This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Hot Stove: 11/22

History of Baseball: 1883
NL Champion: Boston Beaneaters (63-35, .643 WPCT).  AA Champion: Philadelphia Athletics (66-32, .673 WPCT).
A lot happened in the offseason of 1882-1883.  The Troy Trojans and the Worcester Ruby Legs were booted from the National League.  In their place came the New York Gothams and the Philadelphia Quakers.  The Boston Red Caps changed their name to the Beaneaters, while the AA St. Louis Brown Stockings shortened their name to the Browns.  The American Association also added two teams, the New York Metropolitans and the Columbus Buckeyes, to league play.  Each league now had eight teams.  On August 28th, in an NL game between the Grays and the Quakers, the Grays win 28-0 for the most lopsided shutout in major league history.  This being their first season, the Quakers would go on to finish 17-81, last in the NL.  On the bright side, the Quakers would have a very successful future.  On September 6th, Chicago set a major league record, scoring eighteen runs in seventh inning in a game against Detroit.  At the season's end, Boston could raise the National League pennant, finishing 63-35, four games ahead of Chicago (59-39) and 45 games ahead of Philadelphia.  In the AA, the Philadelphia Athletics earned the pennant by going 66-32, just one game ahead of the St. Louis Browns (65-33).  Statistically, Buffalo's Dan Brouthers took home his second straight NL batting crown by checking in with a .374 average.  He batted .371 from 1882-1883.  In the AA, Ed Swartwood of Pittsburgh batted .357 to lead the league.   It was a very good season for power, as records were set for home runs and RBI.  Charley Jones' record of nine home runs, set back in 1879, was broken by three different players.  Jones himself, playing for Cincinnati in the AA, hit ten, as did Buck Ewing of the New York Gothams.  It was Harry Stovey, however, who had the most, knocking 14 home runs for the Athletics while also batting a respectable .304.  As for RBI, Cap Anson's record of 83 from the year prior was topped by two players.  Jack Burdock of Boston (whose 1883 season was literally the only good year of his fourteen year career) drove in 88 runs, thanks in large part to his .330 average.  Back in Buffalo, Dan Brouthers drove in 97 runs to smash the record, helped by his league leading .374 average.  Six players, including Ezra Sutton (Boston, 101), Jim O'Rourke (Buffalo, 102), John Reilly (Cincinnati, 103), George Gore (Chicago, 105), Joe Hornung (Boston, 107), and Harry Stovey (Philadelphia, 110), became the first players since Ross Barnes in 1876 to score over 100 runs.  Nate Williamson of Chicago set a new record with 49 doubles.  On the mound, Cleveland's Jim McCormick led the NL with a 1.84 ERA, while Will White's 2.09 mark stood as the standard in the AA.  Old Hoss Radbourn was arguably baseball's best pitcher, going 48-25 with a 2.05 ERA in 76 games (68 starts) for Providence.  Tim Keefe of the Metropolitans led the majors with a 0.96 WHIP.  In the offseason, the American Association would expand by four teams and rule changes would be enacted.

News
Michael Weiner, head of the Players' Union, passed away at 51 due to brain cancer.
The Phillies hired Bob McClure as their pitching coach.
Don't miss the big time trade below.

Trades
Tigers traded Prince Fielder (25 HR, 106 RBI, .279 AVG, 1 SB, 2014 age: 30) and cash considerations to the Rangers for Ian Kinsler (13 HR, 72 RBI, .277 AVG, 15 SB, 2014 age: 31-32).
Twins traded Duke Welker (1.1 shutout innings, 2014 age: 28) to the Pirates for Kris Johnson (0-2, 6.10 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, 2014 age: 29).

Woah.  Let's take a second to take that in.  Prince Fielder, a former Hank Aaron award recipient, five time All Star, three time Silver Slugger, and two time Home Run Derby winner, is being shipped to Texas in exchange for Ian Kinsler, a three time All Star.  To me, both teams benefit, but the Rangers get more benefit.  Fielder fills a gaping hole at first base for Texas, as Mitch Moreland has not been able to perform at the level needed for a contending team.  Moreland will likely be a DH.  Fielder brings the pop that the Rangers badly needed after losing Josh Hamilton to the Angels.  Now that the Rangers have Fielder, Adrian Beltre, Alex Rios, and Mitch Moreland in the middle of their order, the offense looks a lot more formidable.  Prince is as reliable as it gets at first base, having missed exactly one game in the past five seasons.  He's averaged over 160 games per season since 2006, including appearing in every game in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013.  Of course, he wasn't brought to Texas just because he could stay healthy.  The dude can mash.  Weighing in at 275 pounds, Fielder is one of the most intimidating players in the league.  He's hit at least 25 home runs and driven in at least 81 runs in each of the past eight seasons.  In 2007, at just 23 years old, he became the youngest player in history to knock 50 home runs in a season.  He also drove in 119 runs and batted .288 en route to winning a Silver Slugger and the Hank Aaron award.  2009 may have been his best year, when he hit 46 home runs, drove in 141, and batted .299 for the Brewers.  For his career, he has 285 home runs, 870 RBI, and a .286 average through 1322 games.  The Rangers will pay him $138 million over the next seven seasons, while the Tigers will pay the remaining $30 million.  In trading Kinsler, the Texas cleared up room for top prospect Jurickson Profar to take over at second base.  Stuck behind Kinsler and shortstop Elvis Andrus, he was forced to serve as a backup in 2013, which isn't that bad, considering he's 20 years old.
Kinsler, who's been in the Rangers' organization since 2003 and on their major league club since 2006, is moving to Detroit.  He's a solid second baseman who can wield a bat.  Last year, he batted .277 with 15 stolen bases, 13 home runs, and 85 runs scored.  He's got pop, can hit for average, and can run, but he's never had one season where he put everything together.  In 2008, he was an All Star as he batted .319 with 18 home runs and 26 stolen bases.  The next year, he hit 31 home runs and stole 31 bases, but batted just .253.  Arguably his best season, if not 2009, was 2011, when he hit 32 home runs and batted .255 with 30 stolen bases and 121 runs scored.  He's a reliable contributor in the postseason, having batted .311 with four home runs and 20 RBI in 34 postseason games.  He batted .360 in the 2011 World Series.  The move to get rid of Fielder bodes two dividends for the Tigers.  First off, it enables them to either move Victor Martinez or Miguel Cabrera to first base and reduce the logjam at the corners, and second, it frees up, like I said, $138 million dollars.  They can use that money to extend Max Scherzer.

Free Agent Signings
Royals signed Jason Vargas (9-8, 4.02 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 2014 age: 31) to a four year, $32 million deal ($8 million per season).
Giants resigned Guillermo Quiroz (1 HR, 6 RBI, .186 AVG, 0 SB, 2014 age: 32) to a minor league deal.

The Royals added a big arm to replace Ervin Santana in Jason Vargas.  With Santana gone, there was a big whole in the Kansas City rotation.  Vargas will fill it for four years, joining James Shields, Jeremy Guthrie, Danny Duffy, and Wade Davis.  Vargas is an established left hander who has been in the major leagues since 2005, and he's been a rotation regular since 2009.  He had his best season in 2012, when he was 14-11 with a 3.85 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 33 starts for the Mariners.  Last year, he missed the month of July to injury, but still went 9-8 with a 4.02 ERA in 24 starts for the Angels.  He was the AL Pitcher of the Month in May, going 5-0 with a 2.30 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in six starts.  On the third, he tossed a three hit shutout of the Orioles.  Later, on September 24th, he spun a four hit shutout of the A's.  Back in 2011, he tossed three shutouts over the course of six starts, but finished the season just 10-13 with a 4.25 ERA.  For his career, Vargas is 51-58 with a 4.30 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP in 174 games (154 starts) for the Marlins, Mets, Mariners, and Angels.

-- 
Teams followed in this update: Washington Nationals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers
If your team is not included, please leave a comment.
HR: home runs.  RBI: runs batted in.  AVG: batting average.  SB: stolen bases.  ERA: earned run average. WHIP: walks/hits per innings pitched.  K's: strikeouts. WPCT: winning percentage
Zack Silverman

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Oakton