Jimmy Collins 104, Charlie Hayes 69

September 19, 2010

            Hall of Fame third baseman Jimmy Collins shrugged off a 15-point deficit from the power category to roll to a 35-point trouncing of 1990s glove man Charlie Hayes. 

            Collins, a fifth seed, will face the fourth-seeded Matt Williams on September 24.

            Charlie Hayes, 1988-2001, was originally drafted as a pitcher.   He was always perceived as a player with a world of ability and in particular a world of ability in the field, but for reasons that were never clear to the public, whoever it was that had him never seemed to want to keep him.   Hayes was a very good third baseman and had a season, in 1993, that looks much like Brooks’ Robinson’s season in 1962 or 1964, 1964 being his MVP season.   But 1993 (21-11) is really the only good year that Hayes ever had.  He now operates a baseball academy near his home in Tomball, Texas.

I remember Tomball when it was a small town, or anyway, I thought it was a small town.   One time about 1983 I woke up in Tomball, flew from Houston to Dallas and then flew home.  When I got home I turned on the TV new, and the two lead stories were 1)  that a tornado had hit Tomball, Texas, and 2)  that there had been a hostage-taking incident that had shut down the Dallas airport, apparently just after I left there.   Man, that was a spooky feeling; I shook my fist at God and sang, “Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me.”   For some reason, on Hayes’ web site there is a photo that shows him batting left-handed; go figure.

Charlie Hayes—Wins and Losses Contributed

Travis Fryman 97, Frank Malzone 75

            Travis Fryman won four categories by wide margins to coast to a surprisingly easy 97-75 victory over Boston Red Sox legend Frank Malzone.    Fryman will meet Sal Bando in Cleveland on September 24.

            I know that many people were picking Frank Malzone to win this one, but Malzone benefits in reputation from four illusions.  First, he played in the best hitters’ park in baseball in his time, and had a career average of .296 in his career at home, .252 on the road. 

            Second, RBI.   Malzone batted a huge number of times with runners in scoring position, for reasons that I don’t fully understand.   He led the American League in at bats with runners in scoring position in 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960, was second in that category in 1961, third in 1962.   At the time, literally no one would have known this, including Malzone and including the people who ran the league’s statistical information services; therefore, there was always a perception that he was a great clutch hitter, because he was always driving in more than his share of runs.

            Third, on base percentage.   At the time, very few people had any grasp of the importance of on base percentage, which was not an official stat, and was not a stat that was published anywhere on a regular basis, and there was almost no awareness of batter’s walks.   Baseball fans of Malzone’s era really were not even aware that Malzone rarely walked, as walk numbers were basically uncirculated except in a few exceptional cases.

            And fourth, there is a difference in how many of us perceive players from different generations.   Frank Malzone, to people of my age, was a universally respected player, someone who towered above us as we learned to love the game, like Minnie Minoso or Luis Aparicio or Rocky Colavito or Gus Bell or Curt Flood.   It is very difficult to force ourselves to judge those players by the same rational standards that we apply to players who are younger than us and who we saw come to the majors and struggle to find their place.   It is easy for us to say that Marquis Grissom or Joe Carter wasn’t that good because what drives an offense is on-base percentage; it is harder to make the same point about someone who was a giant when I was small.   On some level, we are arguing with our old schoolmasters.

            Still, based on the evidence, Travis Fryman was pretty clearly better than Malzone.   Malzone was a Gold Glove fielder and a contributing offensive player, and I might give him a break on a comparison because his career was artificially shortened on the front end by some things that were beyond his control, but the gap between him and Fryman is just too large to suggest that he was a better player than Travis Fryman.

Frank Malzone—Wins and Losses Contributed

Freddy Go Home

Cooperstown Wants You; We Don’t

            Harry Steinfeldt, as you learned Trivia 101, was the third baseman on the Tinkers to Evers to Chance infield, the only player in that infield who isn’t in the Hall of Fame.   On Sunday morning, Steinfeldt got a small measure of revenge by defeating one of Valhalla’s own, New York Giants third baseman Freddy Lindstrom, 83-82 in overtime.

            Whupped badly in terms of power and hitting for average, Steinfeldt fell into a 45-17 hole after three events, but rallied on Plate Discipline, Career Length, Defense and Team Success.

            Steinfeldt in the second round will meet the winner of Wednesday’s contest between Chipper Jones and Don Hoak; good luck with that, Harry.   I hear Chipper’s got some game.

            Fred Lindstrom was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1976, and I have been roundly denouncing his selection since 1976.   I have been wrong about many, many things in that time; many players I have had to admit were better than I thought they were, some I have had to admit were not as good.

            I have yet to see anything that begins to suggest that I was ever wrong about Freddy Lindstrom.   Lindstrom had the highest career batting average of any player in this tournament, .311, and he did have enough power to drive in 107 runs in 1928, 106 in 1930.   He had 231 hits in each of those seasons.

            But, of course, more runs per game were scored in that era even than in the steroid era; the National League ERA in 1930 was 4.97.   In the steroid era it peaked at 4.63.   Lindstrom rarely walked (his career high in walks was 40, and he usually walked about 30 times a season), and his power was limited.   His speed was nothing special.

            Lindstrom coached in the minors and at Northwestern University (1951-1954), and he still has many friends in baseball.   Don Zminda was telling me at the SABR convention that Freddy Lindstrom was his first boss.   Don, who now heads the office that creates a very large percentage of the stats you see on major league telecasts, used to be a mailman.   Lindstrom was the Postmaster in Evanston, Illinois, a political job that involved ceremonial duties.   Evanston, incidentally, is where the Baseball Digest was published for many years; maybe still is, I don’t know.

            Lindstrom was a very good player in 1928, yes, but you’re talking about a player who was a legitimately good player for 7 years at most, and not much more than a .500 player in several of those, and nowhere near the MVP level in any season other than 1928.   It’s like putting Aramis Ramirez or Kevin Seitzer in the Hall of Fame.

            Lindstrom’s friends will tell you that he was an outstanding defensive third baseman, but there is a complete lack of evidence that this is true.   Although he did play more games at third base than at any other position, he was moved off of third base at the age of 25, and never went back except for a week here and there.   It is my opinion, as it has been since 1976, that Lindstrom’s selection to the Hall of Fame was a disgrace, that not only was he not a legitimate Hall of Famer, but that in fact he was nowhere near the most minimal standard of Hall of Fame performance.

Mike Lowell 75, Hubie Brooks 58

            Is a 9 beating an 8 really an upset?  Ninth seeded Mike Lowell wore down Hubie Brooks with a combination of power, defense, and plate discipline, and rolled to a relatively easy first-round victory.

            Buddy Bell, the top seed in the Los Angeles regional, will meet Tom Brookens tomorrow, and Lowell will face the winner of that game on September 25.

            Three of the players eliminated today have unusually similar career batting stats; for that matter, Lindstrom’s aren’t too much different, either, except for the era in which he played, when batting averages were very high.   But Charlie Hayes, Frank Malzone and Hubie Brooks all hit between 133 and 149 homers, drove in between 740 and 824 runs, and hit between .262 and .274.   Their career OPS were .714, .714, and .717.    Their career on-base percentages all fall within a one-point range (.315 to .316), while their slugging percentages are five points top to bottom, .398 to .403.  

            Hubie ranks a little bit better than the other two guys, as a hitter, because the offensive context in which he competed was one of fewer runs.   Both Malzone and Hayes, however, were outstanding fielders.   Hubie was not; Hubie’s defensive value was mostly in his versatility, that you could put him anywhere on the field and he wouldn’t embarrass you.   Hubie was a very positive teammate, and a role player that organizations were happy to have available to them. 

Hubie Brooks—Wins and Losses

            In tomorrow’s contests, sixth-seeded Harlond Clift will take on Doug Rader in Baltimore, 7-seed Willie Jones will battle Bill Bradley in Cleveland, 8-seeded Pinky Whitney will face 9-seed Edgardo Alfonzo in St. Louis, and #1 seed Buddy Bell will take the floor against Tom Brookens in Los Angeles. 

            On Tuesday it will be Billy Nash against Joe Randa, Clete Boyer against Ken Keltner, Gary Gaetti against Bill Melton, and Tim Wallach against Bob Aspromonte.

            Troy Glaus remains the best player eliminated from the tournament at this point.   This is how the 22 players eliminated from the tournament so far would rate, compared to one another: