Offseason Hotstove Thread

Carpenter was fun while he lasted. It was a nice spurt, but he’s unlikely to repeat last season’s success. We can remember him the same way we remember the ‘next man up’ gang of 2019. Tauchman, Ford, Maybin. But some things only last a little while… “Hurricane” Bob Hazle never came close to repeating 1957. There’s no shame in it. It’s beautiful while it’s happening… Art Shamsky, Bernie Carbo. There have been others…

Another ELEVEN year deal… I think most of these teams are expecting the world to end within that timeframe, so it’s free money…

My guess is they will offer to overspend on either Correa or Swanson to make up for not wrapping up Bogaerts earlier.  It's kind of comforting to think that the Yankees' front office is not alone among big market teams in being arrogant fools.

Your mention of Bernie Carbo sent me over to baseballref.  I always thought that guy had enormous ability, but he squandered so much of it by being a serious druggie and alcoholic.  I know he's most famous for the pinch-hit three-run homer in Game Six of the 1975 World Series that sent the game into extra innings and paved the way for the even more famous Carlton Fisk game-winner.  But he had a decent, if truncated, career.  Twelve seasons -- although only six in which he played more than 100 games -- ending up with a .387 OBP and a 126 OPS+.

He was the fourth OFer on that 75 Red Sox team, playing behind Evans, Lynn and Rice -- one of the great outfields of the past 50 years -- he still managed 407 PAs and hit 15 HRs, had an OBP of .409 and an OPS+ of 143.  Not bad for a reserve.  He was the Reds' first pick in the first-ever draft in 1965 -- Johnny Bench was their second round pick.  He messed up his life so badly that for a time he was dependent on financial help from the Baseball Assistance Team for indigent ex-players.  At some point in the 1990s he Got Religion and straightened himself out and seemingly has done well ever since.

Hurricane Hazle is one of my early baseball memories.  He seemed like a phantom when he came up with the Braves late in 1957 and hit .403 with an OPS+ of 209 in 41 games.  He was a big factor in them winning the World Series.  I remember seeing him play and figuring this must have been what it was like to see Ted Williams in his early days.  In fact he slumped a bit late in the season to go down to .403 -- he was up over .500 for about twenty games.  But he got beaned twice early in 1958 and hit only .179 in 20 games when the Braves traded him to Detroit, where he managed to hit .241 in 43 games.  And that was it for his major league career.  He still wound up with a .310/.390/.467 and an OPS+ of 134 for his 110-game career.

He wasn't quite a Mark Fidrych-level one-year phenom -- the media infrastructure wasn't in place for that, and he wasn't colorful like The Bird -- but even casual fans were well aware of his quasi-legendary exploits for those couple of months.  Anyone who was following baseball in 1957 will remember Hurricane Hazle.

He spent a career in sales and died in 1992 at age 61.  And I notice that tomorrow would have been his 92nd birthday.