Kuzul

For the first time in 17 years Andy Pettitte won’t be putting on pinstripes (he even wore pinstripes during his Houston stint).

Pettitte suited up for the Bronx Bombers in 13 of his 16 seasons in the big leagues. In his career he amassed 240 wins and 138 losses (Yankee record: 203-112). Pettitte is third all time in career wins in the Yankees organization.

Think about that for a minute. Andy Pettitte is third all time in wins for an organization that’s done nothing but win since they won their first World Series way back in 1923.

So is he get the call to Cooperstown? It’s not an easy question to answer.

Why he is a Hall a Famer:

Andy Pettitte joined the Yankees back in ’95. In ’96 he went 21-8 and the Yankees won their first World Series since 1978. He played 11 more seasons in New York after that, and was the one constant in the Yankees rotation during their five championships. 

Pettitte is one of four Yankees (Jeter, Posada, Rivera) that has been apart of all five championship teams since ’96. I believe the other three guys will all be in the Hall one day.

His 240 career wins are more than the likes of Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling and John Smoltz. Pettitte won over 20 games twice in his career, and won 15 or more games eight different times. He finished in the top five of the Cy Young in four different seasons. 

Pettitte’s Hall of Fame case will come down to more than what the back of his baseball card reads. His role in the Yankees championship runs should carry a lot of weight on whether or not he gets in the Hall of Fame. Try and name another starting pitcher who has won five World Series championships over the last 20 years.

That’s what I thought.

Why he won’t get the call the Cooperstown

Pettitte wasn’t always the Yankees ace when they were winning championships (though he definitely was in ’96). The Yankees had  Mike Mussina, David Wells, Roger Clemens, and David Cone during their championship runs. In many of those years Pettitte was the third guy in the rotation (behind Clemens and Mussina). I personally don’t think that should be knock on him, but there will be voters that will hold that against him.

Pettitte’s numbers are good, they’re really good, but they aren’t great. In this day and age a pitcher needs to win 300 games or have been the most dominant pitcher in the game for a part of his career if he’s going to get in the Hall of Fame (see Pedro Martinez http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martipe02.shtml). Pettitte doesn’t have either on his resume.

The biggest mark against Pettitte is his admission of HGH use. He was one of the first players to come out and actually admit to using performance enhancing substances. Pettitte was sincere in his apology and actually earned a lot of respect for coming clean. But that doesn’t change the fact that he used PED’s.

The Hall of Fame hasn’t been kind to players who’ve used PED’s; Mark McGwire only recieved 19.8 percent of the votes on last years ballot. So Pettitte’s odds don’t look very good in that respect.

However, over time the steroid issue will begin to die down, and some of the players from that particular era will eventually get in. There will be new baseball writers that get a Hall of Fame vote in the future; many of them will have grown up during the height of the steroid era. Will these new voters keep out all of their childhood heroes? Only time will tell.

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There was once a time when baseball players were heroes.

Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Greenberg, Warren Spahn, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and Bob Feller (just to name a few) all missed time in the prime of their careers because they were out fighting wars. These Hall of Famers put their lives on the line to defend our great country.  

It doesn’t get any more heroic than that.    

Those days look to be long gone. In today’s game it appears that everyone is just looking for the next big pay day.  

I grew up in the great northwest and loved the Mariners growing up. I remember when Alex Rodriguez left for Texas to take the biggest contract in sports history. People hated him after that (still do), at least they did in Seattle. The fans threw monopoly money at him when he returned to Seattle. 

Why do people root against A-Rod? It’s simple: he’s a money grabber (among other things, but the money is where it started). At least that’s the perception that a lot people have about him.

This brings us to Albert Pujols. He’s the best player in the game today. Hands down. 

Pujols had been in talks with the Cardinals about signing an extension before the season began. Those talks now appear to be dead. The Cards deadline to have a deal done was today, and it didn’t happen. Pujols, 31, was reportedly looking for a 10-year deal in the $300 million range.

Pujols will now be a free agent at the end of the 2011 season.

So what’s going to happen with the slugger? He’s going to be able to name his price when he hits the market next offseason. If he wants to be the richest man to ever step on the diamond, then he probably will be.

But is it really all about the money?

Pujols was baseball’s last hope. He’s the golden boy, the poster child, the savior or whatever you want to call him. He’s the one guy who is threatening the record books that hasn’t been linked to steroids. He’s done everything right. Everyone has nothing but good things to say about him, he really can do no wrong.

Now he’s faced with a decision: Get the money, or stay in St. Louis.

In this day and age we rarely see great players stay with one team throughout their entire careers. Ripken and Gwynn were the last guys that come to memory, and we have Jeter and Pujols today. It’s a truly special accomplishment.

For the sake of baseball let’s hope Pujols stays in St. Louis. How great would it be if for once, just once, a superstar turned down the money and stayed home (it’s not like he’ll be a poor man if he stays). It would unprecedented in today’s sports world.

Baseball fans have put up with a lot over the past 10 or 15 years. Every guy they’ve tried to get behind has let them down in one way or another.

Take a stand Albert. Show us that it isn’t always about how fat your wallet is.

Don’t let us down. Baseball needs a hero.

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Michael Young wants out of Texas. 

The Texas Rangers acquired 3B Adrian Beltre this offseason, and Young no longer has spot in Texas’ infield. The Rangers had planned on Young being their designated hitter and a utility player. It’s apparent that he does not want to play that role.

Young has a no trade clause, and he put the Angels, Astros, Cardinals, Dodgers, Padres, Rockies, Twins and Yankees on a short list of teams that he’d play for. He currently he has three years on his current deal and is due $48 million over that span.

There have been reports that the Phillies spoke with the Rangers about the possibility of acquiring Young, but the talks didn’t go very far. Philadelphia already has Placido Polanco at third base, and they’d probably have to give up a guy like Joe Blanton to get Young. So Young going to the Phillies doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

The Yankees have already stated that they are not interested in Young.

The Angels don’t have the pieces to trade for him. 

The Card’s could use him at third, but their number one priority is signing Pujols, and Young’s contract is to fat. 

Young would be a great addition for the Dodgers, but general manager Ned Colletti has already stated that Young is too expensive.

That leaves us with the Astros, Padres, Rockies and Twins as potential landing spots.

The Astros could swap Carlos Lee for Young. Their contracts are very similar. Lee is due $18.5 million ($37 million over the next two years) next year, and Young is due $16 million ($48 million over the next three years).

The Padres have one of baseball’s lowest payroll’s and had to trade Adrian Gonzalez because they couldn’t afford him. 

Minnesota just signed Tsuyoshi Nishioka from Japan to play second base for them, and they aren’t looking to make anymore major acquisitions this offseason.

The Rockies have expressed the most interest in Young, but they have made it clear that they would want Texas to take on a portion of his contract.

At this point there aren’t any suitors for the six-time All-Star and former batting champion. If Young wants to get out of Texas then he’s probably going to have to make himself more available to other teams.

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Felix Hernandez took the Cy Young last year after going 13-12 for Seattle. He went 1-9 when the Mariners scored two runs or less, and had the lowest run support of any pitcher in baseball.

Seattle needs some help in the bat department.

In homers, RBI’s, batting average, runs scored, on base, slugging and OPS, the Mariners were the major’s worst offensive team in every department.

The 513 runs that the Mariners managed to score were the lowest in the designated hitter era.

This off season the Mariners added Jack Cust and parted ways with Russell Branyan.

Seattle brought in Branyan back in 2009, and the organization believed that he could be a run producer in the middle of the lineup. He was productive when he played, jacking 31 homers in just 116 games back in 2009; but that was the problem. Branyan often found himself on the disabled list.

The Mariners hope Cust can come in and an anchor an offense that is so very desperate for some power.

Cust and Branyan look very similar on paper, but the Mariners made a major upgrade when they added Jack Cust to their lineup.

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I spend way to much time at baseballreference.com. For real. There actually might be something wrong with me. I don’t know what it is about baseball statistics and history that fascinates so much, all I know is that I’ve studied this stuff since I was eight years old and got my first pack of cards.

In one of my days of “research,” I compiled a list of the greatest pitchers for each franchise. There were teams like Atlanta that had guys like Warren Spahn, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Then there were teams like the Milwaukee Brewers that hadn’t ever had a great pitcher in the history of their franchise. Guys like Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling didn’t make this list, but others like Doug Drabek did. 

So anyway, here are greatest pitchers in each teams history.

Writer’s Note: Players had to be playing during or after Jackie Robinson’s debut to be considered (for obvious reasons). Baseball has been around for ever, and you gotta draw the line somewhere. 

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For those of you who haven’t heard, Jose Bautista blasted his 51st and 52nd home runs today. There have only been 26 players in the history of baseball to ever hit 50 home runs is a single season; it’s really a remarkable accomplishment. But for some reason, Jose Bautista hasn’t been getting any pub for what he has done this year.

In fact, instead of receiving congratulations for his accomplishment, he was questioned by the media about steroid use the day after he hit his 50th. That’s really sad. In this day and age, any time a guy puts up huge power numbers people are going to ask themselves, “Are these legitimate numbers, or is this guy on the juice?” Bautista himself said he understood why people would question his numbers this season.

There was once a time when a guy hit 50 jacks and he was what Sportscenter would lead in with, but that is not the case with Jose Bautista. I’ve noticed in the last couple of days that Bautista is basically a side note; at the end of Sportscenter they’ll be like “Oh yeah, and by the way Jose Bautista hit his 50th home run of the season today.”

I’ve never even seen an interview with Bautista. I have no idea what he even sounds like, and I watch a lot of baseball.

Is it Bautista‘s fault that people that he’s gone under the radar? No. It’s guys like A-Rod, Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and so on. It doesn’t help that Bautista came out of nowhere this year. He’s got to the most unlikely guy to hit 50 dingers in a year since Brady Anderson did it in 1996. 

Prior to this year, the most homers Bautista hit in a season was 16 back in 2006, and had a total of 56 career home runs coming into this season. So like Bautista said himself, it is very easy to see why people would be skeptical of his season.

The question I raise is; how long are baseball fans going to be skeptical of the power numbers that guys put up? Major League Baseball has been testing for performance enhancing drugs since 2004. It’s been six years and we still raise steroid questions any time someone puts up a monster season.

Will there ever be a day when we can look at player and say, “Man, Jose Bautista is having a great year,” and just leave it at that?

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