17 thoughts on “February 1, 2023: Warm Front”

  1. What's up with David Cone being so underrated during his career? In his prime from '88 to '92, he led the league in SO and SO/9 twice, had a 3.00 ERA over that period, 2.83 FIP, and somehow missed the ASG three times? Was it really just his win totals?

    1. He had 7.2 rWAR in 1993 and received zero CYA votes. He was also 11-14 that year and had a truly effectively wild season: 6.8 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 over his 254 innings.

      1. That year he was way better away than at home. Some of it was probably Kauffmann being a hitter's park, but I don't think that fully accounts for the difference. .247/.340/.379 against at home and .198/.284/.307 against on the road. SO/W 2.14 on the road and 1.32 at home, and most of that difference was allowing a ton of walks at home. For his career, he was better at home than away, though that is likely heavily influenced by his time at Shea Stadium. In '94, he had no issues pitching at Kauffman, and won the CYA.

        In '98, he was 4th in the CYA voting, but not even chosen as an All-Star. And it's not like the first half of the year was bad for him either -- a 4.05 ERA doesn't stand out a ton, but he had a 12-2 record, 8.9 SO/9, 2.2 BB/9. It's actually really backwards in that I think you can justify him as potentially one of the best 7-8 SP in the league, but there's no way to justify him as 4th in the CYA voting, except for his 20 wins, which were primarily due to the Yankees' offense. (On the flip side, Radke had the 6th-best WAR in the league that year and finished with a 12-14 record.)

        Cone fell off the ballot in his first year and has the 48th-highest JAWS score (ahead of Bob Feller, Dazzy Vance, in spitting distance of Smoltz, Drysdale, Palmer) for starting pitchers, in a Hall of Fame with 66 starting pitchers total. 26th all-time in strikeouts.

      1. In a different world, Bledsoe doesn't get injured and Brady rides the bench. The 2002 Heisman Trophy winner is Joe Mauer out of Florida State. Patriots trade up to draft him and he goes on to replace Bledsoe. He leads the Patriots to 7 Super Bowl victories, including a perfect 19-0 season in 2007. He retires in 2019 as the best QB ever. Brady starts only a handful of times, retires early, gets married and wants to be with his family. Oh, and Mark Prior wins 2003 World Series MVP for the Twins.

    1. I didn't start watching until the last 24 seconds of regulation, but I'm not gonna lie, I think they won because Russell fouled out.

      1. Nah, dude. DLo had like 5-6 3s in row at one point. He was huge in dragging the Twolves back into the game. Wouldn't have come close to winning without him.

          1. I'm not saying they win without him playing at all, I'm saying I don't think they win in overtime unless he fouls out. I've been a Wolves fan long enough, and seen enough of D'lo, to know how that five minutes goes with him in the game.

  2. CC to meat: tomorrow I am rubbing up a pork butt to make pernil on Friday. Sadly, I didn't get a butt with any skin attached. But we will make do.

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