Funkerstation » Ubaldo Jimenez in the final inning of the wild

If this is indeed the end for Prince Fielder -- and all indications are that it is -- itd be a shame if hes remembered more for the neck surgeries that prematurely ended his career than his fantasy prowess spanning the better part of a decade.Fielder possessed prodigious power, but more importantly (and somewhat forgotten in recent years), he was one of the games most durable players.On three occasions -- 2007, 2009 and 2011 -- Fielder finished ranked among the 20 best players in fantasy baseball per our Player Rater. Not coincidentally, those were his three best individual seasons in terms of home runs (50 in 2007, 46 in 2009 and 38 in 2011), RBIs (141 in 2009, 120 in 2011 and 119 in 2007), runs scored (109 in 2007, 103 in 2009 and 95 in 2011) and OPS (1.014 in 2009, 1.013 in 2007 and .981 in 2011).On five occasions -- 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015 -- Fielder turned his fantasy owners a profit; for these purposes well define that as his Player Rater finish being of better rank than his preseason average draft position. In each of those campaigns, he improved his home run total by at least six, his RBIs by at least 37 and his OPS by at least 67 points compared to the season before it.Even more than Fielders Player Rater accomplishments, or his performance relative to draft cost, however, during the first eight full seasons of his career he was lauded for his durability. From 2006-13, Fielder appeared in a major league-leading 1,283 games, nine more than Adrian Gonzalez, and his 10,994 innings played at first base topped the position, by 126 1/3 over Gonzalez. Fielders 5,500 trips to the plate during that span trailed only Ichiro Suzukis 5,586.In four different seasons, Fielder played all 162 of his teams scheduled games, and in each of those years he started all 162. During the divisional era (since 1969), Cal Ripken (10) is the only player to have more seasons making 162-plus starts.His iron-man nature helped make Fielder one of the most reliable sources of counting numbers, which largely explains how he was able to be a top-25 overall draft pick in ESPN leagues for seven consecutive years (2008-14).From 2006-13, Fielder hit the fourth-most home runs (283, eight behind Albert Pujols), drove in the fourth-most runs (860) and had the 12th-best slugging percentage among players with at least 2,500 plate appearances (.528); he had the second-most walks (724, 60 behind Adam Dunn), the fourth-most times hit by pitch (104) and he had the 11th-best on-base percentage (.390). Fielder also did so with a better-than-league-average strikeout rate of 17.4 percent (the leagues average was 18.3 percent). He could do it all, and his combination of patience, power and contact-hitting ability made him especially valuable in points-based and sabermetrically angled scoring formats.Unfortunately, many fantasy owners -- especially Fielders in 2014 or 2016 -- might be more apt to remember him for his disappointments. Cervical fusion surgeries prematurely ended both of those campaigns, one on the C5-C6 disks in his neck on May 27, 2014, and most recently on the C4-C5 disks in his neck on July 29, resulting in Player Rater finishes that almost assuredly will be more than 600 spots beneath his ADPs in either year.Still, even if Fielders Texas Rangers career wasnt as promising as initially anticipated, his tenures with the Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers were something to celebrate in retrospect. Discount Nike Shoes Australia . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. Cheap Nike Shoes Australia .7 million, one-year contract, a raise of $2.2 million. Wieters had asked for $8.75 million and the Orioles had offered $6. http://www.wholesalenikeshoesaustralia.com/ .Y. - New York City has been selected to host the NBA All-Star weekend in 2015, with the game played at Madison Square Garden and the slam dunk contest and other skills events held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Cheap Nike Shoes Australia Outlet . The 27-year-old Scrivens will be joining his third NHL club since signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent in 2010. The move also reunites with him with head coach Dallas Eakins from their time together with the American Hockey Leagues Toronto Marlies. Cheap Shoes Australia . The head of USA Boxing came out swinging Tuesday with an open letter to Tyson -- a former Olympic hopeful himself -- that accuses the former heavyweight champion of trying to poach fighters who might be candidates for the U. The Cleveland Indians are in the World Series. If someone had told you that in the days of Willie Mays Hayes, you wouldnt have believed it. But believe this: The Major League movies were mostly duds.Jim Caple looks back and reviews Major League, Major League II and Major League: Back to the Minors.Major LeagueThis movie came out in 1989 when baseball was at its Hollywood peak -- The Natural, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and A League of Their Own also came out within an eight-year span -- and it tells the tale of a team and a city that has endured decades of miserable, heart-crushing losing seasons. And no, its not about the Chicago Cubs. Instead, its about Cleveland, which at the time had gone 34 years since its previous postseason and 40 years since its last world championship. If only the team had the sense to hire Lou Brown as its manager rather than Doc Edwards. Or Pat Corrales. Or John McNamara. Or...The plot is about owner Rachel Phelps (Margaret Whitton) intentionally fielding a team that is terrible, even by Cleveland standards, in the hopes of dropping attendance enough that she can move the club to Miami. Instead, manager and offseason tire salesman Lou Brown (James Gammon) is able to inspire catcher Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger), third baseman Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), outfielders Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes) and Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) and others to be a winning team. He even gives Rick Wild Thing Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) a pair of glasses that turns him into a great closer. Cleveland ties for the AL East division title and beats the Yankees in a one-game playoff. We do not see how the team does after that, but there was no need to because, of course, it is Cleveland and we know how they would have lost. (At least back then.)Major League has funny moments -- particularly when Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) is announcing or when Taylor drives a bullpen cart through the streets of Cleveland to go see his girlfriend -- but this is nowhere in the same league as those other baseball movie classics from that era. In other words, Kevin Costner should have been the Cleveland catcher, not Berenger.Best performancesUecker was splendid as the club broadcaster, delivering lines that were the movies funniest quotes by far. Sheens acting was all right, and his actual pitching ability is perhaps the best ever displayed by an actor -- and far more credible than, say, Tim Robbins in Bull Durham. Sheen pitched in high school and was able to throw 85 mph during the film. He later said he used steroids to prepare for the movie, which means he might have gotten some coaching from a bunch of players from that era.Worst performancePete Vuckovich appears as a Yankees slugger. He was an actual big leaguer, albeit a pitcher with the Brewers, not a hitter. Madison Bumgarner would have been much more credible at the plate. If, that is, Bumgarner had been alive at the time.Best quoteHarry Doyle: Juuust a bit outside. (By the way, according to reports, Uecker improvised this line, which is probably why he is such a good broadcaster in real life.)Worst quoteRachel Phelps: I hate this f---ing song.Did You Know?The movie is filmed at Milwaukees County Stadium, then the home of the Brewers, rather than Cleveland. At the time, it had been six years since County Stadium had hosted a playoff game -- but it never would again. Maybe Major League IV could be about the Brewers.RatingManny Ramirez -- Like Manny, it has some classic moments that people will remember forever. And like Manny, it also has some lesser moments that people would like to be able to forget.Major League IISome movie sequels can be like when a team makes the World Series one year and then wins it the next. Like The Godfather II or any of the Toy Story sequels. Others (such as the Star Wars prequels) can be like winning 111 games in the regular season and then getting swept in the World Series. Like Cleveland in 1954. Put Major League II in the latter category.This sequel came out five years after the original Major League and tells the story of Cleveland in the season immediately after that first movie. The team has somehow been purchased by third baseman Roger Dorn, who quickly runs out of money and is forced to sell it back to Rachel Phelps. And despite its success in the previous season, Cleveland soon collapses -- literally so, when manager Lou Brown has a heart attack and is replaced by former catcher Jake Taylor. Rick Wild Thing Vaughn gives up enough home runs and Cleveland loses so many times that broadcaster Harry Doyle passes out drunk in the booth.The team -- shock! -- rebounds in the end to reach the postseason, win the ALCS and go to the World Series, but the film does not show us what happens in that series. Which is good because that just wwould have made a bad movie even longer -- and worse.dddddddddddd This is a movie with so little original thought or character interest that it should have ended in spring training.Best performanceDavid Keith as catcher Jack Parkman, who gets signed by Cleveland before the season and then is sent to the White Sox. He actually looks like a real ballplayer -- good enough that I wouldnt be surprised if Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein signed him.Worst performanceRandy Quaid as Johnny, one of the fans who became so passionate about Cleveland thanks to the season in Major League. He heckles Vaughn so often that he becomes almost as obnoxious and annoying as Red Sox fans did after they won the 2004 World Series. (Fingers crossed that Cleveland fans do not duplicate that if their team finally wins.)Best quoteRoger Dorn: Oh God! (Sure, that isnt an impressive quote at all. But how Bernsen says it in the movie after he gets hit by a pitch is very funny.)Worst quoteHarry Doyle: Cerrano doing some interesting limbering-up exercises in right. What a pansy. (Even todays anti-PC crowd would have been critical.)Did You Know?The home stadium is actually Camden Yards, which was just a year old when this movie was being filmed in 1993, which is also when Clevelands current ballpark was being built.RatingRocky Colavito -- The curse of the foolish trade of Colavito for Harvey Kuenn was about the same as the curse of foolishly making a completely unnecessary sequel. If only we had gone as many years without yet another sequel as Cleveland went between World Series appearances. Instead, we got Major League: Back to the Minors just four short years later.Major League: Back to the MinorsI watched Major League: Back to the Minors and laughed about the same number of times as Cleveland fans did during the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. Which is to say, zero times. A player would rather be called into Terry Franconas office and sent back to the minors than be forced to sit down and watch Back to the Minors.While Major League writer and producer David S. Ward has said he has plans to make a Major League III with Sheen and Berenger, he had nothing to do with this movie. And clearly so. Despite its name, the movie bears no real link to the Cleveland team of the first two movies. Instead, it is about the minor league Triple-A Buzz, managed by Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula), and the Minnesota Twins, who are somehow owned by Roger Dorn (still Corbin Bernsen), Clevelands former third baseman in Major League and the temporary owner in Major League II. It is essentially about Cantrells Buzz trying to beat the Twins managed by Leonard Huff (Ted McGinley) in two exhibition games. Lets just say that rivalry is nowhere near as interesting or funny as the fun between the Bad News Bears and the Yankees.There are minor appearances by Pedro Cerrano from Major League I and II, and Isuru Tanaka (Takaaki Ishibashi) from Major League II. Oh, and Harry Doyle is the Buzz radio broadcaster, after he was perhaps fired by Cleveland for passing out drunk too many times in Major League II, or maybe simply demoted to the minors because his lines are so unfunny compared to Major League.But thats it for the Cleveland connections. Well, actually, there is a notable Cleveland link. There is very little plot, virtually no character development and absolutely terrible baseball play by the actors. In other words, it is essentially the story of Cleveland baseball from 1960-93. Or from all but a few of their 15 seasons previous to this one.Best performanceKenny Johnson as Lance The Dance Pere, a former ballet dancer turned ballplayer. He dances in a few mildly amusing moments. Still, hes nowhere near as good or interesting as Max Kepler, the actual Minnesota Twins outfielder who is the German son of ballet dancers.Worst performanceMcGinley as Huff. An even worse choice than Buck Showalter using Ubaldo Jimenez in the final inning of the wild-card game against Toronto instead of dominant closer Zach Britton.Best quotePops Morgan: This is the clubhouse.Gus Cantrell: In some places of the world, this is called a basement.Worst quotePops Morgan (on the closest he ever got to the majors): It was October. A player got sick. So I got the call. I was on the plane and a freak snowstorm hit. We couldnt land. Two days later: The weather is fine, so is the player. Twenty years in the minors, I circled The Show, couldnt land.(Ummm, no one gets called up in October.)RatingUbaldo Jimenez -- The starter lost a league-worst 17 games with a 5.40 ERA for Cleveland in 2012. Still, that was a better performance than this movie. ' ' '