55 thoughts on “The Imperfect Trifecta or Singles Only, Please”

1. Timmy Pea April 12, 2012 at 9:28 pm

   I think JRoll will rack up some XBH’s, and he probably won’t walk too much. I think Pierre has only started 2 games. Don’t get carried away Doug.

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   1. Timmy Pea April 12, 2012 at 9:33 pm

      And there you go, the Phils scratch out a win with great pitching and a patched up lineup.

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   2. Neil L. April 12, 2012 at 10:00 pm

      Timmy, don’t miss the point of Doug’s blog.

      The fact that Juan Pierre’s name crops up in the same blog as the lists of no-names provided by Doug is not a good thing.

      I hesitate to make any comment about Juan Pierre’s current presence on a ML roster, for fear you might take it personally.

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2. Timmy Pea April 12, 2012 at 10:20 pm

   Well I disagree with Doug that Pierre is “leading the attack”. He’s started 2 games. Victorino hit lead off tonight and banged a HR. The Phils are hurt and sometimes you gotta go to war with the army you got. I like going to war with that pitching staff regardless of the lineup. I understand Doug is making a point that the lack of walks and XBH’s is a recipe for disaster.

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   1. Neil L. April 12, 2012 at 10:28 pm

      Timmy, by saying that a lack of walks and XBHs is a recipe for sitting on the bench is bad you are showing good baseball judgement.

      At risk of speaking for Doug, by saying that Juan Pierre is “leading the attack”, he is making a point about the Phil’s poor early-season offense, not about Pierre’s effectiveness as an offensive force.

      (At least I think so.)

      Doug?

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      1. Doug April 13, 2012 at 1:08 am

         Actually, it was nothing more than the comment Paul E posted yesterday. I just thought it was interesting having identical slash components.

         But, having two out machines in your line-up is most likely at least one too many.

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3. Timmy Pea April 12, 2012 at 10:26 pm

   Johnny Damon is back in baseball and headed to 3,000! Good luck JD!

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   1. Ed April 13, 2012 at 12:32 am

      I was going to post something about Johnny Damon signing! Will be interesting to see how often he plays. With Acta as the manager, I doubt Damon plays more than 80% of the time. (Acta loves rotating players in and out of the lineup). Damon also has an opt-out clause once Sizemore returns.

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4. Neil L. April 12, 2012 at 10:48 pm

   Doug, Alvaro Espinoza is the statistical spitting image of Juan Pierre, except he probably had a stronger throwing arm.

   Only shortstops could justify stat lines like Espinoza’s or Don Kessinger’s.

   It is mind-blowing, to me, that, in the era that Cal-Ripken was re-defining the position, Alvaro could consume so many plate appearances as a shortstop in the Yankees lineup with so little productivity.

   Are you kidding me? 14 BB in 544 plate appearances? Did he ever see a pitch he didn’t like?

   Thanks for the study, Doug. There is more for me to digest in the study.

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   1. Doug Post authorApril 13, 2012 at 1:42 am

      Espinoza was just following in the Yankee tradition of Horace Clarke, he of the 607 PAs and 9 XBH. That’s only a 24 point spread between BA and SLG.

      But it’s not just middle infielders. There’s also… rookie CFers. Puckett outdid Espinoza with 39 more PAs and a 40 point spread between BA and SLG (it was 50 spread for Espinoza).

      And Foli and Flynn each had only an 11 point spread between BA and OBP. Talk about never seeing a pitch you don’t like.

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      1. Hartvig April 13, 2012 at 3:39 pm

         And of course, old Horace was just picking up the torch passed down by Bobby Richardson with an OPS in 1960 & ’61 of .601 & .610 respectively in over 1200 plate appearances, mostly in the lead off spot.

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         1. Doug Post authorApril 13, 2012 at 4:11 pm

            I see that Richardson’s .573 OPS (58 OPS+) in 1957 (the year he made the list here) earned him an All-Star selection???

            But, Richardson and Gus Triandos sat, as their positions were the only ones where the starters (Fox and Berra) played the whole game.

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            1. Neil L. April 13, 2012 at 6:09 pm

               Imagine the outcry, in this day and age, if an all-star manager allowed one player to play the entire game at the expense of another at the same position?

               Nice catch on Bobby Richardson, and his all-star selection, Doug. And at age 21.

               Bobby Richardson only played 97 games that year. Presumably he was injured after the all-star game and didn’t play a full season? It is not many plate appearances for an all-star.
            2. Doug Post authorApril 13, 2012 at 6:30 pm

               Actually, I looked again at the box.

               Stengel also had Kaline and Mantle play the whole game. But, he sat down Williams. Only 19 of the 25 AL players appeared.

               On the NL side, Alston had Mays, Musial and Aaron play the whole game, and he used 21 of his 25 guys.
            3. Richard Chester April 13, 2012 at 6:40 pm

               Reply to #41: As of 7/2 of that year Richardson was batting .301 and Casey Stengel was selecting the reserve All-Stars
            4. Neil L. April 13, 2012 at 6:42 pm

               Doug @44,

               So it was the all-star norm in the fifties to ride the game’s established stars for the entire game and leave younger all-stars on the bench.

               How were players selected to the all-star back then?

               Ah, for a return to a time where television didn’t rule the game, where big money didn’t talk and where fans didn’t “stuff” on-line ballot boxes.
            5. Richard Chester April 13, 2012 at 7:58 pm

               Reply to #46:

               It’s really weird that you mentioned fans stuffing the ballot for the AS game. That year fans voted for the players and a Cincinnati newspaper headed up campaign for the fans to vote frequently for Reds players. As a result 7 of the 8 AS starters were from the Reds: George Crowe, Johnny Temple, Roy McMillan, Don Hoak, Ed Bailey, Frank Robinson and Wally Post. The other player was Stan Musial. Commissioner Ford Frick used his power to replace Crowe and Post with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.
            6. Neil L. April 13, 2012 at 8:12 pm

               Richard @47, I honestly didn’t know that about the 1957 season.

               So some things never change. 🙂

               In this connected world one city’s market can still influence the all-star roster. Hmmm …..
         2. Mike L April 13, 2012 at 4:11 pm

            For the record, I think it’s unreasonably cruel to be putting Horace Clarke and Alvaro Espinoza in the same post. Childhood nightmares and adult bad dreams.

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5. bstar April 12, 2012 at 11:00 pm

   Doug, Braves reserve outfielder Jose Constanza is trending toward making a couple of your lists. Since August 20th, 2011 when he innocently drew a walk in the fourth inning, Constanza has 6 singles in 42 plate appearances, for a stunning slash line of .143/.143/.143. Braves nation was horrified to see Jose pinch-hitting in high leverage situations a couple of times early this year; fortunately, Constanza was sent down to AAA when Chipper came back into the lineup two days ago.

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   1. Neil L. April 12, 2012 at 11:23 pm

      bstar, I forgot you were a Braves fan ……. until now.

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6. Paul E April 12, 2012 at 11:51 pm

   Doug:
   Another statistical oddity (perhaps?): Matt Kemp is batting .429 with a .414 OBA in 28 PA through the 5th inning tonight. Zero BB’s – just like Charlie Manuel’s table setters; except Kemp is slugging .750 . I imagine George Sisler may have pulled this off (.400 BA/ 0 walks/ 28 PA’s) in one of his pre-eye-injury seasons? Or even Jeff Francouer?

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   1. Doug April 13, 2012 at 1:11 am

      That would be kind of interesting to look at – the longest streak to start a season without a walk, and the best BA to go with it.

      I’ll post what I find.

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   2. Doug Post authorApril 13, 2012 at 11:44 am

      Paul,

      You are bang on about Sisler. In 1925, he had the highest BA (.419) among players to have at least 100 AB without a walk to start a season.

      Christian Guzman (.381) in 2009 and Jeff Francoeur (.379) in 2005 aren’t far behind.

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      1. Richard Chester April 13, 2012 at 11:55 am

         Sisler did that in a post-eye-injury season. He missed the 1923 season with his eye-sinus condition.

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      2. Paul E April 13, 2012 at 2:43 pm

         I was just guessing. I know Bill James in the BJHBA talked about Sisler’s “hollow” .340; however, he did state he thought he may have approached Cobb’s lifetime BA of .367 if it weren’t for the sinus condition. Francoeur generally starts out hot and swings at everything and anything close.

         If I could ever figure out that PI…..

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         1. Lawrence Azrin April 13, 2012 at 3:09 pm

            I think James guessed a .362 lifetime BA and about 3800 hits for Sisler without the mid-career illness. That’s probably as realistic as James’ projection of Hank Greenberg hitting 611 career HR, instead of his actual 331.

            Paul E., that was an amazing guess.

            The “what-if?” game is sure fun, huh?

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            1. Paul E April 14, 2012 at 11:41 am

               ” “Paul E., that was an amazing guess” ”

               Yeah, but you haven’t seen my $^#@&*! stock portfolio. Over the last twenty-five years I have probably received class-action law suits in the mail on about a dozen stocks I’ve owned – and, believe me, you don’t get those items in the mail if you’ve made the correct guesses…

               Regarding James’ “favorite toy”, I believe he had Canseco going for about 600 lifetime home runs and Ruben Sierra knocking in 2,000 runs
7. Ed April 13, 2012 at 12:45 am

   Ah Tom Veryzer. As an Indian’s fan, that name brings back memories! And not in a good way. Nothing says your franchise is clueless more than trading for a guy coming off a 30 OPS+ season and installing him as your regular shortstop. For 4 seasons! And Veryzer’s DP partner for much of the time was Duane Kuiper, he of the infamous one home run in 3,754 PAs. That has to be one of the worst, multi-year DP combos ever.

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   1. Doug April 13, 2012 at 1:15 am

      Actually, Kuiper was on the second list, twice, until I realized I ran the query wrong and was only selecting streak games with an AB. But, even so, he’s probably not too far removed from this company.

      Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten about Kuiper and the one home run. Even when he popped up on my list, I recognized the name, but the one home run (which did get a fair bit of notoriety at the time) didn’t register.

      Getting old, I guess.

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      1. Ed April 13, 2012 at 1:57 am

         Kuiper’s one home run was off of Steve Stone. I suppose if you’re only going to hit one home run in your career, it’s best to hit it off of a future Cy Young winner.

         BTW, one thing that jumps out at me on his B-Ref page are his salaries. They only list two: $40,000 in 1977 and $67,500 in 1979. (those correspond to $150,000 and $210,000 in today’s dollars). Hard to believe that 30-35 years ago, a MLB starter could make so little. Particularly someone who was in his 3rd and 5th seasons as a starter. Nowadays, the minimum is $480,000 and I doubt there’s a starting second baseman in his 3rd and 5th seasons who’s making less than $1 million.

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         1. Doug Post authorApril 13, 2012 at 2:13 am

            I remember attending a game at Cleveland Stadium in the summer of ’78 (me and about 70,000 empty seats). I really don’t remember what the ticket cost, but I’d bet it was less than 5 bucks. So, that’s changed too.

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            1. Ed April 13, 2012 at 2:37 am

               Reminds me of going to a Cleveland Cavaliers’ basketball game in 1991. We paid $10 for tickets and we didn’t even buy the cheapest tickets. And this was for a playoff game no less.
            2. Neil L. April 13, 2012 at 11:27 am

               The cavernous Cleveland stadium. Wasn’t it Cleveland Municipal or Cleeland Memorial stadium?
            3. Richard Chester April 13, 2012 at 12:02 pm

               Reply to #25. It was Cleveland Municipal Stadium or, also, Cleveland Stadium..
            4. Ed April 13, 2012 at 2:16 pm

               Come on…everyone knows the name of the stadium was “The Mistake on the Lake”!
            5. Neil L. April 13, 2012 at 3:02 pm

               Ed @31, I was resisting the us of that moniker in deferences to Clevelanders everywhere. 🙂
            6. Neil L. April 13, 2012 at 3:05 pm

               @37 oops us = use
         2. Doug Post authorApril 13, 2012 at 2:21 am

            I see that Emil Verban on this list also had just 1 career HR, and in 3109 PAs. He got his HR off Johnny Vandermeer in 1948.

            Verban actually had a longer homerless streak before hitting his HR than Kuiper did after hitting his – 2595 PA to 1786 PA.

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            1. Ed April 13, 2012 at 2:49 am

               And it looks like Tom Oliver has the most PAs (2073) with no home runs (position players only). Jack McCarthy actually comes up first in the search results but he hit 4 homeruns in 1898 and 1899.
         3. Lawrence Azrin April 13, 2012 at 11:39 am

            RE: Placing Duane Kuiper’s salary in context:

            An MLB “minimum salary” was first established as $6,000 in 1946, where it stayed for more than two(!) decades. Before that, the minimum was apparently the least that a team could pay.

            The source for the info below is the blog “NYYfans”, and “thecaptain”, posting 02-07-2005 @11:30AM

            YEAR MINIMUM AVERAGE
            1967 $6,000 $19,000
            1968 10,000 NA
            1969 10,000 24,909
            1970 12,000 29,303
            1971 12,750 31,543
            1972 13,500 34,092
            1973 15,000 36,566
            1974 15,000 40,839
            1975 16,000 44,676
            1976 19,000 51,501

            1977 19,000 76,066 KUIPER: $40,000

            1978 21,000 99,876

            1979 21,000 113,558 KUIPER: $40,000

            1980 30,000 143,756
            1981 32,500 185,651
            1982 33,500 241,497
            1983 35,000 289,194
            1984 40,000 329,408
            1985 60,000 371,571
            1986 60,000 412,520
            1987 62,500 412,454
            1988 62,500 438,729
            1989 68,000 497,254
            1990 100,000 597,537
            1991 100,000 851,492
            1992 109,000 1,028,667
            1993 109,000 1,076,089
            1994 109,000 1,168,263
            1995 109,000 1,110,766
            1996 122,667 1,119,981
            1997 150,000 1,336,609
            1998 170,000 1,398,831
            1999 200,000 1,611,166
            2000 200,000 1,895,630

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      2. RJ April 13, 2012 at 7:37 am

         As a Giants fan it’s impossible to forget about Kuip’s one home run as it comes up every other broadcast. To really rub it in, his co-commentator (pitcher) Mike Krukow had five.

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8. Wine Curmudgeon April 13, 2012 at 8:17 am

   Moe Berg! Is is time for the baseball players who were spies post?

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   1. Neil L. April 13, 2012 at 11:23 am

      Wine,

      Another former B-Ref poster. I remember your distinctive screen name, now,

      I’ve only been around in HHS for about a week, but good to hear from you.

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   2. Lawrence Azrin April 13, 2012 at 12:25 pm

      I’m going to guess that Berg is the _only_ twentieth-century MLB player who was also a spy.

      There are two excellent books out about his amazing career(s):
      1972 -“Moe Berg: Athlete, Scholar, Spy” by Barbara Fitzgerald
      1994 – “The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg” by Nicholas Dawidoff

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9. Lawrence Azrin April 13, 2012 at 2:41 pm

   #31/ED –

   RE: Cleveland Municipal Stadium – I think that in the mid-80s, Oil Can Boyd had a quote to the affect that “…that’s what you get for building a ballpark next to the ocean.”

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   1. Paul E April 13, 2012 at 2:51 pm

      What’s incredible about the Cleveland Indians is how Jacobs Field (?)turned the franchise fortunes around for about ten years or so. They must have had, at one time or another, 4 Hall of Famers (Thome, Manny, Roberto Alomar, Jeff Kent) and many very good players in their everyday lineup – Brian Giles, Lofton,Justice, Belle, Juan Gonzalez, Vizquel, Travis Fryman, Matt Williams, Marquis Grissom, etc…..

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      1. Ed April 13, 2012 at 3:02 pm

         Paul E: Actually I would say that the fortunes changed based on some astute drafting (Ramirez, Thome, Belle, Nagy) and trades (Baerga, Lofton, Alomar, Vizquel). That was the core of the team that went to the WS in ’95. The fact that the fortunes of the team turned right around the time of the new stadium was coincidence more than anything.

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         1. Lawrence Azrin April 16, 2012 at 10:44 am

            The fact that the Cleveland Brown NFL team moved to Baltimore after the 1995 seasonalso helped the Indians attendence quitea bit, I’d imagine.

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   2. Ed April 13, 2012 at 2:54 pm

      Never heard that before but you got it almost 100% correct:

      http://apudgeisasandwich.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/dennis-ray-boyd-would-like-15-minutes-of-your-time/

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10. John Autin April 13, 2012 at 11:58 pm

    Casey Kotchman has the “trifecta” going — 3 singles in 25 trips, no walks.

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    1. Ed April 14, 2012 at 2:08 am

       Generally not a good sign when your team’s big free agent signing is Casey Kotchman. Sigh….

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11. John Williams April 14, 2012 at 12:24 pm

    Juan Pierre could be the last player of his type. The tiny guy, slap-hitter, free swinging outfielder/lead off man. The ones who are 150 pounds soaking wet; as the cliche goes. I always liked seeing Juan Pierre play, it has to be the Muggsy Bogues thing I have as a short man.

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    1. Tristram12 April 14, 2012 at 11:24 pm

       May I suggest the heir apparent? How about Dee Gordon?

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    2. Neil L. April 14, 2012 at 11:35 pm

       I think Juan Pierre singled again today as a pinch hitter in the Phil’s loss to the Mets. His BA, OBA and SLG are all still equal at 0.250.

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