MLB - NEWS & NOTES

Former major league outfielder Kenny Lofton fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in his first year of eligibility in 2013, getting only 3.2 percent of the vote, a bit below the five percent threshold needed to remain. Lofton was certainly underrated by the voters, as he accrued 68.3 WAR according to Baseball Reference. Of the 61 Hall of Famers who spent at least 65 percent of their games in the outfield, 38 of them had less career WAR than Lofton, including Andre Dawson (64.8), Dave Winfield (64.2), Richie Ashburn (63.9), and Vladimir Guerrero (59.4).

Six years later, Lofton is still upset about being snubbed in Hall of Fame voting, Peter Botte of the New York Post reports. Lofton blames a ballot stuffed with performance enhancing drug (PED) users. He said, “I was expecting to do better. But I’m a realist. I look back at the situation, and at that time, I think what happened for me was I came out on the ballot in the wrong year. There was so many people on the ballot, and so many people who had a potential situation with the performance-enhancing drugs. I felt a lot of voters wanted to keep those guys on the ballot, and that was votes taken away from me.”

Lofton said about the electorate, “They know the era I played in and all the things I was dealing with. I played against steroids guys and I still was competing during that time. At my position, I felt like I stood out. I just feel like the Veterans Committee should look at my defense and my offense and what I did on the base paths. Even though I felt good to see that Harold Baines got in, he played one position, or one side. He was a hitter. Baseball is about two sides of the field. I felt like I helped my teams on both sides of the field. Hopefully that will be looked at differently now.”

2013 was the first year since 1996 in which the BBWAA did not elect a single player to the Hall of Fame. Eight players — Craig Biggio, Jack Morris, Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza, Tim Raines, Lee Smith, Edgar Martinez, and Alan Trammell — would go on to eventually become Hall of Famers. But Lofton’s hypothesis doesn’t hold up. Players suspected of using or known to have used PEDs didn’t fare well in 2013, as Roger Clemens got 37.6 percent of the vote, followed by Barry Bonds with 36.2 percent, Mark McGwire with 16.9 percent, Sammy Sosa with 12.5 percent, and Rafael Palmeiro with 8.8 percent. Furthermore, voters who tended to vote for players suspected of PED users were also more likely to vote for Lofton. Those who don’t view PEDs as a limiting factor also tend to be more brushed up on analytics. Of the five ballots on which Lofton appeared, Bonds and Clemens were on three of them. Many ballots didn’t utilize the maximum 10 votes, either, so it wasn’t like voters were hemming and hawing between a PED user and Lofton for the 10th vote and ultimately deciding on Lofton.

The BBWAA electorate, even just six years ago, was a lot older and a lot less fluent in analytics than it is now. I believe that if Lofton were on the 2019 ballot, he would have fared a lot better, certainly enough to make it on the ballot next year. Aside from his stolen base totals, Lofton’s traditional stat sheet doesn’t stand out. When one digs into things like on-base percentage, stolen base success rate, defense, and positional adjustments, Lofton’s case becomes much better and much more obvious. Hopefully, the Today’s Game committee takes Lofton into much greater consideration than the BBWAA did and puts him in the Hall of Fame where he belongs. (Hardball Talk)

 

Trout will be a FA but it's 50-50 he goes FA. He could do what Arenado just did and resign a year early. He likes the West Coast as well, so I doubt he goes elsewhere. All these dumb Phillies fans are saying on twitter and facebook "forget Harper and get Trout because he's from here and has Eagles tickets." When he's a FA, many teams will have money and go after him. Him being an Eagles fan doesn't increase the Phillies chances of getting him. And he could get hurt so if you pass on Harper and Trout breaks his leg - then what? You play for the NOW and Harper is now.

 

so Lofton had a better WAR than Ashburn, Guerrero, Winfield and Dawson. Was he better than those players? I don't think he was. And the comment of his normal stats don't stand out but his sabermetrics stats do is another reason why i don't like that crap. it should be all stats as equal. either he is or isn't a HOF'er.

 

Skinny-Vlad Guerrero Jr will start the season in the minors. Team wants to gain another year of contract control and he needs to work on his defense. I suspect he will be called up by June 1, if not earlier.

 

Skinny-Vlad Guerrero Jr will start the season in the minors. Team wants to gain another year of contract control and he needs to work on his defense. I suspect he will be called up by June 1, if not earlier.

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26105394/phillies-finalizing-deal-harper

BRYCE HARPER IS SIGNING WITH THE PHILLIES ! 13 YRS/$330 MILLION ! NO OPT OUTS !

 

BRYCE HARPER IS SIGNING WITH THE PHILLIES ! 13 YRS/$330 MILLION ! NO OPT OUTS !


Kudos Cat.........I'm going to miss on the Expos......sorry I still call the Nats the Expos.

Also 25 Million a Year........WTF.....he is good BUT not worth that kind of $.

 

he took that low believe it or not so the phils have $25 mil still left to get a pitcher this year. arenado got more than at AVV.

 

Bold prediction...

By 2022....both the contracts of Harper and Machado are gonna be looked at as bad deals and neither team will be contending.

 

Bold prediction...
By 2022....both the contracts of Harper and Machado are gonna be looked at as bad deals and neither team will be contending.


WOW.......OK BWW.........that is Bold.

 

Harper’s a 3-4 win player even if you toss out his 9 win MVP season. That’s easily worth $25MM per. Never mind the ticket/ratings/merchandise boost he’ll provide.

 

Blue Jays are busy...

 

i'll take that bet. phils have a lot of youth coming up in the next few years. should be contending for years. and if harper can bring a WS or 2 or 3 to South Philly, i don't care what he does the rest of the time.

 

great point. phils sold 100,000 tickets yesterday alone ! i myself bought 4 to 2 games each !

 

and VV no one is worth that kind money. not Lebron, not Brady, not Crosby or anyone else. And not the thousands of players before now. they're all overpaid. so are half the coaches. hell roger goodell made $48 million last year. $48 mil !! what the hell does that buffoon do in a year to earn that much when the refs can't get calls right and ex-players are suing the pension fund ? please. they're playing a kids game and getting grossly overpaid for it. however, it's not my money and if Harper and the team can bring a WS or 2 to Philly and I can go to another parade, i don't give a shit what he makes.

 

i'll take that bet. phils have a lot of youth coming up in the next few years. should be contending for years. and if harper can bring a WS or 2 or 3 to South Philly, i don't care what he does the rest of the time.


Careful....Careful Cat.......Yes Philly got a Hitter in Harper...........BUT there SP's are not that good.

Nola..........Eflin.........Eickhoff......Velasquez..........they are just OK.

And good Pitching will always beat good Hitting........so careful with that bet.

 

The problem is these mega deals rarely work out.

ARod with the Rangers.
Pujols with the Angels.
Cano with the Mariners.
Fielder with the Tigers.
Scherzer with the Nats.
Grienke with the DBacks.
Cespedes with the Mets.
Hamilton with the Angels.

A ton of years....a ton of money....no WS rings for those guys with those teams.

You could say David Price has worked for Boston....but the Red Sox are a loaded team. Heyward won on the Cubs but he was far from being the reason and the Cubs severely regret that contract right now....if they could have moved it this offseason they would probably have attempted to sign Harper.

Now a lot of those guys on the list have had tremendous personal success on the field. But if you measure the success of FA deals by if the team wins a WS or not.....signing a FA to a mega deal doesn't come anywhere close to guaranteeing you one.

 

He didn't bring one to DC and those teams were loaded for a while.

I do really like the fact he chose to wear #3 instead of Halladay's #34. That was a really good move.