april is cruelest redux
cheer up yadless — you stink now, but (to paraphrase gen’l patton) all stinkage is fleeting. . . . well, some stinkage anyway; a good bit of it is eternal. btaim, where does molina's lame 2005 launch rate on the spectrum of slow cardinal aprils? off the top o me head i can think of half a dozen or so horrid starts by redbird rookies, plus assorted april flops by veterans added during the off-season. all statistics herein derived via the magic of david pinto’s day-by-day database.
i begin with the worst season launch i can remember — turned in coincidentally by a new starting catcher on a pennant-defending cardinal team:
mike heath, 1986
four hits through his first 12 starts: .080 avg, .359 ops. heath compiled his quintessential stat line on april 19 (19 yrs ago to the day) in a 17-inning win against the expos: 0 for 8, with an error and a passed ball (thanks retrosheet). herzog started platooning the guy, and he bounced back in may — .281 for the month with 10 walks, lifting his ops all the way to .601; but by then the cards were in last place, 10 games under and 14.5 behind the torrid mets, and the cardinals’ stake in the return of mike heath’s batting eye no longer held much value. he lost the job to mike lavalliere and by late august was playing for cleveland.
heath 86
thru apr 30: 4 for 50 (.080), 1hr 3bi, 179/180/359
thru may 31: 20 for 107 (.187), 2hr 15bi, 293/308/601
i started with heath because he’s the only guy i could come up with who had a start even remotely as awful as yadless’s. but the comparison’s not really apt — heath was 31 years old with a 7-yr track record (he bounced back in ’87 to hit .281 for the division-winning tigers), while yadier is a 22-yr-old rookie still trying to establish a big-league identity. i can think of five rooks in recent stl history who went through somewhat similar travails, starting with:
keith hernandez, 1975
handed the 1b job after a strong september ’74 callup, hernandez hit .189 thru april with one xbhit, still only at .211 by the end of may. he got sent back to tulsa shortly thereafter, returned to the bigs late in the season and went 21 for his last 65. proceeded to have a decent career . . . .
hernandez 75
thru apr 30: 10 for 53 (.189), 0 hr 4bi, 271/226/498
thru may 31: 26 for 123 (.211), 1hr 12bi, 285/317/602
heity cruz, 1976
case study in how to mishandle a prospect. an outfielder by trade, the 22-year-old cruz (younger bro of jose) became a 3baser — a position he’d never played at any level — by front-office fiat and declared the successor to the traded ken reitz. formula for failure. yet the organization was surprised when cruz hit just .170 thru april with a 2/13 walk-to-k ratio and a .461 ops. by may 31 he’d only heated up to .202, and the peripherals were abominable: 3 walks and 30 ks in 129 at-bats. he finished the year at .228 with a 625 ops (ops+ of 77) and, for good measure, a .934 fielding percentage. career ruined
h cruz 76
thru apr 30: 9 for 53 (.170), 1hr 9bi, 196/264/461
thru may 31: 26 for 129 (.202), 4hr 16bi, 224/333/557
jim lindeman, 1987
marginal 25-yr-old 1b prospect, but got so hot in spring training that the cards traded andy van slyke to pgh (for tony pena) and stuck lindeman in right field. he continued to pop the ball in april — 7 2bs, 3 hr — but 2 walks v 14 ks spelled trouble, which arrived right on schedule. come may, lindy hit .077 and fanned 11 times in 26 at-bats without a walk or an xb hit. that was all herzog needed to see; he started platooning jose oquendo and curt ford in right, while lindeman lurched to a .208 avg / 640 ops (66 ops+) in spot duty the rest of the way. he smote a pivotal homer in the ‘87 nlcs but otherwise was ruined by that impotent may; the remainder of his big-league career consisted of 414 at-bats scattered across 7 seasons.
lindeman 87
thru apr 30: 13 for 54 (.241), 3hr 11bi, 263/537/800
may 1 thru 31: 2 for 26 (.077), 0hr 3bi, 074/077/151
thru may 31: 15 for 72 (.208), 3hr 14bi, 224/431/654
luis alicea, 1988
took over for tom herr (dealt to min) in late april at 22 and, 10 games in, was only marginally better than molina at 6 for 33. by may 31 alicea had lifted his avg to just .221, but with 17 walks and 8 xb hits (624 ops) he was showing some signs of life. little looie drew only 8 walks the rest of the way, however, finished at .212 (599 ops, 61 ops+) and did not appear in another big-league game for nearly three years.
alicea 88
thru may 3: 6 for 33 (.182), 0hr 5bi, 282/242/524
thru may 31: 29 for 131 (.221), 1hr 15bi, 309/305/614
david bell, 1996
another failure at 2bag, lost his job to . . . . the aforementioned luis alicea. bell got 13 april starts at 2d and batted just .196 with 2 walks and 1 rbi. 11 starts later, he’d tripled the rbi total. . . . . . but still was at .188. he got just 60 at-bats the rest of the way, didn’t make the cards’ postseason roster, and didn’t improve a whit in 1997 — almost identical numbers. he has since played well enough to push his salary to $4 million a year, which accomplishment ranks as bell’s finest as a ballplayer. . . . . list of similar players at baseball-reference.com includes the immortal ed charles of the 69 amazins.
da bell 96
thru apr 30: 9 for 46 (.196), 1hr 1bi, 229/304/534
thru may 31: 16 for 85 (.188), 1hr 3bi, 255/259//514
i can’t end this discussion without mentioning one of my all-time favorite slow starts by a cardinal player — love the 2-30 walk-whiff ratio and 30-rbi pace:
galarraga 92
thru may 31: 8 for 40 (.200), 0hr 3bi, 256/200/456
thru jun 30: 22 for 119 (.185), 0hr 6bi, 2bb 30k, 230/235/465
finally, there’s darrell porter, the living breathing embodiment of sabrmetric principles. porter arrived in 1981 to replace the beloved ted simmons, a career .300+ hitter and marginal hall-of-fame candidate. porter didn’t hit .300; nor, for his first couple of months, did he even hit .200. not by a long shot. accordingly st louisans hated his guts and grumbled loudly about simmons’ departure. if we’d known then what we know now about how to read a stat line, perhaps we wouldn’t have grumbled so much:
porter 81
thru apr 30: 4 for 24 (.167), 1 hr 2bi, 10bb, 412/375/787
thru may 31: 9 for 52 (.173) 2 hr 8bi, 19bb, 394/385/779
i begin with the worst season launch i can remember — turned in coincidentally by a new starting catcher on a pennant-defending cardinal team:
mike heath, 1986
four hits through his first 12 starts: .080 avg, .359 ops. heath compiled his quintessential stat line on april 19 (19 yrs ago to the day) in a 17-inning win against the expos: 0 for 8, with an error and a passed ball (thanks retrosheet). herzog started platooning the guy, and he bounced back in may — .281 for the month with 10 walks, lifting his ops all the way to .601; but by then the cards were in last place, 10 games under and 14.5 behind the torrid mets, and the cardinals’ stake in the return of mike heath’s batting eye no longer held much value. he lost the job to mike lavalliere and by late august was playing for cleveland.
heath 86
thru apr 30: 4 for 50 (.080), 1hr 3bi, 179/180/359
thru may 31: 20 for 107 (.187), 2hr 15bi, 293/308/601
i started with heath because he’s the only guy i could come up with who had a start even remotely as awful as yadless’s. but the comparison’s not really apt — heath was 31 years old with a 7-yr track record (he bounced back in ’87 to hit .281 for the division-winning tigers), while yadier is a 22-yr-old rookie still trying to establish a big-league identity. i can think of five rooks in recent stl history who went through somewhat similar travails, starting with:
keith hernandez, 1975
handed the 1b job after a strong september ’74 callup, hernandez hit .189 thru april with one xbhit, still only at .211 by the end of may. he got sent back to tulsa shortly thereafter, returned to the bigs late in the season and went 21 for his last 65. proceeded to have a decent career . . . .
hernandez 75
thru apr 30: 10 for 53 (.189), 0 hr 4bi, 271/226/498
thru may 31: 26 for 123 (.211), 1hr 12bi, 285/317/602
heity cruz, 1976
case study in how to mishandle a prospect. an outfielder by trade, the 22-year-old cruz (younger bro of jose) became a 3baser — a position he’d never played at any level — by front-office fiat and declared the successor to the traded ken reitz. formula for failure. yet the organization was surprised when cruz hit just .170 thru april with a 2/13 walk-to-k ratio and a .461 ops. by may 31 he’d only heated up to .202, and the peripherals were abominable: 3 walks and 30 ks in 129 at-bats. he finished the year at .228 with a 625 ops (ops+ of 77) and, for good measure, a .934 fielding percentage. career ruined
h cruz 76
thru apr 30: 9 for 53 (.170), 1hr 9bi, 196/264/461
thru may 31: 26 for 129 (.202), 4hr 16bi, 224/333/557
jim lindeman, 1987
marginal 25-yr-old 1b prospect, but got so hot in spring training that the cards traded andy van slyke to pgh (for tony pena) and stuck lindeman in right field. he continued to pop the ball in april — 7 2bs, 3 hr — but 2 walks v 14 ks spelled trouble, which arrived right on schedule. come may, lindy hit .077 and fanned 11 times in 26 at-bats without a walk or an xb hit. that was all herzog needed to see; he started platooning jose oquendo and curt ford in right, while lindeman lurched to a .208 avg / 640 ops (66 ops+) in spot duty the rest of the way. he smote a pivotal homer in the ‘87 nlcs but otherwise was ruined by that impotent may; the remainder of his big-league career consisted of 414 at-bats scattered across 7 seasons.
lindeman 87
thru apr 30: 13 for 54 (.241), 3hr 11bi, 263/537/800
may 1 thru 31: 2 for 26 (.077), 0hr 3bi, 074/077/151
thru may 31: 15 for 72 (.208), 3hr 14bi, 224/431/654
luis alicea, 1988
took over for tom herr (dealt to min) in late april at 22 and, 10 games in, was only marginally better than molina at 6 for 33. by may 31 alicea had lifted his avg to just .221, but with 17 walks and 8 xb hits (624 ops) he was showing some signs of life. little looie drew only 8 walks the rest of the way, however, finished at .212 (599 ops, 61 ops+) and did not appear in another big-league game for nearly three years.
alicea 88
thru may 3: 6 for 33 (.182), 0hr 5bi, 282/242/524
thru may 31: 29 for 131 (.221), 1hr 15bi, 309/305/614
david bell, 1996
another failure at 2bag, lost his job to . . . . the aforementioned luis alicea. bell got 13 april starts at 2d and batted just .196 with 2 walks and 1 rbi. 11 starts later, he’d tripled the rbi total. . . . . . but still was at .188. he got just 60 at-bats the rest of the way, didn’t make the cards’ postseason roster, and didn’t improve a whit in 1997 — almost identical numbers. he has since played well enough to push his salary to $4 million a year, which accomplishment ranks as bell’s finest as a ballplayer. . . . . list of similar players at baseball-reference.com includes the immortal ed charles of the 69 amazins.
da bell 96
thru apr 30: 9 for 46 (.196), 1hr 1bi, 229/304/534
thru may 31: 16 for 85 (.188), 1hr 3bi, 255/259//514
i can’t end this discussion without mentioning one of my all-time favorite slow starts by a cardinal player — love the 2-30 walk-whiff ratio and 30-rbi pace:
galarraga 92
thru may 31: 8 for 40 (.200), 0hr 3bi, 256/200/456
thru jun 30: 22 for 119 (.185), 0hr 6bi, 2bb 30k, 230/235/465
finally, there’s darrell porter, the living breathing embodiment of sabrmetric principles. porter arrived in 1981 to replace the beloved ted simmons, a career .300+ hitter and marginal hall-of-fame candidate. porter didn’t hit .300; nor, for his first couple of months, did he even hit .200. not by a long shot. accordingly st louisans hated his guts and grumbled loudly about simmons’ departure. if we’d known then what we know now about how to read a stat line, perhaps we wouldn’t have grumbled so much:
porter 81
thru apr 30: 4 for 24 (.167), 1 hr 2bi, 10bb, 412/375/787
thru may 31: 9 for 52 (.173) 2 hr 8bi, 19bb, 394/385/779
posted by L Boros at 9:39 AM
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