MLB OFF-SEASON HOT STOVE THREAD

Any parrot seed on there???

Probably uses Altavista to search the web.

The Wild West days of the web were so much fun.  Everything was fresh and the access to information that we have long taken for granted was astonishing.  I remember back around 1993 when the first Baseball Encyclopedia disk was made available -- it seemed like such a great advancement, although obviously it could not be constantly updated like baseballref.  Still, no baseball reference work will ever have the impact of those first, early hardcopy Baseball Encyclopedias of the 1950s, with periodic updates available.  In its way, it was far more revolutionary than baseballref.  Nothing remotely like it had ever been attempted, and it was basically the result of tireless old-school gumshoe work by a couple of inspired fanatics -- Hy Turkin and CS Thompson are the names I associate with the very early ones.  These guys literally compiled individual birth and death records from newspapers and courthouses, and put together career stats on every player to ever wear a major league uniform with no master database to consult.  They had to constantly make corrections and updates, but they laid the foundation for the later 25-pound Macmillan encyclopedias and then the on-line information we have today.  They were as important to quantifying and recording and analyzing baseball as were pioneers like Henry Chadwick and Alexander Cartwright.

Inger, I don't think those guys made more than a pittance for their herculean efforts, nor did they expect to.  I just happen to have my eighth edition of the Macmillan encyclopedia sitting next to me.  It was published in 1990 and sold for a cool $49.95, so your memory has not fogged over.  You could easily wedge it behind the tires of a car to keep it from drifting down a steep embankment  The first edition was published in 1969.  But the earlier Turkin-Thompson editions I was talking about went back to at least 1956.  Made up in heart what it may have lacked in detail. They were inspired amateurs with no connection to the industry of baseball.

In reading the preface of the Macmillan tome, they give no mention to the original encyclopedia, because it wasn't published by Macmillan.  They do mention that their own version was started by well-known baseball historian Lee Allen and John Tattersall, whose son went to my high school, and who himself was a walking spread sheet of baseball statistics.  Updates were published irregularly, in two to five year increments.  My own approach was to hold on to a version until it was intolerably out of date.  I think I had maybe three or four over the years until the internet changed everything.

Somewhere in this house I have a couple of my father's old Spalding Baseball Guides from the late 1930s.  They were wonderful annual reviews, loaded with historical insights as well.  Later came the Street and Smith guides, which I have no doubt you snapped up as eagerly as I did.  At the time, they were the best easy reference for both current and historic stats.  Bet you remember the annual recording of "Players Targets" which would list active players and where they stood on the all-time lists in various statistical categories.  Those were great guides, and not just for baseball.

Back to business, boys. It’s disturbing to me that already it’s being floated that the team will probably sign a cheap option st SS, as if Didi is a cinch to come back next August and immediately produce like he did in 2018. Also they stubbornly are sticking with Bird and Voit at first somehow hoping that Bird morphs into something he hasn’t in three years now- someone who can hit a big league fastball over 90 mph. Neither can field their position which is an odd choice since Miggy has no idea where the ball is going when he finally winds up and releases it from third. Also, Sanchez is magically going to cease leading the universe in passed balls and being the causative factor for whatever unfortunate pitcher is toeing the rubber, to turn into Ryne Duran on the day. It’s all worth it, because Gary is finally going to adjust to quality major league pitching and forego hacking away at any pitch in the vicinity of home plate that bounces less than three times. Stanton, who takes his cue from Sanchez deciding to swing before the pitcher even gets his sign from the catcher will also begin hitting home runs when the score is closer than 11-2 or 9-1, off of a mop up pitcher double parked outside the stadium whose texting his pizza order while he’s delivering an 82 mph cookie. If we really think Boston can be taken down by resigning Walker, CC, Hechavarria and company and hope that Bird, Sanchez, Voit and a suddenly clutch Stanton can lead the Yankees to the land of Oz... well I don’t know what to say. If on the other hand, we really want to win the East, do the following: sign Machado, sign Corbin and Happ, resign Robertson, dump CC, trade Bird and Gray for whatever, eat a whole lot of salary to jettison Ellsbury. I could give a flying leap how much this puts the team over the cosmic $206 million mark. Money is the one thing the Yankees have in spades. If Hal won’t do whatever it takes to match the Sox in quality then he’s just blowing smoke.