Bonds in 4 | Baseball Bits

let's see balanced breakfast yeah Stephen Colbert mm-hmm syringe emojis yeah and asterisk yeah there I said it all so you don't have to [Music] how do you talk about Barry Bonds he certainly left behind a complicated legacy an absolute Titan of baseball for over two decades he captivated the sport first as a power speed guy and the mold of his father then later is the most ungodly combination of strength and discipline the game has ever seen from 2001 to 2004 but no no I got stopped myself already the years of 2001 to 2004 are a creative trap for me the numbers are so outrageous I don't even have to do anything creative with them we could just drool over these stat lines and use phrases like video game numbers for the next 10 to 15 minutes and you'd probably still think it's a good video that's why I'm opting for some self-imposed limits in very bonzes 22-year MLB career he stepped into the batter's box twelve thousand eight hundred and fourteen times we're going to take a look at just four of those instances just four plate appearances to sum up what Barry Bonds meant to the game of baseball some at-bats I won't be doing a deep dive on or the home run chases number 71 no thanks number 756 not gonna do that one either another thing I won't dig deep on Francisco Cabrera's single to left field in the 1992 NLCS Bonds was named regular-season MVP that year but his throw was weak and just a little off line allowing the Braves to advance to the World Series over bonzes pirates that offseason he would join the San Francisco Giants and free agency and it was during that 15 year stretch in San Francisco where he would become baseball's version of an antihero and he'd also take four plate appearances that I desperately want to talk about [Music] it's May 28 1998 Diamondbacks at Giants of the ninth the Giants are trailing in an 86 ballgame there's two outs the pitcher is Greg Olson not that one and Barry Bonds is walking up to the plate with the bases loaded even in the midst of a Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa home run chase bonds still might be the guy you want most in this spot why because he was already the best player of the 90s from 1990 to 1997 he led Major League Baseball and classic counting stats like home runs and RBI as well as war with all this in mind let's ask the pressing question do you pitch to bonds as evidenced by the lengths pitchers went to avoid him bonds was indisputably the most feared hitter in MLB history but the bases are loaded it seems like Greg Olson has been backed into a corner he has to pitch to bonds right Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter felt otherwise very buds they intentionally walked him with the bases loaded we can't say for sure how many times this has actually happened but Barry Bonds became at the very least the first hitter intentionally walked with the bases full since World War two ended bonzes career is synonymous with the intentional free pass but this was 1998 his intentional walk season was 2004 when managers outright refused to pitch to him on 120 occasions Bonds put up the top three seasons for intentional walks and his 120 in 2004 dwarfs Willie McCovey is 45 in 1969 for his career he had more than twice as many as the next guy Albert Pujols and he had more intentional bases on balls than Hall of Famers Knapp Lodge Way Roberto Clemente Pudge Rodriguez and Andre Dawson had walks in general but was walking bonds the correct choice let's take a closer look Charlie Hayes and JT snow representing the tying and winning runs respectively likely below average runners but let's assume they're average according to Tom tango about two-thirds of runners score from second with two outs on a single and about half score from first on a double if we use bonzes 1998 splits versus right-handed pitching pitching to him theoretically yields a 30% chance to at least tie and an 11 point 7 percent chance to walk off an 8 to 6 ball game and I should say this is quick and dirty math that disregards the possibility of say a wild pitch or pass ball the batter the Diamondbacks chose to face instead was journeyman catcher Brent Mayne if you use Maine's career splits versus right-handed pitching and assume he won't be walked May would have a 26.7% chance to at least tie the 8 to 7 ball game that's lower than bonds but his chances of walking off are greater in 19.8% so from a purely statistical perspective bonds is more likely to drive in the tying run from second than main is from driving in the tying run from third even though Maine theoretically has a greater chance to walk it off walking bonds with the bases loaded gives the Diamondbacks the better chance at winning in the ninth inning and what was the outcome of May at that a couple other notable hitters have been intentionally walked with the bases loaded the aforementioned Knapp Lodge way earned his free pass in 1901 and Josh Hamilton was given the bonds treatment ten years later what did these freak occurrences have in common the team issuing the Kamikaze intentional walk won the game the numbers don't make it abundantly clear that walking bonds is the right move and I would also like to point out that Brent Maine got unlucky here his line out to right field is similar to this one by jonathan villar which had a 462 expected batting average as well as this one from max kepler which had an 83% chance of dropping for a hit based on the exit velocity and launch angle all three just happened to hit it more or less directly at the right fielder that's also not really the point Buck Showalter didn't know any of this math he did know however that Barry Bonds scared the bejesus out of him and that was enough to force him into a desperate decision let's talk about what happens when you pitch to Barry Bonds instead it's October 20th 2002 Game two of the World Series Giants and angels the Giants are leading the series having taken Game one but trail 11 to nine in Game two with two outs in the ninth those two outs are in thanks to Troy Percival forcing fly outs from rich Aurilia and Jeff Kent but it's Barry Bonds has turned a hit and he's at his absolute peak powers thin again so is Troy Percival from his debut in 1995 through 2002 he was one of only five pitchers to strike out 30% of batters faced and his 2002 might have been his finest season on record earning MVP votes in the process do you pitch to bonds you have to if Bonds reaches base the tying run comes to the plate you don't want that Troy Percival has to get after Barry Bonds that's easier said than done not since the great Ted Williams had a hitter controlled the strike zone like Bonds and he takes strike one on a pitch outside Percival can't walk bonds he has to throw this next pitch in the strike zone so he does bonds annihilates this baseball an estimated 485 feet into the right-field bleachers the scoreboard changes before it even lands the camera cuts to angels star outfielder Tim salmon who says it's the farthest hit ball he's ever seen it's the type of blast that would have easily ended up in McCovey Cove where it bonds his home ballpark instead the ball attempts to exit the park via a tunnel halfway up the bleachers the Angel Stadium crowd grows restless but the score remains 11 to 10 Percival retires Benito Santiago to even up the series but Bonds sends a powerful message he'll be walked 13 times before the series is over 7 intentionally he'll also hit four home runs this will ultimately culminate in the highest o-p-s and any postseason run with a minimum of 40 plate appearances an absolutely historic effort Bonds was a man possessed this was the best chance he'd get to win a ring bonds had previously lost three consecutive National League Championship Series with the Pirates in the early 90s no doubt he was frustrated by that when he decided to leave town and head west to San Francisco bonzes 2002 World Series performance didn't have any shortcomings but the Giants failed to rally around him Troy Percival closed the series in game 7 and with that the Anaheim Angels of California of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim won the World Series in some ways baseball is a selfish individual sport a series of one-on-ones between the batter and the pitcher who has a monopoly over the baseball itself that veneer strips away to reveal that baseball is in fact the ultimate team game James Harden could take as many shots as he wants but Barry Bonds only occupies one of nine spots in the batting order the best player of our current generation has appeared in just three playoff games but all that won't make bonds feel any better about losing this series as the Angels celebrate on the field the Fox cameras eagerly cut to bonzes face hoping to capture a moment of frustration or despair it isn't enough that the Angels have won the American public demands evidence that there loser whose heart has been ripped out he sits in the shadows of the Giants dugout stoic bonds and the media always had it out for each other years after his retirement the bonds would own up to some of his past transgressions describing his actions as a flat-out dumb that relationship or lack thereof did bonds no favors in the wake of the BALCO scandal in just a few years time he would become the face of the league-wide steroid era [Music] it's April 16 2004 Dodgers at Giants bottle of the ninth one out and a runner on first Dodgers are leading three to nothing once again Barry Bonds lumbers up to the plate this is early in bonzes 2004 season in which he put up the highest on-base percentage and o-p-s and MLB history once again you could make an entire video about the numbers on this screen but I want to talk about Eric Gagne in 2003 Gagne put up arguably the greatest relief pitcher season of all time he became the only pitcher in MLB history to throw 70 80 's and post a sub 1 FIP that short for fielding independent pitching he also struck out 44% of all batters faced one the siyoung award and through a round white ball it speeds over 100 miles per hour so on one side you have Gagne coming off arguably the greatest relief season ever and bonds entering arguably the greatest hitting season ever the unstoppable force and a movable object are about to meet so do you pitch the bonds of course you do Gani doesn't want the tying run to come to the plate and he's you know Eric Gagne by the way Gani admitted to eating a balanced breakfast every morning as well so this is a fair matchup even if you don't like players eating healthy foods the first pitch is a 98 mile-per-hour four seamer that bonds pulls foul Gagne then decides to go inside just catching the edge of the strike zone with another heater bonds is quickly behind Oh 2 0 balls and 2 strikes is not a friendly count for anybody it turns super humans into scrubs Mike Trout doesn't hit like Mike Trout after a no to count for his career and neither did bonds but during that terrifying four-year stretch from 2001 to 2004 he he still slugged over 600 after a no to count how do you get this guy out but Gagne has an ace up his sleeve after two heaters he turns to his slow curve Oh bonds just spits on it Gagne throws this pitch 25 miles per hour slower than his fastball and bonds has the audacity to take this pitch mere centimeters below the zone in 2002 Barry Bonds and Eric Gagne were in Japan on an all-star tour bonds frequently complained about not getting pitches to hit Gagne said you know what if I get a three-run lead one time and I come in I'll face you Vaughn said all right all fast balls Gagne replied no not all fast balls I can use one off-speed Gagne has just used his off-speed the fourth pitches of fastball taken inside Gagne continues to challenge Bonds who fouls off a pitch up and in both dugouts are absolutely fixated on this matchup they know they're witnessing something special Gagne subtly shakes off a changeup call that wasn't part of the gentleman's agreement he lets another fastball grip [Applause] but Riddick the broadcast claims 99 miles per hour but the stadium radar gun reads 101 bonds knowing that the fastball is coming is early on a hundred and one miles per hour but he wasn't early for what came next [Applause] Gagne would go on to win the game extending a safe streak that eventually reached 84 without a blown save but this at-bat man this at-bat goes into the annals of baseball history as one of the greatest batter pitcher matchups ever captured on video it's raw power on raw power the perfect example of everything right and everything wrong with baseball in this era at the end of the 2004 season bonds would take home his fourth consecutive MVP award no other player in MLB history has won more than three for their entire career [Applause] [Music] in September 26th 2007 the last home game of a disappointing San Francisco Giants season as they currently sit at the bottom of the NL West standings bonds had passed Hank Aaron in August but had been taking it easy on an on contending team this was his first game in 11 days as luck would have it this will be his third at-bat versus Jake Peavy who is concluding a triple crown siyoung season with the Padres Peavy had gotten the best of bonds their first two matchups forcing two groundouts hopefully bonds will do better this time around do you pitch to bonds well he's 43 years old and you're a Triple Crown winner with a 7 run lead I'm thinking that's a yes but bonds is never an easy out and he takes control of the situation by taking Peavey's first two pitches four balls while an O to count is nearing a death sentence for the hitter to O is a gargantuan advantage in bonds his career over half visit bats that reached a two-out count ended in a walk when they reached that point the opposing pitchers collectively said I'm just gonna walk him but Jake Peavy won't he challenges bonds [Music] [Applause] bonds chest misses a homerun to the deepest part of the park he embraces Peavy removes his helmet and exits to a standing ovation we didn't know it at the time but that was the last plate appearance of Barry Bonds his career two days earlier the New York Times had reported that bonds wouldn't be returning to San Francisco that offseason but his 2007 slash line was still absurd highlighted by a 480 on-base percentage no player has reached that mark since not Mike Trout not Joey Votto none of them nobody has reached a 480 on-base percentage there were a variety of reasons why the Giants wouldn't want bonds back he was embroiled in a PD scandal seen as a clubhouse cancer and the Giants weren't particularly competitive at the time while the 43 year old bonds was a headache and perhaps no longer a good choice to play the field there were American League contenders that could have used his services the Angels won a hundred games without a huge contribution from their designated hitters compare that to bonzes 2008 Zips projection and he could have made a great team even better the race ended up winning the pennant but entered Game one of the World Series with Willie Aybar as their designated hitter kind of a wild move when Bonds was willing to play for a league minimum salary look I'm not a GM but 400 on-base percentage is 400 on-base percentage Barry Bonds could have helped your team in 2008 and potentially beyond but ball clubs didn't want anything to do with the disgraced homerun champion he had pushed the game to its absolute limit and the only thing that could stop him was the fallout an unceremonious conclusion to a fabled career on the day bonds took his last swing fashion designer Marc Ecko who had acquired the record-breaking 756th ball announced that it would be branded with an asterisk an entire legacy two-faced Bonds has had to grapple with his failed pursuits of a World Series ring de-facto exile from his playing career a perjury case that went to court as well as a Hall of Fame candidacy left in the hands of the media members he so greatly despised meanwhile the Commissioner of the sport who turned a blind eye to and ultimately benefited from the steroid era has had no such trouble obtaining a Cooperstown lack even in this moment bonds is robbed of a storybook ending as this fly ball comes up just short bonds has recently described himself as a ghost rattling around an empty house his specter still looms over the entire sport throughout his 22-year career no one has questioned Barry Bonds his love for the game of baseball it was everything else that gave him pause but does baseball love him back and has he done enough to deserve that embrace you'll have to decide for yourself and that was bonds in for [Music] hey big thank you to my newest patrons if you want to support baseball bits just like them go to patreon.com slash foolish baseball take care [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Foolish Baseball

Views: 910,588

Rating: 4.9279156 out of 5

Keywords: barry bonds, barry bonds intentional walk, barry bonds bases loaded, barry bonds vs eric gagne, bonds vs gagne, barry bonds world series, barry bonds world series home run, barry bonds last game, barry bonds steroid scandal, barry bonds ped, balco, barry bonds giants, barry bonds pirates, eric gagne, troy percival, brent mayne, jake peavy, buck showalter, barry bonds 2004, eric gagne 2003, bonds in 4, mlb, baseball, foolish baseball, baseball bits, bonds 2008, bonds retires

Id: 2AoknOH6mP0

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/justwonderingbro]

this guy's baseball content is some of the best on youtube

[u/foolishbaseball]

great vid! the guy who made it sounds really handsome!

[u/ToddGack]

Listen, Selig shouldn't be in there either.

[u/this_is_poorly_done]

I grew up in the bay area and the first 3 at bats in his video are the exact at bats I've used to show people to try and distill Bonds legend to those who didn't get the opportunity to watch him every day. Foolish is absolutely right, you can talk numbers, stats, and awards all day long but those first three at bats really capture what it was like to grow up watching Bonds.

Thanks for putting this together /u/foolishbaseball, great work as always

[u/jpalm101188]

No doubt my favorite baseball youtuber :)

[u/nathanielray]

My fav Barry Bonds memory:

I was at Dodgers Stadium some time in the mid-90s with my grandpa, aunt, and younger brother and our seats were like 15 rows back on the left field side - not great, but not the worst. A guy a couple rows in front of us, at the bottom of every single inning, was chanting BARRY BARRY, real slow and loud like. It was kind of annoying until about the seventh, when Bonds had clearly had enough. He turned and looked right at the guy - which looked like he was looking right at me - and flipped him off. The entire left field side went crazy and then we all started chanting BARRY BARRY for the rest of the game.

I want to say the Dodgers win that game, but I honestly can't remember.

My grandpa also bought me one of those miniature blue baseball bats. Good day!

[u/StuPots790]

Barry Bonds is the best player in MLB history. As the industry has now learned to properly value a walk and runs created, it's very hard to objectively dispute this.

All of the modern sabermetrics say Bonds is the best, was the best, and no one is projected to be better. At his peak, this variation in value between Bonds and the 2nd best player is only comparable to the dominance of Babe Ruth and Old Hass Rasbourne, back when pitchers could start every other day and minorities weren't allowed in the league.

Yes, I think Barry Bonds is a Hall of Famer. Cooperstown is already home to known PED - users. He was just the very best among them.

PS: similar objective argument for Roger Clemens as the best pitcher in MLB history. We were witnessing Ruth and Walter Johnson in real time but were too brainwashed by the facade of purity to appreciate it. Sad!

[u/buttord]

Interesting, that’s a different backstory to the Bonds-Gagne at-bat from what I had previously read. Actually it was right here on Reddit:

[Schulman] (Re: Legendary Bonds-Gagne matchup) An at-bat in which the #SFGiants had their stadium folks add several mph to Gagne’s fastball on the scoreboard to convince him he was throwing harder than he was so he’d keep feeding Bonds fastballs and not go off speed. It worked.

Great video as always, by the way!

[u/jackstraw8139]

Surprised by the PED apologetics in this thread. Time will do that to perspective.

Ten years from now will people be making a similar case for Altuve or Correa because “everybody was doing it” or “other cheats already got in”?

I really don’t despise Bonds like many people do. Just an observation.