Kline and Wilkerson clear waivers

[Tony-OH]

On 2/6/2020 at 8:29 AM, DrungoHazewood said:

He's 106th on the list of most PAs by a player with a career of less than 5 WAR. 

The record is Alfredo Griffin's 7331 in a career of 3.0 WAR.  Griffin played 18 seasons in the majors and had a .604 OPS, and by bb-ref's figuring was a -28 fielder.  After he turned 30 he had 2000 PAs of a .545.

Griffin is one of those players that should be very thankful he was playing an era that did not go by today's statistic metrics. Another guy is Jeff Newman who found a way to get 2290 major league PAs between catcher, 1B and even DH at times despite being an absolute out machine .224/.264/.357/.620. 

[sportsfan8703]

6 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Griffin is one of those players that should be very thankful he was playing an era that did not go by today's statistic metrics. Another guy is Jeff Newman who found a way to get 2290 major league PAs between catcher, 1B and even DH at times despite being an absolute out machine .224/.264/.357/.620. 

This reminded me that we didn't see the annual "if we just remove these negative WAR players off the roster" thread this off season.  

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

Griffin is one of those players that should be very thankful he was playing an era that did not go by today's statistic metrics. Another guy is Jeff Newman who found a way to get 2290 major league PAs between catcher, 1B and even DH at times despite being an absolute out machine .224/.264/.357/.620. 

The first year of the DH in '73 the Orioles used Tommy Davis as the nearly full-time DH.  He had almost 600 PAs and hit .306.  DH'd 128 times.  But he only walked 30 times and had 30 extra base hits, so he had a .732 OPS. Not the worst performance ever, but by today's figuring it was a 1-win season.  Clearly well below average, really a position where they needed a better solution.

But by the thinking of the era he was more than just fine.  He finished 10th in the MVP voting(!)*.  In '74 he got 155 games as the O's DH with a 95 OPS+.  Then 111 the next year!  They just hadn't thought through the concept that if you have zero defensive responsibility you need to hit better than an average second baseman.

Oh, and in '73 Orioles had Jim Fuller, Royle Stillman and Doug DeCinces at Rochester OPSing in the mid-to-high .800s, all 22 years old.  In '74 they were all back at Rochester for part or most of the year.  What's the story with Stillman?  He had close to 2000 PAs in the O's system, mostly at AAA, with OPSes consistently in the high .800s, and he got 40 PAs in Baltimore.

* He scored 53 runs and had 7 homers in nearly full time play as a DH, and got more MVP votes than Catfish Hunter, who went 21-5.  He got more votes than George Scott who also hit .306 but had 17 more homers and 28 more RBI.  He easily out-polled Yaz, who had an .870 OPS.  He finished ahead of Thurmon Munson, Yankee catcher with 20 homers and an .850 OPS.  I don't get it.

[Enjoy Terror]

4 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

This reminded me that we didn't see the annual "if we just remove these negative WAR players off the roster" thread this off season.  

Probably because you can’t remove an entire team, and even if you could it wouldn’t help.