The 2012 Baseball Hall Of Fame Ballot – The Snubbed: Danny Graves, Matt Lawton, & Jose Lima
Continuing our multi-part series on players who were eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot this year but were left completely off, today we examine three players who all made All-Star teams during their careers, but didn't put together enough of a career to justify their inclusion on the Hall of Fame ballot.
The 2012 Baseball Hall Of Fame Ballot – The Snubbed: Carl Everett & Jeff Fassero
I let this drop off due to... well, lack of interest, pressure to do a HoF post for the guys who actually were on the ballot, and stuff like that. Oddly, the ones that I've done before this (for Edgardo Alfonzo, and a two-for-one for Scott Erickson & Rick Helling) keep getting hits - I think mainly because Erickson managed to score Lisa Guerrero and I get Google image search hits from that. But hey - hits are hits.
So on we roll...
The Price For Prince – What If?
When the baseball world learned that Victor Martinez would (likely) miss all of 2012 with a torn ACL, fans and experts alike wondered how the Tigers would replace him. At the same time, those same people were wondering where Prince Fielder (who was still on the market and seeing his big payday options disappearing) would end up. Prince's best options seemed to be the Washington Nationals (willing to spend the money and had the need), the Texas Rangers (less cash, but offered up a team with back-to-back pennants), and the Baltimore Orioles (professional baseball team). When I retweeted Aaron Gleeman's post on HardballTalk about V-Mart's injury, my favorite Tigers mark @phenom1984 responded with this:
@MrWorkrate @aarongleeman Prince Fielder - 1yr/$40M. hehe
It was an interesting thought - something you do in a video game like OOTP and not in real life, because players want guaranteed money and an extended payday - especially Scott Boras clients - so the thought of signing Fielder to a one-year deal was unlikely. Plus, on the flipside of that, paying $40 million for one season of baseball would be - by far - the largest salary for one season of professional baseball in history, a little less than $12 million more than Roger Clemens' "play when you like" contract he signed with the Yankees in 2007.
Moneyball – The Review (and nitpicking!)
After the shocking (to me, at least) revelation that my wife wanted to see "Moneyball", I picked it up from Redbox and planned an evening viewing with the Mrs. The movie intrigued the hell out of me - having read the book, I knew that it read pretty much like a economics textbook (albeit an entertaining one, as author Michael Lewis has a way of doing that with very
So my wife didn't make it through the thing (she doesn't stay awake through too many movies in general, and "Moneyball" was over two hours), but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really well done to stay decently close to the book while still make a marketable and accessible film. The characters were likable, and while I wasn't crazy to see Paul DePodesta turned into "composite character" Peter Brand, I understand how doing something like that made the film easier to make more entertaining. In reality, DePodesta isn't nearly as "geeky" or awkward as Brand is, but Jonah Hill's portrayal of Brand loosened up a movie that could have easily gotten too dry. In terms of whether or not a non-baseball fan could enjoy it, I think just as long as you don't hate baseball you can watch without much of an issue.
THAT SAID, my nitpicks (and things you might be wondering about):
The 2012 Baseball Hall of Fame Vote: The Aftermath
So yesterday Barry Larkin got elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame partly because he was probably the best shortstop in the National League during the 90s and partly because baseball writers have a hard time saying anything bad about him. Larkin didn't do anything that would question his character, had stats that were good enough to be impressive, were consistent through his career, but weren't so good that he'd be suspected of using steroids. He got awards, played a skill position, and played for the same team all of his career. The fact that it took him this long to get in with that resume is surprising.
But as you might have heard, that's not the big story to come out of this vote. It's the BBWAA v. bloggers debate that we thought died down recently as more paper journalists started to use the online medium. BBWAA members have made public their votes and have faced criticism for them, and in a happy non-Internet world we'd have a few carefully worded letters written in to newspapers, some of which might be reprinted in a later article with carefully worded replies, all put together by an editor, making everyone feel all warm and tingly inside.
Your 2012 “If I had a Baseball HOF ballot” post Part 1 – The Newbies
Since the announcement for the Baseball Hall Of Fame voting results takes place this coming Monday, I suppose I should get around to that "if I had a ballot, here's how I'd vote" post that every baseball blogger has to put out, since the ultimate goal for a baseball writer is to actually have a vote that counts for the Hall of Fame. Well, #1 is probably "get paid for writing about baseball", with "actual HoF vote" a close second.
So, let's go over this ballot, first with the newcomers. This years newcomer class is a thin one - and I don't suspect that many will be around next year when it's time to vote again. In Part 2, we'll address those that have already been on the ballot and wrap it all up.
All I Want For Christmas Is Yu
I mentioned on Twitter that someone would have to use that as their blog post title, and then I figured I'd just run with it. Plus, I figured it would give me an excuse for some bad (perhaps horrifying) Photoshop.
Anyway, for those that don't know, the hottest "free agent" (more on that later) in baseball is Yu Darvish, one of the best pitchers in Japan, who was recently made available by his NPL team, the Nippon-Ham Fighters. Darvish makes for an interesting gamble for major league teams due to his age (25), which is much younger than any of the free agent starting pitchers currently available (due to MLB players needing six years of major league experience to become a free agent, most free agents are in their late 20s and 30s). Darvish has been rather impressive statistically for Nippon-Ham, posting a sub-2 ERA the last five seasons:
@MrWorkrate on Twitter
- @Bill_TPA they're Patriots - they buck your English customs, DUH. 2 hours ago
- @phenom1984 Shedding. 3 hours ago
- @ElwoodJBlues I was in the studio audience for S8E12. Granted, the final season, but still pretty cool. 5 hours ago
- @ECal15 I haven't gotten around to it - saw a lot of chatter about it though, so I'm curious. 11 hours ago
- @canadiancreed that would be awesome if anything I wrote got that kind of audience. 11 hours ago
Pop Bunker
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 13: The Brink of Disaster February 4, 2012 annieevett
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 12: The Edge of Destruction January 28, 2012 annieevett
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 11: The Rescue January 21, 2012 annieevett
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 10: The Ordeal January 14, 2012 annieevett
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 9: The Expedition December 24, 2011 annieevett
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