Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Alfredo Griffin, Clubhouse Deity {tm}
From: guilford@otago.ac.nz
Date: 17 Apr 92 12:43:16 +1300
Organization: University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

In article <1992Apr15.215230.28158@ramsey.cs.laurentian.ca>, 
91287041@ramsey.cs.laurentian.ca (gut feelings...) writes:

>In <12222@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> zuhars@madrone.eecs.ucdavis.edu (Gary 
>Drifting Slowly Towards The Light Huckabay writes:

>>(Hell, you guys know who said what - the really DUMB stuff is Maynard's.)

>>[more amusing vitriol deleted]

>>Beyond *YOUR* analysis.  Kindly refrain from lumping my analytical skills
>>with yours.  The very thought makes me have abdominal cramps.

>>He is the sorriest excuse for a ballplayer in my memory or lifetime.
>>He has no value of any sort to a ballclub.  He offers NO positives to
>>a team, and demands a great cost.

> Tell me Mr. Gary "what is my name this week" Huckabay, is it Griffin you
> hate?  or me?  is it life perhaps?

> I have wondered why the small brains of 3 or 4 of you, open only a tiny
> crack at the best of times, snap shut completely at the slightest hint
> that personality might have something to do with winning.  It's obvious
> isn't it?  Gary Identity Crises Huckleberry, with your personality you 
> are forever doomed to be a loser.  

You shouldn't take that "dumb" stuff personally.  Anyway, the interesting
thing -- to me, anyway -- about Alfredo Griffin isn't that he is so bad, 
but that he is so typical.  Pick a year.  1982?  Fine.

Here are some SS's from 1982.

                  G (at SS)   SP           OBP (W+H/AB)   --using a N/C

Hoffman (Bos)     150         .311         .257
Fetty             162         .314         .271
Foli (Cal)        139         .308         .273
Cruz (Sea)        136         .376         .248
Stanley (Oak)      98         .250         .284
Faedo (Min)        88         .310         .288
Gardenhire (NYM)  135         .313         .283
LeMaster (SF)     130         .266         .268
Templeton (SD)    136         .352         .280

This was not an atypical year.  Go back to 1972 and you'll find
Eddie Brinkman, Mark Belanger, Gene Michael, Frank Duffy, Rick
Auerbach, Rich Morales, Bud Harrelson, Dal Maxvill, Foli again, 
Roger Metzger, Marty Perez, Enzo Hernandez.  Now some of them
are running ballclubs, but then they were SS's who couldn't hit a
lick.  And there are a million of them today: Alvaro, Omar, Felix,
Kevin, Garry, Uribe, Hoson, Guillen, et al.

Major League teams obviously believe, continue to believe, that
their interests are served by having offensive zeros at shortstop.
Claiming that Alfredo "is the sorriest excuse for a ballplayer
in my memory or lifetime" is a bit silly, with names like Enzo
Hernandez or Johnnie LeMaster to draw on.  If nothing else, there
are always several teams for which Alfredo would have the following
value: when their own no-hit SS got hurt, Alfredo could step right
and maintain that lack of production.

Obviously these teams think these guys can field, and that they
have no one better available, either in their own system or by trade.  
It's not an uncommon strategy to play an Alfredo-type SS.  So whether
you believe they're wrong or right, to me, comes down to the amount
of faith you can put in the statistical evaluation of defense.

> Check out Gillette's book and you will see that last year Griffin tied 
> Larkin for the lead in fielding range among NL ss's with more than 100 
> games played.  Don't like Gillette?  Write your own book, that is if you 
> have time left over after your consulting contracts with TO/OAK/LA.

The Dodgers were so impressed they Dan Gladdened him.  You can not defend
Alfredo on 1991.  Try his years with Oakland -- his days by the (Hucka?)
Bay were his best.

Bill Guilford
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball