LansdowneSt's Facegen Checklist

[LansdowneSt]

When looking back at the career of Rick “The Rooster” Burleson, the fiery, intense shortstop of the Boston Red Sox, California Angels and Baltimore Orioles from 1974 to 1987, a quotation from former teammate Bill Lee perhaps sums it up best: “Some guys didn’t like to lose, but Rick got angry if the score was even tied. He was very intense and had the greatest arm of any infielder I had ever seen.” Burleson excelled as a Red Sox player for seven seasons, both at bat and in the field. His participation in both the 1975 World Series and the 1978 playoff against the New York Yankees has secured his place in Boston Red Sox baseball lore. He was especially liked by Boston fans because of his burning desire to win and his constant hustle on the field. - SABR

Redid the facegen. Still rooted for him, Lynn and Butch even after the trade to the Angels...

[LansdowneSt]

Outfielder Tom Brown is one of the few major leaguers who have scored 1,500 runs who is not in the Hall of Fame. His career lasted 17 years in the 19th century. He also managed for a couple of years and was an umpire for over 300 games. Brown was a good hitter during his years in the American Association, but not as impressive in the National League or the Players League. As a base stealer, he still ranks 13th on the all-time list with 657 stolen bases. In 1891, Tom scored 177 runs, tied for second on the all-time list for most runs scored in a single season. At the time, it was the highest total, although it was broken three years later by "Sliding" Billy Hamilton.

Redid the facegen. The Yanks got him in my current Random Debut game. He's lighting it up.

[hfield007]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

And I have about 200 more that I've done that I have not had time to post At some point, I'll just zip'em for all...

that would be awesome!

[LansdowneSt]

There exists a long list of forgotten nineteenth-century baseball stars who played during the game’s formative stages and under relative anonymity besides being a name in a newspaper. While the game was fundamentally the same, it was evolving in an era that saw many rule changes and ballparks with vastly varying dimensions. There were no bright lights or television, and record-keeping was inconsistent. One of the greatest players of the nineteenth century was Harry Stovey.

Stovey was “one of baseball’s first dual threats” in the judgment of Matt Kelly at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He possessed a rare combination of power and speed that set him apart from other nineteenth-century players. He was also an innovator on the basepaths, introducing sliding techniques to the game that had never before been seen. Yet, despite the enshrinement of many of his contemporaries in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Stovey remains a forgotten star who, more than 120 years after his playing career ended, continues to be overlooked by those guarding the gates of Cooperstown.

After retiring from baseball, Harry Stovey ceased to exist. The ex-player resumed use of the name he was born with, Harry D. Stow. In 1895 he joined the New Bedford police force and served for 28 years. While patrolling his beat along the city’s waterfront one day in 1901, Officer Stow spotted a seven-year-old boy who had fallen between two piers and was struggling in the water. He dived in and saved the boy’s life. Soon afterward he was promoted to sergeant for bravery and became a captain in 1915. - SABR

Redid the facegen. There's a picture of him without his mustache but the vast majority of them and all the ones I saw of him in uniform had facial hair.

[LansdowneSt]

Henry Gruber played five seasons in the majors, pitching for Detroit and Cleveland from 1887-91 going 61-78 with a 3.67 ERA (99 ERA+). One of those years was for the Cleveland Infants of the 1890 Players League and that year, Gruber pitched the Opening Day game bat which 3,500 fans attended. Gruber, who pitched the entire game, gave up 16 walks. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Redid the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

Rich Hill famously reinvented himself in 2015, when he went from the Nationals’ farm system to independent ball before finding success in the Majors. He changed where he stood on the pitching rubber, adjusted his arm angle and committed to his two best pitches to start the successful second act of his career. But one secret to Hill’s success and longevity is that he’s constantly reinventing himself. Even in his 17th Major League season, with his 10th big league team, you’ll see Hill use different arm angles in the same inning, adjust his delivery to disrupt hitters’ timing and constantly experiment from start to start. Hill revived his career by leaning into the data-driven science of pitching, but he remains endlessly fascinated by the art form.

“That's the whole thing. Things that we can quantify are easy to point to and say, 'That is it. That's the answer,’” Hill said. “The things that you can't quantify, like intensity or passion or aggressiveness or how comfortable is that player out there in his own skin? I think that's something else that will create more freedom. And when you create the freedom, then you have the freedom to create. It's like you're trying to create some kind of little bit of magic out there. And that's what's fun. That's what I enjoy.”

What else does Hill have in mind? Where else might that lead him in the second half of his 17th season?

“I’m still interested in knuckleballs,” Hill said, laughing. - mlb.com, June 2017

Redid the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

From the Boston Herald, February 2020:

Brock Holt’s exit will hurt Red Sox far beyond the box score: The veteran utility man, who agreed to a deal with Milwaukee, was invaluable in the clubhouse and as a Jimmy Fund captain.

If only there was a stat that incorporates lives changed for the better, Brock Holt might still be a member of the Boston Red Sox. Holt, who will not be returning to Boston after agreeing to a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers earlier this week, was worth 1.3 WAR in 2019. He was worth 6.5 WAR over his six full seasons, according to FanGraphs. This matters, of course, because these numbers (and others) are largely how teams make decisions in the modern era. The teams will never say it, but they make it clear over and over with their roster decisions: the players’ on-field contributions are all that matter.

Their off-the-field behavior, good or bad, hardly ever moves the needle but for the most extreme cases. Holt was exemplary off the field, posing for endless selfies before games, saying hi to children in the stands, a glue-guy in the locker room, friends with everybody, serving as the Jimmy Fund captain – but these things don’t add bonus points on their FanGraphs page. Maybe that should change. We could add the number of times a player has been nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award, “which recognizes a player who best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions, both on and off the field,” to their Baseball-Reference pages. For Holt, that answer is four. He’s been the Sox’ nominee in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.

“It’s just who he was,” said teammate Matt Barnes. “It’s the personality he has and the kind of person he is. Wanted to be friends with everybody, be a great teammate, be a great player. And he did those well.” Alas, the Red Sox did not bring him back. For the first time since 2014, the Red Sox will approach the utility position differently. They’ll take a chance on a Rule 5 pick with no experience. They’ll use a new free-agent signing with an almost identical skill set.

They’ll say goodbye to Brock Holt to do what they think will make them ever-so-slightly more efficient.

Redid the facegen.

[luckymann]

You can really taste the bitterness...

[LansdowneSt]

Lance Berkman is a born raconteur. Or as Moises Alou says of his fellow Houston Astros outfielder, "That boy talks some crazy s---." When Berkman tells a story, his hands wave furiously. His Texas twang rises a notch. His eyeballs bulge, and his fingers twitch. Berkman loves his wife and daughter, and he's thoroughly devoted to the art of hitting a baseball, but few things get him more juiced than spinning a yarn.

The only story Berkman doesn't tell is the craziest, most amazing one of all. It's about a pudgy, unrecruited nobody from a Texas high school who, at age 25, has become one of the National League's leading MVP candidates. In his first full major league season the Astros' leftfielder is an indisputable, out-of-nowhere phenom, ranking at week's end in the top 10 of almost every significant hitting category in the league, including second in batting average (.351), third in hits (136) and on-base percentage (.439), fourth in RBIs (92) and runs (83), and eighth in homers (28). "Get Lance going and he'll talk and talk and talk," says Cara, who gave birth to Hannah Leigh, the couple's first child, last month. "But if you expect him to do a lot of bragging, you'll be let down. Lance likes to make people laugh, not build himself up. He sees himself as just another baseball player." - Sports Illustrated

Redid the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

Ted Power had a long major league baseball career although he started out in the crowded Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system. He was drafted in the 5th round in 1976 and would not make his first appearance in the majors until 1981, after going 18-3 for the Albuquerque Dukes, a team full of future major leaguers. He was the losing pitcher in Nolan Ryan's 5th no-hitter on September 26th that year; it was only Power's 5th appearance in the Majors. Traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 1983, he would spend several years pitching under manager Pete Rose, and then became a journeyman, pitching for seven teams in his last six years.

He was primarily a starter from 1987-1989, but otherwise mostly a reliever, leading the league in appearances in 1984. In Game 6 of the 1990 NLCS, the Pittsburgh Pirates used him as an opener against the Reds, even though he had not started a single game all year. He gave up a run in 2 1/3 innings before giving way to lefty Zane Smith; the strategy did not work, as the Reds still won, 2-1. After his playing days he begame a pitching coach in the Reds system. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Redid the facegen. Have a few more to post will hold off until tomorrow as it's getting late...

[LansdowneSt]

USA Today, Aug 23, 2008 covering what would be the final 25 games of Matt Holliday's playing career:

DENVER (AP) — The 38-year-old All-Star outfielder sauntered into the Colorado clubhouse at Coors Field and instantly felt like a rookie again. Matt Holliday was back at home.

The Rockies selected the contract of Holliday from Triple-A Albuquerque on Thursday after he signed a minor league deal last month. A seventh-round pick in 1998 by Colorado, Holliday played the first five seasons of his 14-year career with the Rockies, hitting .290 as a rookie in 2004 and helping lead Colorado to its only World Series appearance in 2007. Holliday hasn't played in the majors since last season with the New York Yankees, when he batted .231 with 19 homers.

The one lingering [locker room] question was this: Did Holliday actually touch home plate in Game No. 163 in 2007? Holliday tagged from third in the 13th inning against San Diego and dove in headfirst for the winning run, a victory in the NL wild-card tiebreaker that vaulted Colorado into the postseason. Whether Holliday touched home remains a contention with Black, who was the Padres' manager then. Holliday joked that home plate umpire Tim McClelland shared some responsibility.

"I didn't call myself safe," Holliday said. "It wasn't my fault. I tell Buddy, 'Take it out on Tim.'"

Black doesn't buy it.

"He should be blamed. He missed home. You know what that is? That's baseball," Black lightheartedly said. "That one hurt. I still think about it."

Redid the facegen. Hard not seeing him in a Rockies or Cardinals uniform but I put him on Yanks as that was the pic I used.

[LansdowneSt]

Billy Wagner was the ultimate underdog. Undersized and coming from a broken home and an impoverished rural background, he channeled his frustrations into throwing incredibly hard—with his left hand, despite being a natural righty, for he broke his right arm twice as a child. Scouts overlooked him because he wasn't anywhere close to six feet tall, but they couldn’t disregard his dominance of collegiate hitters using a mid-90s fastball. The Astros made him a first-round pick, and once he was converted to a relief role, his velocity went even higher.

Wagner faces an uphill battle to get to Cooperstown, having received just 10.5% of the vote in 2016, a lower debut percentage than any player elected by the writers since they returned to annual balloting in 1966 With 10.2% in 2017, he’s in danger of slipping below the 5.0% threshold to remain on the ballot in any given year. As I’ve said in each previous cycle, I’m not ready to close the door on him. While JAWS guides my process, my concerns over its handling of relievers has led me to remain particularly open-minded in this area over the years, seeking alternative ways to evaluate them. At the moment, I wouldn’t bump a JAWS-approved candidate off my ballot to make room for him, but I’m not ready to dismiss the possibility that Wagner merits a spot, as his dominance in so many categories is difficult to ignore. - Sports Illustrated, 2017 from HOF expert Jay Jaffe

With three more years on the ballot, Wagner got 51% of the vote. Including a vote from Jay

Redid the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

Kenny Lofton was forever on the move. During a 17-year major league career spent largely as a leadoff hitter and centerfielder, he reached base more than 3,400 times and stole over 600 bases. He did so while wearing the uniforms of 11 different teams —two short of the record — not including three stints with the Indians. He was a postseason staple, reaching the playoffs with six of those teams a total of 11 times. Though he never won a World Series ring, he certainly covered a whole lot of ground. Despite his excellence, Lofton was somewhat underrated in his day, and he scores surprisingly well by some measures when it comes to the Hall of Fame — better than some of the more heralded centerfielders on this year's ballot, at the very least. He's in danger of getting lost among the flashier candidates on the ballot, so it's important to give his case its due.

Born in an Indiana slum to a mother of high school age and weighing just three pounds at birth, Lofton was raised by his maternal grandmother. A two-sport athlete in high school, he was good at baseball but all-state in basketball, and earned a scholarship to play hoops at the University of Arizona under legendary coach Lute Olson. Though just six feet tall, Lofton was the sixth man on their 1988 Final Four team -- a backup point guard behind Steve Kerr -- who was renowned for his athleticism and set a school record for steals. With basketball done, Lofton joined the Arizona baseball team in 1988, and while he saw sparing duty as a pinch-runner and received only one official at-bat, his speed came to the attention of Astros scout Clark Crist during an intrasquad game. Houston drafted him in the 17th round of the 1988 draft.

[All told, Lofton had 2,428 hits, scored 1,528 runs, slashed .299/.372/.423 and had a 107 OPS+. He stole 622 bags still best for 15th all-time.]

I'm not closed to the idea that Lofton is worthy of a Hall of Fame vote, by any means. In 10 years worth of JAWS analysis, I've come across more multiple Gold Glove winners than I can count on both hands whose advanced defensive metrics even in years they won were just awful, with Bernie Williams (four Gold Gloves in years where was a combined 40 runs below average) only the most recent example. With Lofton, at least according to Total Zone, the legend matches the data; he was 43 runs above average in his four Gold Glove seasons.

Even so, he's just a wee bit short, even giving him the benefit of the doubt with regards to the accuracy of the defensive metric. The JAWS virtual 2013 ballot is filling up, with Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Edgar Martinez and Mike Piazza already taking up spots and a good number of qualified players among the 14 I have yet to analyze. Having already relegated Walker to the provisional pile as a borderline candidate, slightly above the JAWS standard due mainly to defense, I have to conclude that Lofton belongs below him — which is to say absent from my ballot this year. - Sport Illustrated, Jay Jaffe reviewing the 2013 ballot.

Redid the facegen based on personal preference. I wanted something that had the light mustache he had in his heyday with the Indians. HOF'er or not, Lofton deserved much more time on the ballot.

[LansdowneSt]

The 2006 New York Mets are most remembered for their final moment. Carlos Beltran striking out looking at the end of Game 7 of the NLCS against the St Louis Cardinals. Yet prior to that game or even that series, there was plenty of injuries to the pitching staff that could lead a Mets fan to ask, what if? Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez both missed the postseason due to injuries, significantly impacting the Mets starting rotation. Prior to those injuries however, the Mets lost a key reliever due to an accident that took place off the field. When Duaner Sanchez infamously separated his shoulder in a taxicab accident.

Sanchez was in the midst of a career year prior to the injury, becoming a key set-up man for closer Billy Wagner. Sanchez was traded to the Mets in the offseason in a deal that sent Jae Weong Seo and Tim Hamulack to the Los Angeles Dodgers. In his first year with the Mets, Sanchez got off to an amazing start as he did not allow a single run until May 9th, in his 16th appearance of the season. In his first year with the Mets, Sanchez got off to an amazing start as he did not allow a single run until May 9th, in his 16th appearance of the season. Across his 49 appearances in 2006, Sanchez only yielded runs in nine of those contests. He recorded 14 holds and won five games out of the Mets bullpen. Then early in the morning on July 30, 2006, Sanchez’s taxicab was hit by a drunk driver on interstate-95 in Miami, Florida. Sanchez had to be flown to New York City to undergo season-ending surgery to repair his separated shoulder.

Sanchez’s shoulder would never be the same, as he suffered a hairline fracture in spring training the next year, costing him the 2007 season as well. The right-hander did appear in 66 games for the Mets in 2008, but pitched to a 4.32 ERA. Sanchez’s last big league appearance came in May of 2009 with the San Diego Padres. At 29 years old, less than three years removed from the accident, his career was over. - metsmerizedonline.com by Ryan Finkelstein

Redid the facegen. Shown with the Pirates.

[LansdowneSt]

Even though any player who reaches the major leagues is supremely talented, perseverance is a key factor for many of them. The ability to keep trying often separates major and minor leaguers. For Darrell May, perseverance included transitions between several organizations and a stint in Japan, before finding himself as the leader of the pitching staff on a surprising team, and then narrowly avoiding the stigma of a 20-loss season.

Expectations were high for the 2004 Royals. But after a walk-off win over the White Sox on Opening Day, things fell apart quickly. May stayed dependable, making a team-high 31 starts. But while 2003 was a storybook season, this was a nightmare. Despite pitching for a team on its way to 104 losses, May’s record was 9-12 in mid-August. Then he took six losses in a row; the Royals were shut out in the last three. With three turns left in the rotation, May had a chance to lose 20 games. Detroit’s Mike Maroth had been saddled with 20 losses the previous season, but Brian Kingman of the Oakland A’s was the last pitcher before him to do so, in 1980. A stigma had grown around the number.

A frustrated May said, “You try to keep in perspective. I can’t put the blame on anybody else. But realistically, I know there are a lot of games that easily could have gone the other way. Let’s put it this way: There are a lot of games where I felt like I did my job that ended up as losses.” As it was, May ended up with a league-leading 19 losses. - SABR

Redid the facgen. Put him in Twins uniform to make the comparison to the photo easier.

[LansdowneSt]

Thanks for the memories, 27. For all the hits we saw. But especially the ones we didn’t [his vast charity work with the local community - Ed.].

The Rockies’ last homestand, one final week in LoDo before baseball rides off into the sunset, began Tuesday night. Nine more chances to watch Story, who’s expected to enter free agency after this season, sling it in purple and black. The Last Beatle On Blake Street turns 29 in November. He’s served a decade on the S.S. Monfort after being drafted out of Irving (Tex.) High School. Story spent six of those summers in The Show, ever the good solider, a sensible head trapped on a floating asylum. Three All-Star Weekends. Two playoff berths. One Jeff Bridich, which was one too many.

The man deserved better. Sanity beckons.

“That’s the kind of person you want to be,” Henss says of Story. “And then being able to meet Trevor and become friends with him and his wife, that really solidified it — seeing some of (his) interactions on the field, as well as off the field.” - Denver Post

Redid the facegen. First picture is the one that ships with the game and keeps trying to overwrite during patches. Second is the CU Facepack one. Last one, as always, is my effort.

[percolaten]

Fantastic as always. Lofton certainly deserved more consideration for induction to Cooperstown, along with Lou Whitaker, Bobby Grich, Graig Nettles, Dwight Evans, Rick Reuschel, John Hiller, Billy Wagner and Joe Nathan, to name a few. Nathan's still on the ballot, but he's not getting in if Wagner didn't.

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Kenny Lofton was forever on the move. During a 17-year major league career spent largely as a leadoff hitter and centerfielder, he reached base more than 3,400 times and stole over 600 bases.

[LansdowneSt]

Dan O’Brien was an All-American pitcher at Florida State in 1975 and an Academic All-American that same year. In 1973, he had the opportunity to play with team USA in the World Games, earning a gold medal. He was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1976 and played with the team in the big leagues in 1978 and ’79. All told, the 1980 Topps Future Star pitched in 13 games going 1-3 with a 5.60 ERA.

Redid the facegen. Made sure to keep his glasses as best I could.

[AESP_pres]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Dan O’Brien (...)

Redid the facegen. Made sure to keep his glasses as best I could.

Thanks!

[hfield007]

wondering if you have a proper Craig Monroe from the Tigers in the 2000s. His current fg looks stretched longways.