2012 Hall of Fame Ballot

    In light of yesterday's steroid topic, I decided to talk about the Hall of Fame. With the Hall of Fame voting to take place in the first weeks of 2013, I wanted to share my ballot with you. Players on the ballot for the first time this year are: Curt Schilling, Mike Piazza, Barry Bonds, Craig Biggio, Sammy Sosa, Jeff Bagwell, and Roger Clemens.

Schilling won 58 games and
a World Series title with  in 4 seasons
with Arizona (2000-03)

    Given these first-time names, here is my ballot for this year and their notable career numbers:
Curt Schilling (Pitcher)- 216 wins, 3116 strikeouts, and an 11-2 postseason record
Mike Piazza (Catcher)- 427 home runs, career .308 batting average, 12-time All-Star
Craig Biggio (Second Base)- 3060 career hits, 1175 runs batted in, .281 batting average

    There are also a few other non-first-timers who I believe should make the cut:
Edgar Martinez (Designated Hitter)- 2247 hits, 309 home runs, 1261 runs batted in, .312 batting average
Tim Raines (Left Field)- 2605 hits,1571 runs, .294 batting average

    Justification time! First: the first-timers. Curt Schilling had more than 3000 strikeouts, which is a notable milestone for any pitcher. The thing that makes Schilling a sure thing though, is his postseason record. An 11-2 record and 3 shutouts when it matters most is why he gets the nod. Mike Piazza had an impressive .308 career batting average and is regarded as one of the greatest catchers of all-time. Most impressively, Piazza has the most home runs all-time by any catcher. The easiest decision for me was putting Craig Biggio on my ballot. If there is such thing as a sure-fire Hall of Fame statistic for me, it's 3000 hits in a career. Therefore, Biggio's 3060 hits leaves no doubt in my mind that he will be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Piazza is the all-time leader
in home runs by a catcher (427)

    The reason I have Edgar Martinez on my ballot is because of how hard it is to put up his numbers as a purely designated hitter. When Martinez broke into the league in 1987, the designated hitter was fairly new, so I consider Martinez to be the one who brought the DH into the limelight. His 309 homers and .312 average as a DH gives him the nod for me. Tim Raines has what I consider borderline Hall numbers, but I think it's Tim's time. Now, you'll notice that Jeff Bagwell wasn't among the first-timers to make it on the ballot. Much like Raines, Bagwell has classic border-line numbers. Bagwell will definitely get into the Hall, but it'll be an exercise in patience.

    Three who are not on my ballot are Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa. Even though, statistically these three rank among the greatest, it is their links to steroids that keep them off my ballot, now and forever.  Golden Globe corespondent Bob Ryan called Clemens, Sosa, and Bonds the "Toxic Trio"
Even though Clemens has more than 300 career wins, Sosa is towards the top of the all-time home run list, and Bonds is the home run king, all of those numbers can be thrown out because of their steroid use. It pains me to say that because I grew up watching and rooting for these three, but they are leading the charge to ruin the game, and that is why they will NEVER get my vote for the hall of Fame.

    Hall of Fame voting takes place in early January. Who will be next to receive the  highest honor in any sport and be enshrined into the Hall of Fame?

Steroid: Null and Void

    In the days where steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are almost becoming a norm, we see consistent  forty home run seasons and increased power numbers from hitters. But what if I were to tell you that the steroid-infused heavy hitters still don't measure up to the greatest hitters of all-time. The question we must ask is: Does steroids even help at all? As far as helping current players be as powerful as the all-time greats such as Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, and Willy Mays: Not even close. When a ballpark changes its outfield dimensions, they are shortened more often than not. Even with the use of steroids to strengthen players, they still don't measure of to the greatest players ever, who for the most part, were naturally strong.

In 22 professional seasons,
Ruth hit 714 home runs-
third most all-time

    The main factor that I will focus on today is outfield dimensions  Even though the numbers of the great players, past and present, are similar, think about this: the parks that Mantle, Maris, Ruth, and Williams played in were significantly larger than the parks that Jeter, Pujols, Bonds and Sosa played in. To make my point, we will look at the past and present ballparks of two particular teams: the New York Yankees and the New York/San Francisco Giants.

    First. Yankee Stadium. I will be focusing on the distance from home plate to center field because that is the greatest distance for point A to point B in any park. In 1923, when Babe Ruth was a Yankee, the center field fence in Yankee Stadium was 520 feet away from home plate. In the years that Ruth was a Yankee, he hit, on average 43 home runs a year. Also, in the 18 years that Mickey Mantle played for the Yankees, after the center field wall had been moved in to 461 feet (still about 55 feet farther than the average present-day center field fence), Mantle average 30 home runs a season, even while being plagued by injuries throughout his career. These are impressive numbers by two of the greatest Yankees of all-time, without the use of anything but pure strength. Now let's compare it to the present-day steroid era. Since 1988, the center field fence at Yankee Stadium has been 408 feet away. Alex Rodriguez, who has 647 career home runs, has admitting to using steroids. In the nine seasons that Rodriguez has been with the Yankees, he is averaging 34 home runs a year. Does it sound like steroids gives an advantage? 

The New York Giants played
at Polo Grounds until 1963

    Let's look at a new team: the New York/San Francisco Giants. Until 1963, the New York Giants played at Polo Grounds. The center field fence at Polo Grounds was 483 feet away. In the six seasons that Hall of Famer Willie Mays played at Polo Grounds before the team departed for San Francisco, he averaged 31 home runs a season. Present-day: All-time home run king Barry Bonds, who was proven to have used steroids, averaged 39 home runs a year in the 15 years he played in San Francisco. However, San Francisco's AT&T Park has one of the shortest center field fences in the major leagues at 399 feet, almost 100 feet CLOSER than the Mays days.

AT&T Park (formerly known as SBC
Park0 has been the home of  San
Francisco Giants since 2000

    Now, I understand that the present-day pitchers are much more talented than they used to be, but given that and the fact that ballparks are MUCH smaller than they used to be, it is my conclusion that steroids does not give much of an upper hand. Players like Mays, Mantle, and Ruth never used steroids, but instead, were just that strong. Given all the information contained in this article, I hope you can agree that steroids is not at all going to help a present-day player keep up with the all-time greats. Only pure skill and love of the game can do that. Will we ever see anyone who can measure up to the giants of the game? I'm not sure, but if we do, I hope that they play the game with pure skill and heart. That is what makes great players, not steroids.

    

Hustler's Corner

    To feed off of yesterday's article concerning Josh Beckett and other lazy players destroying the game, I realize it may have seemed a little harsh, but I was making a point that it hurts me as a writer, a viewer, and a fan, to see grown men being paid great money to play a game and take it for granted. Players give up on their teams, they don't hustle, and they are not getting along with teammates and managers.

Freese hits a walk-off home run
in Game 6 of the 2011
World Series

    Now, not all players are like this. I am always on the lookout for players who always give 100% and do whatever they can to help their teams win games. These are the players that play the game the way that it is meant to be played. These are the players that will save the game.

Dee Gordon hustling
around the bases 

     The three players that caught my attention the most were Mike Trout, David Freese, Bryce Harper,and Dee Gordon . These are three young players who hustle, no matter what the situation. There is a reason why Mike Trout robbed as many home runs as he did last season. You can't get back that far on a ball without true hustle. David Freese has arguably been the MVP for the St. Louis Cardinals the past two seasons. He has also been an incredible performer in the postseason, when it mattered most. Dee Gordon was named as the fastest man in baseball by some of his fellow players. Bryce Harper was definitely a spark for the Nationals this season. He made a significant impact with his glove his bat, and his feet. These are players that never take a single play off.

    Some believe that Bryce Harper is a little arrogant and full of himself, but I believe that he is just as excited as any normal twenty year old should be about playing Major League baseball, and he plays like it. He tries his absolute hardest to make a positive difference for his team. Harper reminds me of one of my favorite players of all-time: Ken Griffey Jr. If you recall, when Griffey broke into the league as a teenager, much like Harper, he was classified as arrogant  but I saw an exciting, talented, confident young man who was fired up to get the opportunity to play the game he loved.

Harper fired up after crossing
home plate and scoring a run.

    Trout, Freese, and Harper are the kind of players the game needs more of. It is my sincerest hope that their enthusiasm for the game won't fade with age, much like Beckett's did, but for now, these young players are a breathe of fresh air in an era where the game is taken for granted and every accomplishment is clouded by suspicion because of the common use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

    While former outfielder Manny Ramirez was with the Boston Red Sox, he would goof around in the field during games, jog to first base, and take his time chasing down a ball in the outfield. Ramirez was lazy, and his team and the league classified it as 'Manny Being Manny'. Ramirez's behavior was excused when it should have been disciplined. 

    All I can hope for is that one day, the game will return to the glory days when steroid use didn't make us question everything and where hustle and heart were the norm instead of the exception. Keep a lookout for my next piece when I explain my stance on why steroids really don't gives players an upper hand.

Bumbling Beckett

    When I used to think about Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Josh Beckett, I would think about an exciting young player breaking into the league with the Florida Marlins. However, as I look at Josh Beckett now, he seems to be a bitter shell of the young phenom who  placed the tag on catcher Jorge Posada for the final out of the 2003 World Series against the New York Yankees.

Beckett making final out of 2003 World Series
against the Yankess

    It probably seems harsh to call Beckett a bitter shell of himself, but it seems that he has gone from an exciting young player eager to help his team win, to a lazy, unenthusiastic veteran who, more often than not, costs his team ballgames. You might be thinking: "Could he really cost his team games?" Let me give you a couple of numbers. A newer statistic, known as Wins Above Replacement (WAR), shows the true value of any single player to his team, factoring in every little thing a player does in a game. The WAR displays the average number of wins a player adds to his team's record just by being on the field. The higher the number is, the more valuable the player. First of all Beckett's WAR over his entire 10 year career is 0.8, meaning that the teams that Beckett was on are less than a single win better with him than without him. But to make my point, during the 2010 and 2012 seasons (both with Boston) Beckett's WAR was actually negative, which, if you're following correctly, that Beckett was, in fact, HURTING his team by playing.

    The most disappointing thing about Beckett is how little he seems to care about the game, his team or anyone else but himself. For those of you who have been following this blog, you may remember the August 21st "Boston Coaching Carousel" article that chronicled the struggles of the Boston Red Sox. These are lines from that article:  "...Terry Francona subsequently resigned after reports surfaced that he had "lost control" of the team and that many of the players, including starting pitchers Josh Beckett and Jon Lester, were drinking beer and eating chicken in the clubhouse during the game...Francona wasn't the problem and neither is Valentine...it's the players. So, we must ask the question: If these players wouldn't play for Francona, is there anyone they will play for?" 

   As you can see, Beckett was the ring-leader behind the "loss of control". Josh Beckett had given up on his team. His selfish ways continued in 2012, getting then-manager Bobby Valentine dispatched the same way he did Francona the year before. Beckett is what's wrong with the game today: He's lazy, selfish, and has a problem with authority. If I'm making him out to be a villan, that's his problem, because I'm going off of what I've seen from him. If he's not going to play the game it was meant to be played, then he needs to leave the game before his style of play-or lack thereof-becomes the league norm and destroys the game we love.

    Now don't think that I'm naive enough to think that Beckett is the only one that acts like this. I know there's many more, but I use Beckett as the example. Players like these, who act like they don't care about the game, need to understand that they are among the luckiest men in the world to play a game for a living. If they can't appreciate that, the game would be better off without them. They need to either change their mentality or fade into the sunset before their remembered and emulated by future ballplayers. The game was meant to be fun for everyone, and watching these players who don't care, hurt the spirits of the players and fans who do, goes against everything baseball stands for in America. To quote my previous piece: "Keep it classy"

M-V-Posey

    If you every need a reminder of what a Most Valuable Player actually is, just look to San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, who has seemingly redefined the term for his team. The Giants have won two World Series titles in three years, largely due to the play of the 25-year old Posey.

Posey hitting a home run in the 2012 NLDS
against the Cincinnati Reds

    In 2010, Posey's rookie season, the Giants won the World Series in five games over the Texas Rangers. This gave the Giants their first World Championship since 1954, and their first since moving from New York to San Francisco between the 1957 and 1958 seasons. After the 2010 championship season, Buster Posey was named the National Rookie of the Year after a rookie campaign where he hit for a .305 batting average with 18 home runs and 67 runs batted in.

    However, Posey's true value to his team would not be felt until the following year. On May 25th 2011, after playing in only 45 games for the Giants, Posey suffered a season-ending injury when he fractured his fibula and tore multiple ligaments in this ankle trying to block home plate against the Florida Marlins. After the Posey injury, the Giants played average baseball, going 59-55 the rest of the way without their catcher. The Giants would finish 86-76 and miss the playoffs-one year removed from a World Series title.

Posey raising Commissioner's
Trophy after winning the
World Series

    Posey returned to his team to start the 2012 season, and the Giants were glad to have their young catcher's bat back in the lineup. Posey would have the best season of his young career. Posey would post career high's in home runs (24), runs batted in (103), and batting average (.336). These numbers helped the Giants return to the playoffs, and defeat the Detroit Tigers in 4 games to give the Giants their second World Series title in 3 years.

    Posey's great regular season numbers were rewarded when he was awarded the Hank Aaron Award (best hitter in each league), the Silver Slugger Award (best offensive player by position in each league) , and most importantly, the National League's Most Valuable Player Award.

    There's no doubt that the Giants were glad to have Posey back last season. With Posey, the Giants have 2 World Series titles, and an MVP behind the plate. Without Posey, the Giants have one of the worst team batting averages in baseball. With Posey legitimately being the difference between baseball in October or playing air hockey in the garage, the Giants would agree that Posey is certainly an MVP. Would you? The  Giants rollercoaster these last three years have shown us what a real 'Most Valuable Player' actually looks like.

Keep It Classy!

    I'M BACK!!! This is the first post in a good while, and even though the season is over, I'm going to continue to post throughout the offseason, with different editorials, 2012 Positional Rankings, etc, so even the season isn't going on right now, keep reading.

    The first of my offseason posts will deal with something that irked me quite a bit: I feel that Major League Baseball is losing its classiness and sense of sportsmanship. This became evident to me in the Divisional round of this year's playoffs. There is a big difference in winning a playoff series and winning the World Series, but from what I saw out of the San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, and Detroit Tigers, you would've thought that they had won it all after their respective first round victories.

    As a professional ball club, it is your job to make it to the postseason. Success is what you work for and it is expected that your team will be contending at the end of the year. However, when these three teams dispatched of their opponents in the first round, all of them celebrated as if their work was done and they were going home with a trophy. It was disgusting. They hadn't yet earned the right to celebrate to the extent that they did. It was utterly classless. Finish the job...then you can celebrate. These teams built themselves for contention, so it seemed ridiculous when they acted surprised when they surpassed STEP ONE.

    Let it be known that I'm not usually one to give praise to the New York Yankees, but in this instance, I must acknowledge them. The Yankees were the only one of the four teams that made it past the League Championship Series to do so professionally. When the final out was made to give them the series victory against the Baltimore Orioles, they shook hands, acknowledged Baltimore for their good postseason play, and walked off the field with poise and professionalism. The Yankees knew that their work wasn't finished and that they still had a long road ahead of them. I can't say the same for what I saw out of the other three teams.

   Perhaps it is a little unfair for me to compare the Yankees' professionalism against the other teams. After all, the Yankees were much more experienced in postseason play than the rest, but these younger, more inexperienced teams need to know that it's not good enough just to get to the playoffs, but in the "win now" society that we live in, playoff success is the only way to secure their jobs for another year.

    Maybe the league can take a lesson from the New York Yankees. Conduct yourselves with professionalism. After all you are professionals. As a fan, I love seeing young players have enthusiasm for the game, but I hate to see enthusiasm cross the line into arrogance. Realize the game is supposed to be fun, but in good taste. Keep it classy boys!