The 200 Greatest Major League Baseball Players of All Time, 2012 Ed. 11-20

The previous ten is here.


11.Tris Speaker 1907-28 CF Indians/Red Sox
     122.1
     .327/.411/.555
     OPS+157
     MVPQ=1913, 1916, 1923
     Elite: 1912, 1914
     PA=12,000
     

12.Ted Williams LF Red Sox 1939-60
     118.85
     .332/.455/.658
     OPS+190
     MVPQ=1948, 1949, 1957
     Elite: 1947
     Inner circle: 1941, 1942, 1946
     PA: 9800

13.Rickey Henderson LF 1979-03 A's/Yankees
    116.7
    .291/.411/.456
    OPS+127
    Elite: 1985,
    Inner circle: 1990
    PA: 13,350

14.Rogers Hornsby 2B 1915-37 Cards/Browns
     116.6
     .333/.421/.608
     OPS+=175
     MVPQ=1917, 1928
     Elite=1920, 1922, 1925, 1927
     Inner circle: 1921, 1924, 1929
     PA=9500 

15.Eddie Collins 2B White Sox 1906-30
     115.95
     .331/.427/.487
     OPS+141
     MVPQ=1912, 1914, 1920
     Elite=1909, 1910, 1915
     Inner circle=1913
     PA=12,030

16.Greg Maddux RHP 1986-08 Braves/Cubs
     110.9
     358-261
     ERA+132
     MVPQ=1992
     Elite=1994, 1995
     IP=5000
   
17. Mike Schmidt 3B Phillies 1972-89

     109.05
     .269/.386/.572
     OPS+147
     MVPQ=1976
     Elite=1974, 1977, 1980, 1981
    PA=10,060
   
18. Lou Gehrig 1B Yankees 1923-39

     109
     OPS+178
     .318/.421/.656
     MVPQ=1930, 1931
     Elite=1928, 1934, 1935, 1936
     Inner Circle=1927
     PA=9660

19.Tom Seaver RHP 1967-86 Mets/Reds
     108.8
     310-200
     ERA+128
     Elite=1973
     Inner circle=1971
     MVPQ=1975
     IP=4780

20.Pete Alexander 1911-30 RHP Cubs/Phillies
     108.5
     ERA+136
     320-199
     Elite=1917
     Inner circle=1915, 1916, 1920
     IP=5200
 
We start with Gehrig v. Pujols.  Gehrig had a better bat (higher OPS+ driven by a higher adjusted slugging); Gehrig's career value is 16 wins greater, and that's significant - but not as significant as the couple of thousand plate appearances he's had beyond Pujols.  Per game, Pujols has more value driven by his superior glove.  Pujols has 8 MVPQ seasons, Gehrig 7; Pujols never had a year as good as Gehrig's best season.  Pujols is 4 healthy years from reaching Gehrig's number of plate appearances; at that point, probably, he's past Gehrig's career value, but at that point, his per game value might be a little less, if he has, in fact, entered his decline phase.  If he hasn't - if he has another couple of MVPQ years left, he goes by Gehrig without question.

It is really close.  You keep Gehrig as your starting first baseman, but Pujols is second.

The best player in MLB history with only ten players left is Hornsby.  He had Gehrig's bat but played second base.  His 9 MVPQ seasons is the current record; he and Ted Williams and Pete Alexander all hit this section with 3 Inner Circle seasons, the current record.  Collins doesn't quite beat out Lajoie, so he and Morgan are the new B team. We're out of second basemen, so that's the final list.  Schmidt's our last third baseman, and there just isn't a good argument for anyone else as the best third baseman of all time.

If Hornsby isn't the best baseball player on the list, it's Williams, the best bat we've seen so far.  He and Rickey go into left field, we slide Robinson over to right with Ott.  Speaker challenges the Yankees.  Williams holds him off - Speaker's got a 20 win advantage but in 3000 more plate appearances.  It's close, Mantle's bat holds him off.  Speaker goes by Joe D solidly however, 40 more wins and the same bat.  3 arms in the sections - they're close, but it's Alexander/Maddux/Seaver.  Alexander's the new best pitcher of all time; Pedro was better per game, but the aggregate value and Alexander's 3 inner circle seasons make him the best.  Maddux is going to move into second, the total value really starts to weigh against Pedro in this section. Seaver moves in behind Nichols on the B team.

With only the ten most valuable players in baseball history left, here are the two all time baseball rosters.

 Team One

 C Bench 
    Piazza

    
1B Gehrig 
     Pujols
   
     

2B Hornsby 
     Lajoie
     

SS Rodriguez 
     Vaughan
      

  3B Schmidt
        Mathews

   

LF  Williams
       Henderson
      

    

CF   Mantle
       Speaker
    

RF  Ott
       Robinson

  

 P 
   Alexander
    Maddux    
    Martinez
    Johnson(L) 
   Mathewson
    Grove (L)
    Gibson   
    Walsh

    Rivera
   

Team 2

C Dickey
    Carter

1B  Brouthers
      Connor 
           
  2B  Collins
         Morgan

      

SS Ripken
     Banks
     
3B  Boggs
      Jones
     

     
LF  Delahanty
      Jackson
     
   
CF  DiMaggio
       Hamilton
      
        
RF Ramirez
      Heilmann
      
                

P Nichols
  Seaver 
  Spahn(L)
   Hubbell (L)
   Clarkson
   Newhouser (L) 
   Carlton(L)
   Feller

Uti Caruthers

2011-2012 College Bowl Predictions

I was 86-79-4 against the spread this season.

I'll pick each game both against the number and straight up, noting if there's a difference.

New Mexico: Temple -6.5 Wyoming(win/win)
Idaho Potato: Ohio +3.5 Utah St.(win/win)
New Orleans: La-La +5 SD St (SD St wins)(win/loss)
Beef O Bradys: FIU -4 Marshall(loss/loss)
Poinsettia: La Tech +11 TCU (TCU wins)(win/win)
Las Vegas: Boise St. -13.5 ASU(win/win)
Hawaii: SMiss -6 Nevada(win/win)
Independence: UNC +5 Missouri (Missouri wins)(loss/win)
Little Caesars: WMich +2.5 Purdue(loss/loss)
Belk: Louisville +2.5 NC St(loss/loss)
Military: Toledo -3 AForce(loss/win)
Holiday: Tex -3 Cal(win/win)
Champs Sports: FSU -3 NDame(win/win)
Alamo: Baylor -9 Wash(win/win)
Armed Forces: BYU - 3 Tulsa (push/win)
New Era Pinstripe: Rutgers -2 Iowa St.(win/win)
Music City: Wake +6.5 Miss St. (Miss St wins)(win/win)
Insight: Iowa +14 Oklahoma (OU wins)(loss/win)
Meineke Car Care: A&M -9.5 Nwestern(win/win)
Sun: Geo Tech -3.5 Utah(loss/loss)
Fight Hunger: Illinois -3 UCLA(win/win)
Liberty: UC +2.5 Vandy(win/win)
Chick Fil A: Virginia +1 Auburn(loss/loss)
Ticket City: Houston -5.5 Penn St.(win/win)
Gator: Ohio St. +2 Florida(loss/loss)
Outback: Mich St. +3.5 UGA(win/win)
Cap One: SCarol -1 Neb(win/win)
Rose: Wisc +6.5 Oreg(loss/loss)
Fiesta: OKSt -3.5 Stan(loss/win)
Sugar: Mich -2 VT(win/win)
Orange: Clem -3 WVA(loss/loss)
Cotton: KSt +7 Ark(Ark wins)(loss/win)
Compass: Pitt -5.5 SMU(loss/loss)
GoDaddy: NIU +1 Ark St.win/win
BCS: LSU -1 Alabama loss/loss


ATS: 19-15-1
SU: 24-11

The Weekly Tendown Dec 4-10 2011

Dear Internet:

I'm not around.

I do bring gifts, however.  That's a celebrity skiing event from, let's say CBS, last weekend.  On the left, Terrell Owens.  On the right, Robert Kennedy, Jr.  As prophecy foretold.

This is Tendown 105.  104 is here.

1. The Essay You Give to The Republican In Your Life
It's former Bush speechwriter and professional conservative David Frum.


Conservatives have been driven to these fevered anxieties as much by their own trauma as by external events. In the aughts, Republicans held more power for longer than at any time since the twenties, yet the result was the weakest and least broadly shared economic expansion since World War II, followed by an economic crash and prolonged slump. Along the way, the GOP suffered two severe election defeats in 2006 and 2008. Imagine yourself a rank-and-file Republican in 2009: If you have not lost your job or your home, your savings have been sliced and your children cannot find work. Your retirement prospects have dimmed. Most of all, your neighbors blame you for all that has gone wrong in the country. There’s one thing you know for sure: None of this is your fault! And when the new president fails to deliver rapid recovery, he can be designated the target for everyone’s accumulated disappointment and rage. In the midst of economic wreckage, what relief to thrust all blame upon Barack Obama as the wrecker-in-chief.




The Bush years cannot be repudiated, but the memory of them can be discarded to make way for a new and more radical ideology, assembled from bits of the old GOP platform that were once sublimated by the party elites but now roam the land freely: ultralibertarianism, crank monetary theories, populist fury, and paranoid visions of a Democratic Party controlled by ACORN and the New Black Panthers. For the past three years, the media have praised the enthusiasm and energy the tea party has brought to the GOP. Yet it’s telling that that movement has failed time and again to produce even a remotely credible candidate for president. Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich: The list of tea-party candidates reads like the early history of the U.S. space program, a series of humiliating fizzles and explosions that never achieved liftoff. A political movement that never took governing seriously was exploited by a succession of political entrepreneurs uninterested in governing but all too interested in merchandising. Much as viewers tune in to American Idol to laugh at the inept, borderline dysfunctional early auditions, these tea-party champions provide a ghoulish type of news entertainment each time they reveal that they know nothing about public affairs and have never attempted to learn. But Cain’s gaffe on Libya or Perry’s brain freeze on the Department of Energy are not only indicators of bad leadership. They are indicators of a crisis of followership. The tea party never demanded knowledge or concern for governance, and so of course it never got them. 


2. How the Right Wing Machine attacks the Occupy Movement.
The five part series is here.

3. Obama Joins the 99%
Obama went to Kansas this week.  And got it right.

4. Here's Bob Reich's Analysis.

5. What's the Net Worth of the Six Walmart Heirs?
As much as the bottom 30% of Americans combined.

6. Hey, Hoops is Coming Back
But the season's already been simulated.  The finals are here.

7. I Lost the Bet
I did not believe there would be any way for Bravo to incorporate the suicide of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills husband Russell into the happiness of the Andy Cohen post show clubhouse, that it would need to be segregated from the rest of the programming and create a discord that would be breached; you can't normalize suicide enough to make it just part of the show.

I was wrong.

8. Who Should be Playing LSU in the Title Game?
The USC Trojans

9. The Pitcher the Giants Should Sign Today
Edwin Jackson

10. Thanks.

My kitten was a good friend for many, many years.

That's all for this time.  I'll see you next time.  If there is a next time.

The 200 Greatest Major League Baseball Players of All Time, 2012 Ed. 21-30

The previous ten is here.

21. Frank Robinson 1956-76 Reds/Orioles RF/LF
      106.25
      .300/.400/.578
      OPS+154
      MVPQ=1962, 1964, 1966
      PA=11,750

22. Nap Lajoie 2B 1896-16 Indians/Phillies
      105.95
      .337/.384/..549
      OPS+150
      MVPQ=1903
      Elite=1901, 1904, 1906, 1910
      PA=10,460

23. Alex Rodriguez SS/3B 1994-  Yankees/Mariners
      103.25
      .294/.382/.560
      OPS+144
      MVPQ=1996, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007
      Elite=2000
      PA=10,630

24. Warren Spahn 1942-65 Braves LHP
      102.55
      339-238
      ERA+119
      MVPQ=1947,
      Elite: 1953
      IP: 5243

25. Mel Ott RF Giants 1926-47
      102.55
      .289/.411/.583
      OPS+155
      MVPQ=1932,
      Elite: 1938
      PA=11,330

26. Mickey Mantle CF Yankees 1951-68
      102.4
      OPS+172
      .315/.426/.604
      MVPQ=1955, 1958
      Elite: 1961
      Inner circle: 1956, 1957
      PA: 9900

27. Joe Morgan 2B Reds/Astros 1963-84
      101.55
      OPS+132
      .289/.411/.485
      MVPQ=1974, 1976
      Elite=1972, 1973
      Inner circle: 1975,
      PA=11,300

28. Cap Anson 1B 1871-97 White Stockings
      98
      OPS+142
      .318/.400/.483
      MVPQ=none
      PA=11,300

29. Randy Johnson LHP 1988-09 Mariners/DBacks
      97.65
      310-195
      ERA+136
      MVPQ=1995, 1997, 2002
      IP: 4130

30. Cal Ripken SS Orioles 1981-01
      96.4
      .278/.345/.461
      OPS+112
      MVPQ=1983,
      Inner Circle=1984, 1991
      PA: 12,900

Anson doesn't make it, despite the OPS+ he can't get by Foxx.  Lajoie/Morgan, in that order, are the new second basemen for the all time team.  ARod's the new shortstop; Ripken's career value can't get him by Vaughan, but does move him past Banks.  There's not really a meaningful difference between Robinson and Ott; I'll put them in the corners for now and Mantle's the new CF and my inclination is to say he's the best player on the list so far.  Johnson/Spahn in that order are the arms to consider from this section.  I'll slide in the Unit after Pedro; Spahn becomes the top guy for the B team.  20 guys left.

 Team One

 C Bench 
    Piazza

    
1B Pujols
     Brouthers
     

2B Lajoie
     Morgan

SS Rodriguez 
     Vaughan
      

  3B Mathews

     Boggs 
     

LF  Robinson
      Delahanty

    

CF   Mantle
       DiMaggio 
    

RF  Ott
      Ramirez 

  

 P Martinez
    Johnson(L) 
   Mathewson
    Grove (L)
    Gibson   
    Walsh

    Rivera
    Nichols

  Uti Caruthers

Team 2

C Dickey
    Carter

1B Connor 
      Foxx
     
  2B  Robinson
        Grich

      

SS Ripken
     Banks
     
3B Jones
     Brett

     
LF  Jackson
      Yastrzemski
   
CF  Hamilton
       Griffey 
    
     
RF Heilmann
      Kaline 
     
           

P Spahn(L)
   Hubbell (L)
   Clarkson
   Newhouser (L) 
   Carlton(L)
   Feller
   Halladay
   Marichal

 DH Martinez

I Pick Every NFL Game in 2011 - Week 14

I'm 88-97-7 against the spread. 131-61 straight up.

Steelers -14 Cleveland (loss/win)
Colts +16.5 Ravens (Ravens win)(win/win)
Cincy -3 Houston(loss/loss)
Jets -9 KC(win/win)
Jax +1 TB(win/win)
NO -3.5 Tenn(win/win)
Eagles +3 Mia(win/win)
NE -8 Wash(loss/win)
Atl -3 Carol(win/win)
Det -8 Minn(loss/win)
Niners -4 Ariz(loss/loss)
Den -3.5 Chi(loss/win)
GB -11 Oak(win/win)
Buff +7 SD (SD wins game)(loss/win)
Dall -3 NY(loss/loss)
Seattle -6.5 Rams(win/win)

8-8, 96-105-7
13-3, 144-64