SB Nation - Ben Grieve

Evan Longoria, Home Runs, GIDPs and History

Tommy Rancel — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:00:26 -0000

by Brian Blanco - AP

The Rays are a very odd statistical team. I pointed out the Carlos Pena home run vs. singles oddity nearly two weeks ago. Just yesterday, Erik pointed out that Matt Garza and Jeff Niemann are on pace for a strange piece of history in the run support category. And now we have this little tidbit to snack on.

After grounding into his league leading 25^thdouble play yesterday, Evan Longoria became the 41st player in Major League history with at least 25 home runs and 25 GIDP in the same season.Luckily for Longoria, he joined names like Harmon Killebrew, Mike Piazza, Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Albert Pujols, Vladimir Guerrero, and Cal Ripken Jr. amongst others. Overall, there have been 46 occurrences of this season including Longoria's; the most recent before Evan's was from Vlad Guerrero in 2008.

Longo is the first player to have 25 home runs and 25 GIDPs in the same season as a Rays player. However, he is not the first 25/25 man to have worn a Rays uniform. That would be Ben Grieve, who had 27 home runs and 32 GIDP as a member of the Oakland A's in 2000, the year before he joined the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

With more than 30 games and ~100-120 plate appearances left for Longoria, he is on pace for a 30 home run, 30 GIDP season. Like Pena, it's a weird way to go about obtaining a 30/30 season, but he does have a shot. If Longoria does get to this version "30/30" club, the membership becomes much more exclusive.

While 41 players including Longo have gone 25/25, only four players in Major League history have hit more than 30 home runs while grounding into more than 30 double plays in the same season. Strangely enough, this type of season occurred three times in 1983 when Boston Red Sox teammates Tony Armas and the super feared Jim Rice accomplished the feat along with AL East rival, Dave Winfield of the New York Yankees. The last time this type of 30/30 season happened was in 1999 by Ivan Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers. If Longo does actually "succeed" and gain entry to this club, he will also gain membership to the 30/30/30 club and join Rice as the only players in MLB history to hit 30+ home runs, 30+ doubles, and hit into 30+ double plays; Jayson Stark eat your heart out.

The Milwaukee Brewers' Last Trade With Each Team

TheJay — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:48:24 -0000

More photos » by H. Rumph Jr - AP

A long time ago, in a league 98 miles away, this guy was part of the Brewers' last trade with the Yankees.

Browse more photos »

One of my favorite parts of each year's team media guide is the page listing the Brewers' last trade with all the other major league teams. Maybe it's because it's so esoteric, maybe it's because of all the "some-team-wanted-him?" thoughts it prompts, or maybe it's the idea that for years Brewers and Mariners management had a bitter blood feud getting in the way of amicable trading. I don't know. Either way, let's take a trip down memory lane, transaction-style:

(note: PTBNL below stands for "Player to be Named Later," defined here)

The Milwaukee Brewers' Last Trade With...

Arizona Diamondbacks - 11/25/2006
Traded LHP Doug Davis, LHP Dana Eveland, and OF Dave Krynzel for C Johnny Estrada, RHP Claudio Vargas, and RHP Greg Aquino
Atlanta Braves - 12/7/2005
Traded RHP Wes Obermueller for RHP Dan Kolb
Chicago Cubs - 8/31/2004
Traded OF Ben Grieve for LHP Andy Pratt and cash
Cincinnati Reds - 1/14/2000
Traded OF Alex Ochoa for OF Mark Sweeney and a PTBNL (RHP Gene Altman)
Colorado Rockies - 12/13/2004
Traded RHP Marcos Carvajal in exchange for cash
Florida Marlins - 11/25/1996
Traded RHP Eddie Collins for LHP Joel Adamson
Houston Astros - 9/11/2007
Traded RHP Dennis Sarfate for cash
Los Angeles Dodgers - 3/26/2007
Traded OF Brady Clark and cash for RHP Elmer Dessens
New York Mets - 11/20/2007
Traded C Johnny Estrada for RHP Guillermo Mota
Philadelphia Phillies - 7/28/2006
Traded RHP Wilfrido Laureano for 3B David Bell
Pittsburgh Pirates - 12/7/2007
Traded RHP Marino Salas and RHP Kevin Roberts for RHP Salomon Torres
St. Louis Cardinals - 8/22/2003
Traded RHP Mike DeJean for two PTBNL (RHP Mike Crudale and RHP John Novinsky)
San Diego Padres - 7/25/2007
Traded LHP Joe Thatcher, RHP Will Inman, and LHP Steve Garrison for RHP Scott Linebrink
San Francisco Giants - 7/20/2008
Traded OF Darren Ford and LHP Steve Hammond for 2B Ray Durham
Washington Nationals - 9/4/2007
Traded a PTBNL (1B Andrew Lefave) for LHP Ray King

The AL teams are after the jump.

Baltimore Orioles - 7/16/1999
Traded a PTBNL (RHP Al Reyes) for RHP Rocky Coppinger
Boston Red Sox - 7/31/1998
Traded IF Eddy Diaz for RHP Joe Hudson
Chicago White Sox - 12/13/2004
Traded OF Scott Podsednik, RHP Luis Vizcaino and a PTBNL (IF Travis Hinton) for LF Carlos Lee
Cleveland Indians - 7/7/2008
Traded OF Matt LaPorta, LHP Zach Jackson, RHP Rob Bryson, and a PTBNL (OF Michael Brantley) for LHP CC Sabathia
Detroit Tigers - 7/1/2007
Traded RHP Jose Capellan for LHP Chris Cody
Kansas City Royals - 3/27/2007
Traded RHP Ben Hendrickson for a Marxist Empire
LAnaheim Angels - 7/31/2002
Traded OF Alex Ochoa and C Sal Fasano for C Jorge Fabregas and 2 PTBNL (RHP Pedro Liriano and IF John Raburn)
Minnesota Twins - 11/15/2002
Traded RHP Gerry Oakes and RHP Matt Yeatman for RHP Matt Kinney and C Javier Valentin
New York Yankees - 8/23/1996
Traded IF Pat Listach and LHP Graeme Lloyd for OF Gerald Williams and RHP Bob Wickman
Oakland Athletics - 5/23/2007
Traded RHP Alec Zumwalt for cash.
Seattle Mariners - 5/19/2005
Traded C Pat Borders for cash.
Tampa Bay Rays - 4/22/2008
Traded OF Gabe Gross for RHP Josh Butler
Texas Rangers - 7/28/2006
Traded OF Carlos Lee and OF Nelson Cruz for RHP Francisco Cordero, LHP Julian Cordero, OF Kevin Mench, and OF Laynce Nix
Toronto Blue Jays - 1/6/2006
Traded RHP Brian Wolfe for 3B Corey Koskie

This information comes out of the Brewers' 2009 Media Guide. I believe all listed trades include someone on the 40-man roster for one of the teams. Any errors are mine in transcription or not diligently checking MLB's work.

Looking Back at the 1st Round of the 1994 Draft

erik — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:30:10 -0000

Call me a curmudgeon, but I really hate the NFL Draft. Captain Hair-Do aside, it is a slog of a television event that really could be done in a matter of hours rather than days. Because football has become America's most popular sport these days, Bud Selig thinks he has to mimic the NFL by broadcasting the draft in prime time, starting at 6pm eastern on June 9. Rather than getting through several rounds on day one of the draft, only three rounds will be drafted, and then the draft will resume the next day at noon. All told, it is going to take three days to get through 50 rounds.

Thankfully, the draft is going to be broadcast on the MLB Network rather than ESPN, so we're spared of Steve Phillips and Bermanisms. While I'm happy that televised drafts mean more exposure, I miss the old days when the first round was blitzed through within a half-hour, with simply names being called monotonously through a speaker phone at a feverish pace.

Now that I got my Andy Rooney moment out of the way, I thought it might be fun to do a little retrospect of the first rounds of various drafts. This isn't deep draft research, there is plenty of that out there already to read up on.

We'll start with 1994, which is bustier than a cabaret show.

Charted below are all of the first rounders and their total WAR compiled for each player before they become eligible for free agency. A players' names that are italicized are those that did not play a single game in the majors.

	Pick	Team	POS	HS/College	WAR
Paul Wilson	1	NYM	P	COL	0.5
Ben Grieve	2	OAK	OF	HS	8.4
Dustin Hermanson	3	SD	P	COL	8.2
Antone Williamson	4	MIL	3B	COL	-0.7
Josh Booty	5	FLA	SS	HS	0
McCay Christiansen	6	CAL	OF	HS	-0.3
Doug Million	7	COL	P	HS	0
Todd Walker	8	MIN	2B	COL	7.4
C.J. Nitkowski	9	CIN	P	COL	-2.1
Jaret Wright	10	CLE	P	HS	0.3
Mark Farris	11	PIT	SS	HS	0
Nomar Garciaparra	12	BOS	SS	COL	41.5
Paul Konerko	13	LA	C	HS	6.4
Jason Varitek	14	SEA	C	COL	10.7
Jayson Peterson	15	CHC	P	HS	0
Matt Smith	16	KC	P	HS	0
Ramon Castro	17	HOU	C	HS	0.2
Cade Gaspar	18	DET	P	COL	0
Bret Wagner	19	STL	P	COL	0
Terrence Long	20	NYM	OF	HS	6.5
Hiram Bocachica	21	MTL	SS	HS	-1.1
Dante Powell	22	SF	OF	COL	-0.2
Carlton Loewer	23	PHI	P	COL	-1.8
Brian Buchanan	24	NYY	OF	COL	-0.4
Scott Elarton	25	HOU	P	HS	3.8
Mark Johnson	26	CHW	C	HS	1
Jacob Schumate	27	ATL	P	HS	0
Kevin Witt	28	TOR	SS	HS	-0.4
Jay Payton	29	NYM	OF	COL	7.3
Russ Johnson	30	HOU	SS	COL	2.5
Mike Thurman	31	MTL	P	COL	1.3
Jacob Cruz	32	SF	OF	COL	0.7
Chris Clemons	33	CHW	P	COL	-0.3
Travis Miller	34	MIN	P	COL	0

Nomar and his "No-mah!" days aside, this is a pretty "ouch" group. Varitek and Konerko later became all-stars, but for other teams than they were originally drafted. Paul Wilson and Ben Grieve were supposed to become superstars, instead Paul Wilson fell prey to his poor mechanics and later became a Kyle Farnsworth tackling dummy. Ben Grieve allegedly had no heart. Them washing out is like the equivalent of Matt Wieters and David Price both going bust. Bad times.

Josh Booty probably has the most interesting story out of this group, and it's worth telling. He was considered to be Peyton Manning's equal coming out of high school, but elected to take the big signing bonus and play baseball instead. After hitting .198/.256/.356 in the minors, including a record-setting 195 strikeout performance in 475 at-bats while in the Midwest League, Booty went back to football and quarterbacked at LSU. (Amazingly, Booty was on the post-season roster when the Marlins won the World Series). For the Bayou Bengals, Peyton Manning he was not, but he wasn't totally awful --- over two seasons he completed 49.3% of his passes for 3,951 yards and 24 TDs. Booty has been a third-string QB in the NFL for the Browns and Raiders, but never has taken a snap in the NFL.

Booty married one of "Barker's Beauties" from the Price is Right, a model who on the show dinged a prize car on Stage Door 3. Then there was also a DUI and taser incident involving Booty a year ago. His brother, John David, quarterbacked at USC and is now a backup for the Vikings. (Thank you, Wikipedia)

Sorting them out into groups ---

Group	#	Total WAR	Avg. Per Player	Avg. WAR per yr.
High School P	6	4.1	0.68	0.114
College P	9	5.8	0.64	0.107
College Hitters	9	68.8	7.64	1.27
High School Hitters	10	20.7	2.07	0.345
Non-Nomar Col. H	8	20.6	3.43	0.572

Not all drafts classes are equal, and while first-rounders don't have as high rates of attrition as players drafted from other rounds, the attrition rates are still high. For this draft at least, there seems to be a lot more sad stories than usual. At least it boasts of one (former) super-star.

WAR data from the ever-resourceful BaseballProjection.com

Good Question

R.J. Anderson — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:00:50 -0000

My FanGraphs colleague Marc Hulet is doing a series on Baseball Analysts where he looks at teams from 10 years ago (1999), here's what he said about the '99 (Devil) Rays:

The Tampa Bay Rays | 69-93 (Fifth)

The Rays club has arguably come further than any other organization in 10 years. The 1999 season was just the second season in the brief history of the club. The organization received 34 home runs out of Jose Canseco and 32 bombs from Fred McGriff. Hall of Fame third baseman Wade Boggs played his final MLB season and finished the year with a .301 batting average and a .328 career average. Closer Roberto Hernandez led the club with a salary of $6.1 million (Why does an expansion team need a top-tiered closer?). He did earn his money, though, by saving 43 games. Wilson Alvarez led the club in wins with nine. Bobby Witt threw a team-leading 180.1 innings and managed a record of 7-15. Thirty-five-year-old rookie Jim Morris made headlines by appearing in his first Major League game.

Underline is mine.

Think about it, you're the GM of a new franchise, you know three things for sure:

1. You're not going to win in year one, probably not in year two, and maybe in year three. That's assuming you're a really good GM.

2. Closers are overpriced and often overvalued.

3. Closers are only useful to good teams and teams who can build a closer then trade him for prospects.

The Rays sorta dealt Hernandez for prospects -- well, Ben Grieve -- but that came three years after they signed him and after paying him ~17 million.* I'm going to guess the Rays knew #3, and kinda figured #2 out -- they would only slightly overpay Danys Baez, he would earn ~5.6 mil for ~3.7 mil worth of performance. Which means they didn't know or -- more likely -- didn't believe they would be poor in the immediate and near future.

So, that's why an expansion team needs a top of the line closer; when they don't realize they're an expansion team.

They also gave up Cory Lidle, who was cheap and league average. Of course, if Grieve doesn't lose all traces of power after donning a Rays uni, the deal probably doesn't look too bad, but that's beyond the original point: the Rays overpaid for something they didn't need just to fit in with the rest of baseball.

2009 Poetic Interlude #1: Bowen on the Bench

monkeyball — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:20:11 -0000

Or, a series of koans illustrating the mystery of the backup backstop ...

[Original lyrics here.]

Bowen on the Bench

How many Rhodes must a GM live down
Before you call yourself a fan?
Yes, 'n' how many Grieves must in white cleats fail
Before we sign Garret And'?
Yes, 'n' how many usernames must the Internet trolls try
Before they're forever bANnEd?
The catcher, AN, is Bowen on the bench,
The catcher is Bowen on the bench.

How many trades must a fan cook up
Before a free agent we buy?
Yes, 'n' how many beers must one man have
Before he forgets Slide, Jeremy, Slide?
Yes, 'n' how many DLs will it take 'til we know
That Beane to the press has lied?
The catcher, AN, is Bowen on the bench,
The catcher is Bowen on the bench.

How many years can Mount Davis exist
Before it's brought down with TNT?
Yes, 'n' how many years can Mark Ellis compile assists
Before his Gold Glove they concede?
Yes, 'n' how many times can Jack Cust take those strikes,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The catcher, AN, is Bowen on the bench,
The catcher is Bowen on the bench.

Poll

How many Rhodes must a GM live down before you call yourself a fan?

0

10 votes

1

14 votes

1,000

12 votes

The number of Angels who can dance on a pinhead

31 votes

The number of ears it takes to hear one hand clapping

11 votes

Trick question: if one is a fan, the number of Rhodes is limitless

100 votes

178 votes | Poll has closed