The Imperfect Trifecta or Singles Only, Please

55 Replies

Blogger Paul E pointed out that Jimmy Rollins and Juan Pierre are leading the Phillies attack this year with identical batting averages, on-base percentages and slugging percentages. That unusual trifecta is, of course, usually only accomplished when a player has no walks and no extra-base hits.

Rk	Player	H	BB	XBH	Year	Age	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	2B	3B	HR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
9	Jimmy Rollins	6	0	0	2012	33	PHI	5	22	21	0	0	0	0	.286	.286	.286	.572	/*6
21	Juan Pierre	3	0	0	2012	34	PHI	4	14	14	0	0	0	0	.214	.214	.214	.428	/*7

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/12/2012.

After the jump, I’ll look a little more into this “phenomenon”.

To start, I wanted to see players with seasons having the fewest walks and extra-base hits relative to PAs. Here’s the list for the live ball era, showing seasons (min. 300 PA) since 1920 with OPS < BA x 2.25.

Rk	Player	OPS	BA	PA	Year 6	Age	Tm	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	OBP	SLG	Pos
1	Tony Womack	.556	.249	351	2005	35	NYY	108	329	46	82	8	1	0	12	.276	.280	748D/9
2	Alex Sanchez	.721	.322	352	2004	27	DET	79	332	41	107	9	3	2	7	.335	.386	*8/D
3	Alvaro Espinoza	.633	.282	544	1989	27	NYY	146	503	51	142	23	1	0	14	.301	.332	*6
4	Kirby Puckett	.655	.296	583	1984	24	MIN	128	557	63	165	12	5	0	16	.320	.336	*8
5	Darrell Brown	.601	.272	323	1983	27	MIN	91	309	40	84	6	2	0	10	.297	.304	*8/7D
6	Tim Foli	.563	.252	349	1983	32	CAL	88	330	29	83	10	0	2	5	.263	.300	*65
7	Doug Flynn	.504	.225	485	1982	31	TOT	146	463	26	104	12	4	0	8	.236	.268	*46
8	Gene Clines	.620	.276	480	1976	29	TEX	116	446	52	123	12	3	0	16	.304	.316	*7D/89
9	Danny Thompson	.482	.219	318	1970	23	MIN	96	302	25	66	9	0	0	7	.234	.248	*45/6
10	Horace Clarke	.512	.230	607	1968	28	NYY	148	579	52	133	6	1	2	23	.258	.254	*4
11	Hal Lanier	.461	.206	518	1968	25	SFG	151	486	37	100	14	1	0	12	.222	.239	*6
12	Don Kessinger	.608	.274	578	1966	23	CHC	150	533	50	146	8	2	1	26	.306	.302	*6
13	Bobby Richardson	.573	.256	320	1957	21	NYY	97	305	36	78	11	1	0	9	.274	.298	*4
14	Dick Groat	.632	.284	415	1952	21	PIT	95	384	38	109	6	1	1	19	.319	.313	*6
15	Emil Verban	.635	.289	363	1949	33	CHC	98	343	38	99	11	1	0	8	.309	.327	*4
16	Chile Gomez	.515	.232	358	1936	27	PHI	108	332	24	77	4	1	0	14	.265	.250	*46
17	Jimmy Jordan	.603	.278	312	1935	27	BRO	94	295	26	82	7	0	0	9	.302	.302	46/5
18	Otis Miller	.610	.272	413	1931	30	BOS	107	389	38	106	12	1	0	15	.301	.308	*54
19	Tommy Thevenow	.642	.286	624	1930	26	PHI	156	573	57	164	21	1	0	23	.316	.326	*6
20	Moe Berg	.630	.287	385	1929	27	CHW	107	352	32	101	7	0	0	17	.323	.307	*2
21	Freddy Spurgeon	.642	.287	405	1925	23	CLE	107	376	50	108	9	3	0	15	.315	.327	*54/6
22	Mickey O’Neil	.538	.246	382	1924	24	BSN	106	362	32	89	4	1	0	14	.276	.262	*2
23	Walter Holke	.651	.291	424	1922	29	BSN	105	395	35	115	9	4	0	14	.317	.334	*3
24	George Maisel	.673	.310	431	1921	29	CHC	112	393	54	122	7	2	0	11	.334	.338	*8
25	Walter Schmidt	.628	.282	417	1921	34	PIT	114	393	30	111	9	3	0	12	.307	.321	*2
26	Otto Miller	.644	.289	324	1920	31	BRO	90	301	16	87	9	2	0	9	.312	.332	*2

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/11/2012.

Interesting list. Everything from a HOFer, to one of the all-time leading out-makers (Lanier), to the player with the all-time lowest WAR (Flynn) for a 4000 PA career. And, look at all the guys batting .280 or better.

Some notes:

Everyone on the list has walks in less than 5% of PAs. Foli, Flynn and Sanchez have walks in less than 2% of PAs.
Everyone on the list has walks of less than 20% of Hits. Foli, Sanchez, Flynn, Verban, Maisel, Puckett and Espinoza have walks of less than 10% of Hits.
Maisel, Foli, Flynn and O’Neil all have extra-base hits plus walks of less than 5% of PAs.
O’Neil, Gomez, Clarke and Berg all have extra-base hits of less than 7% of total Hits.

There have been 67 times in the game-searchable era that players (excluding pitchers) have started a season with 10 or more hits before recording a walk or an extra-base hit. No player has done this more than once. Here are the longest such streaks, by number of hits, to start a player’s season (note that OBP may vary from BA due to HBP or SF).

Player	Strk Start	Strk End	Games	AB	H	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Tm
Tom Veryzer	1981-04-11	1981-05-17	23	70	20	0.286	0.292	0.286	0.577	CLE
Ed Madjeski	1933-04-13	1933-06-26	23	68	19	0.279	0.279	0.279	0.559	PHA
Wayne Tolleson	1985-04-17	1985-05-31	18	57	19	0.333	0.333	0.333	0.667	TEX
Bill Killefer	1921-05-05	1921-06-22	14	49	17	0.347	0.347	0.347	0.694	CHC
Ellie Rodriguez	1973-04-06	1973-05-31	20	58	17	0.293	0.305	0.293	0.598	MIL
Charlie Hargreaves	1923-06-27	1923-10-02	18	50	16	0.320	0.320	0.320	0.640	BRO
Kevin Barker	1999-08-19	1999-09-04	15	49	16	0.327	0.320	0.327	0.647	MIL
Marshall Edwards	1983-04-15	1983-07-29	22	58	16	0.276	0.276	0.276	0.552	MIL
Ty Cline	1966-04-12	1966-09-15	32	49	16	0.327	0.327	0.327	0.653	CHC-ATL
Adam Kennedy	2005-05-02	2005-05-22	17	56	14	0.250	0.263	0.250	0.513	LAA
Chuck Hiller	1966-04-19	1966-06-07	26	39	14	0.359	0.390	0.359	0.749	NYM
Emmanuel Burriss	2011-04-28	2011-06-11	19	53	14	0.264	0.264	0.264	0.528	SFG
Frank Duffy	1975-04-18	1975-05-03	14	53	14	0.264	0.264	0.264	0.528	CLE
Fred Vaughn	1945-04-20	1945-05-31	17	58	14	0.241	0.241	0.241	0.483	WSH
Lee Gamble	1938-04-22	1938-06-06	14	41	14	0.341	0.341	0.341	0.683	CIN
Overton Tremper	1927-06-16	1927-10-02	24	60	14	0.233	0.246	0.233	0.479	BRO
Walter Mueller	1926-08-31	1926-09-21	16	49	14	0.286	0.286	0.286	0.571	PIT

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/11/2012.

Removing the start of season restriction, here are the players who have gone at least 90 consecutive PAs without a walk or extra-base hit. Notice that Aurelio Rodriguez (second from bottom) had a streak lasting 366 days!

Player	Strk Start	Strk End	Games	AB	Hits	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Tm
Bob Lillis	1963-06-24	1963-08-10	40	143	22	0.154	0.171	0.154	0.325	HOU
Bob Lillis	1961-07-18	1962-04-24	36	124	28	0.226	0.226	0.226	0.452	STL-HOU
Ivy Olson	1920-04-26	1920-05-28	22	110	22	0.200	0.200	0.200	0.400	BRO
Everett Scott	1924-05-17	1924-06-18	28	109	29	0.266	0.266	0.266	0.532	NYY
Paul Casanova	1967-09-30	1968-05-30	30	109	14	0.128	0.127	0.128	0.256	WSA
Tommy Helms	1969-08-15	1969-09-18	28	103	24	0.233	0.233	0.233	0.466	CIN
Junior Ortiz	1983-06-20	1983-08-19	36	102	25	0.245	0.245	0.245	0.490	NYM
Ollie O’Mara	1918-05-18	1918-06-24	28	102	17	0.167	0.190	0.167	0.357	BRO
Woody Jensen	1937-09-10	1937-10-02	23	100	25	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.500	PIT
Bill Mazeroski	1963-08-27	1963-09-20	25	98	13	0.133	0.133	0.133	0.265	PIT
Ryan Theriot	2010-05-05	2010-06-04	24	96	18	0.188	0.204	0.188	0.392	CHC
Enos Cabell	1979-05-23	1979-06-25	24	95	21	0.221	0.221	0.221	0.442	HOU
Bill Buckner	1984-09-05	1984-09-30	24	94	23	0.245	0.240	0.245	0.484	BOS
Mickey O’Neil	1924-04-28	1924-05-30	24	93	21	0.226	0.226	0.226	0.452	BSN
Jay Hankins	1961-05-28	1961-08-24	31	92	16	0.174	0.174	0.174	0.348	KCA
Aurelio Rodriguez	1982-09-29	1983-09-29	40	89	10	0.112	0.121	0.112	0.233	CHW-BAL
Freddy Sanchez	2009-08-08	2010-05-20	22	87	23	0.264	0.258	0.264	0.523	SFG

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/11/2012.

Finally, these are the players since 1901 to finish a season with 8 or more hits, and identical BA, OBP and SLG numbers.

Rk	Player	H	BA	OBP	SLG	Year	Age	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	RBI	SO	SH	SF	GDP	Pos
1	Frank Sigafoos	11	.256	.256	.256	1926	22	PHA	13	44	43	4	2	3	1			*6
2	Kelly Dransfeldt	10	.333	.333	.333	2004	29	CHW	15	30	30	5	4	6	0	0	0	/*65D
3	Brian Doyle	10	.192	.192	.192	1978	23	NYY	39	54	52	6	0	3	2	0	2	*4/65
4	Josh Billings	10	.217	.217	.217	1921	29	SLB	20	47	46	2	4	7	1			*2
5	Nelson Liriano	9	.409	.409	.409	1991	27	KCR	10	23	22	5	1	2	1	0	0	*4
6	Walt Hriniak	9	.346	.346	.346	1968	25	ATL	9	26	26	0	3	3	0	0	0	/*2
7	Carl Boles	9	.375	.375	.375	1962	27	SFG	19	25	24	4	1	6	1	0	2	/7
8	Donie Bush	9	.409	.409	.409	1923	35	WSH	12	34	22	6	0	1	5			/*54
9	Ryan Sweeney	8	.229	.229	.229	2006	21	CHW	18	35	35	1	5	7	0	0	1	/879D
10	Bob Schroder	8	.242	.242	.242	1966	21	SFG	10	35	33	0	2	2	2	0	1	/*6
11	Sammy Meeks	8	.229	.229	.229	1951	28	CIN	23	35	35	4	2	4	0		2	/56
12	Hal Anderson	8	.250	.250	.250	1932	28	CHW	9	33	32	4	2	1	1			/*8
13	Dick Spalding	8	.348	.348	.348	1928	34	WSH	16	25	23	1	0	4	2			/*79

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/12/2012.

0 0 votes

Article Rating

55 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

I think JRoll will rack up some XBH’s, and he probably won’t walk too much. I think Pierre has only started 2 games. Don’t get carried away Doug.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

And there you go, the Phils scratch out a win with great pitching and a patched up lineup.

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

Timmy, don’t miss the point of Doug’s blog.

The fact that Juan Pierre’s name crops up in the same blog as the lists of no-names provided by Doug is not a good thing.

I hesitate to make any comment about Juan Pierre’s current presence on a ML roster, for fear you might take it personally.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Well I disagree with Doug that Pierre is “leading the attack”. He’s started 2 games. Victorino hit lead off tonight and banged a HR. The Phils are hurt and sometimes you gotta go to war with the army you got. I like going to war with that pitching staff regardless of the lineup. I understand Doug is making a point that the lack of walks and XBH’s is a recipe for disaster.

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

Timmy, by saying that a lack of walks and XBHs is a recipe for sitting on the bench is bad you are showing good baseball judgement.

At risk of speaking for Doug, by saying that Juan Pierre is “leading the attack”, he is making a point about the Phil’s poor early-season offense, not about Pierre’s effectiveness as an offensive force.

(At least I think so.)

Doug?

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Actually, it was nothing more than the comment Paul E posted yesterday. I just thought it was interesting having identical slash components.

But, having two out machines in your line-up is most likely at least one too many.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Johnny Damon is back in baseball and headed to 3,000! Good luck JD!

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

I was going to post something about Johnny Damon signing! Will be interesting to see how often he plays. With Acta as the manager, I doubt Damon plays more than 80% of the time. (Acta loves rotating players in and out of the lineup). Damon also has an opt-out clause once Sizemore returns.

Neil L.

12 years ago

Doug, Alvaro Espinoza is the statistical spitting image of Juan Pierre, except he probably had a stronger throwing arm.

Only shortstops could justify stat lines like Espinoza’s or Don Kessinger’s.

It is mind-blowing, to me, that, in the era that Cal-Ripken was re-defining the position, Alvaro could consume so many plate appearances as a shortstop in the Yankees lineup with so little productivity.

Are you kidding me? 14 BB in 544 plate appearances? Did he ever see a pitch he didn’t like?

Thanks for the study, Doug. There is more for me to digest in the study.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Espinoza was just following in the Yankee tradition of Horace Clarke, he of the 607 PAs and 9 XBH. That’s only a 24 point spread between BA and SLG.

But it’s not just middle infielders. There’s also… rookie CFers. Puckett outdid Espinoza with 39 more PAs and a 40 point spread between BA and SLG (it was 50 spread for Espinoza).

And Foli and Flynn each had only an 11 point spread between BA and OBP. Talk about never seeing a pitch you don’t like.

Hartvig

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

And of course, old Horace was just picking up the torch passed down by Bobby Richardson with an OPS in 1960 & ’61 of .601 & .610 respectively in over 1200 plate appearances, mostly in the lead off spot.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

I see that Richardson’s .573 OPS (58 OPS+) in 1957 (the year he made the list here) earned him an All-Star selection???

But, Richardson and Gus Triandos sat, as their positions were the only ones where the starters (Fox and Berra) played the whole game.

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Imagine the outcry, in this day and age, if an all-star manager allowed one player to play the entire game at the expense of another at the same position?

Nice catch on Bobby Richardson, and his all-star selection, Doug. And at age 21.

Bobby Richardson only played 97 games that year. Presumably he was injured after the all-star game and didn’t play a full season? It is not many plate appearances for an all-star.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Actually, I looked again at the box.

Stengel also had Kaline and Mantle play the whole game. But, he sat down Williams. Only 19 of the 25 AL players appeared.

On the NL side, Alston had Mays, Musial and Aaron play the whole game, and he used 21 of his 25 guys.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Reply to #41: As of 7/2 of that year Richardson was batting .301 and Casey Stengel was selecting the reserve All-Stars

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug @44,

So it was the all-star norm in the fifties to ride the game’s established stars for the entire game and leave younger all-stars on the bench.

How were players selected to the all-star back then?

Ah, for a return to a time where television didn’t rule the game, where big money didn’t talk and where fans didn’t “stuff” on-line ballot boxes.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Reply to #46:

It’s really weird that you mentioned fans stuffing the ballot for the AS game. That year fans voted for the players and a Cincinnati newspaper headed up campaign for the fans to vote frequently for Reds players. As a result 7 of the 8 AS starters were from the Reds: George Crowe, Johnny Temple, Roy McMillan, Don Hoak, Ed Bailey, Frank Robinson and Wally Post. The other player was Stan Musial. Commissioner Ford Frick used his power to replace Crowe and Post with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Richard @47, I honestly didn’t know that about the 1957 season.

So some things never change. 🙂

In this connected world one city’s market can still influence the all-star roster. Hmmm …..

Mike L

12 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

For the record, I think it’s unreasonably cruel to be putting Horace Clarke and Alvaro Espinoza in the same post. Childhood nightmares and adult bad dreams.

bstar

12 years ago

Doug, Braves reserve outfielder Jose Constanza is trending toward making a couple of your lists. Since August 20th, 2011 when he innocently drew a walk in the fourth inning, Constanza has 6 singles in 42 plate appearances, for a stunning slash line of .143/.143/.143. Braves nation was horrified to see Jose pinch-hitting in high leverage situations a couple of times early this year; fortunately, Constanza was sent down to AAA when Chipper came back into the lineup two days ago.

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

bstar, I forgot you were a Braves fan ……. until now.

Paul E

12 years ago

Doug:
Another statistical oddity (perhaps?): Matt Kemp is batting .429 with a .414 OBA in 28 PA through the 5th inning tonight. Zero BB’s – just like Charlie Manuel’s table setters; except Kemp is slugging .750 . I imagine George Sisler may have pulled this off (.400 BA/ 0 walks/ 28 PA’s) in one of his pre-eye-injury seasons? Or even Jeff Francouer?

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

That would be kind of interesting to look at – the longest streak to start a season without a walk, and the best BA to go with it.

I’ll post what I find.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

Paul,

You are bang on about Sisler. In 1925, he had the highest BA (.419) among players to have at least 100 AB without a walk to start a season.

Christian Guzman (.381) in 2009 and Jeff Francoeur (.379) in 2005 aren’t far behind.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Sisler did that in a post-eye-injury season. He missed the 1923 season with his eye-sinus condition.

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

I was just guessing. I know Bill James in the BJHBA talked about Sisler’s “hollow” .340; however, he did state he thought he may have approached Cobb’s lifetime BA of .367 if it weren’t for the sinus condition. Francoeur generally starts out hot and swings at everything and anything close.

If I could ever figure out that PI…..

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

I think James guessed a .362 lifetime BA and about 3800 hits for Sisler without the mid-career illness. That’s probably as realistic as James’ projection of Hank Greenberg hitting 611 career HR, instead of his actual 331.

Paul E., that was an amazing guess.

The “what-if?” game is sure fun, huh?

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

” “Paul E., that was an amazing guess” ”

Yeah, but you haven’t seen my $^#@&*! stock portfolio. Over the last twenty-five years I have probably received class-action law suits in the mail on about a dozen stocks I’ve owned – and, believe me, you don’t get those items in the mail if you’ve made the correct guesses…

Regarding James’ “favorite toy”, I believe he had Canseco going for about 600 lifetime home runs and Ruben Sierra knocking in 2,000 runs

12 years ago

Ah Tom Veryzer. As an Indian’s fan, that name brings back memories! And not in a good way. Nothing says your franchise is clueless more than trading for a guy coming off a 30 OPS+ season and installing him as your regular shortstop. For 4 seasons! And Veryzer’s DP partner for much of the time was Duane Kuiper, he of the infamous one home run in 3,754 PAs. That has to be one of the worst, multi-year DP combos ever.

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Actually, Kuiper was on the second list, twice, until I realized I ran the query wrong and was only selecting streak games with an AB. But, even so, he’s probably not too far removed from this company.

Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten about Kuiper and the one home run. Even when he popped up on my list, I recognized the name, but the one home run (which did get a fair bit of notoriety at the time) didn’t register.

Getting old, I guess.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Kuiper’s one home run was off of Steve Stone. I suppose if you’re only going to hit one home run in your career, it’s best to hit it off of a future Cy Young winner. BTW, one thing that jumps out at me on his B-Ref page are his salaries. They only list two: $40,000 in 1977 and $67,500 in 1979. (those correspond to $150,000 and $210,000 in today’s dollars). Hard to believe that 30-35 years ago, a MLB starter could make so little. Particularly someone who was in his 3rd and 5th seasons as a starter. Nowadays, the minimum… Read more »

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I remember attending a game at Cleveland Stadium in the summer of ’78 (me and about 70,000 empty seats). I really don’t remember what the ticket cost, but I’d bet it was less than 5 bucks. So, that’s changed too.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Reminds me of going to a Cleveland Cavaliers’ basketball game in 1991. We paid $10 for tickets and we didn’t even buy the cheapest tickets. And this was for a playoff game no less.

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

The cavernous Cleveland stadium. Wasn’t it Cleveland Municipal or Cleeland Memorial stadium?

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Reply to #25. It was Cleveland Municipal Stadium or, also, Cleveland Stadium..

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Come on…everyone knows the name of the stadium was “The Mistake on the Lake”!

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Ed @31, I was resisting the us of that moniker in deferences to Clevelanders everywhere. 🙂

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

@37 oops us = use

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I see that Emil Verban on this list also had just 1 career HR, and in 3109 PAs. He got his HR off Johnny Vandermeer in 1948.

Verban actually had a longer homerless streak before hitting his HR than Kuiper did after hitting his – 2595 PA to 1786 PA.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

And it looks like Tom Oliver has the most PAs (2073) with no home runs (position players only). Jack McCarthy actually comes up first in the search results but he hit 4 homeruns in 1898 and 1899.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

RE: Placing Duane Kuiper’s salary in context: An MLB “minimum salary” was first established as $6,000 in 1946, where it stayed for more than two(!) decades. Before that, the minimum was apparently the least that a team could pay. The source for the info below is the blog “NYYfans”, and “thecaptain”, posting 02-07-2005 @11:30AM YEAR MINIMUM AVERAGE 1967 $6,000 $19,000 1968 10,000 NA 1969 10,000 24,909 1970 12,000 29,303 1971 12,750 31,543 1972 13,500 34,092 1973 15,000 36,566 1974 15,000 40,839 1975 16,000 44,676 1976 19,000 51,501 1977 19,000 76,066 KUIPER: $40,000 1978 21,000 99,876 1979 21,000 113,558 KUIPER: $40,000… Read more »

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

As a Giants fan it’s impossible to forget about Kuip’s one home run as it comes up every other broadcast. To really rub it in, his co-commentator (pitcher) Mike Krukow had five.

Wine Curmudgeon

12 years ago

Moe Berg! Is is time for the baseball players who were spies post?

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Wine Curmudgeon

Wine,

Another former B-Ref poster. I remember your distinctive screen name, now,

I’ve only been around in HHS for about a week, but good to hear from you.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Wine Curmudgeon

I’m going to guess that Berg is the _only_ twentieth-century MLB player who was also a spy.

There are two excellent books out about his amazing career(s):
1972 -“Moe Berg: Athlete, Scholar, Spy” by Barbara Fitzgerald
1994 – “The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg” by Nicholas Dawidoff

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

#31/ED –

RE: Cleveland Municipal Stadium – I think that in the mid-80s, Oil Can Boyd had a quote to the affect that “…that’s what you get for building a ballpark next to the ocean.”

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

What’s incredible about the Cleveland Indians is how Jacobs Field (?)turned the franchise fortunes around for about ten years or so. They must have had, at one time or another, 4 Hall of Famers (Thome, Manny, Roberto Alomar, Jeff Kent) and many very good players in their everyday lineup – Brian Giles, Lofton,Justice, Belle, Juan Gonzalez, Vizquel, Travis Fryman, Matt Williams, Marquis Grissom, etc…..

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

Paul E: Actually I would say that the fortunes changed based on some astute drafting (Ramirez, Thome, Belle, Nagy) and trades (Baerga, Lofton, Alomar, Vizquel). That was the core of the team that went to the WS in ’95. The fact that the fortunes of the team turned right around the time of the new stadium was coincidence more than anything.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

The fact that the Cleveland Brown NFL team moved to Baltimore after the 1995 seasonalso helped the Indians attendence quitea bit, I’d imagine.

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Never heard that before but you got it almost 100% correct:

http://apudgeisasandwich.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/dennis-ray-boyd-would-like-15-minutes-of-your-time/

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Casey Kotchman has the “trifecta” going — 3 singles in 25 trips, no walks.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Generally not a good sign when your team’s big free agent signing is Casey Kotchman. Sigh….

John Williams

12 years ago

Juan Pierre could be the last player of his type. The tiny guy, slap-hitter, free swinging outfielder/lead off man. The ones who are 150 pounds soaking wet; as the cliche goes. I always liked seeing Juan Pierre play, it has to be the Muggsy Bogues thing I have as a short man.

Tristram12

12 years ago

Reply to John Williams

May I suggest the heir apparent? How about Dee Gordon?

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to John Williams

I think Juan Pierre singled again today as a pinch hitter in the Phil’s loss to the Mets. His BA, OBA and SLG are all still equal at 0.250.