THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Rock shall be vindicated! (Eventually. Maybe. Hopefully.)

I’ll be spreading the Raines propaganda in an upcoming piece for Penthouse too. This Raines exclusion nonsense has gone on far too long already.

Also, a little birdie told me there’s an epic Edgar post going up by the esteemed Mr. Zumsteg in the relatively near future. Another candidate I heartily support.

Penthouse eh?  Well, given the choice between Penthouse and the internet, I have no doubt that the Holy Writers are more likely to want to spend their time at the former.

I thought Raines should have been a first ballot HOFer. I’m not sure exactly when he’ll get in, but I hope it’s soon. The fact of the matter is that some of the BBWAA needs to changed. What made Jim Rice any more HOF worthy last year than he was 15 years ago?

Beyond the obvious—that his value was in walks, steals and runs scored and he played in Montreal, he’s hurt by the fact that his post-1980s career was pretty spotty. The only time he picked up 600 at-bats (1991) he had an off-year (98 OPS+). The only time his OPS+ ticked above 130 (1993) he played in only 115 games. Almost 700 of his career hits came after 1992, but in choppy part-time seasons, whereas a guy like Rice picked up fewer than 300 hits after he became ordinary (post 1986).

Also, Raines never made an all-star team after his age 27 season. Rice was an all-star after his peak at ages 30-33. Gwynn was an all-star every year from age 24 to 39.

Raines finished among the top five in the MVP vote only once—in 1983, whereas Rice did it in 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1983 and 1986.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that Rice is a better player. But while they were playing, Raines obviously wasn’t viewed by the fans or writers as being the same calibre of player as Rice.

Long live Rock!

First Penthouse, then a Daltrey/Townshend promotional video.  It sure beats the lame Keltner pamphlets that Bill James once wrote about.