Don't know if this has been posted or not, but it was a really nice read, I thought. You'll have to register to read it, I believe
Jeff Bagwell may be headed to the Hall of Fame, even without the fame 01:13 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 27, 2003 By AL CARTER / The Dallas Morning News HOUSTON – He can't throw as well as many of the youngsters who watch him play. He freely admits that no youngster should ever try to copy how he hits. When, during the course of a two-home run afternoon last month, he rocketed his 400th career homer at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park, the ball wound up in the possession of a local youngster whose reaction was almost predictable. The 9-year-old boy had never heard of Jeff Bagwell. "Hey, that's cool," says Bagwell, the best basher in Houston Astros history. "He doesn't need to know who I am. It's only important that he knows who Barry Larkin is." A wise father might have whispered the whole truth about the relative accomplishments of the Reds' celebrity shortstop and the Astros' factory-town first baseman. Bagwell is riding a Cooperstown cushion of burgeoning statistics, peer admiration for his work ethic and a quiet appreciation among baseball insiders for his determination to fight off the effects of an arthritically wasted right shoulder and, at 35, stay on top of his game. Perhaps within a decade, he will be in the Hall of Fame, hailed as one of the most feared hitters of his time in the National League. "It's hard for people to understand," Astros manager Jimy Williams says, "just how hard Jeff Bagwell has worked to maintain the skill level that he feels that he has – and feels that he has to have – to help him compete and help this team win. That's all he's trying to do. He's not trying to impress anybody." In doing so, Bagwell continues to impress both the numbers-crunchers and those with an appreciation for the subtle requirements for extended success. "This game is about change," Bagwell says. "If people change to you, you have to change to them." For 13 big-league seasons, all with the Astros, Bagwell has stayed ahead of the curve – and at the pinnacle of the game's best fastball hitters. Twice in recent seasons, he has radically altered his once gaping stance, all in an attempt to cover the outer part of the plate, a problem compounded by his decayed shoulder. Yet his slumps remain mild. And the homers keep popping off his bat. On July 20, he bagged Nos. 399 and 400, joining a group of three dozen players to reach that plateau. After two slow months, he erupted in July with 10 homers and 25 RBIs. Through Monday, he owned 28 homers for the season and 408 for his career, one better than Duke Snider and six behind the next slugger ahead of him on baseball's career homer chart, Darrell Evans. Going for 30 again With two more homers, Bagwell would reach the 30 mark for the eighth straight season. He's about a year away, if his production rate continues, from doubling the career homer total for the second-greatest slugger in Astros history, Jimmy Wynn, who hit 223 from 1963 to 1973. He's roughly three years away, if his pace holds, from joining the ultra-exclusive 500-homer list, now just 19 players deep. Three years also happens to be the time remaining on Bagwell's contract. "If I play those three years and I don't get there," Bagwell says, "I'm not going to be a happy camper." A native New Englander, Bagwell came to the Astros in a now infamous 1990 trade with Boston that netted the Red Sox journeyman reliever Larry Andersen. A year later, Bagwell was named rookie of the year in the National League. In 1994, after hitting .368 with 39 homers and a league-best 116 RBIs, Bagwell was selected unanimously as the NL's MVP, only the third player in league history to be chosen without dissent. The following season, a broken hand forced him out of the lineup for a month. He returned with a special protective device sewn into his batting glove and in 1996 launched an offensive tear that reached a peak during Houston's debut at cozy Minute Maid Park (then Enron Field) in 2000. Bagwell banged a career-best 47 homers that season, knocked in 132 runs and hit .310. But soon afterward, his right shoulder began to creak. Surgery after the 2001 season relieved much of the pain but reduced his shoulder to little more than bone on bone. Surges and slumps have been his bread and butter since then. Before his 10-homer burst in July, Bagwell hit only one in May and three in June. Still, he plays on. Since 1999, Bagwell has missed, on average, only two games a season. "I can't do some of the things that I did before," he says. "I can't throw like I used to, and that's been tough on me. Hitting, my numbers haven't been up to par the last couple of years. It's been a little bit of trial and error every at-bat. But it's a tough game. You may know what you're doing wrong. But to actually fix it is not as easy as it sounds." Few hitters have ever gone to greater extremes to find a fix. Few hitters have ever employed a stranger stance. His wide base – a perfect blueprint for a single-arched bridge – has been a constant, a platform for a vicious uppercut that imperils pitches, whether imperfect or not. But his once garishly open stance has slithered since 2000, back to even and, more recently, to closed. "It got to where nobody pitched me in ever," Bagwell says. "So I just said, 'OK, I play in this ball park where it's good to right, so I'll hit every ball to right.' I did that and had a pretty good season." Matter of extension But the adjustment, Bagwell says, was as much a concession to age as to arena. "With my shoulder, it was harder to extend out – and you have to extend if you're going to generate any kind of power," he says. "With my crouch, it's hard for me to get back closed from the open spot. I'm not as quick as I used to be." That's a secret Bagwell has kept hidden from opposing pitchers. Strictly as a fastball hitter, Bagwell may rank as the best of his generation. Billy Wagner, the Astros' punch-out closer, remembers well the one opportunity he had to challenge Bagwell with his triple-digit velocity. It came in spring training of 1996, Wagner's rookie camp with the big club. Wagner threw heat. Bagwell parked it over the left-center field wall. "He can look like he's late on a fastball," Wagner says. "But all he's really doing is setting you up to throw it again, one he can handle, one out over the plate just a little bit." Just how Bagwell hits anything is a bit of a mystery. "I would not advise telling any youngster to emulate what he does," Williams says. "I do everything wrong," says Bagwell, in total agreement. "I step backwards, and that's bad. But my biggest flaw is my hands drop. My hands drop – a lot. You can't see it so much with the naked eye, but if you saw it on film, you'd die. When my swing is off, I can't get my hands back up, so I end up going forward a little bit. Not good." Those slumps are typically short, a testament to Bagwell's skills as his own troubleshooter. "It's difficult," he says. "As many times as I've been through it, my swing is so unorthodox, it's just hard to fix." "He's his own hitter," Williams says of Bagwell. "He has his own stance. He has his own weight shift. He has his own approach to hitting. He's a unique guy." Sure, his hands drop, Williams says with a laugh. "You know, if you drop down and don't hit, it's called a hitch," he says. "If you drop down and do hit, they call it a trigger mechanism." Bagwell remains the trigger for the Astros' offensive barrage and a key to the team's hopes for taking control of the race in the NL's Central Division. Yet Bagwell's intangibles, Williams says, mean just as much to the Astros' playoff chances as his plate punch. "Just to watch him run out a baseball, so consistently, time after time," Williams says. "I see it four or five times a day, whenever he hits the ball. You can't put a price on that. He's a guy who always treats the game with respect."
That is a question I have asked in the Dodgers thread, it is probably better suited for this one. Why is it that Bagwell can not get his shoulder corrected? Pitchers have shoulders operated on all the time, and they don't come back throwing the ball like the "sisters of the weak". Teams run from first to third on Biggio, and know that if Bagwell is the relay man, he will not be able to throw anyone out. Does anyone have any real knowledge about Bagwell's ailing shoulder? It would be nice to see some of those 3-6-3 double plays he was reknowned for..... DD PS..RM95 3-6-3 means first to short to first.....just so you know.
2 questions: 1. Which part of "arthritic" and "bone on bone" did you not understand? 2. If someone is going 1st to 3rd on a ball hit to CF, how the hell is the 1st baseman going to take a relay? Just curious.
I think that Bagwell's shoulder problem is more arthritic than anything. It is not like there is a loose tendon or damaged cartilage. He had the one surgery which helped somewhat but as we can tell from his throwing, in no way resolved the problem. I seem to remember him saying that further surgery didn't guarantee anything and may cause him to regress even more.
Sounds like he wants that 500 too. Which is great news for me. Because I really hope he gets it. He's on perfect pace to get there.
He had a labrum (sp?) tear, and had it fixed, I had never heard bone on bone from anywhere. And I said they go from first to third on Biggio, and they go an extra base if Bagwell is the relay man...RF to home. DD
I'd be very surprised if that's happened more than once this year. Wouldn't the second baseman be the relay man in such a situation?
Man on 1st, ball hit to RF: 1B - covers 1st 2B - covers 2nd SS - cutoff man b/t RF & 3rd LF - backs up 3rd P - backs up Home Man on 1st & 2nd, ball hit to RF: 1B - covers 1st, can also be cutoff man b/t RF & Home 2B - for 'Stros, should be cutoff man b/t RF & Home SS - covers 2nd LF & P - same as above Bag's throwing ability has not affected the outcome of any game I can think of. Could be wrong though.
Double down right field Line.....Bagwell is the cutoff man, as he has no responsibility to cover first base. Or....man on first and 2nd single to right field....Hidalgo throws for home, Bags in the cuttoff man, to then throw to the guy tagging up at 2nd to go to 3rd. He has had many instances where he shows that his arm is bad. It is really sad, as he used to be AWESOME with that 3-6-3 Double play...which he can't do anymore. DD
Both of the examples you note are covered by the 2nd scenerio I posted. There's no reason that Bags has to be a cutoff man, ever. Traditionally, yes, that job is the first baseman's, but there's no reason for that to be the case with the Astros. I know his arm sucks. I know he used to be outstanding on the wheel play and on the 3-6-3. I'm just saying that I've watched 80% of the 'Stros games this year & can't think of a single instance where his non-ability to throw has cost them a game.
With Richard Hidaglo in Right Field do we even need to have this discussion. Has he ever been cut off by Bagwell while throwing home?
Yes, I saw it happen the other day. Bagwell cut off the throe home and threw to third, creating a run-down for the third out. They had no chance on the runner at home anyway.
Behad, Yep, he shot putted it over there, but it worked. I just wish for his sake they could fix the shoulder... DD
