Author: Dave Long

Believe it or not, baseball hits the midpoint this weekend. And with the local nine leading the AL East it’s been a year of pleasant surprises for Red Sox Nation. I did not see this coming, mainly because I didn’t think they had the pitching and still don’t. But as I said in an earlier column, I didn’t think they had enough in 2013 and was convinced of that right up until they won the World Series. So there is precedent for me being wrong from wire to wire. So this time, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy it.

However, they’re not the only story in baseball creating buzz throughout the game. So here are a few other stories, even in the National League, which I generally talk more about on my annual weekend trip to Long Island each July than I do with folks up here the rest of the entire season. But not this year.

San Francisco Giants: Their having the best record in baseball may be more surprising than the Sox. Here are four things about them of interest to Red Sox Nation. (1) Yaz’s grandson Mike Yastrzemski is the right fielder with 10 homers, 27 RBI, and is hitting .221. (2) Since I hadn’t heard his name in years, I assumed Johnny Cueto was dead. But he’s alive and still pitching at 35, where he’s 6-2 with 3.63 ERA. (3) Their two best starters are ex-Oriole meatballer Kevin Gausman and the Irish kid Anthony DeSclafani, who are 16-3 combined with ERA’s of 1.49 and 2.77 respectively. (4) Somehow they’re doing it with Sox alum Gabe Kapler as manager, who more than once forgot how many outs there were while managing in Philly.

NL West Race: That could portend a raucous race for playoff spots in the NL West involving the West Coast G-Men, defending champion Dodgers and upstart Padres led by the exciting Fernando Tatis. They could be even better in the second half if newcomer Blake Snell (3-3, 5.29) ever shakes off the frustration of being yanked by idiot manager Kevin Cash after six untouchable Game 7 innings to hand the Dodgers the World Series.

Jacob deGrom:While the numbers are incredible — 0.69 ERA, 122 K’s in 78 innings, which is 14.07 K’s per 9 innings compared to Nolan Ryan’s best ever 10.6 — how come he doesn’t win more games? He’s only won more than 11 twice with a high of 15 in 2017. Can his hitters be that bad? Can’t be as bad as the team behind Koufax in L.A., who took fly swatters to the plate. Or is he the poster boy for the stat geeks’ belief that wins are an irrelevant stat for starters?

Ticky Tack Baseballs: Once again baseball shoots itself in the head thanks to whiny pitchers like Garrett Richards and idiot managers like Joe Girardi causing a ruckus because they’re no longer allowed to use illegal substances to make baseballs spin better. Again, but slower this time: histrionics by crybabies over being prevented from doing something illegal. If that’s not so 2021 America, nothing is.

The F-Cat Trio: It’s not that folks didn’t know what was in store for the sons of three major leaguers when they played for the F-Cats a few years back. But by hitting .342 and leading the majors in homers (26) and RBI (66) the Blue Jays’ Vlad Guerrero Jr. is now the best young hitter in baseball. Not far behind are Manchester bros shortstop Bo Bichette (.281/14/50) and injury-plagued third baseman Cavan Biggio (.217/6/17). The year’s highlight was all going deep in the same game at Fenway in June.

Shohei Ohtani: While Vlad’s season has been great, Otahni’s is historic. After four years he’s finally healthy and playing as the first full-time hitter/pitcher since Babe Ruth. He was 3-1 with a 2.58 ERA after 11 starts to go with 25 jacks and 59 RBI. What’s not to like?

Why 12 Years Was Too Much For Mookie: For the answer, all you needed to do was be at Fenway Park for Dustin Pedroia Night on Friday. The night of course was well-earned by Pedey and congrats to him. But it was a reminder that after signing an eight-year deal he played the following games by year: 135, 93, 164, 105, 3, 6, 0, and they are still paying him in 2021. In the other dugout was Giancarlo Stanton, who played 41 games in 2018 and 19 early in a $30 million per, 12-year deal going to 2028. Lesson to be learned: Stuff happens, so the considerable risk is too great.

Mookie vs. Alex Verdugo Update: Games, Runs, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, Average and paycheck. Mook’s numbers are first. 66/72 , 47/47, 20/15 , 3/1 , 9/9, 28/32, .248/.276, $22.9 million/$560K.

The New York Yankees: After just suffering a second straight weekend sweep to the Red Sox and another disappointing season in progress, the natives are restless in the Apple. If these were the good old days, Aaron Boone would have been fired and rehired two or three times by now. But the weirdest of all is that while the Red Sox have fired three GM’s despite winning four World Series this century, Yankees GM Brian Cashman has somehow managed to keep his job after winning the WS just once in 20 years with that gigantic payroll. George Steinbrenner has to be rolling over in his grave.

Theo Epstein Curse: It was the only flaw in his resume, as from Carl Crawford to Jason Heyward almost no one Theolavished big money on ever lived up to expectations. Even when one worked, like with Ben Zobrist helping the Cubs finally win in 2016, there’s a dark twist. For poor Ben, it’s suing his own minister last week for allegedly having an affair with his wife! Can’t trust your own minister. Again, so 2021.

We’ll get to the Sox after the All-Star game.

The reshaping of the Celtics began late last week when Brad Stevens sent Kemba Walker and his 2021 first-round pick to Oak City for old friend Al Horford, 21-year-old seven-footer Moses Brown, and swapped 2022 second-round picks. There were all kinds of rationales for why it was a solid deal, including from media sage Kendrick Perkins, who is worth listening to, but when I was asked about it the next day I said I don’t know.

I don’t think you can judge it until you see what Oak City GM Sam Presti gets back for Kemba when he re-gifts him to a contender in need of a scorer. And if it’s another first-round pick – Brad got taken. Though, to be fair, Presti has the luxury of letting Kemba rehabilitate his value by showing people he’s healthy next year while Brad had to move on now.

I know Kemba makes a lot of money, and the financial flexibility/relief the deal provides is hailed as why it’s a good deal. But it seems odd to me that the Celtics had to also include their 2021 first-round draft and take back another bad contract as well to give Oak City a 20-point-a-game scorer, big contract or not. A contract I might point out they didn’t want to give two years ago, because they felt Horford would be too old in the second half of the four-year deal he got from Philly to justify paying him $27 million a year, which was smart thinking then. But now it’s not? I don’t get that.
They say it’s in the numbers, so let’s look at them. Boston saves $9 million this year. Which for the moment takes them out of luxury tax territory, but with Jayson Tatum’s max contract extension kicking in not under the cap. But assuming he wants to return, it lets them re-sign Evan Fournier to give them a proven scorer off the bench. Thus the deal’s net is Horford, Brown and Fournier for their first-round pick and Kemba. They can save another $13 million next year by buying out Horford. But that still doesn’t get them under the cap, meaning the real relief doesn’t come until 2023-24, which is when Kemba’s deal comes off the books as well for wherever he winds up. Which doesn’t add up to being worth that first-round pick, unless the throw in guy turns out to be something akin to the (holy) Moses Brown, who looked like Wilt Chamberlain grabbing 19 first-half rebounds against the Cs in March. Not likely, but that would make the deal more to my liking. And it’s worth noting Brad was there, so maybe he saw something he really liked.
Here are a few more thoughts on stories related to the deal.

The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn reporting on Kemba’s departure almost sounded like his eulogy. Here’s mine. While the classy Kemba had some major positives, he wasn’t the right fit because they needed a real point guard and he’s not that. Not his fault. He is what he is, a Ray Allen-like 2 guard scorer/slasher who’s called a point guard because he’s just 6 feet tall and too small to cover big guards.

But they went after him in the wake of losing Kyrie, due to Danny Ainge’s misguided obsession with shoot-first point guards. That dates back to constant rumors he was trying to move Rajon Rondo for Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook, despite Rajon being a playoff star and the other two being regular playoff busts in championship-less careers. It also led to the disastrous Irving trade and then after losing Kyrie in free agency Kemba. I wrote at the time I’d rather keep Terry Rozier, who has outplayed Kemba since, and use the money saved to sign free agent seven-footer Clint Capela, now with rampaging Atlanta after leading the NBA in rebounding at 14 per. No guarantee they’d have gotten Capela, but if they had they’d be much better off with those two than where they are now.

It would also make it easier now to give up Marcus Smart, whose point guard/top defender role likely goes to (gulp) Romeo Langford if a trade goes down.

Moses, incidentally, is a 21-year-old 7-foot-2 rookie who averaged nine rebounds in just 21 minutes per after that record-setting game vs. the Cs. Combined with Robert Williams’ seven boards per over 18 minutes, it’s a 16-rebound combo from their centers, which isn’t bad.

I doubt they’ll make that leap of faith before seeing more, but if they do, it puts Tristan Thompson in play after his strong playoff performance.

With the reconstruction underway, here are the top four priorities as I saw it at season’s end. (1) Get a new coach that drives this team harder — halfway there. (2) Get bigger — with Horford at PF, a new 7’2” backup center and a point guard who’ll likely be bigger than Kemba they will be. (3) Restructure the half-court offense — mission is to get a point guard whose first job is to run the offense to get Tatum, Jaylen Brown and others the ball where they can do something with it. Halfway done. (4) Get consistent bench scoring.

The top three on my point guard wish list are Indiana’s Malcom Brogdon, free agent Derrick Rose and getting Rozier back from Charlotte. All can run the offense first, score second and are better defensively than Kemba. With the Gordon Hayward trade exception they can get Brogdon on a deal involving young players, Rose would have to be willing to sign for the veteran level $9 million exception while Thompson and the Hayward exception might do it for Rozier. Yes, Rozier isn’t perfect. But the last time they seemed whole was when he was the point guard in the exciting playoff run of 2017 that ended a game away from the NBA Finals.

A few days before every college basketball season started our coach would bring the new game balls to practice to scuff them up and for us to get used to playing with them. Being brand new they were slippery and with no accumulated floor dust or sweat were much lighter than our practice balls. That made the balls bounce higher and quicker off the floor and harder off the rim, taking the favorable roll on shots we were used to with it.

The problem was they’d been inflated right out of the box by a student worker in the equipment room who wouldn’t know the feel or bounce of a properly inflated ball if it hit them in the head. So I took it upon myself to take them to the equipment room after practice to deflate and reinflate them until the bounce was just right by trial and error. And while I was doing that, it never occurred to me it might be violating some obscure rule for how many pounds they needed to be inflated to.

I bring this up because in an environment where the word “cheater” is used so easily and imprecisely today I probably would have been branded as one, even though all I was doing was just trying to get the new balls to bounce right. When Deflate-gate hit and Tom Brady was branded a cheater I always thought he did something similar to what I did. Which is to say, after getting stuck with over-inflated rock-hard football balls in one game he likely told the equipment guys either directly or by implication to make sure they were “grippable” going forward without having a clue there was a rule for how inflated they had to be. I believe that because I’ve been playing, coaching or covering sports since I was 6 and have never known even one player who gave it any thought beyond “this is too hard or not inflated enough.” Plus, I was a quarterback back in the day, so I know there was nothing worse than playing with rock-hard footballs. But my little thing was not subject to fan jealousy or the media chance to pay back Bill Belichick’s churlishness with them, and so taking a little air out of a ball was blown completely out of proportion.

Beyond the role of public perception, my problem with the word “cheater” being thrown around so loosely is it’s done without any distinction between what’s on the low end of the scale and real cheating. The latter is what the Astros did by using technology and an organized plan to circumvent the rules on the way to winning the 2017 World Series. In saner times, the low end of the scale was called looking for an edge, like DBs clutching and grabbing receivers in football or flopping in basketball to sell a call. Those sports have penalties to address those issues. In baseball it’s the guy on second base seeing the catcher signs and then relaying them to the hitter. To those who know what’s what, it’s an art and no big deal.

There are a million stories of real cheating, quasi-cheating or what people see erroneously as cheating and isn’t. Like Belichick using a funky formation to confuse the Ravens defense in the 2014 playoffs that made it hard to tell who the eligible receivers were. Even though it was a legal, clever ploy, the “it was cheating” folks didn’t like that it worked. Paranoia has fueled some of it too, like George Allen being convinced (without evidence) the Cowboys had scouts in a hotel overlooking the Redskins practice field in the 1970s to steal his game plan. Still others are real, like Adolph Rupp having an assistant coach pose as a janitor to spy on Michigan the day before a big game at Kentucky. Though from the way ex-Michigan coach Johnny Orr chuckled as he told it in an ESPN SportsCentury episode, he didn’t think it mattered much. Today the woke folk would want to give Adolph the chair.

Then there’s the public perception, like Gaylord Perry being celebrated as he cruised into the Hall of Fame even though he was a notorious spit baller. How come he’s in and the steroid guys are pariahs? How about the 1951 NY Giants? They’re remembered fondly, even though they basically did what Houston did by sticking a guy in the scoreboard with binoculars to read the catcher’s signs and relay them via a buzzer in the dugout as they erased Brooklyn’s 14-game lead in the last six weeks of that legendary season.

The Patriots’ rise and Coach B’s secretive ways played a role in this gaining momentum, which thanks to spy-gate it’s earned. Ditto for Barry Bonds’steroid-aided run at the beloved Hank Aaron’s home run record. But it really picked up steam with what the Astros did as attitudes in went nuts. Which is just in time for baseball’s newest scandal: using tacking substance to give the ball better spin rates (whatever that means) to make it tougher on hitters. To their credit baseball is getting out in front of it with new guidelines and penalties about to be announced. Coincidentally, since news of a crackdown was coming 10 days ago, the surprisingly good till then Red Sox pitching has been abysmal, culminating in Sunday’s 18-4 loss to Toronto. Hmmmmm. A story for another day.

What’s particularly irritating is this nonsense clouds what is cheating and what’s not. Applying a substance to the ball is wrong. But I’ve heard wokes actually say bench jockeys figuring out signs from a third base coach and relaying them to the team is cheating. It’s not and it’s been a valuable skill and honored part of baseball for 100 years. Not the crime on humanity these historically clueless drones are trying to make it.

As for me, I’m safe from them, as the statute of limitations on my inflation act has long since expired.

It’s been a week since the demise of the Celtics brass.

It came a day after their playoff wipeout to the Nets, when news broke GM Danny Ainge was “retiring” and Brad Stevens was being kicked upstairs to replace Danny. If you read this column regularly you know I’ve been saying since early February both had a lot to do with the disaster evolving in front of our eyes, and, since last summer, that the team needed to be constructed away from its no-point-guard, 3-ball-centric, hoist-it-up approach.

So, while both have done very good things here, not so much lately and as a result the change is a good thing. Just not as good as it could have been. Because for the last year or so I’ve felt like Bob Kraft did when he said upon firing Pete Carroll in 1999, “We need a momentum change.”

So here are a few hot takes following the shakeup.

The good news: Being a glass is half full kind of guy, with the Lakers also getting run out in Round 1, L.A. and the C’s remain tied for most NBA league titles won (17) for another year. That seemed in peril at the start of 2020-2021.

That does it for the good news. Now for the bad.

Pitino reboot: When I said the change didn’t go far enough, I meant making Stevens GM will be the worst move since hiring Rick Pitino 25 years ago. Although Danny trading up in the 2013 draft for Kelly Olynyk and leaving Giannis Antetokounmpo on the board was pretty bad. That means the same policies and demeanor that led to the abyss remain, starting with likely selecting a head coach who thinks as he does. The team badly needs a culture change, more emotion/passion and an inside scoring approach to complement the 3-ball game.

Where’s George Steinbrenner when you really need him? This comes from the Sports Hub’s Tony Maz, who suggests the only reason Stevens moved upstairs is that the team owes him close to $25 million after foolishly extending him for six long years during last season. That seems like a really dumb thing for the owners of a $2 billion enterprise to do. And while George’s lunacy way back when was the reason I stopped being a Yankees fan (a good thing after last weekend), for once I’m with George. Because he’d have broomed everyone by now.

Brad Stevens: Far be it from me to tell someone else what’s best for them career-wise. But I’ll make an exception. It’s not that he can’t coach; it’s that he hasn’t changed or adapted to new circumstances. As Larry Bird said all through his time coaching Indiana, there’s a shelf-life for coaches and Brad hit his in Boston. He needs a change in the way Andy Reid did after he got fired in Philly. Ditto for Bill Belichick after Cleveland ended in disaster. Both came back stronger than before and maybe Stevens can too in a new locale.

Jayson Tatum: I know, guys who can score 60 in a game don’t grow on trees. Especially those who put in the work and are good kids. But sorry, I want more. The only time he ever shows emotion is when calls don’t go his way. The best player on the team almost always has to be the leader. He’s not, and whether he can score 70 or even 80 he’ll never be a Top 5 player until he assumes that role. Thus he’ll be a No. 2 like Kevin McHale was to Bird’s alpha dog and if it’s truly not in him, like it wasn’t for Anthony Davis in New Orleans, they’ve got to bring in someone Jimmy Butler-like, who can lead as he mentors him to become one. Which brings me to the next coach.

The next coach: I hope they hire an ex-player with major NBA playing cred for the players to look up to, and fill in his holes with veteran assistants. Somebody like Kevin Garnett. I know, he has no coaching experience. Plus I have no idea if he can coach, has the temperament to coach or even wants to. I also know major stars from Willis Reed to Dan Issel didn’t cut it when given a shot by their old team. But I do know KG scared the bejeebers out of everyone when he arrived in 2008 and his fire totally transformed the team’s culture. After being under the NBA’s answer to Mr. Rogers the last eight years, this team that doesn’t value winning enough needs that badly. Especially Tatum. It won’t happen, but that is the first call I’d make if I owned the team.

Reflection on days gone by: Hope no one has missedtheirony of where the Nets and Celtics are seven years after the blockbuster trade of 2014. Since Day 1, Brooklyn was universally mocked for giving up their future for two guys (Garnett and Paul Pierce) that were too deep into the back nine to have the impact the Nets brass expected. It got worse as the choices they gave up (Tatum and Jaylen Brown) became emerging stars. The narrative was, the C’s were set up to have a deep, talented team for years to come, while the Nets would be mired at the bottom because they gave away the draft positions that generate real talent. Flash forward to 2021, where thanks to savvy trades, big and small free agent pickups and salary cap manipulation the Nets are the deeper team with three big talents at the top of their roster. Tip of the cap to Nets GM Sean Marks, who did all that. Meanwhile, after squandering many of their picks with bad drafting and a reluctance to trade them for immediate veteran help, the C’s are scrambling.

It shows life not only doesn’t turn out like everyone expects, it can turn out to be 180 degrees opposite.

Time to clear out the attic of my cluttered sports mind.

I don’t know much about European soccer, but I do know a disaster when I see one and the effort by 12 greedy owners to abandon ancient partner clubs to form a so-called “Super League” was a catastrophe of epic proportions. It’s likely the dumbest move anyone has made since those dingbats from Coke in the early ’80s changed the formula of the world’s most popular soft drink. The one silver lining is that the enormous backlash shows fans do have a voice and don’t have to just take it when greedy owners try to line their pockets while screwing loyal fans.

Has any city lost two stars like Mookie Betts and Tom Brady in the same year and then seen the teams they left for win the championship as the Dodgers and Bucs did? Can’t think of any time that happened.

While it’s a nice promotion, it’s hard to believe after nearly 600,000 in the U.S. have died from Covid-19 that CVS has to bribe people with a chance to win tickets to the Super Bowl or Final Four to get vaccinated against the virus.

Since the latter doesn’t even talk to his own family, I’m guessing Aaron Rodgers isn’t a low-maintenance guy. So with his replacement already in place and AR under contract for three more years, if I’m the Green Bay brass I let him sit out the year or retire. If he wants to pass on $87 million because of his hissy fit with the team, so be it. The worst thing you can do when a baby cries to get their way is give in. Unless some team offers four first-round picks. Then it’s don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Love all those so convinced Mac Jones will be the Patriots’ Week 1 starter. Many were the same folks saying they wouldn’t re-sign Cam Newton, Jimmy G was a lock to be traded here and if not, he was certainly headed somewhere else. None of which happened, so you know their track record. Personally, while I’m not sure how good Cam will be in 2021, I’ll be shocked if he’s not the starter.

With Franchy Cordero sent to the minors and Andrew Benintendi hitting .285 and projecting to go for 16 homers and 84 RBI, it looks like Chaim Bloom’s gamble on Cordero’s potential ain’t paying off.

Loved the story comedian Kevin Pollak told Rich Eisen abouton his radio show about the first time he met grumpy old man and noted sports gambler Walter Matthau. It was on the set of Grumpy Old Men when he, in his words, foolishly tried to make small talk with Matthau by saying, “The script is pretty good,” to which Matthau replied, “The script sucks, kid, I’m only doing this ’cause I owe my bookie two million bucks,” and he wasn’t kidding. Further emphasizing how much he loved sports betting, KP said that on the back of the program for Matthau’s memorial service were his NFL picks for next Sunday’s games.

Thought I’d heard all the Yogisms there were, but I heard a new one the other day. His wife Carmen says to him one day, you were born in St. Louis, live in New Jersey and played ball in New York. So if you go before I do, where would you like me to have you buried? To which Yogi said, “surprise me.”

Finally, thumbs up to the greatest kicker of them all upon his retirement. Ultra-clutch Adam Vinatieri earned that honor for a resume that includes (1) making the game-winning FGs as time expired to give the Patriots dynasty its first two Super Bowl wins, (2) hitting the greatest field goal in NFL history that went through a blinding Foxboro snowstorm from 45 yards out off a field where the snow was 5 inches deep to send the first playoff game of the Belichick era to OT, which he later won with a 23-yard kick to beat Oakland 16-13 — no FG either time, no first SB win, and he also supplied the decisive margin in the third SB win over Philly, (3) being the NFLs all-time leader in both field goals and points scored. All were great, but my favorite moment was his 45-yard dash to chase down Olympic-level speedster Herschel Walker at the Dallas 18-yard line to prevent a kick return TD after having no real angle. Tuna famously said after that, “You’re no longer a kicker, you’re a football player.” No truer words have ever been spoken.

With six no-hitters already, the Mets’ Jacob DeGrom off to a historic start before going on the DL, Shohei Ohtani beautifully pulling off the pitcher-DH thing with 14 homers and a 2.37 ERA, and the surprising Giants, Red Sox and White Sox around the top of their divisions all year, baseball 2021 is off to an interesting start. But, as is usually the case for the sport that outsmarts itself more than all the others combined, it got its panties in a bunch over a story that takes away from all the good news.

That would be in Chicago, where with a few notable exceptions like 1959 and the Frank Thomas era, the White Sox have largely been a joke since throwing the 1919 World Series. So it makes sense that instead of just enjoying having baseball’s best record, the big story in Chi-Town was their 76-year-old manager calling his 28-year-old rookie catcher Yermin Mercedes “clueless” for hitting an eighth-inning homer with his team up double digits because it came on a 3-0 count. It immediately sparked an old-school vs. new-school debate that said after not managing for nine years Tony La Russa was out of touch with modern players who are not wedded to baseball’s ancient code of conduct.

I am no fan of La Russa, whose La Russification of managing pitching put baseball on the path to the endless game of today. But he is right about one thing. Mercedes was given the take sign and he either missed it or, worse, ignored it, which does make him clueless. On the other hand, his sportsmanship argument is stupid for two reasons. First, while they are rare, 13-run innings have happened, so follow Yogi Berra’s advice – because “it ain’t over till it’s over.” Second, Yermin didn’t put a 45-mile-an-hour non-pitching stiff into the game. That was Twins manager Rocco (head) Baldelli so as to not waste real pitchers in a lost cause. So, Rocco, your fault, because you reap what you sow. Then by having his pitcher throw behind Yermin’s head the next day as payback he’s the real villain because that leads to more beanballs, fights and maybe serious injury or worse. So boo Rocco.

In the meantime, as we wait for the real clueless people in Chicago to focus on what actually matters, here are a few other thoughts on baseball’s start.

Baseball 101: Yankees players have won the MVP award two times, but it was done only once by a pitcher. Name him.

Mentioned last week how good Matt Barnes has been so far, but how about Aroldis Chapman? As of Monday morning, the Yankees closer had 37 strikeouts in just 19 innings with an ERA of 0.47.

If you missed it, by hitting .335 with 13 bombs and 35 RBI F-Cat alum Vlad Guerrero Jr. is tearing it up in Toronto. With nine homers and 27 RBI, his Manchester teammate Bo Bichette is not far behind.

Alex Verdugo vs. Mookie Betts Update:While the Mookster is up one World Series win to none, the trade of Betts to L.A. was always a long-term move for the Sox and at the moment you’ve got to like the progress. Here’s what it looks like in Year 2, with Verdugo’s numbers listed first. Avg .297-.258. R 30-25. Doubles 8-15, Triples 1-0, HR 6-5 and RBI 20-16. Paycheck $450,000-$22 million (2021) and $400 million until 2032.

David Price, incidentally, hasbecome a very pricey bullpen pitcher. He’s made just one start in 10 appearances and that was as a two-inning opener on May 20. After opting out last year the start was rocky, but the ERA is down to 3.95.

That was quite a messy ending to the Albert Pujols era with the Angels, who said they had no room to play him. Of course then Mike Trout goes down for two months after he joined the Dodgers.

The question after that news was, is he the best first baseman ever? Well, he’s fifth all-time in total bases (5,963) and homers (668), third best RBI (2,117), which dwarves competitors like Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx, so it’s hard to say no. But it’s been so long since he was the astonishing hitter he was in St. Louis, it’s hard to wrap my head around saying yes too.

Here is my “only I would care about it” weird old-time baseball stat of day. The all-time winning percentage leader (100 wins or more) is the 1930s-40s Yankee Spud Chandler at 71.1 percent. What’s weird is he did it only after getting to the majors at 29, because he was just 46-53 the previous five years in the minors!

Sports 101 Answer: Good old Spud is also our answer. He was MVP in 1943 when he was 20-3 with an ERA of 1.64, the lowest of anyone between 1920 and 1967.

Stumbled on that after being asked if Jon Lester will be a Hall of Famer. He’s 37 and has 191 wins, so if he can hang on until 40 while averaging 12 wins per, he’ll be close to 230 wins with a terrific 62.9 winning percentage. That’s more than Curt Schilling (216) without the baggage. But unlike Clayton Kershaw (a lock), who has a truckload, he’s got no big awards. Plus, the not in so far Andy Pettitte has 256 wins and a record 19 postseason victories. So probably not, but he’ll get votes from the stat geeks, er, newer voting members with less traditional reasons for saying yes.

Two other interesting stats found during the search. (1) At 69.6 Kershaw’ is now on target to pass Whitey Ford for the highest winning percentage of anyone with 200 wins, though he is still 19 short. (2) Lester’s winning percentage for the Red Sox and Cubs was an identical 63.6 percent.

One of these days, I’ve got to start paying closer attention to the NL again.