Is anyone else surprised that Will has even a passing acquaintance with, and seeming acceptance of, the basics of new-school analysis? This is, after all, a man who in the last few years dedicated an entire syndicated column to his opposition to men wearing jeans. He's also one of the more prominent alums of my tiny high school. I am not.

EDIT: Around here he'd probably be right up there with our old friend Eraser-X.

EDIT: Around here he'd probably be right up there with our old friend Eraser-X.

In terms of what, level of jeans hatred?

Blair is one of the great cliff-divers of all time. He went from 5 WAR to .6 to -1.3 WAR from 74 to 76. He lost 50 points of OPS+ from 74 to 75. He never bounced back, putting up a 56 OPS+ in nearly 1400 PA after 1974. From ages 21 to 30 he had 37 WAR which has an outside shot at the HoM with a good decline; after age 30 he had -2.8 WAR

Do you think it was a recurrence of vision problems dating back to Blair's beaning in 1970? I know it sounds like a stretch but when Tony Conigliaro was beaned in 1967, he bounced back in 1969 and 1970 and everyone thought he was ok but in 1971 he suddenly couldn't hit anymore and he said he couldn't see anymore so he retired after this game, I believe.

49/mike: no.

It's easy to forget now how crazy it was to move Ripken to third. Ripken was by all accounts an A++ prospect, but no one, and I mean no one, thought he should play shortstop but Earl and maybe some others in the Orioles organization. I mean, Ivan DeJesus said after the 1983 World Series that the AL MVP was out of position.

Guys, Mark Belanger is not even anywhere near the bottom of the barrel for weak-hitting middle infielders. He played in an era that featured winning teams with guys like Ray Oyler and Eddie Brinkman playing SS. You have Dal Maxvill, Jonnie LeMaster, Mario Mendoza. Ozzie Smith was an All-Star hitting .222 with 13 extra-base hits one year.

Ugh, this discussion reminds me of Jim Mason for the Yankees. He made Bucky Dent seem like a batting champ.

#53 It wasn't vision problems precisely. More likely memory of the beaning. The word got out that if you threw inside (just off the plate) he'd back off so far that he couldn't reach anything outside.

both the stats and the opinions of his observers only caught up last year

Laroche was always showered with praise for his defense when he came up with Atlanta. I've always understood his defense as part of his appeal. Not sure where you are getting the opposite impression.

Guys, Mark Belanger is not even anywhere near the bottom of the barrel for weak-hitting middle infielders. He played in an era that featured winning teams with guys like Ray Oyler and Eddie Brinkman playing SS. You have Dal Maxvill, Jonnie LeMaster, Mario Mendoza. Ozzie Smith was an All-Star hitting .222 with 13 extra-base hits one year.

Two explanations for how poor the shortstop hitting was in those days:

1. The defensive demands of the position were so much larger than they are today.
2. Teams were making inefficient decisions.

I lean towards #2, because if #1 was true then the few teams that did play an offensive player at the position (example: Toby Harrah) should be losing a ton of runs by doing so. The data do not support this. Harrah was below average but contributed many more runs with the bat than he cost on defense.

I think the shortstop decisions made are in the same category as using people like Omar Moreno and Frank Tavaras as leadoff hitters. The kind of things that make you scratch your head and wonder why teams did that.

Piffle.

Two explanations for how poor the shortstop hitting was in those days:

1. The defensive demands of the position were so much larger than they are today.
2. Teams were making inefficient decisions.

I lean towards #2, because if #1 was true then the few teams that did play an offensive player at the position (example: Toby Harrah) should be losing a ton of runs by doing so. The data do not support this. Harrah was below average but contributed many more runs with the bat than he cost on defense.

Petrocelli was a good hitter; Fregosi was an OK hitter for the Angels--the Tigers made a strange decision when they moved good-hitting McAuliffe from SS to 2B in 1967 and proceeded to trot out a collection of some of the worst hitters in MLB history to play SS. (On the other hand, they DID win it all in 68)

In terms of what, level of jeans hatred?

Ha - no, in terms of prominence among the BBTF crowd. Now that you mention it, though, I can confirm that Mr. X did have somewhat of an aversion to denim in our youth. I think he's come around though.

Remember this was the same era where Dick Green played 2nd base for the A's and Finley used to ask his manager at the time to pinch hit for him in the early innings. I think the A's of the early 70's used to keep at least 3 people on the roster that could play 2nd. This bit them in the ass during the 72 playoffs when Tenace had to play 2nd during one game.