Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A new team

It is a little slow on the baseball front until we really get going with spring training so I started a new historical baseball team.

"Name your own theme league". Open to veteran managers only to keep the competition tight. I took an "all defense" team with the best at every position including pitchers.

Here we go. The team is called "Flash the Leather".

Defensive statistics are "normalized" for the history of the game and position using a standardized formula. 100 is considered average and rage factors are broken down into 5 categories: Excellent,Good, Average, Fair and Poor. The best fielders have excellent range and their number is well below 100.

Below are the best at each position in the history of the game. Any surprises?

I will give some Minnesota Twins stats for comparison.

1B Mark Grace EX/62. Even if he was a Cub I respect the guy for making it to the Top. Hrbek's numbers are very respectable at VG/74


2B Mike Benjamin EX/25. I don't know much about this guy and I really don't remember him playing. Time to learn more. Knoblauch AV/94.





SS Ozzie Smith EX/57. The wizard, need I say more? Gagne VG/93.



3B Brooks Robinson EX/55. The greatest defensive player in the history of the game. As his number is unbelievable when compared to other Hall of Famers. Mike Pagliarulo AV/91.


C Gary Carter EX/56. Stud with a cannon arm. Butch Wynegar FR/74.



LF Jimmy Sheckard EX/77. I don't know much about this guy either, he played from 1897-1913. Shane Mack VG/83.



CF Jimmy Piersall EX/48. Tragic story but a stud in the field. Check out the movie of his life Fear Strikes Out. Kirby Puckett AV/50. I know, AVERAGE!!!! He did not have great range with those stubby legs but look at the number!



RF Al Kaline EX/63. This guy could hit too. Time to give him more respect. Chilli Davis AV/193. Not good.

Rotation:
Big Ed Walsh EX/53. Tapani AV/40


Tom Glavine EX/35.

Christy Mathewson EX/50

Spud Chandler EX/48

Kirk Rueter EX/25. Looks like Woody could throw and catch.



Closer, Eck EX/56. Reardon FR/125


Friday, February 20, 2009

Happy Birthday Christy!

Christy's buttercream and raspberry birthday cake from Incredibly Delicious in Springfield.
The traditional Birthday tree. Notice the bag of real movie theater popcorn. Also, don't miss the long white envelope that Polly sent. It contained several photocopied pages of really fun equations for Excell. That Polly, she is a real gift giver!Grendel attacking the tissue paper after the gift opening.


The Girl in the window.



Grendel in the other window.



Some ducks in Washington Park.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Negro League All-Stars beat the Cards

We went 7 games but lost the last one 9-2.

Josh Gibson KILLED us both at the plate and behind it. He hit .475, 4 HRs, 9 RBIs and gunned down 9 baserunners including Ozzie Smith 3 times!


Sunday, February 15, 2009

RIP Ted Uhlaender



Making his big league debut for the Twins in 1965, the speedy outfielder was best known for his defense in the Minnesota outfield for five years. Following the 1969 season, Uhlaender was dealt along with Graig Nettles and Dean Chance to the Indians for right-hander Luis Tiant.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Cardinals up 2-1

Friday night's game went 13 innings. Cy young spread 5 hits over 10 innings throwing 140 pitches and 92 for strikes. Hrabosky held the All-Stars and Quiz got the save.

The game was tied 0-0 until the bottom of the 13 when Big Mac blasted a MONSTER shot to left center. The fence in that spot is between 432 and 450 feet!


Saturday afternoons game features Bob Gibson:



vs.

Bullet Joe Rogan.


In St. Louis.

Friday, February 13, 2009

WS tied up 1 game each


Cy Young gets the ball for the Cards tomorrow....



VS.


Saitchel Paige for the Negro League All-Stars.

Played at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh, PA.Back to St. Louis for the 2 game set this weekend.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Cardinals Win the Pennant!




Jim Edmonds was the MVP as he hit THREE game winning RBIs in a 6 game series. What a great clutch player.


We now face the Negro League All-Stars for the World Series, a very tough team.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Up 3-2

Cy Young gets the ball for the Cards Wednesday.



Vida Blue steps up for the Giants.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Down 2 games to 0 already.

Tomorrow is my last game at home for the Cards.

Gibson for the good guys:



Marichal for the bad guys:




Classic 1960s match-up.
Hope it dosen't get violent, we all know what Juan is capable of:

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Historical Cardinals Team


I have another historical fantasy baseball team headed for the playoffs.
This team is in a National League only franchise league. You select one franchise from the NL and draft your team from players that played for that franchise. We played in a "Pitchers Era" league which means the offense is slightly diminished and pitching is given an edge by the algorithm (or logarithm, I forget which one) they use. We had a high salary cap 200 million (twice a standard league) and I selected the St Louis Cardinals.

My Cardinals finished first in the Central 5 games ahead of the Braves with a record of 93-69.

Musial carried a big bat in a pitchers era game. He hit .272, drove in 100 runs, hit 24 HRs and 30 doubles. He hit in the 3 hole and played a very respectable left field.


Rogers Hornsby was my other offensive stud. Hornsby hit .282, drove in 69 runs, scored 98 runs, hit 24 HRs and 29 doubles hitting in the 2 hole and playing second base.


Big Mac hit 36 home runs in only 324 at bats! He hit clean-up after I had the $ to acquire him later in the season.
Jim Edmonds had a nice year despite going down for 33 games with an injury. He hit 28 home runs, drove in 53 and owned center field.
No surprise who answered the call everyday at third base. Sabo. He was a stud with the glove but facing the best arms in the history of the game everyday ate him up at the plate.
The Wizard out at SS and hitting leadoff. Ozzie had a .299 OBP and stole 44 bases. He also led the league in RF at SS.
Maris in RF and protecting Mac. Maris hit 15 Home runs and had a cannon in RF gunning down 9 baserunners!
Ted Simmons caught most games for the season. Simmons hit .255 and threw out 35 baserunners for a .407 CS%, well done.
I had a solid bench for pinch hitting. The big contributors were Jimmy Sheckard and ...Enos "County" Slaughter.

In a pitchers era game the arms are very important. The rotation:

Cy Young. Cy was the #1 until Breechen went on a tear and took over as the stopper. Young threw 293.2 innings and struck out 252 with a 2.62 ERA and opposing batters hit just .210 off him.

Bob Gibson. The intimidator threw 245 innings, struck out 203 and hit 9 batters.....ouch.



Harry Breechen. Breechen came out of nowhere (#4 in the rotation) to take over the #1 spot. Check out these stats: 18-8, 2.31 ERA, and opponents hit just .188 against him. He is the #1 for the pennant chase and the Series.

Dizzy Dean was the #5 starter with 210 innings pitched and 201 K's....not bad.
The pen was "lights out"with some real great seasons.

Max Lanier threw long relief in blowouts and held to a 1.93 ERA.

Al Hrabowsky had 18 saves.
Tom Henke went 11-3 as a long reliever with a 2.08 ERA and 90Ks in 81 innings!Dan Quisenberry had 22 saves with a 1.99 ERA,
We play the Giants for the Pennant, I will keep you posted.