We actually had a tie for the top spot among second basemen between a current Hall of Famer and future Hall of Famer but the current one wins out per Win Shares Above Average as they played in six fewer games.
Top 20 Second Baseman Seasons since 1979 (per Win Shares)
1. Ryne Sandberg, 1984 - Chicago Cubs 38.3 Win Shares
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+-
And I'm finally done with the best lists, just two days before they are out of date!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
+--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--
Tim McCarver's hatred for this man almost made me want to root for the Dodgers.
Left Fielder Rankings
1. Manny Ramirez, Red Sox/Dodgers
33.4 Win Shares
83.5 VORP
10.8 WARP3
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
2008 36 TOT 153 552 102 183 36 1 37 121 3 0 87 124 .332
Center Fielders
1. Carlos Beltran, Mets
32.6 Win Shares
57.6 VORP
10.4 WARP3
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
2008 31 NYM NL 161 606 116 172 40 5 27 112 25 3 92 96 .284 .376 .500 131 303 1 6 13 1 11
2. Grady Sizemore, Indians
3. Josh Hamilton, Ran
This list lives up to Smues' hype!
Also...Ryan Ludwick: Big Fluke or Biggest Fluke Ever?
Right Fielder Rankings
1. Ryan Ludwick, Cardinals
26.4 Win Shares
53.6 VORP
10.9 WARP3
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
2008 29 STL NL 152 538 104 161 40 3 37 113 4 4 62 146
I don't know why anyone does bowl projections as they are almost impossible to predict until the final week of the season, which is why I wait that long. Now I normally cheat and peak at other bowl projections or Google various local newspapers to see where schools are likely going to end up but this time it's almost total guess work. Note I'm going under the assumption Oklahoma will finish #2 in the BCS when they are released in a couple of hours. Also I'm making the prediction that the WAC all
Jesse Orosco, Relief Pitcher
New York Mets 1979-1987
Los Angeles Dodgers 1988, 2001-2002
Cleveland Indians 1989-1991
Milwaukee Brewers 1992-1994
Baltimore Orioles 1995-1999
St. Louis Cardinals 2000
San Diego Padres 2003
New York Yankees 2003
Minnesota Twins 2003
Awards
None
All-Star Selections: 2 (1983, 1984)
League Leader
Games: 1995
Career Ranks
Games: 1st
Saves: 69th
ERA+: 62nd
K/9: 23rd
H/9: 24th
Best Performance
October 27, 1986
Mo Vaughn, First Baseman
Boston Red Sox 1991-1998
Anaheim Angels 1999-2001
New York Mets 2002-2003
Awards
1995 AL MVP
1995 AL Silver Slugger - 1B
All-Star Selections: 3 (1995, 1996, 1998)
League Leader
1995: RBI
1996: Runs Created
Career Ranks
Homeruns: 91st
SLG%: 56th
OPS: 59th
Best Performance
September 24, 1996 - Baltimore at Boston
Hits three homeruns against the Orioles, all of them off of David Wells.
Hall of Fame Stats
Black Ink:
Rickey Henderson, Left Fielder
Oakland Athletics 1979-1984, 1989-1993, 1994-1995, 1998
New York Yankees 1985-1989
Toronto Blue Jays 1993
San Diego Padres 1996-1997, 2001
Anaheim Angels 1997
New York Mets 1999-2000
Seattle Mariners 2000
Boston Red Sox 2002
Los Angeles Dodgers 2003
Awards
1981 AL Gold Glove - OF
1981 AL Silver Slugger - OF
1985 AL Silver Slugger - OF
1989 ALCS MVP
1990 AL MVP
1990 AL Silver Slugger - OF
League Leader
1980: Stolen Bases
Quicky entry here. First off I'm currently working on a list of the 100 greatest baseball players of my lifetime. Whether I actually finish it is another story as I've tried to do similar lists like this before and always ended up chucking the whole thing.
Hey it's World Baseball Classic time and for this entry just going to very quickly put together my own Team USA. I did this a for 2006 (LOLZ Dontrelle Willis) so might as well do it for 2009 since I need an excuse for an entry. This time
See the first entry as to why certain players won't be on the list. And I think I should be commended for my courage in putting a certain someone on this list.
#80
Rat Piece of Shit, DH/RF
#79
Tony Phillips, 2B/LF/3B
#78
Matt Williams, 3B
#77
Mike Cameron, CF
#76
Tim Salmon, RF
#75
Lenny Dykstra, CF
#74
Johnny Damon, CF
#73
Miguel Tejada, SS
#72
Dave Stieb, SP
#71
Don Mattingly, 1B
#70
Now we start to get to the meat of the list and I swear that's not a crack at the next player on the list.
#60
Andruw Jones, CF
#59
Bret Saberhagen, SP
#58
Kenny Lofton, CF
#57
Robin Ventura, 3B
#56
Albert Belle, LF
#55
Kevin Brown, SP
#54
Fred McGriff, 1B
#53
Sammy Sosa, RF
#52
Jorge Posada, C
#51
Jason Giambi, 1B
#50
Lance Berkman, OF/1B
#49
Larry Walker, RF
#48
Kir
Let's see so far I've taken away MVPs from Andre Dawson, Willie Hernandez, and Willie Stargell. But now I have to do something truly painful...take away an MVP from a former member of the Oakland A's. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it.
In 1992 Dennis Eckersley was the A.L. MVP & Cy Young winner just like Hernandez eight years earlier. Eck was his usual dominante self at that time with a 51 saves, 1.91 ERA, 8.45 K/BB Ratio, and 0.91 WHIP. There was one problem. Eck defined wha
Okay finally taking a break from the Award Redos...until the next entry probably. For the next Where'd The Go? I wanted to find a team that was a complete fluke. A team that had success one year with no winning seasons in the years prior and then no winning seasons in the years after which where the '89 Cubs qualify. Actually I could have also picked the '84 Cubs but decided to go with the more recent example.
Cubs history of futility is well documented and every time they have a glimmer o
Okay back to the redos. In the last two redos I took away an MVP from a closer, Willie Hernandez and Dennis Eckersley. Since I've established that closers should not receive serious consideration for the MVP award and now to turn the focus to starting pitchers. In the last three redos a starting pitcher cracked the Top 10 but I didn't give any of them serious thought for the #1 spot. In today's game with five man rotations and relaitvely stricter pitch counts a pitcher it is difficult for a star
Next Thursday and Friday will be what I consider the best two days of the year in sports. There is simply nothing more fun from a viewing standpoint than the 1st round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. 16 games both days with basketall all day long on CBS. You know you won't get through the day without seeing something exciting. I had originally scheduled both days off from work but someone in my department was let go last week and I do the work of two people as it is I might be going in
In one of his recent entries kkk talked about his favorite looking baseball cards. This got me be remembering one of my favorite baseball card collecting habits from my childhood, buying those store brand baseball sets. Stores like K-Mart and Toys 'R' Us would have their baseball cards, typically produced by Topps, that would feature star players or rookies. The sets were cheap and the cards were all glossy which was still a very unique feature back in the late 80's.
The first such set I re
Just got a home a little while ago from my first A's game of the year against the Rangers. There's that old cheesy saying that everytime you watch a baseball game you might see something you've never seen before and today was that day for me. Was really looking forward to seeing Rich Harden pitch since he came pretty damn close to throwing a no hitter against the Rangers last season and seeing Baseball Tonight's favortie pitcher Vincente Padilla. The weather was miserable early as we've had abou
Okay little late on this but it works as the subject, Roger Clemens, did have a start on May 13, 1991 and he's very much in the news right now as he does his best Bret Favre impression on whether he'll play this year or not. Or was Favre doing a Clemens impression? We've dealing with Roger's retirement questions for three years now.
Roger Clemens was off to a blistering start to the '91 season as he had won all six of his starts and at one point in early in the season had tossed 30 conse
50TH ENTRY EXTRAVAGANZA!!!
Double sized issue! Mike Gallego hologram cover! If you read only one entry this is the entry you must read!
Anyways, after watching You Know Who of the San Franciso Baby Killers getting a curtain call in Oakland I needed to find something positive to talk about the A's. Since it's entry #50 figured I'd do the Top 50 individual seasons in Oakland A's history. Now the list is based almost solely on Win Shares and I used Baseball Prospectus' Wins Above Replacem
It's time for Part six of the "Where'd They Go?" series where I take a look at random teams from the last 20+ years and see where they went. I'll end up donig one for every franchise, except for the more recent expansion franchises. I asked Vern/Culloden what Twins team I should do and he suggested the 1996 Twins. I have no idea why the '96 Twins but here I go.
On March 28, 1996 Kirby Puckett woke up seeing a black spot on his right eye. It would turn out to be glaucoma and it would mark th
Resident TSM Astros fan vivalaultra inspired me by his excitement over me mentioning Glenn Davis in the new TWiB thread and bringing up him being traded to the Orioles. During the '90/'91 offseason the Astros traded their slugging first baseman for three prospects named Curt Schilling, Steve Finley, and Pete Harnisch. Davis played three injury filled years in Baltimore while Schilling and Finley are still active players. Quite the coup by the Astros but Schilling and Finley's best years would co
I've finished watching Game 1 from each DVD so as I mentioned before I'm taking little notes while watching each game. Of course as i read some of my notes I'm not even sure what I intended on bringing up. Of course I won't go over every detail of the game as there is no point.
Interesting to note that for all three of these World Series that the winner of Game 1 was the team that ended up losing the series. Backs up Al's entry on playoff odds on how Game 1 is the least important game.
I've finished watching Game 2 of all three series so here are some of my notes.
1975 World Series Game 2 - Reds 3, Red Sox 2 (boxscore and play account)
-This game is incomplete on the disk. Apparantly the top of the 2nd is missing from the film archives. Thankfully it was just a 1-2-3 inning for the Reds.
-OBP gets it's first notice I think in all three of the series here although it's referred to as "on base average" as they have a graphic when Joe Morgan is up mentioning tha
First half awards, except Manager of the Year which I could careless about. The smart managers are usually smart every year and the dumb managers are usually dumb every year. The award itself is striclty based preseason predictions and who exceeds them.
National League
Starting with the MVP of course in my view it is still Albert Pujols' award to lose but in the view of the baseball writer's it appers to be David Wright's award to lose. If the Mets continue to blow away the rest of the
