Tag: Edgar Martinez

Ken Griffey Jr. is Still DRIPPING Swag in Custom Cufflinks, Socks, and Tie at Hall of Fame Weekend

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Ken Griffey Jr. is probably the favorite baseball player of anyone between the ages of 30-35 because he legitimately changed the game. He was the first guy that I remember having fun while simultaneously being the best player in the game. Guys like A-Rod and Jeter looked like anxiety attacks and business suits whereas Griffey just put his hat on backwards and hit moonshots with a smile on his face. Not to mention he was the namesake of one of the best video games of all time: Ken Griffey Jr Baseball.

I haven’t really heard much from Junior since his retirement in 2010. I know he works as a special consultant in the Mariners front office, but unless you’re doing TV like Pedro does in addition to his role with the Red Sox, then its a pretty behind the scenes gig. So for Griffey to step out at Hall of Fame weekend just DRIPPING in swag is awesome to see. All these years later and he’s still cooler than the other side of the pillow with custom branded cufflinks, socks, and tie.

The swingman tie may be the greatest fashion accessory I’ve ever seen. Incredible branding by Junior. Excuse me while I try and squeeze into my Griffey Mariners jersey from 1996.

I Want the Universal Designated Hitter and I Want It Now

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With Major League Baseball Spring Training now underway, it was no surprise to hear that the league and the Player’s Association were once again discussing potential rule changes for the game. It’s an almost annual occurrence now, with the limiting of mound visits last year and the expansion of the playoffs in 2012 examples of recent proposals that were ultimately implemented. This spring, one proposal in particular seems to be receiving the most attention – the universal designated hitter.

It’s high time that both leagues play by the same rules, and I strongly support the idea of a universal designated hitter. Twenty years ago, when teams were scoring runs at record levels, there was no call for a universal designated hitter. Actually, there were calls for the American League to repeal the designated hitter rule. In 1996, teams scored 5.04 runs per game and it was the first time runs per game topped 5 in 60 years. Runs per game spiked to 5.14 in 2000, but have been steadily decreasing ever since.

In 2018, teams scored 4.45 runs per game. In 2014, teams scored just 4.07 runs per game. That 2014 number was the lowest runs per game number since the strike-shortened 1981 season (4.00) and the third-lowest number of the DH era (1973-present). A universal designated hitter would provide more offense to the game and help reverse this trend.

A universal designated hitter would also provide more action to a game desperately in need of it. Pitchers like David Price taking 40 seconds between pitches is certainly an issue, but the long time between balls being put into play is a bigger issue. Balls in play are way down and strikeouts are way up. Last year’s National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom hit .164 at the plate. He struck out 25 times – and had just 11 hits – in 74 plate appearances. Number 9 hitters with stat lines like that don’t make the game more fun to watch.

A universal designated hitter would also speed games up by removing most double switches, cutting down on pinch hitters, and maybe even cutting down on relief pitchers if managers can keep their starters in the game longer and go to the bullpen later.

From a competitive standpoint, National League teams and fans should be clamoring for a universal designated hitter. In 22 years of regular season interleague play, the American League holds a 3032-2732 record and a .526 winning percentage. The American League has won more regular season interleague games in 17 of the 22 seasons that have featured interleague play. American League teams have also won 18 of the 32 World Series played since 1986, when the current World Series designated hitter rules were adopted (both teams use a DH in games in AL ballparks, pitchers hit in games in NL ballparks). Clearly, AL teams don’t lose much when they lose a designated hitter. David Ortiz could always play first base 5-6 times a year. NL teams don’t gain much, though, when they get to insert a light-hitting utility infielder or fourth outfielder into their lineup as their designated hitter du jour.

Because the current baseball collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2021 season, it’s unlikely we see the designated hitter at places like Dodger Stadium or Wrigley Field before 2022. Still, it’s an easy chip for Major League Baseball to trade to the Player’s Association in exchange for something else they want. Compared to the alternatives of banning shifts or other more dramatic changes to the fabric of the game, though, a universal designated hitter seems like an easy way to modernize and refresh the game.

Taking a Look at the 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

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While I don’t have a ballot to cast, for the second straight year I have taken a look at all of the players on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame Ballot. I figured if I’m going to gripe about the Hall of Fame selection process I might as well fill out a mock ballot myself to get a better handle on the process.

It’s not rocket science but there are some tough decision to be made. Voters may vote for up to 10 of the 33 players on the ballot. I selected eight on my mock ballot. They are:

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Vladimir Guerrero
Chipper Jones
Curt Schilling
Sammy Sosa
Jim Thome
Billy Wagner

Obviously I’m not opposed to voting for suspected steroids users. I voted for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens because, whether or not they used steroids, Bonds was indisputably the best hitter in the game for much of his career and Clemens was indisputably the best pitcher in the game for much of his career. The same cannot be said for Manny Ramirez.

Bonds won seven MVP awards, including FOUR in a row 2001-2004. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards and won the award back-to-back on two occasions, a decade apart. Ramirez never won an MVP award and quit on his team more times than I care to remember. He was also popped for PEDs twice. While strong cases could be made against Bonds and Clemens, those guys never failed drug tests. Testing didn’t start until 2003, but I have a hard time giving guys grief for doing business as business was being done at the time.

Maybe numbers were inflated, and careers extended, but Bonds and Clemens were far and away better than the rest of their contemporaries. Again, the same cannot be said of Ramirez.

Regarding Sammy Sosa, he won the 1998 NL MVP award and is the only man in history with three 60+ home run seasons. Sosa played in the same era as Bonds so he is not the best player of his era, but few players ever were as dominant as Sosa was for six straight seasons, 1998-2003.

Vladimir Guerrero made nine all-star games in 12 seasons between 1999 and 2010. He was a great offensive player and had one hell of an arm in the outfield. He didn’t compile huge numbers over a lengthy career, but he was one of the best players of the 2000s and he gets my vote for that reason.

Jim Thome was never the best player at his position, never mind the best player in the game. But he did compile huge numbers over a lengthy career. Mammoth numbers. He’s not in the 500 Home Run Club. He’s in the 600 Home Run Club. He’s eighth on the all-time home run list with 612. He also drove in nearly 1700 runs. He never won an MVP award, but it’s hard to not vote for a guy with those numbers on his resume. Guy just went to work and mashed for 22 years.

Chipper Jones was consistently very good for more than 15 years and was a big part of Atlanta’s run of division titles. The 1995 NL MVP made eight all-star teams, and I was pleasantly surprised by his 468 home runs and 1623 RBI.

As I said last year, Curt Schilling gets my vote because he was the best big-game pitcher of his era. He was 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA in 19 postseason appearances and won a ring in Arizona before winning two with the Sox. Now a noted meme curator, it’s been sad to see him self destruct in recent years but he’s a Hall of Famer nonetheless.

And in a flip from last year, I voted for Billy Wagner this year instead of Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman appeared on 74% of ballots last year and Wagner only appeared on 10% of ballots but Wagner was the better relief pitcher. The only number Hoffman has on Wagner is saves. Hoffman saved 601 games in 18 years and Wagner saved 422 in 16 years. But Wagner had a better win-loss percentage, a substantially lower ERA, he struck out more batters in almost 200 fewer innings, had a lower WHIP and a better strikeout-to-walk ratio. I know that Hoffman is getting in and Wagner probably won’t sniff even 20% but I’m taking a principled stand here. Wagner was better than Hoffman.

Regarding some notable candidates left off my ballot…

Edgar Martinez was a very good player for a long period of time but he wasn’t even the best player on his own team for most of his career (Griffey, A-Rod, Ichiro). There’s just not enough offensive production on his resume to separate him from the rest of the pack for me. It has nothing to do with being a DH, though.

Mike Mussina pitched very well in an era of inflated offense but he was never the most feared pitcher in the game, and he never won a Cy Young award.

Gary Sheffield posted very good offensive numbers for a long period of time, but it’s hard to think he would’ve bounced around as much as he did if he were truly one of the all-time greats. (Editor’s note: Dougie did his capstone project in a college Baseball Stats class arguing Sheffield should make the HOF. The most comparable HOFer? Jim Rice)

Larry Walker posted very good offensive numbers, but a lot of that production came in Colorado in the late 1990s. To give you an idea of what was going on in that era, he hit .379 with 37 HRs and 115 RBI in 127 games in 1999 and finished 10th in the MVP voting that season. He was a very good player in his era, but not head and shoulders above everybody else.

 

That’s all I got. Hit me up with your thoughts on Twitter @The300sBigZ