2025 Major League Baseball Thread

[Navster]

Originally Posted by wilky61

Do you have a Brian Wilson beard, too, Navster?

lol, i tried to grow one like him.. But my wife was not feelin it, she hated it

An interesting bit of trivia is that the single-season HR record in the American League still stands at 61. Griffey, Sosa, McGuire, Bonds, etc. all played in the NL.[/

Thats a crazy fact, i never even realized that..

[kpkelley]

My opinion on the Bonds/Clemens/McGwire issue is that we can't go back and change history. What I mean is, IMO their statistics still stand and all of them are HOF worthy based upon their statistics. Even if we have complete knowledge of every player who ever used and how much that use affected the product on the field, we still can't go back and change what happened. Baseball is full of trends, rule changes, and controversies which have defined it's history, the so-called Steroid era is just one more. To keep players out of the HOF because of the era in which they played would be an injustice to future generations of baseball fans.

For those who argue that steroids were illegal at the time(and still are), I would counter that the HOF has players in it with criminal records already.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Hatter

Well I'm glad you brought up Rice. A superior player named Larry Walker better be in the hall of fame soon now that Rice is in.

Walker 1997-2002

.353AVG, .441OBP, .648slg, 156ops+

1997 mvp was one of the greatest non-steroid aided seasons of alltime and before you cite Coors know this: He hit 29 of 49 homeruns and slugged .733 on the road in 1997.

7 gold gloves, 3 time batting champ, mvp, career .313avg, .400obp, .565slg, 140ops+. He may not have any magic numbers, but he was a premier five tool player. Hall of fame Standard monitor says 58 (avg hof: 50).

Larry Walker's career avg was .381 at Coors with a slugging avg of .710 there. Sorry, but Coors badly inflated his numbers. He isn't making the HOF.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by NavsterKing

Wow I couldnt have said it better.... Some of these players were HOF locks before the allegations started anyways (Bonds) (BigMac) (Clemens), so hell yes i would vote for them!

Bonds and McGwire were juicing pretty early in their careers. You could tell by their physique. Neither had accumulated HOF worthy stats before they used. And none of those three will make it until maybe many decades from now by the old timer's committee.

[AutomaticDriver]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Larry Walker's career avg was .381 at Coors with a slugging avg of .710 there. Sorry, but Coors badly inflated his numbers. He isn't making the HOF.

I did not realize his carreer avg. was that high at Coors. What was it on the road?

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Bonds and McGwire were juicing pretty early in their careers. You could tell by their physique. Neither had accumulated HOF worthy stats before they used. And none of those three will make it until maybe many decades from now by the old timer's committee.

They say Bonds started using after the 1997 season. Cumulative before the start of the 1998 season: 3 time mvp, 7 gold gloves, a whopping 162ops+ , 1200+ runs and walks, 359doubles, 374 homeruns, nearly 1100 rbi's and 417 stolen bases. Back to back ops+ over 200 in 1992 and 1993. He was as elite as you can get. All this in just under 1750 games. He was a first ballot lock already at that point. He went from elite to immortal.

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by 3DForLife

I did not realize his carreer avg. was that high at Coors. What was it on the road?

For his career:

Split G GS PA AB R H HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS tOPS+
Home 986 911 3996 3429 789 1193 215 747 .348 .431 .637 1.068 2184 82 82 4 37 69 34 .362 120
Away 1002 922 4034 3478 566 967 168 564 .278 .370 .495 .865 80

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by 3DForLife

I did not realize his carreer avg. was that high at Coors. What was it on the road?

.278

But he's always been a better home player. His average at Olympic stadium in Montreal is .293 and at Busch in St-Louis is .294 (which are both a little higher when he exclusively played at those twoo as his home park). I've analyzed his stats to death literally since us canadians really want our first non pitcher player in the hall. There are seasons where he's much better at home but there are almost as many seasons where his home/road splits are either very close or are better on the road. In the end, it balances quite nicely. And .279 career road with .370obp is still very good. Finally, just think about how he played the bulk of his career with injuries. He averaged 123 games a season from '90-'05.

How about this: Griffey's road average is .272

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Larry Walker's career avg was .381 at Coors with a slugging avg of .710 there. Sorry, but Coors badly inflated his numbers. He isn't making the HOF.

Than take rice and dawson out immediately. Like I said 140ops+ is a neutral stat which is better Reggie Jackson, Rice, Dawson, Griffey, Sosa.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Hatter

.278

But he's always been a better home player. His average at Olympic stadium in Montreal is .293 and at Busch in St-Louis is .294 (which are both a little higher when he exclusively played at those twoo as his home park). I've analyzed his stats to death literally since us canadians really want our first non pitcher player in the hall. There are seasons where he's much better at home but there are almost as many seasons where his home/road splits are either very close or are better on the road. In the end, it balances quite nicely. And .279 career road with .370obp is still very good. Finally, just think about how he played the bulk of his career with injuries. He averaged 123 games a season from '90-'05.

How about this: Griffey's road average is .272

Than take rice and dawson out immediately. Like I said 140ops+ is a neutral stat which is better Reggie Jackson, Rice, Dawson, Griffey, Sosa.

Kinda hard to compare guys like Reggie, Rice and Dawson. Those guys played in what was more or less a dead ball era. Walker came along in a juiced ball era.

[Lacit170]

Navster.... did you watch the Giants game last night?? I was reading on yahoo about the pitcher that was up to bat... but your manager didnt want to take him out and told him not to swing....he stands waaaay away from the plate with no intention of swinging and the other team walked him on 4 straight pitches!!!!


http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big...rn=mlb-wp15998

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Kinda hard to compare guys like Reggie, Rice and Dawson. Those guys played in what was more or less a dead ball era. Walker came along in a juiced ball era.

Do you not listen? ops+ is era and park adjusted. If Rice and Dawson are the top sluggers, they should have high ops+ ratings and they are clearly lower than Walker's. Rice didn;t play good defense either. Walker was an elite fielder with a cannon arm. He had great baserunning skill that goes far beyond the 230 stolen bases.

[wilky61]

Watching this Giants/Braves series is like watching two old cripples in a barfight. The Braves had to call up a minor leaguer to make his second major league start tonight (we now have three minor league callups in our starting rotation) in place of Tommy Hanson. And now the Giants' Jonathan Sanchez, potentially their #5 starter, has to leave the game in the third inning due to a foot injury. Sanchez hasnt lasted five innings in at least five starts.

Michael ****ing Bourn is really starting to piss me off; I can see why the Astros got rid of him. He's a goddamn idiot day in and day out. His latest show of buffoonery is that he's produced two outs running the basepaths already, through three innings.

Last night he went 0-for-4 including two inning ending at-bats with runners at the corners, not to mention a fielding error in CF that gave up two unearned runs.

[wilky61]

Braves win in their final at-bat for the second night in a row!

With two more games left against the Braves still, the situation is starting to become dire for the depleted Giants. They now trail the Braves by 6 games and the DBacks by 3.5 games (the DBacks came from behind to win in the 9th inning against Roy Halladay tonight).

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by wilky61

Braves win in their final at-bat for the second night in a row!

With two more games left against the Braves still, the situation is starting to become dire for the depleted Giants. They now trail the Braves by 6 games and the DBacks by 3.5 games (the DBacks came from behind to win in the 9th inning against Roy Halladay tonight).

The Giants pitching was very good as always, but their offense blows. They managed just 5 hits and 1 run in 11 innings off a Braves pitcher starting only his 2nd career game.

[cajmoyper]

It sure is refreshing to see you all say that Thome is clean. Everybody is so damn suspicious of everyone else nowadays, it's impossible to know these days. But Thome is a guy who is hard to dislike. He deserves the Hall for sure.

[Navster]

Giants offense makes me

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by cajmoyper

It sure is refreshing to see you all say that Thome is clean. Everybody is so damn suspicious of everyone else nowadays, it's impossible to know these days. But Thome is a guy who is hard to dislike. He deserves the Hall for sure.

I'd say probably clean. As far as I know there's never been a hint of roids with Thome. And his physique really doesn't seem to have changed a lot over the years. His numbers year by year were pretty static too - a consistent 35-45 HR and 90-115 RBI per year player who has rarely been injured. And as you say, he's a likable guy. He doesn't have the reputation of being an ass like Bonds or Clemens. Attitude shouldn't be a factor for HOF voting but we all know it is. I do think Thome should be first ballot, but it wouldn't surprise me if he has to wait till his 2nd or 3rd year of eligibility.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by NavsterKing

Giants offense makes me

The Giants average just 3.4 runs per game of offense. Just terrible. If they had even an average offense they'd probably win 95-100 games. Just look at some of their starters ERA compared to wins.

Cain: 9-9, 3.00 ERA
Bumgarner: 7-11, 3.49 ERA
Lincecum: 11-9, 2.58 ERA
Vogelsong: 10-2, 2.47 ERA

Those are all very impressive ERA numbers. But as you can see only Vogelsong has had any real run support. Their pitching is terrific, I'm just not sure they can compete with that horrid offense.

[wilky61]

Figure this, the Brew Crew have a -10 win/loss differential on the road and are leading their division by 7 games (they are +31 at home).

[Wingman1977]

Honestly, just give Verlander the AL cy young already.