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9/24/11

Baseball: J.D. Drew, Bull Durham, VORP, Danny Litwhiler, Denny McClain


(J.D.) Drew was also a first round draft pick – twice, technically – and made his MLB debut for the Cardinals just a few weeks after the 1998 Draft. He would immediately take over the bulk of the playing time in right field the following season and would occupy the position for the team until they traded him to the Braves following the 2004 season. Following a season in Atlanta and two in Los Angeles Drew would reach free agency, upon which he signed a five year contract to play for the Boston Red Sox. From 2007 through this season he had 2,364 plate appearances over 602 games, an average of 473 PA and 120 G per season. - http://baseballreflections.com/2011/09/23/settling-the-nixon-vs-drew-debate/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=settling-the-nixon-vs-drew-debate

[My favorite baseball movie is] "Bull Durham," because it is gritty, real, and smart about the subculture that only baseball professionals know. Not to mention that it is funny, as is "Major League," which stands up to repeated watching. Not funny but also with much to recommend them are "The Natural" (better than Malamud's dreary novel) and "Field of Dreams," a three-hankie weeperoo for guys. Baseball movies are hard to get right, as are baseball novels, as are novels or films about the worlds of film or theater. The writer or filmmaker tackling baseball always starts off at one remove from reality, and is always playing catch-up. Baseball is not about baseball, at least not entirely, even if you’re playing it. It is about past glories, power transference, surrogated combat and unconscious contests of generation and gender. Some of this is acknowledged in "Bull Durham," along with the humor and the realism, which makes it, for me, the gold standard. - http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/09/23/baseball_movies

VORP – “Value Over Replacement Player”. This statistic measures the total number of runs a player contributes to their team compared with a “replacement level” player at the same position. This can be a good point of reference in determining a player’s value to his team and thus see which players can be expected to get the lion’s share of playing time at a position. For hitters, the ‘counting stats’ of fantasy baseball (Runs, Home Runs, RBI, SB) are directly related to playing time. For pitchers, VORP is determined as a measure of how many runs that pitcher has prevented being scored against his team (in comparison to a replacement level pitcher). In either case, a player’s value to his team is the key measurable involved and can be useful in determining which players are more valuable than others on draft day or at the trade table. - http://baseballreflections.com/2011/07/28/sabermetrics-101-gaining-the-fantasy-baseball-edge/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sabermetrics-101-gaining-the-fantasy-baseball-edge

Danny Litwhiler, former Michigan State baseball coach, major league All-Star, author and a innovator who introduced the first prototype radar speed gun to measure pitch speeds, died today in Clearwater, Fla., Michigan State sports information announced. Litwhiler, who was 95, coached Michigan State for 19 seasons, compiling 488 wins, two Big Ten titles and two appearances in NCAA tournament play. He also coached college baseball at Florida State and had a career record of 678-445-9. He was inducted into the American Association of College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1980. - link

Former Detroit Tigers pitching great Denny McLain was arrested Thursday on a fugitive warrant as he was on his way to eat breakfast over allegations he bilked Louisiana residents in a scrap metal scheme. St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Capt. Pat Yoes said an arrest warrant was issued Aug. 26 for receiving and concealing stolen property, more than $1,500. McLain and his company, American KIE Steel and Commodities, are accused of defrauding two landowners over a scrap metal sale. They say company officials agreed to pay them after the metal was weighed, but didn't. An arrest warrant was issued by the St. Charles Parish district attorney after "repeated conversations with Mr. McLain" failed to reach a resolution, Yoes said From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110923/METRO/109230428/Tigers-great-Denny-McLain-arrested--calls-scrap-metal-warrant-‘giant-mistake’#ixzz1YpxOJ7nj

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