Long Beach Press-Telegram - 2002 In Review

[jcrmoon42]

Guess what!? Chicken butt!!

Okay, forget that I started that way. Seriously, guess what!? The Surfers will not have the first pick in next year's draft! We will have the second pick thanks to the Chicago Black Sox. If we hadn't gone 13-14 in April, giving local fans some unfounded hope, we might have been able to secure that pick once again. In the meantime, this will have to do for "progress."

Let's see what went right this year.
- We got some hits. Finished 7th in the league in hits and 8th in batting average. Of course, for a stathead like me, that is absolutely meaningless, but it is better than nothing.
- The bullpen was 7th in pen ERA
- Ted Sale returned to form after a pedestrian 2001 season. The 18 year Surfer put up 27 homers and was one of only two players in the MBBA to play in all 162 games.
- One year rental, Jean-Claude Marceau hit .334 in a strong platoon role.
- None of the position players sucked really, really bad for a change. In fact, some of the youngsters showed they could actually play a little bit, starting with Rule 5 draftee Jasper Reed, although he is already 27 years old.
- Closer Chris Malone continued to dominate, although his .367 BABIP led to a 3.36 ERA to go with his 30 saves, half of the Surfers wins.
- Justin Milsap didn't totally suck as a starter with a team-leading 4.36 ERA with a 15-18 record.

What really didn't go very well:
- Okay, pretty much everything else. Seriously.
- Among the other four members of the rotation, they all lost at least 15 games, and nobody won more than 7. All of them had ERAs above 5.37 with Nelson Williams showing why the Crawdads released him before the season with his 6.68 ERA.

The future is still pretty bright, but with few free agents wanting to play in Long Beach, we are dependent upon some of our young prospects actually starting to develop. Thankfully, the fans in the Beach are loyal, the weather is great at the park, and nobody is giving up on the teal and gold.

[7teen]

Curious your thoughts on Sale, Moonie. Is he a potential HOF? I say yes because he's potentially going to end up with 3,000 hits and close to 500 homeruns. Yet, he's only been named to 3 All-Star teams and hasn't won a major award that I'm aware of.

I tried to word that statement and question without trying to sound like a jerk. I'm truly curious your thoughts. I loved Sale back during those years I ran Long Beach (into the ground). I think he is a HOF because his career accomplishments will dictate such in our league. But I haven't considered Sale even close to the top of his position in a long time.

[7teen]

And every time my 7 year old asks me "guess what" I always respond chicken butt. He doesn't get it. In all honesty, I don't think I do either.

[jcrmoon42]

Curious your thoughts on Sale, Moonie. Is he a potential HOF? I say yes because he's potentially going to end up with 3,000 hits and close to 500 homeruns. Yet, he's only been named to 3 All-Star teams and hasn't won a major award that I'm aware of.

I tried to word that statement and question without trying to sound like a jerk. I'm truly curious your thoughts. I loved Sale back during those years I ran Long Beach (into the ground). I think he is a HOF because his career accomplishments will dictate such in our league. But I haven't considered Sale even close to the top of his position in a long time.

LOL! Very well phrased and not jerky at all!

I am admittedly extremely biased when it comes to Sale. So, my thoughts on his candidacy are probably obvious.

I have probably made it sound of late like I completely do not look at counting stats when I look at a player's candidacy. That is absolutely not true. It should definitely be taken into consideration as part of the soup that makes up a player's career. I just don't think that pure counting stats should be the sole contributor, as is the case with Joe Belinda. In my humble opinion.

In Sale's case, you are looking at a 130 OPS+ who will also likely be among the top 5 in all the major offensive categories. And, for the record, he is actually a 7 time All Star and 3 time Slick Fielder. Some of those are found in the old CATO. He'd be hard to keep out even if he retired right now.

[7teen]

I was only looking at his current OOTP page. If he's a 7 time all-star, and with those numbers, I see him as a slam dunk, 1st ballot HOF.