This guy is scary good. Gonzalez was a 30th round pick of the Pirates in 1997 and moved through the organization as a starter until he hit high-A in late 1998, at which point he imploded. He was moved to the pen in 2001 and pitched well, at which point the Pirates moved him back to the rotation. He made it to the big leagues, as a reliever, in 2003, but didn’t pitch well in a LOOGY role. The Pirates twice tried to trade him to the Red Sox that year, but neither trade went through. “Players the Red Sox wanted but didn’t get” is a useful type to acquire.
In 2004, used as a regular old reliever instead of a specialist, Gonzalez exploded onto the scene with a 1.25 ERA. In 2005, he was merely very good, with a 2.70 ERA. In 2006, he was the Pirates’ most-normal closer, putting up a 2.17 ERA and converting 24 of 24 save situations. In all three years he’s been limited to about 50 innings; last year’s 54 was a career high. His elbow is touchy, but when he’s healthy he’s a stud.
For his career, lefties have hit .179/.273/.246 against him… but righties have only hit .218/.313/.312. Last season he held lefties to a .163 average. Allowed one homer all season. Throws fastballs about 2/3 of the time, mostly sliders the rest; the heater tops out at 98 and is usually in the mid-nineties. Health is the only concern. 28 years old, three years away from arbitration, and the best reliever in the National League.
the best reliever in the National League.
R u sure?
Really hope so.
Well, I’d have to say he is. No one has been that impressive the past three seasons. Billy Wagner, Brad Lidge, Trevor Hoffman, and all those other guys have taken a step backwards, and I have to think Mike Gonzalez has passed them. However, it is very scary that he’s only pitched 50 innings a year.
Who is the best reliever in the AL? Mariano Rivera?
Rivera’s probably the best reliever of all time.
Zambrano demanding to have a contract offer before the season. Wants Zito’s pay….
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2763803
NEW YORK (AP) – Time Warner Inc. has reached a deal to sell the Atlanta Braves baseball team to Liberty Media Corp. after more than a year of negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The deal, which must still be approved by Major League Baseball, would involve Time Warner transferring the Braves, a group of craft magazines and $1 billion in cash to Liberty in exchange for about 60 million shares of Time Warner, the Journal reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the deal.
Based on the closing price of Time Warner’s stock Monday, the market value of those shares would be about $1.27 billion.
The reporting of the Libert Media sale doesn’t add up. The articles are saying Braves are valued at $450 million, some craft magazines are thrown in, and 1 billion in cash. Then, they say that the number of shares re-acquired by Time Warner are worth $1.27 billion. Liberty has done swaps over and over from the earliest days of John Malone’s cable empire (in the early 1970’s, I think), so their basis in the Time Warner shares may be almost non-existent. So my theory is the two parties must have split the tax advantage down the middle with Time Warner getting extra share value (by paying under market) and Liberty’s distributions being untaxed.
That is surprising, because I thought Time Warner was paying extra to get rid of a potentially troublesome (as in, doesn’t agree with management) significant shareholder. I guess neither had negotiating leverage over the other on the tax breaks.
I would agree Rivera is the best all-time. I’m just talking about where or not he is in 2007 at this stage of his career. I don’t have time to check him out.
This is essentially Rivera’s peak.
2003: 1.66 ERA, 40 sv
2004: 1.94 ERA, 53 sv, 3d in CYA voting
2005: 1.38 ERA, 43 sv, 2d in CYA
2006: 1.80 ERA, 34 sv
That may be the best four-year run by a reliever in major league history.
I re-did my math. I confused myself. Time did pay 1.45 million for 1.27 million worth of stock (if Braves are worth 450 million). They wanted those shares back AWFULLY bad. And then if Liberty gets 450 fo the Braves in 2 years, Liberty has 1.45 billion for 1/27 worht of stock and paid no tax on any of it. Malone is obviously a smart man.
And Rivera’s post-season numbers are even better.
73 G, 112.7 IP, 70 H, 15 BB, 87 K
0.80 ERA (lowest all-time post-season ERA)
34 Saves (most ever)
23 consecutive saves between 1998-2001 (most ever)
34 consecutive scorless innings (most ever)
12 2-inning saves (most ever)
If you wanna why the Yankees have won so much in the post-season since 1996, you have to start with Mariano Rivera.
Mariano Rivera isn’t just the best reliever in history, he’s probably one of the 20 best players of all time.
Aggregate postseason statistics:
Rivera 73 games, 0 starts, 0.80 ERA, 8-1 W-L, 34 saves, 112.7 innings, 70 hits, 10 ER, 15 walks, 87 strikeouts
By comparison:
Smoltz 40 games, 27 starts, 2.65 ERA, 15-4 W-L, 4 saves, 2 CG, 1 SHO, 207.0 innings, 168 hits, 61 ER, 67 walks, 194 strikeouts
Basically, both of them have pitched a Cy Young award’s worth in the postseason. By the way, Mariano Rivera has appeared in 73 POSTSEASON GAMES.
Hey, Ububba, great minds think alike, huh?
Jinx! You owe me a Coke.
Terry McGuick, Braves Pres., on the sale….
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2764181
McGuick = McGuirk
I dont know if this makes a difference, but the owners have to approve the trade I believe. They are not scheduled to meet until May. I also remember seeing that the deal has to be finalized by May 7th or the deal is off and bidding reopens. Does this make any difference?
The original article Mac had in the Braves Sale posting indicated the owners may have a special vote before their normally scheduled meeting in May. This is probably because of the May 7th deadline which is supposedly related to some tax law change going into effect in May.
Ububba, does this work for you?
(If the embed doesn’t work, here’s the link.
Only I can post videos! — MT
I do recall that ad, kind of a League of Cola-Drinking Nations thing going on there.
Announcement:
If you like music, you should buy The Shins’ new album.
Carry on.
Thorman mention in Verducci “NL Players to Watch” Report:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tom_verducci/02/13/breakout.players/index.html?cnn=yes
Saw The Shins open for the White Stripes a couple years ago. Haven’t picked up the new one yet, but I will, maybe tonight. I need a new rock record to get into.
Right now, I’m re-discovering Talking Heads’ “Fear of Music” & getting downright nostalgic with REM’s “And I Feel Fine” best-of the IRS years comp, plus listening to a million wacky DJ-mix compilations (Mark Farina, Carl Cox, Victor Calderone, Steve Porter).
I’m going to see The Shins play on Friday.
/brag
I’ve always been pretty high on the Shins (since even before their post-Garden State blow-up). Still, this record has taken me by surprise; it’s much better than I was expecting. It’s great.
Know who else I like? Van Morrison, that’s who.
Valentines tip from Smitty’s mom:
“If you open a car door for a girl and she reaches across and opens your door for you, she is a keeper. If you put in a Frank Sinatra album and she says, ‘What the hell is this?’ Then drop her off at ther house.”
Good advice if you ask me.
Well, my wife’s been reaching across and opening my door since we first started dating, so it looks like your mom is pretty wise.
Funny story on that subject. I dated a girl who drove me crazy because she never remembered to unlock the door for me. I devised a plan where I left my keys in the car, locked my door, and left her door unlocked, to force her to unlock my door. Unfortunately she didn’t want to step over a puddle of water, so I had to get in on her side, climb to my side, move my car closer, then walk around and open the door for her. Needless to say, our relationship didn’t last long. My wife usually remembers to do this, although keyless entry has made this a moot point.
Best current AL relief pitcher is B.J. Ryan.
Best all-time is probably Trevor Hoffman, in my opinion.
Fun Gonzalez fact: Mike Gonzalez faced nine Atlanta Braves batters in 2006. He retired all nine, eight via strikeout.
Ububba, Fear of Music’s one of my all-time favorite records. My all-time all-time favorite? Marquee Moon by Television. Gives me goosebumps every single time.
R.E.M. was scary good when they were on I.R.S. Document absolutely kicks ass from stem to stern.
Dan, I have to disagree. I’ll say Joe Nathan is currently the best AL relief pitcher
In Seattle on a first date a few years ago, I pushed and held a door open (much rarer than the no-brainer “pull and hold” technique) for the young lady, and she just stood there dumbfounded. Nobody had ever done that for her before, she said. I just shrugged and told her “hey, that’s how I was raised”.
Now, what I don’t know about women could fill up the galaxy. But, friends, I tell you this — I discovered right then that the Southern gentleman can be an exotic being in other parts of the country. She told me later that that was the first time as an adult that felt like she was out on an actual date, and that simple gesture scored me some major points.
Of course, then I moved back to Atlanta, where that stuff is expected, so I’m an idiot….
AAR,
“Marquee Moon” is one of the great rock albums of all-time. Hard to say my fave song there, but it’s probably “Venus.” Everytime I walk or drive down Broadway, that song is in my head.
Dan,
Exactly how is Trevor Hoffman better than Mariano Rivera?
Fransisco Rodriguez and Jonathan Papelbon were pretty dominant also.
Rivera is the best all-time, Hoffman top 5
A Yankee Fan vs. A Rational Human Being…
#36
Heh.
Hi, Longtime lurker here. In response to the music part of this thread:
for those into the shins I would also recommend: band of horses “everything all the time”, my morning jacket–> all albums esp. “at dawn”, peter bjorn and john–> “writers block”, the clientele–> all albums esp. “suburban light” and “violet hour”.
AAR- totally agree on “Marquee Moon”.
and finally, for those of you in or close to athens, i have some friends in a band called maserati. nothing like the aforementioned bands but still great nonetheless. and i don’t say that because they are friends…
Dirt,
Love My Morning Jacket. They are done such a disservice when they’re called a jam band—they’re so much more.
Stu,
Bought The Shins. So far, so good.
Smitty’s Mom’s advice is great–not so many years ago (when single) I certainly noted the problem (which indicates a track record with self-absorbed women) and made it into a test. However, I was not smart enough to throw Sinatra into the mix…
I hope that Mike Gonzalez is the best relief pitcher in the NL–but with only 50 innings a year and no postseason experience, it sounds to me like a pretty dubious claim…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited about the revampled bullpen, but I can better understand why we haven’t put a whole lot of focus on it in years past and we’ve been okay. Gonzalez was a premier reliever in the NL and only pitched a little over 50 innings. Those were definitely important innings, but an average starter pitches 50 innings in less than two months. An argument to focus primnarily on starters and a closer can be made fairly convincingly. (see the Braves for about 12 years of their 14 year streak- I believe that even the year with the best bullpen in baseball was more of a fluke than focusing on the bullpen).
I like the new bullpen too, but our starting pitching is suspect at best and 1B and 2B are complete question marks as to what we will get from them.
But again, there were no starting pitchers worth getting so it is moot, JS did what he could to make the team better and keep the payroll even so I commend him on that.
i like the new shins album too. it has a late-stage beach boys feel to it.
erm, Hoyt Wilhelm says you all got a ways to go before thinking about that “all -time” releiver title.
He also says I should preview before posting.
I can’t see Hoffman as being better than Mo. Essentially the same career IP with a significant advantage in ERA for Rivera. ERA+ for Hoffman is a brilliant 149; for Rivera its an otherworldly 200! He has six or seven years with ERAs under 2.00. Trevor has been great; Mo clearly better.
To me there can be only three candidates for best closer ever: Hoyt Wilhelm, Goose Gossage, and Mariano Rivera. The winner comes down to how you measure the difference between the extra innings vs. better rate stats vs. better leveraged useage.