The Blog of Regular Joes World

Season 27 - Issue #4

 

Let’s take a brief respite from my list of 25 Best Players.

The Story of My Idolization of Baseball Players and Where that Idolization Stands Today

I’m in my mid-sixties.  I probably have a different perspective than some of you who are a generation or two younger than me.  When I was a young, growing up in the late 50’s and into the 60’s and 70’s, we tended to idolize major league baseball players and our fathers did as well; perhaps even more so than we did.  Baseball was truly “The American Game” in those days.

I grew up in New England and when young, I was a die-hard Red Sox fan.  My dad grew up in Pittsburgh and was a die-hard Pirates fan…and he knew the game and was a great teacher.  He taught me, and I taught my brother who was eight years younger than I. 

One of my fondest memories is of my dad and my grandfather, (his father), taking me to “Meet the Pirates Day” at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh around 1963.  The players had to sit on the top of the dugout and then all the fans were paraded out onto the field and walked single file on the field in front of the dugout.  The smell of the grass was amazing.  I was utterly in awe of the view of the enormity of the ball park and the ball park lights from the field.  Most of us kids were simply gawking at them.  I remember Bob Friend, the fine Pirates starting pitcher saying, “Now I know how a monkey feels.”   I IDOLIZED them!  But you know what? It seemed the biggest stars got to sit this one out.

I barely remember the 1960 World Series where the Pittsburgh Pirates outlasted the hated New York Yankees when Bill Mazeroski homered in the bottom of the ninth in Forbes Field, Pittsburgh to take the World Championship.  It gave my dad a thrill and allowed him bragging rights with his New England friends for a while.  I later obtained a Bill Mazeroski autograph for my dad.  My dad’s gone now, and I have it, but it’s fading.  At less than 30-years old then, my dad still IDOLIZED them.

My dad worked four jobs to support our family when I was young…a lot of fathers did something similar in those days.  Mothers stayed home and raised the children and managed the house.  Few mothers were in the workforce. 

On many nights, when my father came home either between jobs or after the 2^nd job ended on a given day, he usually brought me a single pack of baseball cards.  I think they cost about a nickel a pack then.  I got to know every player on every team from those baseball cards.  There were only eight teams until 1961, then ten in each league.  The other sports, football, basketball, hockey, were nowhere near as popular, although in some markets football was a major attraction.  (In those days, we cheered for the New York Giants football team in New England…odd huh?)

My father knew several major league players too…not really friends, but rather acquaintances.  Those were not big stars, just good, honest, hard-working journey men types.  He introduced me to a few of them and I sat and listened as they talked about the game, never speaking, just ears wide open.  Even these guys, I idolized and had to tell all my friends who I’d met and show them the baseball card that represented that player.  I IDOLIZED them.  

We went to Fenway Park to watch games often.  In those days there were many double headers.  My dad liked to take me and friends to the double headers.  In 1961, the Red Sox played in 21 double headers.  Can you young guys believe that? 

We’d take a glove and try and catch a ball or beg for one from the players while they were warming up prior to the start of the game.  I never caught a ball and never was successful begging for one then and still have never done so.  It seemed like my friends were always lucky enough though.

What I recall is how Fenway was so empty in those days.   Red Sox attendance at home games in 1961 was about 15,000 per day.  (For double headers in those days, you paid for one ticket and it covered both games).  By 1966 Red Sox home attendance was down to an average of about 9,100 per home date.  After a couple of innings, the ushers would go hide out somewhere and everyone would move down to the good box seats near the dugout.  

The bleachers were fun too.  If nothing else, you were sure to get a sunburn there.  They were general admission seats, (I think $0.75 each in the early 60’s), meaning you could sit anywhere you found an open seat, but they were benches with no backs. 

In Fenway in those days, you couldn’t get to the bleachers without a bleacher ticket and you couldn’t go from the bleachers to the stadium or box seats.  Those areas were two separate and blocked off areas.  You got one or you got the other.  You couldn’t tour them both on one day.  But what you could do was get to the bleachers early and sit in the first row behind the bullpen.   That was close to the players and I IDOLIZED them!

I tell everyone I saw Ted Williams play.  It had to be 1960…my recall of events doesn’t start until about then and that is the first Topps baseball card set I recall.  What I vividly remember was how mean the fans were to Ted.  If he got a hit, they cheered like mad, like he was the greatest.  Everyone knew he never tipped his cap to the fans, and the fans cheered and cheered hoping he would and trying to goad him into doing so…that was their scheme.  But, he bever did! 

If he made an out, he got booed like crazy.  Terrible, loud and long-lasting boos started with the elder fans and then many of youngsters caught on and followed the example.  “You’re a bum” was a stated fact as far as the crowd was concerned when Ted made an out.  He was the greatest defensive player.  God help him if he booted a ball in left field!   I couldn’t do it…the booing I mean.  I IDOLIZED these guys!  Even then, I understood how good Ted was, too.

In 1967, out of nowhere, the Red Sox won the American League pennant.  Yastrzemski had a phenomenal year.  (Honestly, I sometimes wonder if he was unknowingly on steroids.  He bragged about how he had worked out all off season with a trainer and extensively changed his diet…extensively changed his diet, extensively changed his diet. 

I didn’t idolize Yaz…I thought he was pretty phony.  He was a GREAT defensive left fielder, one of the best I ever saw…even to this day.  But I thought he dove for balls he could have caught easily while on the run, and he went through a long stretch of seasons, where it seemed to me that he did nothing but swing for the fences.  His average truly suffered.  He could have been content to pepper the left field wall at Fenway and if he did, he’d have had a career batting record similar to Wade Boggs’.  That was my opinion.  He wasn’t a big man…only about 5’ 11” & 175 pounds, (some say shorter). 

It also seemed like he always wanted to play 1^st base and not left field.  I didn’t think he was doing what was best for the team, and apparently some of his coaches and managers thought so too.

I look back and see that 1967 was probably the pinnacle of my idolization of baseball players and the game.  At some point after 1967, they paid Yaz more than $100,000 a year!  At the time, I believe only Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle were paid in excess of $100,000.   Yaz was certainly the 1^st Red Sox (or even Boston athlete in any sport) to be paid that amount.  Blue collar fans in New England making about $6,000 a year in early the early 60’s really couldn’t conceive of that.  Fathers argued over the merit.  That’s when I started slowing losing my innocent idolization of baseball players.  The loss of that feel was slow, but that was the start.

To be continued…

 

Now let’s get back to the list of my 25 Best Players in Regular Joe’s world…

 

#10         Slick Qualls                         San Antonio Lightning – AL South             30-year old Left Fielder

At 10 on my list of 25 best players in Regular Joes world is Slick Qualls, San Antonio’s all-around great left-fielder.

In Slick’s 12-year pro career, nearly eight seasons of which have been played at the major league level, he’s only played for the San Antonio franchise.  San Antonio’s major league ballpark heavily favors the pitcher except as it relates to HR’s to left field where it is neutral.

Qualls was originally obtained by the San Antonio franchise in season 15, when he was drafted with the 2^nd overall pick in the 1^st round and signed to a $5.435M bonus.  He was then sent to S.A.’s Rookie league team where he hit .331 with seven homeruns and thirteen stolen bases in 43 games before being promoted to Low A to close that 1^st season, hitting .333 with three homeruns.

He started his 2^nd ML season at Low A but season 16 was derailed by two injuries, one a major injury, and he played only 72 games, hitting .333 with 15 homeruns and 12 stolen bases.  He split season 17 between High A and AA and then split season 18 between AA and AAA where combined, he hit .346 with 32 homeruns and 30 stolen bases.  In season 19, he played his 1^st 18 games at AAA and then was promoted to the major leagues where he hit .298 with 35 homeruns and 29 stolen bases.

Slick is a rare combination of power and speed.  In the entire history of real major league baseball, only four players have hit 40 homeruns and stolen 40 bases in a single season.  Qualls has that capability and very nearly achieved that fete when he hit 38 homeruns and stole 41 bases in season 21.  (Trivia question:  Without looking it up…name the four real major leagues who have hit 40 homeruns and stolen 40 bases in a season.)

In his near eight seasons in the majors, Qualls has hit .297 with 248 homeruns and 298 stolen bases…that’s an average of 31 homeruns and 37 stolen bases a season; and he’s had highs of 38 homeruns and 43 stolen bases.  He puts the ball in play effectively, but he doesn’t seem to be a player who is in the batter’s box for long…though some great hitters are frequently walked, Qualls only averages a bit less than 60 walks per season.  He is a candidate to have 200 base hits in a season, (reaching that mark once and nearly a 2^nd time), so his lifetime on-base percentage is .363.  Qualls is normally among the league leaders in runs scored, averaging 121 runs scored per major league season with a high of 141 in season 23 in only 146 games played.

Defensively in his ML career, Qualls has played left-field ¾’s of the time and 2^nd base for 1/4^th of the time.  His ratings suggest he is likely a very good defensive left fielder or a 2^nd baseman with a weak glove.  In left field, he has a very respectable lifetime fielding percentage of .987 with a range factor of 2.02 and has made 69 plus plays with zero minus plays.

His has fantastic vs. LH and vs. RH splits, and well above average power.  He has tremendous speed and above average base running skills.  Though very good, his health and durability combined with a rather low stamina rating suggest the possibility that he may need regular rest.  His record shows that perhaps to be true, as in his last four seasons, he’s missed an average of 19 games per season. 

He won the Rookie of The Year award in the American league in season 19, is a 6-time winner of the Silver Slugger award for American league left-fielders, is a 7-time American league All-Star, once won the league’s Gold Glove award for left-fielders and has led his San Antonio team to the World Series title in four seasons. 

Qualls sign a 5-year ML contract which started in season 25.  He’s in the 3^rd year of that contract which pays $9.0M per season. ..good value for a superstar of his value.

I think he may be able to play another seven to nine productive seasons.

 

#9           Shelley Espino                  Chicago Eagles – NL North                           30-year old Left Fielder

I have Shelley Espino, a 30-year old left fielder for the Chicago Eagles ranked #9 on my list of the 25 Best Players in Regular Joes world at present.

Espino has always played for this franchise but when selected with the 4^th pick in the 1^st round of the Season 15 Amateur draft and signed with a $5.72M ML contract, the franchise was located in Pittsburgh. He played for the franchise in Pittsburg thru season 23 at which point there was a change in ownership and the franchise was moved to Chicago where it remains now.  Pittsburgh was a poor HR hitting facility.  The Chicago franchise is playing in Wrigley field and WIS has that field rated as a very good park for hitters to hit homeruns.

In his initial professional season, he split time between Rookie ball, Low A and High A hitting a combined .337 with 20 HR’s and 65 rbi’s in 77 regular season games.  Next, he spent a season at AA, hitting .326 with 37 HR’s.  Then he spent a season at AAA hitting only .267, but slugging 39 HR’s.  Espino started season 18 in AAA, played 22 games there, hitting 7 HR’s and was moved up to the Major leagues for the rest of that season, hitting .271 with 30 HR’s in only 131 games.  He also stole 26 bases in the ML’s that season.

He’s now played nearly nine seasons in the ML’s and has a lifetime .294 average with 406 HR’s, 1,012 rbi’s and 178 stolen bases.  That is averages of 45 HR’s, 113 rbi’s and 20 stolen bases per season.  In addition, he’s scored more than 100 runs per season in every one of his nine pro seasons.

Shelley has been primarily a left fielder at the major league level.  Compared to #10, Slick Qualls, as a left fielder, Espino is adequate, Qualls is very good.  Espino has a lifetime .976 fielding percentage at LF, with a lower range factor of 1.78 and has made 48 plus plays and zero minus plays.  He won’t hurt in left field.  His ratings suggest adequacy as a left fielder or a very good 1^st baseman.

Espino has enormous power, (hitting more than 50 HR’s in a season three times and hitting more than 40 HR’s in every season except for his abbreviated Rookie season).  He also has tremendous speed (the equivalent of Qualls’ speed) however this franchise may not be pushing the base-stealing factor to the extent that Quall’s franchise does and so his attempts and successes lag behind Quall’s by approximately 25%. 

Still, Espino is capable of reaching the 30 HR’s & 30 stolen bases fete.  Qualls and Espino are very similar…equivalent hitters, with Qualls a better fielding left fielder and Espino being a healthier and more durable player. 

Espino has played in at least 810 consecutive regular season games and perhaps as many as 972 consecutive games.  In his entire ML career excepting his abbreviated Rookie season, he’s missed only 9 games, with all of those coming in the 1^st three seasons after his Rookie season.  His health rating is very high, and he’s never been on the disabled list.

His ratings suggest that Espino is capable of crushing right-handed pitchers, but that he may struggle against left-handers.  That’s odd given he is a right-handed hitter.  He has a very good batting eye and has walked at least 85 times in eight of his nine pro seasons and averages 92 walks a season while striking out 98 times a season.

Shelley is a 6-time National League All Star, a 7-time NL Silver Slugger left fielder, a 2-time Home Run Derby Champ, once hit for the cycle in season 25 and was the National League Most Valuable Player in season 25.

Espino is in the 4^th year of a 5-year ML contract paying $9.75M per ML season.

 

#8           Benny Domingo                               Houston Bulls – AL South                             23-yr old LF/CF

Benny Domingo, a 23-year old left fielder/center fielder for the Houston Bulls who has played only 117 major league games is the 4^th Houston player, and 8^th best overall player in my ranking of 25 Best Players in Regular Joes world, season #27.

Domingo was obtained by Houston as an International free agent in season 22, when Houston gave him a $28M signing bonus with an invite to spring training.  That was the 2^nd most bonus money given to any IFA in that season.

He was signed late in season 22 and sent to Rookie ball where he was only able to play in 29 games and hit .284…not remarkable except that in his 31 hits, 23 were for extra bases.  He played his 2^nd minor league season at High A and played his 3^rd at AA, hitting a combined .327 while averaging 18 HR’s and 26 stolen bases per season.  In season 25, he played a full season at AAA where he hit a remarkable .406, 27 HR’s, 147-rbis and 41 stolen bases.

He started season 26 at AAA and hit .375 in 24 games before getting the call to the big leagues.  In his Rookie big league season when he played 117 games, he hit .337 with 15 HR’s and 47 stolen bases.  Even though he reached the big leagues after the season had started, he was named to the American league All-Star team.

In the minor leagues Espino split most of his time between 2^nd base and center field.  In his abbreviated 1^st season in the major league, he split time between left field and center field.  In left field he made two plus plays.  In center field he made three minus plays.  His defensive ratings suggest that he may not have the range, the glove or the arm strength to play centerfield, but that he might have good range, a better than necessary glove and adequate arm strength to play left field.

His speed is at least equal to that of Qualls and Espino but he’ll never quite exhibit the power they display. His health rating is outstanding though his durability is only good.  His stamina is superior to that of Qualls and Espino.  In general he has been allowed to play between 70% and 90% of his team’s total games in a season and has never been on the disabled list.

Domingo has been one All-Star team in each of High A, AA, AAA and the American league major league.  He was a Silver Slugger 2^nd baseman in High A in seasons 23 & 24, a Silver Slugger center fielder in AAA in season 25 and made the Al major league, All Star team and won a World Series ring in season 26.

He has a brief major league record and his placement here is based on his current ratings and reflects his boundless potential.

 

I don’t want to go into a lesson in statistics, but the remaining seven players are players that are rated more than two standard deviations above the average player.   That doesn’t mean that they are far better than the other players just below them, in fact they are not.  It says something about where they rank in relation to the average player. 

Suffice it to say when I see a player at this level is when I begin to consider paying $10M to $14M per season to obtain them.  Players in this range in a normally distributed population would be represented by only a few percent of the population.  When I see a player at greater than three standard deviations above the average, it gives me a signal to offer greater than $14 per season to obtain them.  There were no players who fell at greater than three standard deviations above average in this population.

 

#7           Jiggs Wisdom                    Anaheim Argonauts – NL West                  32-year old 1^st Baseman

Jiggs Wisdom of Anaheim is next on my list, coming in as the 7^th best player in Regular Joes world.

Jiggs is a lifetime member of the Anaheim franchise.  It looks however, like he reached free agency to start season 26, when he was signed to a maximum 5-yr $20M per season contract to keep him in Anaheim.  I suppose it’s possible, (and burk, the owner of the Anaheim franchise might be able to offer some perspective), but I’ve never seen a player ask his present team for a $20M max contract so I am assuming that he may have gone on the free agent market and forced a bidding war with Aneheim winning and keeping his service. (??)

In any event, Wisdom was originally obtained by Anaheim as the 3^rd pick in 1^st round of the season 15 Amateur draft.  He signed to a $3.82M bonus and was immediately sent to the Rookie league where he hit .297 with 22 HR’s, 79-rbi’s and 37 stolen bases in 76 games.

He split season 16, (his 2^nd season) between Low A and High A, hitting a combined .358, 32 HR’s. 127 rbi’s and 28 stolen bases.  Are you starting to see a pattern here…hitters at this level are offensively multi-dimension players, possessing both power AND speed!

In season 17, he briefly played at High A before jumping to AA.  There, he hit .325 with 41 HR’s, 145 rbi’s and 36 stolen bases in only 138 games. 

In season 18, he jumped from AA, skipping AAA, going directly to the big leagues.  In his Rookie big league season, he hit only .254 but had 32 HR’s, 117-rbi’s and 48 stolen bases.  He’s now played nine full major league seasons and in each and every one, his batting average has been better than in his Rookie season; reaching a high of .304 in season 20.  He has hit a very consistent 32 to 39 HR’s and 85 to 134-rbi’s, with between 35 and 64 stolen bases in every ML season he has played.  Can you see he’s another 30/30 guy with a slim potential to have a 40/40 season.  He would only have to boost his HR totals a little to have a chance.  

He has 316 HR’s, 1,005-rbi’s and 417 stolen bases and a lifetime batting average of .283 with an on base percentage .355 and slugging percentage .527 in his nine major league seasons.  He has averaged 35 HR’s, 110-rbis, 111 runs and 45 stolen bases per season at the major league level.  In all nine ML seasons he has had a 30/30 season!  Remarkable, durable and consistent!

He is a healthy and durable player with bit higher stamina than most of the offensive players below him in this ranking.  He’s played 162 games in five of his nine major league seasons and has been on the disabled list only once; in season 24 when he strained a hamstring and spent 15-days on the DL.  Except that season 24 he has missed only 19 other games in the other eight seasons.

His ratings suggest that he will crush left-handed pitchers, (he is a switch hitter), and be nearly as troublesome against right handers.  He has very good, but not great power and his batting eye and contact suggest he’s not going to be a consistent above .300 hitter, but likely a .275 to .285 hitter.  He has outstanding speed and above average base-running skill. 

His defensive ratings suggest he could be an average left fielder as it relates to his range and glove, but one who would have better than average arm properties.  Or his defensive ratings suggest he’d be an adequate ranging and catching 1B with strong arm properties.  

In Wisdom’s ML career, he has spent 64% of his time playing 1^st base and 36% of his time playing left field.  In left field he’s had a .992 fielding percentage but has only made one plus defensive play against 14 minus defensive plays with a low range factor of 1.87.  At 1^st base he’s had a fielding percentage of a remarkable .998 with 102 plus plays and zero minus plays!

He has an outstanding make-up.

Wisdom won a Silver Slugger for left fielders twice in his minor league career.  In the major leagues he has won four Silver Slugger awards as a 1^st baseman, made three All-Star teams, won a Gold Glove for 1st basemen in season 21 and won the American League Most Valuable Player award in season 21.

He was signed to a 5-year, $20M per year contract and he is in the 2^nd year of that contract.

 

#6           Renato Calixte                  Houston Bulls – AL South                             26-year old 2^nd Baseman

Renato Calixte is the 5^th Houston player thus far found in my list of the top 25 Best Players in Regular Joes world.

Renato was obtained by Houston from the season 19 International free agent pool.  Houston obtained him when they outbid other franchises by offering a bonus of $16.4M.  That was the 4^th highest bonus any player was offered that came out of the IFA pool that season.  What I am shown of Calixte’s ratings, he has a projected OVR of 100.  He has now played eight pro seasons, so I doubt he has anymore development ahead of him and I see a current OVR of 88.

Signed late in season 19 Calixte only got into 9 games in Rookie ball that season.  In season 19, he played at High A, but only got into 55 games, hitting .346 with 24 HR;s and 22 stolen bases…24 HR’s was setting a pace for 63 HR’s had he played a full season.  I can see no obvious reason why he only got into 55 games that season.

He followed by playing one season in AA and two and a partial seasons in AAA where he hit about a combined .332 with an average of about 39 HR’s, 117-rbi’s and 32 stolen bases per season.  In two seasons, (one at AA and one at AAA) he scored 140 runs or more. 

Incredibly, and without any evidence that he was ever on the disabled list, he never played a full season.  In the three full minor league seasons we are talking about here, he did not play in an average of 22 games per season.  I see that his health rating is lower than most people we’ve discussed thus far in this list, and I also see his stamina similarly lower than most on this list.  This may be his kryptonite!  Is he perhaps showing that he’s at less than 100% healthy quickly in a season?  I’m only guessing, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense if he was rated to be a potential OVR 100 player. 

He’s played two and a partial seasons in the major leagues.  Let’s call it two and one-half seasons.  In that time, he’s hit a combined .311 with 83 HR’s, 271-rbi’s, 273 runs scored and 113 stolen bases. 

He has absolutely phenomenal speed and good base running skills.  In the stolen base detail, he has been successful when stealing 89% of the time at the big league level, and he’s scored as many as 120 runs in a less than fully played major league season of 139 games.

His ratings suggest that he should display very good power and that he should destroy right-handed hitters while holding his own, better than most against lefties.  He has a very high combination of batting eye and contact.  He’s only struck out about once in every nine official major league at bats and has walked once in every seven total at bats.  Having high splits, and that propensity to know the strike zone and make contact, he is going to be on base a lot and be in position to score a lot of runs.

Defensively, at the major league level he’s split his time between 2^nd base, (54%), left field (18% and centerfield, (25%).  The defensive ratings I see, suggest that he is best suited to be a left fielder or maybe a 2^nd baseman, and would be a center fielder with weaknesses.  His defensive stats indicate that he’s been best defensively when playing left field, having a fielding percentage of .991, with six plus plays, no minus plays and a range factor of 2.03 when playing there. 

Even thou Renato’s seasonal playing time in terms of games played has been less than complete, he’s won lots of award hardware….AA Rookie of the Year, All-Star Team and Silver Slugger right fielder.  Then, in AAA he won the MVP Award twice and a Rookie of the Year award, to go with two All-Star team placements, an AAA All-Star game MVP, a Silver Slugger award and a Gold Glove award for right fielders.

In his brief major league career, he’s been a American League All-Star, a Silver Slugger 2^nd baseman and helped his team win a World Series Championship.

He is being paid $378k this season and will enter his 1^st arbitration season next season.

 

5 more to go!  Who are you thinking must be in the top five?  The top five have an average age of 27-years old, so in general, they are not too experienced and in general, their best years might still be ahead of them!