Latest news with #DaveWinfield
New York Times
20-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Rafael Devers is walking more than ever, which is a good sign for his future
Pull up a list of major leaguers who have played 1,000 games before turning 29. Sort them by adjusted OPS (OPS+), which accounts for league-wide scoring levels and ballparks. Focus on the first 200 names. Now you have a list of All-Stars, with a lot of Hall of Famers mixed in. That's the elevator pitch for Rafael Devers. Among players who played a lot of games before turning 30, Devers was among the best hitters. He's keeping company with Al Kaline and Dave Winfield, if you're looking to compare him with Hall of Famers. He's keeping company with Jack Clark and Reggie Smith, if you're looking to compare him to Hall of Very Gooders with a Giants connection. It's a list of players who can provide supporting evidence for whatever narrative you want to tell. If you're worried about Devers' limited defensive ability preventing him from aging gracefully, Kent Hrbek and Greg Luzinski are on the list. If you're projecting a Hall of Fame career, you can tally up the inductees with a lower OPS+ through their age-28 season. There are 35 who hit better than Devers, and there are 44 who hit worse. Advertisement None of this tells us how Devers will age, or how much of a bargain or albatross he'll be toward the end of his contract. It's just another way to say, 'so far, so good.' What he's already done is impressive, and while he's not quite as young as his cherubic face might suggest, he's still in the prime of his career. Let's update the description, then: So far, so great. Devers got on this list by being consistent. Check his slash line since 2019 (excluding the 60-game 2020 season): 2019: .311/.361/.555 (132 OPS+) 2021: .279/.352/.538 (134 OPS+) 2022: .295/.358/.521 (141 OPS+) 2023: .271/.351/.500 (126 OPS+) 2024: .272/.354/.516 (142 OPS+) The batting average fluctuated a little bit because that's what they do, but the overall production was remarkably steady. Even more impressive, Devers had at least 600 plate appearances in all five of those seasons. With continued health, he'll be the best hitter on the Giants for the next several years if he keeps hitting like this. A simple story that doesn't have to get more complicated. A 28-year-old has had a very good career to this point, and if nothing changes, he'll continue having one. That 'if nothing changes' is doing a lot of work, of course. He'll need to stay healthy for the back end of his contract to not be a huge problem. He'll need to follow expected aging curves and keep hitting into his early 30s. He'll need to keep hitting for power. There's another reason why 'if nothing changes' is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Something might have already changed. Devers is staying in the strike zone more than he ever has, and he's walking a lot more as a result. He has the fourth-highest walk rate in baseball, and he's walking more than Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber or Aaron Judge. He literally walked the very second I typed the period at the end of the previous sentence. He's a walking machine these days, and both chase rate and walk rate are statistics that stabilize quickly, so it doesn't have to be small-sample shenanigans. This isn't just important because it appeals to walk fetishists and scratches that 'Moneyball' itch. It's important because over Devers' career, this has been the missing piece. It's been the only missing piece, other than speed. He's been a great hitter over his career, but he hasn't been a generational talent. He's giving himself a chance at the Hall of Fame, but it's hard to say he's on a Hall of Fame pace. He's a three-time All-Star, but he's never had a top-10 MVP finish, and he certainly isn't a superstar outside of New England. Advertisement The one thing preventing him from all of the above: patience. The players who make fewer outs while also clobbering extra-base hits are the generational talents, the MVPs who are on Hall of Fame paces. Devers is an outstanding hitter when he sports a .350-ish OBP. If he can get that into the .400s consistently, though, he could be a top-five hitter in baseball. Maybe he's already there. This is, of course, the part of the article where I hedge my bets and present a counterpoint to all of those fun ideas. Devers is walking more, but he's also making less contact when he swings. A lot less contact, with the lowest contact percentage and highest swinging-strike rate of his career. The biggest change is with his swings and misses at pitches in the strike zone. He's swinging through a lot more strikes. There are a lot of possible reasons for this, and not all of them are bad. It could be a conscious decision to make even better contact, even if it comes with less contact. But the likelier scenario is that Devers doesn't like all this swinging and missing, and he'll continue working to fix it. If he gets back to his career averages, that will mean more balls in play and, presumably, fewer walks. Is that a pretty weak counterpoint? Feels like a pretty weak counterpoint, but it's all I got. The idea of Devers maintaining a top-five walk rate should absolutely thrill Giants fans. There are very justified concerns about the money that's now committed to a 1B/DH-type throughout his early and mid-30s, but a lot of that has to do with the good-not-great OBPs that Devers has had in the past. He's a fantastic hitter with a .350 OBP, but it's easy to imagine that kind of OBP dipping closer to the league average without warning, then settling comfortably below in subsequent seasons. With a high-OBP batter, the aging curve looks a lot friendlier. If he can maintain a .400-ish OBP throughout his peak, then it wouldn't be unthinkable for a 35-year-old Devers to have numbers similar to the ones he put up when he was 25. We're still in the first half of the season, which means this is something to watch, not something to expect. A couple months with a few more walks isn't enough to guarantee that Devers has leveled up. But if he's really found something with how he tracks pitches, if he's showing off a new and sustainable skill, it's hard to overstate how encouraging of a sign that would be. Advertisement And if he goes back to the hitter he's always been, that's pretty cool, too. That's the best part of this. We're not talking about something that's turning a mediocre player into a solid regular; we're talking about something that could turn an All-Star into an MVP. If it doesn't stick, he's just a 28-year-old All-Star again. If you think walks are unexciting — and you should — maybe this will change your mind a little. Now you can pump your fist with every good take and checked swing. You can howl with delight when an umpire flinches but doesn't make the call. Rafael Devers currently has one of the best walk rates in baseball. If he keeps that up for a few seasons, he won't just be one of the best hitters in baseball: He'll be a bargain.
USA Today
14-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
USC 1973 College World Series battle versus Minnesota remains the stuff of legends
USC 1973 College World Series battle versus Minnesota remains the stuff of legends This weekend marks the start of the 2025 Men's College World Series. USC baseball will not be playing in Omaha this year, after the Trojans fell to Oregon State in the final of the Corvallis Regional. Back in 1973, however, the Trojans played in one of the greatest College World Series games of all-time. In a 2020 story, Trojans Wire's Matt Zemek detailed the wild 1973 game between USC and Minnesota. 'Dave Winfield was a badass pitcher in the 1973 College World Series,' Zemek wrote. 'In his first start of the series -- against Oklahoma -- Winfield pitched a shutout in which he struck out 14 batters. He won, 1-0. Against USC in this late-round contest a few days later, he dominated once again, shutting out the Trojans through eight innings on one hit, striking out 15 hitters. "Let's keep in mind here: Dave Winfield is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He is unquestionably an all-time-great player. He was absolutely mowing down everyone he faced in the 1973 College World Series. He threw 17 shutout innings in two games. His Minnesota team led USC 7-0 entering the ninth inning of the 1973 semifinal (a semifinal in which Minnesota needed to beat USC once to force a rematch to make the finals). One team having a seven-run lead entering the ninth is, by itself, "game over" 99.999 percent of the time. With a future Hall of Famer on the mound for Minnesota, the game felt that much more done and dusted. "If you have never heard about this game before, and you're reading all these words being written about the game, you can guess what we're about to say next: Yes, USC scored eight runs in the ninth to win, 8-7. Winfield's arm got tired -- at 140 pitches, with one out in the ninth -- and he left the game with the Gophers' lead being cut to 7-4. The Minnesota bullpen couldn't get two lousy outs with a three-run lead. USC just kept slashing away, knocking one hit after another to mount the most incredible rally the College World Series has ever seen. "What adds to the specialness of the rally is that USC went on to win the 1973 CWS title, part of a run of five straight national championships from 1970 through 1974, easily the most dynastic run in the event's history. USC baseball from 1970 through 1974 is the equivalent of what John Wooden and UCLA basketball achieved with seven straight national championships from 1967 through 1973.' The Trojans have not been back to the College World Series since 2001. After a breakthrough season under Andy Stankiewicz this year, USC fans are hopeful that a return to Omaha is not all that far away.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hall of Famer Dave Winfield retires from players union
Dave Winfield, who was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 2001, retired Monday from the Major League Baseball Players Association. 'This decision, made after careful reflection and in consultation with his family, marks the end of an extraordinary chapter in baseball history — one defined by passion, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment both to the game and our union,' union executive director Tony Clark said in a lengthy statement. 'From his early days as a standout at the University of Minnesota, to his meteoric rise with the San Diego Padres, Dave's journey on the field was always about more than just baseball. As a young Player, he recognized that the true measure of success lay in the collective strength of the Player fraternity. It was this spirit that inspired him to get involved with the MLBPA, helping to shape the union into the institution it is today.' Winfield played 22 years, batting .283 with 465 home runs and 1,833 RBIs. He was a 12-time All-Star and had the winning hit in the clinching Game 6 of the 1992 World Series while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays. ___ AP MLB: The Associated Press
Associated Press
17-02-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Hall of Famer Dave Winfield retires from players union
Dave Winfield, who was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 2001, retired Monday from the Major League Baseball Players Association. 'This decision, made after careful reflection and in consultation with his family, marks the end of an extraordinary chapter in baseball history — one defined by passion, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment both to the game and our union,' union executive director Tony Clark said in a lengthy statement. 'From his early days as a standout at the University of Minnesota, to his meteoric rise with the San Diego Padres, Dave's journey on the field was always about more than just baseball. As a young Player, he recognized that the true measure of success lay in the collective strength of the Player fraternity. It was this spirit that inspired him to get involved with the MLBPA, helping to shape the union into the institution it is today.' Winfield played 22 years, batting .283 with 465 home runs and 1,833 RBIs. He was a 12-time All-Star and had the winning hit in the clinching Game 6 of the 1992 World Series while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays. ___
