Coming into this season, Yuniesky Betancourt was a career .266/.290/.392 hitter whose approach to the plate was aggressive and his a attitudes towards defense lackadaisical. He never once had a year with an above league average OPS+.
But baseball is strange and this year, as Betancourt has played every infield position and left field, he’s hitting .266/.293 (well, that’s to be expected), but with an absurd .523 slugging percentage. 18.6% of his flyballs are leaving the park, putting him in the same camp as Ryan Howard.
But it does make for an interesting discussion: I do like random statistical blips, especially for utility infielders, and I do enjoy chaos, so perhaps we all should vote Yuniesky Betancourt to the All-Star game and see what kind of mess that makes. At the same time, the closest Yuniesky has been to an All-Star is that one time he went bowled a 117 with the bumpers on at All-Star Lanes in Eagle Rock, California.
Then again, considering that people vote for their President based on whether they’d like to have a beer with him or not, why the hell not vote Yuni in?
(image via @Brewers)
While we’ve all been fawning over the Baseball Hall of Fame’s new scouting database (for good reason), Grant Brisbee has gone and uncovered five lost scouting reports, each of them amazing.
Seriously, go check it out. There’s a reason why in the future the internet is called the World Wide Brisbee.
Fernando Tatis is An Artist
While you may remember Fernando Tatis as the player who hit two grand slams in the same inning off of Chan Ho Park, chances are he’ll be remembered for generations to come as the king of post-modern digital art. After discovering the program MS Paint, Tatis has taken to the form quickly, becoming a regular Pablo J. Picasso.
And I must warn you. While I often will create fictional pieces in order to make a lame joke, I promise that every picture posted below comes from Tatis’ Twitter account.
Just look at some of these:
“RBI”
“Zoo With Lots of Animals Living In It”
Oh yeah, and if you were curious, Tatis pointed out that he has no formal art training. But just look at his use of color, point, the fluid brush strokes. He’s a prodigy and I, for one, can’t wait for his gallery show at The Whitney.
Check out Tatis on Twitter for more @FernandoTatis17
(via InsideStl.com)
After Release From Astros, Rick Ankiel’s Career is Probably Over
One day I’ll enjoy telling my grandchildren about Rick Ankiel. Provided that society hasn’t crumbled, the sun hasn’t exploded, and human beings are still the dominant creatures on earth. (Today, while thinking about “financial planning” I realized that most of my thoughts kept coming back to ‘what are the chances that we’re not in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in twenty years? I then went and ate an ice cream sandwich.)
But Ankiel is a special case. The story has been told a few times. A pitcher comes up, has some success, loses his nerve and ability to find the strike zone and fizzles out. Only Ankiel wasn’t some scrub hanging around the back of the bullpen. He was a 20 year-old who went 11-7 with a 3.50 ERA and who struck out 10 batters per nine innings. And this was back in the day when strikeout numbers like that were truly meaningful—Ankiel finished fourth that year in strikeouts per nine behind pitchers like Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and Bartolo Colon. One of those guys is even still pitching. And while Ankiel didn’t have great command, walking 4.6 batters per nine, there were no apparent signs that everything was about to fall apart for him.
But they did. Things went crazy in a hurry, with Ankiel walking six batters in 2.2 postseason innings. While other pitchers had flamed out before (see Blass, Steve; Wohlers, Mark), no one had done so on such a big stage and have it happen so completely. It was almost as if Ankiel’s broken arm was popped back into place and he had to rely on lobs to get outs like the end of Rookie of the Year.
For four more years, when Ankiel should have been in the prime of his career, he tried to pitch, walking 26 batters in 34 Major League innings, while also posting an absurd 8.1 BB/9 while with AA Tennessee in 2003. For anyone who thinks that throwing strikes is easy, that just getting the ball somewhere over the plate isn’t all that difficult, Rick Ankiel is proof of its difficulty.
But the thing about baseball, the thing that makes it such an easy and apt metaphor for life, is that it’s entirely predicated on how you respond to failure. Every day there is a new game, whether you’re ready for it or not. If you let it beat you down and crush you, it will. But if you have the mental fortitude, if you can smooth out those peaks and valleys, you can make something of yourself, just the way we tell kindergartners that they can one day become President. And so Ankiel, after being the number-rated prospect in baseball and having never had more than 113 at-bats in a season as a professional, headed to the outfield. He hit 21 home runs in the minors in 2005. But, just when people thought maybe he could make a resurgence, he lost the next year to a knee injury. Surely that would finish him off. Surely this would be the last we heard of Ankiel.
But he came back and hit 32 home runs for Memphis in 2007 before getting his call-up and hitting 11 more for the Cardinals as a 27-year-old. Let’s review: a pitcher for his entire career, in only his second full year as a position player, hit 43 home runs in a season and reached the Major Leagues. If Disney wants to make a movie, it can fade out there.
Ankiel then hit 25 the next season. And though his success has been limited since then, pitchers adapting to Ankiel’s limited plate discipline, forcing him into an utility outfielder role with a little bit of pop, his story is still one of unmitigated success. No longer just another pitcher to come down with the dreaded Steve Blass disease, Ankiel was proof that while there may be no second acts in American life, there are occasional ones in baseball
While some team may decide to pick up Ankiel and stash him in AAA, it’s likely his Major League days are over. If the Astros, with the Majors worst record in the game, can’t find a use for Ankiel on their roster, it’s unlikely anyone else can. And while his 5 home runs this season are nice, there aren’t many teams that can carry a player who strikes out in more than half of his at-bats (35 K in 62 AB). Who knows, maybe if he was developed as a hitter from day one, he would have learned to lay off more pitches, draw more walks, make more contact. Then again, maybe not. Hell, we’ve seen his throws from the outfield over the years, maybe he’ll head back down, hop back on the mound, and pick up where he left off as that 20-year-old with a mid-3’s ERA, extending his career by saving his arm from the thousands of pitches he would have already put on it. Probably not, though.
Life is hard and will only end up destroying you. But Ankiel’s already proven that he can gain the upper hand, at least for a little while. And that in itself is remarkable.
Among softball scholars, the matchup between the Harlem Nights club, featuring Redd Foxx, Eddie Murphy, and Richard Pryor, and the Ghost Dad team lead by Sydney Poitier and Bill Cosby, is usually reserved for hushed tones of reverence.
Because this is the day softball history was made. Eddie Murphy slashed his way to a triple short of the cycle, driving in five. Redd Foxx made three diving catches to save runs, and Richard Pryor hit two doubles and twirled six excellent innings.
However, with Harlem Nights winning 11-9 in the game’s final innings, Cosby soft-shoed his way to the plate before cranking a double. Sydney Poitier singled down the line, pushing runners to the corners. And then, in a double switch, a Cosby’s ghostly soul came to the plate with nothing in the rule book saying clones or essences of players were barred from entering as substitutions.
Ghost Cosby squeezed the bat, the aluminum flaking off of it from his eternal strength. He took the first pitch, low, then the second, outside, and on the third, a high, towering lob with plenty of arc, he swung, sending it high and deep into the trees to win the game. Ghost Cosby disappeared as he rounded third, but the umpires still gave team Ghost Dad the win. For how could they not? The other realms had spoken, Ghost Dad would emerge victorious.
And yeah, I am hiring an artist to make a Ghost Dad baseball tee as we speak.
(image by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, via Buzzfeed, h/t @sundownmotel)
I always knew this was possible.
(From Pep Comics #7. And be sure to read Baseball Continuum’s entire look at the issue for even more baseball stuff within.)
Matt Kemp after giving Joshua Jones, stricken with terminal cancer, his shoes and jersey.
Read the article and watch the video if you’re prepared to start your morning with a good, long cry.
May 8, 2013
Louisville, Kentucky
Photo by @yoshiki89
The Next Commissioner
Earlier today at ESPN.com, Jayson Stark posted an article about Bud Selig’s inevitable retirement and the resulting vacancy in Major League Baseball’s commissioner’s chair (h/t Hardball Talk).
While Selig has talked of walking away before, sources say that he’ll most likely retire after the 2013 season. Who can blame him, at 78?
Stark offers a few potential names for consideration but also asks„ about figuring out just who has the best shot at replacing Bud: “You really think anyone knows the answer to that question?”
We might not be able to have a grasp on just who will replace Bud at the helm of MLB, we have some idea of the process by which the new commissioner will be chosen.
Bud Selig Stays Commissioner Forever: I can’t be the only one thinking this, right? Bud just seems like the type of man who is actually an immortal being that loves baseball but can be a bit particular about how it’s played. What better way to live out immortality than be immersing yourself in the most perfect sport in the world?
Bud Walks Away, Activates his Android Clone: After the 1994 - 1995 Baseball Strike, Selig had his essence and intelligence uploaded to a highly advanced humanoid robot. The reason being that two Seligs would be able to help avert and/or solve a strike faster than one. There’s no reason to think that this hasn’t happened and that it wouldn’t be possible for Selig to activate the android to take his place.
(Cliff Lee is an example of a highly advanced baseball robot; image via)
Everyone Just Decided on Ken Griffey Jr: Ken Griffey Jr. slugged 630 home runs and snagged ten Gold Glove awards on his way to becoming an all-time great and the center of a seminal Nintendo 64 video game. So, why not? I mean, what’s one good argument against voting Griffey to be MLB’s next commissioner?
(Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Kr; image via)
Game of Thrones-style Kingsmoot: Another option is to vote a new commissioner as they elect a king in the Iron Islands of Westeros. Any individual can nominate himself, and at a large gathering at MLB’s castle in the Alps, these individuals rally their supporters and present the plunder of their battles as proof of their legitimacy.
Dan Glickman, who runs the very funny and always intriguing Baseball Continuum blog, is celebrating his site’s very first anniversary today. He asked me to contribute and, because it’s what I give everyone as anniversary presents, I wrote about boob mugs, Yankees diapers, and Spuds Mackenzie posters.
It’s everything you’ve ever wanted to read and more, I know. Click through to check it out.
Daily news, recaps, and ridiculous pictures from across the baseball world. Extra focus on stirrup socks, squeeze bunts, mustaches and old baseball cards. In other words, your exact interests.
Questions and comments? Email me: oldtimefamilybaseball@gmail.com
