Tag Archives: baseball

Yes, there are some long-dead white guys who still belong in the Hall of Fame

Posted on by
1

Today, the Veteran’s Committee once again failed to induct anybody. This year, it was the “Pre-Integration Era” panel doing the voting. That in itself is a bit of a problem, as (despite the name) it only focuses on the white portion of the pre-integration days, under the logic that Sol White and other deadball-era Negro Leaguers went in during a special election. This, along with the fact that these guys are long, long dead, have made some people call for the end of this “era” in the Hall of Fame voting.

I can definitely see the reasoning, and it definitely needs to be changed, but the idea that everyone from the ancient days of baseball who is worthy is in the Hall of Fame is flawed. Yes, 95% of fans would have no idea who they are, but that isn’t a reason not to include them.

For example:

  • Doc Adams helped make baseball as we know it…. baseball as we know it. He even created the position of shortstop. Him not being in the Hall of Fame is sad, a result of not having good publicists like Alexander Cartwright had and more research coming into focus over the years after the time where there would have been people who remembered him.
  • Bill Dahlen had a 42-game hit streak, was among the leaders in most offensive categories at his retirement, and was one of the better defensive shortstops of his day.
  • Wes Ferrell, one of the few players on the Pre-Integration Ballot who was entirely in the 20th century, has one of the best JAWS scores by pitchers not in the Hall of Fame, and also has the record for most HRs by a pitcher in a career (non-Babe Ruth category, obviously).
  • Harry Stovey was one of the few players of the 19th century who could be called a power-hitter, hitting 122 career HRs, becoming the first player in history to have 100, and at one point holding the single-season HR mark (with 14).
  • And, finally, there’s Pete Browning. Pete Browning is like my pet overlooked 19th-century ballplayer. Browning’s career .341 batting average is 13th overall, and was one of the greatest hitters of the American Association and the short-lived Players League. Also, he is indirectly responsible for the creation of the Louisville Slugger, as he went to Hillerich and Bradsby for custom-made bats after one of Hillerich’s bats helped him break out of a hitting slump in 1884. Browning, amazingly, didn’t even appear in the latest VC ballot. This- and the fact he isn’t in already- probably came about because his best years came in the American Association and Player’s League, not the National League, and history, as they say, is written by the victors.

 

So, I say get those guys in… and then drastically change how this is done:

  • Make it open to Negro Leaguers as well. Yes, the 2006 inductions did a great job bringing in some of the older Negro League greats from before integration, but there is no reason why they shouldn’t still be considered.
  • Make this committee a less-common occurrence. Have it every six years, instead of every three years. Allow the “Golden Era” and “Expansion Era” votes be more common to make up for the difference.
  • Either make the committee entirely made up of just experts of the era, or have a slightly lower threshold for election.

So, yeah, that’s what I think.

How I voted in the @IBWAA elections in 2015

Posted on by
1

At the end of the regular season, the International Baseball Writers Association of America, of which I am a member, asked for people’s votes in their year-end awards.

Starting on November 15, the winners of those awards will be revealed. So, in advance of that, here’s how I voted:

Relief Pitchers:

AL:

  1. Dellin Betances
  2. Wade Davis
  3. Cody Allen

Reasoning: Although he was not usually the closer for the Yankees, Betances was the definition of shutdown as a reliever this year, with a 1.50 ERA and 131 strikeouts in 84 IP. Davis and Allen were more traditional closers and were, obviously, among the best this year. I have to admit I can’t remember exactly why I had Davis above Allen or Zach Britton, so maybe it was a precognition of how he’d do in the postseason.

NL:

  1. Aroldis Chapman
  2. Trevor Rosenthal
  3. Jeurys Familia

Aroldis Chapman had the best WAR on Fangraphs of NL relievers and continues to one of the must-see closers in the league. Rosenthal and Familia also put up great numbers.

Rookies of the Year:

AL:

  1. Carlos Correa
  2. Francisco Lindor
  3. Miguel Sano

A tough fight between Correa and Lindor, made even harder by the fact they had the same number of games played (99) and were close in at-bats as well, allowing for a nearly even sample size to compare the two. I went with Correa due to his better power numbers and the better general impression I got from watching him compared to Lindor, but it very easily could have gone the other way.

NL:

  1. Kris Bryant
  2. Matt Duffy
  3. Jung-Ho Kang

Who knows how this could have been different if Kang had not been injured?

Managers of the Year:

AL:

  1. Jeff Banister
  2. A.J. Hinch
  3. Paul Molitor

The two managers in Texas were able to bring their teams to the playoffs despite the fact most thought otherwise, an Paul Molitor got the Twins into the final weekend of the regular season with their playoff hopes alive despite the fact that everyone thought otherwise.

NL:

  1. Joe Maddon
  2. Terry Collins
  3. Mike Matheny

Both the Cubs and Mets overachieved this season, and the Cardinals had the best regular season record in baseball. We may never know how much the managers contributed to that, but they must have done something right.

Cy Youngs:

AL:

  1. David Price
  2. Dallas Keuchel
  3. Chris Sale
  4. Sonny Gray
  5. Corey Kluber

Price had the highest Fangraphs WAR in the AL among pitchers, was among the strikeout leaders, and was a key cog for the Blue Jays after the trade deadline. Keuchel won 20 games (which doesn’t matter much, but is fun to mention), had the best Baseball Reference WAR, and was the ace of the Astros staff. Either would have been great picks, but I leaned towards Price. Sale (who is proof that W-L is not the best indicator of how well a player pitched), Gray and Kluber round out my top five.

NL:

  1. Jake Arrieta
  2. Zack Greinke
  3. Clayton Kershaw
  4. Max Scherzer
  5. Madison Bumgarner

This was ridiculous. A guy who threw two no-hitters and came close at other times is FOURTH. Ultimately, I went with Arrieta, but any of the top three would have a great claim to it.

MVP:

AL:

  1. Mike Trout
  2. Josh Donaldson
  3. Manny Machado
  4. David Price
  5. Lorenzo Cain
  6. Jose Bautista
  7. Kevin Kiermaier
  8. Nelson Cruz
  9. Dallas Keuchel
  10. Miguel Cabrera

This was a push. I gave Trout a slight edge due to his better WAR, slugging and OPS, but I won’t be complaining if Donaldson wins, either.

NL:

  1. Bryce Harper
  2. Joey Votto
  3. Paul Goldschmidt
  4. Kris Bryant
  5. Jake Arrieta
  6. A.J. Pollock
  7. Zack Greinke
  8. Clayton Kershaw
  9. Andrew McCutchen
  10. Buster Posey

The easiest category. When it came to being valuable this year, there was Bryce Harper, and then there was everybody else. He had a .5 advantage in Fangraphs war over the second-best fWar in baseball (Mike Trout) and a 2.1 advantage over Goldschmidt, the next best fWar in the NL. He led all baseball in OBP, SLG and (obviously) OPS. He was tied for the NL lead in HR and was second in the NL in batting average. He was the best player in baseball. Enough said.

Famous for Something Else: Danny Kanell

Posted on by
Reply

A College Football analyst and radio co-host on ESPN who had started at QB for Florida State and who played in the NFL and Arena Football League (usually as a back-up), Danny Kanell was drafted in the 24th round of the 1995 Draft by the Yankees. While he would go on to choose football, he later would have a brief stint in independent ball in 2001 for Newark of the Atlantic League:

Year Age AgeDif Tm Lg Lev G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
2001 27 -1.5 Newark ATLL Ind 25 79 76 11 18 2 2 1 6 2 1 3 24 .237 .266 .355 .621 27 2 0 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/3/2015.

Kanell remains somewhat involved with baseball at ESPN, occasionally commenting on games during his appearances and sometimes even serving as a color commentator for college baseball games on the networks of ESPN.

The Offseason at The Baseball Continuum: Bizarre Baseball Culture, Breaking OOTP, WBC, Features, Blogathon?

Posted on by
Reply

With the postseason over (ironically, the World Series MVP, Salvador Perez, didn’t actually win the Mr. October of any games in the World Series, he was just consistently good), it’s now time to go over what will be going on here at the Baseball Continuum during the offseason.  For the most part, it will be stuff I’ve been meaning to do, but which I have been unable to do so due to lack of time, other commitments, or simply because I forgot. In general, there might not be as many posts during the offseason, but the posts that will happen will on average be of a higher quality and longer length.

  • By the end of the week, you can expect a new Bizarre Baseball Culture, which will be a weird “Ultimate Sports Force” comic involving the early-aughts Cleveland Indians.
  • The new Breaking OOTP, long in development, will be Mario characters vs. Backyard Baseball characters. It should be out by the end of next week, unless I get so sucked into Fallout 4 that I just jump straight into doing a Bizarre Baseball Culture on it’s apparently surprisingly-high level of baseball elements.
  • Lookbacks at old Rochester Red Wings programs.
  • I’ll have my first World Baseball Classic roster projection for Team USA (and, later, Team Dominican). Of course, it’s a long while before the 2017 tournament so it likely will end up being vastly different, but that’s part of the fun, I guess. Expect these within the coming weeks, certainly before the end of November. You can also expect WBC News Updates when applicable.
  • There will be both Famous For Something Else installments (with one today!) and a new feature, Somebody Related To Somebody Famous For Something Else. Those features are basically what you’d think they are.
  • There will, of course, continue to be “Wisdom and Links” at Hall of Very Good.
  • You can expect some SABR-related stuff as well, such as “first references” in Sporting News and such.
  • During the Winter Meetings, if time allows, I’ll do the “Winter Meetings Tweets Of The Day” again.
  • And, of course, you never know what else might pop-up. I’m considering, for example, possibly doing a “Blogathon”, in the tradition of Michael Clair’s old “Old Time Family Baseball” blogathons that he did for charity. I’ll let you all know a bit about that later, maybe.

So stay tuned!

FALLOUT 4 BASEBALL UPDATE: “Big Leagues” Microteaser

Posted on by
2

Note: The following may have minor spoilers about Fallout 4.

Like many gamers, I am eagerly awaiting the release of Fallout 4, the latest in the line of quasi-50s retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic action-adventure RPGs. Heck, I’ve even splurged for the collector’s edition! But it’s not just the opportunity to fight post-nuclear abominations that have me hyped… it’s also due to the fact that this installment of Fallout will be in Boston and will feature a society (“Diamond City”) that lives in a post-apocalyptic Fenway Park.

However, it appears that Bethesda Game Studios, the creators of this installment of the series, have gone even further, and baseball will actually be a part of the game. Take a look at this leaked achievement (you can get achievements for doing special things in-game):

Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 11.04.35 AM

Yes, apparently, you can hit a homer in Fallout 4 (there’s also an achievement for scoring a touchdown, but this is a baseball blog).

And, what’s more, Bethesda has gotten into the World Series spirit by tweeting this out:

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

It appears that there will be a special “perk”, called “Big Leagues”, which will make it easier for you to use baseball bats and other “melee” weapons in combat, perhaps leading to what the game describes as a chance to “grand slam their head clean off!”. Needless to say, this game is rated M for Mature.

Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 11.12.36 AM

I want that vault-boy baseball uniform to wear for Halloween next year. Assuming, of course, I don’t just go with the BASEBALL ARMOR THAT IS IN THE GAME:

Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 11.14.13 AM

And, say, look behind the vault-dweller here. It looks like while the Green Monster itself has some holes in it, the hand-operated scoreboard still exists in the Fallout Universe, and there was a AL East, which is somewhat surprising since in the Fallout Universe most cultural progress (music, television, fashion, car design, etc.) ended around 1960, so I would have thought that they never would have implemented divisions in baseball there and oh-my-god-I’m-considering-the-pre-apocalyptic-baseball-set-up-of-a-fictional-post-apocalyptic-video-game-universe-this-is-the-geekiest-thing-I’ve-ever-done.

Oh, and the guards of Diamond City look like catchers or umpires, albeit ones wearing helmets that look like they just walked off the set of a Mad Max movie:

Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 11.18.38 AM

I wonder what other sort of baseball references they will have in Fallout 4? Will some Red Sox greats have voice roles (don’t laugh, Wayne Newton did voicework in the game that was set in Las Vegas)? Will there be a big friendly green monster named Wally who lives in Diamond City? Apparently the plot involves your character being put in a cryogenic freeze, so maybe they will make a Ted Williams joke?

Time will tell. Time will tell.

IT CAME FROM MLB.COM AUCTIONS: The Tigers’ Snack Container

Posted on by
Reply

Due to freelance duties, there will be no “Headlines From Around The Continuum” today. However, to make up for it, I bring you another weird internet baseball auction! To be more specific, this one isn’t on eBay, but from MLB.com’s own auction site. I present to you, the 2015 Frito Lay Snack Container from the Detroit Tigers Dugout!

Screen Shot 2015-10-17 at 9.38.46 AM

Yes, you can own a snack container that may have been grabbed-from by Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, pre-trade Yoenis Cespedes and David Price, and Jose Iglesias! Just think of the sesame seeds taken from this container that were then chewed by such greatness! If not for the insane 15 dollars shipping, I would surely be first in line to bid for this piece of baseball history*!

I mean, yeah, you could be going after the jersey that Jose Bautista was wearing when he unleashed the Bat-Flip of the Gods, but that’s just one player! This snack container represents the history of an entire (last-place) team!

Bid now!

 

*No, no I wouldn’t. It’s a freaking snack container. This entire thing is tongue-in-cheek, as you probably figured out.

Nothing good can happen tonight in Mets-Dodgers

Posted on by
Reply

(The following is about 90% sarcastic. I hope.)

Given that Chase Utley is going to be eligible, here are a few possibilities of what could happen tonight:

Scenario One: Nothing.

Utley doesn’t play. There are boos and stuff during the pre-game and during the game, but no retaliation is done and it more-or-less is uneventful. However, this just means that the bad stuff will happen later. This is the least-bad scenario.

Scenario Two: The Mets Go Bad

The Mets are America’s darlings right now and most everyone is feeling for them after what happened. However, imagine if tonight Chase Utley doesn’t play, but the Mets go for their vengeance anyway. Perhaps they do a hard slide against a Dodgers middle-infielder, or decide that Adrian Gonzalez would make a nice substitute for Utley at the plate? Then, all the sudden the Mets look like just as big of bullies as the Dodgers, and while the home crowd will eat it up, almost everyone else will be disgusted.

Scenario Three: The Carousel of Boos

Utley plays, but doesn’t do much at the plate or in the field and the Mets don’t retaliate either. He just hears very loud boos all night long. One of the least-bad scenarios.

Scenario Four: Taken Vengeance

This scenario is simple: Harvey or another Mets pitcher pegs Chase Utley with a pitch. Maybe they get thrown out, maybe they don’t. Whatever happens, though, Utley just walks to first, knowing that he deserved that. The score more-or-less settled, the game goes on.

Scenario Five: Throwdown in Flushing

Like the above scenario, except Utley, possessed by some strange demon, charges the mound. Low-level fisticuffs are had, people’s mothers are insulted, there is pushing and shoving, and both Utley and the pitcher who hit him is sent to the showers, perhaps with other players as well. It’s a bad look for MLB and the two teams.

Scenario Six: Doomsday

You’d think the above would be the worst scenario. You would be wrong. Here’s the worst scenario:

Utley plays. In his first AB, he homers or does some other big play that scores runs for the the Dodgers. The fans are incensed, especially because they believe he should have been suspended. Things are thrown on the field, the game is delayed for a time, security is heightened.

And then things get worse. The Dodgers start to go nuts at the plate, running up the score. And then, during his second AB, Utley gets beaned. All hell breaks loose. The benches clear, the bullpens empty, actual punches are thrown. In the chaos, fans who have been drinking for most of the day (it’s Columbus Day and some will have been off, after all) begin to rush the field. NYPD and stadium security is hapless as anarchy descends upon CitiField. Bartolo Colon throws a trident. One player is caught on camera knocking out a drunk with one punch. Mr. Met’s head inexplicably ends up on eBay.

When the dust finally settles, the game is called and the Mets forfeit Game 3, leading to outright soccer-style rioting outside of the stadium that eventually leads to the Mets also forfeiting Game 4 and thus the series. The entire incident goes down in history as the ugliest fan moment in baseball history since at least Disco Demolition Night.

 

—

So, yeah, this could ugly.

The Best Unofficial Baseball Shirts for Postseason Teams!

Posted on by
2

Last month’s look at unofficial and unlicensed baseball shirts was a big hit, even being picked up by SI.com’s Extra Mustard. So, since I’m never the type to quit while I’m ahead, I’ll do another. So, with the postseason starting tomorrow, here are the best unofficial and/or unlicensed (or, in extreme circumstances, just plain cool) t-shirts for those teams. Click the links to be brought to the stores that are selling them.

(Note: Some of these are not technically unofficial, but are rather licensed by individual players or the Hall of Fame. You’ll see, for example, a HOF Reggie Jackson shirt that conspicuously doesn’t have any Yankees logos on it.)

(GO BELOW THE JUMP FOR MORE)

Continue reading →

SATURDAY: BREAKING OOTP brings MARIO to the MARINERS

Aside

On Saturday at 1:30 PM Eastern, a new BREAKING OOTP will go up.

What is it about this week?

Well, put simply, it is a simulation of a world where the Nintendo-owned Seattle Mariners were able to use Nintendo characters in their lineup, each given attributes derived from the Mario baseball games.

While it doesn’t break OOTP, it certainly is fun. So make sure to read it when it goes up!