Are We Used to Losing?

I am currently at a work conference in Ohio.  My job is in Higher Education (for the present time), and I work with folks from around the country.  One of my colleagues came up to me yesterday and began to talk about baseball.  Obviously, this is a topic near and dear to my heart.  I will talk baseball with anyone who wants or has the time.  He remarked how some of his buddies in the Boston area are already cashing the season in and looking ahead to next season.  To the average baseball fan who knows the season is only 2 weeks deep, this is ludicrous.  Still, it got me thinking about what is the worst start for a team in MLB history?  Furthermore, what's the worst start to a baseball season for a team to make the playoffs?

I remembered a Tigers team who recently had a 100+ loss season.  According to http://www.baseball-almanac.com/, the Tigers finished 43 - 119 in 2003.  This was after going 55 - 106 in 2002.  In 2002, the Tigers started 0 -11.  In 2003, the team started 0 - 9, and finished April with a 3 - 23 record.  Talk about a tough couple years to be a Tiger fan.

If you google "Worst start to a baseball season", you will find multiple links to the Baltimore Orioles.  The 1988 Baltimore baseball club started the season 0-21...yikes.  Still, they finished that season only one game worse than the 2002 Tigers.  In other words, they played better baseball after game 21 than the Tigers.  Got to find a glass half full moment somewhere in this blog.

So there you have it.  The worst start to a Major League Baseball season.  On to the team that made the playoffs!

Almost all the sports info sites were telling me I need to give credit to the Kansas City Royals in a strike shortened season.  This is bogus to me.  I'm not having it.  I demand real answers!

This will be kind of a let down, if you're anything like me.  There hasn't been a single team who started 0 - 6, to make the playoffs.  I guess I was hoping for some kind of cinderella storied baseball team.  But alas, it's kind of the black mark, so to speak, starting 0 - 6.  All I can say for Boston is I'm cheering for you guys to break the mold.  Go on a 15 game winning streak and shut up the critics!  It's probably not going to happen, but us baseball fans can hope...

Um...Go Indians?!?

The Greatest Baseball Lineup Since 1990...According to Me

It's been a while since I've been here.  Loads of important things have happened as well.  The Green Bay FudgePackers won the Super Bowl, the Uconn Huskies won the NCAA Championship (in a very sloppy game) against Butler, the 2011 Major League Baseball season is under way, and most importantly I got married!

I want to go back to the 2011 MLB season if I could.  I was walking around in my apartment last night after I finished watching Monday Night Raw and it hit me; "If I could make the best lineup for a team using any player from 1990 until now, who who I choose?".  There are so many players that have played from 90 until now that have been linked to steroids (Bonds, Clemens, Palmeiro), and there are so many players now that appear to be heading to greater numbers than some in the past (Pujols or BigMac?).  Who to pick?!?

I'm going to go at this two ways.  The first is who I would pick off the top of my head, and the second is picking guys based on actual numbers.  I want to see how much emotion I use in picking mine compared to who's actually the best option.  The batting order can be switched around, I'm just picking a person per position.  Here goes:

1B - Albert Pujols
2B - Ryne Sandberg
3B - George Brett
SS - Cal Ripken, Jr
LF - Rickey Henderson
CF - Ken Griffey, Jr
RF - Andre Dawson
C -   Mike Piazza
SP - Nolan Ryan

Here are what the career stats say I should have picked:

1B - Frank Thomas .301/521/1704 (Pujols will pass these numbers. No one else who's played since 90 has)

2B - Ryne Sandberg .285/282/1061 (2386 hits & 344 SB)

3B - George Brett .305/317/1595 (Schmidt retired in 1989 or he'd be here)

SS - Cal Ripken Jr. .276/431/1695 (Ozzie Smith gets a very close 2nd here*)

LF - Rickey Henderson .271/297/1406 SB/2295 Runs Scored/.401 OBP/73 Lead off HR

CF - Ken Griffey Jr. .288/611/1772/.373 OBP/1612 Runs Scored/2680 Hits/184 SB/13x All Star

RF - Tony Gwynn .338/135/1138/3141 hits/319 SB/15x AllStar (Dawson had more HR/RBI & was ROY & MVP, Gwynn was not)

C - Ivan Rodriguez - .302/295/1,217 RBI/1,253 Runs Scored/2,605 Hits/124 SB/14x All Star

P - This was TOO CLOSE to call, so I've made an executive decision and am going to put both guys on this list:
 
    Roger Clemens                        Greg Maddux
    354 W/184 L                           355W/227 L
    3.12 ERA                                 3.16 ERA
    4672 K's                                  3371 K's
    11x All Star                              8x All Star
    7x Cy Young                            4 Consecutive Cy's (only player to do this...EVER)
    MVP                                        18x Gold Glove Winner


*The Ozzie versus Ripken debate continues.  Here is why I put Ripken over Smith on the stats list:

-Higher Batting Average: Ripken .276/Ozzie .262
-More Hits: Ripken 3184/Ozzie 2460
-More HR: Ripken 431/Ozzie 28
-More RBI: Ripken 1695/Ozzie 793
-More All-Star Appearances: Ripken 19/Ozzie 15
-Ripken won the 1982 Rookie of the Year.

Ozzie did have more Gold Gloves (13) than Ripken (2), and he had more stolen bases (580) than Ripken (36) as well.  Still, I think the numbers speak for themselves.

There you have it folks.  My List versus the Stat List.  I feel I did ok considering.  Just based on my thoughts and feelings of who was the best at their position in players who have played since 1990, I got 5 out of 9.  I'll take that.

Feel free to argue, agree or just comment on this.  I like to hear what other people think.  Obviously you can't really argue the Career Stat list since it's based on factual data, but if you would've put a different guy on your Personal List, I'd like to hear about it.

Until next time...