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PERFECT GAME CROSSCHECKER'S TOP TEN LIST
WEEK 12: 3/24/08 - 3/30/08
 
Beckham Takes Early Lead
Friday March 28, 2008
It’s never too early to start identifying national player-of-the-year candidates, and with five weeks gone in the 2008 college baseball season there are several players who have gotten off to strong starts.

The player, in our minds, who has performed the best to date is Georgia shortstop Gordon Beckham, who is also a good candidate to be drafted in the top half of the first round in this year’s draft. Beckham has carried over a strong performance from last summer in the Cape Cod League, where he led the league in home runs and RBIs. Through his first 22 games, Beckham is hitting .474 with 13 homers and 32 RBIs. Not only are his 13 homers tied for the national lead, but he is also tops in the country with 94 total bases and a .989 slugging average. Moreover, he has been a cornerstone to Georgia’s defense as he has committed just one error.

Among position players, the closest candidates to Beckham may come from the same team as first baseman Ike Davis (.444-8-35) and third baseman Brett Wallace (.420-9-31) have been instrumental in No. 1-ranked Arizona State charging out to a 22-1 start. Led by the two corner infielders, the Sun Devils are averaging more than 10 runs per game. Davis adds to his player-of-the-year candidacy by leading ASU with three saves, while going 2-0, 0.00 with 13 strikeouts in nine innings. Like Beckham, both Davis and Wallace are potential first-rounders in June.

On the mound, there are no shortage of deserving candidates, either. A trio of junior righthanders lead the way, notably Missouri ace Aaron Crow, who has recorded shutouts in his last two weekend starts with a combined 25 strikeouts. He has been marginally better than UC Irvine’s Scott Gorgen and Tulane’s Shooter Hunt.

The preseason favorite for Player of the Year, Vanderbilt junior third baseman Pedro Alvarez, is nowhere to be found on the accompanying list of top 10 candidates as he was lost for six weeks after breaking his hand in Vanderbilt’s season opener.
 
Rank Player Position School 2008 Statistics
1 Gordon Beckham ss Georgia .474-13-32, .989 SLG, 1 E
2 Aaron Crow rhp Missouri 5-0, 1.03; 35 IP, 7 BB, 51 SO
3 Ike Davis 1b-lhp Arizona State .444-8-35, 14 2B; 2-0, 0.00, 3 SV
4 Shooter Hunt rhp Tulane 4-0, 0.56; 32 IP, 45 SO
5 Scott Gorgen rhp UC Irvine 4-1, 0.72; 37 IP, 43 SO
6 Tanner Scheppers rhp Fresno State 3-2, 1.89; 38 IP, 9 BB, 55 SO
7 Brett Wallace 3b Arizona State .420-9-31, 19 BB
8 Brian Matusz lhp San Diego 4-1, 2.27; 35 IP, 55 SO
9 Jemile Weeks 2b Miami .429-6-25
10 *Sawyer Carroll of Kentucky .481-7-33
* College senior; all other players are juniors
-- Jeff Simpson Top Ten List Archives
OH, RHODES AND MATSUI
Wednesday March 26, 2008
Japanese baseball has been in the spotlight the last few days, with the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s opening the 2008 major league season in Tokyo.

We thought it might be interesting to check in on a little bit of Japanese baseball history, focusing on that country’s most revered baseball record—the career home run mark of 868 set by slugger Sadaharu Oh. Though Oh retired after the 1980 season, no Japanese player has come close to his record total. Americans and other foreigners have been playing in Japan for years, but none of the top 10 career leaders has a connection to the U.S. or Major League Baseball Nor are there any Japanese players, who have come to the U.S. in growing numbers in the last decade, on the leader board.

Of note, the record for most home runs hit by a foreign player in Japan is 402, held by Orix Buffaloes outfielder Tuffy Rhodes, an 11-year veteran of Japanese baseball. Rhodes hit 42 home runs a year ago, narrowly missing his fifth single-season home run title after sitting out the 2006 season while making an aborted comeback in the U.S. major leagues. In parts of six seasons with the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox from 1990-95, Rhodes hit 13 homers in 225 games. His biggest year in Japan came in 2001, when he tied Oh’s single season record of 55. Interestingly, Oh is actually considered a foreign player himself as he is of Chinese descent.

The most home runs hit by a Japanese player who subsequently played in the U.S. is 332, set by New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui in a 10-year career with Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants. Matsui, whose best total in the U.S. is 31 in 2004, hit 50 in 2002, his final season in Japan before joining the Yankees.

Following are Japanese baseball’s top 10 career home run leaders—many of whom might have played in the U.S. in days gone by had a more liberal posting and free agency policy existed in Japanese baseball.
 
Rank Player, Years Home Runs
1. Sadaharu Oh (1959-80) 868
2. Katsuya Nomura (1954-80) 657
3. Hiromitsu Kadota (1970-92) 567
4. Koji Yamamoto (1969-86) 536
5. Kazuhiro Kiyohara (1986-06) 525
6. Hiromitsu Ochiai (1979-98) 510
7. Isao Harimoto (1959-81) 504
  Sachio Kinugasa (1965-87) 504
9. Katsuo Osugi (1965-83) 486
10. Koichi Tabuchi (1969-84) 474
-- Allan Simpson Top Ten List Archives
100 WINS: NOT WHAT IT USED TO MEAN
Monday March 24, 2008
The 2008 major league season opens Tuesday in Japan, with the reigning World Series champion Boston Red Sox taking on the Oakland A’s. The Red Sox will certainly be favored to win again by numerous fans and media outlets throughout the country, but accurately predicting World Series winners in recent years has become a roll of the dice.

Boston became the first team in this decade to win the World Series twice. Since 1997, a wild-card team has won five times, including 2006, when the St. Louis Cardinals rode a lowly 83-win season to a championship. Nine times since 2000 has a wild-card team appeared in the World Series, including both teams in 2002 and 2006.

Since baseball went to a three-division, wild-card format in 1994, 18 teams have won 100 games in a season, but only one, the 1998 New York Yankees (114-48), has used that regular-season success as a springboard to a World Series title. The most successful team in that period, the 2001 Seattle Mariners (116-46), never even made it to the World Series.

The Atlanta Braves won 100 or more games five times in a 10-year run from 1993 to 2002, but their only World Series triumph came in a 90-win season in 1995—admittedly, a season shortened by a work stoppage, though the Cleveland Indians still managed to win 100 games that year. Three teams won 100-plus games in 2002, but all bowed out in division championship play as two wild cards, the Anaheim Angels and San Francisco Giants, battled it out in the World Series.

While the 1998 Yankees are the only team in the last 20 years with 100 or more wins to capture a World Series, it wasn’t always that way. From the advent of division play in 1969 through 1986, a total of 10 teams won the World Series after winning 100 or more games during the regular season.

Following are baseball’s 10 winningest teams since three-division play started in 1994, and the success (or lack of it) they achieved in post-season play.
 
Rank Team Record Post-Season
1. Mariners ’01 116-46, .716 Lost in ALCS
2. Yankees ’98 114-48, .704 Won World Series
3. *Indians ’95 100-44, .694 Lost in World Series
4. Braves ’98 106-56, .654 Lost in NLCS
5. *Expos ’94 74-40, .649 World Series cancelled
6. Cardinals ’04 105-57, .648 Lost in World Series
7. Yankees ’02 103-58, .640 Lost in ALDS
8. Braves ’99 103-59, .636 Lost in World Series
  Athletics ’02 103-59, .636 Lost in ALDS
10. Braves ’02 101-59, .631 Lost in ALDS
* Season shortened by work stoppage
-- Allan Simpson Top Ten List Archives