With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Kenny Lofton

Why He Should Get In
Lofton is one of the great basestealers in recent memory.  With over 600 stolen bases, it places him in elite company.  Add to that a career batting average of .299, a career on base percentage of .372, 2,428 hits, and 383 doubles in addition to the above mentioned hardware and Lofton has a serious case for enshrinement.

Why He Should Not Get In
The numbers are impressive, but they do fall just a bit short.  He has 2,428 hits, not 2,500.  He has 383 doubles, not 400.  He falls just short in multiple categories.  Ultimately, it probably won’t keep him out of the Hall permanently, just for the next few years.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Jeff Conine

Jeff Conine
Conine played for 17 years in the major leagues, joining the rosters of six different teams.  Conine’s most notable years were as a member of the expansion Florida Marlins, where he finished third in the 1993 Rookie Of The Year voting and was selected to two All Star rosters.

Why He Should Get In
Conine was “Mr. Marlin” when he arrived on the scene, giving the team a legitimate star in it’s early years.

Why He Should Not Get In
Being the best player on a bad team can take it’s toll.  Conine found himself as an average player on below average teams for a good portion of his career, leading to a memorable name attached to lackluster career numbers.  While a generation can tell you who Jeff Conine is, his production will not find him in the Hall Of Fame.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

Royals Draft The Youngest Player In Baseball History
Alfredo Escalera projected to stand out despite his young age

Press Release: FOR INMEDIATE RELEASE
Released on: June 06, 2012, 8:00 pm (ET)
Author: Globalize LLC

Bradenton, FL – The Kansas City Royal’s baseball organization announced yesterday the selection of Alfredo Escalera as KC’s number 8th pick in the 2012 First- Year Player Draft. With this selection, the Royals opted for the youngest player to ever be drafted since the insertion of the MLB Amateur Draft in 1965 based on the research of publicaly recorded date of birth of the players selected.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Escalera moved to Florida to join the IMG Academies Baseball program in 2008. At IMG, Escalera was able to excel in both the athletic and academic aspects. Escalera, a National Honor Society student got committed to attend (D1) Stetson University and was presented with several athletic awards throughout his high school years. “I am fortunate to be given every opportunity possible to show my abilities, not only at IMG where I joined the Varsity team when I was 16, but also in the Puerto Rico 18U Palomino Summer League in which I played at 15”.

Escalera’s young age seems more relevant after most MLB organizations became more aware about the benefits of drafting young talent. Last year, Dr. Rany Jazayerli presented a research study in which he concluded that the very young players return more value than expected by their draft slots. In Jazayerli’s study, he looked at the statistics and broke high school draftees up into 5 distinctive groups based on their age on draft day. Dr. Jazayerli’s define a “very young” players are those who are younger than 17 years and 296 days on draft day. Escalera was only 17 years and 114 days old on draft day. Despite the fact that the study was limited to the top 100 draft picks, its conclusion seems to apply across the board. “I truly believe that by drafting me, the Royals are mixing their highly regarded top-ranked minor league system, with my athletic ability and youth, expecting that this combination will produce an extraordinary positive results” affirmed Escalera.

The main concern when drafting a young talent is how these athletes will handle the physical and mental challenges typical of professional baseball. This does not seem to concern Escalera, a 6’2” and 175 pound who is seemingly a mentally mature individual. It is evident that when it comes to physical development, Escalera has a high ceiling to get stronger. He has a loose angular body built outstandingly fit but without a mature muscular depth. This has not affected Alfredo’s competitive abilities. At the age of 16, Alfredo achieved the highest score in the Combine 360 among all the high school Florida’s baseball players tested, and was able to be in the top 10% of all the athletes tested including those in basketball, football and tennis.

“I see some of my older peers and I get impressed because they really look big and muscular, but that has motivated me to work harder during the summer and the off season” affirmed the young player. It seems that his effort paid off, he has a low tension swing, backed by a high level bat speed which causes the ball to jump hard giving him power potential. His offensive power, speed and arm strength competes very well with other top players of the remarkable 2012 class.

On the field, his physical ability has consistently matched and commonly surpassed his older peers as evident by his accomplishment at the IMG Academy where the level of training and competition was extremely demanding.

Alfredo realized that in order to achieve his goal as a professional minor league player, it is required that the development of his already remarkable athletic skills as well as a strong mental conditioning. “Baseball is an unforgiving sport which challenges ones mental toughness in each at bat and with every play…I truly believe that I am ready to face any challenge,” stated a confident Escalera. In a letter dated last year, his Varsity Coach Jason Elias described Alfredo’s aptitude by stating that, “he understands the ups and downs of the game and handles adversity well. He understands what it takes to be successful and has the mental component of the game in his grasp”.

You can take a look at some videos of the young draft pick by clicking here.

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2012, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty seven men on the ballot this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2012 menu at the top of the page.

Tune in Saturday, January 7, 2012 as I-70 Baseball Radio will host a panel of writers discussing the Hall Of Fame Ballot in a 2-hour special.

In this article, we take a look at Larry Walker

Larry Walker
Walker spent 17 years as an outfielder for three different franchises. His debut came in 1989 for the Montreal Expos and retired as a St. Louis Cardinal in 2005. This is his second year on the ballot.

Why He Should Get In
Walker was known as a guy that could produce runs batted in and he did so to the tune of 1,311 in his career. He won three batting titles in his career and has a career average of .313. He has five All Star Games to his credit, three silver sluggers, the 1997 National League Most Valuable Player award, and seven Gold Glove Awards. He posted 383 home runs and 230 stolen bases as well as 2,160 hits and 471 doubles.

Why He Should Not Get In
Walker has a lot of really good numbers but not one outstanding one save his batting average. Ten years with the Colorado Rockies pre-humidor will have many writers question some of his career offensive numbers. One counting stat above and beyond the norm and he would be shoe-in.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

Labor Day. Many people recognize this as the end of summer. The Boys Of Summer in Kansas City may very well feel the same. With a loss today and a Tigers win, the Royals will find themselves mathematically eliminated from winning the American League Central division, putting an official end to a race they have not been a part of for months.

The strike shortened season of 1994 would see the Royals finish the closest to first place that they ever have since the installation of six divisions in baseball. They would be eliminated from competition on August 7th due to the strike, but they were only four games back when the season came to a close on August 10.

Despite a losing season in 1995, the Royals would finish second in the American League Central. That may be just a bit deceiving however as the team finished 30 games behind the Cleveland Indians and would find themselves mathematically eliminated on September 8th. It would not be the smallest margin they would trail by, but it would be the highest finish they would enjoy since then.

Looking back across the dates, the research shows that the Royals have faded over the last 17 years fairly early. Below you will see the date that the boys in blue found themselves aware that it would be impossible for them to find post-season baseball.

Only one time in the last 17 seasons have the Royals found themselves in the hunt past the second week of September. With the young guns on the horizon, that may finally change. Maybe then the Kansas City area can find more to celebrate than the beginning of football season.

My son is 10. He’s just getting to the age that he knows anything about sports, and, frankly, he doesn’t care.

We have gone to several Royals games together. I have taken him to meet Zack Grienke and Billy Butler on the Royals Caravan. But as much as I try to make those things matter to him, they don’t matter as much as Legos or Mario Brothers.

I’m 40. I grew up idolizing Willie Wilson, Frank White, Dennis Leonard and other Royals of the late 70s and early 80s.

If I’m going to raise (read “brainwash”) my children into being Royals fans, and since the Royals have given us so little to be excited about, I felt it might be necessary to let the kids know that the Royals have a history to be proud of. So I decided recently that it was important for my son to know about the greatest Royal of all, the only Royal to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame – George Brett.

But then I realized something. Something that made my insides ache. Something that made my heart hurt. George Brett has been retired for not just 10 years. Not just 15 years. George Brett has been retired 17 years. That’s 7 years longer than my son has been alive.

When I started to do some quick calculations, I realized that George Brett is to my son what Ted Williams is to me. I was born at the end of 1969. Ted Williams played his last season in 1960. By the time I was old enough to know anything about baseball history, Ted Williams seemed to me like a dinosaur. Grainy videos and black and white photos.

Thoughts flooded my mind. Has it really been 17 years since George Brett graced the K? Has it been more than half of my lifetime that the Royals have been shut out of the playoffs? Have we Royals fans just been clinging to the smoldering embers of a few good years that occurred before the franchise was even half its current age?

Could I really be old enough to be father to a 10 year old? Am I really closer to retirement than to the Royals’ only championship?

Watching the memories of the great Royals fade in the rearview mirror is like calculating how quickly life is passing.

The story of the Royals is sad not so much because no one under 30 considers them a quality franchise, but because those of us over 40 are clutching those memories like a memento from a past friendship or a deceased relative.

Overly dramatic? Maybe so. But for my childrens’ sake, I keep believing that the Royals will yet field a team that is significant, competitive, worth sharing as a family. I remember how much fun that was. I want for my family to have now what we had back then.

It is a great pleasure to be a new writer for I70baseball.com, writing about the only baseball team that I truly care about. But I don’t want to only write about the glory days that happened when I was a kid. I want my children and I to make new memories at Kauffman Stadium, watching truly good players in games that actually matter.

I didn’t tell my son about George Brett. I just couldn’t.