Batter's Box Interactive Magazine: Blue Jays at Cubs, August 16-18 (The Son Also Rises)

Now one and one is two
Two and two is four
I'm heavy loaded, baby
I'm booked, I gotta go

Once upon a time, kids, there was a third major league. The ball park where the Blue Jays will be spending the weekend must be among the last surviving bits of evidence.

The Federal League started up as an independent minor league in 1913, and the following year they attempted to do what the American League had done just fourteen years earlier - position themselves as a competing major league. To that end, they attempted to sign away players and managers from existing major league teams. Chicago's Federal League entry was called the Whales, and team president Charles Weeghman provided them a brand new brick ball park to play in. They began work on the property on 23 February 1914, and the Whales played their home opener there exactly two months later. Weeghman named the park after himself, as they so often do.

The Federal League folded after just two seasons, but Weeghman promptly bought the Cubs and moved them into his new park for the 1916 season. And they've been there ever since. William Wrigley, the chewing gum magnate (what a concept!) had bought a minority share in 1916 and gradually increased his part of the holdings of Weeghman's other businesses declined. The Wrigley Company, now a subsidiary of Mars Incorporated, is still the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of chewing gum, even if ballplayers have generally preferred bubble gum over the famous Wrigley brands. However John Lennon invariably chewed gum while singing, and Wrigley's Spearmint was apparently his chosen chew.

Wrigley had become the majority owner by 1921, and named the park after himself in 1926. It was the legendary Wild Bill Veeck, the son of longtime Cubs president William Veeck Sr, who came up with the idea of planting ivy on the outfield wall. It's a ground rule double if a ball gets stuck there and the fielder raises his arms in frustration - if he actually tries to locate the ball amongst the vegetation, the play is alive.

The Blue Jays have only visited Wrigley Field twice over the years. They took two of three games back in June 2005. Gustavo Chacin pitched seven shutout innings and Reed Johnson hit a three run homer in a 4-1 victory on a Monday night. Five consecutive eight inning hits broke up a 3-3 tie the following night. The Cubs salvaged the finale when Sergio Mitre and two relievers combined on a three hit shutout, which was required in order to hang a tough loss on Roy Halladay.

The Jays didn't return to the north side until August 2017. They had been playing fairly well, crawling back within range of .500 after going 10-5 to that point in August. The Cubs put an end to that, sweeping the three games at the beginning of a 2-10 stretch for that ill-fated crew. Jake Arrieta beat J.A. Happ in the opener, which also saw Tim Mayza allow the first runs of his career in his third appearance on Javier Baez's two run homer. The Cubs took the next game 4-3, and rallied from a 5-3 deficit in a bizarre bottom of the tenth inning to take the finale and pull off the sweep. Roberto Osuna struck out Kyle Schwarber, but he reached first on a wild pitch. Ben Zobrist singled Schwarber to third, and he scored on another wild pitch. Anthony Rizzo grounded out, and Osuna struck out Baez - but he took first on the third wild pitch of the inning. Baez stole second, and Osuna hit Jason Heyward with a pitch to load the bases. Alex Avila's single then plated the tying and winning runs. Miguel Montero was Osuna's catcher that day - Rafael Lopez was also seen behind the plate that weekend. Also getting into the games for Toronto were such immortal Blue Jays as Rob Refsnyder, Nori Aoki, Nick Tepesch, and Matt Dermody.

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By my count, Will Wagner is the 28th Blue Jay whose father also played in the majors. I think I've got everyone, but I thought I had everyone when I'd only found 25 of them. I'm not counting Bobby Mattick and Mel Queen Jr, also the sons of major leaguers, who both wore the uniform with distinction. Neither actually played for the Blue Jays, who didn't exist during their playing days.

The first generation has so far given us two Hall of Fame players: Craig Biggio and Vladimir Guerrero. Billy Wagner missed by just five votes last time, so he'll probably make it on his next (and last) chance. Jose Cruz was a tremendous player, but his greatness is largely forgotten today, and he looks like a long shot to me.

The second generation has given us one Hall of Famer so far (Roberto Alomar) - most of the others have already removed themselves from consideration. Of those still active, I will say with some confidence that Daulton Varsho, Will Wagner, Mark Leiter Jr, and Cavan Biggio are not going to play their way into Cooperstown. Whether Vladimir Jr and Bo Bichette do or do not still remains to be seen. It's always unlikely, but for them it's still possible.

We shall rank them by Collective WAR. While I have long been wondering what WAR is good for, I no longer believe the correct answer is "Absolutely Nothing." No, it was practically custom-made for this type of silly exercise.

1. Guerrero 79.2 - (Vladimir 59.5, Vladimir Jr 19.7)
Vladdy's father was a great player obviously. He was a truly strange and memorable one as well. He didn't really have a baseball player's body. He looked a little like an NBA forward, with very long arms and legs and huge feet and hands, and there was just something weird about how all those parts had been put together. He's the only major league player who's ever reminded me of one of those creatures from Avatar. He played like someone playing a game very like baseball, but slightly different somehow, as if he'd come from some different sporting discipline - he hit like one of those great West Indian cricketers, viciously attacking any baseball close enough to wave at with his bat. He threw from right field like an Olympic javelin champion, hurling mighty long distance missiles. He never threw the baseball -it was always a heave. One of a kind.

2. Alomar 77.5 - (Sandy 10.5, Roberto 67.0)
Roberto's father was a skinny little defensive whiz, who played for fifteen seasons. He came up as a shortstop with the Braves, and had an eight year run as a regular playing second base in the AL. He was a durable player, and a very good base stealer, which must be why he spent most of his career hitting leadoff with his career .290 On Base Average. He didn't take a walk, he had no power whatsoever, and he might hit .260 if he was having a good year.

3. Cruz 74.0 - (Jose 54.4, Jose Jr 19.6)
Junior was a good player, but his father was a special player, one of the best hitters in the National League for almost ten years, who was also capable of stealing as many as 40 bases in a season. The Astrodome managed to disguise just how good he was for most of his career. In 1983-84, in his 160 road games, Cruz hit .334 and slugged .519 with 23 HRs - but then he went home to Houston and hit .294, slugged .401, and hit just 3 HRs. That's what the Astrodome did to people. If he'd spent his prime in Boston, I bet he'd have hit .300 lifetime with at least 2500 hits. We'll just notice here that on the career WAR leaderboard, Jose Cruz can be found right in between a pair of Hall of Fame outfielders (Joe Medwick and Sam Rice)

4. Biggio 72.5 - (Craig 65.5, Cavan 7.0)
I think we're all pulling for Cavan, whose career may be on life support at the moment. Craig Biggio went to his first All-Star game in 1991, as a catcher - he was back the following year as a second baseman, which remains one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Think about it. You think right field to third base doesn't work very often? Has catcher to second base ever worked? Has it ever even been tried, apart from this one occasion? Biggio had never played the position - he'd played some shortstop in high school and a bit of outfield when he wasn't catching. What a thing to try, what a thing to actually make work. Art Howe was the manager responsible - he thought the strain of catching would wear Biggio down, and take away his speed. He was also worried about Biggio - who was not a big person - getting pulverized in a collision at the plate. This mad idea worked brilliantly, of course, and after eleven outstanding seasons in the infield, Biggio moved to centre field when the Astros signed Jeff Kent. Catcher to second base to centre field - it's as if the guy was getting faster as he got older. Bill James argues in his Historical Abstract that Biggio was the best ball player of the 90s (non-Bonds division) - in other words, that he was better than Griffey.

5. Stottlemyre 61.7 - (Mel 40.7, Todd 21.0)
You remember Todd, I trust - fiery, intense, emotional Todd. His dad wasn't like that at all - a calm, cool sinker baller who had the misfortune of being the Yankees' best player during the dismal CBS years. He spent the prime of his career during the second Dead Ball Era, but he wasn't the type of pitcher who was helped much by the inflated strike zone of the mid 60s. He wasn't a hard thrower with control issues. He didn't strike out many, but he didn't walk many, he kept the ball in the park and got a million ground balls, and was dependably one of the best and most reliable starters in the league. Stottlemyre threw across his body, and his shoulder was bothering him for his last few seasons, before his rotator cuff finally gave out at age 32, back when rotator cuff injuries were career-enders. He was a horse until then, never missing a start, never pitching less than 250 innings in any of his full seasons.

6. McRae 42.1 - (Hal 27.9, Brian 14.3)

7. Speier 38.3 - (Chris 30.6, Justin 7.7)
Justin had three pretty good seasons in the Toronto bullpen. His father was an NL shortstop who never quite lived up to his early promise (back problems may have had something to do with that) but still spent 19 years in the majors, most of them as an everyday player, because he was the type of player managers have always loved, especially at shortstop. He was reliable. He had good hands, a good arm, he made all the plays he was supposed to make, and he hit just enough that you could tell yourself he was good enough.

8. Werth 29.0 - (Dennis -0.2, Jayson 29.2)
Jayson got into 41 games over two years as a Blue Jay before being traded to the Dodgers for Jason Frasor. He became a star in Philadelphia, he got paid in Washington, and had himself a nice career. Dennis Werth was actually his step-father (Jayson was born Jayson Gowan) whose MLB days - parts of four seasons with the Yankees and Royals - were already over when he married Jayson's mother. Jayson came up as a catcher, and his step-father worked with him and a pitching machine teaching him the trade. Jayson's grandfather and his uncle, the Schofields, will soon be making their own appearance in this roll call.

9. Wagner 28.2 - (Billy 27.8, Will 0.4)
WAR hates relief pitchers with a fiery passion. But I know I'd rather have had Billy Wagner on my team for all those years than Chris Speier, and I'll bet you would too. Wagner was still very near his peak when he retired - he'd just saved 37 games with an ERA of 1.43, ERA+ of 275 while striking out 13.5 batters per 9. He almost surely could have stuck around long enough to become just the third man to save 500 games (he retired with 422) in which case I think he'd probably be in Cooperstown already.

10. Drabek 27.5 - (Doug 27.6, Kyle -0.1)
Kyle was the prized prospect acquired by Toronto in the Roy Halladay trade. It just didn't work out (8-15, 5.27 over parts of five seasons.) His father was also involved in a big trade - after going 7-8 4.10 as a rookie with the 1986 Yankees, he was sent to Pittsburgh in the Rick Rhoden deal. Drabek soon emerged as Jim Leyland's ace, winning the 1990 Cy Young, and taking some very, very painful post-season defeats. He took a 1-0 loss in the sixth game of the 1991 NLCS, when Olson doubled home Gant in the ninth inning. A year later, he was on the mound for game seven against the Braves - he took a 2-0 lead into the ninth but then he ran out of gas. Jose Lind botched a play in the infield, Stan Belinda couldn't retire Francisco Cabrera, and finally Barry Bonds couldn't throw out Sid Bream. Otherwise the Jays would have played the Pirates in the 1992 Series.

11. Schofield 27.3 - (Dick 8.5, Dick 18.8)
The second Dick Schofield - he wasn't a junior - spent two seasons with the Blue Jays - his 1993 season was ended in May by a badly broken arm, which was why the Tony Fernandez trade was necessary. He had been regarded as great prospect coming up, but he never did hit in the majors. He was (and is) Richard Craig Schofield. His father was John Richard Schofield, who is now listed as "Ducky" in the record books as if we can't tell them apart. Ducky's father, John Schofield (also nicknamed "Ducky") spent ten years as a minor league shortstop - Ducky Jr came up as a teenager with the 1953 Cardinals and went on to play in 19 seasons. He was mostly a utility infielder, although he did spend a few years as the Pirates shortstop after Dick Groat was traded and before Gene Alley came up. His big moment came in 1960. Groat, who would lead the NL in hitting and win the MVP award, had his wrist broken by a pitch in early September. Schofield stepped into the breach and hit .403 (27-67) down the stretch. His firstborn was the former Blue Jay - his second child, daughter Kim, is Jayson Werth's mother.

12. Mayberry 26.5 - (John 25.0, John Jr 1.5)
The Mayberrys, father and son, both played for the Blue Jays, the first such duo in franchise history (shoutout to Doom Service!) Junior spent September 2014 with the Jays - he was a better athlete than his father. He just couldn't hit like him. The original John Mayberry was a great hitting prospect with the Astros, but the Astrodome was about the worst place in the world was a young slugger to establish himself in the majors. After he'd hit .181 in 46 games at age 22, the Astros traded him to Kansas City for a couple of relief pitchers. Royals Stadium was and is a terrible place for a power hitter, but it was much more hospitable than the Astrodome, and Mayberry blossomed into a mighty offensive force with four outstanding seasons. And then he discovered cocaine. Whitey Herzog ran him out of town, selling him to the Blue Jays for a bag of baseballs. Mayberry cleaned up his act, and was a solid citizen and decent player for four years here.

13. Oliver 25.5 - (Bob 4.3, Darren 21.2)
You remember Darren - he spent the last two seasons of his career here. He came up as starter with Texas, moved permanently to the bullpen when he was 35, and had a remarkable closing kick to his career, lowering his ERA five years in a row (from 3.78 to, eventually, 2.06) in his age 36-41 seasons. I had completely forgotten his father, who spent a few years playing first base (mostly) and right field for the Royals and Angels in the early 70s.

14. Bichette 23.1 - (Dante 5.7, Bo 17.4)
You're all familiar with Bo - his dad wasn't chopped liver, although I think he's generally dismissed as a creation of Coors Field. He did put up some pretty flashy numbers (.316/.352/.540) over his seven seasons with the Rockies. He must have had a few hits on the road during those years, dontcha think? Dante was kind of Jesse Barfield lite - the same basic skill set, just at a lower level. He had some home run pop, he struck out a lot, he had a good arm in right field.

15. Segui 22.4 - (Diego 12.0, David 10.4)
David was a weird player - he came up with the Orioles as an offensively challenged defensive whiz. Except his position was first base. He didn't hit much until he was about 28, by which time he was introducing many of his teammates to the wonders of modern chemistry. His father was signed out of Cuba by Cincinnati in 1958, and made it to the majors with Kansas City in 1962. He wasted much of his career working for terrible teams - Kansas City, Washington, the Seattle Pilots. When he finally landed on a good team, with Oakland in 1970, he led the AL in ERA and ERA+ working as a swingman. Diego will be 87 years old on Saturday, and he will forever provide the answer to a fine trivia question. Who was the only man to play for both the Seattle Pilots and the Seattle Mariners? Diego Segui, that's who.

16. Shaw 22.3 - (Jeff 13.9, Travis 8.4)
Travis Shaw spent the COVID season with the Blue Jays - he'd had two excellent years with the Brewers, but something happened to his bat and it never quite came back. His father pitched in the majors for twelves seasons; he was pretty mediocre for the first six (11-25, 4.50) but something clicked when he went to Cincinnati in 1996. He was closing games for them by the following season, and would save 194 games and go to a pair of All-Star games over the next five years for the Reds and Dodgers.

17. Roenicke 17.5 - (Gary 15.4, Josh 2.1)
Josh came to Toronto in the Rolen -Encarnacion trade. He didn't do anything here, but he did manage to give the Rockies a good season out of their pen. His father is remembered for the seven years he spent as the RH half of one of Earl Weaver's most successful platoon arrangements, sharing left field with John Lowenstein from 1979 through 1985.

18. LaRoche 14.2 - (Dave 14.4, Andy -0.2)
Andy played one game as a Blue Jay - he went 0-4 against Texas in June 2013 filling in for an injured Lawrie. It was his last game in the majors. He was a third baseman who hit like a backup shortstop. His brother Adam did much better, playing twelve years before walking away from the game over a dispute with White Sox management. They were the sons of Dave LaRoche, who was generally a pretty good lefty reliever even if he's mostly thought of now as the guy who was willing to throw an eephus pitch - his was known as "La Lob" - in actual game situations.

19. Varsho 13.9 - (Gary -0.5, Daulton 14.4)
Daulton's father was a RH hitting outfielder, who managed to get into eight seasons despite being another guy who hit like a backup infielder - he hit 10 career HRs in almost 600 games. He did have a nice year as a fourth outfielder for the 1991 Pirates.

20. Virgil 8.6 - (Ozzie -0.4, Ozzie Jr 9.0)
Ozzie Jr spent five years as a regular catcher for the Phillies and Braves, and actually went to two All-Star games. Then - I don't know what happened. No one wanted him anymore? The Blue Jays signed him as a free agent midway through the 1989 season, but he spent most of what was left of the season in Syracuse. This was repeated the following year. And then he seems to have retired at age 33. His father, of course, became the first Dominican to play in the majors when he made his debut with the 1956 Giants (he would soon become the first dark-complexioned Detroit Tiger.) Virgil Sr was a third baseman who couldn't hit a lick, but he spent many years coaching in the majors - in particular, Dick Williams brought him along wherever he went.

21. Fletcher 7.6 (Tom 0.0, Darrin 7.6)
I didn't know Darrin Fletcher was the son of a major leaguer. Tom Fletcher was a LH pitcher who had just turned 20 when he was called to the big leagues by the Tigers in September 1962. He made his debut in the eighth inning against the Red Sox, with his team losing 6-2. Fletcher escaped his first inning without allowing a run, despite two walks and a wild pitch. He allowed two more hits in the ninth, but finished the game without allowing a run. And that one game was it, folks - he never pitched in the majors again. It looks like he lost all of 1963 to injury, but he came back and pitched in the minors until 1968 before calling it a career, or having it called for him.

22. Borbon 5.7 - (Pedro 4.9, Pedro Jr 0.8)
Pedro junior spent nine years in the majors as LH reliever of no particular distinction. Three of them were in Toronto: they went bad, decent, traded. All I remember is the walkoff grand slam he gave up to scrappy David Eckstein - Eckstein's second slam of a lost weekend in Anaheim. His father came up with the Angels in 1969 and finished with the Cardinals in 1980 but is mostly remembered for the ten years he spent in Cincinnati. Pedro was the one constant figure, as others came and went around him, in the bullpens that made Sparky Anderson famous as Captain Hook, that helped his Reds win four pennants and two championships.

23. Sprague 4.7 - (Ed -1.0, Ed Jr 5.7)
Ed Jr was part of two Blue Jays championships, once as a backup catcher (who delivered a huge pinch-hit homer) and once as the starting third baseman. Ed Sr was a mediocre RH reliever, a teammate of Borbon Sr for a couple of years.

24. Leiter 4.3 - (Mark 3.8, Mark Jr 0.5)
Mark Jr is pitching for the Yankees right now - he spent a dismal month with the Blue Jays in 2018, missed the following season with TJ surgery, and has since managed to establish himself as a decent relief option. His father is the elder brother of Al Leiter, who had a fine long career with the Yankees, Jays, Marlins, and Mets (and Al's son, of course, is Rangers prospect Jack Leiter.) Mark didn't make it to the majors until he was 27 - he wasn't as good as Al - and ended up pitching for eight teams in eleven seasons

25. Grilli 4.3 - (Steve -0.2, Jason 4.5)
You probably remember Jason - he spent a decade scuffling on the margins, working for Florida, the White Sox, Detroit, Colorado, Texas and losing a year to injury before suddenly emerging as an ace closer with the Pirates at age 34. He was 39 when he came to Toronto, and played a huge role in straightening out the bullpen for the 2016 team. John Gibbons seriously overworked him (Gibby didn't have a lot of options that year), and Grilli fell apart by season's end, and was never the same. He was a lot of fun for a while. His father spent three years as a marginal relief arm for some marginal Detroit teams, but his last game in the majors was the only one he pitched as a Blue Jay, a couple of scoreless innings in 1979.

26. Tolleson 3.5 - (Wayne 2.3, Steve 1.2)
I described Steve as a multi-purpose mediocrity in the 2014 Report Card, one of those guys "who can do pretty much everything, but don't do anything particularly well." I remember he went 4-32 as a pinch hitter. His father was a similar player, who did get a few years as the regular Texas shortstop.

27. Smith 1.8 - (Dwight 2.6, Dwight Jr -0.8)
You remember Dwight Jr, an outfield prospect who actually played rather well in his two trials with the Blue Jays, but they didn't believe in him. His subsequent play in Baltimore suggests they may have been right. His late father was the runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1989, but had a great deal of trouble approaching that level of performance again. He was a bat off the bench for the Braves 1995 champion.

28. St. Claire 1.1 - (Ebba 0.7, Randy 0.4)
Randy pitched in ten seasons, half of them with Montreal, as a RH reliever of no particular distinction. His career concluded with two outings with the 1994 Jays. His father spent four years as a backup catcher with the Braves and Giants at the beginning of the 1950s.

Blue Jays at Cubs, August 16-18 (The Son Also Rises)

Friday, August 16 2024 @ 10:00 AM EDT