1
I always forget get how great Williams was. He's a step above Pujols in the batters box. Williams' career OPS+ according to B-R is 191. Pujols hasn't had one year with an OPS+ of 191.
AL MVP Vote
Larry Stone with a column out, this one on the MVP vote.
It was Bill James who pointed out that when a Hall of Fame vote is taken on a top-echelon player, such as Roger Clemens, the discussion afterwards will consist of arguing about why he wasn't unanimous. Or first-ballot. Or whatever.
He pointed out acidly, so we've reached the point at which the Hall of Fame can no longer honor a great player. It can only insult him.
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Par is a good score in golf, they say. Being voted into the Hall of Fame is a good score. Getting an MVP award is a good score. It doesn't really have to be unanimous: being the best player in the best league is the top o' the mountain.
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Picture Ichiro's batting average on a guy who hits 30 homers and draws 80-90 walks. Amazing.
Mauer's .365 AVG, .444 OBP, and .587 SLG led to a 170 OPS+. Did you know that between the ages of 22 and 39, Ted Williams had three seasons just like Mauer's 2009, and that they were the only three lousy seasons of his career?
Picture a guy who had three years like that -- a 170 OPS+ -- and those were the years he went home and wept all winter long.
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Stone also opines that Cabrera's late-season partying should have cost him MVP votes. Does SSI agree?
Well, most pro athletes party, and many of them party in ways that, if you knew about them in their entirety, would cause you to stop rooting for the players. Cabrera, by getting drunk during the season, is hardly unique.
But there is a line there. Shawn Kemp was excoriated for drinking during the NBA Finals, not because he was the only one doing it -- but because Shawn was reportedly less concerned about winning than most NBA players are. His drinking was only a reflection of that general attitude.
With his column, Stone seems to be saying that Cabrera is one of those ballplayers who just wants to bank his jack, shag the ladies and go home. The 7:00 show for the suckers is fine if it doesn't get in the way of the other stuff. .... some guys are like that. Is Cabrera?
Zduriencik and Wakamatsu work very hard at getting "character players" and in many cases, that's code for "players who care whether they win or not." A lot of guys don't. Wakamatsu's, in 2009, did.
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Interesting that Ben Zobrist, who led MLB in "Wins Above Replacement," got no vote higher than 6th. I definitely would not line up my MVP vote according to Stone's priorities, but don't deny that his own priorities have value.
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Kendry Morales was #5 in the vote, delivering a .569 SLG and being the best hitter on a team that won its division. It's nice to see a Cuban super-talent deliver, and Morales definitely put in the work.
The Angels made him work for it. Maybe that is the key? If you're going to invest in a Cuban star going from poverty-and-squallor and make him a rich man in America, maybe you need to snap him back to reality on the ballfield and make him grind for his playing time.
Perhaps the team that signs Aroldis Chapman needs to put him on the slow track.
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James has always insisted that the search for baseball Truth, includes the consideration of that information that goes beyond the scope of baseball statistics.
The MVP voting contains interesting information. Players who help their ballclubs in ways not captured by WAR show up in MVP voting. This factor is also valued by Jack Zduriencik.
Cheers,
Dr D
Comments
2
By all accounts, Ted Williams just had freakish hand eye coordination. That's what allowed him to go back and forth from MLB star to ace pilot. I mean, he flew planes with propellers in WWII, played baseball for eight years, was recalled for duty in Korea, took an eight week refresher course and was flying a jet in combat.
Fun fact - Williams is also in the sport fishing hall of fame. His fly casting is said to have been something to behold.
To be among the very best at three distinctly different careers - baseball, Marine pilot and sport fishing? It's just not normal.
3
He just had amazing natural talent.
His relationship with Boston always fascinated me as well. I lived there for about 8 years near the end of his life. There was this love/reverance of how great a player he was. The city even named the tunnel to the airport after him. However, they did a terrible job constructing the tunnel, so there always were repairs being made. That may be how they do public construction in Massachusetts - never do the job right so there always is a job to be done.
At the same time, whenever there was an article about him in the Globe or Herald, the journalists couldn't help but mention how much Williams didn't get along with the media. It didn't matter if the story was about his declining health or reminiscing about how fantastic a baseball player he was. I also never heard any locals say anything bad about Williams - it was always positive and the journalists were (insert long streams of inappropriate language).
4
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/marinersblog/2010344131_jose_lopez...
A lot to chew on there. Such as:
"The M's front office knows that RBI are almost entirely the product of luck and opportunity, not any serious skill. . . . As smart as most GM types are (smarter than many of you think) they can still be blinded by the big power numbers. They make any incoming player an easy sell to the fanbase. They also get GMs drooling about a player's potential."
I assume he's getting this from somewhere. Ms are down on Lopez and think other teams will value him higher than they do.
"I read an item over the weekend that listed the Mariners as one of three suitors for Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres should that team trade him."
Bats left; slugs .500; young. Russ Branyan is a nice person, I'm sure, but that dream season he just had would have been Gonzalez' worst full season. Now on this one, Baker admits he's just picking it up off the net.
And maybe most interesting of all:
"And please, let's not get into penny pinching and money talk. Yeah, some of the guys I've mentioned cost a whole lot more than Lopez. But the Mariners have money. Most of baseball is raking in a ton of revenue from media deals (traditional and new media) and that will more than offset any downturn in attendance. The Mariners have $50 million or so in contract payouts coming off the books with the free agencies of Adrian Beltre, Erik Bedard, Miguel Batista, Jarrod Washburn and Kenji Johjima. They have money to use on upgrading the offense (and the defense, in the case of second base)."
In the past the beat writers have passed along the front-office "poverty" line. Interesting.
5
That Teddy Ballgame was in the fishing HOF.
Odd that he and Bobby Knight, who are so similar in personalities and talent, should both be such obsessive fisherman. I wonder why.
6
... your last line. That "expectations management" is suddenly 100% a thing of the past. How awesome is that.
Zduriencik is not so insecure that he has to maneuver to justify a disappointing outcome before he's even begun the struggle.
The biggest names are the ones connected to the M's and Zduriencik doesn't care whether the fans are "let down" (sic) by failure to hit the targets or not. Because if John Lackey doesn't want to come to Seattle, Zduriencik won't feel one whit defensive about his own role in that outcome.
7
In our lifetimes, to get a visceral feel for what Ruth and Teddy were like.
After Bonds bulked up, the pitchers were literally the underdogs in each AB, routinely walking him rather than throwing him a pitch to hit.
It wasn't legitimate, but it did show us what Ted Williams would have looked like in the 1940's and 1950's.
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And, quite a tribute to Joe Mauer, that his AVG/OBP/Power would not have looked out of place on Teddy's baseball card.
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JMC, if you have any more Boston flavor text :- ) I'd love to hear it, man.
8
I have met Bobby Knight and I can't imagine anyone having a personality similar to him... except perhaps Patton.
9
I imagine they share (shared) an obsessiveness with high performance, and fishing was a way to do that as "recreation," away from the media, away from the fans and everyone but a few trusted friends. They could do it with the same seriousness and compulsion to excel, just without having to answer the questions afterward. On the water, they only had to answer to themselves. They could let down their guard fishing while still pursuing that ideal of perfection.
10
Teddy said that he loved the anticipation of each cast being the one that got a hit, as well as the challenge of making the perfect cast... loved the feel of the fly rod etc...
Had to be a great way to decompress without the scrutiny, as you note...
11
I know it's the thinnest of rumors, and pie-in-the-sky at that, but what would be a fair package for Adrian Gonzalez with two years to free agency? I'm thinking bigger than the Bedard deal? He's 27 and healthy and hitters are less risky.
Taking into account that his career .281/.362/.506 was mostly accomplished in what some would call a "less-than-completely major" league (notice my political skills in not offending Matt or Sandy here), he is coming off a year with 40 dingers and 119 walks (.277/.407/.551; 166 OPS+). That'll play in any league.
Mind wandering here, but AG and Felix on long-term deals . . .
Would the timing be right if the Pods do put him on the market? Would it make sense to give up the farm for him? I would ask if Z would take the heat after the Bedard fallout, but I'm thinking that's a moot point (yes, he would, if he thought it was the right deal).
12
He'll cost us several elite prospects and current major leaguers, to be sure. But we have more than several elite prospects.
I would start any package with Morrow, Triunfel and Carp. You can work your add-ons in aroud that trio. And none of those guys are can't-miss prospects...but all of them have huge ceilings. The Mariners can probably afford to lose that group plus a couple fo riskier guys.
13
If the Pods make AGonzalez available, would it make sense to make a "Bedard-type move" (that is, probably three or more of Morrow, Lopez, Triunfel, Saunders, Lowe, Carp, etc.) to get him?
14
Hitters are more bankable...especially high OBP sluggers. The reason Bedard backfried was that Bedard himself couldn't stay on the field. The same will probably not be true of Gonzo.