Trivia Time!

Posted by Sarah Green on Tuesday October 02nd 2007, 9:15 pm, filed in Trivia

In honor of NL Rookie of the Year favorite Ryan Braun, UmpBump presents the following trivia question:

Who holds the major league record for most errors in a season by a third baseman?

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30 Responses to “Trivia Time!”

sadecki Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 2:54 am
Kason went 4-0 3.73 with Boston, not Texas.
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Sarah Green Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Indeed, Kason’s stats with Texas are rather humdrum: 2-1 in 8 starts, 5.58 ERA.

One other small correction: in addition to Gabbard, the Sox sent two prospects (not one) to the Rangers—the extremely young but extremely good Engel Beltre, and the middle-of-the-road, good-enough-for-the-Rangers David Murphy.
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Rich Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Gagne’s Texas Stats:
33.1 IP 2.22 ERA 16/17Sv 2-0W 29K 12BB

Gagne’s Boston Stats
14 IP 9.00 ERA 0/2SV 1-1W 15K 7BB

I’d post some of the things I yelled last night, but I’m not sure how family friendly Umpbump is.

I still say the trade made sense at the time, given Gagne’s Texas stats, but didn’t foresee this kind of meltdown. Watching him throw 17 balls in 29 pitches was gutwrenching.
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Sarah Green Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Rich, I must disagree. Nick and I were of one mind on the Gagne deal. If you look at Gagne’s game log and his month-by-month stats, his ERA through the first three months of the season was pretty good—0 in April, 1.17 in May, 1.50 in June. But in July, even with the Rangers, he’d already started to blow up, fronting a 4.35 ERA with Texas even before coming up to Boston. Then it reached 9.00 in August, with the Sox. Basically, his ERA just seems to increase exponentially with each passing month! It’s on a J-curve! If he’s allowed to keep pitching this month, I have no doubt his ERA will be near 20.00 by month’s end. It’s horrifying and hideous.

But the Red Sox surely knew what anyone can read for themselves on ESPN.com. He’d been on and off the DL this season. His ERA in July was okay for the fifth starter on an out-of-contention team, but nowhere near good enough to be a topflight reliever on a playoff-bound club. And he hasn’t had a good year since 2004. Yet somehow Theo Epstein decided to make this move. It’s not like “oh, we all looked at the intel and we were all wrong.” It’s like, “the intel was there, but Theo Epstein ignored it because it’s ERIC GAGNE and we all know he’s good because he’s ERIC GAGNE.” Bah. Humbug.

If we choke this postseason away because of Gagne and because of Drew and Lugo, Theo Epstein should be fired. Plus, where the hell is Manny Ramirez?!
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Rich Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Sarah, I think you’re overreacting a little bit.

Compare his stats through July to this pitcher with a 3.60 ERA in May and and a 4.70 ERA in July:

37.2 IP 2.15ERA 22/23SV 0-2W 54K 11BB

Clearly this pitcher got a few more save chances, and has a far superior K/BB ratio. However, the ERA and Win performance is pretty equivalent. He even posted a higher (!!!) ERA than Gagne for two months.

This would be our own beloved Jonathan Papelbon, who went on to post a shutout August, and then choke against the Yankees.
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Sarah Green Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Okaaay, except that Papelbon is 26 and Gagne is 31. And that Paps is raking in $425,500, while Eric the Dread is pulling down $6,000,000. And Papelbon was kickass all last year. Last year, Gagne only pitched in 2 games because of an injured back. Add that to the DL stints this year, and it looks like Theo and Company were trying an old Dan Duquette move: signing a pitcher off the scrap heap and hoping to rehabilitate him.
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Brian Sadecki Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
It feels stupid to argue this point now, but how were you not excited about Gagne. Huge upside. I don’t know why he’s still being used in leverage situations now but it’s pretty much always been the case that when he’s healthy he’s on.

As for your J-curve. His Sept/Oct career stats: 112 78 28 27 6 51 5 118 with a 2.17ERA

As a Yankee fan, I ask you to please follow through with your plan to get Epstein fired.
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Brian Sadecki Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Also, the Red Sox have infinite money.
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Zvee Geffen Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Fine, if you like him so much Brian, I, as a Red Sox fan, I ask you—do you wish the Yankees had gotten him?
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Pete Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
But, but…Eric Gagne was the Canadian Mariano! How could this have happened?! ;-)
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Zvee Geffen Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Oh, and also, despite my description of David Murphy as middling, he’s hitting .364 in 77 at-bats in Texas. His OPS is 1.001.

Why.

God.

Why.
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Brian Sadecki Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Well, no, he’s terrible.

But it looked good on paper before he Felix Heredia’d.

And, Sarah, I clearly said “It feels stupid to argue this point now” which excuses me from all criticism, now and forever.
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Zvee Geffen Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
And this is what Varitek had to say about Gagne:

“He has to know, from all of us, that we need him. You know what? People can get down, but everybody makes mistakes. People don’t get hits in the right situations, make an error, do those things. But you know what? He’s got good stuff, he can pitch, and he’s going to help us.”

I just sort of love that even though Gagne has been unspeakably bad—by my count, without his blown saves, the Sox would be 5.5 up from New York today—there’s Varitek, sounding like my old, worn-out recording of Big Bird’s “everybody makes mistakes.”

My parents *will* still love me even if I spill my milk! Varitek will still comfort you even if you almost singlehandedly torch the team’s division lead!
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Brian Sadecki Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Way to not publicly trash one of your own teammates. King among men.
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Zvee Geffen Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Brian: meh. I will speak for Nick, who is on Japanese time these days. We both agree. The Gagne deal looked good on paper in a casual sense, but if you really gave that paper the once-over with the magnifying glass, it looked “meh.”

Here are the links to our posts about it, for historical purposes:

http://umpbump.com/press/a-lone-ranger/

http://umpbump.com/press/?p=1150
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Rich Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Sarah, I can at least respect you’re pulling an Obama, rather than a Hillary. You were against it from the start, even before it went south. Fair enough. Hopefully this won’t look like the wrong end of the Heathcliff Slocum trade.

(First one to continue the political talk gets tasered!)

But ease up on Tek. He’s the Captain and the catcher. Is he really going to hang a teammate, let alone a pitcher, out to dry?

@Coley: Bring back more Japanese pitchers! These Candians stink!
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Zvee Geffen Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
It was the “everyone makes mistakes” line that really captured my imagination.

Just imagine the Captain wearing a huge, feathery yellow suit with a C over his heart, signing the following to a snuffling Gagne:

If you make a mistake, you shouldn’t start to cry.
Mistakes are not so bad, and here is why:

Oh everyone makes mistakes.
Oh, yes they do
Your sister and your brother and your dad and mother too;
Big people, small people, matter of fact, all people!
Everyone makes mistakes, so why can’t you?
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Brian Sadecki Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
He even showed his love of making mistakes by putting up this line: .254 .358 .398
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Zvee Geffen Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Wamp wamp waaaaamp.

If you go 0-for-18, Jason, don’t cry!
Captain Intangibles, all you can do is try!
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Paul Moro Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Ack. Sorry about the glaring errors, guys. Stupid Japanese Time. Stupid no internet access!

I’m sad that I’m missing out on all these rollicking discussions…
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One More Dying Quail Says:
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Not 100% certain, but I\’m going with Butch Hobson and the bone chips in his throwing elbow.
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Coley Says:
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:44 am
I’m gonna go with Dave Hollins, though I don’t think that’s right.
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Sarah Green Says:
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:28 pm
This is a ridiculously hard question. I’d settle for an estimate of the number of errors the record-holder committed. Closest guess gets an UmpBump sticker?
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Nick Kapur Says:
October 4th, 2007 at 2:30 am
Okay, how about something totally ludicrous… say, 76 errors in one season!
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Sarah Green Says:
October 4th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Mmmmmm….not quite!
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Rich Says:
October 5th, 2007 at 9:00 am
36!
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Sarah Green Says:
October 5th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Guess again!
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meech.one Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Charlie Hickman, 91 in 1900.

(I love Baseball Almanac)

Is that cheating? Nobody actually knew this, right?
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Coley Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Technically, it is cheating, but I’m glad to be done w/ that question. Not even the Shwab could have gotten that.
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Sarah Green Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
That is cheating, meech. I had decided to post the answer in a week’s time if no one got it, but since no one was really guessing, anyway, I guess it doesn’t matter!

91 errors! And that was before the 162 game season!
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