August 14, 2010

You Can Blog It Up

The Shockingly Non-Bunty Gene Mauch All-Stars

by Steven Goldman

In 22 full seasons of managing, Gene Mauch’s teams led their leagues in sacrifice bunts 14 times and finished second thrice more. In many seasons, the race for the bunt title, such as it was, wasn’t even close. In 1979, Mauch’s Twins dropped one down 142 times—and those are just the successful bunts. There must have been many more attempts. The second-place team had just 79 bunts, and the league average was only 68. In 1982, the Angels had 114 bunts. The league average was 54. In 1986, the Angels had 91 bunts against a league average of 46.

But for shortstop Roy Smalley, who had 23 bunts in 1978, the players listed here didn’t do a great deal of bunting. The reason is simple: as eager as Mauch was to give up an out to move a runner over, these were his real hitters.

Boilerplate: this series was inspired by Bill James Guide to Managers, which contains several best-of teams for historic managers. Mauch was one of those that James didn’t bother with.

		YR	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	TAv
C	Butch Wynegar	1976	534	58	139	21	2	10	69	79	63	0	0	.269	.356	.363	.273
1B	Rod Carew	1977	616	128	239	38	16	14	100	69	55	23	13	.388	.449	.570	.338
2B	Bobby Grich	1982	506	74	132	28	5	19	65	82	109	3	3	.261	.371	.449	.286
3B	Dick Allen	1966	524	112	166	25	10	40	110	68	136	10	6	.317	.396	.632	.353
SS	Roy Smalley	1978	586	80	160	31	3	19	77	85	70	2	8	.273	.362	.433	.279
LF	Larry Hisle	1977	546	95	165	36	3	28	119	56	196	21	10	.302	.369	.533	.300
CF	Lyman Bostock	1977	593	104	199	36	12	14	90	51	59	16	7	.336	.389	.508	.304
RF	Rusty Staub	1969	549	89	166	26	5	29	79	110	61	3	4	.302	.426	.526	.338
DH	Brian Downing	1987	567	110	154	29	3	29	77	106	85	5	5	.272	.400	.487	.303

 

		YR	W-L	SV	IP	H	BB	SO	ERA	SNLVAR/WXRL
SP	Jim Bunning	1966	19-14	1	314.0	260	55	252	2.41	10.3
SP	Mike Witt	1986	18-10	0	269.0	218	73	208	2.84	8.1
SP	Chris Short	1965	18-11	2	297.1	260	89	237	2.82	7.7
SP	Dave Goltz	1977	20-11	0	303.0	284	91	186	3.36	6.7
SP	Jerry Koosman	1979	20-13	0	263.2	252	83	157	3.38	6.6
RP	Donnie Moore	1985	8-8	31	103.0	91	21	72	1.92	6.1

The unavoidable notes:

• I don’t have a great deal to say this time; there weren't too many difficult choices to make. This underscores the central facts of the Mauch story:  as famous as Mauch became for near-miss teams like the 1964 Phillies and 1986 Angels, he rarely had a really strong roster to work with. They were mostly flawed in some way. Consider his 1977 Twins, well represented above. They had a fine offense, led the league in runs scored per game, batting average, and on-base percentage, but their pitching staff was hopeless, ranking 12^th in the league in ERA. They went 84-77, finishing fourth in the AL West. His Expos were an expansion team, just accumulating real talent when he left. The 1982 Angels could hit (with a wonderfully potent outfield of Brian Downing, Fred Lynn, and Reggie Jackson) but had no starters capable of causing batters to swing and miss and nothing like a bullpen. The only thing wrong with the 1986 Angels was the loss of Wally Joyner halfway through the ALCS. Mauch's small-ball style worked against him, but the bunt totals went down when he had more hitters; it was his way of compensating. Were I starting a team, I probably wouldn't hire him to manage because I don't believe in the style, but I would have loved to have him running my spring training, drilling my players in fundamentals.

• An odd note about Mauch’s career is that he had a lot of players whose careers didn’t fulfill great promise. Wynegar, a second-round draft pick in 1974, had an amazing season in the California League in 1975 (.314/473/.500, 19 home runs, 142 walks). He might have been the first coming of Joe Mauer. Rushed to the majors at 20, he proved to be a more pedestrian hitter (although selective), but made the All-Star team in his first two seasons. In his third year, he hit .229/.307/.308 and although there were a couple of decent seasons yet to come, he never approached stardom. Dick Allen couldn’t keep his mind on baseball and trailed off after age his age-32 season. In his six years from age 25 to 30, Smalley was one of the best-hitting shortstops in the game (.270/.357/.430), but injuries destroyed his defensive abilities. He finished as a DH and was gone at 34. Larry Hisle was at the literal peak of his career, coming off of a .290/.374/.533, 34-home run season when injuries brought his career to a virtual halt at 32. Lyman Bostock was murdered at 27. Allen would have been an easy Hall of Famer with a slightly better finish. I don't know if any of the rest would have made it, but they would have been remembered as stars of the era instead of footnotes.

Previous Entries in This Series:

Billy Martin

Chuck Tanner

Whitey Herzog

Lou Piniella

Tony LaRussa

Bobby Cox

Steven Goldman is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 
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