Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
CLuke passed on this link to a treasure trove of digitized Baseball Digest magazines going back to 1945 thanks to Google Book Search. For baseball history buffs, it’s well worth browsing through it!
To whet your appetite, here’s an article from Jerry Holtzman from 1960 entitled White Sox Make Glove Men Respectable Again.
I jumped so high with delight when I heard Steve Stone would be coming over to TV to join Hawk Harrelson, replacing Darrin “Yes Man” Jackson. But soon my joy was overcome by grief when I learned DJ was moving over to radio, joining Ed Farmer. I’m sure Farmer thought, what did I do to deserve this? Ed is kind of a jokester, I wonder if he’ll play around with Darrin, just to make him look stupid, not that Darrin isn’t fully capable of doing that on his own.
Last year I turned the volume off White Sox telecasts, powered up my radio, and enjoyed Farmer & Stone (even though the sound didn’t always matchup, still it was better than listening to those two knuckleheads). It was uncanny how often Ed & Steve would say something might happen, and then it would happen just as they’d predicted. I’ve got the MLB Direct-TV package, and the Sox TV guys were, by far, the worst in the business, from whining about the umpires to being complete homers, to talking about their playing careers (was there that much to talk about, did I mention Carl Yastrzemski?).
Maybe I’ll have to brush up on my Spanish and listen to Hector Molina do the games. Heck, even if I don’t understand what he’s saying, it still might be better.
It was announced the Chicago White Sox have signed righthander John VanBenschoten, and invited him to spring training. I know alot of you are like, John VanWHO? But I have to admit I’ve been following this guy ever since the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him out of Kent State with the 8th pick in the 2001 amateur entry draft. See he was born April 14th, my birthday, although many years after me. I’ve always been interested in following guys born on my birthday, Pete Rose, Greg Maddux, David Justice, Steve Avery, Kyle Farnsworth, Gregg Zaun, Jesse Levis, and many others, only guy born on my exact birth date was lefthander Bobby Sprowl.
Well now the White Sox have VanBenschoten, now what? John was a very successful two way star for Kent State, it was highly debatable as to whether he was a pitcher or a hitter, after all he batted .440 with 31 long balls, leading all Division I, as a junior. But his electric mound stuff won out, and the Buccos made him a fulltime pitcher. On the hill, he struckout 63 batters in 48 innings, posting a 2.81 ERA. Although back then he worked almost as much out of the bullpen as he did as a starter.
His best success as a pro occurred in 2002 at Hickory in the SAL, Class A ball. John started 27 games, pitching 148 innings, striking out 145, amassing an 11-4 record, with a nifty 2.80 ERA. More success was in the cards as he was moved up to high Class A ball, where he started off 6-0 with a 2,22 ERA, before moving up to Class AA ball midseason. In Altoona he was only 7-6 with an earned run average of 3.69.
Van Benschoten has had reconstructive surgeries on both his shoulders, costing him nearly two full seasons of action before his return in 2007. He, started the 2007 season at Indianapolis (10-7, 2.56 ERA), would go back to Indianapolis, and would be recalled later during the season only to finish the season with no wins and seven losses for Pittsburgh. Again he would start the 2008 season with the Indianapolis Indians and remain on the inactive roster for the Pirates. After posting a 4-0 record and a 1.88 ERA with the Indians, he was called up by the Pirates on April 27 to be on the active roster. He currently holds the all-time major league record for highest career ERA with at least 75 innings pitched.
Van Benschoten, a 28-year-old starter, went a combined 2-13 with a 9.20 ERA in 26 appearances, including 19 starts, with the Pirates in 2004, ’07 and ’08. Call me a dreamer, but I still believe in this kid. I just called the Chicago White Sox congratulating them on signing him and suggesting they either make him a hitter or use him out of the bullpen. I believe shoulder injuries have taken their tole on this talented, oft-injured pitcher.
I don’t know about you but I like my baseball caps after they have that worn out feel to them.
The White Sox packaged the extremely talented righthander Javier Vazquez and bullpen lefty Boone “They’re not saying Boone” Logan to the Braves for C-1B Tyler Flowers, SS Brent Lillibridge, 3B Jon Gilmore, and southpaw reliever Santos Rodriguez. Vazquez has a dynamite fastball, an explosive curveball, and very good control, yet he is two games below .500 in his career, despite the fact he has over 2,000 strikeouts. Down the stretch, when the White Sox needed him most, Ozzie Guillen & Vazquez, himself, lost confidence. This game is hard enough, but there is no way to succeed when you don’t believe in your stuff. That, in a nutshell, seems to Javier’s problem, not believing in his ability. It seemed, from my vantage point 34 rows behind home plate, Vazquez would be getting batters out, overpowering them, when all of a sudden he’d start trying to fool hitters, rather than just get them out. He’d get ahead 0-2, then nibble, rather than take advantage & put the hitter away. Still in this pitching starved era, this 32 year old will give you 33 starts & 200 innings, not bad, but he’ll drive you crazy, good luck Atlanta! Then there’s the case of Boone Logan, a herky jerky motion, from the leftside, couldn’t get my grandmother out in the second half of the season. In fact 97 year old granny was two for three, with a homer against Logan.
Now here’s what we got back, it was better than a half eaten bag of potato chips, so I’m happy. Tyler Flowers is a 6’4″ 245 pound righthanded hitting catcher/firstbaseman out of Georgia. Flowers played in High Class A ball for the Braves in 2008, where he hit 17 homers & 32 doubles, while hitting .288, with 98 bases on balls. But where Tyler really shined was the Arizona Fall League, where he was the home run leader with 12 home runs in only 20 games, with a batting average of .387. Atlanta drafted him in the 33rd round of the 2005 draft out of a junior college, then he was suspended fifty games for testing positive to taking performance enhancing drugs. A knee injury may limit him to a career at firstbase.
Brent Lillibridge was the Bucs shortstop of the future when he was drafted out of the University of Washington in the 4th round of the 2005 draft. In 2003 at the age of 19 Brent batted .388 with some pop at Washington. Even though he batted .220 with 90 strikeouts in 2008 with Richmond, it’s hard to think he’s washed up at the age of 24, in fact the Braves brought him to the majors for a cup of coffee, where he batted .200 in 80 at bats with the big league club. The book on Brent is that he’s a good fielder, with speed, who needs to re-find his stick.
Jon Gilmore is an interesting prospect, drafted by the Braves with the 33rd pick in the 2007 draft out of high school. This, 6’3″ 195 pound, 20 year old, thirdbaseman was born in Florida, but played his high school ball in Iowa City. 2008 was a split decision for Gilmore, as Jon batted .337 with 23 doubles in only 258 at bats in rookie ball, but then really struggled at Class A, hitting only .186.
Then there’s 20 year old lefty reliever Santos Rodriguez. It’s hard to get a read on Santos, as he’s only pitched two years of rookie ball. But in 2008 Rodriguez struckout 45 batters in 29 innings, with a nifty 2.79 ERA.
All in all, I like the deal. Sure we gave up a solid member of our rotation, but we got back value, and Vazquez had pitched on the Southside long enough, let the Braves enjoy him. Kenny Williams has been a genius and I’m not going to second guess him at this point.
“(Baines) was on his way to the Hall of Fame. He just stopped by Comiskey Park for 20 years or so.”
GM Paul Richards on the White Sox pick of Harold Baines in the first round of the 1977 draft.
First up in our lineup of HOF09 is Harold Baines. Now, as a Cub fan, I normally have no use for White Sox players but I have to admit a fondness for Baines. So, apparently do the Sox who took on Harold for three separate stints.
Baines Facts
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Let’s get this out of the way. Baines won’t be known for his glove. Though he was a solid outfielder during his first part of his career, an injury and subsequent knee surgery in 1986 pretty much made him useless in the field and relegated him to DH duties thereafter. So much so, that the This Week in Baseball’s skit where those in on the joke were “trying to find Baines’ glove” is still remembered.
Yet, some talk about how pure Baines’ swing was. From the start, he showed he was for real, hitting double figures in homers at the age of 21. Two years later, he broke out for the Sox with 25 home runs and 105 rbis. Baines continued his consistent style of hitting always putting up 20+ homers and 90+ rbis.
After his 1986 knee surgery and resulting move to the DH role, his hitting numbers didn’t suffer… until 1988 when he banged out only 13 with a subpar .277 average. The next year came the famous trade to Texas which brought young Sammy Sosa to Chicago.
The 90s didn’t have the luster that the 80s did but Baines always found a way to find playing time as a DH. I remember being amazed that year in and year out Baines would be in the lineup, busted knees and all. He traveled from Texas to Oakland to Baltimore (his homestate). Finally, after a half season stint with Cleveland, he came back to Chicago again where he finished the last two years of his career.
Pros: There’s probably no one with better character. Clutch hitter, his career numbers look decent (1299 runs, 1628 rbis, more rbis than Mantle, (that comment should p–s somebody off).
Cons: Not a dominating hitter not even in his era (only three 100-rbi seasons, no MVPs, not even close in voting), defense, we’ve already talked about that.
As much as I like Baines personally, I don’t see him making the Hall. If the White Sox have their own Hall, he should be the first one inducted. He’s Mr White Sox in my book. But for Cooperstown, there are those with better credentials. He makes the Hall of Very Good.
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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.
Apparently, Ozzie Guillen didn’t see eye-to-eye with Nick Swisher during the Swish’s stay in Chicago. According the Chicago Tribune, they didn’t gel.
Was Swisher a bad influence in the clubhouse late in the year?
You’ve got to ask the players about that. To be honest with you, I was not happy with the way he was reacting at the end of the season. He wasn’t helping me either.
Guillen just got the Chicago Easter Seals Award for his work in helping autism research so I’m going to refrain from saying anything snarky about him (at least in this post). The White Sox donated $1 million to the cause. Good on them.
Stat of the Day recently listed the top 20 hitters with best OPS+ with a batting average of under .220 over a full season.
Nick Swisher came in this year at 9th with an OPS+ of 93.
Perhaps, the Yankees can work with that.
In case you’re wondering, Rob Deer placed one and two with his performances in 1990 and 1989 respectively.
The big acquisition before the 2008 season for the White Sox was Nick Swisher, now one year later Swisher was dealt to the Yankees. As a White Sox fan, how do I feel about all this?
I was excited when the Sox landed Buckeye Nick. He seemed to be just what the doctor ordered, a switch-hitter, with a good eye, good power, and a batting average that would go up coming to hitter friendly US Cellular Field. The plan was for Swisher to play LF with speedy Jerry Owens patrolling centerfield. An injury to Owens changed those plans, moving Nick to CF, opening a LF opportunity for Carlos Quentin. Quentin tore it up! Ozzie Guillen tried high onbase Swisher as the club’s leadoff batter. So he was trying two things he’d never done before, a leadoff hitting centerfielder. Things didn’t workout too well on either front. Pitchers threw strikes to Swisher, putting him in a hole, and while he did an adequate in the field, alot of balls fell in.
After Swisher was moved out of the leadoff spot in favor of Orlando Cabrera, he seemed to find his bat. But then late in the year Nick succumbed once again to his early season bat woes, often times taking pitches right down the pipe, while swinging at pitches in the dirt, arguing with umpires about called strikes. Late in the year he was benched in favor of Dewayne Wise & Brian Anderson, so I guess the writing was on the wall.
It’s kind of weird Swisher & Cabrera were brought in last year to wipe out the losing of 2007. Things worked out well with the team winning the AL Central Division, losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Rays of Tampa. Now both are gone.
So how does it all shake out? Last year we dealt corner outfielder Ryan Sweeney (batted .286 in 115 games for Oakland), lefthanded starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez (1-4, 7.68 ERA, in 34 innings for the A’s), and Fautino De Los Santos (2-2, 5.87 ERA, 23 IP, for Stockton high A). The numbers don’t tell the whole story as Gonzalez was the key to the deal and should be a successful starting pitcher for years to come.
Now let’s look at this year’s trade sending Swisher out of town. Relief pitcher Kanekoa Texeira (0.93 ERA, 38″ IP, high A & 2.01 ERA, 22′ IP, AA) was also traded to New York. The White Sox received switch hitting infielder Wilson Betemit (.260 lifetime average, 42 homers in 1098 at bats), starting pitcher Jeff Marquez (43-40, 3.60 ERA, 560″ IP, minor league totals), & recently converted reliever Jhonny Nunez (1.50 ERA, 27′ IP, AA).
The Swisher trades comes down to this, Sweeney, Gonzalez, De Los Santos, & Texeira for Betemit, Marquez & Nunez. Wilson Betemit should see some action for the White Sox at thirdbase for the White Sox in 2009, with possibly Dayan Viciedo waiting in the wings, then Betemit would become a quality bat off the bench and utility infielder.
There’s a little bit more to Nick Swisher in Chicago. I manage the Chicago Champions of the Illowa APBA League a diceball APBA League, where I traded outfielder Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Rising Bammbeanos for Swisher, after Nick was traded to the Southside. Bammbeanos skipper John Brandeberry has been a Dodgers fan since the Brooklyn days of yesteryear (more on this trade from an APBA standpoint can be found on APBABLOG.COM). Also if anybody’s interested in a pre-worn Nick Swisher White Sox teeshirt, lemme know.
I captured this from a video from CNN of our president-elect in DC this week… wearing a White Sox cap. All that talk from before wasn’t just campaign posturing?
I can imagine the Sox fans now. First the 2005 World Series… now a Sox fan in the White House.
Sure, give them more sense of entitlement.