31 thoughts on “Baseball Thread.”

  1. Why isn’t Jorge Posada batting third for the Yanks? Does Pedro’s 3.86 ERA mean he’s done? (Did he need enhancements to keep his slender frame from exploding under the stress of 95 MPH fastballs?) Does Billy Beane get lots of credit actually due to whoever picked up Hudson, Zito, and Mulder?

  2. Barry Bonds thinks he’s Ted Williams…or better. The Bosox are getting it done without Nomar. Pedro’s ERA, less one bad,cold-weather start, is exceptional. For steroids to have an effect? One has to actually lift weights rigorously. Pedro? Never did. A-Rod is starting to come around (dammit).
    Sox-Evil Empire again this weekend? Life is good.

  3. Didn’t Pedro come into camp +10 pounds of muscle last year? Would he be even better if he had taken a Clemens approach to life? Arod’s at .206, there’s a lot of around to come. Of course the games aren’t on in the Bay Area…
    Wouldn’t you take current Barry over Ted?

  6. Beane is (one of) the persons who drafted Hudson, Mulder, and Zito. He was the Asst GM at the time they were drafted and deserves at least part of the credit for choosing them. But regardless of that, lots of GMs have drafted lots of good pitchers and gotten nothing from them. Beane deserves much more credit for establishing an environment where pitchers stay healthy and progress and for choosing managers who will not abuse them. I’d personally like to see the person who put Dusty Baker in charge of the Cubs young rotation put before a firing squad, except I’m an Astros fan and will get a small amount of perverse pleasure along with the pain of seeing their elbows/shoulders pop.

  8. GO Sox!
    Hasn’t New York suffered enough? I mean Boston has being the state represented by Kerry to cheer it up. What have we got? Oh yeah, Hillary…
    Go Sox!!!

  9. I really think that the reason that my Giants are doing so poorly isn’t the unseasonably rainy weather, the park’s name change to SBC or even the broken down AAA-level talent Sabean’s got playing right, first and short this year. Nope, the real problem is the prevalence of Red Sox attire being worn to games by bandwagon fans. I mean, in years past we had the talent and the mojo to ward off such crap, but the popularity of the Bosox gear has caused an overload of their nasty luck to collect at our beautiful park. Unfortunately, it’s sure to only get worse as the Sox come to play in late May. Hopefully a sweep of those mirror-breaking, black cat owning, ladder walking under, jinxmen will remove the hex in time for us to catch the Dodgers…….of all people.
    😉
    Barry over Ted? In a heartbeat.

  10. Barry over Ted? In a heartbeat.
    Not so fast. Let us not forget that Bonds is doing his thing in the most offensively oriented time in Baseball history. Is it astounding? Yes. Is it unprecedented when compared to what others were doing at the same time? Not even close. Was Bonds a far better outfielder, baserunner and thrower than Williams? Yes. A better hitter? Nope. Williams with his five years back would have something like 700 HR’s and 3500 hits along with his 344 average and alltime best OBP, in an ers when scoring was FAR lower than today. Of courswe, Bonds is still working it.

  11. Agreed spc67, but they pitched to ole Teddy didn’t they?
    Wed. night in SF with leads of 7-0 and 8-0 and no men on (once while leading off) the San Diego Madres walked him on 4 straight pitches. Not fun.

  13. As spec67 points out, the only way to compare players from different eras is to judge them in comparison to their own. Which is why The Babe is still the man on top. But I think Bonds’ performance at the moment is quite close to unprecedented. No one has done what he has done and is doing now. If so, who? And while I don’t have the numbers at my disposal, I’m willing to bet that Williams, great as he was, had plenty of company during his era, players who one might judge as comparable.
    Nobody’s playing the game like Barry right now. Nobody.

  14. Agreed spc67, but they pitched to ole Teddy didn’t they?
    Led the league in walks many, many times. Would be all-time walks king except for 5 lost seasons due to military service. Lost a batting title because of walks, then they changed the criterion from AB’s to plate appearences.
    Harley’s dead on about the Babe.

  15. Just for the record, Williams won the Triple Crown Twice, came very close two other times. Barry Bonds hasn’t come close ever.

  16. Bonds is a juiced-up crybaby. And Giants fans are mostly a bunch of quiche-eating, wine-spritzer, Yuppie-types.
    We like the amazing A’s around here– blue-collar, gutsy-types. Reggie ….Rickey … McGwire.
    Hudson’s gonna win the CY Young this year — nobody can touch him.
    Let’s Go A’s!

  17. Note that Ruth didn’t have that many competitors – you have to expect big fluctuations in a small sample – and he apparently _got_ baseball in a way that others didn’t. When Gehrig showed up Babe wasn’t incomparable (1.080 OPS in 17 seasons vs 1.160 in 22 seasons). Of course Gehrig didn’t have a record of 94-47.
    I suspect Williams got a lot of marginal calls – ditto for Joltin’ Joe etc. I can still see Michael Jordan judoing his defender away to make the last shot of the ’98 championship.

  18. Here are some stats Williams vs. Bonds
    Led league in Batting average: TW-6, BB-1
    Led league OBP: TW-12, BB-8
    Led league slugging:TW-9, BB-6
    Led leagueRuns scored:TW-6, BB-1
    Led league Total Bases: TW-6, BB-2
    Led League Home Runs: TW-4, BB-2
    Led League BB: TW-8, BB-9
    While Bonds is still on top? Williams was more dominant a hitter.

  20. Navy, when the A’s move into a real baseball stadium in San Jose I’ll start showing up. Oh yeah, and when they have some $$ to put into their team so I can remember from year to year what their lineup is.

  21. Rikefan,
    The Giants won’t let them move to Silcon Valley — they have the territorial rights for the South Bay
    As for the A’s stadium,……AARGHHHHHH. It is so God-awful ugly, due to those modifications for Raider football. UGGGGLY!
    But, I still love the green and gold!
    BTW, Williams was the greatest hitter, but woefully bad in every other department. As per Joe Dimaggio, “the guy runs like a pregnant yak and throws like a broad” I may have butchered the quote but its from the recent Cramer book on Joe D.
    Let’s Go A’s.

  22. Ok, so the top WinShares/Comparative WS (Bill James’s metric, combines hitting and fielding):
    WS CWS
    Babe Ruth 756 536
    Ty Cobb 722 491
    Honus Wagner 655 488
    Bonds 611 476
    Mickey Mantle 565 456
    Willie Mays 642 453
    Tris Speaker 630 451
    Ted Williams 555 450
    Stan Musial 604 438
    Eddie Collins 574 433
    Lou Gehrig 489 433
    Rogers Hornsby 502 431
    Hank Aaron 643 420
    Scaling Williams up to make up for missing time would put him ahead of Bonds. Of course Bonds isn’t done.

  23. Great numbers Rilke, thanks. Some list. I’m surprised Aaron and Gehrig are as low as they are. Ruth still has nearly a 10% gap over the next guy. Amazing.

  24. And Giants fans are mostly a bunch of quiche-eating, wine-spritzer, Yuppie-types.
    Well since we’re painting with broad strokes, my understanding is that every A’s fan is out on parole or work-release.
    We like the amazing A’s around here– blue-collar, gutsy-types The few, the proud, the soon to be signed elsewhere.
    Let’s Go A’s! To the second round of the playoffs for a change.

  25. On Williams, those five years lost to military service wasn’t a situation where Teddy Ballgame played baseball for the military. He flew combat in a fighter, so give him one or two years lost to his prime.
    On Bonds and his era, what is unusual with Bonds is the backloading of his numbers. That may simply reflect economics, diluted pitching or something else but wasn’t there some questions about Bonds before SF signed him to his last long term contract?

  27. I’ve got to send this shot out. During the White Sox Devil Rays game, Hawk just stated, I’ve got to send a shot out to J.B. Mariotti, that stands for Jason Blair and Jack Kelly. ROTF happened in reality in this household. It’s rare that politics and sports cross, but when it does it can be fun.
    Seriously, Go Pale Hose. On the Williams thing, the most serious question is will Bonds break 400. And for comparing era’s, this is the age of the big ball, but nobody has hit 400 since Teddy Ballgame. If Bonds does it, that makes him #2 all time in my book, BALCO or no BALCO. Steroids don’t help you with base hits.

  28. 11-2? Take that, Pinstriped Evil Empire fans. We’re 10 and 6, and that’s with having to play 5 games against Darth Steinbrenner’s forces.
    As for Pedro, he can clearly be counted among the best pitchers in the game; let’s not forget that in that fateful 8th inning in Game 7 last year, he was nearly 120 pitches in.
    And with Ramirez, Ortiz, Varitek, and Mueller, the Sox are fielding a terrific team this year.

  29. Whatever happened to that baseball dude you hired, Moe?
    He got a job working for the Baltimore Orioles, and I’ve thereby been too swamped with everything to even look at blogs for several weeks. 🙂
    Fear not, there will eventually be some baseball blogposts… but I’m up to my ears in stuff that I’m trying to scan through to get caught up!

  30. “He got a job working for the Baltimore Orioles, and I’ve thereby been too swamped with everything to even look at blogs for several weeks.”
    DUDE! Way cool! 🙂
    Still, say something next time… right, right, right, couldn’t even look at blogs. Drop me an email when you get the chance…

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