TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Friday, September 19, 2003

Falling Out of the Family Tree
No relation to the Marasco in this article.

Or this almost Boy of Summer.

posted by David 7:48 PM

Home Grown Yankees
I was sitting with a few friends the other day, talking about baseball (what else?!), and of course, one of them was a Yankee fan. He and I argued over his point that even though the Yanks have the biggest payroll, they've won with players who were "homegrown Yankees." Of course, he was trying to legitimize the Yankees' past World Series victories with the highest payroll in the league. So here's my argument for why the Yanks still have guys like Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettite and Jorge Posada on their roster:

This issue coincides with the Oakland A's allowing Miguel Tejada to walk away and sign with another team after this season (see Tim Kurkjian's article on ESPN.com). Most teams can't afford to hang on to their homegrown players (see Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye) so they either trade them or let them walk away without compensation. So it's a team like the Yankees who can afford to keep players like Jeter or Posada who develop into stars from their minor league system. Once again, competative balance comes down to payroll, even though the A's and Twins have shown that money isn't completely necessary to win. Tejada will sign for big money when he leaves Oakland, unless he chooses to take a big paycut to stay with one of baseball's most exciting young teams. Apparently Bobby Crosby, son of former Major Leaguer Ed Crosby, is a top prospect at shortstop. Though I think Billy Beane is a genius and will be able to adjust his roster in some way (he did it when Giambi left), it's sad to see economics breaking up teams that will have potential for many years to come.

I'm sure there are arguments/numbers to cover this one, but who knows - it could be that "magical feeling" players get when they get called up and put on pinstripes to play in the house that Steinbrenner built.

posted by Charles Curtis 3:14 PM

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

There was some good, clean fun to be had at the Metrodome tonight. I decided to drop by to watch Estaban Loaiza and Brad Radke square off. Radke gave up a pair of leadoff hits in the first before getting Frank Thomas to ground into a 4-6-3 DP and then getting Magglio to end the inning. He eventually settled in to give the Twins seven strong innings before LaTroy Hawkins pitched the last two. Loaiza loaded the bases with one out in each of the first two innings. Loaiza didn't get too badly hurt, but did give up three runs, and threw 32 and 31 pitches in completing those innings. The third inning telegram for Mr. Loaiza read:

Na-na-na-na [STOP]
Na-na-na-na [STOP]
Hey hey hey [STOP]
Goodbye!

Carlos Lee robbed Cristian Guzman of a 3-run homer after Loaiza departed in the 3rd, stemming the tide of the Twins' offense. Much heckling of El Caballo ensued in subsequent innings. There were some valiant efforts to get a CAR-LOS chant in the manner of the Strawberry taunts of the late '80s and early '90s, but it never really materialized. The best individual effort came from a fan asking whether Carlos needed tickets for the playoffs. In the bottom of the 8th, Lee had the final putout of the inning and gave it the old fake hook shot towards the crowd. Classic.

posted by Tom Renbarger 11:03 PM

Zoccolillo
This weekend I was out shooting baseball photos when I snapped one of Pete Zoccolillo:



The name rang a bell, so I looked through the photo albums on the webpage. I found this:




It's really cool to see somebody you watched in the minors make it to the bigs. Especially when you saw the player in a low league like the Midwest League rather than AAA ball.

posted by David 8:23 AM

Monday, September 15, 2003

A Bondsian Season
A few weeks back we were looking at Barry Bonds' season in a historical perspective - how good a season is this for a guy who could finish #2 in the MVP balloting?

Well, the stat that sticks out like a sore thumb is his OBP. He won't catch last season's .582, which blew away the old record. But where will he finish on the charts? Assume 14 more games with 4PA per game to get 56 more chances. What would his OBP have to be in the remaining season to hit certain benchmarks?

2. Williams '41	.553	.732
3. Ruth '23	.545	.643
4. Ruth '20	.532	.518
5. Williams '57	.526	.446
6. Ruth '26	.516	.357
7. Bonds '01	.515	.357
8. Ruth '24	.513	.321
9. Ruth '21	.512	.321
10. Mantle '57	.512	.321
	.500	.196

So he'll most likely finish with the #4 OBP season of all time, although he has an outside shot at #3. Mantle will drop off the charts, leaving the top ten to Bonds, Ruth and Williams.

Note that the old record was held by a second place MVP season:

1941
Ted Williams - 406/553/735
Joe DiMaggio - 357/440/643

2003
Barry Bonds - 341/533/746
Albert Pujols - 365/441/683

Williams had similar but larger gaps in both OBP and Slugging. Of course, Ted watched Joe D's team go to the playoffs; Barry's going to play in October, while the jury is still out on the Cards.

posted by David 4:45 PM

Sunday, September 14, 2003

The real Randy Johnson just stood up today with a one-hitter against the Rockies in Phoenix. Nice to see. The AP story mentioned that it was Johnson's first career one-hitter since '98 against Minnesota, but didn't mention his career total. In theory he's behind Steve Trachsel for career one-hitters. Still no list that I've found for career one-hitters, though on a player-by-player search one can determine that pitchers like Vida Blue, Mike Mussina, Hideo Nomo, and Don Sutton have at least three. It'd be nice to have a comprehensive list without doing the research myself.

I had one other last thought about parity. I think there is an elementary logic error called affirming the consequent in play here. Observe:

If parity is in effect, I will not be able to predict which teams will have the best records.

I have not been able to predict which teams have the best records.

Therefore, parity is in effect.

Notice that there may be other reasons why I can't predict which teams are the best, chief among which that I simply don't know everything. In fact, in the vast majority of cases in which parity is invoked, what is really happening is that the pundits are trying to hide their ignorance, at least so it seems to me.

If my explanation to this point has not yet rendered apparent the reasoning error, consider the following example:

If I live in Texas, then I live in the United States.

I live in the United States.

Therefore, I live in Texas.

Which of course is why I've been writing about the Rangers all this time. ;-)

posted by Tom Renbarger 7:06 PM

Fun at Pac Bell
On Friday and Saturday I saw the Brewers play the Giants at Pac Bell Park. It's amazing what a difference good company can make. Friday night I went alone (my wife wasn't feeling up to it), and my seat was surrounded by people who showed up drunk and got worse as the game went on. They weren't happy drunk, they were ugly drunk, and to top it off, they didn't know baseball. Any time at the ballpark is going to be a good time, but it's no fun having to tune out the crowd. On Saturday I went with Bob and Craig. The contrast was amazing. We discussed Ritchie Sexson's height, and how that allowed him to stand almost outside of the batter's box, and that this meant that a pitcher couldn't throw an effective inside pitch. We tried to remember the 1954 Cleveland rotation (Early Wynn, Mike Garcie, Bob Lemon, Art Houtteman and Bob Feller). But on top of that we could also kick back and discuss the highlights of the Art Institute of Chicago. That's a little deeper than "Tastes Great! Less Filling!"

To top things off, Bob got us great seats. Five rows back, right behind home plate. When I was a kid back at Candlestick, I had a trick. I would go to the ticket returns window, and wait for men with big suitcases to trade in their seats. Inside those big suitcases were radar guns, these were scouts who were playing hooky (imagine that, playing hooky by not going to the ballgame). I'd then step up to the window and say "give me the ticket he just gave you." One of those nights I saw Doc Gooden in his prime. I was right behind the plate, three rows back. It was an amazing thing to see up close. In the bottom of the eighth Barry Bonds simply crushed a ball into McCovey Cove. Again, at close range it was a very impressive sight.

Speaking of that homer, the last time I had seen the Brewers face Barry he hit #499. I just missed a milestone. I did it again. After the two games Barry had 2061 career walks. Babe Ruth clocks in at #2 with 2062. I'm surprised the media aren't making a bigger deal about this, passing up Ruth in a major statistical category should get more attention. Rickey is at 2190. This time next year Barry will be closing in on the all-time walks record.

posted by David 4:52 PM