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MLB Baseball Hall Of Fame (Class Of 2017) Voting Poll
Vladdy was an Expo from 1996-2003 and will be elected into the Hall of Fame as An Expo to join Andre Dawson, Gary Carter and potentially Tim Raines next year.
Now that the 2016 Baseball Hall Of Fame Voting has come and gone it is time to turn our attention to the 2017 vote already.
There are 15 remaining names left from the 2016 Vote including: Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, Trevor Hoffman, Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Lee Smith, Jeff Kent, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa and Gary Sheffield.
Out of those 15, Raines and Smith are in the final years of their names being on the ballot.
There are 21 new names that come to the 2017 selection process for the 1st time – headed up by Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez and Ivan Rodriguez. All of these guys have the numbers to be 1st ballot Hall inductees, however Ramirez has been suspended over PED’s and Rodriguez has had whispers mentioned about him. Read the rest of this entry
Atlanta Braves State Of The Union For 2016
Before the recent deal for Shelby Miller the Braves had been questioned on whether the rebuild they are currently going through was going to work. Now all of a sudden, the club going through trading of all veterans – starting with Jason Heyward a year ago, looks so much better. The next year or 2 is still going to be painstakingly to endure, but the organization now has a promising future. Atlanta will enter a new park in Sun Trust Park, located in Cobb County, GA for 2017 after playing one more year at Turner Field in 2016.
Chuck Booth (Owner/Lead Analyst) Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
John Hart knows how to build teams in the Majors. He was at the forefront of the Cleveland Indians in the 1990’s when they signed a bunch of young nucleus players to multi year extensions. It was a trend that worked out for nearly a decade.
A pile of organizations copied this template. I must admit I thought he may have been a bit past his prime when the Braves finally hired him on last year, but he seems to carrying out the mission with Atlanta as well.
Of course taking over for Frank Wren – there was not much to go but up. Dan Uggla, Derek Lowe and B.J. Upton ultimately cost the former GM his job, but it should be noted he did orchestrate 3 decent trades in acquiring Justin Upton, Michael Bourn and Javier Vasquez much earlier.
The Braves did the right thing in dismantling the 2013 to 2014 squad. It would have cost too much money to re-sign Brian McCann and Jason Heyward – and Justin Upton may soon reel in a 9 figure sum.
Atlanta also traded away Craig Kimbrel and Andrelton of late. The haul for Kimbrel was nice, while Simmons was set to make $53 MIL over 5 years. Not huge cash, but for a guy more noted for defense, and with a team rebuilding, losing the dollars owed was a more significant move.
I also can’t emphasize enough how awesome it was to rid themselves of the Melvin Upton JR. contract. Read the rest of this entry
D’Backs Pitching Staff In 2014: The Roster Tree Shows Now Ex – GM Towers Fault(y) On Assembly
Kevin Towers had been at the GM helm since Sept.22, 2010 before having his duties relinquished today. He authored some of the worst trades in club history, and has seen his team pay the price for it the most this year, with a 59 – 81 record, after back to back 81 seasons in 2012 and 2013, and a NL West Title in his 1st year on the job in 2011. Towers traded away Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds, Chris Young, Tyler Skaggs, Adam Eaton, Matt Davidson and Martin Prado – all without much of talent brought back to the fold in return. It was time to go.
How All Of The D’Backs Pitchers Were Acquired:
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
It has not been a banner year for the Arizona Diamondbacks. I don’t need to beleaguer that point out to much to the common fan of the franchise.
What I found most disturbing out of the Roster Tree, is the team’s brass continued reliance and insistence on Relief arms.
But before we divulge into that, the name Dan Haren is still haunting this franchise. (Not Towers fault, but still an important trade historically) Read the rest of this entry
How All Of The White Sox Hitters Were Acquired – 2014 Roster Tree: A Nice Job By The Brass To Revamp The Offense
Paul Konerko announced that the 2014 season will be his last. He has 439 career HR, 1409 RBI, and 6 All Star appearances in his 18 year career. What will most likely not be a HOF career, will certainly go down as one of the best in White Sox history. Konerko was the direct replacement for Frank Thomas. Konerko is only 16 HRs behind the 2014 “Hall Of Fame Inductee” for the White Sox franchise record. While he will not reach that mark, his role may increase now with some DH AB If Dunn is traded later this week. Konerko, now 38, was a 1998 trade acquisition – with OF Mike Cameron going back the other way to Cincinnati. While Cameron was a nice Major Leaguer in his time. Konerko should have his number retired by the club, and is the current active leader for HRs hit for just one team. He will soon hand the reigns of the team over to Jose Abreu and CO.
How All Of The White Sox Hitters Were Acquired:
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
The White Sox have done a fantastic job of reassembling their young offensive core in the last year.
Signing International Free Agent Jose Abreu has expedited the time in which the franchise will have to wait to be competitive again.
Paul Konerko is in his last year in the Majors, and his 17th season with the Pale Hose.
The 38 Year Old is the active leader in HRs with 1 current club (432 Hrs), and has been the foundation for the Southsiders for the time he has donned the uniform. Read the rest of this entry
How All Of The Diamondbacks Hitters Were Acquired (2014 Roster Tree)
How All Of The D’Backs Hitters Were Acquired:
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
The Diamondbacks are having a brutal season at 30 – 44 thus far, and are now under the microscope of Tony La Russa.
This has to be done for good reason. The club’s transaction record recently is highly suspect even though they are being led by veteran GM Kevin Towers.
When covering this Roster Tree (just for the hitters) I have found a disturbing trend of 2 team and 3 way trades that may not be beneficial to the long term success for the snakes.
The 1st one coming to mind is shipping out Trevor Bauer, Bryan Shaw and Matt Albers for a fringe 1B prospect in Lars Anderson, Reliever Tony Sipp and shortstop Didi Gregorius (even though Chris Owings was already in the system). Read the rest of this entry
The Minnesota Twins Add 2 Players + A Third Is Close To Signing And Familiar
Hughes was signed to a 3 YRs/24 Million Dollar Contract by the Twins. The 27 Year Old from Mission Viejo, CA has a career record of 56 – 51, with a 4.54 ERA. But you simply have to dig deeper to find out why he has struggled at points in his career. Hughes finished the 2013 season 4 – 14, with a 5.19 ERA, but a lot of that was due to his clip of 1 – 10, and a 6.39 ERA at Yankee Stadium, compared to a 4 – 5, 3.89 on the road.
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
The Minnesota Twins have decided to join the fight in the AL Central.
Over the course of the last week, they have added two Veteran Starting Pitchers in Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes in respective deals.
It is a sign the organization wants to be perched back up atop of the Division with other teams Detroit, and talented young teams in Kansas City and Cleveland.
With the club awaiting some top prospects, just a few years away, the stop – gap measure of a couple of cagey players is a great idea.
The team is also said to be near another deal with former Catcher A.J. Pierzynksi.
Phil Hughes 2013 Highlights – Mature Lyrics so parental guidance is advised
White Sox 2014 Questions
This season was Flowers first chance at being the every day catcher, and he has also disappointed.Flowers was part of the Javier Vasquez trade to the Atlanta Braves a few years ago, and at the time, was a highly touted prospect. But, he has fought through mediocrity ever since his acquisition. Flowers has since hurt his shoulder, and will miss the rest of the 2013 season.
While the young backstopper continued to struggle this season, the Sox called up catching prospect Josh Phegley from Triple A Charlotte in July. Flowers is Arbitration Eligible in 2015 – and under team control until 2018.
By ‘White Sox Correspondent’ Brian Madsen Follow @brianm731
As a very disappointing 2013 season winds down for the Chicago White Sox, several questions arise heading into 2014. Who will be the starting third baseman?
Who will be the starting catcher? Who will be in center field? Who’s at first base? And, maybe even, who will be the White Sox manager?
Let’s start at third base. Jeff Keppinger was signed during the 2012-2013 offseason with the expectations of being the every day third basemen, and a quality bat in the lineup.
A career .281 hitter, Keppinger has disappointed in 2013. While he’s come around the passed month or so, he’s hitting just .244, well below expectations.
Jeff Keppinger Highlights
The Washington Nationals Franchise 2005-2012: (Part 4 of The Expos/Nats Series)
Friday, July.20/2012
Note from Chuck Booth: I am attempting to bring the history for each of the 30 MLB Franchises into a 5 part series that will focus on 1. The teams history. 2. The hitters 3. The pitchers. 4. The Team’s Payroll going into in 2013 and 5. (The stadium articles will all be done next summer when I go to all of the parks in under a month again.) To follow all of the updates, be sure to check my author page with a list of all archived articles here.
Stephen Strasburg is the new face of the Washington Nationals. Will Bryce Harper and he be able to bring a World Series to Washington?
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)– At the beginning of 2005, MLB returned to Washington for the first time since 1971. So how was this time going to be any different from the first two times in DC? The Minnesota Twins first moved from the old Washington in 1961 and the Texas Rangers moved in 1971 from Washington a decade later. The Washington Nationals (or Senators in the early 20’s where the won a World Series in 1924. The first and only WS the city of Washington has seen) had hall of fame players such as: Goose Goslin, Sam Rice and Joe Cronin to accompany the great Walter Johnston. By the time the team moved to Minnesota before the start of the 1961 season, the club had young phenoms Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison seen as their nucleus of a young Washington team before moving.
Washington’s second go around (in the American League this time) lasted from 1961-1971. The Washington fans were granted an AL Expansion team by MLB-to hold ontotheir anti-trust exemption status. The Los Angeles Angels were their expansion cousins. These AL Washington teams were awful and only were saved by Frank Howard and his 6 foot 7 frame smashing home runs for the years of 1965-1971 as their first baseman/outfielder. The team only managed one winning season in a decade and that was under the managerial guide of Ted Williams. Bob Short had acquired the team with 9.4 Million Dollars that was all borrowed after the previous owner had died in 1967. Short promptly named himself the General Manager. Finances caught up to him and he eventually traded away some of the best talent before selling the club to the city of Arlington after the 1971 season. Washington would be without baseball for 33 years until the Expos moved back into RFK Stadium and changed their name to the Nationals in 2005.
For Part 1 of the Article Series, The Expos Hitters: click here
For Part 2 of the Article Series, The Expos Pitchers: click here
For Part 3 of the Article Series, The Demise of the Montreal Expos: click here
For Part 5 of the Article Series, 2005-2012 Nats Best 25 Man Roster click here
Montreal Expos Drafting Record Part 2: The Pitchers
Wednesday June.27/2012
Note from Chuck Booth: I am attempting to bring the history for each of the 30 MLB Franchises into a 5 part series that will focus on 1. The teams history. 2. The hitters 3. The pitchers. 4. The Team’s Payroll going into in 2013 and 5. (The stadium articles will all be done next summer when I go to all of the parks in under a month again.) To follow all of the updates, be sure to check my author page with a list of all archived articles here.
Drafted in 1985 by the Montreal Expos, Randy Johnson was erratic in his early days. After trading away Mark Langston to acquire the young fireballer, the Mariners worked him into the rotation and he developed into a Hall of Famer.
Chuck Booth (Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- When looking back at some of the pitchers that the Montreal Expos have had in their organization, you don’t have go down the list very far to find Randy Johnson. He is the ‘crown jewel’ of the draft history record for the club. It is unfortunate the ‘The Big Unit’ was traded to the Seattle Mariners with Brian Holman and Gene Harris to the Mariners for rental player Mark Langston and a player to be named later. To be fair to the Montreal Expos, they were in serious contention for the pennant in 1989 and were trying to chase down the Chicago Cubs. Langston was one of the top Left Handed Aces in the Majors and he was available. Johnson was completely wild in the Minor Leagues and the Expos had a lot of veteran pitchers like Dennis Martinez and Bryn Smith that were on the back end of their careers. The time to try and win was now and they could not wait for Johnson to come around. The Expos did not succeed in capturing the pennant and Langston moved onto the California Angels as a free agent while Johnson blossomed into the premier left handed pitcher in his generation. Speaking of Martinez and Smith, they won 100 and 81 games respectively for the club. While they were not drafted by the Expos, they are 2nd and 3rd on the all-time win list.
Along with Smith and Dennis Martinez (who threw a perfect game as an Expo in 1991 and note: Bill Stoneman also threw two no-hitters for the franchise), you have to factor in the career of Pedro Martinez as an Expo for guys that were great pitchers during their prime. Pedro was acquired prior to the 1994 season from the Dodgers in exchange for the Expos departed ALL-Star second baseman Delino DeShields. Martinez went 11-5 in the strike shortened year and formed an impressive 1-2 ace combination with Ken Hill. Pedro went onto a 55-33 record and a 3.06 ERA for his 4 year Expos career. Pedro’s best year with the club was 1997 where he was the NL CY Young with a 17-8 record and a 1.90 ERA. Martinez finished the year with 305 strikeouts and a ridiculous 13 complete games. Pedro ended up signing with the Boston Red Sox before the 1998 season and he ultimately won a World Series with the Beantowners in 2004. In his post game celebration, Martinez mentioned the Expos franchise and their fans. Pedro shared his triumph as a testament to them. It was talent like this that Expos could never afford to resign and would lose outright- or have to trade for prospects based on their economic viability. I will get more into this in Part 3 of the Article Series on Friday.
For Part 1 of the Article Series, The Hitters: click here
For Part 3 of the Article Series, The Demise: click here
For Part 4 of the Article Series, The Washington Nationals Franchise 2005-2012: click here
For Part 5 of the Article Series, The Nats Best 25 Man Roster 2005-2012 click here
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