Co-Winners of the Week – Connor Jackson and Goose Gossage
Following suit with He Hate Me’s recent ‘Loser of the Week’, we’ll also be picking a ‘Winner of the Week’. The inaugural title is actually going to be shared. My cohort and I were discussing potential winners today – Rafael Nadal, Magglio Ordonez, Ryan Braun, Randy Johnson, Ubaldo Jiminez – and finally decided on the hot hitting of Connor Jackson. The more I looked into his week, the more I liked him. I even had a clever (well, I thought it was) angle to start it off. Then I got home from work, sat down, flicked on the TV, and lo and behold, ESPN2 had coverage of Goose Gossage’s Hall of Fame induction speech. It took all of 2 seconds for me to say in my head, “Idiot! How was he not the first person to pop in your head!” But I couldn’t turn my back on Connor Jackson, so now we have two winners.
Connor Jackson
Last week, Jackson batted .650 (13-20) with 3 HR, 7 RBI, 9 R, 3 BB, 1 ST, and a 1.996 OPS in leading the Diamondbacks to a 5-1 record. Now, some of you ultimate stat heads may be saying, “Hey, you forgot his 0-4 performance on Monday.” And to that I respond, “No, I didn’t”. Mondays don’t count in my book. Everyone hates Mondays. My Mondays now consist of a brutal 4:50 AM alarm clock wake up after a not nearly long enough weekend. All Jackson did is mentally check out on this past Monday, just like 75% of the American workforce does, and for that he should be commended, not punished. So congratulations, Connor, because you were raking all week long.
Congrats, you are the Winner of the Week!
Rich “Goose” Gossage
You may or may not believe Goose’s numbers warranted a Hall of Fame entry. His career ERA and WHIP (3.01 and 1.23, respectively) are not all that impressive when considering almost his entire career was out of the bullpen. He has 301 saves, which is a lot, but not eye popping over about 13 years as a closer. A 124-107 career record is nothing to write home about and even in his prime he flirted around about 1 K/IP, which again, is nothing special for a top tier relief pitcher. Gossage’s Hall of Fame merits basically came down to an above average player with remarkable durability. He entered the majors as a 20 year old and retired as a 42 year old. That is quite impressive. Nevertheless, this space is not for debating his Hall of Fame entry. He is in and nobody can take that away from him now. And for that, I say congratulations, Goose. Now… see if you can convince them to finally vote Bert Blyleven in!
Goose has been waiting for this photo for a long, long time.
Not To Be Outdone…
Rafael Nadal – Nadal won his 5th straight tournament over the weekend, and more importantly, he won on hard court. Roger Federer was ousted early on, and going into next month’s US Open, Nadal is gaining major steam. Possibly more on this later…
Magglio Ordonez – .591 BA, 1 HR, 9 RBI, 1.409 OPS
Ryan Braun – .565 BA, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 1.729 OPS
USA Basketball – 120-65 exhibition victory over Team Canada. Not impressed, but it’s a start.
Ubaldo Jiminez – After some promising starts last year, Jiminez was off to a slow start this season. Last week he started 2 games and totaled 15 IP, 0.60 ERA, 9 H, 3 BB, and 2 wins.
Randy Johnson – 14 IP, 0.00 ERA
Tags: Connor Jackson, Goose Gossage, Hall of Fame, Magglio Ordonez, MLB, NBA, Rafael Nadal, Randy Johnson, Ryan Braun, Team USA, Ubaldo Jiminez, US Open, Winner of the Week
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July 28, 2008 at 6:39 pm
One of Johnson’s starts hardly counts since he pulled it off against the slap happy Giants. Did you know they average the fewest pitchers per at-bat of any team in the majors? Knowledge is power.
July 28, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Hahaha… true enough. But the dude is 44 going on 75. Throwing a week of shutout ball at that age is pretty hard to overlook. And you’ll notice he was the clear last place of the honorable mentions, with the shortest write up.
July 29, 2008 at 10:42 am
Me gusta mucho the Loser-of-the-Week concept. Who just had a crappy time. Very fine. But you may be too generous with your WOTW. This should not be just an excellent week. It needs to be “who made people sit up and take notice? Whose name was mentioned by millions, who did not know this person maybe before?” Conor hit well… but did he find the missing “n” for his name? No. Did people uby him beers (maybe the ultimate compliment)? No. Did women throw their roomkeys at his feet (ah, I remember when… but I digress)? No. But for Goose, they did this week. He is deserving. Also, how ’bout changing the name to “This Week’s Tall Foamy Salute”? I know that I often am looking for one to acknowledge with beer. Stay thirsty my friends.
July 29, 2008 at 11:05 am
It’s a rather dry time in sport, Most Interesting Man, so a performance like Connor Jackson’s is about as good as we’ll get right now. I understand your point, but think I was pretty clear when I said ” But I couldn’t turn my back on Connor Jackson, so now we have two winners.” Goose is the real Winner, but I had too much planned out for C. Jackson to just leave it as an honorable mention. The Olympics are starting soon… Winners of the Week should be a little more XX worthy from here on out.
July 29, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I like how the Big Ticket ignored Miguel Cabrera and his 13 RBIs last week…obviously out of spite for the fact that he just traded him in his fantasy baseball league. Tsk tsk Ticket.
July 29, 2008 at 6:04 pm
No dingers, only 2 runs scored, an OBP equal to his BA…. it takes more than that to make the cut. Joe Nathan for the win!