SB Nation - Barry Bonds

Cubs September Call-Ups: An Introduction

Joe Gems — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 16:14:41 -0000

September belongs to football. Pennant races be damned. Last night, the Cubs and Nationals manufactured some drama for the specific purpose of earning suspensions, thereby allowing them to watch this weekend's NFL games. It all started with Nationals third base coach Bo Porter and Cubs bench coach Jamie Quirk. "Why are you stealing bases up 7-2 in the 5th inning?" Quirk appeared to yell out to Porter. "You've already doubled the amount of runs needed to beat us."

"That's how we play, clown," Porter may have responded. "We score runs and win games. Don't matter the situation." Overcome by emotion and his team's unholy offensive output, Porter practically walked into the Cubs' dugout. Benches cleared. Quirk, not Porter, was ejected.

The following inning, Lendy Castillo, in typical Lendy Castillo fashion, threw at Bryce Harper and missed his spot. Harper stared and pointed his bat and the benches cleared again. Members of the Cubs bullpen made their second run across the field with smiles on their faces, apparently of the mistaken belief that this would count towards tomorrow's pregame workout. Darwin Barney calmly stood on the infield grass, discussing his expectations of the Democratic National Convention with Drew Storen. Steve Clevenger loudly proclaimed that this season of Louie was much weaker than the first two. Michael Morse took issue and needed to be subdued by teammates and coaches. It was an embarrassing scene for a sport that needs no help embarrassing itself. It had me pining for a basketball fight and there hasn't been a good basketball fight in 15 years.

September belongs to football and I would never try to suggest otherwise. Baseball, the spruced up summer placeholder, once again takes a back seat. But what, may I ask, do you watch Tuesday through Friday night? Don't try and tell me CBS sitcoms or Big East football or that you go go out on Fridays. Sure, baseball takes a back seat, but it's on in September when football isn't. For that reason alone, it deserves your attention. September call-ups are now sprinkled across MLB rosters, many of whom you've never seen before and will never see again. On bad teams like the Cubs, they sometimes see significant playing time. Who's that swinging at a 3-0 pitch with runners on first and second, no outs? Who's that on the mound making Adam LaRoche look like '04 Barry Bonds? Here's a quick primer on the Cubs' September call-ups, featuring some new and familiar faces.

Adrian Cardenas - World renowned, around these parts anyway, for breaking up A.J. Burnett's no-hitter in the 8th inning of a meaningless July game. He hasn't been heard from since. Rumors of Vermont and a $10,000 organic farming grant are unfounded. Cardenas will back-up 2nd base and rearrange all of Alfonso Soriano's equipment in the dugout until it's time to break up another no-hitter.

Tony Campana - They said he would never again make a 25-man roster. So he waited around until September. They said he didn't deserve to crack a 40-man roster. So he became a member of the Cubs organization. It's time to acknowledge that a) Tony Campana will never die and b) Everyone, especially your girlfriend, likes Tony Campana more than you do. Campana will mostly pinch-run, maybe even take a few at-bats if Dale Sveum is feeling especially cynical that day.

Dave Sappelt - The Sean Marshall trade keeps on giving! First Travis Wood, a solid no. 2 starter on a 60-win team, and now Sappelt. He was the Reds' minor-league hitter of the year in 2010, which translates to about .180 in the pros. He'll serve mostly as a reserve outfielder, with a few starts thrown in. Listens to 50 Cent unironically.

Anthony Recker - You can never have too many catchers, as the Cubs found out earlier this season when a string of injuries to the position ended with Koyie Hill and a near mass ritual suicide of the Cubs blogosphere. Acquired from the Athletics, Recker is of clear mind and broad shoulders. Challenge him at the plate and he will (w)reck you, son. Unfortunately, he'll mostly pinch-hit because THREE CATCHERS!

Miguel Socolovich - Pitched (poorly) in six games for the Orioles this year. The Cubs claimed him off waivers two weeks ago hoping some of that hot fire the O's bullpen has spit all year would rub off on him. You know the drill - it hasn't. Only Venezuelan distinguished for his bravery in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Chris Rusin - Rusin was so impressive in his start against the Brewers, on the mound (5 IP, 1 H, 1 ER), and at the plate (1-2), that Cubs fans clamored for him to be the ace of the staff and hit 6th in the lineup. Predictably, he surrendered 8 hits and 5 runs in an inning of work on Tuesday. We can realistically expect something in between those two performances. Let's say a 3-inning start with 3 or 4 earned runs.

Rafael Dolis - It seems like the opening of an unforgiving joke now, but Rafael Dolis was once the Cubs' closer. The options were slim: Shawn Camp, James Russell, and Dolis. Sveum chose the worst of the three. Dolis is back in the pen to throw 1-0 fastballs down the middle -- in the 5th or 6th inning instead of the 9th this time around.

Jaye Chapman - Reminds me a little of Aroldis Chapman. Relief Pitcher. Last name Chapman. The similarities end there.

BONUS: LATE AUGUST ROSTER MOVES

Jeff Beliveau - This marks Beliveau's second stint with the team, as he was recalled in place of starting pitcher Brooks Raley, who has reached his innings limit for the year. Beliveau will be used as the early inning lefty specialist, with James Russell appearing in the games of consequence. Beliveau also specializes in turning a 2-run deficit into a 6-run deficit.

Blake Parker - Was recently activated from the 60-Day DL. He'll appear in the games that look like football scores. And yes, this is the same 'Blake Parker' who works part-time as the shirtless model in front of your local Abercrombie & Fitch.

Giants Tentatively Scheduled For Visit To Yankee Stadium In 2013

Shmuckreport — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:42:28 -0000

Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the San Francisco Giants are scheduled to make their first trip to the new Yankee Stadium in September of 2013, marking the first time since 2002 they've squared off in New York, and just the second time since the Giants moved to San Francisco.

Make the jump for more info.

The tentative schedule has the Giants staying in New York for a whole week next September to take on both the Yankees and Mets. Obviously with the scehdule change interleague play won't be relegated to just May and June but all year round. The NL West will take on the the AL East in 2013 interleague play

Back in 2002 the Black and Orange lost two out of three at the old Yankee Stadium. You may remember Barry Bonds hitting an upper deck shot off Ted Lilly that series.

The complete schedule should be released sometime next month.

For more in depth discussion and analysis of the San Francisco Giants, head to McCovey Chronicles.

Albert Pujols Contract Leads To MLB Ban On Personal Services, Milestone Bonus Clauses

Shmuckreport — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:38:03 -0000

When Albert Pujols signed his $240 million deal with the Angels this offseason, it was obvious that his epic contract would become a game changer for future negotiations. Though, few would have suspected it to have this kind of affect.

ESPN's Jayson Stark is reporting that MLB and the players union is cracking down on personal-service deals and milestone bonuses in player contracts usch as Albert's, meaning that 'The Machine' may have gotten himseld a one-of-a-kind deal from Arte Moreno and the rest of the Halo's braintrust.

Pujols has two very specific clauses in his contract that have sent up the red flags around the league, his 10-year personal-services contract, essentially paying him $1 million a year after he retires to be part of the organization. The other is a very rare marketing clause that could dish out upwards of $10 million for marketing rights to Albert's milestone accomplishments such as $3 million for his 3,000th hit and $7 million for possibly breaking Barry Bonds' all-time HR record.

Now MLB is letting it be known that any more provisions like this 'snuck into' the fine print will be considered a violation, and when you take a closer look you can begin to see why.

Milestones" payouts seem to violate baseball's longtime ban on bonuses for 'statistical achievements'. As Stark points out, New York Yankees hid Alex Rodriguez's milestone money as "marketing" money. But once MLB took a closer look it was obvious what they were trying to do, hoping it wouldn't happen again. Well it did, and would have if not stopped.

As for personal-services issues, that is just a whole new can of worms.

As Bobby Bonilla could attest, it's fine for a team to defer money in a whopper contract and pay it out later. But it gets tricky if the team attaches a condition that says the player only gets that money if he shakes 500 hands a week, plays golf with 11 sponsors and spends a month in spring training. And if he gets traded, then what?

MLB clubs can also use these provisions to their own economic advantage, seeing that none of it is 'guaranteed money' they could use them to avoid paying luxury-tax bills.

Luckily for Albert there won't be any retroactive repercussions for the contract, but if the ban hadn't happened now, there could have been a whirlwind of these almost money-laundering contracts in the league. But it will ensure players will get paid what they are actually deserved:

"I understand why they don't want you to do it," said an executive of one club. "Because it's [baloney]. That's why. It's just a way to masquerade stuff....Before, you had ways you could add $10 million to a deal without adding to the sticker shock of the [average annual value]. Now, the value of the player is the value of the player. You're not going to be able to add those little gimmicks that increased the value of the contract [to the guy cashing the checks] without increasing the value of the player [to the MLB accountants]."

With all this money flying around, you can be sure that MLB wants to know the truth about all of it.

For more on the Angels, check out Halos Heaven.

Alex Rodriguez Ties Ken Griffey Jr. For Fifth All Time On Carrer Home Run List

Shmuckreport — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:20:20 -0000

Former Seattle Mariner Alex Rodriguez added some more history to his already historic resume on Friday, launching his 630th career home run, tying another Mariner legend, Ken Griffey Jr. for fifth on the all-time home run list.

The blast came off of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitching Ervin Santana, launching his first home run of the season while snapping a career long RBI drought for the veteran infielder.

If Rodriguez stays on track with his average of 30 homers in 150 games over the past three seasons, he will have passed San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays by the end of the year. He still has a ways to go before reaching the 700's of the Ruth's, Aaron's and Bonds'.

Barry Bonds 762
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Alex Rodriguez 630
Ken Griffey Jr. 630
Sammy Sosa 609
Jim Thome 604

For more on the Mariners, make sure you check out Lookout Landing.

J.C. Romero Didn't Take Steroids In 2008, Luckily For The St. Louis Cardinals

DanUpBaby — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:01:14 -0000

J.C. Romero didn't take performance-enhancing drugs knowingly in 2008—new Cardinals beat writer Jenifer Langosch wrote a nice piece summarizing his multi-year attempt to clear his name following a positive caused by an ostensibly legal GNC product. That's good news for St. Louis Cardinals fans who probably have noticed that J.C. Romero has major control problems, as well as for steroids crusaders who would have another Manny Alexander-style instance of people who don't look or hit like Mark McGwire being popped for steroid use more frequently than McGwire types.

Romero's 2008, in case you were wondering, was a better year than he's had since—his historically low strikeout-to-walk ratio hit 1.37, and he's struggled some since then—but it's not exactly Barry Bonds in 2001, and it was far from a new level of performance from him. Since steroids he's performed about like you'd expect a 35-year-old lefty specialist with iffy career numbers and a serious control problem to expect.

He's J.C. Romero. He'll always be J.C. Romero. And he didn't use PEDs. Good news all around!

Albert Pujols Contract Contains Extra $10 Million In Milestone Incentives

Eric Stephen — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:00:47 -0000

Albert Pujols had 254 million reasons to sign with the Los Angeles Angels, and because of that the Halos have the services of who has been the best player in baseball for the last 11 seasons. In addition to the $25.4 million in average annual salary over the life of the 10-year deal, Pujols has some performance incentives.

Pujols will receive $3 million from the Angels for his 3,000th career hit and $7 million should he reach 763 career home runs, per Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports. These types of performance bonuses require special permission from the commissioner, as they are normally prohibited by Major League Rule 3(b)(5):

"No Major League Uniform Player's Contract or Minor League Uniform Player Contract shall be approved if it contains a bonus for playing, pitching or batting skill or if it provides for the payment of a bonus contingent on the standing of the signing Club at the end of the championship season."

Alex Rodriguez had similar bonuses in his 10-year, $275 million contract with the New York Yankees for milestone home runs, which had to be approved by Bud Selig. Each of his bonuses were designated as an "historic event" in order to receive special approval, per the Associated Press.

Pujols has 2,073 career hits, averaging 188 per season in his 11-year career. He had a career-low 173 hits last season, and if he continued at that pace Pujols would reach 3,000 hits at some point in 2017, when he is 37 years old.

With 445 career home runs, Pujols has averaged just over 40 per season. He would need to average just under 32 home runs per season over his 10-year contract to reach 763 career home runs, which would break Barry Bonds' all-time record (assuming Rodriguez, with 629 home runs, doesn't pass Bonds first).

For more news on Pujols and the Angels, be sure to read Halos Heaven.

Albert Pujols's 11th Straight 30 Home Run Season: Who Else Has Done It?

DanUpBaby — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:01:05 -0000

So—Albert Pujols is still on track for the worst season of his career, but he's now on pace to lead the National League in home runs for the third year in a row. His 30th, which was not quite enough to push this snakebitten Cardinals squad over that snakebitten Pirates squad, meant he'd reached that psychological mark for the 11th consecutive season. Al Hrabosky noted, multiple times, that nobody had ever done that to start his career before; here's a list of all the players who've done it, period.

Alex Rodriguez has done it 13 times in a row, which is every full season of his career but one. The streak looks likely to end in 2011, as Rodriguez, injured much of the year, has just 13 home runs in 80 games. Rodriguez led the American League in home runs five times in that span, topping out at 57 in 2002, when he was also a gold-glove shortstop who played every single game that year. Someday we'll realize just how good he was, at his best.

Barry Bonds is the prime reason we have trouble remembering how good A-Rod was at his best. He also did it 13 times, between 1992 and 2004. Like Rodriguez, Bonds stranded his first 30-home-run season, 1990, by hitting 25 in 1991.

Jimmie Foxx hit 33 home runs when he was 21 years old and 36 when he was 32, and after that his career was just about over. All he'd done in the meantime was slug .644.

Two other players have hit 30 home runs 10 seasons in a row. One you'd probably get eventually—Sammy Sosa, between 1995 and 2004—and the other might take you a while. Answer after the jump, if you'd like to guess.

You guessed it: ~~Frank Stallone~~ Carlos Delgado, who hit 30 home runs from 1997 to 2004 with the Blue Jays, in 2005 with the Marlins, and in 2006 with the Mets. Delgado's late start and lack of defensive value—not to mention the way his career ended due to injuries rather than ineffectiveness—mean he's really a Hall of Very Good guy, but at his best he was one of the league's most dangerous hitters.

Jim Thome Blasts 600th Home Run Against Detroit Tigers

John Bena (aka CavsBlogger) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 01:27:31 -0000

Jim Thome knows how to hit home runs. On Monday night against the Detroit Tigers, Thome blasted two home runs, numbers 599 and 600 of his career, home runs that might go a long way to helping his former team in the Amercian League pennant race.

Thome's first blast, a two-run shot, came against Tigers' starter Rick Porcello in the sixth inning, was his 10th of the season and travelled an estimated 412-feet. Thome came up again in the seventh inning, this time against Tigers' lefty Daniel Schlereth - son of former NFL lineman and current ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth - and blasted #600, a three run shot, to give the Twins a 9-5 lead.

Thome hit 334 home runs as a member of the Cleveland Indians, before leaving as a free agent for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2003. Thome joins Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey and Alex Rodriguez as the only players to hit 600 homers. Of course, thanks to the steroid era, only Aaron, Ruth and Mays and Griffey could be considered clean.

Thome fits that bill as well, and someday will be headed to Cooperstown, as a Cleveland Indian.

Congratulations to Jim Thome, the newest member of the 600 Home Run Club!

Fomer Tiger Hank Greenberg Might Be Owed An RBI -- From 1937

Ryan Weiss — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:51:51 -0000

The debate over whether all of Barry Bonds' record-setting home runs are legit may never end, but there is another statistical debate going on among baseball enthusiasts: Was Tigers great Hank Greenberg robbed of an RBI in 1937?

I know what you're thinking: what difference does it make if he's credited with one less RBI? Well, quite a big one in fact. You see, during that 1937 season Greenberg drove in 183 runs; if he gets one more he ties Lou Gehrig's single-season American League record.

That's what Herm Krabbenhoft of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is arguing, and he's convinced Greenberg was robbed.

The match in question is the second game of a doubleheader with Oakland on June 20, 1937. Greenberg was credited with no RBI that day, but Krabbenhoft says the official scorekeeper was wrong.

The official box score credited Greenberg with no RBIs, but Krabbenhoft is convinced he had one when pinch-runner Flea Clifton scored on Greenberg's grounder and wild throw to second by the shortstop.

The big question is whether Clifton was on third or second during the play. If Clifton was on third, it's an RBI.

Krabbenhoft argues that Clifton was in fact on third because Clifton was a known speedster and Pete Fox advanced two bases and scored on a previous play from second base; if Fox scored from second, then Clifton almost assuredly went from first to third.

He also argues that there were two independent scorecards that credited Greenberg with an RBI and that the box score from the first game got transferred to Game 2. Elias Sports Bureau, who keeps all of MLB's records, is currently going over the case and could lead to a new record for a Tigers batter.