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NY Yankees Player Milestones In 2016: A-Rod, Teixeira, Beltran + CC

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Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer/Part Owner) 

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There is no doubt about it that the Yankees are old.  However, they have some guys who are chasing down some historical numbers this season in Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran.

A-Rod is chasing down Babe Ruth next on the ALL – Time HR list with just trailing him 714 – 686.  If he can crack 28 jacks, he will tie the “Sultan of Swat” and with 29 he will surpass him.

If #13 manages just 23 HRs, he would become the ALL – Time American League HR champ, as Babe Ruth hit 708 of his 714 big fly’s in the Junior Circuit, before tallying 6 more with the Boston Braves.

Rodriguez is also chasing down many other categories like Hits, Runs, RBI, GP, XBH and Strikeouts.  Of course he already holds the record for Career Grandslams with 24.

If he can somehow reach the 30 HR barrier, it will be his 16th year of that many, and break a tie with Aaron for that honor.

A-Rod is just 60 Runs Scored behind Willie Mays. Read the rest of this entry

Is Masahiro Tanaka The Next Young International Superstar Pitcher?

Mashahiro Tanaka was 24 - 0, with a 1.27 ERA in with his team in the NPBL last year.  He has followed countrymen Yu Darvish, Hiroki Kuroda and of course the 1st man from Japan, Hideo Nomo as superstars to take their talents to North America.

Mashahiro Tanaka was 24 – 0, with a 1.27 ERA in with his team in the NPBL last year. He has followed countrymen Yu Darvish, Hiroki Kuroda and of course the 1st man from Japan, Hideo Nomo as superstars to take their talents to North America.  Tanaka has pitched with the whole world watching him, as part of the 2013 WBC team for Japan.  He will be counted on at the top of the New York Yankees rotation for years to come.  Fans in New York can only pray this guy is much more like the guys aforementioned in this caption – rather than former Yankees Starting Pitcher Kei Igawa, who never panned out in his time with New York.

By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner):

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Today we are talking about young International Phenom pitchers.  I picked 5 former and current pitchers that hailed from other places other than the USA to concentrate the story on. 

I came up with Fernando Valenzuela from Mexico, Hideo Nomo and Yu Darvish from Japan, Eric Gagne from Canada and Juan Marichal from the Dominican Republic. 

The 5 baseball players all flashed onto the scene as young pitchers, 3 of them dominating their peers from the get go. 

Eric Gagne, the 5th member of this study, only started to dominate when the Los Angeles Dodgers sent him to the bullpen.  

Speaking of the Los Angeles Dodgers, three of these five pitchers were both with the club when they started out.  It is a credit to their scouting staff. 

There is a reason why no other team has turned out more ‘Rookie of the Year’ players in the last 30 years than the Dodgers.

Hideo Nomo’s No – Hitter Game

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The Top 10 Active MLB Pitchers In Win Percentage

Jered Weaver is the ace of the staff for the Angels, but has had issues avoiding the disabled last year. When healthy, Weaver is one of the best pitchers in the AL. He was 11 - 8 last year for the Halos, while sporting a 3.277 ERA in 154.1 innings pitched.  In 2012, he fared much better putting up an AL Leading 20 wins against just 5 losses for an .800 Win PCTG.  Despite just a .579 mark in 2013, he took the reigns of Active Win PCTG once Ropy Halladay hung up his cleats for good.  Weaver is 113 - 60 (.6531%) for his 8 year career so far, with a 3.24 ERA.

Jered Weaver is the ace of the staff for the Angels, but has had issues avoiding the disabled last year. When healthy, Weaver is one of the best pitchers in the AL. He was 11 – 8 last year for the Halos, while sporting a 3.277 ERA in 154.1 innings pitched. In 2012, he fared much better putting up an AL Leading 20 wins against just 5 losses for an .800 Win PCTG. Despite just a .579 mark in 2013, he took the reigns of Active Win PCTG once Ropy Halladay hung up his cleats for good. Weaver is 113 – 60 (.6531%) for his 8 year career so far, with a 3.24 ERA.    Weaver is signed for the next 3 years, and will collect $54 MIL for his efforts – including a full no-trade clause from the Angels.

Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer): 

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I think people might be a little surprised to see that Jered Weaver was atop on this list.  Last year, Roy Halladay held the mark, but as soon as he retired, it immediately fell to Weaver.

With Andy Pettitte also taking off of his cleats for the last time, we see 2013 AL Cy Young Winner Max Scherzer also enter the top 10 list with his .6186 Win Percentage.

Just on the outside looking in is Cliff Lee at 11th (.6178) and another guy who you might not expect is Yovani Gallardo at (.6045).

If Roy Oswalt were to sign with a team – instead of possibly retiring, I will re-insert him into the list.

Roy Halladay Retirement Press Conference

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An American Hobby: Baseball Memorabilia – Warren Spahn’s Card (1948 Leaf Set)

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Sunday, May.05, 2013

Warren Spahn collected 363 wins during his Hall of Fame Career. After the age of 30 her trails only #1 Phil Niekro (297 wins) with 273 wins) all time in the MLB history.  Jamie Moyer is 3rd with 235 victories after his 30th Birthday  Spahn had a better  Win Percentage.(594) compared to  Niekro’s .540.  Incredibly, Jamie Moyer leads these three in the category of Win Percentage after 30 - with a .602 Mark.

Warren Spahn collected 363 wins during his Hall of Fame Career. After the age of 30, he trails only #1 Phil Niekro (297 wins) with 273 wins ALL – Time in the MLB history. Jamie Moyer is 3rd with 235 victories after his 30th Birthday. Spahn had a better Win Percentage.(594) compared to Niekro’s .540. Incredibly though, Jamie Moyer leads these three in the category of Win Percentage after 30 – with a .602 Mark.  Warren Spahn has the most wins ever by a Left Handed Pitcher in the history of the game – and the 6th most ALL – Time.

By Lee Edelstein (‘Baseball Memorabilia Enthusiast’ – visit his website here)

MLB Reports:  We are pleased to present you with Baseball Author Lee Edelstein as the newest writer with us at the Reports.  Lee will be providing us with great stories about baseball memorabilia on a regular basis.

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An American Hobby

Blog 10

Warren Spahn

This week’s article is about a member of the 300 Win Club.

Warren Spahn is one of the greatest pitchers of all time, but he didn’t win his first major league game until he was twenty-five.  So how did he become the winningest left-handed pitcher in MLB history? 

In a word, consistency.  Among his many achievements, Spahnie had thirteen 20+ win seasons, including a run of six consecutive years. 

Imagine if he didn’t lose four years to WWII (where he saw active duty and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star)?

Warren Spahn’s Career Highlights:

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An American Hobby: Baseball Memorabilia – ‘Kid Nichols’ Card From Mayo’s 1895 N300 Collection

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Saturday, March.30, 2013

Kid Nichols was 361 - 208 (.634) for his Career with a 2.96 Lifetime ERA.  From 1896 - 1898 he led the NL in wins each year - amassing a n incredible 92 - 37 (.713) Record in that time frame.  He is one of 13th players to throw in over 5000+ IP (5067.IP and good for 11th ALL - Time.

Kid Nichols was 361 – 208 (.634) for his Career -with a 2.96 Lifetime ERA. From 1896 – 1898 he led the NL in wins each year – amassing an incredible 92 – 37 (.713) Record in that time frame with the Boston Beaneaters. He is one of 13th players to throw in over 5000+ IP (5067.IP and good for 11th ALL – Time.  Incredibly he spent time growing up playing baseball in Surrey, B.C. Canada, which is where our Website Owner Chuck Booth played.

By Lee Edelstein (‘Baseball Memorabilia Enthusiast’ – visit his website here)

MLB Reports:  We are pleased to present you with Baseball Author Lee Edelstein as the newest writer with us at the Reports.  Lee will be providing us with great stories about baseball memorabilia on a regular basis.

MLB Reports

An American Hobby

Blog 7

Kid Nichols

Charles Augustus “Kid” Nichols was born four years after the end of the Civil War.  He would live long enough to see himself inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949.

His journey to Cooperstown began in 1890 when he debuted for the Boston Beaneaters.  He had quite a rookie season, winning 27 games, putting up an ERA of 2.23, and leading his league with 7 shutouts.  But Kid Nichols was just warming up. 

In 1891 he won 30 games, the first of seven seasons when he would reach the 30-win plateau.  In 1892, Nichols won 35 regular season games plus two more in the Championship Series where they vanquished the Cleveland Spiders and their top pitcher, a guy named Cy Young.

Youtube Tribute Page to 300 Game Winners – Many of the them featured:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j99r1TcnBrU&list=FLt4R0b8rfq11zVEjnHUcJsQ%5D

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Part 1 of a Series: All-Time All-Star Teams By Regionality

 

Friday November 23th, 2012

Note from Alex Mednick:  I am going to be putting together a small project that accumulates all the best players of all time, and puts them together on teams according to their birthplace.  For example, in this first edition I will be breaking down players from the United States of America into teams from the 1) Northeast, 2) Southeast, 3) Midwest, and 4) Southwest…(sorry, there really is not enough quality coming out of the northwest to compete with these teams…maybe I will put a Northwestern United States team in a later edition with less competitive teams).  Later on I will bring you teams assembled from the all-time greats out Central and South American (Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Panama Canal Zone, etc.) and the All-Caribbean Team (Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Curacao, etc).  Also look forward to teams from Japan, Canada and the EU.  Should be fun to sort of assemble an “Olympics” of Baseball.  I love watching the World Baseball Classic and seeing players fight for their nations pride…but by grouping the teams by region, it might make the teams more competitive.  Of course, this is all for the sake of speculation; Babe Ruth was a great player, but I don’t think he will be taking any at-bat’s soon. (Also, please note that I do not lend consideration to relief pitchers in this analysis). Read the rest of this entry

A Tribute to Jamie Moyer: Life Begins After 30

Saturday December 10, 2011


Doug Booth-  Guest Baseball Writer:  In May of 1993, Jamie Moyer had spent the previous year entirely in the Minor Leagues with the Detroit Tigers and wondered if his signing with Baltimore Orioles in the offseason was a mistake.  At that point in his career Moyer had posted a career won-loss record of 34-54 (.405) with the Cubs, Rangers and Cardinals.  He was a soft-tossing Left Handed Pitcher who struggled with giving up home runs.  Jamie was called up May.30/1993 by the O’s and began to pitch himself into respectability the next 3 seasons with Baltimore-achieving a 25-22 record.  Baltimore was a contending team in the American League and thought Moyer was not going to help them with a championship bid the following year so they released him after the 1995 season.  Boston signed him for the 1996 season.  Moyer started out in the bullpen 7-1 that year and was later traded to the Mariners for Darren Bragg.  It would be a trade that would give Jamie a new lease on life.

  The Seattle Mariners were a powerhouse team back then with the likes of Ken Griffey Jr, Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner and a young phenom SS in Alex Rodriguez.  The team had plenty of offense and just enough defense to help Moyer go 6-2 the rest of the 1996 season-to help his record to 13-3 overall that year which led the Major Leagues for winning percentage (.813).  Moyer was a perfect complimentary pitcher to Randy Johnson went it came to style contrast.  Johnson threw in the mid-nineties and buttered up the opposition-and Moyer was the perfect change of pace with crafty off-speed tossing.  In 1997, Jamie Moyer went 17-5 with a respectable 3.86 ERA, that was not bad considering the Mariners played at an offence friendly Kingdome for half of the time.  The next three years Jamie still went 42-27, but his ERA had crept up to 5.49 in 2000, which was more than a run and a half higher during his Mariners career.  Jamie Moyer had still proved his critics wrong with his career renaissance.  He was turning 38 in that offseason.  The Mariners had moved into Safeco Field despite losing star players of Ken Griffey, Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez in consecutive years.  The team looked to be in transition.  Jamie still wanted to pitch and began training harder than ever.

  The 2001 season was historical for the Mariners from start to finish.  Playing in front of capacity crowds at Safeco Field the Mariners played inspired baseball.  Right in the middle of the team’s incredible year was Rookie of the Year and MVP Ichiro Suzuki.   His injection of youth and helped the Mariners finish the season with a record tying 116 wins.  In those wins, Jamie finished the year 20-6.  It was Jamie’s first 20 win season.  Jamie lowered his ERA all the way down to 3.43 that year-which was one of his best ERA’s of his career.  The Mariners lost out in the ALCS to the Yankees but Jamie Moyer had pitched the best year of his career.  Jamie finished 4th in Cy Young voting.  Despite lowering his ERA to a career best 3.32 at that time, Jamie finished 14-8 in 2002.  In 2003, and at the incredible age of 40, Jamie went 21-7 with a career single season best 3.27 ERA.  Jamie was named to his only ALL-STAR appearance and finished in the top five of Cy Young voting once again.

  In 2004, the Mariners had replaced Lou Piniella and had begun the downward spiral to the bottom of the AL WEST. Jamie was a gamer but sported a 7-13 record with an ERA of over 5 again.   It looked like he was hanging on to his career by a thread again.  Not even the comforts of Safeco Field were providing enough shelter for his game.  Jamie had given up 44 home runs in 2004 which had led the American League.  The team was not competitive in 2005 but Jamie bounced back with a 13-7 record and a 4.28 ERA.  Jamie had worked several games with Catcher Pat Borders (1992 World Series MVP.)  Each time the two 42 year olds would be the pitcher catcher tandem they set a record for the oldest pair.  This exact tandem was the pitcher and catcher when I attended my first game in the United States at Safeco Field in June of 2005.  In 2006, Jamie started the year 6-12 despite pitching well, (His ERA was back down to 4.39,) that is when the Philadelphia Phillies picked him up for the playoffs that year.  Jamie left the Mariners as the franchise’s all-time winner at 145-87 (.625)

  Over the next five years, Jamie continued to amaze the doubters by posting a 56-40 record (.583).  At the age of 45, Jamie Moyer played the most pivotal of roles-with series saving performances in the 2008 playoffs en-route to the Phillies winning the World Series.  It was a culmination of a career for the man.  Jamie pitched okay in 2009, and saved some of his better performances for later in the season coming out of the bullpen-before suffering some torn muscles in his left arm that ended his season.  2010 saw Jamie post a respectable record of 9-9 before he was injured for the rest of the year just after the All-Star Break.  Jamie tried to pitch in the Dominican Winter Leagues that fall but he tore up some more pitching muscles.  Jamie Moyer needed Tommy John surgery at the age of 48.  Jamie still plans on making a comeback in 2012 at the age of 49.  Even if he doesn’t catch on with a team-his longevity and record is quite remarkable.

Jamie Moyer Key Stats

Started his career 34-54 before age 30 (.405) and then went 233-150 for the remainder of his career for a .608 winning percentage.  His career record is currently 267-204 is still at a .567 winning percentage.  His 233 wins after the age of 30 trail only #1 Phil Niekro (297 wins) and #2 Warren Spahn (273 wins) all time in MLB history but Jamie had a better winning percentage than both of them after age 30 at .608-to Spahn’s .594 and Niekro’s .540.  Jamie was one of the top 2 winning pitchers from 2001-2010 decade with a record of 140-94 (.594), only Randy Johnson with 143 wins in the decade had more…rounding out that top 5 were: Roy Halladay with 139. Andy Pettitte had 138, Roy Oswalt and Tim Hudson had 138.  Jamie also compiled a record of 103-70 (.595) after the age of 40.  Jamie Moyer has thrown 4020 innings and struck out 2405 batters despite a fastball that ranged from 82-89 MPH in his career. 

Will Jamie Moyer receive Baseball Hall of Fame consideration?  He will garner some votes as his career is very similar to Tommy John.  It is unfortunate the man could not achieve 300 wins in his career with such a slow start-but there is no denying that he should receive “The Most Unlikely to Have Such a Great Career Award.”  He is a classy professional and is an even better human off the field, with running his Moyer Foundations all across the country.  Jamie has touched countless people and is a great role model for all of those athletes who might feel like giving up.  Kudos for having a great second half to your career Jamie Moyer!!

*** Thank you to our Guest Baseball Writer- Doug Booth for joining us today on MLB reports.  To learn more about “The Fastest 30 Ballgames” and Doug Booth, you can follow Doug on Twitter (@ChuckBooth3024) and click here for Doug’s website, fastestthirtyballgames.com***



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