Ballou on Baseball

The book’s title is “Destiny of the Republic” and should be required reading across the board.

It was written by Candice Millard and published in 2011. The basic premise is that when President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881 he likely would have survived if people had not tried to save him.

Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing something. The latest example is the ABS system, or robot umps, for calling balls and strikes. Its use has been suspended at the Triple-A level in place of a challenge system. It was never needed in the first place. Major League Baseball has tracked balls and strikes calls for years as a tool to evaluate umpires and while those umps were not perfect, they were really good.

What difference did the robot umps make?

Not much in general, but walks were up. Using WooSox box scores as a reference, in 296 games before ABS their games averaged 7.8 combined walks, 18.8 combined strikeouts and 294 combined pitches.

In 202 games under the ABS system the numbers were 9.4 walks, 18.2 strikeouts and 300 pitches. The walks totals are significant since, unlike strikeouts, there are no swings involved.

The minor leagues are a great place to try out new methods and ideas. Some work. ABS did not seem to and hopefully won’t be brought back. We live in a “Don’t just stand there, do something” world but some times just standing there is the best approach.

Ed. Note: Triple-A Baseball announced last month that the ABS system that was in play during Tuesday – Thursday games has been replaced by the full Challenge system that was used effectively during Friday – Sunday games. So now, each team has the ability to challenge balls & strikes every game until they have two unsuccessful challenges in a game. Only the pitcher/catcher or batter can challenge a ball/strike call. Fans will see the result of the challenge displayed on the Polar Park videoboards.

******************************************************

TRIPLE-A TRIVIA

1. Who are the only three players on Boston’s 40-man roster to have played for the Boston Red Sox, Worcester Red Sox and Pawtucket Red Sox?

2. Who holds the WooSox record for most consecutive multi-hit games?

Answers below.

************************************************************

Jamie Westbrook’s hard-earned promotion to the major leagues is one of the season’s best stories to date. It led to a little research on the connection between his hometown of Holyoke and the Red Sox; major league baseball in general, too.

The very first Red Sox player to appear in a game was from Holyoke. He was left fielder Buttermilk Tommy Dowd, who led off for Boston in the franchise’s first game ever played. It was in Baltimore on April 26, 1901.

The only other Holyke native to wear a Red Sox uniform was pitcher Joe Lucey. He made his Boston debut in 1925. So it was a while between Lucey and Westbrook.

The two best Holyoke products to play in the big leagues are probably relief pitcher Mark Wohlers and catcher Fran Healy. Neither ever played for the Red Sox.

Patrick “Doc” Carney was born in Holyoke and played for Boston’s National League team, but not the Red Sox. Carney, though, settled in Worcester where he coached Holy Cross and and became an M.D. as a general practitioner.

***********************************************************

Now in their fourth season, the WooSox have never had one of their batters hit for the cycle. They used to come close a lot, but not this year. Matthew Lugo had a single, double and homer in the first game of last Thursday’s doubleheader. It was the first “almost” of 2024. Worcester had 11 “almosts” in 2023 and Lugo’s was the 31st all-time. Three WooSox batters lead in near-cycles with three and it’s a great group. It includes Franchy Cordero, Bobby Dalbec and Connor Wong. … The death of Willie Mays brings to mind a minor connection between him and the Red Sox. Mays’ last minor league team before graduating to the New York Giants was Triple-A Minneapolis in 1951. That team was also the final minor league stop for two Red Sox players in the Hall of Fame — Ted Williams in 1938 and Carl Yastrzemski in 1960. … Mickey Gasper went 2-for-5 on Sunday and his batting average dropped. That says something. He shows no sign of cooling off and is challenging Franchy Cordero for the best-ever start to a WooSox career. Cordero was 28-for-70 (.400) for his first 18 games in a Worcester uniform. Gasper was batting .429 through his 14 games for the WooSox. … Bobby Dalbec keeps moving up the Red Sox Triple-A career home run list. He had two last week and has 55 for his career. That ties him with Eric Wedge for 16th all-time. Next up is Adam Hyzdu with 57.

**********************************************************

TRIVIA ANSWERS

1. Dalbec has played for Boston, Worcester and Pawtucket. So have Tanner Houck and Chris Martin. Martin spent part of the 2013 season with the PawSox and pitched for 11 different teams before returning to the Boston organization.

2. Ronaldo Hernandez had six straight multi-hit games in 2022 from June 26 through July 2. He was 13-for-24 (.542) during the streak.

************************************************************

While in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre the WooSox improved their all-time record to 28-2 when they hit back-to-back home runs in a game. … Congratulations to Bailey Horn on making his major league debut, which happened Saturday in Boston. He is the 26th player to debut in the big leagues after playing for Worcester and the fourth this season. Horn shows the value of change of scene. He had an 11.32 ERA in nine games at Charlotte to start the season, then was picked up by the Red Sox on waivers. Horn had a 1.69 ERA in 12 games with the WooSox and wound up in Boston … Worcester had the first losing June in team history. It was 12-13. Worcester teams were a combined 47-30 in the three previous Junes. The month finished well, though, with a 15-5 victory in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre on Sunday. The WooSox set a team record for hits in a game with 20. Chase Meidroth had the second five-hit game ever by a WooSox batter and hit .356 for the month. Jarren Duran had the other five-hit game on May 22, 2021.

***********************************************************

CATCHING UP WITH….

Narciso Crook, one of the WooSox’ most popular players last season, began this year with the Chicago Dogs of the American Association and has since moved on to Quintana Roo of the Mexican League.

Justin Garza is having a good season for the Giants’ Triple-A team in the Pacific Coast League. He is 4-1 with a 3.57 ERA for the Sacramento River Cats. Catcher Caleb Hamilton is in Double-a ball, playing for the Angels’ Double-A affiliate in the Southern League, the Rocket City Trash Pandas, based outside of Huntsville, Ala.