Month: December 2008

HOF ’09: Bert Blyleven

“He was as good as there was for a long time. Bert is up there with the toughest four or five guys I faced in my career.”

Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett

 

The case for Bert Blyleven comes down to the argument of era dominance against longevity.  I’ve been a supporter for Blyleven for the Hall for a while and while his case isn’t open and shut, I think he’s got a shot. 

Blyleven Facts

  • Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the third round in 1969
  • Played for Minn (twice), Tex, Pit, Cle, Cal (1970-1992)
  • 287 wins, 3701 strikeouts, 3.31 ERA
  • Holds record for most HR allowed season (50 in 1986)

 

Bly came up in 1970 with the Minnesota Twins and won 10 games in his rookie season with a respectable 3.18 ERA.  Through the next five years with the Twins, he won at least fifteen games each season including a 20-17 campaign in 1973.  With ERAs never higher 3.00, he was a stalwart in the Twins rotation but became unhappy in Minnesota toward the end of his time there.  Demanding a trade, the Twins management complied in 1976, trading him to Texas Rangers in a deal that brought Roy Smalley and Mike Cubbage and some cash to Minnesota. 

He pitched well in Texas with sub-3.00 ERAs in 1976-1977 plus a no-hitter against the California Angels on September 22, 1977.  But as was true throughout much of his career, he didn’t get much support and won 9 games in 1976 and only 14 for his full season in 1977.

bly Blyleven was part of MLB’s first 4-team trade later that year that sent him to Pittsburgh.  With them, he went to the World Series in 1979 and helped them win it all by winning two games against the Orioles.  As an aside, Blyleven set a record in 1979 for the most no-decisions with 20. 

Onward to Cleveland in which the Indians sent Jay Bell (yes, that Jay Bell) to the Bucs in 1980.  After a few lean years, Bly broke out in 1984 when he won 19 games for the Tribe.  Not only that, he broke 200 strikeouts for the first time in 10 years. 

Bert won 17 in a split season with the Indians and the Twins who he rejoined after eleven years.  After three years with double digit wins but rather high ERAs, he was traded to the Angels.  In his final hurrah in 1989, he not only went 17-5 but took his ERA down to a level he hadn’t seen in an while, 2.76.  After two sub-par years with the Angels, he retired. 

Pros:  Very good career numbers… 287 wins, 60 shutouts (9th all-time), 3701 strikeouts (5th).  Longevity counts for something.

Cons:  Never won a Cy Young award or ERA title, only one 20 win season, only a two-time All-Star.  Lots of competition in his era. 

Honestly, after researching Blyleven, it does show me how much longevity plays in his value.  That’s not necessarily bad but given all the competition for the Hall from the pitchers from his era, it doesn’t help his cause. 

A couple links I’ll pass along… First, is The League of Nations that link to a few columnists who have opined on the Blyleven issue.  Then there’s Bertbelongs.com.  Well, you know where they stand.

For Blyleven, I’m giving a very tenuous vote for the Hall.

 

green checkmark

Hall of Fame
 

Hall of Very Good
  Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.

Cover boy Lincecum

Tim Lincecum isn’t done on mound this year yet.  As the cover star for Major League 2K9 video game, he went through a motion capturing session for the game technicians.

For the “mo-capping”, Lincecum wore a spandex suit (for which he will get the end of no heck from his teammates, I’m sure) with reflective markers placed all over his body.  The markers would reflect light from 56 cameras from around the stage while he pitched from the makeshift mound. 

HOF ’09: Tommy John

My favorite pitcher growing up was Tommy John. John pitched for my Chicago White Sox. My White Sox team at this time were on the verge of going to Milwaukee. In an effort to keep the Sox in Chicago, we traded him to the Dodgers in exchange for Dick Allen. Attendance was down to nothing, we needed a savior, and that savior was Dick Allen.

So my team was safe in Chicago, but what about my favorite pitcher, Tommy John? Despite the fact that John had a losing record three of his last four years with the White Sox, but then he showed he was a winner with LA. In his first three years with the Dodgers Tommy was 11-5, 16-7, & 13-3, before his arm fell off. He missed the second half of the 1974 season & missed the entire 1975 season, recovering from Tommy John Surgery. John wasn’t the first pitcher to have the procedure to replace a tendon in his throwing arm, but he was the first to have a successful career following the procedure.

It didn’t happen over night, he was 10-10 in 1976. But then he bounced back to have the greatest success of his career. He posted records of 20-7 in 1977 & 17-10 in 1978, before leaving LA for the Yankees. With New York at the age of 36, John pitched more innings than ever before 276′ & 265′ innings, completing 33 games over these two years, with a record of 21-9 & 22-9.

He pitched an incredible 26 years in the major leagues, posting a record of 288-231, working 4,710′ innings, with a lifetime ERA of 3.69. Somehow his longevity may also be working against him, a lot of people remember him as a soft tosser, but nothing could be further from the truth. Sure he got by with guile while battling into his forties, but in his hay day, Tommy John could buzz them by you.

Hall of Fame
 

Hall of Very Good
  Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.

HOF ’09: Jim Rice

I know it hasn’t happened yet, but I’m optimistic this will be the year Jim Rice finally gets inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. I’ve got a special place in my heart for Rice, I drafted him with my first rookie draft pick in the Illowa APBA League 35 years ago. My team was in need of pitching, when is more pitching not needed? Well anyway I bypassed my need and took a hitter, not an ordinary hitter, a real HITTER! Using the APBA card based on his 1978 MVP season, when in real life Jim hit 46 homers, drove in 139, and batted .315, he hit 66 round trippers for my Chicago Champions.

Yes, I do understand that APBA is not real life, and a player cannot be inducted into Cooperstown based on his performances at Crackerjack Park, using dice. But you can see why I love this guy! Besides his MVP year, Big Jim put together a pretty impressive career, finishing with a batting average two points below .300, missing out on 400 homers by eighteen, while driving in 1,451 runs, over 14 seasons as a regular with the Red Sox.

This guy was one of the most feared hitters in the game. He was an eight time All Star and a two time Silver Slugger winner. Rice was so strong that he once broke a bat checking his swing, when bats were bats, none of this Maple BS.

Did I tell you he wore my favorite number 14 and was born on the same date as my first girlfriend Alice & Harris Davis?

 

Hall of Fame
 

Hall of Very Good
  Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.

"Grand" Branyan inked by the Mariners

Russ Branyan has been signed by the Mariners to a one-year deal.

Branyan has always been the kind of hitter who makes the most of his hits.  Secondary average, I believe Bill James calls it. 

Two years ago, he hit .228 yet almost reached the .500 mark in slugging (.498).  This past year, he had a .250 average but slugged .583 with a .342 OBP.  Mr All-or-Nothing can pretty much be counted to three things:  whiff, walk, or hit a home run. 

That is assuming he is in the lineup.  In the 11 seasons he’s been in the majors, he’s never batted more than 378 times.

The Mariners say they plan to use Branyan as a firstbaseman, thirdbaseman and, of course, DH.

FLOWERS FOR VAZQUEZ

The White Sox packaged the extremely talented righthander Javier Vazquez and bullpen lefty Boone “They’re not saying Boone” Logan to the Braves for C-1B Tyler Flowers, SS Brent Lillibridge, 3B Jon Gilmore, and southpaw reliever Santos Rodriguez. Vazquez has a dynamite fastball, an explosive curveball, and very good control, yet he is two games below .500 in his career, despite the fact he has over 2,000 strikeouts. Down the stretch, when the White Sox needed him most, Ozzie Guillen & Vazquez, himself, lost confidence. This game is hard enough, but there is no way to succeed when you don’t believe in your stuff. That, in a nutshell, seems to Javier’s problem, not believing in his ability. It seemed, from my vantage point 34 rows behind home plate, Vazquez would be getting batters out, overpowering them, when all of a sudden he’d start trying to fool hitters, rather than just get them out. He’d get ahead 0-2, then nibble, rather than take advantage & put the hitter away. Still in this pitching starved era, this 32 year old will give you 33 starts & 200 innings, not bad, but he’ll drive you crazy, good luck Atlanta! Then there’s the case of Boone Logan, a herky jerky motion, from the leftside, couldn’t get my grandmother out in the second half of the season. In fact 97 year old granny was two for three, with a homer against Logan.

Now here’s what we got back, it was better than a half eaten bag of potato chips, so I’m happy. Tyler Flowers is a 6’4″ 245 pound righthanded hitting catcher/firstbaseman out of Georgia. Flowers played in High Class A ball for the Braves in 2008, where he hit 17 homers & 32 doubles, while hitting .288, with 98 bases on balls. But where Tyler really shined was the Arizona Fall League, where he was the home run leader with 12 home runs in only 20 games, with a batting average of .387. Atlanta drafted him in the 33rd round of the 2005 draft out of a junior college, then he was suspended fifty games for testing positive to taking performance enhancing drugs. A knee injury may limit him to a career at firstbase.

Brent Lillibridge was the Bucs shortstop of the future when he was drafted out of the University of Washington in the 4th round of the 2005 draft. In 2003 at the age of 19 Brent batted .388 with some pop at Washington. Even though he batted .220 with 90 strikeouts in 2008 with Richmond, it’s hard to think he’s washed up at the age of 24, in fact the Braves brought him to the majors for a cup of coffee, where he batted .200 in 80 at bats with the big league club. The book on Brent is that he’s a good fielder, with speed, who needs to re-find his stick.

Jon Gilmore is an interesting prospect, drafted by the Braves with the 33rd pick in the 2007 draft out of high school. This, 6’3″ 195 pound, 20 year old, thirdbaseman was born in Florida, but played his high school ball in Iowa City. 2008 was a split decision for Gilmore, as Jon batted .337 with 23 doubles in only 258 at bats in rookie ball, but then really struggled at Class A, hitting only .186.

Then there’s 20 year old lefty reliever Santos Rodriguez. It’s hard to get a read on Santos, as he’s only pitched two years of rookie ball. But in 2008 Rodriguez struckout 45 batters in 29 innings, with a nifty 2.79 ERA.

All in all, I like the deal. Sure we gave up a solid member of our rotation, but we got back value, and Vazquez had pitched on the Southside long enough, let the Braves enjoy him. Kenny Williams has been a genius and I’m not going to second guess him at this point.

HENRY BLANCO’S BROTHER MURDERED

In Venezuela, Carlos Blanco, the 39 year old brother of major league catcher, Henry was murdered by kidnappers after he was abducted Sunday in Guaranis, a Caracas suburb. Police believe the kidnappers were seeking ransom. Carlos’s bullet riddled body was discovered Monday.

Venezuela is a dangerous place. I was reminded of this statement made by a major league scout, whose assignment was going to be to go to Venezuela to sign some amateur ballplayers. He told his major league club, he’d need to bring with someone who spoke Spanish, he’d stay in a first class hotel, he wasn’t going off the beaten path, and it would cost about $5,000. The major league club decided to skip the trip, which was alright with this major league scout. That said, I feel bad about the senseless death of Carlos Blanco, my heart & condolences go out to Henry & the entire Blanco family.

HOF ’09: Jay Bell

 

Jay Bell had an auspicious if not ironic start in the majors.  Like Harold Baines, he was drafted in the first round.  The Minnesota Twins turned around and traded him the next year in 1985 to Cleveland for Bert Blyleven (who turns out to be a fellow HOF ’09 candidate).  Bell’s very first at-bat was against Blyleven and he hit it for a home run.  To add more drama to the scenario, that home run was the 47th given up by Blyleven that year which broke the MLB record of 46 allowed by Robin Roberts. 

Bell Facts
  • Drafted First round in 1984 by the Minnesota Twins
  • Played for Cle, Pit, KC, Ari and NYM (1986-2003)
  • Two time All-Star, won one Gold Glove
  • 1999 best offensive year (.289, 38 HR, 112 rbis)

 

  Bell didn’t get much playing time with the Indians though and it wasn’t till he got traded to Pittsburgh that he got some serious at-bats in.  With the exception of ’94-’95, Bell played 150 games from 1990-1999.  He was a solid fielder not so much because of his range but of his knowledge of the hitters. 

jabell With the stick, Bell was mostly a singles and doubles hitter though he toyed with the four-base hit later in his career.  As the Pirates are wont to do, they dumped a player once he came into his own.  When Bell was traded to the Royals, he had a decent offensive year with 21 homers and 92 rbis.  That made him a valuable free agent and the Arizona Diamondbacks took advantage of his availability. 

With Arizona, he had his best offensive year of his career in 1999.  Batting .289, he rapped 38 dingers to go along with his 112 rbis.  Two years later, he helped Arizona in their bid to win the World Series.

Pros:  A “solid” (sorry, that’s the best I can say) hitter for a middle infielder, he did accumulate 1123 career runs, a decent OBP (.343) again for a middle infielder.

Cons:  where do I start?  the stats don’t bear out.  a .265 batting average, he’s a middle infielder without the speed and not much power.

 

  Hall of Fame
 

Hall of Very Good

Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.