Fathers and Sons: Top 20 All-Time Sons of Major Leaguers

The San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies face off this weekend in a match-up featuring a bewildering assortment of player related in some way to other players, including Will Venable, Tony Gwynn Jr., Jayson Werth, Scott and Jerry Hairston, and Padres coach Glenn Hoffman.

Nevertheless, with Ken Griffey Jr., announcing his retirement on Wednesday, the era of Major League sons truly comes to a close.

In the last 25 years we’ve enjoyed the careers of several sons of major leaguers, including some of the best players of the generation.

So where does Griffey rank on the list of the Top 20 Sons of Former Major Leaguers of All Time?

Let’s have a look.

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Phillies 2008 Post-Season Hero Matt Stairs Returns to Philadelphia

In 18 seasons spent in the major leagues, perhaps Matt Stairs’ most well-known moment came in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform.

Stairs, the former Phillie and current San Diego Padre, is back in Philadelphia this weekend for the first time since leaving the Phillies this off-season.  

Before Friday night’s game the Phillies held a brief ceremony in Stairs’ honor so that he could officially receive his 2009 National League Champion ring and receive an ovation from an adoring Phillies’ crowd.

While Friday night was about honoring Stairs’ role in the Phillies’ 2009 NL Championship, it was Stairs’ performance in the 2008 playoffs for which Phillies fans will remember him forever.

In Game Four of the 2008 NLCS, Stairs came to the plate as a pinch hitter in the top of the eighth inning with the Phillies and Dodgers tied 5-5.  The Dodgers brought in superstud closer Jonathan Broxton to face Stairs, and Stairs took him deep for a two-run homerun which ultimately won Game Four and gave the Phillies a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.

Stairs remembers the moment fondly.  He suspects that Broxton remembers that moment as well.

“We faced him a couple of weeks ago, and he blew me away.  He’d been throwing 91, 92 to the guys before me, then suddenly he’s hitting 95 against me.”

And so it goes for the most well-traveled hitter in major league history.  There is always someone, somewhere, who remembers something you did to them.

When Stairs came to Philadelphia before the 2008 season, the Phillies were his 11th team, which tied a major league record held by turn-of-the-century catcher Deacon McGuire. When Stairs joined the Padres this season, he took over sole possession of first place.

Ironically Stairs, who spent his entire career being known as rather a heavyset, perhaps even slovenly player, is now in the best shape of his life, having lost over 30 pounds to get his weight down from about 230 (which is his “yeah right” weight) to about 195.

To look at him in a Padres uniform, you might think you’re talking to Brian Giles.

Asked about his weight, Stairs was candid.

“I’m in better shape now than I’ve ever been.  Now, sometimes I’ll just go shag flies in the outfield during batting practice.  I’m seeing things—like my feet—that I’ve never seen before.”

Stairs is also candid about why it was that he joined San Diego this off-season.  The beautiful weather?  The young, talented club?  A chance to play regularly?

“They were the only team that wanted me,” he says with a smile.

Of course, the move has been a good one for Stairs thus far in 2010.  

Though Stairs hasn’t put up the prettiest numbers, the Padres are leading the NL West and currently have the best record in the National League.

Not bad for a team most people didn’t expect to make it out of the NL West cellar.

So why are the San Diego Padres the surprise team in baseball in 2010?  Stairs is quick with his answer.

“Because we don’t have any superstars.”

Stairs points out that the Padres have an incredibly talented pitching staff made up of unassuming guys who are in the early stages of their careers and only just now making names for themselves.  They work hard, eager to prove they belong, and don’t get caught up in some of the things that can bog down teams with more experienced—and better paid —players.

That, and it really helps that the Padres have an absolutely dominant bullpen.  

“We’re playing six inning games out there, because our relievers are dominant during the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings.”

As for plans for life after baseball, Stairs eagerly awaits the opportunity to become a hitting coach and, perhaps some day, a major league manager.  

In fact, Stairs said that before he decided to return to the majors this off-season, the Phillies offered him two different minor league manager positions in the organization.  

But he wasn’t quite ready to retire.

And now?

“Well, who knows?” he said. “If I hit .390 for the rest of the season, I’ll probably want to come back.  If not, I’ll be ready to start down the coaching track.”

Whether he retires after the 2010 season and becomes a minor league manager, or decides to extend his record to 13 teams in 2011, Matt Stairs will always have a special place in the hearts of Phillies fans, and will always be welcome in Philadelphia.

Just make sure Jonathan Broxton isn’t in town.

 

 

Asher B. Chancey lives in Philadelphia and is a co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com

 

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No-Hitters: Perfection and Near Perfection in 2010

There have been 18 perfect games since 1900.

Interestingly enough, 11 of those 18 have come since 1981. Perfect games used to be rare. What we have seen this year is unprecedented. It is unlikely that the perfect and near-perfect games will continue. It is possible that we won’t see another one for 20-30 years.

Way back in May of 2002, Mike Cameron and Shawn Green each hit four home runs in a game. In 2003, Carlos Delgado also accomplished this. Many fans thought that we would see this more and more.

However, no one has hit four homers in a game since. We will know soon enough if the same thing will happen with the perfect and near perfect games of 2010.

One could argue that giving up one hit, or one base runner, is not close to a perfect game at all. As soon as the pitcher gives up a hit, the pressure is gone. There may be something to that.

Here is a rundown of the perfect and near perfect games of 2010.

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2010 MLB Season: New Pitchers’ Era, or Just Something in the Air?

Sometimes during the long and winding baseball season, there are games in which one gets the feeling that the action on the field isn’t just a function of the players on the field, but that there might just be something in the air that day.

There was, for example, the infamous Phillies-Cubs game on May 17, 1979, when the two combined for 45 runs and 11 home runs, and the Phillies won the game 23-22 in the 10th inning.  Both pitchers got Turbo Tanked, with Cubs starter Dennis Lamp giving up six earned runs while retiring only one batter, followed by Phillies starter Randy Lerch giving up five earned runs while retiring only one batter.

Clearly, something other than the performance of the players on the two teams was accounting for the ridiculous offense by those two teams.  In this case, though, the answer is relatively simple – it was Wrigley Field, and the wind was most definitely blowing out.

But what about the flip-side?  What about the situation where two teams score very few runs, and the two pitchers have apparently dominant games?

Perfect games in which the opposing pitcher allows no earned runs.

Last Saturday night in Miami (which, by the way, we’re apparently required to call “South Florida” now) Roy Halladay pitched a Perfect Game against the Florida Marlins in a game in which the Marlins didn’t manage a single base-runner while the Phillies needed an error to score their only run of the game, unearned, and take the 1-0 victory.

These are not two offensively challenged teams – the Phillies have one of the most potent (though not at the time) offenses in baseball, and the Marlins have generally been a good hitting/bad pitching team.

And sure, the game certainly featured a matchup between the aces of those two teams, Halladay and Josh Johnson, who also happen to be two of the top pitchers in the National League.

But I think there is more to it than that.  Check this out:

Johnson’s performance in that game obviously jumps off the page: seven innings pitched, seven hits allowed, one walk, six strikeouts, and only the one unearned run.

Naturally, one might think that having the other pitcher pitch so well in a game in which his opponent pitches a perfect game might be rare.

One would be wrong.

Looking back over the history of Major League perfect games, having the other pitcher give up zero earned runs is actually shockingly common:

– Lee Richmond: When Richmond pitched his perfect game, Jim McCormick also pitched a complete game for Cleveland, allowed three hits and one unearned run while walking one and striking out seven.

– Addie Joss: This game is on the short list for greatest pitching duel of all time, between Joss and Ed Walsh.  It could be argued that Walsh had the better game.  He allowed four hits and one unearned run in a complete game effort, while walking one and striking out 15.  Meanwhile, Joss had only three strikeouts in his perfecto.

– Sandy Koufax: in the game in which Koufax struck out 14, Bob Hendley pitched a complete game one-hitter, walking one and striking out three while allowing the one unearned run.  In fact, the only base-runner of the entire game was Lou Johnson, who had a hit and a walk.

– Mike Witt: Witt struck out ten in his perfect game, while Charlie Hough pitched a complete game seven hitter, walking three and striking out three while allowing only the unearned run.

– Tom Browning: Browning struck out seven batters and threw 100 pitches in his perfect game.  Tim Belcher pitched an eight inning complete game three-hitter, also striking out seven, walking one, and allowed the one unearned run.

– Dennis Martinez: When Martinez struck out five in his perfect game against the Dodgers, Mike Morgan also struck out five in a complete game four-hitter, striking out five and walking one while allowed two unearned runs.

Other good performances by the “oh-by-the-way” guy.

There have been other famous pitching performances where the other guy, in “oh-by-the-way” form also pitched lights out:

At the beginning of his 20-strikeout game on May 6, 1998, Kerry Wood struck out the first five batters he faced.  At the same time, the opposing pitcher, Shane Reynolds, also struck out the side in the first and four of the first six batters overall.  Reynolds finished the day with a complete game, eight hits and two runs (one earned) allowed while striking out ten and walking two.

When Randy Johnson struck out 20 Cincinnati Reds and allowed only one run in nine innings on May 8, 2001, the game went to extra innings because Reds pitcher Chris Reitsma also allowed only one runs through eight innings.

On May 26th, 1959 Harvey Haddix had a perfect game through nine innings.  And ten innings.  And eleven innings.  And twelve innings.  Haddix lost the perfect game and the game itself in the bottom of the 13th, and had to settle for a 12.2 innings one hitter. 

Why?  Because opposing pitcher Lew Burdette threw a 13 inning twelve hit shutout.

When Tom Cheney struck out 21 batters and allowed only one run in 16 innings on September 12, 1962, the game lasted as long as it did because opposing pitchers Milt Pappas and Dick Hall combined for 15 innings of one run ball before giving up the deciding run in the 16th.

Pedro Martinez famously lost a perfect game on June 3, 1995, when, after pitching nine perfect innings, he gave up a lead-off hit in the bottom of the tenth.  The only reason the game went into the tenth was that Joey Hamilton pitched a nine inning shutout himself, allowing only three hits and two walks.  Reliever Brian Williams gave up the deciding run in the tenth.

So what’s the point of all this?

Three perfect games (sorry, two perfect games and a near third) in one month of a season raises a lot of questions.  Is this the end of the steroid era?  The end of the amphetamine era?  Are we season the dawn of a new pitchers’ era?  Has something changed with the balls?  The bats?  The gloves?

In trying to make sense of what we’ve been seeing in regards to pitching so far this season, perhaps the best explanation might be the simplest: maybe there’s just something in the air.

 

Asher B. Chancey lives in Philadelphia and is a co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com.

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Are the Philllies Phinished? 10 Times They’ve Looked “Dead” Since 2007

The Phillies look really, really bad right now. But relax. Anyone who has followed this team over the years knows that it happens every year—to every team, for that matter. That’s part of playing a 162-game schedule.

As much as the media would like you to believe otherwise, the MLB standings on June 4 are MEANINGLESS. Totally MEANINGLESS.

PLEASE READ: The quotations on the following slides weren’t actually said by anyone. They are just along the lines of what a typical Phillies fan who is high on passion and low on perspective would probably have said following each game.

The “Author’s thoughts” section of each slide is what yours truly was thinking about the Phillies at the given time…if you really care.

Please enjoy, stay calm, stay positive, and remember…

There are still three months of regular season baseball left. Much better days are ahead. Besides, the Phils have a long reputation of being a second-half team, while the Braves and Mets are never known for fading in June…

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Zack Greinke and the Top 20 Worst Cy Young Follow Up Seasons

With his latest loss on Thursday, the Kansas City Royals’ Zack Greinke has fallen to 1-7 on the season with a 3.60 ERA.

Greinke, of course, is the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, having gone 16-8 with a sparkling 2.16 ERA and 242 strikeouts a year ago.

So, is Greinke having the worst follow-up to a Cy Young Award season in baseball history?

Maybe, but at this point, he isn’t close.

One of the major sub-plots of Greinke’s season has been the loss of his catcher from his amazing 2009 season. As we take a look at these Top 20 Worst Cy Young Follow Up Seasons, we’ll also take a look at the catchers involved to determine whether a catcher change was a factor each time.

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Complacency Will Haunt the Philadelphia Phillies All Season Long

The only way to explain the slump of this entire team is complacency. They have become so used to winning without truly trying that it’s now catching up to them.

We see every day that not only in sports, but winning in life as well all comes down to who wants it more and not about who’s the most talented. There’s no doubt the Phillies are one of, if not the most talented teams in the league.

However, when Charlie Manuel has to turn their TV off in the clubhouse because they’re all watching Gran Torino before the game rather than getting themselves prepared, it shows a clear complacency that could haunt them for the rest of the season.

Manuel is doing everything he can. He’s switching the lineup hoping that will create a spark, but it’s not working. He’s tried simply being patient with them and letting them work it out, but it’s not working.

Now he’s showing how he plans on breaking the complacency: he’s going to get thrown out of some games and really treat them like they’re a team full of teenage misfits playing as a term of their probation.

Seeing him actually give a damn might get through to them, but it’s going to have to happen quickly as in just a little over a week they’ve lost the lead in the division to the Braves, and currently sit two and a half games back.

The season is still young, and injuries have certainly played a part, but if they can’t find a way to start caring on a day-to-day basis, they could find themselves in a lot of trouble come September.

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The Top 10 Philadelphia Phillies Draft Busts of All Time

Ask any modern—day Philadelphia Phillies fan who the biggest Phillies draft bust of all time was, and chances are that they’ll tell you it was Pat Burrell.

On behalf of Pat Burrell, I’d just like to say: Wrong!

Compared to this list of the Top Ten Philadelphia Phillies Draft Busts of All Time, Pat the Bat was practically a Hall of Famer.

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Philadelphia Phillies: When Murphy’s Law Meets High Anxiety

 

The Philadelphia Phillies slide and offensive meltdown continues as the team heads into the final game of a nine game NL East road trip. With easy victories the past two games, the Atlanta Braves have ensured that they will be in first place when the Phillies leave town this evening. 

 

The current hitting woes have extended beyond the label “slump” to outright “embarrassment” for a team that fancies itself as an offensive powerhouse. 

 

To review, the Phillies have scored a paltry 13 runs in the last 10 games.  

 

They posted a bagel against the New York Mets on the Citi Field scoreboard— for a three game series! This feat seems particularly incomprehensible since no one named Seaver, Gooden, Cone, or Santana was involved. 

 

Taking into account their body of work before and after their trip to the Big Apple, the Phils were shut out an incredible five times in eight contests. And, in one of those goose egg games, they came within an eighth inning bloop single of being no-hit by a pitcher sporting a 7.52 ERA against the rest of baseball. 

 

Perhaps the most telling testimony is that pitcher Roy Halladay was actually lucky to win a perfect game on Saturday night. The masterpiece would have fallen into baseball infamy had it not been for an unearned run donated by the Florida Marlins. 

 

With the aid of Halladay’s perfect game, the Phillies are 2-8 over their past 10 games. This is particularly troublesome since the Braves have won seven straight and 17 of the past 21 games. 

 

It has gotten so bad that the three spots posted by the Braves in the first inning the past two days created the sinking sense of “game over.” 

 

That feeling proved to be untrue in that the Phillies “exploded” for three runs in each of those games. Of course, the Braves did not stop there, scoring nine and seven respectively to record easy “bring in the rookie hurler to get some work” type victories. 

 

To be fair, the Fightin’s are missing the left-side of their infield— Jimmy Rollins and Placido Polanco. Both players were instrumental in the team’s fast offensive start. 

 

Although there have been many factors, perhaps the current situation highlights Rollins’ overall importance to the team as an offensive catalyst, defensive anchor, and leader? The Phillies are a robust 9-3 with him—and 19-20 without him. 

 

As far as the players who are in uniform and on the field, it appears to be a case of Murphy’s Law meeting high anxiety. 

 

Hitters are pressing so much that CSI forensic scientists would likely find hints of saw dust on every player’s batting gloves. Needless to say, it is a very difficult way to make a living as a major league hitter—at least if you want to exceed the Mendoza line. 

 

And, when the Phillies do show promise of some much needed prosperity, Murphy’s Law seems to always kick in. 

 

Long drives find a way of crashing against the top of the outfield fence—and always seemingly with two outs. 

 

Runners in scoring position always seem to have to hold at third on base hits. 

 

And, batters inevitably seem to whiff or pop out with runners at third and less than two outs. If not, they smack a hard one hopper that turns into an inning ending twin killing.

 

Some of this is obviously operator error, but some of it is just the “bad luck” that follows athletes around who are simply pressing to make each at bat the offensive renaissance. 

 

It’s a bit of a “Catch-22”, but rest assured that Murphy will keep stalking the Phils until the players shed the weights they are carrying on their shoulders. 

 

Let’s hope they do it soon because they are dragging an entire Philly fanbase down with them. 

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30 Thoughts on The First Two Months Of The 2010 Baseball Season.

Today is June 1st. The 2010 baseball season is, figuratively speaking, one third of the way through.  The Philadelphia Phillies find themselves in second place in the NL East and are playing terrible ball – perfect games aside – heading into the summer months.  

The Phillies need Jimmy Rollins back, and soon.

Here are 30 other thoughts regarding the 30 teams and the things they have done so far.

30. The Colorado Rockies are 27-24 despite the fact that Ubaldo Jimenez is 10-1.  The Kansas City Royals are 21-31 despite the fact that Zack Greinke is 1-6.  That means, without their star pitchers, the Rockies are 17-23 while the Royals are 20-24.

29. Ty Wigginton, who wasn’t supposed to be a starter for the Baltimore Orioles this year, leads the team in runs, homeruns, RBI, OPS, OPS+, and adjusted batting runs.

28. Lost in all the talk about Ubaldo, Roy Halladay, and Tim Lincecum, the Cardinals’ Jaime Garcia has gotten off to a 5-1 start with a 1.32 ERA and has only allowed 46 hits through 61.1 innings pitched.

27. The first, second, fourth and fifth best records in the American League belong to division mates the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Toronto Blue Jays.

26. In case you thought we were returning to 1980’s style baseball, you are right in at least one respect: Oakland’s Rajai Davis leads the majors with 22 stolen bases despite his .315 on-base percentage.

25. Alexis Rios, waived by the Blue Jays last August, has 11 home runs, 16 stolen bases, 32 runs scored, and a .312 batting average.  All of these numbers put him on pace for career highs.

24. By my calculations, the Curtis Granderson three-team deal in December of last year netted the Tigers Max Scherzer, Austin Jackson, and Daniel Schlereth for Edwin Jackson and Granderson.  Schlereth has a 2.25 ERA at Triple-A with 30 strikeouts in 24 innings; Scherzer just struck out 14 batters in 5.2 innings last weekend; and Austin Jackson is hitting .330 with a 121 OPS+. 

Meanwhile, Granderson is hitting .232 with a 102 OPS+ in 27 games, and Edwin Jackson leads the National League in earned runs allowed and wild pitches.

23. Josh Johnson accomplished something this week that is shockingly common: he became the seventh starting pitcher to take a loss without allowing a single earned run against an opposing pitcher throwing a perfect game.  Jim McCormick did it against Lee Richmond; Ed Walsh did it against Addie Joss; Bob Hendley did it against Sandy Koufax; Charlie Hough did it against Mike Witt; Tim Belcher did it against Tom Browning; and Mike Morgan did it against Dennis Martinez.

22. Four players finished ahead of Casey McGehee in the 2009 NL Rookie of the Year voting.  Chris Coghlan currently has a .568 OPS, J.A. Happ has pitched 10.1 innings, Tommy Hanson has an ERA in the high-threes, and Andrew McCutcheon is doing fine.  Meanwhile, McGehee leads the National League in RBI, has an .876 OPS, and is ranked sixth in total bases.

21. What are the odds that Robinson Cano would be the leading hitter on a team with Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Teixeira?

20. I’m not sure there is a larger trail of broken dreams than the one running through the Cleveland Indians clubhouse, which features Kerry Wood, Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, Andy Marte, Shelley Duncan, Austin Kearns, and Russ Branyan.

19. Mark Reynolds is quietly on pace to break the single-season strikeout record for the third year in a row.  What’s worse, Reynolds and Justin Upton are on pace to become the first ever 200 strikeout teammates.

18. The San Diego Padres have the best record in the NL despite getting absolutely no production from Kyle Blanks, Everth Cabrera, Tony Gwynn Jr., or Jerry Hairston, Jr.

17. Brandon Wood may be having the worst season of any length of all time.  He is hitting .156 with a .381 OPS (yes, OPS), and 36 strikeouts to go with 2 walks.

16. As uninteresting as the NL Cy Young Award race is at the moment, there is no clear leader in the AL.  Jeff Niemann is your ERA and ERA+ leader; David Price, Andy Pettitte, and Clay Buchholz are tied for the league lead in wins with seven; and Ricky Romero leads the league in strikeouts with 79.

15.  Roy Oswalt is averaging over a strikeout per inning for the first time since his rookie season.

14. If Ivan Rodriguez (currently on the disabled list) can add “taking the Washington Nationals to the playoffs” to “taking the Detroit Tigers to the World Series” and “taking the Florida Marlins to a World Series Championship” on his resume, does that make him the greatest catcher of all time?

13. The fact that Jamey Wright still has a job in Major League Baseball is enough to make you believe in conspiracy theories.

12. Phillies’ record with Jimmy Rollins in the lineup: 9-3; Phillies’ record without Jimmy Rollins in the lineup: 19-20.

11. If Joakim Soria is still a Royal after the trade deadline, then several teams aren’t trying to win and the Royals aren’t trying to rebuild.

10. With 14.4 strikeouts per nine innings, a 4.57 K/BB ratio, and a 231 ERA+, Billy Wagner is back in the Hall of Fame closer conversation.

9. This year’s NL Most Valuable Player Award is bound to be historic.  Right now, it appears as though it will either go to a pitcher, a rookie, or a guy who has already won it three times.

8. Until he proves me wrong, my new nickname for David Wright is “HoJo”, as his career trajectory is tracing, almost perfectly, that of Howard Johnson.

7. Carlos Silva, currently 7-0 with a 3.12 ERA after going a combined 5-18 with a 6.18 ERA in the last two seasons is clearly the Comeback Player of the Year so far.

6. Is there any way Seattle trades Ichiro?

5. In almost half as many games as he played all of last year (100 vs. 49), Vlad Guerrero has almost reached last season’s totals in home runs (15) and RBI (50).

4. Charlie Morton is 1-9 with a 9.35 ERA and 12 home runs allowed in 10 starts this season.  How did he get to 10 starts this season?

3. Cincinnati’s ace this season is Mike Leake, who was drafted last season and has never played a game in the minor leagues but has a 4-0 record and a 2.45 ERA.

2. The National League leader in OPS+ is currently Albert Pujols.  The second place leader is rookie Jason Heyward, the fourth youngest player in the league.

1. The second half of the 2010 baseball season begins on June 8th, when Stephen Strasburg takes the mound for the Washington Nationals against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And that’s the first two months.  We’ll have to check in after another couple of months to see where we stand.

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