MLB 2007

[Jeff]

Well, it's that time of year again...  Hall of Fame reveal next week!

  - Ripken and Gwynn should be about as easy a lock as there is for first-timers

  - It will be interesting to see what happens with McGuire... I see ESPN is convinved he won't get in.  I could go either way - he probably did steroids, but at the same times there are a lot of other guys out there that did too... although they aren't hall of famers.   

  - and finally, best of luck to Bert Blyleven.  Yeah, it's a total homer pick, but it's too bad with all his numbers that he isn't in the hall.  If only he had hit the magic 300 wins, I'm sure he'd be in by now.   


In other news, I see that DR's Yanks dumped the Big Unit.  Good move as far as I can tell (he hasn't been the same since he left AZ), plus it frees up some money to woo the Rocket, no?

Oh, and mock kudos to the Twins on signing Ponson.  Unless someone can find the 2003 Ponson hiding inside him, I think our rotation is in a lot of trouble this year... 

[Dressel Rebel]

Dressel's Yankee notes:

1.  Goodbye Randy Johnson and Jaret Wright.  You both suck and we don't want you.  Take Carl Pavano with you, please.  Unless he's actually going to pitch a game having been here 3 seasons.  Then we want him.

2.  Welcome Mr. Igawa.  Although almost none of the asian pitchers have lived up to expectations, we keep hope alive that you will.  And if you don't, well, Mussina, Pettitte, and Wang will cushion that for us 

3.  I want Gary Sheffield  back.  I have fond memories of that line drive he hit out to second base against the Angels, just barely over the glove of a jumping Chone Figgins at the edge of the infield grass, that proceeded to accelerate in line drive fashion over the right field fence.  Never seen that before and probably never will again.  He's that damn strong.  He's a big bat and one of the most fearsome hitters in baseball.  He's gonna be missed.  Well, not if Abreu produces.  But Sheff's one of my favorite players and I'm sure you'll all exploit that fact by expecting me to take him early in our fantasy draft this year, en route to my 3rd championship in 4 seasons.

4.  Glad Joe Torre stayed. 

Other news:

1.  Mark McGwire is not going to be elected to the hall of fame after that Congress fiasco.  No.  Chance.  In.  Hell.

2.  Ripken and Gwynn are in like Flynn.  Check out my rhyme.

That's all for now I'm going to go watch Aaron Boone's 2003 homer against the Sox in the ALCS on YES.

[Darth Slothus]

Dressel's Yankee notes:

1.  Goodbye Randy Johnson and Jaret Wright.  You both suck and we don't want you. 

I was especially impressed with Dressel's comment here. While I wasn't on JD when the Yanks picked up Johnson- I distinctly recall tons of typical Yankees fans bragging about how bad-ass their team was gonna be 'because we got Johnson now..'. Yet another owner big spending event resulting in failure, classic. Justifiable entertainment for me !

DS

So, is Big MAc not getting in because of the inquiry where he said basically..Duh... or is it because he took Andro, which technically was allowed at the time he played so you cannot fault him for that though. I agree though..to be sure, and feel also he will never get in... or I'll/he will be dead if they decided to.

[Dressel Rebel]

Dressel's Yankee notes:

1.  Goodbye Randy Johnson and Jaret Wright.  You both suck and we don't want you. 

I was especially impressed with Dressel's comment here. While I wasn't on JD when the Yanks picked up Johnson- I distinctly recall tons of typical Yankees fans bragging about how bad-ass their team was gonna be 'because we got Johnson now..'. Yet another owner big spending event resulting in failure, classic. Justifiable entertainment for me !

DS

And....and what?  What's your point exactly?

Yeah, we're all glad to get rid of him and yield a 5 man rotation of Mussina, Wang, Pettitte, Igawa, and Pavano.  I think it's a step up.

We got the Small Unit coming off a year where he went 245 IP, 290 K's, a 0.90 WHIP, .197 BAA and a 2.60 ERA.  After 2 years of a much lower performance than the high expectations we had, we're happy to ship him out.  Yeah, he won 17 games/year, but his ERA was 2 points higher than we thought it was going to be and his K total plummetted.  Hitters were batting .250 against him compared to the sub-Mendoza line BAA he had coming off the year when we got him.

Impressed by my comment?  I don't see your point.  Pretty standard, really.

[Darth Slothus]

Dressel Rebel-- arrogance = standard


I expect my team, the Giants, to suck again this year considering how 'old' they are. Their starting pitching should be solid again this year like last even with the loss of Schmidt but they'll still lose alot of games due to an old offense and lack of upgrade to the bullpen pitching. Could see them getting on a roll occasionally but...how long can an old team stay on a roll, realistically, if last season proved anything at all for them?

[Jeff]

The Hall call arrives for Gwynn, Ripken

- I know, I know.  It's a big "no duh" moment as it's not a surprise to anyone that they got in on the first try.  Nice to see that they both got about as close as you can get to a unanimous pick (97.5% or higher for both) for the Hall.

- Again, another non-surprise, Big Mac got less than 25%.   

- Goose Gossage got 71.2%, maybe next year will be his year. 

[Darth Slothus]

I can't believe it's taken so long for Gossage .

[Deanna Rash]

I haven't followed The Yanks'since Paul O'Neill retired He lives not too far from me.The Reds we're totally stupid in giving him up.Of course they do that to all their players,Sean Casey,Austin Kearns,etc,etc.Cincy has to do their best to let down their fans in football and baseball

[Dressel Rebel]

There's usually no surprises here with the Hall.  The slam dunks always get in first ballot, Gossage will likely get in next year.  No surprise on McGwire considering the steroids, plus he only made it halfway to 3,000 hits with 1,600 and really was a one dimensional player with the HRs.  He won't be getting in anytime soon and probably never.

[Darth Slothus]

I wonder if one day all the slam dunks are picked and we're left with a weird 'others' or Question marks list.
Then they would have to pick a non slam dunk over some steroid abusers or other troubled guys. I really hope I'm not alive to witness this .

DS

[Scott]

Like last year I think the person really getting the shaft is Jack Morris, he's one of the most dominant pitchers of the 80's and won 3 rings, yeah his stats aren't there but he'd be on everyone's short list if you ahd one game to win and had to hand the ball to someone

[Scott]

Here's results over last year...

Doesn't look good for Rice, Bert, Lee Smith and Jack

Rich Gossage  64.6% to 71.2% 
Jim Rice  64.8% to 63.5%
Andre Dawson  309  56.7% to 61.0%
Bert Blyleven  260  53.3% to 47.7% 
Lee Smith  217  45% to 39.8% 
Jack Morris  202  41.2% to 37.1% 

[Dressel Rebel]

Like last year I think the person really getting the shaft is Jack Morris, he's one of the most dominant pitchers of the 80's and won 3 rings, yeah his stats aren't there but he'd be on everyone's short list if you ahd one game to win and had to hand the ball to someone

Interesting you brought that up, I was talking about that earlier today.  He's got 250 wins roughly with a career ERA of 3.90, but he was pitching before this generation of inflated offensive stats, so 3.90 really wasn't that great for his era of pitchers.  Someone who gets close to 300 wins today with a 3.90 will probably get in, since the number of 30 HR hitters that pitchers have to face has about quadrupled since Morris' day.  Morris was 7-4 in the postseason which was good but not sparkling.

[Scott]

Yeah...but you through out the last two years and last two with Detroit and look at his stats (I realize you can't do that but those were some bad teams he was on in Detroit and he plain just lost it after '92)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/morrija02.shtml

From '83 to '88 he was probably the best pitcher in baseball.  I know Clemens, Gooden, Scott and Ryan et al are there but he also won a World Series and a got the Tigers to the Playoffs a couple of times.

I also love the compare stats feature at baseball-reference...he compares pretty favorably to a lot of Hall of Famers

http://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/scomp2.cgi?I=morrija02:Jack+Morris&st=career

As far as McGwire goes.  I'd vote for him.  He hasn't be proven guilty of anything and you can speculate all you want...but then you have to start speculating about everyone.  Especially Pitchers who have basically gotten off the whole investigation of Steroids because they don't hit Home Runs...he admitted taking Andro back in '98.  It wasn't banned at the time and was a legal substance.  Did he take other steroids?    Probably but nobody will ever prove it one way or another.  So you are going to leave out the 7th leading HR hitter of all time.  The guy who brought back baseball from the Strike of '94...he deserves to be there.

The real question with him is if Bonds gets in...then what?  How about Palmerio?  How about Sosa?  Sure they MAY have cheated but we have no proof and they are some of the best players of the 90's.  What about Schilling and Clemens and Johnson...you have proof they didn't take steroids, too?  Its a damn mess and I don't see why he should be the fall guy for Bud Selig and MLB having their heads up their ******** for as long as they did

[Dressel Rebel]

The real question with him is if Bonds gets in...then what?  

I doubt he will ever see the inside of the Hall without a visitor's ticket.  In fact, he'll be lucky if the vote comes around without him having seen the inside of the Big House.

How about Palmerio?  How about Sosa?  Sure they MAY have cheated but we have no proof and they are some of the best players of the 90's. 

I heard on the radio a few days ago that a list of 200 someodd names of + steroid tests that baseball never divulged was ordered to be turned over to the court or something.  But for now, we do know that Palmeiro tested positive.  Stick a fork in him for sure.  Congress was looking into bringing him up on perjury charges for the false finger-wagging testimony he gave on the Hill.

A little story that's relevant here.  One of my patients was a starting pitcher in MLB in the 90's and pitched for the NY Yankees for a couple of years.  I asked him one day during an appointment, "Who was the most fearsome hitter that you ever had to face in MLB?"  He said (paraphrased), "I remember pitching to Rafael Palmeiro, and when the ball came off his bat I was sure I had the out on a routine fly ball.  It landed 10 rows back over the outfield fence.  Now I know why."