Slightly Better than Replacement Level
When I wrote about Jan Novák a couple of weeks back I proclaimed him the best player in the Czech Republic’s Extraliga. There’s no denying that Novák is the best pitcher in the league and worthy of all kinds of acclaim. However, I was wrong in my proclamation. No matter what Novák does he will […]
Throughout his playing career, Martín Dihigo garnered the nicknames of El Inmortal and El Maestro. Those who know of Dihigo know that those nicknames were fitting for both the type of player has was and for how long he stayed at an elite level throughout his career. He did this in the Negro Leagues and […]
George Van Haltren had a very long and very successful big league career. He spent most of those years playing in the National League, with brief stops in the American Association and Players League, and a few of those years as a two-way player. He would eventually transition into a position player only and for […]
In the earlier days of baseball two-way play was fairly common. The mound being closer, batters being able to call out the pitches they wanted, and more made it an era where players could pitch and be a position player more frequently. These circumstances are what gave us a player like Bob Caruthers. Good old […]
Tommy Byrne was 13 seasons into his professional baseball career when he made the switch from a pitcher who pinch-hit from time to time to a full-fledged two-way player. It makes perfect sense that he would adopt two-way play in 1954 in the Pacific Coast League. At the time the PCL was an independent league […]