EVIL~! alkeiper
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Blog Comments posted by EVIL~! alkeiper
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• I heard on the radio today that Major League Baseball is allowing pink-colored bats to be used for Mother’s Day games. I’m sure there’s a joke somewhere in here dealing with the San Francisco Giants, but I’ll pass on it (this time).The local Red Barons wore pink jerseys this past Sunday to support breast cancer research. They auctioned the jerseys after the game. The problem was that these things looked like $8 softball jerseys. Absolutely horrible. A friend told me that Ryan Fleming's number had practically worn off by the end of the game.
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#8: AnglesaultHe's the one I originally forgot. Damn banning him. Alkeiper cost his spot in here by doing banning our good pal, AS. I fully understand why Al did so... but, AS was fun, damnit!
A bunch of rude, curt jerks who insult people, think they know everything there is about sports, and horrible people to talk with on any basis. And you can't even have sports conversations with these types. They post everything as "facts", and tear you down by disagreeing with them. -
3B: Rick Schu (.256/.316/.363, 4.4 VORP, 5 Win Shares) - Rene Gonzales played more games at 3rd but Schu made more starts, not that it really mattered. Originally pegged as the guy to the replace Mike Schmidt in Philadelphia as the Phillies actually moved Schmidt to 1st base in 1985 but he never lived up to the hype. Out of organized baseball from 1992 to 1995 made a brief appearance with the Expos in 1996.I believe Schu played in organized baseball during that period. I assume you're referencing the Baseball Cube site, and their data is often incomplete. In 1995, Rick Schu and ten others walked out of Rangers' Spring Training to protest plans to use them as replacement players.
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Since I did the blog, Michael Bourn has raised his batting average over 50 points. He is now hitting .286.
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I disagree on the Moussoui comment. After all, how much do we really hear about Ted Kuszinski nowadays? It's going to take a major ideological shift to get Moussoui any kind of favorable treatment.
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OT: I just needed to point out that things are going to get complicated in terms of how we indentify teams. '06 used to mean 1906, but now it can mean 2006.
Once we get going in the century...we will have to force our lazy asses to add the first two numbers when identifying a year.
I need to catch myself sometimes. 19th Century teams are rarely used. Usually I'll run '06 or something shorthand for a 20th century club, and spell out the year from 2000 onward. Luckily there aren't any good post-2000 Cubs teams to confuse anyone.
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What Pinjockey said is correct. Baez had a sacrifice hit, and that counts against his OBP. It's rare but it happens.
Let me note a few prospects out of the top 10.
12. Edgar Garcia, SP
Garcia's just 18 years old. He more than held his own at the Gulf Coast League last year. His age makes him a very interesting prospect. Garcia will pitch at Batavia this year, so it'll be late June before he kicks off his season.
13. Chris Roberson, OF
Roberson's a similar player to Shane Victorino, but older and not as good.
14. Shane Victorino, OF
How Victorino's rated below Roberson I have no clue. Roberson has a one in ten chance of outplaying Victorino over the course of his career. Victorino's made it and he could start for an MLB team in center.
15. Eude Brito, SP
Brito looks good at times, but his ratios are not very impressive. Oddly, he performed better as a starter last year. He really should be groomed as a reliever though, because he's no more than a AAA starter. At 27, he's as good as he is going to get.
18. Carlos Ruiz, C
Making a statement is when you get sent down to AAA and respond by hitting .382 with six home runs in your first 19 games. Ruiz's defense is a plus. He's topped out at 27, but he's good enough for the show. Whether he's a starter or backup is up in the air.
30. Yoel Hernandez, RP
Last year I had to watch this fat bag named Franklin Perez walk in and blow save after save in Scranton. Hernandez has six saves and a 1.74 ERA, very encouraging early on. He could be MLB material, but if not at least I can breate a little easier watching AAA games.
The Red Barons are now 15-7. They've won 11 of their last 12 games.
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But how many win-shares (or glove-shares) did Ozzie get?Not that you really care, but he earned 187 win shares for his hitting, and 140 for his fielding. Only Honus Wagner and Bill Dahlen earned more win shares based on fielding alone. And no I didn't figure this out myself, I just happen to have the book handy.
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It's too early to make a judgment on Zach Duke. He was not a high strikeout guy in the minors, and he's likely to face an adjustment period. They still have Duke, Ian Snell, Paul Maholm, Tom Gorzelanny, Bryan Bullington, and John Van Benschoten. If two of those guys make it, that's a great start. I'm not sure what kind of prospects the Bucs have seen the last twelve years quite honestly, but they have as good a group of young pitching as anyone. Not that it makes up for a lot of other deficiencies.
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Unfortunately Eldred just went down for four months with an injury. Indy was fun to watch last year with their twin prospects Zach Duke and Ian Snell. If their young pitching develops they could have something good within 2-3 years.
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I take it that this means the Cult of Abreu blog is on the outs?
Not quite. I'm not sure what to do with that. This is just a convenient place to post these results.
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Good stuff as always.
CF: Ernie Young (.242/.326/.424, 7.6 VORP, 10 Win Shares) - This was Young's only full season in the Majors. He could hit some homeruns and play pretty good defense but couldn't hit a breaking pitch to save his life so no surprise why he didn't last long. He's become a Crash Davis type of player as he's still hanging around the minors hitting homeruns and gets the occasional cup of coffee, most recently with Cleveland last year at age 34.2004 actually. Young's carved himself a tremendous career. It's worth noting that he won a Gold Medal with the U.S. Olympic Baseball team in 2000. Young comes around the area with the Buffalo Bison a few times a season, and it is a pleasure to watch him play. Some time I should make a list of my favorite IL mainstays.
A few guys you didn't pick up on. Steve Wojciechowski is worth it just for the name alone. Aaron Small saw his first real exposure to the majors and got slaughtered for his efforts. Torey Lovullo set a single season RBI record for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons in 1999. Recently, he won the 2005 Eastern League Manager of the Year award for managing the Akron Aeros to a title. That earned him a promotion to Buffalo and an interview with the LA Dodgers. Hell of a nice guy too.
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Have you ever simulated a 1994 playoff scenario?
I've thought about it, but anything you do is either going to be random, or select the Montreal Expos.
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These days, MLB.com and other sites provide highlights and key plays on demand, making it easier to catch the essentials without sifting through the crap. Dozens of blogs provide higher quality analysis. And more frequently, I've been turning to the local cable sport channels for sports news. They are usually low key and informative.
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Bonds was a free agent. Schmidt was traded for Armando Rios and Ryan Vogelsong. Awful trade, but in fairness there was little indication that Schmidt would blossom into an all-star.
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I don't pay much attention to the off-season, so what did Minnesota do to improve?
1. Called up Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano from AAA Rochester.
2. Traded two pitchers for 2B Luis Castillo. Second base was a black hole for the club, with Luis Rivas and Nick Punto not producing.
3. Signed Rondell White.
The pitching is there, it's just a question of the offense. Jason Kubel could provide production, and Justin Morneau will almost certainly have a better season.
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The accident shortened his career no doubt. The funny thing is it took a year to show up in his stats. A sort of delayed reaction drop. Kendall's numbers in 1998 are almost exactly the same in 2000. Kendall had the worst isolated power in baseball last year, even worse than Willy Taveras. You can get away with that when you steal 50 bases, but not when you ground into 27 double plays. Kendall's comps aren't helpful. Of the ten most similar players, only four are catchers. Two suffered drastic career ending injuries (in Thurman Munson's case, quite drastic), and one was a left handed catcher from the 19th Century.
As for the Pirates, Kendall is their franchise catcher. He leads the team in games played at that position. He also happens to be the franchise leader in hit by pitches.
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Thanks for the compliment.
To be honest when doing these redos I haven't given any real consideration to the position of the player and possibly I should. Thing about 1987 it was such a monster year for offense I just feel even with the high OBP Smith's defense can't make up for how his offensive numbers are dwarfed by the competition. The highest I could see putting him is 3rd.
There probably isn't a player who deserves more credit for his defense than Ozzie Smith. The problem is that this is very hard to quantify. Just looking at range factors, Ozzie scores a full play per game better than league average. If we were to assume these were all singles, that would save about 18 runs a season beyond what an average shortstop would do. That's about two wins in the standings. Total Baseball scores Ozzie at 19 Fielding Runs, so my calculations are not off base. The question is how close that closes the gap regarding batting statistics. And to be honest, I don't have a good answer for that. Total Baseball sees Smith outside of the top three, but win shares places him second.
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This blog's becoming one of TSM's hidden gems.
It took me awhile to see this, but I had to comment on this particular MVP race. It is my opinion that Ozzie Smith nearly deserved the MVP award. If not, he certainly ranks higher than sixth. It is easy to look at Ozzie's 1987 stats and dismiss them slightly. After all, there is little impressive about a .383 Slugging percentage. However, for an NL shortstop they are extremely good numbers. Of the twelve shortstops in the NL in 1987, Smith rates first in batting average and OBP, and third in slugging percentage. He rates second in OPS+ behind Hubie Brooks. And Ozzie rates first in steals among shortstops, with twice as many as his nearest competitor (Barry Larkin).
That's pretty good for an average fielding shortstop. Smith of course was not an average fielder. Every single defensive rating system ever devised ranks Ozzie among the greatest fielders in baseball history. When you have a shortstop making an enormous number of plays in the field and creating runs at the plate in a leadoff hitter fashion, that's every bit as valuable as a 40 home run guy. Tim Raines probably edged Smith, but the voters were closer to nailing his spot.
Award Redo: 1960 N.L. MVP
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Groat had 25 win shares in his own right. He should've at least made the top ten. Groat probably didn't quite deserve the award, but don't forget the percieved importance of the batting crown in those days.