Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - This Day In Baseball: 29 July 2005

This Day In Baseball: 29 July 2005

You gotta be careful with your body. Your body is like a bar of soap. The more you use it, the more it wears down.
-- Dick Allen

In other words, don't expect to see Gregg Zaun catching tonight...

The Yankees won behind new ace Aaron Small - the Bombers are 1.5 behind Boston in the division, .5 behind Oakland in the Wild Card. In their ongoing project to sign every pitcher with a pulse, they inked Hideo Nomo to a minor-league deal last week. They then thought - hey, what are we doing signing Tampa Bay's cast-offs, and traded with Colorado for Shaun Chacon.

It was one month ago - June 29 - that Kenny Rogers had his meltdown, and he's finally begun serving his suspension, although the union is expected to file a grievance (or already has.) Rogers owed it to his teammates to do everything he could to: a) stay on the mound while they were still trying to contend, and b) reduce the amount of time he would be away. But Texas went 12-13 while all this played out, and watched Oakland scoot past them.

Atlanta completed the sweep over Washington, and holds a 3 game lead in the NL East. Jeff Francouer, 21 years old, hit a pair of homers and is now hitting .441 since his July 7 arrival from AA when Brian Jordan went on the DL.

Washington is now in a dead heat with Houston - yes, Houston - for the Wild Card. Houston has gone 34-12 since June 7. They're hotter than Oakland.

In the division nobody wants to win, the Padres have lost 9 of 10 and still hold a two game lead over Arizona. Ramon Hernandez is out, and Robert Fick and Phil Nevin will handle the catching. Nevin made his first start behind the plate since 1999 this week, and maybe he'll want to rethink that whole trade veto...

The games:

AL
Minnesota (Silva 7-4, 3.38) at Boston (Miller 3-4, 4.57) 7:05
Los Angeles (Santana 5-4, 5.64) at New York (Mussina 10-5, 3.83) 7:05
Texas (Park 8-5, 5.66) at Toronto (Downs 0-1, 5.53) 7:07
Kansas City (Carrasco 5-4, 4.24) at Tampa Bay (Fossum 5-8, 3.94) 7:15
Chicago (Hernandez 7-3, 4.78) at Baltimore (Bedard 5-2, 2.11) 7:35
Detroit (Douglass 3-0, 2.10) at Oakland (Harden 8-4, 2.28) 10:05
Cleveland (Millwood 4-9, 3.19) at Seattle (Sele 6-11, 5.14) 10:05

NL
Arizona (Vazquez 9-9, 4.37) at Chicago (Prior 7-3, 3.23) 2:20
Philadelphia (Myers 8-5, 3.24) at Colorado (Chacon 1-7, 4.09) 5:05
Pittsburgh (Williams (8-7, 4.35) at Atlanta (Ramirez 8-6, 4.57) 7:35
Washington (Armas 5-4, 4.73) at Florida (Beckett 9-6, 3.33) 7:35
San Francisco (Rueter 2-7, 5.73) at Milwaukee (Davis 9-7, 4.07) 8:05
New York (Benson 7-3, 3.14) at Houston (Rodriguez 5-4, 6.18) 8:05
Cincinnati (Hudson 1-5, 8.83) at San Diego (Astacio 2-9, 5.84) 10:05
St.Louis (Morris 11-3, 3.42) at Los Angeles (Penny 5-6, 3.54) 10:40

Posted by Magpie on Friday, July 29 2005 @ 11:23 AM EDT.

This Day In Baseball: 29 July 2005 | 21 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Mike Green - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 11:47 AM EDT (#124150) #

With Chacon being traded, Jose Acevedo is scheduled to start this afternoon for Colorado.

Vazquez-Prior is an interesting pitching match-up, with the deadline being 2 days away.

Craig B - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 11:59 AM EDT (#124154) #

Sean Douglass gets to face the A's tonight, it'll be interesting to see if he can continue his hot streak.

Brett - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 12:03 PM EDT (#124156) #

The Padres acquired David Ross last night, which will presumably end the Nevin experiment. Not that Ross is going to turn around their fortunes...

Gerry - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 12:27 PM EDT (#124166) #

Because I know someone will have the answer, so I don't have to look it up......

When was the last time a playoff team, or a division winner, had a losing record? San Diego, at 51-51, could be this years version.

Mike Green - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 12:30 PM EDT (#124168) #

I am quite sure that it hasn't occurred.

Jordan - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 12:34 PM EDT (#124169) #

Chuckle of the day, from Rotoworld:

Manager Mike Scioscia said Kelvim Escobar (elbow) may pitch out of the bullpen when he returns from the disabled list. "We'll see what the team needs at the time," Scioscia said. "Kelvim is a big part of the rotation, and we want him back as a starter. But it's impossible for us to make a determination until we see how much of the season is left and where he is physically."

Yeah, good luck with that, Mike.

Jordan - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 12:35 PM EDT (#124170) #

I think the Royals once won the AL West with an 83-79 record. That was, perhaps needless to say, a long time ago.

Pepper Moffatt - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 12:41 PM EDT (#124171) #

The '73 Mets won the NL East with a 82-79 record for a .509 winning percentage.

I think that's the lowest winning % to ever win a division, but I'm not 100% sure. I can't think of anyone else it could be.

PlatinumSombrero - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 01:08 PM EDT (#124175) #

Of course, before 1994 there were only two divisions. If the old divisional alignments still existed, the Braves would be well in front in the NL West and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

With three divisions a sub-.500 champ is bound to happen someday.

costanza - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 01:33 PM EDT (#124179) #

I think that's the lowest winning % to ever win a division, but I'm not 100% sure. I can't think of anyone else it could be.

This was an Aflac trivia question on a broadcast I was watching last week, and the not-so-Amazin' Mets were indeed the answer.

Craig B - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 01:43 PM EDT (#124183) #

In 1994, there were no division winners as such because of the strike, but the Texas Rangers finished first in the AL West with a record of (IIRC) 52-62.

Craig B - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 01:44 PM EDT (#124184) #

What's also interesting about that 1994 season is that the four AL West teams were the four worst teams in the AL. Every East and Central team had a better record than the "first-place" Rangers.

Jordan - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 01:56 PM EDT (#124186) #

So what was the best team not to make the playoffs?

The 1993 Giants won 103 games, but lost the NL West title to the 104-win Braves. I can't imagine it gets more frustrating than that.

Pepper Moffatt - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 01:59 PM EDT (#124187) #

I would imagine there's quite a few 100 win teams who didn't make the playoffs from the pre-divisional days. The only one that pops into my head, though, is the 1954 Yankees, who went 103-51 yet still finished 8 games behind the Indians.

Can anyone think of others? I already took the easy one. :)

mathesond - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 02:28 PM EDT (#124192) #

The interesting thing about the '54 Yankees (IIRC) was that they were the only Yankee team in a stretch of about 9-10 years that a) didn't make the WS, and b) won 100+ games.

Brett - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 02:32 PM EDT (#124195) #

The Cardinals and Dodgers had a pair of epic battles in 1941-42. The Cardinals in 1942 won 106 games, while the Dodgers won 104. Brooklyn had a big lead early on, but the Cards kinda caught fire in the second half.

July           22   9   
August         25   8   
September      21   4

Then they whupped the Yankees in the World Series. Stan Musial was 21 years old.

perlhack - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 02:36 PM EDT (#124196) #

Thanks to the Lahman Database, and a quick SQL statement, I present the list of teams with at least 100 wins that did not finish first:

+------------+--------+------+------+------+
| year | teamID | Rank | W    | L    |
+------+--------+------+------+------+
| 1909 | CHN    |    2 |  104 |   49 |
| 1942 | BRO    |    2 |  104 |   50 |
| 1954 | NYA    |    2 |  103 |   51 |
| 1993 | SFN    |    2 |  103 |   59 |
| 1962 | LAN    |    2 |  102 |   63 |
| 2001 | OAK    |    2 |  102 |   60 |
| 1961 | DET    |    2 |  101 |   61 |
+------+--------+------+------+------+

perlhack - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 02:47 PM EDT (#124200) #

And to answer the original questions - fewest wins by a first-place team - we have:

+------+--------+------+------+------+
| year | teamID | Rank | W    | L    |
+------+--------+------+------+------+
| 1973 | NYN    |    1 |   82 |   79 |
| 1984 | KCA    |    1 |   84 |   78 |
| 1997 | HOU    |    1 |   84 |   78 |
| 1987 | MIN    |    1 |   85 |   77 |
| 1915 | CHF    |    1 |   86 |   66 |
| 1972 | DET    |    1 |   86 |   70 |
| 1997 | CLE    |    1 |   86 |   75 |
+------+--------+------+------+------+

I've obviously excluded pre-1900, 1981, 1994 and 1995 from the list. Please check your ticket to see if you hold the winning numbers...

Ryan C - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 03:05 PM EDT (#124203) #

What's that? did somebody say the Jays are only 3.0 games out of the wildcard spot? Youneverknow.

Craig B - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 03:05 PM EDT (#124204) #

Some great second-place teams...

* '28 A's, 98-55 with a great offense and the best staff in the majors.

* '35 Cardinals, the Gas House Gang, 96-58

* '42 Dodgers, 104-50. A war year but an early one.

* '49 Red Sox, 96-58 and a truly great and memorable team.

* '51 Dodgers, 97-60. "The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant..."

* '54 Yankees, as mentioned

* '61 Tigers won 101 games and were almost lapped anyway. Norm Cash was All-Everything.

* '62 Dodgers, 102-63 and lost a playoff to the Giants

* '64 White Sox, should have been one of the great "no-name" miracle pennant winners of all time. Went 98-64 with ONE really recognizable player (Hoyt Wilhelm).

* '65 _and_ '66 Giants, cursed

* '74 Reds, 98-64 and a great performance from the early Big Red Machine

* '78 Red Sox, 99-64. Bucky F'in Dent.

* '79 Expos, 95-65 and Ross Grimsley I Hate You

* '80 Orioles, a tremendous Earl Weaver team and probably better than the '93 Giants all told. Badly, badly hurt by Palmer's decline and Kiko Garcia's flameout.

* '81 Cardinals, best record in the NL East but lost both halves of the schedule.

* '85 Mets, 96-66 and a precursor to a brilliant '86, and '85 Yankees, 97-64 and an excellent team.

* '87 Blue Jays, 96-66. We all know what happened here.

* '93 Giants, clearly the best since '80 at least

* No really good team has missed the playoffs since '93, although some have come 2nd in their division.

The 1954 Dodgers are an interesting example of a great second-place team, but one that actually didn't play that well. Personnel-wise, they were incredibly strong, but only went 92-62 and finished five games out. The main reason was extremely poor seasons by Campanella and Newcombe... if they had had their normal type of seasons, the team would have won over 100 games.

The best third-place team ever was maybe the '62 Reds, who went 98-64, or more likely the '08 Pirates, who went 98-56 and had five starters with ERAs under 2.30, plus the best player of his era having his best ever season. Anyone else got a candidate?

Jefftown - Friday, July 29 2005 @ 05:38 PM EDT (#124222) #

For best third-place team, how about the 1950 Red Sox, who at 94-60 won only two less games than their '49 second-place finish Craig mentioned.

They finished just two games ahead of perhaps the best *fourth*-place team in history, the 1950 Indians, who were 92-62 and *twenty-five* games better than the 5th-place Senators. Al Rosen hit 37 HR in that stellar rookie season of his, and Larry Doby had a .986 OPS. Bob Lemon was their ace 23 wins.

Speaking of good 4th-place teams, I wonder if whoever's 4th in the AL East will be better than the first place team in the NL West. It could be an interesting wager...

This Day In Baseball: 29 July 2005 | 21 comments | Create New Account

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