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Hall of Merit— A Look at Baseball's All-Time Best
Sunday, November 16, 2008
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2023 Hall of Merit Ballot Discussion (168 - 1:46pm, Jul 13)Last:  DL from MNMost Meritorious Player: Trophy Case (71 - 6:53pm, Jul 08)Last: DL from MNMost Meritorious Player: 1900 Results (6 - 6:28pm, Jul 08)Last: DL from MNMost Meritorious Player: 1900 Ballot (11 - 4:03pm, Jul 06)Last: DL from MNMost Meritorious Player: 1918 Results (6 - 8:58pm, Jun 29)Last: kennaMost Meritorious Player: 1920 Ballot (25 - 8:55pm, Jun 29)Last: kennaMost Meritorious Player: 1900 Discussion (9 - 1:14am, Jun 29)Last: Harmon RipkowskiHall of Merit Book Club (6 - 12:45pm, Jun 28)Last: progrockfanMost Meritorious Player: 1899 Results (6 - 1:51pm, Jun 22)Last: DL from MNMost Meritorious Player: 1899 Ballot (10 - 9:54am, Jun 22)Last: TomHMost Meritorious Player: 1899 Discussion (9 - 9:04am, May 31)Last: DL from MNMost Meritorious Player: 1898 Results (4 - 3:22pm, May 06)Last: DL from MNMost Meritorious Player: 1898 Ballot (8 - 10:07am, May 05)Last: DL from MNMost Meritorious Player: 1898 Discussion (7 - 1:08am, May 02)Last: Harmon RipkowskiMost Meritorious Player: 1897 Results (2 - 4:29pm, Apr 06)Last: DL from MN
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1. JoeD has the Imperial March Stuck in His Head Posted: November 16, 2008 at 10:45 PM (#3010315)Was the 8th pick in the 1984 draft as well. Made $57 million dollars in his career, plus whatever his signing bonus was. Not too shaby.
We may never again see such pointless out-making.
I'd have a hard time making a case for any other season of his being better offensively outside of '93. Is the SS boost + his defense really so big that '99 was just an average year for him? It seems he'd need to be GG caliber early in his career and pretty bad later in his career for that to be the case.
That's really just nitpicking though. As a young Mets fan, I'll remember him mostly for the '99 season, and for his impressive showing with the Mets in his last season, in which he somehow managed to draw 22 walks against 116 ABs, despite hitting only .181 with 1 extra base hit(a double). You've got to have some kind of an eye to be able to do that.
We may never again see such pointless out-making.
Yea, I remember when I was a kid announcers always drooling about what amazing bunters Jay Bell and Brett Butler were.
But, hey, Bill James has him at #31 with 232 WS. Ahead of Rico Petrocelli, Joe Tinker, Herman Long (well, that doesn't count, no adjustment for short seasons), but also Bobby Wallace, Rabbit Maranville, Jack Glasscock, etc. etc.
For me, there's probably a dozen shortstops between him and the bottom of the HoM list of SS right now. Rizutto, Pesky, Stephens, Long, Concepcion, Campaneris, Bancroft, Maranville, Tinker and Long, Tony Fernandez. Even Luis Aparicio was better.
I've got 13. It's a pretty similar list: Campaneris, Rizzuto, Concepcion, Pesky, Bancroft, Stephens, Fregosi, Fernandez, Maranville, Aparicio, Tinker, Bartell, and Donie Bush, in more or less that order.
Mark Grace led off the bottom of the 9th with a single.
Jay Bell batted later in the inning, bunted into a forceplay but ended up scoring the winning run.
Matt Williams was on deck when the winning run scored.
That was a good team for getting HOVG guys their rings.
Of course, Kevin Appier had to wait one extra year before he got his with Anaheim....
Didn't Brosius take some heat for a perceived failure to look for a DP?
I always get Jay Bell and Jeff King mixed up.
The record clearly shows Bonilla departed before '92 and Drabek not very good in '91 so I "pass" this opportunity to look up Matt Williams and Kevin Appier.
* The Cardinals were cooked after 1989 and the Mets after 1990 (both two years after their last division crowns, 1987 and 1988). I remember a notion, not only mine, that the Cubs of 1989 (their crown) were a serious young team, maybe heir apparent. Twenty years later, the record suggests to me that they fortunately slipped through a window of opportunity when "something happened" to the Pirates.
88-89-90-91-92 : year 19xx
Pittsburgh
86-74-95-98-96 : wins
2- 5- 1- 1- 1 : rank in NL East
Chicago
77-93-77-77-78 : wins
4- 1- 4- 4- 4 : rank in NL East
If you slide a pencil over the '89 column, both teams were consistent.
After '92, Barry Bonds and Greg Maddux moved "West" to San Francisco and Atlanta and those two won 103, 104 games. Philadelphia and Montreal were the strongest teams in the East.
By the time I realized he could play, Bell had commenced his annual tradition of popping 30 doubles, 10 home runs, scoring 90 runs, and playing fringe Gold-Glove caliber defense. While the rest of the league was screwing around with Rafael Belliard and Rey Ordonez, there was Jay Bell hitting like a ballplayer instead of like a "middle infielder".
I hereby support Jay Bell's candidacy for Hall of Underappreciated.
Here's the way to tell them apart.
Jay Bell is the one who was a lot better than anyone expected.
Jeff King is the one who was never as good as everyone expected.
Rimless glasses.
Unless I am mistaken, Jay Bell has a tattoo of a fish, or some such creature, on his back or shoulder blade or some such place. Unless that's Jeff Blauser I'm thinking of.
Long's so good, he makes the list twice.
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