FanHouse Tom Seaver

For the first few months of the season, the Tampa Bay Rays were the darlings of baseball. While most people thought the Rays would be a vastly improved team this season, nobody was expecting the quick turnaround they've undertaken to get to the top of the AL East.

Still in the last few weeks, a lot of the hype surrounding the Rays seems to have died down. Even though they're still leading the AL East, the Manny Ramirez situation in Boston and the moves the Yankees made combined with the lack of moves in Tampa have once again knocked them off the front page. That doesn't mean Tampa is going to lose it's grip on the division, and thanks to some research done by Mark Simon of ESPN Research (which may or may not have included reading this post at OMDQ back in February), there are some signs that the Rays may end up winning the World Series this season. It turns out there are a lot of similarities between this Rays team and the 1969 Mets.

From Buster Olney's blog:

How are the 2008 Rays similar to the 1969 Mets?

On the 1969 Mets, the ace starter was 24-year-old Tom Seaver
On the 2008 Rays, the ace starter is 24-year-old Scott Kazmir
The 1969 Mets had a 61-101 record 2 years prior to winning the World Series (1967)
The 2008 Rays had a 61-101 record 2 years ago (2006)

With Tom Glavine's 300th victory fast approaching (and he goes for win number 298 tonight against Cincinnati), here's a trip down memory lane to remember another Met named Tom who if not for Frank Cashen, might have also won his 300th game as a New York Met.

Mets fans flocked Yankee Stadium to see Tom Seaver win his 300th career game with the Chicago White Sox, and it almost sounded like Shea after he got Don Baylor to fly out to left field for the final out on August 4th, 1985. He would have done it as a Met had Cashen had not left Seaver off the protected list after the 1983 season, mistakenly thinking that nobody would claim a 39 year old pitcher who went 9-14. Seaver went on to win 31 games in his first two seasons with Chicago, before battling injuries and a trade in his final season, 1986. (Odd note: Seaver leaving the Mets rotation opened up a rotation spot for none other than the 1984 rookie of the year, Dwight Gooden.)

As you watch this video, look for cameos by a rookie White Sox shortstop named Ozzie Guillen, and a young coach who would make his managerial debut a year later, named Jim Leyland.

The Padres right-hander dominated the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night, striking out 16 over seven scoreless innings, tying his career best for K's. Peavy is an outright stud, no question about it. He's won both a league ERA title, and strikeout title. From the second inning to the fourth, Peavy struck out nine straight Arizona hitters, fooling them with his nasty breaking stuff, and blowing his heater by 'em. If it weren't for a walk to Eric Byrnes on a questionable full count call by the umpire, Peavy would have tied Tom Seaver's record of striking out 10 consecutive batters in a game. But after 117 pitches, Peavy was lifted for Scott Linebrink who gave up a run in the eighth. Trevor Hoffman came in to close the 2-1 game and wound up surrendering a two out two-run walk off game winning home run to Stephen Drew (his first HR of the year). Despite the blown game, Peavy still backed his closer afterwards:

"I love Hoffy to death, and he knows I'm in his corner. I don't want anybody saving games for me other than No. 51."

That's pretty stand-up of Peavy to say, even though he had to be fuming that the game was lost. But you know what? He suffered from the same problem about which I cautioned when I was pumping Jake for the Cy Young; his pitch count was too high. I guess that's the downside of needing at least three pitches to get batters out, you can't last too long in the ballgame. One could say the no decision makes up for his last start when Peavy gave up five runs over five and a third innings, and got the win due to offensive support. Regardless, Wednesday night's outing proved once again that there aren't many pitchers in the world more who can dominate more than Jake Peavy when he's on.

Previously at FanHouse:
Jump on the Jake Peavy Cy Young Bandwagon