April Madness: Twinning

Today’s random player: Downtown Ollie Brown. He played for six teams between 1965 and 1977, but is probably best remembered for being the first-ever San Diego Padre. He hit 40 home runs for Class A Fresno in 1964, which is how he got the nickname “Downtown” — his long home runs always seemed to be headed downtown.

The Padres made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1968 National League expansion draft. He hit 23 home runs for San Diego in 1970.

Twin peaks

The Minnesota Twins beat the Yankees again on Tuesday, thus guaranteeing that they will win their first season series against the Yankees since 2001.

I’m going to repeat that.

It’s the first time the Twins have taken a season series from the Yankees since 2001.

In other words, it’s the first time the Twins have done it since:

• Before 9/11.

• George W. Bush was just starting in office.

• Before cellphones took photographs.

• Yahoo! was the top search engine.

• The top mail address was Hotmail, followed by AOL.

• Before Billie Eilish was born.

• Before Jordan Walker was born.

• Before Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat … but also before MySpace and Friendster.

Here’s how long ago it was: David Ortiz scored a run in one win. For the Twins. El Duque took a loss for the Yankees. Patrick Mahomes’ godfather, Latroy Hawkins, got a big save for Minnesota. Mahomes was 5 years old.

I can’t help it, I’m giddy about this — so giddy that even though schedules don’t really allow it, Mike Schur and I are putting together a short (?) emergency PosCast about this later today.

Now, you ask: Hey, when was the last time the Twins actually swept a three-game series from the Yankees? So glad you asked: You have to go back to June 11-13, 1991. The Yankees’ lineup that day?

1. Roberto Kelly, CF

2. Steve Sax, 2B

3. Don Mattingly, 1B

4. Kevin Maas, DH

5. Mel Hall, LF

6. Jesse Barfield, RF

7. Matt Nokes, C

8. Alvaro Espinosa, SS

9. Pat Kelly, 3B

Stump Merrill was the skipper. The Yankees went 71-91. Ah, those were the days.

Hey, if you feel like it, I’d love if you’d share this post with your friends!

Kelenic! Swell pick!

We’ve already talked about how amazing it is to see Jarred Kelenic, after struggling to live up to the overwhelming hype that surrounded him, get off to a good start with the Mariners this year.

But here’s the thing: He ain’t cooling off. He homered AGAIN on Tuesday — third straight game — and though we’re not even a month into the season, it’s still worth noting that your American League leader in both slugging and OPS is, yes, Jarred Kelenic.

I am disappointed, however, to find out that the correct pronunciation of his name is KEL-nik, as in Swell Pick, which he was for fantasy owners everywhere. I thought it was Keh-LEH-nik, three syllables, which sounds way cooler.

The epic 2018 trade between the Mets and Mariners that brought over Kelenic just keeps taking all sorts of twists and turns.

Mets get: Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz and $20 million.

Mariners get: Jay Bruce, Gerson Bautista, Justin Dunn, Anthony Swarzak and Kelenic.

On the Mets’ side, well, Cano bombed, as we know, but that was not unexpected — he’d already tested positive for PEDs and would again. Diaz had a semi-disastrous first season but then established himself as the best closer in the game, and he signed a huge deal and, sadly, this year, he got hurt. The $20 million earned interest and was used to pay Cano for his service.

On the Mariners’ side, Jay Bruce played 47 games and was sent to Philadelphia. Gerson Bautista pitched nine innings, gave up 11 runs, and went to play in the Mexican League. Justin Dunn didn’t pan out; the Mariners shipped him off to Cincinnati. Anthony Swarzak pitched in 15 games and was sent to Atlanta.

All of which leaves Kelenic as the last man standing; and that was looking pretty dim until this year. Hey, the Mariners might win this deal after all.

Best of the best teams

I have been thinking about something … so I put together a list of the best player (in my opinion) on every World Series-winning team for the last 50 seasons. Here, first, is the list, then my thoughts on it. And, yes, this is MY choice for the best player on the team that year, not necessarily the WAR leader or anything like that. There are definitely some arguments to be made.

1972: Athletics — Catfish Hunter
1973: Athletics — Reggie Jackson
1974: Athletics — Catfish Hunter
1975: Reds — Joe Morgan
1976: Reds — Joe Morgan
1977: Yankees — Graig Nettles
1978: Yankees — Ron Guidry
1979: Pirates — Dave Parker

1980: Phillies — Mike Schmidt
1981: Dodgers — Fernando Valenzuela
1982: Cardinals — Ozzie Smith
1983: Orioles — Cal Ripken Jr.
1984: Tigers — Alan Trammell
1985: Royals — George Brett
1986: Mets — Keith Hernandez
1987: Twins — Frank Viola
1988: Dodgers — Orel Hershiser
1989: Athletics — Rickey Henderson

1990: Reds — Barry Larkin
1991: Twins — Kirby Puckett
1992: Blue Jays — Robbie Alomar
1993: Blue Jays — John Olerud
1994: NONE
1995: Braves — Greg Maddux
1996: Yankees — Mariano Rivera
1997: Marlins — Kevin Brown
1998: Yankees — Derek Jeter
1999: Yankees — Derek Jeter

2000: Yankees — Derek Jeter
2001: Diamondbacks — Randy Johnson
2002: Angels — Darin Erstad
2003: Marlins — Ivan Rodriguez
2004: Red Sox — Curt Schilling
2005: White Sox — Mark Buehrle
2006: Cardinals — Albert Pujols
2007: Red Sox — David Ortiz
2008: Phillies — Chase Utley
2009: Yankees — Derek Jeter

2010: Giants — Buster Posey
2011: Cardinals — Albert Pujols
2012: Giants — Buster Posey
2013: Red Sox — Dustin Pedroia
2014: Giants — Buster Posey
2015: Royals — Lorenzo Cain
2016: Cubs — Kris Bryant
2017: Astros — Jose Altuve
2018: Red Sox — Mookie Betts
2019: Nationals — Anthony Rendon

2020: Dodgers — Mookie Betts
2021: Braves — Freddie Freeman
2022: Astros — Yordan Alvarez

As you might have noticed, a few players’ names are in bold. Those are players who won the regular-season MVP that year. If my count is right (which it might not be), I have 41 different players leading their teams to a World Series win and eight of them won the MVP that same season.

Here’s what made me think of this: On May 6, Lorenzo Cain will join Kansas City for their game against Oakland so that he can officially retire as a Royal. I think that’s pretty cool, and it made me think about how he was the best player on that 2015 Royals championship team by a pretty wide margin.

Cain is not going to the Hall of Fame, of course. And he finished third in the MVP voting that year — behind Josh Donaldson and Mike Trout. This was, in my view, exactly as it should have been. Donaldson and Trout both had better seasons than Cain. But it does feel to me that there could be an award for the best player on the best team. Maybe you call it (ugh) the Derek Jeter Award, because in my view, Jeter was the best player on FOUR Yankees championship teams, but he never won an MVP. It kind of boggles my mind that he didn’t win one in 1998, but still.

By the way, I only did the World Series winner list above to show you how it works … I would prefer to give the Jeter Award to the best player on the team with the best regular-season record. The playoffs, as we know, are a whole other thing — I’d ALSO give out a Playoff MVP award; it blows my mind that doesn’t exist.

So while the list above is fun (I think), here are my Jeter winners for the last five full seasons:

2022
American League: Yordan Alvarez, Astros
National League: Mookie Betts, Dodgers

2021 (the year of the Brandons!)
American League: Brandon Lowe, Rays
National League: Brandon Crawford, Giants

2019
American League: Alex Bregman, Astros
National League: Cody Bellinger, Dodgers

2018
American League: Mookie Betts, Red Sox
National League: Christian Yelich, Brewers

2017
American League: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland
National League: Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers

Anyway, just throwing all this out there for you to chew on. Let me know what you think.

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Joe

Another WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL offer

So, you already know about the awesome Rainy Day Books deal if you want to preorder a signed and inscribed copy of my upcoming book, WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL. Well, maybe that’s not your thing. Maybe saving money is your thing.

You’re in luck! It just so happens that Barnes and Noble is having a special preorder sale. All you have to do is preorder WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL and enter the code PREORDER25 (one word) at checkout to save 25%! I just tried it, and it definitely works. Pretty cool!

By the way, the photo above is super meaningful to me — I just received what’s called the “First Pass” pages for the book. Big moment for any author. Those are the first pages that are fully typeset and designed; this thing looks like a book now. The reason I put them in a three-ring binder is that I’m doing some final copy edits and, hey, I’m old-school enough to still dig the three-ring binder.

I even thought hard about affixing some of those little doughnut-shaped, sticker, hole reinforcements to make sure that none of the pages tear — remember those? Holy cow, I’m old aren’t I?*

*Yeah, using the phrase “Holy cow” pretty much gives you away.

Around the horn

Andrew McCutchen homered again on Tuesday; that makes five for the season already, he has a 145 OPS+ now, and the joy this brings me is beyond words … On Monday, the Reds came back from a 5-1 deficit to beat the Rangers 7-6. On Tuesday, the Reds came back from 6-0 to beat the Rangers 7-6. This afternoon, the Reds should simply spot the Rangers’ six runs before the game begins. …

Are the Diamondbacks, gasp, actually interesting? They might be. Corbin Carroll is quickly becoming of the most exciting players anywhere, Geraldo Perdomo is mashing and playing superior defense. Zac Gallen seems to believe that he’s among the best pitchers in baseball and I suspect he’s right. Jordan Lawlar’s coming. Druw Jones is down in Class A figuring things out, but he’ll probably move fast. Brandon Pfaadt has an awesome name and is just a phone call away in Reno. I mean, things are happening. …

Seattle’s Matt Brash is having the weirdest season. He has (1) Struck out 22 batters in 10 2/3 innings; (2) Not given up a single home run, and (3) Still somehow managed to give up eight runs. It’s truly wild. His FIP is 1.17. His ERA is 5.91. Weird. … Time of game is staying steady at 2:36, more than a half-hour quicker than 2021. But here’s the coolest part for me: I feel like I’m used to it now. I don’t think about the clock when watching games. I don’t think about the old pace. I’m just enjoying baseball. … Along the same lines, stolen base attempts are up from the last decade but not out of line with the way baseball was played before that. What is out of line is the success rate — 79.4% success is the highest in baseball history by a pretty good amount. …

It would be kind of funny if Pete Alonso hit 63 home runs this year. Remember how Alonso broke Aaron Judge’s rookie home run record two years after it was set? Alonso has 10 homers in 24 games. I know that Tom Tango hates when we play the “at this pace” game, but at this pace he’d hit 67 homers this year. … Just a reminder that Ozzie Albies, who leads the National League in RBIs, will make $7 million this year. And next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. And the year after that, too. That deal is malpractice … It feels like a lot of hits are going through the left side now that the shift is banned. But it’s probably more perception than anything. Batters are still hitting a sluggish .245. That’s better than the last couple of Aprils, but it’s still pretty low. Strikeouts still reign.