Bullets
No, basketball fans, this column isn't about Walt Bellamy, Gus Johnson, Earl the Pearl Monroe, Wes Unseld, or Elvin Hayes. It's simply a hodge podge of ideas separated by small, bold, round symbols. How did the writers do? Well, how about if we take a look at eight key pitching stats in the AL: ERA ERA+ H/IP WHIP SO K/9 K/BB HR/9 Colon 3.48 120 0.96 1.16 157 6.35 3.65 1.05 Santana 2.88 153 0.77 0.97 238 9.25 5.29 0.85 What am I missing here? Ohhhhhhh. Wins. Dummy me. Colon, 21. Santana, 16. Man, how could I have missed that? Now I understand why the writers gave (and I mean gave) the award to Colon. Sheesh, I thought the honor was supposed to go to the "best pitcher." If it's designed to go to the pitcher with the most wins, why jerk everyone around and vote? I realize that the pitcher with the most wins (Dontrelle Willis, 22) didn't win the CYA in the NL. That's because the winner was close enough (21) for BBWAA work while fashioning a much better W-L % (.808 vs. .688), the other team-dependent criterion that gets way too much attention. Although Clemens got aced out of the award this year, he beat out Randy Johnson in 2005 for the same reasons. He won more games (18 to 16) and had a much better W-L % (.818 vs. .533) than the Big Unit, yet the latter had superior K-BB stats, such as K/9 (10.62 to 9.15), K/BB (6.59 to 2.76), similar HR/9 (0.66 to 0.63), and a lower ERA (2.60 to 2.98) and ERA+ (171 to 145). Carpenter was a much better selection than Colon. But guess what? Bartolo won by a substantially wider margin than the St. Louis right-hander. Don't pay attention to me though. My choices finished third in both leagues. Five writers didn't even see fit to include Santana on their ballots and one voter thought Chad Cordero was more deserving than Clemens. I'm serious. The writer in question must have thought that ol' Roger didn't have enough victories or a good-enough winning percentage for his tastes so he chose the relief pitcher who went 2-4 with a .333 W-L % while recording 411 fewer outs than the man who led MLB with a 1.87 ERA. Hmmm. Didn't Paul DePodesta trade for Bradley? Gosh, maybe the former GM did have a "keen eye for talent," despite Frank McCourt's claims to the contrary. Didn't Bradley cause chemistry problems? Or was that Jeff Kent (.289/.377/.512), the All-Star second baseman who DePo forced upon his poor manager? Besides, I thought Tracy liked to keep his teams intact? If that is the case, it seems to me the Pirates would be better off fielding a lineup of Humberto Cota, Daryle Ward, Jose Castillo, Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, Jason Bay, Tike Redman, and Craig Wilson, don't ya think? Speaking of Ward, I wonder how he is feeling these days? He played for Tracy in 2003 and hit .183/.211/.193 with 3 BB, 19 SO, 1 XBH, and 0 HR in 52 games and 109 AB. D'oh! Let's see how Sammy has been doing of late. Anyone notice a trend? YEAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS+ 2001 160 577 146 189 34 5 64 160 116 153 .328 .437 .737 201 2002 150 556 122 160 19 2 49 108 103 144 .288 .399 .594 160 2003 137 517 99 144 22 0 40 103 62 143 .279 .358 .553 135 2004 126 478 69 121 21 0 35 80 56 133 .253 .332 .517 110 2005 102 380 39 84 15 1 14 45 39 84 .221 .295 .376 82 Yeah, me neither (cough, cough). The number of games, at-bats, runs, hits, home runs, RBI, walks, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging average, and OPS+ have declined for four years in a row. Sosa went from superstar to great to good to average to poor or from the proverbial penthouse to the outhouse in four years. You know, Sosa's trend kinda looks like Westley Sissel Unseld's coaching record. YEAR W-L WPct 1988 30-25 .545 1989 40-42 .488 1990 31-51 .378 1991 30-52 .366 1992 25-57 .305 1993 22-60 .268 1994 24-58 .293 Just think, if Sosa can bounce back in 2006 the way Wes turned things around in 1994. . . Quiz: The franchise that is now known as the Washington Wizards was previously the Baltimore Bullets (1964-73) and the Washington Bullets (1975-97). What was the full name of the team in 1974? |
Comments
Here's what I had to say about Sosa at the end of January. Turns out I was being optimistic.
Posted by: John at November 12, 2005 2:56 PM
Wasn't it the Capital Bullets?
Posted by: Jon Helfgott at November 12, 2005 3:17 PM
Capital Bullets it was...1st place and a shout out to UC Bear Phil Chenier.
Posted by: Brian Erts at November 12, 2005 3:58 PM
I think it was actually the Capitol Bullets.
Posted by: Dr. Memory at November 12, 2005 4:44 PM
You would expect that if a team was in Washington, D.C. (actually Landover), it would be the Capitol Bullets. But the name was, in fact, the Capital Bullets. Here is an image of the team's logo. This logo can also be found on the website of The Logo Museum courtesy of The Freeman Institute in Severn, Maryland.
There is definitely a lot of confusion over this issue. Basketball cards from the 1970s apparently used "Capitol," the throwback jerseys sold today say "Capital," yet the names are used interchangeably on the NBA's official site, including "Capitol" Bullets under Franchise History and "Capital" Bullets in the historical section down below on the Washington Wizards home page.
Hey, what would you expect from a city whose hockey team is known as the "Washington Capitals?"
Posted by: Rich Lederer at November 12, 2005 5:49 PM
That's the LAST time I believe Topps on anything.
Posted by: Dr. Memory at November 12, 2005 9:34 PM
Since the Captial Bullets played in the Capital Centre, the name makes a lot of sense to me.
The Washington Post ALWAYS used "Capital".
Posted by: Bob Timmermann at November 13, 2005 3:32 PM
rather than continued complaining about what have become meaningless "sportswriters choice awards", I think the question, "Is Johan Santana the best pitcher in the game today?" is much more interesting and relevant.
Posted by: sanchez101 at November 13, 2005 3:50 PM
Speaking of Ward, I wonder how he is feeling these days?
I doubt Ward cares what Jim Tracy thinks. It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that Ward will not play for the Pirates next year, and it has been for a couple months.
Posted by: Charlie at November 13, 2005 5:39 PM
Yes, Johan Santana is the best pitcher in the game today. He would be even more dominant in the NL.
Posted by: Rich Lederer at November 13, 2005 6:05 PM
About those Capital/Capitol Bullets...
What's not mentioned is why they changed their name in the first place. There was a controversy about a sports team using a name synonymous with death and violence, so the name was changed from the Washington Bullets to the Capital Bullets.
Posted by: Fugate at November 15, 2005 11:50 AM
Rich, more newspapers are not allowing their
"baseball writers" to vote on awards. I saw
a quote from one of the AL Cy Young voters in the
NY Times that should've merited his removal from
voting. Currently, there aren't enough voters in
each market to cover the awards. This year, an
Atlanta area vote had to be farmed out to a Phil-
adelphia based internet writer. Even the president
of the BBWAA, Peter Schmuck, works for a paper that
doesn't allow him to vote (Baltimore Sun). The insiders won't want to give up their power and glory, but this system is clearly broken and
severely lacking in supervision. Do you have any
ideas on how I might expedite the publication of
all voters' names and their votes? This would
start the ball rolling to an overhaul of the
system. Thanks.
Posted by: susan mullen at November 21, 2005 2:13 PM