'Tis But a Scratch: The 2009 New York Mets

Ladies and gentlemen, after Luis Castillo slipped walking into the dugout today, I think we can officially say this is your 2009 New York Mets: "'Tis But A Scratch"

Fined For Tweeting About Camp Food

If you could fine me for complaining about camp found back when I was a kid, I'd still be in debt.

But that's just what the San Diego Chargers did to Antonio Cromartie according to ESPN. I'm guessing that the Chargers' food is a little better. I'm also guessing that's not why they didn't make the Super Bowl.

$2,500 has to be the most expensive tweet, ever. That's why his agent is not so fond of it:

"Agent Gary Wichard said Tuesday that he had seen a paraphrased version of the offending tweet, and added that he is a staunch anti-tweeter."

Twitter Nation, it's time to take up arms (or 140 character tweets) against Gary Wichard!

This is a Sports Post

We did a non-sports post before. Well, this is a sports post (clearing out some links):

• The New York Times with two great articles: the first on baseball's use of DNA and the privacy issues that go along with that and the second on Tony Kubek, one of my favorite Yankees announcers, returning briefly after a 15-year hiatus.
• The New York Times Freakonomics blog did a very interesting Q&A with Buster Olney
• This Sports Networking and Sports Summit from The Biz of Baseball is pretty awesome. Some really, really good sources on there.
• Detroit4Lyfe has one of the craziest catches you'll ever see (that was amazingly ruled a non-catch...probably because the umpire was so amazed)
• ESPN takes on "Moneyball" 6 years later, with Howard Bryant saying that the Moneyball legacy is suffering (with some great Brian Cashman quotes) and Baseball Prospectus writes about how the Athletics' approach has changed
• Vin Scully is retiring and Bill Plaschke of the LA Times says the Dodgers have 15 months so send him off with a home run. If you haven't heard him broadcast a game, find a way to tune in to it.
• The Wall Street Journal points out who hits the shortest home runs with Dustin Pedroia on the top of the list. I think this proves that if he didn't play in Boston last season, that MVP probably would have never even been discussed.
• ESPN's Page 2 goes behind the scenes to look at what it's like to be a vendor at Fenway Park. Pretty cool.
• Joe Posnanski lists his top 100 players in baseball for Sports Illustrated. Yankees on the list: A-Rod (#6), Mark Teixeira (#17), Derek Jeter (#23), CC Sabathia (#41), Mariano Rivera (#42), Johnny Damon (#84), A.J. Burnett (#91), Robinson Cano (#93), and Jorge Posada (#96).
• The Wall Street Journal turns the MLB Forecasting upside down by showing how accurate writers are in their predictions. Newsday's Ken Davidoff came in #1. In other news, he's been predicting 96 wins for the Yankees which really should be a playoff birth.
• RealClearSports says that legalized sports betting is inevitable and shows England as an example that it can work fine. Also, RealClearSports on the top Minor League baseball promotions
• Fart-Gate: did he or didn't he?
• New York Magazine with a great article on the Nadal and Federer of New York handball
• Don't look now, but the Angels are in first place in the American League, which not even Yahoo!'s Big League Stew knew. David Pinto of Baseball Musings (filling in for Rob Neyer) says the reason is that more Angels are getting on base.
• Do you remember William Ligue, the guy who brought his shirtless son on the field to beat up the Royals first base coach? Well his son is still proud of what he did, according to Deadspin. 
• Mike Vick's first night out of federal custody may have been in a strip club with Allen Iverson according to The Big Lead
• Ian O'Connor of the Bergen Record says that Antonio Pierce is lucky and now needs to learn what a leader really is
• Rob Neyer and the intentional walk. Rob Neyer and Ben Zobrist's MVP chances.
• The New York Times reports on a study that shows the curveball isn't too stressful for young arms to throw
• Who is buying a piece of the old Yankee Stadium? Hideki Matusi, Jason Giambi, Reggie Jackson, LeBron James, and Charlie Weis so far according to Darren Rovell of CNBC
• The Wall Street Journal has a very cleverly named article titled "Baseball's Haul of Fame" about how much MLB's Hall of Famer's can cash in
• Jason Whitlock from FOX Sports on why athletes should never marry
• Deadspin on the NHL's horrible salary cap coming from their horrible CBA
• Forbes on the most disliked people in sports (A-Rod would like to thank Michael Vick and Manny Ramirez for pushing him to #3)
• The Philadelphia Daily News goes over the unwritten rules of baseball
• Speaking of Philly, this is an awful story from the supposed "City of Brotherly Love" of some fans (allegedly) going overboard. Awful
• The Onion with an amazing headline: "Extremely Patient Kevin Youkilis Works Count to 6-5"
• Lastly, an article no one reading this post wants to read, yet anyone getting this far should not be surprised by: a study found that die-hard sports fans live less healthy lives according to the Kansas City Star

 

Yankee Stadium deconstruction update, UConn football, and pervasive ads during Yankees radio broadcasts

H/T to Tom Kaminski of Chopper 880 for these aerial photos of the obviously-behind-schedule deconstruction of Yankee Stadium. Judging by the growth of moss and weeds, and the overgrowth of existing vegetation, the deconstruction process is going slowly, and probably more slowly than it should.

Honestly, watching construction crews tear apart our beloved Yankee Stadium is hard enough. Nobody (outside of New England) wants to see it crumble piece by piece. Watching it become overgrown with weeds like some vacant parking lot, and then destroyed, is even more excruciating. Thanks, Hank and Hal, for managing to screw this up, thereby making a depressing process even more depressing.






In other news, a preseason Big East poll ranked UConn football 6th in the Big East. Only Louisville and Syracuse trail the Huskies. Syracuse, a shell of the program it once was, is no surprise. Louisville is just sad. One or two years ago, Brian Brohm made the Cardinals a national title contender. Or at least the cream of the crop in the Big East, alongside WestVa. Now they're scraping the bottom of the conference. Too bad their recruiting slipped a few notches.

As for UConn, I am trying to not to take offense to this ranking. But it's hard not to be frustrated. UConn has been ranked in the national Top-25 in each of the last two seasons, peaking at No. 13 in the BCS rankings. Last season, UConn finished 8-5 and beat up on Buffalo, 38-20, to win the International Bowl. UConn also pumped a lot of players into the first 2 rounds of the 2009 NFL draft, including Donald Brown in the first round (to the Colts) and Darius Butler in the second round with the 41st pick. In fact, since 4 UConn players were selected in the first 2 rounds, after the first day of the draft only USC sent more players to the NFL than UConn.

Thus, despite the increased talent coming from UConn, the Huskies still get no respect. Maybe that will change in the near future. This season, UConn will travel to South Bend to play Notre Dame (!) and will start the 2010 season by playing Michigan at the Big House (!!), with Michigan making the return trip to play UConn at Rentschler Field in 2013 (!!!). Critics will say that ND and UMich are lining up UConn as early-season cupcake wins, but I don't buy it. Early-season cupcakes are usually Rhode Island, Kent State, and Appalachian State (whoops). Michigan coming to play UConn in East Hartford means that UConn is being taken seriously (can you imagine Michigan making the return trip to App State?).

With all of this apparent respect for UConn, why are they ranked 6th in the conference? Have Rutgers, South Florida, and West Virginia just gotten that much better? Or maybe the media believe that UConn graduated too many of its playmakers (i.e., Donald Brown, DJ Hernandez, Cody Brown, Darius Butler). Regardless, the Huskies will be playing with a giant chip on their shoulder this season. Randy Edsall, be prepared to earn those games at ND and Michigan.

One last link for you. A month ago, I wrote about how in-game radio ads during baseball broadcasts are overwhelming and bothersome. Andrew commented that he is more bothered by the in-game ads (such as the PC Richard "whistle" after every K) than the radio ads. But wouldn't you know, the Hartford Courant decided to print an article examining just how pervasive these radio ads have become. In fact, one baseball historian (Curt Smith) declared that radio ads during a baseball game is "...hawking, vending, prostitution. It doesn't fit. It's terribly forced. ... To me, it's just obscene."

I couldn't agree more. Granted, WCBS needs to generate a lot of ad revenue, as the article notes that the station paid $70 million to broadcast Yankees games for five years (through 2011). But perhaps the best comment is the last line of the article, again by Curt Smith:

"...while Smith is irked by the prevalence of commercials on radio broadcasts throughout the country, he is particularly disgusted by the Yankees. Smith argues that broadcasters dropping ads amid the flow of the game sends one message to listeners.

"Everything is for sale," Smith said. "It is reminiscent to Heidi Fleiss. ...The New York Yankees, arguably the most marquee team in the world, resorts to this? It's a shame."

So much in the game of baseball has become a business decision. It's all about P&L and opportunities to extract an ever-expanding marginal revenue from things that never used to be about generating profits (such as radio broadcasts). There are certainly some realities that didn't exist before and are important now (such as how to finance a $200 million payroll or afford a $1.5 billion stadium) but I just miss the days of listening to a baseball game and hearing little else but the description of the players and the game. Don't you also wish you could listen to John Sterling's baritone play-by-play and Suzyn Waldman's shrill, often-nonsensical comments without hearing about Geico (15th pitch of the game), RoadRunner high-speed internet (speed of the pitch), and the Land Rover "Drive of the Game"? I sure do.

Sometimes It's The Trades Not Made

I was reading through this ESPN.com piece on how the Rockies are succeeding in their ballpark because they are producing a lot of groundballs, and my thoughts went to Ramiro Mendoza. The Rockies have always had a problem keeping the ball in the park, especially with playing 81 of their games in the thin air of Coors Field. In 2001, they gave up a National League record 239 home runs. Yet when they made free agent moves, they didn't gear them towards getting extreme groundball pitchers. Though they certainly tried. Especially with their attempts to get Ramiro Mendoza.

Ramiro Mendoza's name was constantly connected to trade rumors. The team that tried the most to get him seemed to be the Colorado Rockies who (rightfully) felt like he would be a good fit for their ballpark. In 2000, the Yankees were two starters short on July 15th. The Yankees had Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and Orlando Hernandez as their top 3 starters. David Cone had his worst season in the majors that year going 4-14 with a 6.91 ERA and 1.768 WHIP. The Yankees had traded away Hideki Irabu in the offseason and expected Ramiro Mendoza would take his slot. But Mendoza got hurt and the team signed Dwight Gooden in June. So the Yankees needed two starts.

They filled the first hole by trading a boatload of prospects for Denny Neagle on July 17th. Neagle would be pretty awful for the Yankees, putting up a 5.81 ERA in 16 games before departing for the Rockies in the offseason (part of their problem was spending ridiculous amounts of money on guys like this).

The second hole? Well they tried to fill that on July 31st. According to this ABC News report from that day, the Yankees were considering trading Mendoza along with minor-league prospects Alfonso Soriano, Ted Lilly and Scott Seabol for Rockies ace, Pedro Astacio. The hang-up in the deal seems to have occurred when the Yankees asked for either Butch Huskey or Jeff Frye to be included in the deal. The Yankees ended up not making a deal and a rib cage muscle injury cut Astacio's season short and then he underwent arthroscopic surgery for a left knee problem. Still, the Yankees tried again to trade Mendoza and Soriano for Astacio again in the offseason according to The Gazette.

The Yankees would win the World Series in 2000 and came within a few outs of winning again the next year. Sometimes the best deals are the ones not made. And sometimes, according to U.S.S. Mariner, the Yankees just lie about those deals. Either way, sometimes it's better to just hold on to the prospects and go with what you have then get a band-aid who could turn into the next Denny Neagle or Pedro Astacio.

 

From this deadline: NBC Sports says that some teams are realizing it's not worth selling the farm. Keith Law makes a top 10 list of the prospects traded and FanGraphs makes a list of the bottom 7. Here's what FanGraphs wrote about the Yankees trade (prospect 34/35): "A raw, left-handed-hitting catcher, Weems was expendable in New York because of Jesus Montero and Austin Romine. It’s a nice low-risk, high-reward trade that saw vet Jerry Hairston Jr. move to The Big Apple. Weems, 20, strikes out a lot (31.8 K% in 2009).". Jerry Crasnick points out that they're called "prospects" for a reason and lists the top 9 busts among those trade deadline prospects. FanGraphs looks at the Red Sox and the "untouchable" tag for their prospects. The Seattle Times has news of a ridiculous blockbuster deal that was talked about which would have sent Adrian Gonzalez to the Mariners, "King" Felix Hernandez to the Red Sox, and a ton of prospects to the Padres (I'm guessing by those names that untouchable doesn't apply when The King is mentioned). Ken Davidoff says in this notebook that the Mark Teixeira from Texas to Atlanta has already defined the career of Texas general manager Jon Daniels as he got back shortstop Elvis Andrus, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and recently-debuted pitcher Neftali Feliz. The New York Post says that the Yankees will be busy scouring the names that come through waivers starting today, though Mark Feinsand thinks that they should give *gulp* Kei Igawa another chance first. FanGraphs on the Nats getting nothing for Dunn, FanGraphs again on the Washburn deal, and Keith Law on the versatility that Victor Martinez brings for the Red Sox. Lastly, True/Slant on "How to Kill a Sports Franchise" and a really funny look at the Pittsburgh Pirates trades and Jerry Crasnick with a much less funny but much more favorable view of the same deals.

 

This Is Not a Sports Post

Warning: This is not a sports post (inspired by SNY's "This is a bottom note"). I had a few good links I figured I'd get in there that were totally not about sports. Or mostly not about sports. Because sometimes I need to think about something other than sports (and work, of course, since I'm "supposed to be" doing that)

• Mad Men is one of the best shows on television and Christina Hendricks AKA "Red" is one of the reasons why. Esquire does a very nice photo shoot with her (H/T The Big Lead). Is it inappropriate to make "Golden Globes" comments here?
• This HBO advertisement is awesome. I've watched it at least 5 times. (H/T Sarah)
• LOST University? Sign me the f' up!
• A New York graduate couldn't find a job...so she sued her alma mater.
• AdFreak has a very different advertising campaign for people whose jobs suck
• Flip Flop Fly Ball teaches the younger generation how to remove the sticker from their hats (awesome)
• According to Ben Smith of Politico, legislation has been introduced in the Senate that will stop me from BBM'ing while driving. Tickets for DWB (Driving While 'Berrying) would not be good. 
• The New York Times has an Op-Ed which I think told me that Twitter is just the new telegram. Or something like that. Either way, I think it's interesting how that character limit came about.
• This is sort of about sports, but a few weeks late is news from The New York Times that Mark Cuban's insider trading case was dismissed
• The Onion's hilarious "American Voices" on Sarah Palin abdicating her throne
• The Onion's new owner is pissed that no one informed him of the imminent death of the American newspaper industry
• The Wall Street Jounal story about marketers getting into high school graduation speeches is a little bit much
• Jon Stewart is a really good guy according to the New York Daily News
• This is a sad ending to a sick story 
• Gigaom asks if Cisco and IBM are the A-Rod and Derek Jeter of technology
• Gawker recaps the day when everyone in New Jersey was arrested
• Want to make sense of U.S./Iranian relations? The New York Times Freakonomics blog says to follow Jay-Z vs. The Game.
• SEOptimise shows the power of viral marketing after United Airlines lost $180 million from a YouTube complaint song (!)
• Sports leagues decided they didn't want Delaware to have sports betting...while they organize all their events in Las Vegas (a little hypocritical)

Two quick non-sports thoughts on TV shows I watch:

• Entourage has had its best season in years. The episode two Sundays ago was one of the best in years. The show had become WAY too formulaic (hence the "Every Week on Entourage" parody). But this season they changed it up. Every week doesn't have to always end with a crisis. Things are going well for once. Ari was a much better character when he was fighting with co-workers (whether it was Adam Davies or Sloan's dad) and he's back to that. But he's developed a little more as a character. He's ditched the cold-hearted persona to be a little more human and fun. As my dad said "in this economy, the show couldn't always been negative". It's been a lot more feel-good this season which I've enjoyed. And it probably means the other shoe is going to drop. But at least they let us ride the gravy train for a while and enjoy it without too much celebrity cameo interruption.
• Weeds is having one of its strangest seasons yet. Nancy Botwin needed some sort of a redemptive season but so far, he ride there has been rocky. I would like to see her finally put her foot down and say "enough is enough" in her life. Or Andy to say "enough is enough" and really mean it. The show gets too caught up in storylines they drop an episode later and it's nice to see certain ones carrying through for a little while. The ending of the episode last night was shocking and I think it was exactly the sort of thing they needed to do to finally get Nancy to be the protective Mamma Bear she needs to be. And as much as I like to see Mary-Louise Parker take her clothes off, I'm glad that they finally addressed how weird this sexualness between Andy and Nancy is. Besides, Andy, you don't want her: Judah is dead, Peter is dead, Conrad is ditched and heartbroken, and people are trying to kill Esteban. This woman does not do well by men. Though she did address this episode how she now has had 3 boys. We've had some hints that Season 5 may be the first foray into some much-needed levity for Miss Nancy Botwin.

  

Trivia Tuesday

Recently the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) held a competition that they hold every year: a trivia contest "crowning the sport's official factoid aficionado" (via The New York Times' great article on the competition). I felt like we should reproduce some of those questions here.

Each week for the next 6 weeks I'll post two questions that The New York Times reproduced on it's Bats blog. No cheating by looking up the answers there or on any other website. You must post your answer below in the comments. If you're reading this on Facebook or another reader, do not post the comments in Facebook, go to http://www.noyoureatowel.net/ and post your comments on the blog (if, for some reason you cannot use the comments where you are, e-mail me at katz@noyoureatowel.net and I will post them for you). Make sure to use your actual name when posting (will not get credit if comment is anonymous). At the end of the 6 weeks, the person who answered the most questions correctly will get a mention on the blog and the glory of the NYaT readership that comes along with that. The tiebreaker will be speed so answer quickly and correctly. I will post these by 11 AM each Tuesday. You will have until 11 PM on Tuesday to answer before I put up the correct answers.  

Here are this week's two questions:

1. Who are the three members of the 500 home-run club who also pitched in the Major Leagues?

2. Who is the player with the most career hits who never managed in the Major Leagues? Who is the pitcher with the most career victories who never managed in the majors?

Good luck!

How Exactly Has Smoltz Been Good?

John Smoltz was one of my favorite pitchers to watch growing up. He was a big-game pitcher with a big arm and when the Yankees stunk in the early 90s, I rooted for his Braves on TBS as they took down the National League. Glavine and Maddux got a lot of glory on those teams, but Smoltz was the big power pitcher I would want in a 7th game. 

Flash-forward to 2009 and John Smoltz is on the hated Red Sox. I can't root for him anymore. So there's a little bias in this statement, but: how the heck has John Smoltz been good?

FanGraphs says that Smoltz is fine and I should ignore the record and ERA (that was before his last start). Orel Hershiser thinks we should just expect that he's going to turn it around. I'm sorry, but why?

Smoltz has 7 starts this season and has gone 2-4 with a 7.12 ERA and WHIP of 1.500. He's given up 12.3 H/9 and 1.5 HR/9 which are both highs for a season for Smoltz. And the level of competition hasn't exactly been fierce (he's pitched against only one semi-decent team), here are his starts so far:

• June 25 - L @ the Nationals - 5 IP, 7 hits, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO, 1 HBP (fine...it's his first start. Needs a start to get out the kinks)
• June 30 - ND @ the Orioles - 4 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO (pitched OK, but only 4 IP and this is the game that bullpen imploded so they needed the innings from him)
• July 6 - L vs the Athletics - 6 IP, 10 hits, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO (longest outing of the season so far, but not much to show for it)
• July 11 - W vs the Royals - 5 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO, 1 HBP (best outing of the season, but easier to win when your team gives you 15 runs of support)
• July 20 -  L @ the Rangers - 5.2 IP, 9 hits, 6 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 3 HR (he didn't walk anybody...?)
• July 26 - L vs. the Orioles - 5 IP, 9 hits, 6 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, 1 HR (Ummm...?)
• July 31 - W @ the Orioles - 6 IP, 8 hits, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 2 HR, 1 HBP (He got the W, but this can't be considered a well-pitched game)

Now I'm probably jinxing the guy right before he comes to face the Yankees (not a good decision by me, I know). And I know, by his history, that you should never count John Smoltz out. But how is this considered pitching well? If Daisuke Matsuzaka stops fighting with the Red Sox (as reported by the Boston Globe) and comes back from his rehab, I wonder if the BoSox will try to transition Smoltz to the 'pen. With Victor Martinez now in the lineup, the team should score enough to get him a few wins in the rotation. But with a 7.12 ERA, if John Smoltz is doing well, then Sergio Mitre ain't so bad after all.

 

(picture via ESPN/Getty Images)

ESPN's 30 Over 30 Middle Infield

Every Monday we've been reviewing ESPN Mobile's 30 over 30, a vote of the best baseball players of the past 30 years, coinciding with ESPN's 30th anniversary. So far for ESPN's 30 over 30, we've looked at Catcher and Designated Hitter and First Base and Third Base. Today we'll look at the middle infielders:

 

Second base:

• Roberto Alomar - .300/.371/.443, 10400 PA, 1508 runs, 2724 hits, 794 XBH, 210 HR, 1134 RBI, 1032 BB, 1140 SO, 116 OPS+
• Craig Biggio - .281/.363/.433, 12503 PA, 1844 runs, 3060 hits, 1014 XBH, 291 HR, 1175 RBI, 1160 BB, 1753 SO, 111 OPS+
• Jeff Kent - .290/.356/.500, 9537 PA, 1320 runs, 2461 hits, 984 XBH, 377 HR, 1518 RBI, 801 BB, 1522 SO, 123 OPS+
• Ryne Sandberg - .285/.344/.452, 9282 PA, 1318 runs, 2386 hits, 761 XBH, 282 HR, 1061 RBI, 761 BB, 1260 SO, 114 OPS+
• Lou Whitaker - .276/.363/.431, 9363 PA, 1310 runs, 2223 hits, 706 XBH, 241 HR, 1024 RBI, 1132 BB, 1028 SO, 118 OPS+

Roberto Alomar will be a really interesting Hall of Fame candidate. Before his trade to the Mets, he was a sure-fire, first-ballot Hall of Famer. He was an All Star for 12 straight years, won 10 gold gloves, came in top 6 in the MVP voting 5 times, and was regarded as the best second baseman in the game. He also had tremendous speed with 474 career stolen bases to only 114 CS Then Steve Phillips traded for him and he forgot how to play baseball. From the time he joined the AL in 1991 until he left in 2001, Alomar had a .313/.389/.477 line with 1,892 hits, 168 home runs and 356 stolen bases. He fizzled out by 2004 and his post-baseball life has been a mess. 

Craig Biggio will be one of the quietest Hall Of Famers in recent memory. He leads all second basemen over the past 30 years in almost every category listed above except for HR and RBI (second in both to Jeff Kent). He was a member of the "Killer B's" and that gave him some protection in the lineup but for 20 seasons with Houston, all the guy did was hit. I know it was the steroids era, but I think 3,000 hits still gets you into the Hall. He's 5th all time in doubles and 13th all time in runs scored. And despite being second all-time in HBP, he was amazingly durable, too: he's 15th all time in games played, 12th in ABs and 10th in PAs.

The Mets traded for Jeff Kent in 1992 for David Cone. It could have gone down as one of the greater trade deadline acquisitions had the Mets not turned around and traded him to Cleveland in 1996 for Carlos Baerga and Alvaro Espinoza. Later that season, the Indians would also give up on him, trading him in a package to the Giants for Matt Williams. Kent would spend 6 years in San Francisco and hit .297/.368/.535 and averaged 32 HR and 124 RBI per 162 games. Not bad a for a second baseman. He would win the MVP in 2000, amidst a greatly crowded field. No second baseman had nearly as many HR as Kent (Rogers Hornsby is next with 301).

If Ryne Sandberg never played for the Cubs, would he have made the Hall of Fame? The Phillies traded Sandberg and Larry Bowa in 1982 to the Cubs for Ivan DeJesus. Why would they do this? I don't know DeJesus was coming off a season in which he hit .194/.276/.233 and hit no home runs. Sandberg won the MVP in 1984 and never looked back, averaging .295/.357/.484 and 24 HR, 27 SB, and 29 2B a season from 1984-1992. His best season came in 1990 where Sandberg led the league in runs, HR, and TB with a OPS+ of 140. He was never the same hitter, though, after 1992 (when he was 32) and was definitely elected to the Hall of Fame on his pre-1993 accomplishments.

"Sweet" Lou Whitaker missed out on 1+ years with the 1979 cutoff, including his Rookie of the Year win in 1978. Whitaker is always one who gets debated amongst Hall voters. He only made 5 All Star Games and in 19 seasons in Detroit, never led the American League in one offensive category. Whitaker, Sandberg, and Alomar all have very similar stat lines that compare to Alan Trammell (Whitaker's double play partner), Barry Larkin, and Joe Morgan.

Missing from this list? Chase Utley (who has only 3578 PA but leads all second-basemen in ESPN Era with a .909 OPS) and Alfonso Soriano (who doesn't play 2B anymore, but has an OPS ahead of Alomar, Biggio, Sandberg or Whitaker and will soon pass Biggio in HR)

Special mention: Bobby Grich (had OPS ahead of Alomar, Biggio, Sandberg or Whitaker in the last 30 years)

My winners and runners up: My winner is Craig Biggio with Jeff Kent edging himself out from the rest of the crowd as the runner up

 

Shortstop:

• Derek Jeter - .316/.387/.548, 9561 PA, 1536 runs, 2669 hits, 706 XBH, 217 HR, 1046 RBI, 861 BB, 1429 SO, 121 OPS+
• Barry Larkin - .295/.371/.444, 9057 PA, 1329 runs, 2340 hits, 715 XBH, 198 HR, 960 RBI, 939 BB, 817 SO, 116 OPS+
• Cal Ripken - .276/.340/.447, 12883 PA, 1647 runs, 3184 hits, 1078 XBH, 431 HR, 1695 RBI, 1129 BB, 1305 SO, 112 OPS+
• Ozzie Smith - .262/.339/.329, 10110 PA, 1188 runs, 2308 hits, 475 XBH, 27 HR, 747 RBI, 1025 BB, 546 SO, 87 OPS+
• Omar Vizquel - .273/.338/.355, 11198 PA, 1374 runs, 2686 hits, 581 XBH, 77 HR, 900 RBI, 974 BB, 992 SO, 83 OPS+
• Robin Yount - .290/.352/.451, 9380 PA, 1326 runs, 2425 hits, 793 XBH, 225 HR, 1154 RBI, 818 BB, 1043 SO, 122 OPS+

I have a little bias having watched Derek Jeter since he came up as a 21-year-old in 1995. He has to get extra points for being near the top of a ton of post-season categories too including most post-season hits. But he also is on pace to really move up the all-time hits list. Barring injury or slump, he should finish this season ahead of Lou Gehrig and Tony Perez on the all-time hits list and with 300 steals. And he should be close to 3,000 hits near June of 2011. Many though that last year my be a sign he was slowing down but he's bounced back again this season and still does not have a full season with an OPS+ under 101. Only one of the "Holy Trinity of Shortstops" to still be playing the position as Nomar and A-Rod have been moved elsewhere.

Barry Larkin was a 12-time All-Star and played his entire career in Cincinnati. He won the 1995 MVP and had 379 career steals. Injuries may be what keeps him out of the running for this (and maybe out of the Hall of Fame as well) as he had only 4 seasons of 150 games or more. Has the highest OPS of any non-Trinity member, though.

I know this is going to get under the skin of some people, but I think Cal Ripken Jr's "Iron Man" streak is one of the most overrated ever. He was an elite player in this league through his MVP in 1991. After that? I think he hurt his team. I will go into this more in a future post, but after hitting .323/.374/.566 with 34 HR and 114 RBI and a 162 OPS+ to win the MVP, he had 7 seasons out the next 10 where he was a below average hitter and only one season where he was above average. And his defense at SS suffered so much that I think his refusal to allow his team to rest him or move him off of the position cost his team a World Series in the mid-90s. In the end, that means his consecutive game streak just helped to increase his reputation, not allow his team to win. I guess I needed some harsh words for someone who is so glorified by so many and I think needs to be knocked down a peg or two.

Ozzie Smith (AKA "The Wizard of Oz") is in the Hall of Fame because of his defense, not his bat. Although he missed out on his rookie season (because it was in 1978) where he stole 40 bases, he still finished the 30 years with 540 SB which is really good. Otherwise, nothing offensively puts Ozzie near the rest of the group. I mean Neifi Perez has a better OPS and more HR.

Omar Vizquel is also on the list solely for his glove. Although he did rack up 2686 hits, the guy has an adjusted OPS worse than Ozzie's and only once (1999) had a season that can be considered above average. He's on here for his glove alone as he won 11 Gold Gloves, though some of the later ones he won on reputation alone.

I'm not sure how Robin Yount is a shortstop in this system but A-Rod is not. Yount was a full-time OF by 1985. Still, if we consider him on this list, he fares pretty well. He won two MVPs in this stretch and has more XBH than Jeter or Larkin. His biggest problem is that he had played 5 years before 1979 started...oh, and that he wasn't a shortstop anymore by the time ESPN came around.

Missing from this list: Alex Rodriguez (played over 60% of his games at SS and, hate him or love him, he is one of the greatest players ever) and Nomar Garciaparra (his peak was short, but he was one of the top players in the game from his rookie year in 1997 until 2003, averaging .325/.372/.557)

Special mention: Miguel Tejada (280 career HR, 2002 MVP) and Alan Trammell (above average SS throughout 80s)

My winners and runners up: I know he won't win, but my winner is A-Rod followed by Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken, and, if you consider him a SS, Robin Yount (if not, Larkin)

 

Update: The winners are posted. At second base, Ryne Sandberg and Roberto Alomar just edged out Craig Biggio. At shortstop, Cal Ripken, Jr. blew away the rest with 41.5% of the vote with Ozzie Smith barely edging out Derek Jeter for second. The fact the Derek Jeter and the Craig Biggio weren't in the top two for their positions are pretty awful, but that's one of the downfalls of mobile voting.

Next week: the outfield

Melky Hits For Cycle, Moves Tony Fernandez Into Yankee Oblivion

My dad and I both hated it: for 14 years, every time they would talk about someone going for a cycle in a Yankees broadcast or had a trivia question about it on the radio, the answer was always Tony Fernandez. The Yankees signed Fernandez in 1995 to be a one-year stopgap until top prospect Derek Jeter was ready to man shortstop. Fernandez would be a 5-time All-Star who hit the Yankees really hard, but in his one year in the Bronx, he had his worst season in the Majors with a .245/.322/.346 line. The Yankees would go down in a painful ALDS loss to the Mariners and Fernandez would go down as one of my least favorite Yankees ever.

Melky Cabrera changed that today. He became the 15th Yankee to hit for the cycle. Before Fernandez (9/3/95), the last six Yankees to hit for the cycle were Bobby Murcer (8/29/72), Mickey Mantle (7/23/57), Joe DiMaggio (5/20/48) and Joe Gordon (9/8/40). Amazingly, Bobby Murcer's cycle only came with one RBI.

Melky's today led to a big Yankees' win. If you thought you were turning this game on to see a pitching duel, you were sorely mistaken. CC Sabathia was not great, but got the win. Mark Buehrle came off of his Major League record streak of 45-straight batters retired, and got hit hard by the Yankees.

But the biggest hitter of all was Melky Cabrera who got it started early with the 3-run home run and ended it late with a triple that led to a big insurance run. Melky had all of the Yankees extra base hits in the game. Melky said in his post-game interview with Kimberly Jones of YES that he would have gone for third even if he would have gotten out. That's not really what you want to hear, but it was good to see how excited Melky was after the triple. He worked himself back into the starting lineup this season and has been hitting really well recently (.819 OPS in July).

This was a big win for the Yankees. They need to get back on a roll with Boston coming in to the Bronx this week. Hopefully this is the first step in that process.

(picture from the AP)