Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Tuesday 5/27

Bare with me for some technical stuff before I get to the day's big 2...

A) Don't expect to see too much of Paul Waner and Tris Speaker on this site. This is about contemporary player clubs. Instead, look for random people that I(/we?) grew up watching (who may or may not be still active) who we never possibly could have expected would have their own "club," a la the well known 30/30 club or the 500 homer club, but alas they do indeed have their own club nonetheless.
B) I also decided retired is much better than active. Let me rephrase that (without simply deleting because I'm too lazy). The ideal is active players with ">=" type counting stats (e.g., "at least 300 homers") , as opposed to weighted or average stats ("at least a .400 OBP") or <= stats (no more than 200 steals) because those latter two (namely, average or <=) can change over time for an active player (he can reach a certain mark and no longer qualify as less than X, or his weighted averages can change.) And, wow, the end of that second to last paranthesis looks like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. Anyone else see that? Anyway, as I was saying, that is the ideal, namely, active and at least X. After that, comes retired, and lastly, the other types of active (weighted/less than). C) Lastly, I may or may not write more by each player, random things about them I remember or what not. Now that I got that out of the way, 5/27, here we go...

1. Tony Batista: HR>=220, SH<=10, SB<=50, OBP<=.300
THE sucky dude with pop to end all "sucky dude with pop"s.
Yes, this IS a tribute to Aaron Gleeman, my favorite blogger besides FJM who killed his favorite team, the Twins, for signing him in December of 2005. If you don't want to read the whole link, here is an exerpt:

"I actually find myself struggling for words to describe just how pathetic this move is, as if every criticism I've ever leveled against the organization in the past was simply me crying wolf. The fact that Batista will hurt the team in 2006 is almost an afterthought, because the much more damning aspect of signing him is that it exposes the organization as completely unable to recognize what leads to scoring runs."

In addition to this club, he also is the only player to have the much heralded "gayest batting stance" parameter:
Moshe, if you are reading this, is this the dude who gave you an autograph? Also, no Tony Batista post can possibly be made, ever, without referencing this hilarious youtube clip. No other comments are needed... just watch:

2. Robin Ventura: G>=2050, H<=1890, SB<=25, OBP>=.360
He can walk but he can't run.
He played a long time, literally never ran, and had a decent OBP but it didn't come from an incredible amount of hits.I decided not to include the "easy" Ventura isolating parameter: grandslams. (He's tied with McCovey at 18 behind Gehrig 23, Manny 20, and Murray 19 for all time grandslams, and that doesn't count his grandslam single) because that would have been too easy for me. Instead, he is the only player with those aforementioned qualifications, which to be honest I find surprising. If I had to venture (pun intended?) a guess, I'd say the nice OBP without that many hits per game in a long career probably isn't as unique as the putrid 25 steals in over 2050 games. Even with that said, I'm kind of surprised he is the only one who qualifies for this club.

P.S 1 - I would like to take this moment to happily mention that last night, Mike Pelfrey did everything in his power to remain in his club (see the welcome post), by posting the following line against the Florida Marlins:
4 ip, 6h, 3bb, 4er, 3k, 1hbp

P.S 2 - Tonight there is a conflict in rooting interests... while my fantasy team (santana, beltran and han-ram) is of the utmost importance, my Marlins-fanhood (which is behind Yankees and pro-Brian Bannister for 4th on rooting list) will be eliminated, at least until Santana is out of the game and no longer has a chance for a win. In such a case, I will root for the Marlins unless Beltran is up. I thought you all should know that. And I will be at this game so let's go Santana!

No comments: