Re: Carl Crawford
posted at 8/24/2011 6:38 AM EDT
In Response to
Re: Carl Crawford:
In Response to Re: Carl Crawford : Hey Aussiewill.... I too have been following the Sox for quite some time (I'm of the Yaz ERA). Not sure that I get the correlation nor the comparison between he and Crawford? Teddy ball game's resume speaks for itself, so I won't try to diminish his accomplishemnts, but if he were playing today...first off he'd be making some pretty big dough! That said, the game has changed and while Ted Willams was a great player, HOF, etc...He played in an ERA when he wasn't playing against the best in the world (pre desegragation), that and he regularilty would get 3 or 4 at bats a game against the same pitcher...He and the player of the 40's 50 and 60's never had to deal with the lefty specialist and the closers of today game...I'm sure he would still have been a HOFer...Trust me he would've struggled to square up Rivera's cutter just like ever other lefthanded hitter of this generation...Not to mention guys like Sparky Lyle's (slider) who were death to lefties...Sutters splitter was prety nasty as well and he wouldn't have been the first nor the last HOF to offer at one that bounced. The list gone on and on different era's and we could argue all day about which era was the best, I'd probably settle on the 70's cause that when all teams were fully intergrated... What Crawfrod is making is a by product of fiscal model of the modern game, Good for him. I am not a big fan of beatin a guy up because of what he makes. I, like all fans, want to see players earn thier dough, playing to thier potential. Cleary Crawford is falling short, but he can start to turn it around begining tonight! The kids to good an athlete to continue playing so poorly...For his sake and that of the teams...lets hope tonight is the night he squares up a couple of balls and shows us why Theo and more importantly John Henry chose to make him a very wealthy young man...he'll never be Teddy ball game, that was not the expectation...what we all thought we'd get was a dynamic all around ball player that'd hit close to 300 and steal us 50 bags...
Posted by Beantowne
I was asked by some poster , who are you anyway? So I told him. The Williams reference and it wasn't only Ted, it was about the fact that I never saw major league hitters of that ERA chase bad pitchers like some hitters do today. Crawford being a prime example. He chases the high strike and he chases the breaking ball off the plate . When he is going good he doesn't chase the stuff in the dirt. I am only saying that this guy is getting superstar money, and he chases stuff that , you don't see good hitters chasing.
Maybe he is feeling the pressure and that is contributing to his anxiety. Maybe next year he will relax settle in and hit .300 and steal 50 bases, maybe, and I hope so. Personally I don't think that a guy that is getting the dough he is getting, gets a free ride, if he doesn't produce. But hey, it doesn't seem to bother Tito or Theo so maybe we should all ignore the Crawford saga.
Drew copped it from the get go, AJ is copping it in NY . Lackey has been in the firing line, it comes with the territory. Beckett was even enduring the slings and arrows last year.
As to you assertion that Ted Williams faced inferior pitching. I will give you one small example. I had a conversation with the great Bob Feller in 1989 at a night for number nine. Ted's 70th , they were all there, Joe D, Bobby Doerr , Pesky, Raddatz, even John Havlichek , I was like a kid in the candy store. I asked Feller what happened the first time he pitched to Ted. This would be Bob Feller, with the 100 mph fastball. He told me that in 1939 the first time he pitched to Ted, that Williams lined two doubles off the centerfield wall in Fenway off him.
No there was no Mariano, the Yankees had Ryne Duren, Luis Arroyo ( great little lefty) All the teams had good relievers , don't you worry about that. there were plenty of good relievers, they hadn't designated the term closer till much later. The hot guy out of the pen was the closer . Actually it was sometimes more effective.
If you go back before Williams' Era , you find that starters went 7 innings almost no matter how they were going. But they pitched off a 15 " mound, today they pitch off a 10" mound. There were only 8 teams in each league . There were no batting Helmets. You crowded the plate, you got the brush back, no warnings to the pitchers, you could hit 3-4 batters, never got thrown out of the game. Today throw inside after someone was hit your otta of here.
The Dodgers had a pitcher Sal "The Barber " Maglie . They called him the barber because he threw inside all the time. pitchers if anything were tougher then. The strike zone was bigger. MLB reduced the size of the strike zone after the 68 season. One guy hit .300 in the AL Carl Yastremski . They were afraid that they would lose fans. Bob Gibson had an ERA of 1.12 in 68. Luis Tiant was slightly higher for the Indians. I think Luis struck out 250-300 batters in 68.
