Meet Your Hall of Famer: John Servais

 

Bio: John Servias was born in Guyton, GA (Pop. 2289 28 miles northwest of Savannah, GA) where he attended South Effingham High School (nickname: Mustangs). Servais lead the Mustangs to back-to-back state final appearances, winning his Senior year. He led the AAAAAA class in hitting with a .723 average.

Draft: Was the 1st pick in Season 31 by Burlington (milton7). Signed for $7.920 Million

Scout Lawrence Wright- “Has great command of the bat through the zone. Above average power, especially to the gaps. Great range and could settle in at 2nd base. Speed is ok. Could make multiple All-Star games.”

Career Earnings: $102,857,002

Career: John Servais was the 1st pick in Season 31 by Burlington (milton7) where he played 8 years (Burlington and Chicago). He also played for Hartford, Ottawa, Seattle, Toronto, and El Paso over his 17-year career. He made his Major League debut in Season 34. During his career, he was a 3-time All-Star, won 3 Silver Slugger (35, 37,44) awards and one World Series Ring with Toronto in Season 45. He also hit for the cycle in Season 48. His best season was in Season 42 when he split time between Hartford and Ottawa. In that year he hit .321 AVG, 190 H, 42 2B, 7 3B, 38 HR, 134 RBI, walked 69 times, while scoring 104 Runs. Over his career he racked up stats of 1366 R, 2468 H, 483 2B, 55 3B, 327 HR, 1316 RBI, 772 BB and 203 SB.

Speech Highlight- “Baseball is grind, with many up and downs. I have experienced many from being drafted first overall, to thinking my career was over after my injury in Season 36, to All-Star appearances, then more injuries, and finally atop the mountain winning the World Series. My journey is unique, but all of these Hall of Famers have experienced some of the same. And to be included in this group, is truly amazing.”

Meet Your Hall of Famer: Shane Giles

 

Bio:   Shane Giles was born in Monson, MA (Pop. 8150 Suburb of Springfield, MA) where he attended Shepherd Hill High School (nickname: Rams). Giles was the baseball player of the year in Division 2 in Massachusetts.  He was also a Super-Stater for being a part of the All-State team despite division.  He set a state record with 119 strike outs in just 45 innings of work.

Draft: Was the 20th pick in Season 10 by Florida (strang).   Signed for $4,700,000 Million.

Scout Lawrence Wright- “He has above average command to go along with his above average velocity.  He is extremely tough on right handers because of the run on his fast ball.  His curveball is his best pitch with a great 12 to 6 break.  Could project to be a number 2 or 3 starter.” 

Career Earnings: $203,604,000

Career: Shane Giles was the 20th pick in Season 10 by Florida (strang). He played for a total of 9 cities in his 20-year career.  He made his Major League debut in Season 12 with Norfolk.  During his career, he was a 5-time All-Star, won a Cy Young with Boise (Season 22) and one World Series Ring with Syracuse in Season 28.  Even though he won the Cy Young in season 22, his best season was Season 24 in Boise. In that year he won 20 games, in 200.2 INN.  He had 160 K’s, .213 OAV, .270 OBP, 1.05 WHIP and 2.51 ERA.  Over his career he racked up 252 wins, 2924 K’s, .217 OAV, .283 OBP, 1.12 WHIP and 3.04 ERA. 

Speech Highlight- “I was blessed to play in 9 different cities.  Or maybe I was not good enough to stay in 1 city for a long time (chuckle). Either way I have experienced a lot of the great traditions of this game.   Those are the memories I will remember of my time in this game.”

          Another Saturday night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

      Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by George Dickell, Jose Cuervo, and Clyde May

George: Why is Clyde here, Elijah? This isn't our normal group.

Elijah: Clyde saw something on the chat board and he wanted to bring it to our attention. Clyde, why did you ask to join one of our meetings.

Clyde: I saw that chat from that jackass croninkin about the magical mystery tour and thought we should consider if we should drug test some of the players.

Jose: Que decir? Excuse me that is so far out there I reverted to Spanish. SAY WHAT, Clyde.

Clyde: The damn fool, croninkin, all but admitted to cheating. I'm thinking his team was eating some of those Willie Nelson mushrooms. 

George: Clyde, we aren't exactly the temperance union here.

Clyde: I know that George. For generations ball players have been known for drinking our products. Occasionally a guy has a bad experience...

Jose: Oh my god Clyde are you talking about Ed Delahanty. Are we really going to drag all of baseball's sordid history in to the Barleymoe?

Clyde: It's that players can drink a little and it helps our business. If the players start smoking or eating products to release the incredible pressure of a Stickball League schedule we could see it hit our bottom line.

Elijah: So you have a list of guys you think should be tested.

Clyde: The first guy I'd like to bring to your attention is Bobby Quinlan. His regular season stats were a .272 batting average with a.737 OPS. In the playoffs the stats were .383 with an OPS of .946. How do you explain that Jose?

Jose: A lot of teams had players excel in the playoffs. Ottawa's Vince Fonville  had season stats of .272 with an ops of .822. In the playoffs he's hitting .381 with an OPS of 1.22. Madison had Del James hit .278 during the season with an OPS of .850. In the playoffs against Burlington and Ottawa, James had stats of .286 and OPS of 1.429.

George: You might have a crazy idea about mushrooms but if you look at the history of baseball some guys are just clutch. Who do you think were the guys who we think were clutch.

Clyde: On El Paso  Hector Skipworth after a .260/.683 season was .371/.905 in playoffs, also on the same team Guilder Gabriel was .268/.735 until he was  .33/1.210 in the  playoffs.

Jose: So you're only drug testing Boise and El Paso? No other teams

Clyde: There  were also irregular stats in Ottawa Vince Fonville had a season total of, .272/,882 ;but exploded of in the playoffs with a .381/1.22 line.

George: I suppose you have one for Vegas?

Clyde: YES! PitcherA J Moreno had an ERA of 2.42 and an OPS allowed  of .623 . In the playoffs his line is 1.07 and .444.

Elijah: So none of these guys are clutch, Clyde? You think they are all on the juice. Time that we had another drink ,fellows maybe it will sober Clyde up.

My 2024 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot

 OK, I feel like I should start this post off with a disclaimer: I don't actually have an actual vote for the MLB Hall of Fame. But a large part of the discussion that baseball fans have, especially during the offseason, is about who they would vote for if they did. And over the seasons of HBD, I have developed a pretty standard method of figuring out which fictional baseball players to vote for in the HOF. 

That method, as you all know, is fairly involved and time consuming so I like to give myself a bit of a reality check each February to make sure all that effort is worth it. The way that I do that is to apply my voting criteria to the MLB Hall of Fame ballot and see who I would vote for in real life if I could. 

In HBD, I look at the five guys who get the most votes and fall short of election to see if my support can push them over the edge...so if I had an MLB vote, I'd do the same thing but look at the top ten since MLB voters have up to 10 votes to use. In case you haven't seen them yet, the results of this year's MLB Hall of Fame voting are below: 

With Rolen getting in, the top 10 who fell short would be: 1) Helton 2) Wagner 3) Andruw Jones 4) Sheffield 5) Beltran 6) Kent 7) A-Rod 8) Manny 9) Vizquel and 10) Pettitte. My preferred metric for HBD is one that I borrowed from MLB.com and is a combination of WAR/year and bonus points based on personal accolades. If I had an MLB vote, I'd probably take the time to run the numbers on the guys I just mentioned but since I don't actually have the vote I'm not going to do that for this post because the HOF Monitor Score (a Bill James creation) will probably give very similar results in terms of HOF worthiness. This is what that metric says about each of the ten guys I listed above:

• Todd Helton: 175 HOFM Score = Slam Dunk HOF'er & Vote #1 from me
•  Billy Wagner: 107 HOFM Score = Strong HOF Case & Vote #2 from me 
• Andruw Jones: 109 HOFM Score = Strong HOF Case & Vote #3 from me 
• Gary Sheffield: 158 HOFM Score = Slam Dunk HOF'er...the numbers say there's no question but I can't remember if he was convicted of using steroids or not. If the answer is yes, I'm passing. If the answer is no, he'll get my next vote. 
• Carlos Beltran: 126 HOFM Score = Strong HOF Case & Vote #4 from me...I read a bunch of stuff this year from people saying they weren't going to vote for him because of his role in the trash can saga. I'm not saying we should forget and/or overlook that, but I am saying that he wasn't banging on trash cans for most of the time he was putting up crazy numbers. 
• Jeff Kent: 123 HOFM Score = Strong HOF Case & Vote #5 from me. 
• A-Rod: 390 HOFM Score = Slam Dunk HOF'er. This is the highest score I've ever seen from an MLB player. By miles. But he's also been proven to have used steroids pretty frequently so I'm going to pass. And the petty Red Sox fan in me can't help but smirk and think of the picture of him kissing his own reflection as I actively pass on him. 
• Manny Ramirez: 226 HOFM Score = Slam Dunk HOF'er. OK, this is the second highest score I can remember seeing from an MLB player (which shows you how ridiculously good A-Rod was...) but I am going to hold the line and pass on Manny as well even though the petty Red Sox fan part of my brain wants to give him a sympathy vote despite the multiple PED suspensions.  
• Omar Vizquel: 120 HOFM Score = Strong HOF Case & Vote #6 from me. This one seems to be quite controversial in real life, but I have zero problems giving a guy like Vizquel some love. He might not have produced a ton of value with his bat, but the numbers say that he was overall a valuable player, and quite a valuable one at that. Value is value in my book, no matter where it comes from. 
• Andy Pettite: 128 HOFM Score = Strong HOF Case & Vote #7 from me. 

            Another Saturday night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Jose Cuervo, Henry McKenna and Evan Williams

Elijah: Fellas, tonight we are going to talk about the lost position of shortstop in our league.

Jose: Why do you say it's a lost position ?

Elijah: Only one guy in our Hall of Fame is listed as a shortstop.

Henry: You really can't claim Jeimer Ortega as a shortstop. He was mostly a left fielder. He never played shortstop in the majors. Shamrocks signed him as a free agent and played him 5 games at shortstop in low-A before he retired. So our Hall of Fame really has no shortstops. We have some guys who played a season or two at short.

Jose: If I remember correctly Scot Sexton started at short before moving to third base where he put up most of his numbers.

Henry: Another guy in the Hall, Alfredo Diaz , played 472 games at short before moving off the position. He played over 500 games in center but was mainly a second baseman.

Elijah: I brought this up because the last two seasons a shortstop has been drafted with the first and fourth picks.

Evan: Elijah you can expand that to season 57 and you have 6 high picks being shortstops. The 57 draft took shortstops 1st and 5th. And 4 of those guys are still playing short.

Jose: That doesn't compare to the international class of season 52, when the four highest bonuses were given to shortstops. 77.1 million paid out to the 4 guys. Down in the islands they call them "Gloves of Gold" for all the money they got.

Henry: If I remember correctly the 51 season had a high bonused shortstop and 53 had two.

Elijah: Only Stolmy De Paula is still a shortstop.

Jose: You're looking at this all wrong Elijah. These guys are moved off shortstop for defensive specialist. Their bats are still in the lineup and the defense is not only improved buy the specialist at short, but when you move them you improve the defense at whatever position you put them.

Elijah: Well I think some team should keep a big bat at shortstop. The competitive advantage of a guy hitting .275 over guy who hits .225 seems important to me.

Henry: Elijah, who taught you baseball Abner Doubleday? Your big bat can play anything except pitcher and catcher. The bat is still in the lineup.

Elijah: You're missing the point about competitive advantage. This is the one position where you can be much better than the other team. If an average player gets 500 at bats it's a difference of 25 hits for the season. How many of these defensive specialist are a positive 25 on plus or minus defensive plays. We play this game way to defensively.

Evan: I understand your point Elijah and I'm happy you're a drinking scout and not a manager.

Meet Your Hall of Famer: Robert Jacome

 

Bio:   Robert Jacome was born in Penasco, NM (Pop. 1200 50 miles north of Santa Fe). Jacome was a 2-time All-State player in New Mexico before attending University of Louisiana at Monroe. At Louisiana Monroe he was a 3-year starter with his Junior year becoming a 2nd team All-American.

Draft: Was the 6th pick in Season 30 by Cincinnati (deandg).   Signed for $3.54 Million.

Scout Rodger Henry- “He is an above average pitcher in all aspects of his game.  Pluses: he can throw a lot of innings and is left-handed.  I project him to be a 2 or 3 starter. 

Career Earnings: $75,349,000

Career: Robert Jacome was the 6th pick in Season 30 by Cincinnati where he played 10+ seasons (Cincinnati, Ottawa, Tacoma).  He also played for Toronto, and San Juan.  He made his Major League debut in Season 33.  During his career, he won the Cy Young Award in Season 37 and won a World Series in Season 35 with Ottawa.  He also threw a No-Hitter in Season 39 while being a 5-Time All-Star throughout his career. Although he won the Cy Young in Season 37, Season 39 was his best season.  In that year he had 18 wins to 2 loses, 207.1 IN, 190 K’s, .201 OVA, 1.04 WHIP, and 1.74 ERA.  Over his career he won 200 games, threw 3016.1 IN, 2459 K’s, .229 OVA, 1.17 WHIP, and 3.09 ERA. 

Speech Highlight- “I have been doubted in baseball all my career. I am extremely grateful for owner deandg for taking a chance and drafting me.  I have tried to have an impact on others (fake baseball players, ha) as deandg did to so many who have played HBD long enough to of interacted with him.  He was no doubt one of the best owners HBD has ever seen.  And this enshrinement is a testament to him!"

Meet Your Hall of Famer: Donald Miles

Bio:   Donald Miles was born in Ridgway, CO (Pop. 924 located in the middle of the state in Western Colorado). Miles played his youth baseball in the Colorado Baseball Academy.  The highlight of playing at the Academy was throwing a no-hitter in the championship game of the Colorado Classic held in Denver.  A 96-team tournament with teams from all over the country.  He also led the high school basketball team to a playoff appearance.

Draft: Was the 1st pick in Season 33 by Kansas City (nacholibre).   Signed for $6.2 Million.

Scout Max Ligtenberg- “Great presence on the mound. He is a winner.  A few small adjustments to his mechanics could lead to great control.  His sinker, slider and curveball are above average pitches. And he pitches well to left handers.”

Manager (dfdarby): “Donald Miles was a true workhorse who could be counted on for 33 to 38 starts a season on his way to 761 career starts. He won 15 or more games in 11 straight seasons, including his 22-3 Cy Young campaign in Season 46.  He followed that with a no-hitter on Opening Day of Season 47 and compiled a season-best 1.06 WHIP.  And he stuck with our nomadic organization for 22 years as we moved from Philadelphia, to Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Sioux Falls, Toledo, and finally Chicago again.  A true Hall of Famer who finished with exactly 100 more wins than losses (326-226), he probably could have won 400 had we traded him to a perennial contender.

Career Earnings: $159,350,000

Career: Donald Miles was the 1^st pick in Season 33 by Kansas City and played his entire professional baseball career in that organization (8 different Cities).  He made his Major League debut in Season 35.  During his career, he won the Cy Young Award in Season 46 and was a 10-time All-Star.  He also threw a No-Hitter on opening day in Season 47. Although he won the Cy Young in Season 46, Season 49 was his best season.  In that year he had 18 wins to 4 loses, 251.1 IN, 176 K’s, .208 OVA, 1.07 WHIP, and 2.40 ERA.  Over his career he won 326 games, threw 5265.1 IN, 3624 K’s, .245 OVA, 1.27 WHIP, and 3.52 ERA.  He holds 2 Career World Records for Innings Pitched at 5265.1 and Quality Starts 492!  He also holds single season records for the current Cincinnati Franchise in OVA .208 (47), ERA 2.40 (49) IN 277.7 (43), Shut outs 4 (47), K’s 223 (40), WHIP 1.06 (47) and Wins 22 (46).  As well as Career marks for Cincinnati in OVA .245, CG 65, ERA 3.52, IN 5263.3, Shutouts 21, K’s 3624, WHIP 1.27, and Wins 326.

Speech Highlight- “All I ever wanted to do is win baseball games.  I felt I owed it to the fans to be on the mound every time it was my turn to pitch.  I was lucky enough to be able to do that with one organization my entire career.  I want to thank the Cincinnati organization for allowing me the opportunity to do that."