Friday, February 02, 2007 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
Pat Clements CAL b. 1962, played 1985
Scott Erickson LAN b. 1968, played 2005. Genuinely dominating in his early career (he was a 20-game winner in his sophomore season of 1991 with the title-winning Twins), he eventually faded, and moved to Baltimore. There, he resurrected his career, but blew out his elbow in 2000, and lost 2001 due to Tommy John surgery. The Dodgers acquired him after stints with the Mets and Rangers; Dodger fans learned to hate his sorry ass despite his really hot wife. Mr. Lisa Guerrero gave up 10 runs in 11.1 innings for the Yankees in 2006, who released him in June; I certainly expect he's done with baseball, as it appears to be done with him.
Wes Ferrell BRO b. 1908, played 1940, All-Star: 1933, 1937, d. 1976-12-09. Ferrell only worked four innings for the 1940 Dodgers, but before that, he was a six-time 20-game winner with a career .601 winning percentage who worked for a string of mostly second-division teams in Cleveland and Boston. Had he worked on any teams that had won pennants, he would likely have been a Hall of Famer — as was his brother, Rick, a catcher. Bill James made a case for him being underrated, mainly because he pitched in hitter's parks, and because he was an unusually good-hitting pitcher; he still retains the major league home run record for pitchers, with 37, and a career .280/.351/.446 line. (His career home run total was 38, as one was a pinch hit.)
In this Hall of Merit discussion, Jonesey makes the point that Ferrell had another handicap working against him: as the best pitcher on a mediocre team, he encountered more high-quality opposition pitching more often than he might have were he on, say, the Yankees, a problem that chipped away at his apparent value. James figured that with all the negatives he had to work with (and the added bonus of his considerable offense), he was actually 22% better than league average; by comparison, Nolan Ryan was only 10% better than the league, and Christy Mathewson was 26% better.
Joe Cronin succumbed to the temptation of overusing his arm, and from 1935 through 1937, he pitched 322.1, 301, and 281 innings with the Red Sox; 1936 was his last good year, but he somehow managed to stay in the Show through 1941.
John Tudor LAN b. 1954, played 1988-1989. A good and at times brilliant starter (he placed second in the 1985 Cy Young balloting to Dwight Gooden), he's probably most interesting to Dodger fans for two things: first, he was the return on the trade that unloaded a late-career Pedro Guerrero, then about to go into free agency at 33. Second, his 1988 postseason was something like a disaster, getting nailed for four runs in five innings in NLCS Game 4, and then getting yanked after an inning and a third in World Series Game 3, the only game Oakland won that year. Tudor pitched 14.1 innings in 1989 for the Dodgers before returning to St. Louis as a free agent for a swan song year; meantime, Guerrero didn't disappear quite as fast as the Dodgers thought he would, though the Cards ended up paying him a lot of money for production that wasn't nearly as good as the dollars he was earning.
Ben Weber, Kelly Wunsch Try Out For Astros
Weber's done, but I have to imagine that Wunch has a shot at making the Astros.Silly Suit Shown Door
The Angel tote bag case was thrown out, and the judge had some choice words for the attorney representing the plaintiff:After he threw out the lawsuit, Orange County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Cannon threatened to penalize attorney Alfred Rava for "intentionally misleading the court" about previous cases in which he had represented Michael Cohn, the Los Angeles psychologist who sued the Angels.Next they'll be suing because they didn't get the goodies earmarked for fans 12 and under. Sheesh. The Angels expect an appeal; the judge may decide to fine Rava $100,000 or more for his misdirection, the cost of the Angels' legal representation. Good.Cohn claimed the giveaway in 2005 violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act and argued the Angels should be liable for $4,000 in damages, payable to each man who attended the game. Cannon said the state's Unruh Act is intended "to eliminate antisocial discriminatory practices, not to eliminate socially beneficial ones."
Said Cannon: "The reason behind the promotion was to promote Mother's Day, not to discriminate against men."
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