rolling retirees 2012

Tim Wakefield of course.

and now Mike Cameron:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/spring2012/story/_/id/7592222/former-all-star-outfielder-mike-cameron-retires-17-years

Great player. When he was traded for Griffey, who would have guessed he'd be the better player (by far) from that point forward?

yeah cam's post-trade cumulative WAR from '00-10 was around 35 and griffey's over the same time was 10-12, something ridiculous like that.

three-time all-star carlos guillen

May your knees, abdomen, quads, and hamstrings cause you no more pain. May your hemorrhoids never flare. May your tuberculosis remain dormant. Farewell, Carlos.

casey blake

For a late bloomer the dude had a solid career..

Kerry Wood

Was Wood and Prior blowing out their arms really the turning point for the handling of young pitchers? David Schoenfeld thinks so in his Sweetspot post, and it's been repeated countless times on the internet over the past ten years, but is it really true? Keeping in mind that what's obvious to people on the internet =! something that the baseball establishment could care less about.

This came up in a reader-letter on James's site today:

Last 10 pitchers with at least 800 IP through age 23: Felix (born 1986), Doc (1964), Saberhagen (1964), Fernando (1960), Eck (1954), Tanana (1953), Blyleven (1951), Gullett (1951), Vida (1949), Nolan (1948). Note there was a 22 year gap until Felix broke it. Otherwise, seems like a typical group of real-HOF (Bly, Eck), Jack Morris-HOF (Tanana, Saberhagen, Gooden), burnouts (Fernando, Gullett, Nolan, Vida). I'm guessing we'd see this kind of pattern regardless of what kind of selection criteria you find.

Took me a minute to realize that "Nolan" meant Gary Nolan. Seems to me that 800 IP by 23 is setting the bar extremely high in trying to study this issue--there must be a number of pitchers like Wood and Prior who blew out their arms before getting anywhere near 800 IP.

Half of those guys pitched their 800 IP in the early 70's -- a weak era for hitters, so you almost can attach an asterisk to them. You could make a similar (but weaker) argument for Fernando and Gooden. That leaves Felix and Saberhagen in a separate category, facing good hitters in a HR-happy league (and vs the DH).

side point: not sure why Valenzuela is in the burnout group, he had just as many good seasons as Gooden and Saberhagen did.

Ditto x 2 for Vida--he won over 200 games! I think the guy's sample group is really scattershot.

I know offense was down from '71 to '74, but it's hard for me to think of it as weak era for hitters--I'd prefer to think of it as a time of great starting pitching. To me there was the usual mix of eventual Hall of Fame hitters playing at or close to their peak (Reggie, Bench, Stargell, Rose, Carew, Williams), older guys still playing well (Aaron, F. Robinson, McCovey, Yaz), new stars coming into their own (Morgan, Fisk, Bonds, Cedeno, Murcer), etc. I suppose I'm biased, as that's when I first became a fan.

Was just clicking around boxscores, and a guy who comes pretty close to the 800-innings-at-23 bar is Kershaw. He'd compiled about 715 innings before his 24th birthday, which fell during March of this year; he'll likely have 900+ before he's 25.

xpost

six of one half dozen etc. ... there were lots of good hitters, but it was a pitching dominated era. Also every lineup had two or three guys hitting .220 and pitchers didn't have to bear down as much against them. Lineups are a lot stronger 1-through-9 then they were in the 70's, which makes Felix's numbers seem even more impressive.

after going 1-for-3 in two games with the double-a northwest arkansas naturals, jason kendall has (re)announced his retirement.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RhI6DII0ids/TamdCnYo1UI/AAAAAAAAAbs/23g_-AiJ-tw/s1600/Flag-Half-Staff.jpg

@jazayerli
Kendall retired? Confirms he was trying to return to the majors, not simply be a coach. Good for him for trying. Bad for KC for letting him.

@joe_sheehan
@jazayerli STOP MAKING SUCH A BIG DEAL OUT OF JASON KENDALL.

:(

about a 39 career WAR...really pretty solid career.

can't be too many catchers w/ more all time hits, for whatever that's worth.

almost all the good he did was with the pirates, so god bless him for that and lol at everyone that played him subsequently

hideki matsui

what will it cost to return his porn collection to japan

hoping he gets his own museum for it

hall of head-size fame

brandon webb, (probably) julio lugo (after the caribbean series)

Chris Carpenter?