Boston

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In a recent "Dynasties" article at BJOL, James points out that the 1900-1912 Pirates became a dynasty by absorbing a second team:

7.  The Pittsburgh Pirates, 1900-1912

19 Points, Tied on our List as the 14^th-15^th greatest team of all time

Key Figures:  Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Deacon Phillippe and Sam Leever.

The "Pirates", as I suspect most of you know, became the Pirates by stealing the best players from the Louisville team.    In 1898 Pittsburgh went 72-76, Louisville 70-81; in 1899 Pittsburgh went 76-73; Louisville 75-77.    Neither team was great, but they had about a half a team each.   Pittsburgh had Ginger Beaumont, Jimmy Williams, Jesse Tannehill, Sam Leever and Jack Chesbro; Louisville had Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Chief Zimmer, Deacon Phillippe and Rube Waddell.   The two teams had several investors in common, people who owned parts of both teams.    After the 1899 season the Louisville team was folded, and the two teams merged into one.   Pittsburgh "pirated" the Louisville roster, taking three Hall of Famers.   

The combined team went 79-60 in 1900, second place, but earned a dynasty point because the National League was still using a post-season series to decide its championship, and the Pirates were one of the two teams.    The Pittsburgh/Louisville combo team won the National League in 1901 (90-49), 1902 (103-36) and 1903 (91-49), and continued to play brilliant baseball for nine years after that, winning the World Championship in 1909. 

As saberdweebs, we focus on the idea that Beckett, Crawford and AGone are collectively being paid too much.  We haven't focused on the possibility that maybe these AL celebrities will step down to a AAA league ;- ) and demolish it.  ... we're tongue in cheek about the Dodger dynasty, LrKrBoi29, but this on-loading of three stars at once is a subtext to be aware of.

MLB Trade Rumors has a bullet list of talking points that is high-quality even by their standards.  SSI's crunch of these talking points:

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=== Don't Leave Anything On the Field (in Boston) ... or On the Conference Table, Dept. ===

This morning, the Red Sox and Dodgers completed a nine-player blockbuster sending Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto to Los Angeles for James Loney, Allen Webster, Ivan De Jesus, Jerry Sands, and Rubby De La Rosa.  For more on the quartet of prospects the Red Sox received, check out Mike Axisa's rundown from earlier today.  Here's a look at some of the reaction to today's mega-deal..

• Buster Olney of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req'd) looks at the winners and losers of the deal.  The Dodgers of 2012 are unsurprisingly among the winners while the Dodgers of 2017, Olney writes, appear to be losers in the trade.  Olney also notes that this is the first time in MLB history in which two players with $100MM remaining on their contracts were involved in a trade.

First time in which two players with $100M remaining were both in a deal ... and both going one way!  With another pricey player.  Wow.  No precedents on this one.

The takeaway for M's fans:  the value of a playoff run, and the value of a TV deal, can dwarf $/WAR considerations.  The M's are coming up on their own TV deal.  Let's hope that the conservative M's ownership committee can find the guts that everybody else does, to push into the pot in order to reap the investment benefits.

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Q.  Is Felix just on a hot roll?  Is it even possible for a pitcher at such a high level to get better?

A.  If you just joined us, pitchers' careers aren't tethered to the slow, gradual assimilation of pitches, pitch release points, pitch spin patterns, and pitch sequences.  Hitters' perceptions improve slowly, steadily, and predictably.  Pitching is a different sport.

Sure, excellent pitchers evolve to leap levels, sometimes three levels.  Pedro Martinez at the ages of 22, 23, and 24 was a pretty good pitcher, 120 ERA+, and his Three True Outcomes were 8+ strikeouts, 3 walks, and 0.8 homers per game.  Then at age 25 he figured something out, and became Pedro.  He ran 200 ERA+'s, with 11 strikeouts, 1+ walks, and 0.5 homer rates.  

Curt Schilling spent the six years from 1995 to 2000 as an All-Star level pitcher, ERA+ of 130, and K:BB ratios of 3:1 or 4:1.  Then from 2001-05 he morphed from All-Star to the game's most dominating pitcher, except for his teammate Randy Johnson, ERA+ of 150 and K:BB ratios of like 316:31 one year.  You could find lots of these guys.

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Q.  Supposing Felix, twelve games ago, reallllly got good.  What's the reason?

Looks like 17-9, 2.99 standin' still

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Q.  Why do you say he had his "B" game?

A.  From the first pitch of the game, he looked like he was physically laboring through an 8th inning grind.  After the game, sho' nuff, his velocity clocked in at 89.2 compared to his season average of 91.1. So the fastball was a good two feet short on his regular fastball, which is no ball of fire itself.

For some reason ::cougholivocough:: Beavan threw one - count it - of his shiny new sliders during the whole game.  Instead, he threw an amazing 32x change curves at about 69-72 MPH.

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Q.  How was the change curve?

A.  Change curves, deployed effectively, have the ability to delight Dr. D's little heart.  All y'all will remember David Wells and Barry Zito.  Nowadays Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum - eeeeyup, SSI is stalking the shlub - have very effective bloop curves from the right side.  Jered Weaver has become infatuated with the idea of tormenting batters with them.

The Mariners are scoring 4.96 runs per game on the road this year and 2.86 at home. I wonder whether this would be the largest home/road split ratio ever? ... theory is that Safeco, where the wind off the sea blows LF-to-RF, creates an updraft effect that makes batted balls hang in the air (as Mike Cameron first noted). This results in super-low BABIP's and low HR per fly ball percentages. The Mariners' young hitters are routinely quoted as very frustrated; Seager's splits especially are horrific. Worry is that the park is getting into the young players' heads too much and threatening to ruin this generation's rebuild ... any thoughts as to a systemic fix? Change the park, the players (again), or let some time pass? ...

Asked by: jemanji

Answered: 7/19/2012

That could be a record; I'm not sure.   The 1934 Boston Braves scored 280 runs at home, 403 on the road.

 

Oh, I think the '73 A's have them beat.   The '73 A's scored 253 runs at home, 445 on the road--and won the World Series.    So tell them to quit gripin' and see if Blue Moon Odom is available.  - From Hey Bill, billjamesonline.com

The 1973 A's had a 26-year-old Joe Rudi, a 25-year-old Bill North, a 26-year-old Gene Tenace, a 26-year-old Ray Fosse, and a 27-year-old Reggie Jackson in the lineup.  They weren't as young as the M's, but they were young.  The thing is, they had in effect 3 Felixes in their rotation.  3 Felixes out of 4 slots.  Pretty much.  Ken Holtzman made 40 starts that year.  Their Big Three tossed 300, 260, and 260 innings.  All had very long, very glorious careers.

Bill's kidding around some, which is his way of letting you know that he's not particularly confident about his answer.  ... but his basic idea here is still so sharp as to induce vertigo.  Suppose you just accepted --- > that you'll be last in home scoring and first in road scoring?  Could you win that way?

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Q.  IS this a "cutter" or a "Four Seam Fastball With Ridiculous Movement?"

A.  4-seam fastballs break armside 5 inches, and up (relative to vacuum) 8 inches.  I would use "Four Seam Fastball With Ridiculous Movement" to describe something that broke OUT a lot more than 5 inches or UP a lot more than 8 inches, wouldn't you?

Brandon Morrow's four-seam fastball rises, at times, 12 inches.  That's a "Four Seam Fastball With Ridiculous Movement."  It moves in the direction that a 4-seamer does, but more so.  Isn't that what "Four Seam Fastball With Ridiculous Movement" describes?

On the other hand, Roy Halladay's "cut" fastball - which I'm sure he holds with four seams - moves in a direction that is not the same as a 4-seam fastball.  Instead of breaking armside 5 inches, it breaks gloveside 1 inch, on average.  

Halladay's cutter is not called a "Four Seam Fastball With Ridiculous Movement".  It's called a cut fastball, because it cuts in on lefties.

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