The Cumberland Sedohcs, managed by Michael Miller, had the 3rd pick in the draft. Cumberland, MD, represents Mike's original home. The Sedohcs part? I'll let you figure that out on your own. Due to the "mystical" nature of his team nickname, Mike chose an orange & white cat as his logo/mascot, so I did my best to accommodate this wish:
I know, this logo (designed by the same person who designed the one I'm using for my own team) is supposed to be a tiger, but there's enough non-black in the face to do the job.
Team Colors: Orange and White
Home Stadium: Kingdome
The position players: (click on picture to enlarge)
(Note: if you didn't read the team preview for any of the other teams, please disregard the stars on the right side; they're part of the game's internal "scouting" and should have no in-game effects)
What's immediately noticeable is Mr. Miller's draft style, which focused on more contemporary players over players from long ago (Hornsby, Cochrane, & Banks being exceptions). Mike definitely has an enviable outfield not only for its superior power, but also for its dominance on the basepaths. My one concern with his position players is how his defense will hold up behind his pitchers; although the hitting should be there, there's a lack of premier glove talent among a few regulars in his lineup. Both of Mike's catchers should be serviceable on defense while providing top-notch hitting for the position. Overall, if his bunch can hit for average to accompany the noticeable power, the sky's the limit on offense. I would not expect playing in the turf-laden Kingdome to have a significant effect either way on his hitters' total numbers.
The pitchers:
Projected Rotation: Martinez, Clemens, Roberts, Dean, Plank
Luckily for Mike and a couple others, I reasonably deemed it necessary to keep everyone's career numbers as they actually compiled them, rather than punish certain players (you know who you are) for their possible use of performance-enhancing drugs. There are more hard-throwing pitchers in the rotation than in the bullpen, so other teams' hitters may be befuddled by the finesse stuff when they enter the game. As the only left-handed arm in the bullpen, Rube Waddell's success may be crucial to the Sedohcs' success due to the high number of left-handed power hitters in the ATL. Should his games require reaching deep into his roster, Wes Ferrell could be a valuable resource for Mike as both a durable arm and a very effective hitter. Like the offense, if the modern guys can lead the rotation, Cumberland should be in it for the duration.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
ATL Team Preview: Cumberland Sedohcs
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
ATL Team Preview: Jigger Bushes
The Jigger Bushes, managed by Seth Thompson, had the advantage of having the #1 overall draft pick, and thus could stake claim to The Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth. Evidently, Jigger is a town in Louisiana, and will be easily the southernmost city ATL teams will play in this season. If you're unsure how Seth came up with this name for his team, then you're probably not from western Pennsylvania.
Putting a vintage picture of Donnie Iris in a black background may have been my favorite part of constructing any of the teams.
Colors: Black and Gold
Home Stadium: Fair Grounds Field (Shreveport, LA)
The position players: (click on picture to enlarge)
(Note: if you didn't read the team preview for my own team, please disregard the stars on the right side; they're part of the game's internal "scouting" and should have no in-game effects)
In a funny coincidence, A-Rod can't wear #3 on this team either because Babe Ruth occupies it.
There's power to spare in this lineup, and there's a very good chance multiple players on this team will be up near the top of a number of power hitting categories. Even with the obvious power, there's some sneaky good average hitters on this team such as Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx, as well as some good fielding throughout the regular lineup in the form of Mike Schmidt and Ryne Sandberg. Although I don't consider Thurman Munson and Pudge Rodriguez to be the most premier duo of catchers in the ATL, they should be a serviceable offensive and defensive pair for this team. There's no major terrors on the basepaths on this team, but players like Sandberg and A-Rod should get their share of stolen bases. The Bushes' home stadium of Fair Grounds Field is a classic pitcher's park, so despite the glut of power on this team, don't expect their power numbers to be too overwhelming. Perhaps the power will travel to other parks well.
The pitchers:
Projected Rotation: Koufax, Mathewson, Hubbell, Marichal, Palmer
Seth constructed his pitching staff a bit differently compared with the rest of the managers, going with a vast majority of closers to shut down teams late in games. His 6th starter, Curt Schilling, should serve a long relief and spot starter role on his team. The rotation features plenty of power arms, but his best pitcher may be a finesse pitcher and a first employer of the screwball, Christy Mathewson. If Seth's starters can regularly get to the 6th or 7th inning with leads, teams will likely have a great deal of difficulty recovering; Gossage, Fingers, and Rivera compose probably the best back end of a bullpen in the ATL. This team should be a good test of whether the total reliever route is favorable over having other starters serve most of the relief roles.
ATL Team Preview: Providence Reds
I'm doing team-by-team season previews, mostly so everyone can see each team's full roster before games begin to be played. I stuck our team names into a random generator, and wouldn't you know it, my name came up first. I dubbed my team the Providence Reds as a play on the Providence Grays, a prominent 19th century baseball club, and the hair color of this group's Peerless Leader (it's my title now, Frank Chance). I had the 4th overall pick in the draft.
Note: As much as I'd love to say I designed this logo myself, I found it on a fantastic OOTP creator's set of logos he made for the game and thought it fit my team perfectly.
Team Colors: Red and White
Home Stadium: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The position players: (to save on space, I made the picture smaller; please click on the picture to see it in full size)
(Don't worry about the star rating on the right; it's the game's internal "scouting" and shouldn't have an effect on anything in-game)
I hope that I end up accomplishing my goal of having the most balanced position players in the ATL. Sluggers occupy some spots in my lineup, but so do tremendous average hitters like Wagner and maybe Gwynn. The infield looks tremendous with the gloves; despite Brooks Robinson not being as steady with the bat as my other hitters, his magical glove at 3rd base should play a pivotal role on my team. Gary Carter and Yogi Berra form a mean platoon for the men donning the tools of ignorance. Manny and Mantle both are tremendous sluggers, but they have some limitations (especially as anyone who's seen Ramirez play left field knows) in the field, so I drafted two big defensive upgrades for them in Clemente and Gwynn. The team lacks a premier base-stealer, so a number of different players will all have to pitch in to wreak havoc on the basepaths. In addition, I think my players' power statistics should be at least slightly boosted by playing in the L.A. Coliseum, a favorable hitters' park.
The pitchers: (once again, please click on the picture to see it in full size)
Projected Rotation: W. Johnson, Young, R. Johnson, Feller, Ford
Since I knew many pitchers that would be prime draft selections would be able to pitch complete games on a fairly routine basis, I expected to have only 9 or 10 pitchers on my roster. However, I ended up addressing many of my defensive and offensive platoon concerns with my position players in fewer draft spots than expected, so the pitching total inflated to 11.
I drafted my starting rotation very early compared to the rest of the managers, so I think it's a very loaded staff composed of greats from various eras in baseball. Conversely, all of the other managers selected at least one "closer" before I did (relievers were used a bit differently in eras before today's closer), so there's a solid chance that I missed out on the best relief arms in the draft. I have a few starters that will assume relief roles and should do so without much issue, and they may also fill in a rotation spot should one of my starting 5 suffer an injury. Overall, I think it's a good mix of righties and lefties, flamethrowers and finesse pitchers that could spearhead a championship run.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The All-Timers League: The Background
It's taken a bit longer than expected to get this league going, but the inaugural draft for the All-Timers League (ATL) has reached its conclusion, so games are extremely close to starting. With this in mind, I want to make sure everyone actively participating in the ATL, as well as anyone who's interested in following the ATL, knows the entire background regarding the league's rules, settings, player creation, and anything else that doesn't fall under those categories. Here's the hopefully comprehensive FAQ:
How many teams are there? 6 teams composed of 25 players each. There's been some talk of doing this again next year with more willing participants.
Which players are eligible for the ATL? Any player who has played a substantial amount of seasons in the major leagues since 1901, the year the American League was formed. For example, Cy Young's career spanned from 1890-1911; his 11 seasons certainly are a substantial amount since 1901. 1901 is a good year to denote when our national pastime became what it is today because the vast majority of rules, major league setup, and dimensions match those used in 2010.
Unfortunately, this excludes the best of the 19th century, as well as Negro League greats. As much as I'd want to include the Negro Leaguers, I would have a great deal of difficulty predicting what kind of hitting, pitching, and fielding statistics these men would post as compared to their major league counterparts.
How are games being "played" in this league? I purchased Out of the Park Baseball, a fantastic program for carrying out many different simulations of seasons over whatever time period one wants. I entered each player's statistics into the game, and we'll all see how each player will produce as the season progresses. The games are simulated in a text-based format; it's not like a video game where the players are literally playing on the screen.
Which statistics did you use for hitters and pitchers? I used the players' career statistics, usually cutting off a year or two at the beginning and end of their careers to make them more in line with their better major league seasons, and averaged them out for an average season of production over their careers. For hitting stats, I had to conform them to what they would look like over 550 ABs. Unfortunately, fielding and baserunning were purely ratings based (0-250 scale), so I had to make some highly educated judgment calls based on a combination of statistics, awards won (e.g., Gold Gloves), well-studied accounts of their performances, and strategy of that era of the game (e.g., players stole bases frequently in the first 2 decades of the 1900s).
Pitching worked a little differently. Outside of the above-listed stats, others like stamina and holding runners on base were also entered utilizing highly educated judgment calls; certainly, "Deadball Era" pitchers who threw complete games every time out were near the maximum for stamina. I selected the types of pitches that each pitcher threw with tremendous help from The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers. ERA served as a way of ranking pitchers: I consulted 2 phenomenal sources (The Baseball Page and The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract) that gave thoroughly studied rankings of the pitchers, and I rearranged their positions slightly thanks to Baseball-Reference's ERA+, which shows how dominant the pitcher was compared to his league. The counting numbers are a bit imperfect; for instance, many great pitchers from the early part of the 20th century got their strikeout numbers raised considerably in order to bring their ERAs down and make their performances more in line with the modern game.
**Note well that this season is being played under conditions as they are today. Power numbers and playing strategy reflect how the game is being played now as opposed to, say, those in 1908, 1930, or 1968.
How long is the season going to be? In the game's time it will be 154 games, as it was in the bigs until 1961/2 (AL switched a year earlier than NL). In real life time I am not completely sure because it will depend on how busy I am with my life. I will make prompt updates after playing a series of 14 games.
The top two finishers in the league will square off in a best-of-seven series for the All-Timers Championship.
Can players get injured, and what happens if one does? Yes, players can get hurt in this game. Because I hope that as many of the best players can stay healthy throughout the season as possible, I leaned toward low injury proneness ratings for the vast majority of players. Should one get hurt, the team manager will choose from all the players not selected in the ATL draft. Once the injured player returns, the manager does not completely lose one of his players to free agency; the player who gets booted off the 25-man roster goes onto the team's Reserve Roster, where he's still under that team's control.
Will players get traded? I wasn't planning on anyone making in-season trades, and I would think that at least at this point, each manager is content with the players currently occupying his roster. Still, I will definitely not go as far as saying that trades are forbidden.
How unique is each manager's team? Each manager got to select not only his team city and nickname, but he also got to choose what ballpark (real but did not have to still exist) will house his team's home games. So due to potential differences in park dimensions/factors, each team's scoring outputs could be much different from one another.
What does the winning manager get? Outside of bragging rights, we never decided on a tangible prize. This could change.
Are you stoked to get thing thing going? You bet I am! It should be both educating and entertaining, and I'll do my best to entertain you all with what happens.
I'll have a team preview for each of the 6 teams coming extremely soon. Stay tuned!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Scouting Trip
One thing a couple friends and I had in common over this summer is that none of us had been to an Erie SeaWolves game this summer. Although they attend a college much closer to Erie than I do, all of us at some point do our best to make it up to at least one game, whether together or separate. On 7/27, all of our schedules were open, and we found that Detroit's AA affiliate would be facing the Altoona Curve, the Pirates' AA affiliate. Moreover, one of the Bucs' top pitching prospects, Bryan Morris, was to be on the bump that day; we could take in the game and take a glimpse at what we hope could be the future of Pirate baseball. With all that in mind, we decided to make the trip north to catch some minor league baseball. I made sure to take some pictures, and as you will see below, they are of better quality than the ones I took at Hagerstown. Little did we know that we'd be treated to quite the lengthy affair...
Erie's Jerry Uht Park, with some of the Erie skyline in the background, as the players warm up and fans file into the stadium. This stadium has always been maintained very well, and it is certainly more in line with the times than old Hagerstown Municipal. Situated in the middle of Erie right beside the arena where OHL and NBDL games take place, it's a nice AA-sized stadium, and a pretty nice place to take in a ballgame. Lake Erie is maybe a mile from the ballpark.
Bryan Morris warming up in the bullpen before the game. We had the surprising opportunity of briefly taking with both Altoona's catcher that day, Kris Watts, and pitching coach Tom Filer. I can't say that I had seen such openly nice guys at any level of professional baseball initiating conversation with people they didn't really know.
Morris delivering early in the game to what looks like Kody Kaiser of the SeaWolves. For the most part, Erie hitters have been struggling to find much success; many in their lineup that day were batting around .230 for Erie. In addition, with the numerous injuries to the parent club, the Tigers, the trickle-down effect of the injuries was players being called up to Erie who perhaps were not quite ready for the promotion. Still, Bryan Morris was incredibly impressive in his 5 innings of work. His fastball was hard and mostly low in the strike zone, and his curveball was on target and devastating to SeaWolves hitters who swung over the top of his curve often. Morris gave up only 2 hits, walked no one, and struck out 8.
This is shortstop prospect Chase D'Arnaud. Chase has had a rough season in 2010, and that night was no exception. He really didn't hit anything solid in any of his 6 plate appearances, and the frustration probably got released when he struck out looking and promptly argued a little bit with the umpire. On defense, he was pretty solid and showed some good hands on some slow grounders.
This was my attempt to get a picture of third baseman Josh Harrison after making a nice play on a high chopper hit his way. Although his short stature doesn't make him very ideal for 3B, he's always hustling both in the field and on offense. He went 2 for 6 that night with a nice bunt single.
What I've neglected to mention until now is that no one had scored at all in this game until the above picture was taken. With some exceptional pitching from Erie's Bryan Villarreal and Altoona's Michael Dubee and Dustin Molleken, no one could muster even a run in this game until the bottom of the 13th inning, when Cale Iorg went deep over the left-center field wall for the walk-off HR and the 2-0 SeaWolves victory. What an ending to a very closely-played game.
Side Note: Some computer issues have held up the ATL Draft, but that should take place any day now when I can get everyone free at some time. I didn't get quite as many teams as desired, but this should still be very fun.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Your Pittsburgh Pirates All-Scrub Team
Man, they can't even look like a good team on a video game anymore.
While watching the Pirates endure a defeat a few weeks ago, some friends and I reminisced for a while on how many awful players have taken the field for the Pirates since this consecutive losing season streak began in 1993. We looked at old Opening Day lineups from a media guide and cringed at some of the names that came up. From that conversation, the question was posed: Who really was the worst at each position for the Pirates since this nightmarish streak began? The final product is before you now: the Pittsburgh Pirates All-Scrub Team.
As noted earlier, the players were selected only from the period starting in 1993 up to today. To make the process a little easier, we decided to use players' single seasons to compose the team; one player could theoretically be a major star one year, then he could play like a total scrub the next year and make this team. Among Andy Barlow, Phil George, Seth Thompson, and myself, the spots were voted in a democratic fashion. If ties occurred, we'd debate the "merits" of each potential candidate until we all agreed on one. To limit the selection of players to true scrubs and not guys who didn't do so great in a handful of games, we decided that potential choices had to play a substantial amount of games as a Bucco. For position players we set the mark at around 50 games with a reasonable amount of PAs/ABs, starting pitchers 10 starts, and relief pitchers 20 games; if someone with fewer than these games played so badly that he deserved consideration, he could still be chosen by the committee. So there's the background...let's get to the roster!
The Position "Players":
C: Keith Osik, 1999- .186 AVG, 2 HR, 13 RBI, .239 OBP, .251 SLG in 66 games
Keith Osik was the loveable backup catcher for many of Jason Kendall's years behind the dish with the Pirates. As many know all too well, Kendall was knocked out for the season in an incredibly gruesome fashion midway through the '99 season with a broken ankle. Osik would share catching duties for the rest of the season with fellow Pirates great Joe Oliver, who really didn't perform much better than Osik's horrific season. Osik even moved his scrub-level talent that season to the mound, allowing 4 runs in an inning of work on May 11 while being blown out by the Astros.
Dishonorable Mention: Tom Prince, 1993; Keith Osik, 2002
1B: Randall Simon, 2004- .188 AVG, 3 HR, 14 RBI, .266 OBP, .266 SLG in 69 games
Yeah, that sausage-beating guy. Simon brought a unique lefty stance to the plate, along with a fairly mediocre skill set that devolved into being just plain awful in 2004. If his walk rate in '04 was not as far above his career average as much as it was, his season could have literally driven loyal Pirate fans to insanity. Mercifully, Simon's tenure with the Bucs ended with his release on August 18 that year.
Dishonorable Mention: Mark Johnson, 1997; Kevin Young, 1993; Jeff Clement, 2010
2B: Pat Meares, 2001- .211 AVG, 4 HR, 25 RBI, .244 OBP, .304 SLG in 87 games
There really was not much that Pat Meares brought to the Pirates in 2001, besides a yearly salary of nearly $4 million. He was a -1.7 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) player. Any hitting stats were barely being buoyed by some singles, and most defensive metrics have him as a very below-average fielding second baseman. Nearly $4 million spent on an All-Scrub.
Dishonorable Mention: Abraham Nunez, 2004; Aki Iwamura, 2010; Warren Morris, 2001
Dishonorable Mention: Doug Strange, 1998; Andy LaRoche, 2008; Chris Stynes, 2004; Jose Castillo, 2007
Polcovich's brief career in the majors embodied the surprising nature of the 1997 "Freak Show" season. The small shortstop played fairly well at both the bat (.746 OPS) and the field that year. The next year, his game crashed to the ground like a large meteor, and what you see in his stat line is all you really need to know to inform you on how painfully awful he followed up his '97 season. An absolutely scrub-tastic performance by Mr. Polcovich.
Dishonorable Mention: Abraham Nunez, 1999; both Wilsons (Jack & Enrique), 2001; Ronny Cedeno, 2010
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Dishonorable Mention: Mike Kingery, 1996; Turner Ward, 1999; Al Martin, 1998; Tike Redman, 2005; Ryan Church, 2010. Jermaine Allensworth sure tried hard to make this list as well.
An A+ cartoon by Phil Johnson.
The "Pitchers": Before starting this, we didn't know whether we should have only one starter and one reliever, a full starting rotation and a few relievers. Moving forward, what became increasingly obvious to us was that it would not be hard at all to make a full pitching staff comprised of the most awful pitchers the Pirates have sent to the mound over the past 18 years. Without further delaying this horrendous display of pitching, here's the All-Scrub rotation.
SP: Oliver Perez, 2006- 15 starts, 2-10, 6.63 ERA, 1.83 WHIP
Oliver Perez brought the heat. Lots of heat. What an adventure of a pitcher Oliver Perez was. In a year, he went from a 22 year old future superstar to a completely unpredictable arm. That was before this implosion of a season in which his time with the Pirates came to an end when he was traded as part of the deal to get Xavier Nady from the Mets. Ollie actually started two games for the Mets in the '06 NLCS, including the Game 7; that should show how banged up the Mets' rotation was at that point of the season. Though he would briefly bounce back, his recent seasons have exhibited his level of scrubitude that helped merit his selection to this team.
SP: John Van Benschoten, 2007- 9 starts (2 relief appearances), 0-7, 10.15 ERA, 2.15 WHIP
Not much more needs to be said about him outside of the statistics shown, which helped earn him a unanimous selection to the team. He was given three different chances to find success at the major league level ('07 being his second chance), and he failed in spectacular fashion each time. Even in '07 when he sported a 2.56 ERA in AAA (though, admittedly, with some not-so-great peripheral numbers), he could not at all translate any kind of minor league success to success in the big show. We can only speculate as to how his career would look had he been a first baseman instead...
SP: Charlie Morton, 2010- 10 starts, 1-9, 9.35 ERA, 1.89 WHIP
Another unanimous choice. I suppose Charlie can still technically play his way off the list, but I think his spot here is strongly secure. Last year, Morton showed some flashes of what could be a dominant, or at least serviceable, starting pitcher. That potential hit a giant concrete wall this season, unlike the pitches he threw, which often cleared that wall. Too many times Charlie Morton threw the fastball right in the hitter's wheelhouse; he was lit up to the tune of 12 HRs in 43 1/3 innings. When Charlie was working from the stretch, hitters crushed him at an OPS rate of 1.078. Yikes.
SP: Ryan Vogelsong, 2004- 26 starts (5 relief appearances), 6-13, 6.50 ERA, 1.62 WHIP
Ah, Ryan Vogelsong, the pitcher received from the Giants in the Jason Schmidt/John Vander Wal trade. While starting games in a Pirate uniform (as well as relieving, especially in '06), the man took the mound and repeatedly got battered by opposing hitters. Looking at the team from 2004, I don't know which is more pathetic: Ryan Vogelsong's performance that year or that no potential replacements were good enough to take his spot in the rotation.
SP: Jimmy Anderson, 2002- 25 starts (3 relief appearances), 8-13, 5.44 ERA, 1.64 WHIP
I think there were some worse seasons that probably deserved the final spot in the rotation, but this shows that there was a bit of a subjective, somewhat emotional element involved in the selections. Big Jimmy's B-R page lists him at 6-1, 195; most people who visit his page must think that has to be a typo. There really was not much to like about his pitching style: he was a finesse-type left-handed pitcher, but his walk rate was far above an acceptable rate for how he pitched. The year before, he put up mostly better stats, but posted a 9-17 record.
Dishonorable Mention: Chris Peters, 1999; Tom Gorzelanny, 2008; Omar Olivares, 2001. Paul Wagner's 5-16 record in 1995 was the worst winning percentage of a regular starter in the 1990s. Bob Walk's bad 1993 season received a vote from the committee as well, though factored at least in part into this vote was his work as a current Pirate broadcaster. Some good arguments could be made for more than a handful of other horrible Pirate hurlers not listed here.
The Relievers (or perhaps The Exacerbators)
RP: John Candelaria, 1993- 24 appearances, 0-3, 1 save, 8.24 ERA, 1.73 WHIP
You're reading correctly; it's one of the mainstays from the good times in the mid to late 1970s Pirates rotation. After a couple solid years of relief for the Dodgers, the 39 year old Candy Man came back to the 'Burgh and managed to make his final season a very forgettable one. Despite his great past success, his presence here almost seems fitting as another in a long line of past-their-prime pitchers that came to Pittsburgh and performed horribly.
RP: Jeff Wallace, 2000- 38 appearances, 2-0, 7.07 ERA, 2.13 WHIP
Looking at his stats gave me the most striking reminder of what I remembered seeing on TV and in person 10 years ago about him. He was an imposing-looking lefty on the mound who put up OK strikeout rates. Good. He also issued just under a hit and a walk per every inning he took the mound for his career. Scrub-worthy.
RP: Mike Garcia, 2000- 13 appearances, 0-2, 11.12 ERA, 2.47 WHIP
Does anyone remember Mike Garcia? Fortunately for me, I really don't. Despite having a solid amount of appearances less than I believed would comprise the substantial amount needed to be voted on the team, the voters thought his numbers were so bad in that period that he should not be left off the list. Way to go, Mike.
RP: Rich Loiselle, 2001- 18 appearances, 0-1, 1 save, 11.50 ERA, 2.50 WHIP
Those of us who remember the 1997 "Freak Show" Pirates know that a 25 year old Loiselle performed great as a closer with a good fastball and slider, and that he was a very legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate that season. After that season, his career took a steady plunge that ended in the big splatter of 2001 which knocked him out of the majors for good.
RP: Jonah Bayliss, 2007- 39 appearances, 4-3, 8.36 ERA, 1.83 WHIP
I never was a big fan of Jonah Bayliss' style of pitching, and neither were the other members of the committee. He had this weird sidearm angle at which he threw the ball. It generated quite a bit of velocity (up to mid-90s), but he did not have near the amount of control nor the great stuff to survive in the bigs. Bayliss could strike some guys out, but he walked and got hit around far too often to escape the All-Scrub Team.
RP: Masumi Kuwata, 2007- 19 appearances, 0-1, 9.43 ERA, 1.91 WHIP
You knew it was coming as much as we did. As great a career as Kuwata had pitching in his native Japan, GM Dave Littlefield signed a pitcher that was years past his prime and unequivocally overmatched against major league hitters. Everything about Kuwata's pitching and performance just screams Scrub; I'm just happy that all of us lived through the Masumi Kuwata Experience to be able to recall it today.
Dishonorable Mention: Wow, there have been so many horrendous relievers that have played for the Pirates over these past years that only naming a few seems to fall short of illustrating how many legitimate candidates there were for this collection of pitiful pitchers. Nevertheless, the following pitchers also received votes from the committee: Dan Miceli, 1996; Dave Wainhouse, 1997; Ryan Vogelsong, 2006; Donnie Veal, 2009 (his season in Pittsburgh as a Rule V pick).
Closer: Mike Williams, 2003- 40 appearances, 1-3, 25 saves in 30 opps., 6.27 ERA, 1.71 WHIP. Made 28 more appearances that year as a Phillie.
A very good debate ensued over whether Mike Williams or Jose Mesa's 2005 season should occupy the closer spot on the All-Scrub Team. Mesa blew more saves (8) and had a much worse record (2-8), but Williams' ERA was a full run and a half worse than Mesa's (4.76) (and if you look at his stats from that year, Williams wasn't unduly hurt by just one or two bad outings), and Williams' WHIP was worse as well (Mesa= 1.54). None of us could truly speak to Mesa as a person, but one of the voters distinctly remembers a bad experience he had as a fan interacting with Mike Williams. Plus, what epitomizes the Pirates' 17 (and most liable to be 18) year consective losing streak more than having an All-Star reliever with a 6.62 ERA at that point?
Dishonorable Mention: Matt Capps, 2009; Rich Loiselle, 1998
It's over. You can stop screaming and/or cringing in pain. Even if you don't completely agree with our choices, I hope you were as entertained by the names you got to revisit through this roster as much as we were when we debated and selected the players from the franchise we know and love. Our extreme thanks goes out to Baseball-Reference for providing all the in-depth statistics we examined to help make this list possible, and The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract for answering my question about Paul Wagner.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Golf Central II
Driver/Fairway Woods: Increased repetition with these clubs is greatly helping me keep more balls on the fairway and toward my target. I am nearing closer to the day I finally buy a new driver, which I think will certainly help this area of my game as well. When I'm feeling good, I can crush my ball with the big sticks; when I'm not completely on my game, I only hope I'm not screwing up bad enough to really hurt my game.
Irons: I really can't say that my iron game has changed much since my update last week. I'm still making the occasional mishit that can really mess me up on a given hole, especially par 3s. More practice, as well as possibly some practice from some different lies as well, will certainly help take my game to another level and shave some major strokes off my score. Therefore, I'll just reiterate that my iron game today, as it was at the time of my post last month, is still "serviceable."
Short Game: My parents were gracious enough to buy me a 56* wedge for my birthday, and having it in my bag has certainly helped me make shots that I had a great deal of trouble executing without on my bag. I can't say that my short game has improved a great deal since my post last month; I'm not surprised this is the case because I haven't spent nearly as much time practicing near the greens as I had the month before. However, with my new higher-degree wedge in my bag, I can more confidently play a higher amount of different shots that I thought I could before having it. Playing out of the sand, for instance, doesn't scare me nearly as much as it used to.
Remember when I said that I was reworking my grip for my putting stroke? Yeah, I switched my grip again, this time to the putting grip I used for all but maybe two or three years of my life. As of now, it hasn't drastically cut strokes off of my score, but I feel at least a little bit more confident making putting strokes from various distances. At least during my outing today, my putter showed signs of improvement, and I hope the improvement can become routine through these next months of golf.
Overall: Three points that describe where I'm at now with my game and where I need to go:
1. Though my above comments don't exactly sound like I'm doing much improving, I'm putting up legitimate scores that I sure was not achieving either at the beginning of my golfing this year or at any year in the past. Even with the portions of my game that I know I need to improve, I'm scoring better than ever right now.
2. Outside of what I've said above about how I'm hitting each of my clubs, I need to get in better shape than I'm in right now, especially in the parts of my body that are the most vital in executing the golf swing. As of this moment, if I'm playing 18 holes (and riding on a cart, because I'm not nearly good enough to have a caddy carrying my clubs around a course), I don't feel like my body quite has the stamina to carry out a consistent full golf swing throughout the entire round without tiring and thus throwing off my timing.
3. Keep practicing, or the decrease that I've been noticing in my scoring over the past month will cease to continue into next month's Golf Central update.
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