The Futility Infielder

There are futility infielders, and there are Futility Infielders. Today's New York Times features a Tyler Kepner article on Yankee first base and infield coach Mick Kelleher, an exemplar of the good-field/no-hit players whose baseball cards clogged my collection in the late '70s. Joe Posnanski has his Duane Kuiper, owner of one major league home run in 3,754 plate appearances. Kelleher, who plied his trade for five teams over 11 years, never homered in 1,202 PA. "Since he retired in 1982," notes the article, "no position player with that many plate appearances has failed to hit a homer."

For his career, Kelleher hit .213/.266/.253, which if you'll pardon my French is spectacularly craptatstic. Though not as bad as the late, legendary John Vukovich, Kelleher ranked in the top 15 in the Futility Infielder Foulness Index. None of which is to heap abuse on his lack of ability or love for the game. Men like Kelleher, Vukovich and Mario Mendoza are the glue that holds baseball together, lifers who despite their limited playing skills find ways to pass on their love and knowledge of the game, often with half a century of service.

In Kelleher's case, he's consistently worked as a coach, instructor and scout following his 15 years as a player (including the minors). According to the article, he's spent most of the past 13 years in the Yankee organization, and has worked extensively with Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter. While neither has a sterling defensive reputation by any stretch, a bit of sun is shining on the Mick these days as the man behind the scenes of the team who went a record 18 games without making an error, a streak that ended last night when Jorge Posada threw one into center field on a stolen base. A lack of errors or high fielding percentage isn't the defining stat of a good defense, but it's worth noting that the Yankees rank fifth in the league in Defensive Efficiency, the frequency with which they turn batted balls into outs, and third in Park Adjusted Defensive Efficiency. Last year they were 12th and 11th, respectively. And that's in a 14-team league. So if Kelleher's a part of the improvement, he deserves a tip of the cap.

I was at the park last night, as it stands, in the company of one of the usual reprobates, Nick Stone, as well as Matador Records/Can't Stop the Bleeding domo Gerard Cosloy, the first time we'd met after years of occasional link swapping. As we watched the Rangers get their asses handed to them -- seriously, the ghost of Johnny Oates was shaking his head as he watched their more well supported than actually improved pitching staff get the shit knocked out of them -- we spent plenty of time discussing the finer points of Wilco and Fall personnel changes as well as the relative career arcs of AL Rookie of the Years gone sour Angel Berroa, Bob Hamelin and Joe Charboneau. Meanwhile, spurred by a pair of plunkings by Vicente "Shitty Pitcher" Padilla, Mark Teixeira had a big takeout slide which uncorked a seven-run inning for the Yanks (the two don't like each other much at all, going waaaay back. Good times.

And maybe it was a couple of those big $11 beers talking, but our seats in section 423, in the fourth row of the upper grandstand between third base and home plate, felt a little like home. Observe the following triptych from my iPhone's crappy little camera:


Last night


Our current plan seats


My final game at the old park

OK, I'm not exactly sure why the last one is so messed up -- it appears I shot while the camera was scrolling from pic to pic -- but it's the sense of scale that's the take-home. We were still further back and up than our old seats; about halfway into the old Tier Reserved, if I had to hazard a guess. But a definite improvement on our current lot.

Speaking of Kelleher, his former Cubs teammate Steve Swisher, father of current Yankee Nick Swisher, also came up for discussion as a thoroughly crappy hitter (.216/.279/.303 in 1,577 PA). In fact, both rank among the Seventies' 30 worst in terms of OPS+ with an 850 PA minimum (stats 1970-1979 only):

Player              PA   HR    BA     OBP    SLG  OPS+
Mario Mendoza      879    2   .201   .237   .247   31
Luis Gomez        1043    0   .216   .265   .248   44
Mick Kelleher      943    0   .223   .272   .265   46
Rob Picciolo       907    6   .224   .238   .291   46
Luis Alvarado     1177    5   .218   .251   .276   48
Jack Heidemann    1210    9   .212   .264   .269   49
Dal Maxvill       1593    1   .210   .289   .241   49
Hal Lanier         887    6   .227   .263   .273   49
Rich Morales       998    6   .195   .270   .249   50
Terry Humphrey    1170    6   .211   .265   .267   52
Bobby Wine         951    4   .219   .272   .276   52
Pepe Frias        1153    1   .239   .269   .294   53
Paul Casanova     1173   20   .213   .243   .307   53
Jim Mason         1756   12   .203   .259   .275   54
Bill Plummer      1005   14   .189   .267   .280   54
Tim Johnson       1408    0   .223   .274   .265   55
Dave McKay        1289   12   .224   .259   .307   57
Paul Popovich     1036   11   .226   .279   .303   57
Randy Hundley     1403   24   .222   .273   .311   58
Hector Torres     1321   16   .216   .267   .294   58
Doug Flynn        1863    6   .240   .271   .298   59
Tom Veryzer       2243   11   .237   .281   .295   60
Bob Heise         1129    1   .243   .274   .288   60
Steve Swisher     1458   18   .219   .282   .307   61
Enzo Hernandez    2612    2   .224   .283   .266   61
Tim Cullen         893    3   .211   .274   .278   61
Johnnie LeMaster  1016    6   .223   .275   .304   62
Pete Mackanin     1107   22   .212   .255   .335   62
Darrel Chaney     2164   14   .220   .298   .294   63
Ted Martinez      1574    7   .240   .270   .309   63

Ah, so many memories of worthless baseball cards and automatic outs, from Papa Mario on down to the Dodgers' resident futilityman, Teddy Martinez. Somebody ought to start a web site.

Labels: futility infielders, Yankee Stadium, Yankees