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Griffey a rarity in a cynical age

My thoughts on Ken Griffey who retired last week:

As I read through some of articles about Griffey’s retirement, I noticed many had an inset of the top ten homerun hitters of all time. Griffey lands fifth on that list with 630… a notable accomplishment indeed. But as I read through the list, it occurred to me how rare Griffey really was. This top ten list is scandal-ridden. If some of these players weren’t involved in some scandal or suspected of wrong-doing, others were out-and-out jerks.

Rank	Player	HR
1	Barry Bonds	762
2	Hank Aaron	755
3	Babe Ruth	714
4	Willie Mays	660
5	Ken Griffey	630
6	Sammy Sosa	609
7	Alex Rodriguez	591
8	Frank Robinson	586
9	Mark McGwire	583
10	Harmon Killebrew	573

There are exceptions. Hank Aaron, of course. As far as I know, Harmon Killebrew was just guilty of having thick arms. And Frank Robinson did have the gun thing in 1961 but I think I’ll give him a pass.

True, some players’ “scandals” are pretty minor by today’s standards. But in the day, MLB took Willie Mays and his casino dealings very seriously.

And yeah, I’m putting Babe Ruth in the jerk category.

Point being, there aren’t many players like Ken Griffey Jr let alone players of his caliber. And when things went a little south for Junior, he didn’t resort to methods outside the game to embellish his talents.

Indeed, the worst we can say about Griffey is that he took a nap during a game. Embarrassing. I submit it is embarrassing certainly not of Griffey but for the media and those who enabled that circus. For a man who gave his life to the game the way he did, he deserved a few winks.

I’ll close this out by posting a few quotes about Junior sent to me by dear reader DonS. These quotes are by respected members of the baseball community who are most qualified to speak on the topic of Ken Griffey Junior.

“To play with him is a treasure I will keep deep in my heart, I have played 19 years in professional baseball and I can say he was one of my best teammates and my best friend.”

-Ichiro Suzuki

“It’s like winning the lottery of baseball, You get to play with one of the greatest.”

-Chone Figgins

“Junior was one of the finest young men I’ve ever had the opportunity to manage, When we were in Seattle together, I believe he was the best player in baseball and it was truly an honor to be his manager.”

-Lou Piniella

Don’t bother Mr Zito, Tim

Last week, it seems like Barry Zito’s entourage (ie a restaurant manager at an upscale place in San Francisco) was a little hasty when shooing away a scruffy supposed autograph hound…

According to the SF Chronicle:

a long-haired kid dressed in skater garb walked into the formal restaurant and brazenly strolled up to him. Well, almost. A restaurant manager immediately cut off the intruder, saying something along the lines of, "Please don’t bother Mr. Zito. No autographs tonight."

It turned out the “kid” was Tim Lincecum.

Bryce Harper’s timing is a bit off

Bryce Harper, the 17-year old who is everyone’s pick to go #1 in the MLB draft, is making news. But maybe not the way he’d want. He was ejected during a called third strike in a National Junior College World Series game.

Will it affect his draft order? Probably not.

Will the media have a field day with this?

Most definitely.

[Update] I rest my case.

Hat Trick for Big Mac

Mark McGwire’s wife bore him triplets today.

The jokes have already started within my circle… even from Cardinals fans (shame). But I won’t go there.

I’ll just wish Mark a happy second fatherhood and hope he makes sure to get them into Little League as soon as possible. Who knows they could turn out like Eri Yoshida (the Knuckle Princess) and play professionally.

Where to find info on the MLB Draft

Within a week, the 2010 MLB Draft or as it is officially known, the MLB First-Year Player Draft, will take place. I’m certainly no expert on the MLB Draft but since I follow college baseball pretty closely, I have an interest in it and hence, have a little knowledge on where to find some good info on the draft.

MLB’s Draft Central is probably your first stop. They’ve done a pretty good job year in and year out covering the draft and each year they seem to increase their coverage.

The Draft Tracker is a must, especially on the draft days.

Jonathan Mayo covers the minor leagues for mlb.com. His blog is well worth following throughout the year but during draft time, he’ll have some good nuggets.

The Hardball Times is a source I trust for many things and prospect scouting is no exception. A couple days ago, they posted THT’s projected top 40 draftees.

Mock Drafts are the thing now. Take a look at mymlbdraft.com or draftsite.com to get a sense of what people are thinking. I’ll give you a hint… Bryce Harper looks like he’s going #1. Or heck, just go to dugoutdoctors.com and check out their whole list of mock drafts that are going on.

If lists aren’t your thing, MLB.com has Ten Names to Watch for 2010 Draft complete with a scouting report for each. This list is “Bryce-less”, assuming you’ve heard enough of him already ala 2009 Strasburg.

If history of the draft is your thing, you can try two avenues. MLB.com has a page dedicated to the “complete draft history”. For my money, I like browsing through Baseball Reference’s Draft section. Lots of fun to click around.

If anyone has any other good resources for the MLB Draft, please share them and I’ll add them to the list.

He’s back

This should teach me to write an article pointing out the weaknesses of Albert Pujols.

Phat Albert seems to be back.

Kendry Morales’ moments before the crash

twitpics from MLB…

here

then here

and finally here.

a joyous moment gone bad. gotta be one the worst freak accidents of 2010 so far.

B-R.com tool: Totaling up a range of seasons

Maybe this is common knowledge but I just came across another useful tool at BaseballReference.com. It now allows you to total up range of years’ stats of any particular player on fly. Very handy!

It’s done just by clicking on the first year in the range then the last year in the range. By doing that, a stat window pops of with the range totals you wanted.

Here’s an example using Hank Aaron.

You do need to enable this feature and it’s done at this page.

Another reason why Baseball Reference is as good as it is. Sean and team there continue to make it better. And another reason I don’t hesitate to throw a couple bucks their way every year. As much as I use it, it’s worth it.

Carlos Silva: 7-0 record coming out of nowhere

Is Carlos Silva really this good? I hope so. He just pitched seven shutout innings against the Cardinals to up his record to 7-0 for the year. His season ERA is a decent 3.52.

Not that I’m complaining as a Cub fan, mind you but it does rather surprise me. In his past two years, Silva was 5-18 with a 6.81 ERA. Don’t get me wrong but I just don’t think the Cubs coaching staff can work miracles like this.

Historically, Carlos Silva has had his strengths and his weaknesses. He’s had a penchant for giving up the longball even leading the AL in homers allowed in 2006 with 38. That said, he helps himself by his extremely low walk count. For his career, he has allowed only 1.7 walks per nine innings (again, he led the AL in that category with a miniscule 0.4 figure). This year, he’s right on track with that stat… he’s giving the free pass at a 1.8/9 IP pace.

But the wins.. seven wins.. Run support has been key, I suppose. The Cubs have scored 45 runs in the seven wins for an average of 6.42 runs per game. No pitcher has gotten off to such a good start for the Cubs since Illini graduate Ken Holtzman in 1967. Silva will have a couple more wins to go to match Holtzman… he started out 9-0.

The Cubs have done all right in those games that Silva had started but didn’t get the decision too. They are 2-1 in those games. Their only loss in a game which he started was his very first in April 9th in Cincinnati when they lost 5-4.

Let’s look at it from one more angle. How would the Cubs be doing without Silva and his 7-0 record? Even if we assume that his replacement won roughly half his games (I’m being generous), the Cubs would be at 21-29 instead of 24-26. That’s a wide difference this early in the season considering how much ground they would have to make up.

Whatever it is… whatever they’re doing.. let’s keep it up. It’s keeping the Cubs in it as much as they are.

Go Cubs!

Oswalt anglin’ for some offense

Ok, Roy Oswalt has made news by surprising some people and making a trade request. Surprising, I guess but the gist behind it was that the Astros aren’t going anywhere and he wants to play on a postseason team.

Since that request, Oswalt pitched a dynamite game which he won against the Brewers. Fox Sports Houston had an interesting twist on that game as it pertains to Oswalt in their opening sentence:

Roy Oswalt made a convincing argument for the Houston Astros to keep him in his first start since the team publicly acknowledged the ace’s trade request.

Funny, I saw it differently. If I was a reporter and looking for an angle, maybe Oswalt was showcasing his talents for any takers out there in the market for a quality starter. The cynical side of me, I guess. In either case, both sides are downplaying the trade thing at the moment anyway.

In related news (maybe more related than we think) Andy from Baseball Reference has a post on how little support Oswalt is getting from the Astros’ offense. Here’s the gist of it:

According to his neutralized pitching stats, Roy Oswalt deserves a .731 winning percentage this year, which projects to a 19-7 record for the season. Instead, he’s actually 3-6 with a .333 winning percentage.

He’s got the numbers to back it up on his post.

I think good ol’ Roy wants some decent offense. Maybe this is his way making his wished heard.