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Stuff about top picks....

Bryce Harper has been somewhat of a dud for his drafters high price of a second round choice.
Harper is in the top 50 in only one roto category. That would be RBI (50), where he is a mere 20th.
Lauded by Sabrs over his walks earlier in the year, Harper is not even providing those now that he is less fearsome to pitchers.
In June, Harper has walked just 10 times. His OBP (.354), once ranked near the top of the league. Now fallen to 54th, tied with Miguel Cabrera.
Harper has become an out with two strikes in the count.
He is (not) hitting .158 with two strikes and with a full count, where a pitcher and hitter have squared up odds, Harper has one single in 29 at bats, or an .034 batting average.

Harper has 12 home runs. 90 players in baseball have 12 homers or more.
More telling is the list of pitchers in which Harper has connected for a homer. Here they are....

Biddle
Carle
Hellickson
Strasburg
Dunn
Kinley
Hudson
Senzatela
Dunn
Cabrera
Urias
Cabrera

None of these pitchers are holding their breath with Hall of Fame aspirations.

Another high draft pick gone wrong is Trea Turner. Turner still went in the first round of Memorial Day with drafters using his injury as an excuse for poor numbers.
Like Harper, Turner only ranks high in one category. That would be 13th in baseball with 12 stolen bases.
In Turner's case, his injury may be masking his under performance.
Let's judge Turner in terms of his at bats, instead of overall ranking.
In 150 at bats, Turner has 15 RBI.
Greg Garcia has 18 RBI IN 145 at bats.
To boot, Garcia has also scored more Runs (27) than Turner (24).

Turner's line is similar in many ways to a player who is FAAB'd and dropped in NFBC Leagues....

Trea Turner in 150 at bats......273/24/5/15/12

Delino DeShields, 143 at bats..238/20/1/13/11

This is an especially sad comp when remembering that Turner has his at bats out of the lead off spot while DeShields does his work at the bottom of the lineup.

Jose Ramirez may be the largest of all early pick busts.
Here are a few comps for how bad Ramirez has been....
Ramirez has a lower batting average (.206) than Billy Hamilton (.221)
Ramirez has less RBI (28) than Orlando Arcia (30)
Ramirez has less Runs (29) than Robbie Grossman (30)
Ramirez has less homers (5) than 220 other players, including Kyle Farmer who has hit six home runs.
Without his 17 stolen bases, Ramirez may have been dropped in NFBC leagues.
Ramirez is a case where the Shandler jive of a player 'owning' his skills does little good.
Raamirez has 'owned' good skills. Ramirez has 'owned' bad skills.
The drafters who 'own' Ramirez only know that he has sucked for them.

JD Martinez has gotten little press for being a bust.
.297/44/16/42/1 looks pretty good.
None of those numbers give him a top 20 ranking in any roto category however, and most are top 50.
Martinez was drafted for his power numbers. They have been pedestrian in this year of homers flying.
Carlos Santana has similar numbers...295/51/16/46/3
Martinez has been ok. We hate ok from first rounders.

Paul Goldschmidt.
A friend of mine has told me all year, "Don't worry about Goldschmidt, he'll come around."
That line should never be said about a high draft pick.
High draft picks should do their jobs. Not blow.
Goldschmidt blows.
Goldschmidt is not in the top 50 of ANY roto category.
His 31 RBI matches that of teammate Kolten Wong.
Once an opportunist as a base stealer, he has zero SB this year.
Goldschmidt has a large problem this year.
He can't stand prosperity.
With a 1-0 count, he has put only 11 balls in play.
Worse, and this is almost unbelievable, with a 2-0 count, Goldschmidt has put ONE ball in play.
In most cases, he is taking till he gets a strike. To what ends, I do not know.
You would think with all the smart baseball people that somebody would tell Mr. Goldschmidt that he is swinging at the tough pitches and letting cookies float by him.
Goldschmidt may be going a little Votto on us.
And while Sabrs will stand up and salute that, his owners will be stewing when a friend says, "Don't worry about Goldschmidt, he'll come around."

Adding on with another TRAIN (no, I'm not going to complain about Cutline) of thought......

200 Hits in a season are going the way of the 20-game winner. It is still being done, just not as often as the past.
Most teams will be hitting the mid-point of the season in games by early this coming week. No player has 100 hits.
Of course, our era has changed. Defenses invite bunt hits now and players seldom take the opportunity.
Back in the day, a good bunt was considered a thing of baseball beauty. Now, it is disdained by pitchers and generally thought of as a last resort for hitters. I digress.

Only six current players were the last player to have 200 hits for the team they are playing with today.

Jose Altuve- Astros
Charlie Blackmon- Rockies
Mookie Betts- Red Sox
Ryan Braun- Brewers
Miguel Cabrera- Tigers
Ender Inciarte- Braves

Some current players have moved on from their 200-hitting teams...
Jean Segura was the last player to have 200 hits for the Diamondbacks. Michael Brantley for the Indians. Dee Gordon for the Marlins.
Albert Pujols for the Cardinals and Starlin Castro was the last Cub with 200 hits.

The last player to have 200 hits for the Twins was their Manager last year.
Paul Molitor had over 200 hits in 1996, over 20 years ago.
I mention the Twins because Jorge Polanco has an outside chance at 200 hits this year.

This is all a long-winded way of getting to a specific team that has a curse concerning 200 hits.
Pete Rose had more 200 hit seasons than any other player in history. His swing, hustle, endurance, and downright tenacity contributing to the record.
His last 200-hit season was 1979 with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Most of Rose stats were built with the Cincinnati Reds during the 60's and 70's.
Rose would have 10 200-hit seasons. His last with the Reds coming in 1977.
Believe it or not, that is the last time ANY Reds player has accumulated 200 hits.
The Reds have gone 42 years without a 200-hit player.
The longest of any current team in baseball.

In case you were wondering, there is no hope for a Reds player to achieve 200 hits this year.
They have no player with over 90 hits.
No player with over 80 hits.
Not even a player with over 70 hits.
Yesterday, Jose Iglesias reached hit 70 to lead the team.

Some other 200-hit Stuff....

The Tampa Rays have never had a 200-hit player...

Altuve is the only Astro to have 200 hits for his American League team.
Craig Biggio the only Astro to have 200 hits for his National League team.

The White Sox are not a historical 200-hit team.
The last batter to have 200 hits for the club was more well known for his playing days in Cleveland.
Albert Belle had 200 hits for the White Sox 21 years ago.
Before that season in 1998, we'd have to go back another 44 years to find that Nellie Fox turned the trick in 1954.
By the way, Fox used a bottle bat. The same bat that Jeff McNeil uses today for the Mets.

Brothers Paul and Lloyd Waner (Big Poison and Little Poison) had 12 200 hit seasons between 1927 and 1937.

More about brothers later.....

No problem, Doughie. I am kind of glad you have no interest in the Cutline. As much research as you do, you'd probably win it.

TRAIN wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 23, 2019 12:37 pm

No problem, Doughie. I am kind of glad you have no interest in the Cutline. As much research as you do, you'd probably win it.

Good sport!
Thanks for the compliment.
I wish you well, Sir!

I promised some Bro and Family Stuff.

When Jesus Alou made it to the Majors in 1963, Americanizing Spanish names was a thing.
Roberto Clemente was called Bob or Robert and even had some baseball cards with "Bob Clemente."
So, when Jesus made it to San Francisco, some folks called him by the biblical form of his name.
One famous line was, "We have Jesus in Right Field and we still can't win a game!"
Jesus was the third Alou to play for the Giants in '63.
Older brothers Felipe and Matty already established.
A September call-up, on the very night he was called up, Felipe, Matty, and Jesus Alou allcame up in the eighth inning.
The only time three brothers had ever batted in the same inning.
They went three up and three down.
Five days later, they all started in the same outfield. The only time that has been done.
The trio would play in over 5,000 games, collecting over 5,000 hits.
Here is the breakdown of brother trio's and hits.....

Felipe, Jesus and Matty Alou 5,094
Dom, Joe and Vince DiMaggio 4,853
Ed, Frank and Jim Delahanty* 3,979
Joe, Luke and Tommy Sewell 3,619
Clete, Cloyd and Ken Boyer 3,559

An asterisk by the Delahanty's because there were five of them. The other two were only in the Bigs a short while.

The Alou's were soon traded to other teams, but that didn't stop them from 'coming together'.
In 1966, playing for the Pirates, Matty Alou won the batting title, hitting .342
Playing for the Braves that same year, Felipe Alou finished second at .327

When Felipe was named Manager of the Montreal Expos in 1992, he became the fifth Manager to Manage his son (Moises) at the Big League level.
Here are the other tandems...

Connie Mack Earle Athletics 1910-11, 1914
Yogi Berra Dale Yankees 1985
Cal Ripken Sr. Cal Jr. Orioles 1985, '87-88
Cal Ripken Sr. Billy Orioles 1987-88
Hal McRae Brian Royals 1991-94
Felipe Alou Moises Expos 1992-96
Bob Boone Aaron Reds 2001-2003

In 1990, Ken Griffey Sr and Jr. would become the first Father-Son to play together.
They would hit back-to-back homers that year.
In 2001, Tim Raines and Tim Raines Jr. would also play on the same team.

Ray Boone, Bob Boone and Bret and Aaron Boone make three generations of Major League players.
They are descendants of Daniel Boone. (Daniel could swing the wood, but couldn't hit a curve).
Bret and Aaron had a brother, Matt, who spent seven years in the Minors before giving up the dream.

Cecil and Prince Fielder is the only Father-Son combo to hit 50 home runs in a season.

'Gus' Bell hit over 200 homers during the 50's and 60's.
He was infamous for being the 1962 New York Mets first base runner.
His son, 'Buddy' Bell would play in the Maajors for 18 years, batting .279
Buddy's son, David, now Manages the Cincinnati Reds after a long playing career.
Gus and David are the only Grandfather-Grandson duo to hit for the cycle.
David had two Bro's, Michael who played one game (Moonlight Graham?)in the Majors and Ricky who played 10 seasons in the Minors.

Although most baseball fans know about the Alou Bro's manning the same outfield, little is said about an All-Bro infield.
For the last game of the 1998 season, the Cincinnati Reds made some history.
The starting infield was...

1B- Stephen Larkin
2B- Bret Boone
3B- Aaron Boone
SS- Barry Larkin

I couldn't end this without mentioning the Acerra Bro's.
The Acerra's were a touring baseball team.
They toured most of the Eastern part of the United States in the 30's and 40's when baseball was the undisputed King among sports.
There have been a lot of baseball families, but the Acerra's were one of a kind.
They all played a great brand of baseball.
Coming from a brood of 16 (poor Mom!), the 12 baseball playing brothers, ranging in ages 25 years apart, the Brothers were a hit at the 1939 World's Fair and would barnstorm the Eastern Coast.
Six of the brothers fought in World War II and they were honored with a special ceremony by the Hall of Fame.
(every once in awhile, the Hall does something right )

If interested in reading about the Bro's...
"Brothers At Bat, The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team" by Audrey Vernick. Good Stuff.