Yardwork: Ryan Howard Makes History
Baseball July 17th. 2009, 11:15am
Baseball is back! There were eight games last night and you’re getting all of them shoved down your throat like Rowdy Roddy Piper on Jimmy Snuka with bananas and coconuts.
Phils 4, Marlins 0: Jamie Moyer had a perfect game through four, but I knew it was over as soon as I saw this tweet. Ryan Howard slugged his 200th home run, achieving the total in fewer games (658) than any player in major league history. The record was previously held by Ralph Kiner.
Indians 4, Mariners 1: Cliff Lee pitched his second complete game of the season, scattering nine harmless hits (no, seriously, he allowed one hit in each inning) and walking none, winning for the first time since June 14. Grady Sizemore failed to hit a triple.
Cubs 6, Nats 2: Rich Harden went six innings, allowing just three hits, an unearned run and striking out seven. The Nats had two errors that led to three runs and Nyjer Morgan got picked off in the eighth with the tying run at the plate. Jim Riggleman, welcome to the fun! On the bright side, Harry Carey and Holy Cow showed up for the game. [pic via Mr. @jamiemottram]
Brewers 9, Reds 6: Holy manboobs, the home run derby has not prevented Prince Fielder from hitting home runs in the second half of the season! Braden Looper is somehow 8-4.
Astros 3, Dodgers 0: Manny was cheered in his first game at Chávez Ravine since serving a 50-game suspension. This is surprising? Why is this a story? More importantly, his hair will eventually become part of a controversial play. Here’s to hoping someone drags him down by his braids in a rundown.
Angels 6, A’s 2: Ervin Santana wasn’t a complete and utter train wreck for the first time in what feels like forever. He went eight innings and allowed one run on three hits. Matt Holliday homered for the first time in 987 at-bats.
Braves 5, Mets 3: Ollie Perez retired the first four Braves he faced, then gave up back-to-back homers to Yunel Escobar and Garret Anderson. Still, he finished with a decent line of 6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER and 6 K. Jeff Francoeur was 0-for-4 with an RBI in his return to Atlanta. What’s stranger is they gave him a standing ovation as if he had delivered two MVPs and a few memorable playoff moments.
Rockies 10, Padres 1: The top third of the Rockies lineup drove in seven runs. Yeah, that’s about it for this one.
As mentioned in the intro, a classic:
38 Responses to “Yardwork: Ryan Howard Makes History”
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July 17th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Ralph Kiner also only hit 169 more home runs in his career. So let’s not all wet our pants about the possibility of Howard breaking the all time home run record.
/I know no one said it outright, but the implication was oozing out of every sentence when Sportscenter mentioned this last night.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
i don’t think howard gets to 500. maybe just shy of it.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Baseball is certainly back!
July 17th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Ryan Howard is nearly 30. He’s the same age as Adam Dunn who has 100 more career HR. Slow down the crazy train ms621.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
There is 0.00000000001% chance that Ryan Howard even see’s the light from the home run record. Dude turns 30 in the off season and is alredy shaped like a pear. 500 is a maybe, agreed, but I doubt even that. Sportscenter was really acting like that? Sigh. ESPN is dangerous to people.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Pujols was born a month later and has 50 more than Adam Dunn. Ryan Howard has nearly a 0% probability of breaking the all time home run record.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Nice Taguchi.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
are they not talking about pujols breaking the HR record b/c it’s quietly assumed that he will, are afraid he’s tainted and were burned by a-rod?
July 17th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Ryan Howard is nearly 30. He’s the same age as Adam Dunn who has 100 more career HR. Slow down the crazy train ms621.
Just pointing out the implications in ESPN’s coverage of the fact. They will infer anything, whether it’s based in fact or not, so long as it drives up ratings.
Ryan Howard has nearly a 0% probability of breaking the all time home run record.
Which is the point I was making.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
It’s dangerous the ideas that ESPN puts out in the ether. It’s because of people like them that Juan Pierre is considered good at baseball.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
are they not talking about pujols breaking the HR record b/c it’s quietly assumed that he will, are afraid he’s tainted and were burned by a-rod?
From the way the all-star break played out, MLB must not be concerned about this. Pujols was everywhere.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
It’s because of people like them that Juan Pierre is considered good at baseball.
Or that Dusty Baker is considered a good manager.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Ryan Howard has nearly a 0% probability of breaking the all time home run record.
Which is the point I was making.
Gotcha, what I thought you were saying.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I want Moyer to get 300 wins.
That’s the guy The Leader should be talking about. He’s approaching 50, not roided up like Clemens, not a freak of nature like Ryan, and doesn’t throw knucklers like Niekro and Wakefield. And he’s still winning games. Who cares if his ERA is shit. He can still have a game like last night every now and then.
Too bad the kids don’t like him and he doesn’t have a Subway commercial.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Or that Derek Jeter has superhuman powers when the game is on the line
July 17th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
@Jay: wouldn’t that piss off Bert Blyleven?
July 17th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Everyone is too pissed off for a Friday.
@Jay: Agreed for the most part, except Moyer was really gay waving towels during a Seahawks playoff game a few years ago like he just drank the Red Bull factory. Hard to forget.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
normally that’s when his Valtrex kicks in.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Jack Morris faced 16,501 batters in his MLB career, including the playoffs. His W/L record was 261-190. He gave up 1854 runs, earned or not, which is 5 less than the league average of his era.
Jamie Moyer has faced 16,533 batters, or one game’s worth more than Morris. His W/L record is 257-194. That’s 4 “games behind from Jack Morris. He has given up 4 fewer runs than the league average.
Jack Morris is treated like a God and people are always poking Jamie Moyer with a stick to see if he’s alive.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
That’s the guy The Leader should be talking about. He’s approaching 50, not roided up like Clemens, not a freak of nature like Ryan, and doesn’t throw knucklers like Niekro and Wakefield. And he’s still winning games. Who cares if his ERA is shit. He can still have a game like last night every now and then.
He also gets points for wearing the Phillies Liberty Bell socks.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I hope nothing ends up coming out about Pujols, because that dude’s career to date numbers are fucking sick.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Jack Morris is treated like a God and people are always poking Jamie Moyer with a stick to see if he’s alive.
Morris once threw a 10 innning complete game in Game 7 of the World Series. That’s about the only achievement of his that most people can remember.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Exactly. One great game and “the winningest pitcher of the 1980s”. Meanwhile, Blyleven, a better pitcher in pretty much everyway, doesn’t look like he’s gonna sniff the hall.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Thanks Hernia, I just switched cable provider’s and lost WWE 24/7. I’m going through TNT withdrawal.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
i think had Blyleven gotten a Cy young award he’d be in, but he’s at the cusp of being very good, not quite great.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I remember watching his no-hitter on a Saturday afternoon on NBC, because it’s the only no-no I have ever seen live from start to finish.
I will say this about Morris in his defense. He was a bona-fide ace of his staff. Moyer spent his entire career as the #2 or 3 guy. If you were looking for a guy to shut a team down in the postseason with the series on the line, I’d go with Morris way before I’d go with Moyer.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Since 1900, Bert Blyleven ranks 5th in career strikeouts, 8th in shutouts, and 17th in wins.
There are only eight pitchers who rank in the top 20 in wins, shutouts, and strikeouts. Here is the list:
Wins SO SHO
Bert Blyleven 17th 5th 8th
Steve Carlton 6th 4th 13th
Ferguson Jenkins 19th 11th 17th
Walter Johnson 1st 9th 1st
Gaylord Perry 12th 8th 14th
Nolan Ryan 8th 1st 6th
Tom Seaver 13th 6th 6th
Don Sutton 8th 7th 9th
Ryan is the only pitcher who ranks higher than Blyleven in all three categories. That’s right, there is only one pitcher in the history of baseball who has more wins, strikeouts, and shutouts than Blyleven.
How is that not great?
July 17th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Not a counting stats guy? What about this?
Blyleven ranks in the middle of these six pitchers in ERA+ (the ratio of the league’s ERA to that of the pitcher, adjusted for the effects of the home ballpark). The calculation is as follows: lgERA divided by ERA, where > 100 is above average and < 100 is below average.
ERA+
Bob Gibson 127
Jim Palmer 125
Juan Marichal 122
Bert Blyleven 118
Ferguson Jenkins 115
Jim Bunning 114
Catfish Hunter 104
As detailed, Blyleven’s career totals exceed all of the pitchers in the table above and his Adjusted ERA is better than Jenkins, Bunning, and Hunter. But let’s not stop with this group of pitchers. Bert’s stats, in fact, are indistinguishable from the eight most similar pitchers who have already been given their day in upstate New York:
Don Sutton (914) *
Gaylord Perry (909) *
Fergie Jenkins (890) *
Robin Roberts (876) *
Tom Seaver (864) *
Early Wynn (844) *
Phil Niekro (844) *
Steve Carlton (840) *
* – Signifies Hall of Famer
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
IP H ER BB SO HR ERA ERA+
Blyleven 4970 4632 1830 1322 3701 430 3.31 118
Group Average 4974 4541 1800 1429 3263 434 3.26 115
Blyleven’s counting stats and ERA/ERA+ are almost identical to the average of these eight pitchers across the board. However, his rate stats for the three areas most controlled by the pitcher are slightly better than this exclusive group.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Ryan is the only pitcher who ranks higher than Blyleven in all three categories. That’s right, there is only one pitcher in the history of baseball who has more wins, strikeouts, and shutouts than Blyleven.
How is that not great?
If Nick P were here and not banned, er, on vacation, then I’m sure he would point out the invalidity of wins for gauging a pitcher’s worth.
That being said, I agree with you that Blyleven deserves to be in the Hall.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I didn’t do it in the right market, and I didn’t make a guest appearance on The Brady Bunch.
/Don Drysdale’d
//209-166′d
July 17th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Ralph Kiner also only hit 169 more home runs in his career. So let’s not all wet our pants about the possibility of Howard breaking the all time home run record.
/I know no one said it outright, but the implication was oozing out of every sentence when Sportscenter mentioned this last night.
Sounds like the “Tiger’s gonna win 25-30 majors before he’s through” discussion of the last 10 years, while he’s at 14 now. Dude has a knee that looks like 70 year old Mike Ditka’s, he’s been in a pressure cooker of a life for 30 of his 33 years which makes him look like he wants to kick his dog every 5 minutes, and now he’s got the wifey and two kids thing going.
Don’t bet the farm on it happening
July 17th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I would too, but there not so dissimilar as you would think based on the two’s reputation, with Morris’s built almost entirely on that one amazing game. His actual underlying numbers while good, aren’t all that impressive.
/Don Drysdale’d
//209-166′d
+100
July 17th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Just in case you didn’t get it, I was making the case about why Blyleven shouldn’t be in the hall in reply 30
July 17th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I didn’t get that from ESPN’s coverage of the non-event. Just their normal grandstanding. But if you inferred it, that means someone did. Shame on ESPN then.
July 17th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Howard won’t even get to 400 HRs. He’s already bad and getting worse against left-handers (746 OPS in 2008 and 574 in 2009), and is settling in as a sub-900 OPS player at 1B. That’s not going to hold up in a weaker lineup.
He’s got 1.5 more years before he’s a 30 HR guy, then it’s Cecil Fielder/Boog Powell time.
I’ve got:
rest of 2009 (29 years old): 20 HRs
2010 (30): 40
2011 (31): 30
2012-2015 (32-35): 100 total
2016 (36): out of league unless a second tier team grabs him for a push at 400
I’d say there’s a better than 50% shot he’s out of the league in 5 years.
July 17th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
@ Tartan:
Thank you.
@ThatsSoTaguchi:
And thank you.
Oh wait, nevermind. His age doesn’t matter. HES GOT GOOD SMILE N HITS TONS OF HRS SO HES FUTURE OF BASEBALL ALSO PHILLIES ARE SO SCRAPPY HOW CAN U NOT LUV THIS GUY HES BEST .260 HITTER IN THE GAME!!!!!!!11one
/sports media’d
July 17th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
homer bailey sucks ass
and thanks for nothing, cliff lee
July 17th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Taguchi I’ve been barking up the Blyleven tree since I’ve been a commenter here. The only replies you get are: “But I don’t remember him being great” “When I think about Bert I think about his fart t-shirt, not how he pitched” and “He didn’t win enough games” Id advise you to give up now before you commit a murder in frustration.