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biggentleben

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Everything posted by biggentleben

  1. biggentleben
    In all seriousness, Gaga actually did put on a very solid halftime show. She didn't do anything over the top really, and her musicianship was on display, which is one of the things that many don't realize (or respect) about her... I was pleased with the opening singing. Both America the Beautiful and the anthem were well done. Along those lines, my favorite commercial was the Coca-Cola commercial that was the first "official" game commercial, singing America the Beautiful in its entirety in dozens of languages, showing a ton of different persons singing in different languages, and notably, many of the countries that are on the travel ban.
  2. biggentleben
    The largest lead by the Falcons was 28-3. That totals 31 points. The Warriors were up 3-1. The Indians were up 3-1. Crazy year for exciting finishes in sports!
  3. biggentleben
    Thanks for this, Seth!
  4. biggentleben
    Eddie Mathews has said that if he were building a "greatest Braves" list, he'd make Chipper the 3B every single day and not think twice, stating that Chipper was the much better player. I think that does say a lot (and is rare that you have two elite all-time guys at a position that rare in Cooperstown both in franchise history).
  5. biggentleben
    And that could be part of the issue. I think Beltre is a no-crap, no-doubt HOFer right now, let alone with 2-3 more years added on.
  6. biggentleben
    Part of the WAR argument there is also that he gets very little credit via metrics for what he did defensively. The "chopper to Chipper" was a call that was made incredibly often in Atlanta, and his ability to scoop barehanded coming in on a ball and throw with accuracy is something that big league third basemen now talk about emulating from him. However, he played behind guys like Glavine and Maddux, which meant that most of the work was done up the middle for infielders, and he really didn't get a ton of work to display his defensive ability.
  7. biggentleben
    Um. How do you figure never having an amazing year? In '99, he hit .319/.441/.633 with 41 doubles, 45 home runs, and 25 stolen bases (versus just 3 caught stealing), along with posting a 126/94 BB/K rate. He won the MVP in a near-runaway. He hit at least 20 home runs for 14 straight seasons, and in that run, he also walked more than he struck out and posted a .310/.407/.548 line. That's a crazy long peak before injuries really took their toll. To finish that run, at 36, he fought through two trips to the DL to post a .364/.470/.574 season, win the batting title and have a 90/61 BB/K ratio at 36 years old.
  8. biggentleben
    Wow. I can't support that take whatsoever. Third baseman (and would have been a hell of a shortstop had he not had a Kubel-esque injury before hitting the majors) that basically sits only behind Mantle in most switch-hitting all-time lists (outside of compiling ones that Murray beats him in), .300/.400/.500 guy over his career while playing primarily in the dirt, except for when he volunteered to move to the outfield so the team could bring in the most impact overall player available that particular offseason to assist in the team's pursuit of a second championship in his career. Crazy part is that I had a conversation with a scout who has been at it a while and told me that before the knee injury, he wrote up a report on Chipper that labeled him as "Eric Davis/Barry Bonds power/speed combination, but with more patience". Crazy to consider that he actually lost that much athleticism and was still a sure-fire first-ballot HOF guy.
  9. biggentleben
    Chipper's going to get dinged for his off-field life by a few writers, and that's whatever, but I'd not put him in Griffey's class whatsoever. If you want to go on "the greatest #1 pick where who would go #1 was actually a question", then sure...because when guys like Griffey, Harper, etc. were on the board, there was no doubt. Chipper was a Mauer-esque pick for the Braves, eschewing the top-rated guy that season to draft him.
  10. biggentleben
    It wasn't just his cannon arm either. He had incredible range early, the type of athleticism that allowed him to be a consistent 40/40 threat.
  11. biggentleben
    Incredibly hypocritical to me. I voted for Manny because I vote for a guy's performance on the field, however, anyone who voted Manny but not Palmeiro, McGwire, Sosa, etc. screams hypocritical to me.
  12. biggentleben
    Young Vlad is probably alongside young Andruw Jones as the most dynamic players I've ever witnessed in 30+ years of baseball viewing. Vlad at the plate was incredible, and his defense was the stuff of legends in right. Jones was more unseen before in the field and had dynamic ability offensively, whereas Vlad's bat was the thing that always stood out to me. Probably part of being AL/NL, but seeing Vlad for so many years made him an easy guy to vote in.
  13. biggentleben
    The biggest drop off guy I'm still dumbfounded by is Lofton. That will confound me until he ends up being put in by the Veteran's Committee as deserved.
  14. biggentleben
    Then again, you get into BALCO. That's not MLB-related. That's again outside of the MLB. Not a failed MLB test, but something outside of it. If baseball wanted the information strong enough (as they showed with their illegal activities in Florida), they could have gotten it to punish Bonds. They did not do that, and depending on who you believe about the BALCO case (my sister-in-law's divorce proceedings and two of the subsequent custody hearings are sealed until the children are 18, so there are lots of things that can be completely innocuous that end up sealing court records), Bonds was there discussing the deception and what he saw of the defendants, never actually implicating once that he took anything illegal. Mantle has a legit discussion about a doctor using pure testosterone as part of an injection he gave him on a daily basis for over a year. Not a PED, not even a steroid, but pure testosterone. The doctor admitted it to multiple people in his life, however he is no longer alive to give credence to or refute the story. Should we then remove Mantle? In all seriousness, it has about as much carrying power as BALCO.
  15. biggentleben
    However, there have been many people who have refuted the "leaked" list with many of the names on that list, so there is not definitive proof. That list was never officially given to the media by MLB or the MLBPA, so neither side has ever stated that the names on that list are even accurate. Some players have admitted to things or have done further damage by getting suspended since, but that's a whole other thing.
  16. biggentleben
    Bonds never failed a test. What he has said/done outside of the game, just like Schilling (as little respect as I have for his political stances), should have no bearing on his candidacy. If he was found guilty by the game, and he was in the game while testing was around, then there'd be something to claim, like with Manny, but that stance with Bonds also falls short as well.
  17. biggentleben
    Good news is that many of those types are losing their votes each year.
  18. biggentleben
    The worst part is that people like that send in a blank ballot and skew the percentages...
  19. biggentleben
    After transcribing over 50,000 words of interviews for the piece, my final version of my look into what happened to offense in the "steroid era": https://calltothepen.com/2017/01/17/mlb-exactly-happened-offense-1990s/
  20. biggentleben
    Nothing like Brewster, but he is not tremendously far off of Mason, and that is what scares me quite a bit.
  21. biggentleben
    Akin to Mason.... Having played through that **** show, the only real positive is that he brought in Alex Gibb to innovate the line play (and therefore the running game), but that was due to Gibb's son being on staff already when Mason came in and Mason being smart enough to promote him on the defensive staff.
  22. biggentleben
    Fleck feels like Glen Mason - hot coach of the moment, going to be hard to let it go because he'll likely still have success to a certain degree.
  23. biggentleben
    Palmeiro isn't on the ballot.
  24. biggentleben
    I'm always curious how many people have been to the Hall. It is fairly difficult to argue the inclusion/exclusion stuff in the same light once you've been there and found that Barry Bonds is displayed more often and more prominently than his own godfather. The biggest display when I visited of any single player (outside of Hank Aaron, because it was the anniversary of 715) was a roughly 8' tall Pete Rose diving head first into a bag. Roger Clemens was in multiple places in the museum. Yet, when I visited, Harmon Killebrew, Warren Spahn, and Jimmie Foxx were only displayed on their plaques, which are essentially displayed in an elaborate walk-in closet that my wife walked right past and into the gift shop, not paying any mind to the plaques, which tells you just how they appear to the natural flow of the rest of the museum. Yet we spend hours typing up and researching hard core arguments about why someone should or should not have a plaque in a closet...Bonds, Clemens, Rose, Shoeless Joe, they're all on display in the Hall no matter the rotation of the Hall. Heck, McGwire and Sosa figure prominently as well, and I'm sure in 2018, they'll be featured quite a bit, whether or not they have a plaque.
  25. biggentleben
    Certainly, though I think there is plenty on the field to question him on. I could have good argument for getting rid of him for his on-field coaching.
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