Comments on: 2012 Streaker Awards for Batters

By: John Autin

John Autin — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 05:48:18 +0000

“Who the heck was Carey Selph?”, I wondered as I scanned Doug’s list of each decade’s longest no-strikeout streaks.

Turns out, that streak of 66 starts without whiffing also marked the end of his MLB career.

After a brief trial with the ’29 Cardinals, second baseman Selph went back to the Texas League for two more years, hitting a combined .332 with about 200 hits a year, but little power. The White Sox snagged him in the rule 5 draft (he was almost 30) and made him a regular in 1932, mostly at 3B. Selph hit .283 with no HRs, while the Sox lost 102 games.

At the end of the year, Chicago sent Connie Mack $100,000 for 3B Jimmy Dykes and OFs Al Simmons and Mule Haas.

So they sent Selph back to St. Louis to complete a players-to-be-named deal for Evar Swanson, a 29-year-old ex-big-league OF (and NFL player from 1924-27) who had just hit .375 with 50 doubles and 18 triples in the American Association, missing the batting crown by 1 point. Swanson’s Bullpen page adds that he “ran around the bases in 13.3 seconds in 1932, a record which apparently has never been broken.”

Swanson in ’33 hit .306 with 93 walks and 102 runs for Chicago, giving him two 100-run years in two full seasons in the majors. (He’s one of 29 modern players with 100 runs in his first MLB season; 5 of those, including Swanson, did it in 1929.)

In ’34 Swanson hit .298 with a .385 BA, but no HRs and just 9 doubles in 117 games. And that seems to have been the end of his career in pro ball.

Selph, meanwhile, returned to the Texas League and hit .310+ for two more years as player-manager, giving him a .327 lifetime mark in the minors. His Wikipedia page says that he scored 169 runs in his pro debut, in class C, 1926, but B-R doesn’t have the Runs data. He was elected to the Texas League Hall of Fame in 2007, 30 years after his death.

The other PTBL in the Selph/Swanson deal was Jack Rothrock, who had been a sort of utility-regular with the BoSox for several years before spending the end of ’32 with the Pale Hose. St. Louis stashed him at Columbus for a year, where he hit .347. In 1934 he became the Gas House Gang’s everyday RF and #2 hitter, batting .284 but with a little power and 106 Runs. He played all 7 games in the WS and led the Cards with 6 RBI.

By the way, this was the decade in which Commissioner Landis twice freed large numbers of minor-leaguers from Branch Rickey’s extensive farm system.

And that’s all I know about Carey Selph.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:47:16 +0000

John – I can’t really say but I haven’t heard anything of that sort. One problem in 2011 was that he simply wasn’t swinging at enough pitches and was taking too many called strikes. He seems to have corrected that in 2012.

http://www.letsgotribe.com/2012/10/25/3554180/2012-in-review-michael-brantley

And based on this fangraphs interview, Brantley sounds like he’s definitely a student of the game so I wouldn’t be surprised if he continues to improve.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/michael-brantley-a-studious-4-for-5-night/

By: Hartvig

Hartvig — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:27:54 +0000

“Ninety percent of this game is half-mental.” Yogi

Sorry.

It had to be done.

By: John Autin

John Autin — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:53:42 +0000

Ed — Do you think Brantley’s broad-based minors-to-majors struggle could be 90% mental? Is there any sense that he expects too much of himself, possibly as the “last hope” from the CC deal?

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:48:43 +0000

John – Thanks for the extended analysis re: Brantley. As an Indian’s fan, I’ve been quite puzzled by Branley’s minor to major’s transition. Part of it is the BB/SO rate that you cite. Part of it is his batting average which has been a lot lower in the majors. And then there’s his stolen bases. He has an 80% success rate in the minors with as many as 46 steals. But in the majors he’s only at 66% with a high of 13. Still, as you said, he does seem to be improving and there’s hope that he’ll eventually turn some of his doubles into homeruns.

As for the Sabathia trade, I think most Indian’s fans view it as a failure. Personally, I think that’s the wrong way to view the trade. Brantley seems like he’ll be a decent player. And there’s still hope that Rob Bryson will turn out to be a solid 7th or 8th inning reliever. Sure Laporta’s been a huge disappointment but the alternative was to let Sabathia walk and take the draft picks. Obviously we don’t know who the Indians would have taken but the picks would have been #39 and #73 of the 2009 draft. Most guys taken in that range never do as much as Brantley already has. And when you look at who the Brewers took with those picks, wouldn’t you rather have Brantley and Bryson then these two guys?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=davis-005ken

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=walla-001max

Davis is only one year younger than Brantley but he’s still at AA. And not putting up impressive numbers. Walla’s a lot younger (21) and at A so maybe he’ll develop but a sub .700 OPS for an outfielder is never anything to get excited about. So I may be the only Indian’s fan who thinks we got a decent return for Sabathia (I think Indian’s fans have been permanently spoiled by the Colon trade and expect that sort of return all the time).

As an aside, in looking at the 2009 draft, I see that Mike Trout was a compensation pick for the Yankees signing Mark Teixiera. I hadn’t realized that before. Obviously we don’t know if the Yankees would have selected Trout but I still felt a huge sense of relief when I saw that.