Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Saturday, August 04, 2018
The two best regular-season teams of the past half-century remain the 2001 Mariners, who went 116-46, and the 1998 Yankees, who went 114-48. But only one of them is in the discussion as the best team in modern history.
...
Many factors could go into the discussion of whether a team can be called the best ever — including win-loss record, run-differential and even the number of future Hall of Famers on a roster — but unless the Red Sox win their final game, and lock down another World Series title, they will be just another would-be contender that wasn’t quite great enough.
|
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Walt Davis Posted: August 04, 2018 at 11:11 PM (#5721189)Pearce is 35, has been in the majors for 12 years, the last six of them in the American League, and I have never heard of him till now. It is impossible to keep up with this sport.
As an Orioles fan, I've been aware of Pearce since he joined the O's in 2012. He's a cromulent bench bat/righty platoon who can play corner outfield or first base. He's only played in 100 games once in his career (2014 with Baltimore) and often gets traded mid-season when his team falls out of contention (he went from Toronto to Boston on June 28 this year).
He was 9th in the AL in WAR among position players in 2014 in one of those true out-of-nowhere seasons.
And he shares my last name, which is even more awesome. I was even going to be named Steve because Mom wanted that name for me, but then Dad won out not long before I was born so I was named after him instead.
To show you just how under the radar Pearce has been for much of his career, he's switched teams seven times, and yet in only two cases were other players involved. Mostly he's been acquired on waivers or been released and then signed as a free agent. His total salary for his 12 year career has averaged less than $2,000,000 a season.
"Dad Pearce" - I guess it has a certain ring to it
That's "All-Star Mitch Moreland," thank you very much.
At this point, Moreland isn't even likely to have his career year. But still, once again next year, many many people will consider first-two-months stats to be the only barometer for an All-Star berth.
In his defense, finding legit all-stars from the pile of crap that is AL first basemen isn't exactly easy. There are only two AL first basemen having better years than him, and one of them you've possibly never heard of.
Matt Olson? I saw him play twice, week before last, and I've still never heard of him.
I am in the odd position of only following one sport and increasingly being unaware of any of the people who play it. Maybe this is a function of age. Not only do the years go faster, but entire baseball careers elapse before you're aware of them. It was Vladimir Guerrero Night at the Ballpark last night, and I kept thinking, Vladimir Guerrero, Expos, right? he might be good some day.
Get it right. It's Dad Pearce, Jr.
Edit: watching a game a few days ago with my 9 year old nephew when the cameras had a shot of Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies; the two players plus the nephew collectively didn't add up to my age. Ouch.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main