topper09er

Not until they change the mendoza line to the Uecker Line. Bob Uecker career line: .200/.293/.287

La Russa pulled a Macha and was scared to use his backup catcher.

SS injured on a ball to first?

Let the pitch counting begin....

Great spot to just peg Mr. Homerun admirer

Hit to the pitcher, did Wainwright try to get Cain at the plate?

Bonds would have been the only 500 HR 500 SB guy and it would have been really interesting to evaluate him, especailly next to Ted Williams and Musial in LF. When you have not only your best seasons, but the best seasons of all-time, from ages 36-39, something is up.

And when Bobby Thompson broke his leg in spring training with the Braves he cleared a roster spot for Hank Aaron.

What? This is just totally incorrect. It was still 60'6" to the plate and Walter Johnson could throw 95 MPH+. Do you think if Craig Counsell was born in 1880 he would have been better than Ty Cobb? Not a chance, in fact considering the league was only half as big Counsell probably never would have made it at all.

Ruth lost 3 years due to being a pitcher and playing in the deadball era. And Ted Williams missed 5 years due to service, 43-45 for WWII and 52-53 because he was an experienced fighter pilot that they were short on for Korea, he actually flew like 30 missions in live combat in Korea. WWII was in his prime but he also led the league in OPS the year before and after he served in Korea.

Jerry Rice was the Don Hutson of football.

Babe Ruth is the correct answer and there is no room for debate. He was just too much better than everyone else he played against to not choose him. He posted 10 seasons with a WAR above 10 (Pujols, easily the most dominant player currently, has done that once. Bonds* had 7 such seasons) and led the league in WAR 2 other seasons! He also lost about 3 seasons worth of ABs due to being a pitcher and another season playing in the dead ball era (1919, when he only hit 29 HRs instead of 50+ that he hit the next 2 years). Safe to say he lost at least 50 HRs which would put him above Bonds. There have only been 34 single season SLG% posted not by Ruth that have been higher than his career .690 mark, his .474 OBP is 100 points higher than Hank Aaron's .374 career mark. He set the single season HR mark 4 different times and hit more HRs in 1927 than any other team in the AL. He also posted the greatest single season of all-time in 1921 going .378/.512/.846 177 R, 204 H, 145 BB, 44 2B, 16 3B, 59 HR, 171 RBI, 457 TB. And there is the pitching too. In 1916 (at age 20) he was the second best pitcher in the AL behind only Walter Johnson (the greatest pitcher of ALL-time). He has the record for the longest ever pitched World Series game while giving up 1 R in a 14 inning CG in 1916. His other 2 World Series pitching performances are a SHO and an 8 inning, 2 ER win. His 0.87 World Series ERA in 31 IP is 4th best all-time. If you discount Bonds*, Pujols (too early, will have a decline) and Negro leaguers (not enough data) the next best hitters are Williams and Gehrig and you could have an argument for next best player between Cobb, Mays, Wagner, Williams, Musial, Gehrig, Aaron, Dimaggio, Speaker or Hornsby. Position by position you could argue any of these top tier guys could represent their position: C: Bench, Berra, Gibson 1B: Gehrig, Foxx, Greenberg, Pujols, McGwire 2B: Hornsby, Collins, Morgan 3B: Schmidt, Mathews, Brett SS: Wagner, Rodriguez LF: Williams, Musial, Henderson, Bonds CF: Cobb, Mays, Speaker, Dimaggio, Mantle RF: Ruth RF2: Aaron, Robinson, Clemente I would go: 1) Cobb CF 2) Hornsby 2B 3) Williams DH 4) Ruth RF 5) Gehrig 1B 6) Musial LF 7) Rodriguez SS 8) Schmidt 3B 9) Bench C

Chipper has a career .300/.400/.500 line with 400 HRs at a position that is underrepresented in the HOF, he is a lock, maybe not 1st ballot though.

21 pitches today, 7 strikes and 14 balls

Walt Dropo, and that was in 12 straight PAs

Exactly, this is his problem, when its a 3-1 count he has no choice but throw a mediocre fastball and try to hit the corners.

It doesnt seem possible that my second favorite team is now in the division but its true for the rest of this year. I hope Gallardo doesnt face the reds the rest of the year so we have no chance of beating them and helping the cards.

So if someone is claimed they can only be traded to the team that claimed them, but if they are not claimed they can be traded to any team? But in order to be traded at all you must go on waivers first after the trading deadline?

The inning went groundout, walk, double (now changed to error). This means at this time you pretend there are 2 outs and a runner on first. Next a single, so you assume 2 outs, runners on 1, 2. The next batter popped out, so that would have been 3 outs, no runs scored without the error so all runs scored in the inning are unearned.

Thanks, but: "A lot of teams put players on waivers in August so trades go through easier." Isnt waivers the only way to trade players in August? If a team makes a claim and the other team wants to let the player go for free does the claiming team have to take the player (and his constract)?

Maybe someone can clarify, but wouldnt this require Edmonds to clear waivers? If so, why didnt the Reds just claim him on waivers? Is it because they knew we would pull him back so they left him unclaimed in the hopes that no team would so he could be traded?

Roberto Clemente is the only player to hit a walk-off inside the park grand slam. The only player with a higher batting average and more HRs than Manny Ramirez is Babe Ruth. The only team to ever lead the league in R, H, BB, 2B, 3B, HR, AVE, OBP, SLG and SB is the 1976 Reds. The Red Sox have either won every world series they have been in or lost in 7 games. Ed Delahanty, whose career ended early when he died by falling over the Niagra Falls, is the only player to hit 4 HRs and 4 doubles in a (different) game. Along with Nolan Ryan's 7 no-hitters he threw 12 CG 1 hitters. Besides New York with 4 (Yankees, Giants, Dodgers, Mets), Milwaukee has had the most different franchises play there with 3 (Orioles, Braves and Brewers) along with Washington (Twins, Rangers, Nationals) There have only been 35 single season slugging percentage's posted higher than Babe Ruth's career .690 mark (which is the same as Whitey Ford's career winning percentage). There are probably an endless supply of these.

The point of the picture is to try to show the ball was obviously foul and the ump missed it so ESPN can talk about forcing instant replay into MLB all day. It is misleading because it actually may have been a foul ball and the ump may have been correct.

That is a very misleading picture, it was a ground ball that already bounced before it reaches 3rd. The ump based his call on where he thought the ball was when it crossed the base. It was not a fly ball that landed behind him.

As the average run scoring environment decreases the SB threshold does as well. The reason is that making outs on the bases is not as bad because the run probably would not have scored anyways. I got out "The Book" which uses numbers from 1999-2002 (the heart of the steroid era, and including AL numbers) and has the threshold at 72%. But those days appear to be over, the 2000 AL averaged 5.3 R/G and it is down to 4.5 this season! (and it got down to an all-time low of 3.4 in 1968)