SB Nation User Blog: PhiSlamma

I love posts about trade ideas, especially bad ones.

PhiSlamma — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:56:19 -0000

So I will make one!

The Brewers second basemen just went down for the year. They need one. So, hell, I was thinking lets give them Izturis, or Aybar for something.

No, not Braun. Get that out of your mind now. As much as I would love to have a player on the Angels with the nickname "The Hebrew Hammer" its not going to happen.

The Mets also need a firstbasemen, which, maybe, if you think about it we might have depth at. When Vlad comes back to the fulltime DH role, where can we get Naps some consistent playing time? First base? Me thinks so. Although Kendry has been on a tear, it might be fun to play with the idea of working up a package to the Mets.

Obviously we probably won't do either of these things, but, hey, we can discuss it.

Tex interview... I just can't hate him after this.

PhiSlamma — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:24:38 -0000

Tex interview... I just can't hate him after this.

"I sat and cried at my locker after that last game in Boston because I knew that was a special group, I knew how good a chance we had, and we let it slip away," Teixeira said.

I lost it with this story

PhiSlamma — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:09:34 -0000

I lost it with this story

I held my emotions together through this whole Adenhart thing. Trying to keep a level head, and keeping it in prospective. I absolutely lost my shit after reading this and crying like a baby for a minute or two.

Just so sad its soul breaking.

Griffey Choses Atlanta

PhiSlamma — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:32:49 -0000

Griffey Choses Atlanta

Take that Lookout Landing.

I LOVE Rob Neyer

PhiSlamma — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:39:35 -0000

I LOVE Rob Neyer

Love love love.

The man just knows what hes talking about, at all times. His outright love and biased towards the Angels can be a little much at times, but thats why we love him!

A shocking Bonds development!

PhiSlamma — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:43:02 -0000

It turns out he did steroids!

This earth-shattering news was confirmed earlier today when the court unsealed some documents and test samples revealing that Barry had on several dates tested positive for a bunch of very illegal and very performance enhancing mumbo-jumbo.

The man had his own personal army of vial mixers to make up his crazy muscle juice just to break some of the most loved records in our national past-time.

So, take away the record? I think so. F Bonds.

Poll

What to do with Bonds' records?

Put an astrix next to all of them, future baseball fans need to know these records were set while the player was on more drugs than Hunter S Thompson driving through the desert on his way to Las Vegas.

30 votes

Remove them, the players before him did not cheat to get those records.

8 votes

Leave them, you still need skill to hit that well for that long.

34 votes

He should be banish from all record books AND forced to watch game 6 and 7 of the 2002 World Series on repeat until he dies.

49 votes

121 votes | Poll has closed

A Great Way to Pass the Time

PhiSlamma — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:24:29 -0000

and fufill that craving for basebal.... MLB The Show 08.

I usually pick up the new version each year and play with it when I have time, but it gets a lot of attention in the off-season. I like to make a guy in career mode, put it on hardest difficulty and see how I do.

Right now I have a CF on the Cardinals, at age 19 he is batting .280 with 1 HR and 1 RBI and 6 SB through the first two weeks. His OBP is a respectable .360, but hopefully Ill bring that up. I was on the Angels AAA club to start my career, then got called up, batted a very respectable .367 with 10 dingers 30 RBI and 32 SB in 125 AB, but for some reason they didnt offer me a contract at the end of the season.

Oh well.

This thread could be a "make a dude and compare stats" or a "what do you do to stroke your baseball needs in the offseason" thread.

Offseason Topic: Best Baseball Player of All Time

PhiSlamma — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:20:18 -0000

My case: George Herman Ruth, Jr.

The Great Bambino is without a doubt the greatest baseball player of all-time....well in my mind anyway. This argument can be really hard to make, for certain. So many players, stats, era to compare. But I will start at Babe's best year (well most mind blowing to me) in my mind and work from there.

The year was 1919.

Mr Ruth started 15 games for the Red Sox, and pitched the last pitch in 12 of those games. He had 9 wins, a 2.97 ERA and even a save.

I know what you are thinking, 12 complete games and 9 wins and one measly save, wow, what an awesome year!

Ok, Mr Skeptic McDouchington, how about if you take this into your tiny mind-muffin you call a brain:

The Babe lead the league that year in:

Home Runs

On-Base Percentage

Runs Batted In

Runs

Slugging

and Total Bases

He ranked second in walks, seventh in batting average, fifth in walks, tied for 6th for triples, and even cracked the top 20 in hits.

So the line that year of a 9 win, sub 3 ERA pitcher was a mind-blowing:

G: 130

R:103

H:139

2B: 34

3B: 12

HR: 29

RBI: 114

BB: 104

.322 Avg .454 OBP .657 SLG.

Absolutely astonishing. This year was not even close to his best pitching year (1916) or his best hitting year (1927) but it illustrates my point exactly:

Babe Ruth was a freak of nature hybrid super-human hotdog eating homerun hitting pitching hitting womanizing machine.

And he is the best player to ever play the game of baseball....

Pitching:

Early in his career Babe was an absolute monster on the mound. In the three year strech of 1915-1917 he had a total of 65 wins, with a modest 2.06 ERA in that time. In that same stretch he also had seventy-four complete games.

74.

Put your Natrual Ice Light down for a second and really think about that. The leader in shutouts in 2008 was Roy Holliday recording 9. It would take about 9 years at that rate to match Babe's three year span of 1915-1917.

It would take Jon Garland 74 years. If Jon started this in 1917 and pitched every year until he matched 74 shutouts at his blistering pace of 1 a year, he would have finished his remarkable run in 1991, a mere 12 years after he was actually born.

Back to Ruth, lets look at his 1916 year of pitching.

With 28 wins (3rd in the AL) and a microscopic 1.75 ERA (led the league) you could say his year was nothing but spectacular. While hurling 23 complete games (4th) and 9 shutouts (led the league) he managed quite a low homerun rate.

He gave up zero home runs.

Hitting:

Ruth was not only a monster hitter, but for his time he was so disproportional to his peers it hurts my brain.

1927 is probably the most insane feats of any player in any sports based on the proformance of everyone else in the sport at the time.

Quick stat breakdown:

AB:540 R:158 H:192 2B:29 3B:9 HR:60 RBI:164 TB:417 AVG:.356 OBP:476 SLG:.772

Bambino led or was in the top 10 of every stastical offensive catagorey, you can check for yourself here http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1927a.shtml

The one thing I would really point out are his power numbers. Sixty homeruns was so absurb in 1927 that it needs to be explained against entire other teams that year.

Babes 60 home runs led the league, the runner-up was Lou Gherig with 47, then the drop off to 18, 17, 15, 14, 13, 12, 9, 9.

The distance between Lou and Babe of 13 home runs (or 22% of Ruth's total) isn't all too impressive, however the drop to 3rd at 18 (70% less) is.

Babe Ruth out homered the entire line-ups that year of the Phillies, A's, Browns, Pirates, Tigers, Robins, Braves, White Sox, Red Sox, and Indians.

So, more specifically, his bat alone hit more home runs than 75% of the teams in baseball.

Babe Ruth, in 1927, hit more homeruns than the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians COMBINED.

There is so many more stats to get into, but I wont as to not make this post any longer. I just always loved the absolute beat that was The Babe, and think he is unmatched in any era.

A final word:

All-time ranks

3rd on all-time home run list with 714
10th on all-time batting average list with .342
2nd on all-time RBI list with 2,217
1st on all-time slugging % with 0.690
2nd on all-time on-base % list with .474
1st on all-time OPS with 1.164
4th on all-time runs list with 2,174
6th on all-time total bases list with 5,793
3rd on all-time bases on balls list with 2,062

Who, in your mind, is the greatest player of all time and WHY?

Willits: Deserving of the hate?

PhiSlamma — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:37:17 -0000

Willits has “proven” just as much in AAA ball as, say, Morales has.

2006: .327/.448/.874
2008: .378/.452/.939

Willits spent all of 2007 with the Angels, posting a very respectable .293/.391/.735 earning himself ROY votes. He received two second place votes and 5 third place votes.

I would say the Angels need exactly what Willits offers when he has full playing time.

In 2008, just one year removed from his outstanding rookie year, Willits was displaced by an outfield with absolutely no room for him. The signing of Hunter basically bumped Willits to the horrible agony of “too valuable to send down but no room to start” zone.

Even with his extremely limited playing time (only 82 at-bats) he posed a .321 OBP.

That OBP of .321 puts him ahead of:
GMJ
Aybar
Rivera
S Rod
Mathis
Morales
Wood

I actually think with some playing time and some consecutive at-bats instead of pinch running duty for GA we could have an actual leadoff hitter. Figgins is completely expendable with a productive Willits, and with a reasonable arbitration avoidance contract agreement not too long ago, is very attractive to other teams.

Now, assuming his offense is worthy of the lineup we should also take into consideration other factors

Defense:

With full playing time Reggie has a RF (range factor) of 2.51. Since this is hard to explain its easier to just compare this stat to other outfielders.

Willits: 2.51 (in 07 with consistent playing time)

Torii: 2.67

GA: 2.00

Vlad: 2.02

GMJ: 2.11

Rivera: 1.80

There are other defensive sabermetrics, but these basically illustrate my point. Reg is somewhere near Torii in range, and completely blows Rivera out of the water.

Since there are no real reliable arm stats, we have to go on opinion. His arm is less powerful than Rivera's, but slightly more arm than GA when he left. I never felt he had a "Jane Damon" arm, but not really a cannon. We can call it league average for sake of argument.

His place in the lineup:

Obviously the outfield is not full of space and playing time opportunities. However with a few lineup changes he could easily fit.

Trading Figgins and possibly packaging either Ayabr or Izturis could land some significant young talent. Move Rivera into the DH spot and Wilits into left the lineup would look like this:

Willits- LF

Aybar/Izturis- SS

Vlad- RF

Torii- CF

Rivera- DH

Napoli-C

Morales- 1B

Kendrick - 2B

Wood - 3B

Rotating Willits and Rivera with Vlad or Hunter as they need rest would work perfectly. So there is a definite spot for Mr. Willits.

Willits represents everything the Angels are not at the moment; walking, taking pitches, and make pitchers work. I believe with more playing time Reg can be more productive than not, and I think he has shown this in the past. Since the Halos are going with a youth monvement this year, may as well go balls out.

What do you crazy kids think?

Poll

Can Reggie WIllits produce with consistent playing time?

No, Willits is awful... like GMJ but more loveable.

38 votes

He could be a average leadoff hitter.

66 votes

Reg could really make a difference, one we need.

38 votes

142 votes | Poll has closed

Request: Ervin Santana

PhiSlamma — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:15:03 -0000

Being a Halos fan since a was a wee one Ive always had quite the interest in young power pitchers like Santana. I just discovered this site a few days ago and I immediately read everything in the archives, its addictive baseball talk. I approve of any place that increase the haze of baseball immersion.

His mechanics to my untrained eye seem fluid and not too bad, maybe on the good side, but I would like a more trained opinion on his potential to stay healthy.

Thanks =)