IAL Hall of Fame: Barry Larkin

IAL Accomplishments:

• 7th all-time in career triples with 82
• 1269 career runs and 961 rbis

IAL Hall of Fame: Frank Thomas

IAL Accomplishments:

• 9th all time in career homeruns with 475
• 2nd all time in career walks with 1372
• 6th all-time career OBP with .390
• Highest all time single season OBP with a .501 mark in 1995
• 7th highest all time single season in rbis with 162 in 1998
• Third highest all time single season in walks with 151 in 1995
• World Series Championships:  1998, 2006

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During the All-Star weekend, Tedd mentioned to me that the IAL Player Register was one year out of date.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

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.

IAL Hall of Fame: Barry Bonds

At the time of his induction, Barry Bonds was the IAL alltime leader in HRs, runs scored, and walks.  Bonds was second only to Cal Ripken in games played, was third in RBIs, doubles, and OBP.  Barry was 4th in alltime at bats and 5th in base hits.  He was the Hitman for the Northside Hitmen clubs that finished in first place nine times (five of those teams won more than 100 games) and won four straight IAL Championships from 2000-03.  He was named league MVP in 1994 & 2003.  In addition to his outstanding offensive numbers, he was a Gold Glove caliber outfielder in his prime.

IAL Hall of Fame: Rafael Palmeiro

When Rafael Palmeiro was inducted into the IAL Hall of Fame nobody was better at driving in runs than he was, 1,779 ranked second to none.  In addition Raffy was 2nd in games played & at bats, only Barry Bonds & Mark McGwire had more alltime homers, and there were only three players with more hits & doubles than Palmeiro.  He played the bulk of his career with the Hell’s Kitchen Twelvetrees/Chicago Highlanders organization after being swapped from the Chicago Champions in exchange for Hubie Brooks.  Unfortunately he retired one year before the Highlanders won the IAL Championship.

IAL Hall of Fame: Jeff Bagwell

Drafted with an extra pick, Bags did his magic off the bench for three years, before earning a regular job as the Champions starting firstbaseman.  All he did in his first year as a regular in 1995 was win the MVP, batting .380, with 52 homers, 58 doubles, 97 walks, 20 steals, 116 RBIs, and an amazing 157 runs scored, leading his ballclub to a first place finish, and the first of back-to-back championships.  In eight straight years he scored over 100 runs.  Jeff played his entire 14 year career with Chicago, finishing with 1,405 runs, 431 home runs, 1,126 RBIs, 1,131 walks, 180 stolen bases, a .286 batting average, and an OBP of .392.  Not bad for a player drafted to beef up his team’s bench.

IAL Hall of Fame: Lou Whitaker

In addition to playing a difficult position like secondbase well, Whitaker put together some pretty good numbers.   Along with his 249 homeruns, he was 11th all time in runs scored, and 9th in doubles with 453, at the time of his induction.

IAL Hall of Fame: Mike Schmidt

If anyone epitomized the Chicago Champions and their dynasty, it was Mike Schmidt, a charter member of the Hall.  Until recently, Schmidty was the homerun king with 535 lifetime dingers.  He finished his career with 1,400 runs scored and 1,468 RBIs.  Mike was the backbone of the Chicago Champions team that won seven championships.

IAL Hall of Fame: Dave Stieb

Stieb was seventh in wins, at the time of his induction, with a 181-114 record, a .614 winning percentage, and a nifty 3.60 ERA.  He won 96 games, completing 65 of 182 starts, in a span of five years with the Champions and Mercenaries (1982-1986).  A workhorse, he pitched over 240 innings in four of those years.  Dave’s winning ways contributed him to being on six championship ballclubs, with three different teams (2 each for the Champions, Mercenaries, & Cardinals), in 14 seasons.