Depending on which source you believe, Minnie Minoso was born on Nov. 29 in 1922 or 1925. Minoso's own website acknowledges the earlier date, adding three years to his previously recognized age. Minoso played three professional seasons in his native Cuba (1943-45) before departing to play for the New York Cubans in the Negro National League. He played three seasons with the Cubans (1946-48), helping the team win the 1947 pennant and starting at third base in the Negro Leagues All-Star Game. After playing two weeks for Dayton at the end of the 1948 season, Minoso broke camp with the Indians in 1949 at age 26 (according to the 1922 birth year) but received just 16 at-bats in limited action in right field. The Indians were coming off a World Series title and simply didn't have room for the Cuban rookie. Hall of Famers Lou Boudreau and Joe Gordon held down the middle infield slots. Minoso's primary position in the Negro Leagues, third base, was occupied by seven-time All-Star Ken Keltner, with future MVP and four-time All-Star Al Rosen already waiting in the wings. The outfield featured another Hall of Famer, Larry Doby, and another All-Star in Dale Mitchell. With no chance for regular at-bats, Cleveland demoted Minoso. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111022&content_id=25749166&vkey=news_cws&c_id=cws
Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Barry Zito will be the team's No. 5 starter next season. "I'm not gonna hide from it," Bochy said. "Barry Zito is our 5th starter next year." We thought the Giants might make him at least compete with Eric Surkamp in spring training, but Zito had to be viewed as the heavy favorite for the gig after Jonathan Sanchez was dealt to the Royals. Although he suffered through an injury-plagued 2011 season, Zito was reliable the previous two years and is a solid, albeit vastly overpaid, back-end starter. http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/mlb/345017/baseball-headlines?r=1
Dorrel Norman Elvert "Whitey" Herzog was born November 9, 1931 in New Athens, Illinois. His pro baseball career began as a prospect for the A.L. New York team in the early 1950’s. Although he never cracked the big league squad, he spent Spring Training with the team and was highly influenced by Casey Stengel. His playing career was brief, playing mostly outfield and some first base. He got traded to the Senators in 1956 & played there two seasons. He moved to the Kansas City A’s, Detroit & Baltimore finishing an eight year career batting .254 lifetime. After his playing days he was a scout & then a coach for the A’s until he was hired by the New York Mets in 1966. http://www.centerfieldmaz.com/2011/11/whitey-herzog-how-he-helped-design-1969.html
Over the past decade, the average K/9 rate for starting pitchers has increased (from 6.2 in 2002 to 6.75 last season), and the averages for BB/9 (3.17 in ’02, 2.85 in ’11) and HR/9 (1.1 in ’02, 0.98 in ’11) have decreased. But in general, we can say that top-shelf starting prospects getting their first extended trial in the majors strike out plenty of batters, show below-average control and serve up homers at around a league average rate. That makes for a slightly better than average starter overall, as the adjusted ERA and FIP numbers attest. To put these numbers in less abstract terms, the average top-25 starting pitching prospect (as ranked by Baseball America) tends to resemble an Edwin Jackson or Chad Billingsley-type during their first season logging more than a handful of starts in the majors. That’s certainly useful, but it might give you pause before you spend a high pick on a young arm, expecting that he’ll be an ace from the get-go. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/how-good-is-that-top-pitching-prospect
The number one draft choice of the New York Mets in 2004, Philip Humber became a key member of the Chicago White Sox rotation in 2011, going 9-9 with a 3.75 ERA. He kindly answered my questions about baseball cards: "My first year in pro ball, 3 of my cards were of me batting and one was an action shot of me practicing bunting. I'm a pitcher ya know!” http://borosny.blogspot.com/2011/11/philip-humber-on-baseball-cards.html
No comments:
Post a Comment