Over at Beyond the Box Score, they've posted individual wins-over-replacement values for individual players in the NL. Three Astros are mentioned: Carlos Lee, Miguel Tejada, and Lance Berkman.
Tejada has given the Astros 1.3 wins over replacement (this includes fielding). To quote from BtBS post, "You'll have to wait until the AL article to see where Luke Scott falls. Hint: better than 1.3 wins above replacement." At the time of the trade, the 5-for-1 deal was widely seen as an okay move. If nothing else, Tejada would offer a major improvement (offensively) over Everett.
But Luke Scott has turned into something of a decent hitter. He's posted a 119 OPS+ this year, and he's done well in Baltimore. It's unfortunate that Scott was traded away, but there really was no place for him in the Astros' outfield.
Carlos Lee ranked #9 in the NL. Cool. El Caballo continues to be a fantastic hitter, even if his contract is ridiculous.
Lee is the anti-Utley: bad fielder, great clutch hitter.
That's the other thing about this list - it adjusts for "clutchness." I don't really buy that such a thing exists in baseball, but whatever. I suppose it's a decent thing to look for in an MVP. Good for Carlos and the Astros.
Number one is, of course, Albert Pujo - what? It's not?! Who's the winningest hitter in the National League, baseball stat guys?
1. Lance Berkman (8.6 wins) -- Even without his great clutch performance, he managed to give Pujols a run for his money, trailing by one win in WPA/LI and only half a win in the field. But by being clutch to the tune of 1.8 wins, Berkman was able to do more for his team than even Prince Albert did. But yes, Randy Wolf was the catalyst for the Astros' playoff chase.
Well, whaddya know? Turns out that the Big Puma is the most valuable player this year. Turns out that walking a lot and hitting doubles and homers when it counts makes you pretty valuable. And Berkman walks a lot and slugs when it counts, because THAT'S WHAT PUMAS DO, DAMMIT!
Oh yeah, he walked three times last night. Didn't get a hit, but Hunter could learn a thing or two from Lance.
Showing posts with label berkman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label berkman. Show all posts
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Heard about Houston?
Heard about Detroit? Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?
Irrelevant to the forthcoming post, but I like the song.
Anywhoo, this morning's ELO odds are out. Look something like this for the wild card:
Brewers: 61.64%
Phillies: 10.61%
Astros: 10.36%
Cardinals: 5.08%
As Lance has said, "It would still take a small miracle, but it would take a smaller one today than it would have a month ago."
Edit: Oh, and good luck to everyone in Houston. Heard something about an 8' storm surge for Galveston and the Channel. It's gonna be serious, folks.
Irrelevant to the forthcoming post, but I like the song.
Anywhoo, this morning's ELO odds are out. Look something like this for the wild card:
Brewers: 61.64%
Phillies: 10.61%
Astros: 10.36%
Cardinals: 5.08%
As Lance has said, "It would still take a small miracle, but it would take a smaller one today than it would have a month ago."
Edit: Oh, and good luck to everyone in Houston. Heard something about an 8' storm surge for Galveston and the Channel. It's gonna be serious, folks.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Retired Numbers
A while back, I read Joe Posnanski's article on retired numbers. Biggio retirement ceremony has got me thinking about it again.
Posnanski kind of slights the Astros on the quantity of numbers retired.
"No offense to the fine people of Houston but … that’s a few too many retired numbers for a 1960s expansion organization that has not yet won a World Series."
At first, this kind of pissed me off when I read it. It still does, but for different reasons. I used to be pissed off because he didn't know how fucking great Cheo Cruz and Jimmy Wynn were; now I'm pissed off because he presumes to know when Houston should retire a number.
Now that Biggio's number is retired, the Astros have retired 9 numbers:
34- Nolan Ryan
24- Jose Cruz
25- Jimmy Wynn
33- Mike Scott
49- Larry Dierker
32- Jim Umbricht
40- Don Wilson
5 - Jeff Bagwell
7 - Craig Biggio
Umbricht and Wilson's numbers were retired because of their tragic deaths. Wynn, Cruz, Scott, Ryan, Bagwell, and Biggio were all great players. Bags and Bidge are going to the hall of fame. Wynn probably should have gone, Ryan is already in, and Cruz is a borderline case who was beloved by Houston fans. Mike Scott very nearly took Houston to its first pennant. Dierker was our first really good pitcher and a fixture in the Astros organization for many years as a player, broadcaster, and manager.
It occurs to me that two other players are actually deserving of retirement: JR Richard and Joe Niekro. Both were great pitchers; both were loved by the fans. Richard stroked out on the field and was never the same. Niekro holds the Astros record for most wins (which is meaningless, I know, but he spent half of his career here and was only behind his brother and maybe Wakefield as a knuckleballer), which will likely be broken in the next few years by Oswalt.
Everyone is pretty certain that Berkman and Oswalt will have their numbers retired when they retire. Barring anything weird (Berkman goes out and shoots up downtown Houston / Oswalt turns out to be the anthrax terrorist), I'm sure they will be, too. JD and Brownie were saying that Oswalt and Berkman are in the middle of HOF careers. I'm inclined to agree, but we'll see in six years where everyone's at. Berkman's most similar batter (by similarity score) is David Ortiz, and I think everyone thinks he'll go in. In any case, it's way too early to start talking about this.
Anyways, that will mean the Astros will retire 11 numbers. I think Billy Wagner will probably be in the HOF not too long from now, and he'll probably go in as an Astro. Houston will be practically obligated to retire #13. So that's 12 numbers retired. That's a lot of jerseys. Especially for a club enfranchised in 1962. The Yankees are the only ones close, at 15 retired.
Some clubs have very strict rules about who gets their jerseys retired. The Mariners and Red Sox only permit those who have been inducted into the HOF to be retired. Most clubs have not retired anywhere close to the number Houston has.
But I don't think that's necessarily bad. There's nothing more like "Houston" than telling older cities, organizations, traditions, or whatever to fuck off. This is a city renowned for the oil boom - couldn't get much more "new money" than that until the internet bubble. We're a sprawling metropolis that flies in the face of what a city should be. The Astrodome - the symbol of this city and the Astros organization - was the biggest, tackiest architectural monstrosity money could buy. Older clubs played in parks like Yankee stadium and Fenway. We played on artificial grass with air conditioning and the home run spectacular. Our grounds crew wore fucking space helmets. We wore the rainbow guts. The Oilers played Run-and-Shoot. The Rockets had the Dream Shake. The Cougars redefined college basketball. The city of Houston doesn't give a shit about your fucking traditions.
So if we want to retire every fucking number between 1 and 99, and start issuing symbols and letters, then we can and will. I hope they retire Roger Clemens' number, too, even if he's denied a Hall of Fame spot for this steroids crap. Fuck them dumbass Yankees - he delivered us our first pennant. And you'll just have to deal with it.
I think the same applies for the Texans. We should retire every number the Oilers retired before Bud Adams consummated his relationship with the devil. And if Goodell has a problem with it he can shove it up his ass. The NFL fucked us over in 1997, and they let fucking Cleveland keep its club name, records, etc, while the legacy of the Oilers left for hillbilly country. Warren Moon and Earl Campbell didn't even fucking play in Tennessee, ever. Why the fuck should they get to keep their records and numbers? Campbell didn't cripple himself for Memphis, he did it for Houston.
Fuck. Now I'm all angry again. Fuck Bud Adams.
Posnanski kind of slights the Astros on the quantity of numbers retired.
"No offense to the fine people of Houston but … that’s a few too many retired numbers for a 1960s expansion organization that has not yet won a World Series."
At first, this kind of pissed me off when I read it. It still does, but for different reasons. I used to be pissed off because he didn't know how fucking great Cheo Cruz and Jimmy Wynn were; now I'm pissed off because he presumes to know when Houston should retire a number.
Now that Biggio's number is retired, the Astros have retired 9 numbers:
34- Nolan Ryan
24- Jose Cruz
25- Jimmy Wynn
33- Mike Scott
49- Larry Dierker
32- Jim Umbricht
40- Don Wilson
5 - Jeff Bagwell
7 - Craig Biggio
Umbricht and Wilson's numbers were retired because of their tragic deaths. Wynn, Cruz, Scott, Ryan, Bagwell, and Biggio were all great players. Bags and Bidge are going to the hall of fame. Wynn probably should have gone, Ryan is already in, and Cruz is a borderline case who was beloved by Houston fans. Mike Scott very nearly took Houston to its first pennant. Dierker was our first really good pitcher and a fixture in the Astros organization for many years as a player, broadcaster, and manager.
It occurs to me that two other players are actually deserving of retirement: JR Richard and Joe Niekro. Both were great pitchers; both were loved by the fans. Richard stroked out on the field and was never the same. Niekro holds the Astros record for most wins (which is meaningless, I know, but he spent half of his career here and was only behind his brother and maybe Wakefield as a knuckleballer), which will likely be broken in the next few years by Oswalt.
Everyone is pretty certain that Berkman and Oswalt will have their numbers retired when they retire. Barring anything weird (Berkman goes out and shoots up downtown Houston / Oswalt turns out to be the anthrax terrorist), I'm sure they will be, too. JD and Brownie were saying that Oswalt and Berkman are in the middle of HOF careers. I'm inclined to agree, but we'll see in six years where everyone's at. Berkman's most similar batter (by similarity score) is David Ortiz, and I think everyone thinks he'll go in. In any case, it's way too early to start talking about this.
Anyways, that will mean the Astros will retire 11 numbers. I think Billy Wagner will probably be in the HOF not too long from now, and he'll probably go in as an Astro. Houston will be practically obligated to retire #13. So that's 12 numbers retired. That's a lot of jerseys. Especially for a club enfranchised in 1962. The Yankees are the only ones close, at 15 retired.
Some clubs have very strict rules about who gets their jerseys retired. The Mariners and Red Sox only permit those who have been inducted into the HOF to be retired. Most clubs have not retired anywhere close to the number Houston has.
But I don't think that's necessarily bad. There's nothing more like "Houston" than telling older cities, organizations, traditions, or whatever to fuck off. This is a city renowned for the oil boom - couldn't get much more "new money" than that until the internet bubble. We're a sprawling metropolis that flies in the face of what a city should be. The Astrodome - the symbol of this city and the Astros organization - was the biggest, tackiest architectural monstrosity money could buy. Older clubs played in parks like Yankee stadium and Fenway. We played on artificial grass with air conditioning and the home run spectacular. Our grounds crew wore fucking space helmets. We wore the rainbow guts. The Oilers played Run-and-Shoot. The Rockets had the Dream Shake. The Cougars redefined college basketball. The city of Houston doesn't give a shit about your fucking traditions.
So if we want to retire every fucking number between 1 and 99, and start issuing symbols and letters, then we can and will. I hope they retire Roger Clemens' number, too, even if he's denied a Hall of Fame spot for this steroids crap. Fuck them dumbass Yankees - he delivered us our first pennant. And you'll just have to deal with it.
I think the same applies for the Texans. We should retire every number the Oilers retired before Bud Adams consummated his relationship with the devil. And if Goodell has a problem with it he can shove it up his ass. The NFL fucked us over in 1997, and they let fucking Cleveland keep its club name, records, etc, while the legacy of the Oilers left for hillbilly country. Warren Moon and Earl Campbell didn't even fucking play in Tennessee, ever. Why the fuck should they get to keep their records and numbers? Campbell didn't cripple himself for Memphis, he did it for Houston.
Fuck. Now I'm all angry again. Fuck Bud Adams.
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