Marco’s Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2021: Scattershot
*OHTANI-SAN: We are of course being treated to one of those great phenomenons that baseball has the knack of serving up on occasion. I speak of the Ohtani Grand Tour. The Japanese Ruth is leading the majors in homers (37), leads all of baseball in extra base hits (64), has an OPS of over 1.000, leads the majors in slugging at .684, home run frequency with 9 at bats per tater, leads everybody in WAR with 6.2 and even has 15 stolen bases! (all stats as of press time) And then the punch line...he’s also pitching like an Ace!
Hasn’t been done. Ever. Even Ruth didn’t get his big bat really unlimbered until he’d given up the mound. Ruth would have been a deserving Cy Young winner in at least one season had they given that award in those days, and you all know what kind of hitter he became. But Ohtani ...in his first uninjured half season...is an All Star offensive player and defensive stopper simultaneously. It just hasn’t been done. He makes the majors look like your Little League team when the biggest kid on the team got to pitch and strike out all the puny little guys and then hit the big homers as well.
The only players who have awed the baseball world to this degree recently were McGwire, Sosa and Bonds. But Ohtani is without Sin. He’s more like those earlier sky rockets Mark Fidrych and Fernando Valenzuela. Just pure- pleasure- no- guilt kind of heroes.
As far as one individual generating this much baseball buzz I’d rank his season thus far with Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak of 1941 and George Brett’s 1980 season when he hit .390.
*THE .400 CLUB: I think it would take something like a full season pursuit of a .400 batting average to top Ohtani. And that hasn’t really happened since Tony Gwynn’s .394 in 1994. (The pursuit short-circuited by the strike that will live in infamy.)
Speaking of which...only 8 men have ever hit .400 or better since 1901. They are:
Nap Lajoie Phil. Athletics 1901 .426
Joe Jackson Cleveland 1911 .408
Ty Cobb Detroit 1911 .420
Ty Cobb Detroit 1912 .410
George Sisler St. Louis Browns 1920 .407
Ty Cobb Detroit 1922 .401
George Sisler St. Louis Browns 1922 .420
Rogers Hornsby St. Louis Cardinals 1922 .401
Harry Heilmann Detroit 1923 .403
Rogers Hornsby St. Louis Cardinals 1924 .424
Rogers Hornsby St. Louis Cardinals 1925 .403
Bill Terry New York Giants 1930 .401
Ted Williams Boston Red Sox 1941 .406
I start with the great French Canadian Napoleon Lajoie because before that, although the game of the nineteenth century was filled with .400 hitters, it was also filled with strange, random leagues and teams coming into and out of existence and the rules were also pretty random. Walks were counted as hits in 1887. Balls that bounced over the fence were home runs until 1930!
And don’t even ask about sacrifice flies. They weren’t counted as at bats in the early years, then were outs from 1931 to 1938 and again from 1940-1953...then counted as no at bat since 1954. If today’s rules had been in effect in 1941, Ted Williams would have hit .413 instead of .406.
Lajoie’s .426 was suspect because the American League had just come into existence in 1901 and it was in reality no better than the minor league teams of that era. Lajoie was the one true star of that League and took advantage of his abilities against very weak competition.
It’s been said that Cobb won the batting title in 1911 by psyching Joe Jackson out. Being fellow southerners, the two were friends and always had a “Hi...how ya doin?” for each other when their paths crossed. But they were locked in a race for the title and the Tigers went to Cleveland for a series. Jackson ambled over to say hi and Cobb told him to get lost. Wouldn’t talk to him the whole weekend. Bothered Joe Jackson so much that he went into a mini-slump and finished behind Cobb for the crown. Sounds like something Ty Cobb would pull.
So the big guns on this list are Cobb who hit over .400 three times. And Rogers Hornsby who also did it three times. Everybody knows those two and most remember George Sisler, who did it twice. Sisler ran into bad luck after his super season of 1922 with a sinus infection that affected his eyesight and he was never the same player after that year.
Most of these high average seasons took place in the decade of the ‘20s, after new (more carefully manufactured and tighter) baseballs were mandated to be put in use at all games throughout the majors and spitballs were banned as a response to the Ray Chapman beaning of 1920 (he was killed) and the great Flu epidemic of 1918-1919. (The direct cause of the demise of the legal spitball.) Bill Terry, first baseman of the Giants, was the last National League player to hit .400 and Williams of course did it in 1941.
But who was this Harry Heilmann guy? Most people have forgotten Harry “Slug” Heilmann of the Detroit Tigers. He was a big gun in the twenties but not as big as Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Simmons and Hornsby. Detroit never won a pennant when he was on the team and he didn’t hit a ton of homers. But he came very close to becoming the only man to ever hit over .400 four times.
Harry came up to the Big Leagues in the late teens and didn’t do much at all for four years until new Tiger’s manager Ty Cobb put him in right field instead of at first and gave him some batting tips. Then he went crazy and won batting crowns in 1921,1923,1925 and 1927.
In 1921 he hit .394...four hits shy of reaching .400. In 1923 he made it with an average of .403. 1925 saw him close again with .393...four hits shy of the magic mark. Then in 1927 he missed by one hit… .398. So Harry was nine hits in three seasons short of being a four timer .400 hitter.
The only other men to hit over .390 four times were Cobb, who had a .390 season in his run and Hornsby, who had one season of .397 to go with his three .400 trips.
Heilmann finished his career at a lifetime .340...good for number twelve on the all-time list.
Let us now praise forgotten men.
*PLAYOFFS 2021: Looking good for Boston, Tampa Bay, Houston and Chicago in the A.L. with Oakland trying to hold off Seattle for the second Wild Card.
The
N.L. West seems to have three teams locking up spots. The fight is
among Los Angeles, San Diego
and surprising San Francisco to
see who can win the division and get home field. The Mets
own the East right now because their competition is so flawed and the
Mets have their pitching working better. Losing Acuna
was a disaster for the Braves. Strasburg
is still hurting in the neck for the
Nats and God knows when
the Phillies will get
a bullpen.
Milwaukee is in a similar position to the Mets over in the Central. St. Louis, Chicago and Cincinnati have too many holes. The Brewers have three strong starters and Josh Hader in the pen and I guess that’s enough to win the Central. I just find it hard to believe that a team batting .223 can win a flag.
*GUESS WE’LL BE MISSING IN THE PLAYOFFS: Most of the great young players that we wanted to see this year. In the A.L. Vlad Guerrero Jr. isn’t likely to see the post season, even though the Jays aren’t quite out of it yet. George Springer hitting long balls? Nah. And don’t expect to see any Yankee stars...they’re all on the IL. We will appreciate having Rafael Devers from the Red Sox and Wander Franco from Tampa (if he isn’t sent back down for non-excellence) on the Big Stage.
The White Sox are so superior to the rest of the teams in the A.L. Central that they lost half their opening day starters (Jimenez, Roberts, Madrigal, Eaton and Grandal) for extended stretches and still lead the division by a wide margin. Eloy Jimenez MIGHT make it back in August but what kind of shape will he be in? Byron Buxton of Minnesota? Injured and the Twins are in last place anyway. Franmil Reyes, the Big Bopper for the Cleveland Guardians? They are way back and pondering the rebuild. And how about Akil Baddoo, the 22 year old center fielder of the Tigers? Best name in the majors, right? You won’t see it on a playoff roster any time soon.
In the A.L. West the big disappointment is that Ohtani’s dream season will end when the regular season ends. The Angels are road kill. Shohei will have to take a seat next to Mike Trout, who has made exactly one playoff series in his career. MLB should just cheat and give the Angels about six top draft choices and Max Scherzer to get them into the limelight. MLB would make an extra billion dollars if they had Mike and Shohei in the post season.
Yordan Alvarez will be fun to watch if the Astros continue beating everybody in sight. He’s very quick to the ball for such a large human.
In the N.L. we lost Acuna Jr. to the dreaded ACL tear. Juan Soto has been percussive at the plate lately and really put on a show in 2019 when the Nats went all the way. He’ll be home this year. The Nats have not only inhaled the furball and then coughed it up, but they have now regurgitated, resnorted, rechewed and are attempting to digest it completely.
N.L. Central hasn’t had many of the hot new superstud young players...just hard-working Joes like Funky Jesse Winker-Bean of the Redlegs.
All the action is out West in the N.L. where the Padres possess the shining star of the league in Fernando (“There was something in the Air that Night”) Tatis Jr. I’ll stay up late to watch him. Can he survive his slash and burn, contortionist type of baseball long enough to make it to the Playoffs with the Dodgers and the Giants? Let’s hope so, otherwise the cupboard is pretty bare of young National League superstars in the Post Season.
*The BOSTON RED SOX seem to have had a good sense of how Kiki Hernandez and Alex Verdugo would fit into the team when they acquired them from L.A. Sure, they lost Betts, but they got two guys who hustle, are versatile defensively and are glow worms in the clubhouse. I think the Dodgers made a mistake not retaining their services.
The Sox have good team guys all through the lineup...a highly underrated plus for a ball team. If Sale can pitch 5 or 6 innings once a week the Red Sox could get it done. I don’t think they’ll give up young talent or go over the credit limit to sign more help...except maybe for Anthony Rizzo.
The Sox have been playing rookie Bobby Dalbec at first and have given him all kinds of support and understanding to develop his confidence. What they’re getting in return is strike outs. Lots and lots of strike outs. Nobody else has stepped up at first base. Chavis, Santana, Marwin Gonzalez...whiff! The Sox need a steady defensive player with left-handed power at first. Voila...here is Rizzo, originally drafted by Boston back in the last decade.
What will the Cubs take for him? Jarren Duran and another top prospect? Not worth it for a one year rental. Two or three second tier prospects? Do it! Rizzo is an MVP-type team leader who should love it in Boston and how many chances are the Red Sox going to have to get into another World Series before the Yankees get their act together? (Or the Blue Jays!)
***NOTICE! EVENTS ARE OVERTAKING THIS CORRESPONDENT’S ABILITY TO KEEP UP! THE YANKEES JUST GOT RIZZO AND GALLO. WELL SHUT MY MOUTH AND STIR MY GRITS!***
*Kyle Schwarber. Okay, I get it. The Red Sox had to do something or lose the respect of the Boston punditry who freak out anytime the Yankees overspend on another slugger. Besides, I think the Sox really wanted Rizzo and were stunned that the Yanks stole him. I like Schwarber. He a jolly good fellow in the clubhouse and that’s always nice. He was on a terrific home run hot streak with the Nats just before he got wounded. But where do they put him? Forget left. Keep him as far away from the wall as you can possibly get. He’ll make you miss Manny Ramirez. I guess they’re thinking first base which is where they need a big leftie bat. One problem. Kyle hasn’t played hardly any first base. He’s a DH. The Red Sox have J.D.Martinez at DH with occasional outfield duty mixed in. Maybe somebody knows something that I don’t know about Kyle and he can do okay at first. Hope so. Meanwhile he’s at least an emergency catcher and a good platoon bat.
*YANKEES HONOR FAMOUS MAFIA DON! The Yankees just put Joey Gallo in pinstripes. Yes he’s got power of the leftie variety...but he’s pull happy and that short porch will get him into the bad habits that had his average in the .100s for years with huge K numbers. Also, I think he’s a country boy and I don’t know how he’ll like the Big Show in New York. Also, he’s the kind of player the Yankees already have four or five of.
They would have been better off grabbing somebody like Michael Brantley of the Astros who gets on base a lot in front of big bats. (I doubt the Astros would have traded him anyway...he’s too valuable to their pennant push. And I doubt they would even talk to the hated Bronxians.) What I like about Gallo is his great defense which separates him from Stanton and Sanchez at least. But that lineup is filled with human wind machines.
*LIFE IS SO REAL IN TINSELTOWN: It’s amazing to realize that the Dodgers are probably going to cut Trevor Bauer and eat a $100 million dollar contract! But the bad press from keeping him would cost them a lot more in community support, merchandise and boycotts. The guy has zero support from his teammates...and that says a lot. And if in defense of your actions the best you can offer is “She Asked me to choke her...”
After starting the season with one of the most impressive potential starting pitcher staffs ever assembled (Lefties: Kershaw, Urias, Price Righties: Buehler, Bauer, Gonsolin and Dustin May...That’s three Cy Young winners plus Walker Buehler as the Number 1!) the Dodgers watched Dustin May blow an elbow, Kershaw go down for a long spell and Trevor Bauer commit career suicide. So they go out and trade for Max Scherzer and Danny Duffy (Kansas City’s nifty left-hander). And... oh yeah… one dish of Trea Turner on the side!
Trea Turner is right up there with Tatis Jr. as the best shortstop in the league! He’s got 18 homers and a bunch of steals and also hits for average and is the fastest runner in baseball (unless this new kid in Boston, Jarren Duran, can beat him. Or maybe Roman Quinn of the Phillies. And there’s always Billy Hamilton.)
Don’t you feel bad for the Dodgers? Betts and Bellinger are having down years...but who can tell when you look at the standings?
*CONSENSUS FASTEST RUNNERS (IN THEIR PRIMES!) IN BASEBALL HISTORY:
Honorable Mentions: Ty Cobb, Cool Papa Bell (who can really tell with hand stop watches of that era? They were super fast though.)
10/ Lou Brock
9/Kenny Lofton
8/Ricky Henderson (once timed at 9.6 for the 100)
7/Jose Altuve (early in his career)
6/tie: Maury Wills and Ichiro!
5/Deion Sanders
4/Byron Buxton
3/Vince Coleman
2/ Billy Hamilton (the one who plays for the White Sox now...not ‘Sliding Billy’ from the 1890’s)
1/Mickey Mantle (timed at 3.1 going home to first from left handed batters box. That’s before his first major leg injury in 1951. Ah yes! The Commerce Comet)
*So my TRADE TAKEAWAY is that the rich get richer. The Yanks and the Dodgers can do pretty much what they want in this game. Also, when a team is obviously on the slow slide south like the Cubs and the Nationals...they’ve learned not to prolong the agony...just go ahead and commit seppuku and contemplate your torn innards on the ground in front of you. Just hope you asked for the right prospects in trade for your stars and maybe you’ll win another pennant sometime in the next hundred years.
And that’s all for today ball-fans!
