Posted on 05/25/2002 11:31:30 AM PDT by 2Trievers
Or, the relievers most likely to cause fire insurance upgrades...for their own teams...
If you could put a relief pitcher on trial for arson, Todd Van Poppel would prove an intriguing defendant.
No jury in this land would convict the Texas Rangers' reliever of goldbricking; whatever it is that may leave him rated as a so-so pitcher when at last he hangs it up, sloth will not be part of the indictment. If anything, any trial for trying to torch the joint and make it resemble an accident would bring in a hung jury.
For the defence: Van Poppel gets thrown to the lions at least at the rate of the ancient Christians in Rome, if his line over the Rangers' first 43 games says anything. Through 19 May, he had the highest average of inherited baserunners (AIR) per nine inheritance-possible innings (IPI) in the majors, a glandular 13.15. Don't be surprised, the next time you see manager Jimy Williams bring Van Poppel into a game, if he's wearing firefighting gear instead of a Rangers number 47.
Defence Exhibit B: Van Poppel compiled a 9.00 stranded runners average (SRA) astride that 13.15, the highest among pitchers with ten or more inherited runners over ten or more IPI. (Jesse Orosco, the grand old man of Los Angeles, is two full points below Van Poppel in second place.)
The prosecution, of course, has already brought up Van Poppel's 4.15 inherited runs average (IRA), which happens to be a mere .52 lower than his earned run average. His predecessor pitchers could murder him on cross examination, perhaps enough to bring a corollary charge of committing unnatural and obscene acts upon their ERAs.
Where the jury might hang would be the difference between Van Poppel's SRA and his IRA. It's...- 4.85. Van Poppel had 19 inherited baserunners in 13 IPI and stranded 13 of them, with six scoring either by his hand or against his record (like by his successor arsonist). A -4.85 SRA/IRA differential is very good, actually. But a strands-to-scores ratio of 2.17/1 is borderline enough. But Van Poppel isn't even close to being baseball's no-questions-asked version of Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
He's only playing with matches compared to Detroit's Jamie Walker, who seems to have gasoline in his blood. In Detroit that's an asset worth a fortune - in the automotive industry; in a Tiger uniform, it's disaster. Over the Tigers' first 41 games, Walker worked as many IPI as Van Poppel and pulled down an 8.31 AIR (12 inherited baserunners), but his SRA was 2.77 and his IRA was 5.54, the highest IRA in the majors through 19 May for pitchers with ten or more inherited runners over ten or more IPI. His ERA to that point? .05 above his IRA. This guy's arson jury would probably convict him in less than half an hour's deliberation.
Stop snickering, Danny Graves. Your 14 saves (in 18 chances) through 19 May look none too good when you're running a 4.71 AIR, a 1.29 SRA, and a 3.43 IRA that's almost a full point over your own ERA. How do you think that makes you look? Ten points if you answered, "It makes me look like I want to be Jamie Walker when I grow up."
Graves's +2.14 SRA/IRA differential was the highest in the National League, but I wouldn't let Colorado's Todd Jones walk around loose with flammable materials, either. He has been a Rockie reliever, all right: a 5.63 AIR (15 inherited runners in 24 IPI), a 2.25 SRA, and a 3.38 IRA. You might keep safer company with a dragon suffering a head cold.
Chris Berman, have you considered Brian (Burnin' Down The) Shouse (Kansas City)? Shouse and his fellow torch juggler Cory Bailey have been a Royal pain...for Kansas City. Bad: Shouse's SRA/IRA differential (+1.20), with a 3.00 SRA and a 4.20 IRA. Worse: Bailey's SRA/IRA differential (+1.59; SRA: 2.12, IRA: 3.71), with two more IPI (17) and one less inherited runner (11) than Shouse.
Staying within the same minimum criteria (ten or more inherited baserunners in ten or more IPI through 19 May), I found sixteen relief pitchers who might be playing with matches but don't quite qualify as prime arson suspects, based on their SRA/IRA differentials (the figures in parentheses list SRA, IRA), though one or two might surprise you:
Vic Dasensbourg (Florida), +0.95 (2.37, 3.32)
Shigetoshi Hasegawa (Seattle), +0.65 (3.21, 3.86)
Mike Buddie (Milwaukee), +0.40 (2.05, 2.45)
La Troy Hawkins (Minnesota) - 0 (2.65, 2.65)
Dennys Reyes (Colorado), 0 (2.81, 2.81)
Luther Hackman (St. Louis), 0 (3.21, 3.21).
Arthur Rhodes (Seattle), 0 (3.32, 3.32).
Ben Weber (Anaheim), 0 (3.46, 3.46).
Britt Rheames (Montreal), -0.39 (3.52, 3.13).
Scott Sauerbeck (Pittsburgh), -0.43 (3.43, 3.00).
Rheal Cormier (Philadelphia), -0.47 (2.84, 2.37).
Mariano Rivera (Yankees), -0.50 (3.00, 2.50).
Kevin Gryboski (Atlanta), -0.69 (4.15, 3.46).
Eddie Oropesa (Arizona), -0.78 (3.13, 2.35)
Joe Borowski (Cubs), -0.82 (3.27, 2.45)
Al Levine (Anaheim), -0.95 (2.84, 1.89)
Gryboski was the most likely to send his inherited runners to Gilligan's Island, and he is .63 above the second best SRA among this group (Rheames), though one notices his IRA is a dead heat for one of the zero differentialists (Weber). Your safest conclusion for this group: They're a little way from moving out of or returning from Gasoline Alley just yet. For the most part (Mariano Rivera remains an obvious enough exception despite his recent travails - and he is the only closer in this group), they will smother the flames one moment but they might get bombed the next.
The next group runs between -1.00 and -3.50 in the SRA/IRA differential. Call them junior fire marshals, for the most part: they have the theory locked in but they're a few bucks short of the closing costs for moving across town. This group has 25 pitchers:
Jose Paniagua (Detroit), -1.06 (3.18, 2.12).
Victor Zambrano (Tampa Bay), -1.06 (4.24, 3.18).
Doug Creek (Tampa Bay), -1.13 (3.38, 2.25).
Tim Worrell (San Francisco), 1.29 (3.86, 2.57).
Mike Stanton (Yankees), -1.29 (4.29, 3.00).
Damaso Marte (White Sox), -1.42 (4.74, 3.32).
Paul Quantrill (Los Angeles), -1.44 (2.88, 1.44).
Ricky Stone (Houston), -1.63 (3.68, 2.05).
Darren Holmes (Atlanta), -1.90 (3.32, 1.42).
Scott Cassidy (Toronto), -1.93 (5.14, 3.21).
Gabe White (Cincinnati), -1.97 (3.10, 1.13).
Kent Mercker (Colorado), -2.09 (3.13, 1.04).
David Weathers (Mets), -2.15 (3.86, 1.71).
David Riske (Cleveland), -2.16 (3.43, 1.27).
Mike Remlinger (Atlanta), -2.16 (3.60, 1.44).
Mike Holtz (Oakland), -2.40 (4.20, 1.80).
Sean Lowe (Pittsburgh), - 2.40 (4.20, 1.80).
Mike Venafro (Oakland), -2.40 (5.40, 3.00).
Alan Embree (San Diego), -2.48 (4.29, 1.71).
Antonio Osuna (White Sox), -2.50 (4.50, 2.00).
Steve Woodland (Texas), -2.77 (4.85, 2.08).
Jason Boyd (San Diego), -2.81 (4.50, 1.69).
Felix Heredia (Toronto), -2.81 (5.06, 2.25).
Juan Acevedo (Detroit) , -3.00 (4.50, 1.50).
Ramiro Mendoza (Yankees), -3.00 (4.80, 1.80).
Scott Sullivan (Cincinnati), -3.47 (4.85, 1.38).
Three of those pitchers have SRAs 5.00 and better (Venafro, Cassidy, Heredia); eight turned up with IRAs at 1.50 or better (Acevedo, Remlinger, Quantrill, Holmes, Riske, White, Mercker); and, one (Quantrill) has an IRA exactly half his SRA. There is also one three-way differential tie (Holtz, Lowe, and Venafro, -2.40), with two (Holtz and Lowe) having identical SRAs and IRAs; the IRA difference between those two and their fellow -2.40 differentialist is a striking enough 1.20. And, twenty have IRAs at 2.25 or better. I cannot see why they have that far to go to move into the swank side of -3.50 or better.
Meet Smokey's (the Bear, that is) Children, by SRA/IRA differential:
Jose Santiago (Philadelphia), -5.82 (7.41, 1.59)
Jesse Orosco (Los Angeles), -5.78 (7.07, 1.29)
Luis Vizcaino (Milwaukee), -5.53 (5.88, 0.35)
Jim Mecir (Oakland), -5.29 (6:35, 1.06)
Rick White (Colorado), -5.00 (6.35, 1.06)
Buddy Groom (Baltimore), -5.00 (5.00, 0.00)
Scott Eyre (Toronto), -4.91 (6.55, 1.64)
Todd Van Poppel (Texas), -4.85 (9.00, 4.15)
Rich Bauer (Baltimore), -4.50 (5.06, 0.56)
Byung-Hyun Kim (Arizona), -4.50 (5.40, 0.90)
T.J. Tucker (Montreal), -4.27 (5.32, 1.05)
B.J. Ryan (Baltimore), -4.00 (4.50, 0.50)
Graeme Lloyd (Montreal), -3.86 (4.91, 1.05)
Ricardo Rincon (Cleveland), -3.70 (5.29, 1.59)
Dan Plesac (Toronto), -3.70 (6.35, 2.65)
Steve Karsay (Yankees), -3.68 (4.91, 1.23)
Willis Roberts (Baltimore), -3.60 (5.40, 1.80)
Todd Van Poppel is the most anomalous of the club, no questions asked. But eleven of these pitchers have IRAs below 1.50, five (including one certified closer - Kim) have IRAs below 1.00, and fourteen have SRAs 5.00 and over.
And look at the shocker from Baltimore. Four members of the Oriole bullpen are members of Smokey's Children, and three (Groom, Ryan, Bauer) have ERAs under one, with the fourth (Roberts) logging a very good IRA. Only one (Ryan) works an SRA under five. And one nailed perfection: ten inherited baserunners in 18 IPI, all ten meeting Gilligan, when Buddy Groom walked in from the pen. If the Orioles were a weak third in the American League East as of 19 May, behind the steamrolling Boston Red Sox (who, interestingly, had no relievers working ten or more inherited runners over ten or more IPI in the same period) and the suddenly-vulnerable-enough Yankees, the bullpen isn't exactly the prime suspect.
©2002 Jeff Kallman
The Loyalty Issue That Drove Messersmith...Just In Case You Didn't Remember
For those who persist in believing "loyalty" meant (means) nothing to the big bad free agents, the actual wick to the keg was forged and lit by a no-trade clause which was refused a star pitcher...and an admission on the record, by a notoriously penurious owner, that baseball's most infamous uniform contract clause really did mean what it said - and that baseball owners had contorted it to bind players to their command and control.
Andy Messermith wanted the no-trade clause; the Los Angeles Dodgers did not want to give him one. Combine that with what Lords of the Realm author John Helyar describes only as a deeply personal insult from the Dodgers' then general manager, and the Messersmith case was on.
The former Angel standout had been traded to the Dodgers after the 1972 season (for Frank Robinson, incidentally, among others), but he refused to sign his 1975 contract (he had gone 20-9 and was the National League's earned run average leader with 2.79 in 1974) and ended up testing the infamous reserve clause. Messersmith - and, in short enough order, the already-retiring Dave McNally - took the clause to mean precisely what it said: one year bound, one year club option, and out; none of this club-directed perpetual renewal jive.
Messersmith was motivated by slightly more than the no-trade clause he wanted. "Quite apart from how well the pitcher had performed, quite apart from how much the Dodgers could...afford," Helyar wrote, "(GM Al Campanis) injected a 'deeply personal' issue. (Even eighteen years later, the matter cut so deep with Messersmith he wouldn't elaborate on it.)" He refused to speak from that point forth to any Dodger official less than president Peter O'Malley, and he had incentives enough to ponder signing a new deal - the no-trade clause was still not to be, but O'Malley was offering him six-figure annual salaries in a three-year package, at one point hiking the pot to $540,000 for the three years.
Enter Dave McNally - Players' Association executive director Marvin Miller had long enough wanted to test the reserve clause but feared the salary incentives being dangled in front of Andy Messersmith might yet tempt the Dodger ace to sign, and he saw McNally as a kind of case insurance. The former Oriole ace agreed, even though he intended to retire. He was steamed because the Montreal Expos reneged on a telephone agreement to pay him $125,000 for the season but, in person, gave ten thousand less.
Messersmith pitched out the 1975 season. "He took his anger out on National League batters," Halyar noted: 19-14, seven shutouts, 2.29 earned run average. The case went to arbitrator Peter Seitz. And, among the exhibits brought in to back the Messersmith-McNally argument, was a Minneapolis Star article about a contract negotiation with holdout Minnesota Twins designated hitter Tony Oliva.
It was the end of the article that should have been transliterated into neon. Legendarily skinflint Twins owner Calvin Griffith all but hollered through a bullhorn that the reserve clause, constructed strictly, meant one year, one club-exercised option year, and out. Hands up to everyone who would have expected him to have let the genie smash the bottle to smithereens.
Oliva, the Twins' leading RBI man in 1974 (albeit almost strictly as a designated hitter), wanted the same $91,000 single-season deal in 1974 that he had in 1973. Griffith wanted him to take a cut to $84,000. "If (Oliva) doesn't sign by March 10, Sunday," Griffith was quoted toward the end of the Star story, "I can invoke the option clause. If I do that, I can cut him as much as I want up to 20 percent. Of course, he would then be playing out his option. At the end of the season, he would become a free agent."
Strike three called. Seitz's 64-page, heavily footnoted ruling came down the chimney a couple of days before Christmas 1975: Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally were free agents, and the reserve clause (as a couple of federal courts subsequently upheld) was given its overdue death, thanks to one pitcher who wanted nothing more drastic than a contract clause guaranteeing his staying with his incumbent team.
If only the ever after were quite so happy. A bidding war in the wake of the Seitz ruling landed Messersmith a $1 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. He went 11-11 in his first season for the NL West's doormats of the era, but he missed nearly all the 1977 season because of injuries, and was never again the pitcher he had been. He was sold to the Yankees for 1978, where he made the club with a rousing enough spring training but suffered a shoulder injury while covering first base. After a failed comeback with the Dodgers in 1979, he was through.
Dave McNally meant what he said about retiring (an injury had left him a shell of his former star self as it was), even though Expos general manager John McHale offered him both a $125,000 contract for 1976 and a $25,000 signing bonus he would collect even if he didn't make the Expos again in spring training.
. "McHale wasn't honest with me last year," McNally said to Miller, "and I'm not going to trust him again. It's tempting to show up in spring training for twenty-five grand, but I have no intention of playing and it wouldn't be right to take the money."
And one suspects Calvin Griffith regretted his honesty from almost the moment the words went from his lips to the Minneapolis Star's ears.
Meanwhile...
And Here's To You, Mr. Robinson - Says Joe Morgan (ESPN.com): "His on-the-field accomplishments deserve our continued admiration. When Bonds hits home run No. 587, it's unfortunate that ( Frank Robinson) might be recognized only as a great player for a day -- and then forgotten again. Robinson should be remembered as a force, not a footnote." Say I: Well said, Mr. Morgan. (And, I too would like to know how he missed the All-Century Team?)
Lemon's Tree - Funny thing, regarding the suddenly-discussed question of whether anyone in baseball might be gay: The Out editor who started the whole thing last year, with an essay saying he had a lover who is a major league baseball player, never specified the team - Brandon Lemon said only that the player was "from a major-league East Coast franchise." Last I looked, that could have entailed anyone from the Boston Red Sox, the Mets or the Yankees, the Phillies, the Orioles, or the Florida Marlins, even if the player might live in New York.
So how come it Rumour Central Station zeroed in on the Mets? Because manager Bobby Valentine said (in Details) that baseball might now be ready to handle having an openly gay player? Since when does that translate automatically to a Met being the likely partner in Lemon's proclaimed affair? Not that the Mets are antsy about discussing the speculation. General manager Steve Phillips: “If statistics hold up, in every clubhouse there is somebody who is gay. So what? Who cares?” Catcher Mike Piazza says whomever it is, it isn't he: “I can’t control what people think. That's obvious,” says Piazza, who has been, apparently, dogged periodically by such rumours since his earlier days with the Dodgers. “And I can’t convince people what to think. I can only say what I know and what the truth is and that’s I’m heterosexual and I date women. That’s it. End of story.”
Say I: Whether a ballplayer might be gay is no one's bloody business but his own, unless a) it should be his own choice, of his own free, individual will, to reveal he is gay; b) it should transpire that he might have tried to force a teammate (or anyone else) to join in; or, c) he should try using his position on his team as an excuse or a forum to advocate gay life or politics to those unwilling to hear it. Absent those conditions, our proper business is (no pun intended) to butt the hell out.
©2002 Jeff Kallman
Actually, with all the talk in this article of arson, fire insurance, and so on I thought of Sparky Lyle who was a great reliever with the Yankees a while back. He had the perfect name for a relief pitcher. Maybe BluesDuke would do a story on great "stoppers" if he hasn't already.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.