Saturday, January 10, 2015

The Hall Of Fame has four new members



The 2015 Hall Of Fame Class is one of the best as they elected four new members, three of them were first ballot.  John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Craig Biggio are the newest members of the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York.  Last year Smoltz saw his teammates Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux go in on their first ballot and his manager Bobby Cox and now he joins them.  There really wasn't much issue with these guys.  The only controversy is why is Mike Piazza still not in.  He got a little bit closer getting close to 70 percent and he should be elected in next year but for now he waits. 

Randy Johnson is arguably  the best left handed pitcher to ever play the game.  He was big and intimidating and once he got under control he was just dominant.  He had two seasons with the Yankees which are here in my backyard and he won 17 games in both seasons but was never exactly what they thought.  If you can win 17 games two years in a row though and still be called a disappointment it pretty much shows just how good he really was.  He started with the Montreal Expos and then went to the Seattle Mariners and was very wild but once he harnassed that he was just lights out.  He had a career record of 303-166 with a 3.29 ERA and 4,875 strikeouts.  He was with the Expos his first two season in 1988 and 1989 and then with the Mariners for 9 full years and then in his 10th season with the Mariners was traded to the Houston Astros.  He spent six seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks and helped them to one world series championship.  He spent two seasons with the New  York Yankees and then back to the Diamondbacks for a couple of seasons before finishing his career with the San Francisco Giants in 2009.  He was a 10X all star and five time Cy Young award winner.  He pitched a no-hitter and a perfect game. 

John Smoltz spend played for 21 seasons and spent all but one of them with the Atlanta Braves.  He spent his final season with the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.  He had a career record of 213-155 with a 3.33 ERA.  He struck out 3,084 and also had 154 career saves.  He was an 8X all star and won a world series in 1995.  He won one cy young award. 

Pedro Martinez played 18 seasons for five different teams.  He was an eight time all star, three time cy young award winner  and won a world series in 2004.  He has the lowest WHIP of any live ball era starting pitcher and his adjusted ERA+ is the best of any starting pitcher in MLB history.  He has the second highest winning percentage in modern baseball history.  He had a career record of 219-100 with a 2.93 ERA.  He had 3,154 career strikeouts and played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. 

Craig Biggio was the only position player to join these three pitchers in the Hall Of Fame class of 2015.  He played 20 seasons all of them for the Houston Astros.  Biggio finished with a career batting average of 281 and he had 3,060 career hits.  He had 291 career homeruns with 1,175 career RBI, he also had 414 career stolen bases.  He was a seven time all star and four time gold glove award winner.  He won five silver slugger awards. 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

New York Yankees news and notes as we hit the new year



The New York Yankees have been busy even if it doesn't seem like it.  They have been making a bunch of smaller moves instead of signing some big free agents.  They have remade their bullpen.  David Robertson signed with the Chicago White Sox and Andrew Miller was signed by the Yankees.  David Phelps and Shawn Kelley were traded away.  The Yankees also just traded away former top prospect Manny Banuelos this  past weekend.  They acquired two relievers from the Atlanta Braves for him. 

The Yankees bullpen right now has Dellin Betances and Miller on the backend with Justin Wilson, David Carpenter who they just picked up from the Braves in front of them.  It would appear that Esmil Rogers will be the swingman like Phelps was.  The Yankees are expected to go with a seven man bullpen so they could have a couple more lefties such as Chasen Schreve from Atlanta or their top pick from last year Jacob Lindgren. 

The Yankees have also remade their infield from last season.  Mark Teixeira is the only incumbant.  Chase Headley was signed for four years and he was with the Yankees from the end of July on but he didn't start the season with them.  They have a new shortstop as their captain retired and they now also have a new second baseman in Stephen Drew.  Drew was also with the Yankees at the end of last season but he wasn't with  them for most of the season.  Alex Rodriguez is also back but he is expected to me mostly a DH and maybe only a part time one at that. 

The Yankees defense looks to be very good.  The left side has Headley and Gregorius which is very good with a lot of range and now the right side also has very good with lots of range in Drew and Teixeira.  Brian McCann is a very good catcher and the outfield defense especially in left and center field is very good.  Carlos Beltran might be the leakest weak defensively and he really isn't that bad he is just getting old. 

If the Yankees stay healthy they could have a pretty good season but that is a big if.  They are going to need their pitchers to stay healthy especially because they could really limit the runs allowed with their pitching and defense.  If their pitchers especially at the top are not healthy though that all changes.  I also think their offense will be better, how can it be any worse really and that should help them.  It should be an interesting year as they are definitely transitioning but yet still trying to stay competitive and a winning team. 
 

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