IAL Leaderboards Wrap-up

During the All-Star weekend, Tedd mentioned to me that the IAL Player Register was one year out of date.  So I got on it.  It’s now updated with 2010 stats.  While I was doing that, I thought I do the all-time leaderboards which is a fun for me.  Here is my summary.

Who’s new on the list?

Who cracked the single season top ten in 2010?  Good question.  There weren’t many and the ones that did might surprise you.  The Kentucky Kernels’ rookie Andrew Bailey did it with his 44 saves.  He’s tenth on the list.  The Green Rock Bombers’ Livan Hernandez found himself on a couple categories.  In 2009, he broke the all-time record for innings pitched in a season with 354 1/3.  This past year, he almost did again.  He logged 322 2/3 innings which is good for eighth all time.  Not only that, he comes in 3rd all-time in losses with 26 losses in 2010. 

Another Bomber pitcher, Francisco Lirano walked 171 batters which now ranks 3rd in the history of our league.  Manny Parra of the Twin City Thunderchickens wasn’t far behind in 2010.  He gave out 169 free passes and comes in 4th all time. 

Two pitchers ranked in the top ten in games pitched in 2010… and they both pitched for the same team.  Brad Lidge (88 games) and Kevin Jepsen (87 games) of the Molly Putts Marauders now are in the record books (5th and 6th place respectively).

That seems like a lot of pitchers but among the hitters, there was only one who cracked the single season top ten lists.  Chicago Highlander Miguel Tejada.  Shortstop Tejada hit 62 doubles which was one less than Nomar Garciaparra’s all-time record set in 2001.  Tejada will settle for a tie for second place with 1987 Wade Boggs and former Highlander 1995 Chuck Knoblauch.

What were the trends on the all-time career lists?

We’re starting to see a new class of players make their way into the IAL record books.  In 2010, Derek Jeter just made into the top ten of at-bats and runs as well as bolstering his lead in HBP.  Alex Rodriguez jumped up a few spots in the homerun category to fifth all-time with 563 dingers.   ARod also made his first appearance on the rbi chart.  He’s seventh all-time with 1489. 

Ivan Rodriguez is going to do his best bolster his numbers going into his last season in 2011.  Right now, he’s 8th all-time in hits with 2407, 4th in doubles (he’s giving tips to Miguel), and 9th in at-bats. 

Albert Pujols is now the all-time leader in slugging percentage and Joe Mauer’s OBP of .402 is nine points behind all-time leader Wade Boggs.  Upperdecker teammate Todd Helton is only three points behind Mauer and comes in at third all time. 

There are plenty more players making a splash… Chipper Jones, Jimmy Rollins, Manny Ramirez (if striking out is considered “making a splash”. Manny is now the all-time leader in Ks with 1748). 

Are there any old-timers still in the IAL record books?

Records are meant to be broken.  But do we have players from our early days still on our record books?  Plenty!  For example:

• 1981 Al Oliver is 3rd in hits with 231.  1978 Dave Parker clocks in at 9th with 224.
• 1982 Cecil Cooper ranks fifth with 61 doubles.
• 1982 Vince Coleman is the all-time leader in stolen bases with 119.  Tim aines is the all time career leader with 854.
• Andy Messersmith won 27 games in 1976 for the all time record.  Bryan Harvey saved 55 in 1992 again, no one has matched that.
• The top three in career ERA are all from a different era (no pun intended).  Catfish Hunter (3.11), Bert Blyleven (3.44), Jim Palmer (3.50), Ken Forsch (3.50) and Steve Carlton (3.50). 

Check out the all-time records yourself. 

All-time Hitting Records and the All-time Pitching Records. 

Here is the link to the 2011 IAL Player Register

Roberto Alomar, No HOF’er???

Despite posting Hall of Fame statistics over his 17 year Illowa APBA League career with the Northside Hitmen, Roberto Alomar has failed for the second consecutive year to get the votes needed to get in, and there can only be one reason for keeping him out.  The Northside Hitmen finished in first place nine times, won four titles, and won 100+ games five times, with Roberto playing secondbase.  Alomar wasn’t just on the field, he was a major contributor to his team’s success, scoring more than 100 runs 6 times (including 134 in 1997), three times he hit more than 20 homers, and six times his batting average was above .300.  All of these offensive accomplishments were achieved while being the best fielding secondbaseman.

Robby ranks right up there with the IAL All Time greats in several categories.  He has 8,982 at bats (5th in IAL History), 1,503 runs scored (4th in IAL History), 2,455 hits (6th in IAL History), and 488 doubles (7th in IAL History).

The incident, which I believe, has kept Alomar out of the IAL Hall of Fame occurred, in real life, September 27, 1996.  Roberto was called out on a pitch, he alleges, was out of the strike zone, by umpire John Hirschbeck.  The two of them got into a heated argument, in which lip readers contend, Hirschbeck called Alomar a faggot.  Roberto lost his cool and spit into the face of Hirschbeck.

Alomar, and other players, contend that Hirschbeck had been on edge since losing his son to ALD and learning that another son also had it.  Roberto was suspended five games and required to donate $50,000 to ALD research, the two shook hands April 22, 1997, when Alomar apologized.  Both Hirschbeck & Alomar took the unfortunate incident as an opportunity to raise awareness and funds to research the disease, and came to regard each other as friends.  Roberto later donated an additional $252,000 to fund ALD research.

On January 5, 2011 Roberto Alomar received 90 percent of the vote required to elect him into the MLB Hall of Fame, it was his second try, after failing to get in one year ago.  It is my hope that the next time Alomar is up for vote into the IAL Hall of Fame that he gets in, he deserves to be there, he’s earned it.

I updated the IAL all-time leaderboards

I’m finished updating the all-time records for the Illowa APBA League through the 2009 season.  It’s a fun process and I’d thought I’d share some notes.

Hitting

By virtue of being the career leader in at-bats (by some 1000 ab), Cal Ripken finds himself on a lot of all time career lists.  The Iron Man is on the top ten in years played, at-bats, hits, rbis, doubles, and homeruns.  He does NOT lead in years played.  Harold Baines has that honor.

The two categories of triples and stolen bases is where we get to see a different type player from elsewhere on the record lists.  Kenny Lofton and Tim Raines are kings there.  They are 1-2 in those categories with Lofton leading in triples and Raines leading in stolen bases.

If there is one category that is dominated by one player it is single season at-bats.  Ichiro Suzuki shows up seven times in that top ten list.

New entries (2009) in the single season top ten lists are:

Here are the links to the all-time hitting records:

Pitching

Tedd was the one who pushed me to update the all-time records.  After doing them, I can see why.  Greg Maddux is all over the career and single season pages.  He and Roger Clemens were battling it out for years for some key categories but after the Rocket retired, Maddux squeezed in a few more innings.

Maddux’ legacy is quite amazing.  He leads all pitchers in games started, complete games, innings pitched, and wins (40 wins over Clemens now).  The most dramatic record for Bat Boy is shutouts.  His 63 career shutouts is 24 more than #2 Steve Carlton.

Alas, he will never catch Roger Clemens in strikeouts.  I don’t think anyone ever will.  The Rocket has 4449 over his IAL career which is almost 500 more than Maddux.

Other frequent names popping up on the career list are Steve Carlton, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Orel Hershiser, Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown.

Roy Oswalt has unique distinction of being the only pitcher from this century with a career ERA low enough to make the top ten list.  Embedded among pitchers from the 80s and 90s, his 3.50 sneaks in at a formidable 4th all-time.

Looking at the single season pitching records is always fun.  Did Dick Drago really pitch 104 games in 1982?  How did Andy Messersmith win 27 games in 1976?  For that matter, Luis Leal had 46 starts in 1984… what a workhorse!

New entries as of 2009 in the single season pitching records are:

Here are the links to the all-time pitching leaderboards:

Who’s the worst?

Every time I do all-time leaders, I like to do some all-time “worst” lists too.  It’s a morbid curiosity I have but it’s fun.

Two Olivers ended up with all-time highest ERA.  Oliver Perez with highest ERA for a season (9.09) and Darren Oliver for worst ERA for a career (5.98).

You’ll see some IAL greats on the All-time Worst page and that shouldn’t be a surprise.  Mark McGwire hit .174 in 1990 and that’s good for third all time.  For that matter, another HOFer Joe Carter, comes in at fifth with a .183 average in 1994.

I did some interesting calculations like lowest runs (and rbis) for a full season.  You definitely do not see any slackers on those list.  Those are mostly due to lineup placing more than anything… but it’s still interesting.

Let me say that although I call it my all-time “worst” lists, any player that makes it to IAL has to be pretty good, even Alfredo Griffin.

Loners

Something I found interesting… we have a few players who are all alone in their category:

Finally, a non-stat record.  Actually, let’s make it a trivia question.  Which player in Illowa history has the longest name (both names)?  Who has the shortest name?

Hint:  there are two with the shortest name and they all three played for the same manager at one point in their IAL careers (not at the same, though).

First person to comment or email the answer gets a free drink of their choice from me at the draft weekend.

Hall of Fame Candidate: Mike Piazza

This is the fourth in a series of articles about candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

Now we move on to the first player in our series who seems like a real slam-dunk first ballot Hall of Famer.  Over 15 years, Mike Piazza was the best offensive catcher in the IAL by a long stretch.  He stepped into a key role immediately with the Posse, hitting 22 homers and driving in 83 runs as a rookie in 1994, and stayed dominant for the first decade of his career – after which he was merely very good, hitting 23 homers with a .272 batting average in his second-to-last season in 2007.

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Hall of Fame Candidate: Kenny Lofton

This is the third in a series of articles about candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

It’s always difficult to predict how leadoff hitters will do in IAL Hall of Fame voting.  Kenny Lofton was one of the best for about six or seven years, but like Craig Biggio and Shawn Green before him in this series, his period of dominance was brief.  Lofton played 16 seasons in the IAL, but only played in more than 140 games five times, all in the first seven seasons of his career.  He ranks first all-time in triples, with 113, second all-time in stolen bases with 652 (over 200 behind Tim Raines) fell just short of 2,000 hits (ranking 24th all-time with 1,983), and scored 1,233 runs (also ranking him 24th). [more after the jump]

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Hall of Fame Candidate: Shawn Green

This is the second in a series of articles on candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

Shawn Green played 13 seasons in the Ilowa League, splitting time between the Bunchies.  He had a slow start to his career, not really breaking out and playing full-time until his fourth season, 1999, when he hit 36 homers, stole 34 bases, and scored 121 runs.  That started a streak of eight seasons where he played in at least 152 games, scoring and driving in 100+ runs four times.  His best season was 2002, when he hit .295/.363/.589 with 46 homers, 24 steals, 135 runs scored, and 130 RBI.  After 2006 he faded fast, and after two seasons as a part timer, retired. [more after the jump]

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2010 Hall of Fame Voting

I’ve been going over the Hall of Fame for the 2010 ballot, and it looks like this year will be a good one! Eligible players for this year include, among hitters, Craig Biggio, Jose Cruz, Jr., Juan Encarnacion, Shawn Green, Kenny Lofton, Mike Piazza, and Jose Valentin. Among pitchers we have Roger Clemens, Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar, Roberto Hernandez, and John Smoltz.

Biggio, Lofton, Piazza, Clemens, and Smoltz all would appear to have shots to make the Hall of Fame. It will be interesting to see how Clemens’ real world issues affect his Illowa voting.

Tedd has been bugging me about Tim Raines’ not being in the Hall, and so I have an idea that I’d like to share – for an old-timer’s “second chance.” Each manager can nominate 1 player that played on their team to be reconsidered by the voters. If they get no votes, they fall off the ballot. What do you think?

Rock Raines Deserves His Place in the IAL HOF

I don’t know how it happened, but somehow Tim Raines is not in the IAL Hall of Fame.  He is very deserving, his statistics clearly show, and it is a travesty that he is not a member.  In his eighteen seasons Rock scored stole 854 bases (the all-time high) & scored 1,473 runs, that’s what his game was all about, getting on, stealing a base (or two) & scoring.  He has a lifetime batting average of .291, 2,256 base hits, 405 doubles, 1,061 walks, and an OBP of .377.  From 1984 to 1988 Tim scored 113, 101, 124, 151, & 125, for a five year average of nearly 123 runs scored per season.  As a rookie in 1982 with the Davenport Fire Raines stole 104 bases, two years later he topped that with the Mercenaries stealing 109 times.

The best was yet to come, with the Phoenix in 1984, he arguably had his best season, batting .386, 224 hits in 580 at bats, 43 doubles, 8 triples, 9 homers, and 151 runs scored, he also walked 73 times, had 89 stolen bases, & had an amazing OBP of .455.  Of course Raines was a member of the 1985 Mercenaries, who lost 136 games, and was a member of three last place teams with over 100 losses.  But you can’t hold that against him, as he also was a member of four teams which finished in first place, three with 100+ wins, including the 1998 IAL Champion Gamblers.  Interestingly the Gamblers & the Mercenaries are the same franchise, where he experienced the ultimate agony of defeat and the highest pinnacle of the thrill of victory.

Gambler Starter Webb is More than Just Perfect

originally posted August 2004

To say that Aurora Gambler rookie starter Brandon Webb had a good month in August might be a bit of an understatement.  It would be more accurate to say that Webb did the impossible. 

In game 3 against the State Street Sluggers, Webb was perfect.  Not figuratively speaking, mind you. Just perfect.  No runs, no hits, no walks. Nothing.  It was the first perfect game in recent history of the Illowa League (it is said Orel Hershiser pitched one).

Ironically, opposing pitcher Kerry Wood pitched a 3-hitter for the Sluggers.  Unfortunately for Wood, one of those hits was a 2 run homerun by Derek Jeter and that’s all it took.  The Gamblers won 2-0.

It was the first no-hitter this year in the IAL.  Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez pitched a no-hitter for the State Street Sluggers near the end of the 2003 season.

But that’s only half the story

But Webb wasn’t done yet… far from it.  In game 8 against the Sluggers, Webb again took to the mound.  Webb allowed two baserunners in the game, a pair of walks (both to Omar Vizquel) to pitch his second no-hitter in as many starts!  The Gamblers won the game 4-0.

This is first time in the 30 year history of the IAL that a pitcher has pitched back-to-back no-hitters.  Add to this that one was a perfect game and that the pitcher was a rookie and you have the recipe for an bona fide unique event which will never be duplicated. 

Webb’s Series Stats against the Sluggers in August:

Webb entered the month of August with a 2-5 record and a 3.56 ERA.  He was the first pick of the 2004 IAL rookie draft.

The boxscore for Webb’s perfect  game:

Ichiro Breaks IAL Hit Record

originally posted Winter 2005

Molly Putts Marauder outfielder Ichiro Suzuki can now officially claim the single season hit record.  For the 2005 season, Ichiro collected 208 singles, 26 doubles, 7 triples and 10 homeruns for a total of 251 hits.

Ichiro’s 251 hits eclipsed Al Oliver’s 1981 total of 231 hits which remained the record until this year.  He is 6th on the list when he got 224 hits in 1998 with the Marauders.

Ichiro’s 208 singles and 704 at-bats also broke IAL single season records