EVIL~! alkeiper

Sad thing is, I would love that park. Prices, convenience and such are more important to me than aesthetics when visiting a park.

My mistake.

The idea is that a pitching prospect, no matter how elite, is subject to the risks of injury. Pitching prospects as a whole reach the Majors at a lower percentage than position players. I think one way to illustrate the point is by looking at the pitchers drafted first overall. Bryan Bullington, Matt Anderson, Kris Benson, Paul Wilson, Brien Taylor, Ben McDonald, etc. Andy Benes was the best of the lot. Another place to look is Baseball America's top 100 prospect lists. They have done the list since 1990. In that time, the top pitching prospects in baseball have included Todd Van Poppel, Brien Taylor (twice), James Baldwin, Paul Wilson, Kris Benson, Rick Ankiel (twice), Jesse Foppert and Edwin Jackson. Hardly a group that has racked up multiple All-Star appearances. Generally, pitchers are unpredictable in nature, and what looks like a sure hit isn't as sure as the best position prospect.

Minor detail, it was pinch runner Endy Chavez running from third.

That was an awful play by Marlon Anderson there. I have both the SNY and Comcast Philly broadcasts, and both agree it was correct to call interference.

Pretty much. He was too undisciplined at the plate.

Mark Henry/Kane is gone from One Night Stand.

Sadly, this stuff happens when money is involved. I think quite a few people who had relatives pass away with a bit of money can relate.

Hall of Famer. All modern pitchers with a .600+ winning percentage and as many wins are in the Hall. You have to go down to Carl Mays (207 wins) to find one who is not.

That's an interesting thought. A look at the Favorite Toy gives Edgar Renteria a 41.6% shot at 3,000 hits. (I gave Renteria the benefit of the doubt at used ESPN.com's projected total through the end of the season. Renteria is injured and unlikely to reach that.) If Renteria doesn't come back at all this year, it's 28.4%. Personally I don't see either 3000 hits or the Hall of Fame. At no point has Renteria been a Hall of Fame caliber player in his career. He'll only reach the milestone because the Marlins sold off their players and played rookies in 1998.

This is the first time Chamberlain has pitched a full season of baseball. The Yankees need him for their playoff push, but they need to restrict his workload as not to burn him out too soon. Thus they have an guideline for using him that Joe Torre can follow. I would vote for both given a chance. Biggio should have no problem with his 3,000 hits. Bagwell might have a bit of trouble given his relative lack of counting stats. I hope voters look at his many top 10 MVP finishes.

For about 30 minutes until we get the next SHOCKING~! turn. It only means something when you don't do it at every opportunity.

No way should Randy turn on his father. Faking the turn was one of the best things WWE did with the Randy/Undertaker feud, and really made it more fun to see the elder Orton heel it up one more time.

Verlander, Bonderman, Miller, Zumaya, Jurrjens. I'm iffy on Zumaya. His K rate is tremendous but he's never truly harnessed his control at any level.

He is.

Sheepherders vs. Fabulous Ones from Florida in 1986. Check out a young Bill Alfonso refereeing the match.

If anyone has the right to bitch about bullpens, it's Daniel Cabrera.

Bret Hitman Hart (WF140) 09/29/93 Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler 01/12/94 Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels 1990s Bret Hart career highlights 02/01/94 Bret Hart vs. Irwin R. Schyster 08/31/93 Bret Hart vs. Adam Bomb 04/11/94 Bret Hart vs. Kwang 06/13/93 Bret Hart highlights from winning King of the Ring 12/01/93 Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels (steel cage match) 03/20/94 Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna (referee Roddy Piper) (Hart wins WWF World Title) I hope that's the one.

No. I can't even remember the last time I locked a non-ESPN thread, to be honest.

Kendrick and Durbin are the ones who are overachieving. Kendrick has 31 Ks in 88 IP, and his 11 HRs suggest he's not an extremely successful groundball pitcher. Durbin has 31 Ks and 27 BBs. Those peripherals do not point to sustainable success. To illustrate the point, here are the last ten pitchers to post a K rate as low as Kendrick's in as many innings. STRIKEOUTS/9 IP <= 3.3 INNINGS PITCHED YEAR IP SO/9 IP 1 Chien-Ming Wang 2006 218 3.14 2 Nate Cornejo 2003 194.2 2.13 3 Kirk Rueter 2004 190.1 2.65 4 Danny Graves 2003 169 3.20 5 Kirk Saarloos 2005 159.2 2.99 6 Jimmy Gobble 2004 148 2.98 7 Kirk Rueter 2003 147 2.51 8 Jimmy Anderson 2002 140.2 3.01 9 Aaron Cook 2003 124 3.12 10 Kirk Rueter 2005 107.1 2.10 There's a group that had a lot of future success, no? The only good pitchers in the group are Wang and Cook, and both were extreme groundballers. And the next list, guys in the last seven years with a strikeout/walk ratio as bad or worse than J.D. Durbin, over a full season. SEASON 2000-2006 STRIKEOUTS/WALKS <= 1.14 INNINGS PITCHED YEAR IP SO/BB 1 Jimmy Anderson 2001 206.1 1.07 2 Shawn Estes 2004 202 1.11 3 Jimmy Haynes 2000 199.1 0.88 4 Miguel Batista 2004 198.2 1.08 5 Nate Cornejo 2003 194.2 0.79 6 Kirk Rueter 2004 190.1 0.85 7 Mike Hampton 2002 178.2 0.81 8 Kazuhisa Ishii 2004 172 1.01 9 Damian Moss 2003 165.2 0.86 T10 Jamey Wright 2000 164.2 1.09 T10 Steve Trachsel 2006 164.2 1.01 Do the Phillies have a chance? Absolutely. I very much think they can make the wild card. But the idea of making up six games on a team that's been demonstratively better over the last two seasons is unlikely. I do think Eaton will pitch better from here on out. I don't think an MLB caliber pitcher tosses an ERA that high unless he's hurt.

On another note, we can now say that Baseball Prospectus was wrong when they predicted a 72-90 record for the White Sox. They're worse.

A discussion a couple days ago prompted the statement that we can not compare Bonds' MVP awards to Ruth, because modern MVP voting did not exist until 1931. This is true. What if modern voting did exist however? I decided to come up with an MVP for each season from 1915-35, the years Ruth was active. My intention is not to demonstrate how many MVPs Ruth should have won, or deserved. Rather it is to predict voting patterns. With that in mind, a couple notes. One, voters would likely look for a player on a contending team. In an eight-team league, first division (top four) would get the job done. Second, remember that certain statistics such as On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage did not exist. RBIs did not become an official stat until 1920. THE most important statistic of the time was batting average. 1915: Ty Cobb Cobb won the batting crown by a 37 point margin and stole 96 bases, 45 more than the nearest competitor. His performance kept the Tigers in contention, falling just 2.5 back of the pennant winning Red Sox. 1916: Joe Jackson Tris Speaker was the dominant offensive player of the season, but would voters go for a player on a sixth place team? Odds are the voting would come down to Cobb and "Shoeless Joe" Jackson. The White Sox finished just two back as Jackson hit .341, a 33 point increase over his previous season. Voters love a step-up performance, so my gut tells me Jackson would take this award. 1917: Eddie Cicotte The White Sox won the American League by a sizable margin. Cicotte won 28 games and lost 12. His 28 wins were 10 over his previous career high. In addition, Cicotte led the league in earned run average. 1918: Walter Johnson Here is a tough one. Ruth went 13-7, led the league in slugging and OPS. The problem is that neither hitting statistic existed at that time. Ty Cobb was again the dominant offensive force, but would voters again take a player on a seventh place team? Walter Johnson takes the award for winning the pitching triple crown on a team that finished just four games out. 1919: Ty Cobb The Tigers went 80-60, and yet another Cobb batting title would prompt the voters. Ruth led the league in OBP, slugging and OPS. The problem is that the Red Sox finished fifth. When the trade occured the following winter, writers were not jumping all over themselves to declare the Sox traded the best player in the league. At the time, observers considered hitting for home runs a foolish endeavour that prized the individual over the team. 1920: Babe Ruth Three team race between the Indians, White Sox and Yankees. There are three possibilities here. One is Ruth and his 54 home runs. A second is Tris Speaker and his .388 batting average for the pennant winners. A third is Eddie Collins with his .372 batting average and being one of the "clean" Sox. I think 54 home runs is too much to ignore at this point. 1921: Babe Ruth 59 home runs along with a .378 batting average, third in the league. 1922: George Sisler The St. Louis Browns finished a mere game behind the Yankees. While Ruth fell back to 35 home runs, Sisler hit .420. Voters at the time would have loved batting average. They have never voted for a guy having a down season, no matter how good that down season still is. 1923: Babe Ruth No contest. The Yankees finished 16 games up, Ruth hit .393. 1924: Walter Johnson Johnson won the actual MVP award in this season with another pitching triple crown. The Senators won their first pennant this season as well. 1925: Roger Peckinpaugh With Ruth on the mend the race becomes wide open. Stan Coveleski finished 20-5, and led the league in ERA as the Senators won their second consecutive pennant. Peckinpaugh won the damned thing though. 1926: Babe Ruth Bounceback season as Ruth hits .372 and leads the league in RBIs by a healthy margin. 1927: Lou Gehrig The RBI crown gives Gehrig the award here as the voters likely would like to switch up the award here and there. 1928: Lou Gehrig Again Gehrig would have the batting edge here. Ruth and Gehrig tied for RBIs, but I think Gehrig would have more team credibility that the voters might go for. 1929: Al Simmons Simmons barely missed a batting crown and led the league in RBIs for the league champion. 1930: Al Simmons A batting crown, second in RBIs. A note that I would not underestimate the voters giving Mickey Cochrane one of these awards. 1931: Lefty Grove 1932: Jimmie Foxx 1933: Jimmie Foxx 1934: Mickey Cochrane 1935: Gabby Hartnett (NL) Four for Ruth, best I can manage. You can argue for him getting six or seven. That said, let's see what Win Shares has to say about the best players in each season. 1915: Ty Cobb 1916: Tris Speaker 1917: Ty Cobb 1918: Babe Ruth 1919: Babe Ruth 1920: Babe Ruth 1921: Babe Ruth 1922: Red Faber 1923: Babe Ruth 1924: Babe Ruth 1925: Al Simmons 1926: Babe Ruth 1927: Babe Ruth 1928: Babe Ruth 1929: Al Simmons/Jimmie Foxx 1930: Lou Gehrig 1931: Lefty Grove 1932: Jimmie Foxx 1933: Jimmie Foxx 1934: Lou Gehrig 1935: Arky Vaughan (NL)

I'm sorry it took me a long time to come to this. I neglected to check my replies. OBP developed in the 1950s thanks to Branch Rickey's in-house statistician, Allan Roth. Pete Palmer emphasized the statistic in his work in the 1970s, and it became official in 1984. Slugging percentage dates back to original baseball writer Henry Chadwick. He did not push the stat though and it didn't become official until 1923, mainly because it was a great measure to tout Babe Ruth. Credit to Peter Morris' A Game of Inches for that information. Looking at Peckinpaugh, the Sporting News article I found touts his veteran leadership, effort, honesty, integrity. Presumably Peckinpaugh got a great deal of credit for being the team's shortstop, much like Marty Marion in 1944 for the Cardinals. I get the impression it wasn't considered an elite honor at the time, it got very little press. The only real importance of the selection is that after Peckinpaugh committed eight errors in the World Series, they moved future announcements to after the season.

They didn't show many highlights at that point. Henn should go. Mussina has 247 career wins and good command at least. Henn has pitched 90 less innings and walked five fewer batters. Henn has no track record of success, and frankly never showed me good stuff in AAA either. The only reason he's in the majors is because he's left handed. As I said earlier, there's a tendency to pretend the most recent performance is the only one that exists. Mussina's been too good a pitcher to fall this quickly.

In fairness, Sunny is nearly a decade younger than either Missy Hyatt or Nicole Bass (I assume it's her).