2012 MLB Thread (Cabrera Gets Triple Crown, first since Yaz 1967)

[JPhillips]

Twenty five years is depressing enough.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Originally a Yankee. The Yankees really were a frickin mess in the 80s. I miss those days. Heck, I didn't even hate them then, because there was no reason to.

Those were the days.

[Easy Mac]

According to Baseball Reference, Charlie Liebrandt is the winning all time drafted/signed Cincinatti Red, at least going back to their records from 1965. He won 140 games and was drafted/signed in 1978.

[Easy Mac]

Also, arguably their most successful drafted/signed pitcher since '65 was Trevor Hoffman.

[stevew]

I'll make a brash prediction....this is finally the year the Pirates will win at least 82 games.

(smash cut to Mid July)

[DanGarion]

Of all the active players in baseball right now

Zack Greinke 76-73

[DanGarion]

Cone was drafted in 1981 and had 194 wins, so that is the most since 1980 for the Royals of any draft pick.

[spleen1015]

Mike Mussina, drafted in 1990 by the O's has 270 wins. He is the reason why I hate the Yankees.

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Mike Mussina, drafted in 1990 by the O's has 270 wins. He is the reason why I hate the Yankees.

Eww. You didn't hate the Yankees BEFORE they signed Mussina?!

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Also, arguably their most successful drafted/signed pitcher since '65 was Trevor Hoffman.

Drafted as a SS right?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Cone was drafted in 1981 and had 194 wins, so that is the most since 1980 for the Royals of any draft pick.

But if you think about the 80s for the Royals, it's a good time for pitchers. Saberhagen, Cone, Gubicza, and Danny Jackson (got to 100 a couple of teams later) all are drafted in the early 80s by Kansas City and win 100+ games at the MLB level. After Appier is drafted in 1987, I bet the next highest will be the aforementioned Zack Greinke and I don't know if there are any above 50(!). So, in 20+ years, 1 pitcher who has won 50 games at the MLB level. That's just horrid.

How bad it is when I'm slogging through the Jeremy Affeldts, Jimmy Gobbles, and Chris Georges of the world to get the 2nd(!) best pitcher of the last 2 decades. I mean, seriously- those guys are all probably in the top 10. That's how sad this gets. I bet the Phillies have 10 better SPs in the last 3 years. For the record, the answer for #2 is probably the much-too-short career of Jose Rosado.

How are people doing the search on B-R to get most wins from a franchise drafted SP, btw?

SI

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Eww. You didn't hate the Yankees BEFORE they signed Mussina?!

Kind of, but taking the O's only good player at the time was the end of the line for me. I love the fact that they never won a WS while he was there.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

But if you think about the 80s for the Royals, it's a good time for pitchers. Saberhagen, Cone, Gubicza, and Danny Jackson (got to 100 a couple of teams later) all are drafted in the early 80s by Kansas City and win 100+ games at the MLB level. After Appier is drafted in 1987, I bet the next highest will be the aforementioned Zack Greinke and I don't know if there are any above 50(!). So, in 20+ years, 1 pitcher who has won 50 games at the MLB level. That's just horrid.

How bad it is when I'm slogging through the Jeremy Affeldts, Jimmy Gobbles, and Chris Georges of the world to get the 2nd(!) best pitcher of the last 2 decades. I mean, seriously- those guys are all probably in the top 10. That's how sad this gets. I bet the Phillies have 10 better SPs in the last 3 years. For the record, the answer for #2 is probably the much-too-short career of Jose Rosado.

How are people doing the search on B-R to get most wins from a franchise drafted SP, btw?

SI

I start here and go year to year.
1982 Atlanta Braves Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft - Baseball-Reference.com

[DanGarion]

Here is the list of all Royals since 1980 with 20 or more wins in case anyone cares.




Wish there was an easier way to do this instead of having to go through each year and collecting the data.

[DanGarion]

I've made a request on B-R for selecting a range of dates on the draft page, since I can't figure out a way to do this type of search easily.

[sterlingice]

That's just a sad list, DanGarion. Again, the top 5 are all in the 1980s. After that, I had forgotten Lieber was a Royals draftee and I think so did everyone else. Then, yeah, it's Zack.

Royals "Top" 10
Lieber
Greinke
Rusch
Bankhead
Durbin
Rosado
Affeldt
Hochevar
Simontacchi (who?)
Rupe

I dare anyone to have a worse 3-10 of any franchise in the last 20 years. I think that just goes to show how awful the drafting of pitching has been.

SI

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

That's just a sad list, DanGarion. Again, the top 5 are all in the 1980s. After that, I had forgotten Lieber was a Royals draftee and I think so did everyone else. Then, yeah, it's Zack.

The Rest of your Royals "Top" 10:
Rusch
Bankhead
Durbin
Rosado
Affeldt
Hochevar
Simontacchi (who?)
Rupe

SI

I'm just posting the list because someone else was wondering. The Royals aren't my team.

[sterlingice]

No, I wasn't saying it was your team- I was glad you ran the numbers.

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

We already talking about the Royals? Good times. Good times.

[DanGarion]

Here is the Dodgers. I started in 1979 because Hershiser was one of my favorites of all time.



I knew the Dodgers drafted Hochevar (didn't know it was twice though). David Price was a new one to me, I'm assuming he was drafted later by the Rays. Oh and it looks like they drafted Tomko a year before the Reds drafted him in 85. Randy Wolf was drafted by the Phillies in 1997.

Fortunately the Dodgers had some success in the 80s-90s in the Dominican. Well and Mexico (79 is the year they purchased Valenzuela's contract.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by AENeuman

While not drafted, I would put Fernando on this list.

Yep I know, and both of the Martinez brothers and even Astacio. But there isn't an easy way to track down undrafted free agents and their original team on BR that I am aware of...

[Vince, Pt. II]

MLB Power Rankings: Phillies, White Sox Lead The Way - Baseball Nation

This article entertained me. Grant writes for the San Francisco Giants blog on SBNation, McCovey Chronicles, and he's pretty hilarious.

[korme]

Originally Posted by stevew

Tom Browning

Hey! Don't disgrace Mr. Perfect like that!

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

MLB Power Rankings: Phillies, White Sox Lead The Way - Baseball Nation

This article entertained me. Grant writes for the San Francisco Giants blog on SBNation, McCovey Chronicles, and he's pretty hilarious.

I've really lost a lot of respect for Rob Neyer since the move to SBN. I just don't like the way they cover baseball, at all. They take interesting topics and do a good job with them most of the time, but then they have to wrap them in a Dane Cookish infotainment writing style that completely turns me off. Even when I find that something is funny, I still don't really like how it was presented. I really wish he'd go back to being serious and stop thinking he's cool by hanging around a bunch of bloggers half his age. Just give me the analysis. You can be naturally entertaining without the forced shtick.

Just my $.02.

[sterlingice]

I think there's this perception that you have to be "that guy" if you're in sports talk and that's been growing for years. A lot of Jim Rome's more popular segments were the stupid non-sports inside jokes. Sports Guy just drops in stupid pop culture references in every article.

But, you're right- Neyer didn't use to do that and it was one of his strong points. Now it's like "I can do it, so I lazily /will/ do it".

SI

[Ksyrup]

Given that baseball isn't all that popular with young people - or at least, probably not as popular as it is with older people - I wonder how well that style serves them. I guess they're doing fine. I just know I really wish things were the way they were back when he was doing SweetSpot - I rarely if ever read the current SweetSpot and barely spend any time over at SBN, so I'm at a net loss for baseball coverage compared to 2 years ago.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by korme

Hey! Don't disgrace Mr. Perfect like that!

Maybe he shouldn't get 99 thousand dollars behind on child support if he doesn't want an epic mug shot. He disgraced himself.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by korme

Hey! Don't disgrace Mr. Perfect like that!

Funny story about Browning. When he was caught with his DUI and a marijuana bud in his car, part of his punishment was to come to the school I teach at and give a talk to kids. So we have about 1400 kids crammed into the gym for his talk, and he's nervous as hell. He gives his speech, and at the end he's like, "I'm not here to tell you not to drink and drive......uhhhh shit, yes I am, so my advice is not to do it". He was quite embarassed.

[Ksyrup]

Is Roy Oswalt about to retire? Agent says an announcement is coming, and there's no rumor about him signing with anyone. I believe where it's been is a staredown with either Texas or STL, and those are the only 2 teams he'll consider playing for since they are relatively close to home.

[lungs]

I just wish this Ryan Braun mess would be over with. Part of me wonders (hopes is probably the better word) if MLB isn't announcing anything because they don't annnounce the results of successful appeals.

[Ksyrup]

But then he'd show up for work if he won the appeal, right? Either way an announcement has to happen - he's just not going to appear out of thin air with a 'no comment.'

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

Funny story about Browning. When he was caught with his DUI and a marijuana bud in his car, part of his punishment was to come to the school I teach at and give a talk to kids. So we have about 1400 kids crammed into the gym for his talk, and he's nervous as hell. He gives his speech, and at the end he's like, "I'm not here to tell you not to drink and drive......uhhhh shit, yes I am, so my advice is not to do it". He was quite embarassed.

Did he really say "shit" to 1400 kids? lol

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

But then he'd show up for work if he won the appeal, right? Either way an announcement has to happen - he's just not going to appear out of thin air with a 'no comment.'

He's showing up for work either way in the next few days, and that's when I believe it will be resolved.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I've really lost a lot of respect for Rob Neyer since the move to SBN. I just don't like the way they cover baseball, at all. They take interesting topics and do a good job with them most of the time, but then they have to wrap them in a Dane Cookish infotainment writing style that completely turns me off. Even when I find that something is funny, I still don't really like how it was presented. I really wish he'd go back to being serious and stop thinking he's cool by hanging around a bunch of bloggers half his age. Just give me the analysis. You can be naturally entertaining without the forced shtick.

Just my $.02.

I don't know of many people who haven't gone that way. I really enjoy Andrew Baggarly, but he's a Giants beat writer, so probably not your cup of tea. Schtick seems to be all the rage these days, so it's tough to find good solid reporting.

[Ksyrup]

So Oswalt's pulling a Clemens.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

So Oswalt's pulling a Clemens.

He's taking roids then lying about it?

[Ksyrup]

@trenni: According to @karlravechespn the Braun decision is imminent and will come down today. We will keep you posted...

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

He's taking roids then lying about it?

Yeah, I kinda left that wide open, huh?

[Logan]

Ravech just tweeted no suspension.

[lungs]

FUCK YEAH

[DanGarion]

Ryan Braun wins appeal of positive drug test - JSOnline

[stevew]

I guess the "I swear i didn't do it" defense is now like 1 for umpteen hundred.

[lungs]

Go ahead and give back that MVP, Ryan.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by lungs

Go ahead and give back that MVP, Ryan.

He's been cleared, why should he give it back?

[lungs]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

He's been cleared, why should he give it back?

Because Buster Olney told him to whether he's innocent or not.

[Chief Rum]

I don't really have any opinion on Braun in general, and if he is by the process in place, not guilty of roiding, then great.

That said, it appears that he won the case on a technicality, not on the virtue (or lack thereof) of the test result, and it was by split decision (2-1 arbitrator vote). So this isn't exactly the cleanest win in the world (pun intended ).

[rowech]

Has anyone else heard the rumor that this is all because Braun has Herpes?

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I don't really have any opinion on Braun in general, and if he is by the process in place, not guilty of roiding, then great.

That said, it appears that he won the case on a technicality, not on the virtue (or lack thereof) of the test result, and it was by split decision (2-1 arbitrator vote). So this isn't exactly the cleanest win in the world (pun intended ).

All cases come down to the independent guy. Union always votes against suspension, MLB always votes for. This is the first time the third person has found for the player so there has to be something there.

Technicality or not, he'll be in leftfield on opening day and that's what I'm all about.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by rowech

Has anyone else heard the rumor that this is all because Braun has Herpes?

Yeah, TMZ bullshit. I just heard on MLB Network that the test wasn't sent in a timely manner.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by rowech

Has anyone else heard the rumor that this is all because Braun has Herpes?

I heard it on the radio today or yesterday.