Baseball 2017 Season Thread

[The Minsky Moment]

Rock finally made the Hall in his last shot, blowing past the hurdle with 86%.  Really happy for him, glad the voters did the right thing.

Bagwell in as well, correcting last year's odd brain fart.

Pudge was the third and final inductee, also meritorious, although other accused/suspected roiders of equal or greater ability remain on the outs.  HOF as an institution and the voters collectively can't seem to figure out what they want to do here.  So far it seems like the rule is that if the suspicions and accusation reach a certain critical mass, the player will be kept out.  UNLESS they played catcher.  I guess they figure anyone who has to squat for tens of thousands of innings needs all the help they can get, chemical or otherwise.

Hoffman is knocking in the door- he and Vlad look like a lock to get in although 2018 will be crowded.  But Billy Wagner, as a good a player as Hoffman, barely missed falling off the ballot.

Mussina didn't get in, but made a nice gain, jumping from 43 to 52%.  Optimistically, he will continue to build and get in a few years from now.

Curt Schilling, OTOH tumbled below 50% this year, presumably because his present day off-filed mouth is detracting from his playing years accomplishments.  To make matters worse, he spent the day after results were announced getting into a hilarious twitter spat with an anonymous Yankee fan posting under the fake identity of erstwhile AL hurler Sidney Ponson, culminating in Schilling insisting repeatedly that he was corresponding with the real Sidney Ponson.  As amusing as it is to watch Schilling make a fool of himself - for the uninitiated, he is regular trafficker in Trumptard Facebook Follies - he is deserving of making it and his political stances, however asinine, shouldn't impact that.

My favorite dark horse/under-rated candidate - Larry Walker - picked up a few % but still seems like a huge long shot.

[Sophie Scholl]

I'm satisfied with the HoF results.  No one I was a particular fan enough of to catch the induction ceremony though.  I'm headed to Tribefest this weekend, so I'll be kicking into basbeall mode again shortly.

[Barrister]

Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura dies in a car crash in the Dominican Republic.

[The Minsky Moment]

As well as one time super-prospect Andy Marte.

[dps]

I'm satisfied with the HoF results.

Yeah, I am too, in general. 

I wish the voters would go ahead and do the right thing and put Bonds and Clemens in so we can get past the whole steroids controversy and move on--both ended up at over 50% in their 5th year on the ballot, so it's apparent that they're going to get in eventually, so let's go ahead and get it over with so we can get rid of the problem of suspected steroid users clogging up the ballot and making it harder for everyone else.

Beyond that, the 3 guys that got in were basically 3 of the 4 that I liked the best (the other being Edgar Martinez), so I'm cool with that.

[CountDeMoney]

Rock finally made the Hall in his last shot, blowing past the hurdle with 86%.  Really happy for him, glad the voters did the right thing.

Oh, you mean the guy that would slide head first, as not to break the vials of cocaine in his back pocket?  Yeah, the Rock.  It's called "crack" on the street.

Mussina didn't get in, but made a nice gain, jumping from 43 to 52%.  Optimistically, he will continue to build and get in a few years from now.

Mike Mussina is not an elite quarterback.

My favorite dark horse/under-rated candidate - Larry Walker - picked up a few % but still seems like a huge long shot.

Automatically disqualified for playing in Colorado.  For the same reason a grown ass man doesn't get mad props for playing rec league tee-ball.



And all hail Schuerholz.  Tiger Pride and Natty Boh, hon.

[sbr]

Very happy that Raines got in; it's unfortunate to be the second best lead-off hitter in the history of the game but to also have played at the same time as the best.

I guess I didn't remember or realize how good Bagwell was.  He and Barry Bonds are the only 2 players to have multiple 40HR 30SB seasons.  Much more deserving than Biggio, that's for sure.

Can't argue with Pudge either, unless you want to go down the Who Did and Who Didn't rabbit hole with guys that never failed a real test.

Agreed about Hoffman and Vlad, both will be in.  Probably next year but eventually for sure.

Mussina is blah.  At least Biggio compiled HoF worth stats during his 82 year career.  Mussina's numbers aren't impressive enough to make up for his rather forgettable career.

I have always said that Schilling should be a Hall of Famer, no doubt about it.  I hope he gets in posthumously after getting run over by a cement mixer before the next round of voting.

My favorite dark horse/under-rated candidate - Edgar Martinez.  He is trending up but I don't know if it is fast enough to beat the new rules (10 years on ballot and can only vote for 10 player each year).  The best DH award is named after the guy for fuck's sake he needs to be in the Hall.

Bonds and Clemens both made sizable jumps this year and I hope that they end up getting in.  Rafael Palmeiro can suck a dick though.

[The Minsky Moment]

Oh, you mean the guy that would slide head first, as not to break the vials of cocaine in his back pocket?  Yeah, the Rock.  It's called "crack" on the street. 

He reformed.  Jesus saves
Anyways, it's hard enough getting guys from the 80s elected, if we start eliminating all the cokeheads, it'll be impossible.

Mike Mussina is not an elite quarterback.

Still sour grapes from the FA departure?
There are plenty of pitchers with that profile in the Hall - Glavine, Ruffing, Grimes, Hoyt, Wynn, Hoyt, Sutton, Gomez.  Also Jim Bunning - elite jackass in the Senate but not so much on the mound.  Mussina compares well overall to that group.
Where Mussina makes his case is his extraordinary consistency.  Is there value in having a guy that is going to give you reliable results on the mound, year after year?  A guy who in the modern era had nine straight seasons of 200 IP, 17 straight at 150 IP, who made at least 24 starts a year after his rookie year?   That's a very valuable and rare skill.  And with six top 5 finishes in the Cy Young.
Glavine is a decent comp but with the benefit of playing in the NL.  And Glavine never had to play behind the kind of legendarily bad defenses Mussina had to work with on the 2002-2005 Yankees.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm beginning to suspect that Joan and Moose are butt buddies.

[The Minsky Moment]

He is kind of dreamy . . .

[Valmy]

Moose is a damn traitor.

[The Minsky Moment]

Just be happy NYY didn't take the whole Orioles franchise, 1903 style.

[CountDeMoney]

Moose is a damn traitor.

Disagree.  He was betrayed by Peter Asbestos.

[CountDeMoney]

Oh, you mean the guy that would slide head first, as not to break the vials of cocaine in his back pocket?  Yeah, the Rock.  It's called "crack" on the street. 

He reformed.  Jesus saves
Anyways, it's hard enough getting guys from the 80s elected, if we start eliminating all the cokeheads, it'll be impossible.

Tough shit.  Everybody gets grief for performance enhancing drugs, yet guys like Raines get a pass for doing more coke than Tony Montana.  Fuck that.

Still sour grapes from the FA departure?

Not at all; on the contrary, I didn't blame him in the slightest.  He did his part in '97, signing for under-market value despite Brady Anderson being overpaid and Cal getting his twilight megamillions, and his loyalty was pissed upon by a WAIT FOR IT a filthy fucking cuntfuck trial lawyer who's  too fucking cheap to even be Jewish.

There are plenty of pitchers with that profile in the Hall - Glavine, Ruffing, Grimes, Hoyt, Wynn, Hoyt, Sutton, Gomez.  Also Jim Bunning - elite jackass in the Senate but not so much on the mound.  Mussina compares well overall to that group.
Where Mussina makes his case is his extraordinary consistency.  Is there value in having a guy that is going to give you reliable results on the mound, year after year?  A guy who in the modern era had nine straight seasons of 200 IP, 17 straight at 150 IP, who made at least 24 starts a year after his rookie year?   That's a very valuable and rare skill.  And with six top 5 finishes in the Cy Young.
Glavine is a decent comp but with the benefit of playing in the NL.  And Glavine never had to play behind the kind of legendarily bad defenses Mussina had to work with on the 2002-2005 Yankees.

[dps]

There are plenty of pitchers with that profile in the Hall - Glavine, Ruffing, Grimes, Hoyt, Wynn, Hoyt, Sutton, Gomez.  Also Jim Bunning - elite jackass in the Senate but not so much on the mound.  Mussina compares well overall to that group.
Where Mussina makes his case is his extraordinary consistency.  Is there value in having a guy that is going to give you reliable results on the mound, year after year?  A guy who in the modern era had nine straight seasons of 200 IP, 17 straight at 150 IP, who made at least 24 starts a year after his rookie year?   That's a very valuable and rare skill.  And with six top 5 finishes in the Cy Young.
Glavine is a decent comp but with the benefit of playing in the NL.  And Glavine never had to play behind the kind of legendarily bad defenses Mussina had to work with on the 2002-2005 Yankees.

Mussina's actually better--considerably better--than any of those guys except maybe Glavine and Gomez.  Mussina won 270 with a .638 winning percentage.  The guys you list have 220+ wins but winning percentages in the .250-.265 range except that Glavine won over 300 game with a winning percentage just over .600, and Gomez had considerably fewer wins than anyone else you listed (189) but a winning percentage even better than Mussina's (.649). 

I get what you say about Sutton being a good comp for Mussina, though.  Their numbers aren't strikingly similar, but both were guys who were pretty consistant, were never considered to be the best starter in any given year, but were usually among the better starters, and stuck around for a long time.  That said, I think Mussina was clearly better, though Sutton of course ended up with more wins 'cause he stuck around longer.

Jim Palmer's career numbers are pretty comparable to Mussina's, but otherwise they're not really all that similar--Palmer had some big seasons in there.