Jon Miller: Tonight, we're thrilled because this Cardinal ballclub, with that great talent in the middle of the lineup, Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, and one of the most impressive all-around players -- all-around hitters, especially -- we've seen on Sunday Night Baseball: Albert Pujols.
Joe Morgan: Well, Jon, he's the MVP of the National League, but he could've won two or three more if it wasn't for Barry Bonds. Not only is he a great hitter, not only is he a great baserunner, not only is he a great defensive player, but he is also a great team player, and that's what's more important.
More important than his hitting? Truly, Joe, it is good to have you back spouting nonsense once again.
Everything that he does, he does it for the team.
This is such a good point. I can't emphasize this enough. Guys have to do stuff for their team. For instance, last year, Travis Hafner accidentally hit 24 home runs for the Diamondbacks. (Fortunately, Michihiro Ogasawara of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters hit exactly 24 home runs for the Indians, so things evened out.)
And when your best player is also your best team player, you're way ahead of the game.
You will never. Ever. Ever. Convince me that David Eckstein is not the Cardinals' best team player. Ever.
Then, at 5:04 PST:
Jon Miller: The Cubs also have a little bit of a different look this year. They brought over the basestealer, Juan Pierre.
Joe Morgan: Well, Jon, I think they need a little bit of a different look.
Huh. You're in favor of a guy who is an OBP black hole (or at least was in 2005) but attempts a lot of steals. Do tell.
Over 42% of their runs were scored by the home run. That means that you're just living and dying by the home run.
Over 42%, Joe? Awfully precise for a guy who believe computers abducted his young children and forced them to read cyber-Communist literature. I don't have the data for total runs scored on home runs per team, but let's do a back of the envelope-type comparison. I'm going to use the ratio of home runs to total runs, which should give us a rough idea of if a team is doing too much "living and dying" by the home run.
In 2005, the Chicago Cubs hit 194 home runs and scored 703 runs, for a HR/R ratio of 0.276. The scrappy, gutty, run-like-crazy, smallball, smartball, Guillen-led Southsiders who won the World Series on pure heart and guts and scraps hit 200 home runs and scored 741 runs, for a HR/R ratio of 0.270. That's right, the difference between these two teams was the difference between the batting averages of 2005 Edgar Renteria (.276) and 2005 Royce Clayton (.270). So there you go. You can win the World Series by hitting a lot of home runs and not having much else going on on offense. We know this because the White Sox did it just last year. But of course, I bet if you asked Joe, he would've recommended the Pale Hose pick up Pierre in the offseason as well. Can you imagine? Two speedy leadoff men in one lineup! How could they lose?
Well, now they have Juan Pierre, one of the best leadoff hitters in the game, one of the best basestealers in the game, and one of the best defensive centerfielders in the game. So he's going to change the game for these one-run losses that they had a lot of last year. He's going to make a big difference in close ballgames, and I guarantee you before this season is over, the fans here at Wrigley Field are going to love Juan Pierre.
One way he's going to make a difference is by turning those close ballgames into routs for the opposition. Because Juan Pierre made a lot of outs last season. He OBPed .326, and that's bad. It's not Jose Reyes-bad, but it's close. And the Cubs, by plugging new acquisitions Pierre and Jacque Jones (2005 OBP .319) into the lineup every day, are likely costing themselves a lot of runs over the long haul, no matter what absoutely incorrect things Joe Morgan is saying about them on April 9th.
Labels: joe morgan, jon miller, juan pierre
