OleMissCub

HAHAHAH, that wasn't even in the same zip code as the strike zone.

definitely the dumbest injury of the year. although the award for weirdest should go to Brandon Inge's DL stint on account of him moving a pillow.

I've posted this before, but this is what Bill James wrote in Abstract about Mark Grace, whom he has ranked as his 32nd all time 1st baseman: What he said about Sandberg, whom he has ranked as the 7th all time 2nd baseman:

Serious question: is that his daughter? I'd bet that it is. They have a similar face.

That's just crazy production. Not to diminish Rajah any, but the 1920's should be viewed in much the same way as the 1990's are, insofar as the offensive stats being a touch inflated.

not all as a 2B though This is true, although I suppose his overall stats should still qualify under the label "by a second baseman." My top second basemen: 1) Eddie Collins 2) Rogers Hornsby 3) Nap Lajoie 4) Joe Morgan 5) Ryne Sandberg 6) Charlie Gehringer 7) Rod Carew 8) Robert Alomar 9) Jackie Robinson 10) Craig Biggio My only real hesitation is putting Carew on the list because he played about 50 more games at first than at second during his career, but since he came up as a second baseman and played there for his first 10 years, I'd put him on the list.

He wouldn't have any reason to harbor ill will toward Utley because Utley won't break any of Morgan's records for 2nd baseman. Hell, I think the only record Morgan still has at that position is most walks. I'm pretty positive Eddie Collins has claim to all the "gritty" records like top BA, top OBP, most hits, most runs, most stolen bases, and I'm positive Hornsby is the leader in power stats like doubles, RBI, SLG, except for HR, which Kent has.

No, you are right. Fisk wasn't there either. I don't blame Fisk and Yaz for not being there...lord knows what those "classy" Yanks fans would have had in store for them.

For the third time, from Bill James' Baseball Abstract:

The Hall of Famers missing from the All Star Game ceremony, most due to health. 1. Bobby Doerr 2. Monte Irvin 3. Stan Musial 4. George Kell 5. Red Schoendienst 6. Duke Snider- 7. Jim Bunning 8. Sandy Koufax 9. Tom Seaver 10. Joe Morgan 11. Nolan Ryan 12. Johnny Bench 13. Sparky Anderson As soon as I noted that Morgan wasn't there, my initial thought was that Sandberg was there and he didn't want to be seen with him. Well, some other people are speculating that as well. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/38677-where-was-joe-morgan-at-the-all-star-game-no-one-seems-to-know At the parade that day: http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/461/joemorganinthe2008allstxl8.jpg This definitely sounds like something that egotistical ass would do.

I just got all those stats based off their 162 game averages on BR. Long time lurker posting here. Absolutely love this thread. Had to chime in here. You absolutely CANNOT use the baseball-reference 162 game average for pitchers to determine if pitchers started more games or less games during certain eras. The 162 game average for pitchers is normalized to a 34 game season (so, for example, if someone started 68 games back in 1898 that would count as two seasons for the 162 game average used on baseball-reference). Here is a link that clarifies the methodology: http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/pitch_glossary.shtml#162_avg Thanks for clearing that up. I figured it was just a simple adding and division method.

Very true: Speaker liked to wrestle gators in the offseason: http://www.ajclay.com/PTC/pictures/102.jpg Babe was big into his farm: http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=37330&stc=1&d=1205188713 http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=36318&stc=1&d=1203784574 http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29241&stc=1&d=1189959728 http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29195&stc=1&d=1189924237 Although they'd probably think pushing buttons on a plastic guitar is pretty weird.

Well, it's one stat, and one that I'm not a huge fan of. Simply, Ichiro is not an elite offensive player, or even an elite offensive outfielder. And while he's a very good defender, that makes him far from a HOF lock. Imagine if he wasn't !chiro, he wouldn't have nearly the swell of support he does. His 162 game avg over his entire career is: .331/.378/.432, 229 hits, 113 runs, and 41 SB. Let's pretend he was born in this country and let's be conservative and put him getting into the bigs at age 22 instead of 27 (I say conservative because I think someone with his talent would have gotten into the bigs at a younger age than 22). So basically subtract five years of age from him. Let's make him 29 years old with the following resume: .331/.378/.432, 1,711 hits, 306 stolen bases, 845 runs scored, 7 gold gloves and 1 MVP. You wouldn't project that person to be a HOFer by the time they retired? His late entrance into the game will preclude him from reaching record milestones, but I think the HOF voters will take that into account. Plus he's a player of historical importance and yada yada yada. Unless something unforeseen occurs and he is precluded from playing out the remainder of his career, there is NO WAY he won't be in the Hall of Fame. We can argue all day about whether he is elite, great, or good....but I don't see how there is much argument about HOF, assuming that he is able to play out his stretch.

some cool Lou Gehrig photos: photos inside spoiler

What Bill James' Baseball Abstract has to say about our managers, past and present: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/lou_piniella_autograph.jpg http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/5687/165kp9.jpg http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/don_baylor_autograph.jpg http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/jim_lefebvre_autograph.jpg

WARP3 is an "assumptive" stat while the season is still going on (or at least that is my understanding of it), it assumes your production will translate into the player playing 162 games....For example, Mike Fontenot is at 4.0 right now, whereas last year he was at 1.9. At the end of the season, when the actual number of PA you got ARE set in stone, then WARP3 is accurate. Regardless, those stats I provided do show that Ichiro is easily one of the elites in the past decade.

aaaaaaarghhhhoverrateddoesn'tmeanhe'sabumi'mtiredofthisargument He's a great player. He's not the best player as many sportswriters make him out to be. I would obviously take him on my team, but the fact that he doesn't walk and doesn't hit for very much power are certain negatives to not be taken for granted. Well he must doing something right because the only players in the last 7 years with more value are Pujols and A-Rod.

FWIW, Ichiro's WARP3 in just 7 and a half seasons since he entered in 2001: 73.6, second only to Pujols and Arod in that time span. In the 7 and a half seasons since 2001, some other big dogs in WARP3: Pujols at 87.1, Arod - 84.8, Beltran - 72.4 (wow, didn't expect that), Berkman - 70.5, Bonds - 69.7, Tejada - 68.5, Rolen - 66.5, Abreu - 63.6, Edmonds - 62.8, Jeter - 61.3, Helton - 61.1, Giles - 60.8, Chipper - 60.4, Kent - 60.3, Vlad - 60.1, Mike Lowell - 60.0, Posada - 58.6, Manny - 57.7, Soriano - 57, Andruw Jones 55.7, Furcal 55.5, Eric Chavez 55.3, D.Lee - 54.9, Damon - 54.8, Delgado - 54.5, Pudge - 53.6, Giambi - 53.5, Rollins - 53.3, Ordonez - 53.3, Thome - 52.4, Michael Young - 52.1, Drew - 51.7, Sheffield - 50.2, Beltre - 50.1, Glaus - 49.4, Burrell - 48.6, Torii Hunter - 47.0, Renteria - 46.9, Carlos Lee - 46.6, Shawn Green - 46.6, Aramis Ramirez - 45.0, Dunn - 44.6, Sexson - 44.5, Dye - 44.3 ...Eckstein - 40.1....Kendall - 39.3....Juan Pierre 34.3.....Neifury - 14.9 :-) Obviously, many of those guys missed seasons and what not, so those raw WARP3 scores aren't totally accurate, but I think it does show that Ichiro is one of the elites of the game right now and has been consistently one of the best ever since he got here, and whilst most of the guys up there in WARP3 are power guys, the fact that Ichiro is ranked third shows that you can be of elite value as a player and not "hit for power and take walks". Certainly sounds like he is building a HOF career to me.

the 70's Reds were poorly represented in general. No Morgan, no Bench..... LOL, awesome.

How bad was Uggla last night?? According to Elias Stats... "Dan Uggla became the first player to ever make three errors, strike out three times and ground into a double play in a regular season game, postseason game or All-Star Game." :shock:

So some folks now are trying to figure out why JoeMo wasn't on the field yesterday.... Some are saying it was probably a contract issue with ESPN, but I doubt that because Cal and Ozzie were there and they both work for TBS. Besides, it was an MLB event, it was just televised on FOX. For an egomaniac like Joe to not be there is interesting. He was there the night before doing the HR Derby... perhaps he didn't want to stand on the field with Ryno??

So that's your criteria for the Hall of Fame? Mickey Tettleton walked a lot and Dave Kingman had a lot of power. Let's put them in! I think when he retires, Ichiro will be a no doubt HOFer.

This happened in 2004 with Carlos Beltran when he was selected as a Royal then traded to the Astros. He played in the game as as an Astro. However, that only occurred because Griffey had to be replaced and Beltran was named as his substitute. So that was a unique circumstance upon a unique situation. So I'm not sure what the real rule is under normal circumstances.

34 K's in that game!! Holy crap.

I think this once again proves that baseball EASILY has the best all-star game.