Posted: August 17th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 127 Comments »
Bobby Thomson was a very good baseball player. Bill James a few years back ranked him as the 57th-best right fielder in baseball history, a couple of slots behind Jackie Jensen, a few places ahead of Dave Justice. Thomson could run (he once led the National League in triples) and he had some power, and in his four prime years — 1949-1952 — he averaged 26 home runs, 100 RBIs, posted a 126 OPS+ and walked more often than he struck out.
Bobby Thomson, of course, is not especially well remembered for being a very good baseball player. There have been a lot of very good players. He is — like Don Larsen, like Roger Maris, like Joe Carter, like Kirk Gibson and even like Vic Wertz and Mitch Williams and Ralph Branca — remembered for a moment. A feeling. A memory that has launched books and movies and songs and the most passionate radio call that ever was: “The Giants win the pennant!”
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Posted: August 16th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 145 Comments »
Mariano Rivera is by far my favorite Yankees player ever. Now, this is not really saying a lot. I I don’t like the New York Yankees … and the list of Yankees I like as a fan is pretty small (though the list I like as a writer is much larger).
Rivera, it seems to me, is the player even non-Yankees fans grudgingly love. This is only one person’s list, but based on my own feelings and what I’ve heard from fellow non-Yankees fans I would say the five Yankees players that non-Yankees fans still like are (in this order):
1. Mariano Rivera.
2. Don Mattingly
3. Lou Gehrig
4. Mickey Mantle
5. Elston Howard
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Posted: August 16th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 94 Comments »
Second guessing is fun. We all know that. It’s fun when it’s really a first guess (I said it at the time!), but just as much fun when it’s a second guess made hours later, fun, at least in part, because it is impossible to get the answer wrong when you second guess. In the second-guessing world, a Cardinals fan can believe that St. Louis would have won the 1985 World Series was it not for a bad call by Don Denkinger*. In the second-guessing world, the Red Sox win their World Series one year earlier because Pedro gets yanked from the game. In the second-guessing world Mike Martz doesn’t forget about Marshall Faulk, Phil Mickelson doesn’t try some crazy shot at the U.S. Open, Brian Sipe throws the ball away in the end zone, George Lucas doesn’t do prequels, and history changes, presumably for the better.
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Posted: August 14th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 77 Comments »
I’m going to give you what I found to be an obscure but still kind of shocking bit of baseball award news. But first let’s talk a little bit about baseball and heart. You probably know (if you have seen “Damn Yankees” or heard Joe Morgan talk) that in baseball you’ve gotta have heart.
When you’re luck is battin’ zero
Get your chin off the floor
Mister you can be a hero
You can open any door
There’s nothin’ to it
But to do it
You’ve gotta have heart
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Posted: August 11th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 143 Comments »
OK, so I should warn you up front that 32 can be a constricting number. There are a LOT of great receivers who did not make this list — John Mackey, Tommy McDonald, Tom Fears, Charlie Sanders, Charlie Joyner, Jimmy Smith, Rod Smith, Wes Chandler, Harold Jackson, Henry Ellard, Lionel Taylor, Rod Smith, Chad Ochocinco and Art Monk just to name a few. You can certainly take some guys off and put others on. You can certainly mess with the order.
But, I think you will find that 32 is not an especially large number when you’re choosing great receivers … there have been more awesome receivers than awesome running backs, for instance. Anyway, the list is the list … it’s all for entertainment purposes.
You will remember we choose the Top 32 in honor of the best number in sports … No. 32. And you should know that I have included tight ends on this list but ONLY for their pass-catching ability. John Mackey may have been the greatest tight end in NFL history when you take into account his entire games. But here we’re only talking about receiving. No blocking included.
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Posted: August 11th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 141 Comments »
Today, we’re going to talk at some length with John Dewan, owner of “Baseball Info Solutions,” and a man who has gone to greater lengths than just about anybody in America to study baseball defense. But before we get to John and some talk that is likely to start arguments, let me babble a little bit about my own thoughts about advanced defensive numbers.
Start with the obvious: For more than 100 years, the only true defensive measures anyone cared about involved “errors.” According to Alan Schwarz’s essential book “The Numbers Game” — great reading — the errors concept goes back, at least, to 1863. That year, a box score in the Sunday Mercury had a section called “Catches Missed.” This made some sense in 1863, when the game was entirely built around hitting and defense. Pitchers truly “pitched” the ball underhand, horseshoes style, to a hitters liking, much like a pitcher in kickball (“Bouncy or smooth?”). Catching the ball on the fly or on one bounce (only on the fly after 1864) or tagging a runner or the base were the only ways to get a hitter out, and so as a fan you wanted to know not only how many defensive plays were made but also how many were not.
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Posted: August 10th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 91 Comments »
Comment from Brilliant Reader Jeff K: “Milton Bradley, Jose Lopez, and Chone Figgins all had super unexpected bad seasons. How could anyone put them on the numbers they’ve put up this year based on career stats? The M’s were an 85 win team if everyone played up to their career norms, not if they repeated career years.”
I have read a few comments and emails like this from Brilliant Readers, basically saying that the Mariners failure was NOT predictable, and that it’s about players having shockingly disappointing seasons. Maybe so. But I think this brings up a good question: What should you expect from players?
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Posted: August 9th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 75 Comments »
It all seems so obvious now, doesn’t it? Bringing back Ken Griffey? Trading for Milton Bradley? Giving 32-year-old Chone Figgins (and his lifetime 99 OPS+) a big-money four-year deal based mostly on one good season (and them moving him to second base)? Signing 32-year-old Jack Wilson to a multi-year contract though he had not played a full-season in two years? Going into the season with Rob Johnson, and his 58 career OPS+, slotted as the regular catcher? Trading for light-hitting Casey Kotchman and inserting him as the Opening Day No. 3 hitter? Building up all sorts of hopes about Ian Snell as a No. 3 starter? Making the moves of a “contender” when the team finished dead last in the American League in runs scored in 2009 and were outscored by 52 runs? Trading a 25-year-old one-time phenom Brandon Morrow and his 98-mph fastball for an older hard-throwing reliever with the same first name (Brandon League)? Expecting another low ERA closer year from David Aardsma? Letting go of Russell Branyan who was one of only two good offensive players on the team in 2009 (he led the team in OPS+)?
Yes, it seems so obvious now that the Seattle Mariners were likely to have a terrible crash this season. And it probably should have seemed obvious in February too. And it probably WAS obvious then — Monday’s firing of manager Don Wakamatsu was etched in stone back before spring training.
But a whole lot of us missed it. Why?
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Posted: August 8th, 2010 | Filed under: Other Sports | 140 Comments »
Here’s one of my strange opinions: I’ve always thought Emmitt Smith was a little bit UNDER-rated. It’s hard to imagine a Dallas Cowboys running back who is the all-time leading rusher being underrated … but it always seemed to me that Emmitt’s genius for getting the yardage necessary, for being at his unstoppable best in the playoffs and Super Bowl, for leading the Cowboys week after week tended to be under-appreciated.
For one thing, he happened to play in the time of the most dazzling running back in the history of the NFL, Barry Sanders, who could turn nothing into something, who could make 50-yard touchdown runs out of heavy traffic and chaos. Emmitt couldn’t really do that, not the 50-yard touchdown runs (he only had six of them in his whole career — Barry had 16). For another (at least it seemed this way to me), when it came to Emmitt people always talked about how good his offensive line was … how good his quarterback was … how good his fullback was … how good his team’s defense was … with Emmitt Smith you tended to hear a lot about how good everyone around him was.
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Posted: August 7th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 94 Comments »
A Brilliant Reader question from Doug.
Subject: Worst everyday player in MLB.
A friend and I have a bet – I say Rony Cedeno, he says Chone Figgins. I know Yuni was your choice at one point last year, can you give us an update and settle a bet?
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