Willie Stargell, Lou Brock, Maury Wills, Manny Ramirez, the 2025 Division Series thus far, Red Sox' "state of the team going forward" press conference, someone else's great point about Alex Bregman

Tuesday 10/7/25

The 1979 "We Are Family" Pittsburgh Pirates had a banner on the top of their dugout that read THE FAMILY. Offhand, I can't think of another major league team that labeled themselves in this manner. That's pretty cool if it fits, and it certainly seemed to with that squad. They were a special team, led by Willie Stargell, who, in my view, had a year for the ages, a special year as a leader, an ultra-clutch guy, someone who gave his team what they needed when they needed it, a layer of the road that everyone else walked down. He's often decried as one of the worst choices to win the regular season MVP award, whereas I think he was one of the most deserving ever, a perfect example of what the word "valuable"--as in most valuable to his team--means. Then he goes on an wins the NLCS MVP and the WS MVP that same year. I mean...yeah. One of the best seasons in MLB in terms of what really counts. WAR will only tell you a fraction of what you really need to know.

There was a time when it seemed that everyone who expressed an interest in baseball knew that Reggie Jackson was the all-time leader in strikeouts, but now I'd venture that few people know that, because people basically know nothing now. Those that do are usually older and simply have things that remain in their memories. People don't learn anymore. People have rarely learned on their own because they wish to--which is most of what it takes--and instead relied on being taught--that is, almost learning without meaning to, simply because of where they were, what someone was saying in front of them, what they were made to read--but that is virtually nonexistent now as well.

Anyway, even when people knew this about Reggie Jackson, they usually didn't know who had been the all-time strikeout leader before him. That was our man, Willie Stargell. But there's a very interesting fact: When he retired in 1979, Lou Brock was second on the all-time strikeout list behind Stargell. That's pretty damn surprising. I love a stat like that. You think strikeouts, and you think a power guy, which Brock wasn't. Or, someone who isn't that good, but if you weren't that good, and you weren't a catcher--because catchers can stick around for a bunch of other reasons--you wouldn't be able to play long enough to rack up all of those strikeouts.

Brock got over 3000 hits, didn't have much power--he had some, to be fair--and still struck out all of those times. I'm also in the minority with Brock, because I think he was a great, great player, and some baseball historians think he's a fringe Hall of Famer at best, sort of like a baseball version of hockey's Mike Gartner. Brock was more than his stats, though, and has was also a fantastic postseason performer, which is something that baseball fans and historians basically disregard completely, which has always blown my mind. It's like it counts for nothing with them, in terms of assessing a player's career. Talk about counterintuitive.

Here's another fun, surprising fact: In 2014, Maury Wills fell just two votes shy of making the Hall of Fame. I'd have Wills in the Hall of Fame--again, he was more than his numbers, and you have to look at what he did within the context of how the game was played at the time. Spark plug guys, those live wires on the base paths, the catalysts of small ball, helped you win in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Koufax Dodgers weren't exactly teeming with big boppers. The shortstop position was also so important back then. A shortstop was the soul of a team. Or could be. Was al but needed to be if the team was going to be great.

These division series have all been duds thus far in 2025, with each standing at 2-0. The race to praise the Dodgers is comical, though. I'm reminded of what happens when there's the tiniest bit of food on the ground. At first, it's just a tiny bit of food on its own. But once the bugs find it, it's covered. You can't see the tiny bit of food anymore and then the next day if you go back--like say this is a bench you sit on every afternoon--the food won't be there at all. The bugs are all about that bit of food, while media people are all about getting those clicks.

These media people are so dumb and lacking in an ability to think for themselves and see what things actually are that they don't even realize that what they think is meaningful, interesting, and, crucially, what they hold as the truth, is formulated by what gets them the most clicks without having to do anything, including think well and write well. It's not "This matters for these reasons," but rather, "This is meaningful in and of itself because it gets clicks." Do you see how that has an illogical tautology built into it? "In and of itself"...but because of this other thing. It's a contradiction.

But the clicks scale back when people realize there's nothing worth seeing once they get to the materials behind your link. And those people take you less seriously. Because this is what everyone in media does, they might not think you're worse than everyone else, but you won't stand out--separate--as anything good or even competent, reliable, and fair. Chasing clicks will kill both your operation and the business all of these people are a part of. None of them were smart enough to realize that. What you had to do was invest in quality and have better writing, real experts, people who provided true insight. But you also can't stock anywhere with such people, because no such people exist now.

Everyone's a brainless lemming because of the other factors in society, the environment, how education works. To not be a brainless lemming, you have to constantly go against the direction of everyone else and all sociological forces. That leaves next to no one. Then it's click chasing and harvesting click-based numbers, and then, again, doing the twisted elision, making like those numbers are analogous to quality. This is how the world is and how the world "thinks." And that's a big reason why everything is the same, mediocre at best, and mostly sucks. I want to say, "How can everyone seriously not see this?" but I also know that most people won't and/or can't think. At all. But this affects them. You'd think they'd care about that, miserable as most people are in significant part because of how a world like what this one has become does affect them. But despite being as narcissistic as almost everyone is, they won't, ironically, do what--or anything-that would be best for them. Including thinking. Ever.

The Red Sox brass had their end of the season, "It's gonna be different next year" press conference wrap-up thing yesterday. I guess they sounded a little more serious than usual. I don't know. Like there's urgency. To me, you need to sign big-time players. You can hype your farm system all you want, but for the Red Sox to win at the level their fans want them to win, they have to be able to go out and sign the type of guys that the Mets, Dodgers, and Yankees are in the market for.

They used to do that, and they did it before they won. It's downplayed now--or taken for granted--but the signing of Manny Ramirez was a huge deal for Boston. They had Pedro Martinez, and then they signed Ramirez, and that was a turning point in the franchise's history. The signing alone. You knew they were one of the main players on the market and you hadn't thought of the Red Sox that way before because that's not who they had been. For a time, they were what the Dodgers were now. That was a 2020s Dodgers type of signing. I know they were frustrating for a while after that signing, fielding a team of All-Stars, basically, that didn't win, but the winning years under Terry Francona wouldn't have happened without Ramirez. Then who knows what would have happened and wouldn't have after that.

The Red Sox have more holes to plug than people seem to be aware. Fans are talking like most of the team is set, and if they add this and this, they'll take the next step. You have no first baseman, no second baseman, and likely no third baseman. Alex Bregman will leave, but if he doesn't want to, the Sox shouldn't bring him back at top dollar money. If Jarren Duran is moved--as he should be--they'll need a left fielder. They need a number of upgrades and several separate additions, like a quality starting pitcher, and what I'll call a splash of a signing--an elite guy. Like the Mets did with Juan Soto. I know this hasn't worked out for the Mets yet, but that wasn't Soto's fault. He's a game tilter, a difference maker (though I think that was much too long to sign him for).

Lastly, I want to share this post made by someone--I don't have an actual name--on a baseball history forum. This individual nails the truth about Alex Bregman in a manner which I've not seen anywhere else:

The problem I have with Bregman is that his 2018-19 seasons that were assisted by the cheating scandal and significantly inflate his career totals.

Outside of those two seasons he only averages 3.9 WAR per year and has never had a 5 WAR season. And that's without even averaging in the shortened 2020 season in which he only had 1.0 WAR. So if we adjust those two seasons down to his normal average WAR he would only be at 34.4 instead of 43.1. I think that's a more realistic view of his actual capabilities.

I don't think people realize just how much the cheating boosted his career and the perception of him. He hit 35% of his career HRs in those two seasons alone and drove in 30% of his career RBIs. He had his highest and 2nd highest BA, OBP, SLG and BB totals both of those years. He finished top 5 in MVP voting both times. If you take them away, we have a 1-time all-star with 0 silver sluggers and zero top-10 MVP finishes. His career OPS+ drops from 132 to 121. I don't think there's any HOF talk at all if he doesn't get the cheating boost those two seasons.

Tells you what you most need to know about this player. I hope the Red Sox know it.