For the next Where’d They Go? I had already decided on doing a Mets team and ironically enough I received a request from TSM Mets’ fan strummer to do one for the 1997 Mets. The one I had chosen was the overpaid, sexual assaulting, firecracker throwing 1992 Mets. But I’m a giver so instead I will be doing the 1997 Mets.
The Mets had gone through six years of losing featuring many bad contracts, bad trades, and bad management. Basically the Mets the from 1991 to 1996 were the New York Knicks of today. Finally in ’97 things started to come together for the franchise under manager Bobby Valentine who had taken over as manager during the previous season for the young pitcher arm shredding Dallas Green. While the Mets never made a serious run for the N.L. East title they were in the thick of the Wild Card race for much of the summer but were never able to get closer than two games of the eventual World Champion Marlins. So let’s meet the 1997 New York Mets and see where they went.
C: Todd Hundley (.273/.394/.549, 45.2 VORP, 22 Win Shares) – This was during Hundley’s peak when he emerged as one of the best hitting catchers in baseball. He would have elbow surgery following season which would effectively derail his career. He was terrible in his return the following season in an ill-conceived move to leftfield and likely should have sat out the entire year. The Mets had acquired Mike Piazza during 1998 and Hundley would be on his way out to the Dodgers following the season. He had one good year in 2000 with the Dodgers but that was only productive year left. Signed as a free agent with the Cubs following that season. Played there for two years and was traded back to Los Angles to play one final injury filled season.
1B: John Olerud (.294/.400/.489, 36.2 VORP, 27 Win Shares) – Olerud’s first year in New York many thought he was already on his way down as a player but put together three very productive years with the Mets. Signed as a free agent after 1999 with Seattle where he would play until mid-2004 when he appeared to be washed up. After being released he was picked up by the Yankees and was mildly productive. Went to Boston for 2005 as a part-time player and retired after the season.
2B: Carlos Baerga (.281/.311/.396, 6.9 VORP, 11 Win Shares) – The Mets had a good second baseman in Jeff Kent but traded him the year before to get…Baerga. Whoops. After an early peak Baerga already was past his prime in his late 20’s. He’d leave the Mets after 1998 and would bounce around from San Diego, back to Cleveland, Boston, Arizona (had a surprisingly good year in 2003 as a role player), and finally Washington last year. On no MLB roster this year so I assume he’s now retired.
3B: Edgargdo Alfonzo (.315/.391/.432, 36.4 VORP, 28 Win Shares) – This was Alfonzo’s breakout year at age 23. Had a disappointing 1998 but followed that up with two phenomenal years where he amassed 65 Win Shares. Seemed on his way to becoming a superstar but had a bad year in 2001 with several nagging injuries. Rebounded in 2002 and cashed in as a free agent by signing with the Giants. His days a productive player would be over when he reached San Francisco and played three mediocre years there. Traded after 2005 to the Angels who released him in May, then the Blue Jays gave him a shot but released him after only a month with the team. Appears his career maybe over at age 32.
SS: Rey Ordonez (.216/.255/.256, -18.1 VORP, 6 Win Shares) – Everyone wanted to make Ordonez the next Ozzie Smith but it wasn’t going to happen and I don’t care how good defensively he may have been, those offensive numbers are of someone who should have been in Triple-A. Never lived up to the hype and was traded to Tampa Bay after to 2002. Played one year there and went to San Diego but never played a game with the big club. The Cubs of course couldn’t resist picking up a weak hitting middle infielder and picked him up but let him go after two months.
LF: Bernard Gilkey (.249/.338/.417, 9.0 VORP, 16 Win Shares) – Hindsight being what it is the Mets probably could have suckered some team into trading a major prospect for Gilkey following his career year of ’96. This ended up being his last season as everyday player. Did end up being traded during 1998 to Arizona but for no one of note. Released by the D-Backs in 2000 and was picked up by the Red Sox. Finished his career with Atlanta in 2001.
CF: Carl Everett (.248/.308/.420, 2.8 VORP, 13 Win Shares) – Mets actually had three primary center fielders during the season. They traded Lance Johnson for Brian McRae in a six player waiver deal to the Cubs in August. Everett was a big time prospect who at age 26 at this point looked like he might not live up to the hype. Unfortunately for Mets’ fans GM Steve Phillips had a fetish for trading for middle relievers and he traded Everett after the season to the Astros for John Hudek. He’d have two very good years in Houston but they traded enigmatic outfielder to the Red Sox after 1999 for Adam Everett. He signed a big money contract extension with the Red Sox before the season started and had a great year but like everywhere else wore out his welcome. Traded three more times first to Texas after 2001, then to White Sox during 2003, signed as a free agent with Expos, and then traded back to the White Sox during 2004. Now currently with the Mariners.
RF: Butch Huskey (.287/.319/.503, 19.1 VORP, 12 Win Shares) – Alex Ochoa led the Mets in games played in right field but Huskey made the most starts. I can’t remember if Huskey was ever expected to end up being really good or not but he never did become all that good beyond a couple of decent years like this one. Mets traded him to Seattle after 1998, who traded him to Boston during the 1999. Split 2000 with the Twins and Rockies. Spent 2001 in the minors and that appears to be where his career ended.
Rotation
Rick Reed (140 ERA+, 54.0 VORP, 17 Win Shares) – Reed was always that decent pitcher who you couldn’t see his real name in MLB video games because he was a “scab” player in 1995. I’m sure Brett Butler and Tom Glavine left him flaming bags of poo on his doorstep. This was arguably Reed’s best year and followed up with another good year in ’98. Merely an average pitcher through most of his career, he was traded in a deadline deal to the Twins in 2001 for Matt Lawton and pitched there thru 2003. He signed with the Pirates in 2004 but failed to make the Opening Day roster and decided to retire.
Dave Mlicki (101 ERA+, 31.9 VORP, 10 Win Shares) – Reading up on him apparently every Mets fan will always love him for his shutout of the Yankees in their first interleague mathc-up in ’97. Other than that, a very non-descript career who was traded several times. Mets traded during 1998 to the Dodgers in a deal for Hideo Nomo. Dodgers traded him last than a year later to Detroit, who would trade him two years later to Houston for Jose Lima.
Bobby Jones (111 ERA+, 32.2 VORP, 11 Win Shares) – Jones was a steady if unspectacular pitcher for the Mets for several years. A shoulder injury in 1999 would limit him to nine starts and he never had a season with ERA under 5 after that. Finished his career with two seasons with the Padres.
Mark Clark (95 ERA+, 12.9 VORP, 6 Win Shares) – Mets stats only as Clark was in that Johnson/McRae deal to the Cubs in August but he was the only other Mets pitcher with more than 20 starts. Mediocre pitcher who often seemed to luck into winning seasons. Actually pitched great for the Cubs down the stretch to last place in ’97 but was terrible the following season. The always desperate for pitching Rangers signed him as a free agent where’d he had have two god awful years to finish his career.
Closer: John Franco (158 ERA+, 18.7 VORP, 12 Win Shares) – The longtime Mets’ closer was still effective at age 36. Being that he was left handed he was able hang around after he was no longer effective as he was with the Mets thru 2004. Astros picked him up for 2005 but released him midseason. Never officially announced his retirement but his career is most certainly over. Finished 3rd on the all-time saves list with 424.
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.
NFL Draft is only three weeks away and this year it might actually go by at a relatively brisk pace with the shortened draft times. Since it is that time of year it's time for me to pick out a past NFL Draft and run down the first round from that year with little to no insight. I picked 1988 because it was 20 years ago, simple enough? 1988 featured several great wide receivers but little depth overall after the first two rounds. It's also the draft where there wasn't a single quarterback taken in the first two rounds and the first one taken in the 3rd round was Tom Tupa who would later become a punter.
1. Atlanta - Aundray Bruce, LB, Auburn
Lasted 11 years but only two of them were spent as a starter so that would definitely would equal to a bust for a #1 pick overall.
2. Kansas City - Neil Smith, DE, Nebraska
Good pick. Six Pro Bowls and over 100 career sacks.
3. Detroit - Bennie Blades, S, Miami
Halfway decent defensive back but not quite the career you'd hope for a pick this high. His brother Brian was taken in the 2nd round of this draft.
4. Tampa Bay - Paul Gruber, T, Wisconsin
12 year starter but kind of surprising he never went to a Pro Bowl as I seem to remember him being regarded as one of the better left tackles in the league during his prime. Maybe he just has a good rating Tecmo Super Bowl and that's why I thought he was good.
5. Cincinnati - Rickey Dixon, S, Oklahoma
Lasted five years, doing nothing of note.
6. L.A. Raiders - Tim Brown, WR, Notre Dame
Slam dunk future Hall of Famer.
7. Green Bay - Sterling Sharpe, WR, South Carolina
Was on his way to a Hall of Fame career it seemed before a neck injury cut it short in 1994.
8. N.Y. Jets - Dave Cadigan, G, USC
I honestly never heard of him but apparently he was a five year starter.
9. L.A. Raiders - Terry McDaniel, CB, Tennessee
Five time Pro Bowl selection.
10. N.Y. Giants - Eric Moore, G, Indiana
Another guard for a New York team that I have no memories of.
11. Dallas - Michael Irvin, WR, Miami
I don't think there is a football player I despised more than him.
12. Phoenix - Ken Harvey, LB, California
Selected to four Pro Bowls but he went to Cal and therefore he sucks.
13. Philadelphia - Keith Jackson, TE, Oklahoma
Very good receiving tight end who went to five Pro Bowls.
14. L.A. Rams - Gaston Green, RB, UCLA
Short career. Rushed for over 1000 yards in 1991.
15. San Diego - Anthony Miller, WR, Tennessee
Obviously overshadowed by the three receivers taken ahead of him but had a very good career as well.
16. Miami - Eric Kumerow, DE, Ohio State
Pretty impressive that we got 15 picks in before getting to a complete bust.
17. New England - John Stephens, RB, Northwest State
Made the Pro Bowl as a rookie but did little else after that.
18. Pittsburgh - Aaron Jones, DE, Eastern Kentucky
Played eight years but did anyone notice?
19. Minnesota - Randall McDaniel, G, Arizona State
12 Pro Bowl selections and should be a future Hall of Famer.
20. L.A. Rams - Aaron Cox, WR, Arizona State
Well the great run of wide receivers in this draft had to end eventually.
21. Cleveland - Clifford Charlton, LB, Florida
Bust.
22. Houston - Lorenzo White, RB, Michigan State
Had one great year in 1992 but didn't see a whole lot of carries in his career playing in the run and shoot.
23. Chicago - Brad Muster, RB, Stanford
Decent fullback who, like most running backs, had a short career.
24. New Orleans - Craig Heyward, RB, Pittsburgh
Very popular, fat fullback who died at age 39 due to brain cancer.
25. L.A. Raiders - Scott Davis, DT, Illinois
Not quite as good as the Raiders first two picks.
26. Denver - Ted Gregory, DT, Syracuse
Was cut during training camp. Seriously how does a team fuck up so bad on it's first pick that the guy can't even make it out of camp?
27. Chicago - Wendell Davis, WR, LSU
Pretty good receiver who's best known for having his career ended when he tore both ACLs while running a pass route on the god awful Veterans Stadium turf in 1993.
Other Notable Picks
29. Detroit - Chris Speilman, LB, Ohio State
30. Philadelphia - Eric Allen, CB, Arizona State
31. Cincinnati - Ickey Woods, RB, UNLV
36. N.Y. Giants - Jumbo Elliott, T, Michigan
39. San Francisco - Pierce Holt, DE, Angelo State
40. Buffalo - Thurman Thomas, RB, Oklahoma State
41. Dallas - Ken Norton, LB, UCLA
43. New England - Vincent Brown, LB, Mississippi Valley State
44. Pittsburgh - Dermontti Dawson, C, Kentucky
46. L.A. Rams - Flipper Anderson, WR, UCLA
49. Seattle - Brian Blades, WR, Miami
50. Cleveland - Michael Dean Perry, DT, Clemson
63. N.Y. Jets - Erik McMillan, S, Missouri
68. Phoenix - Tom Tupa, QB, Ohio State
74. N.Y. Jets - James Hasty, CB, Washington State
76. Indianapolis - Chris Chandler, QB, Washington
80. San Francisco - Bill Romanowski, LB, Boston College
125. Houston - Chris Dishman, CB, Purdue
159. Washington - Stan Humphries, QB, Louisiana-Monroe
239. Miami - Jeff Cross, DE, Missouri
252. Pittsburgh - John Jackson, T, Eastern Kentucky
With all the MVP talk for the potential "non-steroid" single season homerun record holder Ryan Howard, even though he wouldn't really deserve it, I figured it'd be good to redo for the year of the homerun chase, 1998. Mark McGwire would beat out Sammy Sosa for the homerun record that year but it was Sosa who that took home the MVP in a landslide.
Sosa won the MVP over McGwire for one simple reason, the Cubs won the Wild Card and the Cubs making the playoffs is always a big deal. The Cardinals weren't a bad team but at 83 wins were never in the hunt for a postseason birth thus McGwire was never given much of a chance for the award despite his 70 homeruns. Sosa took 30 of the 32 first place votes and not surprisingly the only two first place votes for McGwire were from the St. Louis writers. Although their homerun totals were close when it came to OBP and SLG, it wasn't much of a contest. McGwire's slugging was 105 points higher (.742 to .637) and his on base was 93 points higher (.470 to .377). Now one who argues the case for a player on a playoff team against a player on a non-playoff team is often that the player on the playoff team had more pressure on him to come up with more hits in key situations. Even though McGwire wasn't in a pennant chase he faced more pressure all year than any player in baseball in 1998, even more than Sosa.
Obviously there was no one else who was given any consideration for MVP. Moises Alou was the consensus 3rd place choice while Greg Vaughn, Craig Biggio, Andres Galarraga, and Trevor Hoffman were the only other players to receive over 100 voting points. Despite having his usual great year Barry Bonds only finished 8th.
Actual Results
1) Sammy Sosa 2) Mark McGwire 3) Moises Alou 4) Greg Vaughn 5) Craig Biggio 6) Andres Galarraga 7) Trevor Hoffman 8) Barry Bonds 9t) Chipper Jones 9t) Jeff Kent 11) Vinny Castilla 12) John Olerud 13) Valdimir Guerrero 14) Mike Piazza 15) Tony Gwynn 16) Kevin Brown 17) Larry Walker 18) Rod Beck 19) Jeromy Burnitz 20) Scott Rolen 21t) Dante Bichette 21t) Tom Glavine 21t) Randy Johnson 24t) Javy Lopez 24t) Mickey Morandini
#10
.324/.371/.589, 135 RC, 152 OPS+, .311 EQA, 59.1 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#9
.272/.363/.597, 123 RC, 158 OPS+, .317 EQA, 61.4 VORP, 30 Win Shares
#8
.313/.404/.547, 134 RC, 146 OPS+, .317 EQA, 69.1 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#7
.312/.399/.582, 135 RC, 157 OPS+, .325 EQA, 69.2 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#6
.328/.390/.570, 127 RC, 152 OPS+, .321 EQA, 73.9 VORP, 33 Win Shares
#5
.308/.377/.647, 157 RC, 160 OPS+, .320 EQA, 68.3 VORP, 35 Win Shares
#4
.354/.447/.551, 138 RC, 163 OPS+, .340 EQA, 70.4 VORP, 34 Win Shares
#3
.325/.403/.503, 125 RC, 139 OPS+, .315 EQA, 80.5 VORP, 35 Win Shares
#2
.303/.438/.609, 146 RC, 177 OPS+, .344 EQA, 83.8 VORP, 34 Win Shares
#1
.299/.470/.752, 179 RC, 217 OPS+, .379 EQA, 104.3 VORP, 41 Win Shares
The Moises Alou card makes me giggle.
See if someone had just told Barry back in 1998 that he had a better year than Sammy maybe he wouldn't have taken steroids. But as for the result, McGwire should have won in a landslie as he completely blows away the competition. Too bad now he's apparantly worse than Hitler for deceiving the nation or something.
iggymcfly and Carnvial have them so I might as well too. I'm actually doing this in lieu of my pointless College Football Wrap-up as I missed all of the mid-day games yesterday and next Saturday I have to work and possibly the Saturday after that as well so it might be a while before I do another Wrap up entry. I did want to do a Worst Top 25 poll but then I realized that would take more time than doing a generic Top 25 so I opted for the lazy route.
One thing to get out of the way before this quickly thrown together poll I do have one crackpot theory about early season polls. I rarely see a point during the first month of the season of ranking a team that has already lost a game. With the current college football postseason structure, the regular season is supposedly a "playoff" unto itself where if a team loses they are eliminated. This of course is not true since one loss teams have and will win national championships but you get the idea. Teams that lose this early in the season are very likley to lose again and I personally don't see any team that has lost a game already this season that is going to run the table, although I won't keep anyone from making the argument for one. So that said for now I'm only going to rank teams that are undefeated but after next week we will be almost month into the season and at that point I may change that, if I actually do another one.
Also I'm really for the most part only taking into account what has happened so far this season, which is how the polls are supposed to work but don't. Yes Boston College is ranked too high but they've won three conference games and none of them were really in any doubt late in the game so I say give credit where credit is due at this point. I put this together in about ten minutes so don't even bother looking at it.
1. LSU
2. USC
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. West Virginia
6. Boston College
7. Ohio State
8. South Carolina
9. California
10. Oregon
11. Texas
12. Penn State
13. Wisconsin
14. Rutgers
15. Kentucky
16. Auburn Alabama
17. South Florida
18. Clemson
19. Arizona State
20. Cincinnati
21. Missouri
22. Hawaii
23. Texas A&M
24. Kansas
25. Purdue
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.
This seems to be turning into a weekly Bills update but something interesting happens to them every week. This week in their showdown with the Dolphins for first place in the AFC East, Jim Kelly was knocked out of the game in first half. Lucky for them they have one of the few decent back up quarterbacks on the game in Frank Reich and he led two 4th quarter touchdown drives for the 24-21 win. Bills sweep the season series giving them essentially a two game lead on the Dolphins now. In other quarterback injury news, the Bengals lost to the Eagles and lost Boomer Esiason to injury dimming their already very slim playoff hopes. The Browns season seemed to be spiraling out of control after three straight losses including two huge blow outs but this week they knocked off the divison leading Oilers to pull back within in a game of first palce. Last week the Bears appeared to be on the verge of turning their season around after their win against the Vikings but they shit the bed against the Colts this week and now the Vikings can clinch the division next week.
Week 12 Scores
San Francisco 21, Phoenix 10
SF: 8-3, PHX: 2-10
-Tom Rathman: 100 yards rushing
San Diego 24, New Orleans 20
SD: 6-5, NO: 5-6
-Billy Joe Tolliver: 179 yards passing
Indianapolis 28, Chicago 17
IND: 4-7, CHI: 5-6
-Albert Bentley: 77 yards rushing
Philadelphia 35, Cincinnati 21
PHI: 7-4, CIN: 4-7
-Boomer Esiason: leaves injured
Cleveland 24, Houston 21
CLE: 6-5, HOU: 7-4
-Bernie Kosar: 264 yards passing
Tampa Bay 24, Atlanta 9
TB: 4-7, ATL: 2-9
-Chris Miller: 31% comp pct, 3 int
Kansas City 30, Denver 6
KC: 6-5, DEN: 4-7
-Christian Okoye: 106 yards rushing
Buffalo 24, Miami 21
BUF: 9-2, MIA: 8-3
-Jim Kelly: leaves injured
L.A. Raiders 17, Seattle 14
RAI: 9-2, SEA: 5-6
-Bo Jackson: 85 yards rushing
Pittsburgh 17, Washington 7
PIT: 6-5, WAS: 7-4
-Bubby Brister: 202 yards passing
N.Y. Giants 33, Dallas 28
GIA: 9-2, DAL: 5-6
-David Meggett: 112 yards rushing
L.A. Rams 31, Detroit 21
RAM: 6-5, DET: 2-9
-Jim Everett: 259 yards passing
Minnesota 37, Green Bay 14
MIN: 10-2, GB: 3-8
-Steve Jordan: 4 rec, 105 yards
N.Y. Jets 34, New England 14
JET: 3-8, NE: 3-8
-Al Toon: 5 rec, 137 yards
Leaders thru Week 12
PASSING LEADERS
Rating
1. Phil Simms, 201.0
2. Dan Marino, 175.2
3. Randall Cunningham, 167.5
Yards
1. Warren Moon, 2770
2. Montana, 2684
3. Jim Everett, 2536
Touchdowns
1t. Marino, 27
1t. Montana, 27
3. Moon, 26
RECEIVING LEADERS
Receptions
1. Jerry Rice, 53
2t. Many tied with 36
Yards
1. Rice, 1355
2. Sterling Sharpe, 989
3. Eric Martin, 970
Touchdowns
1. Rice, 14
2t. Many tied with 10
RUSHING LEADERS
Yards
1. Neal Anderson, 1056
2. Christian Okoye, 962
3. Johnny Johnson, 945
Touchdowns
1. Tom Rathman, 13
2. Johnson, 12
3. Many tied with 11
DEFENSIVE LEADERS
Interceptions
1. Joey Browner, 8
2t. Many tied with 7
Sacks
1. Lawrence Taylor, 17
2. Bruce Smith, 15
3t. Many tied with 14
SPECIAL TEAMS LEADERS
Field Goals: Jeff Jaeger, 13
Punting Avg: Rohn Stark, 51.3
Punt Return Avg: Jeff Query, 12.8
Kick Return Avg: David Meggett, 20.5
1975 World Series – Reds 6, Red Sox 5 10 Innings (boxscore and play account)
-Like Game 2 this game is incomplete on the disk. With one out in the bottom of the 7th a screen comes up acknowledging that a portion of the game is missing from the archives. Now when the action returns I have no idea what part of the game until a couple minutes later when the announcers mention that it’s the top of the 9th. It would have been nice for them to add a graphic telling you what part of the game they had jumped to. Thankfully the Dwight Evans’ game tying homerun in the 9th isn’t missed.
-The video quality is the poorest so far of any of the games. Makes me wonder if they’ll be able to put together any pre-70’s World Series sets or not.
-Curt Gowdy wonders aloud if Pete Rose can get to 3000 hits or not. Considering he’d already cleared 2500 that year at age 34 I can’t imagine to many people thought there’d be much doubt about that.
-I’m amused again by the fact that Joe Morgan apparently didn’t like runners trying to steal when he was up. That’s not SMARTBALL~ Joe!
-Clay Carroll comes into pitch in the 7th with the Reds up 5-2 and Tom Brennaman (part of the rotating announce crew that I mentioned in the Game 1 entry) calls it a “saving situation” which tells you how much the role of relievers has changed. Carroll wasn’t the Reds primary closer though as he only had 7 saves during the regular season.
-1975 technology gone mad: With Johnny Bench up in the 9th, NBS puts an image of Bench's wife over the upper righthand corner of the screen (see the screencap) and continue to shoot a side camera angle of Bench for the first three pitches with his wife looking on. I hope Fox producers have never seen this.
-Big controversy in the bottom of the 10th as with Cesar Geronimo on first and none out, Ed Armbrister comes up to pinch hit in the pitcher’s spot specifically to bunt. He lays down a terrible bunt right in front of home plate. As Carlton Fisk tries to get to the ball Armbrister gets in his way. Fisk gets to the ball but uncorks a wild throw to second that gets by the bag and Geronimo advances to third while Armbrister ends up on second. Fisk is furious and rightfully so as it should have been interference. A couple of batters later Joe Morgan ends it with a base hit (sorry, "manufactured a run") and the Red Sox drop a second straight heartbreaker.
-During all of this the crowd was rather subdued for a World Series extra inning game.
1979 World Series – Orioles 8, Pirates 4 (boxscore and play account)
-Like Game 2 the network graphics are missing from the footage of this game. Hope it’s not this way the rest of the series.
-Al Michaels fills in for Keith Jackson as Jackson has to do a college football game the next day. It’s been too long since I heard Michaels call baseball.
-Both teams are wearing classic whites and greys for this game rather than the usual softball uniforms.
-Michaels calls Three Rivers a beautiful ball park. Well this was 1979 and it was very much the age of the giant, multi-purpose stadiums so maybe Three Rivers was considered nice for the time, what do I know?
-Unfortunately Cosell still hasn’t said anything particularly interesting in the entire series although he goes on a couple of mini-rants about the baseball writer’s blaming ABC for the bad weather or something, couldn’t quite figure out what he was talking about.
1986 World Series – Mets 7, Red Sox 1 (boxscore and play account)
-Vin Scully mentions that Oil Can Boyd has hepatitis. Well that’s good to know.
-Now in the ‘75 Series in Cincinnati when Carlton Fisk homered in the 2nd there seemed to be a decent number of Red Sox fans in the stands. Now for this series for the first two games in New York when the Red Sox would make a big play there was seemingly not a single Red Sox fan in the stands. This took me by surprise as today at every Red Sox road game there are thousands of bandwagon…uh I mean lifelong SAWX fans in the stands no matter where the game is played. Then what is interesting as the ’86 Series goes to Boston after Lenny Dykstra leads off the game with a homerun there is a noticeable number of Mets fans in the crowd and even a very light “Let’s Go Mets” chant starts.
-Oil Can Boydism: Quoted earlier in the year after a game that was fogged out in Cleveland as saying “What do you expect when you build a stadium near the ocean?”
-With the Mets up 7-1 in the bottom of the eighth the Red Sox fans start doing…the wave!? The wave in Fenway Park? Who knew?
-Scully makes a somewhat interesting parallel from the previous World Series where another high strung pitcher in Joaquin Andujar made the start in Game 3 and lost the game that let the Royals back in that series.
It's been over a month since my last MVP Watch and to my surprise not much has changed, although I do have a new #1 in each league. Chase Utley hasn't played since breaking his hand on July 26th so he lost the #1 spot by default but he's still hanging on in the Top 5 for the moment. David Wright has been red hot since the break and has made the biggest jump. To no surprise at Albert Pujols is making a serious MVP run yet again. What is amazing about the current N.L. MVP race is that the two best players in the N.L. right now play for a team that is nine games under .500, that being of Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera of the Marlins. Neither has any shot at winning the real award but they are a cut above the competition at the moment.
And finally...Eric Byrnes still leads in the N.L. in Win Shares! I continue to be baffled by this unless he really has become a great defensive outfielder rather than the "one great diving play, misplay the next five" outfielder he was with the A's but I find this hard to believe. Win Shares is the only reason I'm bothering to keep him in the Top 10.
10. Eric Byrnes, Diamondbacks
.301/.367/.494, 82 RC, 117 OPS+, .289 EQA, 35.6 VORP, 24.7 Win Shares
9. Barry Bonds, Giants
.280/.495/.589, 79 RC, 183 OPS+, .367 EQA, 51.3 VORP, 18.2 Win Shares
8. Matt Holliday, Rockies
.338/.399/.581, 88 RC, 146 OPS+, .314 EQA, 50.9 VORP, 19.9 Win Shares
7. Prince Fielder, Brewers
.284/.380/.609, 89 RC, 154 OPS+, .319 EQA, 49.7 VORP, 20.9 Win Shares
6. Jose Reyes, Mets
.304/.377/.453, 92 RC, 121 OPS+, .295 EQA, 48.2 VOPR, 22.6 Win Shares
5. Chase Utley, Phillies
.336/.414/.581, 84 RC, 154 OPS+, .327 EQA, 55.0 VORP, 21.0 Win Shares
4. Albert Pujols, Cardinals
.317/.419/.550, 89 RC, 154 OPS+, .327 EQA, 49.9 VORP, 24.0 Win Shares
3. David Wright, Mets
.310/.398/.521, 95 RC, 144 OPS+, .319 EQA, 51.6 VORP, 23.6 Win Shares
2. Hanley Ramirez, Marlins
.343/.395/.578, 102 RC, 157 OPS+, .325 EQA, 71.1 VORP, 22.9 Win Shares
1. Miguel Cabrera, Marlins
.334/.414/.616, 106 RC, 171 OPS+, .340 EQA, 65.5 VORP, 24.4 Win Shares
In the A.L. it has gone to sort of being a four player race to a definitive two player race. Magglio Ordonez still hasn't fallen off a cliff which makes me think we're close to someone starting a steroid rumor about him. Speaking of steroid rumors, A-Rod grabs the top spot this time around but it is pretty much a toss up at this point. Ichiro Suzuki and Vladimir Guerrero hung tough through the first half and are still solidily in Top 5 but they have fallen off the Maggs/A-Rod pace. The rest of the Top 10 is a mess and you could jumble it several different ways without getting an argument out of me.
10. David Ortiz, Red Sox
.311/.424/.543, 86 RC, 152 OPS+, .315 EQA, 49.6 VORP, 17.2 Win Shares
9. Jorge Posada, Yankees
.334/.416/.531, 75 RC, 154 OPS+, .316 EQA, 52.6 VORP, 17.4 Win Shares
8. Curtis Granderson, Tigers
.293/.351/.543, 84 RC, 134 OPS+, .295 EQA, 43.5 VORP, 19.7 Win Shares
7. Grady Sizemore, Indians
.278/.382/.465, 93 RC, 126 OPS+, .291 EQA, 39.1 VORP, 22.9 Win Shares
6. Brian Roberts, Orioles
.313/.397/.461, 89 RC, 128 OPS+, .302 EQA, 48.6 VORP, 20.7 Win Shares
5. Victor Martinez, Indians
.301/.374/.505, 81 RC, 133 OPS+, .295 EQA, 42.2 VORP, 22.9 Win Shares
4. Vladimir Guerrero, Angels
.319/.404/.531, 95 RC, 151 OPS+, .311 EQA, 46.0 VORP, 24.3 Win Shares
3. Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners
.347/.396/.431, 99 RC, 125 OPS+, .299 EQA, 49.6 VORP, 25.8 Win Shares
2. Magglio Ordonez, Tigers
.356/.430/.595, 114 RC, 169 OPS+, .337 EQA, 65.3 VORP, 26.8 Win Shares
1. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees
.305/.412/.630, 117 RC, 177 OPS+, .334 EQA, 68.0 VORP, 26.1 Win Shares
And I'm finally done with the best lists, just two days before they are out of date! It is pretty amazing to think that the best season by a pitcher in the last 30 years was by a guy who peaked at age 20.
Top 20 Starting Pitcher Seasons since 1979 (per Win Shares)
1. Dwight Gooden, 1985 - New York Mets 32.9 Win Shares
Year Ag Tm Lg W L G GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP BFP IBB ERA *ERA+ WHIP
+--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+------+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+---+-----+---+---+-----+-----+----+-----+
1985 20 NYM NL 24 4 35 35 16 8 0 0 276.7 198 51 47 13 69 268 2 6 1065 4 1.53 228 0.965
2. Roger Clemens, 1997 - Toronto Blue Jays 31.9
3. Greg Maddux, 1995 - Atlanta Braves 29.9
4. Pedro Martinez, 2000 - Boston Red Sox 28.9
5. Roger Clemens, 1986 - Boston Red Sox 28.8
6. Randy Johnson, 2002 - Arizona Diamondbacks 28.7
7. Steve Carlton, 1980 - Philadelphia Phillies 28.6
8. Brett Saberhagen, 1989 - Kansas City Royals 28.3
9. Roger Clemens, 1990 - Boston Red Sox 28.1
10. Roger Clemens, 1987 - Boston Red Sox 27.7
11. Greg Maddux, 1992 - Chicago Cubs 27.4
12. Johan Santana, 2004 - Minnesota Twins 27.2
13. John Smoltz, 1996 - Atlanta Braves 27.1
14. John Tudor, 1985 - St. Louis Cardinals 27.1
15. Kevin Appier, 1993 - Kansas City Royals 27.0
16. Pedro Martinez, 1999 - Boston Red Sox 26.9
17. Mike Scott, 1986 - Houston Astros 26.8
18. Pedro Martinez, 1997 - Montreal Expos 26.4
19. Randy Johnson, 1999 - Arizona Diamondbacks 26.2
20. Greg Maddux, 1994 - Atlanta Braves 26.0
The draft is tommorrow so I've decided just to do a quick list of the top players of each draft from the 1980's per Win Shares with a couple of other things thrown in. Now when putting this together I was quickly skimming over the list of players who played in the Majors from each draft so it's entirely possible I might have missed a key player or two so feel free to point out any omissions. For each year I only take in account players who signed.
1980
Top Pick Overall: Darryl Strawberry, 252 Win Shares, Mets
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #2 Garry Harris, Blue Jays
Most Career Win Shares: Strawberry
Most Career Win Shares by a Pitcher: Craig Lefferts 91, 9th Round, Cubs
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Eric Davis 224, 8th Round, Reds
1981
Top Pick Overall: Mike Moore, 133 Win Shares, Mariners
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #11 Mike Sodders, Twins
Most Career Win Shares: Tony Gwynn 398, 3rd Round, Padres
Most Career Win Shares by a Pitcher: David Cone 205, 3rd Round, Royals
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Joe Carter 240, #2 Overall, Indians; Kevin McReynolds 202, #6 Overall, Padres; Paul O'Neill 259, 4th Round, Reds; Devon White 207, 6th Round, Angels; Fred McGriff 326, 9th Round, Yankees; Lenny Dykstra 201, 13th Round, Mets
Other Pitchers with 180+ Career Win Shares: Mark Langston 184, 2nd Round, Mariners; Frank Viola 187, 2nd Round, Twins; John Franco 183, 5th Round, Dodgers
1982
Top Pick Overall: Shawon Dunston, 151 Win Shares, Cubs
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #2 Augie Schmidt, Blue Jays
Most Career Win Shares: Jose Canseco 272, 15th Round, A's
Most Career Win Shares by a Pitcher: David Wells 203, 2nd Round, Blue Jays
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Terry Pendleton 202, 7th Round, Cardinals
Other Pitchers with 180+ Career Win Shares: Dwight Gooden 187, #5 Overall, Mets; Jimmy Key 188, 3rd Round, Blue Jays; Bret Saberhagen 193, 19th Round, Royals; Kenny Rogers 185, 39th Round, Rangers
1983
Top Pick Overall: Tim Belcher, 132 Win Shares, Twins (did not sign)
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #5 Stan Hilton, A's
Most Career Win Shares: Roger Clemens 421, #19 Overall, Red Sox
Most Career Win Shares by a Player: Wally Joyner 253, 3rd Round, Angels
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Ron Gant 206, 4th Round, Braves
1984
Top Pick Overall: Shawn Abner, 13 Win Shares, Mets
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #13 Bob Caffrey, Expos
Most Career Win Shares: Greg Maddux 371, 2nd Overall, Cubs
Most Career Win Shares by a Player: Mark McGwire 342, #10 Overall, A's
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Jay Bell 245, #8 Overall, Twins; Ken Caminiti 242, 3rd Round, Astros
Other Pitchers with 180+ Career Win Shares: Tom Glavine 290, 2nd Round, Braves; Jamie Moyer 184, 6th Round, Cubs
1985
Top Pick Overall: B.J. Surhoff, 231 Win Shares, Brewers
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #5 Kurt Brown, White Sox
Most Career Win Shares: Barry Bonds 661, #6 Overall, Pirates
Most Career Win Shares by a Pitcher: Randy Johnson 297, 2nd Round, Expos
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Will Clark 331, #2 Overall, Giants; Barry Larkin 347, #4 Overall, Reds; Rafael Palmeiro 394, #22 Overall, Cubs; David Justice 233, 4th Round, Braves; Mark Grace 294, 24th Round, Cubs
Other Pitchers with 180+ Career Win Shares: John Smoltz 257, 22nd Round, Tigers
1986
Top Pick Overall: Jeff King, 115 Win Shares, Pirates
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #14 Greg McMurty, Red Sox (did not sign)
Most Career Win Shares: Gary Sheffield 398, #6 Overall, Brewers
Most Career Win Shares by a Pitcher: Kevin Brown 241, #4 Overall, Rangers
Other Players Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Matt Williams 241, #3 Overall, Giants; Todd Zeile 221, 2nd Round, Cardinals
1987
Top Pick Overall: Ken Griffey Jr., 358 Win Shares, Mariners
Highets Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #2 Mark Merchant, Pirates
Most Career Win Shares: Craig Biggio 411, #22 Overall, Astros
Most Career Win Shares by a Pitcher: Kevin Appier 189, #9 Overall, Royals
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Albert Belle 243, 2nd Round, Indians; Ray Lankford 228, 3rd Round, Cardinals; Reggie Sanders 201, 7th Round, Reds; Steve Finley 286, 13th Round, Orioles
1988
Top Pick Overall: Andy Benes, 139 Win Shares, Padres
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #5 Bill Bene, Dodgers
Most Career Win Shares: Mike Piazza 309, 62nd Round, Dodgers
Most Career Win Shares by a Pitcher: Benes
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Robin Ventura 272, #10 Overall, White Sox; Tino Martinez 216, #14 Overall, Mariners; Marquis Grissom 248, 3rd Round, Expos; Luis Gonzalez 285, 4th Round, Astros; Jim Edmonds 263, 7th Round, Angels; Kenny Lofton 261, 17th Round, Astros
1989
Top Pick Overall: Ben McDonald, 83 Win Shares, Orioles
Highest Pick Not to Play in the Majors: #4 Jeff Jackson, Phillies
Most Career Win Shares: Jeff Bagwell 387, 4th Round, Red Sox
Most Career Win Shares by a Pitcher: Trevor Hoffman 144, 11th Round, Reds
Other Players with 200+ Career Win Shares: Frank Thomas 362, #7 Overall, White Sox; Mo Vaughn 201, #23 Overall, Red Sox; Chuck Knoblauch 231, #25 Overall, Twins; John Olerud 301, 3rd Round, Blue Jays; Tim Salmon 228, 3rd Round, Angels; Ryan Klesko 222, 5th Round, Braves; Jim Thome 279, 13th Round, Indians; Brian Giles 228, 17th Round, Indians; Jeff Kent 295, 20th Round, Blue Jays
Let me say first off I hate the bowls. Okay scratch that I kind of like them but I hate the bastardized system we currently have that helps determine an undisputed champ about half of the time and in the process kills any tradition the bowl system still had. I'm an all or nothing guy when it comes to bowl games. Give me the Pac-10 champ against the Big Ten champ in the Rose, give me the SEC champ in the Sugar, and give me the Big XII champ in the Orange (not the fucking Fiesta) or don't give me any bowls at all, give me playoffs. Give me tradition or give me a real NCAA Division I-A College Football National Champion every year.
But we, or just me I suppose, have to deal with the cards we've been dealt so in that regard I'm going to take a look at each conference in March Madness kind of way to see who is going bowling and who is on the bubble. I'm not going to do any projections as I'm just not Bored enough to take the time to do so as there is still plenty of season left to fuck up any sort of projections. Now this year we've gone back to the 12 game schedule, which I can't stand because it guarentees teams with non-winning records will go to bowl games and thus we'll most likely end up with teams who went 6-7 but still being able to call their season a success because they went to the Birmingham Bowl. Also to make matters worse, as of last season I-AA wins now count every year rather than every four years to become bowl eligible. So if you're in a BCS conference and you are already at six wins, you're going bowling. Now to fill conference bids bowls can not take a 6-6 team over a team with a winning record so it's not impossible that a 6-6 BCS conference team could be left out but it would take an unusual set of circumstances for that to happen beyond a team just flat out rejecting an invite. There's always at least one or two conference bids that can't be filled by it's designated conference.
ACC
Conference bids: Orange/BCS, Chick-Fil-A (ugh), Gator, Champs Sports, Music City, Car Care, Emerald, MPC
Locked up a bid: Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech
Near locks: Florida State, Miami
On the Bubble: N.C. State, Virginia
Seminoles have Virginia and Western Michigan at home so they'll definately get to six wins and as bad as they've been it still would be a pretty big upset if Wake Forest won in Doak Campbell. Although if FSU does end up 6-6 and they find themselves invited to Boise I would wonder if they would choose not to go but doubtful they'd wanna piss off the ACC like that. Miami has a much tougher remaining schedule and it's also not out of the realm possibility they could also end up squeaking into a bowl at only 6-6. N.C. State closes the the season with UNC and ECU but before that they need to upset Clemson or Georgia Tech to get into a bowl and after last week's loss against Virginia that doesn't seem likely. Virginia breathed some life into their season with that win but they'll need to win at FSU or Virginia Tech including a win at home against Miami to get to a bowl.
Big XII
Conference bids: Fiesta/BCS, Cotton, Holiday, Alamo, Gator or Sun, Insight, Independence, Texas
Locked up a bid: Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M
Near locks: Oklahoma State, Texas Tech
On the Bubble: Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State
This conference has been impossible to figure out once you get past Texas and there's plenty of potential jumbling of the standings left to go. I was reluctant to call anyone a near lock but both the Cowboys and Red Raiders have Baylor at home. If either drops that game though they go on the bubble. Now like those two Kansas State does only need one more win and they do get Colorado this but it's in Boulder and don't forget what they did to Texas Tech a few weeks ago. After that the Wildcats have a loss against Texas and then it's a rivalry game at Kansas where all bets are off. Along with the two road games already mentioned, Baylor closes at home against Oklahoma so barring a miracle it's likely the Bears will have to wait another year before ending their bowl drought. Kansas has an outside shot of winning at Iowa State and then winning at home against against the Wildcats. If not they will need to upset Missouri at home to close out the season, assuming they get at least a split in the first two game. Iowa State has done nothing to indicate they can run the table but they are technically still alive.
Big East
Conference bids: BCS, Gator or Sun, Car Care (Navy has a conditional bid), Texas, International, Birmingham
Locked up a bid: Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, West Virginia
Near locks: South Florida
On the Bubble: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Syracuse
USF I have as a near lock simply because they still have Syracuse at home. An upset at home against Pittsburgh this week would also get the job done. Although Cincinnati is clearly the better team than USF, they are on the bubble as the have West Virginia and Rutgers next and then close out at UConn. I think they can beat UConn but the Huskies may also be playing for a bid so there's no guarentee. UConn will have to win their next three as they close at Louisville. Syracuse could run the table to get to a bowl. And I also could fuck Beyonce.
Big Ten
Conference bids: Rose/BCS, Capital One, Outback, Alamo, Champs Sports, Insight, Motor City
Locked up a bid: Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
Near locks: Purdue
On the Bubble: Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota
Purdue has been exposed in recent weeks and they have a 13 game schedule so they do need to get to seven wins but you have to figure they can win two out of three against Michigan State, Illinois, and Indiana. If they don't they are in big trouble going into Hawaii to close the season. Indiana can wrap up a bid at Minnesota this week but can you really guarentee a win for a team who already loss to I-AA team in any week? Lose to the Gophers and their chances dim in a hurry. The Spartans can help their chances big time if they win at home against Purdue this week but if the greatest comeback in college football history can't turn their season around, nothing will. Minnesota is toast.
Conference USA
Conference bids: Liberty, GMAC, Birmingham, Armed Forces, New Orleans
Locked up a bid: Tulsa, Houston
Near locks: Southern Miss
On the Bubble: East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, SMU, Tulane, UAB, UCF, UTEP
This conference just blows this year and really doesn't deserve five bids. If Houston were to drop their last three games it's possible they could be left out but it's unlikely and they have very winnable games against SMU and Memphis left. Southern Miss may have played themselves on to the bubble with their loss at home against ECU but they've played all their tough games and I'd be very surprised if they didn't win three of their last four. As for the bubble teams there are waaaaaaaay too many scenerios to go into with ECU and UTEP being the most likely to get the last two bids.
This entry is going longer than I expected so I'll stop now and do another entry tommorrow for the rest of the conferences.
Much kudos to UCLA this week for ending Cal's Rose Bowl hopes and thus extending their drought to 49 years. I wish I had been bold enough to make the proclamation a few weeks ago but there was almost no doubt in my mind the Bruins would lose to Notre Dame but beat Cal. If they played a high school Powder Puff team next week they'd lose but put up against a strong opponent and they usually win.
Top 25, you know the drill. I can hold off on ranking any three loss teams for at least another week. Sure there's an argument for Auburn but they could easily have five losses as well. I might become really ambitious this week and try to make bowl projections but usually I'm way too lazy to do such a thing.
1. Ohio State
2. Boston College
3. Arizona State
4. Kansas
5. LSU
6. Oklahoma
7. South Florida
8. West Virginia
9. Oregon
10. Missouri
11. Virginia Tech
12. Florida
13. South Carolina
14. Kentucky
15. USC
16. Virginia
17. Georgia
18. Connecticut
19. Wake Forest
20. Alabama
21. Michigan
22. Texas Tech
23. Penn State
24. Hawaii
25. Boise State
Alan Trammell - Shortstop
Detroit Tigers 1977-1996
6th year on the ballot
Past HOF Voting Results
2002: 15.68%
2003: 14.11%
2004: 13.83%
2005: 16.86%
2006: 17.69%
Awards
1980 AL Gold Glove - SS
1981 AL Gold Glove - SS
1983 AL Gold Glove - SS
1984 AL Gold Glove - SS
1984 World Series MVP
All-Star Selections: 6 (1980, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990)
League Leader
None of note
Career Ranks
None of note
Hall of Fame Stats
Gray Ink: Batting - 48 (505) (Average HOFer ≈ 144)
HOF Standards: Batting - 40.4 (146) (Average HOFer ≈ 50)
HOF Monitor: Batting - 118.5 (116) (Likely HOFer > 100)
Similar Batters in HOF: 2 (Ryne Sandberg, Pee Wee Reese)
Other Similar Batters: Barry Larkin, B.J. Surhoff, Jay Bell, Lou Whitaker, Tony Fernandez, Julio Franco, Buddy Bell, Dave Concepcion
Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3)
1977: 0/-0.3
1978: 14/5.5
1979: 13/3.0
1980: 21/7.0
1981: 14/8.7
1982: 16/8.0
1983: 26/10.3
1984: 29/10.5
1985: 16/7.0
1986: 26/10.2
1987: 35/13.1
1988: 23/8.3
1989: 13/6.3
1990: 29/9.7
1991: 12/4.3
1992: 4/1.7
1993: 17/6.3
1994: 3/2.5
1995: 6/1.5
1996: 1/-0.2
Career Win Shares: 318
Career WARP3: 123.3
Would he get my vote?
Yes. An excellent peak gives him the nod from me, the first player I've voted "yes" for. Five times he had an OPS+ of 130 or better in a full season, six if you include his 1993 season although that came in 112 games. As you see Trammell is getting little support, not even at the level of Dave Concepcion. What has hurt Trammell the most is probably the era he played in. You could make a legitimate argument that in the last 25 years we've seen seven of the top 10 to 12 greatest shortstops of all-time as we are truly in a golden age for the position. Trammell's peers included Cal Ripken, Robin Yount, Ozzie Smith, and Barry Larkin and since he retired Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter (maybe needs one more good year) have joined that list. When he retired Trammell was without question one of the Top 10 shortstops of all-time. He shouldn't be punished because his career numbers were dwarfed by all-time greats like Ripken and Yount nor should he be punished for the feats of players who came after him like A-Rod and Jeter.
This is one that I’ve been putting off as it seemed too obvious for an entry. No one in there right mind thinks in 1991 that Terry Pendleton was a better player than Barry Bonds except apparently the 12 baseball writers who voted for Pendleton over Bonds. Now Pendleton winning wasn’t on the level of Andre Dawson winning in 1987 and actually after reviewing it there certainly have been several worse choices for MVP in the past.
There’s an easy answer as to why Pendleton won the MVP and that was because the Braves were the feel good story of 1991. The Braves had lost 89 games or more in six consecutive seasons and had lost 97 the year before. But that all changed in ’91 when they made a shocking run at the N.L. West title and Pendleton received a good portion of the credit for their run. After all he wasn’t with the Braves before ‘91 and when he joins the team they suddenly became good so it must have been because of him, or at least that was probably the logic of some writers. Now I don’t want to slam Pendleton, he had a great year and he was the MVP of the Braves that season as he had a career year offensively after appearing to be washed at age 29 just a year earlier with the Cardinals. What would hurt Bonds in the MVP voting was A) he won the MVP the year before and did not have as good a year to follow it up, B) the Pirates ran away with the East title while the Braves were in a dog fight into the final weekend with the Dodgers for the West title so in September all eyes were on Atlanta, and C) he was already the miserable prick we know today and thus not liked by the media. Pendleton and Bonds received 22 of the 24 first place votes with Bonds’ teammate Bobby Bonilla receiving one. Not sure why someone picked Bonilla over Bonds but it did not cost Bonds the award and Bonilla had a great year. The other first place vote though went to Brett Butler who I’m assuming received it from a Dodgers writer. Butler had a good year but far from deserving to win it and he only placed 7th in the overall voting.
Now what eventually convinced me to write an entry on this one had little to do with the winner of the award but one bizarre 10th place vote. Dave Martinez was with the Expos at the time and I don’t think MVP and Dave Martinez have ever been uttered before but yet he showed up one writer’s ballot that year. Martinez played in 124 games, received 427 plate appearances, with his Triple Crow stats at .295 avg, 7 hr, 42 rbi. It got me thinking as to how in the world did a writer justify giving Dave Martinez an MVP vote, even if only a 10th place? The Expos lost 90 games that year so it wasn’t like he had some relevant “clutch” hits down the stretch that would caused a writer to overrate him. The two best players on the Expos in 1991 were his outfield mates Ivan Calderon and Larry Walker so it’s hard to imagine his play was noticed more over those two. Then it donned on me…the writer meant to vote for his teammate Dennis Martinez. El Presidente won the N.L. ERA title and it’s completely conceivable for a writer to have given the league leader in ERA a 10th place vote. I can’t confirm this is what happened but there is no other logical explanation for it.
Actual Results
1) Terry Pendleton 2) Barry Bonds 3) Bobby Bonilla 4) Will Clark 5) Howard Johnson 6) Ron Gant 7) Brett Butler 8) Lee Smith 9) Fred McGriff 10) Darryl Strawberry 11) Tom Glavine 12t) Jay Bell 12t) David Justice 14t) Andre Dawson 14t) John Smiley 16) Tony Gwynn 17t) John Kruk 17t) Barry Larkin 17t) Ryne Sandberg 20t) Dave Martinez 20t) Chris Sabo 20t) Ozzie Smith
#10
.294/.367/.483, 97 RC, 139 OPS+, .311 EQA, 43.9 VORP, 25 Win Shares
#9
.259/.342/.535, 105 RC, 145 OPS+, .308 EQA, 47.2 VORP, 25 Win Shares
#8
153 ERA+, 2.78 K/BB, 1.10 WHIP, 55.5 VORP, 23 Win Shares
#7
.278/.396/.494, 104 RC, 147 OPS+, .322 EQA, 48.7 VORP, 25 Win Shares
#6
.304/.377/.454, 88 RC, 143 OPS+, .315 EQA, 54.2 VORP, 26 Win Shares
#5
.319/.363/.517, 111 RC, 139 OPS+, .308 EQA, 53.6 VORP, 27 Win Shares
#4
.302/.391/.492, 112 RC, 150 OPS+, .323 EQA, 49.9 VORP, 31 Win Shares
#3
.291/.379/.485, 109 RC, 137 OPS+, .310 EQA, 52.5 VORP, 37 Win Shares
#2
.301/.359/.536, 109 RC, 152 OPS+, .321 EQA, 53.2 VORP, 34 Win Shares
#1*
.292/.410/.514, 109 RC, 161 OPS+, .337 EQA, 61.6 VORP, 37 Win Shares
See...I put an asterisk. Cause he's a cheater. HAHAHAHA. People who use asterisks to mock Bonds are so clever.
Anyways you to have to admit that's one prophetic card.
Continuing with more of the worst. Now there are positions in baseball where clubs are very willing to sacrifice defense for offense, middle infielders being most common. If you have an excellent defensive shortstop or second baseman you can often overlook their offensive shortcomings. First base is not one of those positions. Sure a great defensive first baseman is nice to have but if they can't hit, it's not wise to keep them in the line up everyday if you have a better hitting alternative who isn't at least a complete butcher in the field.
The worst hitting season for a first baseman since 1901 was by Ivy Griffin in 1920 who posted a blistering hitting line of .238/.281/.274 for an OPS+ of 47 in 505 plate appearances, which means he'd qualify under the modern rules for the batting title. Now Griffin played on a horrific Philadelphia A's team that lost 106 games. On the other hand the man who posted the worst hitting season for a first baseman since 1957 played on a team who made it to the World Series and you might have heard of him too, no offense to Mr. Griffin. Actually there was a tie for first/worst so the tiebreak was who had more plate appearances.
Top 25 Worst Offensive First Baseman Seasons since 1957 (per OPS+)
1. Pete Rose, 1983 - Philadelphia Phillies 69 OPS+ (.245/.316/.286)
2. Pete Runnels, 1957 - Washington Senators 69
3. Enos Cabell, 1981 - San Francisco Giants 72
4t. Kevin Young, 1993 - Pittsburgh Pirates 73
4t. Whitey Lockman, 1957 - New York Giants 73
6. Darin Erstad, 1999 - Anaheim Angels 74
7. Dave Stapleton, 1983 - Boston Red Sox 76
8t. Mike Squires, 1981 - Chicago White Sox 78
8t. Tony Taylor, 1967 - Philadelphia Phillies 78
8t. Lee Thomas, 1963 - Los Angeles Angels 78
11t. Kevin Young, 2001 - Pittsburgh Pirates 80
11t. Dale Murphy, 1978 - Atlanta Braves 80
13t. Ron Coomer, 2000 - Minnesota Twins 81
13t. J.T. Snow, 1996 - California Angels 81
13t. David Segui, 1994 - New York Mets 81
16. Bill Buckner, 1973 - Los Angeles Dodgers 82
17t. Cecil Cooper, 1986 - Milwaukee Brewers 83
17t. Vic Power, 1957 - Kansas City A's 83
19t. Ken Harvey, 2003 - Kansas City Royals 84
19t. Keith Moreland, 1988 - San Diego Padres 84
19t. Willie Montanez, 1979 - New York Mets/Texas Rangers 84
19t. Rusty Staub, 1963 - Houston Colt .45's 84
19t. Vic Power, 1961 - Cleveland Indians 84
24t. Pete O'Brien, 1983 - Texas Rangers 85
24t. Frank Thomas, 1960 - Chicago Cubs 85
If you haven't checked out Pro-Football-Reference.com lately you should as it isn't the completely useless site it used to be. This is a site that until recently didn't even have QB Ratings but now it has all kinds of neat features such as a searchable draft database. With the help of this I decided to do a quicky project for the blog by putting together an All-Time NFL Draft.
Now this isn't some all-time fantasy draft I'm doing but rather I'm selecting who in my opinion were the best players ever at each selection of the draft (i.e. Who is the best #1 pick of all-time?). To keep my sanity I'm only doing this since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger and I stopped at 30 picks although I might do another entry for more picks. Along with who I picked as the best player at each selection I also listed three "honorable mention" picks at each selection just to give you an idea of how many good players (or very average players for that matter with some of them) were taken at each selection. I originally thought of doing it based on who were truly the best draft picks for the team that originally drafted each player but that was going to be way too time consuming so I took the easy way out and just picked purely based on the player's career, regardless of where they had their most success.
1. Baltimore Colts (traded to Denver) - John Elway, QB, Stanford 1983
Honorable Mention: Eric Campbell (1978), Bruce Smith (1985), Peyton Manning (1998)
2. N.Y. Giants – Lawrence Taylor, LB, North Carolina 1981
Honorable Mention: Tony Dorsett (1977), Eric Dickerson (1983), Marshall Faulk (1994)
3. Detroit – Barry Sanders, RB, Oklahoma State 1989
Honorable Mention: Anthony Munoz (1980), Cortez Kennedy (1990), Chris Samuels (2000)
4. Chicago – Walter Payton, RB, Jackson State 1975
Honorable Mention: John Hannah (1973), Dan Hampton (1979), Jonathan Ogden (1996)
5. Atlanta – Deion Sanders, CB, Florida State 1989
Honorable Mention: Mike Haynes (1976), Junior Seau (1990), LaDanian Tomlinson (2001)
6. L.A. Raiders – Tim Brown, WR, Notre Dame 1988
Honorable Mention: James Lofton (1978), Walter Jones (1997), Torry Holt (1999)
7. Washington – Champ Bailey, CB, Georgia 1999
Honorable Mention: Phil Simms (1979), Sterling Sharpe (1988), Troy Vincent (1992)
8. San Francisco – Ronnie Lott, DB, USC 1981
Honorable Mention: Mike Munchak (1982), Willie Roaf (1993), Roy Williams (2002)
9. Houston Oilers – Bruce Matthews, G, USC 1983
Honorable Mention: Terry McDaniel (1988), Richmond Webb (1990), Brian Urlacher (2000)
10. Pittsburgh – Rod Woodson, DB, Purdue 1987
Honorable Mention: Marcus Allen (1982), Jerome Bettis (1993), Willie Anderson (1996)
11. Dallas – Michael Irvin, WR, Miami 1988
Honorable Mention: Dennis Harrah (1975), Wilber Marshall (1984), Dwight Freeney (2002)
12. Tampa Bay – Warren Sapp, DT, Miami 1995
Honorable Mention: Clay Matthews (1978), Jim Lachey (1985), Warrick Dunn (1997)
13. Kansas City – Tony Gonzalez, TE, California 1997
Honorable Mention: Franco Harris (1972), Mike Kenn (1978), Kellen Winslow (1979)
14. Buffalo – Jim Kelly, QB, Miami 1983
Honorable Mention: Randy Gradishar (1974), John Jefferson (1978), Ruben Brown (1995)
15. Denver – Dennis Smith, S, USC 1981
Honorable Mention: Isaac Curtis (1973), John L Williams (1986), Anthony Miller (1988)
16. San Francisco – Jerry Rice, WR, Mississippi Valley State 1985
Honorable Mention: Raymond Clayborn (1977), Luis Sharpe (1982), Troy Polamalu (2003)
17. Dallas – Emmitt Smith, RB, Florida 1990
Honorable Mention: Louis Wright (1975), Damien Woody (1999), Steve Hutchinson (2001)
18. Washington – Art Monk, WR, Syracuse 1980
Honorable Mention: Willie Gault (1983), Alfred Williams (1991), Eddie Kennison (1996)
19. Indianapolis – Marvin Harrison, WR, Syracuse 1996
Honorable Mention: Joey Browner (1983), Randall McDaniel (1988), Casey Hampton (2001)
20. L.A. Rams – Jack Youngblood, DE, Florida 1971
Honorable Mention: Mike Quick (1982), Will Wolford (1986), Steve Atwater (1989)
21. Minnesota – Randy Moss, WR, Marshall 1998
Honorable Mention: Lynn Swan (1974), John Alt (1984), Jerry Gray (1985)
22. Indianapolis – Andre Rison, WR, Michigan State 1988
Honorable Mention: Jack Reynolds (1970), Hanford Dixon (1981), Harris Barton (1987)
23. Cleveland – Ozzie Newsome, TE, Alabama 1978
Honorable Mention: Ray Guy (1973), Bruce Armstrong (1987), Ty Law (1995)
24. Baltimore Ravens – Ed Reed, S, Miami 2002
Honorable Mention: Raymond Chester (1970), James Brooks (1981), Eric Moulds (1996)
25. San Francisco – Ted Washington, DT, Louisville 1991
Honorable Mention: Stanley Morgan (1977), Bobby Butler (1981), Chris Hovan (2000)
26. Baltimore Ravens – Ray Lewis, LB, Miami 1996
Honorable Mention: Joe DeLamielleure (1973), Kent Hill (1979), Alan Faneca (1998)
27. Miami – Dan Marino, QB, Pittsburgh 1983
Honorable Mention: Reggie McKenzie (1972), Neal Anderson (1986), Larry Johnson (2003)
28. Tampa Bay – Derrick Brooks, LB, Florida State 1995
Honorable Mention: Guy Morris (1973), Darrell Green (1983), Trevor Pryce (1997)
29. Dallas (traded to L.A. Raiders) – Steve Wisniewski, G, Penn State 1989
Honorable Mention: Tommy Casanova (1972), Joe Cribbs (1980), Chris Spielman (1988)
30. Philadelphia – Eric Allen, CB, Arizona State 1988
Honorable Mention: Greg Pruitt (1973), Louie Kelcher (1975), Patrick Kerney (1999)
I think every sports fan has certain athletes they dislike or even on some level hate. Sometimes there are some justifiable reason to dislike the athlete and other times it is just irrational hate. For me that athlete is Roger Clemens. I can't stand the fat fuck. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense as Clemens has many memorable failures against my Oakland A's over the years. Clemens was 0-7 head-to-head vs. Dave Stewart when Stewart pitched for the A's. Hell you'd think I'd like the guy but I don't. I've grown tired of his several near retirements which started with his so called farewell season of 2003. That season he was forced on to the All-Star team by Bud Selig after not being selected to the team and was given a long standing ovation in his "final" start in the 2003 World Series even though at no point before or during the season did he ever say that it would be his final year. Now he's on his way back yet again and in honor of his return I will attempt to take something away from him: the 1986 American League Most Valuable Player Award.
1986 was the last time a starting pitcher won an MVP award as Clemens had arguably the best season of his career going 24-4 with a 2.48 ERA while playing on the best team in the league. In the 1995 N.L. MVP redo I established that it is still possible for a starting pitcher to win an MVP award although it is very difficult. Certainly Clemens had the type of year a starting pitcher would need to warrant consideration for an MVP and he received 19 of the 28 possible first place votes. His main competition was the defending A.L. MVP Don Mattingly and he had an even better season than his MVP year but his RBI total was down from 145 to 113 so undoubtedly that hurt him in the view of the writers. Then other player to receive first place votes was Clemens' teammate and another former MVP in Jim Rice. Rice had a great year but the best position player on the Red Sox was clearly Wade Boggs who won the batting title with a .357 avg and also lead the league with a .453 obp. Boggs only finished 7th in the voting.
Actual Results
1) Roger Clemens 2) Don Mattingly 3) Jim Rice 4) George Bell 5) Jesse Barfield 6) Kirby Puckett 7) Wade Boggs 8) Wally Joyner 9) Joe Carter 10) Dave Righetti 11) Doug DeCinces 12) Mike Witt 13) Don Baylor 14) Tony Fernandez 15) Teddy Higuera 16) Gary Gaetti 17t) Marty Barrett 17t) Scott Fletcher 17t) Pete O'Brien 20) Jose Canseco 21) Jim Presley 22) Dick Schofield
#10
.263/.358/.469, 102 RC, 125 OPS+, .307 EQA, 53.6 VORP, 26 Win Shares
#9
156 ERA+, 2.80 K/BB, 1.21 WHIP, 75.3 VORP, 25 Win Shares
#8
.302/.335/.514, 114 RC, 130 OPS+, .300 EQA, 49.9 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#7
.282/.355/.461, 102 RC, 122 OPS+, .296 EQA, 58.7 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#6
.328/.366/.537, 131 RC, 140 OPS+, .307 EQA, 65.4 VORP, 26 Win Shares
#5
.324/.384/.490, 117 RC, 137 OPS+, .310 EQA, 52.4 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#4
.289/.368/.559, 120 RC, 147 OPS+, .315 EQA, 51.8 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#3
169 ERA+, 3.55 K/BB, 0.97 WHIP, 84.6 VORP, 29 Win Shares
#2
.357/.453/.486, 128 RC, 157 OPS+, .337 EQA, 73.2 VORP, 37 Win Shares
#1
.352/.394/.573, 155 RC, 161 OPS+, .338 EQA, 85.8 VORP, 34 Win Shares
OH IN YO FACE CLEMENS, IN YO FACE!!!
See the fact fuck wasn't even the best player on his own team. That's it he shouldn't be allowed in the Hall of Fame. Pretty much a toss up between Mattingly and Boggs, I wouldn't argue with anyone who feels Boggs should have won it. RICKEY~ didn't receive any votes and neither did Ripken who also didn't receive any votes in the 1984 A.L. MVP redo when I chose him as the winner.
In the near future I'll be posting an 80's round up of MVP redos for the years haven't done yet but aren't interesting enough for their own entry...and I'm not even sure if this one was either.
What We Learned Last Night: The only team capable of beating USC in the Coliseum is Stanford. Hey they got the last two wins there.
Everything continues to be completely fucked up this year. We're now down to ten BCS conference undefeated teams and only three of them would anyone have expected to be at this point. Again I always give the benefit of the doubt to those teams so all of them are in my Top 10, even UConn. Also decided not to rank any two loss teams for this week, although that will go out the door next week. Sure you could argue Florida but they lost Auburn, who lost to Mississippi State and all three of those teams have two loses. I can't really justify ranking Mississippi State above Florida but how can you rank Florida above Auburn if they lost them at home?
The only one loss teams that I don't have ranked are Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Tech has played just about the weakest schedule of any BCS conference team to this point and lost to a bad Oklahoma State team. I did a double take when I noticed A&M was 5-1 as they've looked like complete shit against any team with a pulse but they pulled out close wins over Fresno State and Oklahoma State to keep their season from turning into a disaster. Those two happen to play each other next week so whoever wins I'll finally rank them.
But really none of this means anything, so don't bother reading it.
1. LSU
2. Ohio State
3. California
4. South Florida
5. Boston College
6. Missouri
7. Cincinnati
8. Arizona State
9. Kansas
10. Connecticut
11. South Carolina
12. Oregon
13. Oklahoma
14. West Virginia
15. Kentucky
16. USC
17. Illinois
18. Virginia Tech
19. Wisconsin
20. Florida State
21. Indiana
22. Hawaii
23. Boise State
24. Wyoming
25. Virginia
kkk mentioned in his blog about how former players he watched becoming general managers and presidents of teams makes him feel old. For example Chris Mullin was the identity of the Golden State Warriors when I was growing up and now he's their general manager. But there's another general manager (and now part owner) in Oakland that everyone knows, Billy Beane, but unlike Mullin he's far better known for his work in the front office than as a player. In fact you'd probably have barely even noticed the guy when he played. Although I didn't happen to learn this until many years later but I actually had been witness to his last at bat in the Majors.
As I mentioned in my first entry I had very few memories at all about my first baseball game. In fact as great as the A's were in the late 80's I have very few in game memories about them even though I went to probably 6-7 games a year. One game that I do sorta remember was on October 1, 1989. October 1st happens to be my birthday and from '87 to '89 I had my birthday party at the A's game. Really the only thing I remember about the game itself was Mark McGwire homering (his birthday too) and the A's beating the Royals on the final day of the regular season. A couple of years ago on another nostalgia trip I was looking at the boxscore and play account for game. Being that it was the last day of the regular season and the A's had wrapped up the A.L. West they pulled all their starters during the middle of the game. It went into extra innings and in the 11th inning with it tied 3-3, Billy Beane came up with a runner on 2nd and no one out. If you know anything about the Beane-era A's is that they rarely bunt, as they shouldn't as it's fairly useless strategy in the American League. But what did they ask the young Beane to do on this date?
Yup, Beane's last at bat in the Majors was a bunt and I was there to witness "history"....not that I remembered it.
Fun fact: The Royals DH in this game was Bill Buckner, just like my first game.
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?
Out of the way quickly, the worst offensive single season by a third baseman was Art Scharein in 1933 who nearly matched the year with an OPS+ of 34. But we're only concerned with the last 50 years and that mark was set just last season! Why didn't ESPN cover this?
Top 25 (or so) Worst Offensive Third Baseman Seasons since 1957 (per OPS+)
1. Nick Punto, 2007 - Minnesota Twins 52 OPS+ (.210/.291/.271)
2. Scott Brosius, 1997 - Oakland A's 53
3. Brooks Robinson, 1975 - Baltimore Orioles 58
4t. Damion Easley, 1994 - California Angels 59
4t. Clete Boyer, 1964 - New York Yankees 59
6t. Jose Hernandez, 2003 - Colorado Rockies/Chicago Cubs/Pittsburgh Pirates 60
6t. Vinny Castilla, 2002 - Atlanta Braves 60
6t. Aurelio Rodriguez, 1974 - Detroit Tigers 60
9t. Terry Pendleton, 1986 - St. Louis Cardinals 62
9t. Bubba Phillips, 1963 - Detroit Tigers 62
11. Aurelio Rodriguez, 1973 - Detroit Tigers 63
12. Terry Pendleton, 1985 - St. Louis Cardinals 66
13t. Tim Wallach, 1993 - Los Angeles Dodgers 67
13t. Aurelio Rodriguez, 1969 - California Angels 67
13t. Don Wert, 1968 - Detroit Tigers 67
16t. Terry Pendleton, 1996 - Florida Marlins/Atlanta Braves 68
16t. Hubie Brooks, 1983 - New York Mets 68
16t. John Kennedy, 1964 - Washington Senators 68
19t. Tim Hulett, 1986 - Chicago White Sox 69
19t. Manny Castillo, 1982 - Seattle Mariners 69
19t. Brooks Robinson, 1958 - Baltimore Orioles 69
22t. Jeff Cirillo, 2002 - Seattle Mariners 70
22t. Cal Ripken, 2001 - Baltimore Orioles 70
22t. Scott Brosius, 2000 - New York Yankees 70
25t. Geoff Blum, 2001 - Montreal Expos 71
25t. Ken Caminiti, 1990 - Houston Astros 71
25t. Aurelio Rodriguez, 1976 - Detroit Tigers 71
Do you believe in miracles?
After blazing to an 8-0 start without breaking a sweat the Bills were stunned by the worst team in TSB in Week 10. I don't know what's more shocking, the Patriots beating the Bills or the Patriots now already having three wins. In other surprising news, I had accidently been listing the Vikings as having two losses but after looking at the standings on the game they had only one and now with the Bills' loss, the Vikings of all teams now have the best record in the league at 9-1 and could clinch the NFC Central by Week 12. After a slow start the 49ers have moved into sole posession of first place in the NFC West after the Rams have dropped back-to-back overtime losses in the division. The Packers and Jets met in a battle of one win teams with the Pack prevailing 38-17 and sending the Jets to the bottom of the league at 1-8.
Week 10 Scores
New Orleans 24, L.A. Rams 21 OT
NO: 5-4, RAM: 5-4
-Steve Walsh: 241 yards passing
Miami 31, Indianapolis 14
MIA: 7-2, IND: 3-6
-Tony Paige: 4 rec, 103 yards
N.Y. Giants 27, Philadelphia 22
NYG: 7-2, PHI: 5-4
-Phil Simms: 200 yards passing
Green Bay 38, N.Y. Jets 17
GB: 2-7, NYJ: 1-8
-Ed West: 5 rec, 148 yards
Minnesota 28, Tampa Bay 21
MIN: 9-1, TB: 2-7
-Wade Wilson: 166 yards passing
Denver 20, Pittsburgh 10
DEN: 4-5, PIT: 5-4
-Bobby Humphrey: 103 yards rushing
New England 30, Buffalo 28
NE: 3-6, BUF: 8-1
-Steve Grogan: 222 yards passing
Cincinnati 21, Cleveland 13
CIN: 3-6, CLE: 5-4
-Rodney Holman: 71 yards receiving
Washington 27, Houston 24 OT
WAS: 6-3, HOU: 6-3
-Art Monk: 5 rec, 140 yards
Chicago 30, Detroit 6
CHI: 4-5, DET: 2-7
-Brad Muster: 86 yards rushing
Dallas 21, Phoenix 14
DAL: 5-4, PHX: 2-8
-Emmitt Smith: 93 yards rushing
San Francisco 24, Atlanta 17
SF: 6-3, ATL: 2-7
-Joe Montana: 310 yards passing
Bye Weeks: Kansas City (4-5), L.A. Raiders (7-2), San Diego (4-5), Seattle (5-4)
Leaders thru Week 10
PASSING LEADERS
Rating
1. Phil Simms, 205.2
2. Dan Marino, 189.6
3. Joe Montana, 177.5
Yards
1. Warren Moon, 2363
2. Montana, 2249
3. Marino, 2136
Touchdowns
1. Marino, 25
2. Montana, 24
3t. Many tied with 21
RECEIVING LEADERS
Receptions
1. Jerry Rice, 43
2. Anthony Miller, 32
3t. Many tied with 31
Yards
1. Rice, 1120
2. Ellard, 791
3. Mark Duper, 767
Touchdowns
1. Rice, 11
2. Ernest Givens, 9
3t. Many tied with 8
RUSHING LEADERS
Yards
1. Johnny Johnson, 849
2. Neal Anderson, 846
3. Thurman Thomas, 810
Touchdowns
1. Johnson, 12
2t. Many tied with 10
DEFENSIVE LEADERS
Interceptions
1t. Joey Browner, 7
1t. Kevin Ross, 7
1t. Erik McMillan, 7
Sacks
1. Lawrence Taylor, 16
2t. Many tied with 13
SPECIAL TEAMS LEADERS
Field Goals: Gary Anderson, 10
Punting Avg: Rohn Stark, 51.7
Punt Return Avg: Jeff Query, 12.8
Kick Return Avg: Danny Peebles, 20.1
Before I get to the football, this week I go on baseball overdrive with the Bored's 2007 MLB Awards and Bored's 2007 MLB Player Rankings. Both are great if you were in a coma since April which I wish I was instead of being subjected to the A's season.
I didn't end up having work yesterday after all so I was able to be lazy and gorge myself on college football all day after all but the Cal/Oregon game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I didn't feel like doing an unfunny Wrap Up entry. Cal is now a legit Top 3 team which means there is no God.
As for my Pointless Top 25, with so many top teams losing this weekend it is pretty much impossible not to give some 1 loss teams a decent ranking. But that being said I stil think the entire Top 10 should only be unbeaten teams, even though that is proving very difficult. Again don't even bother reading it.
1. LSU
2. USC
3. Fuck!
4. Ohio State
5. Kentucky
6. South Florida
7. Boston College
8. Wisconsin
9. Arizona State
10. Cincinnati
11. Oregon
12. South Carolina
13. Florida
14. Missouri
15. Georgia
16. Purdue
17. Oklahoma
18. Kansas
19. West Virginia
20. Kansas State
21. Illinois
22. Michigan State
23. Texas
24. Hawaii
25. Connecticut
In a recent entry on Leelee's Blog, she mocked my MVP redo's by bringing up her favoriter player's, Alex Rodriguez, 2003 MVP win. Hey I thought it was funny. But then treble, our resident Toronto Blue Jay fan, made this post:
Well obviously I have to settle this heated debate.
Given that it was less than three years ago, many probably remember the MVP debate from that year. A-Rod won the A.L. MVP despite playing on a Ragners team that lost 91 games. Obviously not his fault but as I talked about in the Award Redo: 1987 N.L. MVP entry it is very rare for a player on a last place team to win the MVP and many don't feel a player on a last place team deserves consideration for the MVP. The year before A-Rod lost out to the A's Miguel Tejada with the main reason being that Tejada was on a first place team and A-Rod was on a last place team.
2003 was the ideal year for a player on a last place team to win the award as there was no clear favorite. It is obvious by just looking at the results as ten different players would receive first place votes: A-Rod, Delgado, Jorge Posada, Shannon Stewart, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Nomar Garciaparra, Vernon Wells, Tejada, and Jason Giambi. Delgado did play on a winning team but not a first place team in Toronto. In a year when there is no clear favorite also some undeserving players get serious consideration. Most obvious was Shannon Stewart who received a groundswell of support late in the season after helping the Twins win the A.L. Central and was deservedly mocked by the stat geeks. Stewart finished the year with fewer Win Shares than A's closer Keith Foulke and I've already gone over before how hard it is for a closer to match the value of an everyday player. Another player who received way too much support was David Ortiz who only played in 128 games yet received four first place votes. His 15 Win Shares were by far the fewest of any player who received an MVP vote.
The A-Rod vs. Delgado debate of course was discussed on the TSM boards back in 2003 and this will be my second voting on the award. In this thread posters voted on all the MLB awards from 2003. As you'll see I was very anti-last place and anti A-Rod at the time although I've relented on my stance against players on last place teams winning the award since. Here was my ballot I posted on September 28, 2003:
I was very much drinking the Miguel Tejda Kool-Aid at the time as in retrospect he really didn't deserve any consideration. So time to redo the real ballot and my ballot, but will I change my first place vote?
Actual Results
1) Alex Rodriguez 2) Carlos Delgado 3) Jorge Posda 4) Shannon Stewart 5) David Ortiz 6) Manny Ramirez 7) Nomar Garciaparra 8) Vernon Wells 9) Carlos Beltran 10) Bret Boone 11) Miguel Tejada 12) Bill Mueller 13) Jason Giambi 14) Garret Anderson 15t) Keith Foulke 15t) Frank Thomas 17) Eric Chavez 18t) Carlos Lee 18t) Magglio Ordonez 20) Alfonso Soriano 21) Derek Jeter 22) Pedro Martinez 23) Ichiro Suzuki 24t) Aubrey Huff 24t) Esteban Loaiza 24t) Jason Varitek 27) Mariano Rivera
#10
.307/.389/.522, 106 RC, 126 OPS+, .310 EQA, 64.1 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#9
.267/.390/.562, 117 RC, 149 OPS+, .317 EQA, 66.5 VORP, 23 Win Shares
#8
.290/.338/.525, 117 RC, 128 OPS+, .297 EQA, 69.9 VORP, 27 Win Shares
#7
.317/.359/.550, 133 RC, 131 OPS+, .303 EQA, 71.0 VORP, 26 Win Shares
#6
.281/.405/.518, 99 RC, 146 OPS+, .319 EQA, 61.5 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#5
.250/.412/.527, 112 RC, 151 OPS+, .326 EQA, 63.5 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#4
.294/.366/.535, 121 RC, 138 OPS+, .312 EQA, 75.9 VORP, 30 Win Shares
#3
.325/.427/.587, 141 RC, 160 OPS+, .339 EQA, 77.9 VORP, 28 Win Shares
#2
.298/.396/.600, 141 RC, 148 OPS+, .324 EQA, 96.3 VORP, 32 Win Shares
#1
.302/.426/.593, 140 RC, 160 OPS+, .338 EQA, 83.3 VORP, 32 Win Shares
Ya stick it A-Rod, you're not CLUTCH~! And god damn do baseball cards suck now or what?
Anyways this was an incredibly close call and I could have flipped a coin but I gave the nod to Delgado. There's a serious case for Manny as well.
