rolling retirees: 2018 and beyond

i didn't realize how much of a surprise that was, when he returned to the cubs for 2016! here's footage:

A little more footage from #Cubs SURPRISE this morning at camp. pic.twitter.com/7X1skZmOSD

— Kelly Crull (@Kelly_Crull) February 25, 2016

his surprise signing/spring training appearance was very crucial, like he had to come back for A Reason. v symbolic of that whole 2016 for me. after 2015 being a shockingly good year, it felt like a stepping-it-up moment.

darren o'day announced his retirement. pretty solid career, great run w/ the o's on their early-mid teens playoff teams (6th in career appearances). loved that sidearm motion.

last active player drafted by the expos . . . tom brady

jason kipnis

neither is unexpected, but lorenzo cain and mitch moreland are retiring. moreland more of a confirmation after not playing last year, and cain will retire this summer in kansas city, despite starting and ending his career in milkwaukee.

i always liked cain - fun player

considering how solid and well rounded a player he was at his peak, I'm surprised he was only an all star twice. great combo of hit/on-base, speed, glove with a dash of power.

The classic Amos Otis/Bernie Williams does-everything-well (but-nothing-spectacular) player who's underrated as a result. Ends his career with over 5.0 bWAR/162 games.

should have probably should have won some more gold gloves. he had a bunch of fielding bible awards.

from 2012-2015, matt harvey went 25-18, 2.53, 427 IP, 449 K, ERA+ 146 and made $1.719m

from 2016 on, matt harvey went 25-48, 5.92, 539 IP, 418 K, ERA+ 72 and made $26.2m

i mean i'm glad matt harvey got paid, but the trend line is not unlike that of an NFL running back (which is a whole other example of massive exploitation). and maybe starters aren't actually that different from RBs

cole hamels, hall of the pretty good-er

60~ war in 13~ seasons, I’d give him hall of very VERY good personally

i almost said 'pretty *damn* good-er' but chose not to because phillies

Sad he couldn’t get it back together, would have been an amazing story to see him have a verlander-esquire revival with the Padres

At a certain point, I started to group Hamels, Jon Lester, and John Lackey together; I figured one would break through and make the HOF. The two Jo(h)ns pair up well, but Hamels was clearly better.

In honor of the two Jo(h)ns:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZGSYjRsf5k

i regret having (even vaguely?) cast shade upon cole hamels, because jon lackey is maybe my least favorite player of this millennium

incredible prick, spent his entire career being like first of all the umps are fucking me, and secondly, my teammates suck because they don't catch every single ball

honestly fuck that guy forever

Excuse me for saying so, but one of the rare occasions where you absolutely can judge a book by its cover. First time I saw his face my immediate thoughts were something along the lines of “I bet that bloke is absolutely 0 fun to be around”

Bartolo Colon retiring next month as a Met. Should have retired him at this year home run derby with a special side-show event titled “He drives it, deep left field”. Still mad the league got rid of pitchers hitting, they should have got rid of the DH instead.

Don't remember a thing about him other than a general consistency in his year-over-year record...which was less impressive than I'd remembered looking at it now.

You could throw Colon and Buehrle and even, to a degree, Sabathia in there. They were all kind of old-school.

Speaking of great home runs, the image of Hamel that sticks in my mind the most (sadly) is the shot of him sitting alone, stoic expression, as the camera shakes back and froth from the Roger Centre rumble following Bautista’s home run. He obviously had much better things to be remembered by, but that shot is a work of art and a great encapsulation of why baseball is the best sport

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/8uqipCV1ifImqE6orZx4BNfPAlEZLys8rwLz7TjlDxK7OsUTQnBxitWtvU5g9vOm9eW4p2K09c4JG1bvRcwvv_AK4z57WKdqC1X3htMM1-TmHvsglqKoOm7-pwCVTgRt5Y8sIv_B

Followed by this Mona Lisa expression

https://imgur.com/a/RNrQHpA

https://i.imgur.com/GB6Qo2e.jpg

BREAKING: Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg will retire. The World Series MVP and former No. 1 pick in the draft, who couldn't overcome complications from thoracic outlet syndrome, is tentatively planning a September announcement. (w @dougherty_jesse)https://t.co/DM33q5F4J5

— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) August 24, 2023

All gave some, some gave all.

He's giving up a lot of money by retiring, That run in 2019 was really special though.

warning, stats:

he retires with 1470 IP and a career FIP of 3.02. for pitchers with 1400+ IP since integration, that's the 12th best FIP. the top 15 is a fun list (i think):

koufax
bob veale
kershaw
j.r. richard
gibson
pedro
sale
rollie fingers
dean chance
nolan
drysdale
strasberg
seaver
marichal
hoyt wilhelm

i still keep fucking up the hide function, my apologies. i tried

https://i.imgur.com/sub9ItL.png

??? It worked.

I thought at first this thread would be about ILXers who have retired.

Pretty sure he keeps the money because it’s an injury retirement. Saw a sad tweet about him not being able to hold his kids or even open doors with the injury. Wish him all the best

I used Bob Veale in Immaculate Grid yesterday--benefitted from his era, but really good forgotten pitcher.

Adam Jones

https://x.com/sixers/status/1695435045291401653?s=46&t=56pvpJvqL5GRtMdLh4N49g

Lol whoops

It the Orioles were to get to the WS, they should bring back Jones and Markakis and any other stalwarts from the '00 teams for a pre-game ceremony, when they never reached .500 even once. Jones was a very good, consistent player.

Bartolo Colon is officially retiring as a Met.

Sean Doolittle

pic.twitter.com/De0lzs0TQs

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) September 22, 2023

Nelson Cruz. Announced on Adam Jones podcast.

Perfect (ironic) timing: one day after the Rangers win. He was central to 2011, mostly for his phenomenal hitting, a little bit to a ball he probably should have caught. (Again, NoTime--I was wrong!)

didn’t the 09 ws end with him striking out looking?

sorry, 2010

Swinging I would have said? He did however score the only Rangers run in that game, a bottom of the 7th homer off Timmy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk5pGUEOMn8

Here's the non-catch from 2011 (scored a triple for Freese). Hard to say--a lot of guys would have caught it, but not everyone by any means. I don't feel like going back into the thread, but the joke is that I said it would be remembered for a long time, something that would stay with Cruz for his career. At the time, Nelson Cruz was 31 years old and had hit 106 career home runs.

He went on to hit 358 more. And no one talks about the play anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEEOZpdp9bo

Fantasy mainstay Michael Brantley.

Two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber announces his retirement. Klubot had an exceptional career.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 9, 2024

Definitely a great pitcher, for half a decade he was arguably the best in the American League (Verlander was his main competition.) He got a pretty late start, had his breakthrough first full season / Cy Young award-winning year at age 28. He started three games in the world series against the Cubs, he was great in the first two and the Cubs were lucky to beat him up a bit in game 7. Definitely a Hall of Fame talent, if not a Hall of Fame career.

If he'd won a third Cy, would have been very interesting re the HOF.

During Corey Kluber's peak of 2013-2018:

He threw his Kluberball (or whatever we're calling his breaker) 3,690 times, including playoffs.

.120/.134/.193 against
44% swing-and-miss rate
49 XBH, or one every 75 times he threw it
+113 run value

just a legendary pitch pic.twitter.com/p4knrk4z8c

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) February 9, 2024

One of the first pitchers I actually watched/registered the name of when getting into baseball as an adult. Was very confused as I got back into the sport why everyone didn't just throw the weird sinking ball that he did, looked so effective you know? What a stretch he had