Wednesday, December 12, 2012
2013 Results: Bonds, Clemens, Piazza and Biggio are elected to the Hall of Merit!
(bbtf)
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio have been elected to the Hall of Merit!
The timing for our first year electing 4 candidates could not have worked out better, since class of 2013 is the strongest in terms of electees that we’ve ever had. The top of the 1934 ballot included Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins, Pop Lloyd, Smokey Joe Williams and Cristobal Torriente, but only 2 were elected.
Bonds and Clemens were each unanimous at 1 and 2. I believe that’s the first ...
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1 2 >Go figure.
Most Batters Faced by someone with more PA than Batters Faced, since 1900
Ankiel should at least make it to fourth, although Ruth is a longshot.
Obviously I haven't updated the site for 2012 yet, btw.
2013 NL CYA winner, Rick Ankiel.
Interesting that that link has Ruth at 5006 batters faced, and B-R has him with 4896. Not that it matters for this thread. Curly's numbers are also slightly different than B-R's for Ankiel.
Also awesome that Ruth faced ~5000 batters and gave up just 10 home runs. With the Red Sox between 1914 and 1919, he pitched to 4749 batters, gave up 9 HR, and hit 49 (in 1330 PA). Overall, he hit a home run about every 15 PA's, and gave one up about every 500 PA's.
Ankiel (69) is tantalizingly close to second all-time, to Ruth, in home runs by guys who have faced over 1000 batters. Lindell is currently second, with 72, but he had over 1000 more PA's than Ankiel.
Not a big deal, stats from that era are sketchy at best. I remember once someone asked Forman what he thought was the most overrated stat or something like this, and his response was something to the effect of any number from before WWI (or whatever) has a lot of uncertainty and shouldn't be looked at with the certainty that it does. A player logged with 200 home runs probably hit anywhere from 195-205, or something like that. My memory sucks and I'm sure I butchered his words completely, but that was the sentiment.
Ankiel's numbers are simply missing 2012.
Not as depressing as where his pitching career currently sits. What's past is past.
Oh what a disaster that would be.
Same here. Obviously you can choose to look at it as "what might have been," but I'd prefer to look at it as a "wow, here's a guy who reinvented himself twice just to keep playing ball." I think Ankiel getting back to the big leagues as a pitcher would be one of the better baseball stories I'd ever see.
He'd be fantastic fun if he could be a two-way player- particularly paired with a ROOGY who could handle a corner of spot. I'd love that.
As a 20-year-old pitcher with the Cardinals, Ankiel hit .250/.292/.382. So he's back where he started.
Micah Owings was a P/DH/1B type, rather than a P/OF, but I would love to see an Ankiel/Owings tag-team.
Wouldn't matter. The Braves rely on popups with lots of guys on base to generate their offense in the postseason.
Not yet.
I don't think Berkman has technically retired yet, has he?
According to Wikipedia, Wikipedia is official. But I can change that.
After his major league career was over, Mark Lemke pitched a little bit - very badly - in an independent league. I seem to recall he had come up with a knuckleball.
https://twitter.com/TBrownYahoo/status/264407230844133376
Anybody who want to relive the Ankiel pitching experience can check out this video.
I certainly admired his pluck, and his throwing arm from CF.
When he and Harper were in CF and RF respectively, the Nationals had two of the best cannon-arm in any MLB outfield
BB-Ref switched to Pete Palmer's database a couple of years ago.
The Red Sox toyed with the idea of using Dave McCarty as a Kieschnick, but he only ended up throwing 3.2 innings. He looked OK out there, and it was a little disappointing that they didn't continue using him as a mop-up guy or a second LOOGY.
But someone has got to have a player who can pitch and play the field again soon. Trying to maximize the 25-man roster means multifunctional players area a dream. I think a mop-up pitcher would be more likely than a situational pitcher, but the lefty-lefty matchup is so popular now that a guy like ANkiel might yet make it.
Of course, this will add yet more delays to any game the guy is used in, leading many more fans to shoot themselves rather than suffer through a dozen pitching changes.
Although it's probably just a random thought Strauss wrote about.
CHRIST does LaRussa look young though.
What I notice from that is that Buck's son was talking about how the Cardinals screwed with Ankiel's delivery because he'd had a series of arm troubles.
Exactly my reaction.
I noticed that as well...
They weren't directly responding to one another but it seemed like McCarver said "he's throwing across his body, that's the problem here", and Buck later said "The Cardinals felt in spring training that his tendency to throw across his body was hurting his arm so they tried to get him to change it".
I think Buck's assertion that he never had control problems before that may not be entirely accurate. Obviously, that was a whole new level of lack of control, but looking at his major and minor league numbers before October 2000 his walk rates were a bit higher than you'd like to see (though not anything out of the ordinary for a young strikeout pitcher...sort of a Gio Gonzalez type guy).
Also second the sentiment that that video is very difficult to watch.
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