Tag Archives: Joe Posnanski

MLB

World Baseball Challenge

February 27, 2017 CarterHayes 39 Comments

No doubt inspired by the upcoming World Baseball Classic and his new MLB.com gig, JoePos threw down a couple pretty interesting challenges for his readers the other day:

Challenge One:

Try to beat my lineup and starting pitcher — with this caveat. Every player in the lineup and the pitcher must be active and born in a different country. So you have 10 players — 9 in the lineup (including DH) and starting pitcher.

Bonus point: Add a closer from a different country.

Challenge Two:

Come up with a 25-man roster that beats mine where all 25 players are born in different countries. This one you don’t have to just use active players, you can go back as far back in history as you like.

Bonus point: Get a manager who is from a different country.

Hint: All territories count as separate countries … Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, etc.

JoePos hasn't posted his lineup or roster yet, nor has he detailed his criteria for "best." He did add a few provisos: Only a player's MLB time counts, and a player "must be viable at the position you put him at, including the specific three outfield spots." As I put my submission together I realized how tricky it was to get all the right pieces for a 25-man roster. It certainly forces some hard choices, which I think say a lot about your philosophy & approach to building a roster.

I'll spoiler my roster and observations below, but feel free to post your own active lineup or full roster. This seemed like a fun way to limber up for some quadrennial international baseball.

'My 25-Man/Country Roster'	Select Show
Lineup C: Iván Rodríguez (Puerto Rico) 1b: Miguel Cabrera (Venezuela) 2b: Rod Carew (Panama Canal Zone) 3b: Adrián Beltré (Dominican Republic) SS: Honus Wagner (USA) LF: Andruw Jones (Curaçao) CF: Ichiro Suzuki (Japan) RF: Larry Walker (Canada) DH: Paul Waner (Oklahoma Territory) Bench CF/RF: Devon White (Jamaica) CF/LF/3b: Bobby Thomson (UK/Scotland) LF/RF/: Elmer Valo (Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic) 2b/3b: Bobby Avila (Mexico) SS: Edgar Rentería (Columbia) C: Yan Gomes (Brazil) Rotation P: Bert Blyleven (Netherlands) P: Luis Tiant (Cuba) P: Dennis Martínez (Nicaragua) P: Charlie Hough (Hawai'i Territory) P: Tommy Bond (Ireland) Bullpen RP: Jack Quinn (Austria-Hungary/Slovakia) RP: "Death Valley Jim" Scott (Dakota Territory) RP: Moe Drabowsky (Poland) RP: Grant Balfour (Australia) CL: Mariano Rivera (Panama) Dugout Manager: Bruce Bochy (France) Bench Coach: Ron Gardenhire (Germany) Auxiliary Coach: Fred Haney (New Mexico Territory)

'My 25-Man/Country Roster'

Select Show

'Things I Learned'	Select Show
You probably notice that I might have cheated by including a few players from territories that later achieved statehood. My rationale is two-fold: there's nothing to say that Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands (or Guam, or the Marshall Islands, or Canada...) couldn't eventually become states. If those territories are considered their own sovereign baseball regions, then I'm interpreting "[a]ll territories count as separate countries" as literally as possible. Oklahoma Territory's Paul Waner was a mediocre left fielder at best, so keeping Big Poison at DH means really solid defense for my outfield. First base, left field, third base, and shortstop proved to be the hardest positions for me to fill due to limited high-quality options for non-American players. In fact, the roster I sent to JoePos differs a bit from the one above, mostly because I had to be more conservative in the way I interpreted a player being "viable" at a position. My thought is that a center fielder should be able to play a corner outfield spot in general, and that as long as the CF had some playing time (say, 90-100 innings) at LF or RF, he should be eligible for a corner spot. I didn't want JoePos to throw out my entry, though, so I wound up with Bonds in LF, Jones in CF, and Ichiro in RF. Playing Bonds meant I couldn't put an American at short, which made Luis Aparicio the best choice available. Aparicio is Venezuelan, so then I needed a first baseman. I could go with Pujols, but that meant trying to find a non-American, non-Dominican, non-Puerto Rican, non-Venezuelan third baseman. Corey Koskie would be the best option, but I'd rather have Fergie Jenkins in my rotation if I can't have Larry Walker in RF. On the plus side, Jenkins was a substantial upgrade over El Tiante. On the minus side, that meant I was stuck with Rafael Palmeiro and his finger-wagging representing Cuba at first base, which I didn't want. Tony Perez is a distant 18 rWAR behind Palmeiro, which forced my hand. The most notable country excluded from my roster? South Korea. This was surprising until I considered that Choo Shin-Soo is far & away the best Korean position player, but I'm pretty full on outfielders. Choo's not notably better than Elmer Valo, who had a .701 OPS in 465 PA as a pinch-hitter. The best Korean pitchers are Park Chan-Ho (career 97 ERA+, 4.45 FIP) and Kim Byung-Hyun (1.376 career WHIP, 4.25 FIP). Kim came the closest to making my roster, but I really don't need another reliever given the number of quality innings the rotation is capable of throwing. (Picking pitchers active before the 1990s is a huge advantage; I felt free to let my inner Earl Weaver run wild with the bench.) The omission I feel worst about? Roberto Clemente. Non-American, non-Puerto Rican catchers force some tough decisions.

'Things I Learned'

Select Show

You probably notice that I might have cheated by including a few players from territories that later achieved statehood. My rationale is two-fold: there's nothing to say that Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands (or Guam, or the Marshall Islands, or Canada...) couldn't eventually become states. If those territories are considered their own sovereign baseball regions, then I'm interpreting "[a]ll territories count as separate countries" as literally as possible. Oklahoma Territory's Paul Waner was a mediocre left fielder at best, so keeping Big Poison at DH means really solid defense for my outfield.

First base, left field, third base, and shortstop proved to be the hardest positions for me to fill due to limited high-quality options for non-American players. In fact, the roster I sent to JoePos differs a bit from the one above, mostly because I had to be more conservative in the way I interpreted a player being "viable" at a position. My thought is that a center fielder should be able to play a corner outfield spot in general, and that as long as the CF had some playing time (say, 90-100 innings) at LF or RF, he should be eligible for a corner spot.

I didn't want JoePos to throw out my entry, though, so I wound up with Bonds in LF, Jones in CF, and Ichiro in RF. Playing Bonds meant I couldn't put an American at short, which made Luis Aparicio the best choice available. Aparicio is Venezuelan, so then I needed a first baseman. I could go with Pujols, but that meant trying to find a non-American, non-Dominican, non-Puerto Rican, non-Venezuelan third baseman. Corey Koskie would be the best option, but I'd rather have Fergie Jenkins in my rotation if I can't have Larry Walker in RF. On the plus side, Jenkins was a substantial upgrade over El Tiante. On the minus side, that meant I was stuck with Rafael Palmeiro and his finger-wagging representing Cuba at first base, which I didn't want. Tony Perez is a distant 18 rWAR behind Palmeiro, which forced my hand.

The most notable country excluded from my roster? South Korea. This was surprising until I considered that Choo Shin-Soo is far & away the best Korean position player, but I'm pretty full on outfielders. Choo's not notably better than Elmer Valo, who had a .701 OPS in 465 PA as a pinch-hitter. The best Korean pitchers are Park Chan-Ho (career 97 ERA+, 4.45 FIP) and Kim Byung-Hyun (1.376 career WHIP, 4.25 FIP). Kim came the closest to making my roster, but I really don't need another reliever given the number of quality innings the rotation is capable of throwing. (Picking pitchers active before the 1990s is a huge advantage; I felt free to let my inner Earl Weaver run wild with the bench.)

The omission I feel worst about? Roberto Clemente. Non-American, non-Puerto Rican catchers force some tough decisions.

First Monday Book Day

Paterno by Poz

October 22, 2012 Algonad 27 Comments

I told BrianS I would pick up the book day post. The wife and kids are out of town for the weekend so I figured I could fit this in between cleaning the garage, raking leaves, trimming bushes, trimming trees, etc.

I recently finished "Paterno" by Joe Posnanski. I'm not a big college football fan. I'm not a big non-fiction fan. I am a big Posnanski fan although I was disappointed in both of his first two books. This book had an uphill battle to win me over.

I wasn't really sure how this Paterno book would go. Poz works best when he is telling feel-good stories and I think he made it pretty apparent that he was a Paterno fan-boy. He didn't sign up to write this kind of story.

Despite the challenges, Poz did a great job with this book. It starts out a little slow with Paterno's Brooklyn upbringing. But that focus on his upbringing, and the emphasis on doing something special, helps us not only to understand his achievements but also his shortcomings.

In the end, I didn't feel hatred towards Paterno. I felt disappointed. I felt he was deeply flawed. I also felt that he did really want to do good things with his life. Somewhere along the line, I think Coach Paterno took over and Joe Paterno no longer existed. The best line in the book was this one - "It is hard for any man, even a plainspoken Brooklyn kid determined never to lose his bearings, to hold on to what matters when people start to see him as a saint."

So, what are you reading?

Parentgood

Father Knows Best: A Fatherhood Story

June 23, 2011 hungry joe 12 Comments

*It appears that the poster we lined up wasn't able to meet deadline. So, whether he knows it or not, JoePos will be our special guest writer today*

Throughout our cross-country move from Kansas City to Charlotte, friends have asked the same question again and again: How are the kids taking it? It's a thoughtful question, a heartfelt question, and I very much appreciate them asking. But, the truth is, they already know. They're taking it exactly like just about every kid who has ever moved. If there's one thing you can say about moving, it is that the feelings are universal ... and cliche-ridden. Just about every adult who has ever moved to a new place has felt overburdened and has promised themselves, at least on some level, to never move again. Just about every child who has moved has felt, at least on some level, like Ralph Macchio from The Karate Kid.

Our girls are 6 and 9 and, so, have been a spectacularly erratic bundle of emotions. This is particularly true of Elizabeth, the older one. One minute, she's excited about a new life. The next she's collapsed in tears. The next, she's talking giddy about the puppy we're going to get*. The next she's talking about how she will never have a happy thought for the rest of her life.

*Fathers are not above bribing daughters.

There are a million things that have jolted me about being a parent, of course, and one of those is the drama. Even as a kid, I thought those family sitcoms on television were overwrought, but as a parent I have found that LIFE seems to be overwrought. A disagreement at recess, a cross word on the school bus, a misunderstanding with a friend, all these turn into long conversations right out of the The Brady Bunch with the slow version of the theme song playing in the background.

To continue reading this post, please visit http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com...

WGOM

Tag Archives: Joe Posnanski

World Baseball Challenge

Paterno by Poz

Father Knows Best: A Fatherhood Story

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.