Tale of two rookies

In 2001, two rookies made the St. Louis Cardinals' roster coming out of spring training, one a left-handed relief pitcher who was talked about as a potential closer, the other a multi-position player who was targeted to perhaps fill a hole at third base.

Neither impressed as the Cardinals were swept three straight in the season-opening series in Colorado. The hitter went 1-for-9, and the pitcher gave up two earned runs in 2 1/3 innings in a relief appearance.

The team traveled to Arizona, where the rookie hitter started opening eyes by putting a hurt on the Diamondbacks: 7-for-14 with 8 RBI in three games. That began a 13-game hitting streak, by the end of which he was hitting .393.

The pitcher, meanwhile, sat on the bench and watched. Finally, 10 days after his first appearance, he entered a game in the seventh inning with the Cardinals trailing Houston, 4-2. The lefty proceeded to walk Jeff Bagwell, hit Richard Hidalgo, walk Lance Berkman and walk Chris Truby. Manager Tony La Russa had seen enough.

Three days later, La Russa brought the pitcher in to relieve Dustin Hermanson, who was getting strafed, with the Cardinals trailing 8-1. The rookie prevented further damage by retiring Armando Reynoso and Tony Womack to end the inning.

But Arizona scored five runs in the fourth, capped by a David Dellucci home run. Tony Womack tripled to open the fifth, and another ex-Pirate, Jay Bell, followed with a homer.

La Russa walked out to the mound to take the ball, and that was it for Chad Hutchinson's Major League Baseball career. His numbers: 3 games, 4 innings, 9 hits, 11 earned runs, 6 walks, 2 strikeouts.

His rookie counterpart, meanwhile, went on to a .329-37-130 season and today has a .331 lifetime average with 273 home runs. At age 27.

His name, of course, is Albert Pujols.

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Trivia question 56: For which National Football League teams did Chad Hutchinson play quarterback?

Ruth vs. Aaron and Bonds

After I compared the home runs of Henry Aaron and Barry Bonds as percentages of league totals, I thought it might be interesting to do the same for George Herman Ruth.

As more and more players exceed 500, 600 and even 700 lifetime homers, the Babe is starting to get lost in the shuffle. With very few people still alive who ever saw him play, some skeptics are dismissing his feats, using such caveats as the color line that unfortunately existed in organized baseball at the time.

Overlooked in the onslaught of modern home run marks is the enormity of Ruth's impact on the way baseball was played. Casual baseball fans might know the long ball was somewhat of a rarity before the Babe started hitting them. But even after certain aspects of the game made it easier for hitters after 1920, the balls weren't flying out of parks at anything resembling the rates of today. Throughout Ruth's career, in no season did the American League average more than 100 home runs per team, and usually the figure was well below that. Meanwhile, he was hitting them out at a pace very comparable to Aaron and Bonds.

Even in 1918, the year the Red Sox started to convert him to a full-time outfielder, the Babe was wowing 'em with his bat. His 11 home runs that year might seem like a few good weeks' worth of work nowadays, but it was an eye-popping total considering that the entire AL hit only 96 (that's a dozen per team). And considering that Ruth also posted a 13-7 record that year, with 18 complete games in 19 starts, then won two more games in the World Series.

Anyway, I tried to make Ruth's figures comparable to Aaron's and Bonds' by adjusting the number of teams to 12, even though eight existed throughout Ruth's career. (For the heck of it, I also ran straight percentages for Ruth, and they're truly astounding.)

Here is the chart for Ruth. Please click on the image for a larger view:



For Aaron and Bonds, see yesterday's post. And you'll see there is no comparison, really.

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Trivia question 55: In what season did Babe Ruth post his final victory as a pitcher?

Bonds vs. Aaron: the nth comparison

My personal contention is that Henry Aaron played primarily in an era, the better part of the '60s, when pitching was as dominant as it has been since the day of the Dead Ball. Much of Barry Bonds' career has been during a period of unprecedented bounty for the long ball.

I started thinking about how Aaron fared against the rest of the National League while he played, compared with Bonds. Of course, the two played radically different types of schedules: Aaron started when the league had only eight teams, while Bonds now faces 15 other NL foes (not to mention that interleague stuff).

Anyway, to level the field for a comparison, I adjusted league home run totals for each year of both players' careers to reflect the number 12 teams would have hit. In other words, the 1,255 home runs National League hitters belted in 1955, when the NL had eight teams, is adjusted upward to 1,895; the actual NL total of 2,595 in 2002 is adjusted downward to 1,946.

Then I measured each player's home run total against the teams-per-league adjustment. And as I suspected, Aaron comes out ahead for his 21-year career in the National League, 2.22% to Bonds' 2.05%.

Both players were remarkably healthy throughout most of their careers, until Bonds missed most of the 2005 season, which is not included here. His playing time was limited in 1999, as well, but was comparable to Aaron's final NL season, when he was reduced to part-time status.

I've included Bonds' performance so far in 2007, as he has played nearly full-time. Plus, if we throw out '05, that gives him 21 seasons to equal Aaron.

Here is the comparison (click on the chart for a larger view):



Some aspects I find interesting:

• When Bonds set his single-season record in 2001, he accounted for 3.30% of the adjusted league total. But the highest figure on the chart is Aaron's 3.41% in 1971, when he hit a career-high 47. By the way, both players happened to be 37 years old at the conclusion of their top home run seasons.

• Bonds topped 2.5% in four seasons. Aaron did so in 10, and came very close to an 11th in 1957, the year he won his sole MVP award.

• Aaron's percentages increased markedly after the Braves moved to Atlanta. But his top five seasons in Milwaukee are bested by all but four of Bonds' 21 seasons.

• Aaron played in 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, when the adjusted home run total was 1,069. Bonds played during three seasons (1999-2001) that more than doubled that total, plus another two (2004 and '06) that nearly did.

Certainly, it's difficult to compare different eras. But say you had your choice of facing Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Tom Seaver, Ferguson Jenkins and Steve Carlton on a regular basis. Or your choices were … well, there are so many teams nowadays, no one faces opposing pitchers on a regular basis. Some of Bonds' recent blasts have been off the likes of Will Ohman, Ted Lilly, Aaron Harang, Livan Hernandez, Scott Proctor, Tim Wakefield, Josh Towers … you get the drift.

When Bonds breaks Aaron's record, keep the quality of Hammerin' Hank's pitching nemeses in mind.

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Trivia question 54: What Hall of Fame pitcher surrendered Henry Aaron's 600th home run? (Hint: It probably still was wet when it landed in the stands.)

Bedeviled

We get kind of used to the Yankees beating up on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. But the slaughter perpetrated by the Bronx Bombers over the weekend goes far beyond the usual thrashing.

In three games on Saturday and Sunday, New York scored 45 runs off the beleaguered Rays pitching staff, cranking out 53 hits in the process. Bob Abreu, criticized often this season for underproducing, fattened up his stats by racking up seven hits in the three games.

Of course, the net effect on Tampa Bay's pitching statistics was none too kind. The Rays' earned run average ballooned to 5.98, and the staff now is on pace to break the 1,000 mark in runs allowed. The really bad news is that James Shields, who has seemed to have the makings of a decent hurler, gave up 10 earned runs in 3 1/3 innings on Sunday, adding more than half a run to his season's ERA. His 4.44 mark still looks stellar next to the figures compiled so far by the likes of Andy Sonnanstine (5.37), Edwin Jackson (6.65), J.P. Howell (7.36) and Jae Weong Seo (8.13). Such showings are worthy of the Baker Bowl Phillies or pre-humidor Coors Field.

But, hey, these are the Devil Rays, statistically the worst franchise in major-league history since the 19th-century version of the Washington Senators folded up the tent in 1899. Yes, the Phillies have lost 10,000 games, but if Tampa Bay had played as many contests as Philadelphia, they'd have dropped approximately 11,346 of them (by extrapolation, of course).

This is Tampa Bay's 10th season of existence. The team managed to sneak out of the basement once, blowing past Toronto in 2004 to win a franchise-record 70 games. In nine complete seasons so far, the Rays have finished a cumulative 312.5 games behind the Yankees.

We've seen new franchises in the past take a long time to win, but never like what's going on in Tampa. Remember how bad the Mets were in the '60s? They managed to develop a young pitching staff that took them to the top in their eighth year of existence. In the era of free agency, the Colorado Rockies made the playoffs in their third year; the Florida Marlins won the World Series in their fifth; and the Arizona Diamondbacks won a divisional title in their second.

When there was talk of contracting the major leagues a few years ago, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were at the top of the list.

After their showing in the Bronx the past few days, we can assume they still belong there.

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Trivia question 53: What Tampa Bay pitcher holds the team record for victories in a season?

Big Poison

In another season full of disappointments, the Pirates looked back to happier times this weekend by retiring the number of Paul "Big Poison" Waner, who spent the first 15 years of his Hall of Fame career in Pittsburgh.

Saturday's ceremony at PNC Park was a heart-warmer, with members of the Waner family attending as featured guests, along with other Pirate Hall of Famers Ralph Kiner and Bill Mazeroski. Fans certainly had a thrill in seeing Kiner, who looked to be his usual healthy self at age 84.

As for Waner, the honor certainly is deserved. We could go through a litany of his batting achievements -- he still is 10th on the all-time triples list -- but the key number is 3,152, the hits he accumulated for his career. He is the only player between the 1920s and '50s to accomplish that milestone. Unfortunately he did it as a member of the Boston Braves in 1942, two years after he left Pittsburgh.

For a firsthand account of Waner's career, buy a copy of Lawrence Ritter's "The Glory of Their Times," the gold standard of baseball oral history books.

Although Waner's brother, Lloyd ("Little Poison") followed him to Cooperstown, the Pirates have yet to retire the other number. Perhaps that will come when the team is looking for something to celebrate in '08, although scholars of baseball concede that Lloyd was nowhere near the player Paul was. Lloyd hardly ever struck out, though -- 173 times in 7,772 career at-bats -- and that's definitely something today's Pirates could try to learn.

During Saturday's pregame ceremonies, the Pirates did another classy move, attributed to lame-duck CEO Kevin McClatchy. Among those honored was Craig Biggio of the visiting Astros, who reached the 3,000-hit plateau this season and was introduced as a "future Hall of Famer." Let's hope the voters agree.

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Trivia question 52: Former St. Louis Browns pitcher Rollie Stiles, believed to be the oldest former major leaguer, died Sunday at age 100. What former major leaguer lived the longest, to age 107?

Let's make some deals

With the Pirates about to fall into the NL Central cellar, unless new acquisition Cesar Izturis will rescue them, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how the current crop of players came to Pittsburgh.

• Fans were excited this past off-season when the team acquired Adam LaRoche from the Braves. Although he's been somewhat of a disappointment - who wouldn't be, with a .236 batting average - LaRoche is having a better season than the other major-leaguer in the deal. Mike Gonzalez is out for the season after having elbow surgery, but pitched well for the Braves before he went under the knife: 2-0, 1.59 ERA in 17 innings. Pirates fans might want to keep an eye on the third man in the deal, minor-league shortstop Brent Lillibridge, who was promoted from AA to AAA by the Braves this season. Overall, he is hitting .265 with 6 homers, 26 RBI and 28 stolen bases.

• Freddy Sanchez wowed Pittsburgh and at least made a name for himself around baseball by winning the NL batting title last year, after starting the season on the bench behind free-agent bust Joe Randa (whom the Pirates originally let go in the '98 expansion draft). Sanchez became a Pirate by accident. In 2003, Pittsburgh made a deal with Boston involving reliever Brandon Lyon, who turned out to be injured. The Red Sox took him back and decided they'd like to have starting pitcher Jeff Suppan, too. So they shipped Sanchez to Pittsburgh.

• Jose Bautista, who is spending time on the disabled list, is indicative of the Pirates' recent history of administrative snafus. The Orioles snagged him from Pittsburgh in the Rule 5 draft in late 2003, and he spent the first half of the 2004 season bouncing from Baltimore to Kansas City to the New York Mets. Finally, when the Pirates were looking to unload Kris Benson, the Mets included Bautista in the deal. (Also on board was Ty Wiggington, who stunk in Pittsburgh and eventually was released. He since has hit 38 home runs in a season and a half as a Devil Ray.)

• When the Pirates dealt reliever Jason Christiansen to the Cardinals for Jack Wilson, Christiansen reportedly was extremely happy to be leaving Pittsburgh. As for Wilson, the acquisition of Izturis points to the probability of Jack leaving town imminently. And at this point, he'll probably be happy.

• Ex-GM Cam Bonifay pulled off one great trade during his tenure with the Pirates, acquiring Brian Giles for Ricardo Rincon. Giles' salary eventually wore out its welcome, and Pittsburgh dealt him to San Diego in a 2003 deal that included Jason Bay. In 2004, Bay became the Pirates' first Rookie of the Year, and for three straight years he was an All-Star. That's not quite the case this year, as he's struggled at the plate and runners have taken considerable advantage of his questionable ability to throw.

• The Pirates reportedly were more interested in Xavier Nady than Bay when they made the Giles deal. In the short term, it looked like not comparison between the two. But this year, Nady has been the Pirates' most consistent hitter, at .283-14-51. Pirates fans, though, can't help but keep a close watch on the Oliver Perez, whom the Mets acquired for Nady. Perez has spent time on the disabled list this year, but his 8-6 record with a 3.13 ERA indicates that he's still able to pitch well.

• Shawn Chacon has pitched well at times out of the bullpen this year, posting a fairly respectable 3.58 ERA. He certainly is having a better season than the guy he was traded for: After spending half a season with the Yankees, Craig Wilson was signed by Atlanta, but was released in May when his batting average dipped to .172.

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Trivia question 51: Which owner of a baseball team was fined $15,000 and suspended two years for making illegal political campaign contributions to Richard M. Nixon?

Dice baseball

I recently wrote my newspaper column about a diversion we enjoyed when we were kids, long before the days of video games. You can read it here:

"Bored? Try this for cure"

Our version of "Dice Baseball" comes straight from an essay by the same name, written by D.J. Michael, that appeared in "The Second Fireside Book of Baseball," published in 1958. (We didn't start playing until 1975.)

Click here for a PDF version of the essay.

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Back to real-life baseball, the world is returning to normal: The Pirates are sinking like a lead balloon, and the Yankees are about to give the Red Sox a run for their money.

Every few years, Pittsburgh will give fans a false sense of optimism. This summer, it came right before the All-Star break, when the Pirates went on a 9-4 run to pull within eight games of .500. (That might not seem so great, but in Pittsburgh, the big goal is to finish above the break-even point once more in our lifetime.)

After a four-day layoff, the Pirates returned to action by getting swept in Atlanta and at home by Colorado. On Tuesday, yet another mediocre ex-Buc, Josh Fogg, confounded his old team on his way to 6-2 win, lowering his ERA to 5.15 in the process.

The Pirates' worst pitching performance during the losing streak (so far) was turned in Monday by John Van Benschoten, who fell to 0-4 in a 10-8 loss. Van Benschoten -- at least one local sports talk type has tried to give him the handle of "JVB" -- started the game by plunking Willy Taveras with a pitch, then gave up five runs before Pittsburgh even came to bat. In surrendering nine earned runs in two innings, JVB saw his ERA rise to 8.17. All this from a former No. 8 overall pick in the draft, a stud hitter at Kent State whom the Pirates decided would make a better pitcher.

Good call.

As for the Yankees ... hey, when you can afford to pay Roger Clemens about two hundred grand per inning, you should be winning.

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Trivia question 50: Who was the oldest player to win his first batting title? (courtesty of Bruce Brown, Society for American Baseball Research)