconvincing win over the Aggies left them at #2 and Bobby Bowden with his long awaited first national title, despite losing to the team who was at #2.   Preseason AP Top 25   1. Florida State 2. Alabama 3. Michigan 4. Texas A&M 5. Miami 6. Syracuse 7. Notre Dame 8. Nebraska 9. Florida 10. Tennessee 11. Colorado 12. Washington 13. Gerogia 14. Arizona 15. Stanford 16. Penn State 17. Ohio State 18. USC 19. BYU 20. North Carolina 21. Boston College 22. Oklahoma 23. Clemson 24. Mississippi State 25. N.C. State   Top 25 Regular Season Match-ups   Week 1 #20 North Carolina 31, #18 USC 9   Week 2 #3 Miami 23, #20 Boston College 7   Week 3 #1 Florida State 57, #21 Clemson 0 #11 Notre Dame 27, #3 Michigan 23 #17 Oklahoma 44, #5 Texas A&M 14 #8 Tennessee 38, #22 Georgia 6 #10 Colorado 45, #24 Baylor 21 #16 Ohio State 21, #12 Washington 12   Week 4 #1 Florida State 33, #13 North Carolina 7 #9 Florida 41, #5 Tennessee 34 #20 Stanford 41, #7 Colorado 37   Week 5 #3 Miami 35, #13 Colorado 29 #18 North Carolina 35, #19 N.C. State 14   Week 6 None   Week 7 #1 Florida State 28, #3 Miami 10 #13 Washington 24, #16 California 23 #25 UCLA 68, #19 BYU 14   Week 8 #1 Florida State 40, #15 Virginia 14 #2 Alabama 17, #10 Tennessee 17 tie #19 Auburn 38, #4 Florida 35 #5 Ohio State 28, #25 Michigan State 21 #18 Michigan 21, #7 Penn State 13 #20 Colorado 27, #9 Oklahoma 10 #22 UCLA 39, #12 Washington 25   Week 9 #6 Miami 49, #23 Syracuse 0 #7 Arizona 9, #25 Washington State 6 #21 Virginia 17, #12 North Carolina 10   Week 10 #3 Ohio State 24, #12 Penn State 6 #6 Nebraska 21, #20 Colorado 17 #15 UCLA 37, #7 Arizona 17 #25 Kansas State 21, #14 Oklahoma 14 #24 Michigan 13, #21 Wisconsin 21   Week 11 #3 Ohio State 14, #15 Wisconsin 14 tie #7 Tennessee 45, #13 Louisville 10 #19 Penn State 38, #17 Indiana 31   Week 12 #2 Notre Dame 31, #1 Florida State 24 #5 Ohio State 23, #19 Indiana 17 #11 Texas A&M 42, #20 Louisville 7   Week 13 #17 Boston College 41, #1 Notre Dame 39 #9 West Virginia 17, #4 Miami 14 #6 Auburn 22, #11 Alabama 14 #16 UCLA 27, #22 USC 21 #25 Virginia Tech 20, #23 Virginia 17   Week 14 #1 Florida State 33, #7 Florida 21 #2 Nebraska 21, #16 Oklahoma 7 #5 West Virginia 17, #11 Boston College 14 #14 Penn State 38, #25 Michigan State 37   Week 15 #9 Florida 28, #16 Alabama 13 (SEC Title) #10 Wisconsin 41, #25 Michigan State 20   Bowl Results (MVP)   Las Vegas: Utah State 42, Ball State 33 (Anthony Calvillo) Sun: #19 Oklahoma 41, Texas Tech 10 (Jerald Moore) Aloha: #17 Colorado 41, #25 Fresno State 30 (Rashaan Salaam) Liberty: Louisville 18, Michigan State 7 (Jeff Brohm) Copper: #20 Kansas State 52, Wyoming 17 (Andre Coleman) Holiday: #11 Ohio State 28, BYU 21 (Raymont Harris) Freedom: USC 28, Utah 21 (Johnnie Morton) Gator: #18 Alabama 24, #12 North Carolina 10 (Brian Burgdorf) Alamo: California 37, Iowa 3 (Dave Barr) Peach: #24 Clemson 14, Kentucky 13 (Brentson Buckner) Independence: #22 Virginia Tech 45, #21 Indiana 20 (Maurice DeShazo) Fiesta: #16 Arizona 29, #10 Miami 0 (Chuck Levy) Carquest: #15 Boston College 31, Virginia 13 (Glenn Foley) Hall of Fame: #23 Michigan 42, N.C. State 7 (Tyrone Wheatley) Cotton: #4 Notre Dame 24, #7 Texas A&M 21 (Lee Becton) Citrus: #13 Penn State 31, #6 Tennessee 13 (Bobby Engram) Rose: #9 Wisconsin 21, #14 UCLA 16 (Brent Moss) Sugar: #8 Florida 41, #3 West Virginia 7 (Errict Rhett) Orange: #1 Florida State 18, #2 Nebraska 16 (Charlie Ward)     Final AP Top 25   1. Florida State 2. Notre Dame 3. Nebraska 4. Auburn 5. Florida 6. Wisconsin 7. West Virginia 8. Penn State 9. Texas A&M 10. Arizona 11. Ohio State 12. Tennessee 13. Boston College 14. Alabama 15. Miami 16. Colorado 17. Oklahoma 18. UCLA 19. North Carolina 20. Kansas State 21. Michigan 22. Virginia Tech 23. Clemson 24. Louisville 25. California   All-Americans   QB Charlie Ward, Florida State   RB Marshall Faulk, San Diego State LeShon Johnson, Northern Illinois Errict Rhett, Florida   WR J.J. Stokes, UCLA Johnnie Morton, USC Ryan Yarborough, Wyoming   TE Carlester Crumpler, East Carolina Pete Mitchell, Boston College   OL Mark Dixon, Virginia Stacy Seegars, Clemson Aaron Taylor, Notre Dame Wayne Gandy, Auburn Jim Pyne, Virginia Tech Korey Stringer, Ohio State Marcus Spears, Northwestern State Rich Braham, West Virginia Todd Steussie, California Bernard Williams, Georgia   DL Rob Waldrop, Arizona Dan Wilkinson, Ohio State Sam Adams, Texas A&M Lou Benfatti, Penn State Derrick Alexander, Florida State Shante Carver, Arizona Kevin Patrick, Miami Bryant Young, Notre Dame   LB Trev Alberts, Nebraska Derrick Brooks, Florida State Jamir Miller, UCLA Barron Wortham, UTEP Dana Howard, Illinois   DB Antonio Langham, Alabama Aaron Glenn, Texas A&M Jeff Burris, Notre Dame Corey Sawyer, Florida State Bobby Taylor, Notre Dame Bracey Walker, North Carolina Jaime Mendez, Kansas State   K Bjorn Merten, UCLA John Becksvoort, Tennessee John Stewart, SMU   P Terry Daniel, Auburn   KR David Palmer, Alabama

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Win Shares: 1989 NBA Draft

To not turn this into solely a blog about the Oakland A's (although I'll probably just go back to them for my next entry) I figured I'd pull out something random. So here is a look back at the 1989 NBA Draft using Win Shares.   I picked the '89 Draft because for quite the lack of talent that came out of it as there is not a future Hall of Famer in the class, it featured it's 2nd pick overall Danny Ferry pitching a fit after being selected by the Clippers and sitting out the '89-'90 season, and it was the first year that the draft was shrunk to two rounds. As you'll see they couldn't fit nearly a full round of decent NBA talent. In addition only Clifford Robinson is still active from the '89 Draft so you can realistically evaluate a draft when almost every player is no longer in the league rather than those who try to evalute only a few years after a draft. Robinson incidently enough was the best value pick of the draft as he was not selected until 36th overall.   Now for Win Shares, everyone thinks of them for baseball but at Basketball-Reference.com they came up with a version for basketball. I don't know how reliable the stat is but seems useful to compare the success of players who were drafted the same year.   1989 NBA Draft Rankings by Career Win Shares   1. Glenn Rice, Miami - 270 Win Shares (4th pick) 2. Vlade Divac, L.A. Lakers - 269 (26th) 3. Clifford Robinson, Portland - 258 (36th) 4. Tim Hardaway, Golden State - 252 (14th) 5. Shawn Kemp, Seattle - 237 (17th) 6. Mookie Blalock, New Jersey - 203 (12th)   7. Sean Elliott, San Antonio - 174 (3rd) 8. Nick Anderson, Orlando - 161 (11th) 9. B.J. Armstrong, Chicago - 138 (18th) 10. Dana Barros, Seattle - 133 (16th) 11t. Danny Ferry, L.A. Clippers - 103 (2nd) 11t. Sherman Douglas, Miami - 103 (28th)   13. George McCloud, Indiana - 80 (7th) 14t. J.R. Reid, Charlotte - 70 (5th) 14t. Pooh Richardson, Minnesota - 70 (10th) 14t. Blue Edwards, Utah - 70 (21st) 17. Chucky Brown, Cleveland - 58 (43rd) 18t. Pervis Ellison, Sacramento - 52 (1st) 18t. Doug West, Minnesota - 52 (38th)   20. Tom Hammonds, Denver - 45 (9th) 21. Stacey King, Chicago - 40 (6th) 22. Dino Radja, Boston - 38 (40th) 23. Haywoode Workman, Atlanta - 31 (49th) 24. Todd Lichti, Denver - 17 (15th) 25. Michael Ansley, Orlando - 16 (37th) 26. Randy White, Dallas - 14 (8th) 27. Greg Grant, Phoenix - 10 (52nd)   28. Kenny Battle, Detroit - 9 (27th) 29. Jeff Martin, L.A. Clippers - 8 (31st) 30. Byron Irvin, Portland - 7 (22nd) 31. John Morton, Cleveland - 6 (25th) 32. Michael Smith, Boston - 5 (13th) 33. Brian Quinnett, New York - 4 (50th) 34t. Pat Durham, Dallas - 3 (35th) 34t. Kenny Payne, Philadelphia - 3 (19th) 36t. Jeff Sanders, Chicago - 2 (20th) 36t. Anthony Cook, Phoenix - 2 (24th) 36t. Frank Kornet, Milwaukee - 2 (30th) 39t. Ed Horton, Washington - 1 (39th) 39t. Doug Roth, Washigton - 1 (41st) 39t. Scott Haffner, Miami - 1 (45th)   The Zero Club   Roy Marble, Atlanta (23rd) Dyron Nix, Charlotte (29th) Stlaney Brundy, New Jersey (32nd) Jay Edwards, L.A. Clippers (33rd) Gary Leonard, Minnesota (34th) Ricky Blanton, Phoenix (46th) Mike Morrison, Phoenix (51st)   Never Played   Michael Cutright, Denver (42nd) Reggie Cross, Philadelphia (44th) Reggie Turner, Denver (47th) Junie Lewis, Utah (48th) Jeff Hodge, Dallas (53rd) Toney Mack, Philadelphia (54th)   Here's one more list, as we know just because a player had a good career didn't necessarily make him a good draft pick for the team that drafted him. So here's the Top 10 in career Win Shares for the team they were drafted by.   1. Shawn Kemp 180 2. Sean Elliott 169 3. Nick Anderson 151 4. Clifford Robinson 137 5. Vlade Divac 120 6. Tim Hardaway 115 7. Glenn Rice 109 8. B.J. Armstrong 102 9. Doug West 50 10. Dino Radja 38   Yikes quite the drop off after Armstrong.

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Most Overrated, Most Underrated

There's a new Sports Illustrated poll of 470 Major League players asking who are the most overrated and most underrated players in baseball. Stuff like this is incredibly subjective as someone may consider one player underrated while the other considers that same player overrated. My assumption is that the player's perspective would be how they feel the media and fans view the player and that will influence their opinion on whether or not they consider someone overrated or underrated. So here's the Top 10 for both lists with my comments on what I think of each player and I throw in a name at the end of who I considered the most overrated and most underrated players of last season.   Most Overrated   1. Derek Jeter - Too obvious but facts are he is overrated by New York media/fans and major media outlets like ESPN. I have said in the past though that I feel Jeter is almost slightly underrated by non-Yankee fans at this point. You can tell Jeter is overrated just by how the New York media and ESPN are all up in arms (well from what people are saying on the board) over him topping the list as some how it is inexcusible that Baseball Jesus is on the list at all.   2. Carlos Beltran - This seems a bit odd to me, I suppose probably because of the contract he signed and he had a bit of an off year last season. Coming into this season though I'd consider him underrated by how much criticism he was getting.   3. Alex Rodriguez - Truly laughable for him to be this high. One of the true elite players in the game yet he typically doesn't get the credit he deserves and any failure he has in the "clutch" his magnified ten fold. Sure no player deserves the contract he got but not his fault the Rangers were stupid enough to give it to him.   4. J.D. Drew - Again no reason for him to be on the list and he is almost certainly underrated. He's a great hitter but is always hurt and many discard anything good he has done due to his injury problems. He showed in 2004 the type of numbers he can put up in a full season.   5. Nomar Garciaparra - How can he be underrated when he's be the subject of ridicule due to his injury problems? What because he was once great and now isn't that makes him overrated? Really makes no sense.   6. A.J. Burnett - Have to agree on this one but he's a "victim" of starting pitchers being overrated in general.   7. Jason Kendall - A common theme seems to be obscene contracts and Kendall certainly isn't worth what he makes. I doubt many still view Kendall as a good player anymore so my guess is the general view of him currently is probably neither overrated or underrated. Trust me though A's fans know he sucks.   8. Kerry Wood - Man players are just cruel as at least according this poll any player with a history of injuries is overrated.   9. Josh Beckett - Interesting. Maybe a tad overrated because of the 2003 postseason which tends to happen to any player who has a strong postseason.   10. Johnny Damon - I'd agree to a certain extent though his last two years he really was good but this also comes from the contract he signed. Probably more overrated circa 2003 than he is now.   My 2005 Most Overrated Player: Scott Podsednik - Remember he tought the White Sox how to bunt so they won the World Series. We don't need those meaningless homeruns!   Most Underrated   1. Michael Young - See now this is a player who I could see being overrated a couple of years from now. Players who everyone says is underrated eventually go the other way.   2. Bobby Abreu - Certainly not nearly as underrated as he was two or three years ago. I'd say he's probably fits into neither category.   3. Garret Anderson - Now this what I was talking in term of Young as personally I view Garret Anderson as overrated now. A few years back I considered him underrated. He gets on base at a poor rate and he has below average power for a corner outfielder.   4. Mark Loretta - Probably true to a certain extent. His great 2004 season went largely unnoticed. He's on the Red Sox now so he'll probably be overrated by the end of the year.   5. David Eckstein - Okay very good 2005 season no doubt by the "scrappy" Eckstein is probably a bit overrated because he's "scrappy."   6. Bill Mueller - I'd say he doesn't fit either category.   7. Chone Figgins - I'd say neither tilting towards slightly overrated.   8. Vernon Wells - You know he really hasn't done a whole lot at the plate the last two seasons, although off to a great start this year. He does get his just due when it comes to his defense.   9. Raul Ibanez - What? He's had a couple of good years by far from a star. I don't know do most view him as a scrub or something? Very odd he's on the list.   10. Melvin Mora - I'd agree with this one although his numbers were down last year, still were pretty good and his name doesn't really come up often when talking about the better 3rd basemen in the league.   My 2005 Most Underrated Player: Brian Giles - I ranked him as the best right fielder in baseball last season but because he plays in a park that is death to hitters his counting numbers just didn't look impressive.

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Draftback: 1993 NBA Draft

I had almost forgotten that the NBA Draft was only a week away. I used look forward to the draft before ESPN took over coverage of it from TNT. Now in the early days of my blog (waaaaaaaaay back four and a half months ago) I did an entry on the 1989 NBA Draft, ranking the players drafted using the basketball version of win shares. I decided that would be a better way to do a Draftback entry for the NBA rather than the usual listing of the first round making stupid comments.   I picked the 1993 draft because it ended up leading to the downfall of the Golden State Warriors franchise, not that they didn’t have the right idea at the time. They of course struck a blockbuster draft day with the Orlando Magic to acquire the draft rights to Chris Webber in exchange for the draft rights for Anfernee Hardaway and three future first round picks. The Warriors would win 50 games in the ’93-’94 season while Webber went on to win the Rookie of the Year. But a feud with head coach Don Nelson would lead to a holdout and then an eventual trade of Webber to Washington that would set the course for 12 years (and going) of futility. So even in a year where the Warriors ended getting arguably the best player to come out of the draft it blew up in their face.     1993 Draft Rankings per Career Win Shares   1. Chris Webber, Orlando/Golden State – 241 Win Shares (1st Pick) 2. Sam Cassell, Houston – 233 (24th) 3. Anfernee Hardaway, Golden State/Orlando – 189 (3rd pick) 4. Nick Van Exel, L.A. Lakers – 169 (37th) 5. Allan Houston, Detroit – 162 (11th) 6. Bryon Russell, Utah – 141 (45th)   7. Vin Baker, Milwaukee – 137 (8th) 8. Shawn Bradley, Philadelphia – 132 (2nd) 9. Jamal Mashburn, Dallas – 127 (4th) 10. Rodney Rogers, Denver – 114 (9th) 11. Ervin Johnson, Seattle – 110 (23rd) 12. Lindsey Hunter, Detroit – 101 (10th)   13. George Lynch, L.A. Lakers – 100 (12th) 14. Chris Mills, Cleveland – 97 (22nd) 15. Lucious Harris, Dallas – 77 (28th) 16. Calbert Cheaney, Washington – 67 (6th) 17. Isaiah Rider, Minnesota – 62 (5th) 18. Chris Whitney, San Antonio – 57 (47th)   19. Corie Blount, Chicago – 56 (25th) 20. Gheorge Muresan, Washington - 50 (30th) 21. Scott Burrell, Charlotte – 45 (20th) 22. Terry Dehere, L.A. Clippers – 21 (13th) 23. James Robinson, Portland – 20 (21st) 24. Rex Walters, New Jersey – 16 (16th)   25. Eric Riley, Dallas – 8 (33rd) 26t. Greg Graham, Charlotte – 6 (17th) 26t. Acie Earl, Boston – 6 (19th) 28. Bobbie Hurley, Sacramento – 7 (7th) 29. Mike Peplowski, Sacramento – 3 (52nd) 30t. Doug Edwards, Atlanta – 2 (15th)   30t. Josh Grant, Denver – 2 (43rd) 32t. Scott Haskin, Indiana – 1 (14th) 32t. Darnell Mee, Golden State – 1 (34th) 32t. Richard Petruska, Houston – 1 (46th)   The Zero Club   Luther Wright, Utah (18th) Geert Hammink, Orlando (26th) Malcolm Mackey, Phoenix (27th) Evers Burns, Sacramento (31st) Alphonso Ford, Philadelphia (32nd) Ed Stokes, Miami (35th) Rich Manning, Atlanta (40th) Adonis Jordan, Seattle (42nd) Kevin Thompson, Portland (48th)   Never Played in the NBA   Sherron Mills, Minnesota (29th) John Best, New Jersey (36th) Conrad McRae, Washington (38th) Thomas Hill, Indiana (39th) Anthony Reed, Chicago (41st) Alex Holcombe, Sacramento (44th) Mark Buford, Phoenix (49th) Marcelo Nicola, Houston (50th) Spencer Dunkley, Indiana (51st) Leonard White, L.A. Clippers (53rd) Bryon Wilson, Phoenix (54th)   Most Win Shares with the Team they were Drafted by   Note: Even though Hardaway wasn’t technically drafted by Orlando since he was acquired in a draft day trade he might as well have been drafted by them.   1. Anfernee Hardaway, 143 2. Bryon Russell, 121 3. Nick Van Exel, 94 4. Lindsey Hunter, 81 (two different stints) 5t. Vin Baker, 68 5t. Chris Mills, 68 7. Gheorge Muresan, 49 8. Calbert Cheaney, 43 9. Sam Cassell, 33 10. Allan Houston, 31

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Why I Didn't Give a Shit about the Last Ten World Series

Finally. Finally, finally, finally, finally I am excited about a World Series. I don't give a shit about the predictions of this being lowest rated World Series ever. If this ends up being true, then it's Fox and MLB's fault (and by proxy the WWL) for programing casual fans to think that only the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs matter. I personally have not watched the majority of a World Series since 1997 and let me run down each year as to why I didn't care.   1998: New York Yankees vs. San Diego Padres   At this time I was fairly indifferent towards the Yankees but I was always partial to the Padres because I liked Tony Gwynn. This was clearly a huge mismatch and I knew the Padres had no chance but I did tune into Game 1, which I was into until the bottom of the 7th when Tino Martinez took a pitch right down the middle (or at least that's what I remember) that should been a called strike three against Mark Langston to strand the bases loaded and keep the game tied. Next pitch, grand slam, and I tuned out from the rest of the series after that.   1999: New York Yankees vs. Atlanta Braves   Already saw them play in '96 and had no desire to see them play again. I think I watched about five minutes of Game 1 and that was it.   2000: New York Yankees vs. New York Mets   I like most people outside of New York and Bristol, CT didn't give a shit. Did not watch a single second of the series.   2001: New York Yankees vs. Arizona Diamondbacks   Now this one I think I will have to revisit some day but at the time I couldn't be bothered to watch any of it, not even Game 7. The Yankees had eliminated the A's for the second straight and this time in heartbreaking fashion in part to the most overrated defensive play in baseball history because some fat fuck didn't slide...not that I'm still bitter. I wanted to no part of the Yankees or any sort of baseball after that.   2002: Anaheim Angels vs. San Francisco Giants   Finally the Yankees reign of terror is stopped but instead we get the Rally Monkey against the Assholes by the Bay. Giants fans are the most smug group of fans in sports, with no real reason to be, and this didn't help matters. I think briefly tuned into Game 6 to torture myself but that was it.   2003: New York Yankees vs. Florida Marlins   Once again the Yankees were back to poison us all so once again I didn't tune in, although I think I did flip on the end of Game 6 due primarily to this board.   2004: Boston Red Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals   Now I was genuinely intrigued by this series, for a brief moment. If had to say who my N.L. team is, it'd probably be the Cardinals because I did pretty much adopt them as my second favorite team and followed them pretty closely when Mark McGwire played there. I really thought it would be a good series and since it was the Red Sox, it would end with Boston have their hearts ripped out which is always fun. How wrong I was. I watched most of Game 1 and then quickly lost interest.   2005: Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros   Now this series was kinda similar to this year because it was a very fresh match-up. But 2005 was all about LOLZ OZZIEBALL > MONEYBALL and Joe Morgan and the usual band of idiots slobbering all over the White Sox ability to "manufacture runs." If it had ended up being a competitive series I might have tuned for a Game 6 or 7 but it wasn't, so I didn't watch any of it.   2006: Detroit Tigers vs. St. Louis Cardinals   Now I'm going to contradict myself with the "Caridnals are my N.L. team" thing because I really didn't want them to win this series. The baseball elitist in me simply didn't want to see an 83 win team win a World Series because I felt it cheapened the whole season. I didn't have any real animosity towards the Tigers for shitkicking the A's right out of the ALCS but I was disappointed that I wouldn't get use my World Series tickets so really wasn't up for watching the series. I think I tuned in every once in a while during the series but overall the whole thing fell flat and I could only put up with so much "David Eckstein is clutch and scrappy" talk.   2007: Boston Red Sox vs. Colorado Rockies   God damn did the 2007 postseason suck ass or what? Didn't watch a single second of the series.

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HOF Profiles: Rod Beck

Only eleven first ballot candidates this year and I already made it known in the Hall of Fame Ballot thread that Tim Raines is the only one deserving to get in, not that that is any great insight. But I'll still run through all eleven newbies but a little different from last year when I was going through the whole ballot and ended each entry with my opinion of whether they'd get my imaginary vote or not. Instead I'll just give "My Stupid Opinion" on each player. Also this year I'll throw in a link to the boxscore of each player's "best" performance, although really I'm not putting that much research into it. For the order of players I'll again go in reverse order of career Win Shares.   Rod Beck - Closer   San Francisco Giants 1991-1997 Chicago Cubs 1998-1999 Boston Red Sox 1999-2001 San Diego Padres 2003-2004   Awards 1994 N.L. Rolaids Relief   All-Star Selections: 3 (1993, 1994, 1997)   League Leader None of note   Career Ranks Games: 78th Saves: 23rd   Best Performance April 18, 1993 - Atlanta at San Francisco Notches five strikeouts in pitching a shutout 9th and 10th (struckout the side) in a 13-12, 11 inning thriller against the Braves.   Hall of Fame Stats   Black Ink: Pitching - 1 (818) (Average HOFer ≈ 40) Gray Ink: Pitching - 23 (946) (Average HOFer ≈ 185) HOF Standards: Pitching - 13.0 (582) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Pitching - 63.0 (188) (Likely HOFer > 100)   Similar Pitchers in HOF: None Top 10 Similar Pitchers: Jeff Montgomery, Armando Benitez, Robb Nen, Troy Percival, Keith Foulke, Jason Isringhausen, Todd Worrell, Gregg Olson, Tom Henke, Ugueth Urbina   Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacment Level (WARP3)   1991: 3/1.2 1992: 16/4.9 1993: 16/5.9 1994: 7/4.2 1995: 7/3.1 1996: 10/4.9 1997: 12/4.5 1998: 13/6.0 1999: 3/1.0 2000: 5/1.7 2001: 7/3.5 2003: 6/4.3 2004: 0/-0.1   Career Win Shares: 105 Career WARP3: 45.1   My Stupid Opinion   Due to his death earlier this year the five year rule was waived for Beck. A fan favorite who will be better known for his appearance and personality than his pitching prowess. A very good closer in his prime but rarely dominate and no where near the elite the closers of all-time. Maybe deserves a special spot in the Hall of Fame for overdosing on cocaine that he snorted off his own baseball card, which I'm pretty sure is the Score 1994 card pictured above.

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HOF Profile: Jesse Orosco

Jesse Orosco, Relief Pitcher   New York Mets 1979-1987 Los Angeles Dodgers 1988, 2001-2002 Cleveland Indians 1989-1991 Milwaukee Brewers 1992-1994 Baltimore Orioles 1995-1999 St. Louis Cardinals 2000 San Diego Padres 2003 New York Yankees 2003 Minnesota Twins 2003   Awards None   All-Star Selections: 2 (1983, 1984)   League Leader Games: 1995   Career Ranks Games: 1st Saves: 69th ERA+: 62nd K/9: 23rd H/9: 24th   Best Performance October 27, 1986 - Boston at New York (N) In Game 7 of the '86 World Series, comes in the 8th inning with none out after a Dwight Evans' two-run double off Roger McDowell pulls the Red Sox with a run. Orosco strands the tying run at 2nd by retiring Rich Gedman, Dave Henderson, and Don Baylor in order and then pitches a perfect 9th to clinch the championship for the Mets.   Hall of Fame Stats Black Ink: Pitching - 1 (822) (Average HOFer ≈ 40) Gray Ink: Pitching - 17 (1143) (Average HOFer ≈ 185) HOF Standards: Pitching - 13.0 (589) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Pitching - 62.0 (199) (Likely HOFer > 100)   Similar Pitchers in HOF: None Top 10 Similar Pitchers: Tug McGraw, Don McMahon, Gary Lavelle, John Hiller, Dan Plesac, Kent Tekulve, Darold Knowles, Mike Timlin, Mike Stanton, Ron Perranoski   Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3)   1979: 0/0.4 1981: 2/0.9 1982: 9/4.5 1983: 20/8.0 1984: 17/6.3 1985: 10/4.5 1986: 13/5.4 1987: 5/2.3 1988: 6/2.0 1989: 10/4.1 1990: 3/1.8 1991: 3/1.4 1992: 3/1.4 1993: 7/3.4 1994: 2/1.0 1995: 6/2.9 1996: 6/2.3 1997: 7/3.5 1998: 7/2.9 1999: 1/0.6 2000: 0/0.0 2001: 1/0.5 2002: 3/1.0 2003: 0/-0.2   Career Win Shares: 141 Career WARP3: 60.9   My Stupid Opinion   I have to say it's remarkable a player from the 19th century is a first time nominee on the writer's ballot. Okay not quite, but Orosco and Rickey Henderson will be the last players to make their MLB debut in the 1970s and be a first timer on the ballot. Orosco is purely on the ballot due to his longevity and his career games pitched record might stand for a while but obviously he's not a HOF.

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