Warning!! It's Baaaaaack!! Off-topic Baseball Thread '08 !!

[Adam]

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

Was he related to Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, or (now) Carlos Zambrano?

Oh, never mind. I'm sure Snaqs will be along shortly to help me out with any statistics.

No need.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

Since the Sox aren't playing tonight (NFL Opening Night is almost as good!), I thought I'd share this little tidbit that I found online.

On this date in 1913:

Guy goes 11 innings for a complete game win and never pitches again in the bigs. Ouch. I couldn't find a reason; either an injury or a really stacked pitching staff.

Hal Schwenk was hit by a streetcar just after leaving the ballpark that night. The streetcar knocked poor Hal 28 feet in the air through a third story window and he landed in the bed of an elderly spinster, Miss Myrna Drozdz. After thanking God and then having her carnal way with the befuddled Mister Schwenk, Miss Drozdz pitched poor Hal back out of her window, whereupon Hal was promptly run over by a Model A Ford and two teams of horses pulling Budweiser wagons. To add insult to injury, Mr. Schwenk was also charged with leaving the scene of an accident for his flight through poor Miss Drozdz' window. Hal never did recover sufficiently from the injuries that he suffered in this unfortunate mishap to be able to continue his baseball career. He died a broken man and he currently lies in an unmarked grave about 7 feet to the left of what is now second base in Busch Stadium.

There are rumors that the evil, misbegotten spawn of Hal Schwenk and Myna Drozdz is currently living somewhere in Illinois, disguised as an avid Cubs fan.

It's true, it's true......

[M&M Guy]

You know, at some point this season, poor Mr. Schwenk is going to roll over, stick his hand up out of his grave and simultaneously trip Albert running the bases and flip you off, all in one motion.

It's true...it's true...

[Jurassic Referee]

Let me save Chuck the trouble.....

This morning's update......

- The Rays are gagging but still have a big enough lead to get the AL wildcard.
- You win with pitching. The Yankees don't have any. They're officially toast.
- I'd trade A-Rod straight up for Dustin Pedroia. I don't think Bah-ston is dumb enough to go for that one though.
- The Cubbies are in first place. Not to worry...somewhere along the line, they'll gag too.
- LA and Manny are in love with each other. Manny is a heckuva ballplayer (when he feels like trying).
-I-Rod punches like a girl.

Prediction: the Angels win the World Series. They're the best team in beisbol.

[mick]

ESPN says the 250,000th MLB HR was prolly Gary Sheffield's grand slam last night.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

- I'd trade A-Rod straight up for Dustin Pedroia.

A-Rod reminds me a little of Darryl Strawberry and Mike Schmidt in the sense I seem to only recall them hitting homers and knocking in runs when it didn't matter.... (ya know 10-3 and 9-1 games). I seem to recall one yr Mike Schmidt had like 20 homers and only 30 RBI's early in the yr (I know this is a generalization and my memory is not so good). I heard the other day that A-Rod has THREE RBI this yr after the 7th inning! I like him as a player and his eventual stats will be up there with the all time greats when he's done. But overall, with runners on base, late in the game, clutch he is not!

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by grunewar

I like him as a player and his eventual stats will be up there with the all time greats when he's done. But overall, with runners on base, late in the game, clutch he is not!

For 30 mil a year, you'd better do a helluva lot more than he's been doing. Gaudy stats don't translate into wins.

Unfortunately, A-Rod has never won a damn thing in his career to date and he's also never shown that he can carry a team either. Manny, for all his faults, has been more valuable over-all to his teams imo.

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by grunewar

But overall, with runners on base, late in the game, clutch he is not!

I did some checking on ESPN's stat site, and here's what I found for the situation "Close and Late" (which means 7th inning and later, with their team either up one, tied, or the tying run in the on-deck circle), for 2008:
>>>>>>

	AB	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP
A. Rodriguez (Yankees)	65	17	2	7	.262	.364
M. Ramirez (Red Sox/Dodgers)	78	23	5	17	.295	.417
A. Ramirez (Cubs)	65	25	8	27	.385	.523

[Adam]

Manny must get walked a lot in those situations. OBP of .968? Wow!

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Manny must get walked a lot in those situations. OBP of .968? Wow!

Oops - I accidently used Manny's OPS (On-base plus slugging) stat instead of his OBP. I went back and corrected it.

FYI - Aramis' OPS in those situations is 1.338.

[Adam]

So is Aramis at the top of the list?

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

So is Aramis at the top of the list?

Don't know - I just pulled those from the individual players' stats; I haven't seen a full list. I just remember seeing a mention of his clutch hitting on one of the recent games, so I thought I would look it up. It would be interesting to see if someone has such a list, perhaps showing this season or the past 3 or 5 seasons, to see if the players that give the impression of being clutch hitters (Manny, Big Papi, Vlad, etc.) truly are, or if the ones that give the impression they aren't (A-Rod) truly aren't.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

It would be interesting to see if someone has such a list, perhaps showing this season or the past 3 or 5 seasons, to see if the players that give the impression of being clutch hitters (Manny, Big Papi, Vlad, etc.) truly are, or if the ones that give the impression they aren't (A-Rod) truly aren't.

And I'm sure there would be some real interesting surprises (in smaller markets perhaps) we've never thought about or are rarely mentioned too.....

[ChuckElias]

Not a very inspiring performance from Dice-K last night. Somehow, he managed to work out of it with only 3 runs. Rays left a TON of men on base, which kept the Sox in it. Bay does it again, but Papelbon just cannot seem to have an easy outing. He blows the save and takes the loss. Even when he manages to get the save, he is putting a lot of men on base (for a closer).

I haven't even checked the rest of the standings.

Plus, Brady's gone for the year, after 8 minutes of the first quarter of the first game. I can't even think about that yet.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

.....but Papelbon just cannot seem to have an easy outing. He blows the save and takes the loss. Even when he manages to get the save, he is putting a lot of men on base (for a closer).

When Armando Benitez pitched for the Orioles we always joked that he seemed to walk the bases loaded and then strike out the side......Frustrating!! A fan killer!