{"id":1211,"date":"2009-05-21T06:00:43","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T13:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/21\/seamheads-near-miss-league-something-old-something-new\/"},"modified":"2009-05-21T06:01:22","modified_gmt":"2009-05-21T13:01:22","slug":"seamheads-near-miss-league-something-old-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/21\/seamheads-near-miss-league-something-old-something-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Seamheads Near Miss League: Something Old, Something New"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 20 games into the season, old-timers Joe Judge and Ken Williams are dominating the A.L. leader boards, while modern players like Marquis Grissom and Jim Edmonds are the class of the N.L.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s still way too early to make anything of the standings, but a quick peek at them has me a little giddy.\u00c2\u00a0 My favorite team, the Red Sox, being run by my favorite sportswriter, Bill Simmons, is in first place in the A.L. East with a record of 11-7, while the team I’m running, the 1922 St. Louis Browns, is not only in first place in the A.L. West with a 13-5 mark, but has the best record in the SNML.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, the N.L. is being paced by the 1951 New York Giants in the East and the ’96 Atlanta Braves in the West.<\/p>\n

What makes me happiest about the current standings is that no less than three different eras are represented.\u00c2\u00a0 With all due respect to the other owners, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun if all four divisions were being paced by teams from the same era.\u00c2\u00a0 Frankly, I’m rooting for everyone to do well, but hoping that the eight teams that make the postseason are scattered across baseball history and not just from the last 15 years or so.<\/p>\n

Here Come Da Judge<\/strong>: Washington Senators first baseman Joe Judge is off to a hot start and is leading the American League in hitting at .453.\u00c2\u00a0 Judge is 29-for-64 in 17 games and is particularly hot at home, batting .533 at Griffith Stadium vs. 382 on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 What are the odds of Judge actually winning the SNML’s A.L batting crown?\u00c2\u00a0 Not good.\u00c2\u00a0 Judge was a very good player for a very long time, batting .298 in his 20-year career and receiving MVP votes in four of those seasons (1922, ’23, ’26, and ’28).\u00c2\u00a0 He had a great EYE, walking twice as much as he struck out during his career, including 1928 when he walked 80 times while fanning only 19.<\/p>\n

But his career high in batting was “only” .333 in 1920.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only was that not quite good enough to earn him a spot in the top 10 that year (Ty Cobb was 10th at .334), but it was 74 points behind George Sisler, who hit .407 that season.\u00c2\u00a0 Two years later, Sisler copped his second batting title and the MVP Award after batting .420.\u00c2\u00a0 It just so happens that Sisler, circa 1922, is also in the SNML and batting .375 at the moment.\u00c2\u00a0 I may be biased because I’m the owner of the Browns, but my money is on Sisler to take home the A.L. batting crown come October.<\/p>\n

Like Night and Day<\/strong>: Browns slugger Ken Williams is leading the A.L. in homers with eight, thanks in part to the friendly confines of Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, where Williams has blasted six of his eight round-trippers.\u00c2\u00a0 But what’s even more interesting is that seven of his eight homers have come in night games, and he’s batting .449\/.525\/.918 at night, but only .150\/.227\/.450 during the day.\u00c2\u00a0 The first night games in the American League weren’t played until 1939, 10 years after Williams retired.\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately for me and the Browns, OOTP 9 doesn’t know that, and Williams is as scary in the dark as the boogeyman and Jame Gumb.<\/p>\n

What Can Brown Do For You?<\/strong>: San Diego Padres ace Kevin Brown improved to 4-0 with a 5-0 shutout over the Cardinals on April 27 and very easily could be 5-0 if not for a blown save by Trevor Hoffman on April 12.\u00c2\u00a0 Brown has gone at least eight innings in all five starts, including his last two in which he’s allowed no runs on nine hits and two walks, while striking out 15.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, Brown has allowed only 23 hits and seven walks in 42 innings, and has fanned 36 batters.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you think his 0.86 ERA is ludicrous, consider this: it should be even better<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 His Expected ERA is 0.76.\u00c2\u00a0 He has his work cut out for him, though, if he’s going to keep his ERA below 1.00; his next scheduled start is against the ’90 Pirates, who are currently third in the N.L. in runs scored.<\/p>\n

Who’s Your Daddy?<\/strong>: Speaking of the Padres, they’re surprising everyone with an offense that ranks first in eight categories, including AVG (.272), OBA (.343), SLG (.446), OPS (.788), and runs scored (90), and among the top five in starters’ ERA (2.82), team ERA (3.32), fewest walks allowed, and most strikeouts.\u00c2\u00a0 Third baseman Ken Caminiti is pacing the team in all three Triple Crown categories, batting .300 with seven homers and 17 RBIs, and the aforementioned Kevin Brown is leading the pitchers in wins, ERA, and strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Despite their success, the team is only 11-8 and in second place, a game behind the Braves and two back in the loss column.\u00c2\u00a0 Why?\u00c2\u00a0 Because the Pads are only 2-5 in one-run games.\u00c2\u00a0 If they can improve in that area, they could be a surprise contender.<\/p>\n

A Fine Me(t)ss<\/strong>: The New York Mets are off to a horrendous 4-13 start and almost everyone in Queens deserves the blame.\u00c2\u00a0 The team is last in almost all of the hitting categories, and is 11th in runs scored, averaging only 2.9 a game.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re also last in half of the pitching categories, including ERA at 4.76 and runs allowed (89).\u00c2\u00a0 David Cone (2-2, 3.21) and Bob Ojeda, who is a hard-luck 0-2 despite a team-best 2.81 ERA, are the only starters on the team who have performed to their capabilities.\u00c2\u00a0 Dwight Gooden has been disappointing (0-2, 5.56), Sid Fernandez has underwhelmed (0-1, 6.88), and Ron Darling has been mostly putrid (0-3, 7.17).<\/p>\n

The hitters have been no better\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDarryl Strawberry leads the regulars with a .262 average (Wally Backman and Dave Magadan are both hitting over .300, but they’re platoon players), and Howard Johnson is pacing the club with only eight RBIs.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, Kevin McReynolds (.190), Gary Carter (.145, no home runs), Keith Hernandez (.135), and Lenny Dykstra and Mookie Wilson (a combined .170) continue to struggle.<\/p>\n

They also have the worst fielding in the league at .977, thanks to a porous outfield that has five miscues and a pitching staff with four.<\/p>\n

A Walk on the Wild Side<\/strong>: Phillies closer Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams, tagged with that nickname because he had a career BB\/9 ratio of 7.1, hadn’t allowed an earned run in his first seven appearances and appeared to have everything under control.\u00c2\u00a0 Then he remembered who he was and imploded on April 22 in a 2-1 loss to the Expos.\u00c2\u00a0 Williams entered the game in the bottom of the ninth looking to preserve a 1-0 win for Tommy Greene, who’d thrown seven innings of shutout ball, before leaving in favor of Larry Andersen, who tossed a perfect eighth.<\/p>\n

Williams fanned Moises Alou on three pitches, walked Darrin Fletcher on four pitches, struck out Marquis Grissom, walked Wil Cordero, walked Sean Berry, and ran the count on Rondell White to 3-1 before surrendering a two-run game-winning single.<\/p>\n

He’s 6-for-7 in save opportunities, boasts an excellent 1.93 ERA, and has struck out 11 men in 9 1\/3 innings, but he’s also walked seven for a 6.75 ratio, which is slightly higher than the 6.4 he recorded in 1993, but better than his career mark.<\/p>\n

A New York State of Mind<\/strong>: On April 20, Giants center fielder Willie Mays went 0-for-2 against the Expos and saw his average dip to .097, making Mario Mendoza look like a Hall of Famer by comparison.\u00c2\u00a0 Since then, he’s 15-for-30 and has his average up to a more respectable .295.\u00c2\u00a0 So what was it that lit a fire under Mays over his last six games?\u00c2\u00a0 Two words: New York.\u00c2\u00a0 The Giants went to Brooklyn to face the Robins for a three-game set and the “Say Hey Kid” went 4-for-15, which isn’t great, but much better than the 0-for-14 he was in his four previous games.<\/p>\n

Then things really heated up for Mays, who went 11-for-15 in a three-game series at the Polo Grounds against the Mets, highlighted by a 4-for-5 day in which he hit for the cycle.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, it didn’t hurt that Mays and the Giants were back home.\u00c2\u00a0 The team is 6-3 at home and Mays has a special affinity for the Polo Grounds, where he’s hitting .429\/.500\/.821 with all four walks, all three doubles, both homers, and his only triple.\u00c2\u00a0 On the road, he’s batting only .182\/.171\/.182 with six singles in 33 at-bats, and all six of his strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Catch Me If You Can<\/strong>: Brewers third baseman Paul Molitor is leading the A.L. in steals with 13 and he’s needed only 18 games to do it.\u00c2\u00a0 Molitor stole 504 bases in his 21-year career, and boasted a success rate of 79.3%, but his single-season best was 45 in 1987, and he stole 40 or more only four times.\u00c2\u00a0 But, if he continues at his current pace, Molitor will pilfer 110 bags, tying Vince Coleman with the third highest single-season total in the modern era.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully, for the sake of accuracy, he slows down a bit.<\/p>\n

And what the hell was going on in 1887?\u00c2\u00a0 While doing research for this blurb, I found that Hugh Nicol (138), Arlie Latham (129), Charles Comiskey (117), John Ward (111), Pete Browning (103), and Jim Fogarty (102) all had over 100 stolen bases that season, which demanded that I dig further.\u00c2\u00a0 Once I did, I found that players who took an extra base on hits in those days were credited with a steal, making it impossible to know how many stolen bases were earned by the current definition of the rules.\u00c2\u00a0 I was also reminded that Latham’s nickname was “The Freshest Man on Earth.”\u00c2\u00a0 Ah, the good old days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost 20 games into the season, old-timers Joe Judge and Ken Williams are dominating the A.L. leader boards, while modern players like Marquis Grissom and Jim Edmonds are the class of the N.L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}