I’ve returned to the newspaper industry recently, doing some agate shifts for a wire service that assists the San Francisco Chronicle. To the uninitiated, agate is the small print located in sports sections where scores, stats, and other items of record can be found. It’s not generally a place for sabermetrics.
The evening’s theme was dominant starters:
@Cardinals 4, Padres 0: Adam Wainwright went the distance just like old times, racking up 9 Ks mainly with the curveball that’s been known as one of the best around ever since he froze Carlos Beltran to clinch the 2006 NLCS. Beltran was his benefactor Tuesday, driving in the game’s first 2 runs in the 1st and 6th innings.
1985 Donruss #297 Willie Wilson - what a great photo, showing Wilson's eyes locked on the incoming pitch as he's about to lay down a drag bunt
We finish the 1969 round of expansion with the Kansas City Royals. Just as a reminder, we’re trying to figure out which four Royals we’d put up on a monument for the team. The selection criteria are entirely up to you–best player, best performer, best embodiment of the team…
The Royals started on fire, with 3 second-place finishes in the first 6 years, followed by 4 first-place finishes in the next 5 years. After losing the World Series in 1980, they finally won it all in 1985. Sadly, in the subsequent 27 years they haven’t made the playoffs at all and haven’t even sniffed the post-season since the late 1980s.
There are an awful lot of players for this franchise who deserve consideration. Let’s dig in. Continue reading
Below are matched pairs of pitchers. What feat connects each of these pairs of pitchers?
Congratulations to Cubbies and Ed! They identified that, since 1922, these are the only pairs of pitchers who, in the same season, recorded fewer strikeouts than runs allowed, with a minimum of 125 strikeouts. Here are those seasons, and the pitchers’ stat lines.
The ISP ate my homework last night. I’m posting this in whatever form it was saved — apologies for any errors and omissions.
Royals 6, @Yankees 0: Mike Moustakas gave KC an early lead, drawing iron with a 2-run shot — the 10th HR off Kuroda in 53 IP. Felipe Paulino took over from there and held NYY scoreless through 6.2 IP, slicing his ERA to 1.42 with his 3rd scoreless start in 4 outings this year. (Then again, two of those are against the AL East cellar-dwellers.)
Ben Sheets / Presswire
We turn our attention to another of the 1969 expansion teams, although this one was known as the Seattle Pilots back then.
For a franchise that has only made 4 playoff appearances (and finished first in their division only 3 times in 43 seasons), they’ve had a lot of great players.
Let’s take a peek.
Out of 63 players who’ve had the chance to do a certain thing this year, only these four have succeeded:
What mountain have those four climbed? Each has had exactly two chances to do it, and succeeded exactly once.
(By the way, it’s a little-known fact that I have a photograph of all four of them eating clam chowder in Cliff Clavin’s kitchen, so that answer is out.)
Okay … everybody to your stations!
I recently had lunch with an old-timer who played in the 1940s, and he said something I’ve heard from other old baseball people before. We were on our way to the restaurant when he remarked that players today couldn’t hold a candle to earlier baseball generations. I didn’t say much because the old-timer’s a nice man, and I didn’t want to argue or disrespect, and I happen to disagree.
Don’t get me wrong, I love baseball history, though I assume players are better than ever today. I assume modern players are stronger, faster, and able to throw harder. I write often on my website about projecting old players to the modern era, and I generally stress the importance of allowing players time to make adjustments. I assume if a long-ago great, even Babe Ruth, was merely dropped into today’s majors via time portal, he might look more out of place than the Bambino did in 1935 ignominiously closing his career with the Boston Braves.
I also assume earlier players had it easier not having to deal with backdoor sliders, tightly condensed schedules, or black competition. I assume coaching is more sophisticated, injury treatment better, and training aids, such as video, greatly more evolved. And, barring any unforeseen catastrophe for Major League Baseball, I assume players will only continue to evolve, that the next generation of ballplayers will be even better than this one.
I’m interested to hear other people’s thoughts, and I’ll keep this short. I think cases could be made for either side, and I’d love to hear them.
One late note from Saturday before we move on:
@Giants 4, Athletics 0: A combined one-hitter by Ryan Vogelsong (7), Javier Lopez and Clay Hensley.