Mondays are the best day of the week for mismanagement.
There’s always a cluster of work that somehow came in over the weekend, and that just adds to the pile left from Friday afternoon (it’s ok to admit that you check out at 1:35 every Friday, I won’t tell). By 11:00 am on Monday, you have half of
Friday, a weekend pile, and then the work from the people that DON’T work on
weekends. There’s probably a lot of
talent in your workplace, but it’s probably mismanaged. And Monday is probably the day that it is
more apparent than the other days of the week.
Kind of like the early 1990’s Toronto Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays of the early 90’s had a lot of success. They were back to back World Series champs in
1992 and 1993. They had established
stars such as Paul Molitor, Joe Carter, Tony Fernandez, Dave Stewart and Jack
Morris, and youngsters John Olerud, Roberto Alomar and Pat Hentgen. With all of that talent around, no one
noticed that Pat Borders hit a combined .248 with 25 home runs between 1992 and
1994. His fielding percentage was .987
during that time, which I suppose is why no one really cared what Pat Borders
was doing when he wasn’t catching. He
still wasn’t Ivan Rodriguez-good, who won the Gold Glove award those seasons
with a … .987 fielding percentage. Of
course, Rodriguez threw out 131 batters in those seasons. Borders only threw out … 138. It was a much lower percentage of base
runners though. OK, I guess this had no
point other than to make fun of Pat Borders.
The only thing that Borders seemed to be REALLY good at was
blocking a young catcher in the Blue Jays’system from coming up. That catcher was Carlos Delgado. In the minors, Delgado had a .982 fielding
percentage at catcher, which wasn’t horrible, and seeing how during those
seasons he hit .298 while hitting 98 home runs, I’m guessing the slight falloff
could have been overlooked. I’m not
saying that a 20 year old Delgado could have came up and hit .324 with 30 home
runs and 100 RBIs like he did at A+ Dunedin in 1992, but he probably could have
matched Borders’ .242 with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs. Those numbers were almost identical in 1993
for Borders, hitting .254 with nine home runs and 55 RBIs, while Delgado,
advancing to AA Knoxville hit .303 with 25 home runs and 102 RBIs. He even drew 102 walks that year. Borders only walked 155 times in his CAREER.
Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, let’s take a
look at Delgado’s career. He was signed
by the Blue Jays as an amateur free agent out of Aguadilla High School in
Aguadilla, Puerto Rico in October 1988.
Upon his signing, he was assigned to A- St. Catharines, where he hit
.180 with five doubles and 11 RBIs in 31 games.
He found himself back there for the 1989 season, where he did much
better, hitting .281 with 13 doubles, six home runs and 39 RBIs in 67
games. In those two combined seasons, he
had 58 walks and 104 strikeouts.
In 1991, other than one game where he went hitless in three
at bats for Syracuse, Delgado spent the season in A ball Myrtle Beach. There, he hit .286 with 18 doubles, two
triples, 18 home runs and 10 RBIs, with 75 walks and 97 strikeouts. You can see his 1992 and 1993 statistics
above.
After a very brief callup in 1993 to the Blue Jays, he would
return to Syracuse for the 1994 season.
In 85 games, he hit .319 with 11 doubles, 19 home runs and 58 RBIs, with
42 walks and 58 strikeouts. He was yet
again in Syracuse in 1995. In 91 games, he
hit .318 with 23 doubles, four triples, 22 home runs and 74 RBIs, with 45 walks
and 78 strikeouts. It was this season
that he also found himself out from behind the plate, playing 14 error free
games in left field, and 79 games at first base, with a fielding percentage of
.995. In both 1994 and 1995, he also got
a bit of time with the Blue Jays. Let’s
take a closer look at his big league career.
Delgado would make his major league debut on October 1st,
1993 in a 7-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
He entered the game as catcher for Randy Knorr in the bottom of the
sixth inning, he came to bat once that day in the eighth, drawing an eight
pitch walk off of Todd Frohwirth. One
batter later, he was erased off of a ground ball double play by Alfredo
Griffin. Two days later, he would taste
sweet victory as the Blue Jays beat the Orioles 11-6. Pinch hitting in the eighth inning for Paul
Molitor, he popped out to short to end his season hitless.
 |
Third base, left field,
whatever. There's enough
Darnell Coles to go around. |
In 1994, Delgado would start the season with the Blue Jays
as the opening day left fielder. This
was the first professional game that he ever played a position other than catcher. The move instantly paid off, as he went 5-15
with three home runs in his first three games that season. On April 11th, he went 2-4 with
two home runs and five RBIs in a 14-5 win over the Oakland A’s. By the end of April, he was only hitting
.234, but he had eight home runs and 21 RBIs.
He also had 11 walks and 28 strikeouts.
Unfortunately, after May 1st, he hit .189 with only one home
run and three RBIs, despite his BB/K ratio improving to 14 walks and 18
strikeouts. His on base percentage over
that span was .377 due to his increased walks, but still, the Blue Jays decided
that June 8th would be his last day in the majors, and they sent him
back to Syracuse. After all, the Blue
Jays DID have Mike Huff, who at that point in his career was a .230 hitter with
five home runs and 41 RBIs in 217 games.
And don’t forget Darnell Coles, who at that point in his career was a
.248 hitter with 67 home runs and 335 RBIs in 825 games. Huff and Coles shared left field while
Delgado was back in Syracuse abusing the opposition. Borders hit .247 with three home runs and 26
RBIs that season as well. Delgado ended
the season at .215 with two doubles, nine home runs and 24 RBIs, with 25 walks
and 46 strikeouts. In his first ever
attempt at anything other than catcher, he made two errors 41 games in the
outfield, and added two assists.
Delgado once again opened the season with the Blue Jays in
1995. This time, they decided they
REALLY wanted to mismanage him. In his
first seven games that season, he only received one plate appearance. In his next game, he went 0-4 with three
strikeouts, before finally getting his first hit in his next game. His first home run of the season came on May
23rd, as a pinch hitter in a 10-6 victory over the Kansas City
Royals. Five days later, he was only
hitting .154 with one home run and three RBIs when he was sent back to
Syracuse. After putting up gaudy numbers
again in AAA, he was called back up at the end of the season. Over the final month, he hit .169 with two
home runs and eight RBIs. Overall for
the season, he hit .165 with three doubles, three home runs and 11 RBIs, with
six walks and 26 strikeouts.
Delgado would return to the majors for good for the 1996
season. By now, he had officially made
the transition to first base, although with Olerud already having established
himself there, Delgado primarily served as the DH. He was hitting .300 as late as June 19th,
but he ended the season at .270 with 28 doubles, two triples, 25 home runs and
92 RBIs, with 58 walks and 139 strikeouts.
Fun fact – in the two games where he had a triple, he also homered, but
those were the only two hits he had those days.
No cycle for you!
Delgado had similar numbers in 1997. Again hitting .300 in mid-June, he had a
stretch from June 16th through August 6th where he
hit.184, before finishing the season at an even .300 from August 7th
on. He would hit his first career grand
slam on April 25th, followed by two more on June 6th and
July 24th. He homered in four
straight games in early June, and fell a double short of the cycle on July 11th. Overall for the season, he hit .262 with 42
doubles, three triples, 30 home runs and 91 RBIs, with 64 walks and 133
strikeouts. With Olerud having moved on
to the New York Mets, Delgado was now the primary first baseman. In 119 games, he only made 12 errors, good
for a .988 fielding percentage. This
would actually be his worst fielding percentage of any season where he played
over 100 games at first base (it was .983 in 27 games there in 1996).
In 1998, Delgado took a big step toward showing the world
the player he would become. He would hit grand slams on May 7th and August 12th. The May 7th game was also his
first career five hit game. He had his
first career three home run game on August 4th. He had a 19 game hit streak that bridged May
and June, and an on base streak of 38 games.
He was batting .301 on September 1st, but from there on out,
a horribly unlucky BABIP of .170 translated into a .244 batting average, even
though over that span he still had 11 home runs and 19 RBIs, with 20 walks and
19 strikeouts. Overall for the season,
he hit .292 with 43 doubles, a triple, 38 home runs and 115 RBIs, with 73 walks
and 139 strikeouts. He was AL Player of
the Week the weeks of June 7th (.407 average, four home runs, nine
RBIs) and August 23rd (.370 average, four home runs, 10 RBIs). He would finish a distant 21st in
the AL MVP voting. Manning 141 games at
first base, he only made 10 errors, good for a .992 fielding percentage.
Delgado’s average dipped a bit in 1999, but many of his
other numbers improved. It was a season
of ups and downs, as he was hitting .241 on April 28th, .286 on May
19th, and .246 on August 3rd, before hitting .340 from
that point out. He had a six game streak
in early August where he hit .577 with eight home runs and 13 RBIs. In total, he hit .272 with 39 doubles, 44
home runs and 134 RBIs, with 86 walks and 141 strikeouts. He would finish 12th in the AL MVP
voting, and would win his first Silver Slugger award. In the field, he would play in 147 games at
first base, committing 14 errors, good for a .990 fielding percentage.
 |
So, you're saying, I should
have won MVP that year too? |
In 2000, at the age of 28, Delgado had arguably his best
season in a career full of great seasons, but it didn’t start out that
way. After the first eight games, he was
only hitting .138 with no home runs. By
the end of April, he had that average up to .319 with eight home runs. In June, he played in 26 games, and had more
than one hit in 14 of them, hitting .411 with nine home runs and 26 RBIs,
including a grand slam on June 7th.
In the only game of the season where he hit a triple, he fell a home run
short of the cycle in an 8-7 loss to the Royals on August 7th. He would add another grand slam on September
17th, although he faded a bit down the stretch, only hitting .245
with two home runs that month. Overall,
he would hit .344 with a league leading 57
doubles, one triple, 41 home runs
and 137 RBIs, with 123 walks and 104 strikeouts. His increased average and walk rate made this
on base percentage jump to .470, and his OPS was 1.134. He was AL Player of the Week the weeks of
April 23rd (.480 average, four home runs, eight RBIs), June 11th
(.556 average, four home runs, 13 RBIs), and July 9th (.524 average,
one home run, eight RBIs). He played in
all 162 games that season, all at first base, with only 13 errors equaling a
.991 fielding percentage. He was an All
Star for the first time in his career, again won a Silver Slugger award, and
finished fourth in the AL MVP voting behind Jason Giambi, Frank Thomas and Alex
Rodriguez. He won the AL Hank Aaron
award and The Sporting News Major League Player of the Year award.
Delgado wasn’t quite able to duplicate that success in
2001. At the end of April, he was “only”
batting .293, but he added 10 home runs and 22 RBIs, thanks to two games with
three home runs each and one game with two home runs. He was only batting in the .250’s at the end
of May, June, and July before hitting .328 after August 1st. On the season, he hit .279 with 31 doubles,
one triple, 39 home runs and 102 RBIs, with 11 walks and 136 strikeouts. He was AL Player of the week the week of
April 8th, when he hit .368 with five home runs and 10 RBIs. One thing that very well may have hurt his
numbers were fewer opportunities with runners on. He was intentionally walked 22 times that
season. He had 18 the year before, but
11 of those were in the second half of the season, which may have also
contributed to his slightly lower numbers then as well. Playing all 162 games again, he only made
nine errors, good for a fielding percentage of .994.
Delgado would miss the majority of August and only play in
143 games in 2002, but he would put up similar numbers to the previous
season. He was hitting .280 at the end
of April, but from that point out, his average didn’t get much above the .250’s
until he caught fire at the end of the season, hitting .435 with 10 home runs
and 22 RBIs in the last 20 games that year.
Overall, he hit .277 with 34 doubles, two triples, 33 home runs and 108
RBIs, with 102 walks and 126 strikeouts.
He was AL Player of the Week for the week of September 29th,
when he hit .450 with four home runs and 11 RBIs. In the field, he had 12 errors at first base,
good for a .991 fielding percentage.
In 2003, Delgado would again find himself as an All
Star. He came out of the gate strong,
hitting .365 in the month of April. He
hit grand slams on June 6th and September 28th. On September 25th, he was 4-4 with
four home runs and six RBIs in a 10-8 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. For the year, he hit .302 with 38 doubles,
one triple, 42 home runs and a league leading 145 RBIs, with 109 walks and 137
strikeouts. He was AL Player of the Week
for the week of August 28th, when he hit .318 with six home runs and
11 RBIs. Along with the All Star nod, he
was a Silver Slugger, and finished second in the AL MVP race behind Alex
Rodriguez. He only made 10 errors in the
field for a .993 fielding percentage.
2004 would mark Delgado’s last year in Toronto. His April started off slow, as he was only
hitting .119 through the first 12 games of the season, but he hit .415 over the
last 10 games to finish the month at .265.
By May 29th, his average was down to .227. He would miss all of June and the first few
games of July, but he still wasn’t really right, with his average falling
slightly to .221 by the end of July.
From August 1st on, he hit .330 to somewhat salvage his
season. By the end of the season, he was
hitting .269, his highest mark since May 3rd, with 26 doubles, 32
home runs and 99 RBIs, with 69 walks and 115 strikeouts. He was AL Player of the Week for the week of
September 5th, when he hit .381 with three home runs and seven
RBIs. He only played in 128 games, and
despite missing time, he still played most of them at first base. He only made five errors, setting a career
high for fielding percentage at .996.
 |
| Why is my name and number ironed on? |
In 2005, Delgado would switch leagues, signing with the
Florida Marlins. Back at full health, he
once again continued to do Carlos Delgado things. He hit safely in 15 of 22 games that April,
finishing the month at .300. He missed
the last few games in July and some games the first of August, but other than
that, he was pretty much back to playing every day. In 144 games, he hit .301 with 41 doubles,
three triples, 33 home runs and 115 RBIs, with 72 walks and 121
strikeouts. His only grand slam of the
season came in a pinch hit at bat on July 7th in an 11-3 victory
over the Milwaukee Brewers. He would
finish sixth in the NL MVP voting. In
the field, he made 14 errors at first base, which was still good for a .989
fielding percentage.
In the offseason, Delgado was traded to the New York Mets
for Grant Psomas, Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit. His numbers would take a dip, but he was
still a very effective player. He came
out of the gate strong, hitting .298 with nine home runs and 20 RBIs in 24
games in April, but his average had fallen to .250 by the end of May. He was hitting .247 in mid-August before
finishing the season hitting .320. Overall,
he hit .265 with 30 doubles, two triples, 38 home runs and 114 RBIs, with 74
walks and 120 strikeouts. He finished a
distant 12th in the NL MVP voting.
He only committed eight errors at first for a .994 fielding
percentage. With the Mets winning the NL
East, Delgado made the playoffs for the only time in his career. He made good use of his time, hitting .429
with a home run and two RBIs in a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the seven game loss to the St. Louis
Cardinals, he hit .304 with three doubles, three home runs and nine RBIs. That combined for a .351 average and a 1.199
OPS.
Delgado’s lone grand slam of the year was against the
Cardinals in an 8-7 victory on August 22nd. He also added a solo home run that game and
finished with five RBIs. Although he
lost the war that day, Albert Pujols won the battle of first basemen, also
hitting two home runs – a grand slam and a three run – with all seven Cardinals
RBIs. Future Cardinal Carlos Beltran
would hit a walk off two run home run off of Jason Isringhausen.
In 2007, Delgado’s numbers would continue to decline. He was batting under .200 as late as May 3rd,
but he would raise his average to .231 by the end of May. He would miss some time in the middle of
September, but came back to hit .297 in the last 10 games of the season. Overall, he hit .258 with 30 doubles, 24 home
runs and 87 RBIs, with 52 walks and 118 strikeouts. Despite his dip in offense, there was no
decline in the field, as he committed eight errors good for a .993 fielding
percentage.
 |
| He's more of a cake guy. |
2008 would be the last full season for Delgado. Seemingly healthy again, the 36 year old
Delgado’s numbers returned to something closer to the average Delgado
season. At the end of June, he was only
hitting .228, but after hitting .357 in July, his season average jumped to
.260, and he would hit .292 over the final two months of the season to increase
it further. He was a home run short of
the cycle in an 8-6 loss to the San Diego Padres on June 8th. On June 27th, he went 3-5 with a
grand slam, a three run home run and a two run double, finishing the day with
nine RBIs in a 15-6 win over the New York Yankees. He would add his final career grand slam in a
9-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs on September 24th. On the season, he hit .271 with 32 doubles,
one triple, 38 home runs and 115 RBIs, with 72 walks and 124 strikeouts. He would finish ninth in the NL MVP
voting.
Delgado would start the season with the Mets in 2009, but
after the first 30 games of the season, he was done. Overall, he hit .298 with seven doubles, one
triple, four home runs and 23 RBIs, with 12 walks and 20 strikeouts. In his last game on May 10th, he
was 1-4 with a double off of Ian Snell in an 8-4 victory over the Pittsburgh
Pirates. In 25 games at first base, he
made two errors for a .990 fielding percentage.
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| PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF. |
A few days after his last game, he had hip surgery. He was only expected to miss 10 weeks, but
didn’t play another game that season.
Before the 2010 season, he had another procedure on his hip. In early August, he signed a minor league
contract with the Boston Red Sox. He
would only play in five games at AAA Pawtucket, hitting .231 with two RBIs, before
suffering another setback. He announced
his retirement in April of the following year.
For his career, Delgado hit .280 with 483 doubles, 18
triples, 473 home runs and 1512 RBIs, with 1109 walks and 1745 strikeouts. His career on base percentage was .383, and
his career OPS was .929. He was never
accused of being fleet of foot, with only 14 career stolen bases, but he
actually had more intentional walks – 186 – and hit by pitch – 172 – than double
plays grounded into – 152. Despite all
of his games at catcher in the minor leagues, he only caught five errorless
innings in two games in the majors.
Overall at first base, in 1767 career games, he only made 129 errors for
a .992 fielding percentage, but never won a Gold Glove award.
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| It's easier to hit with two bats. |
Despite his average being, well, average, his on base
percentage is actually 147th best in major league history. His slugging percentage of .546 ranks 28th
all time, and his OPS ranks 37th all time. His 473 home runs rank 31st all
time. One stat that stuck out to me is
that his hit by pitch total ranks 14th all time. That’s somewhat unusual for a slugging first
baseman. Jason Giambi (180) and Andres
Galarraga (178) rank just ahead of him, but other than that, not many other
first basemen among the leaders in that category. His intentional walk count ranks 22nd
all time, and his HR/AB ratio of 15.4 is 23rd all time, right
between Ron Kittle and Ken Griffey, Jr.
He is one of six major league players to have hit 30 home runs in 10
consecutive seasons, the others being Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Albert
Pujols, Jimmie Foxx and Sammy Sosa.
It will be VERY interesting to see what kind of response
that Delgado gets from Hall of Fame voters next year when he first becomes
eligible. Never linked to any sort of
steroid allegations, that may earn him a few votes alone. He was also the 2006 winner of the Roberto
Clemente Award. Before we feel sorry for
Delgado, worrying he might not make the Hall of Fame, let’s not forget that he
made a crap-ton of money in his career – well over $140 million. But he’s used some of that money for good
use. He was, and still is, quite active in
charitable causes in his native Puerto Rico.
Here’s to you, Carlos Delgado! We might not sleep on a pile of money at
night, but most of us can certainly empathize with your career mismanagement.
Twenty-four years ago, the 1990 Cincinnati Reds were on
their way to winning the World Series.
They finished the regular season in first place at 91-71, five games
ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They
would go on to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates in six games, and then sweep the
Oakland A’s, who, despite not winning the World Series, was clearly the best
team in baseball that year. But the Reds
got hot, Jose Rijo gave up nine hits and one earned run in 15 1/3 innings, and
that was that.
Before the start of the 1989 season, Benzinger was traded
with Jeff Sellers and Luis Vasquez to the Cincinnati Reds for Nick Esasky and
Rob Murphy. Sellers would pitch in one
minor league game for the Reds, and would never pitch in the majors again. Vasquez would never make it to the majors,
but he did give AAA Nashville 47 games, compiling a 15-19 record for them. On the other end of the trade, Esasky gave
the Sox one season, hitting .277 with 30 home runs, 108 RBIs, and an 18th
place finish in the American League MVP voting.
Murphy would be bullpen filler for two seasons for the Sox, throwing 142
games, compiling a 5-13 record with 16 saves.
Fortunately for the Reds, prior to the 1990 season, they
acquired William Harold (Hal) Morris from the Yankees. Through the first half of the season, Morris
played sparingly. As of June 19th,
he was only hitting .222. Between June
20th and July 22nd, he hit .508, raising his batting
average to .419 on the season. The rest
of the way out, he hit .309, and had completely replaced Benzinger at first
base. Both players were now World Series
champions, but they were headed in opposite directions.
1991 would be Benzinger’s last season in Cincinnati. On Opening Day, he went 3-4 with four RBIs,
only a home run shy of the cycle, in a 6-5 victory over the Houston
Astros. Over his next 50 games, through
July 7th when he was traded to the Kansas City Royals for Domingo Mota and Chris Gwynn, he hit .168
with two doubles, a triple, a home run and seven RBIs. The change of scenery seemed to be a boost to
him, as for the rest of July for the Royals, he hit .347 with four doubles, a
triple, two home runs and 18 RBIs. This
included a grand slam on July 23rd, which proved to be the game
winner in an 8-7 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. Over the final two months of the season, he
played mainly replacement level ball, hitting .275, but he didn’t hit a single
home run, which wasn’t exactly ideal for an American League first baseman. For the season, he hit .262 with 18 doubles,
five triples, three home runs and 51 RBIs.
In December of 1991, Benzinger was traded yet again, this
time to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He
probably assumed when he was traded that he would be replacing Eddie Murray at first base, after Murray signed with the New York Mets. That assumption would be false, as the
Dodgers had a young Eric Karros coming up.
Karros hit .316 with 22 home runs and 101 RBIs at AAA Albuquerque in
1991. Karros would go on to win the NL
Rookie of the Year award at first base for the Dodgers in 1992.
Benzinger would return to the Giants in 1994, this time with
the starting first base job in hand after Clark signed with the Texas
Rangers. Unfortunately, his second half
magic from the previous season couldn’t carry over into the new year, as in the
first half, he only hit .249 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs. That’s an average month for Adam Dunn, but
when you’re talking about three months, that’s not very good for a first
baseman. He had mostly the same results
for most of July, but towards the end of the month through the final game on August
10th, he hit .516 over his final 31 at bats. Benzinger was sad to see the season cancelled
by the strike, just as he was getting hot.
Benzinger once again was with the Giants to start the 1995
season. Unfortunately, the Giants had
now decided that the Todd Benzinger era at first base was over, and J.R.
Phillps was the future. Benzinger’s
first seven games of the season all featured one hitless at bat. On May 13th, he would play in his
final complete game, and a day later, he would play in his last career
game. Fittingly enough, Benzinger was
intentionally walked in his final career at bat. It wasn’t a good idea in 1989, and it wasn’t
a good idea in 1995. Darren Lewis
singled home Royce Clayton to beat the Pirates 2-1 in the bottom of the 10th. The next day, the Giants released
Benzinger. At the time of his release,
Phillps was batting .119. That’s how
committed the Giants were to the idea that Benzinger was not part of their
future plans.
After his playing days were over, he managed A ball Dayton
in the Reds farm system. A .404 batting average will make you immortal. A .404
winning percentage, especially in A ball, will make you unemployed.
