This will be a much shorter post. I feel that the Veterans Committee ballot is largely unnecessary and probably a bad thing for players. Say, for example, that with the influx of new blood on the ballot in the next couple of years, or as a result of the sabrmetric push against him, or bad luck, or what have you, Jack Morris does not get inducted into the Hall of Fame this year or next and he falls off the ballot. Can he be at peace? Can he say, "Oh well, I came close, it would have been nice, but now I can get on with my life"? No, he can't, thanks to the Veterans Committee. Sometime in the future he will be reconsidered yet again.
Is this a bad thing? I think it can be. Look at poor Ron Santo. He passed away before he was finally inducted. I know that there was much, much more to his life than induction into the Hall of Fame but how many interviews did he have to endure about the subject, how much did he fret, how much did others fret for him (especially Cubs fans) wondering if he would ever be inducted at Cooperstown? And now that he is in the Hall of Fame, is the memory of him and his play that much better for it? Or were people more aware when he was probably the "best third baseman not in the Hall of Fame"?
From a player standpoint, I'm against induction through the Veterans Committee. Players had their chances before and while the process is quite flawed, unless there's some groundbreaking reason to reconsider the player, a reason of which kind I cannot even think of an example at the moment, my personal belief is that once a player falls of the BBWAA ballot, he should no longer be considered a candidate for the Hall of Fame as a player.
So that eliminates Wes Ferrell, Marty Marion, Tony Mullane, Bill Dahlen, Deacon White and Bucky Walters from consideration for me. Although if any of them were inducted outside of Marion (who really does not seem qualified in the least to me), it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world (and it turned out that Deacon White was elected. Whoopie!).
That leaves non-players for consideration. I think this is where the Veterans Committee has a responsibility to consider those who impacted the game without playing it. I am hard pressed to feel that owners, even early owners, should be in the Hall of Fame unless they also served as executives (such as a general management position). Having money and writing checks isn't a Hall of Fame ability. Gauging talent, building ballclubs, doing something like integrating the game or developing farm systems or something that improved the sport would merit consideration. I don't particularly feel like Jacob Ruppert or Sam Breadon did those things so I would not vote for them (the voters felt Ruppert merited induction, though).
Al Reach deserves special consideration from me because he was involved in the publishing and sporting goods worlds as well as being an early ballplayer. But I don't think he really did enough and if you compare him to Albert Spalding (a rather valid comparison given the backgrounds), he falls way short in terms of his impact on the game.
That leaves umpire Hank O'Day as the remaining possible candidate. My first thought seeing him on the ballot was that if he is elected (he was), John McGraw would turn over in his grave (he was the umpire who called Merkle out on his infamous play). O'Day was behind the plate for the second most games in history (of course, that is much more achievable (but by no means easy), in an era of two-man umpire crews instead four). In the end, though, I wonder what the point is. We don't truly know how much better (or worse) he was than his peers. We have hearsay and newspaper reports of player and manager opinion. But I couldn't tell you, and I don't know that anyone really can, that Hank O'Day is a Hall of Fame caliber umpire because I don't really know what means.
In the end, my Veterans Committee ballot is empty but three of the ten men on it are actually being inducted. Color me unenthused.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
My Hall of Fame Veterans Committee Ballot, Part I - Wes Ferrell
If you look back on my interest in baseball history, going all the way back to my early childhood, there are two names that have been around the whole time, from just about day one until today. The first, not surprisingly, is Babe Ruth. Even people who don't know the first thing about baseball know who Babe Ruth is. The other player is definitely a more unusual and perhaps inexplicable name, which is part of the reason why I'm detailing my lifelong interest and fascination in the gentleman. It is none other than Wesley Cheek Ferrell.
I've always been fascinated by numbers and baseball is a plentiful source of numeric enjoyment. I have also been an avid game player all my life. The second baseball game I ever owned was Cadaco's All-Star Baseball. The game was played using player discs and spinners. The statistics of the player were translated into segments of the player disc based on the percentage of outcomes. If a player struck out 15% of the time, the #10 segments, the strikeout sections (see how much I like numbers? I remember that from when I was 8 or 9 years old), would make up fifteen percent of the disc. There were fourteen different segment types in all. You would slide the card of the player at bat into the spinner, flick away at the black plastic arrow, and check the result of the number that came up.
The best outcome, was old #1. The home run segment. Babe Ruth, of course, had a huge section for home runs which helped establish his historic greatness with me early on in my life.
What made Cadaco a flawed game, at least in terms of representing an accurate recreation of the game of baseball, was that all the cards were based on batting statistics. There was no attempt made to account for the level of a pitcher's skill. Instead, pitchers got cards based on their batting abilities. So it didn't matter if you had Lefty Grove or Juan Nieves on the mound, it didn't change the possible hitting outcomes in the least.
It also made pitchers near worthless. I have a sense that Cadaco was hired by the American League to help instill the need for a designated hitter in both leagues. Pitchers can't hit. The pitcher cards were almost all littered with gigantic #10 segments. It was pretty miserable. Unless you happened to have one particular pitcher. I think you can guess who that pitcher was. Yes, Wes Ferrell.
Wes Ferrell hit more career home runs than any pitcher in history (37). He also holds the record for most home runs by a pitcher in a single season with nine. To give you a sense of the magnitude of those records, ALL the pitchers in major league baseball this season hit a combined total of 24 home runs. Three players hit two home runs to pace the season mark.
So Wes Ferrell not only had a #1 segment, compared to every other pitcher his #1 segment was Ruthian (the only other pitcher I can remember with a legitimate segment (as opposed to a near-line) was Rick Reuschel (and don't ask me how they figured what cards to include in the game)). Needless to say, Wes Ferrell captured my interest early on when I was trying to win Cadaco ballgames.
I'm an old-timer. About half of my life was lived pre-internet if you can believe it. You couldn't just Google a player to find out about him. I couldn't tell you how I found out more about Ferrell over the years, but I did. One of the things I discovered was that he was a big believer in astrology. One day, while perusing the Waldenbooks at my local mall, I discovered an astrology program in the discount rack. 5.25" floppy disk. I had a brilliant idea. I would write a book about Wes Ferrell based on how he did versus what this astrology program predicted for him. How were the stars aligned when he hit his home runs? What were they like for his top pitching performances? I was excited.
I got home, started up the program, and went to try it out. Huge problem. For the most accurate astrological readings, I needed to know Ferrell's exact time of birth. I can't even find that now with all my fancy interweb sources. I thought maybe his brother Rick would know. I'm not sure how I found Rick's address but I typed up a letter saying that I wanted to write a book on his brother and could he send me whatever information he had on his brother, including the time of his brother's birth. I included a large SASE in case he wanted to mail me lots of newspaper clippings or something. Keep in mind I believe I was 16 years old at the time. I didn't know the first thing about how to go about researching and writing about someone.
Months passed with no reply (shocking, I know). Then one day I get my SASE in the mail. In it is my letter. At the bottom of the letter is written something along the lines of "we have already hired someone to write a book about my brother and I". No signature, just this one sentence. I was crushed. I may have this letter somewhere in my files. I sort of hope not.
As an aside as time transitions in the story of this post from high school to college, the last name of the first love of my life (female, not baseball) was Ferrell. Coincidence or not?
More time passed. I didn't give much thought to Wes Ferrell. I went to college and after struggling my first year I transferred to little Guilford College, a small Quaker school in Greensboro, North Carolina. Lo and behold, I come to discover that Guilford is the alma mater to none other than Rick Ferrell. And the Ferrell brothers were born and raised there. And Wes was buried right across the street from the college. Almost spooky, huh?
I got involved with the North Carolina chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research and I started researching North Carolinians in general. I picked up some dandy R311 cards of the Ferrell brothers and Ray Hayworth (another North Carolina native) of which my Wes one is pictured above. This is the story of my memorabilia collection. I have tons of oddball things which are sort of inexplicable unless I go back and think about them.
Still I didn't pursue anything more with Wes Ferrell. Then I moved to Delaware to go to graduate school. I met my friend Jason and we made the stupid decision to make our first visit to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in late October. Why is this stupid? Because we decided to camp. It was so cold we gave up the first night and slept in the car and returned home after hitting the Hall of Fame the following day. While there we went to the library and I checked out Wes Ferrell's player file and made some copies. No idea why.
That might have been it for me and my interest in Ferrell. I do have a knack of getting distracted when it comes to baseball research. But then I got interested in minor league research and who should pop up again than good ole Wes Ferrell.
As we established above, Wes Ferrell could hit the ball well for a pitcher. That is actually an understatement. He could hit the ball well for any position. After shoulder pain curtailed his career as a major league pitcher, Wes returned to North Carolina (with the exception of a season in Lynchburg, Virginia) to manage and play outfield in the minors. In 1942, at Lynchburg, Ferrell won the batting title and led the league in home runs. In 1948, he had an amazing season at the plate for Marion of the Western Carolinas League. He led the league with a .425 average, and slugged .766, clouting 30 doubles (third in the league), 14 triples (third in the league) and 24 homers (fifth in the league). This at age 40. Once again I was captivated by Wes Ferrell's hitting.
One last story involving me and Wes Ferrell's batting prowess. During my first trip down to Hot Springs, Arkansas for SABR's Deadball Committee's Boiling Out conference, a bunch of us would get together for morning strolls, much like ballplayers in the Deadball Era did when they had spring training there. On those hikes we would engage in a couple of baseball mind games that originated from Guy Waterman. Waterman was an outdoorsman and baseball fan who committed suicide in 2000. When he would hike or climb mountains he would play these games with himself to keep himself engaged and entertained.
The one game involved coming up with a baseball batting lineup, one player at each position, with the players being in alphabetical order. This was a lot of fun with a bunch of us as we would debate the validity of each pick. So say for example the first person was up, they had to come up with a good leadoff hitter whose last name began with the letter A. You wouldn't pick Hank Aaron, the obvious A name. He's more of a cleanup hitter. Maybe you'd go with someone like Tommy Agee. So you have Agee, centerfield, batting first. Then the next guy comes up with a #2 hitter whose last name begins with the letter B. But it can't be a centerfielder since that position is taken. So maybe Buddy Bell will play third and bat second. We started off playing one morning and I was up with the #6 spot and the letter F. "Batting sixth, pitcher, Wes Ferrell". Everyone loved it. Probably never happened but it was logical. It also made it a little more challenging for the person who no longer had to come up with a pitcher whose last name began with I in the last spot (the ninth spot was always the easiest normally since it was pretty much always the pitcher spot).
All this is to provide some background for why I think Wes Ferrell should be in the Hall of Fame. You'll note I haven't really mentioned his pitching yet. There are two problems with Ferrell's potential candidacy. The first is that the era in which Ferrell played was one that aided hitters. Ferrell's career ERA is over 4. He walked more batters than he struck out and despite being in the top ten in strikeouts most seasons, he only K'ed more than 125 once in a season.
If you look at the advanced statistics, you see that he pitched well for his era. His WAR from 1929-1936 was 46.0. By comparison, Sandy Koufax's final eight seasons (his best) earned him a WAR of 47.7. Ferrell was the second best pitcher in the American League over this era, behind only Hall of Famer Lefty Grove. His WAR totals don't include the additional benefit he provided with his bat. He had a 193-128 record during a time when pitcher's record mattered (because of the 227 complete games in 323 starts).
I used Koufax as a comparison for a reason. The second reason why Ferrell is potentially lacking. Those eight seasons of Ferrell's are, in essence, his career. Shoulder ailments did him in and so his career is much shorter than a typical Hall of Famer's. Those with short careers who are in the Hall of Fame tend to be flashy strikeout artists like Koufax or Dean or died prematurely like Addie Joss. While Ferrell didn't have the flash, he did have the results.
So do I really think Wes Ferrell should be in the Hall of Fame? I think he's more qualified than his brother who is in. I think he wouldn't be a bad selection. I think it would be nice to increase awareness of his success in the game. I'm going to hold of on committing to my answer until my next post (and by now, unless you get all your news from my blog, you should know that Wes Ferrell was not chosen by the Veteran's Committee).
I've always been fascinated by numbers and baseball is a plentiful source of numeric enjoyment. I have also been an avid game player all my life. The second baseball game I ever owned was Cadaco's All-Star Baseball. The game was played using player discs and spinners. The statistics of the player were translated into segments of the player disc based on the percentage of outcomes. If a player struck out 15% of the time, the #10 segments, the strikeout sections (see how much I like numbers? I remember that from when I was 8 or 9 years old), would make up fifteen percent of the disc. There were fourteen different segment types in all. You would slide the card of the player at bat into the spinner, flick away at the black plastic arrow, and check the result of the number that came up.
The best outcome, was old #1. The home run segment. Babe Ruth, of course, had a huge section for home runs which helped establish his historic greatness with me early on in my life.
What made Cadaco a flawed game, at least in terms of representing an accurate recreation of the game of baseball, was that all the cards were based on batting statistics. There was no attempt made to account for the level of a pitcher's skill. Instead, pitchers got cards based on their batting abilities. So it didn't matter if you had Lefty Grove or Juan Nieves on the mound, it didn't change the possible hitting outcomes in the least.
It also made pitchers near worthless. I have a sense that Cadaco was hired by the American League to help instill the need for a designated hitter in both leagues. Pitchers can't hit. The pitcher cards were almost all littered with gigantic #10 segments. It was pretty miserable. Unless you happened to have one particular pitcher. I think you can guess who that pitcher was. Yes, Wes Ferrell.
Wes Ferrell hit more career home runs than any pitcher in history (37). He also holds the record for most home runs by a pitcher in a single season with nine. To give you a sense of the magnitude of those records, ALL the pitchers in major league baseball this season hit a combined total of 24 home runs. Three players hit two home runs to pace the season mark.
So Wes Ferrell not only had a #1 segment, compared to every other pitcher his #1 segment was Ruthian (the only other pitcher I can remember with a legitimate segment (as opposed to a near-line) was Rick Reuschel (and don't ask me how they figured what cards to include in the game)). Needless to say, Wes Ferrell captured my interest early on when I was trying to win Cadaco ballgames.
I'm an old-timer. About half of my life was lived pre-internet if you can believe it. You couldn't just Google a player to find out about him. I couldn't tell you how I found out more about Ferrell over the years, but I did. One of the things I discovered was that he was a big believer in astrology. One day, while perusing the Waldenbooks at my local mall, I discovered an astrology program in the discount rack. 5.25" floppy disk. I had a brilliant idea. I would write a book about Wes Ferrell based on how he did versus what this astrology program predicted for him. How were the stars aligned when he hit his home runs? What were they like for his top pitching performances? I was excited.
I got home, started up the program, and went to try it out. Huge problem. For the most accurate astrological readings, I needed to know Ferrell's exact time of birth. I can't even find that now with all my fancy interweb sources. I thought maybe his brother Rick would know. I'm not sure how I found Rick's address but I typed up a letter saying that I wanted to write a book on his brother and could he send me whatever information he had on his brother, including the time of his brother's birth. I included a large SASE in case he wanted to mail me lots of newspaper clippings or something. Keep in mind I believe I was 16 years old at the time. I didn't know the first thing about how to go about researching and writing about someone.
Months passed with no reply (shocking, I know). Then one day I get my SASE in the mail. In it is my letter. At the bottom of the letter is written something along the lines of "we have already hired someone to write a book about my brother and I". No signature, just this one sentence. I was crushed. I may have this letter somewhere in my files. I sort of hope not.
As an aside as time transitions in the story of this post from high school to college, the last name of the first love of my life (female, not baseball) was Ferrell. Coincidence or not?
More time passed. I didn't give much thought to Wes Ferrell. I went to college and after struggling my first year I transferred to little Guilford College, a small Quaker school in Greensboro, North Carolina. Lo and behold, I come to discover that Guilford is the alma mater to none other than Rick Ferrell. And the Ferrell brothers were born and raised there. And Wes was buried right across the street from the college. Almost spooky, huh?
I got involved with the North Carolina chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research and I started researching North Carolinians in general. I picked up some dandy R311 cards of the Ferrell brothers and Ray Hayworth (another North Carolina native) of which my Wes one is pictured above. This is the story of my memorabilia collection. I have tons of oddball things which are sort of inexplicable unless I go back and think about them.
Still I didn't pursue anything more with Wes Ferrell. Then I moved to Delaware to go to graduate school. I met my friend Jason and we made the stupid decision to make our first visit to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in late October. Why is this stupid? Because we decided to camp. It was so cold we gave up the first night and slept in the car and returned home after hitting the Hall of Fame the following day. While there we went to the library and I checked out Wes Ferrell's player file and made some copies. No idea why.
That might have been it for me and my interest in Ferrell. I do have a knack of getting distracted when it comes to baseball research. But then I got interested in minor league research and who should pop up again than good ole Wes Ferrell.
As we established above, Wes Ferrell could hit the ball well for a pitcher. That is actually an understatement. He could hit the ball well for any position. After shoulder pain curtailed his career as a major league pitcher, Wes returned to North Carolina (with the exception of a season in Lynchburg, Virginia) to manage and play outfield in the minors. In 1942, at Lynchburg, Ferrell won the batting title and led the league in home runs. In 1948, he had an amazing season at the plate for Marion of the Western Carolinas League. He led the league with a .425 average, and slugged .766, clouting 30 doubles (third in the league), 14 triples (third in the league) and 24 homers (fifth in the league). This at age 40. Once again I was captivated by Wes Ferrell's hitting.
One last story involving me and Wes Ferrell's batting prowess. During my first trip down to Hot Springs, Arkansas for SABR's Deadball Committee's Boiling Out conference, a bunch of us would get together for morning strolls, much like ballplayers in the Deadball Era did when they had spring training there. On those hikes we would engage in a couple of baseball mind games that originated from Guy Waterman. Waterman was an outdoorsman and baseball fan who committed suicide in 2000. When he would hike or climb mountains he would play these games with himself to keep himself engaged and entertained.
The one game involved coming up with a baseball batting lineup, one player at each position, with the players being in alphabetical order. This was a lot of fun with a bunch of us as we would debate the validity of each pick. So say for example the first person was up, they had to come up with a good leadoff hitter whose last name began with the letter A. You wouldn't pick Hank Aaron, the obvious A name. He's more of a cleanup hitter. Maybe you'd go with someone like Tommy Agee. So you have Agee, centerfield, batting first. Then the next guy comes up with a #2 hitter whose last name begins with the letter B. But it can't be a centerfielder since that position is taken. So maybe Buddy Bell will play third and bat second. We started off playing one morning and I was up with the #6 spot and the letter F. "Batting sixth, pitcher, Wes Ferrell". Everyone loved it. Probably never happened but it was logical. It also made it a little more challenging for the person who no longer had to come up with a pitcher whose last name began with I in the last spot (the ninth spot was always the easiest normally since it was pretty much always the pitcher spot).
All this is to provide some background for why I think Wes Ferrell should be in the Hall of Fame. You'll note I haven't really mentioned his pitching yet. There are two problems with Ferrell's potential candidacy. The first is that the era in which Ferrell played was one that aided hitters. Ferrell's career ERA is over 4. He walked more batters than he struck out and despite being in the top ten in strikeouts most seasons, he only K'ed more than 125 once in a season.
If you look at the advanced statistics, you see that he pitched well for his era. His WAR from 1929-1936 was 46.0. By comparison, Sandy Koufax's final eight seasons (his best) earned him a WAR of 47.7. Ferrell was the second best pitcher in the American League over this era, behind only Hall of Famer Lefty Grove. His WAR totals don't include the additional benefit he provided with his bat. He had a 193-128 record during a time when pitcher's record mattered (because of the 227 complete games in 323 starts).
I used Koufax as a comparison for a reason. The second reason why Ferrell is potentially lacking. Those eight seasons of Ferrell's are, in essence, his career. Shoulder ailments did him in and so his career is much shorter than a typical Hall of Famer's. Those with short careers who are in the Hall of Fame tend to be flashy strikeout artists like Koufax or Dean or died prematurely like Addie Joss. While Ferrell didn't have the flash, he did have the results.
So do I really think Wes Ferrell should be in the Hall of Fame? I think he's more qualified than his brother who is in. I think he wouldn't be a bad selection. I think it would be nice to increase awareness of his success in the game. I'm going to hold of on committing to my answer until my next post (and by now, unless you get all your news from my blog, you should know that Wes Ferrell was not chosen by the Veteran's Committee).
Sunday, December 2, 2012
My Hall of Fame ballot, Part II
We continue today with the guys on the Hall of Fame ballot who I think merit at least strong consideration.
I COULD PROBABLY BE CONVINCED
Edgar Martinez 1987-2004 4th
I've made a case for Tommy Herr for the Hall of Fame based on cherry-picking stats so I'm not a fan of the process as a means of establishing greatness. That being said, there are just fifteen players in baseball history who have played in 2000 games, hit .300, with an OBP greater than .400 and a SLG greater than .500. I think we can agree that those are some high standards, right? Ten of those fifteen are in the Hall of Fame. The other five are Frank Thomas, Todd Helton, Manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones and Edgar Martinez. All five are serious candidates for the Hall of Fame.
But in the case of Edgar Martinez, hitting was all he did. It shouldn't matter that he was mostly a DH and maybe in a year or two I won't care. This year, though, I do. Although looking back over that list, I can almost talk myself into it this year. Yes, Frank Thomas had a position for a while but would you really say that either he or Manny contributed anything with their gloves? Hmmmmm. It's all right, Edgar, I'll put you in next year probably. You still have ten more years of consideration.
Mark McGwire 1986-2001 7th
He was just too injury prone. That's what does it for me. Also, as a single test case, McGwire doesn't lend much support to the idea that steroids increase longevity and keep players healthier (or lets them recover faster).
Jack Morris 1977-94 14th
Like members of the Montreal Expos, I think that all members of the 1984 Detroit Tigers should be in Cooperstown. Trammell and Whitaker at least. Evans. Then maybe Parrish and Morris and Gibson. Why not? Then Petry and Grubb and Lemon. OK, maybe not everybody. I used to think Morris should be in but over the years my confidence has diminished thanks to those danged sabrmagicians.
Dale Murphy 1976-93 15th
This is a sad one for me as I know he won't be inducted. If you had asked me my senior year of high school (1989) who the best player of my lifetime was, I would have said Dale Murphy. And he was already washed up by then. I still think he was one of the best. Just not one of the best for long enough, though.
Rafael Palmeiro 1986-2005 3rd
Like a Harold Baines who could play defense. An accumulator of stats.
Mike Piazza 1992-2007 1st
My word he was a horrible catcher. Besides, can we really put a former 62nd round draft pick in the Hall of Fame? Doesn't that make a mockery of the game? Don't we have to put Royce Clayton in then since he was taken with the 15th pick overall in the same draft? Let's get Brad Duvall in there, too, since no one seems to be mentioning him in the conversation.
NO DOUBT HALL OF FAMERS
Jeff Bagwell 1991-2005 3rd
Misses that .300/.400/.500 club mentioned in Edgar Martinez's entry by three batting average points. And shouldn't there be a factor for overcoming crazy batting stances? It always amazed me that Bagwell could even hit a ball since he seemed to be moving backward when he swung.
Craig Biggio 1988-2007 1st
If he were Pete Rose, he would have become a player/manager and found a way to get hit by three more pitches to be the career leader. A player who did more than what is expressed in traditional stats - taking extra bases, making smart plays in the field. One of the best second basemen ever.
Barry Bonds 1986-2007 1st
One of the best players of all-time. And an asshat.
Roger Clemens 1984-2007 1st
One of the best pitchers of all-time.
Tim Raines 1979-2002 6th
An Expo. One of the best leadoff hitters of all-time. One of the best base stealers. And a Hall of Fame caliber all-around player.
Alan Trammell 1977-96 12th
Terribly, terribly, terribly underrated. He will always be in my personal Hall of Fame no matter if a plaque hangs for him in Cooperstown. I'm sure that means a lot to Alan.
There's my ballot for this year. Six names, possibly seven if I hadn't mailed my imaginary ballot already. We'll take a look at the Veterans Committee this week in two separate posts (even though the results will be announced tomorrow), one on Wes Ferrell, the other covering everyone else (which should give some foreshadowing into my views on the matter).
I COULD PROBABLY BE CONVINCED
Edgar Martinez 1987-2004 4th
I've made a case for Tommy Herr for the Hall of Fame based on cherry-picking stats so I'm not a fan of the process as a means of establishing greatness. That being said, there are just fifteen players in baseball history who have played in 2000 games, hit .300, with an OBP greater than .400 and a SLG greater than .500. I think we can agree that those are some high standards, right? Ten of those fifteen are in the Hall of Fame. The other five are Frank Thomas, Todd Helton, Manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones and Edgar Martinez. All five are serious candidates for the Hall of Fame.
But in the case of Edgar Martinez, hitting was all he did. It shouldn't matter that he was mostly a DH and maybe in a year or two I won't care. This year, though, I do. Although looking back over that list, I can almost talk myself into it this year. Yes, Frank Thomas had a position for a while but would you really say that either he or Manny contributed anything with their gloves? Hmmmmm. It's all right, Edgar, I'll put you in next year probably. You still have ten more years of consideration.
Mark McGwire 1986-2001 7th
He was just too injury prone. That's what does it for me. Also, as a single test case, McGwire doesn't lend much support to the idea that steroids increase longevity and keep players healthier (or lets them recover faster).
Jack Morris 1977-94 14th
Like members of the Montreal Expos, I think that all members of the 1984 Detroit Tigers should be in Cooperstown. Trammell and Whitaker at least. Evans. Then maybe Parrish and Morris and Gibson. Why not? Then Petry and Grubb and Lemon. OK, maybe not everybody. I used to think Morris should be in but over the years my confidence has diminished thanks to those danged sabrmagicians.
Dale Murphy 1976-93 15th
This is a sad one for me as I know he won't be inducted. If you had asked me my senior year of high school (1989) who the best player of my lifetime was, I would have said Dale Murphy. And he was already washed up by then. I still think he was one of the best. Just not one of the best for long enough, though.
Rafael Palmeiro 1986-2005 3rd
Like a Harold Baines who could play defense. An accumulator of stats.
Mike Piazza 1992-2007 1st
My word he was a horrible catcher. Besides, can we really put a former 62nd round draft pick in the Hall of Fame? Doesn't that make a mockery of the game? Don't we have to put Royce Clayton in then since he was taken with the 15th pick overall in the same draft? Let's get Brad Duvall in there, too, since no one seems to be mentioning him in the conversation.
NO DOUBT HALL OF FAMERS
Jeff Bagwell 1991-2005 3rd
Misses that .300/.400/.500 club mentioned in Edgar Martinez's entry by three batting average points. And shouldn't there be a factor for overcoming crazy batting stances? It always amazed me that Bagwell could even hit a ball since he seemed to be moving backward when he swung.
Craig Biggio 1988-2007 1st
If he were Pete Rose, he would have become a player/manager and found a way to get hit by three more pitches to be the career leader. A player who did more than what is expressed in traditional stats - taking extra bases, making smart plays in the field. One of the best second basemen ever.
Barry Bonds 1986-2007 1st
One of the best players of all-time. And an asshat.
Roger Clemens 1984-2007 1st
One of the best pitchers of all-time.
Tim Raines 1979-2002 6th
An Expo. One of the best leadoff hitters of all-time. One of the best base stealers. And a Hall of Fame caliber all-around player.
Alan Trammell 1977-96 12th
Terribly, terribly, terribly underrated. He will always be in my personal Hall of Fame no matter if a plaque hangs for him in Cooperstown. I'm sure that means a lot to Alan.
There's my ballot for this year. Six names, possibly seven if I hadn't mailed my imaginary ballot already. We'll take a look at the Veterans Committee this week in two separate posts (even though the results will be announced tomorrow), one on Wes Ferrell, the other covering everyone else (which should give some foreshadowing into my views on the matter).
Friday, November 30, 2012
Belated thanks to Number 5 Type Collection
Quite some time ago, Matthew, over at Number 5 Type Collection, had a contest where folks could submit their favorite name of a major league rookie from this season. I put forth the Rangers Tanner Scheppers, as I think Tanner is a great baseball name, going back to the book/movie The Bad News Bears. Matthew chose my selection and my prize was this selection of Pittsburgh Pirates cards.
All but the Stargell and the Miller are O-Pee-Chee cards which was sort of neat. That might be fun, trying to collect a 1978 O-Pee-Chee set. The Topps set of that year was my first foray into baseball card collectiong when I was but a wee lad.
As I was not blogging at the time, a proper shout out and thanks was not given. So allow me to belatedly thank Matthew for the cards and for a great blog. Thanks.
All but the Stargell and the Miller are O-Pee-Chee cards which was sort of neat. That might be fun, trying to collect a 1978 O-Pee-Chee set. The Topps set of that year was my first foray into baseball card collectiong when I was but a wee lad.
As I was not blogging at the time, a proper shout out and thanks was not given. So allow me to belatedly thank Matthew for the cards and for a great blog. Thanks.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
My Hall of Fame ballot, part I
The Hall of Fame ballot was released today to much wailing and gnashing of teeth. The stars of the "Steroid Era" are now starting to hit the ballot and the performances of these players are being ignored by those wishing to take a supposed moral stand.
I have two primary issues with those who want to use steroid use or speculated steroid use to deny players their vote for induction into the Hall of Fame. My first issue is the lack of evidence indicating that steroid use provided any assistance to the performance of these players. There are those who cite the explosion in home runs as evidence of steroid use but then conveniently forget that pitcher Roger Clemens, a suspected steroid user, was the premier pitcher of his era, if not all-time. So who were the steroids helping, hitters or pitchers? I personally think no one.
My second issue concerns those who have been denied eligibility for Hall of Fame induction based on their admitted or supposed drug use. Let's see, there's, well, no one. Pete Rose (and others) can't get in the Hall of Fame because their wrongs were deemed worthy of banishment from the game. No players of the late nineties, early 21st century have been banned. They are eligible to be considered for the Hall of Fame based on their accomplishments. It bothers me that there are members of the BBWAA who feel that they can arbitrarily choose to ignore the performances of players they think used drugs based on some sort of sense of moral superiority.
Well, none of that moral superiority will be in evidence here. At Rain of Error, there is a distinct lack of morals. Er, wait a minute. Maybe that's not the phrasing I wanted. Anyway, I've divided the members of the ballot into four groups. The guys I don't think have a chance will be covered today. The gentlemen who I do think have cases for the Hall will be in my next post. Without further ado:
NO POSSIBLE WAY
Sandy Alomar Jr.1988-2007 1st Solid catcher defensively. Not so hot with the bat. Remember back in the day when the Padres had Benito Santiago, Alomar, and Mark Parent all catching in their system? That's 53 major league seasons between the trio. That was some serious scouting/drafting.
Jeff Cirillo 1994-2007 1st He was a lot better than I recall him being. Career .296 hitter. Walked some. No power. Average glove. Not a bad player but not one you plan on seeing in Cooperstown.
Royce Clayton 1991-2007 1st His one season playing in Coors Field, he led the league in sacrifice hits. That about sums things up.
Jeff Conine 1990, 1992-2007 1st He only retired five years ago? He always seemed to be 35 years old, regardless of what he actually was.
Steve Finley 1989-2007 1st I have faulty wiring in my brain which causes me to mix Finley up with Brady Anderson. I have no idea why. Combined I don't think they're Hall-worthy.
Shawn Green 1993-2007 1st Four homers in a game is awesome and so he will have a legacy in Cooperstown, even without a plaque in the gallery.
Roberto Hernandez 1991-2007 1st Dude almost died from a blood clot. Remember that? Then came back and pitched forever. I don't think I can seriously consider any relief pitcher post-Dave Righetti for the Hall of Fame.
Ryan Klesko 1992-2007 1st Should probably get consideration because he had Jim Rice-level TEH FEAR. At least I thought so. Never a guy I wanted to see up with men on base. If he ever played even a single full season, things would have been different.
Kenny Lofton 1991-2007 1st When he was 29, I would have thought he was a no-brainer Hall of Famer. Being mediocre or worse for eleven more seasons didn't help his cause.
Don Mattingly 1982-95 13th Ditto Mattingly except the cutoff age was 25.
Jose Mesa 1987, 1990-2007 1st More hype than substance in my mind.
Reggie Sanders 1991-2007 1st I have an unpublished blog post about Reggie Sanders that may need reviving. Just a run-of-the-mill outfielder.
Aaron Sele 1993-2007 1st Hall of Fame curveball.
Lee Smith 1980-97 11th All those saves should be worth something. Just not entrance into Cooperstown.
Mike Stanton 1989-2007 1st Wait, what?!?! Mike Stanton? Seriously?
Todd Walker 1996-2007 1st A lot of people don't know that there is a preliminary stage players have to get through before the actual ballot. You need to have ten years in the majors to get on the ballot and then you have to pass a sort of vetting process. I don't know how Todd Walker made that cut. Or Mike Stanton for that matter.
David Wells 1987-2007 1st Meh.
Rondell White 1996-2007 1st Would it be a tragedy if anyone who played 700 or more games for the Expos earned automatic induction into the Hall of Fame? Carter and Dawson are already in. Vlad Guerrero and Raines should get in. Tim Wallach, Warren Cromartie and Andres Galarraga? That wouldn't be horrible. Jose Vidro, Larry Parrish, Bob Bailey...OK, maybe not such a good idea. Chris Speier, Rondell White, Orlando Cabrera? All right, how about 1000 games then?
Woody Williams 1993-2007 1st I got nothing.
GOOD BUT NOT A GUY WHO SHOULD BE IN THE HALL
Julio Franco 1982-94, 1996-97, 1999, 2001-07 1st JULIOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! The Harold Baines of my generation. And my son's generation. And my grandson's generation. And my great-grandson's generation.
Fred McGriff 1986-2004 4th The Crime Dog was a solid first baseman but in an era of many great first basemen. Too bad.
Curt Schilling 1988-2007 1st He suffers on my ballot from my having watched his career in Philadelphia where he was a really good pitcher. He didn't become great until late in his career and after he left Philly. Through age 29, he was 52-52 with an ERA+ of 113. From ages 30-40 he was 164-94 with an ERA+ of 134.
Sammy Sosa 1988-2005, 2007 1st One-dimensional. Or maybe two. He could throw pretty well. Sort of the Dave Kingman of my era.
Larry Walker 1989-2005 3rd Just not enough games on the Expos. And too many in Coors Field for me to take him seriously. That and injuries.
Bernie Williams 1991-2006 2nd If he plays for any team other than the Yankees, I think he's off the ballot his first year. Nice outfielder and should get bonus point for his guitar playing but doesn't.
I have two primary issues with those who want to use steroid use or speculated steroid use to deny players their vote for induction into the Hall of Fame. My first issue is the lack of evidence indicating that steroid use provided any assistance to the performance of these players. There are those who cite the explosion in home runs as evidence of steroid use but then conveniently forget that pitcher Roger Clemens, a suspected steroid user, was the premier pitcher of his era, if not all-time. So who were the steroids helping, hitters or pitchers? I personally think no one.
My second issue concerns those who have been denied eligibility for Hall of Fame induction based on their admitted or supposed drug use. Let's see, there's, well, no one. Pete Rose (and others) can't get in the Hall of Fame because their wrongs were deemed worthy of banishment from the game. No players of the late nineties, early 21st century have been banned. They are eligible to be considered for the Hall of Fame based on their accomplishments. It bothers me that there are members of the BBWAA who feel that they can arbitrarily choose to ignore the performances of players they think used drugs based on some sort of sense of moral superiority.
Well, none of that moral superiority will be in evidence here. At Rain of Error, there is a distinct lack of morals. Er, wait a minute. Maybe that's not the phrasing I wanted. Anyway, I've divided the members of the ballot into four groups. The guys I don't think have a chance will be covered today. The gentlemen who I do think have cases for the Hall will be in my next post. Without further ado:
NO POSSIBLE WAY
Sandy Alomar Jr.1988-2007 1st Solid catcher defensively. Not so hot with the bat. Remember back in the day when the Padres had Benito Santiago, Alomar, and Mark Parent all catching in their system? That's 53 major league seasons between the trio. That was some serious scouting/drafting.
Jeff Cirillo 1994-2007 1st He was a lot better than I recall him being. Career .296 hitter. Walked some. No power. Average glove. Not a bad player but not one you plan on seeing in Cooperstown.
Royce Clayton 1991-2007 1st His one season playing in Coors Field, he led the league in sacrifice hits. That about sums things up.
Jeff Conine 1990, 1992-2007 1st He only retired five years ago? He always seemed to be 35 years old, regardless of what he actually was.
Steve Finley 1989-2007 1st I have faulty wiring in my brain which causes me to mix Finley up with Brady Anderson. I have no idea why. Combined I don't think they're Hall-worthy.
Shawn Green 1993-2007 1st Four homers in a game is awesome and so he will have a legacy in Cooperstown, even without a plaque in the gallery.
Roberto Hernandez 1991-2007 1st Dude almost died from a blood clot. Remember that? Then came back and pitched forever. I don't think I can seriously consider any relief pitcher post-Dave Righetti for the Hall of Fame.
Ryan Klesko 1992-2007 1st Should probably get consideration because he had Jim Rice-level TEH FEAR. At least I thought so. Never a guy I wanted to see up with men on base. If he ever played even a single full season, things would have been different.
Kenny Lofton 1991-2007 1st When he was 29, I would have thought he was a no-brainer Hall of Famer. Being mediocre or worse for eleven more seasons didn't help his cause.
Don Mattingly 1982-95 13th Ditto Mattingly except the cutoff age was 25.
Jose Mesa 1987, 1990-2007 1st More hype than substance in my mind.
Reggie Sanders 1991-2007 1st I have an unpublished blog post about Reggie Sanders that may need reviving. Just a run-of-the-mill outfielder.
Aaron Sele 1993-2007 1st Hall of Fame curveball.
Lee Smith 1980-97 11th All those saves should be worth something. Just not entrance into Cooperstown.
Mike Stanton 1989-2007 1st Wait, what?!?! Mike Stanton? Seriously?
Todd Walker 1996-2007 1st A lot of people don't know that there is a preliminary stage players have to get through before the actual ballot. You need to have ten years in the majors to get on the ballot and then you have to pass a sort of vetting process. I don't know how Todd Walker made that cut. Or Mike Stanton for that matter.
David Wells 1987-2007 1st Meh.
Rondell White 1996-2007 1st Would it be a tragedy if anyone who played 700 or more games for the Expos earned automatic induction into the Hall of Fame? Carter and Dawson are already in. Vlad Guerrero and Raines should get in. Tim Wallach, Warren Cromartie and Andres Galarraga? That wouldn't be horrible. Jose Vidro, Larry Parrish, Bob Bailey...OK, maybe not such a good idea. Chris Speier, Rondell White, Orlando Cabrera? All right, how about 1000 games then?
Woody Williams 1993-2007 1st I got nothing.
GOOD BUT NOT A GUY WHO SHOULD BE IN THE HALL
Julio Franco 1982-94, 1996-97, 1999, 2001-07 1st JULIOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! The Harold Baines of my generation. And my son's generation. And my grandson's generation. And my great-grandson's generation.
Fred McGriff 1986-2004 4th The Crime Dog was a solid first baseman but in an era of many great first basemen. Too bad.
Curt Schilling 1988-2007 1st He suffers on my ballot from my having watched his career in Philadelphia where he was a really good pitcher. He didn't become great until late in his career and after he left Philly. Through age 29, he was 52-52 with an ERA+ of 113. From ages 30-40 he was 164-94 with an ERA+ of 134.
Sammy Sosa 1988-2005, 2007 1st One-dimensional. Or maybe two. He could throw pretty well. Sort of the Dave Kingman of my era.
Larry Walker 1989-2005 3rd Just not enough games on the Expos. And too many in Coors Field for me to take him seriously. That and injuries.
Bernie Williams 1991-2006 2nd If he plays for any team other than the Yankees, I think he's off the ballot his first year. Nice outfielder and should get bonus point for his guitar playing but doesn't.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Joy of a completed page - 2008 UDX Memorabilia
I'm sure I have effectively eliminated all traffic I once had to this site by not posting but thems the breaks. I intend to begin blogging again with a new blog (more information coming soon) and thought I would try and catch up some things/just write for the time being.
Like most of you, I continue to work on completing the 2008 Upper Deck X set. What's that? You're not trying to complete the 2008 Upper Deck X Set? You think that's a ridiculous idea? Hahaha, yeah, me too. That would be silly. I wouldn't do that. That set is so maligned. No one likes it. You're right, I was just messing with you. You got me....
I'm lying. I like the set, I have liked it, and I continue to try and "finish" it. In the not too distant past, I was able to acquire a small lot of cards I needed including the Freddy Sanchez memorabilia card which let me fill this page:
I love how this set looks. I can't help it.
I'm always interested in trading and if you're collecting the set, I'm sure I could fill some of your needs. Right now my biggest challenge with the set is the gold die cuts. If you have any of those, please let me know.
Look for more blog posts, including at least one other this week!
Like most of you, I continue to work on completing the 2008 Upper Deck X set. What's that? You're not trying to complete the 2008 Upper Deck X Set? You think that's a ridiculous idea? Hahaha, yeah, me too. That would be silly. I wouldn't do that. That set is so maligned. No one likes it. You're right, I was just messing with you. You got me....
I'm lying. I like the set, I have liked it, and I continue to try and "finish" it. In the not too distant past, I was able to acquire a small lot of cards I needed including the Freddy Sanchez memorabilia card which let me fill this page:
I love how this set looks. I can't help it.
I'm always interested in trading and if you're collecting the set, I'm sure I could fill some of your needs. Right now my biggest challenge with the set is the gold die cuts. If you have any of those, please let me know.
Look for more blog posts, including at least one other this week!
Friday, October 5, 2012
How I won my fantasy baseball league
Yes, I'm emerging from my six month blogging hiatus to talk about my fantasy baseball team, even though I expressed immense distaste for those who talk about their fantasy teams. Why? Because I felt that my expert knowledge should be shared with those who will be playing fantasy baseball in the future. As for me, I'm retiring on top. This has been the year of unpleasant baseball activities for me, more on that in future blog posts perhaps. Playing fantasy baseball was one of them. I hated the whole experience.
Why did I hate it so much? For the same reason I won. Luck.
Perhaps other formats than the one we used rely less on luck. Ours, though.....
Each week you went up against a different opponent and competed in 12 categories over seven days of the baseball schedule. Anything can happen in seven days. And that's really how I won. There was a clear cut superior team in the league (not mine) followed by five teams that were pretty good (I was in that group). Thanks to the abomination known as wild card playoff spots, I made the playoffs with the fourth-best record in the league.
In the first round of the playoffs I beat the fifth-place team despite my pitchers posting a 6.01 ERA for the week. That put me up against the top-seeded team in the semi-finals. I literally eked out a victory by the slimmest of margins. My season came down to Joey Votto's last at bat of the week. If he had tripled or homered, my season would have ended. Votto walked. I moved on.
Then in the finals, I faced the team with the third best record and won despite a lackluster week.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Oh, you're just being modest. We all know that you have superior knowledge of the sport of baseball. You're just awesome". Thanks for thinking that. But again, it's luck and has been from the start of the season.
First off, the draft. What a waste of time. Of the 25 guys I drafted at the start of the season, do you know how many were on my team at the end of the season? Seven.
1st round - Miguel Cabrera
3rd round - Felix Hernandez
5th round - Buster Posey
6th round - Drew Storen
15th round - Matt Joyce
20th round - Mike Trout
25th round - Tim Collins
Granted, that's not a bad seven. But let's look at luck again. I ended up with the second pick of the draft (pretty fortuitous) and ended up with the guy most people had as the consensus top pick in fantasy at the start of the season because the guy with the first pick went with a favorite player. I ended up with the guy who should be AL MVP in the 20th ROUND!!!! A gentleman who started the season in the minors and whose season was very much unexpected.
So while I ended up with three of the best four offensive players in the majors (add Posey to Cabrera and Trout) and also had a Cy Young contender (Hernandez), I still think it was a bit of a fluke.
But surely there must be some sort of advice I can give so that others who wish to pursue this activity can have the same level of success I did.....
I can only think of a couple of things that I consciously did that might have had an impact on my results. I took pitchers with high K/BB ratios. I had the fourth most strikeouts and the 4th lowest WHIP and would have probably had the best had I not stuck with Tim Lincecum for so freaking long.
The other thing I did that seemed to help me was to eliminate my choices. For a while I was trying to look like a real baseball team. I had five outfielders, a reserve catcher, a utility guy. I was forever trying to figure out which three of the outfielders I should play. Eventually I ended up with a pretty straight starting ten, a fair bullpen, a solid core of starters and then I cycled in other starting pitchers so as not to waste the spots each day (I used over fifty pitchers over the course of the season).
I think the stats reflect my early season uncertainty:
First 13 matchups - 6-7 head-to-head (.462), 67-73-16 in categories (.481)
Final 12 matchups - 11-0-1 head-to-head (.958), 91-41-12 in categories ( .674)
Wow. I had no idea I finished so strongly. Again, though, I feel like it was a lot of luck. If you took my stats in some of those weeks and inserted them against a different opponent, I lose. Just looking back over the final 12 weeks, the only time I lost the stolen base category was in the championship series. This, even though my totals were all over the map. And for all my talk above about WHIP, that was my worst category over the final 12 weeks (I went 6-6 and actually got beaten by .0009 in the championships, or 1 baserunner).
This summary is actually the most fun I had with the league. I never did make a trade and league communication was pretty minimal. And my hope that this would make me follow the game more closely was a flop. The only thing I was more aware of was starting pitchers and even then, I used my usual bias of going with younger guys who I tend to follow anyway so I don't feel like I really followed the game all that much more.
I'll wrap up this excruciating (for you) post with a look back at my most played team (the guys who took the field most frequently for me).
C - Posey
1B - Cabrera
2B - Dustin Ackley
3B - Alex Rodriguez
SS - Jed Lowrie
LF - Joyce
CF - Colby Rasmus
RF - Trout
Util - Logan Morrison/Carlos Gomez/Norichika Aoki
SP Hernandez/Jeff Samardzija/Trevor Cahill/Lincecum/Shaun Marcum
RP Collins/Sean Marshall/Addison Reed/Kenley Jansen/Jason Grilli
Look for me to complain about more baseball things in the near future!
Why did I hate it so much? For the same reason I won. Luck.
Perhaps other formats than the one we used rely less on luck. Ours, though.....
Each week you went up against a different opponent and competed in 12 categories over seven days of the baseball schedule. Anything can happen in seven days. And that's really how I won. There was a clear cut superior team in the league (not mine) followed by five teams that were pretty good (I was in that group). Thanks to the abomination known as wild card playoff spots, I made the playoffs with the fourth-best record in the league.
In the first round of the playoffs I beat the fifth-place team despite my pitchers posting a 6.01 ERA for the week. That put me up against the top-seeded team in the semi-finals. I literally eked out a victory by the slimmest of margins. My season came down to Joey Votto's last at bat of the week. If he had tripled or homered, my season would have ended. Votto walked. I moved on.
Then in the finals, I faced the team with the third best record and won despite a lackluster week.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Oh, you're just being modest. We all know that you have superior knowledge of the sport of baseball. You're just awesome". Thanks for thinking that. But again, it's luck and has been from the start of the season.
First off, the draft. What a waste of time. Of the 25 guys I drafted at the start of the season, do you know how many were on my team at the end of the season? Seven.
1st round - Miguel Cabrera
3rd round - Felix Hernandez
5th round - Buster Posey
6th round - Drew Storen
15th round - Matt Joyce
20th round - Mike Trout
25th round - Tim Collins
Granted, that's not a bad seven. But let's look at luck again. I ended up with the second pick of the draft (pretty fortuitous) and ended up with the guy most people had as the consensus top pick in fantasy at the start of the season because the guy with the first pick went with a favorite player. I ended up with the guy who should be AL MVP in the 20th ROUND!!!! A gentleman who started the season in the minors and whose season was very much unexpected.
So while I ended up with three of the best four offensive players in the majors (add Posey to Cabrera and Trout) and also had a Cy Young contender (Hernandez), I still think it was a bit of a fluke.
But surely there must be some sort of advice I can give so that others who wish to pursue this activity can have the same level of success I did.....
I can only think of a couple of things that I consciously did that might have had an impact on my results. I took pitchers with high K/BB ratios. I had the fourth most strikeouts and the 4th lowest WHIP and would have probably had the best had I not stuck with Tim Lincecum for so freaking long.
The other thing I did that seemed to help me was to eliminate my choices. For a while I was trying to look like a real baseball team. I had five outfielders, a reserve catcher, a utility guy. I was forever trying to figure out which three of the outfielders I should play. Eventually I ended up with a pretty straight starting ten, a fair bullpen, a solid core of starters and then I cycled in other starting pitchers so as not to waste the spots each day (I used over fifty pitchers over the course of the season).
I think the stats reflect my early season uncertainty:
First 13 matchups - 6-7 head-to-head (.462), 67-73-16 in categories (.481)
Final 12 matchups - 11-0-1 head-to-head (.958), 91-41-12 in categories ( .674)
Wow. I had no idea I finished so strongly. Again, though, I feel like it was a lot of luck. If you took my stats in some of those weeks and inserted them against a different opponent, I lose. Just looking back over the final 12 weeks, the only time I lost the stolen base category was in the championship series. This, even though my totals were all over the map. And for all my talk above about WHIP, that was my worst category over the final 12 weeks (I went 6-6 and actually got beaten by .0009 in the championships, or 1 baserunner).
This summary is actually the most fun I had with the league. I never did make a trade and league communication was pretty minimal. And my hope that this would make me follow the game more closely was a flop. The only thing I was more aware of was starting pitchers and even then, I used my usual bias of going with younger guys who I tend to follow anyway so I don't feel like I really followed the game all that much more.
I'll wrap up this excruciating (for you) post with a look back at my most played team (the guys who took the field most frequently for me).
C - Posey
1B - Cabrera
2B - Dustin Ackley
3B - Alex Rodriguez
SS - Jed Lowrie
LF - Joyce
CF - Colby Rasmus
RF - Trout
Util - Logan Morrison/Carlos Gomez/Norichika Aoki
SP Hernandez/Jeff Samardzija/Trevor Cahill/Lincecum/Shaun Marcum
RP Collins/Sean Marshall/Addison Reed/Kenley Jansen/Jason Grilli
Look for me to complain about more baseball things in the near future!
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