There are currently 20 members of the 500 Home Run club but that club could be expanded to 25 before the end of the year.

39 year old Frank Thomas 494. Thomas is having an awful year hitting only .225 with a .391 slugging percentage for the Blue Jays but barring injury Thomas should easily hit #500 some time this year. He's got 7 homers so far with 6 more to go.

31 year old Alex Rodriguez 483. Rodriguez is leading the majors with 19 home runs and should also easily pass 500 this year barring injury. In fact the way things are going now there's a good shot he'll get there before Thomas.

35 year old Manny Ramirez 478. Ramirez is having an awful year and will have to step up his pace to hit #500 this year but if he can regain his form and hit home runs at his usual pace the rest of the year he's got a good shot at it.

36 year old Jim Thome 478. Thome was on fire early in the year before being sidelined with an injury. Injuries are the only thing that stands in the way of Thome joining the 500 home run club and if he can stay healthy and hit home runs at the pace he is so far this year (6 in 73 at bats) he could do it.

38 year old Gary Sheffield 467. Sheffield started the year very poorly but has been on fire as of late. With 33 home runs to go to reach 500 Sheffield would have to stay very hot to have a shot. He's hit 3 home runs in his last 2 games and after a horrible April has been one of the best hitters in the big leagues during May.

What other active players have a shot of joining the 500 home run club?

35 year old Carlos Delgado 414. Delgado has been cold this year but he just hit 2 home runs last night. Delgado has an active streak of 10 consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs. Barring injury or a significant decrease in production Delgado will probably join the 500 home run club in 2010.

35 year old Chipper Jones 369. Jones has 131 to go and at age 35 is far from a lock. He's having a great season but looking at his recent home run numbers he'll have to play about 5 solid injury free seasons to get there. If Jones does reach 500 it'll probably be in 2012.

36 year old Jason Giambi 357. Giambi's shot at 500 looks to be on very thin ice as he is having trouble staying healthy. But he did hit 37 homers last year. If he can keep his body together and play full seasons he could have a shot at 500 in 2011 at age 40.

30 year old Andruw Jones 350. Jones is close to a lock to join the 500 club as long as he can stay healthy. Jones will probably hit #500 in 2011.

31 year old Vladimir Guerrero 348. Similar situation to Jones, Guerrero is a lock to join the 500 club barring injuary. He should also hit #500 in 2011.

32 year old Richie Sexson 280. Sexson is somewhat more of a long shot but he has 31, 30, 45, 29, 45, 39, and 34 home runs in his last 7 healthy seasons (he missed most of 2004 with injury.) If things go Sexson's way and he avoids injury then 2014 would be a likely season for him to hit #500.

30 year old Troy Glaus 265. Somewhat similar situation to Sexson. Glaus is a couple of years younger but he recently missed much of 2003 and 2004 with injury. He's had 6 full years and in those seasons he's hit 29, 47, 41, 30, 37, and 38 home runs so if he can stay healthy and put up those kind of numbers for the next 6 or 7 years he could be right there in 2014 or 2015 at #500.

27 year old Albert Pujols 258. Pujols is having a sub par year thus far but is showing signs of getting on track. Pujols first 6 MLB seasons have been incredible. If he can sustain what he's done thus far he should have no problem reaching the 500 home run club. At his current pace 2013 will be the year he hits 500.

33 year old Jermaine Dye 246. Dye is a real long shot and I almost didn't include him but I will because it's not completely impossible. He did hit a career high 44 home runs last year but only has 2 other years over 30 (2000 with 33 and 2005 with 31.) Very unlikely but if he can put up a few more years like last year and he can stay healthy and play well into his 40s he may have a small shot at 500.

31 year old Miguel Tejada 245. Another very long shot, Tejada has never hit more than 34 home runs in a season but he's been consistent hitting at least 21 in all of his full seasons. If Tejada hits #500 it will be because he plays a very long healthy career. I highly doubt he hits #500 but if he does it'll probably be around 2019 at age 43.

31 year old David Ortiz 240. 240 at age 31 makes him look like a long shot but he's hit 41, 47, and 54 his last 3 years. A few more years like that and he'll be in pretty good position. If he can continue at something close to his monster pace of the last few years he'll be around #500 in 2014 or 2015.

Home Run Hitting Players Under 30 Years Old To Keep An Eye On:

29 year old Eric Chaves with 218.

27 year old Adam Dunn with 212.

27 year old Mark Teixeira with 149.

24 year old Miguel Cabrera with 113.

26 year old Justin Morneau with 95.

27 year old Ryan Howard with 91.

The Red Sox have won 5 in a row to move over .700 at 36-15. The way they are currently playing they have a shot at the American League record of 116 wins (.716 winning percentage) set by the Seattle Mariners in 2001. These Red Sox are currently on pace to win 114 games. Even better news for Red Sox fans? They are on pace to crush the Yankees by over 40 games! Yes you read that right, if the current trends continue as they are the Red Sox will finish the year 46 games ahead of the Yanks.

So how are they doing it?

Let's start with the pitching:

Josh Beckett is having an outstanding season with an 8-0 record and a 2.65 ERA. Tim Wakefield while his record is only 5-5 is pitching very well with a 3.36 ERA. Curt Shilling is doing well at 5-2 with a 3.68 ERA. Daisuke Matsuzaka has in some ways been a disappointment so far as his ERA is a subpar 4.43 but he is racking up the strikeouts (8.6 per 9 innings) and he has a great 7-2 record. The only Boston starter who is really not getting the job done is Julian Tavarez who is sitting at 3-4 with a 5.40 ERA.

Jonathan Papelbon has been awesome again this year in the closer spot (while the rival Yankees Mariano Rivera is having an awful year.) Papelbon has 28 strikeouts in 19.1 innings. He's got 13 saves and a 1.86 ERA.

Hitting:

David Ortiz is having another great year. He ranks in the top 10 in the AL in 2B, RBI, OBP, OPS, BB, and SLG. Ortiz is hitting .316 with 9 home runs, 20 doubles, and 38 RBI.

You expect great things from a hitter like Ortiz but I think it's the great performances they are getting from Keven Youkilis and Mike Lowell that are really pushing them over the top.

1B Youkilis is currently riding a 21 game hitting streak that has pushed his batting average all the way up to .358 (good for 3rd in the AL.) Youkilis previous high batting average was .279 from last year. Youkilis also has 8 home rusn putting him on pace for 27 for the year. Last year he had his career high with only 12 home runs. Youkilis ranks among the AL leaders in batting average, OBP, OPS, runs, and slugging percentage.

3B Lowell is in the midst of a career year. His previous best batting average was .293 in 2004, this year he's hitting .326 while leading the Red Sox with 39 RBI. Lowell is in the top 10 in the AL in batting average, RBI, OPS, and slugging percentage.

These breakout performances from Youkilis and Lowell are making up for the subpar year that Manny Ramirez is having.

Future Hall of Famer LF Ramirez is hitting far below his outstanding career rates of .313/.409/.596 - This year he's only at .268/.353/.453... If Ramirez were hitting like his usual self the Red Sox would probably be on a 120 win pace.

Labels: Boston Red Sox

The Yankees lost their 3rd straight game to drop to 21-27. An absolutely unbelievably awful record considering their massive payroll and their roster full of all stars and future hall of famers. The loss puts them 12.5 games behind the Red Sox who are rolling along at 34-15.

The Yankees can't really be this bad, can they? They have scored 25 runs more than their opponents which would usually lead to a record well over .500 but the Yanks awful record in close games has them struggling.

I do think the Yankees will eventually turn things around somewhat and they'll probably finish over .500 for the year but their chances of catching the Red Sox seems extremely small right now.

Labels: New York Yankees

Tonight Barry Bonds' slump continues. Bonds went 0 for 4 tonight against the Rockies continuing his slump that has lasted all of May.

April: .356/.536/.814 for a 1.350 OPS, 8 home runs.

May: .172/.435/.345 for a 0.780 OPS, 3 home runs.

As bad as those May numbers have been recently he's been even worse than they look. He is now 0 for 14 in his last 5 games.

The question is: Is this "just a slump" or has age finally caught up with Bonds? After all he is turning 43 not too long from now.

While I'm still holding out a lot of hope for the "just a slump" theory I am getting more and more scared that it may be the latter situation.

So far this season has basically broken into three different periods for Bonds:

He started the season cold. In the Giants first 9 games they were 2-7 and Bonds was hitting .192 with just 1 home run. In the Giants next 13 games they were 10-3 and Bonds hit .500 with 7 home runs. And now in the Giants latest 26 games they are 12-14 and Bonds is hitting .169 with 3 home runs during that span.

So if you really look at his season it's been mostly cold as ice except for one brilliant span when he was amazing. It's that one span that's propping up his season numbers. Going into tonight he was still leading the NL in OPS, OBP, and 3rd in slugging percentage and 5th in home runs.

Labels: Barry Bonds

You can vote for the 2007 All Star Game online.

My National League Selections (as of today)

1B - Derek Lee, Cubs (.394/.469/.577) - He's leading the majors in batting average at .394 but he's only got 3 home runs (a pace of 13) ... Prince Fielder has an NL leading 14 home runs but barely has Lee beat in slugging percentage while being way behind Lee in batting average and OBP. I've got to go with Lee although I think Fielder may end up having a better season. Everyones pre-season NL all star 1B Albert Pujols is having a weak year so far.

2B - Chase Utley, Phillies (.291/.378/.541) - Tops among NL 2nd Basement for homeruns (actually tied with Brandon Phillips and Dan Uggla at 8) and slugging percentage (.541)

SS - Jose Reyes, Mets (.324/.394/.505) - This is a really stellar position in the NL so far this year. JJ Hardy has an NL leading 14 home runs for the Brewers, Hanley Ramirez is hitting .335 for the Marlins, and Edgar Renteria is hitting .335 for the Braves. Reyes, Hardy, Ramirez, Renteria, and Jimmy Rollins all have slugging percentages over .500 which is really astounding power coming from the shortstop position. I did a quick look back and there hasn't been an NL shortstop who has finished the year with a slugging percentage over .500 yet this millennium. I didn't look back into the 90s. Anyone hazard a guess at who the last NL shortstop with a slugging percentage over .500 was? I'll have to research. Anyway, my point is, absolutely stacked position so far this year but I have to go with Reyes as he's the sparkplug on the best team in the NL.

3B - Chipper Jones, Braves (.307/.404/.647) - Jones is having an outstanding season for the Braves who are also as a team having a great year so far.

C - Bengie Molina, Giants (.304/.333/.464) - This may be somewhat of a "homer" vote as I'm a huge Giants fan but the stats are pretty close right now between Molina, the Dodger's Russell Martin, the Brewer's Johnny Estrada, and the Braves Brian McCann. I go with Molina because the all star game is in San Francisco this year. Molina has had a lot of big hits for the Giants this year.

OF - Barry Bonds, Giants (.287/.503/.630) - Bonds has been cold in May but he was godlike in April and his season stats still place him as first among all NL OF in OBP, SLG, BB, & HR (tied with the Red's Adam Dunn with 11.)

OF - Ken Griffey Jr. Reds (.303/.406/.553) - Griffey has had a been of a return to form so far this year. He's a hall of famer and I'll vote for him over whoever is having a couple of fluke months right now. He's 3rd among NL OF's in OPS (2nd if you don't count the Rockies Matt Holiday, and come to think of it, I don't count anyone on the Rockies so yes he's 2nd.)

OF - Randy Winn, Giants (.325/.353/.478) - OK, I'm not really serious with this selection but Winn does have a 20 game hitting streak and he's hitting .325 and really looking at the NL outfielders I don't see a lot of really outstanding seasons so far this year so I give it to Winn as punishment to the rest of these overrated bastards. I suppose it should go to the Astros Carlos Lee or the Phillies Aaron Rowand or the Reds Adam Dunn.

Noah Lowry threw 7 scoreless innings last night in a 4 to 0 win over the Astros to drop his season ERA to a team leading 2.68, one game after Matt Morris threw a complete game 2 hitter allowing just 1 run to drop his ERA to 2.93.

Lowry & Morris are the two least hyped Giants starters after the 126 million $ man Barry Zito, 22 year old Matt Cain (career BAA of .208 & 7.7 SO/9), and rookie Tim Lincecum who is coming off a 10 strikeout 7 inning performance in just his 3rd MLB start.

Giants RF Randy Winn extended his career best hitting streak to 20 games with a double.

Meanwhile Barry Bonds continues his cold May. After an amazing April where Bonds turned back the clock with incredible production .356/.536/.814 with 8 home runs he has now gone 11 consecutive games without hitting a home run and his numbers for May are now at .222/.485/.444 with 3 homers. Of course the crazy number there is the .485 OBP, not many (any?) players can have a .485 OBP during a slump like Bonds can.

The question of course is whether this is just a slump or whether it's a sign of real decline from injury. Bonds has been playing almost every day so I'm holding out hope it's the former rather than the latter. It's definitely too early to be writing an obit. for Bonds' career as he's still leading the NL in OBP (.503) and second in SLG (.630) while leading all of MLB in OPS (1.133)

Tonight rookie pitcher Tim Lincecum tries to build on last week's weeks awesome start. If the Giants starting pitching can continue as it has recently (save Zito who needs to turn things up a notch or three) then I feel the Giants can be a real contender in the NL West this year if Bonds can produce with the way he was in April. Couple of pretty big ifs but enough to make the season exciting at this point for Giants fans.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

As the five of you who probably read this might have figured out. I am an Oakland A's fan and the friendly guy who posts erotic fan fiction of Barry Bonds is a Giants fan. The Bay series starts tonight so I thought we could leave death threats to each other in this lovely entry. Bonds gets to play his natural DH position, so no one needs to wake grandpa up to take OF practice.

Don't forget 1989 bitch. Also we lead this little dance 29-27, and are 103-73 in interleague play

Friday Barry Zito vs. Chad Gaudin 10:05PM
Saturday Matt Cain vs. Dan Haren 9:05PM
Sunday Matt Morris vs. Joe Kennedy 4:05PM

San Fran Injuries:
Dave Roberts CF
Russ Ortiz Shitty Pitcher

Oakland Injuries:
H. Street RP
C. Snelling LF/RF
M. Piazza DH/C
B. Kielty RF/LF
R. Harden SP
E. Loaiza SP
C. Denorfia CF/RF
M. Kotsay CF

Labels: IHateU, Josh, Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants

Tonight San Francisco Giants rookie starting pitcher Tim Lincecum gave the big leagues a taste of what he's been serving in AAA. Tonight Lincecum started in Houston against the Astros, it was only Lincecum's 3rd start in the big leagues and he dominated! He allowed just 2 hits and 1 walk (and 1 unearned run) while striking out 10 in 7 innings. He left the game down 1 to 0 but the Giants tied it up in the 8th and then went ahead and won the game in the 12th inning 2 to 1.

Of course Lincecum did not get the decision. The Giants bullpen was strong throwing 5 scoreless innings between Brad Hennessey, Kevin Correia, Vinnie Chulk (who got his first win of the year, & Armando Benitez (who got his 8th save.)

Lincecum is still 1-0 while his ERA has dropped to 3.44 for the year. He's got 21 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings.

In other Giants news Barry Bonds continues to struggle in May going 0 for 3 and dropping his batting average under .300 (to .292) for the first time since early in the year.

The title has nothing to do with this, I just wanted to get some Iron
Maiden in this joint. Also, I'm wondering if the line fromBitchin Camero "Crystal Shit" was ever made into a band name for a Doors coverband. Anyways I hadn't brought too much of my A's fandom into this place yet. Lets check up on every one's favorite injured team with a mascot named STOMPY.

Ouch.
The latest casualty is Huston Street, which isn't so bad as the bullpen has been decent. Problem is Justin Duchscherer is his backup and having hip problems (HI MARK MULDER FANS!). Street is out at least the 15 days, Duchscherer is day to day. In other pitcher injuries Rich Harden continues to do his Kerry Wood impersonation, and Estaban Loaiza is at least sober on the 60 Day DL and not driving his Ferrari 120.

Hitter wise Mike Piazza is out 4-6 weeks when he sprained his shoulder sliding into third, which I would care more about had Jack Cust not gone super saiyan. Cust
strikes out a ton, but when everyone was freaking out about him 4 years
ago or so, I really wanted him. For some stupid reason National League
teams keptaquiring him. Tho I suppose 1b in Denver woulda been stupid silly had they ever let him hit. The outfield has been crossed up since Mark Kotsay
(His wife is hot) went on the 60 Day with back problems. Nick Swisher
and Milton Bradley have been splitting CF (If Bradley is healthy and
not on crazy juice any given day), which causes a rotation of First
base also with Dan Johnson and Swisher. Johnson is playing much better
than last year right now, and along withCust is hitting the upside of .400 the last few games. Bobby Kielty possibly died or was captured by aliens, I don't care. Jerk cost us Ted Lilly and could never beat out Jay Payton.

I'll finish the rest of the non injured folks later. Stupid real job.

~Mike

Labels: IHateU, Oakland A's

The Best All-Time Hitters At Each Position As Selected By Career OPS+ (I'm only considering players who began their career in 1900 or later.)

Catcher - Mike Piazza (144)

First Base - Lou Gehrig (179)

Second Base - Rogers Hornsby (175)

Third Base - Mike Schmidt (147) *A-Rod is currently at 146

Shortstop - Derek Jeter (123) *Honus Wagner would have this easy at 150 but I disqualified him due to his career starting in 1897, this is of course completely arbitrary as most things are. Also depending on how A-Rod spends the rest of his career (playing shortstop somewhere else?) he may re qualify himself as a SS rather than a 3B in which case he'd easily surpass Jeter which brings me to thinking about the Yankees currently having the best 2 hitting shortstops in modern baseball history... Well that's pretty insane. And in case you are wondering, Ernie Banks is right behind Jeter at 122.

Outfield - Babe Ruth (207)

Outfield - Ted Williams (190)

Outfield - Barry Bonds (183)

DH - Mickey Mantle (172) *Of course Mantle was not a Designated Hitter, but he has the highest OPS+ of any player who hadn't made the team. If you were really putting this team out there you'd certainly play Mantle at Center Field and bring Williams or Ruth to DH.

Now setting the lineup would be a bit difficult as you can only have one clean up hitter. As IHateU will note there's no pure lead off hitter but I think they'd manage to score a few runs anyway.

Just for S&G, I think I'd go with:

1. Mickey Mantle - When he was healthy he had good speed (153 career steals) and he had a great OBP at .421 (of course almost all of these guys had great OBP...)

2. Barry Bonds

3. Ted Williams

4. Babe Ruth

5. Lou Gehrig

6. Rogers Hornsby

7. Mike Schmidt

8. Mike Piazza

9. Derek Jeter - I considered putting him at lead off but considering he's easily the worst hitter on the team it doesn't make sense to get him more at bats than the other guys. You know you have a pretty good hitting team when Derek Jeter is your worst hitter.

I think Barry Bonds would be happy to not have to worry about IBB anymore. Slightly better protection than Ray Durham.

Who are the best hitting second basemen of all time?

#1 Rogers Hornsby (1915-1937)

Hornsby leads all second basemen in career batting average (.358), career OBP (.434), career slugging percentage (.577), and career OPS+ (175)

#2 Nap Lajoie (1896-1916)

It's always hard to compare players from different eras but particularly hard to compare players who played their entire career during the early "dead ball" era with those that came after. But according to the numbers Lajoie has to be #2. Among second basemen he's got the second best career OPS+ at 150 and the second best career batting average at .338, he's also third among second basemen in career hits at 3,242.

#3 Eddie Collins (1906-1930)

3,315 career hits. Career .333 hitter with a .424 OBP. He also had 744 stolen bases, most among second basemen.

#4 Rod Carew (1967-1985)

Seven time batting champ Carew had a career batting average of .328 and is a member of the 3000 hit club with 3,053.

#5 Paul Molitor (1978-1998)

Molitor is the all time leader among second basemen with 3,319 hits (4 more than Eddie Collins.) He was a career .306 hitter.

Others considered for the top 5: Joe Morgan, Jeff Kent, Craig Biggio, Jackie Robinson, & Ryne Sandberg.

Discuss these hall of fame second basemen (well Biggio and Kent aren't in... yet?) at the Hall of Fame Baseball Forum.

Oh and tell me who I forgot? I forgot someone, right?

Today I make the argument that Pedro Martinez at his peak was the best pitcher in the history of the major leagues.

Stay tuned, I'm gathering the evidence.

Meanwhile : Talk Mets at the New York Mets Baseball Forum.

Hello. Thanks for waiting so patiently while I put together my case.

The only reason why I'm using the phrase "peak level" instead of just saying Pedro is the best pitcher in history is due to Martinez's injury problems. I think due to his fragility and the many games he's missed it's not fair to say he's the greatest pitcher in MLB history but I do think that his peak betters any other pitcher's peak.

Here's the evidence:

1. Pedro's career ERA+ is 160. This is the best of all time and it's not even that close. #2 is Lefty Grove at 148. Other active pitchers of note: Roger Clemens at #6 with 144, Randy Johnson at #8 with 139, and Greg Maddux at #12 with 136. I think you can make a pretty good argument that ERA+ is the single most important statistic for evaluating pitcher performance so this is a pretty impressive thing to rank #1 all time for.

2. Pedro's career opponent batting average is .209 (tied for 3rd all time) and his career opponent OBP is .270 (leads all modern era pitchers.) He's also 3rd all time in fewest hits allowed per 9 innings at 6.85 (behind Nolan Ryan & Sandy Koufax.)

3. Pedro's career ERA of 2.81 makes him the only active starting pitcher in the major leagues with a career ERA under 3.00

4. Pedro is MLB's all time leader in winning percentage at .691 (Tim Hudson at .665, Roger Clemens at .662, and Randy Johnson at .656 come in next among active pitchers.) While I personally don't think that Wins or winning percentage is a very good way of evaluating a pitcher's performance (due to the obvious lack of control a pitcher has over how good his offense is) I'll throw this one in there for the old timers.

5. Pedro is #2 all time in career strike outs per 9 innings at 10.2 (behind only Randy Johnson.)

6. Best single season ERA+ in MLB history with 288 in 2000. This is a pretty incredible stat. It means Pedro was almost 3 times better than the average starting pitcher in 2000.

7. Pedro has 5 of the top 35 best single season ERA+ years in history: 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, & 2003.

8. Lowest single season opponent batting average ever. Batters hit .167 against Pedro in 2000. Let me write that again in case you didn't get it: .167! When you consider the explosive offensive era it's that much more amazing. (Fun Historical Baseball Facts Coming) Certainly far more impressive than Louis Tiant's second place .168 in 1968, during a year when pitching dominated the American League. Carl Yastrzemski lead the AL with a .301 batting average. Yaz was the only American leaguer with over a .300 batting average or a .400 on base percentage.

9. Best two single season years for "Pitcher Wins" (the pitching equivalent to the stat that places Barry Bonds as the all time most valuable position player.) since 1913 with his 8.4 in 2000 and 8.1 in 1999.

10. Best single season WHIP ever with his 0.74 in 2000. He also has the lowest career WHIP (1.02) for any pitcher who started his career after 1904.

Labels: Pedro Martinez

The statistic "Batter-Fielder Wins" attempts to show exactly how many more (or less) wins a position player got for his team compared to an average player. This overall statistic takes into account batting, fielding, and base running statistics. Among the strengths of this number is that it's adjusted to the context of league levels and also adjusted for park factors (like playing your home games at Coors.)

The career leaders:

1. Barry Bonds 124.7
2. Babe Ruth 112.0
3. Nap Lajoie 95.2
4. Ted Williams 86.5
5. Rogers Hornsby 86.0
6. Ty Cobb 85.7
7. Willie Mays 84.4
8. Hank Aaron 83.0
9. Tris Speaker 82.7
10. Honus Wagner 82.2

This stat doesn't take into consideration how many games a player played in order to help his team win which is why I would call this list "most valuable" and not "best" this is why someone like Hank Aaron is ranked so highly, Aaron played 3298 games (3rd most all time) while Honus Wagner played 2794 (21st all time), clearly Wagner would have easily passed Aaron if he had played more games. But you can't be valuable for your team if you aren't playing. So having a long and consistent career is rewarded with this ranking.

What other active players (other than Bonds) are in the top 100 most valuable position players in history?

23. Alex Rodriguez 52.5
27. Frank Thomas 49.5
29. Ken Griffey Jr. 46.8
45. Mike Piazza 42.6
45. Gary Sheffield 42.6
49. Ivan Rodriguez 42.1
56. Manny Ramirez 39.5
69. Scott Rolen 37.4
72. Jeff Kent 36.7
78. Jim Thome 35.9
81. Jim Edmonds 35.6
85. Vladimir Guerrero 35.2
97. Craig Biggio 32.9

Discuss Baseball History @ The Baseball Forum

Proof that Reggie Jackson earned his nickname as "Mr. October"

The all time top 10 OPS leaders in the World Series (min. 50 at bats)

1. Reggie Jackson 1.212
2. Babe Ruth 1.211
3. Lou Gehrig 1.208
4. Lenny Dykstra 1.124
5. Paul Molitor 1.112
6. Pepper Martin 1.103
7. Lou Brock 1.079
8. Rickey Henderson 1.055
9. Hank Greenberg 1.043
10. Jimmie Foxx 1.034

Labels: World Series

Ever want to know the odds to someone turning 37 and putting up a 73 Homerun season?
53,000,000 : 1

This blog entry does a nice job of showing just what an oddity that season was:Kermit the Blog

*Ingest steroids*

~Mike

Labels: Barry Bonds, IHateU, Obvious, steroids

I've been trying to get some action started on the Baseball Forums. It's always tough getting that initial action going but hey... I'll make it worth your while: Free tootsie rolls.

As I mentioned before there's a forum section for every team (even the Devil Rays):

Arizona Diamondbacks Forum
Atlanta Braves Forum
Baltimore Orioles Forum
Boston Red Sox Forum
Chicago Cubs Forum
Chicago White Sox Forum
Cincinnati Reds Forum
Cleveland Indians Forum
Colorado Rockies Forum

And the rest of the teams of the alphabet...

I did this earlier with the New York Yankees All Time Team. And I plan on eventually getting to every team (I'm really looking forward to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays...)

Tonight it's the San Francisco Giants turn to have their greatest player ever at every position chosen.

The Giants have one of the longest histories of any Major League franchise as they got their start in 1883 as the New York Gothams. They weren't the Gothams for long and adopted the name the Giants soon after. They stayed in New York through the end of the 1957 season. In the 1958 season they began a second life out west in San Francisco. The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles that same season to move the oldest rivalry in baseball from the east coast to the west.

The New York Giants won 5 World Series but the Giants have not won a World Series in three appearances since moving to San Francisco. Most recently they lost to the Angels in the 2002 World Series.

This all time team selection will take into consideration the entirety of the Giants history both New York & San Francisco.

Who is the greatest Giant of all time at each position?

Just like with the Yankees team I am only considering what a player did while playing with the Giants. For example Barry Bonds stats with the Pittsburgh Pirates are not taken into consideration.

The New York/San Francisco Giants All Time Team (with career Giants stats)

First Base - Willie McCovey (469 Home Runs, 1388 RBI, .377 OBP, .524 SLG, 150 OPS+)

The Giants have had some amazing first basemen so this was a difficult choice. If I was going squarely by the numbers perhaps I should have chosen another hall of fame Giants first baseman. Bill Terry is the Giants all time leader in batting average at .341 but Terry didn't have a lot of home run power (McCovey had more than 3 times as many Giants home runs as did Terry) and when considering the respective eras they played in I had to give the edge to McCovey.

McCovey's peak year came in 1969 when he won the MVP with a .320 batting average and 45 home runs, both career highs.

Second Base - Jeff Kent (.297 AVG, 175 Home Runs, 689 RBI, .368 OBP, .535 SLG, 138 OPS+)

I'm a Giants fan and I hate Jeff Kent so I get no pleasure choosing him for this slot and perhaps there's someone more deserving I'm overlooking but what Kent did in his 6 years for the Giants was pretty awesome offensively for a second baseman. His peak year came in 2000 when he hit .334 with 33 home runs and won the MVP award.

Shortstop - Travis Jackson (.291, 135 Home Runs, 929 RBI, .337 OBP, .433 SLG)

Jackson played his entire 15 year career from 1922 to 1936 with the New York Giants. His best year came in 1927 when he hit .318 with 14 home runs. Like most decent players on a New York team during the early era of baseball, Jackson is in the Hall of Fame.

Third Base - Matt Williams (247 Home Runs, 732 RBI, .498 SLG, 122 OPS+)

Williams started off his career very slowly hitting just .188, .205, and .202 his first three years but in his fourth season in 1990 things picked up considerably as he hit .277 with 33 home runs. Unfortunately his very best seasons were cut short due to the mid 90s baseball strike. He may have got to Maris' record before McGwire if the 1994 season had not ended early due to the strike. He lead the majors that year with a career high 43 home runs. He is 5th on the Giants all time home run leader board with 247 career Giants homers.

Catcher - Harry Danning (.285 AVG, 397 RBI)

Danning played his entire 10 year career with the Giants from 1933 to 1942. He was selected to the All Star team 4 times including his best season of 1939 when he hit .313 with 16 home runs. 16 home runs was good for 9th in the NL that year.

Outfield - Barry Bonds (.314 AVG, 569 Home Runs, 1397 RBI, .478 OBP, .673 SLG, 203 OPS+)

Bonds Giants career rates stats are unreal because he's not hindered by his comparatively slow start in Pittsburgh (He was not an All Star until his 5th season.) After starting his career with 7 seasons in Pittsburgh, Bonds is now in his 15th year with the Giants. He is the all time Giants leader in many statistics including OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+, & Walks) Choosing Bonds best season is a bit difficult but I think his numbers in 2004 are his most astoundingly awesome. That year he hit an NL leading .362 with a MLB record .609 OBP and a MLB record 232 walks. He also had an .812 slugging percentage, one of only 4 seasons over .800 in history. Only Bonds and Babe Ruth have ever finished a season with a slugging percentage over .800! I venture a guess that his .609 OBP and 232 walks will last in the record books much longer than any of his home run marks.

Outfield - Willie Mays (.304 AVG, 646 Home Runs, 1859 RBI, .385 OBP, .564 SLG, 158 OPS+)

Mays is the all time Giants leader in Home Runs, Runs, Hits, Games, Plate Appearances, and many other stats. Mays played almost his entire career with the Giants (moving with them from New York to San Francisco in 1958) before finishing up with the Mets. Mays best year came in 1965 when he hit .317 with 52 home runs winning his second MVP award.

Outfield - Mel Ott (.304 AVG, 511 HR, 1860 RBI, .414 OBP, .533 SLG, 155 OPS+)

Mell Ott played his entire 22 year career with the New York Giants from 1926 to 1947. Ott was only 17 when he first played in the majors. Amazingly he hit .383 in 60 at bats as a 17 year old in 1926. Choosing Ott's best year is tough because he had many that are very similar to each other but I'll go with 1938 when he was at .311/.442/.583 with 116 runs & 116 RBI.

Ott is the Giants all time leader in RBI with 1860 (to Willie Mays' 1859.)

How many other team's all time outfield has three players with 500+ home runs? I'm willing to go out on a limb and say zero.

Starting Pitcher - Christy Mathewson (372 Wins, 2.12 ERA, 136 ERA+)

Mathewson played almost his entire career with the New York Giants. He won 372 games with the Giants and 1 with Cincinnati in 1916 (mid season trade.)

Mathewson played from 1900 to 1916. His numbers of 372 wins and a 2.12 ERA are overpowering although when you adjust for the era his ERA isn't as astounding (check the 136 ERA+) Mathewson is a legendary early pitcher of the game and is a shoe in for this all time Giants starting rotation. His best year was 1908 when he was 37-11 with 11 shutouts and a 1.43 ERA. He pitched 390.7 innings. I'm pretty sure they weren't counting his pitches.

Starting Pitcher - Carl Hubbell (253 Wins, 2.98 ERA, 130 ERA+)

Hubbell pitched his entire career from 1928 to 1943 with the New York Giants. Hubbell won two MVP awards which is quite impressive for a pitcher. His first MVP came in 1933 and I select this as his supreme season. In '33 Hubbell went 23-12 with a 1.66 ERA and 10 shutouts.

Starting Pitcher - Juan Marichal (238 Wins, 2.84 ERA, 124 ERA+)

Marichal is the Giants all time leader in strikeouts to walk ratio at 3.31 and he had a career WHIP of 1.10 only slightly behind Mathewson's 1.06 career WHIP. His best year is tough to choose due to many great seasons that are very similar but I'll go with his career low ERA year of 1969 when he went 21-11 with 8 shutouts and a 2.10 ERA. He pitched for the San Francisco Giants from 1960 through 1973.

Starting Pitcher - Gaylord Perry (134 Wins, 2.96 ERA, 118 ERA+)

Although Perry actually had his single best season winning the Cy Young award with the Indians in 1972 he pitched his first 10 seasons with the San Francisco Giants from 1962 through 1971.

Perry had poor run support through most of his stay with the Giants as evidenced by his 16-15 record in 1968 when he had a 2.44 ERA, his lowest during his years with the Giants.

Relief Pitcher - Robb Nen (206 Saves)

Nen only pitched 5 years with the Giants (from '98 through '02) but is still the Giants all time saves leader with 206. His best year came in 2000 when he finished 4th in the Cy Young Award voting with 41 saves and a 1.50 ERA.

Have your own say on the Giants All Time Team at the San Francisco Giants Baseball Forum.

Labels: All Time Team, San Francisco Giants

FROM: Sox Prospects (1st Round/Sandwich)
AND: Son's of Sam Horn (Compensation, 2nd, 3rd, 4th)

2007 MLB Draft Order
First Round
1. Tampa Bay
2. Kansas City
3. Chicago Cubs
4. Pittsburgh
5. Baltimore
6. Washington
7. Milwaukee
8. Colorado
9. Arizona
10. San Francisco (Protected from the A's due to the Giants sucking ass last year)
11. Seattle
12. Florida
13. Cleveland
14. Atlanta
15. Cincinnati
-------Protected Picks Stop--------
16. Toronto (from Texas) (Frank Catalanotto)
17. Texas (from Houston) (Carlos Lee)
18. St. Louis
19. Philadelphia
20. LA Dodgers (from Boston) (Julio Lugo)
21. Toronto
22. Giants (from LAD) (Jason Schmidt)
23. San Diego
24. Texas (from LAA) (Gary Mathews Jr.)
25. Chicago White Sox
26. Oakland
27. Detroit
28. Minnesota
29. San Francisco (from NY Mets) (Alou I think.)
30. NY Yankees


Supplemental Round
31. Cubs (For Type B Juan Pierre)
32. Nationals (For Type A Alfonso Soriano)
33. Diamondbacks (For Type B Craig Counsell)
34. Giants (For Moises Alou)
35. Mariners (For Type B Gil Meche)
36. Braves (For Type A Danys Baez)
37. Reds (For Type A Rich Aurilia)
38. Rangers (For Lee)
39. Cardinals (For Type A Jeff Suppan)
40. Phillies (For Type A David Dellucci)
41. Red Sox (For Type B Alex Gonzalez)
42. Blue Jays (For Type A Justin Speier)
43. Dodgers (For Lugo)
44. Padres (For Type A Woody Williams)
45. Angels (For Type B Adam Kennedy)
46. Athletics (For Type A Barry Zito)
47. Tigers (For Type B Jamie Walker)
48. Mets (For Type A Roberto Hernandez)
49. Nationals (For Type B Jose Guillen)
50. Diamondbacks (For Type B Miguel Batista)
51. Giants (For Jason Schmidt)
52. Reds (for Scott Schoeneweis)
53. Rangers (For Gary Matthews Jr)
54. Red Sox (for Keith Foulke)
55. Blue Jays (For Catalanatto)
56. Padres (For Type A Dave Roberts)
57. Athletics (For Type B Frank Thomas)
58. Mets (For Type A Chad Bradford)
59. Giants (For Type B Mike Stanton)
60. Rangers (For Type B Mark DeRosa)
61. Blue Jays (For Type B Ted Lilly)
62. Padres (For Type B Alan Embree)
63. Padres (For Type B Ryan Klesko)
64. Padres (for Chan Ho Park)
-- Diamondbacks (for 2006 1st Rounder Max Scherzer, remains unsigned)

Second-Round Changes
66. Nationals (Soriano to ChC)
68. Braves (Baez to Bal)
70. Cardinals (Suppan to Mil)
73. Athletics (Zito to SF)
76. Mets (Hernandez to Cle)
80. Padres (Williams to Hou)
87. Blue Jays (Speier to LAA)

Third-Round Changes
98. Mets (Bradford to Bal)
103. Reds (Aurilia to SF)
106. Phillies (Dellucci to Cle)

Fourth-Round Changes
133. Padres (Roberts to SF)

Labels: 2007 MLB Draft

"Immature humorist borrow; mature humorist steal"
-Mark Twain

There does seem to be a whole bunch of mock drafts, humor, real, or otherwise imagined on the internet. Not so many for baseball, which will have it's upcoming 2007 entry draft televised for the first time this year (First Round). There are still no trades, so I cannot figure out a reason why someone would want to watch it. Here's a hint: The poor teams take the non Boras client picks, and the rich teams take the Boras clients. Anyways, Here is a mock draft of things your team should go get! (Draft order courtesy of Sons of Sam Horn)

1. Devil Rays (61-101) Realignment- They have to get the hell out of the AL East if they want to have any hope ever.
2. Royals (62-100) Ted Williams' DNA and A Cloning Machine- Either that or keep giving Gil Meche more money.
3. Cubs (66-96) A Homeless Guy to kill- Get some fresh arm ligaments in there quick.
4. Pirates (67-95) Barry Bonds' Last 15 Seasons back- Maybe they should have kept him.
5. Orioles (70-92) One Heart Attack- Any better ideas to get rid of Angelos?
6. Nationals (71-91) The 1994 Season to be uncanceled- YOPPI
7. Brewers (75-87) Everyone forgets who used to own us- It would help.
8. Rockies (76-86) A shovel- Time to get down to sea level.
9. Diamondbacks (76-86) To be less boring- I dunno crap about them.
10. Giants (76-85) The Fountain of Youth- THEY ARE OLD, GET IT?
11. Mariners (78-84) Japan- Felix can't do this without some more help.
12. Marlins (78-84) Loria to fall into MT. Doom- Precious must keep precious money.
13. Indians (78-84) Charlie Sheen- Bullpen help!
14. Braves (79-83) One of the Yankee's World Series Ring sets- (Buffalo Bills joke)
15. Reds (80-82) Ken Griffey Jr. when he was good- Ask the Cubs for spare hamstrings.
16. Rangers (80-82) Steroids- It worked in the 90's!
17. Astros (82-80) Finding someone dumb enough to do the Glen Davis deal again- Curt Shilling/Steve Finley/Pete Harnisch. Hello O's fans!
18. Cardinals (83-78) AA Chapter- Well, yeah.
19. Phillies (85-77) Billy Martin/Earl Weaver- WAKE UP YOU PUSSIES.
20. Red Sox (86-76) Prozac- Cheer up, you dunces.
21. Blue Jays (87-75) HOLY SHIT, WE HAVE A WATER SLIDE AND OUR ROOF OPENS?- Yeah, what they said.
22. Dodgers (88-74) Zombie Branch Rickey- Your GM's have been horrible.
23. Padres (88-74) Anti Incest psychotherapy- Wacky Giles brothers!
24. Angels (89-73) Things with a pulse that are better than their #4 hitter- Poor Vlad.
25. White Sox (90-72) Miss Manners training- For Stabby McShanker the manager.
26. Athletics (93-69) Your Team's prospects- Suckers.
27. Tigers (95-67) Guitar Hero 2- The pitching staff is bored again
28. Twins (96-66) A Sex Boat- The Vikings are so much more interesting.
29. Mets (97-65) A truckload of crack- There might be a way to get the Yankees of the front page.
30. Yankees (97-65) Ritalin- You know with the Red Sox taking drugs the Yankees would do the exact same thing.

So enjoy the real draft on June 7th. Oh wait, that's a Thursday, at 2PM EST. On ESPN2. Nevermind.

~Mike

Labels: 2007 MLB Draft

The career home run record is not given to a player based on whether that player is likable or arrogant or an ACCUSED "cheater." It's in fact not given to anyone at all. It's EARNED by hitting more home runs than anyone else. And WHEN Barry Bonds breaks that record he will have earned the home run king crown. The same as Hank Aaron earned it before him and Babe Ruth before Aaron.

I don't hear anyone saying that Roger Clemens records shouldn't be counted and there's just as much, if not more, circumstantial evidence pointing to Clemens having used some form of performance enhancing drug as there is indicating Bonds' guilt.

To me it's absolute nonsense to only talk about erasing someones records or giving them an "asterisk" when they are going to break some big record. You can't count some stats but not others. Baseball is not a game played in a vacuum. The numbers are what the numbers are, they merely represent what has happened on the field.

It was absolutely retarded when baseball put an asterisk by Roger Maris name in 1961 and it would be beyond ludicrous to put one by Barry Bonds name. Remember Barry Bonds has never tested positive for steroids and has never been found guilty of using steroids. And even if he does test positive in the future or is found guilty by the courts, so what?

Jason Giambi used steroids, he admitted to it, are we going to go back and take away his MVP award? It's just stupid the way baseball fans seem to have latched onto Barry Bonds when so many other players have been (and certainly many still are) involved with performance enhancing drugs. You can't root for the Yankees and then say Barry Bonds should be kicked out of the league or have an asterisk and not be a complete 100% hypocrite. The Yankees (just like every other team in the bigs, I'm sure) have many players who have been involved with PEDs. Why is it OK to still root them on but then to throw syringes at Barry Bonds? Doesn't make no sense. Thus it is, my good friends, nonsense.

Labels: Barry Bonds, New York Yankees, Roger Clemens

Tonight with the Giants down 4 to 0 in the bottom of the 4th inning at home vs. the New York Mets Barry Bonds slammed a Tom Glavine pitch over the center field wall for his 745th home run of his career and his NL leading 11th of the season. The solo shot was hit on the first pitch of the at bat, Bonds 3rd consecutive home run hit on the first pitch.

The countdown to tie Hank Aaron's all time record of 755 home runs is down to only 10.

Barry Bonds trivia: Coming into tonight's game there were only 3 days of the regular season that Bonds had never hit a home run on. May 8th, August 5th, and September 30th. Now there's only 2 such days left.

Discuss the Barry Bonds & The San Francisco Giants @ The Baseball Forum.

Labels: Barry Bonds

Another pitcher testing positive for steroids. This time it's Tampa Bay relief pitcher Juan Salas who has a splendid career ERA of 4.56!

A couple of interesting things to me about this.

#1 If many pitchers are using or have used steroids doesn't this balance out the advantage of the supposed multitude of hitters who have also used steroids?

#2 This guy sucks. Like almost all of the guys who have actually tested positive, this guy is nothing special. Why, if steroids are such a magical potion, do so many of the players who test positive suck so bad? This is another one of those rhetorical questions, friends.

The answer is steroids are not going to make you a good player. They may help with recovery time from injuries and give you a boost in strength but if you suck, you suck. If you're great then you're great. Being a baseball player is not like being an offensive lineman. It's a skill game. You either have the skills or you don't. The influence of steroids on baseball has been highly overstated in some ways (how much they effect your skill) and greatly understated in other ways (it's clear that most of the players in the bigs have used some form of PED yet we keep hearing about ONE guy over and over who has never even tested positive.)

Ortiz makes the point that I've been trying to make. Plenty of guys have taken performance enhancing drugs in the major leagues (I wouldn't be at all surprised if at LEAST half of major league players have taken some kind of performance enhancing drug) and none of them put up numbers anywhere close to as good as Barry Bonds. Why can't these other players who've used PED put up the numbers Barry is putting up if steroids helps you become such a great hitter?

Ortiz says "He was using the best?" If you are a complete idiot and can't figure it out for yourself that's a rhetorical question. Of course Barry doesn't have access to some amazing steroids that no one else does. That's the whole point. Steroids are not going to make you that much better of a hitter. They may make you stronger and increase your power and improve your recovery time from injury. Great stuff! But they are not going to make you hit .370 and have a slugging percentage over .800, if they did then there'd be lots of other guys doing it too.

As Ortiz puts it best "I've heard a lot of different things about Barry Bonds, but people should just admit it -- this guy's a bad [expletive]."

Labels: Barry Bonds, David Ortiz

Yup. It's official!

A-Rod has now gone 12 games without a home run. In those 12 games he is 12 for 45 for a .267 batting average. He also only has 3 walks which gives him a pathetic .313 OBP over the past dozen games which is still a couple of points higher than his even more pathetic .311 slugging percentage over the period.

It is duly noted of course that due to his hot start Rodriguez is still leading the majors in home runs with his 14 and is still on pace for 76 homers and 200 RBI but those "on pace" numbers are dropping fast...

Labels: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

The Giants came into the bottom of the 5th inning against the Mets tonight down 1 to 0 with the Mets' Oliver Perez pitching a perfect game for the first 4 innings.

Then the madness started. By the time it was over the Giants had scored 9 runs with Giants catcher Bengie Molina hitting two home runs. The first one to score 2 runs and the second one to score 3 runs. Rich Aurilia also hit a home run in the inning, his first of the year.

Molina came into the game with only 1 home run for the year in 96 at bats.

It was the first time a Giant hit 2 homers in one inning since Willie McCovey did it in 1977.

The Giants scored no other runs but they would not need them as they would go on bet the Mets 9 to 4. Barry Zito improved to 3-3 on the season.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

In 1914 after the surrender of the Germans in World War one, dejected German citizens turned to cannibalism and inbreeding. The sanctions from the Treaty Of Versailles crippled the once powerful nation, forcing them into 20 years of economic depression, and probably shyster porn. Some of the more retarded and vile of these people traveled back in time to 1903. They formed a Pacific Coast Minor league team named the Los Angeles Angels. The reasoning for this name later inspired Hitler to search for stupid occult crap like you see in the Non-Fictional work of Dr. Jones in the documentary classic series Indiana Jones. With Hitler running the team during the late 30’s and early 40’s the Angels were a secret covert operation of Nazi spies. They are likely the instigators of such devious tricks as McCarthyism, devious, I know. After the fall of the Nazi’s in 1944, Hitler’s spirit was caught via a lasso by Gene Autry.

In 1961 the American League under the influence of the counter Mafia tactics of the Kennedy administration had to act. They forced the American League to expand to Los Angeles after the PCL team became some Salt Lake city minor league team. Gene Autry now mad with the power of Hitler’s soul was convinced into owning the team. During their first season, after all the players had sold their souls to Satan, they finished with the highest winning percentage of any MLB expansion team ever. The record still stands until this very day due to the forces of pure evil. The extended powers of the Dark Lord put them in contention in both 1962 (3rd place) and 1963 (5th Place). The O’Maley family, long time owners of the Dodgers, used the force to try and expel the un-holy alliance from Los Angeles by charging them a metric fuck ton of cash. Temporarily vanquished Hitler’s soul suggested a move to Anaheim, and changed their name to The California Angels. This was an especially evil trick as it is close to Cauliflower, which enjoyment of is a sign of the Anti-Christ. More success followed, until they demons working in the ticket office started to become unnerved and spontaneously combust. The 1969 “Miracle” Mets and their “Hope” and qualities were unnerving the whole organization. Clearly something had to be done to keep the Hitler/Satan combination working. The Cubs were sacrificed via Black Cat, and the return was the Mets gave up Nolan Ryan for a roll of toilet paper and a broken lighter.

In 1979 the Angels finally reached the playoffs, finally breaking the pact that was set in place, Nolan Ryan escaped via Free Agency. The 80’s were a hard time for the Angels, as the Brewers with two cleverly hidden Arch Angels (Who the hell would look in Milwaukee?) Paul Moliter and Robin Yount defeated them before they could reach the World Series. In 1986, still in recoil from the toilet paper and broken lighter the Mets found a passage in Egyptian text on how to send ghosts into Hell. There was collateral damage, as Bill Buckner was used as fuel to perform this devious trick, with the Mets having to ingest amounts of alcohol and cocaine yet unimagined, also they had to punch people in bars for some strange reason. Dave Henderson’s homerun crippled Hitler, and cast him into Hell finally. The demon spawn known as Donnie Moore eventually shot his wife and them himself due to his failures to the Dark Lord. All was good for a long while….

1995 rolled around and the Mets curse seemed to fade as the remaining members of the Mets got sober. The Angels tore out of the gate and lead the AL West by 13 games before Gooden and Strawberry united in a single drug binge large enough to bring the Mariners’ back all the way and on the last day defeat the Angels. Ken Griffey Jr.’s sacrifice of his hamstring after 5 more years had done the trick. The Angels had only one recourse without Hitler, The Disney Corporation.

After testing many various rituals Disney was able to figure out the most evil plan of all. The Rally Monkey was cast from the river Styx by the fuel of a thousand tortured souls. With his higher level powers of wrath and chaos he was able to turn the tables on the side of good and the Angels won the 2002 World Series. With their evil plan come to fruition Disney sold the Angels to Arte Moreno (This means animal rapist in Spanish).

Animal Rapist renamed the team to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, since the once powerful O’ Malley’s had sold the Dodgers to an equally evil shitwheel, Rupert Murdoch. Using his Hispanic heritage Animal Rapist lured various Dominican players into his trap with various mind controlling phrases discovered in the late 90’s such as “Essssss SO REEEEEEAL.” After the failure to trick the now deposed “Hero of Time” Miguel Tejada into his Dominican soul trap, he just went for the roided up Gray Mathews Jr. Mathews is famous for masterminding the World Trade Center attacks and being cut by every other team in MLB, the NFL, and the WNBA. Animal Rapist plans on adding more and more names to the Angels’ name until he controls the entire world, and can rape every animal. (Including a Kimono Dragon)

~Obviously an A’s fan.

Labels: Los Angeles Angels, Totally True Stuff, Worst Team Ever

Since I enjoyed the first needling of peoples trades, I bring Giants fans this delightful one:

(November 2003)
Joe Mauer is coming up to MLB soon, so the Twins/Giants trade:

To the Giants:
A.J. Pierzynski C, Professional Wrestler
Cash considerations or a “Player to be named” (Twins eventually sent Cash)

To the Twins:
CL Joe Nathan
LHP Francisco Liriano (SP)
RHP Boof Bosner (SP)

What the Giants got was one year of AJ, until in the 2004 offseason they signed Mike Matheny (Who hits like Ryan White lives right now) and then waived AJ. They also paid him 3.5 million dollars, while Nathan made 300,000K and the other two Bosner probably made more being a semi-high draft pick. Liriano was probably making like 10K. AJ had a shitty first month and the rest of the Giants decided he was a cancer. After that he ended up having an OK season. What else exactally do you want from the rarity that is a left handed batting catcher again?

A.J. went on to sing Journey on the Dan Patrick show with a bunch of the other retarded and lucky 05 White Sox (Magical career year for most of the Starters?) with Stabby McShanker the crazy minority manager that just loves Madonna, stabbing things, and calling Maglio Ordonez a pussy. He also managed to run to first base once in some important setting, and get punched by Michael Barrett. The Twins guys? Well uhm, one of the best closers in the league, Boof Bosner is a decent backend of the rotation starter, and Liriano could have won the Rookie of the Year last year and no one beyond Verlander fans would have batted an eye. I suppose the jury is still out on him, but his one season at near deity level at MLB with a 200+ ERA+ vs. A.J.’s one OPS+ of 85 well, which one do you want?

~Mike

Labels: A.J. Pierzynski, San Francisco Giants, YOU GOT SERVED.

Career At Bats Per Home Run Ratio Leaders:

1. Mark McGwire 10.61

2. Babe Ruth 11.76

3. Barry Bonds 12.88

4. Jim Thome 13.54

5. Albert Pujols 14.06

6. Manny Ramirez 14.07

7. Ralph Kiner 14.11

8. Harmon Killebrew 14.22

9. Sammy Sosa 14.29

10. Adam Dunn 14.30

Interesting list. I remember looking at the career leaders for home run ratio when I was a wee lad and seeing the top 3 as Babe Ruth, Ralph Kiner, and Harmon Killebrew. Now 7 of the top 10 are guys who've played the majority of their career since then. What's the reason? Juiced players? Juiced balls? Poor pitching? Better conditioning? Some combination of all of the above?

Discuss this and other baseball issues at the Baseball Forum

San Francisco Giants' prized pitching prospect Tim Lincecum's debut was disappointing last night as he made it through only 4 1/3 innings (throwing 100 pitches) allowing 5 hits and 5 walks for 5 runs (4 earned.) Although he would get away with a no decision the Giants would go on to lose the game 8 to 5 to the Phillies. He gave up two home runs including the 5th of the year to the struggling Ryan Howard.

On the positive side of things he did display remarkable velocity on his fastball reaching 100 mph on the stadium gun at one point. He finished with 5 strike outs including 3 in the first inning alone.

Now the Giants fans are hoping that Giants GM Brian Sabean doesn't overreact and pull Lincecum back down to the minors for more "seasoning."

Interestingly enough Lincecum's debut line was very similar to that of Yankees rookie Phil Hughes. Here's hoping Lincecum's second game goes like Hughes' did except without the injury of course.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

Roger Clemens announced at today's Yankees game vs the Seattle Mariners that he will indeed be coming back to pitch for the New York Yankees this season. He is expected to take a few weeks getting in shape and could be pitching for the Yankees by June.

The Yankees pitching has been awful thus far this year but now with Clemens coming back and Chien Ming-Mang's recent near perfect game things are starting to look up for the Yanks. Factor in Phil Hughes promising debut (and assuming he comes back this year 100% healthy from his untimely injury) and the Yankees could have a very good rotation in place for the stretch run and the playoffs. Quite a turn of events from just recently when Andy Pettitte seemed to be the only pitcher they could count on.

The Yankees also got an excellent day from today's starting pitcher Darrel Rasner who threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings for his first win of the season. He now has a 2.75 ERA for the year. The Yanks won the game 5 to 0.

Discuss Roger's return at the New York Yankees Baseball Forum.

Labels: New York Yankees

The first pitch Barry Bonds saw this afternoon he promptly knocked far into the stands. The monster solo home run was his 744th of his career, his NL leading (tied with Chipper Jones) 10th of the season, and tied the game 1 to 1 in the bottom of the second inning.

Bonds is walked his next three times up. Bonds season #s are now .347/.529/.806!

The Giants win the game 9 to 4 despite 4 errors. Tomorrow Bonds is scheduled to take the day off while Tim Lincecum makes his major league pitching debut in the 4th and final game of the Giants' home series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Labels: Barry Bonds

The San Francisco Giants prized pitching prospect Tim Lincecum has been called up to the big leagues and is scheduled to pitch his MLB debut Sunday at home vs the Phillies.

Why are Giants fans so excited about Lincecum? The 22 year old Lincecum won the amateur player of the year award last year for the University of Washington. The Giants drafted him 10th overall in 2006. This year he has been absolutely dominating AAA in Fresno. He has allowed just 12 hits and 1 run in 31 innings while striking out 46. In his most recent start he struck out 14 in 6 innings.

The 5'10" Lincecum is known for his wild windup and his very high velocity. He is known as "Seabiscuit" and "Tim the Enchanter."

Giants fans are hoping that Barry Zito will be part of a new "Big 3" in San Francisco this one with the very young Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum.

Derek Lee is having an incredible season for the Chicago Cubs. He's a career .280 hitter but this season he's sitting at an MLB leading .415! In fact during his entire career he has only hit over .286 one time and that was 2005 which was by far the best season of his career to date.

In 2005 he hit .335 with 46 home runs.

Perhaps even crazier than his .415 batting average is his insane total of 17 doubles. He has now hit at least one double in 8 straight games. His 17 doubles put him on pace for a ridiculous 106 doubles for the year. His previous high was 50 during his career year of 2005. The major league single season record for doubles is Earl Webb's total of 67 in 1931.

To top off the weirdness of Derek Lee's season thus far: Coupled with all of these doubles he's got a grand total of 1 home run. And Mr. Lee has been a pretty darn good home run hitter of late: He has hit 28, 21, 27, 31, 32, and 46 home runs in each of his last 6 complete seasons.

Well I'd bet a fortune that Lee doesn't hit the 106 doubles nor the 6 home runs that he's on pace for now. Nor the 274 hits! But it's been quite an interesting season so far for Derek Lee. Too bad the Cubs can't really say that about their team overall.

One important aspect of being a baseball fan is the realization that fans of other teams are stupid and misguided. While one could make a horrible joke about Cardinal’s pitchers and Denver Broncos’ life expectancies, I’ll go the nicer route. By nicer I mean talking about how stupid your GM’s are compared to mine. Also, I’m only making fun of the other writers for now so we can get a nice rivalry going and bicker, like people are supposed to do on the internet. Wait, isn’t the internet for porn? Oh well…

Cardinals:
Mulder Trade:
FROM A’s:
SP Mark Mulder (Despite the fact that his stats were dropping, and he was frequently injured in the last year on the A’s due to a fault in his mechanics, he had the most talent of any of the A’s vaunted “Big Three,” Cardinals fan’s might remember this SEE: Body explodes)
FROM Cardinals:
SP Dan Haren (Sweet, our opening day starter)
RP Kiko Calero (Awesome, set up man)
1b/c (He’s gonna be a DH) Daric Barton. (Your best prospect)

From A’s: (2002)
CL Jason Isringhausen
From Cardinals:
1st Round, 30th Pick (SP Ben Fritz) Up and down, dependant on if his arm explodes, Doing well in AA right now
1st Round, 39th Pick (Sandwich Pick) (3b Mark Teahen) Traded in Carlos Beltran deal 3 way for Octovial Dotel

Red Sox:
From A’s: (2004)
CL Keith Foulke (Uhm, yeah)
From Red Sox:
1st Round 24h Pick (Landon Powell C) Injured but has recovered, good prospect behind Suzaki who is in AAA right now. BY KENDALL *waves*
1st Round 36th Pick (Danny Putnam OF) Playing in the majors since the A’s OF is a Triage Unit.

From A’s: (2002)
CF Johnny Damon
From Red Sox:
1st Round 16th Pick (Nick Swisher RF/CF/LF/1B) How’s Coco Crisp working out? Oh, Sorry 
!st Round 37th Pick (Steve Obenchain SP) Ok he sucks, everyone gets one. Injured and possibly dead of a Crystal Meth Overdose.

Jay Payton OF, Traded for a broken Chad Bradford (Arm Explosion) when you pissed him off.

San Francisco
FROM A’s: (2003)
Ray Durham (Taken from White Sox GM Kenny Williams for shiny beads (Jon Adkins), played on the A’s for 3 months) Helped A’s get to playoffs.
FROM Giants:
1st Round, 26th pick in 2003 MLB Draft (Brian Snyder 3B) Now a second basemen, had a good first year in 04, struggled last two years and back up to AA this year.
1st Round 33rd pick (Sandwich pick) (2B/SS Omar Quintanilla) Traded with OF Eric Byrnes to Colorado in the 2005 Season for SP/RP Joe Kennedy, and RP Jay Witasick. The point of this trade being that Beane jumped the trade market by a month and took relievers off the market one month before the non-waiver trading deadline. (Both still on the A’s, Kennedy has started and been a reliever since, Witasick out of the bullpen)

I don't want to hear anything about some McGwire trade from the Cardinals, Beane wasn't incharge for that thing. Nor any Jimmy Foxx, Lefty Grove to the Sox, or the explosion of Charles Finley in the 70's. No one is allowed to mention the Tim Hudson trade either. Jerks.

Labels: Billy Beane, Boston Red Sox, Moneyball, Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, YOU GOT SERVED.

Want to talk baseball? BigShowBaseball is starting up a baseball forum. Every team has it's own forum section.

Barry Bonds gave the Giants the lead twice tonight. The second time they were able to hold onto it as they improved their season record to 14-12, 2 games behind the NL West leading LA Dodgers.

Barry Bonds hit his 743rd career home run and his 9th of the season tonight in the 4th inning to give the Giants a 2 to 0 lead. Later in the 8th inning he hit a 2 run single with the bases loaded to give the Giants a 4 to 3 lead. Later in the 8th, Giants catcher Bengie Molina singled in an insurance run and the Giants held on to win 5 to 3.

Bonds #s are now at .343/.511/.791

He's on pace for 60 home runs and 140 RBI.

Even as the biggest Bonds hyper in the world I don't think he'll finish with 60 home runs. And he's even less likely to finish with 140 RBI with this very weak Giants offense. But regardless of that, it's quite a show he's putting on. And I think he's got a very real shot of finishing over a .500 OBP again. That's for sure. If he can finish with an over .500 OBP it would be his 5th season over .500! Before Barry the last players to accomplish this feat were Ted Williams & Mickey Mantle who both did it in 1957.

The only players in the live ball era to have an OBP over .500 for a full season are Babe Ruth (5 seasons with a peak of .545 in 1923), Barry Bonds (4 seasons with a peak of .609 in 2004), Ted Williams (2 seasons with a peak of .553 in 1941), Mickey Mantle (once in 1957 at .512), and Rogers Hornsby (once in 1924 at .507.) This is rarefied air for sure.

Amazingly Williams also just missed .500 multiple times (.499 in 1942, .499 in 1947, .497 in 1948, and .490 in 1949.)

But perhaps the most impressive way of looking at what Bonds is doing is this: In the 80 seasons since 1926 there have been 7 seasons where a player has had at least a .500 OBP: 4 of those seasons have been by Bonds, 2 by Williams, and 1 by Mantle.

Bonds has a slight shot of passing Lou Gehrig for 3rd on the career OBP leaders but he'd probably have to hang on for next year (at an extremely high level) to do it.

For your edufication:

Career OBP Leaders:
1. Ted Williams .482
2. Babe Ruth .474
3. Lou Gehrig .447
4. Barry Bonds .443
5. Rogers Hornsby .435
6. Ty Cobb .433
7. Todd Helton* .432
8. Jimmie Foxx .428
9. Tris Speaker .428
10. Eddie Collins .424

*50% of games @ Coors Field greatly warp career stats. Helton's career OBP at Coors is .468 (!?) and his career OBP anywhere else is .393. When you take away this ridiculous advantage Helton barely ranks in the top 100 much less the top 10. Any player who plays their home games at Coors should have their stats discounted. I think it's completely unfair that they are allowed to lead the league in anything with this ridiculous advantage.

What other active players rank highly on the career OBP ranks?

Frank Thomas .423, Albert Pujols .417, Lance Berkman .416, Jason Giambi .413, Bobby Abreu .411, Manny Ramirez .410, Brian Giles .407, and Chipper Jones .402

Bonds also tied Stan Musial for 4th all time on the career RBI leaders tonight. If he can stay healthy he should pass Lou Gehrig for 3rd this season. Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth are quite are pretty much unreachable at 1st and 2nd in RBI total. Unless Bonds plays till he is 46. Which I'm not ruling out.

Labels: Barry Bonds

Barry has just finished an incredible April this year. Here's a comparison of the last 5 Bonds' Aprils and how he finished for the year.

2007 - .356/.536/.814 - 1.350 in April & how will he finish this year?
2006 - .277/.547/.574 - 1.121 in April & .270/.454/.545 - 0.999 for the year.
2005 - DNP in April.
2004 - .472/.696/1.132 - 1.828 in April & .362/.609/.812 - 1.421 for the year.
2003 - .303/.489/.712 - 1.201 in April & .341/.529/.749 - 1.278 for the year.
2002 - .375/.600/.828 - 1.428 in April & .370/.582/.799 - 1.381 for the year.

First of all look at the 2004 year. Holy God. What were people talking about with A-Rod this year? Please. I mean (*#)(*#$) please. Look at Bonds 2004 #s. I mean (#$)# LOOK at them. Wow. 1.828 OPS in April 2004. Think about that for a little while. I really don't think people should mention other hitters in the same breath as Bonds, it's just disrespectful to the lord.

I did notice an overall tendency for Bonds to dip in May compared to his April although in 2003 he did finish the season with better numbers than his April numbers.

I do think it's definitely worth noting that this year's Bonds had a better April than the 2003 Barry.

Labels: Barry Bonds

The Yankees have been looking for some pitching all season. Last week prized rookie starting pitcher Phil Hughes didn't deliver the goods in his first start allowing 7 hits & 4 runs in in 4 1/3 innings.

But tonight in only his second major league start he has thrown 6 no hit innings... updates to come.

The Yankees just took Hughes out after 6 1/3 innings due to a hamstring injury. Just the Yankees luck this year pitching wise. Their prized rookie pitcher is throwing a no hitter and he gets injured! He's currently expected to be out about a month. We'll see what happens.

John Maine - New York Mets - 4 wins 0 losses 1.35 ERA

Maine is leading the major leagues in ERA and has yet to lose a game. With the Mets stellar offense supporting him he could have a huge season this year. Maine is a young pitcher (25) and only had 8 career wins coming into this season so it will be very interesting to see if he can continue at a level close to this. His WHIP is a very good 1.05 and opposing hitters are hitting only .159 right now. A good indication of Maine's talent is that last year he allowed only a .212 batting average in 90 innings.

Maine is making the Mets loss of Pedro Martinez for the first half of the season that much more bearable. If Maine can keep this up and Martinez can come back healthy and close to his usual level of performance the Mets rotation will be extremely intimidating in the second half of the season and heading into the playoffs.

Tim Hudson - Atlanta Braves - 3 wins 0 losses 1.40 ERA

Hudson is coming off a very disappointing year in which he had a 13-12 record with a career high 4.86 ERA. This year he's performing like his old "Big 3" days with the A's. His opponent OPS is an extremely low .575 right now.

Matt Cain - San Francisco Giants - 1 win 1 loss 1.54 ERA

Although Cain only has 1 win (the Giants' awful offense is to blame for this) he has probably been the most dominant pitcher in the big leagues this year. His opponent OPS is a ridiculous .411 so far this season. His opponent batting average is a minuscule .109! The only area where he could improve at all is that he's allowed a few too many walks this year. He's allowed 17 walks in 35 innings which is perhaps most damaging because it's raising his pitch counts and not allowing him to go deeper into games. This was a recent problem in Cain's last start. Cain pitched 6 innings of 1 hit ball but was taken out due to a high pitch count and the Giants' weak bullpen came in and blew the game

Rich Hill - Chicago Cubs - 3 wins 1 loss 1.77 ERA

Another NL guy. I'll save that 5th slot for an AL pitcher. It seems that the dominating guys this year are mostly in the NL so far. Hill has great #s across the board including a 0.87 WHIP and a .164 BAA. Hill only had 6 career wins coming into this season. He's not as young as his lack of experience would make you think. He's 27. Is this an early season fluke? Ah well we'll see won't we.

Dan Haren - Oakland A's - 3 wins 2 losses 1.60 ERA

Haren had solid years in 2005 and 2006 but nothing indicating the kind of numbers he is putting up so far this year. He is currently leading the AL in ERA and has a great WHIP of 0.99, is this the new & improved Haren or will he revert closer to his career numbers as the season progresses? Delicious early season stats. Mmm.

Time to take a look at the top 10 hitters in the Major Leagues for April 2007 by OPS:

#1 Barry Bonds (.356/.536/.814) - 1.349

Barry is the easy choice for NL MVP as of right now. He's almost single handily keeping the Giants' otherwise lackluster offense alive. Barry's not only putting up great #s but he's helping the team win, night in and night out. In the 7 games he's hit a home run in this year the Giants are 6-1. The #'s he's putting up so far this year are truly extraordinary.

Bonds incredible performances from 2001-2004 skew the perspective of the average fan. What Bonds has been able to do is not normal. For example Bonds' OBP this year of .536 is absolutely Godlike. There have been only 4 individual seasons over a .500 OBP since 1957 and they were Barry Bonds 2001, 2002, 2003, & 2004. His slugging percentage of .812 is similarly Godlike (and a great cause of that OBP being so high as opposing hitters and managers are so scared of his incredible hitting that they walk him at outrageous rates.) To try and put it in perspective there's only been 4 seasons over .800 in history! 2 of them are by Barry Bonds and the other 2 are by a fella named Babe Ruth. Oh and Barry just missed in 2002 with a .799 slugging percentage.

Obviously it's a young season and it's quite presumptious to think that Bonds can keep up this incredible production all season at age 42 (and turning 43) but what he's doing is truly incredible. He is not just hanging on to break a career mark, he is dominating at a level that only he and Babe Ruth have ever reached.

It really makes me giggle a bit inside when others try to compare other hitters to Bonds. Pujols? Rodriguez? Yes these guys are great and they've had months where they were almost as good as Bonds but they've never put up anything close to a full season at Bonds highest level. There are only a few hitters that are the greats among the greats: Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Barry Bonds. Sure guys like Stan Musial were great and so are Pujols & Rodriguez but when it comes down to it, they just aren't at that superhuman level that Bonds is at. Last year Pujols hit at a career high .671 slugging percentage. Awesome. Tied for 61st all time for best single season mark. But hopefully you can see the difference there. It's not a small difference. It's the difference between true superhuman ability and just merely a great hitter. Rodriguez doesn't have a single season even in the top 100. The real argument for Rodriguez is his value compared to a replacement at his position (less of a strong argument now that he's a 3B instead of a SS.) But this is not really what I'm yammering about. I'm talking about hitting only, I don't care what position you play. A-Rod at his peak is not even close to the hitter that Bonds is at his.

#2 Alex Rodriguez (.355/.415/.882) - 1.297

I find it highly amusing that after all the hype for A-Rod's month of April and how it was perhaps the greatest April for any player ever that after a late month swoon he didn't even finish with the best April THIS season. No he was bested by a 42 year old God amongst men, Barry Bonds.

Then you take into account that all of A-Rod's homers weren't helping the Yankees win too many games. Sure he had 2 walk off homers but the Yanks are still sitting at dead last in the AL East.

I would be willing to be huge sums of money that unless Bonds gets injured (and at his age & with his knees that's a huge possibility) that Bonds will finish this season with a higher Avg, OBP, & Slg than A-Rod. Rodriguez may end up with more homers but that's only because he gets so many more at bats. Right now Rodriguez has 93 at bats compared to Bonds' 59.

One final lesson in Bonds outright superiority over Rodriguez:

Bonds: 23 walks 9 strikeouts.
Rodriguez: 23 strikeouts 9 walks.

And just to really get my point in here: Bonds is 42 years old!!#@$@?! This is just incredible.

3. Jim Thome (.340/.553/.680) - 1.233

Thome is drawing a huge amount of walks right now, even more than Bonds. His overall stats are looking almost Bondsian (although a .680 SLG doesn't quite cut it. Yah that's how ridiculous Bondsian really is.) Unfortunately for Thome he is battling injuries and is currently on the DL.

4. Vladimir Guerro (.366/.470/.695) - 1.165

Vlad's been putting up huge numbers for the Angels and is an early season candidate for MVP and right now with the Angels 15-11 record compared to A-Rod's Yankees sitting in last place I think he may have the advantage over Rodriguez. Buth Vlad and A-Rod are 31 years old. Vlad's been a consistently great hitter throughout his career but he's looking to take it to the next level this year. His current career high single season OPS was in 2000 when he was at 1.074 hitting .345 with a carer high 44 homers.

5. B.J. Upton (.365/.413/.689) - 1.102

Upton is only 22 years old and has never had more than 175 at bats in a season before. Is this great hitting a sign of things to come or an early season fluke? It will be interesting to see how his season pans out and whether the Devil Rays have a new all star on their hands in B.J. Upton.

6. Miguel Cabera (.360/.429/.663) - 1.091
7. Hanley Ramirez (.364/.462/.625) - 1.087

The Florida Marlins take the 6th & 7th positions with two rather promising young hitters. Cabrera is only 24 and has had 3 really good years from 2004 through 2006 and he's looking to take his OPS over 1.000 for the first time this year. Ramirez was last year's rookie of the year and is only 23 years old. So far he has not suffered from any sort of sophomore jinx, in fact he's greatly improving on his rookie year numbers.

8. Aaron Rowand (.378/.462/.622) - 1.084

Rowand's best season to date was 2004. In '04 he hit .310 with 24 homers and had a .905 OPS. Last year he hit only .262 with 12 home runs. Clearly this year he's hitting at a much higher level so far. It would be very surprising if he can keep up this level. I would expect that this is somewhat of an early season fluke and he'll go back down to earth a bit as the year progresses.

9. Carlos Beltran (.356/.412/.663) - 1.076

Given sportswriters tendency towards voting for players on winning teams, Beltran may actually be the MVP front runner right now in the NL especially considering he plays in New York. He's had a great year so far and I think the Mets are the best team in baseball. The one thing hurting his MVP chances right now is that he and Jose Reyes will be splitting the Mets vote. Reyes would be on this list if we went down a few more slots (he's 14th.)

10. Kelly Johnson (.326/.473/.593) - 1.066

The Braves are winning and a big part of that has been Kelly Johnson. He's only 25 years old. Last year as a rookie in 290 at bats he only hit .241 and had a .731 OPS. Is this the real Kelly Johnson? Or is it last year's .241 hitter? Most likely something in between. But we'll have to let the season play out. Certainly the Braves have to be very pleased with the production from their second baseman.