Colton Cowser 2024

[DrungoHazewood]

8 minutes ago, clapdiddy said:

It was the 20's...why was he running at all? 

Hangover from the teens, where it wasn't a matter of if you were going to bunt, steal, or hit-and-run, but when.

The 1915 Baltimore Terrapins had 36 homers, slugged .325 as a team, and had 178 sac hits. They were shut out 16 times and had another 28 games where they scored a single run, and were 0-44 in those games. One-run strategies? Hell yes!

[Can_of_corn]

12 minutes ago, clapdiddy said:

It was the 20's...why was he running at all? 

Busted hit and runs.

He might have only had five strikeouts but the guy hitting behind couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Busted hit and runs.

He might have only had five strikeouts but the guy hitting behind couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat.

Hollocher hit almost exclusively 2nd in the order. The Cubs' 3rd hitters (and it was the Cubs, not the Indians as I previously stated) were mostly Marty Krug, Zeb Terry, and John Kelleher. Krug was awful for a 1922 3rd-place hitter, with an 83 OPS+ in his only season as a MLB regular, but he only struck out 43 times in 524 PAs. Terry was worse, OPS+ing 74, but with just 16 Ks in 571 PAs. And Kelleher was the worst of the bunch, OPS+ing 60, while striking out 14 times in 222 PAs.

Cubs manager Reindeer Bill Killefer stuck hard and fast to the old rule of thumb that the catcher should bat 8th, even if it's Bob O'Farrell and he hit .324 with an .880 OPS. Ray Grimes had a 1.014 OPS and batted cleanup. But Hack Miller and his .899 OPS batted mostly 6th. Statz wasn't a terrible leadoff hitter, was one of only a couple players who had a SB% higher than 50%, but was 6th among their regulars in OBP.

That's as bad a bunch of #3 hitters as I've seen in a while, yet the Cubs finished 80-74-2. Just goes to show you batting order doesn't really matter.

Anyway, back to the main point... yes, I'm sure some of Hollocher's CS were busted hit-and-runs. But nobody that regularly batted behind him struck out in even 7% of PAs so they shoulda been putting the ball in play the vast majority of the time.

 

 

Edited April 26 by DrungoHazewood

[Can_of_corn]

You are insane in one of the best possible ways.

[Malike]

8 hours ago, Filmstudy said:

Starting point has changed.  Given the fact he has approx 1/7th of his season in the books at 1.139, to OPS just .780 for the season, he'd have to drop off to under .730 the rest of the way.  That sort of drop off wouldn't be acceptable to me.

I'd like him to OPS .800 the rest of the way for roughly .850 for the season.  The more they use him in a platoon role, the better I think that number might be.

If he's a platoon player, I'd be disappointed.

[DrungoHazewood]

38 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

You are insane in one of the best possible ways.

I'll accept that!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, that's kind of a carte blanche to keep on about Jigger Statz and the '22 Cubs. I knew I'd heard Statz' name, and it's because he spent about 18 years playing for the Los Angeles Angels in the old Pacific Coast League when it was pretty close to being a 3rd major before the actual majors expanded to the west coast. He played off and on for them from the age of 22 to 28, then every year from age 31-44. He had 3356 hits in the PCL, hit .315, almost 600 doubles. Many, many players in that era had long careers in the PCL or the American Association or International League. A lot of them every bit as good as guys who had 15-year MLB careers. This was the same timeframe where the Orioles were winning seven straight IL titles with teams that certainly could have finished mid-pack in the AL/NL.

Other '22 Cubs included Hack Miller, who looked like Hack Wilson or a fire hydrant (take your pick), and played many years for Oakland in the PCL. Zeb Terry played four years for the Angels. Ray Grimes had almost 4000 minor league PAs. Hooks Cotter played 10+ years in the high minors. Joe Klugman spent a decade in the Southern Association.

That would have been a great era to follow, with 16 MLB teams, but countless other really competitive teams just a notch below. And this was mostly before affiliations took hold, so these teams were all trying their darnedest to win. They weren't just 3-month stopovers for the Cards and Dodgers' best prospects. If you were in Baltimore in 1922 and you ask 100 kids who their team was, it was overwhelmingly going to be the Orioles. Not the Senators or Yanks or whatever, but the home town team.

[Just Regular]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

This was the same timeframe where the Orioles were winning seven straight IL titles with teams that certainly could have finished mid-pack in the AL/NL.

It wasn't until this winter when looking at some history it all really connected to me how the early 20's Orioles ace Lefty Grove was basic to Connie Mack's A's ending the '27 Yankees dominance of the American League pretty quickly for such a historically iconic squad.

Grove's A's beat Ruth's Yankees in '29, '30 and '31.

That bit of history colors a good deal for me who Roki Sasaki is now.

[Fiver6565]

I’m not sure any of us are mentally prepared for a thread where Drungo’s recitation of ancient baseball history meets up with Just Regular’s writing style. This could be a wild follow. 

[Malike]

Cowser will be on a Loud Outs segment today.

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, Just Regular said:

It wasn't until this winter when looking at some history it all really connected to me how the early 20's Orioles ace Lefty Grove was basic to Connie Mack's A's ending the '27 Yankees dominance of the American League pretty quickly for such a historically iconic squad.

Grove's A's beat Ruth's Yankees in '29, '30 and '31.

That bit of history colors a good deal for me who Roki Sasaki is now.

Oh, yea. Grove went 12-2, 25-10, 18-8, 27-10, and 26-6 for the Orioles. Then after a little rookie hiccup with the A's kept pitching exactly as well as he had with the O's. Grove officially won 300 MLB games, but the reality is he won 408 high-level baseball games, plus three in Class D ball.

The '29-31 Yanks had Ruth and Gehrig in their primes, two of arguably the 10 best players ever. Plus HOFers Bill Dickey, Tony Lazzeri, Leo Durocher, Earle Combs, Waite Hoyt, and Herb Pennock. And in 1929 they finished 18(!) games behind the A's. 16 back in '30, and 13.5 in '31.

Mack also bought Max Bishop from the O's where he'd been a regular for six years. And while he wasn't quite a HOFer he was a great table-setter, walking 100+ times eight straight years.

Joe Boley was the O's shortstop for the entirety of the 7-year IL Championship run, then Mack purchased him and he was the A's shortstop on three pennant winners.

Oh, and starter George Earnshaw. He won 20+ games for the O's twice, and three times for the A's.

I'm sure it killed Jack Dunn to sell those guys, but he made a lot of cash. And he could see the writing on the wall. The other IL owners were tired of getting their butts handed to them by the Orioles, so they started selling out, becoming full-time affiliates. Dunn could hold that off only so long.

I hope the NPB keeps their independence. The worst thing, in my opinion, would be MLB working out more formal agreements to cement foreign leagues into inferior or affiliated status. I'd much rather see NPB, KBO, CBP grow into more competitive organizations that tempt players from around the world to sign there instead of with MLB. A little competition would do the Majors good.

Edited April 26 by DrungoHazewood

[Tony-OH]

Not to take away from Drungo's "Old Timey baseball" review segment, Cowser's early season SSS success against lefties has been pretty notable. 

[DrungoHazewood]

I'm rambling now, but the 1928 A's may have been one of the coolest teams ever to hang around. Not only did they have a bunch of these old IL Orioles, and an unbelievable stock of young talent. But Mack had brought in some old guys, I guess to provide leadership and mentoring and the like. So on this one team they had the younger HOFs: Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove. They had the Orioles in Boley, Bishop, Grove, Earnshaw.

But on top of all that, they had 41-year-old Ty Cobb, 40-year-old Tris Speaker, 41-year-old Eddie Collins, 44-year-old Jack Quinn, and 35-year-old Bullet Joe Bush. Of course Cobb, Speaker, and Collins are inner-circle HOFers, among the best to ever play their position. Quinn was a grandfathered spitballer, probably worthy of a book or three, who won 96 games in his 40s and pitched his last MLB game at the age of 50. And Bush had a 17-year career where he won 196 games.

The '28 A's won 98 games and only finished 2.5 games behind a Yanks team that was the freakin' '27 Yanks the year before. For '29 Mack say goodbye to Cobb, Speaker, made Collins a coach, plugged in the kids, and ran away with the league for three straight years. Until the Depression hit, Connie didn't have any other sources of income or wealth, and for the 2nd time had to sell off his stars to make payroll.

[Moose Milligan]

2 hours ago, Fiver6565 said:

I’m not sure any of us are mentally prepared for a thread where Drungo’s recitation of ancient baseball history meets up with Just Regular’s writing style. This could be a wild follow. 

Dude, I thought I had read the @Just Regular post before yours and had coherently understood it...like, I was following along and was like HOLY $%!# this is the one that I'm going to make complete sense of!

And then he somehow ties in Roki Sasaki to Lefty Grove and the A's and the 1927 Yankees and I'm over here like

 

[Fiver6565]

20 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Dude, I thought I had read the @Just Regular post before yours and had coherently understood it...like, I was following along and was like HOLY $%!# this is the one that I'm going to make complete sense of!

And then he somehow ties in Roki Sasaki to Lefty Grove and the A's and the 1927 Yankees and I'm over here like

 

Yeah I Googled Sasaki and I still have no idea on that reference

[Just Regular]

20 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Dude, I thought I had read the @Just Regular post before yours and had coherently understood it...like, I was following along and was like HOLY $%!# this is the one that I'm going to make complete sense of!

And then he somehow ties in Roki Sasaki to Lefty Grove and the A's and the 1927 Yankees and I'm over here like

 

Drungo just taught me the detail of old Ty Cobb and young Jimmie Foxx together on those teams, and I thought maybe I could do one of those Cobb played with Foxx who played with X, and get to Colton Cowser in like three steps.

But longevity Foxx isn't that great - he only gets to the 1945 Phillies, and their youngest member, age 17 Putsy Caballero, had a short career.    Granny Hamner on the other hand did make it to the '62 A's, and played with David Segui's dad.

Foxx in his swansong looks like he was one of the better relievers on that team, so maybe as Kevin Brown once put it, Shohei who??