While Yanks rest, the other series are all going the distance.

The Yanks will have four days off before Game 1 of the ALCS begins on Saturday. While they have swept the Twins, all of the other series are going the distance.

The NLDS’s will wrap up today. St. Louis at Atlanta, Game 5 at 5 PM Eastern, and Washington at the LA Dodgers at 8:30.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay forced a Game 5 in Houston  7 PM  Thursday night by beating the Astros and Justin Verlander 4-1 last night. The Rays scored three in the first inning. Tommy Pham (3 hits) homered in the first for the Rays, and Willie Adames homered later. Avisail Garcia had four hits. Tampa Bay used an “opener” and went through six pitchers in the win.

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Gleyber Torres reminds me of Derek Jeter, and in a good way. Derek hit for a higher average and stole more bases, while Gleyber has more power. But both at a young age show and showed an incredible amount of maturity and poise. You can see Torres becoming, like Jeter was, a long-time Yankee star, and maybe future captain and Hall-of-Famer. Hopefully his career follows the same great path Jeter’s did.

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If the Yanks have to play Houston in the next round, it’ll be difficult ot beat them, but the Yanks did beat a trio of great pitchers in 1996 and 1999 when they beat the Braves’ HOF trio of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. But could this Astro trio of Verlander, Cole and Greinke be even better? Let’s see.

2019 Astro trio. Combined record (inc. Greinke’s overall record, time w/AZ this year)
59-16, Combined ERA+ 518

1996 Braves: 54-29, Combined ERA+ 458

1999 Braves: 44-28, Combined ERA+ 376.

It does look like, should Houston win Game 5, that the Yanks of 2019 may have a tougher battle.

But Houston’s overall team ERA of 3.66 was 2nd in the AL…. to Tampa Bay’s. Despite its unconventional use of “openers”, the Rays’ team ERA was 3.65, barely better than Houston’s.

3 make HOF

Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas made the Hall of Fame today.

Maddux is the winningest living pitcher (by one over Clemens), with 355 wins. He got 97.2% (75 is needed) of the vote. Shame to the 16 who didn’t vote for him.

His long-time teammate, Glavine, also a 300-game winner, got 91.9%. Thomas, who hit .301 with 521 HR (the same # as Ted Williams and Willie McCovey) got 83.7%

Craig Biggio, who had over 3000 hits in his MLB career, missed induction by two votes. Two. One writer sent in a ballot listing Jack Morris and no one else. He voted for no one from the steroids era. Will this asshole (and I hope he reads this, for that is what he is) also NOT vote for Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera just because of the era they were unfortunate enough to play in? If so, then he is an asshole.

As for Morris, he got 61.5% and after 15 years on the ballot, drops off. Maybe he will be selected by the Veterans’ Committee. Mike Piazza got 62.2%.

Steroid, or accused steroid users Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens got 34.7 and 35.4% of the vote, respectively. Sammy Sosa barely stayed on with 7.2% and Rafael Palmeiro, despite 3000+ hits and 500+ HR, drops off after getting just 4.4%.

The rule of 10 (a voter couldn’t vote for more than 10) seemed to hurt some players. Mike Mussina got 20.3%, Curt Schilling 29.2%. Others, like Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell and Alan Trammell were hurt. With the steroid (or accused) steroid users staying on the ballot, there is a backlog of good players there and sometimes it is now hard to decide on the best 10. Trammell or Edgar Martinez? Raines or Piazza, etc.

Next year, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez probably will be elected. Biggio is back, same with Piazza. Gary Sheffield, I think, will just miss next year despite his 500+ HR. I can’t see Nomar getting in. Smoltz, I think, will get in.

It’ll be a Braves weekend. Maddux and Glavine are most famous with their time in Atlanta and their ex-manager, Bobby Cox will be going in the same day. Joe Torre, getting in for his managing with the Yankees, played with and managed Atlanta.

As for Don Mattingly, he stays on the ballot but next year will be his last. He got just 8.2%.

Now for the decision on A-Rod.

Glavine officially retires.

MLB.com is reporting that Tom Glavine is going to officially announce his retirement and take a job with the Braves.

The HOF now beckons for the savvy lefty who won 305 games in his career, including two CYAs. His last MLB year was 2008, so he will be on the same ballot with long-time teammate Greg Maddux. How appropo that they would go in together, much like Mickey and Whitey did in 1974.

Besides his two CYAs, Glavine finished 2nd twice and 3rd twice. He was a 20 game winner on five separate occasions. His 3.54 ERA meant an ERA+ of 118.

In the postseason, Glavine was  14-16 with a 3.30 ERA. He was the MVP of the 1995 WS.

The only lefties to win more games than Glavine were Warren Spahn (363), Steve Carlton (329) and Eddie Plank (326). Glavine (305) wound up with two more wins than Randy Johnson (303), who just retired but who, having played in 2009, goes on the ballot one year after Maddux (the living pitcher with the most wins, 355) and Glavine, and two years after Roger Clemens (354*). Of course, we know the trouble Clemens will have once he gets on.

As a hitter, Glavine hit .186 with 1 HR.  He won four silver sluggers for pitchers.

The active pitcher (and active lefty) with the most career wins as of now is Jamie Moyer with 258. #2 in both categories is Andy Pettitte with 229.

 

Game 53. Texas 4, Yankees 2.

Almost at the 1/3 point. Next game.

YANKEES (31-21, 1st by 1 game)

The Yanks are 2 games better than their Pythagorean record, OPS+ 119, ERA+ 94.

BA-HR-RBI-SB/total att./OPS+

Jeter SS .319*-7-25-10*/11-127 (Jete’s been hot)
Damon LF .301-10-32-5/5-135
Teixeira 1B .279-16*-44*-0/0-153* (as has Teix)
Rodriguez 3B .250-7-20-0/0-148
Cano 2B .310-9-32-2/4-118
Posada C .313-7-25-1/1-159 (amazing for a catcher. .338 in 2007, .313 now at age 37.)
Matsui DH .268-8-22-0/0-122
Swisher RF .236-10-31-0/0-128
Gardner CF .270-2-9-10*/12*-94

Pitching: LHP Andy Pettitte (5-1, 4.10).  ERA+ 111

Andy is 2-0 at home this year, but the ERA is 5.57. On the road, 3-1, 2.59.

Amazing, other blogs. Girardi has them in first and people are still ripping him. I have issues with the guy sometimes, but give credit where credit is due. Torre is in LA. Yes, LA is doing fine. Let it go.

I wonder if the same people who bitched about no Swisher, why Gardner are saying no Melky, why Gardner today? Meanwhile all the Yanks have done is win 16 of their last 20.

I swear, some people on some blogs.

Rain could be an issue tonight.

Randy Johnson goes for #300 tonight.

Update: Pete Abe is reporting that Wang is starting tomorrow. CC on Friday. Hughes to bullpen for now (temporary (italics mine) bullpen fix).

With Hughes (for now) and Aceves, there is a little flexibility in the bullpen now. We’ll see how it works out.

More later.

Update: New lineup. Apparently Teix bruised an ankle on the takeout slide last night. He’s day to day. Interesting lineup (if they play…rain). Swisher’s patience and walks at #2, Damon drops to 3.

New lineup
Jeter SS
Swisher 1B
Damon LF
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Matsui DH
Cabrera RF .314-5-20-4/6-117
Gardner CF

I heard conflicting reports on the original lineup, of whether Melky or Gardner was in CF. Whatever. Both are in now.

Apparently it was supposed to be Melky.

Andy starts badly, giving up 3 in the first and another in the 2nd. A-Rod singled in a run in the 1st scoring Swisher who had doubled. Pettitte had trouble in the third but K’d the side after putting the first two guys on.

I wonder if Pettitte’s back is ok after the trouble down in Texas last week. Maybe it’s bothering him.

If you haven’t heard, the Rangers are looking to dump Padilla. Meanwhile the Braves have released 305 game winner Tom Glavine and made a trade with the Pirates to acquire Nate McLouth.

Bases loaded, one out in the third. A-Rod up. Great shot to do something here. Nope. GIDP.  

It stays 4-1 into the 7th. Posada hits his 8th hr. #229 ties Eric Chavez on the all-time list. 4-2 Texas.    

That’s all she wrote though. Andy went 5, took the loss. Tomko (3) and Robertson (1) held it at 4-2 but the bats weren’t there.

   

How to go into panic mode; a look at youth and an old friend.

I spent most of today doing most of my taxes. For a few hours, I was wondering where I went wrong and couldn’t figure it out. I love TurboTax, but couldn’t for the life of me figure out how I was supposed to be owing the feds a couple thousand and the state a couple of hundred. I knew something was wrong along the line until I figured out how to report some sales and capital losses (short and long-term) correctly from a rollover out of a pension fund. That made a few thousand dollars worth of difference. It’s not like I or most people had a successful year on the market last year.

Now, Mike….exhale. Whew. The defibrillators can be put away now.

Nice to see photos of an old familiar figure in Yankee camp wearing #51. No, he’s not attempting a comeback, just using Yankee camp to prepare to try to play in the WBC for Puerto Rico. But Bernie working out in Yankee camp was a nice thing to see, and it–for a moment anyway–brings welcome relief from the A-Roid circus with the cousin, now the banned trainer, a possible suspension…

But Bernie’s numbers look good compared to the inflated numbers of the cheaters. God forbid anything come out on Bernie. Not a HOF, but in that almost but not quite mold of say an Al Oliver. .297. 287 HR. Excellent OPS+ of 125. 5x all star. 2x top 10 for MVP (never higher than 7th). A whopping 121 postseason games played in. .275-22-80 in the postseason.  4 gold gloves and an ALCS MVP.

From Baseball Reference:

Black Ink: Batting – 4 (405) (Average HOFer ≈ 27)
Gray Ink: Batting – 61 (402) (Average HOFer ≈ 144)
HOF Standards: Batting – 48.3 (82) (Average HOFer ≈ 50)
HOF Monitor: Batting – 133.0 (100) (Likely HOFer > 100)  

Can we get back to baseball? Thank goodness for a guy like Bernie. I can fully understand Pete Abraham when he wanted a steroids-free day over at his blog. You want a baseball blog, not the crime log of the day.

If I recall correctly, I heard one writer, when questioned, say that Jeter is about the only guy he trusts to be clean. What about Mo? For me, it would absolutely floor me if Mariano Rivera was ever proven guilty. I can’t think of any more honest, decent, ethical person in the game than Mo. If they ever turned up anything on him—that would be the one that kills me.

Great answers in the previous post. Keep them coming. One reason I picked the Marlins as a team to watch was their youth. Josh Johnson 25. Andrew Miller 24 in May. Ricky Nolasco 26, Aribel Sanchez 25, Jorge Cantu 27, Hanley Ramirez 25, Uggla 29, Hermida 25, Cameron Maybin 22, Volstad (22)… young, entering their primes, lots of upsides. Some had growing pains.

But nice answers from what I’ve seen so far. I didn’t put a limit on age, maybe I should have. But you get the point. Players to build on. Besides Mauer…Russell Martin for C. Joba. It’s still too early to know if Phil Hughes reaches his potential…or Austin Jackson, Jesus Montero or Ian Kennedy. What about the Reds’ Homer Bailey? You don’t give up on him….yet. If Pedroia is named, what about Ellsbury, Buchholz, Masterson? Upton, Price and Longoria. Hey, Kazmir is still just 25. Wieters, Adam Jones. Carlos Gomez? Francisco Liriano? Grady Sizemore is 26. Alex Gordon 25. Miguel Cabrera 26 in April. Bonderman 26. Edwin Jackson 25. Verlander 26. Howie Kendrick 25. Saltalamacchia. Felix Hernandez. Felix Pie.

NL (Marlins already listed): Hamels (25), Kyle Kendrick?, Daniel Murphy, Jose Reyes is still just 26 in June. Niese. Pelfrey (25). McCann (25). Kotchman, Prado. Francoeur is just 25.  Milledge. Dukes. Zimmerman (24). Lannan.  Samardzija. Soto. Yadi Molina is still 26. Prince Fielder, 25 in May. Ryan Braun 25. Votto. Jay Bruce.  Cueto. Owings. Hunter Pence. Zach Duke. Lord knows if Tabata develops (Still just 20). Do the Dodgers give DeWitt a shot? If they go after Orlando Hudson, DeWitt has no position what with Hudson, Blake and Furcal. Loney. Matt Kemp. Billingsley, Kershaw. Stephen Drew. Justin Upton. Chris Young. Pablo Sandoval. Matt Cain. Lincecum. Tulowitzki. Huston Street (still just 25). There are more. I’m trying to keep it 27 and under for the most part.

Glavine back with the Braves. I do wish he and Smoltz would have retired. It would have been kind of nice to have Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz enter the HOF together as a unit. 

The Boss shows, but also shows his frailty. Comes in via golf cart, transported to wheelchair.

Here are some links to look at. Mariano started 10 games in 1995. Here are his best , his MLB debut, and his last start.

    

Moose, Maddux… more?

Coming home from work and listening to the radio, I heard that Pitt won today. Win #9. The announcer said it was Pitt’s first 9 or more win season since 1982. The rest of the story? You know what 1982 was, don’t you? Dan Marino’s senior year. (My senior year at PSU as well. PSU beat Pitt 19-10 at Beaver Stadium in the last regular season game that year before beating Georgia 27-23 in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.)

Mussina and Maddux have retired, but what of Maddux’s other two amigos? Maddux is 42 and in 2008 he probably had the best year of the three, going 8-13. At least he had a full season. Glavine had elbow and shoulder surgery. He’s a few weeks older than Maddux. If he comes back, it’ll be at age 43. He was 2-4, 5.54 in 2008 in 13 g. ERA+ 77. 270 wins retired with Mussina. 355 with Maddux. Glavine has 305. I’m not done. What about John Smoltz? Smoltz is a year younger than his former teammates. He’ll be 42 next May. He got into just six games in 2008. 3-2, 2.57, ERA+ 165. 210 wins, but remember he closed for a few years. 154 saves. 15-4 in the postseason, better than Maddux and Glavine. Imagine a HOF ballot in 2014 that has Mussina, Maddux, Glavine AND Smoltz on it. Who knows, maybe even Frank Thomas if no one picks him up. As of now it looks like Griffey will be back, but with whom? Pedro? Schilling? The point is, we have seen Mussina (who should be a HOF) retire, and Maddux (who will be one) do the same. Are there more coming, so much more that the ballot for the 2014 induction will have a ton of first-timers who are worthy? Pedro says he wants to play (MLB Trade Rumors), but who’ll have him after he has been 17-15 since 2005, with only 48 games pitched in those three years? 5-6, 5.61 this year (ERA+ 75)?

Dec. 1973 to Dec. 2008. From celebrated hero to sentenced convict. (Should have been done in 1995, but…) Finally O.J. gets his. Speaking of, is it me or does anyone else think of Rollie Fingers every time they see Fred Goldman?

Rollie.

Fred.

Kevin Kernan has an article on Ian Kennedy in the NY Post. Most interesting is that Ian went back to USC, where he starred in college, to work with Tom House, who has been the Trojans’ pitching coach for the past two seasons. If that name sounds familiar, it should be. House was a major league pitcher, but is most remembered for a catch. As a member of the Braves, he was the one who caught Henry Aaron’s 715th HR on April 8, 1974. Nolan Ryan has praised House’s work.

Jonathan Albaladejo continues to do well in the Puerto Rican Winter League.

A-Rod will be playing for the Dominican Republic in the WBC, along with Big Papi.

Rafael Furcal has turned down an offer from the A’s.

Interesting. MLB Trade Rumors has an article that six teams are interested in Randy Johnson and one of them is the Dodgers. Torre wants him? That would surprise me a little.

Game 125. In the Great White North. The Return of Godzilla. Yanks waste Rasner’s excellent effort as JD goes CLANK! 2-1 Jays.

Recap: As Josh “the Yankee Truth” Imboden points out, the Yanks don’t hit power pitchers, and haven’t for a few years. A. J. Burnett K’d 13 in 8 IP tonight. As I’ve been pointing out for a while, the Yanks can’t afford to waste a good performance from a Ponson, Giese, Rasner…because with them, you don’t know what you are going to get. When you get good, you must take advantage of it.

They didn’t. JD made what SHOULD have been 2 errors in CF. Inexplicably, the second was called a hit. Two out, tied at one, bottom of the 8th. Man on 1st. Ball hit deep, but not to the wall. A step or so in front of it. Clank. In putting Damon in CF, you are going for offense, with him, Nady in LF, the returning Matsui at DH, Giambi at 1B, Abreu in RF…but the catch-22 was supposed to be Damon’s arm, not his glove.

As for the offense? Nada. Golden sombrero for Giambi, and as I wrote, Burnett K’d 13, fulfilling what Josh has stated for a while.

Meanwhile, remember Ty Hildenbrandt’s quote of just ELEVEN DAYS AGO? The one where he asked when you-know-who would get hurt again? Hit the “more” link, read the latest, and see the image and verses…

and by the way, the Yanks are now only one game ahead of fourth-place Toronto, with Roy Halladay lurking in the wings and going on Thursday.

Alex wins MVP in landslide (although not unanimously)

The A.L. MVP award was announced today, and A-Rod was the landslide, although not unanimous, winner. The only two first-place votes that A-Rod didn’t get went to Magglio Ordonez and were “hometown” votes by Michigan voters.

A-Rod joins Lou Gehrig (1927 and 1936), Joe DiMaggio (1939, 1941 and 1947), Yogi Berra (1951, 1954, 1955), Mickey Mantle (1956, 1957 & 1962) and Roger Maris (1960 and 1961) as players who won two or more as Yankees. You may wonder about Babe Ruth. Ruth, who won in 1923, played in an era where one or both of these were in effect a) there was no award. b) there was an award, but previous winners (Ruth, 1923) were not eligible to win again. By the time the award was instituted as it currently is, it was 1931 and Ruth was 36 years old.

Jorge Posada, who finished 3rd in 2003, finished 6th this time around. It was the second top-ten finish in his career. Derek Jeter finished 11th. Bobby Abreu received one 7th-place vote and finished 17th (who’d have seen THAT coming on say May 30th of this year?).

The N.L. MVP, which will be announced Tuesday, bears some suspense. David Wright had a good shot until the Mets collapsed. Matt Holliday and Jimmy Rollins are strong contenders. I’d expect a close vote here.

UPDATE 11/20. Jimmy Rollins, Phillies SS, wins the N.L. M.V.P. Rollins had 16 first-place votes to 11 for Matt Holliday of the Rockies. Prince Fielder of the Brewers had 5. Rollins had 353 points to 336 for Holliday. Fielder had 284. Rollins put up some monster offensive numbers for a shortstop, hitting .296-30-94 with 41 steals. He also had 38 doubles and 20 triples. He only committed 11 errors as he backed up the claim that the Phils were the team to beat in the N.L. East (with the help of a Mets’ collapse).

Back to A-Rod. This is his 3rd MVP (2003 with Texas, 2005, 2007). Who else has won three or more? Barry “Bail” Bonds heads the list with seven (3 before and 4 after, if you wondering). Mantle, Berra and DiMaggio are mentioned above. Jimmy Foxx (1932, 1933, 1938) also won three in the A.L.

In the N.L., Stan Musial (1943, 1946, 1948), Roy Campanella (1951, 1953, 1955), Mike Schmidt (1980, 1981, 1986) and Bonds.

An amazing story is that of Ted Williams. Williams won the award in 1946 and 1949. He hit .406 in 1941 but lost to DiMaggio. He had Triple Crown seasons in 1942 and 1947 but lost in both of those seasons (to Joe Gordon and DiMaggio, respectively.)

Close races:

In 1947, DiMaggio received 8 first-place votes. Teammate Joe Page received 7 (Page finished 4th). Runnerup Williams had 3 first-place votes. DiMaggio edged Williams 202-201 to win the award.

Did you know how narrowly Maris won both his MVP’s? In 1960, Mantle received more first-place votes than Maris, 10 to 8, but Roger had 225 total points to Mickey’s 222. The following year, Maris had 7 first-place votes to Mickey’s 6, and Roger beat out Mickey 202-198 for the award.

Of course, we remember last year, when Derek Jeter finished with 12 first-place votes to Justin Morneau’s 15 and Morneau beat out Derek for the MVP, 320-306.

Welcome back. Tom Glavine takes his 303 wins back to Atlanta to finish his career where he should finish it–as a Brave. It’s a one-year deal that suggests that 2008 is his “farewell tour.”

Meanwhile reports are that Mike Lowell has agreed to a three-year deal to remain in Boston.

A Quick Note. Have you ever listened to some really bad talk-radio sports shows? There is one where I live that is quite bad. I’ve tried to listen to it a couple of times. The longest I listened to it was 15 minutes. Usually I have to turn it off after 10 minutes. That’s how bad I perceive it to be. Have you had that kind of listening experience?

I am reading some reports that the Yanks may have interest in Francisco Cordero or Ron Mahay. Cordero, who will be 33 next year, has saved 40 or more games twice in his career, and definitely would want “closer” money if he were to come to NY to set-up Mo. I don’t believe he would do that. As far as the Yanks considering him for a backup plan in case Mo bugs out, that I believe. Do I think Cordero comes to NY? No. Something to wonder about with Cordero is his temperament. He had an unfortunate bullpen incident a few years ago. His career ERA is 3.29 with 177 saves. He was 0-4, 2.98 with 44 saves in 2007. His career ERA+ is 146.

Mahay is a different story. I believe the Yanks could have interest in the lefty because of the lack of options they have regarding a lefty reliever (Wright, Henn and Igawa, unless they decide to bring back [ugh] Villone). Mahay’s age is a question, since he will turn 37 next summer. He had a great 2007, going 3-0, 2.55 for Texas and Atlanta. His career ERA is 3.87, ERA+ of 120. He’s not a knock-’em-dead choice for the bullpen, but as a lefty, beats the alternatives listed above.

MARIANO RETURNS. Rivera decides to accept the $45 million/3 year deal. See previous posts for my opinion(s) on that. About time. Now to get Andy back and shore up the bullpen.

Did you know? The last A.L. M.V.P. whose team won the World Series was Guillermo Hernandez of the 1984 Tigers. The last M.V.P. whose team won the World Series was Kirk Gibson of the 1988 Dodgers.