Hat Tip to Scott McClain

It's not every day that a 36-year-old rookie, and veteran of 19 minor league seasons hits his first major league home run. But as you can see here, that's what Scott McClain finally did.

I just want to say, dude, it's about frickin' time. And yeah, sorta scratching my head about why this guy hasn't gotten a chance at the major league level.

Here's his page at BaseballCube.

In 1996, at 24 years old, he batted .281/.361/.458 with 17 homers in AAA for the Orioles. I guess he was sorta blocked there by B.J. Surhoff (McClain was listed as a Third Baseman).

Well, in 1997, McClain ends up in AAA for the Mets, where he goes .280/.370/.503 with 21 homers and 29 doubles... but the Mets had Edgardo Alfonzo at 3B.

Here's the kicker, in 1998 McClain's in the Tampa Bay Organization, at AAA Durham. He's still only 26 years old... and hits .299/.385/.589 with 34 homers and 35 doubles in 126 games... gets called up for a grand total of 20 at bats... and sent back down.

So who did the Rays have at 3rd Base in 1998 that blocked this guy?

If you guessed Bobby Smith, you're amazing!! Sadly, Bobby Smith completely sucked. Wade Boggs was also finishing out his career, but only saw 78 games at 3B that year.

Would have seemed to me that if you had a 26-year old 3rd baseman sitting in the minors, with developing power and pretty good plate discipline, you'd get him up there and get him an extended look, right? Even just to DH him!!! Who DH'd for Tampa that year?

Oh, that's right!! Paul Sorrento!!! He DH'd to the tune of .225/.313/.405 in 435 at bats.

As it stands, Scott McClain has hit 355 home runs over 19 minor league seasons. He's hit 30+ homers in 4 seasons and this year, in the minors with the Giants, he batted .307/.389/.566 with 22 more longballs. And he plays first base now.

Guys who've played first base/third base for The San Francisco Giants this year:

John Bowker: .246/.295/.395 with 9 homers and 70 K's in 301 at bats.
Rich Aurilia: .276/.325/.415 with 9 homers in 352 at bats, who's ALSO 36 years old.
Jose Castillo: .244/.290/.381 with 6 homers in 394 at bats.

Now look at McClain's line for the year again. Sure, he's 36, but why the frick not!? Right?

Dave Fleming = Mark Prior?

Thanks to USS Mariner for this cool information that I would never have thought to look for myself.

For those of you who don't know who Dave Fleming was, he went 17-10 for the Mariners (basically as a rookie) in 1992, at age 22. He flamed out of the game of baseball with a rotator cuff tear after the 1995 season. The likely culprit? Overuse.

100 or less: 11 starts
101-109 pitches: 5 starts
110-121 pitches: 9 starts (this is where we start getting into the harmful)
122-132 pitches: 6 starts
133 pitches or more: 5 starts

And here's a comparison to Mark Prior, also at age 22, for the Cubs in 2003. He went 18-6 that year.

100 or less: 5 starts
101-109 pitches: 6 starts
110-121 pitches: 10 starts (this is where we start getting into the harmful)
122-132 pitches: 8 starts
133 pitches or more: 1 starts

This is what I mean when I say that the guys who show promise, but flame out after one good year because they're overused and get hurt... are forgotten by history. Nobody remembers Dave Fleming winning 17 as a rookie.

And 10 or 15 years from now, nobody will remember Mark Prior either.

This concludes installment # 729 of "Why MLB Should Take Cueto, Bailey and Volquez Away From Dusty Baker." Thank you.

Mark Prior Should Sue Dusty Baker...

For pain and suffering, and for lost wages. Yes, bashing Dusty Baker has become something of a habit and a fetish for me... but I'm going to do it again and I'm not sorry.

Mark Prior made 30 starts in 2003, his first full year as a pro.

In those 30 starts, he went over 100 pitches 26 times.
He went over 110 pitches 19 times.
He went over 120 pitches 8 times.
And he went over 130 pitches 3 times.

And that's just in the regular season. Did I mention that he was 22? Did I mention that he's going for another surgery and one of the most promising careers of the last 20 years is basically over?

Did I also mention that in 2005, after Prior spent 2004 banged up and hurt... Baker allowed him to throw 115+ pitches 9 times with a high of 131?

How about the fact that in 2003, already injury-proned Kerry Wood broke 120 pitches in 13 starts and finished the season with 6 straight starts of 114 or more?

Would you believe me if I told you that Wood's highest pitch count in 2003 was 141?

Now Baker's in Cincinnati.

Already, Johnny Cueto (22 years old) has gone 108, 114 and 119 this year.
Edinson Volquez (24) went 112, 118, 110 and 111.
And Homer Bailey's coming up for his first start.

Here's some info on how a couple of other teams handle their prized, young pitchers.

High Pitch Counts for Phil Hughes (Yankees): 106, 102, 99
High Pitch Counts for Clay Buchholz (Red Sox): 115 (no hitter), 113, 103, 98

Point here is... find me another team, ANY TEAM, ANY MANAGER, that consistently abuses his pitchers the way Dusty Baker does... I beg you to. I implore you from the depths of my soul.

I think Mark Prior should press charges against Dusty Baker. I think Dusty Baker should be brought up on Murder charges... for killing Prior's career.

Dusty Baker Suspended For Stupidity?

Before our very eyes, a revolutionary series of events is unfolding people!  Major League Baseball has begun suspending managers for making complete retarded in-game decisions!!

Dusty Baker was suspended for two games!  No doubt this is for his decision to make Adam Dunn sacrifice bunt late in a game a few days ago!

For those of you who aren't aware of this situation, it's the second time this season that Dusty's told a power hitter to bunt in a late-game situation.  And it's the second time that the power hitter has failed to get a bunt down, and instead hit a walk-off home run with 2 strikes.

The first time, Edwin Encarnacion did it about 6 seconds after Jeff Brantley told the world how 'un-clutch' Encarnacion was, and suggested pinch hitting for him in late-and-close situations.

I haven't actually READ this article about Baker's suspension.  He probably got suspended for something stupid like bumping and ump... but I'm holding out hope that MLB is punishing him for doing the baseball-equivalent of soliciting a tranny hooking and thinking that 'she' is actually a woman.

Just for the sake of background on this situation, Adam Dunn has hit 250 career homers (and averages 40 a season) and has a grand total of 2 career sac hits.

Encarnacion has 48 homers, developing power and a total of zero career sacs.

My deepest sympathies go out to everybody who's team has ever been coached by Dusty Baker.  I cannot imagine how you have suffered.

Also for the Cubs Fans?

I want to start out by saying that I really only linked that Cubs video because it cracked me up. I think you guys have a pretty solid shot this year because I like your offense a lot. I think it needs another arm in the rotation, and another reliable guy in the pen, but yeah, you get it. So to the 728 Cubs fans who've cursed me out in the last 3 days... SEE!?! I don't hate your team.

Also, I took a little voting on the Cubs messaging boards (Literally "a little voting" because there were 3 votes casted, and 27 people cursing me out for the Cubs review). The point of the "voting" was to determine what team I'd review next, the Cardinals or the White Sox. The winner? The Chicago White Sox. And I even found a video for them too! But more on that later.

Starting Pitchers: Javy Vasquez, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Mark Buerhle, Jose Contreras

I want to start by saying that as a Yankee fan, I hate Javy Vasquez. I hate him like Juan Uribe hates to get on base. I hate him like Eric Gagne hates the ban on steroids. That said, he's been very good this year, and will probably continue to be this good. Danks and Floyd have looked great too, however, I'm going out on a limb and selling the idea of them both keeping it up.

Danks and Floyd are both former 1st rounders... but they were both terrible pitchers last year, and Floyd's been sucking for a while. Maybe they both figured it out and learned how to pitch or maybe nobody in the AL is hitting!!!! My feeling is that these guys are going to end up with ERAs in the mid-4's. Yup. Around the league average, because I've seen them pitch.. and they don't look as good as the results so far.

Contreras is 800 years old and blows. He'll gag like he always does. And Buerhle signed a nice big contract extension so he could die in peace.

Rotation Grade: B-plus

Infielders: AJ Pierzynski, Paul Konerko, Juan Uribe, Joe Crede, Orlando Cabrera

Pierzynski is a fucking tool. He also hasn't had an OPS+ over 100 since 2003 in Minnesota. So I'm calling bullshit on the OPS+ 124. That's coming down... a fucking lot.

Konerko looks like a really old 32, doesn't he? Fact of the matter is that for some reason, this guy ALWAYS sucks in May. He's definitely going to hit better than .216/.341/.353.

Juan Uribe doesn't belong in the major leagues, and Ozzie Guillen should be beaten about the head with a frozen trout for keeping him in the lineup when a minor leaguer, ANY MINOR LEAGUER could help this team more. O-Cab is also sucking balls so far this year. Unlike Uribe, he should improve somewhat. And Joe Crede... OPS+ 132... OBP .352... previous career best...323. Walks? Not usually. Healthy? Rarely. Going to OPS .866 for the season? No.

Infield Grade: D+minus

Outfielders: Carlos Quentin, Nick Swisher, Jermaine Dye

Jermaine Dye and Carlos Quentin are actually living people? Are you fucking serious? I thought they both died like two years ago. The only explanation I have for this outfield is that Quentin and Dye stole Nick Swisher and Jim Thome's talent like the MonStars in Space Jam.

Swisher is still drawing walks and he's going to hit. Dye and Quentin should come back to Earth a little bit, and the restraining order that keeps Michael Jordan from coming within 100 yards of U.S. Cellular Field will remain intact.

Outfield Grade: A-minus

Designated Hitter: Jim Thome

Like I said, I blame Carlos Quentin! No, not really. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that he's 87 years old. Thome is still probably good for 30 homers, but he's supposed to be one of the guys who gets on base enough to make up for the fact that Crede, Uribe, Pierzynski and Cabrera aren't going to. No grade for Thome. Maybe some carbon dating.

Bullpen: Bobby Jenks, Scott Linebrink, Octavio Dotel, Boone Logan, Matt Thornton, Nick Masset

Shit... they've been really good, haven't they? Dotel, Logan, and Thornton aren't as good as they've been. That will catch up to them sooner, rather than later. No complains about Jenks and Linebrink.

Bullpen Grade: B+ for the solid back end.

Coach, Bench, Heart, Pulse-Rate and Other Stuff that Shouldn't Matter as Much as You Think

Notice, I said SHOULDN'T matter as much as you think, because it shouldn't. And it wouldn't if Ozzie Guillen had a normal, functioning brain. He does not. And here's a list of reasons why Ozzie is going to cost his team the division.

A) His insistence on leaving Juan Uribe in the lineup. Uribe hasn't been a good player since 2004. He's batting .198/.262/.328 this year (and batted .252, .235 and .234 the 3 years before this, so it's not a fluke.) He walks never. And a full season will prove that he sucks just as much defensively at 2B, as he does at SS. And he does suck at SS.

B) Orlando Cabrera is batting .219/.275/.290! So Ozzie juggles him between leadoff and the two-hole. Where he can make the most possible outs. O-Cab's never been great at getting on base, and in his worst "getting on base" year, he's batting first or second.

C) Ozzie's Smartball is the opposite of smart... because Ozzie is going to bunt, hit-and-run, and get guys caught stealing every chance he gets. And every time his smartysmartOzzieball bullshit fails, that's costing the White Sox runs. This team probably won't score enough runs on it's own... and he's going to dirty sanchez them out of a few more.

Proof of C: The Sox have stolen 13 bases this year. And been caught 9 times. That's an amazing 59% rate of success. 45 games into the season, Nick Swisher has tied his CAREER HIGH for Caught Stealing. Joe Crede's been caught stealing!!! Joe Crede has no business running bases. Ever. Ever ever ever ever!!!!!!! Joe Crede is the living, breathing embodiment of the words "SHOULD. NOT. RUN. EVER."

SmartOzzieGritHustleAngerAggressionJayMariottiIsAFag Grade: Epic Fail

Okay, Epic Fail is not a letter grade... but I needed something to properly emphasize that Ozzie Guillen is the worst, and most overrated coach in baseball. His team won a world series in SPITE of him a few years ago, not because of him. They won because their pitching was out-of-this-world good that year, and got better in the playoffs. Their pitching this year is not nearly that good, and their offense isn't improved enough to carry them.

Look for Cleveland to take over the division within the next month. And here's the video I promised you. And God willing, Ozzie will shut the fuck up.

Apparently Idiocy Can Breed...

Do you look at the world around you and realize that the average person seems to get dumber every year? Yeah, me too. So where is all this raw stupidity coming from? There's only one solution. Jeff Passan's columns on Yahoo Sports are to brain cells, what kryptonite is to Superman. You don't even have to read them. You just have to be near them and your IQ errodes. Case in point...

The way Curtis Granderson figures, leadoff hitters actually lead off only once a game, so all of the attention they garner – it’s them and cleanup hitters with the recognizable nicknames, after all – isn’t necessarily warranted.

Yeah, and the studies have sorta shown that batting order really doesn't impact the output of the offense. That's where you're going with this, right?

Perhaps it was the romantic notion of the leadoff hitter: the scrapper who fouls off pitches and gets on base and dashes from first to third and manufactures runs, intangibles idealized.

And of course, the key component here is "gets on base" because your leadoff man gets the most at bats on the team, and thereby has the opportunity to make the most outs... so you should strive to use someone who makes less outs than the average player?

Oddly, Rickey Henderson was the best at this. I don't know how scrappy he was. And nobody ever talks about his "intangibles."

That player, of course, is a relic in the steroid and sabermetric eras, generally inefficient, and the prototype has evolved into Leadoff 2.0, the type of player Granderson and others across the game embody.

You're right. Rickey Henderson is a relic, but that's only because he's like 900 years old and nobody as good as him has come around again. Sabermetrics has most certainly never even IMPLIED that a guy who "fouls off pitches and gets on base and goes from first to third and manufactures runs" is inefficient. Sabermetrics has shown us that getting on base is incredibly valuable. It's also showed us how overrated stolen bases were.

And steroids? If anything, guys were taking steroids to try to do these things better. Getting on base more? Hello!!!! The poster child for steroids had an On-Base Percentage of like 2.842 or better for the last 10 years. No typo. Barry Bonds got on base 2.8 times per at bat. He was that fucking retarded.

They can run, yes, but they also hit for serious power, enough that they’d fit just fine in the No. 3 hole, the lineup’s true glamour spot.

We're talking about Curtis Granderson here? He of the .342 career OBP? Okay, that's not shitty, but it's also not what I want in the leadoff spot. And looking at last year, wouldn't the Tigers have been better off batting Granderson down in the lineup a little, where his 38 doubles, 23 triples and 23 homers could have produced more than 74 RBIs? And batting Placido Polanco (and his .388 OBP) first? Nah, you're right... it probably wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.

“You could have your old-school taking pitches so you get the pitch count up and let the hitters behind you see everything the pitcher has."

Yeah Curtis, working counts sounds like a good idea. Sure, this is an old school approach, but effective. Plus the more pitches you see, the more likely you are to draw a hit or walk, and thus, get on base.

"But if you’re a guy who can drive the baseball, you’re going to be aggressive and set the tone by either getting on base, getting an extra-base hit or, possibly, starting the game off 1-0.”

This season, Curtis is driving the ball to the tune of a .242 average and a .320 OBP, and he's on pace for 140+ strikeouts again. That's just what you want from the guy who hits before your run-producers. Keep trying to be Alfonso Soriano, Curtis. It's helping you.

His divisional and positional peer, Cleveland’s Grady Sizemore, socked 92 extra-base hits the year before.

Except that Sizemore got on base at a .390 clip last year, which is the kind of number you should want from the guy who sees the most at bats on the team.

And we can’t forget the leadoff hitter who best epitomizes the power surge – and the most misplaced – Alfonso Soriano, who must be telekinetic with his ability to convince manager after manager that keeping him hitting first is a stroke of brilliance.

Telekinetic? That's moving shit with your mind. MIND POWER!!! And suddenly I got an image of Alfonso Soriano giving Lou Pinella a telekinetic hand-job. The visual in my brain is like bad Star Wars porn right now.

The important thing here, is that Passan is writing an article praising Curtis Granderson and the "new breed" of power-hitting leadoff guys... and he ADMITS that Soriano is "misplaced" in the Cubs lineup, thus contradicting his entire fucking premise. This is why these posts are so long.

It [foot-speed] is managers’ last gasp at the classic leadoff hitter instead of one who resembles Rickey Henderson, baseball’s greatest power-and-speed combination at the top of the lineup since Ty Cobb.

Then here's the real question. What was more vital to Rickey Henderson's success? His "power-and-speed"? Or his ability to work counts, draw walks, and get on base?

Case in point... Henderson hit 297 career home runs. And stole 1406 bases at a success rate of just under 81%. For his career, he averaged a home run every 45 plate appearances. And as we know, stealing bases at an 81% rate really doesn't help an offense very much (because people have researched these facts extensively, and we trust facts.)

Power-and-speed: 1 homer every 45 times at the plate, minimal benefit from stolen bases.

Rickey on-based .401 for his career, with peaks of .420, .419, .423, .439, .432 and another .423 at 40 years old. In 25 seasons, Henderson made more than 400 outs 6 times. Alfonso Soriano, in comparison, has made 400+ outs in every full season he's ever played and has broken 500 twice. Juan Pierre has made 500+ outs in 5 straight years.

Walking/Getting On Base: Once every 4 games, Rickey Henderson is on base when Curtis Granderson is sitting on the bench after having made an out.

“I had Bonds hit a lot of leadoff home runs,” Leyland said.

Jim Leyland, speaking proudly about batting Barry Bonds in the lead-off spot... but at least Bonds was getting on base at an above-average rate. Still fucking stupid.

No one said being Leadoff 2.0 is easy. Which is just how Granderson likes it.

Umm... what? No one said it's easy? Which is just how he likes it? What are you saying here Jeff Passan? Are you saying that he likes it easy? So then Curtis Granderson hates being "Leadoff 2.0" because it's not easy, and he likes it easy?

Wit only looks witty if it makes sense dude.