Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Really? Roy Halladay's real name is Harry Leroy Halladay. Harry Halladay? Yeah really... How funny is it that PhilliesNation.com sponsors the Johan Santana page on baseball-reference.com? I find it very funny!... With his loss today - John Smoltz of the Red Sox tied George Bradley for 154th place on the all-time list with 151 losses. George Bradley once lost 40 games in 1879 playing for the Troy Trojans. Wow - 40 games! Times sure have changed.... If John Smoltz happens to ever win another game for the Red Sox - he'll tie Chief Bender for 88th place on the all-time wins list with 212 wins. Though John Smoltz is widely acknowledged as playoff tough - Chief Bender pitched 3 complete games in the 1911 World series. That's playoff impressive... I don' understand that KGB service. Is it for people too stupid or lazy to use Google or Bing?... The Tigers Edwin Jackson needs just 4 more to match his total from last season. Truly a tale of two seasons...

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

I can't believe the Red Sox lost 5 straight before last night's 1-0 win over the Blue Jays. They won't use it as an excuse but the flu really knocked that team flat for the past week.... The record for RBI in April is 31 set by Joe Carter in 1994. Josh Hamilton of the Rangers has a shot of tying or breaking that mark if he has a big game tonight against the Royals. Hamilton has 28 RBI so far in April with that one game left to go... Today is Phil Garner's 59th birthday. Garner makes me wonder about a three-strikes and you're out unwritten rule for managers. Do managers get three chances to win it all before getting tossed on the scrap heap? Of course some guys are so bad that they only get one or two strikes (like Kevin Kennedy) but I think guys with any talent at all for managing seem to get three shots - like Garner and like Dusty Baker who I'm guessing won't get another shot if he doesn't succeed with Cincinnati... Geovany Soto and Jacoby Ellsbury are the early leaders for NL and AL Rookies of the Year... Go figure. The AL has the DH but the NL still has the higher overall slugging percentage - .404 for the NL to .397 for the AL... People always knock Mike Mussina for the fact that he never had a 20-win season. The same is true of Kenny Rogers who just won his 212th game - to tie Chief Bender for 85th place on the all-time wins list. Chief Bender is in the Hall of Fame in part because he had two 20-win seasons but also because he had a great winning percentage (.625) but also because he was a money pitcher in the playoffs. Bender had a 2.44 ERA in 10 post season starts and helped the Philadelphia A's win 3 World Series. Kenny Rogers, on the other hand, is a guy who always seemed to come up smallest when the pressure was on. That's one of the reasons he couldn't hack it with the Yankees. If Kenny Rogers gets one vote for the Hall of Fame when he's done - it will be one vote too many...

Top 5 - Baseball Players from Minnesota

I was listing the top 5 players from each state but some reason I stopped after doing Wisconsin almost a year ago. It seemed like an interesting diversion - so today I am resuming the series.

Here are who I consider the top 5 players born in Minnesota.

1. Dave Winfield - Hall of Fame slugger who many forget was also great in the field - winning 7 Gold Gloves
2. Paul Molitor - Hall of Famer who is 9th on the all-time hit list with 3,319
3. Chief Bender - Hall of Fame pitcher with 212 wins and a career winning percentage of .625
4. Jack Morris - 254 career wins with a number of legendary post season victories
5. Ken Hrbek - over 1,000 RBI playing his whole 14-year career for the hometown Twins

Honorable Mention:

Roger Maris - most folks think he was North Dakota but he was acually born in Hibbing, MN (birthplace of Kevin McHale)
Joe Mauer - a hometown boy playing for the Twins who may make the Top 5 some day