Author: The Baseball Zealot

Bringing Rickey down a notch

Corky Simpson, former writer for the Tucson Citizen and voting member of BBWAA is making news for his Hall of Fame ballot.  Who he voted for… and more importantly, who he didn’t vote for. 

Matt Williams is on his ballot.  So is Alan Trammell and Don Mattingly. 

…but no Rickey Henderson. 

And that’s got bloggers, baseball pundits and baseball fans in general up in arms. 

You can read Simpson’s full ballot and his reasoning at his current paper, the Green Valley News and Sun (which still gives him BBWAA voting rights). 

His picks:

  • Bert Blyleven
  • Andre Dawson
  • Tommy John
  • Don Mattingly
  • Tim Raines
  • Jim Rice
  • Alan Trammell
  • Matt Williams

I admit, his ballot selection seems a bit inconsistent.  He’s voted for Tim Raines but not Rickey Henderson. He’s voted for Matt Williams but not Mark McGwire (if you’re thinking not McGwire because of PEDs, keep in mind Williams was listed in the Mitchell report). 

I don’t agree at all with Simpson’s ballot but I’m not getting bent out of shape because of it.  On the other hand, if Rickey Henderson got into the Hall of Fame unanimously while players like Hank Aaron and Cal Ripken did not, now THAT would be something to write about. 

HOF ’09: Tim Raines

raines

 

Tim Raines is what I consider a borderline pick for the Hall in 2009.  That’s not a knock… in a year where it seems that there are one or two “sure things”, he might get a break and get the call. 

Raines Facts
  • Drafted 5th round in 1977 by the Montreal Expos
  • Played for Mon, Det, ChiW, NYY, Oak, Bal, Fla (1979-2002)
  • 7 time All-Star
  • Led NL in batting and OBP in 1986
  • Four time SB leader

Raines came in to the majors in 1979 at the age of the 19 as the youngest player in the baseball. It took him a couple years before he got his real chance to show what he was made of.  In 1981, he batted .304 in 313 at-bats, most of the strike shortened season.  But what amazed most people was his league-leading 71 stolen bases, a high amount for a shortened season or no. 

Raines proved it was no fluke by stealing 70 or more bases in the next five seasons reaching as high as 90 in 1983.  To go along with his speed, he had the ability to reach base with ease.  During his peak years (1981-1998), Raines’ OBP was .387 and he surpassed .400 five times (not counting 2001 when he only had 89 at-bats).  His combination of speed and OBP made him an excellent leadoff hitter for Montreal. 

And though he is known mostly as a Expo, he did put in five years with the White Sox and three with the Yankees.  By this time though, his offensive numbers began to dip a little.  Raines’ speed waned a bit with his SB numbers going down.  His first year with the Sox, he stole 21, then 13, 13 again and they never got that high again.  To his credit, his batting average (and for that matter OBP) stayed relatively high in the .280-.290 range.  Ironically, his last three years with the Sox in 1993-1995, Raines actually showed a bit of power, hitting double figures in homers each year. 

By 1999, when Raines went Oakland, he was pretty much done.  He hit .215 in 135 at-bats.  Montreal brought him back for a half a year in 2001 but was granted free agency that fall.  Raines retired the next year after one more failed attempt with the Marlins. 

Why Tim Raines will make the Hall of Fame in 2009

1) Solid career numbers.  Most striking are his 808 stolen bases which rank him 5th overall.  But he also ranks high in other categories important to a leadoff hitter, too.  Such as walks (1330, 33rd all-time), runs (1571, 49th) and times on base (3977, 41st). 

2)  Quite simply, in his prime Tim Raines was one of the best at what he did.  It wouldn’t be a stretch to say he helped redefine the role of the leadoff man.   While Vince Coleman eventually began winning the SB titles in 1985, Raines showed there was more to being a leadoff man than stealing bases.

3)  Longevity.  Though his later years were a bit lean (see below), Rock put together a 23 year career.  Not bad for a 5’8″ guy who came up as a secondbaseman.  

 

Why Tim Raines will NOT make the Hall of Fame in 2009

1) Like it or not, this year’s timing of Rickey Henderson who was a similar type player (leadoff hitter, same era) only better in almost every way doesn’t help Raines’ cause.

Raines fans will poo-poo this but it’s reality.

2) Raines’ offensive numbers went down in the second half of his career.  As a result, his playing time also suffered.  In the last nine seasons of his career, Raines batted over 500 times only once. 

3)  Four words. Pittsburgh. Drug. trials. 1985.

Here’s a good writeup on the topic including Raines’ famous quote about sliding headfirst in order not to break his cocaine vial which he kept in his back pocket.  Yes, there have been HOFers who have had drug issues but this kind of exposure can’t help. 

 

Part of me hopes that Raines gets the call.  For me, it’s really close.  If Raines had tacked on a couple more superstar years before going into his mediocre second half, he probably would get my vote.  But dang, it’s close.

 

  Hall of Fame

Hall of Very Good
  Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.

2009 Big Ten Tournament held at neutral site

This bit of news came out before the holidays but is worth passing on.  The 2009 Big Ten Tournament will be held at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio.  Huntington Park is the home of the Yankees’ Triple-A team, the Columbus Clippers.

The set dates for the tournament are May 20-23.  This is the first time the Big Ten has played their tournament at a neutral site since 1994 when they played in Battle Creek, MI.  Though it is played at a park foreign to all teams, Ohio State University is right across town.  Some Big Ten teams will be more “neutral” than others, I guess.

That said, I applaud the move for practical reasons.  What does this mean?  We don’t have to wait till the last weekend of the regular season (and three days before the tournament) before we know where the tournament is held.

Traditionally, the first place team hosts the tournament.  When this happens:

1)  All tournament teams (and for that matter, any team in the running) make all travel arrangements at all schools who in still in the running for first place before the last weekend of the regular season then make the necessary cancellations afterwards.  Two years ago if memory serves, three teams were still in the running.

2)  Any still in the running for first place more than likely needs to start thinking of organizing the tournament.  Think of two years ago.  Three schools needed to get things into place knowing full well that they may not be hosting.

As you can see, it was a logistical nightmare.  And a neutral site will take care of some of those issues.

All that’s got to happen now is the Illini have to get into Tournament.  Then Columbus, here I come!

But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves…Illinois’ first game is February 20 in Clearwater, Florida.  The strange thing… we start off against a Big Ten Team, Iowa.

Go Illinois!!

MLB Network gets going

The MLB Network is now on the air.

MLB Network Launches January 1, 2009

A couple points I’d like to make:

1.  They are still pushing Silverlight technology to distribute their online video content.  This is not unexpected since I think their deal with them extends till April when MLB Advanced Media will go with Flash.  It can’t be soon enough in my opinion. 

2.  My hope is that the MLB Network does not ignore the sector of society that gets their information and news totally from the web.  I’ll be honest, I rarely get my news from TV and yes, that includes sports news.  My hope was that would be that they would be streaming MLB Network live. 

There are plenty of business models out there using streaming video out that seem to work.  MLB, let’s make it work, too. 

I’m hoping the MLB Network gets off the ground.  They seem to have realistic expectations:

Petitti has made it clear that his new network’s signature show does not need to beat “Baseball Tonight” in the ratings for the network to be declared a runaway success. It’s all in the baseball family.

“Being second for us is a good thing,” Petitti said. “If we’re the second place people turn to for baseball, we’ll be very successful.”

That tells me they know they are targeting a niche market, their core audience.  That’s a good thing. 

Now just don’t do anything to piss them off.

Hockey at Wrigley: but where were the Blackhawks?

A rather exciting day at Wrigley Field, no doubt… if you ignore the final score. 

Over 40,000 fans showed up in the freezing weather today to watch the Detroit Red Wings take on the Chicago Blackhawks at the Cubs home field.  The fans were mostly of the Blackhawk nature but otherwise it was you could say it was neutral territory. 

I watched the second and third periods on TV.  By that time, the Blackhawks had already done their damage and the Red Wings were just getting warmed up.  Detroit scored five unanswered goals to win the game 6-4. 

But from NHL’s and MLB’s point of view, it doesn’t matter who won.  They are really promoting this as some sort of historical event.  A “Winter Classic” it is.  And it looks like it won’t be the last New Year’s event at a baseball park.  They are already talking about where to hold next year’s New Year’s event. 

PS Al Yellon from Bleed Cubbie Blue has some nice photos of the event.

HOF ’09: Jack Morris

It’s a way to stay alive, a way to survive as a pitcher. If you didn’t do it, you either had phenomenal control, or you didn’t last.

Jack Morris

I admit, I didn’t know a whole lot about Jack Morris until doing research for this article.  The one thing I DID know as most baseball people do, is that Morris won more games than any pitcher in the 80’s.  Yes, wins aren’t a perfect stat but let’s keep that in mind. 

Morris Facts
  • Drafted 5th round in 1976 by the Detroit Tigers
  • Attended Brigham Young University
  • Played for Det, Min, Tor, Cle (1977-1994)
  • 5 time All-Star
  • pitched no-hitter April 7, 1984 for Detroit vs ChiA
  • led AL in WP six times

 

First and foremost, Jack Morris was a Tiger.  He was drafted by them in 1976 and played for them for 14 of his 18 years.  He was a workhorse by today’s standards, pitching over 240 innings nine times.  Not only that, he had 175 complete games (remember those?). 

Morris hit the 20 mark in wins three times in his career all pretty much spaced out over his career… 1983, 1986 and 1992.  It’s actually pretty amazing that he holds that 80s record but you can attribute to consistent play throughout the decade (aside from 1989 when he only garnered 6 wins). 

jmorris Due to his high inning totals, you’ll see Morris up there in the all-time leader boards.  He’s 14th in home runs allowed (389), 36th in GS (527), 8th in wild pitches (206) and 19th in walks (1390). 

But he also has 254 wins (to 186 losses) to which kinda surprised me when I looked it up.  Not only that, he had a tasty 7-4 record in the postseason.  Morris helped the Tigers win the World Series against the San Diego Padres in ’84.  His experience was helpful for Minnesota in 1991 when they went all the way and the next year, Toronto rented his services and won another crown.  

Morris’ career 3.90 ERA is a bit high.  It’s actually higher than the league average when he was playing.  But no doubt about it, he was a winner. 

    

  Hall of Fame

Hall of Very Good
  Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.

HOF ’09: Mark McGwire

 

“Any time a guy that big steps up to the plate – they’re very few and far between, thank God – it’s kind of hard not to notice him standing there. The sun just disappears for a while.”

Kevin Brown on Mark McGwire

 

Oh what to do with Mark McGwire and the Hall of Fame!  He was denied entry the past two years, some say because of allegations of use of performance enhancers, others might just just say because of his one-sided talent.  But just how one-sided was it?  And if so, does it really matter?

markmcgwire Let’s get the big stats out of the way.  Sixteen seasons, 583 homeruns, 1414 rbis, 1167 runs… and six triples. 

His 1596 strikeouts was accompanied by 1317 walks.  Not a bad ratio by any means… he knew how to take a walk or maybe more accurately, the opposing pitchers knew when to pitch around him. 

McGwire played for the Oakland Athletics from 1986-1997 when for most of the time, he was paired up with Jose Canseco to form the famed “Bash Brothers”.  Ironically, if you look at the Similar Batters list in Baseball Reference, Canseco heads the list. 

When firstbasemen get old, they tend to head to the AL.  Not McGwire… he did it in reverse.  In 1997 at the age of 33, he was traded to the St Louis Cardinals for three players.  Now in this era of free agency and with most players heading toward this time in their career, most players are considering this as a career move but I honestly think Mark McGwire loved playing in St Louis. 

At the time, the year of 1998 did much for baseball.  Living in downstate Illinois put me smack dab in the middle of the two men who made it so mcgwiretestimonyexciting, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.  McGwire of course, broke the home record that year with his 70 homeruns but Sosa won the MVP award.

In retrospect, many feel it is tainted because of allegations of use of performance enhancing drugs.  He didn’t help his cause when he avoided the question in 2005 at a congressional hearing. 

Why Mark McGwire will make the Hall of Fame

There’s no question in my mind that if you drop the PED issue, McGwire would make the Hall.  There are people who will tell you differently but I think their judgement is still being clouded.  Look at his qualifications:

  • Four time home run champ
  • 12-time All-Star
  • 8th all-time in homeruns (583)
  • 9th all-time slugging (.588)
  • all-time leader in at-bats per home run (10.6)

McGwire was the best at what he did for his era.  Hitting homeruns. 

Also, the writers have had two years to settle down about the PED thing.  By now, they will have had a chance to look at what he did for baseball.

Why Mark McGwire will NOT make the Hall of Fame

1.  Timing.  Some writers have not forgotten about the andro or the PED allegations.  My honest opinion is that if the Mitchell Report had never come out, McGwire would have a plaque in the Hall right now. 

2.  Some writers do believe that McGwire is a one-talent hitter and/or believe that his one talent (slugging) wasn’t enough to compensate for his weaknesses.  Check out The Hardball Times’ more objective look at McGwire. 

3.  Demonization.  Ok, that’s a strong word but once a train starts leaving a station, everybody wants to jump onboard. 

When it comes down to it, I would vote for McGwire and I think the writers will eventually.  Maybe not this year or the next. 

But eventually.

 

Hall of Fame
 

Hall of Very Good
  Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.

HOF ’09: Mark Grace

“The most important thing about playing baseball is to have fun. I’m about to start my 13th year, but I can remember my rookie season like it was yesterday. It goes fast, folks.”

Mark Grace

As a Cub fan, I suppose I should be all over he idea of Mark Grace getting into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.  I know other Wrigley faithful who support the idea.  But let’s take off our rose-tinted glasses for a moment and look at the player and man objectively before inducting him just yet.

Grace Facts
  • Drafted 24th round in 1985 by the Chicago Cubs
  • Played for ChiC, Ari (1988-2003)
  • 3 time All-Star, 4 Gold Gloves
  • 511 career doubles (39th all-time)

 

The one thing about Mark Grace is that you pretty much knew who you were going to get year in and year out.  Not including his last two years, he only batted below .298 once in his career (.273 in 1991).  Grace had a great eye at the plate with his walks surpassing his strikeouts every year and consistently ranking in the top ten in OBP. 

Not only was he consistent at the plate, he managed to show up at work every day.  In the 12 years from 1989-2000, Grace dipped below 500 at-bats only once (403 in 1993). 

0501008P BRAVES V CUBS For a firstbaseman, Grace wasn’t blessed with power.  He never reached 20 homers in a season.  Despite that, Cubs’ managers batted him in the coveted #3 spot in the lineup right after Ryne Sandberg.  With the Cubs, Grace only got as far as the first round of the playoffs with the Cubs in 1989 and 1998 but fate smiled on him in 2001 when he played for the Diamondbacks.  The Dbacks went all the way to the World Series.  With Grace’s help (3 rbis including a solo shot in Game 4), Arizona defeated the New York Yankees to become the World Champions that year. 

I suppose to say that Mark Grace was a steady ballplayer would be an insult.  But I don’t want to underestimate that either.  He was a solid career .303 hitter with a fine glove (four Gold Gloves) you plug in the lineup day in and day out. 

But that’s not enough for the Hall of Fame.  I don’t like throwing out stats to prove a point but I can’t ignore them either.  Grace was player who played a position associated with power and he just didn’t have much. He never hit 20 HR in a season nor did he drive in 100 rbis. 

sorry, Chicago fans… I loved him as a Cub but he won’t make it.    

  Hall of Fame

Hall of Very Good
  Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.

Sandberg movin’ on up

Looks like that the Cubs are playing musical chairs with their minor league staff.  Mostly precipitated by the promotion of Pat Listach from Cubs triple-A team in Iowa to a coaching position for the Washington Nationals big league club. 

Ryne Sandberg who has been at the helm for the Peoria Chiefs will move up a notch and manage the double-A team, the Tennessee Smokies.  This will be a bit of a change for Ryno as he will play under NL rules for half the season.  that will be a first for him. 

Meanwhile, former Smokies infield and bunting coach Bobby Dickerson will take over for Listach at Iowa. 

So who’s going to manage the Peoria Chiefs?  Marty Pevey, who comes to the Cubs from the Toronto Blue Jay organization.  He’s bounced up and down from minor league manager role to the Blue Jay coach (most recently in the first base coach role).  His big claim to fame so far is being awarded the Florida State League Manager of the Year when Dunedin went 84-54.  Currently, Pevey has a minor league manager record of 541-510. 

Carrie Muskat has the whole list of minor league staff moves at mlb.com.