Wednesday, May 15, 2013
MLB.COM: Longtime Royals radio voice Fred White dies
(mlb.mlb.com)
posted 1 week ago by The Non-Catching Molina (sjs1959) to broadcasting, fred white, royals
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9 comment(s)
RIP Fred White
Fred White, a Royals radio voice for 25 years, died Wednesday due to complications from melanoma, a day after announcing his retirement following a 40-year relationship with the club.
White teamed with Denny Matthews on broadcasts from 1973-98, and since had served as the team’s director of broadcast services and the Royals Alumni.
His retirement was due to health issues, and he died in hospice care.
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1. Los Angeles El Hombre of AnaheimSince when is 29 getting into one's prime in baseball? I would have said that was more when marginal starters start losing much of their playing time.
28-29 has always been assumed peak production, since Bill James did the first study on the question.
Has he gone to a new team?
You have? When was this?
If you love numbers, you can't love people. Or something. I do know plenty of people who hold the bizarre notion that studying something is antithetical to enjoying it.
Years ago it was clear that Frenchy could be a productive part-timer as a 4th or 5th OFer getting 200 PAs per season. I suppose it makes sense that the teams that would consider him a full time player are among the worst run.
e.g. everyday starters Aaron Guiel and Mike Aviles and Mitch Maier and Ross Gload ... the supposedly washed-up Jason Kendall who might have not been totally washed-up, but certainly should not have started 118 games in 2010 ... David DeJesus being cast in the role of "perennial All-Star candidate"...
Oh you know what he means -- not only was it the stat geeks with their "hey, his context-neutral hitting absolutely stinks for a RF and his defense doesn't make up for it", this time around even the (regular) fans noticed. In short he's saying "I'm tired of hearing from regular fans when I quote the stat geeks and I'm tired of hearing from the stat geeks when I disagree with them so I'm going to start with the assumption that everybody agrees with me."
Frenchy is a nice example of how offensive contexts differ ... and how useless the old style sim scores can often be (really, b-r should just retire these, they probably provide more embarrassment than insight at this point). Anyway, Frenchy has a career 94 OPS+ and his age 28 comps are mostly 70s-80s players. Those comps averaged a 112 OPS+. Frenchy has hit 266/310/426 and Lance Parrish shows up as a comp at a nearly identicaly 263/314/424 but that was good for a 104 OPS+ back then.
I'm definitely in agreement with Walt on this. The sim scores can be fun, and even might have been useful when first designed, but in their present state they're simply misused constantly and their existence does bb-ref a disservice at this point,
It's funny because I didn't think he'd hit 30 home runs, and, unless b-r is wrong, the last time he hit 30 home runs was never.
Unless he did so in college or HS.
He reminds me of Tony Armas, although Armas is not on his list of comps.
6.6 WAR in 8 years and 4700 PA. He's a backup OF, a platoon OF at best. Any team that starts him against RHP is very misguided. He has a .700 career OPS vs. righties. And even vs lefties, you'd want better than an .820 career OPS vs lefties from a platoon corner OF. But at the very least, his teams need to focus on what he _can_ do, and not allow him to do what he can't. If he complains, release him.
@16: Would most platoon guys have a better than .820 career OPS v lefties? Not starters' platoon splits, but platoon guys--4th and 5th OFers, mostly.
@13: The odd thing is that sim scores really are obviously that awful on BBRef, and they can't be that difficult to improve. Perhaps the code is old and obscure, and the people who bought the site from Sean can't be bothered?
"What the hell does he mean with with "friends, Romans, countrymen"? Is he implying that his friends aren't Roman? The bastard!"
So he wanted to say that not only the number-crunchers grasped how bad Frenchy was. It seems a very reasonable way to formulate it.
First season with team: .297/.334/.498
Rest of career: .254/.300/.399
The Royals should just change their uniforms this year.
Who said it was "that big a difference"? I noted that it wasn't correct.
The problem is with people having a problem with them. They do what they are designed to do, show comparable careers to other players, regardless of park, era or league. That is EXACTLY what they are designed to do. You can come up with another sim score that is designed to show player comparisons based upon park adjusted and era numbers, but it's an entirely different animal. I would support that, but not at the expense of removing the sim scores.
I wouldn't say that DeJesus fits in that group. He was a pretty good centerfielder for 3 or 4 years. Of course, the Royals were constantly talking about moving him to a corner or trading him so the quality of his play may have escaped notice.
He hit 31 regular season home runs in one calendar year. He hit 29 in 2006, the first of which came on April 13. Then he hit one on April 6, 2007, and another on April 10, 2007. Maybe that's what he meant.
Are these true?
I wasn't suggesting the computer algorithm didn't work, I was noting it is a deeply flawed concept. So, pray tell, what is the usefulness of sim scores?
Jay Bruce's #1 comp the last two seasons? Reggie Jackson of course. His #8 most similar player? Barry Bonds. Also on his list is the young Darryl Strawberry. At #9? Boog Powell who is pretty much not similar to anybody on this list.
I don't care. But they are an embarrassment for b-r at this point, especially to have them on the player's main page.
Agreed, and it seems like they could be improved pretty easily too.
Francoeur Spring 2009
Francoeur Spring 2010
Francoeur Spring 2011
Sadly, I couldn't find a Francoeur story from Spring 2012. I'll keep looking.
I don't have the patience to break his seasons down by month, but iirc this may be true for Franky's Aprils, too. He's always talking about learning patience in the spring, waiting for his pitch, and all the other stuff you know he doesn't believe; then it seems like after taking a few walks and changing his game, he goes back to being the 'rest of career' bonehead we all treasure. Pretty sure that's what he did with the Mets, too.
Edit: BBRef has that function, too, by god. His Aprils are good, but August and September are just as good, though those are the two months where his BABIPs are inflated vis a vis the rest of his career. There's probably enough of a sample size to tell us he probably is a different hitter in April. He does K a lot less in April than in any other month...
Fwiw.
Why go through the trouble of looking for Francoeur stories when you can just go to The BBTF Francoeur Archives™? (scroll down to post 31)
Granted, I haven't updated it (thank goodness), but it's the first stop for all your Francoeur snark!
At BTF, Frenchy's not as interesting (or snark friendly) when he's been playing well, as he had in the preceding season.
When he was asked the secret of his success as a hitter, he said, "When the pitcher hangs a curve ball, hit it. The difference between a good hitter and an average hitter is just 20-30 hits a year. You hit those thirty hangers, you'll be up there in the paper."
Sort of what you're suggesting. That he might see more than his fair share of hangers (or other B type or worse stuff) early on.
What's also fascinating is that there are a whole lot of guys making twenty million dollars more over their careers because one dink or flair drops in every two weeks, the difference between a AAAA guy and a fringey starter.
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