My dad was 19 years old and in college on a baseball scholarship when Pearl Harbor happened. The next day he enlisted in and served in the US Army Air Corps until the end of the war. His scholarship was gone, but he had veterans benefits to pay for school. So he played for the local minor league team and went to school. He moved up a league and changed schools to continue with his degree. His second year with the team he got called up due to an injury and played in 3 games. That was as far as he made it. He never regretted choosing his country over the game he loved. He never made it to a baseball card. But he's still my favorite baseball player of all time. He would have turned 100 in October if he were alive. Great video.
Lol your not getting a name dude. My grandpa had the literal same story. WW2, played for city team, got the call lol. It surprises me so many dudes used the same excuse tbh. I was signed by the Padres out of USC, and before I ended up signing I did some research. My mom kept acting like I was nothing because her dad was some famous pro. Lol nope, just the badass of the city. My mom still doesn’t believe me.
@@CHSN-1 literally wanted to look up his stats. I love finding players that only had a couple of big league games. Just the last name and time period would be fine
I was privileged to see Joe Bauman hit three hkmeruns in the game that got him to 72. He had been tied at 69. The pitcher he hit the three off had won twenty games that year. Anyone who thinks modern baseball players have big power should have had an opportunity to see a baseball hit over the outfield light towers at 355 feet. He still owns the record. My dad and I sat on top of a pickup cab along the outfield fence that night. We couldn't afford tickets,but got to see history made. I was 14 that year.
I found myself in a bar late one night in Anaheim, Ca back around '95 sitting next to Paul Pryor. . .a former MLB umpire. I was in the city for a baseball convention and knew the guys Paul was representing. We were vendors at the convention. When they left, Paul didn't. He wanted a nightcap so I decided to hang around and talk to him. Not every day you get a chance to do this. Paul was good natured and had lots of stories. I remember asking him, "who's the fastest pitcher you ever called balls and strikes behind the plate?" Without giving it a minutes thought, he replied, " Steve Dalkowski". Dalkowski was a legend no matter where he was. . .mainly for his arm AND his wildness. Many do not know that Steve's minor league catcher was Cal Ripkin Sr. The Orioles had high hopes for their phenom. Only, he never panned out of course. Several years back, a friend in Orange County sent me a newspaper clipping about Dalkowski. He had passed away. Later in life, he had fallen on hard times and often would show at Cactus League spring training ballparks trying to sell items of little value. People in baseball who still knew him would often buy stuff even if it wasn't worth much. Such an amazing amount of talent in a golden arm. . wasted. He died a broken man.
He had the highest K/9 and BB/9 I've ever seen at any level. It's a shame he blew out his arm in spring training before he made the majors. If he could've gotten his control to a acceptable level he could've been like Nolan Ryan.
Dalkowski's problem was his fastball would rise out of the strike zone. Ted Williams once faced him in a spring training game and said he would never bat against him again. Ted said he never saw the ball coming.
I have one you can add to that list. I actually played amateur baseball against Tydus Meadows. It's interesting how politics work in sports. Tydus was drafted in the 27th round or so out of Vanderbilt. But, he won a batting title in Rookie Ball with the Chicago Cubs organization and later protected a MLB bust by hitting cleanup on a Lansing Lugnuts team that had the Cubs #1 pick Corey Patterson hitting third in the lineup. Tydus outperformed Patterson but never got called up to the MLB team during the same time that Patterson did. Tydus bounced around minor league organizations winning arbitration cases as hush money. He finished his career in the independent leagues.
One player from modern times I would throw on this list: Brian Raabe. Second baseman, 41st round pick in 1990 by the Twins out of the U. of Minnesota. Got off to slow start, hitting .246 and .257 in his first two years in A ball, with no power, but in his second year walked 40 times to 14 strikeouts, a sign of things to come. Did better the next year, .288, .381 OBP, 48 walks, 17 Ks. Earned promotion to AA ball. AA Nashville the next year, .286, .364 OBP, 56 walks, 28 Ks. AAA Salt Lake brought five consecutive .300 seasons, with the addition of some power as well. 1996, 28 years old, .351, 18 HR, 19 K. (How long has it been since someone had the same number of homers as strikeouts?) 1997, .352, 14 HR, 20 K. Defense? .990 career fielding percentage at 2B, plus above average numbers at SS and 3B. But by the time he got hot, he was done as a prospect. He only got 29 career major league at bats. He played briefly in Japan and retired after hitting .327 in his final AAA season at 31. For his career, he hit .311, .378 OBP, 384 walks to 153 strikeouts in 3874 AB, with 60 HR. In AAA ball, he hit .332, .393 OBP, 49 HR, 228 BB, 83 K. You would think a guy who never struck out, never made errors, and hit .332 career in AAA would have gotten at least half a chance. But since he was never a prospect and started out slowly, he was never to be considered one.
Two huge things you're missing: 1. He was always old for his league, meaning he as further along in his development than most of the players he was playing against. This inflated his numbers. He didn't play AAA until he was 26 years old, an age where the best players are already major-league veterans. 2. His biggest years offensively were playing in the PCL, which massively inflates offensive numbers. Yes, he hit .352 in 1997 - but that barely cracked the top 10 in the PCL that year. Todd Helton also hit .352 that year in the PCL, but Helton was 23 and Raabe was 29, which makes Helton the MUCH better prospect (plus he had more power). And fielding percentage is a terrible way to evaluate defence. You can be sure-handed, but if you have limited range and a weak arm, you will commit few errors but still not be a very good fielder overall.
@@puckerings I know he was old for his league, and yes, the PCL does inflate numbers. Still, any team looking for an infielder could do a lot worse than him (and many did). I'm not suggesting he would have been an All-Star, or that he would have even been a starter for a good team. But certainly a team with a weakness at second could use someone like him. Jack Perconte was a very similar player, only with more speed and less power, and he got in a few good years. I don't know how much range Raabe had, though the fact that he played short some and didn't play OF tells me he had some range.
In the 60's we had this kid on our team in little league that had a freak of an arm. He got screwed up by the coach trying to get him to throw different pitches. Anyways, back then the batters wore over-sized helmets that were held onto your head by the elastic band inside. One time Dougie fired a heater and it went right at the batters head. Either the kid froze or he didn't see it coming and he just stood there. This is no lie what happened next. The ball hit the kid in the helmet and it didn't bounce off. It punched a clean hole in the plastic helmet and stuck in that hole. No lie. I was the 12 year old catcher and even at that age I thought that was amazing.
Great video. I’d like to add Matt Young (Matthew E. Young), OF who came up with the Braves and hit for average, walked more than he struck out, and stole bases at every level through AAA, including hitting .300+ for a full season at AAA in 2010. Major league debut in Apr 2011 with Braves pinch running for Chipper Jones, but released shortly thereafter. Picked up by Tigers, Cardinals and Angels but wasn’t ever given a chance. Never understood why.
Here's why: his age. When evaluating a minor leaguer's numbers, it is vitally important to consider his age. In 2010 Young slashed .300/.380/.407 in AAA. If he were 22-23 years old when he did that, he would be a legit prospect. But he was 27 when he did that. In his minor league career, he was always playing against younger competition. So he was further along in his development. This inflated his numbers. He did have 63 major-league plate appearances, and slashed .190/.254/.224.
I went to many AAA Denver Bears games as a snotty nosed kid, and since we came from the south side, I sat mostly on the first base line. Bo Osborne was my favorite player. At least I think that was his name. I thought he was almost as good as Willie McCovey. Of course, home runs were easier in Denver due to the thinner air.
Has anyone ever heard of a guy named Tyrone Horne? I saw him play in Low A ball in the late 90's for the Kane County Cougars. I kind of remember he was something like 27 years old and mostly played DH, but he had some amazing power. I mean he hit insanely hard. I retrieved a foul ball that he hit once, and I guess it's possible that Low A minor league balls aren't up to snuff, but one side of this ball was flat. He was cut after the season. The next time I heard his name, he was playing in AA the next year and he apparently hit 4 home runs in one game but he actually homered for the cycle in that game. A solo shot, a 2 run, a 3 run and a grand slam. The 90's were a long time ago and my memory ain't what it used to be, but if anyone out there reading this remembers this guy, please correct me if I am wrong.
Have to feel for guys like this.......just tells you how hard it is to make the big leagues, much less stay there. It's also unfair how teams just keep getting top prospects chance after chance while good grinders who show improvement are just buried. Baseball.
Yes! Todd Van Poppel lasts 11 years torching scoreboards (40-52, 5.58) when there were any number of pitchers in AAA ball waiting for a chance that would never come because they weren't the massively hyped first round pick. The Braves totally dodged a bullet on this one. Van Poppel was the consensus first round pick in 1990, but he stated he wouldn't sign and would go to college. So they went to their backup plan, Chipper Jones. The A's had four first rounders thanks to losing a lot of free agents, so they drafted and signed Van Poppel, Kirk Dressendorfer, Dave Zancanaro, and Don Peters, all in the first round, all pitchers, and announced them as their future starting rotation. Van Poppel was the best of the bunch. Four busts, two of whom didn't make it out of the minors.
the MLB is 75% latino most international players make it the rest waste there life in the minors making nothing & living off the bonus most don’t stay in the MLB
The average person doesn't understand how insanely talented the worst player on your favorite team was in high school. Or that a lot of Major League pitcher's could out hit the best player on the local high school team. Baseball is one of those sports that's extremely hard to advance to the next level and most of the guys don't make it. Hell I went to college with three guys that I thought were going to do something and never made it above A ball or high A and these were phenomenal baseball players in college
No Spider Baum? Frank Schellenbeck (Was banned from using spitball after 1919 because he was in the minors and not grandfathered) or Buzz Artlett? Buzz only got a shot with the Phillies due to injuries but they only used him as a PH due to his age and poor fielding due to his age and weight gain, he retired as PCL HR leader. Phil Nadeau is also a good one, I recall him because of Out of the Park Baseball and recreating 1901 baseball and putting in the PCL. Nadeau always is the man in PCL in the 1st ten years. Oh and Henry Schmidt! Won 20+ games for the woeful Brooklyn Superbras but decided he disliked the East Coast and went west. Only season in the Majors
I remember Ron Wright! He went over to Pitt in the Denny Neagle trade in ‘96. I hated to lose him but with McGriff and Klesko already on the roster he was expendable. Too bad he didn’t get a real opportunity.
I remember him too. I'm a Cardinals fan but I would read Baseball America and I followed the minors pretty well. I thought he was black for a long time based on his name.
Man, I hadn't thought about Joe Bauman in a while. I saw the thumbnail and I said "Wait, I know this guy, what was his name. I can think of it!" And thankfully it was in some neuron in my brain. ;)
I live in rochester new york and I"ve seen a lot of guys who were really good players who never got promoted to the big leagues josh rabe was one of them I"m surprised no one mentioned him
A good friend of mine who was my baseball teammate in high school got drafted by the Detroit tigers in 2012 an unfortunately stayed in their minor league system till he retired he told me just how difficult it was to try an make it to that level even saying how a lot of his teammates played like superstars but never got called up themselves very tough league to make it in
First of all, the story about the pitcher who threw 110-115 needs to be debunked. The fastest pitch ever measured was 105.8, by Aroldis Chapman. Second, what a player actually does ceases to matter once they are labeled a "non-prospect." Willie Mays started his career 0-12, but stayed in the lineup. Pete Rose, Jr. was 2-14 over 11 games, and never played in the majors again.
Hey channel owner - I appreciate the choice of classical music over the annoying edm/lo-fi mix most channels use. Maybe not quite the right track here, but it's refreshing anyway.
3 base stealers. Donnell Nixon (brother of Otis), Kevin Moore, Jose Herrera. 1 guy who retired from minors to play in the NFL. Rodney Peete. He played both sports at USC, 2b and QB. His football rival? Troy Aikman at UCLA, Hall of Fame, all years with Dallas Cowboys 🤠 🏈 I met a few men who were great 👍 in high school. 2 chose the Navy 🚢 over baseball ⚾️. The others chose other military branches.
There are also players who can knock the cover off the ball playing in the minors but were never able to hit major league pitching.....Also for decades there were only 16 MLB clubs with 4 times as many minor league teams....Many players made a career in the minor leagues
Played with the Mets and Braves too. Saw Hessman many times. He had a long swing and struck out an insane number of times. One season he hit around .160 despite over 20HRs His fielding was just average. His ceiling was bat off the bench. When he made appearances in MLB he just couldn’t hit major league pitching enough.
Jose Canseco is about the only one who has come totally clean about being dirty. He said a few years ago, if he hadn't taken steroids, he never would have played in the majors at all. Yes, he did know how to play baseball. But maybe 'roids can make that much difference. Usually, identical twins who both make the bigs have a very similar career arc if both are healthy. Tom and Dick Van Arsdale. Harvey and Horace Grant. The difference between Canseco twins is almost inexplicable without reference to PED use. A couple of years after he retired, Canseco said he had divorced baseball. That explains his willingness to talk. Divorce means he no longer cared about his reputation or legacy in baseball.
Jose couldn't hit for shit without roids either, he admits that he never would've gotten close to the majors without the roids. Guess he just didn't share any of those roids with his brother.
What you failed to mention about Steve Dalkowski Jr. was that in AAA his career ERA was 7.13 with a 1.98 WHIP. He wasn't that good albeit a machine who at his worst, had 129 BB in 62 IP.
It's about being in the right place at the right time if you don't have Big Leagues written across your forehead as most scouts were taught then and still conform to that standard.
Steve Dalkowski has been mentioned as the inspiration for Nuke Laloosh in Bull Durham. Reportedly, he had difficulty understanding what coaches explained to him, and only became successful when a minor league manager named Earl Weaver (I'm sure you've heard of him) told him to not worry about setting up hitters, don't worry about thinking, let the catcher figure it out, and throw what he's told. Then the next year, different manager and coaches, who wanted him to work on off-speed stuff, leading to injuries that ended his career.
Nice easy story, but not accurate. His first season pitching for Weaver was 1962. He hurt his elbow in spring training 1963, so it had nothing to do with other coaches working on his off-speed stuff. He still pitched for Weaver some in 1963 and 1964, with reduced velocity due to the injury, and lasted until 1965. Claims that he threw 115 mph are, of course, patently ridiculous.
@@puckerings If I recall correctly, the story was recounted by Weaver, in discussing how he had Dalkowski IQ-tested and realized how confused he was by details. Whether or not he was accurate in his telling of it, I do not know. It has also been several years since I read his book, so I may have a couple details wrong.
I heard there are lots of pro baseball players in Japan who are good enough to make the US major leagues but for some reason, possibly they don't want to come to the USA, never have. It would make a good video.
In baseball lingo, a "AAAA player" is a player who does really well at the AAA level (like these guys) but for whatever reason, does not-so-well in the majors.
Joe Bauman was 32 years old in a league with an average age of 25 when he hit .400 in a C league. AAA-AA-A-B-C-D-D Minus. He had a chance at 25 years old and hit 10 HR's in A ball. I am sorry but NONE of these players were truly worthy of MLB careers other than Rose Skidmore as a possible low end DH.
I didnt say they were worthy of MLB careers. Thats not even the point of the video. These are players who put up impressive numbers somewhere but never even got a chance in MLB. Whether they deserve entire MLB careers would only be determined by their performance at the MLB level.
@@HummBabyBaseball I understand the title but a few of them actually were given a chance. One guy was 3/8 at the plate, the guy who couldn't play defense. I am just saying that Joe Bauman put up numbers in what would be considered independent baseball. He played in A ball at 25-26 years old and hit .275 with 10 HR.
Al Pinkston's one unsuccessful at bat with the Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League in 1948 makes him a major leaguer, followed by eight years (1951-1958) in the minor leagues. At the age of 41 he began a 7-year career in the Mexican League (1959-1965), and is the Mexican League's career batting leader at .372, hitting .397 in 1960, and batting .345 in his last season at the age of 47. Moses Solomon was nicknamed the "Rabbi of Swat."
Adding Bonds name to this awesome video takes away from those or accomplished their feats legally without help from roids. Even Cooperstown don’t recognize him so why should you in this video?
Don't think its fair to count guys who go overseas during their peak playing years, because they made that choice(which is a logical one). In fact, id wager most of the guys who leaves the minors to go play in the NPB or KBO are these sort of marginal players who would never get a real shot in the MLB, but want to have a real professional career before they pass their prime.
They didn't go to the foreign leagues because they got a better offer than the majors. They went there because they had no real opportunity in the majors. Some, like Randy Bass, do better in Japan or Korea because the game suits them better (shorter fences, more breaking balls, fastballs a little slower). Some just never get the chance in MLB.
@@sportscardsandthings I understood what you said. I just disagree about the fairness of counting them. I think it is perfectly reasonable to count them.
That name seems very familiar to me as a late 80's to nearly present day O's fan. After some research, yup, as a Tiger he played against the O's a few times. Not sure why you mention him. He was a poor fielding 1B and had a .230ish career minor league batting average.
@@whitedeion598 Yeah, 1 cup of coffee season out of about 5 he actually got some hits. If you hit .230 in the minors, you're not going to make the majors that often unless you are a spectacular fielder, which Hessman was not.
They are not telling the complete story here. If the big league club has an all-star at your position you're never going to replace him. You languish in the minors forever and either hope for a trade or just give up completely. I don't care what your job is, whether it's baseball or at the local mill, to get promoted the person in front of you has to be gone (retired, moved to another job etc)
Also, in some cases there is a fatal flaw in the game that holds one back. Chase Lambin was a horrible fielder, and no way you let Dalkowski walk two guys an inning in MLB.
How would you like to be the minor league player in the O's organization all the years Cal Ripken Jr was manning SS in Baltimore? It would be an interesting survey to actually find out who these guys were and where they may have ended up.
@@kiltedwolf2 The O's didn't trap anyone behind him. For the most part, the shortstop at AAA Rochester changed every year or two and were either former major league starters who didn't make an impact (Jackie Gutierrez), fringe prospects (Juan Bell, Manny Alexander), or career minor leaguers who may or may not have gotten a call-up.
Because he was a terrible defensive player and hello, he wasn't that great of a hitter in class A ball. He did his damage at below that level of competition.
Because he was 32 years old, playing in C-ball (equivalent to A-ball today). A man playing against boys in a league where the average team scored 7 runs per game.
MLB has a monopoly on baseball.they also have a lousy avg. When it comes to scouting. Bing Russell took a bunch of misfits and kicked their asses. They didn't like that at all. I played A, AA, and AAA. i was good and a lot of guys on our team were good. Me and a fellow George ( he played 3rd and i was short) they called us the Hoover bros. Because anything down by us got sucked up. Did any of us get the call nope. But i saw plenty of bums that couldn't even play get pushed by the coaches because they " knew " somebody. Mlb scouts and field people don't know horseshit. It's high time mlb and its stranglehold on the game is broken up. Each state should have at least 2 teams, 1 AL 1 NL. And no more owner Association. Everyone is independent as a team. That removes the garbage we see today.
You make a poor rationale for these players. There are plenty of players who excelled in the minors, but these examples don't make it. Good minor league players, injuries, and other problems don't mean that a player deserves to be a major league player. War years presented a problem of veterans returning from the war. Players who couldn't field or couldn't get the ball over the plate didn't deserve to become major leaguers.
I just gave the stats and stories behind 7 really good minor leaguers who never got a shot in MLB. Simple as that.. not trying to make a rationale for it. But there are cases like Roe Skidmore that I do believe he deserved more MLB ABs than ONE. But what do I know?
Look up Ray Perry for a great example of a player who never made it because of the war. Bill James wrote a fantastic article in the Historical Abstract. Perry was one of the first guys drafted into World War II, fought all four years, then came out, played in AAA ball, and promptly broke his leg, keeping him out over a year. When he recovered, he was in the low minors, where he would perennially lead the league in average, homers, and walks, often by a large margin, and was frequently the manager of the team as well. But since he was older, he never got the shot.
Lambin: He was a utility player in the minors who wasn't great defensively anywhere, and really bad at some positions and his AAA slash seems a rather mediocre .264 .337 .416. He was absolutely terrible in Japan whom some say is a AAA/AAAA level league. White: You mention part of the problem when you introduce him. DH. That means during his day, only AL teams would need him. In order to make it as a hitter only, your hitting needs to be ELITE. You say insanely good and here is the guy's line from AAA: .270 .341 .465. That's pretty good, but not elite. It also has to do with who is ahead of you. In the late 90's when he was about the age you think he'd start getting called up, the Pirates already had a very good hitting Kevin Young. The Reds had weak hitting but OBP God Sean Casey, and Seattle had some guy named John Olerud. Skidmore: Overall he was not a good hitter, he rarely walked, struck out a lot, and as he went up in level, his power disappeared too. He was a poor fielder to boot. That year he hit 27HR, he also batted .241 with a .281OBP. When he got called up to the Cubs you say they could have used his help. Really? Guess who was playing 1B for the Cubs? Jim Hickman who batted .315 .419 .582 with 32HR and 115RBI. Cazen: "He continually hit at or near .300 for his career..." except those times he hit .260, .270, .239, and .210. Again, this is a guy who raked against lower ranked opposition. He struggled when he got to AA ball until his final season when he was 30 playing in AA. I think I am gonna stop here. So far every single player you mention has at least one big, obvious reason, if not several, for why they didn't get their chance. They weren't as insanely good as you claim.
My dad was 19 years old and in college on a baseball scholarship when Pearl Harbor happened. The next day he enlisted in and served in the US Army Air Corps until the end of the war. His scholarship was gone, but he had veterans benefits to pay for school. So he played for the local minor league team and went to school. He moved up a league and changed schools to continue with his degree. His second year with the team he got called up due to an injury and played in 3 games. That was as far as he made it. He never regretted choosing his country over the game he loved. He never made it to a baseball card. But he's still my favorite baseball player of all time. He would have turned 100 in October if he were alive. Great video.
what was your dads name?
Name please
Lol your not getting a name dude. My grandpa had the literal same story. WW2, played for city team, got the call lol. It surprises me so many dudes used the same excuse tbh. I was signed by the Padres out of USC, and before I ended up signing I did some research. My mom kept acting like I was nothing because her dad was some famous pro. Lol nope, just the badass of the city. My mom still doesn’t believe me.
yes what’s his name i wanna see his baseball reference page 😂
@@CHSN-1 literally wanted to look up his stats. I love finding players that only had a couple of big league games. Just the last name and time period would be fine
I was privileged to see Joe Bauman hit three hkmeruns in the game that got him to 72. He had been tied at 69. The pitcher he hit the three off had won twenty games that year. Anyone who thinks modern baseball players have big power should have had an opportunity to see a baseball hit over the outfield light towers at 355 feet. He still owns the record. My dad and I sat on top of a pickup cab along the outfield fence that night. We couldn't afford tickets,but got to see history made. I was 14 that year.
Amazing story. Thanks.
I found myself in a bar late one night in Anaheim, Ca back around '95 sitting next to Paul Pryor. . .a former MLB umpire. I was in the city for a baseball convention and knew the guys Paul was representing. We were vendors at the convention. When they left, Paul didn't. He wanted a nightcap so I decided to hang around and talk to him. Not every day you get a chance to do this. Paul was good natured and had lots of stories. I remember asking him, "who's the fastest pitcher you ever called balls and strikes behind the plate?" Without giving it a minutes thought, he replied, " Steve Dalkowski". Dalkowski was a legend no matter where he was. . .mainly for his arm AND his wildness. Many do not know that Steve's minor league catcher was Cal Ripkin Sr. The Orioles had high hopes for their phenom. Only, he never panned out of course. Several years back, a friend in Orange County sent me a newspaper clipping about Dalkowski. He had passed away. Later in life, he had fallen on hard times and often would show at Cactus League spring training ballparks trying to sell items of little value. People in baseball who still knew him would often buy stuff even if it wasn't worth much. Such an amazing amount of talent in a golden arm. . wasted. He died a broken man.
He had the highest K/9 and BB/9 I've ever seen at any level. It's a shame he blew out his arm in spring training before he made the majors. If he could've gotten his control to a acceptable level he could've been like Nolan Ryan.
Couple drunks sitting in a bar? I doubt there is ANY truth to this story
Dalkowski's problem was his fastball would rise out of the strike zone. Ted Williams once faced him in a spring training game and said he would never bat against him again. Ted said he never saw the ball coming.
This is like no matter how much hard work you put in at your work place, your boss still has nothing good to say about you.
I have one you can add to that list. I actually played amateur baseball against Tydus Meadows. It's interesting how politics work in sports. Tydus was drafted in the 27th round or so out of Vanderbilt. But, he won a batting title in Rookie Ball with the Chicago Cubs organization and later protected a MLB bust by hitting cleanup on a Lansing Lugnuts team that had the Cubs #1 pick Corey Patterson hitting third in the lineup. Tydus outperformed Patterson but never got called up to the MLB team during the same time that Patterson did. Tydus bounced around minor league organizations winning arbitration cases as hush money. He finished his career in the independent leagues.
I watched Chase Lambin play for the Rochester Red wings, Everyone in Rochester wondered why he wasn't a mlb player
Great video Eric. Really enjoyed it.
One player from modern times I would throw on this list: Brian Raabe.
Second baseman, 41st round pick in 1990 by the Twins out of the U. of Minnesota.
Got off to slow start, hitting .246 and .257 in his first two years in A ball, with no power, but in his second year walked 40 times to 14 strikeouts, a sign of things to come.
Did better the next year, .288, .381 OBP, 48 walks, 17 Ks. Earned promotion to AA ball.
AA Nashville the next year, .286, .364 OBP, 56 walks, 28 Ks.
AAA Salt Lake brought five consecutive .300 seasons, with the addition of some power as well.
1996, 28 years old, .351, 18 HR, 19 K. (How long has it been since someone had the same number of homers as strikeouts?)
1997, .352, 14 HR, 20 K.
Defense? .990 career fielding percentage at 2B, plus above average numbers at SS and 3B.
But by the time he got hot, he was done as a prospect. He only got 29 career major league at bats. He played briefly in Japan and retired after hitting .327 in his final AAA season at 31.
For his career, he hit .311, .378 OBP, 384 walks to 153 strikeouts in 3874 AB, with 60 HR.
In AAA ball, he hit .332, .393 OBP, 49 HR, 228 BB, 83 K.
You would think a guy who never struck out, never made errors, and hit .332 career in AAA would have gotten at least half a chance. But since he was never a prospect and started out slowly, he was never to be considered one.
Two huge things you're missing:
1. He was always old for his league, meaning he as further along in his development than most of the players he was playing against. This inflated his numbers. He didn't play AAA until he was 26 years old, an age where the best players are already major-league veterans.
2. His biggest years offensively were playing in the PCL, which massively inflates offensive numbers. Yes, he hit .352 in 1997 - but that barely cracked the top 10 in the PCL that year. Todd Helton also hit .352 that year in the PCL, but Helton was 23 and Raabe was 29, which makes Helton the MUCH better prospect (plus he had more power).
And fielding percentage is a terrible way to evaluate defence. You can be sure-handed, but if you have limited range and a weak arm, you will commit few errors but still not be a very good fielder overall.
@@puckerings I know he was old for his league, and yes, the PCL does inflate numbers. Still, any team looking for an infielder could do a lot worse than him (and many did). I'm not suggesting he would have been an All-Star, or that he would have even been a starter for a good team. But certainly a team with a weakness at second could use someone like him. Jack Perconte was a very similar player, only with more speed and less power, and he got in a few good years.
I don't know how much range Raabe had, though the fact that he played short some and didn't play OF tells me he had some range.
Atleast we can say Skidmore batted 1.000!
Outstanding research and video as always. You started me back with my love affair with baseball.
Great vid! I would incldue minor league legend Bernardo Brito...an absolute masher.
In the 60's we had this kid on our team in little league that had a freak of an arm. He got screwed up by the coach trying to get him to throw different pitches. Anyways, back then the batters wore over-sized helmets that were held onto your head by the elastic band inside. One time Dougie fired a heater and it went right at the batters head. Either the kid froze or he didn't see it coming and he just stood there. This is no lie what happened next. The ball hit the kid in the helmet and it didn't bounce off. It punched a clean hole in the plastic helmet and stuck in that hole. No lie. I was the 12 year old catcher and even at that age I thought that was amazing.
Great video. I’d like to add Matt Young (Matthew E. Young), OF who came up with the Braves and hit for average, walked more than he struck out, and stole bases at every level through AAA, including hitting .300+ for a full season at AAA in 2010. Major league debut in Apr 2011 with Braves pinch running for Chipper Jones, but released shortly thereafter. Picked up by Tigers, Cardinals and Angels but wasn’t ever given a chance. Never understood why.
Here's why: his age. When evaluating a minor leaguer's numbers, it is vitally important to consider his age. In 2010 Young slashed .300/.380/.407 in AAA. If he were 22-23 years old when he did that, he would be a legit prospect. But he was 27 when he did that. In his minor league career, he was always playing against younger competition. So he was further along in his development. This inflated his numbers.
He did have 63 major-league plate appearances, and slashed .190/.254/.224.
@@puckerings Interesting. Thanks for the response! I never considered the age factor and how that plays in.
Ouch. The dudes only pro game was an absolute disaster
i would kill myself fr
Ron Wright? The negative cycle? Strikeout, double play, triple play?
Great freaking video. So many are good enough and never get the opportunity. So many factors
I went to many AAA Denver Bears games as a snotty nosed kid, and since we came from the south side, I sat mostly on the first base line. Bo Osborne was my favorite player. At least I think that was his name. I thought he was almost as good as Willie McCovey. Of course, home runs were easier in Denver due to the thinner air.
Has anyone ever heard of a guy named Tyrone Horne? I saw him play in Low A ball in the late 90's for the Kane County Cougars. I kind of remember he was something like 27 years old and mostly played DH, but he had some amazing power. I mean he hit insanely hard. I retrieved a foul ball that he hit once, and I guess it's possible that Low A minor league balls aren't up to snuff, but one side of this ball was flat. He was cut after the season. The next time I heard his name, he was playing in AA the next year and he apparently hit 4 home runs in one game but he actually homered for the cycle in that game. A solo shot, a 2 run, a 3 run and a grand slam. The 90's were a long time ago and my memory ain't what it used to be, but if anyone out there reading this remembers this guy, please correct me if I am wrong.
Great hitter in the low minor leagues, but struggled in AAA and was an awful fielder.
We need more of these
The first to hit 60 HRs in a season was Tony Lazzeri in the minors for the Yankees in 1922 tho
Have to feel for guys like this.......just tells you how hard it is to make the big leagues, much less stay there. It's also unfair how teams just keep getting top prospects chance after chance while good grinders who show improvement are just buried.
Baseball.
It’s all about money.
Yes! Todd Van Poppel lasts 11 years torching scoreboards (40-52, 5.58) when there were any number of pitchers in AAA ball waiting for a chance that would never come because they weren't the massively hyped first round pick.
The Braves totally dodged a bullet on this one. Van Poppel was the consensus first round pick in 1990, but he stated he wouldn't sign and would go to college. So they went to their backup plan, Chipper Jones.
The A's had four first rounders thanks to losing a lot of free agents, so they drafted and signed Van Poppel, Kirk Dressendorfer, Dave Zancanaro, and Don Peters, all in the first round, all pitchers, and announced them as their future starting rotation. Van Poppel was the best of the bunch. Four busts, two of whom didn't make it out of the minors.
the MLB is 75% latino
most international players make it
the rest waste there life in the minors making nothing & living off the bonus
most don’t stay in the MLB
The average person doesn't understand how insanely talented the worst player on your favorite team was in high school. Or that a lot of Major League pitcher's could out hit the best player on the local high school team. Baseball is one of those sports that's extremely hard to advance to the next level and most of the guys don't make it. Hell I went to college with three guys that I thought were going to do something and never made it above A ball or high A and these were phenomenal baseball players in college
No Spider Baum? Frank Schellenbeck (Was banned from using spitball after 1919 because he was in the minors and not grandfathered) or Buzz Artlett? Buzz only got a shot with the Phillies due to injuries but they only used him as a PH due to his age and poor fielding due to his age and weight gain, he retired as PCL HR leader. Phil Nadeau is also a good one, I recall him because of Out of the Park Baseball and recreating 1901 baseball and putting in the PCL. Nadeau always is the man in PCL in the 1st ten years. Oh and Henry Schmidt! Won 20+ games for the woeful Brooklyn Superbras but decided he disliked the East Coast and went west. Only season in the Majors
For Most of these guys once you get a book it takes a miracle to change the narrative
I remember Ron Wright! He went over to Pitt in the Denny Neagle trade in ‘96. I hated to lose him but with McGriff and Klesko already on the roster he was expendable. Too bad he didn’t get a real opportunity.
I remember him too. I'm a Cardinals fan but I would read Baseball America and I followed the minors pretty well. I thought he was black for a long time based on his name.
He was Dunn before he had a chance.
I had the privilege of having Ron as our hitting couch in college. Such a great guy and he really knew his stuff!
Man, I hadn't thought about Joe Bauman in a while. I saw the thumbnail and I said "Wait, I know this guy, what was his name. I can think of it!" And thankfully it was in some neuron in my brain. ;)
Well done sir…you earned yourself a new subscriber
I live in rochester new york and I"ve seen a lot of guys who were really good players who never got promoted to the big leagues josh rabe was one of them I"m surprised no one mentioned him
A good friend of mine who was my baseball teammate in high school got drafted by the Detroit tigers in 2012 an unfortunately stayed in their minor league system till he retired he told me just how difficult it was to try an make it to that level even saying how a lot of his teammates played like superstars but never got called up themselves very tough league to make it in
First of all, the story about the pitcher who threw 110-115 needs to be debunked. The fastest pitch ever measured was 105.8, by Aroldis Chapman. Second, what a player actually does ceases to matter once they are labeled a "non-prospect." Willie Mays started his career 0-12, but stayed in the lineup. Pete Rose, Jr. was 2-14 over 11 games, and never played in the majors again.
Had Joe Bauman played in the major leagues, he would had no doubt been a Hall of famer
You done one on the greatest Japanese players such as Sadaharu Oh?
Can you check on Don Engbers? I think he played in the Orioles organization, at first base.
Hey channel owner - I appreciate the choice of classical music over the annoying edm/lo-fi mix most channels use. Maybe not quite the right track here, but it's refreshing anyway.
Steve Dalkowski is whom Dazzy Vance nearly became a prototype of.
3 base stealers. Donnell Nixon (brother of Otis), Kevin Moore, Jose Herrera.
1 guy who retired from minors to play in the NFL. Rodney Peete. He played both sports at USC, 2b and QB. His football rival? Troy Aikman at UCLA, Hall of Fame, all years with Dallas Cowboys 🤠 🏈
I met a few men who were great 👍 in high school. 2 chose the Navy 🚢 over baseball ⚾️. The others chose other military branches.
There are also players who can knock the cover off the ball playing in the minors but were never able to hit major league pitching.....Also for decades there were only 16 MLB clubs with 4 times as many minor league teams....Many players made a career in the minor leagues
You're not supposed to say that.
What about Mike Hessman I think he had 400 career minor-league home runs and only played a little bit with the Tigers
Played with the Mets and Braves too. Saw Hessman many times. He had a long swing and struck out an insane number of times. One season he hit around .160 despite over 20HRs His fielding was just average.
His ceiling was bat off the bench. When he made appearances in MLB he just couldn’t hit major league pitching enough.
Braves former first round pick Cody Johnson. Guy hit 40 homers in minors, but couldn’t get out. Massive amount of strike outs
His career high was 32 homers, playing in high-A.
@@puckerings you’re right. I thought he hit closer to 40 one season. My mistaken
the one that always got me, (diff. subject) was ozzie canseco, jose's twinn brother. ozzie had 439 at bats in the majors and never hit a home run.
Needed better steroids.
@@eauhomme i told a friend in the room, "i bet the only response i get is about steroids."
Jose Canseco is about the only one who has come totally clean about being dirty. He said a few years ago, if he hadn't taken steroids, he never would have played in the majors at all. Yes, he did know how to play baseball. But maybe 'roids can make that much difference. Usually, identical twins who both make the bigs have a very similar career arc if both are healthy. Tom and Dick Van Arsdale. Harvey and Horace Grant. The difference between Canseco twins is almost inexplicable without reference to PED use.
A couple of years after he retired, Canseco said he had divorced baseball. That explains his willingness to talk. Divorce means he no longer cared about his reputation or legacy in baseball.
Jose couldn't hit for shit without roids either, he admits that he never would've gotten close to the majors without the roids. Guess he just didn't share any of those roids with his brother.
Wasn't Ozzie a pitcher
What you failed to mention about Steve Dalkowski Jr. was that in AAA his career ERA was 7.13 with a 1.98 WHIP. He wasn't that good albeit a machine who at his worst, had 129 BB in 62 IP.
great vid
There was a Greek fellow in the late 1960s, named Kalafatis, who could really hit.
He never made the majors either.
Had
1. The DH existed in Solomon’s time
2. Solomon’s fielding was good
Moses Solomon would have had hall of fame career
It's about being in the right place at the right time if you don't have Big Leagues written across your forehead as most scouts were taught then and still conform to that standard.
Steve Dalkowski has been mentioned as the inspiration for Nuke Laloosh in Bull Durham. Reportedly, he had difficulty understanding what coaches explained to him, and only became successful when a minor league manager named Earl Weaver (I'm sure you've heard of him) told him to not worry about setting up hitters, don't worry about thinking, let the catcher figure it out, and throw what he's told. Then the next year, different manager and coaches, who wanted him to work on off-speed stuff, leading to injuries that ended his career.
Nice easy story, but not accurate. His first season pitching for Weaver was 1962. He hurt his elbow in spring training 1963, so it had nothing to do with other coaches working on his off-speed stuff. He still pitched for Weaver some in 1963 and 1964, with reduced velocity due to the injury, and lasted until 1965.
Claims that he threw 115 mph are, of course, patently ridiculous.
@@puckerings If I recall correctly, the story was recounted by Weaver, in discussing how he had Dalkowski IQ-tested and realized how confused he was by details. Whether or not he was accurate in his telling of it, I do not know. It has also been several years since I read his book, so I may have a couple details wrong.
@@eauhomme No, your account is absolutely accurate.
The problem is 'pucker' is an arrogant imbecile.
Awesome.
I heard there are lots of pro baseball players in Japan who are good enough to make the US major leagues but for some reason, possibly they don't want to come to the USA, never have. It would make a good video.
Listen, I'm sure it's not, but is it just me, or does this guy sound a lot like Pat McAfee? When I hear this guy talk, that's all I can picture! 😆
Mike Hessman had success in the minors (Mud Hens) honorable mention…
In baseball lingo, a "AAAA player" is a player who does really well at the AAA level (like these guys) but for whatever reason, does not-so-well in the majors.
Joe Bauman was 32 years old in a league with an average age of 25 when he hit .400 in a C league. AAA-AA-A-B-C-D-D Minus. He had a chance at 25 years old and hit 10 HR's in A ball. I am sorry but NONE of these players were truly worthy of MLB careers other than Rose Skidmore as a possible low end DH.
I didnt say they were worthy of MLB careers. Thats not even the point of the video. These are players who put up impressive numbers somewhere but never even got a chance in MLB. Whether they deserve entire MLB careers would only be determined by their performance at the MLB level.
@@HummBabyBaseball I understand the title but a few of them actually were given a chance. One guy was 3/8 at the plate, the guy who couldn't play defense. I am just saying that Joe Bauman put up numbers in what would be considered independent baseball. He played in A ball at 25-26 years old and hit .275 with 10 HR.
Roe skidmore went to Eisenhower High School in Decatur, Il
Moe Hill , Tony Solita ,Mike Hessman
Tony Solaita played briefly for the Yankees.
@@johngurlides9157 and Angels
Phil Hiatt should be mentioned too
Some of these it wasn't that they didn't get a shot, they simply had an injury or illness that stopped them.
Al Pinkston's one unsuccessful at bat with the Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League in 1948 makes him a major leaguer, followed by eight years (1951-1958) in the minor leagues. At the age of 41 he began a 7-year career in the Mexican League (1959-1965), and is the Mexican League's career batting leader at .372, hitting .397 in 1960, and batting .345 in his last season at the age of 47.
Moses Solomon was nicknamed the "Rabbi of Swat."
According to Baseball Reference, Joe Bauman hit .337 with 337 home runs in his 9-year minor league career.
Adding Bonds name to this awesome video takes away from those or accomplished their feats legally without help from roids. Even Cooperstown don’t recognize him so why should you in this video?
Dalkowski never made the majors but he did have a rookie card: 1963 Topps #496.
Ollie Carnegie and Cecil Babe Dye both starred in International League and never reached major leagues
STEVE BILKO......HR__HR__HR__HR----MLB, then not as well as minors.....BUT, the chance was GIVEN
3:18 The doctor fucked up.
If Only if the DH existed in the Golden age of baseball…
Don't think its fair to count guys who go overseas during their peak playing years, because they made that choice(which is a logical one). In fact, id wager most of the guys who leaves the minors to go play in the NPB or KBO are these sort of marginal players who would never get a real shot in the MLB, but want to have a real professional career before they pass their prime.
They didn't go to the foreign leagues because they got a better offer than the majors. They went there because they had no real opportunity in the majors.
Some, like Randy Bass, do better in Japan or Korea because the game suits them better (shorter fences, more breaking balls, fastballs a little slower). Some just never get the chance in MLB.
@@eauhomme reread my comment. Thats pretty much what i said. For these guys, playing foreign ball is better than grinding it out in the minors.
@@sportscardsandthings I understood what you said. I just disagree about the fairness of counting them. I think it is perfectly reasonable to count them.
RACISM MY BROTHER! Naw Lol love your vids
Watching this video I caught my self repeatedly saying "damn" 😔
Sad these players never got the chance
Anyone remeber mike hessman
That name seems very familiar to me as a late 80's to nearly present day O's fan.
After some research, yup, as a Tiger he played against the O's a few times.
Not sure why you mention him. He was a poor fielding 1B and had a .230ish career minor league batting average.
@@eduardopena5893 all time leader in minor league homers. He had some ABs with the braves in 03 and did well
@@whitedeion598 Yeah, 1 cup of coffee season out of about 5 he actually got some hits. If you hit .230 in the minors, you're not going to make the majors that often unless you are a spectacular fielder, which Hessman was not.
There’s no way Bauman was that good and never played in the mlb those numbers have to be wrong that literally makes no sense
Add Vaun Brown to this list
He still has time.. he will be an MLB player I believe 🙏
@@HummBabyBaseball agreed I hope so
Roswell is 3,500+ ft in the air, mind you.
They are not telling the complete story here. If the big league club has an all-star at your position you're never going to replace him. You languish in the minors forever and either hope for a trade or just give up completely. I don't care what your job is, whether it's baseball or at the local mill, to get promoted the person in front of you has to be gone (retired, moved to another job etc)
Also, in some cases there is a fatal flaw in the game that holds one back. Chase Lambin was a horrible fielder, and no way you let Dalkowski walk two guys an inning in MLB.
How would you like to be the minor league player in the O's organization all the years Cal Ripken Jr was manning SS in Baltimore? It would be an interesting survey to actually find out who these guys were and where they may have ended up.
This is why they have minor league free agency after six years. A player who is trapped in the system can sign with another team after six years.
@@kiltedwolf2 The O's didn't trap anyone behind him. For the most part, the shortstop at AAA Rochester changed every year or two and were either former major league starters who didn't make an impact (Jackie Gutierrez), fringe prospects (Juan Bell, Manny Alexander), or career minor leaguers who may or may not have gotten a call-up.
Wheres the legit 400 hitter, Jeff Trout🤔Yes, when you can foul any pitch from both sides🤔
Barry Bond’s 73 HR’s was with the help of steroids.
How does steroids help you read and predict pitches or help with hand eye coordination?
@@betterthanmost9549steroids give you more powers.
Steve Demeter
If Bucky Dent could make it why couldnt these guys
72 homeruns clean!! Why he did not move up
Because he was a terrible defensive player and hello, he wasn't that great of a hitter in class A ball. He did his damage at below that level of competition.
Because he was 32 years old, playing in C-ball (equivalent to A-ball today). A man playing against boys in a league where the average team scored 7 runs per game.
Randy Ruiz
MLB has a monopoly on baseball.they also have a lousy avg. When it comes to scouting. Bing Russell took a bunch of misfits and kicked their asses. They didn't like that at all. I played A, AA, and AAA. i was good and a lot of guys on our team were good. Me and a fellow George ( he played 3rd and i was short) they called us the Hoover bros. Because anything down by us got sucked up. Did any of us get the call nope. But i saw plenty of bums that couldn't even play get pushed by the coaches because they " knew " somebody. Mlb scouts and field people don't know horseshit. It's high time mlb and its stranglehold on the game is broken up. Each state should have at least 2 teams, 1 AL 1 NL. And no more owner Association. Everyone is independent as a team. That removes the garbage we see today.
Damn, someone sounds bitter. Get over it dude.
I was taught. If you can't say something good about an article then say nothing. NOTHING
Thanks for the comment; it helps the algorithm
Might be a good idea to say nothing about saying nothing.
Repent of your sins and trust in Jesus you will be saved
Wrong forum
these guys were cheated for sure
You make a poor rationale for these players. There are plenty of players who excelled in the minors, but these examples don't make it. Good minor league players, injuries, and other problems don't mean that a player deserves to be a major league player. War years presented a problem of veterans returning from the war. Players who couldn't field or couldn't get the ball over the plate didn't deserve to become major leaguers.
I just gave the stats and stories behind 7 really good minor leaguers who never got a shot in MLB. Simple as that.. not trying to make a rationale for it. But there are cases like Roe Skidmore that I do believe he deserved more MLB ABs than ONE. But what do I know?
Wheres 6our list
Look up Ray Perry for a great example of a player who never made it because of the war. Bill James wrote a fantastic article in the Historical Abstract. Perry was one of the first guys drafted into World War II, fought all four years, then came out, played in AAA ball, and promptly broke his leg, keeping him out over a year. When he recovered, he was in the low minors, where he would perennially lead the league in average, homers, and walks, often by a large margin, and was frequently the manager of the team as well. But since he was older, he never got the shot.
Lambin: He was a utility player in the minors who wasn't great defensively anywhere, and really bad at some positions and his AAA slash seems a rather mediocre .264 .337 .416. He was absolutely terrible in Japan whom some say is a AAA/AAAA level league.
White: You mention part of the problem when you introduce him. DH. That means during his day, only AL teams would need him. In order to make it as a hitter only, your hitting needs to be ELITE. You say insanely good and here is the guy's line from AAA: .270 .341 .465. That's pretty good, but not elite. It also has to do with who is ahead of you. In the late 90's when he was about the age you think he'd start getting called up, the Pirates already had a very good hitting Kevin Young. The Reds had weak hitting but OBP God Sean Casey, and Seattle had some guy named John Olerud.
Skidmore: Overall he was not a good hitter, he rarely walked, struck out a lot, and as he went up in level, his power disappeared too. He was a poor fielder to boot. That year he hit 27HR, he also batted .241 with a .281OBP. When he got called up to the Cubs you say they could have used his help. Really? Guess who was playing 1B for the Cubs? Jim Hickman who batted .315 .419 .582 with 32HR and 115RBI.
Cazen: "He continually hit at or near .300 for his career..." except those times he hit .260, .270, .239, and .210. Again, this is a guy who raked against lower ranked opposition. He struggled when he got to AA ball until his final season when he was 30 playing in AA.
I think I am gonna stop here. So far every single player you mention has at least one big, obvious reason, if not several, for why they didn't get their chance. They weren't as insanely good as you claim.