SB Nation User Blog: antinous

I've been released from the hospital

antinous — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:29:02 -0000

It turns out that the crushing chest pains I was feeling yesterday were a result of stress and not at all a sign of my congenitally defective aortic valve finally calling for the tab. Every single metric checks out great, not a sign of heart damage, and the many ER doctors and specialists who milled through my room yesterday had similar questions:

"Has anything stressful occurred in your life recently?"

"Did you see the Giants game last night?"

"Yeah, hoooooo boy." Except for the one who was a Cubs fan, and I had enough morphine in me to comfort him.

Brandon Crawford's Defense

antinous — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:16:41 -0000

Brandon Crawford's Defense

Here's one data point that suggests that Crawford is a great defensive shortstop.

The All-Time Hall of Fame Eligible but Not In the Hall Giants

antinous — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:59:10 -0000

Baseball fans love lists, especially all-time-best lists. One of my absolute favorites of the form is the all-time-best team you can put together from your franchise's players. The Giants' list is just about the best, though they might finish a game or two behind the Yankees. (It's alarming how little pitching the Cardinals have to go with their amazing position players.)

Today, as I was celebrating unemployment by walking to Trader Joe's for some more Simpler Times Lager ($2.99 a six pack, but they were sold out), I wondered, "What would be the best team of Giants who are eligible for the Hall of Fame but not in it?" Sort of, "How awesome is our second tier compared to others' second tiers?" I'm limiting this to guys who spent a substantial amount of time on the Giants, but your definition of substantial might be different than mine.

I wasn't sure how to go about this, so I pulled up the Baseball Reference pages on the 1923, 1937, 1954, 1962, and 1978 Giants, and used that as well as my memory for clues. I also hit the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract for ideas and rankings. (I think it should be a federal law that James rewrites this every ten years. Who's with me?) This list is heavy on modern Giants in part because of my own experience, and in part because the veteran's committee has already enshrined every remotely qualified New York Giant. Seriously, go make a list of the worst players in the Hall of Fame - it will be Catfish Hunter, Bruce Sutter, and eight New York Giants.

Position-by-position justification:

Catcher: Haller was the first name to jump into my mind, and I never found anybody better. Kennedy? Brenly? Santiago?

First base: Duh.

Second base: I really wanted to put Bill Madlock at second but he just didn't play enough games there. Second base is not a loaded position for the Giants - Frisch, Kent, Thompson, and a season of Hornsby.

Third base: Yes, Darrell Evans over Matt Williams. Look, I freaking LOVED Matt Williams when he was a Giant. As a kid, I had a binder full of Will Clark and Matt Williams baseball cards. They are absolutely my two favorite baseball players from my childhood. That said, Evans played 2687 games with a 119 OPS+, and Williams played 1866 games witha 112 OPS+. Evans was more OBP-heavy, so the offensive gap is actually bigger than that. Both were plus defenders in their primes. I think Evans should be in the Hall of Fame.

Shortstop: I was thinking Bill Dahlen here, but his best days were behind him when he was a Giant, so it's not really fair.

Left field: Yay! An old baseball player! I was actually stunned when I found out that he's not in the Hall. Runners up were Gary Matthews and Kevin Mitchell. I didn't realize Monte Irvin was already in the Hall, otherwise that would have been my choice.

Center field: This one gave me fits. Of course, there was a pretty good center fielder on the Giants once, but he's in the Hall, so he doesn't qualify. Maddox and Butler didn't spend enough time with the Giants. Matty Alou wasn't good until after he left. Bobby Murcer and Felipe Alou didn't play center when they were on the Giants. I went with Bill James when choosing Van Haltren. I invite the reader to take a stroll through the non-Mays center fielders the Giants have employed. It's ridiculous. I almost went with Darryl Hamilton.

Right field: He was faster and a better defender than his son. His son was better at the other things, though.

Starting pitchers: They put McGinnity in the Hall? Really? I was going to look ever-so-smart when I chose him! Pitchers make this exercise difficult - there aren't too many good-but-not-great pitchers who have long careers and spend the bulk of their time with one team. I thought Big Daddy's playing time was marginal, but I included him... I wouldn't put Reuschel in the Hall of Fame, but he was a better pitcher than Jack Morris, who seems to get some support. I need help on the pitchers. Which hall-eligible pitchers am I missing?

Relief pitcher: Robb Nen, of course, though I did check on Beck just in case I was forgetting their stats or something.

Something about Rush

antinous — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:28:47 -0000

Something about Rush

Steve Holm seriously needs a website like this. Every career backup catcher does. And apparently the music is by this "Rush" everybody has been talking about.

Relax, the pitching is probably a little better than this

antinous — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:46:57 -0000

BAbip stands for batting average on balls in play, meaning fair balls that don't leave the yard. The theory is that BAbip is more or less out of the pitcher's control - except for knuckleballers and, to a lesser extent, extreme sinkerballers - and thus we should expect it to regress to a mean over time. This mean is generally considered to be about .290, though this season the average BAbip in the NL is .299 so far.

Giants pitchers and their BAbips:

Lincecum - .380
Johnson - .346
Affeldt - .333
Medders - .321
Howry - .318
Wilson - .314
Sanchez - .300
Zito - .299
Valdez - .289
Cain - .278
Miller - .271
TEAM - .319

Of course, part of this lies at the feet of our below-average defense, but still, luck this bad cannot be sustained. Only Miller and Cain would project to get worse if these numbers regressed to the .290 range.

Rooting Order

antinous — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:41:48 -0000

As I'm waiting for news to come out of the winter meetings - please no Cantu or Encarnacion - I'm trying to find ways to maintain my last shred of sanity through fabricated baseball fixes. I instinctively pulled for the Phillies in the World Series, and after some thought decided why that was: they took out the Dodgers, they have a couple of ex-Giants about whom I am not bitter, and they represent the National League while not being the Dodgers. So, to extend that, here's my best guess at a Rooting Order, the ranking by which I pull for one team over another.

San Francisco Giants - Of course.
Baltimore Orioles - I lived in Baltimore in the mid-nineties, when the O's were fun and good. The last few years have been tough.
Oakland A's - They're local, they're fun, and Beane really is great. They will go way down this list if they indeed build a stadium that is not walking distance to a bart station.
Saint Louis Cardinals - My father's team. I have an autographed photo of Stan Musial in my living room.
Chicago Cubs - I have come to believe that the Giants will not be allowed to win the World Series until every team that has waited longer 5. gets a title. Every year I root for the Cubs-Indians World Series.
Cleveland Indians - See above.
Milwaukee Brewers - Young, fun team that I can finally root for now that Selig doesn't own them.
Boston Red Sox - Getting a little tired of their eponymous nation, but I still love the way the team is run, and feel quite vindicated for my decade of insisting that, yes, the Red Sox will win a World Series before too long.
Kansas City Royals - For ten years, this was probably the best-run team in baseball. Furthermore, for some reason, all my favorite baseball writers are connected to them.
Minnesota Twins - I love that their organizational philosophy is the opposite of the stat-driven Red Sox method and they still develop good players and win a lot of games.
Pittsburgh Pirates - Thanks for Bonds and Schmidt, and for having a much longer below-.500 streak than we do.
Philadelphia Phillies - What an infield. I wish writers would realize that Ryan Howard can't be the best player in the league when he's only the fourth-best player on his team.
Tampa Bay Rays - This is a fun, young team. They'll be back in the postseason before you know it.
Chicago White Sox - When they won in 2005, it brought us one team closer to being celestially permitted to win the Series.
Seattle Mariners - The only thing that came to mind was Torres for Estes (and another guy). Lots of broken dreams in that one trade there.
New York Mets - The orange is Giant orange, yet the blue is Dodger blue. Discuss.
Toronto Blue Jays - When they were good, they looked like they would be a dynasty, drawing some 4 million fans a year and fielding the best team money could buy. Strange how things change. I guess that means that in fifteen years the Yankees will be holding a bake sale.
Detroit Tigers - LOOK, JACK MORRIS DOES NOT BELONG IN THE HALL OF FAME. IT'S NOT EVEN CLOSE. THE GUY WASN'T AS GOOD AS RICK REUSCHEL. STOP IT.
Houston Astros - Their stadium is a stupid gimmick, especially the Useless Mound of ACL Elimination in center.
Texas Rangers - Previously the Washington Senators, currently the Washington Generals.
Cincinnati Reds - I had a ticket to game 5 of the 1989 World Series, but had my hopes dashed when the Oakland juggernaut swept my beloved Giants. Somehow, the next year, I scored a ticket to game 5 of the World Series. I watched that first game anxiously, hoping to avoid another catastrophe. Rijo was brilliant, the Reds won easily, and I exhaled. Finally I would go to the World Series, I thought. It was then that I learned yet another important lesson about the fallacy of hope.
San Diego Padres - I know they're a division rival, but they just seem so "meh" to me. In my mind's eye they will always wear the McDonald's uniforms.
Arizona Diamondbacks - Won a World Series in their fourth year of existence, but at least they did it at the expense of the Yankees. And I've always liked Matt Williams.
Colorado Rockies - Baseball should be illegal in Colorado.
Washington Nationals - I liked them as the Expos. Centerpiece in several nasty baseball business dealings.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Thunderstix, Rally Monkey, Spiezio.
Florida Marlins - Perhaps the most cynically operated franchise in baseball, the Marlins have never won their division. Of course, they have two championships in the last eleven years. Jerks.
Atlanta Braves - Had we won in 2002, I could have let them off the hook for 1993. Still on the hook.
New York Yankees - Baseball's #1 villain, unless they're your hero. In 1962, selfishly employed a second baseman who was taller than 3'8".
Los Angeles Dodgers - Of course.

What's your rooting order?

Mock the 1986 Dodgers Here

antinous — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:06:44 -0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW7q0JzWaoY

Commence derision.

KLaw extemperaneously ranks Giants' system fifth-best

antinous — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:45:12 -0000

I know it was an off-the-cuff response, but here's a glimmer of hope from today's Keith Law chat:

Jim (LA): Name your top 5 minor league systems.

Keith Law: (2:12 PM ET ) #1 is Tampa. #2 is Texas. Beyond that I'm less sure, having not done this as a serious exercise (I will in late January). #3 is probably the Reds - very top-heavy, but tough to ignore that much star potential. #4 Boston. #5 ... I'll say the Giants, the opposite of the Reds, lots of star power that's years away. I reserve the right to change any of those last three.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=18665

Carlos Gomez Picks the DRAFTYs

antinous — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:36:10 -0000

...and we win!

Carlos Gomez is a former professional ballplayer whose analyses focus on mechanics. He has selected his "DRAFTY" award winners for 2007, and believes that the Giants had the best draft.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-draftys-the-2007-mlb-draft-awards/

Posnanski Excerpt on Barry

antinous — Tue, 15 May 2007 02:40:02 -0000

The best writer in baseball, Joe Posnanski, has a neat blog entry about market size today:

http://thesoulofbaseball.blogspot.com/2007/05/its-not-size-of-market.html

Deep inside this excellent piece (read the whole thing) is a nice, compassionate mention of Bonds approaching the Record.

"I will admit, though, feeling a certain unexpected feeling about Barry as we come closer to the record. Yes, I firmly believe he cheated with steroids. I firmly believe he knowingly and deliberately cheated. I firmly believe he knew exactly what he was doing -- he was actually pretty late to the steroids party -- and I don't buy it as an excuse that baseball didn't test back then. That's lame. To me that's like saying that cheating on a test is OK because the teacher was too clueless to catch you. It's wrong. Period. And everybody knew it.

"BUT ... Barry's the greatest player I ever saw. Bar none. Not even close. As a young man, he was the greatest combination of power, speed and defense I ever saw. As an old man, he was probably the most feared slugger the game has ever known -- I think more feared than Ruth. I love baseball, of course, and it has been one of the great joys of my baseball life watching Barry Bonds play. I don't like that he cheated -- frankly, I preferred watching the svelte, power/speed Barry over the big-headed Barry who mashed balls over and over into the Bay. The steroid and human growth hormone stuff will sully his legacy and reputation, no doubt about it, and that's right. Like I say, he knew what he was doing. But I feel like, as Barry closes in on the record, that it should be celebrated. He should be celebrated. The game has never seen anyone like him. ... Maybe the feeling will pass.

"And, by the way, I don't think there's any doubt that the Commissioner should be there when he breaks the record. It's his game. It's the most hallowed record in his game. And it happened on his watch. I've read those who say it would be hypocritical for Bud to be there. I think it would be hypocritical for him NOT to be there."