nerdbaseball.com » Philadelphia Phillies

“Funny” Cards, Volume 4: By Request Edition

Nerdicus Finch — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:48:20 +0000

Recently, I Love Nerd York City posted a great Steve Lake card (remember the guy with the bird on his shoulder?) and speculated as to whether or not the ultra-literal “funny” cards that I made in my younger days included a Steve Lake card, seeing as how Mr. Lake’s last name is also a noun.

The name rang a bell and, searching through my stack of “funny” cards, I found one that I had made featuring Mr. Lake. I’m sure you can guess what it looks like. I hope Mr. Lake brought his hipwaders to the ballpark that day.

“Unquestionably” the best?

Nerdicus Finch — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:33:26 +0000

I like Jayson Stark and I really like Roy Halladay (I’ve spent many first round fantasy picks on Halladay over the past several years), but I think Stark really went overboard in his latest ESPN.com column.

In the column, which discusses the recent trade of Halladay to the Phillies, Stark had this to say about the former Cy Young winner:

He has been, unquestionably, the best starting pitcher in baseball for the last eight seasons.

I don’t necessarily disagree with Stark about Halladay, but to say that he’s been “unquestionably” the best is grossly overstating the case. When I read this, the first name I thought of was Johan Santana. Here are their numbers from 2002-2009:

Halladay: 130-59, 3.13 ERA, 1260 K, 1710 IP, 1.131 WHIP, 4.10 K/BB, 144 ERA+

Santana: 119-57, 2.89 ERA, 1641 K, 1580 IP, 1.064 WHIP, 4.07 K/BB, 153 ERA+

At first glance, it looks like Santana’s been the better pitcher, although it’s very close and Halladay’s extra 130 innings may be enough to put him ahead. Either way, I think it’s pretty obvious that Halladay is not “unquestionably” the best starting pitcher* of the last eight years.

*It may be possible that Stark is getting cute here, since Santana spent parts of the 2002 and 2003 seasons in the bullpen.

1933 Goudey: Richard Coffman

Nerdicus Finch — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:55:47 +0000

From the back of the card: “Is elongated young man, towering 6 feet, 1 1/2 inches and weighing 170 pounds.”

Brother of Slick Coffman, who had a short career in the late 1930s as a pitcher, Dick Coffman played for 15 seasons for the Washington Senators (twice), the St. Louis Browns (twice), the New York Giants, the Boston Bees, and the Philadelphia Phillies. He was thoroughly mediocre, posting a career 72-95 record with a 96 ERA+ over 1460 innings. He pitched for the 1936 and 1937 New York Giants teams that lost to the New York Yankees in consecutive World Series. Coffman didn’t help his team much in those efforts, posting a 12.00 ERA in 6 World Series innings.

Incredibly, he was traded twice for the same player – within six months! On June 9, 1932, Coffman was traded by the Browns to the Senators for pitcher Carl Fischer. On December 13, 1932, the Senators traded him back to the Browns for Carl Fischer.