Welcome back to year seventeen of the Alabama Slammers Franchise Report! Here are the links to the previous versions if you want to catch up (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031,2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036).
Previous Season Highlights:
Andy Schaffer wins Cy Young
20-year-old Marco Vazquez leads the league in batting average, hits, doubles, and triples
Edgar Sanchez wins seventh straight gold glove
6 players make all-star team
106-win regular season
Lost in NLCS 4-2
Start of Offseason:
As with the previous versions, I’ll list the moves I made, the rationale behind those moves, the season results, and the future outlook.
Here are the salaries heading into the offseason.
\Unless stated otherwise, all players were re-signed to their one-year arbitration estimate*
Departures (non-trades):
Ernesto Bernal
Bernal was discovered by my scout in 2022 and spent fifteen years with the organization. He’s the franchise’s all-time leader in games, at-bats, WAR, runs, hits, total bases, singles, doubles, triples, RBIs, and stolen bases. He’s the greatest player in franchise history and it really hurt to part ways with him, but all good things must come to an end.
He signed a 5/$84m deal with the Rangers, which seems reasonable, and had a solid year. I received a supplemental first-round pick upon his signing.
Drew Romo
Romo looked to be on his way out, so I let him walk as a free agent. He didn’t sign with a team and retired at the end of the season. He played his entire 12-year major league career with the Slammers and was a huge reason we had six Cy Young award winners during his tenure.
Eric Lawrence
Lawrence struggled last year in the majors, so I gave him a season in AAA to work things out. He looks ready for the big leagues again and will be an opening day starter or get traded.
Jeff Hopper
Hopper was excellent during his six years with us, highlighted by his 2035 campaign when he finished third in the MVP voting. He wanted 8/$232m to re-sign, which was too expensive for my tastes, and ended up getting 6/$156m from the Jazz, which is still too expensive for me. I don’t see this contract ending well.
Move #1:
Hired a new trainer.
I heavily prioritize prevention and this guy is good at preventing all types of injuries. Here’s my old trainer.
Move #2:
Slammers Receive: Edwin de la Torre
Diamondbacks Receive: Alex Rivera, Luis Arguello, Mike Dooner, Harold Coppola, Bryn Hill
De la Torre is my third baseman fantasy. He has elite batting potential, above average fielding ability, excellent baserunning, great character, durable injury proneness, and bats from the left side of the plate. I gave the Diamondbacks an assortment of young and talented players, but I would’ve gladly given them twice as much. Guys like de la Torre just don’t exist.
Move #3:
Slammers Receive: Jonathan Hubbard
Padres Receive: Eric Clark
Hubbard might not be anything special to the Padres, but he’s beautiful to me. He’s a right-handed hitter, has elite defensive ratings, doesn’t expect to start, is durable, and has the sparkplug personality trait. I needed a very specific player and Hubbard met all of my criteria. He’ll start against lefties and play a decent amount against righties in an attempt to keep Steve Flores healthy for the playoffs.
Move #4:
Signed Andy Schaffer to a 5/$105m extension.
Schaffer is 26 and just won a Cy Young, this seems like a pretty safe deal.
Move #5:
Signed free agent Tommy Noonan to a 3/$30m deal.
After looking through the available in-house, trade, and free agent replacement options, I decided the best course of action was to roll the dice on Noonan. I’ve seen players bounce back from the Guru before, so hopefully Noonan does just that. If he falls off a cliff, I’ll only owe him $15m after this year.
Move #6:
Added a Dominican Rookie League team.
We haven’t gotten much out of our scouting discoveries, and I think it might be partially due to them spending so much time in the international complex, so we’re adding a Dominican Rookie League team for them to develop in – The Kiev Blue Claws. Don’t ask me why the team is in Ukraine, it’s just what the owner wanted.
I promoted every player from the international complex, and I’ll continue to promote new players as they’re discovered. I’m interested to see how this works out.
Move #7:
Slammers Receive: Chris Joiner
Mets Receive: Joe Poffenberger
Poffenberger was given strong consideration for the starting catcher job this year, but I decided to go with Gutierrez instead. There was no need to keep Poffenberger around in the minors, so I swapped him for a guy that can provide some depth in a year or two.
In-House Moves (Preseason):
Sean Vahey remains on the major league roster after joining during roster expansion last season. He will be a member of the bullpen.
Jose Gutierrez promoted from AA. Will be the primary starter at catcher vs. RHPs.
Bobby McCallum promoted from AA. Will start at first base.
Seung-hwa Kim promoted from AA. Will start in left field.
Bob Banks will slide to DH with the promotion of Kim.
Final Financial Situation:
We have about $34m in available budget room to start the year, so shouldn’t need to make any trades for cash, and we might even complete the owner goal of ending the year with a balance of +$23m. He’s been hounding me about that one for a while.
Here are the salaries heading into the season.
Move #8 (Part 1, Part 2):
Slammers Receive: $14m
Slammers Lose: Chris Dearborn, Nate Holston
Turns out we needed some more cash. Holston is a career minor leaguer, but Dearborn might have a real MLB future. I’ve seen too many players with his profile flame out though, so I’m willing to take the risk he doesn’t amount to anything.
Season Outlook:
This is the most excited I’ve been about a season in a while. It’s always fun to cruise to 100-win seasons with established teams, but we’re going with the youth movement this year. Our five through eight hitters have a combined zero days of major league service, so I’m really trusting my scout that these rookies are ready to perform. The pitching should remain elite, so if the young guys come through, we should roll to another division title.
Batters:
Primary Lineup vs. RHP and vs. LHP when Healthy (\DH enabled in both leagues, lineup vs. RHP shown below)*
RF – Marco Vazquez
Vazquez cooled off a bit at the plate as compared to last season but upped his defense to boost his overall value. He made his second all-star team and won his first gold glove.
CF – Wil Mireles
Mireles had another excellent season but will be leaving as a free agent. He wants 8/$256m to re-sign, which is too much for me.
2B – Edgar Sanchez
Sanchez continued his march towards the hall of fame with another great year. He made his third all-star team and won his eighth gold glove.
DH – Bob Banks
Banks moved to DH this year, which should be the least taxing position, but missed about a month to injury. When healthy, he performed below his usual standard. Hopefully, he gets back on track next year.
LF – Seung-Hwa Kim
Kim had a solid rookie year and will be back for a sophomore campaign. He’s 26-years-old but still looks to have a lot of untapped potential.
3B – Edwin de la Torre
De la Torre had a monster rookie season, winning rookie of the month in September and taking rookie of the year honors. He’s 21-years-old, so should be around for a long time.
1B – Bobby McCallum
McCallum started off the year on a crazy hot streak. He won rookie of the month in April and June and was on pace for 65 home runs and 167 RBIs. He cooled off tremendously as the season progressed but was still good enough to finish third in the rookie of the year voting.
C – Jose Gutierrez
I feel pretty good about my decision to go with Gutierrez at catcher. He played great defense and was league average at the plate, which is all I could ever ask for. As an added bonus, his personality trait was revealed as sparkplug.
SS – Steve Flores
Flores came back from a year-long injury and played great. I would love to keep his defense around forever but it’s probably better to go ahead and move him before he gets injured again. I have a solid replacement in Eric Lawrence.
Bench
C – Danny Wells
Wells has been pretty much the same player since he debuted in 2032 but I’m ok with that. As long as he continues to play excellent defense, he’ll stick around.
IF – Justus Evans
Evans had a pretty good five-year run for a guy that used to be a pitcher. I have plenty of in-house replacements though, so he’ll leave as a free agent.
IF – Jonathan Hubbard
I brought in Hubbard to replace the fragile backup, so of course he got injured. He missed a month with a separated shoulder but did what was asked of him when healthy.
OF – Andy Vera
Vera is overqualified to be a bench player, but I have an excess of outfield talent and he’s the worst of the bunch. He might get a shot to start in center field next year with Mireles departing.
Replacements
IF – Chris McClain
It’s a good thing I kept the fragile backup middle infielder around. He filled in for Hubbard for a month and didn’t kill us.
OF – Mike Honeycutt
Honeycutt filled in for Banks and was pretty good in his limited opportunities. Depending on the rest of the roster, he might get a backup role next year.
Pitchers:
Pitching Staff when Healthy
SP – Corey MacDonald
I took the pitch count off MacDonald since his injury proneness was upgraded to iron man and he continued to stay healthy. He played well and made his seventh all-star game.
SP – Gilles Palacios
Palacios had one of his best seasons yet, winning the pitching triple crown and collecting his fourth Cy Young award. He wants 7/$245m to re-sign, but I’m going to try to find a way to bring him back. More than likely, I’ll have to sign him in free agency.
SP – Andy Schaffer
Schaffer decided to take it easy after winning a Cy Young last year and getting a contract extension. Hopefully, he goes back to his Cy Young ways next season.
SP – Eddie Copping
I had strongly considered a long-term extension for Copping in the offseason but I’m glad I held off. He struggled this year, posting his worst season yet. I think he’ll be fine going forward, but I’m much less worried about his performance without a long-term deal.
SP – Bobby Butler
Butler might not be done as a major league starting pitcher, but he’s done with the Slammers. He suffered a partially torn UCL in spring training, then suffered an eight-month setback in August. Hopefully, he still has some trade value when he returns.
RP – Alan McCarter
McCarter has been getting worse the last two seasons, but I’ve kept him around for his prankster personality trait. I’ll try to find someone in the offseason that’s also good at baseball.
RP – Tommy Noonan
Noonan isn’t the world beater he used to be but he’s still a really good reliever. I’m glad I brought him back.
RP – Jose Macias
Macias was solid for the second straight season and will be back next year.
RP – Sean Vahey
Vahey had a tough start to the season but established himself as one of the best relievers in the game by the end of the year. He’ll probably be around for his remaining five years of team control.
RP – Jose Aguilar
Aguilar once again performed like one of the best relievers in baseball, making his fifth all-star game. He has two more team friendly years on his contract, so will definitely be back.
RP – Mike Bentley
I was browsing through player profiles about halfway through the season and did a double take when I got to Bentley. All of a sudden, he had an 80-grade changeup and wanted to be a starter, which definitely wasn’t the case last year. I kept him in the bullpen until rosters expanded, then let him work as the sixth starter the rest of the season. He did well in his five starts and will be a member of the rotation next year. Hopefully, I can still sign him to a cheap extension.
Oh yeah, he also won reliever of the year.
RP – Steve Hixson
Hixson wasn’t as good as last year but he’s cheap and durable, so I’ll probably bring him back.
RP – Jonathan Kelsey
It’s always nice to have an iron man reliever that’s capable of competently starting 31 games. He moved to the rotation when Butler was injured and gave us 190.1 solid innings. Unfortunately, he’s an upcoming free agent, so probably won’t return.
Replacements
RP – Chris Larkin
Larkin was called up and given Kelsey’s bullpen role when Butler was injured. He wants to be a starter, but I don’t feel comfortable with his movement, so he’ll remain in the bullpen or get traded next season.
RP – Joe Cope
A 32nd round pick in 2032, it took Cope a while to figure things out in the minors, but once he did, he rose quickly through the system. He was called up when rosters expanded and struggled in limited appearances, but I think he’ll be one of the best relievers in the game in a year or two.
RP – Mike Blake
Blake was also called up when rosters expanded, and he pitched well in his three appearances. He looks like he could be a solid starting pitcher, but I have better options ahead of him, so he’ll have to take a bullpen role in the majors.
Season Results:
We didn’t do our usual raping and pillaging during the regular season but still won 104 games and took our eighth straight division crown. The Cardinals actually took the lead from us at game 130, but we took it back thirteen games later and pulled away late. The pitching continued to be dominant and the offense was amongst the league best. Other than Butler, we’re fully healthy going into the playoffs and will go with a playoff rotation of Palacios, MacDonald, Schaffer, and Bentley. Copping and Kelsey will move to the bullpen.
Our first-round opponent is the 94-68 Rockies. Their 3-5 hitters (Eric Zuniga, Noe Renteria, Robby Teeter) are terrifying, but they don’t have much pitching. We should be able to take this one.
Divisional Series Game 1, Rockies Win 5-3 – We played well overall but couldn’t overcome Renteria’s four RBI performance. Three players had solo home runs in the loss.
Divisional Series Game 2, Slammers Win 5-4 – MacDonald gave up four runs but the bullpen provided 3.2 scoreless innings to hold on for the win. We had fourteen hits in the contest and Sanchez led the way with two RBIs.
Divisional Series Game 3, Slammers Win 6-4 – New starter Mike Bentley had a great outing, striking out eight while giving up two runs over six innings. Banks led the way on offense with three RBIs.
Divisional Series Game 4, Slammers Win 8-1 – Schaffer pitched a gem, going seven scoreless innings and striking out nine. Everyone chipped in on offense en route to fourteen hits and eight runs.
Divisional Series Game 5, Slammers Win 12-8 – We knocked out their starter in the first and continued to pile on in the 12-8 victory. Kim led the way with two homers and three RBIs, winning series MVP.
Next up is the 101-61 Cardinals, led by young ace Eddie Salinas. They have a deep and balanced roster, so I could see this going either way. The winner should take the World Series.
NLCS Game 1, Slammers Win 6-4 – The rookie McCallum put the team on his back with a three-home run, five RBI performance. MacDonald gave up four runs in his second straight appearance, but Aguilar and Noonan closed out the game with 3.1 scoreless innings.
NLCS Game 2, Slammers Win 10-3 – It was Banks putting on his superman cape this time, with a four RBI performance. Bentley gave up two runs over 5.1 innings.
NLCS Game 3, Slammers Win 3-2 (12) – This one was close throughout, but a bases load walk by Kim in the top of the twelfth provided the game deciding run. Schaffer, Aguilar, Noonan, and Macias combined to allow two runs over twelve innings.
NLCS Game 4, Slammers Win 2-1 – Palacios came out on top in a pitcher’s duel and we swept the series. McCallum was named MVP, mostly off of his game one performance.
We’re once again facing off against the Red Sox in the World Series, and this should just be a victory lap. They have a very good rotation (Jorge Morones, Bobby Dibble, Rob McDowell, Josh Sheppard) but no one worth mentioning on offense. It’ll be a major upset if we lose this one.
World Series Game 1, Slammers Win 8-2 – We started off the series with a bang, getting home runs from McCallum, Banks, and de la Torre. MacDonald gave up two runs over 6.2 innings and Aguilar closed out the rest.
World Series Game 2, Slammers Win 7-4 – The Rookie Kim led the way with a pair of two-run homers. Then Bentley struck out eleven and gave up two runs over six innings.
World Series Game 3, Red Sox Win 3-1 – Red Sox ace Morones shut us down in the loss, but we can win the series without seeing him again if we win two of the next three.
World Series Game 4, Red Sox Win 9-7 – We were on track to win this one before a complete meltdown by Macias and Noonan in the eighth. They gave up a combined five runs in the inning and the offense couldn’t bail them out in the ninth.
World Series Game 5, Slammers Win 6-2 – We really needed this win. MacDonald and Vahey combined to hold them to two runs over nine innings and Banks led the way on offense with three RBIs. We’ll head back home and look to close out the series.
World Series Game 6, Slammers Win 14-5 – This one was close until a nine run explosion in the fourth inning put the game away. Every starter other than Kim had at least one RBI. The Red Sox first baseman won series MVP in the loss, but we’d much rather have the title than an individual award.
We’re really starting to roll now, as that’s our third title in six seasons! The young guys came through when it mattered and will hopefully lead us to many more titles in the future.
Here are the rest of the playoff results and MLB standings.
Top Prospects:
The top prospects list continues to be in flux, as we promoted three players and traded another three from last year’s edition, but we still have a lot of good players.
1.) Hector Ruiz
Ruiz was an honorable mention the last two years because I don’t trust international amateur free agent signings, but I’m ready to buy the hype now. If he can stay healthy and reach his full potential, he’s a 10 WAR player. He’ll begin next season at AA.
2.) Victor Lacayo
I’m starting to get some serious mileage from these international amateur free agent signings, as that’s how the top two players on the list were acquired. Lacayo has monster hitting potential for a middle infielder and could be elite defensively if he gets a slight bump to his range. Worst case, he’ll a great bench player. He’ll begin next year in A.
3.) Jake Maddox
Maddox continued his steady climb through the system and looks just about ready for the majors. Depending on what his ratings look like at the start of next year, he might make the opening day roster.
4.) Chris Joiner
I had a trio of guys last year that I thought were in line to take Justus Evans spot, but the acquisition of Joiner probably ended their major league chances. He plays above average defense at three positions, has the potential to be an elite hitter, and has excellent baserunning skills. He’ll begin next season on the opening day roster.
5.) Felix Lopez
Lopez could probably fill the role Joiner will take next year, but he’s still young, so I’ll give him a year in AAA to round out his skills. I like everything about him but his range, so hopefully that improves next year.
6.) Chris Overcash
Overcash looks ready for the majors but I don’t have a place for him, so he’ll start next season in AAA. I’ll get him some experience in left field, and he’ll be first in line as an injury replacement.
7.) Gabe Depass
If Depass had durable injury proneness, he’d be top two on the list. He’s a great talent but you can never put too much faith in a pitcher with normal injury proneness. He’ll start next season at A.
8.) Brad Cole
Cole is a very interesting player. Other than his outfield error, he has everything you’d want in an outfield prospect, so I’m hoping that improves next year in A. I was able to scoop him up in the sixth round since he was listed as a pitcher coming out of the draft.
9.) Nate Bianco
Bianco’s movement still hasn’t improved, so I’m starting to cool on him a bit. He performed well in A- though and will begin next season in A+.
10.) Chris Brown
Rest in peace Chris Brown. If he makes it back from his torn UCL, he’ll be restricted to bullpen duty.
Honorable mentions:
Andy West, Bob Larson
I usually don’t include players like this on the list, but these two curiosities have very interesting ratings profiles and dominated the competition in A. They’ll both begin next season in AA and I’m hoping their ratings catch up to their production.
Eric Whittington, Israel Lopez
Both of these guys were listed as starters coming out of the draft, but I’ve put them in their proper roles as relievers. Between the two of them, I’m sure one will make the majors.
Sam Leintz
Leintz can’t stay healthy, so he’ll probably get traded. Too bad, since I used a first-round pick on him last year.
Promoted to MLB:
Bobby McCallum, Seung-Hwa Kim, Jose Gutierrez
Future Outlook:
We have some tough decisions this offseason with Palacios’s upcoming free agency and logjams in the infield and outfield. Eric Lawrence deserves to start, as do a number of minor league outfielders, but we also have a lot young entrenched starters in the majors. I’m not sure yet how I’ll build the roster, but these are good problems to have. It’s not a question of how we win, but how do we win the most. Hopefully, we can push towards 120 wins next year.
Here is the budget and salaries heading into the offseason.

Hey Baseball buddies! Hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend...and following week. I'm back now, and it's time to get balls deep on the rest of this list.
This year’s Hall of Fame ballot includes 11 first time players. None of them are first ballot locks and some of them are guaranteed to fall off the ballot after one year of eligibility. So once again, we’re taking a look at all the ballot rookies, starting from the bottom. We've previously covered Nick Swisher, Michael Cuddyer and AJ Burnett, so it’s time for…
Dan Haren
Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 30
Career bWAR (13 years): 35.1
Stats: 153-131, 3.75 ERA, 2013 K, 2419.2 IP, 1.181 WHIP, 109 ERA+
Awards: All-Star x3 (AL 2007, NL 2008, ‘09)
League Leading Stats: Starts x3 (34, 2006; 34, 2007; 34, 2011), WHIP (1.003, 2009), K/BB x3 (5.15, 2008; 5.87, 2009; 5.82, 2011)
Teams Played For: Cardinals (2003-04), A’s (2005-07), D-backs (2008-2010), Angels (2010-2012), Nationals (2013), Dodgers (2014), Marlins (2015), Cubs (2015)
Throughout the ‘90s, David Cone picked up a reputation as kind of a gun for hire. Twice the Blue Jays brought him in mid-season for playoff pushes. The Yankees signed him longer term to solidify a rotation that won four rings, and Boston brought him in at the end of his career to try and stoke their own championship fires. He was a six-time all-star, a Cy Young winner and a fringe HoF candidate who was always happy with the “hired merc” persona.
Dan Haren was kind of like that, only more mediocre.
Daniel Boone* Haren first gained the attention of scouts while he was pitching at Pepperdine, along with teammate Noah Lowery. In their junior years, Haren put up a 2.22 ERA and was named WCC Player of the year, while Lowery posted a 1.71 ERA en route to being named WCC Pitcher of the year. Both players skipped their senior season and declared for the MLB draft; a draft in which the Giants would take Lowery in the first round, with the Cardinals drafting Haren in the second.
Lowery seemed to be on his way to a good-to-above-average career in SF until the Giants medical staff decided that he needed to be sacrificed upon the alter of Dave Dravecky and completely mis-managed a circulatory issue into a career ending forearm injury that cost Lowery a rib in the process. Meanwhile, Haren was completely fine, he was just in St Louis. He appeared in 28 games over two seasons, making 19 starts and throwing 4.2 shutout innings in the 2004 World Series, but the Cards wound up sending Haren to Oakland, along with Kiko Calero and future Mexican Baseball League gold glover Daric Barton, in a trade that netted them Mark Mulder.
In response Haren, clearly happy about being relieved of the burden of pretending that St Louis has the best fans in baseball, entered the prime portion of his career.
From 2005 to 2010, Haren’s age 24 to 29 seasons, ol’ Dirty Dan was a legit dealer. 85-64, 3.55 in 1343 innings, with 1176 K, to the tune of a 3.61 FIP, 1.173 WHIP and 123 ERA+. Over that span, he would make all three of his all-star appearances and be good for 27.1 bWAR, including back to back 6+ bWAR seasons in 2008 and 2009.
In the middle of that stretch, the A’s traded Haren to Arizona in exchange for a massive haul of prospects that included Carlos Gonzalez, Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Dana Eveland and Chris Carter. Three of those guys would go on to have notable big league careers, but only one would make any noise in an A’s uniform because Billy Beane was always playing a game of keep away with himself.
The back half of Haren’s career, 2011-2015 was less successful. Haren kept on doing exactly the same things he’d always done, just with ever diminishing returns. Two full seasons in LAA, including his last really good effort in 2011. A season in DC. Back to LA proper for a season in Dodger blue. Then 21 games for Miami in 2015 before the Cubs traded for him to try and get them over the hump a year before they were really ready for prime time. (This was three years after a deal to trade Haren straight up for Carlos Marmol fell through. A deal which, while not being on quite the same level as Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio, would have been hilariously lopsided, nonetheless. Haren was still good for 500 innings of league average ball over his last three seasons; Marmol once finished third in the league in hit batters, despite only throwing 74 innings. A stat we celebrated by making him our closer. And sure, he gave us one pretty solid season, but then he started blowing saves like he was a drunken college student in Seattle during Fleet Week and you know what? I’m getting off track.)
Unlike Cone, Haren was never a guy who embraced the “missing piece” role. When the Angles let him walk after the 2012 season, Haren told the LA Times “I’m sick of changing teams.” And, since baseball is a petty bitch with a weird sense of humor, Haren would naturally be forced to change uniforms four times over the next three seasons.
A large part of the reason for Haren’s decline can be attributed to his change in velocity. Haren was never exactly a fireballer, but in the early portion of his career his fastball could routinely end up in the lower-end-of-the-lower-end of the 90’s and he could dial it up into the 93-94 range when he needed. By the time the Angels declined his option in 2012, however, his fastball was down to the high 80’s (a fact he’s kind of leaned into and embraced: his Twitter handle is @ithrow88). His last season in the bigs, Haren’s 86 MPH average was the second slowest non-knuckleballer in the majors.
Haren was able to remain effective because he’d always had impeccable control. At no point in his career did he ever walk more than 55 batters in a season and there were just three full seasons in his career when his BB/9 ratio got above 2. But he wasn’t ever known as a Maddux-type pitcher who lived life on the black. Instead, Haren liked to use his ability to throw any pitch at any time as a means of coming right at guys and challenging them where they live. When it worked, it worked: Haren struck out over 200 batters three times and was the active leader in K/9 ratio when he retired. But all that reward came with an ever increasing amount of risk as well: Haren coughed up 305 homers in his career, 54th all time. Back in 2016, Haren directly addressed his lack of both velocity and fear in an amazing, now sadly deleted, tweet: “Sometimes when the count was 3-1, I would just throw it down the middle and hope for the best. People pop up in batting practice, right?” (The quarantine has slowed him down a bit, but Haren has historically been a highly entertaining Twitter follow)
Dan Haren spent 13 seasons in the major leagues, dividing nine of those years more or less evenly betwixt the A’s, Dbacks and Angels. He made the most starts in Oakland and professed to be happiest in Anaheim, but he goes into the Hypothetical Hall with the Diamondbacks, as a nod to his two all-star appearances with the team and the two best overall seasons of his career. He’s also fifth all time in franchise history for bWAR for pitchers (13.1), sixth in ERA (3.56) and fourth in WHIP (1.132).
Chances of making the Hall: Worse than his chances of making an MLB comeback, better than his chances of winning the fastest pitch competition at your local ballpark.
Chances of leaving the ballot this year: 100%
*not his actual middle name, but fuck. It should be, right?

We're only a week-and-a-half from the revelation of who gets into the Hall! So I gotta speed this up! Which I've said every single time it hasn't been crunch time but it hasn't happened quite as much as I'd like! We'll see how I do this time! Done with the exclamation points now. If you don't know what this is, the Hall of Fame ballot has a lot of people who qualify for it (10 years of MLB experience), but aren't on it because they were deemed not noteworthy enough. We look at the guys that weren't up to the Selection Committee's standards. You can find the ones that make that number up there so big at the bottom. Now to this dude named Cody.

Cody Ross

Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 1
Career bWAR (12 years): 13.5
Stats: .262/.322/.445, 104 OPS+, 904 H, 132 HR,356 XBH, 508 RBI, 449 R
League Leading Stats: Double Plays as OF (4, 2007)
Awards: 2010 NLCS MVP, World Series Ring (2010)
Teams Played For: Tigers (2003), Dodgers (2005-06), Reds (2006), Marlins (2006-2010), Giants (2010-11), Red Sox (2012), Diamondbacks (2013-14), Athletics (2015)
Cody Ross could be one of the more irritating players to have on your team. One week he'd play like a superstar, the next week he wouldn't get a hit and drop a flyball. What he lacked in consistency, he made up for in longevity, managing to qualify for the Hall of Fame ballot. Didn't make it though, which is why he's here. How could someone who played so well (be it sparsely) and who took the nickname "Smiles" for his oh-so-charming grin get left off by the Selection Committee? Did they make a mistake?
What with being a high school All-American and pitching a five-inning perfect game one time, Cody Ross from Carlsbad wasn't a surprising pick for the Tigers in the 4th round of the 1999 draft. Even after going 31-for-142 in Rookie League for a .218 average, 15 of those 31 hits were for extra bases, so to the next level he went. Turns out he got better the higher level of competition he faced, going from a .706 OPS in Rookie ball in 1999 to a .753 OPS in single-A in 2000 to a .798 OPS in high-A in 2001 to a .859 OPS in double-A in 2002. No more perfect games thrown, though, because this was the early 2000s, and two-way players were the type of fantastical beast a grandparent might lull a child to sleep with stories about. After keeping the trend up in AAA in 2003, Ross got a call from the Detroit on July 4th. They wanted him to celebrate America's birthday with them in Kansas City. The Tigers had also won only 20 of the 84 games they'd played that season so things weren't going so great. Maybe Ross could help bring some much needed relief. Or he could ground out, reach on an error but not come around to score, then get hit by a pitch after which manager Alan Trammell subbed in a pinch-runner. And then he got to watch his team lose. Certainly a non-ideal way to start your career, but you just gotta keep at it and- oh you're back in the minors a week later. Hey, it's fine. Keep it up, and you'll get back in no time. That he did, coming up as soon as the rosters expanded, and once he was back, he proved he wanted to stay. In in his 20th ever plate appearance, in his 6th ever game, for his 4th ever hit, Cody Ross hit a grand slam off Cliff Lee. Sammy Sosa went almost 10 years before hitting his first slam, but it took Cody Ross just six games. Apparently the baseball gods didn't want him getting a big head after that, because just two plate appearances later in the same game, Ross tore his ACL trying to reach first on a sacrifice bunt turned E1. Bye bye majority of 2004. He still made it into 60 games with the AAA Las Vegas 51s, but was finished after that. "But wait a second," I hear you say, "surely you mean the Toledo Mud Hens, because they were Detroit's triple-A affiliate during that time, while the 51s were associated with the Dodgers." Remarkably observant, but that brings me to my next point. At the beginning of 2004, the Tigers decided that having bottom-5 pitching in the MLB was not how they wanted to continue (ignore the part where their offense was just as bad if not worse). As a result, Ross was shipped off to LA for relief arm Steve Colyer, and played for the 51s, hitting .273/.328/.538 with 14 homers. Not bad, not bad at all. Would it be enough to propel him into the majors next year?
After spending the first three months of the 2005 season in Nevada, Cody Ross got the call he'd been waiting for. Then, in 14 games between June 26th and July 10th, he... went 4-for-25 with one double and but a single RBI. Back to the minors it was. He'd finish his time in Vegas batting .267/.348/.509, but hadn't yet proved he wasn't like all the other AAAA hitters. He would get chance in spring training, and he took it, making the Opening Day roster, and even appeared in the first game of the season versus the Atlanta Braves, pinch-hitting for Derek Lowe. Flew out and stranded two but he was playing. His fifth game and second start of the season went a whole lot better. Facing the Pirates, in his 59th career plate appearance, Ross hit his second career grand slam. Barry Larkin needed 8991 plate appearances to get two grand slams, and Ross did it in less than 1/150th of the time. Seeing as how hitting home runs was fun, he decided to do it again the next inning, but fell a baserunner short of a slam this time. The Dodgers were so thankful for his contributions that they traded him just a week-and-a-half after that performance. Then again, their outfield already had Kenny Lofton, J.D. Drew, and these up-and-comers named Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp, so that makes sense. And so Ross made his way across the country once again, this time to Cincinnati. The Reds watched him break his finger in his debut game, then assigned him to the AAA to rehab the injury. Called him back up once that was done, only to trade him to the Florida Marlins right after. Those Fish were in the middle of an... interesting season. Three days before they bought this guy with two grand slams in 30 career games, they had a record of 11-31. That was because owner Jeffrey Loria blasted all his best players off into oblivion for nickels and dimes on the dollar because he was mad at the city of Miami for not building him his own stadium, but that's another story. Ross would serve as their 4th outfield option for the rest of that season, making it into 91 games, more than quadrupling his career total up to that point. Sure, he'd bat .212/.284/.396 over that time, but don't ignore the 11 homers and 37 RBIs, including a 3-home-run, 7-RBI onslaught versus the 97-win Mets. Ignoring the part where he did that on 9/11 against a team from New York, it was the best offensive performance of the year. In case you misread that, a dude who didn't have a regular starting spot and was batting .228 at the time had the best offensive performance of the year in the MLB. That performance actually put the Marlins at a 73-71 record, only 2 games back of the NL Wild Card, and made them the first MLB team to claw back above .500 after being 20 games under in the same year. Even after they fell to 78-84 at the end of the season, the Marlins seemed like they were sticking with him. Mainly because he was cheap, but a performance like that didn't hurt. It seemed, after a long and winding road, that Cody Ross had finally found a team that wanted him.
The Marlins kept Cody Ross around for another three years, and unintentionally introduced the world to Dr. Cody and Mr. Ross. His 2006 season could be considered the genesis of the poorly-hitting and betrayal-minded Mr. Ross, but his 2007 season in Florida bore witness to the birth of his better half, Dr. Cody. Once his 12th game of the season was over, his average would never fall below .275 again, and at the year's conclusion, the Doctor would finish at a magnificent .335/.411/.653. The big dents in his MVP campaign were the fact he only played 66 games after missing just over 2 months of the season with a hamstring issue, and the fact the Marlins finished 71-91. The beginning of the next season saw another appearance from Mr. Ross, which resulted in a batting average of .209 in mid-June, despite the other side's best efforts including 10 home runs in May. Dr. Cody would overpower his nemesis for the next month, over which he batted .367 with 5 homers and 21 RBIs in 25 games. The two personalities would continue flip-flopping for a month each until the Toy Cannon (now that's a nickname) finished the year hitting .260/.316/.488 with 22 homers. Not bad for his first year as a regular member of the lineup. Man showed he deserved it too, putting up some real nice fielding numbers in the outfield, including a perfect fielding percentage in 101 games in center. The team was better this year too, going 84-77, though still not good enough for the playoffs. Over his next 271 games, Dr. Cody would bat .323/.375/.512 over 555 at-bats, and Mr. Ross would bat .201/.257/.352 over 458 at-bats. Add it all up, and during his time in a Marlins jersey, Dr. Cody and Mr. Ross combined to give Cody Ross a line of .265/.322/.465 with 80 home runs and a 104 OPS+. Thankfully for the team, the only half on-hand when it came to fielding was Dr. Cody, who contributed 2.4 dWAR with significant time spent in each outfield position. Never made the playoffs, unfortunately, since 87-75 didn't cut it in 2009. And yet, as with all good things, bad things, and in-between things, his time in Florida had to come to an end. Having been, for all intents and purposes, an above-average player for the past several years, Ross had been rewarded with several pay raises, from league minimum his first year all the way up to an expected salary of over $6 million at the end of 2010. The Marlins, who were rather stingy when it came to such extravagant contracts, put their 29-year-old outfielder, who already had 1.6 bWAR to his name that season, on waivers. It made more sense than that might imply, as Florida was out of contention by this point, and they had several younger outfielders to whom they wanted to give playing time. Names like Logan Morrison, Cameron Maybin, and Mike "I won't be Giancarlo for another couple years" Stanton were waiting in the wings, and while Cody Ross was good, he'd been more Mr. Ross than Dr. Cody as of late, and wasn't going to factor into the team's future plans. Thus, on August 22nd of 2010, The San Francisco Giants claimed a perfectly viable outfielder off waivers. Who would show up for them?
The San Francisco team that Ross joined was one that was on the fringes of playoff contention at 69-56, but had gone 9-11 over the past 20 games and were in desperate need of a spark. With an outfield core of Pat Burrell (eh), Aaron Rowand (could be better), Nate Schierholtz (uh oh), and Andres Torres (literally who?), someone like Cody Ross seemed like a premium pickup at a time like this. Particularly if, since he'd recently spent several weeks in a slump, Dr. Cody could show up for the end of the season. Unfortunately, the Giants got Mr. Ross, who went .195 over the next 20 he played. Even after the Doctor showed up to go 13-for-32 with 3 homers in the final 13 games of the season, that still only raised the team's average to .235 on the month, which was rather disappointing from a team that had maintained a monthly average above .260 four out of the five other times. Turns out, that was still good enough, because the Giants pitching went off in September. That month, the starting rotation allowed just a 2.36 ERA, spearheaded by Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner, and Jonathan Sanchez, who went a combined 12-4 with ERAs of 1.94, 1.13, and 1.01, respectively. The bullpen, somehow, was even better, allowing a minuscule total of 9 runs, one of which was unearned, in 80 innings for a microscopic ERA of 0.90. Brian Wilson was a perfect 11-for-11 in save opportunities, and Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla combined for 12 holds across 24.1 innings, and together only allowed one run. Because of that unreal display, The Giants went 19-10 in September, just good enough to capture the NL West with a record of 92-70. They, and their new starting outfielder Cody Ross, were off to the NLDS.
SF would face the Atlanta Braves, who had ridden the bats of Chipper Jones, unlikely All-Star Omar Infante, and rookie Jason Heyward, and the arms of Tim Hudson, Jonny Venters, and Billy Wagner to a 91-71 record and the NL East crown. Chipper was out of commission for the Division Series, and they missed him dearly, especially in Game 1. Tim Lincecum pitched one of the best playoff games of the 21st century, going the full nine, only allowing 2 hits and 1 walk, and striking out fourteen. The final score was 1-0, with Dr. Cody's bat driving in Buster Posey for the only run. All four games of the series would be decided by one run, and the Toy Cannon fired off three RBIs, one in each game the Giants won. Talk about clutch hitting and surgical precision. On to the NLCS, where the Doctor would have to face another Doc, Roy Halladay. The only reason Lincecum's impeccable Game 1 wasn't the consensus best playoff pitching performance of this millennium is because it might not have been the best pitching performance of that week. The day before, Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies threw the second playoff no-hitter in history against the Cincinnati Reds, facing only one more than the minimum after a borderline full count call didn't go his way. It was his second no-hitter of the year, having pitched a perfect game in May against the Florida Marlins. Hey, wait, who was batting 6th in that game? Why it was none other than Mr. Ross, who kicked off a stint as his worse half with that loss. This time, however, Halladay would have to contend with Dr. Cody. And this was a Dr. Cody who was hot off an NLDS where he certainly would have won the MVP if they gave those out. In the first game of the NLCS, after Halladay had faced the minimum through seven batters, Cody Ross stepped up to the plate, and took him deep for a solo home run. Then, two innings later, he did it again, for another solo shot. Those two runs would be critical in a game that eventually ended 4-3 in favor of the Giants. They also set the tone for how Dr. Cody would be slice and dice his way through the Championship Series. He'd go 5-for-18 for the rest of it, hitting 3 doubles and another home run along the way. He drove in 5 (three of whom were himself) and scored another to be responsible for 6 of the 19 runs from San Francisco in a close series. For his contributions, Ross was awarded the 2010 NLCS MVP, because that's what you get after notching a slugging percentage of .950 in a 6-game series. He cooled a bit for the World Series, going 4-for-17 with a double and a home run in a 5-game dispatch of the Texas Rangers to win his very own World Series ring. The Giants, clearly thankful to him for the concoctions he'd prescribed his opponents, gifted Ross a $6.3 million contract for one year. He was yet again a member of an outfield platoon, playing the majority of his games in left, and remaining as inconsistent as ever. When he was on, he hit .311/.444/.600. When he wasn't, he hit .204/.344/.307. Unfortunately for the Giants, Dr. Cody yielded a lot of time to Mr. Ross in 2011, leading to a rather disappointing finish of .240/.325/.405, his lowest batting average and slugging percentage in five years. San Francisco likewise reverted, going only 86-76, which wasn't even good enough for a wild card spot. Mr. Ross even did the unthinkable and showed up in the field, putting up a rather dismal -1.4 dWAR en route to a trip to free agency. Having just had the worst season of the past several years at the age of 30, one might expect Ross to quietly ride off into the sunset with his World Series ring and call it an a-okay career. However, Dr. Cody and Mr. Ross still had business to attend to.
In January of 2012, the Red Sox signed Cody Ross to a one-year, $3.5 million contract. His role was clear: outfield depth. You don't get signed to a team with 2011-MVP-runner-up Jacoby Ellsbury and superstar Carl Crawford on it and expect to be starting the most games on the team in the outfield. Then Cody Ross started the most games in the outfield for the 2012 Boston Red Sox. Injuries galore gutted that team, with Crawford and Ellsbury combining for just 105 games. Ross played more than that by himself, even after he missed a month with a broken foot. What's more is it seemed like Dr. Cody stuck around for the majority of the season, bouncing back to .267/.326/.481 with 22 homers and 81 RBIs. Good enough for a 115 OPS+, Ross' best score over a full season in his career. Pity it didn't translate to the rest of the Red Sox. With key contributors missing so much time (Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz even got in on the action), a starting pitcher crop that treated a 4.50 ERA as the floor, and heavy inconsistency in the bullpen, Boston followed up their missed-it-by-that-much 2011 season with a 69-93 showing. Ross, who wasn't a part of the future, was let go, and after he was named the 22nd best free agent available by MLB Trade Rumors, expected a big payday. That he got, with a 3-year, $26 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He'd be the highest paid outfielder on a roster with youngsters AJ Pollock, Gerardo Parra, and Adam Eaton on it. He'd ultimately disappoint given the contract, playing all of 177 games across two seasons, and hitting .268/.322/.378. Perhaps most startling was the fact he hit only 10 home runs for the Dbacks, a number he had cleared in every single season prior where he'd played more than 20 games. After they didn't like what they saw, Arizona pushed the cancel button in April of 2015, buying out the rest of his contract to release him. A league minimum offer from the Oakland A's was accepted, but after 9 games of going 2-for-22, he wound up released less than a month later. That would be the last we heard from Cody Ross, after he didn't get offered another contract for a year, and retired via a Twitter announcement. Glad this story had a better ending than that other story with a split personality. Wish I could remember what it was called.
Cody Ross was certainly an interesting player. He had such stark streaks so succinct and startling (try saying that five times fast). I don't think I've ever seen another player with so very defined lines as to whether they were on or off. All the other stuff was pretty neat too, from hitting two grand slams within his first twenty hits, to getting perfected by Halladay only to hit two dingers off him in the playoffs, to the stuff I didn't even cover. Like how he's probably a top five all-time batter who hits right-handed and throws left-handed, or that one time he hit three grand slams in 2009, or how he first wanted to ride bulls in the rodeo. He's quite an interesting specimen to grace the history of the MLB. Not Hall-of-Fame ballot-worthy, though. Playoff heroics and interesting aspects set aside, 904 career hits and nothing that could even be classified as "All-Star" levels of quality mean no ballot for you. Even then, certainly not a bad player to write about.
Ross visits the Hall in a Florida Marlins cap for his 502 hits, 80 home runs, and 297 RBIs with the team. He passes by someone who looks suspiciously similar in an Arizona Diamondbacks hat with what appears to be a devilish grin on his face.
Geez Louise there are 17 of these
#1: Randy Choate
#2: Kevin Gregg
#3: Dan Uggla
#4: Josh Hamilton
#5: Delmon Young
#6: Willie Bloomquist
#7: Grady Sizemore
#8: Kevin Correia
#9: David DeJesus
#10: Rafael Betancourt
#11: Clint Barmes
#12: Adam LaRoche
#13: Grant Balfour
#14: Randy Wolf
#15: Rafael Soriano
#16: Chris Denorfia
#17: Bruce Chen

Since it's the end of another decade for cricket , I thought why not reminisce about they great decade of cricket we had. I would focus on team India as it's the team of which I can claim to have followed the majority of the matches.
2011-12
The first year of the decade , Indian team was the No: 1 test side since 2009 , dominating at home and being extremely competitive abroad winning in NZ , Eng, drawing in SA and fighting well with Ponting's Australia down under all in a span of 3-4 years. To add cherry on top of that winning the World Cup meant this was the peak of Indian cricket and given where we were at the turn of the century it was one heck of an achievement to reach this position.
Note that Ishant Sharma was still pretty shit.
2012-13
As big as the highs were , who knew the lows were going to be just as deep. The no 1 test team team crashed and burned in incredible fashion and got white washed in two consecutive series in Eng and Aus , tons of legends had to retire and if that wasn't enough the nail to the coffin was hit by Sir Alistair Cook and his men when they beat India in their own fortress after 28 years when Panesar and Swann taught Indians how to bowl spin and I think at this point the stumps , bails , bat and ball basically anything to do with cricket should have been burnt and sent to England at that point. Funnily this series was my introduction to cricket as a 11 year old who despite being in india didn't know the name of a single cricketer other than Sachin Tendulkar.
Phew, Anyways the horror show ends here, or does it..? Though it doesn't feel like much now , but at that time when Pakistan was visiting for the first time after the terrorist attack and beat India in an odi series in India , it felt like a huge deal, I guess it was the series where we discovered Bhuvi, and during those days he used to swing like a banana albiet a bit slower, his wickets of the first balls on debut where fucking ridiculous. Regardless we did fine in ODi compared to our standards back then when we never used to win odi series in SENA , and Virat Kohli's thrashing in Hobart stands out even to this day , and to think that his 183 is still his highest after 43 fucking hundreds is a miracle.
Anyways the redemption in test cricket came when Australia visited India. We didn't know at the time , but in retrospect the worst Australian side I have ever seen play test cricket and poor bastards thought they could sneak a victory against this depleted indian side and they rightfully got demolished due their pathetic attitude towards homework and trust me Nathan Lyon back then was so bad that it felt like he was a club bowler , didn't know the dude would develop into the beast he is now. Luckily wade was shit then and now , the loud mouth's constant though.
That 4-0 victory over the fake team which tried to convince us that they were thev real Aussies is what I consider to be the beginning of our journey in becoming one of the best test teams in the world again, though is was not to happen any time soon , still this is where I can trace it all back , this is where Ashwin and Jadeja showed a glimpse of what they were going to do to the poor visiters for the rest of the decade , plus by this point Pujara and Rahane where abvious standouts in the middle order , along with Kohli, even Murli Vijay who a lot of people don't like , which goes over my head as he is unironically the best test opener for us this decade and yeah we were never able to find him a proper opening partner , and by the time he went completely shit , we had zero openers performing well for us in any conditions other than home.
Also who can forget Shikhar Dhawan's debut test century and Dhoni's double century.
Note that Ishant Sharma was still shit.
2013-2014
Now this was the year where we won our last ICC trophy of any kind, it's a shame they scrapped champions trophy after this year.Who knew Rohit Sharma's move to the opening spot would give us one of the finest batsmen in coloured clothing the world has ever seen. By that point even with his ridiculous talent™, it seemed like the final days of him getting anymore chances , if he had failed miserably there.
There was a great odi series against aus at home, Rohit scored the first of his three double hundreds, poor Ishant have away 30 runs off an over to end his loi career forever.
Faulkner was a good cricketer during this time who was supposed to achieve big things , he batted and bowled pretty well in this series.
Sachin played his last series , at the time it was quite a relief , and also very emotional , never seen a test match as jam packed as that in India , maybe the pink ball test against Bangladesh was close. Shami was the revelation of the series , and his reverse swing exploits in his debut match is still the best spell of reverse swing I have seen by any Indian this decade.
Now as the winner of champions trophy which basically means we where the champions among champions at a time when we ourself where the world champions , we went with all our super sayen power to tour South Africa.
This was my first away tour as a fan to any country let alone the land where Steyn breathes fire.
First odi of the match , SA comes wearing pink , I laugh and make a few cringey pink = girly jokes. My first introduction to Steyn on Live telly and bruh the talented Rohit Sharma didn't touch the ball for his first 30 deliveries. I dunno how one can miss so many consecutive edges, maybe the balls where too good to get an edge , in that match Virat scored a four of Steyn with a straight drive when Rohit was being treated as if he was a drunk no 11 , and to this day that reminds me of how Virat is a cut a above Rohit regardless of how many mental gymnastics the mentally challenged brohit fans do to claim otherwise. Anyways we lost 3-0 in that series as expected but during those days even ODIs felt like impossible to win in SA for us. Also de dock announced himself with three centuries in all the matches that series.
That test series was Kohli's first in SA and he had a lot to prove back in those days , and he did and iirc so did Pujara. The second test is what everyone would remember where SA almost chased down the world record total, god the bowling was pathetic then.
During this time an awkward young kid with an even more awkward bowling action bowled for MI on debut , and it didn't seems like much at the time , just that he was awkward.
Note that Ishant Sharma was still pretty shit.
2014- 15
Then we go to New Zealand and baz scores a triple century and makes us fuck off.
The t20 worldcup was pretty good for us we went into the finals , Sri Lanka bowled really good at the death, basically every ball was a wide yorker and this was the beginning of a long stretch of losing on the finals or semi-finals for us in the decade.
Now comes the groups first test series in England , I meant just in essence , dhoni and Ishant had played their before but still this was the India in transition, the first test was a draw all I remember is Murli Vijay had a great knock . The next match at lords is one of the most important matches for us this decade , before this I guess we hadn't won a test match in SENA countries since I guess 2008 when we won in NZ 1-0 , I mean come on , I guess we all should be glad things aren't that bad now and we do win atleast a test in most places we play and other teams have to, lots of the times , work there asses of to win against us in their own backyard. Now Rahane scored probably the Indian test century of the decade according to me , and also his favorite century as claimed by the man himself after his exploits in the Boxing Day test recently.
Now hear me out , Ishant got his career best figures in the second innings here , but this is still a time when he was pretty mediocre, and even though I don't want to take any credit away from him , a lot has to do with a collective brain fade from England while playing the short balls from Ishant. Anyways we won and it was a great day, sweet victory in SENA after a long time after two matches we led the series 1-0 , and tbh if we were Sri Lanka or Pakistan we would be going on home after avenging our home test series loss, but no the big boys have to play 5 test matches FFS, nothing much to say here Bhuvneshwar Kumar was our best batsman and bowler that series , we got fucked really fucking bad by Anderson and yeah 3-1.
But even more than that the series would be known as Virat Kohli's lowest point in his test career [ yet (๑•﹏•)]. The world found out that he is no Tendulkar and does have a severe flaw in his technique playing the out swinger. And to be honest we all know that to some extent he still has that flaw , unlike Williamson and Smith who basically have no major flaws in their technique. Yet I would say he is the second best test batsman of the generation after Smith.
Atleast back in the day England used to be a piss poor odi side who played like it was the 70s , and we won that series , but it was not sweet enough to compensate for the thrashing in tests.
Now next we move on to the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Aus, Dhoni called it quits as a test cricketer and Virat takes the helm ,it was basically a run fest, Virat and Smith both scored tons of runs , and we almost won a test in Adelaide , but it could have been worse given how Mitchell Johnson blew England away and South Africa too, but the pitches maybe weren't that conducive or he declined a bit or both , anyways it was basically chat shit get banged for him that series anyways. We lost 2-0 , but this was a series where we could say we played respectable cricket.
Note that Ishant Sharma was still quite shit.
2015 - 2016
We weren't in great form as an odi side around the time of the world cup as we lost a series pretty badly to Australia , who where eventually the champions , Starc was breathing fire back then.
But we won every match in the group stages , and finally lost to Australia in the semi-finals. Fuck Starc , he's too good. No problem we'll win in 2019.
Now in the test world we have had lots of back to back tough series , all the players where new , but by now lots of them where quite experienced and settled in the squad.
Now many people like to say that Indian wins in Sri Lanka shouldn't be counted as away wins and it's still the sub continent etc etc , but before 2015, the last and only time india beat Sri Lanka in Lanka was in the early nineties. Now during this time Sri Lanka was still a great team especially at home they still had Sangakara , Herath both at their best and on top of that they had Karunaratne , Thirimanne and Chandimal. Also remember the time when Angelo Mathews was one of the best test batsman in the world? Yeah he was the captain. The first test match went to them after a second innings collapse from India , that would be the last test Sri Lanka wins against India and they played 8 more tests after this. Anyways India came back triumphantly to win the next two tests to get only their second ever test series victory in the supposedly easy land Sri Lanka and this was to be the beginning of a very dominant period of test cricket for India after which, eventually they'd become the country with the second most number of months as world no 1 in test cricket after Australia since 2003 when the icc ranking begun.
This was the first series where Ishant Sharma started to show some improvement.
Next , South Africa visits India for a test series. Now South Africa has drawn their last two test series in India and I would even go on as far as to say they were even better than the legendary Australia when it came to test cricket in India. Virat Kohli at this time wanted to get really spin friendly wickets as according to him many teams around the world create green wickets and all to get home advantage , there was lots of complaining from faf , but any ways they got thumped 3-0 for the first time ever in India and that was the beginning of a very dominant home stretch.
One highlight was the blockathon from ABD -Amla and also twin centuries from Rahane in that test which where the only centuries in the whole series iirc.
Now India goes to west Indies and get a convincing test series victory, now WI us still a good test team at home , they have beaten good sides like England and Pakistan but they always fail to show up against India, so that's that.
Note than Ishant was still a bit shit.
2016-2017
Next New Zealand visits India , and get ravaged 3-0 with huge margins , India used to always be a dominant side at home , but this was starting to get scary, Ashwin and Jadeja were unplayable literally every match.
Next comes England , the winners of the last series between the two in India. Oh the revenge was cold and sweet , the way we destroyed them was something else , huge scores , losing after scoring almost 500 runs multiple times , triple hundreds , who can forget the hundred from jayant yadav. This was a massacre, and it was due since a long time.
Now as you know Kohli and Shastri were quite cocky by this time, so were the fans and I mean can you blame us? Australia came after a lot of preparation, fuckers where praising Ashwin as the Bradman of bowling to jinx him. The Pune test was a shock, this was before Steve Smith's redemption in the Ashes and as an Indian fan the only other time I really saw him scoring lots of runs it wasn't really tough conditions and on top of that it was at home. This Pune test changed that, I think I have seen the best test batsman of the generation , and maybe even for the next 30 years. Kohli went fishing for that series , and we were again in the backfoot after the first innings of the second test. But then as Ashwin had warned Aussies didn't get a considerable lead , and Ashwin had them for soup . The last test was again won by India to finish a well fought test series.
We all know what happened in the t20 world cup, we reached the semi , and WI thumped us. Who can forget the Ashwin no ball , atleast I mean maybe it's just an anomaly surely an Indian bowler can't bowl a no ball in another major icc knockout match right? Right?
Note that Ishant is very very slightly shit
2017-2018
Okay I have a confession to make. I may have lied about something , ok I admit there was a champions trophy in 2017. And yeah we got thumped so bad , that idk what to say, fairytale stuff for pakistan though , tbh I don't remember them beating us in any other match since 2013 , but probs to them they won the second most important match between us this decade , after the icc wc semi final.
Atleast after the champions trophy we decided to bring in Kuldeep and Chahal and with the rise of Bumrah and even Shami we started to actually become a good bowling side in one day internationals.
We started to not only win at home in loi but in SA , NZ , Aus and that too convincingly, the only loss I remember during this time was probably against the future worldcup champions England at their home , but then again they are probably the greatest odi side probably only second to the legendary Aussie side.
Now we tour Sri Lanka again and by this time Sri Lanka has detoriated quite a bit , they aren't their previous self and don't have Sanga , Herath and Mathew is not his former self. They get thumped 3-0 at home and it's probably our first overseas whitewash.
Next they tour us and we are arrogant enough to act as if this is practice for upcoming overseas tour and make green pitches and all. I remember the Delhi test with pollution and yeah two matches where drawn rather surprisingly still India won 1-0.
By this time you can see that Ishant is slowly improving and his performances are becoming much better.
Now India visits SA and this time India is an experienced side , they are still not a world class bowling line up , but that was going to change , and that happened here when Bumrah was given his test cap. There were lots of questions about this , people where saying that he cannot get swing or seam and his action was not meant for test cricket etc etc, anyways it didn't even take much time tbh , he was an instant success just like he was in loi and took decent amount of wickets every innings , India lost the first two test matches , but all those matches were close , popular consensus is that ABD was the diffrence , India won the last test match which was on a green mamba of a picth, and Bumrah takes his first fifier in the last test match and rest is history. It's too early , but still he is easily the best fast bowler India has ever had, greatest not yet solely due to the fact that some others have more years of service.
Note that Ishant is finally bowling as one of the best bowlers.
2018-2019
Now we go back to England , all eyes were on Kohli , I think he played one of his best innings that match playing with the tail to keep India in the game. Yeah India was in the game a lot of the times infact , yes the scoreline was 4-1 , but this series was well fought , still England were the better team , but India got one famous victory in Nottingham and yeah that's that.
Pretty disappointing , a similar result was predicted down under. Who knew Warner and Steve Smith had diffrent plans , they did their noble deed and we're kicked out of the sport for an year , and yeah this did play a part in giving India a huge advantage.
So yeah we visited down under and as we all know we thumped Australia , should have been 3-1 if not for the rain in Sydney , it was a historic series win , the bowling we faced was still the best in the world. Pujara played the series of his life , and Indian bowling was as good if not better.
In ODIs we are doing really well but still haven't found a good middle order. And yeah we never found that before the world cup.
Note that Ishant Sharma is one of the best bowlers in the world.
2019-2020
Back to back odi series against Australia , both win one of the series at the opposition's home , but we beat them in the WC. We again reach the semi finals and again just like last time lose in the semi's , at this point if we didn't have a decently stacked trophy cabinet we would be the chokers of the decade.
We visit west indies and I think I see Bumrah bowling the best he ever has , he was literally unplayable before getting a stress fracture , which gave real scares to all of us.
Next South Africa visits India again and if last time was a thumping , this time was a complete annihilation , even the pitches where pretty balanced and our pacer out bowled their pacers , tbh it wasn't even a contest , they looked like club cricketers , except faf, he was the lone warrior. 3-0 , but we all know SA is going through a crisis, so nothing surprising.
Bangladesh visit India for 2 tests and again if SA had one batsman doing well , Bangladesh had zero. The day-night test was the most fun test match in terms of crowd participation since Tendulkar's farewell series. But in terms of cricket it was completely one sided.
Note thatIshant is one of the best bowlers in the world
2020
By this time we have been the world no 1 test side for 4 consecutive years , and rightly so according to me , we haven't been world dominators or something , but we where still the best of the lot.
But the biggest disappointment atleast for me in the decade after the England series in 2012 , came when we toured NZ , yeah Ishant Sharma wasn't available , but the way we got rolled over in both the tests after making so much progress in all these years was very disappointing , but we can consider it of as only 2 off tests but still it was very disappointing.
On top of that being white washed in odi series was also pretty humiliating and one concern has to be the ineffectiveness of the odi bowling side recently. But one thing is the middle order is doing slightly better plus the world cup is in India , so bowling won't be that much of a problem I hope. It's still a long way.
We white wash them 5-0 is a T20 series with two of them in super overs and that was very satisfying.
Then Covid hits and the world goes into a frenzy.
We visit Australia again in 2 years , and start by very poorly losing the first two ODIs , the bowling looks problematic.
We redeem ourself in the t20s though and since the next two world cups are t20s I guess that's good that we are consistently winning.
And at the fag end of the decade we play the first test in Adelaide , we start well considering Ishant isn't available again , we get them quite cheaply getting a handy lead , at the end of day two we where thinking of scoring another 200 runs atleast to get a good enough lead to win the test match. In probably the worst session of cricket India has ever played in their 88 years of playing this game , we get all out for 36 , and rightly everyone starts prediction a 4-0 whitewash , I mean who wouldn't.
I guess one of the best test match victories for the country not just in this decade but in our entire history came as the last test match of the decade.. Coming back from an all time low , not having Kohli , Ishant , Bhuvi , Shami and Umesh getting injured mid game , with two debutants India makes a great comeback coming back from a historic low.
That's that, it has been a great decade , certainly India's best decade in terms of win rates and results and all and even icc trophies , not getting atleast one ICC trophy in the later end of the decade dampens the fun a bit , let's hope that changes in the future. The biggest thing to happen is certainly getting good fast bowlers in the second half of the decade.
Exciting times ahead , we probably have more talent coming through every year in domestic than ever before, especially in fast bowling , currently very excited for Kartik Tyagi , and also hope nagarkoti and Mavi don't get lost , Natrajan , Siraj , Saini are all good. As usual lots and lots of batting talent coming through, also a couple of exciting wicket keepers in Rishab and Ishan kishan and even Sanju , if Rahul can keep well , that's the best case scenario for the loi teams.
All through the decade IPL has evolved into a mature league and is only going strength to strength .
One thing which has detoriated a bit I feel is our fielding which was top notch for a long time from champions trophy 2013 untill recently. Lots of catches being dropped and there's no excuses for that.
I think in the first decade of the century we went from a average team to a good team , this decade after a blip early on , we have transitioned easily into a top 3 team irrespective of the format. Without a doubt the most successful decade for Indian cricket in terms of results , the 2000s died for this.
At the end I want to have a word for Ishant Sharma , for the majority of his career he was the most mediocre cricketer I have ever seen , he was statistically the worst fast bowler to play the number of tests he did with a bowling avg of about 38-40 , I don't think anyone except Ishant himself would have ever thought that he would be averaging around 17-18 accross the world over a 3 year span , and I for one never thought I would say that he is one of the best test bowlers in the world. It's one of the greatest cricket career redemptions ever and I for one respect the hell out of the dude. Being mediocre wasn't his fault , he was still the best the country had produced for a long time and that was probably more frustrating, that we had no choice. Regardless he has 3 tests to go to reach 100 tests and I think he is certainly among the Indian greats and without doubt a vital part of the greatest Indian bowling unit ever.

First year DD Player, and hitting has been the bane of my existence all along, like many newcomers. Usually, a typical game would involve me unable to catch up to heat, let alone outlier, tons of strikeouts, pitches in the dirt being swung at consistently, a total lack of pitch recognition and plate discipline, and if I could get the pitcher to throw 10-15 pitches in an inning, I called it a success. My lifetime batting average is .210 and my strikeout-to-walk ratio is over 10-1 (2502 K, 223 BB).
I've been trying a lot of things lately with pre-pitch PCI placement (starting low, starting in, starting up and in, you name it), but nothing seemed to work. I've been hovering in the 500-600 range relying mostly on my pitching, with the occasional low 700 run when I get on a good streak.
So, on a whim, I decided to turn the PCI off after seeing a few people suggest it and proceeded to hit 3 straight grounders up the middle for singles.
Interesting.
I decided to try it out for a few more games and man, have the results appeared. I won my next 6 games in a row, and only lost the 7th game by one run (6-5 final) against a player with the world series banner. I now have a 12-7 record since making the change, even getting a few quits throughout. Nothing world-beating, but a big improvement for me. I went back to look at the statistics, and the difference is night and day

	Innings	Hits/9	Runs/9
Lifetime statistics	5532*	2.32	1.11
Since turning off PCI	128	7.31	3.86

*Yes, my improved stats are included in that inning total, but since they represent about 2% of my total innings in Ranked Season, I decided to leave them in as they wouldn't skew things very much
The stats are miles better, more than tripling my production per 9 innings. I feel actually competitive at the plate now, instead of flailing wildly hoping to connect for a solo shot here and there. Not only that, but I achieved things I never have before in this game as well during that stretch.

• Hit my longest home run ever (498ft with Trout) reacting to a slider low
• Managed to hit outlier with some decent consistency
• Working pitch counts. I've had multiple 20+ pitch innings, a rarity for me, and even managed to get Kopech to throw 34 pitches in the first inning.
• Able to actually hit high heat and still react to breaking balls. My vision has increased immensely without the PCI taking up my attention. I still K a lot, but I've been working the counts harder.
• A notable increase in perfect-perfect swing results. I've also been more consistent in capitalizing on hanging pitches, which I used to miss more often than not before

This is not meant as a post to brag or boast, I know I'm still a below-average player with these numbers, but I feel like I've finally got over a hump after stalling for months as the perfect player to get pitcher prestige stats against. It's fun to finally be competitive instead of chalking any game that my opponent scored more than 2 runs as a loss and I wanted to share my happiness somewhere!
Thank you for your time, have a nice day, and may the Baseball Gods bless your Perfect-Perfect and carry them over the fence!

Welcome to Part Two of my 'Unusual Bowling Feats' post! Link to Part One here.
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Peaking Too Soon

Whenever cricket has a discussion regarding comparisons between different bowlers, some people always pipe up with 'yes, but if you take this bowler at their peak, then...', as if comparing Bowler X at their peak to the entire career of Bowler Y is remotely fair. All players have peaks; purple patches are not restricted to player who you happen to like. With all this nonsense about restricting stats to the last ten years, to the 1980s, to the period after reaching the age of 25, to after that one innings of 5/6 against the mighty Zimbabwe back in 1996, and even to the past year or two years (because that's a representative sample), there's nothing stopping me from looking at a bowler's first delivery and declaring that to be their 'peak'.
There have been 65 cases in which a bowler has taken a wicket off their first ball in a particular format: 20 in Tests, 26 in ODIs and 19 in T20Is. The first to accomplish such a feat was Australia's Tom Horan, who dismissed England's Walter Read in only the second ever Test in January 1883 with his first ball in international cricket. As with the unusual dismissals section of my previous post, I won't go through everyone, but I'll highlight some notable bowlers who went above and beyond when it comes to achieving unusual bowling feats.
Firstly, there are seven bowlers who can truly be said to have 'peaked too soon'. What do New Zealand's Dennis Smith and South Africa's Hardus Viljoen have in common? Both of them took their first wicket with their first ball in Tests...and both of them took their only wicket with their first ball in Tests. In fact, both of them were one-Test wonders, and in Smith's case, a one-innings wonder. At their peaks, they had a bowling average of 0 and a strike rate of 1, but alas, they both went through a decline as they ended up averaging 113 and 94 with the ball respectively. Just imagine how great they would have been had the rest of the careers not taken a nosedive after their excellent first deliveries. 😔
In ODIs, three bowlers took their only wicket with their first ball: India's Sadagoppan Ramesh, New Zealand's Andrew Mathieson and Zimbabwe's Ainsley Ndlovu. However, Ndlovu hasn't yet retired from what I can tell, so there's still time yet. Bangladesh's Taijul Islam and England's Lewis Gregory round off the list for T20Is, but both of them are still playing, so they also have time. These seven bowlers are nonetheless all united in the fact that if you take just their peak (i.e. their first delivery), they end up with better stats than Sydney Barnes, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan and Dale Steyn. This should solve those 'who is the GOAT bowler' debates once and for all.
There are other bowlers who I want to mention, however. In Tests, I've spoken about all the bowlers who I feel went above and beyond when it comes to unusual bowling feats, but in ODIs, there are two bowlers who I want to single out. The scorers among us will know that when it comes to bowling figures, no-balls and wides are added to the 'Runs' column but not to the 'Balls' column, as they don't count as legal deliveries in an over. Remember also that those 65 cases are of bowlers taking wickets off their first ball, not necessarily of bowlers taking wickets off their first delivery. A no-ball or a wide counts as a delivery but not a ball, as the latter term applies only to legal deliveries. Thus, if you count all the legal deliveries and throw out all the illegal deliveries (bowled by dead people), you'll find that I've bowled the most balls, BY A LOT!
Anyway, the first bowler I want to talk about is Sri Lanka's Charitha Buddhika Fernando. In a 2001 ODI against Zimbabwe, Buddhika bowled his first ever delivery in ODIs...and it was a no-ball. Bit of an anti-climax. He then got a second opportunity to make some magic happen...and it was another no-ball. Not the best start. However, third time's the charm, and Buddhika finally dismissed Dougie Marillier LBW. Thus, although Buddhika had technically taken a wicket with his first ball in ODIs, it was actually his third delivery.
Secondly, we have the West Indian allrounder Keemo Paul. Against Afghanistan in a World Cup qualifier in 2018, he was brought on to bowl in the second over of Afghanistan's innings. His first delivery was a wide outside off, so a bit of a nervy start. However, he then dismissed Javed Ahmadi LBW on his very next delivery, which was also technically his first ball in ODIs.
Now, some of you will complain that I'm strawmanning the argument a bit. Of course 'one-ball peaks' are ridiculous, but they're hardly comparable to periods of, say, ten years. I hear you, so why not double that timeframe and consider those bowlers who peaked with their first two balls? Oh, yeah, now things are getting spicy. Two bowlers have taken two wickets with their first two balls in an international format, and both of them did so in T20Is.
The first was Australia's Michael Kasprowicz. What's interesting about this one is that this happened in the very first T20I back in 2005 between Australia and New Zealand, back when the format was dismissed by many as a mere novelty. Kasprowicz bowled Stephen Fleming with his first ball, before then dismissing Mathew Sinclair (thanks to a catch from Simon Katich) for a golden duck (which also happened to be the first ever golden duck in a T20I). How fitting that the first ever instance in international cricket of a bowler taking two wickets from their first two balls would occur in the first ever T20I.
The second such instance occurred in a 2017 T20I between New Zealand and Bangladesh. Lockie Ferguson, who was on his debut, was brought on in the sixth over, and started by bowling a full toss outside off. Somehow, this resulted in a wicket, as the batsman, Sabbir Rahman, completely messed up the execution of what should have been an easy shot and ended up being caught. Ferguson's second delivery was much better: An outswinger that found the outside edge of Soumya Sarkar's bat and ended up in the hands of Corey Anderson at gully. Ferguson's third delivery was a yorker on off stump, but Mahmudullah somehow managed to keep it out, thus denying Ferguson a hat-trick from his first three balls in T20Is.
Both Kasprowicz and Ferguson, at their peak, had T20I bowling figures of 0.2-0-0-2, which gives us a bowling average of 0, an economy rate of 0 and a strike rate of 1 over the course of their first two balls. Unfortunately, no bowler has ever taken a hat-trick on their first three balls in an international format, or at least not yet. Similarly, as far as I can tell, no bowler has ever taken a wicket off their first ball in two different international formats, let alone in all three. These two feats have yet to be achieved; who will be the first?
There is one last bowler who I want to cover. Out of all the feats in this post, this one has to be my favourite just for its meme value alone. Remember when I mentioned that an illegal delivery did not count as a ball bowled? Some of you may be wondering if it's thus theoretically possible for a bowler to take a wicket without having bowled a ball at all. Let's consider the two situations in which a bowler delivers a ball without it actually counting as a ball.
The first such situation is a no-ball. Unfortunately for us, a no-ball precludes the possibility of a batsman being dismissed bowled, caught, stumped, LBW or hit wicket, which is a problem as those are the only forms of dismissal which are credited to the bowler. A batsman can still be dismissed run out, hit the ball twice or obstructing the field, but those aren't credited to the bowler. No luck here, then.
What about wides? Well, this is where things get interesting. As with a no-ball, a batsman cannot be dismissed bowled, caught or LBW off a wide. However, unlike a no-ball, a batsman can be dismissed stumped or hit wicket. I don't know the rationale behind this, but the implications are mouth-watering for anyone who is interested in unusual bowling feats. It is theoretically possible for a bowler to deliver a wide on their first delivery yet still dismiss a batsman stumped or hit wicket. The question is: Has this ever actually happened in international cricket? The answer? Yes, it has, on exactly one occasion.
It's the 31st of August 2011, and India is playing in a one-off T20I against England. This match is notable for marking the T20I debuts of Alex Hales, Jos Buttler, Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane. More notable for our purposes, however, is an incident which occurred in the eighth over of England's innings. Given a target of 166 to chase, England were cruising along at 60/2 after seven overs, requiring 106 runs from 78 balls to win. A task that is more than doable, I'm sure you can agree, especially considering that at that moment in time, Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen (arguably England's two greatest ever T20I batsmen) were at the crease. MS Dhoni needed to conjure up a masterstroke to have any chance of beating England.
Thankfully, he had in his arsenal a truly special bowler. You see, batsmen are used to playing pace bowlers at various speeds, ranging from medium to fast, and they're also used to playing spinners, both finger-spinners and wrist-spinners, both left-handed and right-handed. However, the England batsmen were not prepared for MS Dhoni to make the 900IQ move of bringing on right-arm quick^TM bowler Virat Kohli to break the partnership. As the very first right-arm quick^TM bowler in the history of the sport, England were not prepared for the havoc which Kohli was about to unleash on their sorry excuse of a batting lineup.
Kevin Pietersen evidently underestimated Kohli, however, as he launched himself forwards, presumably wishing to slog him for six. The bad news for Kohli was that his first delivery in T20I cricket was a leg-side wide, so he ended up conceding a run from it. The good news was that Dhoni was ready to whip off the stumps before Pietersen could return to his crease in time, and thus the Virgin KP was outsmarted by the Chad Kohli. At that exact moment, since the wide was not a legal delivery, Kohli's bowling figures read 0-0-1-1. Many bowlers have taken wickets off their first balls in international cricket, but only the Chad Kohli could take a wicket off his zeroth ball in an international format. 🐐
England ended up winning that match by six wickets (though with only three balls remaining), but it's fair to say that Dhoni achieved the moral victory in that game. If dismissing one of the GOAT T20I batsmen off your zeroth ball is a chad move then bringing on that bowler when your team is struggling to take wickets is a gigachad move. Eoin Morgan would never.
Anyway, that's it for Part One. The post ended up being so long that I had to split it in two, which I wasn't expecting.
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Why Bowl Many Deliveries When One Delivery Do Trick?

Some of the most bizarre and unusual bowling innings are those in which a bowler delivers just one ball and nothing else. The reasons for this can vary: Perhaps a bowler is injured after five deliveries and someone has to bowl the final delivery of an over; perhaps a bowler only makes it to one delivery before breaking down; perhaps a bowler takes the final wicket off their only delivery; perhaps a batsman scores the winning runs off a bowler's only delivery.
In any case, such an achievement is quite unusual, but not unique by any stretch. It has occurred 29 times in Tests, 56 times in ODIs and 18 times in T20Is. Generally speaking, what ends up happening is that the ball results in a dot or in a single; if a bowler is really unlucky, it'll end up as a boundary four. However, occasionally, something truly strange happens. For starters, let's deal with the two occasions on which a bowler has ended a Test innings with figures of 0.1-0-6-0.
The first instance occurred in a 1982 Test between Australia and Pakistan which took place in Karachi. The Test was marred by such incidents as a marquee being set alight and missiles and rocks being thrown onto the field as a result of political agitation; there was even a full-blown pitch invasion by the spectators at one point, driving Aussie captain Kim Hughes to remove his players from the field and even to consider cancelling the tour outright and to call for a ban on all international cricket in Pakistan (as if they'd ever actually ban international cricket in a country as crazy for the sport as Pakistan due to a violent incident).
Anyway, as far as the match itself, we actually witnessed an unusual batting feat, as opener Mohsin Khan was given out on 58 for handling the ball in Pakistan's first innings. Despite this, by the fourth innings, Pakistan had to chase down just 45 runs to beat Australia, and from Cricinfo's account, the pitch was pretty flat as well. Nonetheless, after eleven overs, with Pakistan requiring a boundary four to win, Kim Hughes decided to turn his arm around and see if his military mediums could do the trick. They couldn't; Mohsin Khan promptly finished it off in style, hitting Hughes' first (and only) ball of his spell for six.
The second instance occurred in Bangladesh's 50th Test match, which was against New Zealand in 2008. After Bangladesh collapsed to 137 all out in their first innings, New Zealand managed to score 357 in the second innings of the match. Matthew Bell scored 107(184) while Jacob Oram scored 117(166); the lack of quality in the Bangladeshi attack can be gleaned from the fact that this was the match in which Chris Martin famously made his Test high score of 12*. New Zealand ended up needing to chase just 35 runs in their second innings, which they succeeded in doing after Peter Fulton smacked Mohammad Ashraful for six off the all-rounder's first delivery in the innings. How did this humiliation occur?
Well, you see, the inside part of Oram's bat was made up of rubber and the outside part was covered by some wood, so all he had to do was touch the ball and it flew to the boundary; that's the secret why he was scoring runs. The ICC didn't check his bat because ICC=NZC=PIG3, so don't respect them. BD would still win, however, because their daddy Tamim made his debut, and they couldn't threaten him with a Super Smash contract to play badly like they did to Aftab Ahmed (seriously, though, Tamim Iqbal did very well, scoring 53 and 84 in his two debut innings and being involved in an opening partnership of 161, a record for Bangladeshi openers at the time, whereas Aftab Ahmed was dismissed for a pair).
On the other end of the spectrum, let's discuss the only instance in the history of Test cricket in which a bowler has finished an innings with figures of 0.1-0-0-1. It was 1912, and England were playing Australia in Melbourne. The Aussies were favourites for the clash, but a spectacular 5/44 from the great Sydney Barnes (at an economy rate of 1.91 as well; no other bowler who bowled an over or more had an economy rate below 2.20) resulted in them falling to 184 all out in their first innings. Despite England needing 219 runs to win in their final innings, a graceful 126*(206) from Jack Hobbs ensured a comfortable victory.
It is in the first innings to which we must look for this feat. Frank Woolley was a batting all-rounder whose first-class statistics would put Garry Sobers and Imran Khan to shame, and he holds the record for the second-most FC runs scored and the second-most FC matches played (behind only Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes respectively). Unfortunately, while his batting in Tests was solid enough, he could never replicate his bowling form, and in this particular match, he wasn't given the ball until the 63rd over, by which time Australia were 184/9. He proceeded to bowl the tail-ender Bill Whitty, thus ending up with innings figures of 0.1-0-0-1.
Now, last time round, I made a glaring omission. I'd mentioned situations in which batsmen had finished on scores of 6(2), 6*(1) and even 6(1), but as a commenter pointed out, scores of 5*(1) and 5(1) are arguably even more impressive on the scale of unusual achievements. I'm not making the same mistake this time, so now I'll move on to the two occasions in the history of Test matches in which a bowler finished an innings with figures of 0.1-0-5-0.
The first occurred in a 1992 Test between England and Pakistan. The two sides were similar in many respects: both had recently been forced to move on from their star all-rounders (Ian Botham in England's case and Imran Khan in Pakistan's case); both had recently emerged from a World Cup Final (which Pakistan had won); and both had just dropped two promising young batsmen who were struggling to make the step-up to Test cricket (Graeme Hick in England's case and Inzamam-ul-Haq in Pakistan's case).
However, one metric on which the teams were clearly unequal was the bowling. The Pakistani bowling attack consisted of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, whereas England had Neil Mallender, Devon Malcolm and Chris Lewis. Slight mismatch there, methinks. Thanks to the two kings of swing (they both bowled so well with the old ball that the England coach, Micky Stewart, accused them of ball-tampering), Pakistan needed just two runs in their final innings to secure victory. A straightforward task, you'd think, but they were not prepared for England's secret weapon: Mark Ramprakash.
Unfortunately for Ramps, his first delivery was called a wide, meaning that the scores were already level. He knew, however, that the tie was still on so long as he took the next ten wickets without conceding any runs. The very next delivery was smacked by Aamer Sohail for four, meaning that Ramprakash ended up with innings figures of 0.1-0-5-0.
The second such occurrence was in a Test between England and South Africa in 1998. Alec Stewart won the toss and went 'we'll have a bowl, thanks', which seemed a masterstroke at first as Dominic Cork swiftly dismissed Bacher, Kirsten, Kallis (for a duck) and Cullinan, leaving the Saffers at 46/4. However, with Darren Gough injured, England lacked bite once Cork's spell was over, and South Africa would go on to produce a fifth-wicket stand of 184 runs (a record fifth-wicket stand for South Africa at the time). Specialist fielder Jonty Rhodes chipped in with a score of 117, and England collapsed to 110 all out in their first innings, which allowed South Africa to enforce the follow-on.
The result was that South Africa required 15 runs in their second innings to win. Angus Fraser conceded ten runs in his first over, and it was left to Dominic Cork (who had taken 6/119 in the first innings) to try to save the match. Cricinfo states that Cork conceded a boundary four and a no-ball (both were definitely separate as the two openers faced eight balls between them), but it doesn't give the order. Thus, I'm going to pretend that it was a four followed by a no-ball, as I love the mental image of a Test bowler conceding a no-ball when the scores are level. Like Ramprakash before him, Cork finished with innings figures of 0.1-0-5-0.
Right, time for ODIs! There have been seven different instances of bowlers finishing on 0.1-0-0-1, and I'm not going through all of them. Let me just say that the seven bowlers in question are Clive Lloyd, Martin van Jaarsveld, Dinesh Mongia, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mohammad Yousuf (who I've already talked about), Sanath Jayasuriya and Kedar Jadhav. I checked all of them to try to spot anything unusual, but they were all situations in which the opponent was nine wickets down and the tenth wicket was taken on the first ball of the over, so there's nothing interesting to say about any of them. Let's move on to the two incidents in which a bowler finished on figures of 0.1-0-6-0.
First, let's look at a 2008 ODI between South Africa and Bangladesh. The Saffers were set a target of 174 runs (this was despite a record fifth-wicket partnership for Bangladesh of 119 runs between Shakib Al Hasan and Raqibul Hasan), so you'd think it'd be more than comfortable for them, especially with AB de Villiers in the middle order. However, it appears that the pitch was a bit of a minefield, as South Africa were still short of the target after 48 overs (albeit by just one run). Bangladesh decided to bowl Tamim Iqbal (who had never bowled a ball in his entire ODI career at that point), who was promptly smashed for six by AB.
For the second case, it's time to return to our old friend Cephas Zhuwao (the guy who averages 1.00 with the ball in T20Is). This ODI took place between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 2018, and Zimbabwe did decently well in their innings, scoring 246/7. However, Bangladesh were left requiring three runs from 36 balls, so Cephas Zhuwao was brought into the Zimbabwe attack (presumably due to his stellar T20I record). It didn't work, as Mohammad Mithun hit a long-hop for six.
I don't think figures of 0.1-6-0 would be regarded as too unusual in T20Is (it's happened three times if you're curious), so now it's time to consider the two occasions on which a bowler has taken a wicket in a T20I innings despite bowling just one ball. The first such situation happened in a 2012 T20I between England and South Africa. A rain-affected match saw the Saffers score 77/5 from nine overs, which England then had to chase down within their nine overs. However, after four overs, the rain started to pour down again, and since five overs is needed for a result, South Africa tried to continue bowling by bringing on Morne Morkel. England, for their part, required twelve runs for a victory (or thirteen if a wicket fell) thanks to the very simple and very intuitive Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. Unfortunately, the match had to be abandoned as soon as Morkel took the wicket of Luke Wright on the first ball of the over as the rain just continued to drop. Morkel ended up with innings figures of 0.1-0-0-1.
The second instance is special for a particular reason: We've seen examples of a bowler finishing with figures of 0.1-0-0-1, but this is the one and only time in the history of international cricket that a bowler has ended with innings figures of 0.1-0-1-1. How is that even possible? Well, allow me to tell the story. Before I begin, have a guess at which bowler achieved this feat. I have to say personally that if Kohli's zeroth-ball wicket is my favourite story of the bunch, this is my second-favourite. Out of all the bowlers who have played international cricket, I find it fitting that this particular bowler is the only one to have achieved these unusual figures. In a way, they represent a perfect microcosm of his international career in a way that no other innings bowling figures do.
The year was 2009, and Australia was touring England and Scotland. After 20 overs, the Aussies had managed a total of 145/4, which was a pretty decent total for the time. However, England's innings was delayed due to rain, but the target remained 146 from 20 overs. England's two greatest all-rounders, Ravi Bopara and Joe Denly, opened that day (the latter making his T20I debut), but poor old Dendulkar was dismissed by Brett Lee in the first over for a golden duck. Then came the second over, with Bopara on strike. The person bowling? None other than Mitchell 'bowls to the left, bowls to the right' Johnson.
The very first delivery by Johnson was a wide. How typical. Of course, the partisan England crowd did not hesitate to jeer Johnson for this (this was before that infamous 2010-11 Ashes during which we first heard that chant). Much like in the Ashes, however, it was Mitch who got the last laugh, as he then dismissed Bopara on his very next delivery. Unfortunately, the match was then immediately abandoned due to rain, leaving Johnson as the only bowler in the history of international cricket to finish an innings with figures of 0.1-0-1-1. A wide followed by a wicket; I don't think any two deliveries have summed up a bowler's entire career like those two did.
Speaking of which, I'll briefly discuss entire careers rather than just individual innings. In ODIs, six bowlers have bowled just one ball in their entire career (though Australia's Wally Edwards holds the unique distinction of having his sole delivery be a dot ball, even though looking at the scorecard, I can't for the life of me figure out how), whereas in T20Is, four bowlers have achieved this feat. This has yet to be achieved in Tests, however. The next person to bowl their first ball in Test cricket should thus retire due to a "permanent injury" and go down in history as the only one-ball wonder in Tests.
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Participation Trophies

So far, we've mostly been looking at bowlers taking wickets, as that tends to be the entire point of bowlers. However, for some bowlers, taking wickets is optional, and it's amazing how long some bowlers can keep on going without dismissing a single batsman. In a way, they ought to be praised for their perseverance, even if their bowling clearly isn't up to scratch.
Firstly, there are Test matches. West Indian all-rounder Denis Atkinson (who could apparently bowl both right-arm medium and right-arm offbreak) holds the record for the most balls bowled in a single Test innings without taking any wickets. The year was 1957 and the Windies were up against England in the first Test of a five-match series. Atkinson actually took 1/30 in his first innings, but it then unravelled in the second. This particular Test match was bizarre in so many ways.
Following the first two innings, England were behind by 288 runs and seemed to face certain defeat. However, a mammoth fourth-wicket partnership of 411 runs between Colin Cowdrey and the captain Peter May (which is still the highest ever partnership by England for any wicket) turned the match on its head, and England declared on 583/4. The partnership lasted for 8 hours 20 minutes, with May finishing on 285* after batting for nearly ten hours! Think the Buttler-Crawley partnership against Pakistan, but on steroids.
Having been set a target of 296 runs, the West Indies nearly conspired to lose the match, finishing on 72/7 (the world-class quartet of Garry Sobers, Everton Weekes, Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott somehow made just 48 runs between them in that innings). I'm not sure many Test matches have had the momentum shift that drastically!
Anyway, as you can guess, it was during England's second innings in which this unusual record was broken. Poor Denis Atkinson bowled 72 overs, but spare a thought for his partner Sonny Ramadhin, who bowled 98 overs that innings and took two wickets (FYI, that's still the record for the most balls bowled in a single Test match innings, though that record, while frankly incredible, unfortunately isn't 'unusual' enough to make this list). If the name Sonny Ramadhin rings a bell then that might be because he was the same guy who bowled 72 overs in that Test match in 1950 when John Goddard bowled six maiden overs out of six while trying to prevent the draw; the poor guy just can't catch a break, can he?
Anyway, back to Atkinson. Unlike Ramadhin, he failed to take any wickets, but can you blame him? The West Indies didn't take the second new ball until 96 overs had passed, and they then proceeded to bowl 162 overs using the second new ball without ever taking the third, so that can't have helped. At least Atkinson's economy rate was a low 1.90, and he finished with innings figures of 72-29-137-0. Fantastic effort from him, it has to be said, as well as from Ramadhin (again).
It should be remembered that Denis Atkinson did in fact take a wicket in the first innings, so who holds the record for the most balls bowled in a single Test match without taking any wickets? For that, we have to go back even further to 1929 where we find an even more bizarre Test match between England and Australia. For one, this happened to be a timeless Test, and is still the longest Test match to be played on Australian soil, lasting nine days in total (though the third day was a rest day, so in actuality, there were only eight days of play).
Due to an injury to Herbert Sutcliffe, Douglas Jardine was forced to open alongside a 47-year-old Jack Hobbs. England's innings was very slow, with Jardine scoring 19(126), Wally Hammond scoring 38(100) and Ernest Tyldesley scoring 31(116). Nonetheless, it worked, as England scored 519 in their first innings, with Hobbs and Maurice Leyland scoring centuries (the former top-scored with 142 from 301 balls). England probably felt good about themselves, until it was Australia's turn to bat.
Somehow, Australia were even slower than England, scoring at a run-rate of just 1.81 RPO. Particular lowlights included Bill Woodfull's 102(381), Alan Kippax's 38(145), Jack Ryder's 30(125) and Alan Fairfax's 65(242). Even the tailenders got in on the (lack of) action, with Clarrie Grimmett and Percy Hornibrook putting on a partnership of 59 runs, with the former scoring 38(170) and the latter scoring 26(106). Only Don Bradman, with his comparatively swashbuckling 123(247), looked to be positive. Then again, perhaps this should just be expected with timeless Tests and zero pressure to get the match over with. I'm beginning to see why these aren't a thing anymore. I mean, it worked, I guess, as Australia scored 491.
Despite all this scoring, England only made 257 runs in their second innings (Jack Hobbs once again top-scored with 65 runs from 126 balls; how the heck he was playing this well in his late 40s, I have no idea), leaving Australia with a target of 286 runs and infinite time in which to achieve it. There was a chance for Bradman to be stumped while on 5*, but the opportunity was missed, and Australia ended up winning comfortably with a score of 287/5 (three of the five wickets were taken by Wally Hammond of all people, though that included the two openers who were essentially nightwatchmen anyway).
As I said, a bizarre match, but this is all tangential. England's Maurice Tate bowled 62 overs in Australia's first innings (which somehow was only the third-most) and 38 overs in the second innings, for a total of 100 overs throughout the match. In those 100 overs, he failed to take a single wicket. Let me be clear: That's 600 balls bowled without a single wicket being taken...in one match! He ended up with figures of 100-39-184-0 for the entire match, so he was pretty economical, though that might just have been the result of the Aussies batting quite defensively. An unusual feat for an unusual game.
Anyway, that's only two out of the three pieces of the puzzle. Who has bowled the most balls without taking a single wicket in their entire Test career? The answer to that is the Lancashire all-rounder Len Hopwood, who was given an England cap in 1934 following good performances with bat and ball. In his first Test against Australia, he scored just 2(4) in his only innings with the bat and failed to impress with the ball, ending up with match figures of 47-25-62-0. No matter; he can redeem himself in the next match.
Except he didn't. In the first innings, he scored 8(50), then was thrashed about in the second innings by Don Bradman, who ended up scoring 304(473). Say, this Bradman fellow seems like a decent batsman (he's still got nothing on Andy Ganteaume and Kurtis Patterson, though). To be fair to Hopwood, he scored 2*(39) in the third innings, but the match was drawn before he could kick on and score his century. He was subsequently dropped and never selected for England again following his poor performances. All in all, Len Hopwood bowled 462 balls in Test cricket without taking a single wicket, which is still the record by quite a distance.
I should note that right now, Bangladesh's Khaled Ahmed sits in third place, having bowled 360 balls in Test cricket so far without taking any wickets. Can he be the one to break Hopwood's record? It won't be easy: Even if he reaches the 463-ball mark without taking a wicket, any subsequent wickets will cause him to lose the record. Definitely one to keep an eye on, though (in all seriousness, I hope it clicks for him sooner rather than later; it can't feel good as a bowler to bowl that many deliveries and not have anything to show for it).
Now, when it comes to ODIs and T20Is, there is not much use looking at individual innings, as I don't think anyone would find it particularly unusual for a bowler to make it through their allotted overs without taking a single wicket. However, we can look at entire careers, which is precisely what I'm going to do.
For ODIs, the record belongs to Sri Lanka's Athula Samarasekera. Selected as an all-rounder, he bowled 56.2 overs (or 338 balls) of medium pace between 1983 and 1989 at an economy rate of 5.16; he never took any ODI wickets. He continued to play in the format until 1994, but never bowled again after 1989.
In T20Is, the record-holder is still playing: Behold, 41-year-old fast-medium bowler Anasim Khan from Bahrain! Not only has he bowled 25 overs (or 150 balls) in T20Is without taking any wickets, but he's done so at an economy rate of 8.84. Beyond that, not much is known about him, which tends to be the case with these smaller associate members. On another note, much like with the batting feats post, minnows have began to pop up when it comes to T20Is, as was to be expected when every associate nation received T20I status. Opening up T20Is has had the side effect of increasing the likelihood of these unusual occurrences, so props to the ICC for that.
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That's it for Part Two. Now for Part Three!

Welcome to the second BKTOLOTB of the day! Here we take a look at the people who qualify for the Hall of Fame ballot (10 years of playing in the MLB) but were left off. We have four already out there, so you can check out Randy Choate, Kevin Gregg, Dan Uggla, or Josh Hamilton should you so choose. Now onto the second time today I trigger Rays fans' PTSD.

Delmon Young

Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 7 Career bWAR (10 years): 3.2 Stats: .283/.316/.421, 98 OPS+, 1162 H, 109 HR, 338 XBH, 566 RBI, 473 R League Leading Stats: Outs Made (492, 2007), Games Played (162, 2007), Double Plays Grounded Into (23, 2007), Errors Committed as LF 3x (8, 2008 | 5, 2009 | 7, 2011) Awards: 2012 ALCS MVP, AL Player of the Month (July 2010), AL Player of the Week (October 4th, 2009) Teams Played For: Devil Rays/Rays (2006-07, 2013), Twins (2008-11), Tigers (2011-12), Phillies (2013), Orioles (2014-15)
Here's an exercise for the reader: take a time machine back to the year 2005, and tell any baseball writer that in 15 years Delmon Young isn't on the Hall of Fame ballot. I'm now going to predict the replies you'll get. 70 percent will say "Well of course not, he's still playing. Probably close to 500 home runs by now if he hasn't passed it." 25 percent will say "Um, how do you know that? Do you have a time machine? And if so why are you using it to tell me about baseball?" The other 5 percent will say "Told you he was overhyped." In 2005, being a baseball writer and not having an opinion on Delmon Young was an incongruity. Nowadays I'd predict most baseball writers would just respond "Oh yeah, that guy. Oof." So obviously, something changed. And since he's not on the ballot I gotta find out what. By the way, did you ever notice that his first name has "Elmo" in it?
The year is 2003, and Dmitri Young is entering his seventh full season as a fine Major League player. At the same time, his younger brother with a less Russian first name is about to graduate high school. It is also safe to say that lil bro Delmon is one of the most talked about high school baseball outfielders, nay, players in the nation. To put into perspective just how good he was, the field where he played had to erect a 30-foot wall add-on to left field, which was already 400 feet deep, because he kept hitting balls over it and they were worried people would get hurt. Delmon was 13 when that wall went up. This man's prospect hype train had had stocks of coal for four years so by this point it was reaching breakneck speeds. It was a shock to none when he went first overall in the 2003 MLB Draft to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After his assignment to the Mesa Solar Sox as a 17-year-old went well enough, Young was promoted to single-A ball only half a year after he was legally allowed to vote. He was also Baseball America's 3rd best MLB prospect. At 18. The year after he was drafted. Against all odds that hype train is getting faster. How did Young do in 2004? Oh boy. He hit .322/.388/.538 with 25 home runs and 115 RBIs to tack onto 21 stolen bases and 276 total bases in 131 games in single-A. And he turned 19 that September. The hype train is nitro-fueled at this point. By the start of the 2005 season, if you didn't have Delmon Young in your top 5 baseball prospects, you just weren't worth listening to. I mean, look at those numbers. And he's 19! Where would he go from here? Well, double-A and triple-A. Why both? Because even as a 19-year-old Delmon Young was just too good. In mid-July, after 84 AA games where he hit .336/.386/.527 with 20 homers and 71 RBIs, plus 25 stolen bases for good measure, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays seemingly had no choice but to promote a 19-year-old to AAA. He'd lose a bit of luster there, batting .285/.303/.447 with just 6 dingers and 28 RBIs in 52 games, but he sure didn't lose the MVP award of the AA Southern League. The man turned 20 that September and had already won an MVP. Lord have mercy I think the hype train is leaving the ground and taking to the skies. By 2006, Delmon Young was the consensus number one prospect. Any suggestion otherwise was an invitation to ridicule. If he was anything less than a generational talent it would be a disappointment. And then, as seems to so often happen with Tampa Bay Devil Rays number 1 draft picks turned uber prospects, something went wrong.
Within the first month of his first AA game, after trying to be more patient at the plate, Delmon Young took a rather egregious third strike call. After an argument, Young headed to the dugout, whereupon the ump tossed him. Young responded in kind by tossing the only thing he could. Young would later say he didn't mean to throw the bat half as hard, and he for sure didn't intend for it to be in the ump's direction, let alone hitting him. Regardless, the league suspended him for 50 games, and a new narrative of a hotheaded immature prospect emerged. While he was limited to just 86 AAA games because of that incident, Young still did quite well for himself, slashing .316/.341/.474 with 59 RBIs and 22 swiped bags. Only 8 home runs, but when the rest of your batting line looks like that, dingers aren't a priority. The best news of the year, at least from Young's perspective, came near the end of August, when it was announced that Devil Rays leftfielder Jonny Gomes would undergo season-ending surgery. By the way Young was an outfielder. Pretty good one too, not sure if you've heard. And so, with a record of 52-79, Tampa Bay called up Delmon Young to fill in for the rest of the year. The hype train had finally arrived at the station, and at this point it had also gained the ability to travel through time. Would Young be able to live up to it?
Ten years to the day after his brother debuted, Delmon first time stepping into the MLB batter's box happened at U.S. Cellular Field to face the defending World Champion White Sox. The first pitch Young ever faced in a Major League game was a fastball from Freddy Garcia. And it drilled him in the back. Welcome to the Show buddy! His next at-bat ended with a strikeout, followed two innings later by his first big league hit: an over-400-foot home run. I somehow can't find video of this event, but I imagine all seventeen Devil Rays fans in attendance went crazy. Sure, his team ended up losing the game 9-12, but the hype train was finally shown to have been fully justified. As everyone knows, your first major league game is always a sign of things to come, just ask J.P. Arencibia. A little over a month later, the 2006 season was in the books, and Delmon Young had started all of Tampa Bay's remaining games. What did he have to show for it? A line of .317/.336/.476, 3 homers, 16 runs, and 10 RBIs. He assembled 0.9 bWAR in 30 games as a 20-year-old. If that doesn't say future star power I don't know what does.
Before the next season, Young spent his fourth straight year getting named one of the top 5 prospects in baseball again. He also spent his first year as part of a Major League club, and got named the starting right fielder for the Devil Rays that season. Delmon Young would go on to play in all 162 games, giving fans the chance to finally see the galactic proportions of potential fully realized. How'd it go? Erm, well, he did pretty good. Most commonly hitting in the 5 spot in the lineup, Young had 93 RBIs, the most among rookies in the AL that year. He did it with a hitting line of .288/.316/.408 with just 13 homers and an OPS+ of 91. By no means a bad line, but given where he came from it seems... lacking. What else didn't help was those 127 strikeouts to just 26 walks, and a league-leading 23 double plays grounded into. His 0.9 bWAR in his first 30 games was, in fact, tied in his next 162. He still received three first-place votes for AL Rookie of the Year, but given Dustin Pedroia's excellence at a much flashier position with comparatively better rate numbers, he didn't make it much of a contest. But you know what? That's not that bad. Delmon is still young. He has plenty of room to grow. After all, who absolutely dominates in their age 21 season in such a day and age? The future is looking real bright for Tampa. With promising young starters Scott Kazmir and James Shields, a solid hitter in Carlos Pena, and an outfield of Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, and the future star player of the 2010s in Delmon Young, what couldn't they do? Well...
That offseason, the Devil Rays had a lot on their checklist. They had just finished their 10th straight 90-loss season in their 10-year existence, and needed to buck that trend somehow. While Shields and Kazmir were very good 1-2 starters to build around, the lowest ERA of any other member of the rotation was 5.76. J.P. Howell, Jae Weong Seo, and Casey Fossum all started 10 games apiece, and each ended the season with an ERA north of 7. So, uh, yeah, starting pitching. And who might have some expendable depth in that area? Why, the Minnesota Twins! What could Tampa Bay trade for that depth? Well, Minnesota had just lost a franchise cornerstone in centerfielder Torii Hunter, and needed extra outfield help. Considering Jonny Gomes was still on the team, and Minnesota wouldn't move on their price of the most promising prospect since Sidd Finch, The Devil Rays saw what they needed to do. Youngster SP Matt Garza became a Tampa Bay Ray (they changed their name because Devils aren't very nice), and Delmon Young became a Minnesota Twin. His position in the outfield swapped from right to left, and his hype train was still running hot. Then, in two years, it had all but come off the rails. By the end of 2009, Young had played in 260 regular season games as a Twin (three playoff games too but they were against the Yankees so kinda pointless to talk about). What did he have to show for it? How about hitting numbers like .288/.315/.413 with 22 home runs and an OPS+ of 97? Not what you wanted? Try 197 strikeouts and 36 double plays grounded into. Hmm? Now here's the bit you'll really love, what do you think of -3.0 dWAR? Geez, talk about a penny on the hype railroad tracks.
Pretty much the only redeeming grace about those two years is how they ended. Okay, yes, it was good that they ended, but how they ended was even better. The day is the first of October, Two Thousand Nine. The Minnesota Twins had just lost two of three in a four-game series versus division rival Detroit. This predicament left them three games back in the AL Central standings, with but four games to play. Luckily for them, Delmon Young wanted to go to the playoffs. The final four games would see Young, who was hitting .273/.296/.397 up to that point in the season, go 9-for-17 with 3 home runs and 10 RBIs to will his team to four straight victories. Young won his first (and last, spoilers) AL Player of the Week award for the power of will he had exerted. The Tigers, meanwhile, went 1-3, leading to a 1-game playoff. And what a playoff it was. 12 innings, both teams scoring in the 10th, and finally, right after Young had been intentionally walked to induce a force-out, Alexi Casilla sent centerfielder Carlos Gomez home with a single to right. Delmon Young would get to see October baseball. And then the Yankees swept the Twins and Young went 1-for-14 but he still got to see it. In the next few months, Delmon Young was staring down the reality that, after so much early promise, he was about to enter his age-24 season without ever having shown but flashes of the greatness he seemed destined for. It was time to see if this hype train would still run.
2010 would start inauspiciously for Young, as the end of April saw him sporting a modest .222/.291/.381. It appeared to be the start of another season of potential wasted. Then, on May 2nd, Young piled four hits and one home run onto the unsuspecting Cleveland Indians, raising his average by 50 points to .261, and adding .105 to his OPS from the month prior. That game served as a wake-up call of sorts, as his average and OPS would, respectively, never slip below .250 and .740 for the rest of the year. This included an incredible hot stretch encompassing the very end of May and the beginning of August where over a 61-game stretch, Young would get hits in all but 10 of them. That stretch saw him go 89-for-224 with 34 extra-base hits, 61 RBIs, and a final line of .365/.385/.590. In the month of July alone, his batting average rose by 39 points from .296 to .335. Guess that's what happens when you go 46-for-106 with 6 homers, 12 doubles, 30 RBIs, and hit .434/.455/.736. That right there got him the July AL Player of the Month award, because of course it did holy crap. Young's bat cooled off a great deal following that hot streak, as he didn't get a hit in 10 games in the month of August. However, the remnants of that hot streak had spread amongst his teammates. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau clobbered baseballs in Young's stead. Jim Thome hit a team high 25 home runs. Jason Kubel drove in 92 runs. Even the pitching picked up, as Carl Pavano defied his 34 years and Francisco Liriano pitched the best he had since his rookie year. All this culminated in a 94-68 record for the Twins, and a playoff berth. Against the Yankees. While he went 4-for-12 in the ALDS, Young could only will his team so far. Despite a rather slow start and a rather uncomplimentary end, Young finished 10th in AL MVP voting. His fielding left a lot to be desired. His final line was .298/.333/.493, worse than many other people in the voting. But, during that all important middle-of-the-season stretch, Delmon Young performed. And hey, he was only 24! Maybe this was the spark he needed! What would 2011 bring? Oh, .265/.305/.357 by August? And no significant changes in the field? And only 4 home runs in 305 at-bats? And the Twins are 52-67 with more injuries than an active warzone? Dear dear dear. This hype trainwreck has become something I just can't look away from. Figuring they still had time to recoup some value for their faltering team, Young's uninspiring 2011 finished in a new home. Could the hype exploded-engine get a tune up at its next station?
The Detroit Tigers were in a predicament. Following an injury to their can't-miss prospect Brennan Boesch, they were without a dependable leftfielder. I know what all of you are wondering, and no, Andy Dirks didn't count. Thus, they felt a trade with their inter-divisional rivals would make sense. On August 15th, the Tigers traded prospect Cole Nelson and a player-to-be-named-later (Lester Oliveros) to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for Delmon Young. He made a big entrance by hitting a home run in his first at-bat (which was against the Twins, go figure), and did enough to endear himself to the fans. In 40 games as a Tiger in 2011, Young batted .274/.298/.458 with 8 dingers and 32 RBIs. Detroit, in gratitude, left him on the roster for the playoffs. Their first series was against Young's old friends the Yankees. However, this time, Young wasn't on the Twins anymore. And he was out for blood. If the LDS had an MVP award, Young would have definitely gotten it that year. 6-for-19 with 3 solo homers and 4 runs scored, including what ended up being the difference in the clinching game 5. Add it all up and his 1.170 OPS was the highest in the series among those who played all 5 games. Even though he hit 2 more solo dingers against Texas in the next round, the Rangers rode Nelson Cruz to a second straight World Series runner-up finish. After DH Victor Martinez tore his ACL in the offseason, the Tigers figured they had a serviceable replacement in Delmon Young, who started 119 games there. The only problem with that plan was that Young batted .267/.296/.411 with only 18 homers and 74 RBIs. Seems like the hype rolling-ball-of-flames has somehow gotten worse. And yet, because Miguel Cabrera and Austin Jackson were still in the field, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander anchored the rotation, and Prince Fielder helped his new team immensely, the Tigers still finished atop the AL Central. At this point, it appeared a new narrative had emerged: playoff Delmon Young. With the exception of his first time around in 2009, he'd averaged over 7 total bases in all the October series he'd played in. That would come to an end in 2012's ALDS versus Oakland, though not for lack of trying as Young went 4-for-17 in the 5 game series. It appeared he was saving his true form for the next series. The ALCS saw Delmon Young go 6-for-17 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs in a 4-game sweep of the Yankees. That more than made up for the LDS, and earned him Series MVP in the process. For the first time in his career, at the age of 27, Delmon Young was headed to the World Series. And boy did he show up to play. 5-for-14 with a double and a homer on the series sounds pretty good. Accounting for a quarter of his team's hits in the series as they get swept does not. As great as his playoff heroics were, the Tigers still remembered what he had done in the regular season, which was worth all of -0.9 bWAR. Largely due to that, they let him walk that winter. Delmon Young, conductor of what was now a hype charred-skeleton-of-a-train, just became a free agent for the first time in his professional career. How would this turn out?
Poorly. It turned out poorly. Young went all of December and most of January unemployed before signing an incentive-laden deal with the Phillies. His baseline salary was $750,000, but it could be as much as $3.5 million by the end of the year, including $600,000 for taking some weight off and keeping it off. It stayed where it was. He spent the first month of the season injured, batted .198 in the month of May, spent the next couple months hitting just well enough to make up for his poor fielding ability, and then went 4-for-39 in 12 games to end July and start August. By then, the Phillies had had enough, and DFA'd him to make room for hotshot Casper Wells. When Young refused to go back to the minors, the Phillies said "fine by us" and released him. This came less than a year after Young made $6.75 million, won ALCS MVP, and turned 27. But then again, .261/.302/.397 isn't very good if you're hired for your bat. Not a week later, his old friends the Tampa Bay now-heavenly Rays threw him a bone and signed him to a minor league deal. Apparently their minor league system was the only one he was willing to play in. Young gritted his teeth, and did well enough for the Rays to call him up in September. He'd do fine, going 16-for-62 with 3 home runs to close out the year, and hey the Rays made the postseason. Say hello to playoff Delmon! He hit a home run in the AL Wild Card game, and drove in 2 of the 12 runs Tampa Bay put up in the ALDS. Boston had that many in the first game, and only piled on more after that, so that was all she wrote for 2013's edition of playoff Delmon. And when all's said and done, .260/.307/.407 in the regular season is not good enough to get re-signed, so Young wound up a free agent yet again.
The Orioles signed him to another minor league deal, but because their system wasn't Tampa Bay's, Young had to earn a roster spot. After he did, 2014 would be Young's best season since 2010. .302/.337/.442 in 83 games as a DH/OF sub and pinch-hitter. And wouldn't you know it, the Orioles also made it to the postseason! Here comes playoff Delmon version 4.0! Unfortunately, this was an abridged version, as he would see only 4 plate appearances that series. Only got one hit, but it was a bases-clearing double in the bottom of the 8th and made a 6-4 Tigers score into 6-7 Orioles. So yeah that's pretty important. And looky there they swept their way to the ALCS! Sadly, that series would see the seeming demise of playoff Delmon. He stepped into the batter's box only five times, and just one of those resulted in a hit as the Royals swept the Orioles out of the playoffs. Since he was all right for them, Baltimore brought Young back on a $2.25 million contract to play right field. He'd thank them by putting up the best dWAR of his career because at this point sure whatever. Problem was, it was coupled with his career lows in slugging percentage and on-base percentage. By a lot. .270/.289/.339 is too low for a bat-first player. Thus in early July, the Orioles said goodbye to the 29-year-old responsible for the Delmon Young hype museum-exhibit-about-how-bad-trainwrecks-can-get. It would be the last time he'd play Major League Baseball.
However, Delmon Young wasn't done playing professional baseball. It's just he was done playing in the United States. Following his July dismissal from the Orioles, Young signed with the Toros Del Este of the Dominican Winter League, and held his own that season. After that, in 2017 he signed with the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League. He finished that 40-game season batting .280/.361/.511 with 13 homers, the most on the team. He then had quite a productive 2018, where he won the MVP in the Venezuelan Winter League after going .294/.341/.567 with 19 homers and 52 RBIs in 61 games. Tack that onto some other successful outings in the Mexican Leagues and Delmon Young finished 2018 with a combined 32 homers, 122 RBIs, and .309/.351/.544 slash in 131 games across three different leagues. And he still wasn't done! in 2019 he returned to the Melbourne Aces, and showed that, although his hype train was long gone, he still had what it took to run. Again in 40 games, Young finished the season with a .345/.394/.662 line, 13 homers which led the league, 42 RBIs which led the league, and a championship ring. Clearly, even though he turned 35 this year, Delmon Young still has plenty of baseball left in him. Could we eventually see his train get back on the rails? Only time will tell. Who knows, maybe I'll have to do another one of these on him. On second thought no he shouldn't come back.
The story of Delmon Young fascinates me. At no point in his years of building hype did it seem like he would be anything but a superstar. And yet, here we are so many years later, and at 35 years old, he's already been out of the league for five years. Plenty of prospects have crashed and burned before, none more well-remembered than first overall picks. David Clyde, Steven Chilcott, Mark Appel, Danny Goodwin, the list goes on. And yet, rarely do those that bust in such a fashion end up qualifying for a Hall of Fame ballot. It's very clear to me why Young was left off the ballot. But oh, what a sight it would be to see his name on there. Maybe instead of his name they'd just put a train exploding next to the checkbox. It'd be pretty clear who they were talking about.
For his 530 hits, 273 RBIs, and 2010 season, Young would visit the Hall of Fame in a Twins cap. Hopefully he doesn't travel there by train.