Bored

Okay honestly, is this any better than when they would just have the players come off the bench as they announce them?

In kkk's most recent entry on K-Mart customer service he made mention of how he had thought Harold Baines didn't get enough credit as a player. Now Baines best season was probably 1984 when he was still an everyday outfielder. Now he was never a serious MVP cadidate and '84 was no different but the MVP voting that year was quite interesting. For one a closer won it in Willie Hernandez of the Tigers. A closer winning an MVP should always raise a few eyebrows as it's pretty much impossible for them to equal the value of an everyday player. Now Hernandez was far from your one inning and done closers of today. He pitched 140 innings that year which is a ton of innings for someone who didn't make a single start. He was dominating with 112 strikeouts to 36 walks, a 1.92 ERA, and ridiculous 0.94 WHIP. Obviously since he won the MVP, he also won the Cy Young. Now a closer winning a Cy Young is something that probably shouldn't happen too often but can happen and be a legitimate choice. In 1984 there simply wasn't starter with numbers (at least the standard ones) that really jumped out and when a closer has a year like Hernandez did under those circumstances it's not surprising he won the Cy Young. Dave Steib would have been the better choice but of course the writers overlooked him due to only having 16 wins (not his fault). But Hernandez was not a bad choice at all for winning the Cy Young. Now in 1984 the A.L. was a one team league: Detroit Tigers. They started the year 30-5 and basically it was all over after that as the second place Blue Jays finished 15 games back, who had the second best record in the league overall. Really it's hard to blame the writers for wanting to give a Tiger the MVP that year when they were so much better than the competition. But was Hernandez the right Tiger? Kirk Gibson and Alan Trammell finished 6th and 9th in the voting repsectively and as I mentioned before a closer can't match the value of a star everyday player like those two. But there was something else that was interesting about the '84 A.L. MVP voting, it was who finished 2nd: Kent Hrbek. The Twins that year finished 81-81 and Hrbek didn't crack the Top 5 of any writer favored offensive categories (AVG, HR, RBI). How could a first baseman on the Twins get more votes than a household name like Eddie Murray and a rising star in the media capital of the world in Don Matttingly who played the same position? You would think Hrbek would get overshadowed. This really puzzled me but when you look at the A.L. West that year in conjuction with the Tigers dominance of the East it starts to make "sense" how the writers voted Hrbek that high. See since the Tigers great start eliminated any chance of a pennant race all the attenion went to the West. Now the race in the West was almost as bad as the race in the N.L. West in 2005. The Royals would win the division at 84-78 with the Twins and Angels tied for second just three games back at .500. Royals would have finished 6th in the East with that record. The West was so bad that the last place Rangers were closer to first than the second place Blue Jays were in the East to Tigers. The Twins were neck and neck with the Royals and Angels going into the final couple of weeks of the season when the MVP voting was going on. The Twins would lose six straight to end the season but it was the added attention that Hrbek received and the lack of a race of the East that nearly propelled him to the MVP. So should have a Tigers position player won the MVP? Should one of the big name first basemen with better numbers than Hrbek have won the award? Or was it someone who received almost no support at all for the award? Now I'll tell you...if your still reading. For reference here is the actual order of finish in '84: 1) Willie Hernandez 2) Kent Hrbek 3) Dan Quissenberry 4) Eddie Murray 5) Don Mattingly 6) Kirk Gibson 7) Tony Armas 8) Dave Winfield 9) Alan Trammell 10) Willie Wilson 11) Dwight Evans 12) Alvin Davis 13t) Harold Baines 13t) Dave Kingman 13t) Jim Rice 16t) Lance Parrish 16t) Willie Upshaw 18) Brian Downing 19t) Steve Balboni 19t) George Bell 19t) Andre Thorton 22t) Buddy Bell 22t) Lloyd Moseby 22t) Dave Steib 25t) Juan Beniquez 25t) Mike Boddicker 27t) Doyle Alexander 27t) Cal Ripken #10 .284/.391/.497, 110 RC, 146 OPS+, .318 EQA, 59.5 VORP, 27 Win Shares #9 .293/.399/.458, 91 RC, 145 OPS+, .327 EQA, 60.6 VORP, 28 Win Shares #8 130 ERA+, 2.25 K/BB, 1.14 WHIP, 74.3 VORP, 25 Win Shares #7 .340/.393/.515, 116 RC, 154 OPS+, .328 EQA, 61.5 VORP, 26 Win Shares #6 .298/.361/.441, 101 RC, 126 OPS+, .302 EQA, 69.1 VORP, 27 Win Shares #5 .295/.388/.532, 130 RC, 147 OPS+, .321 EQA, 63.0 VORP, 29 Win Shares #4 .314/.382/.468, 99 RC, 136 OPS+, .308 EQA, 66.4 VORP, 29 Win Shares #3 .343/.381/.537, 125 RC, 156 OPS+, .328 EQA, 72.7 VORP, 29 Win Shares #2 .306/.410/.509, 123 RC, 156 OPS+, .335 EQA, 75.8 VORP, 33 Win Shares #1 .304/.374/.510, 122 RC, 145 OPS+, .318 EQA, 92.2 VORP, 37 Win Shares OMG SWERVE~! As you see in the actual results, Ripken is the last name listed. He received just a single a 10th place vote. It wasn't like he was some young player no one had heard of yet, he won the the MVP the year before! But what happens to a lot MVP winners who were on the top team in their league, like the Orioles were in '83, and the following year the team isn't as good the perceived value of that MVP drops like a rock. Really him, Murray, Mattingly, Trammell, or the always overlooked Evans would have made fine choices. Hrbek just missed the Top 10 and Hernandez may have cracked the Top 15 if I extended the list that far but neither were deserving as much support as they received. As you'll see I did include a pitcher in Steib and two players in Yount and RICKEY~ who didn't receive a single vote in '84. The legendary Juan Beniquez, who had 382 plate apperances, received more support than Ripken, Yount, and Henderson. That's pretty bad.

On the ESPN.com: Of course no one will be surprised if he changes his mind but this also isn't a surprise from the standpoint that many figured he'd only pass Ruth but wouldn't go after Aaron. It's highly unlikely he'll pay enough this year to hit 47 homeruns.

Do they ever replay the new episodes during the week or is it only shown on Saturday nights? I missed last night's episode.

I honestly wasn't even sure if K-Mart was still around. Don't know of any near where I live. Figured Wal-Mart and Target had gobbled up the market. Usually when they are found dead. As for Baines, ya your nuts. Okay maybe not. I can't remember if he was underappreciated or not. He was a good, consistent performer but never a serious MVP candidate. To really get notice as a DH though you need to put up big numbers on a regular basis.

Anyone wondering what ex-Phillies catcher Darren Daulton has been up to? Even if you weren't this pretty damn funny, or sad depending on your perspective. He's pretty much lost his mind. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writ...rren/index.html

1. Head to Head or Rotisserie? Head to Head 2. Max on player aquisitions/trades for season? (if yes, how many?) No. 3. Time managers have to protest pending trades? (No or yes and # of days) No. 4. Trade deadline? (if yes, use July 30, Aug 6, Aug 13, Aug 20 or Aug 27?) July 30 5. Time players are on waivers (days or no waivers) Three days 6. Use "can't cut list"? No. 7. Trades reviews by commisioner or league votes? Commissioner. 8. After draft, all unclaimed players free agents or waivers? Waivers 9. Minimum innings pitched per week? (if yes how many) 30. 10. Roster changes weekly or daily? Weekly

You could definently argue he hasn't been around long enough (although only one year less than Duncan) but Dirk Nowitzki is certainly on his way to becoming an all-time great barring injuries. For retired players who weren't on the original list I'd put Adrain Dantley, Artis Gilmore, Joe Dumars, and Chris Mullin ahead of Kidd among possibly others.

There's an ongoing debate about the baseball Most Valuable Player voting: Should it go to the best player in baseball or should it go to the best player on a winning team? I used to be very much on the side of it should be the best player on a winnig team but I've backed off that, although today I still don't think a player on a last place team shouldn't be winning the MVP but don't believe that a player on a losing or middle of the road team should be automatically discarded from consideration. Whatever side of the debate you are on everyone can agree one of the most bizarre MVP winners was Andre Dawson in 1987. The main reason Dawson won most likely was because he lead the league in homeruns and rbi which is always to grab the attention of the voters. But what was odd about was that Dawson played on a last place team in the Cubs. Now at 76-85 I suppose the Cubs were a "good" last place team but they were never in serious contention in the very tough N.L. East which featured three teams with 90+ wins that year. Also when you looked at Dawson's numbers beyond the homeruns and rbi they weren't that impressive. He hit .287 with a .328 OBP and despite his 49 homeruns who only finsihed 6th in SLG in a year full of great offensive performances. There were several of great candidates on some of the leagues top teams (Cardinals, Giants, Mets, Expos) yet a player on a last place team wins it who's numbers did not blow away the competition. Here's the actual order of finish for the 1987 N.L. MVP: 1) Dawson 2) Ozzie Smith 3) Jack Clark 4) Tim Wallach 5) Will Clark 6) Darryl Strawberry 7) Tim Raines 8) Tony Gwynn 9) Eric Davis 10) Howard Johnson 11) Dale Murphy 12) Vince Coleman 13) Juan Samuel 14) Mike Schmidt 15) Pedro Guerrero 16) Steve Bedrosian 17) Milt Thompson 18t) Bill Doran 18t) Terry Pendleton So I've decided to redo the voting and give my own Top 10 for that year (note used '88 cards since they'd be '87 photos). #10 .308/.371/.580, 113 RC, 153 OPS+, .311 EQA, 49.5 VORP, 25 Win Shares #9 .293/.388/.548, 112 RC, 142 OPS+, .313 EQA, 58.1 VORP, 26 Win Shares #8 .338/.416/.539, 123 RC, 155 OPS+, .331 EQA, 69.5 VORP, 28 Win Shares #7 .295/.417/.580, 136 RC, 156 OPS+, .328 EQA, 73.0 VORP, 29 Win Shares #6 .303/.392/.383, 90 RC, 105 OPS+, .288 EQA, 59.1 VORP, 33 Win Shares #5 .370/.447/.511, 135 RC, 158 OPS+, .341 EQA, 90.8 VORP, 29 Win Shares #4 .284/.398/.583, 122 RC, 162 OPS+, .332 EQA, 69.4 VORP, 30 Win Shares #3 .293/.399/.593, 112 RC, 155 OPS+, .330 EQA, 78.7 VORP, 30 Win Shares #2 .286/.459/.597, 115 RC, 176 OPS+, .353 EQA, 65.2 VORP, 33 Win Shares #1 .330/.429/.526, 119 RC, 149 OPS+, .333 EQA, 78.7 VORP, 34 Win Shares As you see Dawson doesn't even crack the Top 10. If Raines played anywhere less but Montreal he probably gets more consideration although even in this year he didn't finish higher than his teammate Tim Wallach. Dawson of course played in Montreal originally and had signed as a free agent with the Cubs before the '87 season. It's highly unlikely he would have won the award in '87 with his numbers playing Montreal. Raines truly was one of great, underappreciated players of the 80's.

The fact that Buster Olney is now on the A's bandwagon scares the hell out of me. But I think they do have as good a chance as anyone to win it all as they have quite possibly the deepest team in baseball. Thing is though the A.L. looks absolutely loaded this year so if they get a rash of injuries (and they have serveral injury prone players) it could come crashing down in a hurry. I'm sure I'll do a full scale preview of them during Spring Training.

Yup, with just two weeks left in the season. I was surprised when I looked up the Yankees boxscores from that season that Whitson actually did make one more start that year in the opener of the final series of the season at Toronto. The Yankees were three games back and needed to sweep the Blue Jays and won that first game but the Blue Jays won the next day to clinch the division.

I follow Stanford basketball and they've had some fun chants especially in the late 90's. For UConn's Khalid El Amin who already had two kids when he was in college they chanted "Who's your baby?" and my personal favorite was for Mike Bibby who they chanted "Your dad hates you!" for him in reference to his dad Henry Bibby who he doesn't get along with.

What no mention of Sammy Sosa turning down the Nationals (Nats fans rejoice) and probably going to retire now? Poor Sammy, no one cares anymore.

A week ago on the wonderful baseball stat geek site Hardball Times there was this article about the 1994 Montreal Expos. The article is titled "Where Are They Now?" but it more or less only tells you were they went rather than where they are now, not that I was needing to find out where Freddie Benavides was nowadays. So I figured I'd do the same for another team from the past but have a more approriate title for it. Now for picking the team I was going to go with 1989 Oakland A's or the 1997 Florida Marlins but figured I'd go for something more obscure for the first one so I picked the 1985 New York Yankees. The 80's were considered the dark days for the Yankees, at least by their fan base, but they actually had some very good teams that decade just with no World Series ring to show for it. The best Yankee team of the '80s was the 1985 team which won 97 games but came up two games shy of the Blue Jays for the A.L. East title. Catcher: Butch Wynegar (.223./.356/.320, 10.9 VORP, 10 Win Shares) - After putting up solid offensive numbers the previous three years, Wynegar hit the catcher wall in '85. He'd spend one more year with the Yankees and then be traded to the Angels where'd he finish out his career. First Base: Don Mattingly (.324/.371/.567, 78.9 VORP, 32 Win Shares) - Donny Baseball might be a tad overrated by Yankee fans of the 80's but you can kind of understand why when you look at his numbers during the mid-80's. He would of course spend his whole career with the Yankees, retiring after 1995. He won the MVP in '85 but he actually wasn't the best player on his own team. Second Base: Willie Randolph (.276/.382/.356, 32.9 VORP, 20 Win Shares) - Very consistent, solid performer in the 80's for the Yankees. He'd leave after 1988 as a free agent to the Dodgers. From there he'd be traded the A's during the 1990 season and get to play in his fourth World Series. He'd finish up with one year stops with the Brewers and Mets before retiring after 1992. Third Base: Mike Pagliarulo (.239/.324/.442, 19.4 VORP, 13 Win Shares) - Aww one of my favorite "names" when I was a kid. Good power but couldn't hit for average or draw walks. He'd flame out pretty quick being traded to the Padres in 1989, ended up with Twins in 1991 and picked up a World Series ring, finshing up with the Orioles and Rangers. Shortstop: Bob Meacham (.218/.302/.266, 2.7 VORP, 11 Win Shares) - Egads is that an ugly line. If the Yankees had a competent shortstop in '85 maybe they win the East. Maybe Baseball Jesus, The Jeter, will discover time travel and lead the '85 Yankees to World Series title. *fist pump* Left Field: Ken Griffey (.274/.331/.425, 19.2 VORP, 14 Win Shares) - At 35, Junior's dad was still an okay player. He'd be traded to the Braves for another aging outfielder in Claudell Washington in 1986. He'd make a nostalgic trip back to the Reds at the end of the decade before being released during the World Series run of 1990. Then five days later he'd be picked up by the Mariners in a marketing ploy by having father and son play together. Center Field: Rickey Henderson (.314/.419/.516, 94.1 VORP, 38 Win Shares) - The man, the myth, the legend, and the real 1985 A.L. MVP. This would be Rickey's best year until he topped it and finally won the MVP in 1990. Of course that was with the A's as he was traded midseason back to Oakland in a trade that still has to have Yankee fans gritting their teeth. The booty for Rickey: Luis Polonia, Greg Cadaret, and Erick Plunk. Woof. Rickey would get his first World Series ring in '89, while Polonia would lead the league having sex with 14 year olds. Running thru where Rickey went: Oakland Toronto Oakland San Diego Anaheim Oakland N.Y. Mets Seattle San Diego Boston Los Angeles Newark Right Field: Dave Winfield (.275/.328/.471, 38.0 VORP, 21 Win Shares) - Hey look George Steinbrenner's favorite player. '85 was actually the start of a bit of down time in Winfield's career (for him) before he swung back up the bell curve in 1988. Traded to the Angels for Mike Witt in 1990, would win a World Series with the Blue Jays in 1991, make the late career hometown visit with the Twins for a couple of years, then finish up with the Indians in 1995. Designated Hitter: Don Baylor (.231/.330/.430, 26.6 VORP, 12 Win Shares) - Baylor was definently a product of the DH extending a player's career. Couldn't pay the field anymore but could still hit a decent number of homeruns so he stayed in the line-up. As mentioned before he'd make a tour of the next three A.L. Champions in the Red Sox, Twins (World Champs), and A's before retiring. Pitchers Ron Guidry - (123 ERA+, 58.4 VORP, 18 Win Shares) - This would be Guidry's last good year and he finished 2nd to Bret Saberhagen in the '85 Cy Young voting. He played his entire career with the Yankees, retiring after 1988. Phil Niekro - (98 ERA+, 27.9 VORP, 10 Win Shares) - If I ever have a son he's gonna learn how to throw a knuckleball so he can earn a Major League salary into his late 40's and support me since I'll have no Social Security. Ed Whitson - (83 ERA+, -0.5 VORP, 4 Win Shares) - Okay maybe if the Yankees didn't have Ed Whitson making 30 starts in 1985 they win the East. Whitson had a weird career as he did absolutlely nothing of note for 12 seasons then suddenly at age 34 with the Padres he pitches like a stud for two seasons in '89 and '90 then falls off a cliff in '91 and was out of the league after that. OMG HE WAS ON THE JUICE!!!! Joe Cowley - (102 ERA+, 25.0 VORP, 9 Win Shares) - I really don't know whole lot about Cowley. He'd be traded to the White Sox after the '85 season, pitched decently in '86, traded to the Phillies right before the '87 season where he'd meltdown and was out of baseball soon after. Closer: Dave Rigehtti - (145 ERA+, 30.0 VORP, 15 Win Shares) - Absolute beast of a closer during the mid-80's. Started to tail off by the end of the decade and the Yankees let him leave as a free agent after 1990. Spent three years with the Giants then made brief stops with the A's, Blue Jays, and White Sox before retiring after 1995.

Well I did pick the year kind of randomly. If I get Bored enough I'll probably do evaluations of other drafts.

Runner up two years in a row, I might as well go for three peat.

Hey only $164.99 for a South Africa jersey Aww you can't buy any Cuba merchandise. You can tell MLB designed all the uniforms for the tournament as they are all pretty bland.

I didn't want to bother digging up the WBC thread, but the U.S. final roster has been announced. With all the dropouts the outfield isn't exactly the best they could have fielded. http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/r...ex.jsp?sid=t940

Well I already accidently went to espn.com which spoiled me on the all the remaining results tonight so I can view this thread. It's tougher on the west coast to avoid all of this as we get the event coverage later than anyone. To echo comments about Bode Miller already, watching the test runs yesterday they mentioned that he was only 7th in the downhill world cup standings and then I immediately thought "why the fuck is he getting all this attention then?" Oh well in the end it's all about marketing and he's the one who did it best I guess. And yes I was sad about Michelle Kwan dropping also but only because she's a piece of ass.

Since the Pro Bowl was today I thought about trying to find some useless, maybe interesting Pro Bowl facts but then I remembered there is nothing interesting about the Pro Bowl. When I was younger I actually used to love watching the game and would even record it to watch it again later. What the hell was wrong with me? I would be upset when my favorite players wouldn't play in the game but now I question the sanity of any player who'd play in the game. Hey if I were a player I wouldn't play, call me a pussy if you want but I wouldn't risk my career in such a meaningless game. Well I guess suffering a potential career ending injury in the Pro Bowl wouldn't be as bad as suffering one playing a flag football game on the beach like poor Robert Edwards in 1999. One thing I did find when I was looking for anything from the past from the Pro Bowl was the first MVP of the Pro Bowl after I was born (that being the 1979 Pro Bowl) was Ahmad Rashad. Almost no one seems to remember that he was a pretty good wide receiver in his day at the University of Oregon and then with the Minnesota Vikings. His post career is better remembered for marrying the mom from the Cosby Show and being Michael Jordan's personal interviewer. You know in the 1990's if you were to kick Michael Jordan in the balls you would have also been kicking Ahmad Rashad in the head. Speaking of verbal fellatio of athletes, I made the mistake of flipping on the Pro Bowl when they were discussing Brett Favre. Now I don't have it down word for word but here is essentially what Mike Patrick said of Favre possibly retiring: Good lord. I know announcers aren't journalists but how can you take someone seriously when they something like this? Mike also seems to have a conflict of interests with his feelings as he says it'll make him happy but it will break his heart. With him done with announcing after tonight he'll now have free time to stalk Brett. I definently won't miss him as listening to Mike Patrick announce a game always sounded to me like a guy calling a game that he just saw the previous week.

What no Pro Bowl thread? Seriously why do they still play this game? I think any player who doesn't pull out of the game is out of their mind.

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

Essentially you're on the right track. Only thing is a player has to have a certain amount of service time to become arbitration eligible, I think four years but I've always been a little fuzzy on arbitration eligible status. The first few years a player is in the Majors he's pretty much at the mercy of his team when it comes to his contract. Although that's not to say a young player can't make big bucks as most teams won't completely lowball their young superstar realizing that they'd pretty much kill their chances of signing him to a long term deal and him leaving the second he becomes a free agent.

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.

Soriano actually wasn't under contract for the upcoming season as he's signed a series of one-year contracts since being in the Majors. Since he's not eligible for free agency yet but he has accrued enough service time to be arbitration eligible and really cash in, not that he wasn't at $7.5 million last year. I wish they'd televise arbitration hearings as it's basically teams talking about how shitty their own player is for a of couple of hours and then they'll have to pretend like it never happened afterwards. Thanks for the plug, as I noted in my entry now current manager Dusty Baker made the final out of that game.