Vic Sage

so out of the loop am i that i never even heard of this one, and with this cast i'd have given it a shot. stories about the aftermath of 60s radicalism... that's a list to come.

I remember watching it as a teen. It came out while LeFlore was still in the midst of a short but spectacular career, and was more about his tragic background and his redemption then his baseball exploits per se (some of which hadn't even happened yet). I don't remember particularly liking it at the time, and I haven't seen it since. Jordi LaForge just didn't project sufficient menace to be a convincing thug saved by Billy Martin and baseball. The movie also came out too early in his career to deal with his career year in `78 or his great season in Montreal (he still holds their club record for steals). Nor could it trace his fall... the time he let a fly ball bounce off his head for an inside-the-park homer, his quick fade with the White Sox, his subsequent admission that he was 4 years older than he had claimed, having to become an airline baggage handler, failing in an attempt to become an umpire, kicking around as a coach in independent and semi-pro leagues, and later arrested again (twice) for failing to pay child support. The real story didn't end happily, but you know what they say... no biography ends well, because if you tell the story of a whole life, it ultimately ends in death. I'd be interested to see it again just to see how much baseball there actually was in it. I don't remember that there was that much, but i could be misremembering.

i don't think we should waste our time on FA pitching... with the organizational depth we have at that position, it'd be a misallocation of resources, and pitchers are hard to count on anyway, especially relievers. They could take a flyer on a cheap arm with some Spring Training invitees, like we did with Dickey, on the hope of catching lightning in a bottle, or at least an arm that can take some pressure off the kids. But i'm fine with a rotation of Niese, Harvey, Gee, Wheeler and Mejia, with guys like Torres, Montero, Syndegaard in reserve unless beaten out in camp by a vet in the spring. And the last FA reliever we signed should be the last FA reliever we sign, as far as i'm concerned. And backup catchers, retreads and other 30-somethings looking for long-term big money deals shouldn't be high on our list either. I tell you what, if we're anywhere in the vicinity of being competitive next July, and we are in dire need of another SP at the time, i'm sure we have the pitching prospects to put together a deal to get one. I just don't think we should waste any time with it now.

if we get power from 1b, SS and rf, we can live with Young's 40+ SBs in LF and some combo of Legares, DenDekker, Nieuhenheis and/or whatever spare parts we pick up for CF. You can't (or at least shouldn't) sign an entirely new FA outfield.

We need a power-hitting RFer, a SS with at least decent offensive production, and reliable production at 1B. I'll take Abreu at 1b, Perahlta at SS, and with that kind of offense from the SS, then take a flyer on a bounce-back from Murphy in RF.

who am I? I'm Jean Valjean... 24601!

I remember `73 as being the September when Rusty grabbing the team by its collective and metaphorical hair and dragged it into the post-season, and almost beating Oakland with 1 arm tied behind his back. I may be misremembering but i don't like it when facts get in the way.

Despite a lack of overall production and power so far in the minors, we have to be happy with his approach at the plate (with an OB% close to .400), with the size and athleticism to fill out and develop power later. He also has the arm and speed to cover ground in CF, and if he ever learns to steal bases, he can be a... well, a good base-stealer. I don't know that he'll ever be a major-leaguer, but he still has the promise he showed as a high draft pick.

2H, 2BB, 1K, 1ER in 1/3 of inning... bully?

just remove the first period and observe the power of punctuation.

...as worthy of hope for improvement as Tejada. no need to be insulting.

i think those are excellent comps, and the same as the ones i used (that's how i know they're excellent). Virtually none of those guys are in the HOF and Carew got in primarily on the basis of 3000 hits while playing half his career at 2b. I think arguments can be made for Helton, as well as Hernandez, Clark, Olerud, McGriff and Cash (among others) but its definitely a different tier of player from Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Jimmy Foxx, Stan Musial, Eddie Murray, Harmon Killebrew and Willie McCovey. You either want that tier in or you don't. so far the voters haven't.

his farts heal leprosy.

whatever he decides, with sound medical advice, is fine by me. It's his body. Of course, if he holds off on the surgery but goes down early next season anyway, with the same issue, and THEN decides to have the surgery (leaving the team no chance to accommodate his absence in 2014, and costing them both 2014 and a chunk of 2015 too), i guess i'll be a little pissed. i guess that's option #5: Has no surgery, but doesn't pitch as well, then deteriorates, and then he DOES have surgery, and still never is the same.

oh i know you've been banging this drum from day 1. but i thought you were kidding... mostly. you had the same issues with David Wright and RA Dickey as i recall. maybe i'm misremembering. Anyway, the only thing we need to "fall for" is 261 Ks (and only 56 BBs) in 237 innings, with an ERA+ of 151 to date. If he can keep that up, he can be a cross between Clemens, Kingman, Dixie Walker and Jeffrey Dahmer for all i care. By the way, Seaver is a major asshole too, by all reports, and i think there should be a golden idol forged in his name, with ritual sacrifices on its altar before any post-season games.

...a single young douchey attention-starved pitcher like Harvey. Really Jon? you want to go there? so soon? no Honeymoon period? Just "Harvey's a dick" right off the bat? man.

For a franchise with such an inferiority complex, we should have a HOF exhibition highlighting all our "almosts"... 2nd place finishes in the voting for ROY (Hunt, S.Henderson,Koosman), CY (Seaver x2, Koos, Gooden), and MVP (Seaver, Keith, Straw), as well as those 2nd place finishes to the Cards in the 80s and the Phils in the 00s, or how we almost won the championships in `73 and `00. Maybe include the various "almost" no-hitters and perfect games. And how about a plaque commemorating how they almost had a HOF exhibit ready for the opening of CitiField... but then didn't. And a tribute to Shea, our 2nd home field, and to Doubleday & Co, our 2nd owners.

I love Walker, and his MVP in 97 was totally legit. But overall, he too had a 200 pt differential in Colorado between home and away, and between Coors and Olympique as home fields. So i think the notion that Coors totally pumped his numbers is a fair one. Also, he rarely played a full season, often on the DL. And I think the perception of him as fragile hurts his HOF candidacy as much as the Coors effect. He was an excellent player and better than Helton (as you note) -- he could run better, throw better, get on base more and, when playing in Coors, had more power. He is now a solid HOF candidate (i wouldn't complain if he got in), but if he had played in a neutral park, his power numbers would've been significantly suppressed and he may not have ended up even a borderline candidate. Without the Coors effect I don't see Helton as a borderline candidate. With it, only barely.

Helton has about 4000 ABs at Coors, and a similar number on the road. That's not a small sample size. And the results are pretty clear: Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ Home 1132 1075 4801 4000 867 1381 315 28 225 850 24 15 709 505 .345 .442 .607 1.048 2427 96 29 2 59 99 46 .347 119 Away 1103 1049 4600 3913 527 1124 271 9 142 547 13 14 624 657 .287 .386 .470 .856 1839 89 28 1 33 86 38 .312 80 Like some others (Walker, Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla coming immediately to mind), Helton was a very good player made great (more than 20% better) when playing his home games in the best hitting park of his era... not just the best, but a historically disproportionate and perception-warping park. He had a 200 pt higher OPS at home, mostly based on the slugging numbers. Was it his "fault" for playing at Coors? uh, no. But neither should he be rewarded for playing there, particularly these days when we can accurately measure park effects. So would you put a .290 BA /20 HR/.850 PS 1bman in the HOF? [on edit] It's not a crazy notion, but if you want to lower the bar that much at that position, he goes in after Jeff Bagwell (obviously, not to mention the PED guys, McGwire and Palmiero), as well as Keith Hernandez, Don Mattingly, Steve Garvey, Fred McGriff, John Olerud, Cecil Cooper, and Will Clark, and maybe just before Al Oliver, Boog Powell, Dick Allen, Norm Cash and Gil Hodges. And that's just off the top of my head. And if you did the same thing with the backlog of players at other positions, as well as lower the bar for future players, the HOF becomes a museum with hundreds of plaques of very good players, and its imprimatur becomes virtually meaningless.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Counting on a repeat of the stretch earlier this year is insane even with a clean bill of health or bionic implants. Goes under the knife, comes back like most post-TJ guys do just fine, just not slamdunky CyYungy This. Surgery, return in 2015 with limited use and mediocre production the first half, with improvement in the 2nd half, and in 2016 he gets near, but not at, the same CY-level as this season.

i didn't think i was being optimistic when i guessed 77 wins.

yeah, 42... they were only off by 1.

concession stands manned by Hooters girls.

Edgy MD wrote: I'd hate to see the the Mets bumping up against Rush, but I'm long since over FAN. I realize that this is supposed to be a prime example of the Wilpons ruining everything but I couldn't give two shits. WFAN is awful. Doubly so with Doris dead and their highest profile personality being a sleepwalking blowhard. Yeah, maybe they land some place with a weak signal, but we'll see. Mostly this, but i don't miss Doris. Her phlegmy breathing made me queasy.

i think TC is an adequate steward for these transitional (i.e., sucky) years, but i have no confidence in him steering a good team to a post-season. If Harvey is going to be out all of next year, then there is no point in bringing in a hired gun, or even anointing an heir apparent. So i see him getting one more year, with an option that doesn't get picked up, before they go with someone else. I don't get the impression that Sandy is interested in micro-managing a manager (unlike his protege, Mr. Beane), and so would probably give a new manager (rookie or veteran) the right to choose his own coaches, subject to pre-existing deals and cost of future contracts. He certainly SHOULD do so, anyway. I'm hopeful he stays away from a "spitfire" (i.e., redneck asshole) like Backman. I think Teufel has the chance to be Gardenhire-like, but maybe my judgment is influenced by their similarity as players. I love the idea of getting Gardenhire though... but would Minny let him go?