MLB Discussion

[Duff]

the NL Cy Young will come down to Jimenez and Halladay. they both have similar numbers, but Jimenez obviously edges Doc in ERA. Halladay has a perfect game to Jimenez' no-hitter. but if the season ended today my would go to Jimenez. having an ERA under 3.00 is good, but to have one under 1.00 is dumbfounding.

[dynamitekid]

fixed

What I was trying to say was that Joyce's call was worse. (I thought the "as a Cards fan" took care of the mystery...)

got it. Sorry for the misinterpretation.

[randysxe]

Jimenez is dirty. That said I don't think he can keep this up for much longer. Hitters will catch up with him eventually.

I'm pretty stoked the Dodgers haven't given up a run in at least 24 innings. Going to see my first Dodger game of the year Friday. Stoked to see Heyword - its a Braves' game - and hoping to see Chipper one last time.

i think he will forsure keep it up! his combination of nasty pitches and the difference between their speeds, unbelievable. plus, nl west hitting all around is horrible! its not like he came out of no where! he has been around for awhile and has shown amazing stuff! he is just now putting it all together! will he stay below1.00, probally not! haha but iforsure think he will stay under 1.5-1.75. serisouly, he is awesome to watch, nothing seems to rough his feathers ever!

heyward is amazing! super fun to watch! cant wait to see him in person!

griffey, best player of our generation forsure! take away steroids era, his few years with bad hammys, he owns alot of records! its a shame, best player i ever saw all around (best pure hitter, tony gwynn)

flood, that arod stat...mind boggling! haha and i agree with kay, a combination of steroid era being gone and so many teams going the "young" route, i think pitchers forsure have the edge! makes baseball a lot more fun i think!

adrian gonzalez walk off grand slam! haha

[randysxe]

i thought it was needed!!! hahaha :

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=132641543416105&ref=ts (make sure to copy entire address, not just click on highlighted part!)

go support Galarraga, and help spread the word! haha

[mediocore]

Michael Kay made a good point and I agree, it seems like with the Steroid Era gone, it is becoming a pitchers game again, the average ERA goes down every year.

The league ERA's fluctuate quite a bit -- 2010 is nothing out of the ordinary in the NL (the AL is a bit low though):

NL = http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/pitch.shtml

AL = http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/pitch.shtml

[Duff]

MLB is reviewing the blown call to determine whether or not to reverse it and give Galaragga a perfect game.

[sgoodcore]

Jimenez is dirty. That said I don't think he can keep this up for much longer. Hitters will catch up with him eventually.

I'm pretty stoked the Dodgers haven't given up a run in at least 24 innings. Going to see my first Dodger game of the year Friday. Stoked to see Heyword - its a Braves' game - and hoping to see Chipper one last time.

i think he will forsure keep it up! his combination of nasty pitches and the difference between their speeds, unbelievable. plus, nl west hitting all around is horrible! its not like he came out of no where! he has been around for awhile and has shown amazing stuff! he is just now putting it all together! will he stay below1.00, probally not! haha but iforsure think he will stay under 1.5-1.75. serisouly, he is awesome to watch, nothing seems to rough his feathers ever!

I just don't see him, once he gets around to seeing all the other teams in the NL and some in the AL having this kind of dominance. That and the Dodgers can hit so the entire West isn't hitting deprived. I'm not ready to put him up with Bob Gibson quite yet.

[Duff]

Selig is not going to overturn Joyce's call but will consider expanding the use of instant replay and the umpiring system. he all but gave Joyce a pat on the back.

[silentgods]

up yours Selig.

[flood]

interesting fact - Using WAR, Griffey is the 6th best centerfieder in history behind Cobb, Mays, Mantle, Speaker, and DiMaggio.

and..... if you just ran numbers until every player was 30, ken moves up to #4.

Discuss.

[Duff]

i think the most impressive thing about Griffey is that he won a gold glove every year of the '90s

[travis]

and he made the all century team before he was 30

[sgoodcore]

Griffey is probably the greatest pure player any of us will ever see. He should have broken Aaron's records but those nagging injuries screwed him.

And Selig needs to be put out to pasture. I hate that man more than words can fully express.

[dynamitekid]

Griffey could have easily played 200 more games in the prime of his career had he not gotten hurt but what does that equal...maybe 40-50 more hrs? 150-180 rbis? (lowball) He probably still wouldn't have broken the hr mark but he might have gotten to 2,000 rbis. Maybe he wouldn't have broken down so much in the latter part of his career but he COULD have gotten to 700 hrs.

Also, whats so wrong about overturning an out call? The NBA does similar stuff all the time.

[travis]

I think Griffey missed out on a lot more than 200 games.

I dont think there is any question he would be up near Aarons mark by now if he stayed healthy.

[sgoodcore]

Griffey could have easily played 200 more games in the prime of his career had he not gotten hurt but what does that equal...maybe 40-50 more hrs? 150-180 rbis? (lowball) He probably still wouldn't have broken the hr mark but he might have gotten to 2,000 rbis. Maybe he wouldn't have broken down so much in the latter part of his career but he COULD have gotten to 700 hrs.

Also, whats so wrong about overturning an out call? The NBA does similar stuff all the time.

What so wrong about NOT overturning the call? Is that what you mean?

And as for Griffey, he got hurt when he was hitting 40+ homeruns every year. And he got hurt for years of playing time. Closer to 3-4 full seasons. Considering he missed most of the extreme live-ball era, its not far-fetched to say each of those 3-4 years of time could count for 50 HRs.

In 1994, he played 111 games and hit 40 HRs. (lets add 9 here for games missed)

In 1995, he played 72 games and hit 17 HRs. (lets add 23 to his total for this year)

In 2001, he played 111 games and hit 22 HRs (lets add 18 to his total for this year)

In 2002, he played 70 games and hit 8 HRs (lets add 32 he was playing hurt)

In 2003, he played 53 games and hit 13 HRs (lets add 25, since he's 33)

In 2004, he played 83 games and hit 20 HRs (lets add 17, since he's 34)

In 2005, he played 128 games and hit 35 HRs (lets add 5)

In 2006, he played 109 games and hit 27 HRs (lets add 8)

You can see from his 2005 campaign, had he been healthy in the previous years my estimates make sense. He hit 35 Hrs in just 128 games at age 35.

That's 137 home runs more, being very conservative. He hit 56 HRs back-to-back years followed by a year of 48 and his first year in the NL he hit 40. I think its safe to assume he would get better in the NL as he grew accustomed to the pitching. Meaning, he probably could more like 40-45 HRs in 2003, 35-40 HRs in 2004, and 32-38 HRs in 2005. Especially, given it was a live, live, live ball era with crappy pitching.

With what I believe are conservative estimates, he'd have 767 home runs.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

sometimes i wonder if some of you work with how much time/energy you put into these conversations! or do you post while at work? everything is blocked at my new job or i'd be posting more, but theres no doubt in my mind that griffey is one of the best hitters in baseball. he's #4 on my top 5 players in baseball, barely beating out the atlanta trio that I cannot break apart

molitor

yount

braun

griffey

maddux/glavine/smoltz

[tooclosetosee]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Albert is the best player that I have ever seen. However, I remember growing up being a huge Griffey fan and now that I look back on it he had the same impact for me to baseball that tiger woods has with golf. So much that I didn't really follow baseball at that time, but I followed Griffey. Now I don't follow golf, but I follow Tiger.

[travis]

So far Alberts career offensive numbers are better than Griffeys. He still needs a lot more HRs to catch up there and he has to stay consistent and healthy for another 10 seasons.

Griffey was better on defense tho. Albert is great at 1B but its not a very touch position to play. Its a lot harder to be a great center fielder than it is to be a great first baseman.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Its a lot harder to be a great center fielder than it is to be a great first baseman.

so true.

[dynamitekid]

I think Griffey was more spectacular to watch. When you went to see Griffey play, he could do something spectacular on offense or defense. While Pujols is a better hitter and I could go to a game just to see him hit, I would go see Griffey play because he could do something great at any point.

[danthemjfan23]

not to mention griffey was an incredible baserunner. not just speed (which he obviously had), but knowing situations. realizing the depth at which the opposition's outfield was playing and where they were positioned so he could take the extra base on a single to right-center.

to me, there have been 4 players in the history of the game to have been perfectly complete 5-tool players: Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Griffey, and Barry Bonds.

i think even with all the injuries he sustained (and the subsequently depleted statistics), Griffey still makes my top-10 list of best players ever. without the injuries, i'd have a hard time keeping him out of the top 3 i'm sure, but that's purely speculation. here's my top 10 best position players ever (in alphabetical order):

hank aaron

barry bonds

ty cobb

lou gehrig

ken griffey, jr.

mickey mantle

willie mays

pete rose

babe ruth

ted williams

honorable mention: stan musial

[sgoodcore]

I take my grandfather's word, though slightly biased as he's a Giants' fan, that Willie Mays was the best he ever saw.

[mclz]

I think Griffey was more spectacular to watch. When you went to see Griffey play, he could do something spectacular on offense or defense. While Pujols is a better hitter and I could go to a game just to see him hit, I would go see Griffey play because he could do something great at any point.

Yesterday they were showing amazing catches that Griffey made over the years (mostly over the wall catches) and they were all great to watch.

[travis]

That catch where Griffey broke his arm against the wall in Seattle seemed to be the beginning of the end. The guy made countless amazing catches tho. Damn good throwing arm too.