Dantes929

Being from central Mn I thought of Tom Burgmeier who pitched for St. Cloud Cathedral. I remember him being quite good and he did have a career OPS+ of 119 and 17.5 WAR Alas, my memory is faulty since most of that was done for Boston.

I thought 2006 had some really nice streaks so went and checked. They won 19 out of 20 and only picked up 2.5 games. With the 15 game streak the 91 Twins also won 19-20 and picked up 9.5 games. As you say though, it mattered when that one game was lost to give the 91 team the record.

I have always advocated for Twins HOF for him. The problem is he really doesn't have a signature moment. I just remember him being really good for 5 years and being super bummed about the strike because he was having a great year. Another what could have been.

"if the bases were 81 feet apart. If the bases were 10 percent closer to one another, and their distance thus better fit baseball’s fervent devotion to multiples of three" .....81 is a better multiple of 3 than 90?

I always thought Morneau was misused in 2007 and cost us a playoff spot. 163 games played along with All Star game and home run contest. Its no wonder he faded in September. He was on pace for an MVP that year. Almost a show in for the 2010 year and who knows after that. Legitimate shot at HOF before this concussion.

I immediately thought Deduno. He was actually pretty competent so I would have featured him and then put DeVries into the vat you referred to. Burton is a good one because I not only forgot him, I could only vaguely remember him even after being reminded of him here.

"His 2.72 shares rank him 13th all-time. This sandwiches him between Sandy Koufax and Justin Verlander. The only players in front of him who aren’t in the Hall of Fame are Roger Clemens (7.66 shares), Clayton Kershaw (4.56), Roy Halladay (3.50), and Max Scherzer (3.14). There’s a chance that all of those men eventually have a plaque in Cooperstown." ...........I like this ranking but should probably mention that Roy Halladay is already in..... The rest of those that are ahead of him will be in unless for non baseball issues. That will make everyone ahead of him HOFers and while there are plenty of HOFers behind him there are several that are right behind him that won't get in so he really does seem like he is on the borderline rather than case closed. While I get the World Series prerequisite its no more relevant than W-L record. It can help but it shouldn't harm.

Lets not forget that he had a pretty decent claim to Cy Young for the Mets In 2008. Again, is it the HOF of the very good for a long time or the HOF of great for a moderate amount of time? I would vote for the latter. If Morris and Blyleven are in then Santana and Guidry should be in.

Not with you on this. Got Buxton Defensive Player of the Year in 2017. Puckett was great but wonder if he was faster than Hunter. Buxton gets to balls casually that those guys would just watch bounce for doubles. One that has been forgotten here is Jimmy Eisenreich. Dude was really fast.

Who's on the slow team? Would you rather have a 2 man outfield of Buxton and Gomez or a 3 man outfield Willingham, Turtle and Sano?

So Sano was left off because he qualifies as a right fielder but not a left fielder?

We might be using different all-speed team rule books. I wish they would standardize that thing so we don't have these issues in the future. Bring Hoyle in.

I don't think Gladden was as fast as maybe Jones, Span, Kepler or Mack. What about Carlos Gomez? I am guessing Gibson was our fastest pitcher. Just a guess.

That was such a flawed pitching staff. Only two pitchers with an ERA under 4. Reardon with an ERA of 4.48 a record of 8-8 31 saves and 10 blown saves and WAS crucial as you say. Thing is just basic competency was crucial on that staff so really, they don't make the playoffs without any one of Viola, Blyleven Reardon, Berenguer and even Les Straker . This was a team that was outscored during the regular season and statistically should have been 79-83. Two of those 5 critical pitchers were picked up because they were released by other teams. They were 56-25 at home and 29-52 on the road. I hate to say it but the most important trade in the history of the franchise as far as World Series go was the Met for the Dome though 91 was a really good team with a decent chance anyway.

Maybe someone can explain this to me. I thought the whole idea of flattening the curve was that most people were going to be exposed eventually but to avoid the steep curve of everyone getting it at once so that our medical resources do not get overrun. I figured this would involve a couple more weeks of isolation and then maybe open up restaurants but not schools. Then maybe open up other non essential business but not huge crowds of people like ball games, fairs and concerts attract. Healthy athletes sequestered to playing baseball without the crowds seems like a reasonable transition to exposing a small population that are lower risk. I don't think you even need extreme measures like testing every day but just common sense precautions. Again are we trying to eliminate the spread or flatten the spread. My understanding was the latter but so much of the reaction has been the former. If people just keep practicing social distancing and continue the other stuff like washing hands and cleaning surfaces I think my chances of avoiding the virus are decent since I avoid large crowds anyway.. Add in the 80% or better that if I get the virus it will just be flu like and then add in the chances that if I do need to be hospitalized that the curve will have flattened enough to have made ventilators etc available for me. Is my premise wrong or is it my conclusion? Are we trying to stop the spread or flatten it? If it is to stop the spread then we are probably in for months of home sheltering. If its to flatten it does the transition need to be way slower than I envision it? Large crowds and schools would logically be the last things to transition.

We don't win the 87 World Series without trading for Blyleven in 86. I think you got the top two right. Edge to the AJ trade because Mauer was going to replace him with Mauer no matter what.

Its a shame but I agree with everyone that there are far more pressing concerns than how to salvage a shortened, sterile exhibition style baseball season such as... When are the @#$%%$## golf courses opening?

Yes. I would put Dobnak as the 4th starter with Pineda pushing him down to 5th when the time comes. Should be his spot to lose IMO.

Right?? Smotz, Glavine Lemke and Pendleton were fantastic. Puckett's catch, Hrbek/Gant, Bream double play on a hanger/ As much joy as we take in the way things turned out that Series, Braves fans must agonize over that one. 14 playoffs over the next 15 years where they were one of the favorites every time and they only had one WS to show for it. In an alternate universe they could have ended up with half dozen or more but for them I am thinking the 91 Series set the tone.

I wouldn't put Larkin's at bat over Puckett's home run or catch. I would say above all else those two plays put Puckett in the HOF.

Ok, Morris pitched a really great game but a lot of things had to go our way for that great game to be a 10 inning shutout. If ever a pitch looked like a hanger it was the one to Bream. 2nd place was the one from Liebrandt to Puckett. One hit a game winner and one hit into a double play. Such is baseball.

Great article. I wonder what the effect of training with a heavier bat would produce vs just warming up with one. I also wonder what the effect of swinging those bats that have the fans on them to create resistance compared to weighted bats. I am probably more interested in this topic as it relates to golf. Lots of people swear by the Orange Whip but I have also seen articles about swinging a lighter club faster gets you to swing the normal club faster. Of course nothing replaces timing and mechanics. My friend out drives me with 10 mph slower swing speed.

The question again of quality vs quantity. Flip Viola and Radke.

He is a great choice but I will defend him a little. I don't think he went back to his norm. I think he became a good pitcher as his 2012 year suggests and then had arm troubles which kept him from maintaining that. He started the 2013 year on the 15 day disabled list but his curve ball just never had the same bite when he came back. Much like Tyler Duffey though to his credit Duffey has come back from being a one and done guy.

In 1985 Mickey Hatcher maybe peaked getting 9 hits in a row but couldn't keep it up for some reason. His peak year was 1983 though hitting .317. Injury related, but Scott Erickson really only gave us one good year.