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Topic: "No Expectations" Reference in ESPN article Return to archive
May 24th, 2004 11:08 AM
goatshead Peter Gammons with a nice reference from "No Expectations" in his latest article on espn.com:



Better than advertised in 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Peter Gammons
Special to ESPN.com


May 23


Admit it. One morning you woke up, saw J. Wilson and C. Wilson in the National League Top 10 in hitting, figured you'd slipped through one of those W.P. Kinsella cracks in time and it was supposed to read Waner (i.e. Paul and Lloyd), not Wilson.

Joe Kennedy? To paraphrase the song, if he can't make it in Tampa Bay, he can't make it anywhere. And for all of us who agree with Barry Bonds that "everything comes from on-base percentage," where were Vinny Castilla and Brandon Inge -- whose 2003 on-base percentages added together were less than Bonds' in 2004 -- figured to hit this season?

One quarter of the way into the season, 50 people in baseball -- from coaches to scouts, front-office executives to writers -- were polled on the question: What player or players have turned out to be much better than you expected? Now, we all know that such thoughts change from series to series, sort of like any of the 31,233 definitive Bush v. Kerry polls that are announced between the Iowa Caucuses and Election Day, which is farther on down the road than the seventh game of the World Series.

All polls come with qualifiers. Two were offered from voters:

1. "I want to revisit this on Labor Day" and ...

2. "Take me to the station/and put me on a train/I've got no expectations/to pass through here again." Indeed. Chris Richard might have made this list once.

The winners:


Lyle Overbay came to Milwaukee in the Richie Sexson deal.


1. Lyle Overbay, Milwaukee (15). That he is such a surprise is in itself a surprise. After all, he did hit .342 in his minor league career, and while he isn't an imposing sort, power is the last thing to come. Is he the next Sean Casey? We'll see. If he is, he's going to be a very good player.

2. Jack Wilson, Pittsburgh (14). "He always had a good swing. He's finally realizing it. Good things sometimes need to happen for a player to get the self-esteem that breeds confidence."

2. (Tie) Joe Kennedy, Colorado (14). He was 3-12 with a 6.13 ERA for the Devil Dogs last season. This season he's 3-1, 2.97 ERA at Coors; 4-2 and 2.82 overall. Dan O'Dowd has done a boffo job collecting cheap help in Kennedy, Shawn Estes, Royce Clayton, Jeromy Burnitz, Vinny Castilla, et al., all of whom give O'Dowd time as a rich farm system progresses toward Coors Lite.

4. Cliff Lee, Cleveland (10). "Confident mound presence, aggressive demeanor, excellent tempo. He has a good four-pitch mix that keeps hitters off-balance and pitches inside effectively." Of all the future prospects, having two left-handed top-of-the-rotation starters may be Cleveland's greatest strength.

5. Ryan Drese, Texas (9). Orel Hershiser gets the Cy Young Pitching Coach Award for 2004. This is a guy who had no command of a fastball that ran everywhere and once had Steve Blass Disease with his heater & 6.10 lifetime ERA with 382 baserunners in 220 innings. "He's changed everything, accepted the fact that he had to learn to pitch, is sinking the ball in the strike zone and getting hitters out showing signs of control." Hey, Drese is very smart, and he has passion for pitching.

5. (Tie) Ronnie Belliard, Cleveland (9). He once could hit, but slipped to .211 in Milwaukee two years ago, and .277 in the Colorado air last season. The Indians have had very good production at the top of their lineup. If they could find some way to stop things at the end of games, they'd challenge.

7. Trevor Hoffman, San Diego (8). "He's back where he was five years ago, throwing his fastball at 88 and his changeup anytime, anywhere and at any speed."

7. (Tie) Chone Figgins, Anaheim (8). He's played short, third, center. He's a good leadoff hitter. "He's on base when he hits the ball on the ground, but he hits pitches you don't think he'll hit because he's got surprising bat speed." Going into Sunday's game, Figgins, Robb Quinlan, Jeff DaVanon, Jose Molina and Casey Kotchman were hitting between .286 and .375.

Matter of trust
Catchers whom pitchers trust most, in no particular order:

Jason Varitek
Mike Matheny
Brad Ausmus
Dan Wilson
Ramon Hernandez
Paul Lo Duca
Mike Piazza
Johnny Estrada


9. Vinny Castilla, Colorado (7). His three previous seasons, Castilla's on-base percentage was a combined .295. This season .395. "It's as if he's a 25-year-old who figured out that if he gets his pitch, he's going to be that much better a hitter."

10. Brandon Inge, Detroit (6). Look at his career/2004 splits: batting average (.198/.295), on-base percentage (.284/.365), OPS (.599/.856). "He, Figgins and Ryan Freel are the most valuable utilitymen in the game. Inge is an excellent third baseman, can play short, has been Detroit's best center fielder and their best throwing catcher. He has the best release of any catcher in the game today."

10. (Tie) Hee Seop Choi, Florida (6). The rap on him was that he had a slow bat, a long swing, whatever, and that he couldn't hit an above-average fastball. Marlins hitting coach Bill Robinson got Choi out of his crouch and started early. While he hasn't hit for average, he's on a 40-homer pace.

12. Johnny Estrada, Atlanta (4). "He has had really good at-bats in tough situations (he even saw 22 pitches, with 13 foul balls, in the Randy Johnson perfect game) and he can really handle pitchers. He reminds me of a young Ted Simmons." John Schuerholz took some heat on the trade for Kevin Millwood, but he had to move Millwood. When the Red Sox wouldn't deal Casey Fossum for Millwood, he took Estrada. Great move.

12. (Tie) Paul Wilson, Cincinnati (4). "Tough, competitive starts every time out, using whatever he has." Good things sometimes happen to great people.

12. (Tie) Braden Looper, Mets (4). He'd be No. 1 on my list. The Marlins didn't think he could pitch the ninth inning, so they went and got Armando Benitez. Trading places has worked for everyone. Lopper's 7-for-8 in save opportunities, three walks, and an 0.76 ERA in New York.

Receiving three or more votes: Aaron Sele, Lew Ford, Joe Nathan, Scott Schoeneweis, Victor Martinez, Brooks Kieschnick, Scott Hatteberg and Mark Bellhorn.

May 24th, 2004 11:13 AM
Snappy McJack Peter Gammons has said numerous times that he's a Stones fan. In fact, I remember when he was asked by Dan Patrick if he was a Beatles or Stones guy, and he said that he's a Stones guy.

And from some of the songs I've heard him play (some Chuck Berry songs, most notably "Carol", he's a pretty good guitarist (his voice, on the other, isn't that great!)

Even Chris Berman makes Stones references all of the time. On the NFL show "Countdown", he talked about how he went to see them in Hartford (this was in 2002).
[Edited by Snappy McJack]