SB Nation User Blog: scareduck

Tom Kotchman Wins His 1,500th Game

scareduck — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:00:38 -0000

Tom Kotchman, Casey's father, won his 1,500th game as a manager last night, beating the Dodgers' Pioneer League affiliate team, the Ogden Raptors, 5-3 in ten innings on the road.

"I didn't think about it at all until everyone started bringing it up," said the veteran coach. "All it means is you have been around a long time, you have had your health, and obviously you've had a lot of good players."
Kotchman said he started getting the good players in 1983 when he had Roger Clemens and a player by the name of Mike Brumley, Ogden's current manager.
Those names were followed by more big names like Garret Anderson, Troy Percival, Todd Green, John Lachey, Frankie Rodriguez. Of the 40 players on the Los Angeles Angels' roster, 27 were coached by Kotchman, including his son, Casey.
"Your job at his level is to teach the kids the game on the field and off. It's a different form of school," Kotchman said. "That is the part I like, that is the part that was most conducive for my family."
When Brumley learned the significance of the victory, he expressed his congratulations.
"Good for him, I'm just the guy to get it against," he said with a smile. "I think I was No. 1,000 for Bobby Jones. I seem to move guys up the list a lot.
"No, good for Tom. He's been there a long time, does a good job. He has made his mark on the game."

Congratulation to the Kotchman family, whose son didn't turn out so bad, either. :-)

Latest dates the Cubs have had the best record in MLB

scareduck — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:30:29 -0000

Al asked earlier in the thread about Friday's game when the last time was that the Cubs had actually had the best record this late in the majors. I thought it would be interesting to look into some other years, using 47-22 as a jumping-off point.

In reverse order (and skipping the already-known quantity of June 28, 1977):

July 2, 3, 22, 24, 1967: An infamous pennant race with the Cardinals, the Cubs were also tied with the Cards for first place on every day listed. The Cards pulled away, playing 45-20 the rest of the way, while the Cubs finished three games under .500 at 31-34, for a 87-74 finish.

July 12, 1945 through September 30: The last of the wartime teams, and Chicago's most recent entry in the World Series, the Northsiders led both leagues in wins in almost the entire second half. They lost the World Series 4-1 to Detroit; a goat was involved.

September 17 through September 29, 1935: a tight division race between the Cards, Cubs, and Giants, with only a game and a half separating the three on September 1, the Cubs went 22-3 the rest of the way. They lost 4-2 to the Tigers in the World Series.

August 27, 1929: the 1929 Cubs held, for one day late in the season, the best record in the majors. They were overtaken by the Philadelphia A's, who were having an unusual good season that year, and eventually beat the Cubs 4-1 in the World Series.

July 7 through Sept. 2, 1918. The Cubs cruised into August an easy 10 games over the Giants, playing an abbreviated schedule that ended on September 2. They lost the World Series to the Red Sox, 4-2, famously the last that Babe Ruth played in that uniform.

August 1 through August 4, 1910. The heyday of the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance infield, this team put together a 21-9 July and, for an encore, assembled an even better 21-7 August. Lost 4-1 to the Philadelphia A's in the World Series.

Various dates, July 9 through October 8, 1908. Another iteration of the Tinker-Evers-Chance teams of the late 19-oughts, this one was interesting in that the Cubs did not hold the league lead continuously, dropping from first to third on July 15 after losing two to the Giants and Pittsburgh beat the Braves; the team reacquired the best record in baseball on August 31, lost it again the next day after a loss to St. Louis, and reacquired it on September 22 beating the Giants in the first game of a doubleheader, part of a four game series, and the fourth game of a five game win streak.

On September 23, Fred Merkle made his famous baserunning error, the net result of which was to eventually hand the Cubs the pennant as the game had to be replayed on October 8; the Cubs beat the Giants, 4-2.

One other point about the 1908 season: many of those days the Cubs shared the best record in baseball with the Giants, though they were percentage points ahead or behind. Those Cubs beat the Tigers 4-1 in the World Series.

Update: SportCenter is saying that the 1908 Cubs had the best record in baseball on this date, June 1. It's true, but for the purposes of this post, misleading, because they use calendar date (June 1, when the Cubs were 23-14), but the 1908 season started on April 14. That is, the 2008 Cubs are better later than that team was, at least, so far.

July 6 through October 6, 1907: Tinker-Evers-Chance, again, and a reverse Murderer's Row of pitchers that included Mordecai Brown. Continuously owning the best record in baseball in the second half, this team beat the Tigers 4-0-1 in the World Series.

July 4 through October 7, 1906. The high-water mark for all Cubs teams, this one won 116 games, and like the 1907 version, owned the best record in baseball continuously in the second half (July 4 on). This team had three 20+ winning months, a 20-8 July, a 26-3 August, a 21-5 September, and narrowly missed a fourth in May when they went 19-9, losing both ends of a doubleheader to St. Louis on May 30. They lost 4-1 to the White Sox in the World Series.

Lackey's Final Rehab Game A Success

scareduck — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:09:33 -0000

John Lackey threw what will probably be his last rehab game in extended spring training today, and it was a success.

"He maintained his stuff the whole way," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said before Friday night's game against Tampa Bay. "His workout today was what we were looking for."

After throwing today, that would put him back on the club on May 14. The big question, of course, is who will go down once he goes up. I can't imagine it will be Moseley, Darren O'Day is pitching reasonably well but is on the cusp, and Bootcheck and Moseley are about the same as far as I can tell.

Poll

Who goes down once Lackey comes back up?

Ex-Angels GM Buzzie Bavasi Passes

scareduck — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:12:10 -0000

Can't believe this hasn't been posted, but former Angels GM Buzzie Bavasi passed away at the age of 93 today, according to the AP. Bavasi ran the ship from 1978-1984, the Halos' first heyday when they won the the AL West in 1979 and 1982. I always get the sense reading about him that he never really understood free agency, and it hurt him while he was running the Angels in that era.

More at MLB.com and the Seattle Press-Intelligencer blog, which has a mini-bio of him from the perspective of son Bill, currently the M's GM.

M's extend Johjima

scareduck — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:14:57 -0000

Robothal is reporting Seattle has extended the contract of their starting catcher, Kenji Johjima, for another three years. That means he'll be with the team through 2011, playing out his age 35 season. He's starting very slowly (.200/.268/.246), which leads me to two possibly conflicting conclusions:

The M's have lost faith in ex-USC catcher Jeff Clement and will move him to 1B/DH.
The M's want Johjima as a backup at exorbitant rates, and don't understand the number of free agent catch-and-throw guys available as backups.

Just the sort of deal to make you happy Bavasi isn't running the Halos anymore.

anaheim.angels.mlb.com goes away

scareduck — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:55:37 -0000

I know this is incredibly picayune, but at some point in the last 24 hours, mlb.com stopped redirecting requests for anaheim.angels.mlb.com to losangeles.angels.mlb.com, so now you go to the mlb.mlb.com home page. Ridiculous? Sure, but it's all part of MLBAM's sloppy tech management. It would have cost them nothing to keep the old domain and redirect around, but clearly nobody wanted to do that.

A's Unload Danny Haren For Prospects

scareduck — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:28:03 -0000

Oakland is, depending on your viewpoint, either reloading or rebuilding, trading Danny Haren to Arizona.

"In exchange, Oakland will receive a total of six prospects, including outfielder Carlos Gonzalez and left-handers Brett Anderson and Greg Smith. Arizona's first-round pick in 2006, pitcher Max Scherzer, is not a part of the deal."

Glendon Rusch Signed To Minor League Deal

scareduck — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:29:50 -0000

Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports writes that the Padres have signed Glendon Rusch to a minor league deal.

Rusch has been progressively worse in years where he could throw; he didn't pitch at all in 2007, and spent a good bit of his 2006 injured.

Whitey Herzog Comes Thisclose To Cooperstown

scareduck — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:37:23 -0000

Whitey Herzog, one of two former Angel managers up this year for induction to the Hall of Fame, narrowly missed cadging enough votes to get in, with a 68.8% tally.

The Veteran's Committee did pick managers Billy Southworth and Dick Williams, and executives Barney Dreyfuss, Bowie Kuhn, and Walter O'Malley.

Madrigal, Green, Rodriguez Added To 40-Man

scareduck — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:20:59 -0000

Warner Madrigal, Nick Green, and Sean Rodriguez were added to the 40-man roster yesterday.

That leaves the Halos with one empty spot on the 40-man, or none if Dallas McPherson returns.