Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Erasing the 1994 Strike: League Leaders (Part the Second)

Episode Date: June 6, 2020

Locked On Mariners contributor Jon Miller joins a very out-of-it D.C. to continue discussing the 1994 league leaders and projecting out their stats as if the strike never occurred. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, J.M. I am indeed D.C. Lundberg, your semi-coherent host, I guess, for the day. This is Locked-on Mariners, and we are part of the Locked-on podcast network brought to you by Rock Auto. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to Lockdown Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, or radio or whichever podcasting up that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast or any of the other programs here on the Locked-on podcast network.

Follow the show on Twitter at L-O-U-U-N-R-N-R-N-R-B-E-R-G, for those scoring at home. And if only you out there listening knew, how many times I had to redo that. In any case, let's get back to our conversation. that we had yesterday, joining me once again to talk about the league leaders in 1994 and what their statistics may have looked like if the strike hadn't erased the last part of the season is Locked on Mariners contributor. John Miller, John, I sure hope that you're not as out of it as I am today. Well, let's hope so. I'm glad to be here, D.C.

I'm really happy to have you here, especially so I can lean on you today and maybe do some of the heavy lifting. I don't know. But in any case, we are going to pick up. up where we left off yesterday. We started to kind of tease the RBI races in the American and National League at the end of yesterday's program. However, there was one piece of unfinished business that we did not get to.

And it had to do with the American League batting race. In the projections, I had both Wade Boggs and Albert Bell hitting 350. However, they don't issue ties. If there is a tie, they go to the next decimal place to see who the true batting

champion is. And Albert Bell's batting average. They both were at 350. Albert Bell was 0.3505, and Wade Boggs was 0.3302. So Albert Bell is your batting champion. And now to the RBI race, we kind of started in the American League yesterday. Joe Carter was number two in the American League with 103 RBI, and with his projection I have, he's got 135. The leader was Kirby Puckett, who in real life had 1003.

112 runs batted in, and that was for a not particularly good Minnesota Twins team. In this projection, he ended the season on something of an RBA binge, as it were. He had 48 more in this projection, even though his batting average and on base percentage go down, his slugging goes up. His RBI total goes all the way to 160, John. That's incredible. It is incredible. You know, this is Kirby Puckett. We're talking about one of the most incredible players of the early 90s and late 80s.

he hit 32 doubles in real life, and in this projection, he gains a brand new career high in doubles with 46. He gains 14 more. This seems like it's turning into or what would have been Puckett's best year, even though it's late in his career. One of his best seasons for sure.

He was actually very, you know, he was consistent, and he had to retire because of glaucoma. His skills were not eroding. He was still very, very good. In the sample size, he hit 303, which is beneath his season batting average of 317. That goes down to 313. However, his slugging percentage winds up going up by five points.

And for the season, I've got him now with 196 hits. So he is probably going to retain the American League RBI crown. Albert Bell was number three. Actually, Albert Bell and Frank Thomas were tied for number three. We spoke about them yesterday briefly, but I'll just bring them up once again. I've got Frank Thomas finishing with 146 RBI, and I've got Albert Bell finishing with 153, which is very, very near what Puckett did.

And as a matter of fact, if Albert Bell would have managed to scrape together eight more RBI, with this projection, he's a triple crown winner. Because he leads in home runs, and he leads in batting average. He's missing the RBI crown. Any other season, this is an easy triple crown season, isn't John? It certainly is.

and that would be something else for the fans that cheer for, along with what we've already talked about with this, have we talked about the home run race? We did, yes. Okay. With what we've already talked about with the home run race and the new record is we've got a triple crown. We haven't seen one of those in almost 30 years.

Exactly. And something similar was going on in the National League, which we touched on yesterday, with Jeff Bagwell. Any other season, those are triple crown numbers. But Matt Williams was on a home run binge that year. He wins the home run crown. Tony Gwyn was Tony Gwynn.

I mean, there's no other way to put it. I mean, one of the most incredible hitters in baseball history, he wins the batting title at over 400. He wins the batting title, even though Bagwell, I have him hitting 383 on the season, which is an enormous batting average, even for Tony Gwynn. He only has the RBI title in the National League.

any other season, it's an easy triple crown. It blows my mind, John. It really does. And what we're unpacking here and we have yet to get to pitching is this could very well be the best season. You're hard pressed to come up with something

with that much hitting in both leagues where records are being challenged and broken just all over the place. And the pitching, the league leaders in pitching, they were having very, very good seasons. We will get to that tomorrow. And as I'm thinking about this and as I was kind of compiling these numbers,

I think it is a product of the recent expansion because there were a lot of pitchers in Major League Baseball at that time who were really, you know, AAA pitchers, but they had to be in the majors because Major League Baseball expanded two teams. And aside from the really top pitchers in each league, each league was filled with mediocre her pitches otherwise. Yeah, that's one of the, as much as fun as it is to see new teams. And if you've been in an area, anybody listening, because Seattle's had a team for over 40 years and DC and I are not that old.

But for anyone in Arizona, Colorado, Miami, Tampa, anything like that, where you've had a team come in there, it's great. The feeling of excitement, we're about to be getting a NHL team here in Seattle for the first time. We've got a soccer team that's doing very well. We had a women's basketball team in here still do. They've won a couple of championships. So the excitement that that brings in is great. The city community really rallies around that.

but then the downside is the talent pool kind of gets diluted. It does a little bit, and in terms of bringing a lot of excitement, I don't know if that applies to Miami or Tampa Bay, you know, because they're not exactly, I'm sorry, that's, I almost said that's not fair, but it actually kind of is. No, I shouldn't say that. Any case, we're up on a break, so it's time for the Mariners trivia question, which today has nothing to do with 1994.

It is, what is John Halaw? is middle name. Answer following a word from Rock Auto. With the ever-increasing numbers of makes and models, it is now impossible to stock all the parts you need in a traditional chain storefront. Why endure

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that we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Rock Auto.com. Answer to the Mariners trivia question, John Halama's middle name as referenced in one of the more famous Mariners'

television commercials that are out there. Do you remember it, John? I picture the commercial. I can't quite remember it. That's okay. He and John Olerud were trying to figure out which one of them got to have their name on the back of their jersey. They had a rock paper scissors competition and Halama lost. So he put his middle name of Thadias on his jersey. His middle name is Thadias. More Lockdown Mariners following a word from Bilt Bar. I've been talking about Bilt Bar for the past month ladies and gentlemen and by now you should know that they are delicious protein bars made

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ordinary bottle of water into a delicious, refreshing, burst of protein. Biltbar.com promo code locked on to get $10 off your first order. Now time for the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Once again, your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, J.M., once again, this is the second half of Locked-on Mariners, about to talk about the National League RBI race in 1994, projecting out the season stats of these players to try to figure out what may. have happened if the strike didn't occur, didn't erase part of the season.

With me to do that again is John Miller. John, welcome again. Thank you much. You're welcome. I don't know why I introduced you again at the second half of the show. I don't ordinarily do that. But hey, I'm not here right now, so whatever. In any case, we are going to move on to the National League race, as I said. And the league leader was Jeff Bagwell, as we already discussed. Matt Williams was second. We discussed him last week, too. But just as a refresher course, I have Bagwell. He hit 116 RBI in real life, and I have him with 176 for the season. So he has the major league lead. He's ahead of Kirby Puckett. Williams was second, and he hit 96 in real life, 20 behind

Jeff Bagwell. And in this projection, I've got him with 146. So he's easily in second place. third place John was Dante Bichette with 95 runs batted in just one behind Matt Williams and he was actually pretty consistent throughout this season his batting average and his on base percentage and slugging are all going to go down

but he had 36 more RBI to give him 131 on this season and I don't necessarily consider Dante Bichette much of a doubles hitter but with this projection he's got 45 doubles and 203 hits. That's a lot, John. Wow.

He had a lot of at bats. He played pretty much every day for the Rockies. I think he only missed one game. So even with those 203 hits, he's only got a 300 batting average. I say only. But 203 hits, you think a guy's going to hit 315 or 320. He had 677 at bats and 711 plate appearances.

He only walked 27 times. So his on bases... And this is in my projections, the 677-bit bats, the 27 walks. These are all projected totals. In real life, it was 19 walks in 509-plated appearances. That's why he has a very high-hit total in both situations, but not necessarily high batting average. This would put him right on par as far as hits with what he did in real life in 95, 96, and 1998.

He does, I mean, in 1994, I guess, was kind of a break. breakout season for Bichette. 1993 may have been, I'm going to get his career numbers up now, just so we can talk about them a little bit. Yeah, 1993, his first year in Colorado, the first year in Colorado. He hit 310. The previous year in Milwaukee was 287, 304 in real life in 1994, and then in 1995, he leads the league in hits,

he leads the league in home runs, he leads the league in RBI and slugging percentage, and also total bases, and he hits 3.4. I projected out his 1995 numbers just kind of for the heck of it. And his batting average goes up. At the beginning of the season, he was on a tear and was hitting 372 in his first 18 gains. So for this 1995 projection, his batting average goes up to 344. His on-base goes from 364 to 368.

His slugging goes from 620 to 627. He gains six more doubles for a total of 44. and six more home runs for a total of 46. This projection also has him at 147 RBI and 226 hits. This is his career year right here in 1995. That's incredible. That is incredible. And he went on to lead the league in hits again in 1998,

with 219 and a 331 batting average. I mean, he's kind of the poster child for the Kors effect, and maybe we'll get into his home and away splits at another time. Then when he went on to Cincinnati and Boston, he still hit actually pretty well in Cincinnati and Boston, not necessarily as high a batting average, but the slugging was similar. But let's get back to the task at hand

and that is talking about the RBI race. Fred McGriff was number four, Mike Piazza, number five. And I have not projected up Piazza, but I did McGriff. He had 94 RBI in real life in 1994. and he was on an absolute tear to end this season. I've got him with 54 more RBI for a total of 148,

and I've got him with 20 more home runs for a total in that category, John, of 54. Oh, my goodness. This is a person that is so underappreciated. He hit 318 in real life in 1994. In this projection, I've got that going up to 331. 25 doubles in real life. I've got that going up to 33.

135 hits. I've got that going up to 197. Nobody remembers this guy because he always flew under the radar. He was just consistent and people took him for granted. These are not my words. These are the words of Joe Morgan, the 1994 home run derby, which Root Sports recently rebroadcast because Ken Griffey Jr. won the event. But Joe Morgan is absolutely right.

Even during that time, everybody overlooked Fred McGriff. and he was one of the most consistent and reliable players of his era, and nobody talks about it. You would briefly mention his home run totals. Where does that place him in the projected 1994 ranking? Let's see, 54, Williams 63, Bonds 61, Bagwell 60. I'm not exactly sure, I think, four or five. Okay.

So up there, he finished with 34. Let's see where that places him in the real life standings. that actually places him fourth. Williams 1, Bagwell 2, Bonds, 3, McGriff, number 4, Andres Gala Raga at number 5. Kevin Mitchell is at number 6 with 30 home runs. And before we wrap up for the day, John, because it is getting to be that time, there was one National League statistic that I thought was pretty funny. And it has to do with intentional walks.

The league leaders in intentional walks, the top two guys may be very easily guessed. Barry Bonds led the National League in Intentional Walks that year with 18. Tony Gwynn was second with 16. There are two players tied at third with 15, and I will eat my left shoe if you can name who those players are, John. I'll give you one of them. One of them is Kevin Mitchell.

I'm not going to be able to name the second one. No. Unduhar Sedano had 15 intentional walks for tied for third of the National League. Undo Harcadeno, for crying out loud. It took me a while to, I thought about this, and I couldn't really figure out why

he would have been walked intentionally so many times, but I think, John, and this is only a theory, this is the National League. He was a pretty good hitter. Maybe he hit eighth. Maybe he was a strong enough number eight hitter where nobody wanted to face him and they'd rather just face the pitcher.

I don't know. But for the season, he hit 263. He drove in 49 runs at the bottom part of the odor, nine home runs and 26 doubles, and 15 intentional walks. It still blows my mind. That is very surprising. He had actually a better offensive season the year before where he played 149 games. He hit 283, 11 home runs, 24 doubles, and he's a shortstop. So these power numbers from a shortstop in this era are very, very good. They are, and his home run numbers almost parallel what he did in 1996, but in 96, he didn't have nearly as many doubles. No, only six doubles in 1996, but 10 home runs.

That's a very odd statistic, and he hit 212. His strikeout total was on the high side for that era, especially for a middle infielder. In 1996, by the way, was his last Major League season. I believe he went on to a foreign league at that time. In 1997, he did not play at all, according to the baseball reference register, but he may have been in a foreign league that they don't know the statistics for.

He was in the Chinese Professional League in 1998 and in Taiwan, and then he came back to the New York Yankees organization in 1999, and then two independent league teams before a automobile accident claimed his life at the end of 2001. October 28, 2000 is when he passed away in the Dominican Republic. Very interesting career for And Du Harsedaino, and this is probably the only podcast

that ever spoke in depth about And Du Harsadainio, especially one not affiliated with the Padres or Astros. Well, we do delve into some interesting things on this, don't we? I certainly hope they're interesting. I think they're interesting. I hope people out there find them interesting. Although there is a Mariners'

here because he is the brother of Domingo Cidio who played briefly for the Mariner's at 1999. See, I just brought it around to the Mariners, and that's why they pay me the big bucks, ladies and gentlemen. I wish. Yeah. And on that note, we're going to call it a day.

John, where can people find you on Twitter? I can be found on Twitter sphere at Seattle Pilot 69. Very good, sir. We will see you tomorrow. Actually, we won't see you tomorrow since it's radio. My gosh. But you will be here tomorrow to speak about the pitching statistics that we kind of touched on earlier and previewed.

In the meantime, please remember to download rate and subscribe to Lockedon Mariners on Google podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app where you can hear my voice. Follow me on Twitter at DZ underscore Lundberg. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. Mariner's. L.O. underscore Mariners. I will try to get my tongue fixed in the meantime, ladies and gentlemen, and please have a nice afternoon.

That was horrible. This is Joey Martin, speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Ask your smart device to play locked-on fantasy baseball upon the conclusion of this program.