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All-American Baseball

www.allamericanbaseballblog.com

 

“The Most Comprehensive Baseball  Blog Around”

J.D. Narramore

 

This Week In Baseball

 

-The Texas Rangers continue to have not only their best season in over a decade but quite possibly, their best in franchise history. They currently have the best offense in baseball with Vlad Guerrero, Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Ian Kinsler, and Michael Young. With the recent addition of Cliff Lee, the Rangers pitching rotation has become one of the best in the A.L. with C.J. Wilson, Tommy Hunter, and Colby Lewis. After winning the first two of a four game series with the Angels, the Rangers are now 57-40 and have a 7 game lead in the AL West.

 

-The Seattle Mariners luck only seems to get worse. After seeing Ken Griffey Jr. retire, the offense fall apart, go 23 games under .500, being forced to trade Cliff Lee to Texas, and have Eric Bedard unable to return from the DL, Chone Figgins started a dugout fight between him and manager Don Wakamatsu Friday night after the infielder failed to go after a ball poorly thrown to him. There is a bright spot here though, Milton Bradley actually tried to get the two to stop fighting. Click here to see it for yourself.

 

-I didn’t think it would happen any time soon but it did. Cubs manager Lou Piniella is calling it quits at the end of the season after playing 18 seasons in the major leagues and managing for 23. His 2001 Mariners hold the record for wins in a season at 116.

 

-With less than a week till the Trade Deadline, the Yankees seem to be closing in on acquiring D’backs staff ace Dan Haren while Roy Oswalt seems likely to land in either St. Louis, Philadelphia, or just stay in Houston. While it’s highly unlikely that it won’t happen, its worth while to see if Prince Fielder will be traded. Any team that lands him should greatly increase their chances at the playoff’s and even the World Series.

 

-Tomorrow, Andre Dawson will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. With 438 HR’s, 314 SB’s, and an MVP award, Dawson rightly deserves to be a Hall of Famer. I can’t help but think though of the other greats of the game that won’t be inducted tomorrow. From this years ballot Roberto Alomar, and Bert Blyleven should have made it into the Hall. Other’s though, that can no longer be voted in by the writers or have been looked down upon in recent years but deserve to make it in, are Tip O’Neill, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Roger Maris, Pete Rose, Jim Kaat, Tommy John, Dale Murphy, Lee Smith, and Negro League Legends Buck O’Neil and Double Duty Radcliffe.

 

-Billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is once again trying to buy a baseball team. After reportedly making the highest bid for the Cubs a couple years ago, Cuban is trying to make the winning bid for the bankrupt Texas Rangers. His main competitors though for the team is the Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg group.

 

-Last but not least take a look at this video of a fan running on to the field at the Orioles ballpark. This feat has to set some sort of record!!

 

7/24/2010 10:41 PM

Pure Stats vs. Tainted Stats

 

With the Hall of Fame induction ceremony last Sunday, the age old question dawned on me this week. What to do about the players who’ve been found with performance enhancing drugs? Should they be allowed to keep their statistics and, if their stats are worthy of it, be inducted into the Hall of Fame? Or, should they be stripped of their stats and be banned from Cooperstown all together? . The Steroid Era, from 1986-2005, saw homerun, runs-batted in, and hits records become tainted with a number of players who took PED’s. Just take a look at the homerun records below to see the damage done with PED users names in red italics.

 

Homeruns Career                                              Homeruns Season

1. Barry Bonds– 762                                         1. Barry Bonds– 73

2. Hank Aaron– 755                                          2. Mark McGwire– 70

3. Babe Ruth– 714                                             3. Sammy Sosa– 66

4. Willie Mays– 660                                          4. Mark McGwire– 65

5. Ken Griffey Jr.– 630                                      5. Sammy Sosa– 64

6. Sammy Sosa– 609                                          6. Sammy Sosa– 63

7. Alex Rodriguez– 599                                      7. Roger Maris– 61

8. Frank Robinson– 586                                     8. Babe Ruth– 60

9. Mark McGwire– 583                                      9. Babe Ruth– 59

10. Jim Thome– 576                                        10. Mark McGwire– 58

11. Harmon Killebrew– 573                                  Jimmie Fox

12. Rafiel Palmeiro– 569                                       Hank Greenberg

13. Reggie Jackson– 563

14. Manny Ramirez– 554

15. Mike Schmidt– 548

 

Six of the top 15 career homerun leaders and 7 of the top 10 seasonal homerun leaders have been found with taking PED’s. Hitters though aren’t the only ones guilty of tainting stats. Pitchers Kevin Brown, Roger Clemens, Eric Gagne, and Andy Pettitte are also guilty of taking PED’s. So what should be done about these player and their stats? The answer is this:

 

1. Take away players tainted stats but leave those that can be shown to have been done honestly. Take A-Rod for example he has 599 career HR’s but it is well known fact that in his three years with the Texas Rangers he used PED’s. So remove the stats of those three seasons and then it can be said that A-Rod has hit 443 HR’s. Other players though such as Mark McGwire, have very little evidence of ever playing a clean season in their careers and should have their stats scrapped entirely.

 

2. When deciding on who should go to the Hall of Fame, take each case differently. A good example of this is Andy Pettitte. Pettitte’s stats are worthy of induction into the Hall with 240 Wins and appearing in eight World Series. The mark against him though is that while injured with the Houston Astros in 2004, he took PED’s to heal quicker and get off the DL. When news of this came out in the Mitchell Report in 2007,  he quickly took responsibility for the incident. With the exception of the 2004 incident while on the DL, Pettitte has never been found with steroids. Taking this into consideration and the fact that PED’s did tarnish his stats, Pettitte should be allowed into the Hall of Fame.

 

3. Give the players, who stayed clean and put up good numbers, the credit they deserve. Roger Maris is one of many players who’ve never gotten the credit they deserve. With the clean homerun record in a season and two MVP awards, Maris deserves to be in the Hall of Fame but never got more than 43% of the vote from the writers. Another good example is Ken Griffey Jr., a likely first ballot inductee in 2016 but has not received enough credit for hitting 630 HR’s while playing clean.

 

7/28/2010 11:55 AM

 

 

7/28/2010 12:28 PM

This Week In Baseball: The Trade Deadline

 

Now that the Trade Deadline has come and gone, lets take a look at the teams that made the right moves and those that missed out:

 

-With little cash and currently in bankruptcy court as we speak, many people doubted that the Texas Rangers could possibly make the moves needed to secure first place in the AL West and give themselves a legit shot at winning the Division Series. The Rangers though, did the unthinkable. GM Jon Daniels first traded for catcher Bengie Molina in late June, then AL Cy Young candidate Cliff Lee in early July, followed by 1B Jorge Cantu  and 2B Christian Guzman at the Deadline. To replenish the farm system, Daniels then traded former top prospect Jarrod Saltalamacchia to the Red Sox for 3 prospects and cash.

 

-The New York Yankees did what they do best at the Trade Deadline. Get the pieces they need to get them to their 28th World Series victory. They got power hitting 1B Lance Berkman cheaply from Houston, OF Austin Kearns, and CL Kerry Wood. The one disappointment though is that they were unable to land either Cliff Lee or Dan Haren.

 

-Like the 2009 Trade Deadline, the Philadelphia Phillies sought after the one of the top pitchers on the market, Roy Oswalt. Having Roy Halladay, Oswalt, and Cole Hamels as their top three starters in the postseason should help the Phillies return to their 3rd straight World Series appearance. Having Oswalt through 2012 should soften the blow of parting with young left-hander J.A. Happ.

 

-Few expected the San Diego Padres to compete this year, much less be leading the NL West on August 1st. With a pennant on the line the Padres went on a mission to acquire offense and ended up getting power hitting OF Ryan Ludwick and SS/3B Miguel Tejada. With Adrian Gonzalez already in their lineup, the Padre’s offense should know be taken seriously.

 

-Despite having the owners currently in divorce court, the Los Angeles Dodgers were able to make some much needed moves. GM Ned Colletti landed pitcher Ted Lilly, speedy OF’s Scott Podsednik and Ryan Theriot, and CL Octavio Dotel. Even with these trades though, it still is a toss up between the Dodgers, Padres, and Colorado Rockies for the NL West Division Title.

 

-For all the winners at the trade deadline there are the losers. The Houston Astros got a solid return on Roy Oswalt but landed bottom of the barrel prospects for Lance Berkman and still have to pay part of his salary . The St. Louis Cardinals got pitcher Jake Westbrook but gave up Ryan Ludwick because they believed Jon Jay could replace him. Even if Ludwick is a free agent at the end of the season it’s better to have a sure bet for your offense during a Pennant Chase than gamble on a rookie. The Chicago White Sox coveted Prince Fielder and Adam Dunn but made the bone headed move of trading for pitcher Edwin Jackson to get Adam Dunn but in the end never got Dunn at all. The Detroit Tigers got SS Jhonny Peralta but its not enough to better their chances at making the playoffs. The Minnesota Twins got CL Matt Capps but gave up a top prospect catcher that was insurance in case Joe Mauer becomes a free agent. Tampa Bay Rays needed an offensive upgrade but instead got Chad Qualls who’s got an 8.29 ERA. Lastly, like the Ray’s, the San Francisco Giants needed offense but instead acquired only bullpen help.

 

8/1/2010 7:29 PM

This Week In Baseball

 

-After fending off creditors and a surprise bid from Mark Cuban, Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg are now the new owners of the Texas Rangers. The winning bid at last Wednesdays auction was $593 million with $385 million in cash.

 

-Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Brandon Morrow was lights out Sunday against Tampa Bay, striking out 17 and throwing a no-hitter for 8 2/3 until finally surrendering a hit to Evan Longoria. Initially, 2B Aaron Hill fielded the ball but if fell out of his glove.

 

-Alex Rodriguez finally hit his 600th homerun after going two weeks since his last one. Minus the 156 homers he hit with the Rangers when he took PED’s and he legitimately has 434 HR’s.

 

-Former player Luis Gonzalez had his number retired by the Arizona Diamondbacks Saturday, becoming the first player to have his numbered retired by the team. Gonzalez will remembered for his game wining hit against Yankee’s closer Mariano Rivera to win game seven of the 2001 World Series.

 

-Since making Buck Showalter their new manager, the Baltimore Orioles have gone 5-1. Currently the Orioles have the worst record in baseball at 37-74 and 32 games behind the first place New York Yankees.

 

-Take a look at this spectacular catch from Japan. No wonder so many from the JBL come to the US to play.

 

8/8/2010 8:32 PM