Knuckle Curve » shortstop http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve Major League Baseball News from Spring Training to the World Series Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:55:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Designated Hitters and Big Markets http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/designated-hitters-and-big-markets/ http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/designated-hitters-and-big-markets/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:47:39 +0000 Geoff Young http://www.knucklecurve.com/designated-hitters-and-big-markets/ Post from: Knuckle Curve

]]> Only American League games on Friday. If you just can’t get enough of the designated hitter experiment (or big-market teams), this is your lucky day!

  • Yankees at Indians, 2:00 p.m. PT — Andy Pettitte has the postseason experience (18-6, 4.08 ERA over 34 starts), but Fausto Carmona has been a monster in ‘07. One relative weakness of Carmona is his record against left-handed batters. Granted, most pitchers would kill for a .275/.333/.377 line against anyone, but if you’re looking for something that the Yankees might be able to exploit, this is as good a bet as any. Pettitte, meanwhile, stumbled down the stretch, posting a 5.86 ERA over 35 1/3 innings in September.
  • Angels at Red Sox, 5:30 p.m. PT — Kelvim Escobar faces Daisuke Matsuzaka in this one. Escobar was a serious Cy Young contender headed into the season’s final month before bonking hard. Matsuzaka didn’t fare much better toward the end. Both of these guys posted ERAs well north of 6.00 over their final seven starts. It’s a testament to their offense that the Red Sox can afford to run a complete non-entity at shortstop every day. The big question for the Angels is which Escobar shows up today. If it’s the guy who dominated AL batters for the first five months of the season, they should be in good shape. If not…

Happy watching!

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]]> http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/designated-hitters-and-big-markets/feed/ 0 Platoons of the ’80s http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/platoons-of-the-80s/ http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/platoons-of-the-80s/#comments Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:04:24 +0000 Geoff Young http://www.knucklecurve.com/platoons-of-the-80s/ Post from: Knuckle Curve

]]> How appropriate that so many great baseball platoons were in effect during the decade that brought us the movie Platoon. Steve Treder at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I contribute to THT) has published the latest in his look back at “extraordinarily productive left-right platoon partnerships.”

A couple things stand out to me. First, it’s amazing how much mileage Earl Weaver got out of John Lowenstein and Gary Roenicke in left field. Both were good players with flaws. The genius of Weaver, of course, is that he found a way to maximize their utility while minimizing their flaws. (As an aside, I’m doing some research on the ‘73 draft — Roenicke was the third shortstop taken that year, behind Robin Yount and Johnnie LeMaster.)

Second, I remember as a kid watching Lee Lacy play for the Dodgers. He didn’t get into the game all that often, but when he did, he was pretty effective. As a part-timer, he posted some terrific numbers in 1975 and 1978 before moving on to Pittsburgh.

After several more productive seasons with the Pirates, Lacy got his first shot at a (mostly) everyday gig in 1984, hitting .321/.362/.464 in the process. How many guys do you suppose have (a) qualified for a league batting title for the first time at age 36 and (b) finished second in the league that year?

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