2018 Division Winning and World Series Odds
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And guess what? We won the division.
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Anything can happen guys. Let the season play out. LET'S HAVING SOME FUN!

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Before every Bills’ game I spend some time, probably too much time, digging into how the Bills roster stacks up against their opponent’s. While doing this I specifically look at 5 matchups; Bills’ Pass Offense vs. Opponent’s Pass Defense, Bills’ Rush Offense vs. Opponent’s Rush Defense, Bills’ Pass Defense vs. Opponent’s Pass Offense, Bills’ Rush Defense vs. Opponent’s Rush Offense, Bills’ Special Teams vs. Opponent’s Special Teams. After doing all of this I try to come up with reasons “Why We Will Lose” and “Why We Will Win” ultimately leading to a prediction. Below I present 2020’s 18th iteration of this analysis for the Bills upcoming home game against the Ravens. Included is a scale to rank the advantage in each matchup from 👏👏👏👏👏 (Massive Advantage) to 👏 (Minimal Advantage).
NOTE: If you have followed this series all season long be prepared, these playoff posts are very long and highly detailed. If this is your first time reading, I hope you enjoy and can find the time to finish the whole thing.
Bills’ Passing Offense vs. Ravens’ Passing Defense
After yet another great performance throwing the ball the Buffalo Bills are proving that they can beat anyone and everyone through the air. In their past 4 games the Bills have played the #11 (DEN), #18 (NWE), #6 (MIA), and #8 (IND) pass defenses, according to Football Outsiders Pass Defense DVOA, and have gone 108/153 (70.6%) for 1415 yards and a 12:2 TD:INT Ratio (Josh Allen’s stats here). Making the Bills recent run of success more impressive is that they have been successful against starkly different schemes, with tangible evidence the past two weeks. The Dolphins, who predominately run man coverage, were shredded for 388 passing yards, 124 of which came while targeting First Team All-Pro CB Xavien Howard. The Bills followed up this performance with Josh Allen picking apart the Colt’s Zone First Scheme for a Playoff leading passer rating of 121.6 (His regular season Passer Rating was 107.2). All of this leads to the following conclusion, with the way the Bills are playing right now there does not seem to be any specific scheme, team, or player that is capable of stopping the Bills’ passing attack.
Against the Ravens the Bills will need to find a way to beat Press Man Coverage. With one of the most physically gifted set of DBs in the NFL, headlined by Marcus Peters and Marlon Humphrey, the Ravens are particularly adept at this scheme. Their top two corners have both earned All-Pro honors at least once in their career primarily due to their physicality, but it is their ball skills which put them over the top. In 164 combined games Peters and Humphrey have 42 INTs, 20 FF, 11 FR, and 9 Defensive TDs. With the growing expectation that the Bills will primarily run 10 personnel (1RB, 4WR) the Ravens will likely spend the majority of Saturday in their Nickel package meaning that Jimmy Smith will join the previously mentioned CBs on the field. This sets up likely man matchups of Peters on Diggs, Smith on Brown, Humphrey in the Slot covering Beasley, and one of the two safeties (Chuck Clark, DeShon Elliott) on Gabe Davis. In this alignment the Ravens would be forced to choose between blitzing the safety not covering Davis or having that player shade deep over the top to Diggs side of the field. At the end of the day this will be a game of 1-on-1 matchups with the winner determined by which side can consistently beat the other.
The Ravens’ Press Man is able to excel because of their skill in the secondary but where it becomes one of the most dangerous schemes in the NFL is their proficiency and consistency in rushing the passer. For the 3rd straight season the Ravens lead the NFL in Blitz %, this year blitzing 44.1% of the time (Dolphins are 2nd at 40.6%). This facilitated an environment where the Ravens were able to pressure opposing QBs on 24.0% of their drop backs (NFL-11) and sack those QBs 39 times (NFL-14). The Press Man and Pass Rush work in concert by reducing the ability for offenses to complete quick short passes which then allows the pass rush more time to disrupt the QB. The Ravens will send anywhere from 5-8 players at the QB with the players primarily running up field being Patrick Queen (MLB) and Matt Judon (OLB) but when forced into Nickel concepts the Ravens will not hesitate to send either safety. All of this allowed the 2019 Ravens to put constant pressure on Josh Allen during their game last season ultimately resulting in 5 sacks for a loss (6 total) with 4 of them occurring with 5+ blitzers (#1, #2, #3, #4). It is however important to note that the Buffalo Bills offense from 2019 looks absolutely nothing like they do in 2020, in fact it is remarkable how drastically different they truly look.
This matchup comes down to the Bills receivers being able to beat whichever DB is lined up in front of them. If the Bills can accomplish this, then it will allow Allen to get rid of the ball before the Ravens pass rush is able to get to him. If the reverse were to occur it will create an environment where multiple blindside forced fumbles and/or interceptions may occur which would be incredibly difficult for the Bills to recover from. While on paper this matchup may be extremely close the reality is that the Bills simply have to many weapons that excel at beating man coverage for the Ravens to consistently stop. Stefon Diggs is widely regarded as one of the best receivers against man coverage in the entire NFL while the quickness of Cole Beasley provides for the ability to continuously beat man coverage in the intermediate range. Couple this with the Ravens struggles in covering TEs and RBs while still considering that the Ravens will need to find a way to contend with Gabe Davis and John Brown and the Bills, surprisingly, have a massive advantage here.
EDGE: Bills 👏 👏 👏 👏
Bills’ Rushing Offense vs. Ravens’ Rushing Defense
With Zack Moss going down with a season ending injury Wildcard weekend most Bills’ fans have spent this week wondering who RB2 will be behind Devin Singletary. Up until Thursday afternoon it was very clearly a three-horse race between T.J. Yeldon, Antonio Williams, and Devonta Freeman but via a statement from Sean McDermott we now know the winner of that race. T.J. Yeldon will suit up on Saturday night and be the RB2 behind Devin Singletary. McDermott also did make it very clear that this did not preclude the Bills from activating Antonio Williams for the Ravens game. Regardless of if it is one or two backs behind Singletary we can say with a fair degree of certainty that he will be the Bellcow back moving forward for Buffalo, meaning you can expect him to see north of 75% of the offensive snaps. One concern with that is in games where Singletary has exceeded 60% of offensive snaps (6) in 2020 he has a Y/A of 3.6 and in all other games he has a Y/A of 5.1. Let me make this abundantly clear, and see all of my previous posts for proof, I believe that the majority of the issues running the ball in 2020 are due to the blocking up front and not the RBs carrying the ball however, this stark contrast in Y/A should be a concern moving forward for a Bills’ team who at times will need to show they can move the ball on the ground if they want to continue winning football games.
This section now lends itself to a breakdown of the backups to Singletary on Saturday, one we know, and one is a maybe. With that in mind we start with T.J. Yeldon who has demonstrated the ability to be a competent runner of the football throughout his career with an acceptable 4.1 Y/A. Yeldon possesses exceptional agility for a player that is 6’1” 225lb and at times in his career has been one of the more dangerous receiving options in the NFL coming out of the backfield. The main knock Bills’ fans have on Yeldon is his fumbling where he has lost the ball 7 times on 677 career touches (1 per 97), for context Singletary has 5 on 374 (1 per 75). Next to discuss is the new darling of Bills Mafia, undrafted rookie Antonio Williams. One of the bigger unknowns on the Bills’ roster, Williams busted onto the scene against Miami with 83 all-purpose yards on 13 touches for 2 TDs in just one half. Out of UNC the 5’11” 215lb RB, who looks and plays much bigger, possesses exceptional lateral quickness and does not shy away from contact making him a dangerous player once he gets to the second level. Also, while it is highly improbable, we see him Saturday, I would be remised to not mention the signing of 2-time Pro Bowler Devonta Freeman who just a few years back was considered one of the best RBs in the game. Freeman suffered a groin injury in 2018 which required surgery which has since deprived him of some of the quickness that made him one of the biggest home run threats in the league. Still, Freeman provides a veteran presence with gas left in the tank, at just 28, he could be an integral part of the Bills’ Playoff push. All these players may play a factor if the Bills continue to advance in the playoffs, but Bills Mafia should fully expect T.J. Yeldon to do so on Saturday night.
If and when the Bills do run the ball, they will be doing so against a team which ranks 26th in the NFL (The Bills rank 24th) in Y/A against at 4.6. The Ravens also rank 27th in both 20+ A (1 per 32) and 40+ A (1 per 127) which is indicative of their blitz dependent defense. When the Ravens defense aligns with the proper gap they typically bring the ball carrier down in the backfield as the team has combined for 71 TFLs but when they miss ball carriers tend to pick up chunk yardage leaving their secondary to clean up free runners. This of course assumes the ball carrier can bypass the Ravens’ 3-4 alignment which is championed by one of the deeper DLs in all of football. On the right side is, long time Broncos DE, Derek Wolfe who typically lines up somewhere from the B to C gap and is one of the better run stuffers at the position. In the middle is the behemoth known as Brandon Williams who specializes as a NT, a dying position in the NFL that Williams still excels at. Lastly left of Williams is Calais Campbell who while listed as a DE plays more like a DT because of the blitz packages which the Ravens use. Campbell may be 34 and towards the end of his career but this exceptionally physical and athletic lineman will threaten Bills LG Ike Boettger all night.
The last group of players to cover for the Ravens is one of the most athletically gifted groups in the entire NFL, the Ravens LBs. Strength, Speed, Quickness, you name it, the 6 primary LBs on this team have it all. They are headlined by 21-year-old MLB Patrick Queen who ran a blazing 4.5 at the rookie combine in 2020. About as promising as they come Queen lead the Ravens in Tackles and TFLs and will challenge Josh Allen on any QB Draws the Bills may attempt. Next to him is either Pass Rush specialist Matt Judon or Pass Coverage specialist Tyus Bowser. Judon earned his second straight Pro Bowl selection because of his propensity to pressure the QB with his 4th straight season of 6+ sacks from the OLB position. Bowser, not nearly the pass rusher Judon is, instead has 3 INTs this season and an astounding 42.2 passer rating against (On just 15 targets). There are other players of note like ILB L.J. Fort, long time vet Pernell McPhee, or even the highly sought after Yannick Ngakoue but all you really need to know is that regardless of pass or run this unit has the ability to get into the backfield or chase down players that get outside of it.
EDGE: Ravens 👏 👏
Bills’ Passing Defense vs. Ravens’ Passing Offense
Against the Colts the Bills’ struggled at times against the pass with the most damage coming from the Colts’ TEs and the 6’4” rookie WR Michael Pittman. In isolation Phillip Rivers 300+ pass yard day implies that the secondary struggled covering their responsibilities, in reality the issue lay elsewhere. Rivers finished the 2020 season with a Time-to-Throw of just 2.52s (NFL-6) which he continued into the playoffs making it difficult for the Bills to get any pressure on the Indy QB. In fact, it was so difficult that the Bills had only 1 QB hit the entire game. This is the same team that in their last 6 games, post their Bye Week, was averaging 5.5 QB Hits per game. With the Bills running the Palms Scheme they are highly dependent on either pressure or extended Time-to-Throw in order to get into their secondary transitions, neither of those happened on Saturday which is why the Colts were so successful through the air.
Against the Ravens the Bills should be able to get more players in the vicinity of Lamar Jackson than they did Rivers. Of the 41 players with more than 128 pass attempts in 2020 Lamar ranked 38th in Time-To-Throw holding onto the ball for an average of 2.98 seconds. This was a primary reason that Lamar was sacked 29 times (NFL-13) and fumbled the ball 10 times. Obviously, the challenge here is that while teams can occasionally get pressure on Lamar, and even bring him down, the counter of his rushing ability poses a bigger threat (More on that in the rushing section). Credit is still due to Lamar and his OL who lost 2019 All-Pro LT Ronnie Stanley to an ankle injury just 6 games into the season and had to flip their RT, Orlando Brown Jr., over to LT and plug and play from there. While the main threat of Lamar is undoubtedly his legs, he did finish 2020 with 2757 passing yards, 26 Passing TDs, and just 9 INTs by utilizing his receiving weapons to the best of their abilities.
At receiver the Ravens don’t have one imposing weapon, but they do have a slew of good options. First and foremost of these options is 2019 1st round draft pick Marquise “Hollywood” Brown who some tried to drop the “Bust” tag on in the middle of the season after he had a 4-game stretch where he caught just 6 balls for 55 yards and 1 TD. In opposition to that ideal try taking those 4 games out of the season and then pacing it to 16 games, when doing that Browns’ season would be 65 catches for 892 yards and 9 TDs, a solid season for any NFL player. He also answered the bell Wildcard weekend raking in 7 catches for 109 yards against a stout Tennessee secondary. Outside of him the only other receivers of note are Willie Snead, a vet who built his name in New Orleans and is a solid option at WR, Devin Duvernay, a lightning quick 2020 3rd round draft pick, and Miles Boykin, their big bodied WR who has a knack for bodying opposing defenders. But by far their most dangerous weapon in the passing game is not a WR but instead their TE, one of the best in the league, Mark Andrews. Andrews is a walking Tonka Truck that is built the same way as Dawson Knox with better hands and a more complete set of receiving skills. This is Lamar’s check down option which is a primary reason he shared the team lead in receptions (58) and finished second in receiving yards (701) meaning he should be the Bills’ biggest concern in the air on Saturday night.
For the Bills to dominate this battle they will need to get pressure on Lamar while simultaneously maintaining contain to avoid him escaping the pocket. Assuming they can accomplish this, which is a tall order, they will need to avoid letting all 3 of the Ravens primary receivers beat them deep and put a big body, say Tremaine Edmunds, on Mark Andrews. RBs have yet to prove a consistent threat for the Ravens through the air in 2020 accounting for just 15.8% of targets and 18.3% of catches but are something to monitor Saturday night as the Bills try to contain Lamar while putting a spy in the middle to avoid a big run. Buffalo must win this matchup, and should, if they have any chance of winning this game. A takeaway or two through the air wouldn’t hurt either.
EDGE: Bills 👏 👏 👏
Bills’ Rushing Defense vs. Ravens’ Rushing Offense
The Bills had no answers against the Colts run game Wildcard weekend giving up the most rushing yards they have since the Cardinals game on November 15, 2020. Most of Buffalo’s success came when the Colts most powerful back, Jonathan Taylor, was running the ball holding him to just 3.7 Y/A but they had issues with the quicker players. Nyheim Hines only rushed the ball 6 times but accounted for 75 yards on carries of 4, 1, 29, 3, 33, and 5. This stat line should worry a Bills’ fan base that is hoping the Bills can beat a team stacked with shifty players and advance to their first AFC Championship Game since 1993.
The Ravens offense is built off an option scheme the likes of which the NFL has never seen. This offense can execute everything and anything on the ground and it all starts with QB Lamar Jackson. On option plays the QB will generally key off one defender and read which “option” said player chooses to defend. An example, a designed handoff to the right side of the line except all linemen wash down to the left and leave the defensive end unblocked. When this occurs it forces the defensive end to choose between scraping down to the RB taking the supposed handoff or to maintain contain on the QB (See example here). Lamar Jackson is an expert at reading such defenders and even in the rare event where he keeps the ball when he should hand it off, he has the athleticism to beat the defender to the edge. When handing the ball off he primarily will be handing it to Gus Edwards or J.K. Dobbins. Gus the Bus is bigger than Melvin Gordon but plays with the speed of Alvin Kamara which has allowed him to maintain a Y/A of 5.0+ in each of his first 3 seasons. J.K. Dobbins is the smaller, faster, and quicker of the two which makes for a good change of pace from Edwards. This three headed monster has created for the Ravens one of the best rushing attacks in NFL history which continues to defy the mantra that the NFL is just a passing league.
The second part of the Ravens that make them so deadly running the football is their offensive line. At the two guard spots are Bradley Bozeman (LG) and Ben Powers (RG) who each possess incredible strength which allows them control defenders at the time of the snap. Neither is exceptionally gifted at pulling or blocking in the open field but their strength couples nicely with the athleticism of the Ravens backfield. Between them is Center Patrick Mekari who took the starting Job from Matt Skura midway through the season after snapping issues forced him to the bench. Mekari is a big bruiser like his guards Bozeman and Powers which gives the Ravens just south of half a ton of Man in the middle of their line. At RT is veteran D.J. Fluker who was chosen 11th overall by the San Diego Chargers in 2013. Fluker now on his 4th team in 8 seasons is a competent RT crushing the scales at nearly 350lb but is dealing with a nagging knee injury which is something to monitor. Last is LT Orlando Brown who was laughed at for only putting up 14 on the bench press at his combine three years ago and has quieted the doubters by being named to his 2nd straight Pro Bowl. In all this is an above average OL built perfectly for a Lamar Jackson lead offense.
Buffalo will need to slow down the Ravens run game if they have any chance of winning on Saturday and this may be an odd thing to read, but the Bills defense actually lends itself to do just that. There has been discussion all week on Reddit, Twitter, and everywhere else of who will play the spy for the Bills against the Ravens and while they assuredly will occasionally spy, with Edmunds, Milano, or Poyer, the Bills’ Palms Scheme is actually proficient at slowing down mobile QBs. In this scheme the Bills will have multiple defenders zoned in the middle of the field, effectively playing a coverage spy on Lamar while also holding an advantage on the outside via their tradeoff concepts. In the event Lamar does break outside the pocket the Bills defense allows the boundary guarding CB to step forward to Lamar while the safety over the top takes the receiver. This is how the Bills defense is built and while an incredibly difficult scheme to run it is one the Bills have mastered. Don’t take this description of the Bills’ defense to say they will nullify Lamar Jackson but realize that the Bills have the tools to somewhat contain him, that is assuming they play a perfect game.
EDGE: Ravens 👏 👏 👏 👏
Bills’ Special Teams vs. Ravens’ Special Teams
Throughout 2020 the Bills’ average starting field position was their own 30.7-yard line (NFL-6). Against the Colts their average starting field position was their own 15.4-yard line. The Bills would obviously go on to win this game, but field position has proved to be an indicator of success in 2020 as each team finishing within the Top-8 made the playoffs. This leads to a defense of one of the Bills most polarizing players, Andre Roberts, who has been integral to the Bills’ success in this measure and the insinuation that he was a major contributing factor in the Bills’ field position issues Wildcard weekend is not backed up by any tangible evidence. In the first half of the Colts’ game the Bills’ average starting field position was the 7.8-yard line primarily because of an exceptional Colts’ ST unit and the bend, don’t break, style of the Bills’ defense. How did each of the Colts’ first 6 drives end? Punt downed at the Bills’ 3, Magical kickoff dies on the Bills’ 15, Punt fair catch at the Bills’ 11, Kickoff returned by Roberts’ to the 12 with a 6 yard penalty bringing it back to the Bills’ 6, Colt’s Turnover on Downs at the Bills’ 4, Colts kneel before halftime. For the Bills’ this game was an aberration, and one I have confidence they will clean up against the Ravens, mainly because I have confidence in Andre Roberts.
Outside of the return game the Special Teams group for Buffalo continues to be one of the best in the NFL. Corey Bojorquez rightfully received a vote to the All-Pro team, and it could be argued he deserved more. Bojo punted 4 times Wildcard Weekend averaging 47.0 Y/P with a Net Y/P of 43.5. These numbers would have been significantly higher had he not purposely drilled in I20 punt which only required a 29-yard kick. At kicker is another player who arguably deserved some All-Pro consideration, rookie Tyler Bass. This kid has been on complete fire the past 10 weeks going 42/43 on XPs and 18/19 on FGs with his only miss coming from 61 yards out. I was personally skeptical on Bass coming into the season, but my goodness, this kid is a stud. There is one more player on the Bills’ Special Teams that got an All-Pro vote, Tyler Matakevich. A guru at the position the man nicknamed “Dirty Red” is around the ball carrier on every kick and tossing people around on every return. Bills’ fans know more than most that Special Teams players can have a huge impact on a team and the Bills’ have a ton of great ones.
The Ravens also have one of the better Special Teams units in the NFL. For most of the season Devin Duvernay handled KR while James Proche took care of PR however, in recent weeks Duvernay has taken control of both. Averaging 11.5 Y/PR and 27.5 Y/KR, with a 93-yard return for a TD, Duvernay is a dynamic rookie with open field speed that few can match. Just like the Colts game this will likely effect the Bills’ short kick strategy meaning a lot of touchbacks when the Bills kick off. Punting for the Ravens is the 38-year old veteran Sam Koch who the Ravens have under contract until he is 40. Koch had his lowest Y/P (44.5) in a decade but finished 8th in the NFL with a Net Y/P of 42.8, a difference of just 1.7. Koch rarely allows players to return the ball and when they do, they are averaging just 4.8 Y/R. Last is the best to ever do it, Kicker Justin Tucker. Tucker has a 90.7 FG% in the regular season throughout his career with a career long of 61. As automatic as they come if you see Tucker on the field there is basically no tradition Bills’ fans can do that would make him miss.
EDGE: Bills 👏
Why We Will Lose
The Ravens have steadily improved the entire season and are peaking at the perfect time. Improving their odds of advancing is that the Ravens’ strengths matchup well against the Bills’ weaknesses. On defense the Ravens excel against the pass and have been able to put pressure on every QB they have played in 2020. That pressure should be extra concerning for a Bills’ team that has seen their star QB struggle at holding onto the football, now realize that the Ravens had a combined 25 forced fumbles in the regular season and start panicking. In reality the Ravens only weakness on defense is against the run which is something that they shouldn’t particularly care about when playing a Bills team who has struggled running the ball and should find a more difficult go of things after losing their RB2.
On offense the Ravens continue to be one of the best running teams in history. Whether it be Gus Edwards, J.K. Dobbins, or Lamar Jackson doesn’t matter because whoever has the ball will be able to effectively move it on the ground. This means consistent yardage with the occasional big run sprinkled in. That continuous success ultimately will keep the ball out of the hands of Buffalo’s offense while putting up points for Baltimore which is a typical strategy against a Bills team that has struggled against the run in 2020. Making matters worse is the Bills’ can’t just bail out to stop the run because if they did attempt this Lamar Jackson, the 2019 MVP, has shown the ability to make big plays through the air and will do so against this Bills’ team. The Ravens offense is built to beat a team like Buffalo, as is their defense, which is a recipe for a Baltimore victory.
Why We Will Win
The 2019 Bills lost to the Ravens 24-17. The 2020 Bills are a significantly improved version of that team with an MVP caliber QB. The Bills offense had no answer for the Ravens pressure last season which is a primary reason they went out and got a receiver that could specifically help with handling that scheme. That receiver is your first team All-Pro WR, Stefon Diggs, who has dominated every single player that has tried to guard him this season. You factor him in with Buffalo’s other 3 options at the position and the Bills suddenly have the ability to put up points against a Ravens’ defense that is one of the best in the NFL.
On defense the Bills may not have had the same success in 2020 that they did in 2019 but they have continually improved all season long. This game comes down to the Bills’ ability to contain Lamar Jackson and a healthy Matt Milano makes that slightly easier. Dark horse candidate to have big game is A.J. Epenesa who the Bills coaching staff has surely coached up to not do to much and instead do his 1/11th. And that is just what every single Bills’ player must do, their 1/11th, do that and you won’t stop Lamar Jackson, but you can reduce the damage he inflicts. If Buffalo accomplishes that your Bills will be heading to their first AFC Championship game in nearly 30 years.
Prediction: Bills 27 – Ravens 24
This is going to be a close game whichever way you slice it. On paper the Ravens seem to have the matchups but in reality, the Bills seem to have the ability to win them. Because this will be so close this game likely comes down to which team makes fewer mistakes, inclusive of turnovers. With the way the Bills are playing right now you must trust Josh Allen more than Lamar Jackson to hold onto the ball. At the end of the night though this will be a battle of heavyweights with the last one standing being one game away from Super Bowl Sunday.

So. What happened on the South Side of Chicago in 2020? It’s time to sit back, relax and strap it down. We’ll give you the three sentence version before the long-winded stuff starts:
The White Sox finished 3rd in the A.L. Central with a record of 35-25. They made their first appearance in the postseason since 2008, where they lost 2 games to 1 against the Oakland Athletics. Jose Abreu was named the American League MVP. If we only have time to toast three things, that’s what we’re toasting.
For the sake of the toast we have selected our team’s own beer, brewed by Goose Island.
https://www.gooseisland.com/beers/limited-release-beers/sox-golden-ale
Not so fast, Tony LaRussa. Welcome back to Chicago, but please report to the kitchen and find some Apple Juice or a Jarritos to toast with. No beer for you, buddy, ok? Relax, stretch, make a sandwich. We need you in the dugout this year.
As long as we’re here we might as well toast all the pubs and restaurants around the ballpark who are fighting to make it to the 2021 season. Not all of them will, but Godspeed to the ones who do. Last I checked, Maxwell Street Depot is still serving pork chop sandwiches. We’re toasting the CHICAGO White Sox here, and Chicago takes its food seriously.
Ok, let’s take a break from toasting and do some Sox Math. Take the number of sentences in that summary. SUBTRACT the number of RBIs hit by Jose Abreu and MULTIPLY by the total number of hits that Lucas Giolito gave up on August 25th. Your result should equal the total paid attendance at Guaranteed Rate Field in 2020.
On the 25th of August of 2020 it had been exactly 329 days since the last time we ate a grilled hot dog with caramelized onions and yellow mustard that was cooked on the concourse of Guaranteed Rate Field (we’re only toasting the hot dog and the baseball stuff...we’re not toasting the name of the building.) We were happy baseball had returned but the stands filled with cardboard cutouts had migrated, in the mind’s eye anyway, to a sly form of mockery. Something had to change. Those cardboard ghosts and the electronic crowd noise seemed to whisper “fuck you, meatbags” with every pitch.
Well...Lucas Frost Giolito took the baseball that day, looked at the Pittsburgh Pirates, and said “don’t cancel the postgame show.”
Giolito's No-Hitter
In front of absolutely no fans we had our first South Side no-hitter by the good guys since Buehrle in 2009. OK, sure, Philip Humber pitched one in Seattle in 2012 but does anyone care what happens in Seattle? We have a hunch we won’t soon forget Giolito’s no-no during the plague season of 2020.
Of course we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Gio wasn’t even our best pitcher this year. That honor falls to “Big D” Dallas Keuchel. We were sitting around thinking about a highlight to look for but, you know what, he was just kind of quietly telling teams to “grab some bench”, finishing with an ERA under 2 and 6 wins. If you are just waking up from falling asleep last February then, trust me, 6 wins is fantastic.
Big D
Before we get to toasting some bats can we take a minute to appreciate our broadcasters? Broadcast games were the only show in town this year, and the White Sox have a world class television booth in Steve Stone and Jason Benetti. If you don’t know these guys, you definitely should. Jason can be heard broadcasting NCAA football, NCAA Basketball, and the occasional NBA game, so even if you’re out-of-market for White Sox Home broadcasts his voice may sound familiar.
You can hear Jason and Steve’s fine work in the various clips featured in this toast!
Let’s also take a moment to recognize Hawk Harrelson, recipient of the 2020 Ford C. Frick Award. Hawk joins Harry Caray, Jack Brickhouse, Vin Scully, Jack Buck and many others in the rolls of Frick award winners. Jason and Steve have some big shoes to fill in the wake of Hawk’s retirement, which we sincerely hope he is enjoying. Hopefully he’ll have an opportunity to sit down and STRETCH out for a game or two in 2021. Retirement is great and all but sooner or later everyone makes their way back to the ballpark.
Hawk Highlights
The White Sox radio booth sounded a great deal different in 2020 because we lost Ed Farmer on April 1st.
Ed Farmer
Ed spent 29 seasons in the White Sox Radio booth following a long career in Major League Baseball where he pitched for nine teams and worked in a scouting role after retiring from play. Those of us who are solidly middle-aged just want to express how odd the radio broadcasts sound to us without Ed’s voice. If you, like many of us, spent your summers in Michigan or Wisconsin beyond the reach of television signals but well within the reach of AM radio then it would have been Ed Farmer whose voice you heard on color commentary, and years later play-by-play. Ed will be missed, but don’t worry! Len Kasper will be trading in his Cubs hat for a Sox hat in 2021 and reporting to the Sox radio booth alongside Darrin Jackson.
The White Sox lost a pair of greats in Dick Allen and Tom Seaver. Dick Allen had 3 All-Star seasons with the White Sox, highlighted by some monstrous offensive numbers on his way to his 1972 MVP win, before being chased out of town by White Sox Legend Ron Santo. On July 31, 1972, he became the first “modern era” player to hit two inside-the-park homeruns in a single game..
Dick Allen
Tom Seaver
Tom Seaver won his 300th career game at Yankee Stadium, in a White Sox uniform.
The White Sox flashed a dangerous offense in 2020 led by our league MVP, Jose Abreu (you can just call him MVPito...we’ll know who you’re talking about.)
MVPito Extends his hitting streak
MVPito's second 3-run bomb of the game
MVPito led the White Sox in nearly every offensive category in a season where he may have been expected to regress, leading the American League in slugging percentage (.617), RBIs (60), hits (76), extra base hits (34), etc. He earned a 22-game hit streak, and homered 6 times at Wrigley Field (including 4 times in a row, mercy!). Obviously, he did NOT regress, and instead demonstrated to his apprentices how you crush baseballs for 60 games.
Speaking of his apprentices, he had many, and they were all toast-worthy.
Luis Robert makes a filthy catch
Oh, won’t someone save that poor baseball from rolling onto the warning track? Luis Robert sure as hell did. Make sure you listen to Jason Benetti’s call on that play.
Luis Robert launches a ball into O'Hare airspace
To those who love baseball and have watched a lot of baseball you know that feeling when your guy hits the ball so hard that the outfielder doesn’t even move his feet. A toast to Luis Robert doing this many, many more times over the course of his career. Did we mention he’s a rookie?
Meanwhile, Eloy Jiminez, who is no longer a Rookie, improved his offensive numbers and continued to make the Cubs regret trading him.
Eloy looks at the Ivy and says "no, I will hit the ball over it, as is tradition."
In late July another rookie, Nick Madrigal boarded the team bus from far-off Schaumburg, Illinois (or maybe he took an Uber or drove his own car, we don’t know, it’s not actually that far) to move his stuff into the big league clubhouse. Within a few days he not only had his first big league hit...he had his first four hit game. We drank to that when it happened and we’ll drink to that again. Nick had some shoulder problems so we didn't get to see his full potential. Let's toast his health! At last report he has recovered from surgery and will be 100% by April.
Nick establishes himself as a bona-fide hitter
If MVPito was the face of the team, Tim Anderson was the heart. It’s no coincidence that the White Sox got hot shortly after Tim Anderson came back from the IL in August. In the 5 weeks after coming back, Tim Anderson made a concerted effort at his second consecutive batting title, hitting .386 in that span, before losing steam and finishing second. He just missed that one! He also set an MLB record with 9 hits in his first 3 postseason games.
TA7 snags one
Tim and his wife Bria also continued their charity work in 2020 in Chicago and Tuskaloosa. Their League of Leaders held back to school drives, hosted scholarships, food drives, and spoke out against violence. Tim was the White Sox nominee for the 2020 Roberto Clemente award which in end went to Adam Wainwright. Cheers to Adam and all the nominees from all 30 teams.
Don’t stop now, boys!
After the season, we said goodbye to Ricky Renteria. He gone! He was a manager who never lost the clubhouse, was respected and beloved by his team, but questionable decisions and a late-season collapse necessitated a change. He was a key part in our rebuilding process and we thank him for all he did for us but now we got a whoooole lot of work to do.
Raise a glass to the 2020 White Sox! Before we know it, the snow will melt and the 2021 campaign will start. Hope to see you all at the ballpark, just don’t stand between any of us and the hot dog stand, especially if you’re wearing a Twins cap. We can’t be held responsible for what we’ll do when we get to smell those onions grilling again.
Edit: The moderators of /whitesox collaborated on this post.

This is part 3 of my "How much WAR would ________ get?" series. You can find How much (negative) WAR would I accrue playing on a Major League team for a full season? here and How much (negative) WAR would a potato accrue playing centerfield for a Major League team for a full season? here.

That's right, boys and girls. We're back with a new conundrum. Let me set the stage. Speedy McHitterson has been discovered to be a perfect leadoff hitter. He makes every play in center, he steals second at every opportunity, he has a perfect eye, and when he's thrown a strike, he gets a hit every time. However, he's incredibly shy and afraid to overstep his bounds. This means he'll never swing at a pitch outside the zone, even if he knows he can hit it. He also will never go past first base on a hit, so every his is a single. Speedy is afraid of stepping on teammates toes, literally and figuratively, so he won't make any plays in the field that weren't meant for him. He's also fearful of being perceived as too overconfident, so stealing third is out of the question, let alone stealing home. But for the things he does do, he has a 100% success rate.
To the categories!

Positional Adjustment

Speedy, like Tate, will be manning center for a full season. 162 games of CF is worth 2.5 runs.

Replacement Level

As previously established, the average leadoff hitter would have ~761 PA per 162 games. But Speedy is no average leadoff hitter. Speedy will have a 1.000 OBP. Meaning compared to the average 255 on-base events for an average leadoff man, Speedy will have 761, which is an extra 506. Following the logic from last time, getting on base an extra 506 times will result in another 56 PA (If one out of every nine extra on-base events result in an extra PA). Which, in turn, will result in an extra 4 PA (I think). So in the end of the day, Speedy will end up with 821 PA on the season.
So if Replacement Level Runs = (570 x (MLB Games/2,430)) x (Runs Per Win/lgPA) x PA then 821 PA will be (570x(2430/2430))x(10.296/186516)x821 coming out to 25.8 Runs.
28.3 Runs

Fielding

This one, it turns out, is quite simple. Similar to how we determined a potato's fielding runs, we compare this perfect player to the 2020 Cincinnati Reds centerfielders. To recap, in 2020, 227 balls were fielded by Reds center fielders. 86 of them went for singles, 22 went for doubles, 3 went for triples. There were no inside-the-park home runs. There were 109 catches made, plus 7 sac flies. This gives opponents a .490 wOBA on balls hit to Reds center fielders. Speedy, being perfect, would allow a 0 wOBA (his middle name is Fielder). Home run robberies are out of the question because, you know. So we'll compare them the same way we did last time, with the same formula we use to determine batting runs batting runs. First we determine the amount of opportunities a center fielder would get in a full season. In 2019, center fielders made 20962 plays. That's about 700 per team over a full season. So the calculation would go thusly:
((.000^wOBA -.490^{lg wOBA} )/1.1857^{wOBA Scale} )x700^{Opportunities} = 289.3 runs
I just realized something really cool. I actually calculated Tater to have this precise number of negative runs, because his wOBA allowed would be exactly double the average. This means if Speedy and Tate were to alternate games, they would average to a league average fielder.
317.6 Runs

Batting

We've already established a few facts. Speedy McHitterson will get about 821 PA in a season. He does not swing at balls outside the strikezone. He hits every ball in the strikezone for a single. This would result in a 1.000/1.000/1.000 slash line, but we would still need to determine how many walks and hits he'd get. So I put together a little table to figure that out.

Count	Frequency	Zone	Out of Zone	Strike odds	Ball odds	Strike overall odds	Ball overall odds
0-0	1.000	95745	89033	.518	.482	.518	.482
0-1	.518	39460	53598	.424	.576	.220	.298
0-2	.220	14985	33022	.312	.688	.069	.151
1-0	.482	37702	33833	.527	.473	.254	.228
1-1	.552	35402	38838	.477	.523	.263	.289
1-2	.415	25414	44600	.363	.637	.150	.264
2-0	.228	13872	10640	.566	.434	.129	.099
2-1	.418	21098	17739	.543	.457	.227	.191
2-2	.491	37457	33526	.528	.472	.259	.232
3-0	.099	4573	2930	.609	.391	.060	.039
3-1	.251	9652	6289	.605	.395	.152	.099
3-2	.384	21163	16146	.567	.433	.218	.166

So to explain: the "Frequency" column is the overall frequency of the count, assuming no swings (which is important, as I'll explain in a second). This was determined by the following columns. "Zone" is pitches in the strikezone on that count. "Out of zone" is pitches outside the strikezone on that count. The next two columns are the percentages of a ball/strike in each count. Knowing that, we can tell the frequency of each count, if the batter never swung. 0-1 is going to be the odds of a strike on 0-0. 0-2 is going to be the odds of a strike on 0-1, times the odds of 0-1 occurring in the first place. 1-1 is the overall odds of a ball on 0-1 plus the overall odds of a strike on 1-0. We can use this chart to work out the number of walks of Mr. McHitterson. If he swings at every ball in the zone, and they all go for hits, the only way for him to get walked is if he's thrown four straight balls. According to this chart, that only happens 3.9% of the time, which we can now use as his walk rate. A 3.9% walk rate with 821 PA comes out to 32 walks in a season. Which leaves him with 789 hits, all for singles. Let's plug that into our wOBA formula. (32^walks x.69^{walk constant} +789^singles x.870 ^{single constant} )/821^PA =.863 wOBA
And from wOBA to wRAA: ((.863^wOBA -.320^{lg wOBA} )/1.157^{wOBA Scale} )x821^PA = 385.3 wRAA
702.9 Runs

Baserunning

To start, we give Speedy the same boost we gave Tate for never hitting into a double play. Over 821 PA, that comes up to 5.9 Runs. But the real value will come from stealing bases. To refresh, Speedy will steal second every time it's available. Afraid of looking like he's showing off, he will never attempt a double steal or a steal of third or home. We'll make the assumption that overall, the situations he's on base (always) will look like the league averages of occupied bases. There were 55998 plate appearances with men on first in 2019. Of those, 34240 (61%) were just a man on first. 12347 (22%) were first and second. 5026 (9%) were first and third. 4385 (8%) were bases loaded. This means that in 70% of situations with a man on first, second base was open. With a SB rate of 100% of the 70% of times on base (which is identical to the number of PAs) McHitterson had, this puts him at 575 steals for the season (that would be a record, by the way). Fangraphs gives .2 Runs per SB. This adds 115 Runs to our count, which comes out to a total of 121.8 baserunning runs. 824.7 Runs

Conclusion

824.7 is a lot of runs. If we do the 10.296 Runs/Win conversion it comes out to 80.1 WAR. As I said, that's a loooooooot. [Speedy could split time with Tate and they'd still combine for 32.5 WAR. It would take over five Taters to cancel out a Speedy.] EDIT: In my excitement, I accidentally confused myself with a potato. I'm the one who'd combine for 32.5 WAR. I'm the one who would need to be cloned five times to cancel out a Speedy. Tate and Speedy would actually combine to have a 17.6 WAR, which is still better than the best single-season WAR of all time. Two Taters would more than cancel out a Speedy. If you put Speedy on a team that literally did nothing else, he'd still make them roughly a .500 team.
TL;DR 80.1 WAR - Holy Fuck
Coming soon.....If Shohei Ohtani were actually Superman, how much WAR would he get?

I will be using bWAR for this.
The all time WARLORD is Babe Ruth with 182.5 WAR. The only player to get somewhat close to this in my lifetime has been Barry Bonds, with a respectable 162.8 (4th place).
The thing that makes the WAR record so hard to beat is the fact that Ruth played at a level so far beyond what the rest of the league was capable of. His OPS led baseball in 13 straight seasons. No one will ever be as dominant as Babe Ruth. The game has evolved and there is more parity in talent. I don't know if Babe Ruth would still be great today, but I know the value of the replacement player has improved drastically. If someone were to beat Ruth's record, they wouldn't have to be more dominant than Ruth, but have an all around package and everything go their way.
There are a few requirements for a modern hitter to break Babe Ruth's record.

1. He has to play for fuckin ever

WAR is a cumulative stat. Thus, if anyone is going to have a chance at breaking Ruth's record, this player is going to have to play a LOT of years in the MLB. This player is going to have to start early as well. Of the top 25 WAR players, only 3 (Cy Young, Tom Seaver, and Mike Schmidt) were older that 21 when they started their MLB careers. The most recent player in this list, ARod, started at 18. If a player starts at 18 and plays to 45, which seems to be roughly the old limit, then he only has to get 6.52WAR per season on average to break Ruth's record. Having a player start at 23 raises that average to 7.93, which seems a little less attainable outside of old timey pitchers throwing 50 complete games a season.

2. He has to be durable.

Again, since WAR is a cumulative stat, such a player needs to be a rock for his entire career. Not all of the top players had such durability, including Ruth himself. But I also doubt you are going to see many players put up a 9.1WAR season in 130 games like Ruth. While gone are the days of Cal Ripken where players tried to play every game every season, it isn't unreasonable to think our young WARlord will be playing at least 150 games a season on average once he gets past his rookie year. Any injuries are going to have to come at the end of his career, particularly nagging ones and things that slow him down.

3. He has to play a premium position and play it well.

In order to maximize yearly WAR, it is important that our hypothetical star play a position with a strong defense adjustment. This leaves us with CF, SS, 2B, and C. Pitcher would have been a possibility back in the day, but with relievers taking a larger and larger piece of the innings pie, it seems like hitter is the best way to go. A 2-way player would have a better chance, but they are exceedingly rare.
We can eliminate Catcher right off the bat. Catchers play less games per season, get injured more often, have shorter careers, and have worse stats due to wear and tear. The highest WAR of any catcher is Johnny Bench with 75.2. That puts him at 79th all time WAR and not even half of Ruth's total.
The Majority of high WAR players in history are OF. Odds are if someone were to beat Ruth, they would be doing it from CF, at least until later in their career.

4. He will need to be an athlete.

While Babe Ruth may have a beer swilling, hot dog eating, STD collecting hero, our modern player is going to have to be an athlete. They will need to be fast, run the bases well (not necessarily steal bases), and keep in good shape for their entire careers. Good baserunning and defense, at least in the beginning of a players career could add up to 5 or more WAR in a season. Our player is going to need this defense a lot in his early years while he can still rack up dWAR.

5. He will probably need to be a Righty.

The shift has complicated things for Lefty batters. Our hypothetical hitter will need to be able to beat the shift if they are a lefty. This might not be a problem early on, but become an issue as our player slows down with age. Since the shift has been established, older, slower lefties have been getting squeezed by the shift. Every WAR counts. Unless our batter is a Switch Hitter or can hit to all fields, he will probably be a righty.

6. He will need to be on a good hitting team, probably in a big market.

Our player is going to need some top-shelf offensive talent hitting behind him to make sure he isn't getting the Bonds treatment. To afford the salaries of both megahitters, this player will probably spend most of his career on a major market team.

7. He will probably be a 3 true outcomes hitter (and a really good one, duh).

Launch Angle, batspeed, barrel, OBP, dingers, and Ks. This player is going to probably not going to spend all that much time getting singles. That doesn't mean that he won't have a high batting average. Our player is going to need to hit at a high clip, but with a fat amount of XBHs and walks added in. I wouldn't be surprised if this hitter breaks the HR record, but more in a Hank Aaron style of consistent HR success over a long career.

8. He will get all the awards.

To start off our players career. He is going to win the RoY, or at the very least become a star in his first full season. He needs to hit the ground running and start accumulating WAR right away.
He will be a perennial All-Star. I am talking Hank Aaron 25 All Star appearances.
While Gold Gloves don't automatically go to the best defender, our guy will quickly become a big name for his bat and his defense. Expect a ton of Gold Gloves, probably some in his 30s as well.
Silver Sluggers will probably be the award our player wins the most. He will probably break Barry Bonds' record of 12 SS.
Expect our player to get MVP votes pretty much every season until his last couple, much like Hank Aaron. Since our player is going to need to be the best player in baseball for many of his seasons, expect him to come close to Bonds' 7 wins. Hank only won 1, but advanced stats would have given him more wins today.

9. He is going to be an all around good guy who never takes steroids (or never gets caught).

Any suspensions are going to kill our player's chance of winning the WARLORD title. Losing a season is probably going to cost our player at least 6 WAR. Also, he doesn't want to end his career like Bonds. Barry possibly could have gotten the career WAR mark if teams were willing to deal with him. His last two seasons he got 4.0 and 3.4 WAR respectively, but he retired at 42. Had he held on until his late 40s, he could have eked it out. But Bonds was a dick, so he got blacklisted.

10. He cannot pull a Pujols.

When his time is up, he has to retire. Pujols over the last 4 years has been worth -0.7WAR. Our player has to play well past his peak, but also retire before this happens.
So this his my hypothetical WARLORD.

Year	Age	WAR	Awards
1	18	1.2
2	19	7.3	RoY, AS
3	20	8.0	AS, SS, GG
4	21	9.1	AS, SS, GG, MVP
5	22	7.9	AS, GG
6	23	7.2	AS, GG
7	24	9.7	AS, SS, GG, MVP
8	25	8.9	AS, SS, GG
9	26	7.6	AS, GG
10	27	7.7	AS, GG
11	28	10.5	AS, SS, GG, MVP
12	29	11.2	AS, SS, GG, MVP
13	30	10.8	AS, SS, GG, MVP
14	31	8.9	AS, SS, GG
15	32	7.5	AS, SS
16	33	9.3	AS, SS, MVP
17	34	6.9	AS, SS
18	35	5.4	AS, SS
19	36	4.9	AS
20	37	5.2	AS, SS
21	38	3.9	AS
22	39	4.3	AS
23	40	4.0	AS
24	41	3.3	AS
25	42	3.3	AS
26	43	2.1
27	44	2.8
28	45	3.2
29	46	2.1
AVG	x	6.4
TOTAL	x	184.2 (Record)	RoY, 24 AS, 13 SS (Record), 12 GG (OF tie), 6 MVP

So recap, our CF (later RF) is a righty with good defense, speed, character, never has a serious injury, plays in front of another HoF bat on a big market team, who hits dongs and takes walks.
Our guy probably ends up with the HR record, and is top 5 for a ton of other categories. He goes into the HoF unanimously.
I hope this has been as fun for you to read as it was to write it.

The first of two I have queued up for today! You can scope the ones I've already done on Randy Choate, Kevin Gregg, and Dan Uggla if you feel so inclined. Now to our top story.

Josh Hamilton

Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 64 Career bWAR (9 years): 28.3 Stats: .290/.349/.516, 1134 H, 200 HR, 458 XBH, 129 OPS+, 55 IBB, 701 RBI, 609 R League Leading Stats: RBI (130, 2008), Total Bases (330, 2008), Batting Average (.359, 2010), Slugging % (.633, 2010), OPS (1.044, 2010), bWAR (8.7, 2010), fWAR (8.4, 2010) Awards: All-Star 5x (2008-12), Silver Slugger 3x (2008, 2010, 2012), MVP (2010) Teams Played For: Reds (2007), Rangers (2008-12, 2015), Angels (2013-14)
I'm sure there are more than a few readers wondering "how in tarnation did Josh Hamilton not make it onto the Hall of Fame ballot?!?" The answer is simple: he didn't qualify. Hamilton only played 9 years, one short of the threshold necessary for the Hall. So I'm kind of cheating here. Now, there may be some who say "this is a complete and utter betrayal of the system you've set up! This series is about people who qualify for the ballot but aren't on it! There's no conceivable way Josh Hamilton could have been on this year!" To those people (who definitely don't exist), I will give one reason for allowing this departure from protocol: it's my series and I want to talk about Hambino so shut up. The man deserves to be remembered in one way or another. Let's start remembering him, shall we?
Josh Hamilton's story begins in 1999, his senior year of high school. More specifically it starts at Athens Drive, a humble establishment in the capital of North Carolina, whose entire athletic output at that point consisted of two NFL players, a foreign basketball player, and a soccer player on the US Men's National Team. Enter Josh Hamilton, baseball player extraordinaire, with a 6.7 second 60-yard dash, a 97-mile fastball back when that was incredibly fast, and a 25-game high school season where he hit .529 with 13 homers, 20 bags swiped, and 35 RBIs. By the time of that year's MLB draft, Hamilton was considered one of if not the best high school prospect in the nation. It was not a major surprise when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected him first overall. He was the first position player drafted in that spot since some guy named A-Rod, and got served a record-breaking $3.96-million signing bonus, so big things might have been expected of him. The excitement surrounding him would only grow when he was assigned to the rookie-level Appalachian League, and slashed .347/.378/.593 with 140 total bases in just 56 games. The next year, at 19, Hamilton played 96 games at the single-A level, and hit .302/.348/.476. That's pretty good. So good, in fact, that prior to the 2001 season, Baseball America named him the consensus number 1 prospect. Then, out of nowhere, disaster.
While his family was out driving, a dump truck ran a red light and smashed the side of their pickup. Josh's back was injured, his mother had to be pried out of her driver's seat, and his parents would have to return to Raleigh for medical care. Thankfully his mother would make a full recovery, but while she was doing that Hamilton was left alone. As a 20-year-old with cash aplenty and no one to answer to, he indulged. He began drinking alcohol and hanging out at strip clubs. He started using cocaine and hanging out with people who could get him more. He did whatever he wanted. In case you were not aware, this is not a good idea for a 20-year-old to do if they want to remain a top prospect. Hamilton only appeared in 27 games in 2001, slashing .200/.250/.290. His 2002 was better, with a line of .303/.359/.507 at A+-level, but that offseason would bring major changes. After catching wind of his activities, the Devil Rays decided to send Hamilton to rehab. Didn't appear to have worked, as he failed a drug test following a 2003 spring training invite. Not only was that a sign of continued self-destruction, but his prospect value plummeted. Hamilton took the rest of the season off, hoping to work on himself and improve. Well, by the next season, that hadn't happened, and three failed drug tests meant he had to take the year off again due to a season-long suspension. Once that was over, Hamilton was ready to prove that after almost three years away, he still had what it took to be a Major League star. Then he got arrested for smashing a windshield out of anger, and the Rays moved him off the 40-man, effectively ending his endeavor for the third year in a row. After a relapse, the next season was shot as well as he got served another year-long suspension. While that suspension didn't prevent him from participating in 22 minor league games at the end of the year, a line of .260/.327/.360 was a far cry from what was once expected. The time is now December of 2006. Josh Hamilton turned 25 half a year ago, and played his first minor league baseball games in five years just a couple months ago. No one blamed the Devil Rays when they decided to cut their losses, and left him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft. However, this Josh Hamilton was very different from the Josh Hamilton of the past five years.
During his 2006 suspension, Hamilton cleaned up in many ways. He began working at a baseball academy that let him use the facilities off the clock, he abstained from drugs for the whole year, and he showed that, while he may no longer be a top prospect, he could still play baseball. For those reasons, the Cincinnati Reds felt like they could take a chance on him. They made a trade with the Cubs to acquire him through the Rule 5 Draft, and intended to use him in 2007 as a 4th outfielder. After an excellent spring training where he hit .403, Hamilton made the Opening Day roster. His first appearance of the year, pinch-hitting for Aaron Harang, prompted the home crowd to give him a 22-second standing ovation. He had finally made it. Sure he lined out, but nobody cared. Josh Hamilton had taken a Major League at-bat. As little as three years ago, that was considered nigh on impossible. But here he was. And he made the most of it.
While he was limited to 90 games due to injury, Josh Hamilton's rookie campaign was fantastic. A line of .292/.368/.554 with 19 homers in his first year was downright stunning for the position he was in. You'd think all of that, coupled with his NL Rookie of the Month award in April, would net him some Rookie of the Year votes. Problem was Josh Hamilton had the misfortune of debuting the same year as Ryan Braun and Troy Tulowitzki, in addition to some other very strong cases like Chris Young's 32 dingers. Thus, despite 2.5 bWAR, Hamilton didn't appear on a single Rookie of the Year ballot. Where he did appear, however, was trade discussions. With Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr., Norris Hopper, and Ryan Freel all slotted to be ahead of him in the depth chart for 2008, the 72-90 Reds decided to sell high. Hamilton was shipped off to the Texas Rangers in exchange for pitching help in Edinson Volquez and Danny Herrera. Little did they know just what he would become.
Many of you know what happened next. Those of you who didn't already had part of it spoiled by the stats you probably ignored at the beginning. For the precious few who are still in the dark, here's what happened for the next five years after Hamilton became, and stayed, a Ranger: he showed off everything he could do. He hit four home runs in a game. He got intentionally walked with the bases loaded. He set the record for most All-Star votes by 4 million. In the Home Run Derby, he hit the most home runs anyone had ever seen. He earned the MVP of the 2010 ALCS after hitting four home runs and holding a 1.000 SLG during the series. He played in back-to-back World Series championships. And that's not even considering what happened while he was an everyday player. Five All-Star games. Three Silver Sluggers. 142 home runs. 506 RBIs. Hitting to the tune of .305/.363/.549 over five years. And right in the middle, once he was done guiding his team to their franchise's first World Series appearance, and after leading the league in batting average and slugging percentage, Josh Hamilton won the 2010 American League Most Valuable Player trophy. In short, he became a superstar while in Texas. He wasn't shy about what he'd gone through, either. Knowing how he struggled with alcohol, after every playoff-clinching win, the Rangers wouldn't pop champagne, but replaced it with ginger ale just for Hamilton. From first overall pick, to cautionary tale about drug addiction, to feelgood redemptive conclusion, to MVP and perennial All-Star. Hamilton's story seemed too good to be true. And yet, here he was. He had made the most of it.
If the story of Josh Hamilton was turned into a movie five years ago, it would end right around here. Hamilton had conquered his own personal demons, some of which were literally tattooed on his body, and reached the peak of his potential. That offseason, his first in free agency, Hamilton signed a 5-year, $125-million contract with the Los Angeles Angels. The idea was that he would continue his production, and combine with Albert Pujols and the newly unleashed Mike Trout to form an offensive juggernaut that could not be stopped. That's, um, not what happened. His first full season as an Angel saw him post career lows in batting average (.250) and OBP (.307), while also turning in his worst defensive season yet in right field as he led the league in errors by an outfielder. For the first time since getting traded by the Reds, Josh Hamilton was not an All-Star. The $100-million he was still owed for the next four years was beginning to look like a huge mistake. It was now time to prove the doubters wrong. In 2014, he came out looking like he would do just that. Over the first week of the season, Hamilton went 12-for-24 with two doubles and two dingers. He garnered his first "AL Player of the Week" award since 2012. Then, in his eighth game of the year, he got sidelined by a thumb injury that kept him out of action until the beginning of June. For his first week back, it seemed like he would keep the good times rolling, as he went 12-for-32. The 24 hits combined over those two stretches of 15 total games would account for a little over a quarter of the 89 hits he'd record in 89 games played that year. While he outdid the previous year's batting average and OBP, this year it was time for his Slugging Percentage to take a hit. .414 was the lowest he'd ever posted. Despite this, the Angels made the postseason, only to get swept by the eventual pennant-winning Royals. Hamilton sure didn't help at all, going 0-for-13 and getting booed relentlessly. Those would be his last performances in an Angels jersey, as the following February, Hamilton voluntarily reported to the MLB that he had relapsed while rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery. Angels owner Arte Moreno, utterly disgusted at someone taking responsibility for their actions, pulled all merchandise related to Hamilton and told the front office to trade him ASAP. Thus, in late April, Josh Hamilton was traded... back to the Rangers.
The Angels would be paying all but $6 million of his remaining $80 million salary, but the Rangers would have him on the field for those three remaining years. It seemed like a match made in heaven, with Texas hoping he'd pick up right where he left off when he was last in a Rangers uniform. And, well, it was the best season since his last one! He only made it into 50 games, slashing .253/.291/.441 with 8 homers. The Rangers made the ALDS, but lost in 5 to the Blue Jays, as Hamilton went 3-for-18 with 5 Ks. As odd as it was that he was back in Arlington, signs of change were on the horizon, and Hamilton looked like he was ready to take the step he couldn't in LA. Then he had to start 2016 on the DL due to knee problems, and once May hit, his season was lost. His knee had required three surgeries in the past nine months, and the Rangers would take no chances. 2017 would hopefully be a time to get back into the swing of things, until it was revealed that his knee would again require surgery. Ultimately, after it was revealed he had injured his other knee during rehab, Josh Hamilton got released that April. And so concluded his playing time, one year short of Hall consideration. But hey, he won MVP! So that's good!
This is usually the part where I say "I don't think Josh Hamilton was on the ballot because of this and that," but I can't do that here. Partially because, of course, nine years isn't enough so that's the entire reason, and partially because, unfortunately, Hamilton's story's ending is far from happy. Big warning and kinda spoiler, domestic abuse discussion ahead. Skip the rest if you don't want to read about that stuff. It appears in recent years, he's gotten much worse at battling the demons he seemed to have conquered. He and his wife divorced after his 2015 relapse, and his handling of himself hasn't gotten much better since. Earlier this year, Hamilton was indicted on charges of injury to a child. He is accused of abusing his daughters, and could face up to ten years in prison. When I see that story, I don't feel anger or hatred toward Josh Hamilton. I feel genuine sadness. Such a fantastic story of an individual's inspiring drive to defeat hardship ends with that very same individual inflicting hardship on those around him. I won't go into any detail on what the allegations are, but I'll say if what has been alleged really happened, he deserves prison time, and a lot of it. It just saddens me that a great story like his had to end like that. Wow, what a downer ending. Here's a video of hamsters to take the edge off.
Josh Hamilton doesn't get to visit the Hall. Only 9 years. Sorry, but rules are rules.

Philadelphia Eagles (3-6-1) vs Seattle Seahawks(7-3)

Another week has passed and the Eagles notched another in the loss column, the saving grace now is after the Football Team won on Thanksgiving the Eagles are no longer kings of shit mountain. That title rests with Washington, though it could end up in the hands of the Giants by the team the Eagles kickoff on Monday night. Pathetically they could take that title back with a win over the Seahawks, though that appears to be unlikely. The Seahawks pack a potent offense led by All-Pro QB Russel Wilson who has made Jim Schwartz is bitch the past 4 years. What this Eagles team has in talent it completely lacks in discipline, heart and accountability which rests entirely on this coaching staff which repeatedly fails to get this team motivated and put them in the best position to win football games. Seattle has one of the worst defenses in the league especially against the pass, however I doubt Doug Pederson will come up with a game plan to exploit it, especially with Carson Wentz struggling to find any rhythm this season and leading the league in all the wrong categories. Both the coach and the QB will need to find some of that magic from the 2017 season if they have any hope of beating this tough Seahawks team Monday night.

General Information
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Score Prediction Contest

Date
Monday, November 30th, 2020

Game Time	Game Location
8:15 PM - Eastern	Lincoln Financial Field
7:15 PM - Central	1020 Pattison Ave
6:15 PM - Mountain	Philadelphia, PA 19148
5:15 PM - Pacific	Wikipedia - Map

Weather Forecast
Stadium Type: Open Air
Surface: Grass
Temperature: 64°F
Feels Like: 64°F
Forecast: Possible Light Rain. Rain throughout the day.
Chance of Precipitation: 56%
Cloud Coverage: 97%
Wind: South 13 MPH

Betting Odds
Oddsshark Information
Favorite/Opening Line: Seattle -5.5
OveUnder: 49
Record VS. Spread: Eagles 3-7, Seahawks 6-4

Where to Watch on TV
ESPN will broadcast Monday’s game to a national audience. Steve Levy will handle play-by-play duties and Brian Griese will provide analysis.
Week 12 TV Map

Radio Streams
List of Eagles Radio network member stations with internet broadcast availability
Radio.com 94.1 Desktop Streaming

Listen to Merrill Reese and Mike Quick
Calling the game on 94WIP and the Eagles Radio Network will be Merrill Reese, the NFL’s longest-tenured play-by-play announcer (44th season). Joining Reese in the radio booth will be former Eagles All-Pro wide receiver Mike Quick, while Howard Eskin will report from the sidelines.

Location	Station	Frequency
Philadelphia, PA	WIP-FM	94.1 FM and 610 AM
Allentown, PA	WCTO-FM	96.1 FM
Atlantic City/South Jersey	WENJ-FM	97.3 FM
Levittown, PA	WBCB-AM	1490 AM
Northumberland, PA	WEGH-FM	107.3 FM
Pottsville, PA	WPPA-AM	1360 AM
Reading, PA	WEEU-AM	830 AM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD	WAFL-FM	97.7 FM
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA	WEJL-FM	96.1 FM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD	WAFL-FM	97.7 FM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD	WEJL-AM	630 AM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD	WBAX-AM	1240 AM
Williamsport, PA	WBZD-FM	93.3 FM
Wilmington, DE	WDEL-FM/AM	101.7 FM
York/LancasteHarrisburg, PA	WSOX-FM	96.1 FM

Philadelphia Spanish Radio
Rickie Ricardo and Bill Kulik will handle the broadcast in Spanish on Mega 105.7 FM in Philadelphia and the Eagles Spanish Radio Network.

Location	Station	Frequency
Philadelphia, PA	LA MEGA	105.7 FM
Allentown, PA	WSAN	1470 AM
Atlantic City, NJ	WIBG	1020 AM; 101.3 FM

Seahawks Radio
Seahawks Radio Network Steve Raible returns for his 38th season in the radio booth, his 15th as the play-by-play announcer and “Voice of the Seahawks” after 22 seasons as the Seahawks analyst. Former Seahawks LB Dave Wyman will provide color commentary.

National Radio
Westwood One will broadcast the game to a national audience with Kevin Harlan on play-by-play and Ron Jaworski providing analysis.

Satellite Radio

Station	Eagles Channel	Seahawks Channel
Sirius Radio	SIRI 83	SIRI 81
XM Radio	XM 225	XM 226
Sirius XM Radio	SXM 225 4	SXM 226

Eagles Social Media	Seahawks Social Media
Website	Website
Facebook	Facebook
Twitter	Twitter
Instagram	Instagram
Snapchat: Eagles	Snapchat: Seahawks

NFC East Standings

NFC EAST	Record	PCT	Home	Road	Div	Conf	PF	PA	Net Pts	Streak
Football Team	4-7	.364	3-3	1-4	3-2	3-5	241	243	-2	1W
Eagles	3-6-1	.350	2-2-1	1-4	2-2	3-3	220	254	-34	2L
Giants	3-7	.300	2-3	1-4	3-2	3-6	195	236	-41	2W
Cowboys	3-8	.273	2-4	1-4	1-3	3-6	251	359	-108	1L

Series Information
The Seattle Seahawks lead the Philadelphia Eagles (11-7)
Series History
Head to Head Box Scores
First Game Played
December 12th, 1976 at Veteran's Stadium Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia Eagles 27 - Seattle Seahawks 10
Points Leader
Seattle Seahawks lead the Philadelphia Eagles (367-327)
Coaches Record
Doug Pederson: 0-4 against the Seahawks
Pete Carroll: 6-1 against Eagles
Coaches Head to Head
Doug Pederson vs Pete Carroll: Carroll leads 4-0
Quarterback Record
Carson Wentz: Against Seahawks: 0-4
Russell Wilson: Against Eagles: 5-0
Quarterbacks Head to Head
Carson Wentz vs Russell Wilson: Wilson leads 4-0
Records per Stadium
Record @ Lincoln Financial Field: Seahawks lead the Eagles: 5-0
Record @ CenturyLink Field: Seahawks lead 3-2

Rankings and Last Meeting Information
AP Pro 32 Ranking
Eagles No. 11 - Seahawks No. 7
Record
Eagles: 3-6-1
Seahawks: 7-3
Last Meeting
Sunday, Nov 24th, 2019
Seahawks 17 – Eagles 9
The Eagles season ended with their first loss at home since Week 12 of the regular season, which was, coincidentally, also a 17–9 home loss to the Seahawks. They failed to score a touchdown for the first time since Week 17 of the 2017 season. Carson Wentz left the game in the first quarter with a concussion following a dirty hit by Jadeveon Clowney, where he led with the crown of his helmet into the back of Carson Wentz’s head when he was already going to the ground. No penalty was called on the play, and Wentz was later ruled out for the game. This was the Eagles' third straight home Wild Card playoff loss.
Click here to view the Video Recap
Click here to view the Stats Recap

Last 10 Meetings

Date	Winner	Loser	Score
01/05/20	Seahawks	Eagles	17-9
11/24/19	Seahawks	Eagles	17-9
12/3/17	Seahawks	Eagles	24-10
11/20/16	Seahawks	Eagles	26-15
12/07/14	Seahawks	Eagles	24-14
12/01/11	Seahawks	Eagles	31-14
11/02/08	Eagles	Seahawks	26-7
12/02/07	Seahawks	Eagles	28-24
12/05/05	Seahawks	Eagles	42-0
12/08/02	Eagles	Seahawks	27-20
09/23/01	Eagles	Seahawks	27-3

Injury Reports	Depth Charts
Eagles	Eagles
Seahawks	Seahawks

2012 “Expert” Picks
Week 12 - "Expert" Picks

2020 Team Stats
Eagles Season Stats
Seahawks Season Stats

2020 Stats (Starters/Leaders)

Passing

Name	CMP	ATT	PCT	YDS	TD	INT	RAT
Wentz	220	377	58.4%	2326	14	14	73.3
Wilson	256	362	70.7%	2986	30	10	111.5

Rushing

Name	ATT	YDS	YDS/G	AVG	TD
Sanders	102	585	83.6	5.7	3
Wilson	55	367	36.7	4.7	1

Receiving

Name	REC	YDS	YDS/G	AVG	TD
Fulgham	31	451	64.4	14.5	4
Metcalf	48	862	86.2	18.0	9

Sacks

Name	Sacks	Team Total
Graham	7.0	34
Adams	5.5	25

Tackles

Name	Total	Solo	Assist	Sacks
Singleton	60	37	23	1.0
Wagner	96	56	40	3.0

Interceptions

Name	Ints	Team Total
Singleton/McLeod/Mills	1	3
Diggs/Neal/Griffin	2	10

Punting

Name	ATT	YDS	LONG	AVG	NET	IN 20	TB	BP
Johnston	45	2198	66	48.6	42.3	15	4	0
Dickson	37	1835	67	49.6	44.1	19	4	0

Kicking

Name	ATT	MADE	%	LONG	PAT
Elliot	14	10	71.4%	54	14/14
Myers	12	12	100%	61	36/38

Kick Returns

Name	ATT	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Scott	12	227	18.9	25	0
Homer	12	291	24.3	44	0

Punt Returns

Name	RET	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD	FC
Ward	13	88	6.8	22	0	13
Moore	8	91	11.4	20	0	12

League Rankings 2020

Offense Rankings

Category	Eagles Stat	Eagles Rank	Seahawks Stat	Seahawks Rank
Total Offense	330.1	26th	400.0	4th
Rush Offense	121.1	12th	121.3	10th(t)
Pass Offense	209.0	28th	278.7	5th
Points Per Game	22.0	24th	31.8	2nd
3rd-Down Offense	37.5%	28th(t)	41.2%	18th
4th-Down Offense	36.8%	27th(t)	77.8%	3rd(t)
Red Zone Offense (TD%)	63.3%	13th	77.8%	2nd

Defense Rankings

Category	Eagles Stat	Eagles Rank	Seahawks Stat	Seahawks Rank
Total Defence	342.7	10th	434.9	32nd
Rush Defence	133.4	25th	91.2	4th
Pass Defence	209.3	6th	343.7	32nd
Points Per Game	25.4	16th	28.7	28th
3rd-Down Defence	38.1%	6th	49.6%	30th
4th-Down Defence	41.7%	5th(t)	56.3%	18th
Red Zone Defence(TD%)	65.6%	T-19th	70.0%	28th

Team

Category	Eagles Stat	Eagles Rank	Seahawks Stat	Seahawks Rank
Turnover Diff.	-9	30th	+1	12th(t)
Penalty Per Game	6.1	21st(t)	5.3	6th(t)
Penalty Yards Per Game	48.2	14th	39.2	4th

Connections
Eagles HC Doug Pederson was born in Bellingham, WA, and grew up in Ferndale, WA. Pederson recently admitted that he "Grew up a Seahawks Fan" and used to attend Seahawks games at The Kingdome.
Eagles LBs coach Ken Flajole is from Seattle and previously coached the Seahawks’ DBs (1999, 2001-02) and LBs (2000).
Eagles Safeties coach Tim Hauck played for the Seahawks in 1997.
Seahawks Northeast Area Scout Todd Brunner worked for the Eagles for four seasons (1994-97) as an area scout covering the Northeast. He joined the Eagles as a scouting intern in 1992 and worked as a scouting assistant in 1993.

2020 Pro Bowlers

Eagles	Seahawks
DT Fletcher Cox (Starter)	QB Russel Wilson (Starter)
OG Brandon Brooks (Starter)	MLB Bobby Wagner (Starter)
TE Zach Ertz
C Jason Kelce (Starter)
LS Rick Lavato (Starter)

General
Referee: Brad Allen
Philadelphia hosts Seattle for the first time since the 2019 NFC Wild Card playoff game. The Eagles are aiming for their third con-secutive win at Lincoln Financial Field after defeating N.Y. Giants (W, 22-21) and Dallas (W, 23-9) during Weeks 7-8.
Miles Sanders leads the NFL with 5.7 yards per rushing attempt (min. 100 attempts). His 83.6 rushing yards per game rank 4th in the NFL, trailing only Dalvin Cook (118.8), Derrick Henry (107.9) and Nick Chubb (95.8) in that category.
Jason Kelce has started 99 consectuive regular-season games, which is the longest active streak among NFL centers as well as the longest by an Eagles center since the 1970 merger (previously 95 by Guy Morriss from 1977-83). The last NFL center with 100 consecutive starts was Chris Myers from 2007-14 (123).
Brandon Graham leads the Eagles defense with 7.0 sacks, which ranks 9th among NFL players. Graham (11 TFLs) joins T.J. Watt (9.0, sacks, 14 TFLs) and Za’Darius Smith (8.0 sacks, 10 TFLs) as the only NFL players with 7.0+ sacks and 10+ TFLs this season.

Draft Picks

Eagles	Seahawks
WR Jalen Raegor	LB Jordyn Brooks
QB Jalen Hurts	DE Darrell Taylor
LB Davion Taylor	OG Damien Lewis
S K’Von Wallace	TE Colby Parkinson
OT Jack Driscoll	RB Deejay Dallas
WR John Hightower	DE Alton Robinson
LB Shaun Bradley	WR Freddie Swan
WR Quez Watkins	TE/WR Stephen Sullivan
OT Prince Tega Wanogho
LB/DE Casey Toohill

Notable Off-season Additions

Eagles	Seahawks
S Will Parks	S Jamal Adams
DT Javon Hargrave	OT Cedric Ogbuehi
CB Nickell Robey-Coleman	RB Carlos Hyde
CB Darius Slay	RT Brandon Shell
	DE Carlos Dunlap
	DE Benson Mayowa
	WR Phillip Dorsett
	DT Bruce Irvin
	TE Greg Olsen
	CB Quinton Dunbar

Notable Off-season Departures

Eagles	Seahawks
S Malcom Jenkins	S Bradley McDonald
CB Ronald Darby	DE Jadaveon Clowney
RB Jordan Howard	OT George Fant
WR Nelson Agholor	DL Quiton Jefferson
OL Halapoulivaati Vaitai	DL Al Woods
LB Kamu Grugler-Hill	OL Germain Ifedi
RB Darren Sproles	DE Ziggy Ansah
DT Timmy Jernigan	LB Mychal Kendricks
LB Nigel Bradham

Milestones
Eagles QB Carson Wentz (109) needs 1 passing TDs to take sole possession of 4th on the Eagles all-time passing yards list moving ahead of QB Norm Snead.
Eagles DT Fletcher Cox (52.5) needs 2 sacks to move up to 5th on the Eagles all-time sack list tying DE Hugh Douglas
Eagles DE Vinny Curry (29) needs 1 sacks to move up to 18th on the Eagles all-time sack list passing DT Jerome Brown

Stats to Know
Stat to Know: Bird is the Word
The average Bald Eagle's wingspan is considerably more than an Osprey's. The weight disparity between the two is even more pronounced, the male Bald Eagle doubling its counterpart's weight. So whereas Bald Eagles are known to harass Osprey nests and even steal Ospreys' food directly from them, this Philadelphia Eagles team is anything but average and is an embarrassment in the turnover department, currently third-to-last in turnover margin at -9, while the Seahawks are middle-of-the-pack at +1. A Bald Eagle is expected to be large, strong, agile, pesky, and majestic. The 2020 Philadelphia Eagles field 2 Cornerbacks 5'9 and under, they field undersized Linebackers and Safeties, and don't have a bruising Running Back to feature. They have been incapable of imposing their will on Offense or Defense. The only consistency shown in 2020 is in just how bad the team is, while still on top of the division. Some mornings I stare into the foggy mirror, with Lionel Richie's "Hello" playing on my Google speaker, and wonder what we've done to deserve this. Sad Eagles

Matchups to Watch
Russel Wilson vs. the Eagles Run Defense
This Eagles team has been woefully pathetic against the run this season, but even more so against opposing QBs who are not afraid to take off. Of the top 5 rushing performances against the Eagles defense this season 3 of them are QBs (Lamar Jackson and Daniel Jones 2x). Russell Wilson may turn 32 Sunday, but he is still a threat with his legs as he currently leads the Seahawks in rushing yards and is on pace for his second biggest rushing season in his career. Jim Schwartz has had zero answer the past 4 years against Russel Wilson and I don’t expect that to magically change on Monday. Schwartz best bet may be to spy Wilson with Rookie Davion Taylor, who has the athletic ability to keep up with Wilson, however Schwartz has failed to used spies on Wilson in the past, so if he makes a change in how it operates it will be a large evolution in his character which doesn’t seem realistic. I expect much of the same with Schwartz against Wilson on Monday, base Nickel defense with Cover-1 man and the corners playing 10 yards off to give easy outlets to Wilson.
A Moveable Object vs a Stoppable Force
If Philly wants to have any chance to win on Monday they are going to need to score points on the offensive side of the football, something they have failed to do regularly this season. Carson Wentz has been one of if not the worst QB in the NFL this season, at least the worst who hasn’t been benched yet. He has been a turn over machine and has been sacked the most in the NFL. But the offensive woes don’t lay solely at his feet, Doug Pederson has done Wentz no favors. Despite Wentz’s struggles Pederson has continued to lead on the QB, despite having one of the best running backs in the league who is averaging 5.7 yards per carry and has big play potential in Miles Sanders. It isn’t just that Pederson is abandoning the run, he is also calling a bland predictable offense which has failed to put his players in the best position to succeed. On the other side of the ball, the Seahawks have had issues stopping anyone this season, especially through the air where they rank dead last. They have given up an average of 343.7 yards per game. In recent weeks, they’ve been better in this area. They have given up over 300 passing yards just once in the last four games. If the Eagles have any shot to win Sunday, they need to win this matchup.
Carlos Dunlap vs Jordan Mailata
After Jason Peters gave up 3 sacks, 3 QB hits and 7 pressures in just 47 snaps before leaving the last game with an injury, he's thankfully moving to right guard somewhere he should have been after returning from the IR. This means Mailata will be back at LT where he was playing well before being benched for Peters return. He will face off against Carlos Dunlap who has 3 sacks in 3 games since joining the Seahawks. This is going to be the second time the Eagles faced Dunlap who in Week 3, had 4 pressures, 9 tackles, a QB hit, a TFL and a batted pass when facing Peters. If Mailata can play the way he was before he was wrongly benched by this inept coaching staff. Suring up Wentz’s backside should give him a little more confidence, something he has woefully lacked this season. This should be a good matchup against the young Mailata and the ageless vet in Dunlap.

Special thanks to abenyishay for their help in creating this Game Preview.

RIP Hank Aaron. I unintentionally picked a fortuitous name to discuss today, but here we are. I think out of respect for the man, and all he did for baseball, I'll only post one today to keep the focus on him as much as possible. In that way, I'm kind of glad they share such similar names. Anyway, if you don't know what this is, it's a series about players who qualified for the Hall of Fame ballot, but were cut. The rest are at the bottom.

Aaron Harang

Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 12 Career bWAR (14 years): 20.1 (23.9 w/o batting) Stats: 128-143, 4.26 ERA, 97 ERA+, 381 GS, 2322.0 IP, 1852 K, 712 BB, League Leading Stats: Wins (16, 2006), Losses (17, 2008), Complete Games (6, 2006), Strikeouts (216, 2006), Batters Faced (993, 2006), Wild Pitches (12, 2007), K/BB (4.192, 2007) Awards: None Teams Played For: Athletics (2002-03), Reds (2003-10), Padres (2011), Dodgers (2012), Mariners (2013), Mets (2013), Braves (2014), Phillies (2015)
The dictionary defines the word “harangue” as “a speech addressed to a public assembly,” and then secondly as “an angry speech or writing.” Allow me to deliver my harangue on Aaron Harang: he deserved to be on the Hall of Fame ballot. When I look at the story of Aaron Harang, I see a theme. Over the majority of his career, things did not end up the way they should have. The biggest injustice of that sort, in my opinion, is that he finished his career worthy of an appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot. And yet, that didn't happen. Normally, having a three-year stretch where you average over 5 WAR a season and being an Opening Day starter five years in a row would result in a last hurrah on the ballot, even without anybody voting for you. But that’s not how it ended. Let’s explore why I believe that should have been the case for this absolutely terrifying giant of a baseball player.
After going from a 22nd round draft choice out of high school to a 6th round draft choice out of college, Harang's professional career began on the Texas Rangers’ rookie-ball affiliate, the Pulaski Rangers. His first time in a professional setting netted him a 9-2 record, a 2.30 ERA, and an Appalachian League Pitcher of the Year award. His next year, in high-A, he joined the Port Charlotte Rangers. Those Rangers affiliates sure have creative names now don’t they. He tossed well enough for a 13-5 record, a 3.32 ERA, 137 strikeouts, and a Florida State League All-Star selection. Success like that should translate into top-prospect status, and perhaps even a high price on the trade market. But Aaron Harang is one to defy expectations, and so in the 2000 offseason, Texas flipped him with a career minor leaguer to the Athletics for Randy Velarde. Velarde was a 38-year-old middle infielder who had just finished 2000 with an OPS of .754. While the Rangers certainly needed infield help, they had only two starting arms and two bullpen arms with ERAs below 5. Also they did this thing that winter where they signed a guy named Alex Rodriguez. He helped ease their middle infield woes a teensy bit more than Velarde. No matter. Harang would continue pitching well, though he'd encounter a bit of trouble in Oakland's AA affiliate. Still, 10-8 with a 4.14 ERA is better than I'd've done. The trouble he encountered only made him stronger as the next year he'd get promoted to AAA after just three starts. Probably helped that those three starts had a combined two earned runs and 21 strikeouts. After a couple starts for the Sacramento River Cats went well, a struggling A's team accepted Harang into the fold. His first start, on May 25th, would show them they were right to do so.
The first Major League start of a pitcher who, less than a year ago, was struggling in AA, should probably be out of necessity, and go rather poorly. Especially if, like Harang, the pitcher in that situation is young, having just turned 24 not two weeks ago. And yet, those expectations got dashed, because Aaron Harang enjoys doing that. Seven strong innings of shutout ball. Three hits, three walks, and ten strikeouts. A Gamescore of 78 in his first major league start (for reference, Stephen Strasburg's first start was a 75). All 6 feet and 7 inches of Harang dominated. Granted, his opponent was the 16-30 Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but still. That seemed like the sort of spark the 2002 A's needed, as they would go on to lose just 5 of their next 27 games. Oakland’s record was 22-26 before Harang's first start, and had blasted off to 42-31 once he finished up his fifth. With that kind of launch, which saw the league’s worst offense through its first 50 games score 5 or more runs in seven consecutive contests, you'd expect Harang would have a pretty good record. And yet, he suffered two of those five losses, and after his fifth start, he was 3-2. Expectations had been subverted once again. Two weeks later, after his ERA was 2.84 through eight starts, you'd expect he'd keep his spot in the rotation. Alas, Oakland picked an interesting time to trade for Ted Lilly, and Harang, once again performing the unexpected, was a River Cat once more. Then, only three weeks after the trade, Lilly got injured, and Harang was back in the rotation. Seems he left some of his stuff in Sacramento, because over the next two months, his ERA ballooned to 4.83, even after starting a couple times during the 20-game win streak. He got left off the playoff roster, and despite some early noise, showed up on zero Rookie of the Year ballots. The A's, hoping he could find what he left in Sacramento, started him down there for the first two months of 2003. Coming up after an injury to one of their pitchers, Harang made a nice relief appearance where he pitched four scoreless innings. That was enough for Art Howe to put him back in the rotation. He promptly lost three of his next six starts, threw up a 6.15 ERA, and got sent back down to the minors to make room for Rich Harden. Billy Beane was then caught salivating over rightfielder Jose Guillen of the Cincinnati Reds. Up to that point in the season, Guillen’s On-Base Percentage was .385, much higher than the .261 of the Athletics’ RF, Jermaine Dye. When Guillen became available, and Harang was one of the pieces demanded, Beane gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger. Perhaps he assumed, correctly, that a rotation with prime Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Ted Lilly would be good enough to make the playoffs. And as a result, Aaron Harang, along with fellow pitchers Joe Valentine and Jeff Bruksch, headed to Cincinnati. Hopes were high for him in a Reds uniform, but we all know his relationship with expectations. How’d he do?
The Reds team Harang joined would win just 20 games while he was part of the team. He entered their starting rotation, and in nine starts, put up a 5.28 ERA. One might expect that wouldn’t be an ERA worth keeping on the staff. However, this is Aaron Harang we’re talking about. The 2003 Cincinnati Reds were so starved for good pitching that only a month-and-a-half after the draft, the pitcher they selected 13th overall had already made a relief appearance in the majors. In fact, of the 17 pitchers that started games for the Reds that year, only 4 had an ERA lower than Harang’s 5.28. Kinda makes sense that he got traded with two other pitchers now. He stuck around on the staff for 2004, putting up a perfectly mediocre ERA of 4.86 in 28 starts. In a year where Doug Davis’ 3.39 ERA resulted in a 12-12 record, one might think Harang’s record was shot. But you forget who this is. His 10-9 record wasn’t even the best one on the team, one that finished 76-86 despite allowing over 150 more runs than they scored. Guess Harang’s career-long stunt of defying expectations inspired the whole team that year. One particular start stands out, in which the eventual NL pennant winners and their newfound ace pitcher Chris Carpenter took on Harang and the Reds near the end of August. The Cardinals had won over 80 games by that point. The Reds had just scraped together to win their 60th two days prior. One would expect Carpenter’s hot starter and a 3-4-5 of Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds to cruise to a win over Cincinnati. And wouldn’t you know it, Aaron Harang decided that was the day he’d pitch is first career shutout. 9 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, and 6 strikeouts from Harang later, the Reds had finished the game with a final score of 1-0. Sure, the win didn’t make much of a difference in the grander scheme of things, but it showed just what one particular Aaron Harang was capable of. And he’d show just how far he could go in the coming years.
2005 was a banner year for Aaron Harang. His best year in the Majors so far saw career bests in Wins with 11, ERA with 3.83 (good for another best 112 ERA+), strikeouts with 163, and innings pitched with 211. Best of all, he gave the Reds something they had lacked for several years: a consistent starting pitcher. Pity he seemed to be the only one, as Brandon Clausen was the only other pitcher in Cincinnati to regularly start games without an ERA over 5. Even if you have an outfield with Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn combining for 75 home runs, if Eric Milton and Ramon Ortiz combine to allow 74 dingers, you’re gonna finish 73-89. Heck, even the offense was inconsistent, seeing as how Harang lost 13 games, 4 of which were Quality Starts. No matter, the next year would be better. And better it certainly was. Aaron Harang, a pitcher on the hapless Cincinnati Reds, led the league in wins, with a record of 16-11. His strikeout total, a new career high at 216, also stood atop the league. This had only been accomplished by one other Reds pitcher in history: Bucky Walters in 1939. He won the MVP that season. In fact, every single NL pitcher who had ever finished the season leading the field in both those categories had won the Cy Young award at year’s end. One might fully expect the same pattern to hold here. However, this would be another addition to the long list of expectations Harang would subvert. He did not win the Cy Young award. He wasn’t even in the top 5. Aaron Harang did not appear on a single ballot for the NL Cy Young. Didn’t even make the All-Star team despite a 9-6 record and 120 Ks at the break. While many of the trends Harang had been bucking were positive in nature, this one would probably be one where he’d prefer not to defy expectations. Now, how did that happen, you may ask? Well, there were several factors. One was his ERA, which was 3.76. Not bad at all, especially with an NL best 35 games started, another NL best 6 complete games, and yet another NL best 993 batters faced in 234.1 innings. However, it was far from the best. Wasn’t even the best in his rotation. The Reds had struck gold yet again with a new starting arm named Bronson Arroyo, who came over from Boston less than two weeks before the season started. Arroyo finished the year with a 3.29 ERA, unheard of for a Reds pitcher in the past five years, and he rode that to an All-Star appearance and even showed up on an NL MVP ballot. Another factor was the Reds, who missed the playoffs with an 80-82 record after their previously effective offense failed to capitalize on some finally good starting pitching. Catcher David Ross was the only member of the lineup to have an OPS north of .900, and their 749 runs scored was over 50 fewer than they’d had the year prior. Thus, Aaron Harang was the second best pitcher on a sub-.500 team. His numbers were disregarded due to lack of team success, and he found himself without any of the expected respect given to his achievements. All he could do after that was show that the men in charge of such things had made a mistake. And the next year, he did just that.
Harang would start his second straight Opening Day game for the Reds, facing the Cubs and Carlos Zambrano. Zambrano had appeared on several NL Cy Young ballots the previous year, despite walking almost twice as many batters as Harang, and having worse stats in practically every category that weren’t ERA or losses. Starting as he meant to go on, Harang pitched 7 innings, allowed just one unearned run, and struck out 5, securing the win. Zambrano allowed 5 runs and took the loss. That was the first of 20 Quality Starts Harang had in 2007, as well as the first of 16 wins, duplicating his total of the previous year. While it wasn’t the most in the league this year, it was still able to turn some heads. His 3.73 ERA was another improvement, as was his 218 strikeouts. While some might expect improving on a strikeout total that led the league would result in another year with the most Ks in the NL, Jake Peavy decided to take the pitching Triple Crown that year with 240 strikeouts, so that didn’t happen. The biggest improvement voters saw, I suspect, was none of that, but the significant lessening of losses, from 11 in 2006 to just 6 in 2007. He also did that amidst a team that lost 90 games after Bronson Arroyo was only the second best pitcher on the team and a lineup with names like Josh Hamilton, Adam Dunn, and Edwin Encarnacion had trouble plating runs. Still, Aaron Harang performed admirably among that team, and even scored a 4th place finish in NL Cy Young voting. Still no All-Star appearance despite a 9-2 record at the break (come ON), but there was still time to establish the clear and present truth that he belonged there. Please fulfill my expectations there, Aaron.
One might believe that after such an extraordinary past three seasons, which had consistency the likes of Brandon Webb or Johan Santana, the next logical step would be continued dominance and an eventual Cy Young trophy. However, the expectations proved faulty once again with Aaron Harang. He had just finished a three year stretch going 43-30 with a 3.77 ERA and 597 strikeouts. His next three years would watch him go 18-38 with a 4.71 ERA and 377 strikeouts. His WHIP went from 1.226 in 05-07 to 1.442 in 08-10. He’d go from leading the league in wins in 2006 to leading it in losses with 17 in 2008. He was still a fine starting pitcher, don’t get me wrong, but Aaron Harang from 2005 to 2007 was an ace. His performance over that time was the sort that gave a team hope for the present and the future. The kind that inspires the thought “we may suck right now, but Harang will be around, and since he’ll keep it up, who knows just how good we can be.” He didn’t keep it up, because men are fallible creatures, and the only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability, doubly so when that life is Aaron Harang’s. The worst part of all this? In 2010, the Reds were actually good. Like really good. They won 90 games and the division, with the help of flashy second baseman Brandon Phillips, star third baseman Scott Rolen, eventual MVP Joey Votto, newcomer Jay Bruce, and, of course, pitching. Bronson Arroyo had a bounceback year, and four pitchers under the age of 25 named Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, Mike Leake, and Travis Wood contributed massively by filling important gaps in the rotation. All this while, Aaron Harang was doing his best, but after having had his previous season cut short by an emergency appendectomy, he just wasn’t up to his usual standards. He finished the season 6-7 with a 5.32 ERA, the worst of his career. After giving the team so much for so long, one might think that despite his inconsistency as of late, since he’s been around and contributed a great deal, there would still be a playoff roster spot saved especially for him, for old times’ sake. After all, despite his dismal numbers, the team had allowed him to start the last game of the season having clinched the division. Yet, this was another expectation Harang would defy, as not only was he left off the playoff roster, but he had to watch his team get no-hit in their first playoff game in 15 years. The Reds were quickly pushed aside in a 3-game NLDS sweep, and once the season was over, Aaron Harang was given the news that he was a free agent that winter. A 32-year-old in search of a new team following his worst season. The same situation would eventually end the career of Carlos Zambrano. Would Harang bow out in the same fashion?
Being that his worst seasons had just befallen him back-to-back-to-back, one might expect a minor league offer that blossoms into a spot on the roster to be the next logical course of action in this story. You’re not gonna believe this, but that is not what happened. The San Diego Padres called Harang in early December, offered him a $3.5 million contract with a mutual second-year option, and he said yes. He’d finish the 2011 season as one of the brighter spots on a team that didn’t have very many of them. His 3.64 ERA would actually be a new career best, his 14-7 record would show he had returned to form, and his 1.365 WHIP was his best since he had earned Cy Young votes. However, his strikeout total of 124 was his worst over a full season of work, his walk total of 58 was another new career worst, and his team went 71-91 after at one time having the NL’s best record late in the previous year. Both parties decided it was best to part ways, and Harang once again became a free agent. His recent re-ascension helped the overall feeling around him, and he was ranked 40th in MLB Trade Rumors’ best free agents available. The Dodgers liked the sound of that, and so signed him for 2 years and $10 million. He’d once again achieve a new career best ERA at 3.61 in 2012, and allow just 14 homers, his lowest total of any season since 2003. He’d also go 10-10, and walk an even higher career worst 85 batters, but that still equated to the third best member of the Los Angeles rotation not named Clayton that year. You might think they like what they see and intend to keep him around except this is Aaron Harang so they dealt him to the Rockies on the fifth day of the 2013 season. You might think he’s staying there but this is Aaron Harang so he gets dealt again to the Seattle Mariners of all places on the 10th day of the 2013 season. Did he at least keep up the trend of pitching pretty well despite his age? Who do you think this is? No, he went 5-11 in 22 starts of 5.76 ERA ball before getting released at the end of August. Oh gosh, I guess he just sucked the whole time he was in Seattle. NO ACTUALLY BECAUSE HE THREW TWO COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUTS AS A MARINER BECAUSE THIS IS AARON HARANG AND NOTHING MAKES SENSE. For the sake of my sanity, I’ll wrap this up quickly. The Mets signed him on September 1st, he started four games for them, and then rode off into the sunset after they missed the playoffs. A spring training invite from Cleveland shortly followed, was declined by the Indians before the season started, and so he was scooped up by the Braves. Defies expectations (shocker), 12-12, new career best ERA at 3.57 in his age-36 season because of course, 161 strikeouts was the most since his Cy Young vote-getting year, but no playoffs. Back on everyone’s radar, Philadelphia signs him to a $5-million contract, he goes 6-15 with a 4.86 ERA and just 108 strikeouts, and he hangs it up after that. At least I didn’t defy my own expectations.
Aaron Harang was, in my humble opinion, the best player this year to not make the Hall of Fame ballot. His ever-interesting journey through 14 years of playing in the MLB was not only fascinating, but extraordinary. In terms of sheer odds-ignoring work, Harang’s resume is unmatched by any player we have so far covered. His career reminds me of another player, who in fact showed up on the ballot two years ago: Rick Ankiel. Ankiel pitched very well his rookie year, but a bad case of the yips seemed to have completely derailed his hopes of ever succeeding at the Major League level. And yet, he defied expectations to come back as an excellent outfieldier, putting together an amazing highlight reel of outfield assists and hitting prowess. While Aaron Harang may not have been that, he was still an oddity. His career trajectory went all over the place, from unassuming prospect-in-disguise to unquestionable staff ace to a shell of his former self to a reversal of fortune, Harang deserved to be remembered, and it seemed the Selection Committee didn’t consider him worthy of a checkbox on their special piece of paper.
Aaron Harang would visit the Hall of Fame in a Cincinnati Reds hat for his 75-80 record, 4.28 ERA, and 1125 strikeouts with the team. With any luck, he wouldn’t defy any expectations by showing up in any other team’s hat.
And the rest
#1: Randy Choate
#2: Kevin Gregg
#3: Dan Uggla
#4: Josh Hamilton
#5: Delmon Young
#6: Willie Bloomquist
#7: Grady Sizemore
#8: Kevin Correia
#9: David DeJesus
#10: Rafael Betancourt
#11: Clint Barmes
#12: Adam LaRoche
#13: Grant Balfour
#14: Randy Wolf
#15: Rafael Soriano
#16: Chris Denorfia
#17: Bruce Chen
#18: Cody Ross
#19: Scott Baker
#20: Jeff Francis

Sup. You might be wondering what this is. In short, the Hall of Fame ballot doesn't include everyone who qualifies for it. Some dudes cut off names they don't like or remember to make it shorter. This is where I talk about the guys who got cut. I've done this 13 other times if you couldn't tell by the number and they're at the bottom if you want to read them after this one. Now to this one.

Randy Wolf

Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 6
Career bWAR (16 years): 22.8 (19.5 w/o batting)
Stats: 133-125, 4.24 ERA, 99 ERA+, 379 GS, 2328.1 IP, 831 BB, 1814 K, 1.349 WHIP
League Leading Stats: Games Started (34, 2009)
Awards: All-Star (2003)
Teams Played For: Phillies (1999-2006), Dodgers (2007, 2009), Padres (2008), Astros (2008), Brewers (2010-12), Orioles (2012), Marlins (2014), Tigers (2015)
Famed poet Lucille Clifton once wrote, "There is a girl inside. She is randy as a wolf. She will not walk away and leave these bones to an old woman." Seemed as good an opening as any to talk about the person that poem was clearly referencing, Randy Asa Wolf. (Please ignore the part where his middle name is actually Christopher) Wolf was a left-handed starting pitcher for 16 years, played on several teams, did pretty well sometimes, not so well some other times, and retired. Generally, pitchers like him are remembered in the hearts and minds of fans of the teams he pitched for, but not by an appearance on the ballot. Players like Steve Trachsel, Kevin Tapani, and Ismael Valdez suffered a similar fate. And so it was for Randy. All the same, he did a fair amount during his career. Certainly didn't walk away and leave those bones to an old woman.
When Randy Wolf was but a Randy Pup, he was drafted in the 25th round of the 1994 draft out of high school. He went to Pepperdine instead, and did so well that in 1997, the Phillies chose him with their 2nd round pick. He'd end up being their highest signed draft choice because J.D. Drew elected not to sign with them after being selected second overall. Much like wolf pups acclimate to the outside world in just a couple months, it didn't take very long for Randy to get used to the baseball world. His 5-0 record and 1.80 ERA in seven lower-A starts showed he was 100% worth the Phillies' high pick. The next year, before he'd even turned 22, Randy was starting games at the triple-A level, and doing very well. In roughly the same time it takes a wolf to reach full maturity, two years after he was drafted, Randy Canis Lupus was on a Major League roster. For his first appearance, he'd be starting a game versus the Toronto Blue Jays. A Blue Jays team whose heart of the lineup was Shawn Green, Carlos Delgado, and Tony Fernandez was held to only six hits and one run in 5.2 innings from Randy Wolf. After he'd captured a win in 5 of his first 7 starts, his spot in the rotation became permanent. Especially noteworthy considering he had competition like Chad Ogea and Carlton Loewer, who are recognized in several circles as "Who Now" and "Should I Know Him." Wolf's year ended on a sour note, both as a pitcher and a member of the Phillies. After that 5-0 start, Wolf would start 14 more games, and go 1-9 in them with a 6.90 ERA throughout. Likewise, Philadelphia, who were 67-59 a week before September started, went 1-16 over their next 17 games, and limped into the offseason at 77-85. While Wolf's 6-9, 5.55 ERA year was definitely worse than he'd wanted, it was still worth 0.3 bWAR. After all, this was the late 90s, and balanced breakfasts of testosterone and HGH were all the rage. He also struck out 116 so that helped too. The positives of his time starting games, coupled with the fact he was only 23 at season's end, all but glued his name to a rotation spot for the next year.
Much in the way that wolves stick together, Randy Wolf would remain a fixture in the Phillies rotation for the next seven years. He'd start 169 games, going 63-51 with a 4.06 ERA, 855 strikeouts, 367 walks, a 1.303 WHIP, and a 105 ERA+. He had his share of highs and lows with the team. And there were many highs, and many lows.

• In 2000, he held the Brewers at bay with a quality start in early July, and gave the 38-44 Phillies a glimmer of hope that they could turn the season around. Then he watched the team trade staff ace Curt Schilling three weeks later, and despite Wolf’s 11-9 record and 3.0 bWAR, Philadelphia ended up losing 97 games.
  
• In 2001, he had the best start of the Phillies' year in late September: a 1H, 1BB, 8K shutout of the Cincinnati Reds. He faced only 28 batters, and almost singlehandedly kept the team in the playoff hunt that day. Then Philadelphia finished at 86-76, losing the division race to the Braves with just three games left. 10-11 and a 3.70 ERA with 152 strikeouts in 25 starts was all Wolf could give, but it wasn't quite enough.
  
• In 2002, Wolf took his turn as the staff ace, putting up the lowest ERA, the lowest WHIP, and the most strikeouts of any regular Phillies pitcher that year. Over a four-start stretch between August 16th and September 5th, Wolf pitched three complete games and 35 total innings, allowed only one run, struck out 30, and sent the Wolf Pack, his special cheering section, into a frenzy. He pitched those games, and another 8-inning 1-hit 2-walk no-run 11-strikeout masterpiece a week later, in memory of a member of that cheering section who tragically lost his life earlier that year. He also only got the Phillies just above .500 with those games, at a time when the wild card was all but out of reach. They'd finish at 80-81, 21.5 games behind the Braves, and 15 games behind the wild-card Giants.
  
• In 2003, Kevin Millwood was acquired in the offseason, meaning Wolf, thankfully, would no longer be expected to be the staff ace. Nevertheless, after his first 17 starts, he was 9-3 with 100 third strikes. On the back of his record, and the unexpected success of the Phillies who were in a wild card spot at that point, he was voted into the All-Star game for the first time in his career. He slowed down toward the end of September, but was still good, finishing at 16-10 with a 4.23 ERA and a career best 177 strikeouts. The Phillies were within a game of the wild card with just five games left in the season. A three-game sweep by the team ahead of them, the Florida Marlins, ended their playoff hopes prematurely, with Wolf allowing four runs in four innings to lose the last of the series, and the wild card clincher, in Miami.
  
• From 2004 to 2006 Wolf went 15-12 over the three-year stretch. His team would go from 86-76 to 88-74 to 85-77 over that time. He'd strike out 198 in his 48 starts, and while his 4.58 ERA was just good enough for a 99 ERA+, the Wolf Pack wouldn't let up. He even hit two home runs when he was facing the Rockies. Game was in Philadelphia, if you can believe it. And yet, he had injury problems that caused him to miss the majority of both June and September in 2004. Then after he hadn’t missed a start in 2005, he was diagnosed with a torn UCL right before the All-Star break and would require Tommy John surgery, shutting him down until the last week of July, 2006. His team was good during that time, but would also miss the playoffs all three years, and even if they hadn't, Wolf wouldn't have been able to pitch in any of them.
  

Finally, after the season when he turned 30 ended with a 5.56 ERA, the Phillies thanked him for his contributions, and made him a lone Wolf. Where might a pitcher find work having just started his fourth decade of life?
Not a month into free agency, as they often do, the lone Wolf found new territory far away from his previous home. Randy signed a 1-year, $7.5 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. This was a pack that had gone to the playoffs the previous year after some serious retooling, particularly in the pitching department. 36-year-old Aaron Sele and 40-year-old Greg Maddux had made serious impacts despite their AARP cards. Knowing that wasn't sustainable, the Dodgers' plan for Wolf was to inject some comparative youth into the rotation, try him out for one year, and leave the door open with a second-year option. He did okay to start out, with 6 of his first 11 Dodgers starts being Quality Starts, including a particularly good 7 innings of no-run 4-hit 11-strikeout stuff against the Cincinnati Reds. He finished May at 6-3 with a 3.41 ERA and 71 strikeouts. June wasn't as good, as he emerged at the end of the month with a 9-6 record and a 4.33 ERA after allowing at least 3 runs in each of his 6 starts. Then on July 3rd, after a particularly bad 3-inning 6-run outing, the Wolf began to hobble. His throwing shoulder was bothering him, and after electing to have surgery on it, his season was over. So was his time as a member of the Dodgers, who turned him loose that offseason. The Wolf found temporary shelter in a monastery as the Padres gave him a 1-year $5 million contract. In just his third start, against the Rockies, Randy was close to making that contract monumentally good. He had thrown 6 shutout, no-hit innings, which is generally not super noteworthy, but the San Diego Padres had never had a no-hitter in their history. Alas, it would stay that way, as person-who-dislikes-fun Brad Hawpe singled in the 7th, and Wolf was pulled after he finished the inning. It seemed to throw off his game as well, as after only allowing three runs through his first three starts combined for an ERA of 1.42, by mid-July, Randy had caused it to rise to 4.74. Pair that with a 6-10 record and a trend toward his worst career ERA+, and things weren't looking good. San Diego, who had already lost 60 games by that point, decided to save some money, and traded Wolf's $5 million to the Houston Astros for the league minimum of 26-year-old Chad Reineke. Apparently the Astros knew what they were doing, because, much like the constellation 9Lupus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupus_(constellation\)), when Wolf joined the stars, he shined. In 12 starts, he went 6-2, lowered his ERA on the season to 4.30, and struck out 57. Houston, who was 8 games below .500 when they acquired him, got as close as 2 games out of the Wild Card spot before finishing the year 86-75, an admirable turnaround. The next season would provide intrigue into whether they could keep that up. They would have to do it without Randy Wolf, who was once again granted permission to the pastures of free agency. At 32 years old, was there any chance this old dog still had some new tricks?
Despite being named the 27th best free agent available by MLB Trade Rumors and being one of the catalysts for a rather successful team down the stretch, Wolf swam the rivers of free agency for a good three months before finally being offered a contract to come back to the Dodgers. Yet another 1-year, $5 million contract, but it was far better than being left to fend for himself in that harsh wilderness. Unlike the 2007 Dodgers he was familiar with, who would go on to miss the playoffs after Wolf injured himself, the 2009 Dodgers were coming off a run to the NLCS. A recent foreign signing that paid off in Hiroki Kuroda, a proven young arm in Chad Billingsley, and a 21-year-old wild card named Clayton Kershaw were all ready to anchor a starting rotation. Wolf was brought on for his experience, and maybe if he could pitch here and there that'd be nice too. Well, he did that and more. At the age of 32, Randy Wolf had his best season in seven years. His record of 11-7 was his best since the year he was an All-Star. His 3.23 ERA was his best since the year he was the Phillies' ace. His 1.101 WHIP was his lowest in his career. He started 34 games, the first time he'd ever hit that high a number in a single season. Same goes for his 214.1 innings pitched. While Clayton Kershaw doubtless had the better mechanics, clearly exhibited in his lower peripherals in almost every pitcher vs. hitter metric, people who didn't care about all that stathead mumbo-jumbo saw Randy Wolf return to the mantle of staff ace. To top it all off, the Dodgers offense was exemplary. The outfield had a collective OPS above .825, and only two regular starters, Russell Martin the catcher and Rafael Furcal the shortstop, put up an OPS+ below 100. All that, plus a great bullpen, added up to a 95-67 record, and their second straight NL West division crown. Their quick dispatch of the Cardinals in an NLDS sweep was kicked off by Game 1 starter Randy Wolf, who earned a no-decision that day. He showed up again as the starter of Game 4 of the NLCS played against his old team in Philadelphia. Game 4 would end with Jonathan Broxton allowing a walkoff two-run double to Jimmy Rollins, who was teammates with Randy for six years. The Dodgers lost Game 4, then the decisive Game 5, and ended up watching the Phillies lose the World Series to the Yankees. Randy Wolf, on the other hand, was set to hunt for a team in the wooded country of free agency another time. Would this hunt fare any better?
Randy Wolf had the good fortune of being among a particularly lean crop of free agents, and having just had a year where he could be argued as the staff ace of a 95-win team, his value was as high as it ever had been. MLB Trade Rumors, therefore, rated him as the 5th best free agent available. The four names ahead of him, Matt Holliday, John Lackey, Jason Bay, and Chone Figgins, show just how weak this class was. Perfect prey for a wolf to pounce upon to gain ground. Monetarily, of course. And that he did, signing a 3-year, $29.75 million dollar contract with the Milwaukee Brewers. This contract was roughly equivalent to double what he'd earned over the past three years. It pays to be aggressive when it matters, whether you are prowling for food in the forest or prowling for a contract in the MLB. While Randy Wolf was certainly still crafty, the Brewers were giving a three-year contract with seven zeroes on it to a pitcher not named Randy Johnson or Nolan Ryan who would be 36 before it was over. Would the risk pay off? Well, old dogs can often still go in for the kill. In his first two years, Wolf went 26-22 in 67 starts. His 3.93 ERA and ERA+ of 101 was commendable, his total of 276 strikeouts was above average, and his 1839 batters faced were the most he'd ever endured over any two-year stretch of his career. Randy was even privy to some playoff action in 2011, when he allowed seven runs in a possible NLDS series-clincher against Arizona, but made up for it with a Quality Start and eventual Win in Game 4 of the NLCS. The Brewers won the series where he sucked, and lost the series where he was good. Wolf may have taken the wrong idea, because the next year he began sucking a lot more. By mid-August, he was 3-10 with a 5.69 ERA, but contrary to the previous experiment, Milwaukee was not doing well, and by this time was all but out of the playoff picture. On August 22, 2012, Randy Wolf was released by Milwaukee on what just so happened to be his 36th birthday. Told you his contract wouldn't end before then. A pity deal from the Baltimore Orioles led to two more starts and three more appearances, but didn't translate into an appearance on their playoff roster on account of another UCL tear that meant he would miss an entire year, this time not sandwiched between two seasons of play, but for the whole calendar year of 2013. Some might think that a 37-year-old coming off of his second Tommy John surgery would decide it was time to hang up his cleats and retire. Randy Wolf, not one to settle for easy meat, did not do that.
On Febraury 13th, 2014, after completing his rehab, Wolf signed a minor league contract with the Seattle Mariners. Then he got released after refusing to sign a waiver. Long story. A couple weeks later, he signed another minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Despite a 5-1 record over 6 AAA starts, the Snakes didn't want to keep him, and he was released again. That same day, he was picked up by the Marlins on another minor league contract. One month and 25.2 MLB innings of 5.26 ERA ball and a 1-3 record later, he was released again, only to be scooped up five days later on another minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles. Four lackluster weeks of triple-A baseball later, Wolf was released again only for two weeks to pass before he was offered another minor league contract from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. ARE YOU STILL WITH ME?!? Good. The Angels kept him on their AAA squad for the remainder of the year. His previous season, he'd gone 6-2 with a 4.57 ERA in 19 triple-A games spread across three different organizations, and that sluggish performance in Miami was the only time he put on an MLB jersey during the regular season. Remember kids, someday signing a waiver might mean you don’t have to move house four times in one year. Anyway, the next spring training, Wolf signed a minor league contract with the Blue Jays OH NO IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN. Except this time, the Blue Jays kept him on their triple-A squad for four months of the regular season. He went 9-2 with a 2.58 ERA in 23 starts. The Detroit Tigers saw that, said "what's the worst that could happen?" and in mid-August, traded their up-and-coming prospect Cash Considerations for Randy Wolf. He thanked them by going 0-5 in 7 starts, allowing 24 earned runs in 34.2 innings for a 6.23 ERA, and getting released that offseason. At long last, the Wolf saw that his final days were upon him, and signed a one-day contract with the Phillies to retire as a member of his original Wolf Pack. Is this the part where he cries to the blue corn moon?
To say Randy Wolf's career was one-of-a-kind would be a stretch. There are plenty of other lefties that have gone on to have similar careers, Floyd Bannister for one. Did Randy deserve to be on the ballot? That's a question that doesn't have an easy answer. Sure, he pitched for a long time, won more games than he lost, and was relatively good over a fairly lengthy stretch. He even places 116th on the all-time strikeouts list with 1814, right ahead of Hall-of-Famer and 350-game winner Pud Galvin. Heck, Ron Darling had similar stats across the board, and he even showed up on a ballot. And yet, to me there's just something about him that just says "he didn't belong there." Perhaps it's the fact that he was only the definitive staff ace on one team that only won 80 games. Perhaps it's the fact he only had four full seasons with an ERA below 4.00. It might even be the fact that after he came back despite the odds, he didn't do very well, and that's poisoning my thoughts on him. I don't know. I do know he wasn't on the ballot, and that's that. [Put another stupid wolf thing here]
Randy Wolf would visit the Hall of Fame in a Phillies cap for his 69-60 record, 971 strikeouts, and one All-Star selection with the club. While there he would let out a quiet but distinct howl when passing by Greg "Mad Dog" Maddux's plaque.
RIP Tommy Lasorda
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