One of the surprise teams of the Birthday League so far. Very good outfield.

C: Dick Lowe
1B: Lyle Overbay
2B: Pete Runnels
3B: Lyn Lary
SS/Manager: George Wright
LF: Jermaine Dye
CF: Bill White
RF: Magglio Ordonez

SP: Bill Doak
SP: Salida Tom Hughes
SP: Bob Muncrief
SP: Emil Yde
SP: Doug Waechter
RP: Joe Beckwith

Up at THT, the 10 greatest Game Sevens in LCS history. Unfortunately, most LCS Game Sevens suck.

Also, today marks 10,000 days since Billy Martin's last big baseball fight. Naturally, he got in a fist fight w/ one of his own players.

The town I coach little league in had a clinic last night from 7-8:30 for the kids. Just some basic throwing, swinging and fielding grounders. About 75 kids and it couldn't have been more fun. The high school coach showed up and the kids were fired up. You could definitely see some kids trying to impress. Given that temperatures have been in the teens or lower for a week now made it a much welcomed respite. I felt warmer just being involved in baseball.

One of the surprise teams of the Birthday League so far. Very good outfield.

Only because you cheated and put a firstbaseman in CF.

The town I coach little league in had a clinic last night from 7-8:30 for the kids. Just some basic throwing, swinging and fielding grounders. About 75 kids and it couldn't have been more fun. The high school coach showed up and the kids were fired up. You could definitely see some kids trying to impress. Given that temperatures have been in the teens or lower for a week now made it a much welcomed respite. I felt warmer just being involved in baseball.

Very cool Jose. My girls have dropped out of softball and I kind of miss coaching them and their friends.

Only because you cheated and put a firstbaseman in CF.

Touche.

Seemed like a better option than benching Overbay for Tsuyoshi Shinjo. Ducky Holmes is an outfielder on the bench who's a better player than Shinjo, but he has almost exactly the same number of games played in CF as White, so that's no good. The corner outfielders (Dye and Magglio) have played less CF than White did, even if you add their careers together.

One of the surprise teams of the Birthday League so far.

How much has that 118 OPS+ catcher helping? He of the single in 3 PAs. :)

With guys like Dick Lowe holding down starting catcher spot, no wonder all these players are getting into triple digit SBs.

I wonder if Bill Doak is more famous for his glove design, which apparently sold in the tens of thousands, than he is for his pitching...

Seemed like a better option than benching Overbay for Tsuyoshi Shinjo.

Not so sure about that. Overbay has a 108 OPS+ , Shinjo 77. OK, big advantage with the bat. But Shinjo was a terrific defensive CF, and White was a 7 time GGer at 1B. So the defensive upgrade from White in CF and Overbay at 1B to Shinjo in CF and White at 1B might overcome the offensive downgrade.

yuniesky betancourt is a phillies.


yeah, i've got nothing. at least it's a minor league contract.

Amaro has gone from dumpster diving to landfill excavation.

Kelly Johnson is a Ray.

Can Betancourt be worse than Michael Martinez?

yuniesky betancourt is a phillies.

Am I the only one who thinks that the Ruben Amaro thing isn't going to end well?

David Schoenfield tweet:

A's won 94 games last year. Tyson Ross was 2-11. Wonder how many teams have 90 games with a pitcher 9 games under .500?

As it turns out, it's happened five other times: Randy Lerch, 4-14 for '80 Phillies; Dennis Martinez, 7-16 for '83 Orioles; Bob "Ice Station" Sebra, 6-15 for '87 Expos; Frank Castillo, 6-15 for 2002 Red Sox; Kenshin Kawakami, 1-10 for 2012 Braves. All but Sebra had ERAs over 5.

-- MWE

I did some searching around to answer that as well. Did not find all those guys but I did find that the 1922 Reds had quite the run support disparity between Dolf Luque and their other starters.

25-13, 3.53 Eppa Rixey
16-9, 3.89 Johnny Couch
18-9, 3.12 Pete Donohue

13-23, 3.31 Dolf Luque

A's won 94 games last year.

Ahhhh, I love that sentence.

How on earth did Dennis Martinez go 7-16 for the '83 Orioles? They won, let's see here, 98 games. They won the World Series.

Looking at their ALCS and WS stats, they got through the whole playoffs with only seven pitchers. None of whom was named Martinez, with the exception of Tippy Martinez.

The '87 Expos, like the 2012 Orioles, were one of those teams where you scratch your heads and say "how on earth did they win 91 games"?

The Opening Day starter was Floyd Youmans, who had the only good year of his career in 1986 and who would be out of the majors two years later. Jeff Reardon had been traded in the offseason, and they couldn't figure out who their closer was until Tim Burke emerged down the stretch; they were giving same opportunities to Andy McGaffigan and Randy St. Claire. They had Tim Raines and Tim Wallach, and Andres Galarraga had his first good season albeit without the power he would starting showing a year later, but Hubie Brooks hit in the middle of the order for this team. They picked Pascual Perez off the scrap heap, and he gave them 10 good starts down the stretch, and Dennis Martinez (who was also affected by collusion that season, along with Raines) came back in June to be an effective starter, but overall this team doesn't reach out and grab you as a 90-win candidate.

-- MWE

Birthday League I Final Standings:

January 5           87  67  .565 ---- 
January 17          87  67  .565 ---- 
January 12          85  69  .552  2.0        
January 6           85  69  .552  2.0        
January 14          84  70  .545  3.0        
January 21          84  70  .545  3.0

Notes:
* For reasons I can't even begin to fathom, Strat decided on its own to have January 1 and January 28 play 155 games.
* Hank Greenberg (January 1) led the league in SLG (.603), OBP (.433), and RC/27 (10.3).
* Chili Davis (January 17) led the league in AVG (.338), hits (200), RBI (124), and TB (318).
* Mike Cameron (January 8) led the league in runs scored (119) and triples (17).
* HR leaderboard seems just about right: Johnny Mize (January 7) 33, Willie McCovey (January 10) 33, Jason Giambi (January 8) 30, Greenberg 28.
* Paul Ratliff (January 23) finished the season with exactly 200 strikeouts.
* SB leaderboard: Max Carey (January 11) 140, Otis Nixon (January 9) 135, Bill Dahlen (January 5) 61, Elmer Flick (January 11) 61.
* Jeff Suppan (January 2) struggled down the stretch but still finished with a league-leading 18 wins.
* Spittin' Bill Doak (January 28) won the ERA title at 2.14.
* Francisco Rodriguez (January 7) led the league with 30 saves.

Automated, computer-generated awards voting that I don't necessarily endorse and had nothing to do with:

MVP AWARD                               CY YOUNG AWARD
C.Davis(117) 393                        M.Littell(117) 113
B.Grich(115) 359                        T.Ferrick(106) 96
J.Giambi(108) 208                       T.Hughes(128) 52
H.Greenberg(101) 136                    N.Charlton(106) 19
W.McCovey(110) 101                      S.King(111) 8

ALL-STAR SELECTIONS BY POSITION
C  W.Cooper(108) 3,090,532              M.Lieberthal(118) 2,744,241
1B W.McCovey(110) 4,187,874             J.Giambi(108) 3,701,622
2B B.Grich(115) 4,093,323               J.Treadway(122) 1,863,018
3B E.Martinez(102) 2,271,315            R.Mulliniks(115) 1,835,388
SS I.Dejesus(109) 2,086,769             B.Dahlen(105) 2,037,381
LF M.Tiernan(121) 2,503,489             R.Greer(121) 2,250,284
CF C.Davis(117) 4,764,882               G.Selkirk(104) 3,398,523
RF B.Giles(120) 3,266,993               M.Carey(111) 2,472,885
Pi T.Ferrick(106) 4,574,287             T.Hughes(128) 4,457,233
   M.Littell(117) 4,120,028             N.Charlton(106) 3,654,430
   F.Rodriguez(107) 3,326,317           S.King(111) 3,307,022
   D.Willis(112) 2,995,361              W.Rodriguez(118) 2,491,033
   D.Keefe(109) 2,444,926               C.Ogden(124) 2,440,567
   C.Pascual(120) 2,380,094             U.Jimenez(122) 2,343,883

SILVER SLUGGER SELECTIONS BY POSITION
WINNER                                  RUNNER UP
C  W.Cooper(108)                        M.Lieberthal(118) 
1B W.McCovey(110)                       J.Giambi(108) 
2B B.Grich(115)                         J.Treadway(122) 
3B E.Martinez(102)                      B.Madlock(102) 
SS I.Dejesus(109)                       B.Dahlen(105) 
LF M.Ordonez(128)                       M.Tiernan(121) 
CF C.Davis(117)                         G.Selkirk(104) 
RF B.Giles(120)                         M.Carey(111)

Stats, standings, leaders, and box scores here. I'll have more detailed stats available at some point, and will let you know when that occurs.

I was stunned by Ferrick finishing second in the Cy, but I guess it makes sense. He threw 97 innings of 2.13 ERA ball, went 12-5, and saved 27 games for a contender.

Albert Pujols finished the birthday league season with more stolen bases than home runs, 13-9. That's, umm, unorthodox. (It also goes some distance toward explaining why January 16 went 72-82.)

The Pujols line surprised me less than Jack Cust hitting .305.

For reasons I can't even begin to fathom, Strat decided on its own to have January 1 and January 28 play 155 games.

Does Strat include the scenario where a tied game is ended by weather, thus counting but then getting replayed as a new game?

Does Strat include the scenario where a tied game is ended by weather, thus counting but then getting replayed as a new game?

No, in this case both teams played 155 games to a decision.

-- MWE