Best Pitcher Ever?

Is Roger Clemens the best pitcher ever?

My old college buddies have been chattering lately about him and his lousy luck with the Astros this season and last. He’ll be 44 years old this week, and despite his 2-4 record so far in this abbreviated season, Clemens' ERA is 2.09, his Whip is 1.04, and he’s struck out 40 batters in 47-1/3 innings.

It occurred to me that Clemens might go down in history as the greatest pitcher ever. He currently has 343 wins, 8th all time. Here is the list of guys ahead of him:

Cy Young
Walter Johnson
Pete Alexander
Christy Mathewson
Pud Galvin
Warren Spahn
Kid Nichols

Only Warren Spahn pitched after 1930. Galvin and Nichols mostly pitched in the 19th century. The era that those old timers pitched in was so different that they are virtually uncomparable. And frankly, who the hell has any idea how good ol’ Pud was? Anyone who saw him pitch is dead.

Baseball reference shows that Clemens’ closest comparisons are Tom Seaver (by a lot), Greg Maddux and Steve Carlton. Here are the career stats for Clemens as of the end of 2005:

Wins 341
Losses 172
IP 4704
K 4502 (2nd behind Ryan)
ERA 3.12/League ERA 4.46
6 AL Cy Young Awards, 1 NL CY
1 MVP (1986)

Seaver was 311-205, 4782 IP, 3640 K, 2.86/3.64 ERA/League ERA, 3 CY

Maddux at the end of 2005 was 318-189, 4406 IP, 3052 K, 3.01/4.15, 4 CY

Carlton was 329-244, 5217 IP, 4136 K, 3.22/3.70, 4 CY

Spahn was 363-245, 5243 IP, 2583 K, 3.09/3.65, 1 CY

Let's also look at:

Mathewson was 373-188, 4780 IP, 2502 IP, 2.13/2.88 ERA. Mathewson was 2nd for the 1911 MVP.

Johnson was 417-279 for those lousy Senators, 5914 IP, 3509 K's, 2.17/3.17. Johnson also won 2 MVP's. I sure would have liked to see Walter Johnson pitch.

A note about the Cy Young award: They didn't have Cy Young awards back when Mathewson was pitching because for some of that time, ol’ Cy was still pitching. The award was introduced in 1956, the year after Cy died at the age of 88. From 1956-1966 there was a single award for the entire major leagues. In 1967 they expanded the award to one for each league. So for the first half of Spahn’s career it didn’t exist, and during the second half of his career there was only 1 award annually, not two.

Clemens compares favorably to these guys. Incredible win total, great win-loss percentage, almost a strikeout per inning for over 2 decades. Though his ERA is not pristine, his ERA is much better than the league ERA, and in fact is lower than the league ERA by more, much more, than any other pitcher above. Clemens spent almost all of his career in the post-Ron Blomberg DH era, so all AL ERA’s are up substantially from previous periods.

I mention Ron Blomberg because my college buddies who started this discussion and I were there behind home plate in Fenway on April 6, 1973, the day Blomberg ruined AL baseball. BTW, he was quoted that day when asked how he liked being a DH, saying, “I don’t know how I’ll make out as a designated hitter, I’ve never done it before.”

I’m ready to give Clemens the nod. Does anyone have any other suggestions for research?

Bob Feller would probably have been under consideration except for missing his 4 prime years during WWII, the big one. He had 24, 25 and 27 wins before the war, and 26 in 1946. Another 100 or so wins would have allowed him to finish with around 360 wins. His K's would have been around 3500+, which would have been pretty close to Johnson's record at that time. Like Clemens, though, his ERA was higher: 3.25,(league average 3.97) though it probably would have been a little lower factoring in the loss of his prime years.

One other guy to speculate about is Babe Ruth. The Babe was 94-46 with 488 K’s in 1221 innings. His ERA was 2.28 (league 2.77). Here’s something you probably didn’t know: the Yankees trotted him out to pitch a game in 1930 at the age of 35 and again in 1933 at the age of 38. He won them both with complete games. His previous pitching appearance was in 1921 (2 appearances, 2 wins). You can only wonder what his numbers would look like if he didn’t make the switch to outfield.

And looking at the Babe’s stats, I see he played an occasional inning at first base for the Yankees after Gehrig joined the team. He certainly was versatile.

Since I mentioned Cy Young, I took a little look at him too. His numbers were just so massive as to defy comparison. I’ve written about him before as holding the two most unbreakable records in sport: most wins (511) and most losses (316).

Here are a few other Cy Young records that aren’t going anywhere either:

Most Innings – 7,354

Galvin is 2nd with 6,003, Johnson 3rd with 5,914. The next 6 players are from the modern era: Phil Niekro, Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton, Spahn and Carlton. Clemens is 19th, Maddux 29th, the highest two active players.

Most Batters Faced – 30,058

That’s a funny statistic, and I included it just because it’s such a big number. The list of innings eaters is pretty much the same list.

Hits Allowed – 7,092

Galvin is second with 6,405. Somebody named Bobby Mathews is third with 5,591. Then again, it’s mostly the usual suspects.

Complete Games – 749

Galvin is second with 646. Seaver is tied for 99th with 231. No active player is in the top 100. This record is going nowhere.

Incidently, Galvin is the only other pitcher with over 300 losses, (310). Nolan Ryan is 3rd with 292.

One other thing about ol’ Cy: He never won the Cy Young award.

Fixing First Base

With the trade deadline approaching, some of my “colleagues” here in the Giant Blogosphere have been debating who Brian Sabean is going to seek to fill the first base hole. I’ve got the answer, but I’m going to make you read this thing first.

Despite his homerun tonight, I think we can all agree that Chad Santos is not likely the answer. Mike Sweeney is a good pinch hitter. There is some potential there in Lance Niekro, but it’s clear it will not be realized in time to save this season.

At the McCovey Chronicles, Grant had a detailed analysis of 7 possibilities that might not cost much in the way of prospects. By the way, if you missed it, you’ve got to read his piece of a couple of days ago entitled, “Casey at the Link.” Hilarious.

Today Grant was slobbering over Sean Casey. This simply proves Grant has never likely owned him in a fantasy league. Sorry, but he’s a pansy hitter, a lefty who might hit a few doubles in the gap, but might hit zero homers at Telephone Park.

He’s what we call a one category hitter. Last season, batting in the middle of the order all year, with 529 offical at bats he hit 9 homers and drove in only 58 runs while hitting .312. In Cincinnati! This season he’s got 3 homers and 26 RBI’s while hitting .305. So ya think that’s the answer?

The other cheapos Grant listed in his preference list were guys who prove that I watch absolutely no AL baseball: Shea Hillenbrand, Shane Andrews, Craig Paquette, Ray Jablonski, Jeff Ball and Javy Lopez. I remember Andrews and Lopez from their better days in the NL, am kind of familiar with Paquette, and have no idea who Jablonski or Ball are. Ray Jablonski sounds like a middle linebacker in Green Bay.

The only thing I can agree with Grant on these guys is that they will be cheap in terms of what Sabes will have to give up. “We’ll take those salaries off your hands and throw in an ice chest filled with frozen crab meat.”

Lefty wants a couple of guys who will cost a little more, Pat Burrell (can he play 1st? I don’t remember) or Craig Wilson. Burrell has two more huge years on his contract. Huge. When the Giants rebuild this team next season without a bunch of old guys, do you want to be committed to $13 million in 2007 and $14 million in 2008 for Pat Burrell? Wilson’s ok, but how much better will he be than Sweeney? I think a little.

Big D at Giants Win hasn’t actually joined the conversation on first base. He’s focused on Jose Vizcaino and Armando Benitez, and I certainly can’t blame him. But I wanted to mention his excellent work because quoted me at length today. As the Bruno Kirby character said in Billy Crystal's “City Slickers,” nobody’s ever quoted me to myself. Thanks for the plug.

So here is a name no one has mentioned yet because, frankly, everyone has forgotten about him. He’s been on the DL of his team and our fantasy team all season, but he’s supposed to be back in a couple of weeks. It’s a risk, but his team has indicated they don’t have a place for him when he comes back.

Ryan Klesko.

OK, it’s going to be tough to make a deal with the Padres, I get that, but Adrian Gonzalez is now the first baseman in San Diego. Klesko's rent is a little expensive, but he’s a free agent to come. He’s always been able to hit. He’s not exactly JT Snow in the field, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him in the seven hole behind Feliz.

Sorry, but that’s the best name I can think of. It’s a guy who might actually hit some homers in Telephone Park.

As I was typing this, I had the game on in the background. The Giants did some nifty run manufacturing. With one out, Winn stole third base and then scored on a suicide squeeze by Vizquel. On a hit and run play, Alou hit a single, Vizquel going to third. Then Barry hit a long sac fly to left center. Nice.

Has anyone noticed the DBacks are back in the NL West race? They looked on the verge of collapse, but suddenly they are at .500, in third place 3 games behind the Padres and only ½ game behind the Giants. And Brandon Webb has a 5-1 lead, oops make that 5-2 lead in the eighth innng. They brought up Carlos Quentin today, who has a homer in his first major league game. Quentin joins Stephen Drew, and a bunch of other young players (Chad Tracy, Connor Jackson and, of course, the 27 year old Webb) in a superb example of how to rebuild a team. That’s a team I’m looking forward to seeing next month.

Missing Links

Yesterday was a great day, and not just because I saw the Giants win last night. It was great, really great, because I purchased a copy of Rick Reilly’s new book “Shanks for Nothing.”

This is a sequel novel to the funniest book ever written, “Missing Links.” Now I know for a fact a number of my regular readers have read and love “Missing Links” because I gave it out as an Xmas present to the Poker Boys a couple of years ago.

I first picked up a copy of Missing Links a number of years ago by chance, browsing at a bookstore in Colma. It was about golf, and it looked interesting. I couldn’t put it down. I was howling on almost every page about the group of misfits who play golf at the worst golf course in America.

Here is how much I liked the book: I ordered 10 copies of it IN HARDCOVER from Amazon and gave them out as gifts. I later bought ten more copies in paperback as gifts, and later ten more copies. I know for a fact that at least three of the recipients including the Colonel did exactly the same thing. Every person I’ve given the book to said it was the funniest book they ever read. There is a reason for that: it is.

I’d write more about this, but despite the fact that I’m at work right now, I’ve got to get back to “Shanks.” So far it’s as funny as “Links.” If you haven’t read either of them, you haven’t lived.

Giant Hero

OK, they finally won one last night. Here is what you didn’t read in the Chronicle this morning.

I was there in FC 109, which is behind the first base dugout looking out through the infield toward left center. It was the perfect place to be sitting to observe Mark Sweeney’s bonehead blunder in the second inning.

Situation: score tied 1-1 after Sweeney grounded into a fielder’s choice, Durham scoring. Sweeney was on first, two outs, Alfonzo at the plate. The kid ripped a lazer beam into left center over the centerfielder’s head, and it bounced to the wall. I followed the ball and then looked at Sweeney approaching second base. He had slowed up and was watching the fielder to see if he was going to catch it. As soon as the ball cleared the fielder’s head, Sweeney turned on the jets, but he was held up at third base, Alfonzo stopping at second. No run scored.

What the hell was Sweeney thinking to slow up approaching second? Here’s what he was thinking: there is one out, and I may have to go back to first if the fielder catches it.

Hey, Mark, there are two outs. Run your ass off at the crack of the bat. Put your head down and pump. You’re a veteran, you’re not supposed to make this mistake.

There is no doubt, he should have scored there. All the people around me in FC 109 saw it and agreed: he forgot how many outs there were. When Jamey Wright struck out for the final out of the inning, we all thought, “If the Giants lose by a run, this will be the reason.”

Now, a little irony: between the second and third innings, the Giants showed a Mark Sweeney collage on the scoreboard.

Let’s now move to the bottom of the sixth, Brewers up 3-2. With one out and Feliz on first, Sweeney singled to right, Feliz moving to third. Alfonzo struck out (not a good night for the kid with runners in scoring position). TWO OUTS. Moises Alou stepped in as a pinch hitter and drove the ball to almost the exact same spot as Alfonzo hit it in the second inning. Feliz scored, but this time Sweeney was tearing ass around the bases, turned third and headed for home. The cutoff man rifled the ball to the plate a little high and a little to the first base line, and Sweeney slid around the tag for what would be the winning run.

Do you think Sweeney was aware of how many outs there were?

A little more irony: walking out through the Field Club, Kruk and Kuip were interviewing game hero Mark Sweeney on the tube after the game. The sound was turned down, but I don’t imagine they asked him about what happened in that second inning. They probably were kissing his ass and telling him how great he played.

This morning in the Chronicle they talked about the players’ meeting before the game, which Sweeney himself called in order to set up a Kangaroo Court. It turned into a grievance airing, which beat writer Henry Schulman credited for the win. I’d like to nominate game hero Sweeney to be the first to drop a Benji into the Kangaroo Pot for blowing that run in the second last night. From all accounts Sweeney’s a good guy, and I’ll bet he’d be hard pressed to disagree.

Stinkin' Starters

Perusing this morning’s box scores, what shocked me was how bad the starting pitching was in the National League yesterday. Having attended the one game where the starters were quite good (Myers and Cain both pitched well for 7 and 6 innings respectively), the rest of the league rather sucked.

Seventy four pitchers made it into the 8 games yesterday, only one of which went to extra innings (11 innings in Pittsburgh against Washington). That’s an average of 4.625 pitchers per team. Every single team had at least 3 pitchers throw, and every game had at least 7 pitchers appear. Not only wasn’t there a complete game, there wasn’t a single instance of just starter and closer.

The National League starters were, for the most part, horrendous. Sixteen starters went a total of 86-2/3 innings, an average of approximately 5-1/3 innings. No one went more than 7 innings. They gave up 60 earned runs, 104 hits and 30 walks, for an ERA of 6.231 and a WHIP of 1.546.

This was great news for the Pickled Pecklers. I see you scratching your heads over that one. Here’s why: despite the appearance of 74 crummy pitchers yesterday, not a single Pickled Pitcher made it to a box score. Not one of the ten (ok, nine, as Prior just got put on the DL but he’s still active for us). The odds against that have to be phenomenal.

These stats may be why the Yankees were willing to give Sir Sidney a try. It’s nasty out there. It’s why the Mets gave Lima one more chance. Don’t underestimate the potential trade value of Jamey Wright or Brad Hennessey.

The most interesting game from a pitching perspective has to be Cincinnati’s win over Colorado. Josh Fogg pitched a brilliant game for the Rockies, giving up only 1 run 5 hits and 1 walk over 7 innings. He left the game with a 3-1 lead, but Todd Martin and Jose Mesa came in to give up 5 runs in the 8th to blow the game.

What was interesting to me, though, was the Reds’ pitching. Elizardo Ramirez pitched 6 ok innings, to be replaced by Weathers for the seventh, Coffey for the eighth (he got the win) and Guardado for the ninth. Where were Majewski and Bray, the guys they gave up two young hitting starters for? Wasn’t it Weathers, Coffey and Guardado before the trade?

BTW, Lopez and Kearns were 1 for 11 yesterday. Meanwhile Rich Aurilia had a two run pinch hit double. Maybe Aurilia was the key to that deal.

Meanwhile, the Mets continue to fake it with their starters. Let’s get this in perspective: Steve Traschel is their #2 starter. El Duque got chased in the second inning yesterday, having given up 5 runs for a game ERA of 27 and a WHIP of 5.4. He’s their #3. Their roster lists two rookies, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey as their #4 and #5 (who knows who is 4 and who is 5). Yet the Mets got the win yesterday, putting up an 11 spot in the 6th inning to move 18 games over .500 and 12 ahead of second place Atlanta and Phily. You’ve got to figure the Mets are going to make some kind of deal for a starter. After all, they can talk about El Duque’s playoff record all they want, but he sucks.

I like the Padres despite getting absolutely crushed by the Braves this weekend. They’ve got something the Giants do not: young players to get excited about. I really like Kahlil Greene, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Barfield. Get rid of those bums they’ve got playing the hot corner, and you’ve got yourself an infield for the future.

Meanwhile, I saw Doug Brocail’s first appearance after his angioplasties (2) the other night. I wrote up that wild game between the Padres and the Braves, but I carefully excluded mention of him. He looked unhittable, and I decided that a little careful editing was in order in case I wanted to make a bid. Yesterday, he was a little more hittable, giving up 3 hits and 3 runs in an inning and two thirds. Go ahead, someone.

Stephen Drew is up, probably for good. He’s still looking for his first hit (Chad Santos is kicking his ass), but he’s got the tools, just like his brother did. I wonder if he’ll be as brittle as JD.

Sorry Greg, but we’ve got to mention he was part of what is turning out to be that horrible, horrible trade for the Cartel. Here are the post-trade active stats:

Dunn - .242-21-47-3
Biggio - .254-5-25-0
Burrell - .246-12-40-0

Weeks - .288-7-24-13
Howard - .275-25-64-0
Burke - .281-5-19-4

The Cartel lost serious BA and SB, and are about even in HR’s and RBI’s (+1 homer, +5 RBI’s). They lost the best keeper contract out there (Howard), they gave up a player that turned into 4 players (Weeks), Burke is back in the lineup hitting decently, and they gave up Stephen Drew. Only God knows what Kenny 9 might turn him into in a dump deal. It’s amazing the Cartel has stayed in third, but they’re out of trading chips, and 3rd or 4th looks like where they are going to finish.

And a few baseball blognotes:

This just in: Mike Lowell is still leading the major leagues in doubles, tied with Nick Johnson at 33.

Here is something from Kenny 9’s web site you would never hear from Boof. It’s the title of his latest entry: I will never, ever, ever trade Ryan Howard.

Phil Nevin hit his 16th homer of the season yesterday. Somebody out there has to have a catcher on their roster who is at least 14 homers behind Nevin.

Brandon Phillips’ trade value is sinking at the same rate that Ralphie Cifarello’s head sank inside the bowling ball case into the Hudson River. Larry Dot Net may have lost his chance, there.

Wes Helms hit #6 today. I guess that would have been a better $1 idea than Jose Hernandez at corner infield. He’s got more homers than Niekro, more RBI’s than Brady Clark, and his .272 BA is better than Raffy Furcal. No respect.

Matt Kinney pitched the ninth for the Cardinals. Wait a minute, that’s Josh Kinney. Matt Kinney is still a Fresno Grizzly, sporting a 5-5 record and a PCL ERA of 4.61. Probably not the answer for the Giants.

Strange stat: Jose Guillen, .215. Lower than Reggie Abercrombie.

I still don’t get Dan Uggla. He never showed any of this in the minors. He did hit 21 homers and .297 with 15 steals in the minors last year, but that was at AA, which they made him repeat after hitting .258 there in 2004. He also had 33 doubles in 2005 at AA, so I guess there was in fact a hint of real power. Here is the Baseball Prospectus comment:

While on the surface he might look like a hustling, dirtier version of Tony Graffanino, there are a few cautions. He spent three years in Lancaster’s bandbox, and only “broke out” after an extended stay at Double-A. He’ll also be 26 by Opening Day. His history of “eventually getting it” made him one of Florida’s Rule 5 picks. With the Marlins he has a chance to start at second. The bar is low, but considering he’ll move from low minors hitter’s parks in offensive leagues to a major-league pitcher’s park, the results should be predictably Uggla.

I guess BP missed that one. So did we.

L - F. Alou

It was a close game yesterday, and sure, they may not have won anyway, but without a doubt today’s 6-2 loss to the Phillies was well earned by the Giants’ manager.

The wife beater and the kid hooked up in a pitchers’ duel at Telephone Park punctuated by some long balls. Matt Cain went out after 6 innings of 1 hit, 1 run ball. OK, the box score says 2 hits, but that first hit was a bungled routine ground ball to Peter Happy at third base. The boys on KNBR were laughing at scoring that a hit on the post-game wrap. (The official scorer changed it to an error after the game according to the Chron today. Duh.) Unfortunately, Cain was a little wild, throwing 105 pitches through the six innings. He was throwing hard though, consistently in the mid-nineties, and he struck out Ryan Howard twice with high heat. He left the game with a 2-1 lead, the Giants’ two coming on solo shots by Ray Ray (what is with that ridiculous nickname?) and Barry.

Accardo took over in the seventh and promptly gave up the tying run on a blast to left field by old friend David Bell. Bell was the hitting star of the game with his homer and a triple, reminding us how we liked him during the 2002 World Series run. It was Bell, by the way, who was bearing down on little Darren Baker in game 5 when JT Snow saved his life.

Inning 8 was a Felipe masterpiece. Steve Kline came in for Accardo and promptly gave up a leadoff triple to Chase Utley. Without a doubt, Chase Utley can play this game. I’ve been watching him through the whole series, and he always comes up with the big play. He’s already the best second baseman in baseball. I dare you, name another.

Kline then struck out Abreu. Burrell was now up, Howard on deck. It was here that Felipe ordered Burrell to be walked. Ordered Burrell to be walked. Now I understand that Ryan Howard has some problems against lefties, but how can anyone want to pitch to him with the game on the line? He’s already one of the 5 scariest batters in baseball, and didn’t he win that silly homerun contest on Monday night? Ordered Burrell to be walked.

Duh. Howard ripped a single between the first and second basemen, and Utley scored to make it 3-2. Now Felipe sent Kline to the showers and brought in Jonathan Sanchez, another lefty, to face the right handed hitting Aaron Rowand. Huh? Nobody in our section could figure out what the hell was going on. Sanchez immediately served up a wild pitch, making it 4-2, runner on second.

Rowand, who can join the “Unbelievably Ugly Batting Stance Club” which includes our own Moises Alou and whose President is Jeff Bagwell, then laced a run scoring double to make it 5-2. David Bell then blasted that triple down the left field foul line to finish the scoring.

What the hell was Felipe thinking? Or was he thinking? I’m sorry, but this thing unraveled when he ordered Burrell walked so Steve Kline could face Howard. So Steve Kline could face Howard. I just can’t believe I’m typing these words. Hey, I get it, the Phillies were likely to score that one run anyway, but Kline or a right hander has to pitch to Burrell. Then, if you survive, you walk Howard and pitch to Rowand. Anyway, that’s how Manager PEFACommish would have played it.

Meanwhile Barry almost hit 3 homers today, putting one to the wall in left center in the second, and later crushing a towering shot way into the water just foul down the right field line.

Somewhere around the fourth inning I went inside with Little Danny to get some peanuts and a drink and struck up a conversation with a couple of guys in line. I mentioned that I didn’t trust Ray Durham’s hot streak. They had nothing but praise. I wonder how they felt when he left the game after hurting his shoulder while striking out.

One other great moment: the first ever appearance of Chad Santos. Who is he? Don’t know. He’s so obscure that when you click on his name in the Yahoo box score, nothing comes up. Apparently they brought him up from Fresno when they sent Niekro down. Little Danny, who lives in Fresno, said he saw him play there on July 4. Santos came in with Sanchez for Sweeney and got a hit in his first at bat. Unfortunately, that was the only high point, along with Bonds’ foul water shot, for the Giants and their fans in the last part of the game.

Maybe they do have to make a deal for some middle relief. They all stunk this weekend. Stunk. All of them. Unfortunately, Reds’ GM Wayne Krivsky has set the price for middle relievers.

Giant Flaws

I caught pieces of the Giants game yesterday. It was obvious when Barry flied out to center with the bases loaded early in the game that the Giants were going to have trouble. The reality is that if the Giants are contenders, they have to beat flawed teams like the Phillies, who basically have Ryan Howard and, uh, uh, David Bell?

I’ve been meaning to do a post-break state of the team. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: the Giants can not afford to give up on this season. They have instituted huge ticket price increases in the most expensive seats, and they have to sell those tickets next season. Nobody is going to write a check for $11,000 in order to secure 2 seats to next year’s All-Star game, the most overblown, overrated event in baseball. If they are going to sell those seats, they have to win games between now and the end of September, and preferably a few in October too.

That means Jason Schmidt and Moises Alou aren’t going anywhere. Any deals Sabean makes will involve the last crumbs in the prospect cupboard. If they are going to trade for a first baseman (isn’t that pretty much they only thing we can expect) you have to assume that Niekro will be leaving in that deal along with something in the minors. Maybe they’ll get something for a pitcher, but that pitcher isn’t going to be Cain or Schmidt. Hey, after yesterday’s game, feel free to trade any of those young guys who got beat up.

In the wake of yesterday’s disaster, let’s start with the pitching. We keep hearing about how great the Giants’ starting rotation is, but is anyone really convinced? One thing is sure: if the Giants’ starting pitching isn’t great, this team isn’t going anywhere.

Schmidt had a run a few weeks ago during which he looked like a Cy Young candidate, but despite his fine ERA, he’s not winning games. His fault? Probably not, but the hitting inconsistencies put a lot of pressure on the pitchers to be perfect. I’m glad he’s here for the duration, and I hope he’s part of the future here too, because besides being a great guy, he’s a bona fide ace.

The rest of the rotation is just a bunch question marks. Morris? Lowry? Wright? Cain? Consistently inconsistent. The Giants’ rotation numbers look good because all of them have had a few superb games (though I can’t remember any by Lowry this season), but they’ve all had some stinkers too, including Lowry’s outing yesterday. Hand the man a Bullinger. It is clear that along with Hennessey (also an ugly outing yesterday), this is the rotation we’ve got, so like I say about fantasy teams in September, they just have to perform.

Who the hell knows if this bullpen can do the job? Some days yes, some days no. The good news is Fatmondo is looking better, maybe even good. This is another requirement for success this year. If he can avoid being the evil Benitez, it takes pressure off the rest of the bullpen. I’m going to guess that Sabean lives with this group too, plus those guys “ready” to come back to the big club currently at Fresno (Taschner, Munter, etc.) BTW, didn’t we all expect Merkin Valdez to be helping by now? Maybe there is one of your trading pieces.

The hitting is so dicey. Can we agree yet that Barry doesn’t have it anymore, his recent base stealing antics not withstanding. This is a team without much power, but with some decent balance and depth, so long as Bull Durham keeps up his decent hitting streak.

Clearly they need to fix first base. The Pickled Pecklers believed enough in Niekro to draft him, but he’s been not only a huge disappointment, but the most injured regular, which is ironic in that he is the youngest regular as well. Sweeney is a nice pinch hitter. I keep hearing the name Sean Casey, but anyone, absolutely anyone who has played NL fantasy baseball knows he’s a pansy, the lightest hitting .300 hitter in major league baseball. David Eckstein had way more homers than Casey last year. I’d just as soon give Niekro one more chance. Sabes, find a real name.

My gut says they can do it, but they’ve just got to play better. The NL West again is there for the taking. At least the team is healthy. I’m now headed out with Little Danny to check them out today. All they need to do is win every series for the next two months. Let them start today.

The Ugliest Fantasy Win Ever

My 12 year old grandnephew Danny is in town this weekend. He’s not much of a sports fan, but I’m resolved to work on that, and we’ll be going to his first major league baseball game Sunday at Telephone Park. Travel Mug Day.

In preparation for this momentous event, we watched the last 3 innings of the Giants game last night. When it was over, I switched the 43” Pioneer HD to Comcast channel 719, INHD, where they were playing the Braves-Padres game in high def. We tuned in during the eighth inning with the score 9-8 Padres.

Trevor Hoffman came in for “Trevor Time” (don’t blame me, that’s what they call it). Hoffman has been lights out all year until the all-star game, but the new trend continued as he gave up the tying and winning runs with two outs. Brian Sikorski (who the hell is that guy?) came in and gave up an insurance run, and the Padres went to the bottom of the ninth down 11-9.

In came Pickled Peckler Whore Hey Sow Suh to close it out for the Braves. Little Danny: “Is that Sammy Sosa?” Not Sammy Sosa was throwing consistently at 94+. He opened the inning by getting Adrian Gonzalez to flyout (Gonzalez already had hit two homers in the game). He then walked Kahlil Greene, and then got Mark Bellhorn on a long fly ball to right center.

With Greene on second (not sure how he got there), he faced new Pickled Peckler Josh Barfield. With a 2-1 count, Barfield started fouling off some nasty sliders low and outside. Five desperation hacks later, Barfield grounded the 2-2 pitch into centerfield to make the score 11-10. Josh Bard ripped a shot down the first base line off the glove of Adam LaRoche, barely fair. It rolled through the bullpen area. Barfield was flying around the bases. Francoeur hit the cutoff man, who threw a strike to the plate just in time to get Barfield, but McCann dropped the ball. Tie score, blown save, Sosa.

In the top of the tenth, LaRoche led off with his second second homer of the night to give the Braves the lead again. In the inning the Braves let Sosa bat for himself with a man on first. He popped a bunt foul on the first pitch, let strike two go by in bunting position, and then on the 0-2 count, put a perfect bunt down the first base line.

So after having thrown 30 pitches in the ninth, Sosa came out for the tenth. He immediately walked B. Giles (M. Giles was in the game for the Braves too) and then gave up a flair pinch hitter Rob Bowen, putting runners at the corners with no outs. Gonzalez then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, Giles scoring the tying run in the process. Blown win, Sosa. He then got the third out of the inning after a few more theatrics (ie, base runners).

At this point, I shut off the TV. I couldn’t take it anymore, and it was past our bedtimes. Both teams were out of pitchers – Pickled Peckler Clay Hensley, scheduled to start on Tuesday, came in for the 11th, the Padres ninth pitcher of the game. According to the paper today, Hensley proceeded to give up three more runs. Tyler Yates, the 8th pitcher for the Braves, came in to relieve Sosa and got the save.

Winning Pitcher, Whore Hey Sow Suh, record now 3-10.

BABI boys, he’s very available. Need some ugly saves and wins? Drop us an email.

State of Fear

This is the short kind of story that I used to send out in an email. But I’m sure my world wide audience would be interested in it.

About 6 months ago the Colonel was in my office and gave me a copy of Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear.” He said I must read it, that it’s a great book. It sat on my shelf until today.

I always have more than one book in process. I usually have a book at the office to read at lunch, and a couple of books at home that I’m working on simultaneously. Lately I read Major Dick Winters’ autobiography of World War II, “Beyond Band of Brothers,” and a novel, “The Kite Runner,” both highly recommended. At home I’m reading “Fantasywise” and a book Kenny 9 loaned me about the 1908 National League pennant race (the year of Bonehead Merkel), and Volume II of Dan Harrington’s No Limit Hold ‘Em series.

I had started “Life of Pi” last week in the office, but it didn’t strike my fancy, so I finally pulled the Colonel’s recommendation off the shelf and headed to Canteen for lunch. I got into the elevator with a woman who asked what I was reading. I showed her the book and told her a friend gave it to me and had said it was a great book.

She asked me, “Is your friend conservative?” I told her that he was. She replied, “Conservatives love this book. That’s the book after which I stopped reading Michael Crichton.”

The Colonel. One of a kind. OK, Colonel, I’m reading it.

Desperation

The Yankees appear ready to sign Sidney Ponson on Friday. How bad does your rotation have to be to consider Sir Sidney as an integral part of your rotation?

The Cardinals are just as desperate for starting pitching. They are only 4 games in front of the Reds, and a couple of weeks ago virtually every game featured a Bullinger or an O. Perez. Yet they dumped Ponson, paying off his contract. That's the sign of a guy who really stinks.

As we evaluate potential fixes to the Giants' roster, let's thank our lucky stars that we don't appear to need a starting pitcher. Plus, Brad Hennessey is waiting in the wings. It makes you wonder if there really is a trade market for Jamey Wright if the Yankees are this desperate. The Cardinals signed Jeff Weaver, and half of BABI bid on him as a free agent on Tuesday.

The big question is: When Ponson fails, as he surely will, who's next? Jose Lima's still out there.

Meanwhile, the Reds and Nats made a strange deal today, particularly from a fantasy standpoint. The Reds sent Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez, two real hitters to Washington for Gary Majewski. They even threw in former closer of the future and current stinky starter of the present, Ryan Wagner. I have a feeling that the Reds' GM Wayne Krivsky must have seen my note about Lopez last week. Not only did the Reds jettison Lopez this week, but the Meat League Pickled Pecklers waived him in favor of Jose Reyes in the Meat League mid-season redraft. You might consider that an obvious move, but stolen bases are not a category in that league. We dumped him strictly based on his hitting.

Speaking of the Reds, George let Boof buy Eddie Guardado this week. Let's see if that makes a big difference at the end of the year. On the other hand, spending that FAAB money may make it harder for Boof to buy Reds' closer of the near future, Majewski, who he's already had on his team twice this season.

How I Invented The Internet

And you all thought it was invented by Al Gore. The following story is true.

In 1981, I read the back page column of “Inside Sports” magazine (RIP), entitled “The Fan,” in which the author talked about his fantasy football league. It had been organized in a bar in the Bay Area. I had never heard of anything like it, and was fascinated with the concept.

That fall, PEFA (P&E Football Association – I am the “P”) was born, comprised of friends and relatives of “P” and “E”, including the Doc. In September, PEFA will have its 26th annual draft. (Did I mention that I won last year?)

A couple of years later, I picked up a copy of the book, “Rotisserie League Baseball,” considered the original holy bible of fantasy baseball. I loved the book. It was brilliant, funny and incredibly well written. I was fascinated by fantasy baseball, but it seemed way too complicated to administer. Plus, I admit, at the time I wasn’t as interested in baseball.

Early in 1986, I obtained a Compuserve account. At that time, for all intent and purposes, Compuserve was the internet. The Source still barely existed, but was in the final throws of folding. The Defense Department had its pre-internet service, but it wasn’t available to the public. AOL had not yet been born. The World Wide Web was science fiction.

Compuserve was a monopoly. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of, believe it or not, H&R Block. It was growing by leaps and bounds and was hugely profitable.

How profitable? Compuserve charged $6/hour to be connected. Per Hour! That was with a 300 baud modem, not 300K DSL, but 300 bits per second. If you used a 1200 baud modem, making the connection 4 times as fast (but still painfully slow), they charged $12/hour.

You had to be a computer geek to get online back then. I was pretty advanced for an amateur, with my trusty IBM XT (10 MB hard drive built in!) and a Hayes Smartmodem, which only took about ten hours to install. Many people were online with Apple II’s and Commodore 64’s and Radio Shack build-it-yourself computers, plus the occasional “portable” Compaq or Osborne computers.

Compuserve’s great advantage was its coast-to-coast telephone node system, which allowed almost anyone to log on via a local phone call. The online experience of the time was nothing like the plug and play world we have today. We all felt like pioneers driving covered wagons. And we knew it was going to be enormous.

Compuserve had the first chat rooms, and the #1 topic of conversation was the size of everyone’s Compuserve bills. In addition to chat rooms, there were games, product support forums sponsored by companies to answer technical questions, news forums and special interest forums. Roger Ebert had a movie forum where you could ask him questions. Email was mostly within the Compuserve intranet only, and was primitive.

There were no graphics, not at 300 or 1200 baud. Everything looked like the “WHOPPR” scenes in the movie War Games – typed characters only. It was a DOS world, Microsoft Windows 1.0 having just been introduced a few months before and not yet successful. The whole Compuserve marketing plan was to find ways to keep users attached to the network because every minute generated revenue of ten cents. Fixed monthly invoicing did not become available until AOL introduced it, along with limited graphics.

One of the special interest forums was called the Sports Forum. Mostly people who logged in there would leave messages or chat in the forum’s own chat rooms about sports. I asked if they ran any fantasy leagues on the network, as the medium seemed a natural for the idea. Most people had never heard of fantasy leagues, so I offered to start one.

In the fall of 1986 at the start of football season, I initiated two 8 team online football leagues inside the Compuserve Sports Forum. The rules were based on our rules in PEFA, with weekly matchups and scoring for both touchdowns and yardage. Anyone who wanted to play was welcome, and I was the “Commish”.

Team owners were of all ages, from teens to retired folks, living all over the country. There were many Compuserve members who lived abroad as well, but I don’t think anyone in those leagues was from outside the US. We held two live drafts, online, in the Forum’s chat rooms. The players were in one room and the kibitzers were in a second room chatting while they each simultaneously monitored the draft in the other room.

It sounds simple today, but this was space age technology back in 1986. The drafts each lasted about 5 hours, and generated a nice little income stream for Compuserve. Each week I did the scoring for both leagues offline, and uploaded the standings and weekly scores in a word processed file (using Wordstar). It would have been easier to use a spreadsheet program (Lotus 1-2-3), but I could never figure out how to upload a Lotus file such that everyone could read it no matter what kind of computer they owned.

I had a team in one of the leagues, and I vaguely remember I made it to the finals before losing. I don’t have any idea who won those leagues, but they were a big success. The Forum introduced baseball leagues in the spring of 1987, though scoring those leagues had to be done by hand and turned out to be a problem. I organized the drafting of ten leagues, with two or three leagues drafting simultaneously in separate rooms and dozens of non-participating observers watching in the “bullpen,” as they monitored the drafts.

At six buck per hour per person, Compuserve was overjoyed. For me, that’s where my management involvement ended. I realized from the experience that fantasy sports was going to be a big thing in the online world, but I had an accounting business to run. I considered getting involved in fantasy sports as a business. I even drafted a 15 page outline of a fully automated online fantasy sports league provider. Compuserve was mildly interested. My wife, on the other hand, thought I was nuts to consider it.

But what I really found was that although the internet was a great delivery system, online leagues were actually boring. Nothing beats a live draft with your friends, face to face in a room, with alcohol. Playing against a faceless teenager from Dubuque, Iowa can’t match it.

Back in 1986 H&R Block owned the internet. A few years later they sold the remains to AOL for a song. Leave it to a bunch of accountants to blow it completely and not end up as the Google of today.

Oh No!!!!

I don't know if you guys are reading the blogs of my friends here on the left, but I am now a regular on El Malo Lefty. Of course, a few of you are reading this because of the Sour Grapes link on his page.

Alex, alias Lefty, just kills me. I can't wait for the Doc to tell me which tickets I've got in July (hey, come on, Doc, the month is half over) so I can hang out with Lefty in Section 109.

Check out today's entry about the all-star game. I don't think that I can take it. Oh No!!!!

1964 All Star Game

I saw a post on The McCovey Chronicles about Grant's favorite all-star memories. Now, great all-star memories is in my book an oxymoron (“Hey, I ain’t no ox moron.” – Pvt. Jamaal Montgomery played by Kadeem Hardison in “Renaissance Man”).

The game is best remembered for Johnny Callison’s walk off homer with two outs in the ninth. But not by me. That is the day I discovered Willie Mays.

I grew up in New York in the fifties. I’m told that although my entire family was from Brooklyn and so were Dodger fans, I was turned into a NY Giants fan as a little kid by the one family friend, Bob Mantler, who was a real baseball fan. My mother says I stood in my playpen watching the Giants on the tube cheering for Willie. I’m sure it’s true, and I’m sure Mantler made me root for the Giants, but I don’t remember it.

I became a baseball fan in 1960 at the age of eight when I started playing the game. In 1960 in New York, there was only one team in town, the Yankees (many would say that is still true). And what a team to root for! Mickey and Roger and Yogi and Whitey and Moose and Elston and Casey! Five straight AL pennants starting in 1960. Bill Mazeroski can just go to hell.

So all of my friends were Yankee fans. Willie Mays was just some guy playing baseball a million miles away. Until July 7, 1964.

The AL was winning 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth as Mays led off. He worked a walk off Dick Radatz after getting a generous call on a 2-2 slider. Willie stole second. Orlando Cepeda blooped a single to right, and Mays’ baseball instincts and speed allowed him to score when most players would have stopped at third. The game was tied, setting up Callison’s heroics. But then and there I realized I had witnessed an amazing player with an intuitive feel for the game single-handedly manufacture the tying run.

You can never get tired of watching one of the greatest play every day. People who grew up here watching Willie should not take that for granted. That's why we're all so dedicated to Barry, because we know how good he's been. And we here in San Francisco are getting to watch another special player now too - Omar Vizquel is without doubt among the finest fielders at shortstop the game has ever seen. Pay attention, because you won't ever see his like again.

Just like Willie.

Happy Birthday

It’s Monday, and I’m off from work, resting up from way too much tennis against way better players this weekend. My right arm is about to fall off, and I think I’ve finally stopped cramping in my feet and hips. You see, those 2 days of tennis at the O Club occurred on my last two days of year 54. Today is the first day of year 55.

To celebrate today’s festivities, I grabbed a brand new book to start, having just finished “The Kite Runner,” a phenomenal read. Thanks to my pal Arthur Fraser for pushing me on it. Today I finally picked up something I bought during the winter: “Fantasyland”, by Sam Walker.

Walker writes about sports for the Wall Street Journal. He mostly writes about the business of sports, but he’s got a go anywhere press pass, which he parlayed into a spot in the AL Tout Wars. Unlike the Pecklers, who have been playing fantasy sports since 1981, he had never actually been in a fantasy league, but decided he had insider access that a bunch of fantasy nerds would never have, and begged Shandler for a spot in the league. The book is his journal of that adventure.

I originally bought the book because he hired a fellow named Nando Di Fino, who writes for The Talented Mr. Roto, to be his “expert” assistant. I once sent an email to Nando about him making fun of some pitcher (I want to say Woody Reuter, but I don’t remember) who had gout. I’ve had gout. It’s a killer. Anyway, he wrote me back a nice reply, and in the process, took a look at my blog. So since Nando and I are about as tight as Woo and Swedgin, I had to own the book.

In chapter 1, he’s got some hilarious comments about where fantasy baseball affects real baseball, kind of like Boof’s story about 30 guys cursing Steve Traschel while he was warming up in the bullpen. Here is one about former Pickled Peckler Mo Vaughn from 2002.

I stopped to talk with Mo Vaughn, the team’s burly cleanup hitter. It had been a humbling year for Vaughn, who’d come to New York with World Series ambitions, only to become a sports-page punch line. He was fatter than a porpoise, colder than a snowdrift at the plate, and by any standard, a $12 million disaster. Up in the stands that day, the hecklers had been merciless: “I didn’t know Mo Vaughn was pregnant!”

At the moment, however, the strain of this very public humiliation was second in his mind to another, more private form of ridicule. Some of his buddies back home had drafted him on their Rotisserie teams, he told me, and like fantasy players the world over had come to regret it. The only difference was that these people had a tool more powerful than shouted insults at the ballpark. They had his cellphone number. “Crazy fools,” Vaughn miffed, casting his eyes to the floor. “They’ve been killing me all year.”

From then on, in the normal course of my reporting, I started asking ballplayers how often, if ever, they heard from the Rotisserie crowd. The answer was, quite emphatically, all the time. “They tell me to steal bases,” said Andruw Jones… “For some reason, they want me to hit more doubles,” said Mike Lowell.

That last part is really in the book. I had to quote it here for Larry Dot Net.

Anyway, the man can write. Too bad it’s about the AL, and I will have little idea who any of the players are that he writes about.

As for me, another year, another hundred grey hairs. Grey hair – better than the alternative. And taking stock of my life, I realize that it’s the 20th anniversary of when I invented internet fantasy sports. It’s a fact. I’ll tell that story soon.

Fool Me Twice

Dateline New York, Friday 7/7. The Mets designated Jose Lima for assignment today.

Jose Lima started for the Mets on Friday against the Marlins. They had given him three starts in May, well documented here. He was the losing pitcher in all three games. Here are the lines:

May 7…5 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 4 BB
May 12..4-2/3 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 3 BB
May 18..4-2/3 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB

They sent him down to Norfolk, where he demonstrated an ability to get some AAA batters out, and brought him up to make an emergency start Friday. The results:

3 IP, 5 ER (7 total), 7 H, 2 BB

Loser. And now, unemployed.

What could the Mets have been thinking? All I can imagine is that they are just so far in front in the NL East (12 games, give or take, and 5 ahead of the Cardinals for NL home field advantage) that they can afford to throw some games away. Why they haven’t given Aaron Heilman a try is beyond me. Brian Bannister is due back soon, and that should help, but the reality is you only really need 3 starters in the playoffs, not 5, and they are already assuming they are in. The D-Backs did it with only 2 starters in 2001.

But they should refund the ticket money to the bozos who paid to see Lima in any of those games.

And if, perchance, Jose is reading this, please send my regards to your wife.

After a Long Weekend

I believe we’re finally seeing the real Jamey Wright. The Colorado batters last night were thinking “welcome home, amigo.” By the end of July, Brad Hennessey will be ensconced in the rotation in Wright’s place.

Meanwhile, Eliezer Alfonzo has to be one of the great stories of the year. Larry Baer told me about him in March, saying they were sure to call him up at some time this season. He hit numbers 4 and 5 last night. Alfonzo is the real Crash Davis. He spent 9 years in the low minors, and then started to hit a little two years ago. He finally got his call up after 11 years, and he hits as well as he ever has, which is not major league Crash-like. Felipe was quoted in the papers today implying that they won’t send him down when Matheny puts his eyeballs back in his head, and they’ll try him at first base. That’s quite a show of support for Niekro and Sweeney. Hey, why not try him at second like Craig Biggio.

Speaking of Biggio, he’s got 2,881 hits. He should make it early next season. My take: 3,000 hits is an automatic into the hall. I kind of feel the same way about 3,000 strikeouts. There are 26 players in the 3,000 hit club, but only 13 in the 3,000 strikeout club. Here is the strikeout list:

4000+ -- Ryan, Clemens, R. Johnson, Carlton
3000+ -- Blyleven (3,701), Seaver, Sutton, Perry, W. Johnson, Niekro, Jenkins, Gibson, Maddux.

That’s a pretty impressive list. How the hell is Bert Blyleven not in the hall? I think anyone who struck out more guys than Walter Johnson should be an automatic.

Pedro Martinez went on the DL yesterday. The Doc really liked Pedro before the draft, but I was suspicious of his health. He’s an incredible pitcher, but he cannot pitch an entire season, so by definition, he’s going to be overpriced in any auction, particularly one with a lot of inflation.
Speaking of bad health, Eric Gagne, $30. Larry Dot Net has him, along with Barry at $30 or so, and he’s still in 5th place. It shows the benefit of a good keeper list, but it makes our drafting mistakes look small.

The Pickled Pecklers moved out of last place in homers yesterday with 5 homers – all solo shots. Which is why we are still in last place in RBI’s. Thorman, Rolen, Jenkins and Alfonzo twice.

Speaking of Scott Rolen, he’s having a hell of a season, and he’s been on a power surge. His numbers are 13-54-4-.336, which isn’t all that far behind Miguel Cabrera in any category. Keeper at $32.

George cracked 80 points yesterday. He still thinks he won’t win. What a load of… Anyway, last season when 8 teams were still competing hard at this point it was popular to suggest that open FAAB made it a great race. How about this year, when only 4 teams are over about 50 points and the Cappers and Rips have run away and hid? Last year’s race was lucky.

This year, nobody is trying. Ken: “I don’t want to screw up my team for the next 10 years.” Larry: “I can’t get higher than third.”

Well, we’re thinking about trying. We were in last place on July 4. What the hell. Which dumping team wants Webb? Even Barfield, who we traded for today, is available.

Finally, one non-baseball note: yesterday in the Wimbledon Men’s Doubles, Knowles of the Bahamas and Nestor of Canada beat Aspelin of Sweden and Perry of Australia by a score of:

5-7, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 23-21

That’s games, not points in a tie breaker. The match lasted 6 hours, 9 minutes, making it the longest singles or doubles match by time in Wimbledon history -- and the longest doubles match at any Grand Slam tournament. The last set took over 3 hours. Of course, we won’t see any of it on TV, because doubles just isn’t cool. Sorry, but men’s doubles is the coolest thing going. These guys are unbelievable tennis players. Imagine returning a 120 mph serve with a 6’5” guy at the net in the middle of the court and you’re not sure which way he’s going to poach. Pro Men’s Doubles is not tennis, it’s some complete perversion of the game for athletic savants.