A Retraction And An Endorsement

PHILS PHACTS:

Retraction Request – The lawyer for Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman is demanding an immediate and complete retraction to the Al Jazeera report that linked both to performance enhancing drugs. Multiple reports said William Burck, who represents both Howard and Zimmerman, sent a letter to Al Jazeera requesting the retraction. Al Jazeera issued a correction to its written report online, saying, "An earlier version of this article reported on an allegation about possible links between Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard and human growth hormone. The substance alleged was Delta 2, not HGH." That does not go far enough, according to Howard's and Zimmerman's representation. "Al Jazeera tried sneaking out a correction which acknowledges major errors in their story about our clients Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard," Burck said in a statement. "The original defamatory 'report' connected our clients to the use of HGH, but Al Jazeera has now admitted this defamatory accusation was wholly false and unsubstantiated. Al Jazeera's acknowledgment confirms their unforgivable sloppiness and the recklessness of its publication of this false story. Al Jazeera must retract the remaining false allegations against our clients immediately." Earlier this week, Burck called the claims in the report "outright lies" and vowed to fight them in court. "We will go to court to hold Al Jazeera and other responsible parties accountable for smearing our clients' good names," Burck said. Major League Baseball said it will conduct a thorough investigation of the report, whose source has already recanted his comments.

A Strong Candidate For Enshrinement – Even though seven players have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame over the past two years, many strong candidates remain on the ballot. With Baseball Writers' Association of America voters able to pick a maximum of 10 players apiece, and 75 percent of the vote required for enshrinement, several worthy candidates must travel a difficult road. Results of this year's BBWAA vote will be revealed on MLB Network on Jan. 6, with a news conference involving any electees to be held the following day. It's unlikely Curt Schilling, in his fourth year on the ballot, will be part of that group. The right-hander, who received 39.2 percent of the vote last time around, has a long ways to go. Schilling no doubt has suffered from his relatively low total of wins (216) and lack of a Cy Young Award, perhaps getting overshadowed by his brilliant contemporaries -- and in some cases teammates -- such as Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez. But when it comes to the most relevant numbers, there is a strong case for the six-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young runner-up as a clear Hall of Famer. Here is a look at that argument: • Schilling's career value stacks up quite favorably. His 80.7 pitching wins above replacement (WAR) ranks 26th all time, according to Baseball-Reference.com, including 14th in the expansion era (since 1961). He comes in just behind Bob Gibson and ahead of numerous Hall of Famers, including Don Sutton, Jim Palmer, Bob Feller, Juan Marichal and Don Drysdale. • Baseball-Reference's wins above average (WAA) compares a player's performance to the league average instead of to a theoretical replacement player, as in WAR. By that standard, Schilling's 54.1 ranks 10th among pitchers since 1901, ahead of such names as Gibson, Steve Carlton and Warren Spahn. • In 1968, baseball witnessed the Year of the Pitcher and responded by lowering the mound. Over the 47 seasons since then, here is where Schilling's career numbers fall in several important categories (a minimum of 2,500 innings was used for rate stats): Strikeout-to-walk ratio: 1st (4.38); Strikeouts per 9 innings: 4th (8.6); WHIP: 4th (1.137); Walks per 9 innings: 6th (1.96); WAA: 6th (54.1); ERA+: 7th (127); Strikeouts: 9th (3,116); WAR: 10th (80.7); Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP): 11th (3.23). • Schilling started slowly, but over his final 12 years (1996-2007), during an era of extreme offense, he went 173-104 (a .625 winning percentage) with a 3.43 ERA (134 ERA+), averaging more than 200 innings and 200 strikeouts per season. From 2001-04, at the advanced ages of 34-37, he led all pitchers in WAR, with an average of 7.8. Schilling also was first in strikeout-to-walk ratio, second in strikeouts, third in innings and FIP and fourth in ERA+. For good measure, he won seven postseason games and two World Series rings. • When it comes to racking up strikeouts and limiting walks -- a crucial part of a pitcher's job -- few have been better than Schilling. The righty is one of four pitchers to record at least three 300-strikeout seasons, along with Johnson, Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax. Excluding the 1800s, no pitcher with even 1,000 career innings can match Schilling's 4.38 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Only one other pitcher with 2,000-plus innings, Martinez, is above 3.78. At his best, from 2001-06, Schilling posted a 6.75 ratio, putting him way ahead of his closest challenger, Johnson (4.70). Schilling was responsible for five of the top 11 single-season marks during that span, and his 9.58 in 2002 was the second-best in history up until 2010. It still ranks fourth. • For perspective on Schilling, examine Tom Glavine, who sailed into the Hall with 91.9 percent of the vote in his first year on the ballot, in 2014. The two pitchers operated during almost the exact same period. Glavine does hold huge advantages in starts, innings pitched and victories (cracking the esteemed 300 mark), and longevity certainly is important. Still, here is how the two compare in some other areas. Pitching WAR: Schilling 80.7 | Glavine 74.0; Total WAR: Glavine 81.5 | Schilling 79.9; WAA: Schilling 54.1 | Glavine 39.1; ERA+: Schilling 127 | Glavine 118; FIP: Schilling 3.23 | Glavine 3.95; K/BB: Schilling 4.4 | Glavine 1.7. • Still on the fence about Schilling? Consider that the three-time World Series champion is one of the best postseason performers in baseball history. In 19 career postseason starts, he went 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA, including a 2.06 ERA over seven Fall Classic outings. Schilling was the MVP of the 1993 National League Championship Series for the Phillies, threw a shutout in that year's World Series against Toronto, and he set a single-postseason record for strikeouts (56) for the 2001 D-backs. That year, he produced a 1.12 ERA, and Arizona won five of his six outings, which included three complete games and a shutout.

THE BEGINNING:

The Phillies finally put an end to the season finishing in last place in the NL East with a record of 63-99. Given the departures, aging stars, injuries, and bipolar performances, this has ended up being one of the worst seasons in franchise history! However, at least Ryan Madson got another ring this year.

Picking A Direction

PHILS PHACTS:

More Than One Way – It has become the annual tradition in baseball that the most recent World Series champion is the latest model franchise. Teams looking to win a World Series must follow the champ's path to glory. Of course, the reality is there are numerous ways to build a World Series champion. Phillies general manager Matt Klentak understands that. He is at the General Managers Meetings this week in Boca Raton, Fla., trying to carve his own path to a title. "What I've learned from the Royals is there's no one way to do it," Klentak said Wednesday afternoon. "The way that they won the last couple years has been unique, relative to how teams have built over the last ... decade or so. And that's encouraging, right? That works for them. The Mets' style worked for them this year. The Cubs' style is working, the Astros' [style] -- again, a very different style that's working for them. That's very positive. "It can turn on a dime if you're disciplined, if you're organized. If players are developing and you're accurate in the projections of when those guys are going to reach their ceilings or start to achieve at the big league level, it can turn quickly. But you have to be disciplined. You have to be prepared for when that day comes." The international market remains an excellent way to acquire talent. There are big buys and bargains everywhere, and because the Phils finished the 2015 season with the worst record in baseball, they will have the biggest international signing-bonus pool next summer. The D-backs had more than $5.3 million in their pool this year, which was the largest in baseball. "I think it's critical to any operation," Klentak said of the international market. "The way that baseball has evolved over time, and the way that the Collective Bargaining Agreement has been set up, it really minimizes the areas where we can add talent. One of the areas we can do that is via the international market. "As I've said before, I don't like to operate in absolutes. But it is paramount that we take advantage of situations like that to bring talent into our system. Understanding that when you're talking about kids at that age, from the Dominican Republic, from Venezuela, it's going to take a long time for a lot of those players to get there. But we still have to do that. We have to create waves of players that will feed this team three, four, five, six, 10 years down the line, because we don't know where we'll be three, four, five, six, 10 years down the line. We need to make sure we've got steady waves of players coming, and that's true of the Draft. It's really true of the few areas that are still available to us to bring in players." This past summer, the Phillies signed Dominican outfielder Jhailyn Ortiz to a $4 million bonus, but they have found bargains along the way, too. Carlos Ruiz famously signed for just $8,000 in 1998. Maikel Franco looks like steal for the $100,000 bonus he signed in 2010. "It depends on that particular market, as with free agency, as with the Draft," Klentak said. "Do you spread out your dollars over multiple or do you invest in one big-ticket item? "I do believe, generally, in the idea of volume. Nobody in this industry is so smart that they know exactly who's going to be good, who's not going to be good, when they're going to develop and who's going to get hurt. That's just the reality of baseball. "So I do believe in the approach of adding as many talented players as we possibly can. But having said that, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of spending a large percentage of the pool on one player, because sometimes the player is just that good." If it works, perhaps everybody will be talking about the Phils as baseball's model franchise once again.

THE BEGINNING:

The Phillies finally put an end to the season finishing in last place in the NL East with a record of 63-99. Given the departures, aging stars, injuries, and bipolar performances, this has ended up being one of the worst seasons in franchise history! However, at least Ryan Madson got another ring this year.