Monday, January 15, 2007 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
William Brennan LAN b. 1963, played 1988. An undistinguished pitcher who bore a vague likeness to Orel Hershiser, he made the Dodgers' roster in July, 1988 because of injuries to Don Sutton, who missed much of the season. He wasn't able to hack it, and after a stint in the minors and a brief September callup, that was the end of his Dodger career. I wonder if he got a ring?
Curt Brown CAL b. 1960, played 1983
Delino DeShields LAN b. 1969, played 1994-1996. It's not his fault he was the return on the worst trade in Dodger history; but it is possible to blame Fred Claire and Tommy Lasorda for that.
Bobby Grich CAL b. 1949, played 1977-1986, All-Star: 1972, 1974, 1976, 1979-1980, 1982. A Top 100 Angel whose hitting accomplishments, because they occurred during a deadball era, should make him a Hall of Fame candidate according to Matt Welch:
I've been saying for years that hitters who played in the modern dead-ball era, from 1963 to 1992, and especially '63-76, are almost criminally underrated, especially when compared to those from the inflationary '20s and '30s, or 1890s. Position after position you'll find the Hall of Fame nearly empty of hitters from the productive years of the Rolling Stones' career. In the offensively robust season of 1926 there were five Hall of Fame second basemen playing full-time on the 16 major league teams -- Eddie Collins, Rogers Hornsby, Frankie Frisch, Charlie Gehringer, and Tony Lazzeri, yet in 1976-77, 1981-82 and 1985-86 there was just one for the 26 teams (Joe Morgan, then Ryne Sandberg); and for the rest of the time between 1971-92, there was never more than two HoFers playing 2B regularly in any given year. Saying this, and maybe looking at some semi-exotic context-leveling tool like Win Shares, is one thing; expressing the difference in traditional, easy-to-understand stats is something else.With regards to franchise marks with the Angels, Grich is seventh in single-season OBP (.414 in 1983) and fifth overall (.370) for the career mark, 10th in single-season SLG (.543, 1981), 6th in career OPS (.806), 6th in games played (1222), at-bats (4100), runs scored (601), hits (1103), total bases (1788), home runs (154), and RBI (557). He's 3rd in career walks (630), 7th in doubles (183), strikeouts (758), singles (746), and a number of others as well.
Mike Marshall LAN b. 1943, played 1974-1976, All-Star: 1974-1975. The pitcher (Michael Grant), not the outfielder (Michael Allen Marshall). A converted shortstop, he has three degrees, including a PhD in kinesiology from Michigan State; he was arrogant and iconoclastic, refusing to take instruction. Typical was his reverse pickoff move, which went clockwise rather than counterclockwise. His 106 game appearances in 1974 are a franchise record, as is his 83 games finished, winning a Cy Young award in the process; he was injured in 1975 and missed a great deal of time because of it. He now has a private practice coaching pitching.
Rance Mulliniks CAL b. 1956, played 1977-1979
Jerry Narron CAL b. 1956, played 1983-1986
Bob Sadowski LAA b. 1937, played 1963
Tony Solaita CAL b. 1947, played 1976-1978, d. 1990-02-10
And That Is All I've Got To Say About That
J.D. Drew is no underdog. Yes, he's within his rights to maximize his value going into a free agency year, but damn, the guy's fragile (even if not all of his injuries are his fault), and money seems to be the one thing — if not the only thing — that motivates him. Maybe he's entitled, but from my perspective, the Sox are right to try and insert terms into his contract limiting their exposure to his achy, breaky body.
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