Home Run Derby

Everyone’s going La-La over the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 13-0 start at Dodger Stadium so far this season.  Even though it is indeed an MLB record for most consecutive wins at home to start a season … I would like to remind everyone that it’s how you finish, rather than how you start. 

And teams that start off REALLY hot at home … well, let’s just say that none of them have ever enjoyed a home-field advantage in October. 

So far as I can tell, there have been six MLB teams (including the 2008 Dodgers) who have started a season 10-0 or better at home.  The previous five didn’t make the playoffs.

Best MLB Home Starts

Mind you, most of those teams made their early run before the advent of Baseball’s current three-divisional format, and all but one of them would have made the playoffs if there was a WildCard playoff entry.  

That would be the 2003 Royals, who went 29-40 at home the rest of the season.  To make matter worse for the Royals – there was a WildCard that year … and they still couldn’t make the playoffs.

We’ve focused a lot lately on the top of the Hall of Fame ballot.  Well now, with the HoF results in and Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson (suck on it, Corky) elected to the Hall of Fame … let’s look at the bottom of the ballot.

Instead of wondering if someone will ever be voted into the Hall unanimously … let’s look at those who have been unanimously shut out of the Hall of Fame.   And I don’t mean players who went one-and done in their chance at the Hall.

I mean those players who couldn’t get a single vote during their chance on the ballot.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.  Donut.  Not a sausage.  Bugger all.

This year (2009), the no-vote dishonor fell on Ron Gant, Dan Plesac, and Greg Vaughn. Not a single writer bit on any of them. Not even Corky Simpson.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has been tracking voters who didn’t receive a vote for the past 32 ballots.   During that time, there were 189 players who couldn’t gather up a single vote between them.  As you might imagine … there’s a few names that you’ve heard of among that group. 

Here’s some notable ones.

In 1991, Oscar Gamble couldn’t get a single voter to bet on him. 

You see … this is what’s wrong with the BBWAA. 

If that fabulous afro can’t get an obligatory vote from at least one BBWAA writer … it’s time for the entire institution to lose its voting rights.

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Last season, Carlos Pena hit 46 Home Runs for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and was the AL Comeback Player of the Year and the AL winner of Home Run Derby’s Andre Dawson Award. 

This season, he’s leading the Tampa Bay Rays and all of the Major Leagues with six Home Runs.  Making Home Run Derby players happy everywhere.

But hitting Home Runs is all that he’s doing in 2008.  It’s been all or nothing for Pena.

Through 4/15, Pena is batting a sub-Mendoza .196 with a decent slugging percentage (.549) and OPS (.908) – but only thanks to those Home Runs.

But take away those Dingers …

… and Pena hits like a gir- scratch that, he hits like a pitcher. 
.089 / .293 / .089 with no extra base hits.

Holy Cow!  Twelve of Pena’s thirteen RBI have come via the Home Run.  And that one RBI came when he drew a walk with the bases loaded. 

Thirteen RBI, and not one of them has touched the ground (6 HR and one Bases Loaded Walk).  I’m not sure if anyone’s ever done that to start a season.  Someone get Jayson Stark’s Useless Info Department on the case.

Mind you, Pena can do something besides hit Home Runs in 2008.  He can also get hit by pitches.  He’s tied for the MLB lead in HBP (4) with David Eckstein.

While doing research for our recent pictorial of Lego Baseball Stadia … I came across La Grande Dame of all Lego Ballpark Models - a three foot tall, fully functional model of the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, Miller Park.  Made almost entirely of Lego bricks and parts.

It deserved its own post.

Wow.  That’s freaking Miller Park.  Just for reference …

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Every season since 1997, Major League Baseball has had Interleague Play. 

But since the AL and NL have a different number of teams, there’s always a bit of a necessary imbalance when it comes to scheduling.  Add to that the doubling up of games between the geographic rivalries … and you get a Grade A Mess.   There’s always  potential for some contending team to be at a competitive disadvantage to another team in its division … because of the resulting imbalance in strength of schedules. 

Players and managers and owners gripe about it …

What’s not fun is when they’re all contenders and your competition doesn’t have to play the same competition you do.  If you play the top teams in the AL and everybody else doesn’t, it’s pretty unfair.
Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves OF (2007)

The unbalanced schedule is not good for baseball … Some teams are getting a so-called lesser opponent, and other teams are playing powerhouses. 
Art Howe, former Oakland A’s Manager (1999)

I believe in my heart that last year the reason why we didn’t win the division is we didn’t play very well in the Interleague games and the Diamondbacks did.
Dusty Baker, former SF Giants Manager (2003)

I used to be for it, but I’m not for it anymore. It’s too easy for discrepancies
George Steinbrenner, NY Yankees Owner (2003)

Let’s see who gets the shaft this season … based upon 2007 MLB Won-Loss records.  We’ll start in the National League Central …

I think we’re going to hear a lot of bitching this season about the Cubs’ feeble 2008 Interleague schedule. 

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There have two bold predictions bandied about by a couple National League ballplayers so far this offseason …

• Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster has already told us that he thinks the Cubs will win the 2008 World Series
• Philadelphia Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins told us back in November that he thinks the Phillies will win 100 games in 2008.

Personally, I have no problem with players thinking their teams will succeed before the season starts.  I wouldn’t want a player on my team that thought ”Damn, we’re gonna get our asses handed to us this season.” 

But I present the counter argument to Dempster and Rollins.   One of the American League’s most dominant pitchers is no longer pitching in the AL.  Johan Santana is now pitching for the New York Mets.

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Let me start by saying I have no love of David Wright. Too many times he has put me in Home Run Derby Hell, especially with 1 Home Run in his first 100 at bats this season and 3 in his first 150. Yes, I know that he had a great year when it was all said and done (.325 BA, .546 SLG, 30 HR, 107 RBI).

Good for him.

But as I said back on May 10th, he is dead to me, and in Greektown those designations are permanent.

Why do I bring this up? Well yesterday, Richie had a post on why Matt Holliday was going to win the MVP, which of course (in true Richie fashion) he got wrong. In the comment thread, a commenter named “Sky” said the following:

“You know who got screwed? David Wright. And Albert Pujols. Chipper Jones, and Chase Utley, too. Those four were clearly the four most productive players in the NL. All were huge on offense and added a lot of value defensively. If you want to include some sort of voodoo for playing on a playoff team, fine. But that doesn’t mean Holliday or Rollins were better players.”

Sky was kind enough to include a link to his blog, Skyking162, which has a great tag line, “baseball with a hint of lime.” His latest post, and the basis for his comment, uses the statistical measure, total runs above replacement value (TVAR) to determine who was most deserving of the MVP award (David Wright in this case) in the National League.

For those readers unfamiliar with the concept of replacement value in baseball, it tries to measure the production of a certain player, both offensively and defensively, when compared against the strawman “replacement player”, or average player. It comes from the sabermetric world, where the likes of Bill James, Rob Neyer, the Baseball Prospectus and many others who have made a significant contribution the game live.

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David Chalk of Bugs and Cranks and I are engaging in a well intentioned, respectful debate on Barry Bonds, Home Run ball #756 (and its asterisk) and a call to boycott the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

David got the ball rolling with his call for the boycott, which led to my post saying we should boycott Barry Bonds.   After David read my post, he authored another post clarifying his position, stating the real issue here is about injustice.

Well, I thought I could address David’s writing with a simple comment attached to his post, but alas, I have more to say.  

Here is the comment I posted earlier today at Bugs and Cranks …

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Wow.  A lot has changed since late last Thursday night when Rick Ankiel went 4 for 4 with two Home Runs and had seven RBI against the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Everything was going great for the Cardinals, who were 17-9 in their last 26 games (since Ankiel’s 2007 debut) and were now only one game out of first place in the NL Central.  Thanks in no small part to Rick Ankiel. 

Ankiel was the feel-good story of the MLB season for a Cardinals team that desperately needed one after the drunk driving arrest of their manager and the death (from drunk driving) of one of their pitchers.  Not to mention the fact that the team had played poorly throughout the first half of the season.

But then on Friday, the news broke that Ankiel had recieved a one-year supply of Human Growth Hormone from that Florida pharmacy that’s at the center of an an illegal prescription drug distribution. 

Comparisons to “The Natural” were immediately put on hold.

In the four games since the revelation that he received the HGH, Ankiel has gone 1 for 14 with no walks.  And yesterday against the Cards’ division rival Chicago Cubs, batted 0 for 4 with four strikeouts.

That’s Right.  The dreaded Golden Sombrero.

Here’s video which includes three of Ankiel’s four strikeouts yesterday.  It might not work in FireFox, so try Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Ankiel looks lost at the plate. 

A few years back, Ankiel was an up and coming pitcher who suddenly couldn’t throw over the plate any longer.  It had gotten in his head that he couldn’t do it anymore.

Is it about to happen again to Ankiel? 

AP Photo/M. Spencer Green