Retirements of 2012-2013

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Hideki Matsui, one of the least douchey men to reside in the Bronx in the past decade, hangs 'em up.

[ashie62]

I have to admit the MFY's got the right Matsui...

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

2109 - Long-term Yankees fans - and there are a few them - still recall The Curse of Godzilla when the Yankees did not resign Hideki Matsui after he won the World Series MVP award and began the team's sorry decline into a century of ineptitude.

[G-Fafif]

Marcus Thames stops playing, starts coaching MFY minor leaguers.

[metirish]

Long coveted by Mets fans(me included), hangs them up. Good stuff here in Deadspin

Nick Johnson, The Nearly Perfect Baseball Player, Retires

Sean Newell Nick Johnson announced his retirement today after playing portions of 10 major league seasons due to an infuriating inability to stay healthy. It's impossible to read an article about Johnson without coming across the phrase "oft-injured." It will be the book on him until they close it: "Nick Johnson died today in his home, having asphyxiated on an enormous piece of chaw. The oft-injured former major leaguer is survived by his wife and two dogs." It's cruel to be so good at one of the most important things in baseball�"see the ball" always comes before "hit the ball"�and be physically incapable of doing it. In his worst (and first) season in the major leagues, Johnson posted a .194/.308/.313 slash line. He only had 78 plate appearances in 23 games that year but it would not be long before he was posting .400+ on base percentages. The guy just got on base. And, after his rookie season, he actually got on base by seeing the ball and hitting the ball. He was this close to being the perfect baseball player. Except for that one, tiny thing: in only four of his 10 seasons did he ever play over 100 games and he never played a full season. In 2006 he played his career high�147 games�with a .290/.428/.520 slashline and 149 OPS+. It was, no surprise, his best season. The second great tragedy of Nick Johnson's career is that while he was championed by the SABR community, he was the kind of player the gritty old press box should have loved, too. He had that hacking, battling, dirtied-uniform, never give an at-bat away kind of mentality and was actually good at it. Everyone could have gotten on board with Nick Johnson. He was David Eckstein with some discernable skill. But where Eckstein and his kind only metaphorically sacrificed their bodies for the game, Nick Johnson actually sacrificed his. Johnson was injured throughout his career, but the wheels fell off the wagon at the tail end of 2006 and he missed all of 2007 and most of 2008 with a broken leg. In 2011 he spent the year with the Indians�in AAA�as he recovered from wrist surgery for what felt like the 16th time. He then played 33 games for the Orioles last year before that god damned wrist acted up again. With an OBP and the sheer desire to play baseball like his, he could have singlehandedly brokered d�tente between the stats and anti-stats crowds. It never happened, obviously. Like everything else in Johnson's career, it never really got a chance to be more than hypothetical. And now he's retiring because his body, and major league teams, finally gave up on him. At a certain point, it doesn't matter how well you see it, you still have to be able to hit it.

http://deadspin.com/nick-johnson/

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/johnsni01.shtml

[Frayed Knot]

In addition to the injury/derailed career thing, what I'll remember about Johnson is how completely opposite he was in virtually every respect from his uncle Larry Bowa.
Big vs small; lefty vs righty; slow vs quick; calm vs fuckin' maniac; patience vs kinetic energy; corner guy vs short-stop; power vs singles, and that's all before you get to the whole value being tied up in his bat against the supposedly gritty/non-boxscore value of uncle Larry.

[metirish]

Damn, I had forgotten Bowa was his uncle.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: In addition to the injury/derailed career thing, what I'll remember about Johnson is how completely opposite he was in virtually every respect from his uncle Larry Bowa. Big vs small; lefty vs righty; slow vs quick; calm vs fuckin' maniac; patience vs kinetic energy; corner guy vs short-stop; power vs singles, and that's all before you get to the whole value being tied up in his bat against the supposedly gritty/non-boxscore value of uncle Larry.

You forgot one - fielding. Larry had a decent glove at short. One year, Johnson made more errors per game than any first baseman in organized baseball not named Mo Vaughn.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Johnson always seemed perfectly capable defensively to me, for a firstbaseman, until the injuries unmade him.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

And his injuries always seemed to be different from the run-of-the-mill pulled hammies and such, more bad luck than anything else. Look for him on the Long Island Ducks in 2014.

Admins, please merge this:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18904

into this thread. Thanks.

[metirish]

Should have looked, thanks man.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

metirish wrote: Should have looked, thanks man.

No problem, it was several pages deep. I just happened to remember it.

[Edgy MD]

Here's a good tweetle.

Mike Axisa ?@mikeaxisa Nick Johnson drew more walks in 2010 than Ichiro did in 2012. Johnson played in 24 games in 2010.

Itchy, of course, played in 162 games 2012.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

[Edgy MD]

Not for nothing, but his career may at some level speak to the wisdom of using the hit-by-pitch as an offensive weapon. Obviously most of his injuries can't be directly tied to taking one for the team, but Johnson took one 104 times as a minor leaguer. That's once every 5.67 games (ouch).

In 1999 alone, his hide absorbed 37 baseballs in 132 Norwich Navigator games. That's a plunk every 3.57 games. YAH!!

As a major leaguer, with more consistent pitching control, Johnson curtailed his masochistic hobby to once every 11.24 games, but these things have a way of adding up.

[dinosaur jesus]

Not for nothing, but his career may at some level speak to the wisdom of using the hit-by-pitch as an offensive weapon. Obviously most of his injuries can't be directly tied to taking one for the team, but Johnson took one 104 times as a minor leaguer. That's once every 5.67 games (ouch). In 1999 alone, his hide absorbed 37 baseballs in 132 Norwich Navigator games. That's a plunk every 3.57 games. YAH!! As a major leaguer, with more consistent pitching control, Johnson curtailed his masochistic hobby to once every 11.24 games, but these things have a way of adding up.

That does seem to make sense, but I I'm not sure it actually works that way. You could actually argue just the opposite: that guys who get hit by the pitch a lot last longer than average. The players with 25 or more HBPs in at least one season post-1900 are Ron Hunt, Don Baylor, Craig Biggio, Jason Kendall, Steve Evans (in 1910), Craig Wilson, Fernando Vina, David Eckstein, Chase Utley, Kid Elberfeld, Andres Galarraga, and F. P. Santangelo. Galarraga and Utley were (are) notoriously injury-prone, Evans and Wilson were done at 30, and Santangelo was a utility player who didn't have very many full seasons. But all in all, that's a pretty long-lived group.

It could be that that if you get hit that many times, you're probably doing it on purpose, and taking the hit in places that won't do too much damage. Whereas someone like Johnson is just too slow to get out of the way, and has to take it wherever.

[Guest vtmet]

Edgy MD wrote: Not for nothing, but his career may at some level speak to the wisdom of using the hit-by-pitch as an offensive weapon. Obviously most of his injuries can't be directly tied to taking one for the team, but Johnson took one 104 times as a minor leaguer. That's once every 5.67 games (ouch). In 1999 alone, his hide absorbed 37 baseballs in 132 Norwich Navigator games. That's a plunk every 3.57 games. YAH!! As a major leaguer, with more consistent pitching control, Johnson curtailed his masochistic hobby to once every 11.24 games, but these things have a way of adding up.

ouch...didn't realize he was one of those guys that leaned into pitches...but then again, he did come up in the Yankee System which also had both Jeter and Soriano leaning into pitches early in their career...It used to piss me off when we'd play the Pirates and Jason Kendall would lean into inside pitches with his "body armor" on, and then steal 2nd base (Kendall had 2 seasons in a row with 31 HBP, and also averaged 23 steals in those 2 seasons)...IMO, if you wear body armor and make no attempt to get out of the way of the pitch, it shouldn't count as a HBP...

[G-Fafif]

Worth noting Nick met his doom at Shea.

Also retiring: Ron Mahay, a lefty who couldn't keep Orosco-ing forever.

[Edgy MD]

That does seem to make sense, but I I'm not sure it actually works that way. You could actually argue just the opposite: that guys who get hit by the pitch a lot last longer than average. The players with 25 or more HBPs in at least one season post-1900 are Ron Hunt, Don Baylor, Craig Biggio, Jason Kendall, Steve Evans (in 1910), Craig Wilson, Fernando Vina, David Eckstein, Chase Utley, Kid Elberfeld, Andres Galarraga, and F. P. Santangelo. Galarraga and Utley were (are) notoriously injury-prone, Evans and Wilson were done at 30, and Santangelo was a utility player who didn't have very many full seasons. But all in all, that's a pretty long-lived group.

Make no mistake, Ron Hunt was hurt and likely bruised throughout his career.

Listen, if there's not much else keeping you in a big league lineup and big league money (Hunt, Vina, Santagelo, Eckstein), if you're a borderline starter just one slump from being replaced, then I guess using your body as a bat is an option you can explain to your wife and accountant as justifiable. For sluggers, though, the desire to find one more edge in your game may be admirable, but is probably counterproductive.

Congratulations to Baylor for beating the odds, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

[Frayed Knot]

I believe that Johnson's original wrist problem was brought on by a HBP. Subsequent ones may not have been but wrists, once weakened, seem to be susceptible to future problems. I saw where Jayson Werth was quoted in the last day or two as saying that, despite his reasonably good second half last season following his broken wrist, it was still sore & weak often and he expects it to be better this coming year. (not sure but he may have also said that he's in the best shape of his life)


The biggie for Nick Johnson was his broken femur and that was a fielding injury. It's got to be a pretty big whack to break an adult's femur particularly that of a thick-legged athlete like Johnson.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Brian Schneider will squat no more.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

All the Expos are going away. I guess Jon Rauch is next.

Freakin' Schneid. His agent got him a bunch of endorsements as soon as he became a Met but before he'd even played a game. Spent the whole season watching that commercial "other dealers don't mean squat!"

[Edgy MD]

Interesting that he's retiring. He's had one lousy season after another forever, distinguishable only by its degree of lousiness, but there was always a contract waiting for him the next year. Funny that the NL East largesse for him has run out now. His 2012 was actually a good year, by Schneiderian standards.

[Frayed Knot]

Kevin Millwood's 16-year/7-team career comes to an end.

I guess you could call his a somewhat erratic career - although one that ends with a 169-152 record and a 4.11 ERA through much of a hitters' era.
He reportedly wanted a job for 2013 only if either Atlanta or Tampa would bite but neither were interested.

[G-Fafif]

Say good night to Brandon Webb, per his agents (reported by Jerry Crasnick and Buster Olney) on Twitter.

[G-Fafif]

Webb: 56-25 in his peak three years, finishing second in the Cy voting in 2006 and '07, winning it in '08. Average WAR of 6+ each of those seasons. In the end, not enough seasons to be even considered for the Hall of Fame.

[G-Fafif]

Julio Lugo. He's another one, said in my best Livia Soprano voice.

Retiring after Caribbean WS. I once used a bat he left behind in Houston (albeit for swatting flies).

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Lugo. One of the few Brooklyn bred ballplayers never to be offered a contract by the Mets. Saved WiFeY Watch some embarrassment anyway.

[ashie62]

But can he play the outfield?

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Lugo. One of the few Brooklyn bred ballplayers never to be offered a contract by the Mets. Saved WiFeY Watch some embarrassment anyway.

I think the Mets were looking at him before his unfortunate run in. I also think there was some talk of him coming here in a problem swap after a crappy first year in Boston.

Didn't we have his brother/cousin-guy Ruddy in camp some time back?