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HOF ’09: Lee Smith

leesmith

Lee Arthur Smith finished his career with more saves than anyone in the history of the game, 478, since bested by Trevor Hoffman. But still Smith led his league in saves four times, and had twenty-five or more saves in twelve straight seasons. Lee was an eight time All Star, 1983, 87, 91-95. He appeared in 1,022 games, with a 3.03 ERA, and nearly a strikeout per inning.

“[I flipped] a coin with Lee Smith to see who throws the eighth inning of the ’91 game. We were behind in Toronto, and we were both tired. I won the flip, so I pitched the eighth, and that means he had to stay out there for the ninth. He didn’t get to pitch anyway, because we lost. But what I remember most from that is him coming back into the clubhouse and being ticked off because someone stole his glove. I felt guilty because he loses this flip to me, and that glove probably had 300 saves in it, bound for the Hall of Fame.”

— Rob Dibble on his favorite All-Star memory

Here’s one for CLuke, he has all the numbers, this guy should be voted into the HOF, maybe not in 2009, but he deserves in, but he doesn’t get the votes, due to east coast bias.

	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?

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 exciting, 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.

Questions for the Cubs

No doubt the Cubs needed to do well against the Brewers this week to show they were serious about taking the NL Central. Well, they were up to the task and swept the Brew Crew all four games including two against two of top pitchers in the National League.

Now that’s over, a couple questions come to mind that the Cubs themselves are probably asking themselves right now as they prepare for the homestretch.

1. The Cubs have just won four in a row against the Brewers at Milwaukee. Can they compound upon that success and continue to win on the road? Up until that series, they had a pretty miserable 21-30 record on the road. Pretty bad considering they had the best record in the NL.

2. Along the same lines, can Ryan Dempster continue HIS recent winning ways on the road. He’s won two games all year away from Wrigley all year. Fortunately, they’ve both been in the last two weeks and hopefully signal a trend.

3. Is Alfonso Soriano back and healthy? His post-DL production seem to indicate so. Since coming back, Soriano is fire. He’s batted .343 with an OPS of 1.000. Now if we can only keep him healthy.

4. Can the Cubs keep from overusing Carlos Marmol? With the addition of Chad Gaudin and now Jeff Samardzija (who I assume is getting a trial in the bigs), the load will be lessened but Piniella will still need to resist the urge to use Marmol as the go-to guy. When the game is tight, it makes sense. But there’s no need to wear him out by pitching him in 6-1 ballgames. For evidence, just look at his performances just before the All-Star break.

5. Finally, the coming of August brings a shift in the schedule which prompts the question, Can the Cubs beat the East Division. They handled the West just fine, thank you with a 23-10 record. But in August, the East Division is a-comin’ interspersed with the usual suspects in the Central.

6. And speaking of that brings us to my last point. Will the Cubs dominate the Cardinals like they have in previous years? So far, they are 3-3 against the Redbirds. In 2006 and 2007, the Cubs have handled them well with a decent 22-13 record combined. Despite what logic tells us, St Louis isn’t going away (yet) and they still need to be dealt with. With two Chicago-St Louis series in August (one home and one away), this is the time to do it.

Go Cubs!

BZR interviews Erik Manning of Future Redbirds

Baseball Zealot Radio got a chance to interview Erik Manning tonight. Erik writes for FutureRedbirds.net, a website that scouts Cardinals prospects in their farm system.

In show 46, we talk a bit about Future Redbirds and the tools he needs to scout the players. He then gives us a snapshot of the current Cardinals’ farm system. Who’s hot and who’s not.

I couldn’t let Erik off the line without asking him about the big league so we talked a little about the NL Central race, one that’s shaping up to be a humdinger.

thanks, Erik!

PS don’t miss the Amaury Marti Facts page on Future Redbirds!

Length: 31:53

Date Recorded: 7/24/08

Listen to Episode 46	Listen to the show via iTunes!
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St Louis and Baseball

A shot of Busch Stadium taken from the Arch

It’s been said before and I’m not going to deny it, St Louis is a baseball town.

I just spent two days there and though time prevented me from attending a ballgame, it’s obvious that St Louisans take the sport seriously. Throughout town, I saw countless families who were ALL dressed in Cardinal red. Dad, Mom, kids, everyone.

“Albert Pujols” and his mini-me

They always say they Chicago is lucky to have two major league ballclubs and I suppose that is true. The Sox and Cubs appeal to different audiences and draw well.

Coming from the Chicago market (I actually live three hours south), the concept of one city, one team is quite foreign. I have to admit it does sound quite appealing. Encountering a fellow baseball fan on the street, it must bring some solace and comaderie to know that chances are high that he’s rooting for your team and that FIVE is his favorite number too.

I zoomed in on the field. It looks like some of the ground crew were beginning to start work.

Albert Pujols plays second

If you haven’t haven’t heard already, Albert Pujols played second base today for the St Louis Cardinals. No, it’s not one of LaRussa’s crazy moves though when I first heard about this, that’s the first thing that crossed my mind. No, to put it simply, injuries forced the move. From MLB.comS:

The game ended with Pujols playing second base, the result of an injury to Cesar Izturis. The shortstop was hit by a pitch in the top of the ninth, and had to come out of the game. Because the Cardinals had only Yadier Molina left on the bench, Molina came in to catch, Jason LaRue played first base, Pujols moved from first to second and Aaron Miles moved from second to shortstop.

I got a few emails about this today. See, Albert is on my APBA league team and his appearance at second base today will allow me to do the same next year. Good.

In 2002, Pujols played two innings at shortstop so playing middle infield is not new. That said, he was lucky enough not to have the ball hit to him then. Apparently today, he had one total chance (and no error!).

BIG MAN, BIG BAT

Today I went to Clearwater to see the Yankees play the Phillies. Before the game I observed a big white guy on NY, #17, hitting balls off a tee, into a net, with ARod setting him up. Later in the 1st inning, #17 stepped to the dish with two aboard, and knocked the first pitch over the leftfield wall. It turned out this big guy was none other than Shelley “Slam” Duncan, son of St. Louis Cardinals coach Dave Duncan, and younger brother of outfielder Chris.

Last season when Shelley was called up to the Yanks the end of July, he lined an RBI single in game #1, game #2 saw his first big league homer, he hit three more in his third game, and then hit his 5th in his 4th game in the show. Duncan earned his Slam nickname with his home run swing and his enthusiastic high fives! Joe Torre commented that he didn’t want to be near Duncan when he did something good, because of his powerful high fives.

In September of 2007 Slam signed an autograph for a 10 year old Red Sox fan, in addition to writing his name, he wrote, “Red Sox Suck!”, he later apologized to the youngster.

The 2nd time up in today’s game Shelley ripped a two run double off the leftfield wall, putting the Yankees up 5-0, a fancy slide into 2B got him there safely. ARod launched a long homer over the left-centerfield fence. The Phillies were there too, but I really can’t remember them doing anything.

Pujols’ elbow: Leaving it to God

This MLB report that just came out about Albert Pujols’ nagging elbow injury attempts to paint a rosy picture on his prospects for 2008.

As a Cub fan who has dealt with many reports of “rosy pictures” in past years, I’m dubious. And Cub fans, don’t hate me but I’m hopeful too. Phat Albert is the cornerstone of my APBA team.

Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but this kind of spin from MLB is reminiscent of politicians who one week say “We have no plans to (fill in unpopular action).”, then the next week do exactly that. When they come out to say to the baseball fans that a baseball injury is not THAT bad (the article is entitled Pujols’ Elbow Feeling Good), they may be just preparing us for the worst.

This snippet from Pujols was a little disconcerting.

“Do I need to be concerned? No. I don’t have any concerns, because it’s going to affect me thinking about it — I can’t do this or that. If it blows out, it’s going to blow out. You can’t control that. When God says it’s going to blow out, its going to blow out.”

Pujols opted against surgery on the elbow this off-season with the thinking that the benefit wouldn’t outweigh the downtime.

That said, as good as Pujols has been, he has shown a noticeable decline in offensive numbers in the last couple years. At some point, elbow surgery may worth it.

Divine intervention can only do so much.

8/15/07 Linescore of the Day: Scott Rolen

Scott Rolen: 4 for 5, 2B, HR, 3 runs, 2 rbis Give it up for Scotty. My buddy Brando has him on his APBA team and sees his 07 stats dwindle and wonders if 08 would be a good year to draft a thirdbaseman. Well, yesterday, Rolen is trying to dispel that idea. That said, … Continue reading “8/15/07 Linescore of the Day: Scott Rolen”

Scott Rolen: 4 for 5, 2B, HR, 3 runs, 2 rbis

Give it up for Scotty. My buddy Brando has him on his APBA team and sees his 07 stats dwindle and wonders if 08 would be a good year to draft a thirdbaseman.

Well, yesterday, Rolen is trying to dispel that idea.

That said, next year’s rookie draft for our league will have quite tasty thirdbasemen with Braun, Gordon, Kouzmanoff, Iwamura, etc.

But keep it quiet, I’m in the market for a thirdbaseman, too.

Walt Jocketty: This explains everything

Jocketty: Liked to roll dem bones A Star Tribune article about St Louis GM Walt Jocketty includes a revealing fact about him. Actually, he came here to do what he did Friday — win a championship. That’s been his goal since he was a kid growing up in Minneapolis. He and a buddy named Vic … Continue reading “Walt Jocketty: This explains everything”

Walt Jocketty

Jocketty: Liked to roll dem bones

A Star Tribune article about St Louis GM Walt Jocketty includes a revealing fact about him.

Actually, he came here to do what he did Friday — win a championship. That’s been his goal since he was a kid growing up in Minneapolis. He and a buddy named Vic Perlbachs would play a baseball strategy game called APBA — American Professional Baseball Association.

“That’s how I first knew I wanted to get into this business,” Jocketty said.

Well, that speaks volumes. He had plenty of practice as a young lad before getting into the business.

Many of us APBA players, especially those who play in leagues, fancy ourselves as managers, GMs and owners all rolled into one. Sometimes (a lot of times) we think we could do a better job than some of those who get paid to this work. Jocketty must have taken his love of the game and taken to the higher level when he “grew up”.

Jocketty isn’t the only baseball person who has played the game of APBA. It is known that Joe Torre and Curt Shilling play or have played the game. Supposedly, George W. Bush is a fan of the game.

Further on in the article, Jocketty talks about the moves he made as GM with the Cardinals (emphasis mine):

Twice he’s been named baseball’s executive of the year. He’s built teams that have won 105 and 100 games. He was instrumental in bringing in manager Tony La Russa, with whom he worked in Oakland. He has traded for Mark McGwire, Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds and Chris Carpenter; he signed David Eckstein and presided over the rise of Albert Pujols.

Well, Walt and I have one thing in common.