Time for another redo, this time with one of the most controversial votes ever. 1996 was a year dominated by offense. In the A.L. six teams hit over 200 homeruns, the Baltimore Orioles setting a new record with 257 (broken the very next year by Seattle). Teams in the A.L. averaged 5.39 runs per game and even in the "Steroid Era" that mark hasn't been topped since. Eight A.L. players hit 40 homeruns or more including Brady Anderson's shocking breakout year with 50.
In a year with several players having MVP claibar seasons the vote itself really came down to two players, Juan Gonzalez and Alex Rodriguez. Gonzalez would beat out A-Rod by just three voting points as he received one more first place vote than A-Rod. This result would be rightfully criticized as A-Rod clearly had the better year but Gonzalez playing on a division winner and being the more established player certainly influenced the voters. But it was the way A-Rod lost the award that would be so interesting and controversial.
First thing was Ivan Rodriugez received a first place vote which was bizarre because he had no where near an MVP season. He'd finish 10th overall, the next highest vote he received was a 5th place vote, and he appeared on less than half of the ballots. Clearly the majority writers did not view Pudge as a legit candidate. It was theorized by some that the writer who voted for I-Rod had meant to vote for A-Rod but accidently switched their names on his ballot. This seemed a bit far fetched and I don't think an answer as to why the writer voted for Pudge was ever cleared up so chalk this up to just a typical idiot baseball writer.
Next was the Seattle Mariners' beat writers as they would both give their first place votes for A-Rod's teammate Ken Griffey Jr. and both voted A-Rod third behind Juan Gonzalez. The other 26 A.L. writers gave A-Rod his ten first place votes and only gave Griffey two first place votes. The Mariners' writers had ironically prevented a Seattle player from winning the MVP.
But the biggest controversy about the vote involved Oakland A's beat writer John Hickey. He voted A-Rod 7th while no other A.L. writer voted him lower than 4th. He tried to justify voting A-Rod that low essentially because people viewed Ken Griffey Jr. as the MVP of the Mariners and he only voted Griffey 5th so he just had to vote A-Rod lower than him. Of course most people are idiots and most people don't do any research or otherwise they would have realized A-Rod had clearly the better year and that Griffey was really only a marginal candidate in a year with so many big offensive seasons.
So just how bad of a choice was Gonzalez? Also should A-Rod have been an absolute slam dunk winner or was there another candidate who you could argue for?
Actual Results
1) Juan Gonzalez 2) Alex Rodriguez 3) Albert Belle 4) Ken Griffey Jr. 5) Mo Vaughn 6) Rafael Palmeiro 7) Mark McGwire 8) Frank Thomas 9) Brady Anderson 10) Ivan Rodriguez 11) Kenny Lofton 12) Mariano Rivera 13) Paul Molitor 14) Andy Pettitte 15) Jim Thome 16) Chuck Knoblauch 17t) Jay Buhner 17t) Bernie Williams 19) John Wetteland 20) Roberto Alomar 21) Terry Steinbach
#10
.289/.381/.546, 131 RC, 133 OPS+, .313 EQA, 54.0 VORP, 30 Win Shares
#9
.326/.420/.583, 153 RC, 148 OPS+, .332 EQA, 76.3 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#8
.297/.396/.637, 140 RC, 157 OPS+, .333 EQA, 85.4 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#7
.328/.411/.527, 129 RC, 137 OPS+, .320 EQA, 84.2 VORP, 31 Win Shares
#6
.311/.450/.612, 138 RC, 166 OPS+, .348 EQA, 83.3 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#5
.349/.459/.626, 152 RC, 178 OPS+, .364 EQA, 92.3 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#4
.341/.448/.517, 130 RC, 142 OPS+, .330 EQA, 99.3 VORP, 32 Win Shares
#3
.312/.467/.730, 142 RC, 203 OPS+, .381 EQA, 91.6 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#2
.311/.410/.623, 153 RC, 157 OPS+, .337 EQA, 80.9 VORP, 31 Win Shares
#1
.358/.414/.631, 157 RC, 160 OPS+, .341 EQA, 111.8 VORP, 34 Win Shares
Aura? Did I already mention how much baseball cards have sucked in the past decade?
So there you have it A-Rod was the true MVP in 1996 and really there's no one you can argue over him. There's plenty of guys who had incredible years and there's a lot of agruments for the rest of the list as even as I was typing it I thought of switching guys around but stuck with what I originally came up with. Probably the most interesting case would be McGwire who's numbers are just sick but he only played 130 games. If he managed to play 150+ there would have been a case for him and he may have even made a run at 61 that year (hit 52). Juan Gonzalez was indeed an awful, awful pick as I didn't give him any consideration for the Top 10.
Todd Stottlemyre- Starting Pitcher
Toronto Blue Jays 1988-1994
Oakland Athletics 1995
St. Louis Cardinals 1996-1998
Texas Rangers 1998
Arizona Diamondbacks 1999-2002
Awards
None
All-Star Selections: None
League Leader
None
Career Ranks
None of note
Best Performance
August 26, 1992 - Toronto at Chicago
Carried a no hitter into the 8th inning before a Dan Pasqua double with one out breaks it up. Finished with a complete game, one-hitter.
Hall of Fame Stats
Gray Ink: Pitching - 28 (812) (Average HOFer ≈ 185)
HOF Standards: Pitching - 13.0 (582) (Average HOFer ≈ 50)
HOF Monitor: Pitching - 15.0 (716) (Likely HOFer > 100)
Similar Pitchers in HOF: None
Top 10 Similar Pitchers: Darryl Kile, Woody Williams, Livan Hernandez, Pat Hentgen, Ron Darling, Kevin Tapani, Mike Krukow, Tim Belcher, Pedro Astacio, Mike Hampton
Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacment Level (WARP3)
1988: 0/0.0
1989: 6/2.7
1990: 9/4.9
1991: 15/6.0
1992: 7/3.1
1993: 7/3.1
1994: 10/6.2
1995: 10/5.4
1996: 14/5.7
1997: 11/5.3
1998: 14/4.8
1999: 6/2.0
2000: 6/3.0
2002: 0/-0.1
Career Win Shares: 115
Career WARP3: 54.0
My Stupid Opinion
If you look up "Middle of the Rotation Starter" in the dictionary you'll probably see Stottlemyre's face. He's this year's "Why the hell is this guy on the ballot?" winner as there's nothing in his career that stands out. Now he was a better pitcher than Bobby Witt who was on last year's ballot and freakin' Gary DiSarcina was on the 2006 ballot so there have been worse nominees. He did pitch for two World Champions in Toronto (he was out for the season during the D-Backs 2001 run) but in his only World Series start he was shelled, the infamous 15-14 slugfest in Game 4 of the '93 Series.
It's the list you've all been waiting for...the guys who aren't good enough be starting pitchers or closers!!!!
I almost decided to skip doing middle relievers this year as I'm rarely satisfied with the final rankings and always change the guidelines that I use for who I include in the rankings. This year I opted for the top 60 in relief appearance, excluding those who will be on the closer list. I should probably do more than 60 as there's a few good ones that don't qualify (Grant Balfour and Brad Ziegler for example) but there's only so much time want to spend looking at stats for set up men.
Middle Relievers
1. Matt Thornton, White Sox
23.3 VORP
2.11 ERC
2.75 FIP
48 PRC
Year Ag Tm Lg W L G GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP BFP IBB BK ERA *lgERA *ERA+ WHIP
+--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+------+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+---+-----+---+---+-----+-----+----+-----+
2008 31 CHW AL 5 3 74 0 0 0 12 1 67.3 48 20 20 5 19 77 2 3 268 2 0 2.67 4.57 171 0.995
2. Carlos Marmol, Cubs
3. Chad Qualls, Diamondbacks
4. Jesse Carlson, Blue Jays
5. Scott Downs, Blue Jays
6. J.P. Howell, Rays
7. Manny Delcarmen, Red Sox
8. Ramon Ramirez, Royals
9. Ryan Madson, Phillies
10. Hideki Okajima, Red Sox
11. Rafael Perez, Indians
12. Heath Bell, Padres
13. Russ Springer, Cardinals
14. Dennys Reyes, Twins
15. Damaso Marte, Pirates/Yankees
16. Dan Wheeler, Rays
17. Chad Durbin, Phillies
18. Doug Brocail, Astros
19. Jeremy Affeldt, Reds
20. Will Ohman, Braves
21. Brian Shouse, Brewers
22. Octavio Dotel, White Sox
23. John Grabow, Pirates
24. Joel Hanrahan, Nationals
25. Tony Pena, Diamondbacks
26. Joe Beimel, Dodgers
27. Chad Bradford, Orioles/Rays
28. Scot Shields, Angels
29. Joe Smith, Mets
30. Jeff Bennett, Braves
31. Eddie Guardado, Rangers/Twins
32. Javier Lopez, Red Sox
33. Matt Lindstrom, Marlins
34. J.C. Romero, Phillies
35. Saul Rivera, Nationals
36. Jesse Crain, Twins
37. Kyle McClellan, Cardinals
38. Trever Miller, Rays
39. Mike Lincoln, Reds
40. Tyler Walker, Giants
41. Manuel Corpas, Rockies
42. Duaner Sanchez, Mets
43. David Weathers, Reds
44. Rafael Betancourt, Indians
45. Blaine Boyer, Braves
46. Cla Meredith, Padres
47. Sean Green, Mariners
48. Bob Howry, Cubs
49. Scott Schoeneweis, Mets
50. Tyler Yates, Pirates
51. Pedro Feliciano, Mets
52. Alan Embree, A's
53. Jamey Wright, Rangers
54. Renyel Pinto, Rays
55. Luis Ayala, Nationals/Mets
56. Wesley Wright, Astros
57. Matt Guerrier, Twins
58. Aaron Heilman, Mets
-1.1 VORP
5.45 ERC
4.66 FIP
24 PRC
Year Ag Tm Lg W L G GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP BFP IBB BK ERA *lgERA *ERA+ WHIP
+--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+------+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+---+-----+---+---+-----+-----+----+-----+
2008 29 NYM NL 3 8 78 0 0 0 23 3 76.0 75 48 44 10 46 80 9 2 356 8 0 5.21 4.21 81 1.592
59. Ron Villone, Cardinals
60. Jack Taschner, Giants
I've made it no secret I'm a junkie for original televised footage of classic sporting events. Back in the day when ESPN Classic actually showed classic games I would love watching classic games from the 70's and 80's. I was thrilled when two years ago MLB started releasing complete World Series boxsets of the 1975, 1979, and 1986 World Series which I promptly bought all three and did write ups of all three sets on the blog. Last year two more World Series sets were released, 1977 and 1987 but I have yet to start watching either. Considering how bad the A's will be this season I might finally crack those sets open when looking for alternative things to watch during the baseball season. Both the NBA and NHL have followed suit although I'm not as interested in those sets as I am for baseball and football, but I would pick up the 1987 NBA Finals set if they ever release it as I have fond memories of it as a bandwagon Laker fan when I was younger. There has even been a set of "classic" Notre Dame games released which I did a write up the Cathlolics vs. Convicts game but haven't gotten around to viewing any of other the games.
The NFL had been a long time holdout when it comes to airing any classic games, even on their own channel, but last year around the Super Bowl they finally started re-airing original Super Bowl broadcasts which continued this year. Also this past Fall they released a handful of DVD sets and individual DVDs with "classic" games. Their choices so far have been a bit odd. They released three sets of every playoff game from the 1999 Rams, 2000 Ravens, and 2002 Bucs seasons. The '99 Rams set would be kinda interesting as that year's Super Bowl had probably the best finish ever in a Super Bowl but I really have no interest in anything from the last ten years and there's nothing "classic" on either '00 Ravens or '02 Bucs set. They also released the 1980 NFC Championship game between the Eagles and Cowboys. Now that'd be a must have for an Eagles fan but the game was not particularly competitive and why release that game instead of the 1981 NFC Championship featuring "The Catch"? In addition there is a three game set of "classic" Cleveland Browns games (yes I know, what classic Browns games?) but the three games they picked left a lot to be desired. One of the games is a regular season blowout from 1989 against the Steelers and another is a playoff clinching win against the Falcons from 2002. If they swapped out either of those games for their double overtime win in the '86 playoffs against the Jets I would have bought it.
Now there were two others that I did decide to pick up, the 1992 AFC Wild Card Game featuring the Bills record comeback against the Oilers and they released an 11 game set of the 1985 Chicago Bears season. I actually haven't received the Bears set yet as I got in on backorder from DeepDiscountDVD.com when it was on sale for only $44 a month ago but should be receiving it any day now. Now there are not any real "classics" on that Bears set but the '85 Bears always held a special place in my childhood because the Bears were the first "it" team for me that you just had to watch and as I've mentioned before my earliest sports memory is watching Super Bowl XX. On the set there is their MNF loss to the Dolphins that ended their undefeated season, which is actually kind of surprising as these sets are of course marketed to the fans of the teams but having that game on the set made it an automatic purchase for me as I don't know if I ever watched the original live game.
So here's my complete list of of sports DVDs, that have original games on them:
1975 World Series
1977 World Series
1979 World Series
1986 World Series
1987 World Series
Notre Dame Collector's Edition (7 Games)
1992 AFC Wild Card Bills vs. Oilers
1985 Chicago Bears (11 Games)
In April MLB will be releasing the 2001 World Series boxset but again I'm not particularly interested in anything from the last decade, especially something that was televised by FOX, so I'm not sure if I'm going to pick that one up even if it was a true classic. Before then in early March there will be another World Series boxset released and, well....there's no fucking way I'm going to buy it.
I attended the Mariners/A's game last night. On paper it seemed like a very favorable match-up with Dan Haren pitching for the A's against Jeff Weaver of the Mariners. Haren didn't have it last night, and he really hasn't had it for the last few weeks, but through six innings he had only given up one run mainly due to the Mariners over agressive hitting. He'd thrown 99 pitches to that point and I thought it'd be a good idea to get the hook instead of pressing their luck especially with scored tied 1-1. But manager Bob Geren did press his luck and got the whammy as Jose Vidro would hit a two run double to give the Mariners a 3-1 lead to finally knock Haren out of the game, the Mariners eventually going on to win 7-1. Now this was not the worst game I've ever been to from the standpoint of a heartbreaking loss (that would be this game) but it was one of the worst games I've ever been to from the quality of play by the A's. The A's committed five errors with Marco Scutaro tying an American League record with four errors in one game by a third baseman. Hey I saw history! So for this brief entry I give a brief list of some of the worst performances by the A's that I've seen live in person. The list is brief is I'm doing this off the top of my head and my memories of individual games as a kid aren't particularly good which I'll chalk up to having a short attention span.
June 21, 1987 vs. Texas. Now see talking of not having a good memory, I can't 100% vouch for that I went to this game but it was the second game of a double header and I have an early baseball memory of being at a double header against the Rangers with the A's getting blown out so odds are it was this game. A's lost 13-3 and some guy named Bob Brower for the Rangers hit two homeruns. Ron Cey DH'd for the A's that day. God I feel old.
June 30, 1997 vs. San Diego. The A's hit rock bottom as a franchise in 1997 and this game was pretty much how the season went. The Padres scored seven runs in the 2nd inning, featuring two three-run homeruns by Wally Joyner and Tony Gwynn off starter Don Wengert. He was replaced by Dan Johnson who I thought was good at the time because he had a 2.08 ERA. Not really grasping the idea of sample sizes at that point, he'd only pitched 13 innings so far that season, I would be very dissapointed as he would give up six runs of his own including a two run homerun to Greg Vaughn in the 4th. It was 11-3 at the end of the 4th, 15-5 at the end of the 6th, with the Padres clinging to a 15-6 win.
October 1, 2004 vs. Anaheim. This was an awful game and it was a heartbreaker. It was the first game of the final series of the year and the A's were one game out of first place behind the Angels. Mark Mulder made the start despite having a horrific last two months of the season and clearly needed to be skipped in the rotation for rookie Joe Blanton. Mulder would get hooked after surrendering four runs in the 2nd. Blanton would shadow him and kept the A's in it until the 6th when the Angels figured him out and Alfredo Amezaga (who hit .161/.212/.247 in 93 at bats that year) hit a grand slam to make it 8-0, eventually skunking the A's 10-0. And it was my birthday. Angels clinched the division the next day.
I don't know why anyone does bowl projections as they are almost impossible to predict until the final week of the season, which is why I wait that long. Now I normally cheat and peak at other bowl projections or Google various local newspapers to see where schools are likely going to end up but this time it's almost total guess work. Note I'm going under the assumption Oklahoma will finish #2 in the BCS when they are released in a couple of hours. Also I'm making the prediction that the WAC allows Boise State to accept an at large invite from the Motor City Bowl since the conference has enough eligible teams to fill their four bids to set up an all undefeated match-up against Ball State.
Edited due to blogger stupidity.
Congressional: Navy vs. Maryland
New Mexico: Colorado State vs. Louisiana Tech
St. Petersburg: South Florida vs. Memphis
Las Vegas: BYU vs. Arizona
New Orleans: Troy vs. Southern Miss
Poinsettia: TCU vs. Fresno State
Hawaii: Hawaii vs. Central Michigan
Motor City: Ball State vs. Boise State
Meineke Car Care: Wake Forest vs. Pittsburgh
Champs Sports: Virginia Tech vs. Wisconsin
Emerald: California vs. Miami
Independence: Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Notre Dame
PapaJohns.com: Rutgers vs. Arkansas State
Alamo: Missouri vs. Northwestern
Humanitarian: Nevada vs. Clemson
Holiday: Oregon vs. Oklahoma State
Texas: Rice vs. N.C. State
Armed Forces: Air Force vs. Houston
Sun: Oregon State vs. West Virginia
Music City: Vanderbilt vs. North Carolina
Insight: Minnesota vs. Kansas
Chick-Fil-A: Georgia Tech vs. LSU
Outback: Iowa vs. South Carolina
Gator: Nebraska vs. Florida State
Capital One: Michigan State vs. Georgia
Rose: Penn State vs. USC
Orange: Cincinnati vs. Boston College
Cotton: Texas Tech vs. Mississippi
Liberty: Tulsa vs. Kentucky
Sugar: Alabama vs. Ohio State
International: Buffalo vs. Connecticut
Fiesta: Texas vs. Utah
GMAC: East Carolina vs. Western Michigan
BCS: Oklahoma vs. Florida
It's time for the Tecmo Super Bowl, uh Super Bowl, extravaganza! Here's recap of the playoffs.
San Francisco 49ers
Regular Season Results (13-3)
1: L – Giants 21-24 OT
2: W – Chargers 34-14
3: L – Vikings 24-27 OT
4: W – Rams 35-21
5: L – Raiders 14-21
6: Bye
7: W – Falcons 31-14
8: W – Lions 28-3
9: W – Eagles 27-9
10: W – Falcons 24-17
11: W – Saints 35-24
12: W – Cardinals 21-10
13: W – Rams 35-34
14: W – Saints 21-20
15: W – Seahawks 31-21
16: W – Chiefs 28-17
17: W – Bears 21-10
Offense Rankings
Total: 2nd
Pass: 2nd
Rush: 23rd
Defense Rankings
Total: 9th
Pass: 18th
Rush: 3rd
Offense
QB: Joe Montana - 150/222, 3810 Yards, 41 TD, 12 Int
RB: Roger Craig - 68 Att, 540 Yards, 2 TD
RB: Tom Rathman - 114 Att, 726 Yards, 16 TD
WR: John Taylor – 22 Rec, 510 Yards, 8 TD
WR: Jerry Rice - 75 Rec, 1955 Yards, 21 TD
TE: Brent Jones – 15 Rec, 365 Yards, 2 TD
C: Jess Sapolu
LG: Guy McIntyre
RG: Harris Barton
LT: Bubba Parris
RT: Steve Wallace
Reserves
QB: Steve Young
RB: Dexter Carter, Harry Sydney
WR: Mike Wilson, Mike Sherrard
TE: Jamie Williams
Special Teams
K: Mike Cofer – 58/59 XP, 6/10 FG
P: Barry Helton – 11 Punts, 43.1 Avg
Defense
RE: Kevin Fagan – 15 Sacks
NT: Michael Carter – 2 Sacks
LE: Pierce Holt – 7 Sacks
ROLB: Bill Romanowski – 1 Sack
RILB: Keith Delong
LILB: Matt Millen – 1 Sack
LOLB: Charles Haley – 13 Sacks
RCB: Don Griffin – 2 Int
LCB: Darryl Pollard
FS: Ronnie Lott – 6 Int
SS: Dave Waymer – 8 Int
Houston Oilers
Regular Season Results (10-6)
1: L – Raiders 21-30
2: W – Bengals 23-21
3: W – Chiefs 21-17
4: L – Patriots 17-35
5: Bye
6: W – Broncos 10-7
7: W – Jets 30-24 OT
8: W – Dolphins 35-14
9: W – Bengals 44-24
10: L – Redskins 24-27 OT
11: W – Cowboys 21-10
12: L – Browns 21-24
13: L – Steelers 20-28
14: W – Eagles 31-28 OT
15: W- Steelers 21-9
16: L – Browns 21-30
17: W – Giants 30-24 OT
Offense Rankings
Total: 3rd
Pass: 1st
Rush: 26th
Defense Rankings
Total: 19th
Pass: 24th
Rush: 15th
Offense
QB: Warren Moon – 153/226, 3959 Yards, 38 TD, 20 Int
RB: Lorenzo White – 86 Att, 620 Yards, 6 TD
WR: Ernest Givins – 45 Rec, 1191 Yards, 13 TD
WR: Haywood Jeffries – 32 Rec, 838 Yards, 7 TD
WR: Drew Hill – 31 Rec, 701 Yars, 9 TD
WR: Curtis Duncan – 43 Rec, 1176 Yards, 9 TD
C: Jay Pennison
LG: Mike Munchak
RG: Bruce Matthews
LT: Don Maggs
RT: Dean Steinkuhler
Reserves
QB: Cody Carlson
RB: Allen Pinkett, Victor Jones, Doug Lloyd
WR: Tony Jones, Gerald McNeil
Special Teams
K: Tony Zendejas – 48/50 XP, 10/13 FG
P: Greg Montgomery – 6 Punts, 47.3 Avg
Defense
RE: Sean Jones – 11 Sacks
NT: Doug Smith – 3 Sacks
LE: William Fuller – 11 Sacks
ROLB: Johnny Meads – 2 Sacks
RILB: Al Smith
LILB: John Grimsley – 2 Sacks
LOLB: Ray Childress – 12 Sacks
RCB: Richard Johnson – 4 Int
LCB: Chris Dishman – 3 Int
FS: Terry Kinard – 1 Int
SS: Bubba McDowell – 2 Int
Super Bowl XXVI: San Francisco 49ers vs. Houston Oilers
1st Quarter
49ers won the coin toss but would turn it over immediately as Dexter Carter fumbled the opening kickoff as the Oilers recovered on the 49ers 30 yard line. They couldn't move the ball at all though and settled for a Tony Zendejas 45 yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. 49ers moved the ball into the Oilers territory on their first possession but Mike Cofer missed a 53 yard field goal. Warren Moon would hit Ernest Givins on a 46 yard catch and run on the next play which would eventually lead to another Zendejas field goal.
Houston 6, San Francisco 0
2nd Quarter
Mike Cofer missed another long field goal, this time 59 yards, and the Oilers looked to turn this into a rout early as they march down the field and Warren Moon takes it in himself from the 1 for a 13-0 lead. 49ers finally answered though with a quick drive that ended with a Tom Rathman 15 yard touchdown run. On the ensuing kick off Gerald McNeil is tackled in the endzone for a touchback...no wait it's Tecmo Rules so it's a safety! 49ers get the ball back and pull within a point on a Cofer field goal near the end of the half.
Houston 13, San Francisco 12
Halftime
Best. Halftime Show. Ever.
3rd Quarter
Oilers offense scuffles in the quarter as they fail to pick up a first down. After a long run by Rathman, Jerry Rice begins to make his presence felt as he catches 19 yard touchdown pass from Joe Montana to give the 49ers their first lead of the game.
San Francisco 19, Houston 13
4th Quarter
Oilers retake the lead on their next possession in part to a 29 yard Moon run and then Hill makes a leaping 39 yard touchdown grab. It's the 4th quarter though, and it's the Super Bowl, so you knew Montana would march the 49ers right back and it wasn't without drama. Oilers stuff Rathman on 3rd and Goal at the 1 but on the 4th and Goal Rathman scores the go ahead touchdown. Oilers still had enough time to comeback but they would lose 18 yards on three plays and then on 4th and 28 the great Tecmo computer logic shows up as they run the ball. It did catch the 49ers off guard as Lorenzo White rumbled for 13 yards but well short of the first down. As the 49ers tried to run out the clock Rathman fumbled on the Oilers 30 but it went out of bounds. The next play Rathman would take it the distance for his third touchdown of the game, wrapping up the Super Bowl MVP honors and a third Super Bowl title in four years for the 49ers. The 49ers ended the season on a 14 game winning streak.
I needed content and I wanted to do something related to the very competitive decade of the 1980's for baseball so I've decied to run a 64 team tournament between the top teams of the 1980's. Ya 64 is way too many but I'm Bored. I'll be using the computer version of Strat-O-Matic Baseball to run the tournament. I'll be simulating the games and the only thing I'll determine before the games is who the starting pitcher will be for each game. It will just be like the NCAA College Basketball tournament where I'll have four regions, or four divisions if you will, with teams seeded from 1 to 16 with each match-up being determined by a best-of-seven series.
Now for deciding how to do the seedings and who gets in I went the simple rout. First teams who won the World Series will be seeded highest, then teams who lost in the World Series, then teams who lost in the LCS, then the top 2nd place teams by record, and finally an "automatic berth" for the best team of the decade for a franchise who didn't have a team fit into the other categories so every franchise will have a representitive.
Starting with the N.L. East which features three World Champions including the team who had the best record in the decade, the '86 Mets. The Mets have the most teams in the region with five, followed by the Cardinals with four. The Pirates are the only team with just one rep as the '88 team was their best of the decade. Here's just a quick rundown of all the teams and the first round match-ups.
#1
1986 New York Mets (108-54, defeated Boston 4-3 in World Series)
OPS+: 116 (1st)
ERA+: 114 (t-1st)
DefEff: .709 (4th)
Best Player: Keith Hernandez
Best Pitcher: Bob Ojeda
#2
1982 St. Louis Cardinals (92-70, defeated Milwaukee 4-3 in World Series)
OPS+: 103 (5th)
ERA+: 108 (2nd)
DefEff: .710 (2nd)
Best Player: Lonnie Smith
Best Pitcher: Joaquin Andujar
#3
1980 Philadelphia Phillies (91-71, defeated Kansas City 4-2 in World Series)
OPS+: 102 (6th)
ERA+: 110 (1st)
DefEff: .701 (4th)
Best Player: Mike Schmidt
Best Pitcher: Steve Carlton
#4
1985 St. Louis Cardinals (101-61, lost to Kansas City 4-3 in World Series)
OPS+: 108 (t-1st)
ERA+: 113 (2nd)
DefEff: .718 (1st)
Best Player: Willie McGee
Best Pitcher: John Tudor
#5
1987 St. Louis Cardinals (95-67, lost to Minnesota 4-3 in World Series)
OPS+: 94 (10th)
ERA+: 106 (3rd)
DefEff: .696 (t-6th)
Best Player: Jack Clark/Ozzie Smith
Best Pitcher: Todd Worrell
#6
1983 Philadelphia Phillies (90-72, lost to Baltimore 4-1 in World Series)
OPS+: 102 (t-5th)
ERA+: 106 (t-2nd)
DefEff: .685 (12th)
Best Player: Mike Schmidt
Best Pitcher: John Denny
#7
1988 New York Mets (100-62, lost to Los Angeles 4-3 in NLCS)
OPS+: 117 (1st)
ERA+: 110 (3rd)
DefEff: .707 (t-8th)
Best Player: Darryl Strawberry
Best Pitcher: David Cone
#8
1984 Chicago Cubs (96-65, lost to San Diego 3-2 in NLCS)
OPS+: 105 (4th)
ERA+: 104 (4th)
DefEff: .690 (10th)
Best Player: Ryne Sandberg
Best Pitcher: Rick Sutcliffe
#9
1989 Chicago Cubs (93-69, lost to San Francisco 4-1 in NLCS)
OPS+: 104 (t-3rd)
ERA+: 110 (2nd)
DefEff: .708 (6th)
Best Player: Ryne Sandberg
Best Pitcher: Greg Maddux
#10
1981 Montreal Expos (60-48, lost to Los Angeles 3-2 in NLCS)
OPS+: 99 (8th)
ERA+: 106 (3rd)
DeffEff: .715 (t-3rd)
Best Player: Andre Dawson
Best Pitcher: Bill Gullickson
#11
1985 New York Mets (98-64, finished 3 games behind St. Louis)
OPS+: 105 (4th)
ERA+: 111 (3rd)
DefEff: .716 (2nd)
Best Player: Gary Carter
Best Pitcher: Dwight Gooden
#12
1981 St. Louis Cardinals (59-43, best overall record in N.L. East)
OPS+: 108 (3rd)
ERA+: 98 (t-8th)
DefEff: .715 (t-3rd)
Best Player: Keith Hernandez
Best Pitcher: Bruce Sutter
#13
1987 New York Mets (92-70, finished 3 games behind St. Louis)
OPS+: 116 (1st)
ERA+: 99 (9th)
DefEff: .696 (t-6th)
Best Player: Darryl Strawberry
Best Pitcher: Dwight Gooden
#14
1980 Montreal Expos (90-72, finished 1 game behind Philadelphia)
OPS+: 106 (t-3rd)
ERA+: 103 (4th)
DefEff: .698 (9th)
Best Player: Andre Dawson
Best Pitcher: Steve Rogers
#15
1984 New York Mets (90-72, finished 6 ½ games behind Chicago)
OPS+: 101 (5th)
ERA+: 98 (9th)
DefEff: .694 (9th)
Best Player: Keith Hernandez
Best Pitcher: Dwight Gooden
#16
1988 Pittsburgh Pirates (85-75, finished 15 games behind New York)
OPS+: 107 (3rd)
ERA+: 99 (7th)
DefEff: .715 (4th)
Best Player: Andy Van Slyke
Best Pitcher: Doug Drabek
1st Round Match-ups
'88 Pirates vs. '86 Mets
'89 Cubs vs. '84 Cubs
'87 Mets vs. '85 Cardinals
'81 Cardinals vs. '87 Cardinals
'85 Mets vs. '83 Phillies
'80 Expos vs. '80 Phillies
'81 Expos vs. '88 Mets
'84 Mets vs. '82 Cardinals
I'll complete the 1st round match-ups for this region/division, posting the results in the next entry, and then move on to the next region/division. Not sure how long I'll take to finish each round.
Harold Baines - Designated Hitter/Rightfielder
Chicago White Sox 1980-1989, 1996-1997, 2000-2001
Texas Rangers 1989-1990
Oakland Athletics 1990-1992
Baltimore Orioles 1993-1995, 1997-1999, 2000
Cleveland Indians 1999
Awards
1989 AL Silver Slugger - DH
All-Star Selections: 6 (1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1999)
League Leader
1984: Slugging %
Career Ranks
Games: 17th
Hits: 39th
TB: 30th
2B: 52nd
HR: 50th
RBI: 23rd
BB: 82nd
RC: 44th
Hall of Fame Stats
Black Ink: Batting - 3 (499) (Average HOFer ≈ 27)
Gray Ink: Batting - 40 (595) (Average HOFer ≈ 144)
HOF Standards: Batting - 43.5 (116) (Average HOFer ≈ 50)
HOF Monitor: Batting - 66.5 (267) (Likely HOFer > 100)
Similar Batters in HOF: 3 (Tony Perez, Al Kaline, Billy Williams)
Other Similar Batters: Dave Parker, Rusty Staub, Andre Dawson, Dwight Evans, Chili Davis, Fred McGriff, Andres Galarraga
Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3)
1980: 8/1.2
1981: 10/5.3
1982: 19/6.9
1983: 20/6.2
1984: 24/9.1
1985: 25/7.8
1986: 20/7.0
1987: 13/3.7
1988: 18/4.4
1989: 18/6.3
1990: 11/4.6
1991: 22/6.5
1992: 15/3.3
1993: 15/4.9
1994: 6/3.0
1995: 11/5.3
1996: 13/5.5
1997: 12/4.1
1998: 8/2.5
1999: 15/4.6
2000: 4/1.2
2001: 0/-1.0
Career Win Shares: 307
Career WARP3: 102.4
Would he get my vote?
No. When it comes to players who spent the majority of their career not playing the field I feel they have to hit at the level an excellent first baseman to get in the HOF and Baines is no where close. Sort of like a hitting version of Tommy John in that his career counting numbers are impressive but only because he played a very long time and his peak is just not that impressive. Baines actually was a fairly decent defensive outfielder but knee problems were what forced him to become an everyday DH when he was only 28.
Hey look my blog isn't dead! Okay it's pretty close to being dead but decided to throw together a Draftback baseball entry before this upcoming week's MLB Draft.
1. Phillies - Pat Burrell, Third Baseman, Miami
Heavily scrutinized, but very productive player throughout his career outside a dreadful 2003 season.
2. Athletics - Mark Mulder, Pitcher, Michigan State
Rotator cuff problems have pretty much ruined a once promising career.
3. Cubs - Corey Patterson, Outfielder, Harrison High School (Harrison, GA)
Toolsy player who has never figured out the strikezone.
4. Royals - Jeff Austin, Pitcher, Stanford
Usually doesn't take three picks to get to the first bust in a baseball draft. 65 1/3 career innings in the Majors.
5. Cardinals - J.D. Drew, Outfielder, Florida State
Of course the year before Drew (and agent Scott Boras) infamously refused to sign with the Phillies after being the #2 pick overall. Incredibly talented player but injuries have hampered him for most of his career.
6. Twins - Ryan Mills, Pitcher, Arizona State
Didn't reach Triple-A until 2003 and was out of baseball after 2004.
7. Reds - Austin Kearns, Outfielder, Lafayette High School (Lexington, KY)
Has shown flashes of potentially being a great hitter in the past but injuries and a lack of consistency have held him back.
8. Blue Jays - Felipe Lopez, Shortstop, Lake Brantley High School (Altamonte Springs, FL)
Had one great year offensively in 2005 but not much else and is poor defensively.
9. Padres - Sean Burroughs, Third Baseman, Wilson High School (Long Beach, CA)
Never developed any power and now appears to be out of organized baseball.
10. Rangers - Carlos Pena, First Baseman, Northeastern
Very odd career, broke out with a monster season last year but remains to be seen if it was a fluke or not.
11. Expos - Josh McKinley, Shortstop, Malvern Prep School (PA)
Never got past Double-A, hit .254/.340/.375 in seven minor league seasons.
12. Red Sox - Adam Everett, Shortstop, South Carolina
Great defense, terrible offense.
13. Brewers - J.M. Gold, Pitcher, Toms River North High School (Toms River North, NJ)
Topped out at high Single-A ball.
14. Tigers - Jeff Weaver, Pitcher, Fresno State
Easy to forget he was pretty impressive early on his career but now hanging by a thread with the Brewers Triple-A squad.
15. Pirates - Clint Johnston, Pitcher, Vanderbilt
Gave up pitching after 2001, but becoming a first baseman only got him to Double-A.
16. White Sox - Kip Wells, Pitcher, Baylor
Sorta like Weaver in that he showed some promise early on his career but has stringed together some truly awful seasons.
17. Astros - Brad Lidge, Pitcher, Notre Dame
The demise of his career post-Pujols has been greatly exaggerated.
18. Angels - Seth Etherton, Pitcher, USC
6.30 ERA in 115 1/3 innings in the Majors.
19. Giants - Tony Torcato, Third Baseman, Woodland High School (Woodland, CA)
Only had 53 MLB plate appearances.
20. Indians - C.C. Sabathia, Pitcher, Vallejo High School (Vallejo, CA)
Cy Young winner last season who barring injury will cash in big this offseason, even with a potential down year.
21. Mets - Jason Tyner, Outfielder, Texas A&M
Has some how fooled teams into giving him 1400+ plate appearances in the Majors. Has hit four homeruns in nearly in 5000 plate appearances in professional baseball and he's a corner oufielder!
22. Mariners - Matt Thornton, Pitcher, Grand Valley State
Next Randy Johnson he was not but has become a decent reliever.
23. Dodgers - Bubba Crosby, Outfielder, Rice
Great name but not so good player.
24. Yankees - Andy Brown, Outfielder, Richmond High School (Richmond, IN)
.219 career hitter in eight minor league seasons.
25. Giants - Nate Bump, Pitcher, Penn State
Had a bumpy career. *rim shot*
26. Orioles - Rick Elder, Outfielder, Sprayberry High School (Marietta, GA)
Never got past high Single-A and lasted only five seasons in the minors.
27. Marlins - Chip Ambres, Outfielder, West Brook High School (Beaumont, TX)
Pretty much a career minor leaguer.
28. Rockies - Matt Roney, Pitcher, Edmond North High School (Edmond North, OK)
An extended stint with the 119-loss Tigers in 2003 has been about it for him.
29. Giants - Arturo McDowell, Outfielder, Forest Hill High School (West Palm Beach, FL)
Another swing and a miss for Brian Sabean.
30. Royals - Matt Burch, Pitcher, Virginia Commonwealth
Double-A was as good as it got for him.
Other Picks of Note
33. Expos - Brad Wilkerson
35. White Sox - Aaron Rowand
43. Yankees - Mark Prior (did not sign)
50. Reds - Adam Dunn
57. Tigers - Brandon Inge
83. Rangers - Barry Zito (did not sign)
162. Devil Rays - Aubrey Huff
176. Brewers - Bill Hall
210. Rockies - Matt Holliday
225. Athletics - Eric Byrnes
258. Cardinals - Jack Wilson
265. Red Sox - Mark Teixeira (did not sign)
272. Astros - Morgan Ensberg
390. Rockies - Juan Pierre
411. Blue Jays - Jay Gibbons
499. Twins - J.J. Putz (did not sign)
500. Reds - B.J. Ryan
550. Marlins - Adam LaRoche (did not sign)
609. Orioles - Cliff Lee (did not sign)
1139. White Sox - Mark Buehrle
Okay I've redone all the 80's MVPs but this was one that I kind of have been wanting to do an entry for. The main reason is because 1987 was the year that my favorite player of all-time Mark McGwire burst on to the scene by completely obliterating the rookie homerun record with 49 homeruns. It's really one of those records that it's hard to imagine it ever being broken as Mike Piazza's 35 in 1993 is the most by a rookie since. In the Summer of '87 everyone was going out of their way to buy up as many of McGwire's Olympic card from the 1985 Topps set as they could. Now I know McGwire wasn't the MVP but I had always had it my head that he had a better year than the winner of the MVP that year.
The writer's pick for A.L. MVP was George Bell as he won it in a tight race over Alan Trammell, receiving 16 first place votes to Trammell's 12. Now when it comes to awards voting most writers submit their ballots before the season ends and that could have made a difference here. After dropping three out of four in Toronto on the next to last weekend of the season the Tigers sat two and a half games out of first place behind the Blue Jays. It's quite possible that series won the MVP for Bell over Trammell as Bell played a big role in the series win going 8 for 18. But the in the final weekend of the season the Tigers would sweep the Jays in Detroit to take the A.L. East title. Who knows how many writer's submitted their ballots right after the series in Toronto? Also if Trammell had won the MVP in '87 maybe he'd get a little more support in the Hall of Fame voting. I've always had the Shiny Object Theory when it comes to HOF voting where writer's will almost always give more support to a player who won a major award in their career than someone who didn't. Just look at Bruce Sutter (Cy Young in 1979) being elected to the HOF this year instead of Goose Gossage (never won a Cy Young).
Actual Results
1) George Bell 2) Alan Trammell 3) Kirby Puckett 4) Dwight Evans 5) Paul Molitor 6) Mark McGwire 7) Don Mattingly 8) Tony Fernandez 9) Wade Boggs 10) Gary Gaetti 11) Jeff Reardon 12) Darrell Evans 13t) Doyle Alexander 13t) Tom Henke 13t) Wally Joyner 16) Kent Hrbek 17) Danny Tartabull 18) Robin Yount 19) Roger Clemens 20t) Jack Morris 20t) Kevin Seitzer 20t) Ruben Sierra 23) Jose Canseco 24) Matt Nokes
#10
.309/.390/.541, 123 RC, 142 OPS+, .318 EQA, 54.4 VORP, 24 Win Shares
#9
.305/.417/.569, 129 RC, 156 OPS+, .332 EQA, 57.7 VORP, 25 Win Shares
#8
.327/.378/.559, 122 RC, 146 OPS+, .319 EQA, 50.4 VORP, 27 Win Shares
#7
.332/.367/.534, 121 RC, 132 OPS+, .304 EQA, 55.1 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#6
.308/.352/.605, 129 RC, 146 OPS+, .318 EQA, 60.6 VORP, 26 Win Shares
#5
154 ERA+, 3.09 K/BB, 1.18 WHIP, 92.8 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#4
.289/.370/.618, 127 RC, 164 OPS+, .335 EQA, 60.7 VORP, 30 Win Shares
#3
.353/.438/.566, 115 RC, 161 OPS+, .344 EQA, 74.8 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#2
.363/.461/.588, 151 RC, 173 OPS+, .358 EQA, 90.1 VORP, 32 Win Shares
#1
.343/.402/.551, 133 RC, 155 OPS+, .334 EQA, 96.6 VORP, 35 Win Shares
So Bell wasn't a terrible choice but not a particularly good one either. Boggs plays bride's maid again in my redos just like he did with the 1986 one. What happened with the Red Sox in '87? Defending A.L. Champs and three of the Top 10 players in the league on their team yet they finish six games under .500. Sounds like a "Where'd They Go?" team.
Say what you want about Barry Bonds, and really please I insist you say nasty things about him, but he was really, really fucking good.
Top 20 Left Fielder Seasons since 1979 (per Win Shares)
1. Barry Bonds, 2001 - San Francisco Giants 53.9 Win Shares
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
2001 36 SFG NL 153 476 129 156 32 2 73 137 13 3 177 93 .328 .515 .863 259 411 0 2 35 9 5
2. Barry Bonds, 2004 - San Francisco Giants 53.0
3. Barry Bonds, 2002 - San Francisco Giants 48.9
4. Barry Bonds, 1993 - San Francisco Giants 46.7
5. Albert Pujols, 2003 - St. Louis Cardinals 41.1
6. Barry Bonds, 1992 - Pittsburgh Pirates 40.8
7. Barry Bonds, 2003 - San Francisco Giants 39.2
8. Barry Bonds, 1996 - San Francisco Giants 39.0
9. Rickey Henderson, 1990 - Oakland A's 38.9
10. Kevin Mitchell, 1989 - San Francisco Giants 37.7
11. Albert Belle, 1998 - Chicago White Sox 37.4
12. Barry Bonds, 1990 - Pittsburgh Pirates 36.7
13. Luis Gonzalez, 2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks 36.6
14. Barry Bonds, 1991 - Pittsburgh Pirates 36.5
15. Barry Bonds, 1997 - San Francisco Giants 36.4
16. Barry Bonds, 1995 - San Francisco Giants 36.1
17. Tim Raines, 1985 - Montreal Expos 35.8
18. Pedro Guerrero, 1985 - Los Angeles Dodgers 34.8
19. Rickey Henderson, 1980 - Oakland A's 33.9
20. Tim Raines, 1987 - Montreal Expos 33.8
After the 2003 season Miguel Tejada was a free agent and A's general manager Billy Beane had a major decision. He could either re-sign Tejada and allow Eric Chavez to leave as a free agency the following year or allow Tejada to leave and sign Chavez to a long term extension. He chose to allow Tejada to leave and ink Chavez to a 6-year, $66 million deal. Protests from some A's fans aside this made the most sense. Chavez was to that point the better hitter, the better fielder, and was two years younger than Tejada. The other reason it made sense was the A's had a prospect at shortstop who would be ready to step in as an everyday player the very next season. You know the story by now Tejada has put together three very good years in Baltimore while Chavez has seemingly fizzled out on ever reaching the MVP potential many thought he would fulfill. You also know the other side of the story in that Bobby Crosby has become a bit of a running joke from being a trendy MVP pick going into last year by some ESPN "experts" and now to an injury plauged, potential bust. This is possibly a make or break year for Crosby to show he can stay healthy and show he is capable of living up to the hype. Tonight in the opener he let a ball go right through his legs and then was the primary cause of a four run Mariner 6th inning as he dropped a ball while trying to turn what appeared to be an easy, inning ending double play. The sad thing is that the one thing about Crosby that has been very positive so far in his MLB career has been his defense and he didn't even have that going for him tonight. It's just one game and I really could careless at this point but not a good first impression to the season for a guy some already want to see out of Oakland.
And I leave you with a random list that I wanted to do but didn't think it was worth an entry. Since today was the true Opening Day here were the Opening Day starters for each team in 1997 which I thought would be mildly interesting to look at.
Kevin Ritz
John Smiley
Terry Mulholland
Kevin Brown
John Smoltz
Shane Reynolds
Curt Schilling
Ramon Martinez
Todd Stottlemyre
Jim Bullinger
Pete Harnisch
Joey Hamilton
Jon Lieber
Mark Gardner
Doug Brocail (!)
Brad Radke
Dave Cone
Jeff Fassero
Ben McDonald
Ken Hill
Jamie Navarro
Pat Hentgen
Kevin Appier
Jimmy Key
Charles Nagy
Ariel Prieto
Tom Gordon
Mark Langston
Bored Blog Trivia Question: I really fucking hate one of the players on this list. Which one is it? (Hint: He's a rat piece of shit)
Top 20 Right Fielder Seasons since 1979 (per Win Shares)
1. Sammy Sosa, 2001 - Chicago Cubs 42.4 Win Shares
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
2001 32 CHC NL 160 577 146 189 34 5 64 160 0 2 116 153 .328 .437 .737 203 425 0 12 37 6 6
2. Jose Canseco, 1988 - Oakland A's 38.9
3. Tony Gwynn, 1997 - San Diego Padres 38.6
4. Bobby Abreu, 2004 - Philadelphia Phillies 37.0
5. Ichiro Suzuki, 2001 - Seattle Mariners 36.0
6. Magglio Ordonez, 2007 - Detroit Tigers 35.6
7. Brian Giles, 2005 - San Diego Padres 35.4
8. Sammy Sosa, 1998 - Chicago Cubs 35.2
9. Tony Gwynn, 1984 - San Diego Padres 35.0
10. Manny Ramirez, 1999 - Cleveland Indians 34.7
11. Gary Sheffield, 2003 - Atlanta Braves 34.5
12. Gary Sheffield, 1996 - Florida Marlins 34.5
13. Shawn Green, 2001 - Los Angeles Dodgers 34.2
14. Ruben Sierra, 1989 - Texas Rangers 34.2
15. J.D. Drew, 2004 - Atlanta Braves 34.0
16. Dave Winfield, 1979 - San Diego Padres 33.0
17. Gary Sheffield, 2005 - New York Yankees 32.7
18. Lance Berkman, 2004 - Houston Astros 32.3
19. Larry Walker, 1997 - Colorado Rockies 32.0
20. Vladimir Guerrero, 2007 - Los Angeles Angels 31.6
As I'm sure anyone who follows sports knows that the Los Angeles Clippers won a playoff series for the first time in 30 years and the first time ever since they've been the Clippers. Outside of a very brief glimmer of hope in the early the 90's they have been the model of futility in professional sports. Since I root for the New Clippers (YOUR Golden State Warriors) I figured I might as well jump on their bandwagon. I do have reservations though what with the gratuitous shots of Billy Crystal that will only increase with them into the next round and Donald Sterling getting credit for anything.
Now for a "tribute" to the Clippers I present the Top 10 best individual seasons by Clippers players since they became the Clippers in 1978 using the basketball version of Win Shares. Again I preface as always I have no idea how reliable this stat is. What this list does show is that Elton Brand has already become the franchise's greatest player, not that this franchise has been full of great players. In fact this past season Brand had the best season ever by a Clippers player.
What other blog will you find Swen Nater content?
1. Elton Brand, '05-'06, 41 Win Shares
24.7 PTS, 10.0 REB, 2.6 AST, 1.0 STL, 2.5 BLK, 2.2 TO
2. Elton Brand, '01-'02, 36 Win Shares
18.2 PTS, 11.6 REB, 2.4 AST, 1.0 STL, 2.0 BLK, 2.2 TO
(couldn't find an image of a Clippers card)
3. World B Free, '78-'79, 33 Win Shares
28.8 PTS, 3.9 REB, 4.4 AST, 1.4 STL, 0.4 BLK, 3.8 TO
4. Danny Manning, '91-'92, 29 Win Shares
19.3 PTS, 6.9 REB, 3.5 AST, 1.6 STL, 1.5 BLK, 2.6 TO
5. Elton Brand, '04-'05, 28 Win Shares
20.0 PTS, 9.5 REB, 2.6 AST, 0.8 STL, 2.1 BLK, 2.3 TO
6. Elton Brand, '03-'04, 26 Win Shares
20.0 PTS, 10.3 REB, 3.3 AST, 0.9 STL, 2.2 BLK, 2.8 TO
7. World B Free, '79-'80, 25 Win Shares
30.2 PTS, 3.5 REB, 4.2 AST, 1.2 STL, 0.5 BLK, 3.4 TO
8. Swen Nater, '80-'81, 24 Win Shares
15.6 PTS, 12.4 REB, 2.4 AST, 0.6 STL, 0.6 BLK, 2.6 TO
9. Mark Jackson, '92-'93, 24 Win Shares
15.2 PTS, 5.0 REB, 9.3 AST, 1.7 STL, 0.2 BLK, 2.8 TO
10. Corey Maggette, '03-'04, 23 Win Shares
20.7 PTS, 5.9 REB, 3.1 AST, 0.9 STL, 0.2 BLK, 2.8 TO
Next up is 1984 and I selected this particular year as it features easily the worst #1 pick of the 1980's. The Mets had the #1 pick and they wanted to draft Mark McGwire but could not agree on a contract so they settled for this...
1. Mets - Shawn Abner, Outfield, High School
Abner never put on a real Mets uniform as he was traded to San Diego after the 1986 season in the Kevin Mitchell/Kevin McReynolds deal. .227/.269/.323 line in 392 ML games with only 13 career Win Shares.
2. Mariners - Bill Swift, Pitcher, Maine
Another player involved in a Kevin Mitchell deal, traded to the Giants in a five player deal after the 1991 season. It was in San Francisco where Swift broke out, winning the ERA title in 1992 and winning 21 games in 1993. That was his peak though as he had elbow, shoulder, and other various arm problems through out his career going back to his Seattle days.
3. Cubs - Drew Hall, Pitcher, Morehead State
Fewer than 200 IP in the Majors, primarily as a reliever.
4. Indians - Cory Snyder, Shortstop, BYU
Could hit for power but had zero plate discipline. In 1987 he stuck out 166 times with only 31 walks.
5. Reds - Pat Pacillo, Pitcher, Seton Hall
His 85 walks in 149 innings at Triple-A in 1986 was a bad sign. Only a little over 50 IP in the Majors.
6. Angels - Erik Pappas, Catcher, High School
Nice strikeout/walk numbers (53/48) but results weren't pretty when he put it in play in his very short career. But hey he was the MVP of the 2002 European Baseball Championships.
7. Cardinals - Mike Dunne, Pitcher, Bradley
I must have had thirty 1988 Topps Mike Dunne cards. Traded to the Pirates in the Andy Van Slyke/Tony Pena deal right before the 1987 season. On the surface had a very impressive rookie year (13-6, 3.03 ERA) but his poor K/BB ratio (72/68) spelled doom for any future success.
8. Twins - Jay Bell, Shortstop, High School
Yet another #1 pick traded before they reach the Majors. Traded to Cleveland in 1985 in a deal for Bert Blyleven. Good hitting shortstop who lasted 18 years.
9. Giants - Alan Cockrell, Outfield, Tennessee
Didn't make his ML debut until 1996 for a cup of coffee with the Rockies.
10. A's - Mark McGwire, First Base, USC
My favorite player of all-time. I want him in the Hall of Fame but under the current circumstances might never get in.
11. Padres - Shane Mack, Outfield, UCLA
Very good hitter but only played nine years filled with several nagging injuries.
12. Rangers - Oddibe McDowell, Outfield, Arizona State
One of the great first names in baseball history. Already a regular player by 1985 but beyond a decent second year, not much of a career.
13. Expos - Bob Caffrey, Catcher, Cal State Fullerton
An Olympian but never a Major Leaguer.
14. Red Sox - John Marzano, Catcher, Temple
Believe it or not actually played in 10 different ML seasons but only 301 games played in that span.
15. Pirates - Kevin Andersh, Pitcher, New Mexico
I searched his name on Google Groups and there was a total of one entry.
16. Royals - Scott Bankhead, Pitcher, North Carolina
One decent year in 1989 but otherwise an erratic career.
17. Astros - Don August, Pitcher, Chapman College
Traded for Danny Darwin late in 1986, had a decent rookie year but was a mess after that.
18. Brewers - Isaiah Clark, Shortstop, High School
Brother of mid-90's Padres scrub Phil Clark. That's all I got.
19. Braves - Drew Denson, First Base, High School
Only 41 career ML at bats.
20. White Sox - Tony Menendez, Pitcher, High School
Threw over 1000 innings in the minors, only 29 in the majors.
21. Phillies - Pete Smith, Pitcher, High School
Traded to Atlanta after the 1985 season in a deal for Steve Bedrosian, the Braves hot shotted him from Double-A in 1987 which probably doomed his career. Threw almost 200 innings at age 22 in 1988 and it's no shock he had arm problems after that.
22. Yankees - Jeff Pries, Pitcher, UCLA
The Yankees first, 1st Round pick since 1979 (kept giving them up for free agent signings) and never made it to the Majors.
23. Dodgers - Dennis Livingston, Pitcher Oklahoma State
One of several bad 1st round picks by the Dodgers in the 80's.
24. Giants - Terry Mulholland, Pitcher, Marietta College
Hasn't been effective in about seven years but he's left handed so he's still getting a Major League salary at 103 years old.
25. Orioles - John Hoover, Pitcher, Fresno State
Pitched just two games in the Majors.
26. White Sox - Tom Hartley, Outfield, High School
Never made it.
Other Picks of Note
1st Round (Compensatory) Expos - Norm Charlton
2nd Round Braves - Tom Glavine
2nd Round Yankees - Al Leiter
2nd Round Cubs - Greg Maddux
3rd Round Astros - Ken Caminiti
6th Round Cardinals - Lance Johnson
6th Round Cubs - Jamie Moyer
12th Ruond Mets - John Wetteland (did not sign)
13th Round Expos - Jeff Brantley (did not sign)
14th Round Brewers - John Jaha
15th Round Angels - Chuck Finley
17th Round Angels - Dante Bichette
20th Round Red Sox - Jack McDowell (did not sign)
I'd figured I'd take a break from the usual lists to tell a quick story about the only World Series game I ever had the chance to attend. It's a pretty well known game because it didn't end being played as scheduled and it was 18 years ago today. It was Tuesday, October 17th, 1989 as the Oakland A's were to play the San Francisco Giants in Game 3 of their Bay Bridge World Series at Candlestick Park.
My Dad had bought tickets from Game 3 and 4 at Candlestick and he was going to take me to Game 3 and my brother to Game 4. Now you might wonder why as A's fans we'd have tickets to games in San Francisco and not Oakland but then you'd have to realize what a dump Candlestick Park was/is. The Oakland Coliseum today is thought of as one the worst ballparks around but at the time it was still regarded as good park and might as well have been Candem Yards compared to Candlestick. The A's had a larger season ticket base than the Giants at the time and with having the much nicer stadium the four games scheduled for Oakland were gone in an instant. Of course the games for Candlestick were gone quickly as well but there was actually people willing to give up those tickets for the right price unlike the games at the Coliseum. If I remember right I believe my Dad was able to buy our tickets off someone from he knew at work at $50 a piece in the nosebleed section. I don't think my Dad let me actually know how bad the seats really were but in the end would just be happy to be going to a World Series game especially with the A's out to a 2-0 series lead.
My memories of the day are pretty sketchy. I remember my Dad had bought a World Series program for me before hand for me to read on the way to the game. With the early 5:15 start time start time to get the game in east coast primetime we only got there probably about 20 minutes before the first pitch. Since we were so close to the game starting we decided to grab food before we got to the seats since there was no way I'd leave my seat during the game. Just as we got on line for food the stadium started shaking. We were on a concession line that was below the upper deck of the stadium and I remember just looking up as I guess that was my natural instinct was to see if anything was gonna fall. My Dad grabbed and rushed me to the little overhang by the concessions. Just a hunch if the stadium actually collapsed we'd be dead but if we actually survived what a better place to be trapped than by the food? For those of us who were not in their seats there wasn't even 100% certainty that it was earthquake or if the fans shook stadium. I remember right after the stadium stoppedd shaking a loud roar went up in the stadium and I heard a Giants fan near by yell "that's how you start a fucking game!" It was definately felt like a big earhtquake but it went by so quick and everything pretty much seemed fine. I was scared shitless but at least I was still going to see a World Series game.
Our seats were out towards rightfield and when we got to them I could see the leftfield foul pole was still shaking. I looked straight down the rightfield foul pole but one problem, you couldn't see rightfield at all from the angle of our seats and god damn did the field look far away. But again at least I was going to see a World Series game, if not really see the whole game itself with our view. Everyone seemed to think the game would be played although clearly delayed at that point. I can't remember at what time they called the game but shortly before that the gravity of the situation hit us when someone with a radio near by said this:
"The Bay Bridge collapsed."
That's a shit your pants moment right there. The image that went through my head was that the bridge went into the fucking water. What about the other bridges? How do we get home? As it turned out it was just a single portion of the upper deck of the bridge that collapse but at this point there was obvoiously going to be no baseball played that night. The rest of the night is a complete blur. I think my 11 year old brain had exploded that night and I was just worried about us getting home, although part of me was also excited by the prospect I might not have to school the next day. Although the Bay Bridge was the only bridge with major damage, all bridges were closed so we had to head south towards Santa Clara and go around the Bay to get home. This would normally be about a 40 minute drive but with so many people either trying to get home or get out of the city this turned into about a four hour trip just to get to the South Bay. Another problem that night was that because of the quake a lot of gas stations closed and we ended running out of gas in Santa Clara by the Great America theme park. On fumes my Dad got us into a hotel parking lot but as you can imagine that night all hotels were booked up. It was a very large hotel with a huge lobby and they were allowing people to come in without a room and sleep in the lobby which it appeared we'd end up doing. But my Dad was able to buy some gas from a gardner at the hotel from a lawnmower and enough to fill up to find an open gas station and get home. So about seven hours after the earthquake we were finally home. And I had to go to school. Fuck.
So at the start of this I mentioned that this would be about the only chance I had to go to a World Series game. Of course everyone the series resumed 10 days later but I didn't go. Why? Becuase I was a big fucking pussy. Okay I guess in reality i was just a scared kid who was going through some post traumatic shit but on the other hand I was just a pussy, who also watched way too much of the post-earthquake news coverage. I'm one of those people who will watch non-stop disaster news coverage. I remember for weeks after 9/11 watching the footage of the planes going into the WTC over and over and over and over again no matter how tough it was to watch. Every 9/11 when that footage starts getting replayed on t.v. again I always end up watching it. Back in '89 after the earthquake I just kept watching the news coverage of the earthquake and the home video footage shot in the immediate aftermath of the quake. This
in particular of a car falling down the collapsed portion of the bridge was played non-stop and I ended up just scaring myself into not going to the next game. To this day I'm actually not scared of earthquakes at all but I was then. So I regret that I've never had another chance since to go to a World Series game but I suppose also I should be happy the earthquake didn't last longer or otherwise I might have been a Candlestick Park sandwich.
My blog is still not dead...getting closer though. But I remembered the NBA Draft was this week so I can get another Draftback entry in. With the NBA Draft I take different approach as I rank the players using the basketball version of Win Shares. I don't know how reliable the statistic is, and I don't quite agree with all the rankings, but at least it's an objective way to compare these player's careers at this point.
1997 NBA Draft per Career Win Shares
1. Tim Duncan, San Antonio - 399 Career Win Shares (1st Pick)
2. Chauncey Billups, Boston - 252 (3rd)
3. Tracy McGrady, Toronto - 246 (9th)
4. Antonio Daniels, Vancouver - 131 (4th)
5. Derek Anderson, Cleveland - 120 (13th)
6. Keith Van Horn, Philadelphia (traded to New Jersey) - 115 (2nd)
7t. Tim Thomas, New Jersey (traded to Philadelphia) - 94 (7th)
7t. Bobby Jackson, Seattle (traded to Denver) - 94 (23rd)
9. Tony Battie, Denver - 91 (5th)
10t. Kelvin Cato, Dallas (traded to Portland) - 83 (15th)
10t. Brevin Knight, Cleveland - 83 (16th)
12. Austin Croshere, Indiana - 81 (12th)
13. Stephen Jackson, Phoenix - 79 (42nd)
14. Scott Pollard, Detroit - 78 (19th)
15. Alvin Williams, Portland - 61 (48th)
16t. Adonal Foyle, Golden State - 60 (8th)
16t. Anthony Johnson, Sacramento - 60 (39th)
18. Danny Fortson, Milwaukee (traded to Denver) - 57 (10th)
19. Mark Blount, Seattle - 56 (54th)
20. Jacque Vaughn, Utah - 51 (27th)
21. Marc Jackson, Golden State - 38 (37th)
22t. Maurice Taylor, L.A. Clippers - 37 (14th)
22t. Anthony Parker, New Jersey (traded to Philadelphia) - 37 (21st)
24. Ron Mercer, Boston - 33 (6th)
25. Cedric Henderson, Cleveland - 21 (44th)
26. Chris Crawford, Atlanta - 19 (50th)
27. Tariq Abdul-Wahad, Sacramento - 17 (11th)
28. Predrag Drobnjak, Washington - 15 (48th)
29. John Thomas, New York - 9 (25th)
30t. Chris Anstey, Portland (traded to Dallas) - 7 (19th)
30t. Charles Smith, Miami - 7 (26th)
32. Ed Gray, Atlanta - 3 (22nd)
33t. Rodrick Rhodes, Houston - 2 (24th)
33t. Keith Booth, Chicago - 2 (28th)
33t. Charles O'Bannon, Detroit - 2 (31st)
33t. Jerald Honeycutt, Milwaukee - 2 (38th)
33t. DeJuan Wheat, L.A. Lakers - 2 (51st)
38t. Johnny Taylor, Orlando - 1 (17th)
38t. Marko Milic, Philadelphia - 1 (33rd)
38t. Bubba Wells, Dallas - 1 (34th)
38t. Kebu Stewart, Philadelphia (35th)
38t. Jason Lawson, Denver - 1 (41st)
38t. Eric Washington, Orlando - 1 (46th)
The Zero Club
Paul Grant, Minnesota (20th)
James Cotton, Denver (32nd)
James Collins, Philadelphia (36th)
God Shammgod, Washington (45th)
Never Played in the NBA
Serge Zwikker, Houston (29th)
Mark Sanford, Miami (30th)
Eddie Elisma, Seattle (40th)
Gordon Malone, Minnesota (43rd)
Alain Digbeu, Atlanta (49th)
C.J. Bruton, Vancouver (52nd)
Paul Rogers, L.A. Lakers (53rd)
Ben Pepper, Boston (55th)
Nate Erdmann, Utah (56th)
Roberto Duenas, Chicago (57th)
Most Win Shares with Team they were Drafted by
1. Tim Duncan, 399
2. Austin Croshere, 74
3. Keith Van Horn, 60 (draft day trade)
4. Adonal Foyle, 56
5. Brevin Knight, 37
6. Tracy McGrady, 36
7. Cedric Henderson, 21
8. Derek Anderson, 20
9. Chris Crawford, 19
10. Ron Mercer, 15
Tim Raines - Leftfielder
Montreal Expos 1979-1990, 2001
Chicago White Sox 1991-1995
New York Yankees 1996-1998
Oakland Athletics 1999
Baltimore Orioles 2001
Florida Marlins 2002
Awards
1986 N.L. Silver Slugger - OF
1987 All-Star Game MVP
All-Star Selections: 7 (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987)
League Leader
1981: Stolen Bases
1982: Stolen Bases
1983: Runs, Stolen Bases
1984: Doubles, Stolen Bases
1986: Batting Average, OBP, Runs Created
1987: Runs
Career Ranks
Games: 48th
Runs: 46th
Hits: 68th
TB: 100th
BB: 33rd
SB: 5th
RC: 51st
Best Performance
April 18, 1994 - Chicago at Boston
Hit three homeruns against the Red Sox.
Hall of Fame Stats
Black Ink: Batting - 20 (105) (Average HOFer ≈ 27)
Gray Ink: Batting - 114 (176) (Average HOFer ≈ 144)
HOF Standards: Batting - 46.8 (91) (Average HOFer ≈ 50)
HOF Monitor: Batting - 90.0 (175) (Likely HOFer > 100)
Similar Batters in HOF: 5 (Lou Brock, Max Carey, Fred Clarke, Harry Hooper, Enos Slaughter)
Other Similar Batters: Kenny Lofton, Willie Davis, Jimmy Ryan, Jose Cruz, Julio Franco
Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3)
1979: 0/0.0
1980: 0/0.1
1981: 18/5.6
1982: 21/5.5
1983: 29/9.1
1984: 32/9.0
1985: 36/11.8
1986: 32/9.9
1987: 34/10.3
1988: 19/6.4
1989: 25/8.1
1990: 19/5.1
1991: 19/6.5
1992: 28/10.2
1993: 19/5.9
1994: 14/4.6
1995: 14/4.8
1996: 7/2.1
1997: 9/3.3
1998: 11/3.3
1999: 1/0.6
2001: 3/1.4
2002: 0/0.1
Career Win Shares: 390
Career WARP3: 123.9
My Stupid Opinion
Second greatest lead off hitter of all-time who should be a slam dunk, first ballot Hall of Famer this year but won't be. In The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, which was published in 2001 right near the end of Raines' career, James ranked Raines as the 8th best leftfielder of all-time behind Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Carl Yastrzemski, Joe Jackson, and Al Simmons. You could make a legitimate argument that from 1985 to 1987 Raines was the MVP of the National League each season yet he failed to crack the Top 5 in the writer's vote in those years. Playing his prime years in Montreal and being overshadowed by Henderson certainly hurt the national media's perception of him. Maybe also hurt by that he probably hung around a few years longer than he should have but he'd hardly be the first HOF to do that. The very small sample of writer ballots that have become public are at least semi-encouraging as it appears he'll probably end up on between 30-40% of the ballots which isn't bad for someone the writers don't view as a first ballot HOF.
So I waited two weeks before doing my 2nd Pointless Top 25 because I wanted to do some hard research on all 119 I-A teams...or I just didn't feel like it last week. You make the call!
Again I spend about ten minutes doing this so don't bother spending more than ten seconds reading it.
1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. Penn State
4. Oklahoma State
5. Oklahoma
6. Georgia
7. Missouri
8. Florida
9. Utah
10. BYU
11. USC
12. LSU
13. Texas Tech
14. Virginia Tech
15. Ohio State
16. North Carolina
17. California
18. Michigan State
19. Wake Forest
20. Boise State
21. Pittsburgh
22. South Florida
23. Kansas
24. Ball State
25. Tulsa
In a recent entry kkk talked about how excited Pirates' fans were in 1997 over the small glimmer of hope the team provided that year. Now I haven't really given any thought to the '97 Pirates before now and nor has anyone outside of Pittsburgh but I need excuses for an entry so by god I'm gonna talk about '97 Pirates.
The Pirates currently hold the longest active streak of losing seasons in baseball at 13 seasons (well on their way to 14) and 1997 was the closest they've come to sniffing .500 since the departure of that guy Pedro Gomez follows around 24/7. As a Golden State Warriors fan I know the Bucs fan's pain and what it is like to get excited about mediocrity. The high watermark for them in '97 was on August 25th they were 67-64 and just three games out of first place. Now a team being just three games over .500 being only three games out in late August tells you that the N.L. Central was pretty bad in 1997. They would lose their next four games and never be over .500 the rest of the year although they would not be mathematically eliminated until September 24th. The division was almost as bad as N.L. West was in 2005 as the Astros would take the division crown with just 84 wins. The Pirates would finish 79-83 with a second place finish, five games out of first.
One thing to keep in mind about this Pittsburgh team is that they had a pathetic $10.7 million payroll, by far the lowest in baseball in 1997 so any success they certainly had to be considered overachievers. The Reds had the highest payroll in the N.L. at $49.7 million but the Bucs finished ahead of them. Now I take a look back at the Little Bucs That Sorta Could and where they've went since.
C: Jason Kendall (.294/.391/.434, 40.9 VORP, 22 Win Shares) - Just his second year but he had already emerged as the team's best player. He was a rising star but as well know in 1999 he'd have a horrific leg injury although he'd comeback in 2000 and have one the best years of his career which he'd parlay into an obscene contract that the Pirates would spend a few years trying to unload. Finally after a very good 2004 season he was traded to Oakland where unfortunately for the A's, and me, he'd hit catcher career wall in 2005.
1B: Kevin Young (.300/.332/.535, 26.5 VORP, 12 Win Shares) - Mainly a 4-A player Young put up solid numbers in a platoon with Mark Johnson in '97. In 1999 he'd have himself a pretty good year but that would be bad news for Pirates fans as he'd get a four-year, $24 million contract after that and hit like crap for the duration of the contract. Young really signifies what is wrong with the Pirates organization as after slugging just .399 in 2001, just awful for a first baseman, they still managed to give him 525 plate appearances the following season. They finally cut him loose during the 2003 season.
2B: Tony Womack (.278/.326/.374, 32.5 VORP, 18 Win Shares) - Aww the stat geek punching bag. After cups of coffee the previous three seasons this would qualify as Womack's rookie season and it he wasn't half bad. But it was obvious from that year already that he wasn't a reliable option as a lead off hitter, although he'd fool teams for several years just because of his speed, as he had only 43 walks in 689 plate appearances. He was traded to the Diamondbacks for the 1999 season, where he'd pick up a ring in 2001. Had two very short stints after trades in 2003 with the Rockies and Cubs. Then in 2004 with the Cardinals he'd have his career year at age 34 and convince the Yankees that he could be their regular second baseman for 2005. Whoops! What was so great about the Yankees signing Womack was that everyone knew he would suck. So congratulations to everyone for being right for once. Now currently with the Reds.
3B: Joe Randa (.302/.366/.451, 32.2 VORP, 16 Win Shares) - Acquired from the Royals before the season in what would be the first of five trades he's been in, he had a decent season. He's really the type of guy that would be useful for a good team that had a big hole at third base for a cheap price. Problem is he ends up on bad teams all the time who count him to be a key hitter in their line up. Following the season he'd be taken in the expansion draft by Arizona who'd unload him the same day to Detroit for Travis Fryman. Just another one year stint there and he'd be traded to the Mets who'd trade him six days later to Kansas City where he'd find a home for six years. Spent 2005 between the Reds and Padres and has now comeback to Pittsburgh to recreate that '97 magic!
SS: Kevin Polcovich (.273/.350/.396, 14.6 VORP, 6 Win Shares) - Who? No really, I have no memory of this guy. This would be his rookie year at age 27 and he'd only spend one more year in the Majors. He was one of six guys to have more than 10 starts at shortstop for the Pirates in '97 including aging veterans Dale Sveum, Kevin Elster, and Shawon Dunston.
LF: Al Martin (.291/.359/.473, 33.1 VORP, 13 Win Shares) - You always have to feel sorry for a guy who has to replace a legend but that's what Martin had to do. The typical numbers he put up would have been very good if he was a great fielding, center fielder but he was a poor fielding, corner outfielder. He also was awful against left handers so he often had to be platooned. Traded to the Padres before the 2000 season he'd bounce around from there to Seattle, be out of baseball in 2002, and then finish his career in 2003 with the Devil Rays. Al Martin Fun Facts: Arrested in 2000 for bigamy and made up a story about playing football at USC. Yes because no one pays attention to USC football.
CF: Jermaine Allensworth (.255/.340/.339, 4.6 VORP, 7 Win Shares) - Simply a prospect who never panned out and no surprise with those numbers. Traded to the Royals during the 1998 season who'd flip him to the Mets less than two months later where he'd last appear in the Majors in 1999. Last seen in the independent Northern League.
RF: Jose Guillen (.267/.300/.412, 1.5 VORP, 7 Win Shares) - This was Guillen's rookie year at just 21 years old as the Pirates hot shotted him from High A ball and he was clearly not ready yet they kept him up all year playing him in 144 games. It was this incredibly stupid decision that contributed to Guillen having a very slow start to his career. Traded to the Devil Rays in 1999 he'd be released by four different teams until in 2003 he'd breakout with the Reds. He'd be traded in a deadline deal to Oakland and then sign with the Angels on a surprisingly cheap deal as there were rumors of attitude problems. This would come up in late September in a key series with the A's where the Angels would suspend him for the rest of the season for an unknown clubhouse altercation. You know when a team in the middle of the pennant chase essentially dumps it's starting left fielder, who was having a pretty good year, that's probably a sign that the guy might have some problems. Currently he's with the Nationals where he wants to beat up Pedro Martinez or something. Maybe he should beat up Jim Bowden.
Pitchers
Esteban Loaiza (104 ERA+, 25.0 VORP, 11 Win Shares) - Loaiza has made a career out of being very average and '97 was no different and is probably now the definition of a journeyman starter. Pirates traded him to Texas during 1998, who would trade him to Toronto during 2000. After a miserable 2002 season he signed on the cheap with the White Sox and out of no where had a Cy Young caliber season. Then traded to the Yankees for Jose Contreras in a deadline deal which would turn into an absolute nightmare for him and the Yankees. Signed with the Nationals in 2005 and then signed a three-year, $22 million deal with the A's that I'm absolutely hating.
Jon Lieber (96 ERA+, 17.0 VORP, 9 Win Shares) - Yet another pitcher who's put together an average career. Pirates traded him to the Cubs for Brant Brown after 1998 (that turned out well) where he'd have a 20 win season in 2001. Late in 2002 he'd have Tommy John surgery which would cause him to miss the entire 2003 season. The Yankees gambled on him before 2003 knowing he'd miss the season and he'd comeback for 2004 to be a moderately succesful pitcher who Yankee fans fell in love with. Now currently with the Phillies.
Jason Schmidt (93 ERA+, 12.6 VORP, 8 Win Shares) - Oh here's a painful one for Pirates fans. Acquired in a late season dump of Denny Neagle the year before, Schmidt was a hot shot prospect. Now typically leaving the Braves seems to be career suicide for a starting pitcher. After two decent seasons, shoulder problems with derail Schmidt as he would miss four months that season. He'd struggle at times in 2001 and it was uncertain if he'd ever regain form. So during that season, with him eligible for free agency following the year, the Pirates traded him to San Francisco for Armando Rios and Ryan Vogelsong. In 2003 Schmidt would emerge as one of the best pitchers in baseball and follow that up with a very good 2004. Injuries have again slowed him down since but safe to say the Pirates wish they had gotten a little more in return for him.
Steve Cooke (100 ERA+, 10.7 VORP, 7 Win Shares) - Another Pirates prospect that was probably rushed too soon. He had a pretty good rookie year in 1993 but shoulder problems would pop up the following season, probably due to throwing 210 innings at age 23, and he'd barely pitch at all the next two seasons before finally returning to full action in '97. But his shoulder and elbow were thrashed, he'd sign with the Reds but make only one apperance for them in 1998 and was out of baseball by 1999.
Francisco Cordova (118 ERA+, 32.9 VORP, 13 Win Shares) - Young, overused, Pirates pitcher with shoulder problems. See a theme? Cordova broke out in 1997 as a potential rising star pitcher and had a combined no hitter against the Astros in July. He'd follow it up with a very good 1998 season and Pirates fan's hearts were all a flutter. But those pesky shoulder problems would pop up in 1999, he'd only throw 95 innings in 2000, and that was it for his career. Really too bad as he looked like he might be the real deal.
Closer: Rich Loiselle (139 ERA+, 16.3 VORP, 11 Win Shares) - Pirates pitcher with injury problems, this is just getting depressing. Loiselle set a Pirates rookie record with 29 saves in '97 and then had a decent '98 season before elbow problems would effectively end his career. He'd have multiple surgeries and comebacks over the following few years but he'd never be effective again, his career over by 2001.
So there you have it. I just spent more time than anyone every will on the 1997 Pirates. What do I win?
I've been trying for a while to figure out some sort reoccurring entry for what's become my favorite sport to watch on television in the last several years and that's college football. But I haven't been able to come up with anything to this point so I figured I'd post some memories and some useless facts which is what this blog was created for.
As I've said before my "sports life" began in 1986 but it wasn't until 1991 that I took a true interest in college football. Really two things stuck out and that was Desmond Howard and that Stanford had a good team for the first time in a while. Howard was the hyped player that seemed to deliver every week. I will never forget watching that Michigan/Ohio State game when he struck the Heisman pose after a punt return for a touchdown. There was this sense from the announcers and the crowd that right before the punt that he was going to do something big. Him striking that pose in perfect unison with Keith Jackson's "Hello Heisman" call is I think one of the truly cool moments sports history.
Now since I had started following sports with a rabid interest Stanford had been lackluster in football, except in 1986 when they played in the Gator Bowl but again I wasn't into college football at the time. The year before they had pulled off a shocking upset of then #1 Notre Dame in South Bend but need nothing of note after that. In '91 they had an early season upset of Colorado but were only 2-3 after five games. Starting quarterback Jason Polumbus was knocked with a shoulder injury and back up Steve Stenstrom took over, leading the Cardinal to six straight victories and just their second bowl bid in 13 years. I still have on tape and watch at least once a year their 38-21 ass kicking of then #6 Cal in the Big Game that year with "Touchdown" Tommy Vardell scoring three td's.
Now on to the useless facts. 1991 may have been as reponsible as any year for the creation of the BCS because it ended with a split national champ between two undefeated schools who could not play each other in the bowls, Miami and Washington. Miami was ranked higher in the preseason poll so they ended up higher than Washington at the end of the season although it was near upset against a weak Boston College team (week after Wide Right I) that cost Miami the top spot in the Coaches' Poll.
Preseason AP Top 25
1. Florida State
2. Michigan
3. Miami
4. Washington
5. Florida
6. Notre Dame
7. Penn State
8. Georgia Tech
9. Clemson
10. Oklahoma
11. Tennessee
12. Houston
13. Colorado
14. Texas
15. Nebraska
16. USC
17. Auburn
18. Iowa
19. BYU
20. Michigan State
21. Texas A&M
22. Alabama
23. Ohio State
24. UCLA
25. Syracuse
Top 25 Regular Season Match-ups
Week 1
#7 Penn State 34, #8 Georgia Tech 22
#1 Florida State 44, #19 BYU 28
Week 2
#23 UCLA 27, #25 BYU 23
Week 3
#2 Miami 40, #10 Houston 10
#3 Michigan 24, #7 Notre Dame 14
#6 Florida 35, #16 Alabama 0
#11 Tennessee 30, #21 UCLA 16
#23 Baylor 16, #12 Colorado 14
Week 4
#4 Washington 36, #9 Nebraska 21
#18 Syracuse 38, #5 Florida 21
#6 Tennessee 26, #23 Mississippi State 24
Week 5
#1 Florida State 51, #3 Michigan 31
#5 Tennessee 30, #13 Auburn 21
#7 Clemson 9, #19 Georgia Tech 7
#14 Florida 29, #21 Mississippi State 7
#16 Nebraska 18, #24 Arizona State 9
Week 6
#1 Florida State 46, #10 Syracuse 14
#7 Michigan 43, #9 Iowa 24
#18 California 27, #24 UCLA 24
#19 N.C. State 28, #21 Georgia Tech 21
Week 7
#2 Miami 26, #9 Penn State 20
#10 Florida 35, #4 Tennessee 18
#7 Notre Dame 42, #12 Pittsburgh 7
#20 Illinois 10, #11 Ohio State 7
#22 Georgia 37, #23 Mississippi State 17
Week 8
#3 Washington 24, #7 California 17
#14 Alabama 24, #8 Tennessee 19
#22 Colorado 34, #12 Oklahoma 17
#15 Iowa 24, #13 Illinois 21
#19 Texas A&M 34, #16 Baylor 12
#24 Syracuse 31, #20 Pittsburgh 27
Week 9
#19 Clemson 29, #12 N.C. State 19
#20 East Carolina 24, #23 Pittsburgh 23
Week 10
#9 Nebraska 19, #15 Colorado 19 tie
#11 Iowa 16, #13 Ohio State 9
#21 Baylor 9, #24 Arkansas 5
Week 11
#13 Tennessee 35, #5 Notre Dame 34
#6 Florida 45, #23 Georgia 13
#10 Iowa 38, #25 Indiana 21
#24 Virginia 42, #18 N.C. State 10
Week 12
#2 Miami 17, #1 Florida State 16
#4 Michigan 20, #25 Illinois 0
#8 Penn State 35, #12 Notre Dame 13
Week 13
#4 Michigan 31, #18 Ohio State 3
#21 Stanford 38, #6 California 21
Week 14
#5 Florida 14, #3 Florida State 9
#11 Nebraska 19, #19 Oklahoma 14
Bowl Games
California: Bowling Green 28, Fresno State 21 (MVP, Mark Szlachcic)
Aloha: Georgia Tech 18, #17 Stanford 17 (MVP, Shawn Jones)
Blockbuster: #8 Alabama 30, #15 Colorado 25 (MVP, David Palmer)
Liberty: Air Force 38, Mississippi State 15 (MVP, Rob Perez)
Independence: #24 Georgia 24, Arkansas 15 (MVP, Andre Hastings)
Gator: #20 Oklahoma 48, Virginia 14 (MVP, Cale Gundy)
Holiday: BYU 13, #7 Iowa 13 tie (MVP, Ty Detmer)
Freedom: #23 Tulsa 28, San Diego Sate 17 (MVP, Ron Jackson)
Copper: Indiana 24, Baylor 0 (MVP, Vaughn Dunbar)
Sun: #22 UCLA 6, Illinois 3 (MVP, Arnold Ale)
Citrus: #14 California 37, #13 Clemson 13 (MVP, Mike Pawlawski)
Peach: #12 East Carolina 37, #21 N.C. State 34 (MVP, Jeff Blake)
Cotton: #5 Florida State 10, #9 Texas A&M 2 (MVP, Sean Jackson)
Orange: #1 Miami 22, #11 Nebraska 0 (MVP, Larry Jones)
Fiesta: #6 Penn State 42, #10 Tennessee 17 (MVP, O.J. McDuffie)
Hall of Fame: #16 Syracuse 24, #25 Ohio State 17 (MVP, Marvin Graves)
Rose: #2 Washington 34, #4 Michigan 14 (MVP, Steve Emtman)
Sugar: #18 Notre Dame 39, #3 Florida 28 (MVP, Jerome Bettis)
Final AP Top 25
1. Miami
2. Washington
3. Penn State
4. Florida State
5. Alabama
6. Michigan
7. Florida
8. California
9. East Carolina
10. Iowa
11. Syracuse
12. Texas A&M
13. Notre Dame
14. Tennessee
15. Nebraska
16. Oklahoma
17. Georgia
18. Clemson
19. UCLA
20. Colorado
21. Tulsa
22. Stanford
23. BYU
24. N.C. State
25. Air Force
All-Americans
QB
Ty Detmer, BYU
Casey Weldon, Florida State
RB
Vaughn Dunbar, Indiana
Trevor Cobb, Rice
Russell White, California
Amp Lee, Florida State
Marshall Faulk, San Diego State
WR
Desmond Howard, Michigan
Mario Bailey, Washington
Carl Pickens, Tennessee
TE
Kelly Blackwell, TCU
Derek Brown, Notre Dame
Mark Chmura, Boston College
OL
Greg Skrepenak, Michigan
Bob Whitfield, Stanford
Jeb Flesch, Clemson
Jerry Ostroski, Tulsa
Mirko Jurkovic, Notre Dame
Jay Leeuwenburg, Colorado
Eugene Chung, Virginia Tech
Leon Searcy, Miami
Troy Auzenne, California
Ray Roberts, Virginia
Tim Simpson, Illinois
DL
Steve Emtman, Washington
Santana Dotson, Baylor
Brad Culpepper, Florida
Leroy Smith, Iowa
Joel Steed, Colorado
Shane Dronett, Texas
Rob Bodine, Clemson
Robert Stewart, Alabama
LB
Robert Jones, East Carolina
Marvin Jones, Florida State
Levon Kirkland, Colorado
Marco Coleman, Georgia Tech
David Hoffman, Washington
Steve Tovar, Ohio State
Joe Bowden, Oklahoma
Darrin Smith, Miami
Erick Anderson, Michigan
DB
Terrell Buckely, Florida State
Dale Carter, Tennessee
Kevin Smith, Texas A&M
Darryl Williams, Miami
Darren Perry, Penn State
Troy Vincent, Wisconsin
K
Carlos Huerta, Miami
Jason Hanson, Washington State
P
Mark Bounds, Texas Tech
KR
Qadry Ismail, Syrcause
PR
Kevin Williams, Miami
2006 will mark 20 years of sports memories for me and I'm finally starting to feel like an old fart who reminisces about the good 'ol days. Fact is I was an old man when it came to sports when I was a kid as I loved sports history and researching useless sports facts which is still one of my favorite things to do. Regulars to sports folder have seen this most recently with my several useless fact posts in the Comments that don't warrant a thread, um thread, but that died off fairly quickly and figured it'd probably be more appropriate to post useless stuff like that in a blog.
So to make this all about me, I'll take a look back at my first ever live sporting event: 5/11/1986, Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics. As to memories about the actual game I have little to none. I only remember my family and I sat in the Plaza Level (2nd deck) of the Coliseum on the first base saide. My dad bought me an A's bobblehead, the old school ceramic ones not the plastic ones that you get today, which I promptly broke about a week later. Anything I remember from the game now comes from looking at the boxscore from Retrosheet. It featured a great "name" pitching of Oil Can Boyd vs. Moose Haas. The A's trailed 6-4 going into the 9th but a Carney Lansford homerun started a rally. They had 1st and 2nd with two out but pinch hitter Dusty Baker grounded out to the pitcher (wasn't hot enough for him?) to end the game with a Red Sox victory. That makes me feel old right there that Baker who will be in his 13th year of managing this season was playing in my very first live MLB game.
Now to look back at the starting line-ups from that game and just throw in a few comments about each player with their stats from 1986.
Red Sox
1. Dwight Evans RF (.259/.376/.476, 41.4 VORP, 24 Win Shares) - Doesn't get nearly the publicity for the Hall of Fame of his outfield mate Jim Rice, mainly because Evans fell off the ballot without notice while Rice remains a serious candidate. It's odd as Evans was equal the hitter of Rice and was unquestionably the superior defensive outfielder. Evans bests Rice in career Win Shares 347 to 282. Very underrated during his playing days and post career. Hopefully he'll get more notice when he comes up on the Veteran's Committee ballot.
2. Wade Boggs 3B (.357/.453/.486, 82.0 VORP, 37 Win Shares) - Roger Clemens would win the MVP in '86 but it should have been Boggs. I'm not sure where this myth that Boggs wasn't a feared hitter comes from beyond that he wasn't a power hitter but circa 1986 pitchers should have been pretty fucking scared to face Boggs.
3. Bill Buckner DH (.267/.311/.421, 21.5 VORP, 13 Win Shares) - Yes I'm sure you can see the irony in Bucker at DH in 1986.
4. Jim Rice LF (.324/.384/.490, 61.4 VORP, 28 Win Shares) - I was on the Rice for HOF bandwagon a couple of years ago but I've jumped off since. If he ever gets in I won't have a problem though but it wouldn't be much of an oversight either if he never gets in.
5. Don Baylor 1B (.238/.344/.439, 29.1 VORP, 16 Win Shares) - Mr. HBP who lucked into playing on three straight A.L. Champions on three different teams form '86 to '88 (Red Sox, Twins, A's).
6. Rich Gedman C (.258/.315/.424, 26.0 VOP, 18 Win Shares) - This was the last of a decent three year run for Gedman but he hit the wall the following season.
7. Marty Barrett 2B (.286/.353/.381, 38.0 VORP, 22 Win Shares) - Good season in a largely unspectacular career. I only remember him going beserk in the Red Sox dugout in the infamous Game 4 of the '90 ALCS when Roger Clemens was ejected.
8. Steve Lyons CF (.250/.312/.363, 0.4 VORP, 2 Win Shares) - Bad player and possibly even worse announcer. Claim to fame was playing literally every position and dropping his pants during a game when he was with the White Sox.
9. Ed Romero SS (.210/.270/.283, -3.9 VORP, 2 Win Shares) - I found edromero.com but it sadly it was a lounge singer not the baseball player.
A's
1. Tony Phillips 2B (.256/.367/.345, 22.7 VORP, 17 Win Shares) - Vastly underrated player who's best days would come away from Oakland. By no means a superstar but he just simply got a base a lot and could give you solid defense at multiple positions. He did smoke rock though. Has congress investigated the performance enhancements of crack?
2. Dwayne Murphy CF (.252/.364/.386, 18.9 VORP, 15 Win Shares) - Another underrated player. Probably would have been better appreciated if he played today as he got on base at a good rate, could hit for power (although by '86 he'd lost it), and was one of the best defensive outfielders of his era. Didn't help him that he played along side one of the greatest outfielders ever during his prime in RICKEY~.
3. Jose Canseco LF (.240/.318/.457, 30.2 VORP, 21 Win Shares) - He hit the first homerun I ever saw live in this game (not that I remembered it) but he was on the juice so it should ERASED FROM THE RECORDS!!!! Anyways the guy was a prick and by '89 I hated him. Wally Joyner absolutely got robbed in the '86 ROY voting by Canseco.
4. Dave Kingman DH (.210/.255/.431, 4.8 VORP, 8 Win Shares) - Awww Dave Kingman, never saw a pitch he didn't like. Really how long would he have lasted today with more emphasis on OBP? It amazes me a guy with so much power could draw so few walks. He'd hit 35 homeruns that year which is the record for most homeruns by a player in his final season but the average and on base tell you why no one was calling him up after '86.
5. Bruce Bochte 1B (.256/.357/.337, 12.8 VORP, 11 Win Shares) - No this isn't the Padres' manager. Is the answer to a trivia question, who was the A's starting 1B before Mark McGwire?
6. Carney Lansford 3B (.284/.332/.421, 32.8 VORP, 19 Win Shares) - Good hitter who was fun to watch because of his unique batting stance. Was my mom's favorite player and she probably would have fucked him she had the chance. Then I would have had to kill him.
7. Mike Davis RF (.268/.314/.454, 30.3 VORP, 18 Win Shares) - Was the A's "star" if you will the season before. Traded to the Dodgers after the '87 season where he did nothing but he drew a walk in front of Kirk Gibson's homerun in the Game 1 of the '88 Series. Thus I want him dead.
8. Alfredo Griffin SS (.285/.323/.364, 34.2 VORP, 17 Win Shares) - Never much of hitter but his glove kept him in the league for 18 years and had a badass JheriCurl.
9. Bill Bathe C (.184/.208/.359, -2.8 VORP, 1 Win Share) - Yes he was the back up catcher with those numbers, not that starter Mickey Tettleton did a whole lot better (.204/.325/.389, 11.3 VORP, 8 Win Shares).
Okay that's enough nostalgia for one night.
In case you didn't know Dwight Gooden is currently behind bars in a seven month prison sentence after another drug relapse. Gooden has described his time in prison as torture and I have to imagine he can't be the happiest of guys right about now. But I'm here to cheer ol' Doc up and take a look back at the year he was on top of the baseball world and see if he should have won the MVP.
After phenomenal rookie year (17-9, 2.60 ERA) Gooden followed it up with one of the best years by a pitcher in recent baseball history going 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA. He won the Cy Young unanimously and finished 4th in the MVP voting receiving one first place vote. The winner of the MVP was Willie McGee who had the best year on the best team in the National League, receiving 14 of the 24 first place votes. McGee bucked the usual trend of MVP voting of giving the award to power hitters and his 10 homeruns in 1985 were the fewest hit by an MVP winner since Maury Wills in 1962 who hit only six homeruns. He beat out two 30+ homerun seasons by Dave Parker and Pedro Guerrero who received six and three first place votes respectively. Really overall this was a pretty solid ballot produced by the N.L. writes as no one in their Top 10 seemed completely out of place beyond the usual lack of respect for Tim Raines who finished only 12th despite his usual excellence. Only really bizarre voting was a throw away 10th place vote for Mariano Duncan who put up a .244/.293/.340 line as a rookie for the first place Dodgers.
Actual Results
1) Willie McGee 2) Dave Parker 3) Pedro Guerrero 4) Dwight Gooden 5) Tom Herr 6) Gary Carter 7) Dale Murphy 8t) Keith Hernandez 8t) John Tudor 10) Jack Clark 11) Vince Coleman 12) Tim Raines 13) Ryne Sandberg 14t) Hubie Brooks 14t) Mike Marshall 16) Orel Hershiser 17) Keith Moreland 18t) Mike Scioscia 18t) Ozzie Smith 20) Jeff Reardon 21t) Jose Cruz 21t) Bill Doran 23t) Mariano Duncan 23t) Tony Gwynn 23t) Fernando Valenzuela 23t) Glenn Wilson
#10
.305/.364/.504, 112 RC, 131 OPS+, .301 EQA, 61.0 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#9
.312/.365/.551, 127 RC, 148 OPS+, .306 EQA, 47.7 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#8
.302/.379/.416, 95 RC, 124 OPS+, .303 EQA, 50.3 VORP, 30 Win Shares
#7
183 ERA+, 3.45 K/BB, 0.94 WHIP, 80.8 VORP, 27 Win Shares
#6
.281/.365/.488, 98 RC, 139 OPS+, .306 EQA, 46.3 VORP, 33 Win Shares
#5
.300/.388/.539, 129 RC, 151 OPS+, .318 EQA, 63.0 VORP, 31 Win Shares
#4
.353/.384/.503, 119 RC, 148 OPS+, .318 EQA, 67.5 VORP, 36 Win Shares
#3
.320/.422/.577, 118 RC, 181 OPS+, .349 EQA, 68.0 VORP, 35 Win Shares
#2
.320/.405/.475, 110 RC, 153 OPS+, .330 EQA, 69.3 VORP, 36 Win Shares
#1
226 ERA+, 3.88 K/BB, 0.97 WHIP, 99.3 VORP, 33 Win Shares
There you go Dwight, you are the winner of the only 1985 N.L. MVP given away by some guy on a wrestling message board. Now don't be dropping that new MVP in the shower.
