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Pregame Pepper
Did you know ...
Bespectacled closer Dick Hyde, a righthander with a submarine style, led the 1958 American League in saves and games finished, posted a 10-3 mark and 1.75 ERA in 61 games, and finished 12th in the voting for Most Valuable Player . . .
Dusty Baker, the oldest manager in the NL at age 72, wants to keep working until he reaches 2,000 wins (he’s at 1,982) and wins a world championship (he’s taken a record five different teams to the playoffs) . . .
Despite all the talk about J.T. Realmuto, Atlanta catcher Travis d’Arnaud led everyone at his position in batting (.321) and on-base plus slugging (.919) . . .
Speaking of the Braves, newly-signed starting pitcher Charlie Morton joins Roger Clemens as the only pitchers to win Game 7 for one team and then face that team in another Game 7. Morton is now 4-0 with an 0.47 ERA in elimination games.
Leading Off
Who Benefits from MiLB Contraction?
By Brian Koss
The 2021 season will bring major changes to Minor League Baseball. In recent weeks, MLB franchises have released their new list of affiliated teams. The lists include a reduction in the number of affiliates. The number of franchises affiliated with MLB teams has been reduced by 43.
A big shakeup has taken place. The New York-Penn League has been eliminated, the Pioneer League has gone independent and the Appalachian League is now a college summer league. The newly created MLB Draft League will feature top prospects entering the draft. Florida State League has moved to Low-A and the Midwest League to High-A.
College Baseball Rising
The elimination of the lowest level affiliated baseball seems to have one major beneficiary: college baseball. College baseball has long been in competition with low-level Minor League Baseball, whether they knew it or not. Top high school players have to make the decision to take a college scholarship or enter the MLB Draft.
In 2020, the MLB Draft only included five rounds, due to complications surrounding the pandemic. The draft will not return to its traditional 40 rounds in 2021. Scheduled during the All-Star break in Atlanta, it will consist of a minimum of 20 rounds. According to several sources, it will not go more than 30. That changes things in a number of ways; it also means hundreds of prospects will go undrafted and will look for other alternatives.
The expansion of independent leagues can help fill some of the gaps. Fewer opportunities to be drafted out of high school will likely result in more high school players opting for college — possibly producing a major talent boost for college baseball. More top players are already being drafted from the college ranks and that trend is poised to continue.
College vs MiLB
There are a few simple realities that should enhance the quality of the college game.
Playing (high profile) college baseball is much more glamorous than playing at the lower level of MiLB. The facilities are better and the fans are more invested.
Playing in front of 10,000 fans at LSU or 8,000 at Ole Miss or Mississippi State can happen because their ballparks have larger average capacities than most Triple-A stadiums. Many lower-level MiLB franchises only average hundreds of fans per game.
Big-time college baseball programs in the SEC, Big 12, ACC, Pac-12 and Big Ten continue to upgrade their facilities and enhance the benefits of their programs. Many mid-major programs are also highly competitive (see 2016 National Champions Coastal Carolina). Top high school prospects who are offered full-ride scholarships will be more likely to take them.
An influx of talent into the college ranks would also bring greater attention to the college game. I have long argued that the College World Series is the most underrated spectacle in sports. Each year the CWS gains fans.
The tournament format, rivalries and exciting games bring a March Madness atmosphere to the event. The in-person experience in Omaha is akin to college football Saturday at a large school with tailgates and festivities. Increasing the competitiveness and quality of College Baseball will only broaden its appeal and strengthen its reputation for player development.
The Future of Player Development
If college becomes a more attractive option for top prospects, the natural result would be more money for the college game. Increased revenue would pave the way for expanding the number of allotted full-ride scholarships (currently capped at 11.7). Increased revenue will also help pay more assistant coaches.
All of those trends would make NCAA Baseball a larger factor in player development and add to the importance of the growing number of college summer leagues. Losing some of the lower levels of MiLB may simply result in a shift of talent, rather than a net loss.
Keep your eye on college baseball in the years to come.
Brian Koss is a Senior Editor at LegendsOnDeck.com. E.mail him at brianmkoss@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @kosscountry.
Cleaning Up
Mets Fans Find Book Bonanza This Winter
By Dan Schlossberg
The New York Mets may not win the winter signing wars but they definitely have a leg up in the book market. And that’s a good thing since the progress of the pandemic suggests we’ll be doing more reading than watching over the next six months.
Like it or not, the Mets are hot stuff in the literary world.
The life stories of two iconic Mets, Tom Seaver and David Wright, are vividly portrayed in a pair of hardcovers, while two information-packed paperbacks present year-by-year histories.
The best of these works, entitled Big Apple Baseball Wars: New York’s 14 Subway Series, is actually more titled toward the other team in town, the Yankees. But it’s included here because of its detailed 20-page section on the 2000 Fall Classic between the cross-town rivals.
Not only is every game linescore presented but also information on each team, such as composite box scores, biographical information, and past postseason histories. The best part is the significant sidebars, especially the list of extra-inning games that accompanies the section on the 12-inning opener, won by the Yankees, 4-3.
Two highlights from the 2000 duel are also posted in the author’s list of 15 Greatest Subway Series Moments. Ammie Nurse, a Brooklyn native who grew up rooting for the Dodgers, packed plenty of information into her 276-page paperback, published by Summer Game Books. Hers is the first book devoted to the 14 Subway Series and it’s a keeper — especially for its coverage of the Golden Days when New York had three teams and two of them often met in the World Series.
The same publisher also hit a literary home run with Fabulous to Futile in Flushing: a Year-by-Year History of the Mets, written by David Russell. Like the Subway Series book, it features chronological chapters, boxed statistics, and well-placed sidebars — from Opening Day lineups to Top Five highlights of each season. And let’s not forget the title: each chapter picks a player who was fabulous and another whose efforts proved futile. This book is a must-have for Mets fans as well as baseball historians.
Then there’s the brand-new biography Tom Seaver: a Terrific Life. Long-time New York Daily News baseball writer Bill Madden, whose tenure paralleled Seaver’s, covers every aspect of the Hall of Famer’s career — not only during several stints with the Mets but also as a pitcher for the Reds and White Sox. Even his passing on Aug. 31 is covered.
Madden managed extensive interviews with Seaver before the pitcher-turned-winemaker suffered from Lyme disease and dementia. We share the same literary agent, Rob Wilson, who found a fine publisher for this 291-page hardcover in Simon & Schuster.
The title of David Wright’s autobiography, called The Captain: a Memoir, sounds like it could have been written by Derek Jeter. But Wright, also a vocal infielder, was just as important to the Mets.
A seven-time All-Star who spent 14 years in the majors, all in Flushing, he overcame a plethora of injuries while blaming himself for the firings of manager Jerry Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya. Wright also survived a barrage of trade rumors, telling anyone who would listen that he wanted to stay with the Mets.
He also has some choice words for former team owner Fred Wilpon, who criticized the slugging third baseman in a New Yorker interview with the now-disgraced Jeffrey Toobin.
Published by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, this entertaining 357-page hardcover was ghostwritten by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
HERE’S THE PITCH Weekend Editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is also national baseball writer for forbes.com, columnist for Ball Nine, senior writer for Latino Sports, contributor to Sports Collectors Digest, and author of The New Baseball Bible: Notes, Nuggets, Lists and Legends From Our National Pastime. His website is www.DanSchlossberg.net and email address is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Josh Gibson’s .441 batting average in 1943 won’t knock Rogers Hornsby out of the record books because it occurred in fewer than 80 games . . .
Don Mattingly, the fifth MVP to also win Manager of the Year, had losing records in his first four years with Miami before taking the Marlins to the playoffs with a 31-29 mark in 2020 . . .
The Tampa Bay Rays had five left-handed relievers on their World Series roster . . .
Hard to believe much-coveted free-agent closer Liam Hendricks has been designated for assignment four times . . .
During the 2000 Subway Series, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner had all the Mets-logo furniture in the visitors’ clubhouse replaced with furniture brought over from the Yankees clubhouse in the Bronx.
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Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Brian Harl [bchrom831@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
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