Former Yankees Pitcher Gil Patterson Talks Baseball

Because of their traditionally substantial resources, the New York Yankees have had numerous top prospects in their system. While some have gone on to lengthy careers with the Bronx Bombers, many have not been as fortunate. Pitcher Gil Patterson was one among those promising young players. While he only had a cup of coffee in the majors, he was still able to go on to a lengthy career in baseball that continues to this day.

The right-handed Patterson was taken with the seventh overall pick in the 1975 MLB Draft. He went a combined 24-8 with a 2.26 ERA in his first two seasons in the minors, leading to being summoned to New York in 1977.

Patterson appeared in 10 games (six starts) for the 1977 Yankees—a team most famously known for being the first team of George Steinbrenner’s ownership, and immortalized in the movie, The Bronx is Burning.

Patterson went 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA and a save. On May 25^th of that year he beat future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven and the Texas Rangers 3-2 for his first and only major league win.  

Ironically, his final major league game came on August 27^th, when he pitched 1.2 scoreless innings of relief without a decision in a loss to Blyleven and those same Rangers.

Injuries caused Patterson to miss all of the 1978 and 1979 seasons. He came back and pitched well in two brief stints in the low minors for the Yankees in 1980-1981, but wasn’t able to get back to the level he needed to be to compete against major leaguers. After making four starts with the San Francisco Giants Single-A affiliate in 1982, he decided to retire as a player.

Since retiring, Patterson has held a number of minor league and big league coaching and organizational pitching coordinator positions with teams including the Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Athletics. He has been in his current job as minor league pitching coordinator for the Oakland Athletics since 2008.

I happened to run into Patterson when he was visiting one of the Oakland minor league teams to work with their pitchers, and he agreed to answer some of my questions. While it was obvious he wished he could have played longer, he is still getting a lot of satisfaction from the work he does now with young players, making his baseball career an unqualified success.

Gil Patterson Interview:

How did you first become interested in baseball?: Really, ever since I was six. I knew from that point I didn’t have a whole lot of brain cells, so if I wanted to make a living, baseball was the number one thing. I always loved baseball, and really, baseball allowed me to get an education.

Who were your favorite team and player when you were growing up?: Growing up, it was the Yankees and Mickey Mantle. You know, I was drafted five times, and eventually by the Yankees. I’m not going to tell you I wasn’t waiting for them; I was. But I was awfully glad when I got picked by the Yankees.

How did you first find out that the Yankees were interested in drafting you?: You know, I didn’t. Matter of fact, I went to a couple of tryout camps, and the Phillies were going to give me more money. The Yankees said they didn’t want to give me that much, so I figured the Yankees wouldn’t draft me. They drafted me anyways.

Did you have a favorite moment from your playing career?: I think playing in Yankee Stadium as a 21-year-old. It was something I had dreamed of since I was a kid. I just wish I had played there a whole lot longer.

Did you have a favorite coach or manager?: Bobby Cox was my favorite manager. He was the type of guy, that when you played for him, you wanted to win for him as much as you did for yourself.

If you could do anything differently about your playing career, what would that be?: Of course, getting hurt. I wish I would have been able to stay in the big leagues longer to see what type of career I might have had. God has a plan for all of us, and not that I want to change God’s plan, but... I wish I could have played longer.

**********************

You can follow me on Facebook by going to http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Baseball-Historian/138174109591660 or follow me on Twitter @historianandrew

Baseball Notes for December 3, 2012

So much went on in baseball this past week that this could easily be a 10,000 word article. I will spare you that and try to limit myself to touching base on only the stories I found to be the most urgent and interesting in the week that was. This will probably be just a precursor to even more action this week, as the Winter Meetings are now underway down in Tennessee. Buckle your seatbelts, kids.

***Former MLB union head and labor pioneer Marvin Miller died last Tuesday at the age of 95. Miller helped found the Players Association in 1966 and guided them through legal battles and obstacles, which ultimately led to free agency and exploding player salaries. His 16-year tenure as head of the union was easily the most productive of any of his colleagues in baseball or other sports.

Although many now decry the high salaries and occasional strikes, Miller’s work provided players with fundamental rights and the ability to claim some of the vast amounts of money they were making for the owners. When Miller joined the MLPA in 1968 the minimum play salary was $6,000. That threshold was $480,000 as of last season.

Miller has tragically not yet been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He fell two votes shy of induction in 2009 and missed by just one vote in 2010. There is little doubt that enemies he made during his time with the union have contributed to his exclusion. He must get in one day, as he is the definition of a baseball pioneer and contributor. It’s just a shame that personal grudges kept him from enjoying while he was alive what he had earned through his life’s work.

***New York Mets third baseman David Wright agreed to the largest contract in team history, coming to terms on an eight-year, $140 million pact. Although Wright is the face of the franchise, it seems that he is getting paid more because of his past performance than the value he will offer over the life of the contract.

Wright will be 30 by the time next season starts and has already seen his power reduced since the Mets moved to Citi Field. He hit a home run every 20.4 at bats when the Mets played at Shea Stadium, but has seen that drop to every 28.3 at bats since moving to his new home in 2009.

A team that has struggled financially so much in recent years handing out such a contract seems like an iffy proposition. Wright is a good player but can’t be considered more than a fringy star at this point in his career. Letting him walk now may have been a disastrous PR move for the franchise, so now they have rolled the dice that he can defy the creep of time over the next decade.

***Another week and another player suspended for testing positive for a banned substance. Yawn. This time it was Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz who was caught using an amphetamine and received a 25 game suspension to be served at the beginning of next season.

Ruiz issued the same boilerplate apology that has become standard fare among the fraternity of positive testers in recent years. Yeah, yeah, we get it. They’re real sorry. Until the punishment reaches the same financial levels as the possible benefits from taking banned substances, players are going to continue gambling in an effort to add zeroes on to their pay checks.

Many will likely equate Ruiz’s positive test with him having the best stats of his career at the age of 33 this past season, when he hit .325 with 16 home runs and 68 RBI. Even though there is no proven correlation between the substance he took and any on-field benefits, it’s a label and virtual asterisk his career will now carry forever because of the way such things are seen by so many fans and journalists.

***Another major free agent was taken off the market when B.J. Upton agreed to a five-year, $75.25 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. The center fielder, long regarded as one of the most toolsy players in baseball, had spent the first eight years of his major league career with the Tampa Bay Rays.

The move is curious from Atlanta’s standpoint. Upton’s best season came in 2007, when he hit .300 with 24 home runs, 22 stolen bases and a .386 OBP. In the five seasons since then he has topped a .246 batting average just once and has seen his OBP dip precipitously, to the point it reached .298 this past season.

It seems like every season people are holding their breath for Upton to break out and turn into the star he was envisioned to be when he was the second overall pick in the 2002 MLB Draft. Perhaps it’s time for the baseball world to realize that Upton is what he is; a guy with a little pop, some speed and good outfield range. He is not a player who can anchor a lineup. I can’t think of many players who turned the corner a decade into their career, especially after having been in decline for as long as Upton has. Let’s hope that whatever bad habits Upton has developed since his slide doesn’t rub off on young Atlanta star Jason Heyward.

***The Cincinnati Reds have apparently decided to finally give Cuban flame thrower Aroldis Chapman a chance to be a starter. This decision was made by the three-year, $21 million contract they agreed to with Jonathan Broxton, who spent the second half of last season with the Reds after being traded from the Kansas City Royals.

I have seen many question why the Reds would want to monkey with a lights-out closer, like Chapman proved to be in 2012. However, when you have a pitcher with his talents, it’s something that has to be done. Chapman won’t throw 101-105 MPH or strike out 15.3 batters per nine innings like he did last year as a reliever, but he has the potential to be very good.

Some legitimate concerns about this experiment include the fact that Chapman has never thrown more than 109 innings in a season since coming to the United States in 2010. He will undoubtedly be on a closely scrutinized pitch and innings count in 2013. Also, Broxton has shown signs of increasing decline. His strikeouts per nine innings (7.0 in 2012) has been nearly cut in half since its high point of 2009, when he had a mark of 13.5. According to FanGraphs.com, his average fastball velocity has dipped from 97.5 MPH to 94.8 MPH during that time. On the other hand, his 2012 FIP of 3.03 shows that he was still an effective pitcher, even if he isn’t working with the same weapons. At 300 pounds, it will be interesting to see if he can hang in as an effective closer for the Reds over the next three seasons with his bad body type and declining skill set.

***With all the flak being showered on the Marlins for their recent fire sale, a small market team finally made headlines for doing something positive. The Tampa Bay Rays locked up the face of their franchise, third baseman Evan Longoria, to a six-year, $100 million extension that will keep him through at least the 2022 season. The contract is a gamble being taken by both sides. Longoria gave up all of his arbitration and free agency years to take the sure-fire money now. The Rays are banking on him maintaining a high level of play until he is 37, which is when the contract runs out.

Longoria is close to being a star at a premium position. Although he missed half of the 2012 season because of injury, his .896 OPS and 149 OPS+ would have been career highs, suggesting he is coming into his peak. This contract makes him Tampa Bay’s equivalent of a George Brett or Robin Yount. It’s hard not to admire the commitment represented by both sides on this deal. It will be both brilliant and mutually beneficial if it ends up working out for both parties.

**********************

You can follow me on Facebook by going to http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Baseball-Historian/138174109591660 or follow me on Twitter @historianandrew

Red Sox Pitching Prospect Anthony Ranaudo Shut Down For Duration of Winter League

News just broke that Red Sox pitching prospect and LSU alum Anthony Ranaudo was just shut down by Boston in the Puerto Rican winter league because of a groin injury. For more information, check out the article I wrote for B/R.

Ranaudo also did an interview with me prior to this past season. Unfortunately he has never put everything together and justify the huge bonus he got from the Red Sox in 2010. Here's hoping he can bounce back in 2013 and realize his vast potential.

**********************

You can follow me on Facebook by going to http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Baseball-Historian/138174109591660 or follow me on Twitter @historianandrew

Fred Whitfield: Platooned Slugger Answers Some Questions

The phrase “hitting the ball a country mile” is a maxim that has been frequently used in baseball to describe the raw power of players. A player who personified that phrase to a tee was Fred Whitfield, a slugging first baseman, who came to professional baseball from the little town of Vandiver, Alabama.

Whitfield was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1956 as an 18-year-old. They liked what they saw from the left-handed slugger and felt that he could develop into another cog for their already potent lineup.

Whitfield began his professional career in 1958 in the low minors and immediately proved he had walloping power. In his first three seasons he hit 23, 28, and 22 home runs, at a time when 20 home runs still meant something. His batting average also climbed as he was promoted through the system, culminating in the .323 mark he posted in 33 games at Triple-A in 1963, which caused the Cardinals to call him up to the majors.

Getting to the majors was only part of the challenge for Whitfield. When he arrived, star first baseman Bill White was entrenched at the same position, leaving less opportunity for the rookie than he would have preferred. But Whitfield ran with what he was given and played very well in the 73 games in which he appeared. Although he only had 158 at bats, he hit .266 with 8 home runs and 34 RBI.

Following the 1962 season the Cardinals realized that they had to do something about their abundance of talented first basemen. The solution they hit upon was trading Whitfield to the Cleveland Indians for Jack Kubiszyn and Ron Taylor.

While Whitfield never became a star, he blossomed into a very effective player for the Indians. His best season came in 1965 when he hit .293 with 26 home runs and 90 RBI in 132 games. He was limited in his career because of his struggles again left-handed pitching (.231 career average) and was often benched when southpaws were on the mound.

Whitfield was traded back to the National League after the 1967 season, when he was shipped to the Cincinnati Reds. He was never a regular starter again, playing two years with the Reds and four games for the Montreal Expos before calling it a career after the 1970 season.

In 817 career major league games over nine years, Whitfield hit .253 with 108 home runs and 356 RBI. More information on his career statistics is available at http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/whitffr01.shtml. While he never became a star, he developed into a very productive player and is still thankful for the time he was able to play professionally. He recently shared some of his sentiments and memories with me, showing how fondly he regards his time in baseball.

Fred Whitfield Questionnaire:

If you could do anything differently about your career, what would that be?: I was blessed to be able to play; very blessed.

Who was your favorite coach or manager?: Joe Schultz, Dave Bristol, and Birdie Tebbetts.

What was the strangest play you ever saw during his career?: I hit a ball off the center field fence when two runners were on base. The outfielder played the ball off the fence and threw home and the catcher tagged both runners out.

Who was the most competitive player you ever played with or against?: Stan Musial and Pete Rose.

**********************

You can follow me on Facebook by going to http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Baseball-Historian/138174109591660 or follow me on Twitter @historianandrew