Author: aisle424

Cubs Minor League System Ranked #10 by John Sickels

John Sickels has the Cubs minor league system rated #10 in his latest rankings. Last year they were 20th. The Cardinals are #1, the Pirates are #5, the Reds are #15 and the Brewers are #23.

10) Chicago Cubs (20): Another system that has improved quickly. Strengths: hitting at the top: Javier Baez, Albert Almora, Jorge Soler, Dan Vogelbach is a very impressive quartet and there is depth beyond them. Good developments with recent Latin American prospects at the lower levels. Weaknesses: pitching is much, much weaker than the hitting. Improving that has to be a priority.

The full rankings can be found over at SB Nation.

That's a pretty nice leap considering one of the biggest prizes of the system last year (Rizzo) is now on the major league roster.

Get Out Your ‘It’s Gonna Happen’ Signs and DeRosa Shirseys, It’s Cubs Convention Time!

​It's that time again! Every winter, the Cubs gather their current players, management, and any ex-players for whom they have blackmail material and trot them out like showdogs for their fans in a massive effort to "build their brand" or "polish the turd."  Yes, the Cubs Convention is tomorrow and the Cubs have been very busy planning how best to shovel massive portions of Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo on us, while conveniently glossing over the fact that Nate Schierholtz is probably going to get a lot of playing time. 

This year, the Cubs leave the familiar surroundings at the Hilton Towers and give the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers a whirl. From the descriptions of the convention spaces the Sheraton provides, it seems like there is more space available, which would be good since even in these last down years, the crowds are considerable. No matter how much the Cubs hold our collective heads in the toilet, we keep coming back in droves for more. (It also seems the Ricketts have been cozying up to the Sheraton folks for reasons that are not Cubs Convention related.)

But other than the location, the offerings at this year's Cubs Convention are very familiar to the previous iterations. Some of the highlights include:

  • Ricketts Family Forum: Tom, Laura, Pete and Todd Ricketts will talk about their experience as the Cubs owners over the last three years and take questions from fans.

The Ricketts' welcome from the fans has degraded quite a bit from the hero's welcome they received at their first Convention. That first year, people were practically ready to sacrifice their first-borns on the altar of the Ricketts. But the bloom is off the rose now and many Cubs fans are disillusioned after 101 losses under noted snake-oil salesman, Theo Epstein. I expect every year for the crowd to boo the Ricketts, but they haven't yet and I don't think they will this year either. It won't be raucous applause anymore, but it won't be hostile. Not until they start talking about more video scoreboards in the stadium, anyway.  The highlight is when Pete Ricketts comes out of his burrow for the one time per year and predicts the weather based on the shadow of his bald head. 

  • Meet Cubs Baseball Management: Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations, will be joined by general manager Jed Hoyer, assistant general managers Randy Bush and Shiraz Rehman and manager Dale Sveum to talk about the team's recent moves and what lies ahead.

​Every year they throw Randy Bush into this session and every year nobody asks Randy Bush a question because nobody gives a shit. I'm seriously considering grabbing the microphone and asking him his favorite color just so he gets to say something.

  • From Draft Day to the Big Leagues: Minor League prospects Dallas Beeler, Matt Szczur, Robert Whitenack and Tony Zych will discuss what it's like to get drafted by the Cubs and advance through the system.

Dallas Beeler? Who or what is a Dallas Beeler? Why did they lead off with Dallas Beeler in this description? Sure Szczur, Whitenack and Zych might never crack the majors either, but we've at least heard of them. Hey Randy, who the fuck is Dallas Beeler?

  • Dale Sveum and the coaching staff: Sveum and his staff will talk about the team and answer questions.

They'll "talk about the team and answer questions." That sounds scintillating. jesus, not even a Dallas Beeler mention to spice things up. Way to bring the sizzle, Cubs marketing department! In reality, it actually does sound better than the 60 minutes of people bitching about the bunting tournament that this will inevitably turn into.

  • For Kids Only Press Conference, presented by Advocate Health Care: Kids will get to play reporter and ask players questions. The panel will feature Darwin Barney, David DeJesus, Brooks Raley, Anthony Rizzo and Chris Rusin.

This is probably where the most intelligent questions will get asked all weekend. I might pop my head in just to see if Kim DeJesus is lingering around anywhere. I may have to borrow someone's kid.

  • Renew Wrigley Field: Cubs executives will discuss ideas to preserve and renew Wrigley Field based on input from Cubs fans, season ticket holders and the community.

We're still just TALKING about it? Holy hell, shouldn't you know what to do with the stadium by now? It is 2013 and the Ricketts have owned the team since 2009 and haven't shut up about preserving and renewing the stadium since then. Crane has been there for at least eight years and this should probably be the #1 thing he would be working on and we're still just TALKING about it?  I get that they don't have the money and some tweaks to the overall plan will happen as long as they aren't pouring concrete, but for the love of God, let's at least cut the fans out of this process by now. Haven't there been enough surveys? At least when the Cubs wouldn't shut up about the troughs, the troughs actually, you know, GOT RENOVATED! OR SO THEY SAY! I CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE!

  • Not for Women Only: Baker, Feldman, Matt Garza, James Russell and Travis Wood will discuss their personal lives off the field.

They're resurrecting Kathy & Judy's old bit where the players make really obvious baseball lingo double-entendres and everyone thinks it is just hilarious. This was usually Ryan Dempster's favorite session because he got to tell his tale of dressing up like Captain America every year like it was the first time we ever heard that story. Normally, this would be the annual Mike Bielecki sighting, but he must not have been able to squeeze this into his busy schedule of sitting on the couch in his underwear. I bet we hear way more about Matt Garza's shaving cream pies than any human could ever imagine possible.

  • WGN Radio's Sports Central: WGN Radio's Jim Memolo and Glen Kozlowski's live broadcast will feature segments with DeJesus and Garza; Barney and Jeff Samardzija; Tony Campana and Starlin Castro; and Jackson, Jackson and Rizzo in a live broadcast.

It's ON THE RADIO! The players will talk about how they're REALLY anxious to get to Mesa and the team is really ready to prove last year is behind them and start playing winning Cubs Way baseball. And it will be ON THE RADIO! And you can sit there quietly and just listen! It really is quite something.

Yes, the wonders of the Cubs Convention are many and I hope to mock it as much as possible on Twitter, so follow along if you'd like.

Also, for those lucky enough to also be attending, the annual, semi-planned Cubs blogger/tweeter/loser meet-up will be happening at the hotel bar named, (I swear I am not making this up) Chi-Bar. In the past you have not needed a Convention pass to get access to the bar, but it's a different location and I really don't know what to expect. After a drink or two at Chi-Bar, the plan is to head to Lizzie McNeil's which is right next to the hotel and has a better beer and whiskey list (and you definitely don't need a pass to get in there). I expect I'll be arriving at the Chi-Bar somewhere around 7:00ish. I expect to be hammered by 7:02ish. So come on out if you dare.  

Sammy Sosa Would Like You to Remember He Once Hit a Lot of Homeruns and You Loved Him

As a Cubs blogger, I think I'm going to have to get down on my knees and thank the good Lord that Sammy Sosa has joined us in the social media world. We've seen his Pinterest page and his Twitter account. He also has a Facebook page littered with the same awesome yellow-sweatered photos as his Pinterest (which @harrypav pointed out were directly pinned from his Flickr account). Sammy knows social media, apparently.

Today, Sammy tweeted out a "special video," claiming he had been promising it. I didn't see the promise, but I may have missed it in between all of the "Sammy Sosa. Yes, I’m the real Sammy Sosa, and this is my Pinterest" declarations.

Sammy has been setting the bar quite high in the Sammy Sosa being Sammy Sosa contest lately, but this video does not miss in its effort to remind us all that Sammy Sosa once hit a shit-ton of homeruns and millions of people fucking LOVED him.  It isn't the best produced video ever, but it is definitely the Sammy Sosa-est. Here are some of the highlights:

  • 0:00 – Eight seconds of the WGN multi-color bars and off-the-air, high pitched tone.
  • 0:08 – A silent black screen for another ten seconds. Seriously. At first I thought it was a tribute to Hawk Harrelson, but then Sammy's big face comes on screen and we're off.
  • 0:18 – No introduction. It's just Sammy swinging and hitting homeruns. I assume he's hitting homeruns because the name of the video is "Sammy Sosa Homerun Highlights," but we really only get to see the swing in most cases. Usually not even the hop. In the background, you get a catchy drum beat that might be something from the Dominican? I don't know. But through the first 30 seconds of the video, the only audio is of Sammy's bat crack, a brief crowd reaction, and the drum beat in the background.
  • 0:29 – Henry Rodriguez sighting! Remember when fans used to throw O Henry bars on the field (and when they didn't have a candy bar, they threw garbage)? That was stupid.
  • 0:31 – Chip Caray's voice reminds us that Chip Caray was once a thing. I'm really trying to like you, Sammy, but you keep making it difficult.
  • 0:34 – Alex Gonzalez sighting! He looks like a guy who's going to fuck up a perfectly fieldable ball in a few months.
  • 0:38 – Ryan Dempster sighting! He's in a Marlins uniform and he's giving up a homerun.
  • 0:54 – We get the first extended shot of a homerun where Sammy hits the pink house across Waveland that doesn't exist anymore and I get the first real idea that these homeruns are all happening in 1998 because I vividly remember seeing that one.
  • 1:02 – Chip yells, "Swung on and belted! he's got 20 this month!" so we're definitely in 1998. We're also getting a few more shots of fans holding up pro-Sammy signs interspersed in the montage now.
  • 1:13 – We get the first dose of Steve Stone coupled with Chip's second "Swung on and belted!" of the video after Sammy's first career grandslam.
  • 1:26 – Chip announces that Sammy has 50 and I went back to count the homeruns, and it was the 50th homerun of the video, so we are definitely going chronologically in 1998.
  • 1:48 – We get the Spanish announcers yelling about #59 and shot of them in the press box.
  • 1:52 – Lance Johnson sighting! God, do the Cubs suck at centerfielders.
  • 1:54 – Sammy gets his 61st and we get shots of fans in the stands and on Waveland going apeshit. Chip's catch phrase also makes an appearance. I suggest you not make that a trigger to drink if you watch this video as part of a drinking game.
  • 1:59 – Mark Grace sighting! Drink! (Not you, Mark.)
  • 2:01 – The montage slows down to give us more detail on the last historic shots of 1998. More Chip screaming and more fans (home and away) going crazy in the stands.
  • 2:16 – Jose Nieves is not impressed.
  • 2:26 – We get the sound of him connecting with #66 three separate times and then Sammy blowing kisses to the fans.
  • 2:32 – We get a shot of Sammy jumping up on the dugout after the Wildcard Tie-break game in his Wildcard shirt and allowing himself to get molested by the fans. One of them REALLY gets into rubbing Sammy's chest and embracing him. It's kind of disturbing. There is also audio of Sammy telling Chicago what an unbelievable year 1998 was and how much he loves Chicago.
  • 2:46 – A still shot of the Chicago Tribune announcing Sammy hit 63 in his encore to 1998 (1999). I'm not sure if they want us to read the whole article or if they think it takes us a REALLY long time to read the headlines, but it stays on that static shot (with no audio) for 18 seconds.
  • 3:04 – Fatboy Slim's "Funk Soul Brother" kicks in as the video alternates between a slow pan up Sammy's body starting from his shoes and shots of Cubs fans declaring their love for Sosa via sign and Dominican Republic flag-waving.
  • 3:18 – More homeruns! The nice part is that "Funk Soul Brother" is now partially drowning out Chip.
  • 3:54 – Greg Maddux sighting! He's on the Braves and he looks pissed he gave up a homerun.
  • 4:03 – Grace sighting! Drink! This time with Mickey Morandini giving Sammy a hug.
  • 4:16 – Grace sighting! Drink! He's giving Sammy another hug. I just hope Sammy takes his car keys.
  • 4:32 – Sammy eats Slammin' Sammy's cereal.
  • 4:53 – Bill Clinton loves Sammy!
  • 5:05 – A little kid sprints towards Sammy while he's standing in the outfield, but we don't get to see what happened when he gets there.
  • 5:30 – Jim Riggleman sighting! He must have thought Sammy was a Wrigleyville trixie because he slapped his ass.
  • 5:40 – Pedro Astacio throws the hangingest curveball you've ever seen. I mean, there are pitchers mistakes all throughout the video, but watch how Astacio puts that one on a tee for Sammy.
  • 6:30 – Glenallen Hill sighting! I don't have a joke about Glenallen Hill because I'm afraid he'd find me and kill me. It seems like he probably has the time to do that now.
  • 6:54 – Sammy walks out to right field tipping his cap to the fans… fade to black. Then another few awkward silent seconds.
  • 7:03 – Fin.

Even Greg Maddux May Have Trouble Getting Into the Hall of Fame Next Year

Recently, we’ve talked in the comments a little about how much harder it is going to be to get anybody into the Hall of Fame in future ballots because the BBWAA has clogged it up with very legitimate candidates. I’ve seen expectations here and elsewhere that Maddux will get in for sure next year. Normally, I’d agree that he, at the very least, should have no problems at all.  Normally. But these are not normal times on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot.

Maddux should absolutely be good enough to be a “first-ballot” Hall of Famer. 355 wins, 3,371 strikeouts, 4 Cy Young Awards, about a billion Gold Gloves, and absolutely no suspicion of PEDs use (that I am aware of). If that can’t get you in on a first ballot, I don’t know what would.

I think that is a very reasonable conclusion to draw based on what we’ve seen on how voting has tended to go in the past ballots. But here is the problem that nobody seems to be dealing with or wrapping their heads around. Where are these votes coming from?

I went back to the 2000 Hall of Fame balloting to see if we can determine how many votes we can expect to be cast overall:

Year Ballots Votes Avg. Votes/Ballot
2013 569 3756 6.60
2012 573 2921 5.10
2011 581 3474 5.98
2010 539 3057 5.67
2009 539 2902 5.38
2008 543 2907 5.35
2007 545 3584 6.58
2006 520 2933 5.64
2005 516 3263 6.32
2004 506 3314 6.55
2003 496 3272 6.60
2002 472 2810 5.95
2001 515 3258 6.33
2000 499 2813 5.64

Over this time, there was a mean average of 5.97 votes cast per ballot and a median average of 5.965, so I’m perfectly willing to just call it 6 per ballot. I’ll also further concede that the BBWAA may actually realize that there is a glut and attempt to vote for more players than they normally would and I’ll say next year they’ll average 7 votes per ballot, breaking the record high average for this time period by a relatively huge margin.

Assuming there are 569 ballots cast again next year (seems as good a guess as any), that means there will be 3,983 votes to spread among the 18 returning candidates plus Maddux, Tom Glavine, Jeff Kent, Mike Mussina, Frank Thomas, and many others we won’t even consider for this exercise but this year actually accounted for 70 votes, or almost the equivalent of Sammy Sosa‘s vote total.

If we reduce every returning candidate’s support by 10% we get 3,221 votes cast for those 18 returners and only 762 votes left to split amongst Maddux, Glavine, Kent, Mussina, and Thomas.  If we assume Maddux is a “no-brainer,” he has to get at least 427 of those votes to get in, leaving only 335 to split up among the other four. That doesn’t seem likely.

If we reduce every returning candidate’s support by 15% we get 3042 votes cast and still only 941 to split up among the newbies. Maddux gets his 427 and the others split 514 between them.

Maybe these scenarios don’t seem unlikely to you, but if we compare how many votes similar players got this year we can see the numbers aren’t adding up.  I’d put Glavine and Thomas in the “eventual, but not first-ballot Hall of Famer” category, so you’d think their support would be near Biggio’s vote total of 388 this year.  I think Jeff Kent is one of the best hitting second basemen ever (if not the absolute best, I haven’t looked it up), so I’m comparing his first attempt to Piazza’s 329 votes this year as the best hitting catcher ever. I’m comparing Mussina with Schilling since he was damn good, but when put amid names like Clemens, Maddux, and Glavine, you probably don’t fully realize how good. Schilling got 221 votes this year. 

So in theory, those five guys could realistically expect ~1300+ votes between them. Even by degrading everyone by 15% we still have a 500 vote gap. There aren’t enough votes to go around. We’d have to wipe the lowest supported candidates, Larry Walker (123), Fred McGriff (118), Mark McGwire (96), Don Mattingly (75), Sammy Sosa (71), and Rafael Palmeiro (50) completely off the ballot to come up with the missing votes. While it may come to the point where they don’t survive to see the next ballot, they’re not ALL going to get shut out.

The only realistic scenario is that the vote totals are just going to get thinned out all across the board and I don’t know if we can even consider Maddux a lock in this atmosphere.

If that happens, then make way for Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, and Gary Sheffield to thin those numbers out even more.

Maybe the BBWAA will drastically step up the number of votes they cast per ballot, but as we saw in the OV balloting, even averaging almost 8.5 votes per ballot resulted in a vote this year that was so spread out we only elected three candidates and didn’t have Kenny Lofton and Bernie Williams fall off the ballot.

It’s crazy, but if I had to bet money on a result for next season, I’d probably put Maddux’s shot at induction at no better than 50%.

Sammy Sosa’s Pinterest Page is Exactly What You’d Expect Sammy Sosa’s Pinterest Page to Be

sammy sosa

Sammy Sosa has a pinterest page (and Twitter). I heard rumors about it this morning and then I saw Deadspin’s post that it has been confirmed as him.

Nothing but a wall of photos of Sosa posing in his home. There’s Sammy in a suit! There’s Sammy in a nice sweater! So carefree! So happy! And every single photo has the same caption: 

“Sammy Sosa. Yes, I’m the real Sammy Sosa, and this is my Pinterest.”

“Sammy Sosa. Yes, I’m the real Sammy Sosa, and this is my Pinterest.”

“Sammy Sosa. Yes, I’m the real Sammy Sosa, and this is my Pinterest.”

Everybody is very entertained by it as the overt attempts at getting back into the good graces of the public and media could not be more blatant than if he walked around outside Wrigley on Opening Day wearing a sandwich board that said, “Sammy Sosa. Yes, I’m the real Sammy Sosa, and I’d REALLY like to be in the Hall of Fame, buddy.”

But when you stop and think about Sammy’s career and his constant self-promotion, isn’t this just the Sammy Sosa-est thing that ever Sammy Sosa-ed? Is anyone actually shocked at how over the top this is?

In 1998 as Mark McGwire started getting all pissy with all the constant media attention, there was Sammy Sosa ready to jump in front of the cameras as McGwire’s comrade. When McGwire hit his record-breaking HR, who was there to give him hugs and exchange the McGwire-patented forearm and stomach “punch”? Sammy Sosa. 

He trotted out the Flinstones vitamins line constantly when the occasional reporter would ask about performance enhancers and it would show up in all the papers the next day.

After 9/11, Sammy hit a homerun in the Cubs first game back after the attacks and all of a sudden he had a little American flag in his hands as he rounded the bases. Somehow, he managed to turn a nation mourning terrorist attacks into the Sammy Sosa Show. And we loved it.

It seemed there was nothing the man wouldn’t do to make sure the cameras were on him.

So while his Pinterest page is hilarious, he has managed to accomplish what just a couple of days ago seemed damn near impossible. We’re all talking about Sammy Sosa again.

So that sandwich board on Opening Day suddenly seems plausible. Maybe he’ll skydive in a Cubs uniform from a blimp that has a giant picture of his own face on it. Maybe he’ll somehow donate profits from his investments in a needle-free injection company to the Ricketts so that they can open the Sammy Sosa Triangle Building.

When you are talking about Sammy Sosa, there really is nothing you can say that would be considered too outlandish.

2012 in Review: January – When We Were Stupidly Kind of Optimistic About Stuff

Year in review

2012 was pretty painful to live through as a Cubs fan, and even more so as a Cubs blogger who felt obligated to pay even more attention than is normally considered safe for human beings in an effort to bring you our non-classy, confidence-lacking, reundiscreditationalness that you all expect from us. So we're going to make you re-live the pain all over again. You're welcome, jabronis.

January 1 – The first full Year of Theo begins with rumors of Matt Garza getting traded to virtually every major league team that exists, the Cubs covertly pursuing Prince Fielder, and Cubs fans everywhere trying to learn how to pronounce "Yoenis Cespedes" just in case.

January 3 – Theo continues the annual Cubs tradition of signing Reed Johnson. It was immediately hailed as a "smart value signing" and we all count our blessings that the Cubs will no longer pander to the meatball fans.

January 4 – Carlos Zambrano is traded to the Miami Marlins for Chris Volstad. One of the best starters in team history and a highly valuable pitcher was traded for Chris Freaking Volstad and Cubs fans across the interwebs and talk radio largely rejoice in the news that they'd be getting a healthy dose of Chris Freaking Volstad in 2012.

January 5 – Starlin Castro is accused of sexual assault and the Cubs find themselves in the unenviable position of having a major crisis that can't simply be blamed on Zambrano.

January 6 – The Cubs trade the oft-injured, talented Andrew Cashner plus Kyung-Min Na to the Padres for the highly regarded 1st base prospect, Anthony Rizzo, Zach Cates and a gigantic distraction from the Castro news as a throw-in.

January 9 – Paul Maholm scoops everybody with a tweet announcing he is signing with the Cubs. The mainstream media vows to never be embarassed on Twitter ever again.

January 11 – The Cubs waive Jeff Bianchi to make space on the 40 man roster for Maholm. This was widely believed to be the first time anybody had been aware that someone named Jeff Bianchi had ever been a member of the Cubs.

January 13 – As the Cubs Convention begins, Paul Sullivan tweets a somber note seemingly signifying the end of the Kerry Wood Era (Version 2.0):

30 minutes later, Pat Hughes announces his signing as part of the Opening Ceremonies and introduces Wood to a jubilant crowd. The mainstream media vows to never be embarassed on Twitter ever again.

January 14 – Lots of stuff is said at the Cubs Convention, but it's all pre-planned and I wasn't there because I was sick, so I'm not going to rehash it here because none of it matters worth a damn.

January 15 – The Cubs management announces that there will be a 75-foot long video display board added to the corner of the right field bleachers and everybody loses their shit about the beauty of the ballpark or some nonsense that never came up again after the scoreboard ended up fitting into the architecture of the stadium so well that nobody even noticed it.

January 18 – The Cubs and Red Sox still can't agree on what Theo Epstein is worth and interrupt Bud Selig from a very high-powered mid-afternoon nap to have him help decide the issue. He mumbled something about "ask your mother," rolled over and went back to sleep.

January 20 – The Cubs start selling nine-game ticket packs to capitalize on the momentum of their re-signing of Rodrigo Lopez the day before, which I just now realized I hadn't mentioned before and didn't think was worthy of a bullet of its own.

January 24 – We start hearing the annual song and dance about Jeff Samardzija wanting to be a starter again and we all laugh and laugh because Theo and Jed are WAY too smart to fall for that bullshit like Hendry was.

January 27 – The Cubs get a little closer to being playoff contenders when Bud Selig added an additional ten wild card teams per league… wait… what? Oh, it was only one additional wild card team, so the Cubs are still screwed.

January 31 – January ends with the Theo compensation issue still unresolved, Matt Garza is still a Cub, and Cubs fans are now pretty convinced that "Yoenis" rhymes with "menace" and not "penis," but who the hell knows for sure?

OV Hall of Fame Survey Results

The BBWAA gets ripped a lot for terrible decision-making when it comes to voting on the Baseball Hall of Fame. This yea's' ballot is particularly interesting because it pits a lot of guys who get points/votes for being gutty winners despite stats that don't clearly portray a Hall of Fame career against guys that have been tagged as selfish/cheaters while amassing some amazing stats that normally would make the player a first-ballot shoe-in.  This is the first ballot in a long time where I've felt 10 votes per ballot maybe wasn't enough. 

So we wanted to see how our readers would vote given the same parameters that the BBWAA gives its members.  We received 80 valid ballots (a few had to be discarded for voting for more than 10 players) and if it was up to OV, here are the results of the vote:

Name 

Years Active

Years on Ballot  

Total

Pct
Mike Piazza  1992-2007  1st 65 81.3%
Barry Bonds  1986-2007  1st 62 77.5%
Tim Raines  1979-2002  6th 60 75.0%
Craig Biggio  1988-2007  1st 57 71.3%
Roger Clemens  1984-2007  1st 56 70.0%
Jeff Bagwell  1991-2005  3rd 55 68.8%
Curt Schilling  1988-2007  1st 46 57.5%
Sammy Sosa  1988-2005, 2007  1st 43 53.8%
Alan Trammell  1977-1996  12th 36 45.0%
Mark McGwire  1986-2001  7th 29 36.3%
Larry Walker  1989-2005  3rd 29 36.3%
Edgar Martinez  1987-2004  4th 28 35.0%
Rafael Palmeiro  1986-2005  3rd 26 32.5%
Kenny Lofton  1991-2007  1st 20 25.0%
Lee Smith  1980-1997  11th 20 25.0%
Jack Morris  1977-1994  14th 11 13.8%
Dale Murphy  1976-1993  15th 9 11.3%
Don Mattingly  1982-1995  13th 8 10.0%
Fred McGriff  1986-2004  4th 6 7.5%
Bernie Williams  1991-2006  2nd 4 5.0%
Julio Franco  1982-1994, 96-97, 99, 2001-07  1st 3 3.8%
Sandy Alomar, Jr.  1988-2007  1st 2 2.5%
David Wells  1987-2007  1st 2 2.5%
Steve Finley  1989-2007  1st 1 1.3%
Reggie Sanders  1991-2007  1st 1 1.3%
Jeff Cirillo  1994-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Royce Clayton  1991-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Jeff Conine  1990, 1992-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Shawn Green  1993-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Roberto Hernandez  1991-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Ryan Klesko  1992-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Jose Mesa 1987 , 1990-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Aaron Sele  1993-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Mike Stanton  1989-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Todd Walker  1996-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Rondell White  1996-2007  1st 0 0.0%
Woody Williams  1993-2007  1st 0 0.0%

 

Congratulations to Mike Piazza, Barry Bonds and Tim Raines! You have received the OV Stamp of Approval and a life-time free subscription to Obstructed View with all the rights and privileges that come with it. We're sorry it isn't more classy or accredited. 

Of the guys who didn't make it, Craig Biggio, Roger Clemens, and Jeff Bagwell came the closest, falling only a handful of votes short. The jabronies marked in red would not appear on the ballot next year per BBWAA rules. Most of those failed to gather at least 5% of the vote, while Dale Murphy was appearing on the ballot for the 15th and last time before becoming a candidate for the Veteran's Committee.

Aisle 424's Ballot

I voted for the following on my ballot: Bonds, Clemens, Piazza, Sosa, Bagwell, Biggio, Raines, Trammell, Schilling, Palmeiro.

This was tough because I honestly could have easily voted for more than 10 or less depending upon how I was feeling on any given day.  As far as I'm concerned, Bonds and Clemens are no-brainers and I'm surprised one made it in our little exercise and one didn't.  I figured if we were a group that has a tendency to look past the PED issues, then they'd both get in, or if there were enough people voting who felt strongly against it, they'd both be excluded. I never thought they would be split.

Piazza was also an easy choice for me as he was the best hitting catcher of all time and it isn't really very close.

After that I started getting selective and my biases start showing. I tried to utilize the Similarity Scores on B-Ref as a guide, figuring if they were similar to a lot of HOF or HOF-worthy players, then it seems like they should be a good candidate themselves. Sosa's Top 10 Similarity scores included 7 Hall of Famers plus Ken Griffey Jr., Gary Sheffield, and Jim Thome, all of whom will get serious consideration if not induction into the Hall of Fame. So I put him on.

Palmeiro had 6 HOFers on the similarity scale plus Griffey Jr., Sheffield and Manny Ramirez. He hit 569 homeruns (12th), had 3,020 hits (25th) and 1,192 extra base hits (6th). I put him on.

Biggio had 7 HOFers plus Derek Jeter on the similarity scale.  I also have a hard time remembering when Biggio wasn't one of the best 2nd basemen playing at any given time inhis career, except of course, when he was catching. He switched from being a catcher to a Gold Glove second baseman. I don't think he needs the bonus points for that to put him on my ballot, but it certainly didn't hurt.

Bagwell had only 2, but also Albert Pujols, Frank Thomas, and Vladimir Guerrero, so I thought that was pretty good. He was also very consistent throughout his career until the end. You pretty much knew he'd play every day and get 30-45 HRs and an OBP around .400. He was good for more than 4 WAR every year of his career until he was 34 and then he put up three more seasons over 3 before his career ended after an extremely injury-filled 2005. That was good enough for me.

Raines had 4 HOFers as most similar. He is 5th all-time in stolen bases and I remember him just being a menace for years. When you discussed the best outfielders of the 80s, you had to include Raines in the discussion and he did it for longer than Dale Murphy, so I gave the vote to Raines instead of Murphy. He honestly should have been in before this and its a shame a vote had to be used for him this year instead of for another worthy candidate.

Trammel had three HOFers in his most similar, but also Lou Whitaker, who I think should also be in, but isn't. This is more about positional scarcity than numbers that beat you over the head, but that's where I came down in favor of Trammel over someone like Mark McGwire who was more impressive with the bat.

Lastly, I was kind of surprised at how good some of Curt Schilling's numbers were. He was similar to 2 HOFers plus John Smoltz and Pedro Martinez, so I looked further. He's 26th all-time in pitcher WAR (76.9), he amassed 3,115 strikeouts (15th) and you can't argue with his post-season performances.  What was interesting to me, and I think what ultimately got him on my ballot was that his ERA+ is 48th best all-time, which sounds good, but then you consider that it's the same as Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson and it makes it more impressive. 

When it came down to it, this was exteremely difficult since I think I left off some very worthy candidates and my viewpoint is extremely subjective. I'm not shocked there wasn't a ton of consensus on most of my picks. I am surprised Biggio didn't get more love and I'm kind of surprised Sosa finished so low on a Cubs-centric site.

DMick89's Ballot

Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Mike Piazza, Tim Raines, Sammy Sosa, Curt Schilling

Bonds, Clemens and Piazza are in the first group that I'll use to explain my ballot. Bonds combined offensive and defensive performance is on par with Babe Ruth's, but Bonds wasn't a pitcher for several years so he's the 2nd best player to have played this game. I don't know if Roger Clemens was the best pitcher in history, but he's in that discussion. No catcher in the game's history has hit even close to as well as Mike Piazza. I didn't have to think for even a second with these three.

I only had to think for a brief moment when it came to Biggio, Raines, Schilling and Sosa. Biggio began his career as a catcher and then successfully moved to 2nd base, which is anything but easy. Years later he moved to CF and then to LF and then back to 2nd base. I don't care much about defense since it can't reliably be quantified. Biggio was never a great offensive player with maybe the exception for a couple of years, but from the age of 23 to 35 you could pencil him in for 4 wins or more. Enough words have been written about Tim Raines by Tangotiger that I'm sure many or most have read so I'll spare you that. Only Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez had more rWAR between 1995 and 2004 than Curt Schilling. Not even Greg Maddux or Roger Clemens did. Sosa has 3 seasons in which he hit more than 60 home runs, more than 600 combined and he helped make the game more profitable than it ever has been.

I think Bagwell is definitely a hall of famed and after discussing it with some here I think I probably underestimated just how damn good he was.

I love home runs and Palmeiro and McGwire hit them. They hit lots of them.

Berselius's Ballot

Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell, Rafael Palmiero, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza

The first five on this list are no-brainers to me. Bonds and Clemens don't need any explanation other than that I could give a shit about PEDs, and even discounting that they were both two of the top five players to ever play the game. Biggio was one of the top five 2b of all time before he retired, and Bagwell comes in at #34 all time among position players on Rally's list, just behind Joe Dimaggo. I think people forget about how great of a hitter Bagwell was. He was hitting like gangbusters (.750 SLG in strike-shortened 94) long before the years for which Sosa and McGwire are remembered. People focus on the power, but also posted a OBP over 400 in seven seasons. The bloody sock game is what's going to get Schilling into the hall, but he earned it in his own right. He was a workhorse on a lot of crappy Phillies teams, and his years in Arizona with Randy Johnson (another first ballot guy) were incredible.

As was mentioned above, there's no shortage of documentation that Tim Raines should be in the HOF so there's no need to go further.

Trammel seems like he has a similar problem that Santo had – he was a great player who was eclipsed by even better ones not long after he retired (Jeter, Nomar, etc), not to mention always playing second fiddle to Cal Ripken in his career, much like Santo and Brooks Robinson. 

The next three I'm more iffy on. Palmeiro's career WAR numbers are up there with Raines, Biggio, and the rest, but he never really separated himself from the rest of the 1b sluggers the way that Bagwell did. I only include Sosa on the list because I'm a shameless homer, both he and McGwire are fringe candidates (and McGwire probably has a better case anyway).

Piazza was the best hitting catcher in MLB history and had much better numbers than I remembered, but he was pretty terrible behind the plate. Rally's TZ doesn't have him nearly as bad as I thought he would be (only two seasons with double digit negative defence), and his career WAR ranks behind every other position player on my list, including Sosa. But since the only catchers that I can recognize that are (deservedly) ranked ahead of him are Johnny Bench, Pudge Rodriguez, and Gary Carter he should be a deserving candidate. Maybe if you're more of a peak guy it's much more of a slam dunk case. I'll also admit to some bias because I basically wasn't following baseball when he had his best years with the Dodgers, as opposed to his merely very good ones with the Mets. Catchers should probably get more credits wrt career numbers due to the fact that their careers are much shorter due to the position. Anyway, Piazza was someone I had to talk myself into, it wasn't cut and dried.

Thanks to everyone who participated and congratulations again to Bonds, Piazza and Raines. Your OV Certificates of Classiness are in the mail.

What is Japanese for LaBomb?

Bryan LaHair was designated for assignment today. I think we generally hoped he would have a teeny tiny bit of trade value, but maybe he didn't or maybe the Cubs thought they should do right by him and just let him go so he can pursue an opportunity elsewhere (the talks of Japan are most prevalent).

But no matter the reasons they came to the decision, the fact is that Bryan LaHair is gone from the Cubs just four months after representing them in the All-Star game. Has that ever happened before?

It certainly hasn't happened with the Cubs in my lifetime. The closest instances are probably the guys who were traded in the off-season after an All-Star appearance and their career ended after the next season. That happened to George Bell after his 1991 All-Star appearance when he got traded to the White Sox for Sammy Sosa. It also happened after Ron Santo made his last All-Star game in 1973 and then also traded to the White Sox for one last season.

But as unusual as the move is historically, it really isn't that strange when you consider the options the Cubs had with LaHair. The league had pretty much figured him out, so a return to his prolific first couple of months was unlikely. He just turned 30 years old a couple of weeks ago, so he's not exactly young anymore. He doesn't play anywhere defensively very well and his best position is currently occupied by Anthony Rizzo. So he could rot on the bench or the Cubs could trade him or they can set him free. So they loved him enough that they cut his time with them short.

So it is understandable, but some folks are not having as easy a time understanding the situation. To be fair, those tweets are a clear minority, so I'm actually kind of proud of Cubs fans for not throwing a collective hissy fit. There are actually more fans of other teams drooling over the possibility of signing LaHair off the scrap pile. They must be the people who read Rant Sports.

Will Jim Deshaies Be the Replacement for Bob Brenly?

If Rant Sports can generate blog hits by using incredibly over-the-top and sometimes completely misleading headlines for their posts, then so can I. I figured it was as good a headline as any for the following shallowly researched filler material.

We know Jim Deshaies, the current color commentator for the Houston Astros, got an interview as a potential replacement for Bob Brenly a few days ago. We also know that the other "front-runners" for the open seat next to Len Kasper seem to be a fairly mediocre bunch that includes, Rick Sutcliffe, Eric Karros, Todd Hollandsworth, and Gary Matthews. But what do we know of Jim Deshaies' abilities?

From what I've heard anecdotally from Astros fans and Alyson Footer, the former Senior Director of Social Media with the Astros (now a national correspondent with MLB), the Astros would be big losers if Deshaies jumps to the Cubs. So that is something since I hear almost nothing but sentiments of, "you can have him" about Gary Matthews from Phillies fans. But I wanted to put together a nice video resume for Deshaies that we could all look over and give our OV Stamp of Approval before Rant Sports declares him to be a snake oil salesman, carpetbagger, or some other term they think is just name-calling but has actual meaning.

Also, if we all vault him to the tops of our respective lists, we can all brace for the crushing blow that he'll end up staying with the Astros. In case you weren't aware of what he looks like, Deshaies is the bald guy:

 

 

Based on the very little video I can find of him, I like Deshaies quite a bit. He's extremely listenable and he seems to bring a lot more to his analysis than the typical, "DIS HERE GUY KNOWS HOW TO PLAY DA GAME RIGHT" that is unfortunately the go to cliche for far too many color commentators (including Brenly). He is my new favorite now that Doug Glanville is officially not a candidate anymore. I think Sutcliffe is #2, but its a pretty distant second.

So let me be the first to congratulate Jim Deshaies on his soon-to-be announced contract extension with the Astros.

C'mon, What's Ol' Gil Gotta Do to Get a Bunch of Overpaid Players on the Cubs?

The Patience Plan that the Cubs are executing was first met with wide appeal when Theo and Jed first arrived on the scene about a year ago. They came in and stated quite clearly that they would be building from within, re-stocking the largely barren farm system they inherited from Jim Hendry, and any free agent signings in the near future would be safe, low-risk signings that would not jeopardize long-term fiscal flexibility for when they do have an actual competent team that can contend. These declarations were music to most fans ears at that point.

Finally! A regime that will address the organization as a whole instead of concentrating solely on the major league level every five years or so! It was a miracle. We danced in the streets as we dreamed of a day when the Cubs would have a true organization and not a hodge podge of minor league teams all teaching their players different things depending on who is coaching them at any given time.

It was a big project. A HUGE project. This wasn't about fixing a single team. It was about re-creating the philosophy and operations of an entire organization from top to bottom. They were very clear about this from Day One. This was going to be a process. This was going to take time.

Well, Theo, your time is up with some fans. We've already heard from Chet Coppock live from a high school gymnasium. Today we're hearing from a blog I didn't know existed until MB referenced them the other day. Gil Gerard at RantSports.com is fed up with patience. He has been patient for a whole year, and now he is just plain upset about what an embarassment the Cubs have become under Theo.

You can't spell "short-sighted, moronic, ramblings" without R-A-N-T, so let's see what Gil is so mad about:

The Chicago Cubs continue to show their fan base they don’t want to win now.

Gil has already made the mistake of confusing desire with ability. The Cubs want to win now. Of course they do. None of the people in charge of making decisions on the baseball operations side has reached the level they have in the industry by not wanting to win. The question is whether the Cubs have the TALENT to win now and I think we saw over the last couple of seasons that the resounding answer to that question is: No, they do not.

With the trade that went down between the Toronto Blue Jays and Miami Marlins, there is simply NO excuse for the Cubs to not have been involved in talks for Jose Reyes and Josh Johnson. The fact the Blue Jays didn’t even give up their top prospects shows that it was a salary dump by the Marlins – one that the Cubs could have easily been in on.

Well, Josh Johnson, I'll give you, but Jose Reyes? Don't we already have a shortstop? Of the many issues the Cubs have, their shortstop isn't anywhere close to the top of the list. And what makes Gil so sure that the Cubs weren't having conversations with the Marlins? Who is to say that Jed hadn't been on the phone with them to talk about Josh Johnson and the Marlins were more interested in dumping every player on their team who makes more than league minimum in one fell swoop? Why piece together multiple deals that bring back bit players from many teams when you can lump all your garbage together and get a decent little package of talent from one place? That's what I would have done if I were the Marlins.

Yes, that’s right: the Cubs could have turned themselves into a World Series contender – but no.

Wait… what? Adding Josh Johnson and a shortstop that we don't need makes the Cubs a World Series contender? You do know the Cubs lost 101 games last year, right? You also know that even if Josh Johnson returns to the value he had pre-injury, that adds about 6 wins. I won't even subtract anything by plugging in Reyes because I should since Castro was actually more than half a win better than Reyes last year. That brings the Cubs up to 65 wins. Even if you buy that they were unlucky last year, I think the most any rational person could expect is 75 wins. The most optimistic projection in the world would still be putting a Cubs team with Josh Johnson and Jose Reyes on it as below .500. Unless baseball does the old hockey thing and lets everybody into the playoffs, the Cubs aren't contending for jack shit next year with or without Johnson and Reyes.

The Ricketts family bought this team and promised the Cubs faithful they want to win; well, that went quickly out the window. The lack of funds, or perhaps the simple inclination to be cheap, have essentially turned them into the enemy – one that sports the opposite message: winning is not part of the program.

Nothing the Ricketts have done since they took over convinced me they didn't WANT to win. I questioned whether they had any clue HOW to win or WHO would be able to execute their vision of a consistent winner, but the WANT was never the problem. They started sinking money into the infrastructure of this team from Day 1. They are building a new state-of-the-art Spring Training Facility, they are building a new training facility in the Dominican Republic, they are upgrading the facilities up and down their minor league system. That costs money and it doesn't generate revenue right away, so if an owner was "cheap" as Gil contends, these are the first things that a cheap owner wouldn't bother with. And it is exactly why the Cubs are in the situation they are in now, since the previous owners didn't sink money into anything that didn't directly impact the ability to raise revenue. Wrigley Field isn't an ancient hole because the Wrigleys had a vision of creating a historical tourist destination. They didn't pump money into it to keep up with the times. So blaming the Ricketts now for having to allocate money into solving long-term problems that weren't their fault is pretty unfair.

Not even if the cost comes down to simply taking a calculate risk on salary.

There are a finite amount of dollars to spend on the baseball budget. I'm sorry if you think it should be infinite, but the Cubs aren't the Yankees. No team is the Yankees.  Even the Yankees have finally found the ceiling of what they can spend before it starts getting self-defeating. The Cubs are allocating their money as much as possible to development. Again, this is not a surprise to anybody who paid even the least little bit of attention for the last year. This team will not squander salary on cosmetic, short-term solutions that do not help the team in the long-run. I don't think they could be any clearer.

They want to make profit; that’s great and dandy for the Ricketts as business owners, but for a Cubs fan like myself? I’m disgusted. While the Cubs are signing the Scott Bakers of the world, mid-market teams like the Blue Jays have turned themselves into a contender overnight while not blowing up their farm system.

Overnight? They dropped off last year because Jose Bautista and a million other Blue Jays like Adam Lind, Colby Rasmus, Brandon Morrow and others got hurt. They finished over .500 the previous two seasons in the AL East. There is nothing overnight about anything the Blue Jays have done if they contend this year. Just because you weren't paying attention to them, Gil, doesn't mean they didn't exist or sucked.

It makes me sick.

Your incredibly shallow, short-sighted analysis? Me too.

Let’s look at this logically.

Yes, for the love of God, let's finally look at this logically.

The Cubs could have sported a rotation of: Josh Johnson, Matt Garza, Mark Buerhle, Jeff Samardzija, and Travis Wood/Scott Baker. They could have picked up a REAL lead-off hitter in Jose Reyes to play short. They could have moved Starlin Castro to third, brought in a catcher that isn’t a total travesty in John Buck, AND add a super-utility guy like Emilio Bonifacio to the bench in one fell swoop.

I don't think you know what "logically" means, Gil.

And they could have done all this without giving up Javier Baez, Albert Almora, and Jorge Soler.

HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW THAT, GIL? Baseball America had Marisnick as their 2nd highest rated prospect in the Blue Jays' system. Nicolino was #5 AND he's a pitcher. The equivalent pieces in the Cubs system would be Baez or Almora (depending who you ask) and Dan Vogelbach. The closest pitcher comparison would be Arodys Vizcaino. PLUS they gave up a young major league arm in Henderson Alvarez along with the rest of the group. I don't even know who the equivalent there would be, Travis Wood? If you squint really hard and drink enough alcohol, maybe. I don't know what the depth of the Blue Jays' system is, but that trade would re-fuck everything Theo and Jed had just started un-fucking about the Cubs' pathetic level of talent in their farm system. And for what? Overpaying Mark Fucking Buerhle? Your little dream scenario there gets the Cubs major league roster back to the same talent level they had at the beginning of last season, AND THEY FUCKING SUCKED AT THE BEGINNING OF LAST SEASON!

What the heck. Seriously.

SERIOUSLY!!

I don’t want to hear this garbage like “the Cubs are rebuilding from within”, blah blah blah. The Cubs once spent $300 million in an off-season and it gave them a window to win a world series.

LOOK WHERE IT FUCKING GOT THEM, GIL! IT GOT THEM HERE! They pissed a shitload of money down the toilet to make the Cubs APPEAR like winners to FALSELY INFLATE the value of the team. If you think Sam Zell gave one flying fuck about the Cubs' record in any way other than how it made his team more valuable on the market, you need to go back to whatever school educated you and demand your money back.

The Cubs are supposed to be a big-market team, and frankly, they could – and should – be spending money and rebuilding at the same darn time. Letting this trade go down and not getting involved sends the message to me, as a fan, that the owner doesn’t give a damn about winning.

Yes, the Cubs are supposed to be a big market team. But you know what big market teams have that the Cubs don't have? Stadiums with huge money-making luxury suites. They have signs from advertisers that scoop money into the owners' pockets. They have television deals that provide ungodly sums of money. The Cubs don't have any of that compared to a real major market team. Again, this is shit that doesn't get the headlines until it goes hilariously wrong, but the Cubs are at least trying to change these factors so that they can act like a real major market team. So yes, they SHOULD be a major market team, but the difference isn't Ricketts just snapping his fingers and saying, "Make it so."

He only cares about the bottom line.

Again with this. Look, saying it repeatedly doesn't make it any more true than the first time you said it. You just look dumber.

The Chicago Cubs are never going to win by “rebuilding” from within like the Pittsburgh Pirates. It’ll be even more hilarious if the “blue chippers” don’t ever become the stars the Cubs are trying to tell us they’ll be.

Who said it would be like the Pittsburgh Pirates? You know why the Pittsburgh Pirates never finished a rebuild? Because it eventually costs money. Because every time they had players that were any good at all, the rest of the team was still so bad that that they had to trade off the good players. The Pirates have to hope that all of their prospects eventually all get good at the same time. If the Pirates had the resources of even a medium market team there is no way in hell that Barry Bonds ever plays for the Giants. Certainly not through the height of his career. The Cubs aren't in that position. Even with all of the restraints put on them by the ballpark and their crappy television deal and the bitchy neighborhood, they still have more money than the Pirates do. They just extended Starlin Castro didn't they? Aren't they talking about locking up Jeff Samardzija? The Pirates would be trading Jeff Samardzija without even thinking about it.

It’s laughable and I for one am FED UP with the clown car that is the Chicago Cubs.

I think it's laughable that you sat peacefully by during the Trib and Zell years without calling them out, but now that they have an actual owner trying to make the team great by addressing more than the cosmetic issues, you can't take it anymore.

Someone tell the Ricketts family that they need to sell the team to real owners. Cubs fans have waited long enough for an ownership group that, oh, I don’t know, wants to celebrate a winning team in October?

Oh, I see where this is coming from. You see the Dodgers gobbling up salaries like the fat kid at a hotdog eating contest for no apparent reason and Toronto taking on bloated salaries in a desperate effort to stay relevant in their division and equate spending with effort. Here, as a present from me to you, something for your spank bank:

Now shut the fuck up and let Theo and Jed work.