Matt Stairs Was Good at Baseball
This morning I was scrolling through some of Dan Szymborski’s projections over at Baseball Think Factory, and I noticed that he had run a projection for Matt Stairs. I had not heard any news about the guy we all know now as a pinch-hitter. As I scoured the internets (read: typed “Matt Stairs” into Google) I quickly realized that Stairs had retired, though since he will be a studio analyst for NESN this year, all is not lost. Still, it will be disappointing to not see him on the field any longer.
Few pinch hitters struck fear in my heart the way Matt Stairs did. When Stairs came to the plate against a team for which I was rooting, I always sure that something bad was about to happen. Even still, I couldn’t hate him. A portly slugger with a great sense of humor — I will always remember Will Carroll forwarding the Baseball Prospectus email group an email from Stairs with a picture of his flexed calf muscle and promptly doubling over in laughter — Stairs was exceedingly easy to root for, and in the latter, pinch-hitting days of his career he became somewhat of a nerdy folk hero.
Of course, Stairs wasn’t a pinch hitter his entire career, but that’s what he will be remembered for best, especially after his star turn on the 2009 Phillies. He bashed five pinch-hit homers for the Phightin’s that season, and in his lone postseason start he drove in Philadelphia’s only run in a Game 2 World Series loss to A.J. Burnett and the Yankees.
Stairs made his mark with his patience. Of the 228 players who compiled 4,000 or more plate appearances from 1996-2011, Stairs’ BB% of 12.0% tied for 42nd with Ken Griffey Jr. He combined that patience with prodigious power — of the 41 players on the list ahead of him in walk rate, Stairs had a better ISO than 14 of them. That combination of patience and power will seemingly play forever, but for Stairs forever lasted only until he was 43.
Last season, playing for the Nationals — his 13th different team in a 19-season big league career — the bottom fell out. In 74 plate appearances from the start of the season until the trading deadline, Stairs rapped out zero homers and just one extra-base hit — a double on May 21st against Koji Uehara, which sounds impressive until you realize it was the ninth inning and the Nats were down by six runs. When Washington traded for Jonny Gomes, Stairs was given his walking papers, and decided quickly to retire (which I somehow missed at the time).
By retiring, Stairs won’t have the chance to put his name up in faded lights with Julio Franco, Sam Rice, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Rickey Henderson, Carlton Fisk and Jack Quinn as the only players to homer in a Major League game at the age of 44 or older. Bill James and Joe Posnanski once theorized that if Stairs had been given a shot earlier in his career that he would have hit even more homers before he turned 43, and it’s hard to argue the point. When he finally did get some run, from 1997-99, his numbers weren’t nearly as shiny as some of the others during the peak of what would become known as the Steroid Era — his 91 homers in that timespan only tied him for 27th in the game with a young Vladimir Guerrero — so big-time notoriety still evaded him.
Instead, Stairs will have to settle for a number of smaller accolades. He is the only player to ever play for 13 different Major League teams (though Edwin Jackson has this one marked on his to-do list). He is one of just three Canadian-born players to surpass 200 homers (though Justin Morneau and Joey Votto may make it a quintet before long),and is the all-time record holder for pinch-hit home runs. And he is the only player to become the assistant ice hockey coach at Bangor High School right after retiring (probably).
And while he may have gone out on a down note, he still might not have been the worst player around had he made one last go of it in 2012. In perusing the ZiPS projections this morning, I couldn’t help but notice that Stairs still had a better OPS+ projection than a number of guys. On the Nationals, Stairs had an OPS+ projection of 73, which certainly isn’t very good. But here is a comprehensive, but not exhaustive, list of players who he projects better than this season:
| Player | Proj OPS+ |
|---|---|
| Josh Wilson | 72 |
| Bill Hall | 72 |
| Reid Brignac | 71 |
| Aaron Miles | 71 |
| Brian Schneider | 71 |
| Rene Tosoni | 71 |
| Matt Tuiasosopo | 71 |
| Jesus Flores | 70 |
| Brandon Crawford | 70 |
| Wilson Valdez | 70 |
| Paul Janish | 69 |
| Matt Angle | 69 |
| Matt Treanor | 69 |
| Mike McCoy | 68 |
| Craig Counsell | 68 |
| Jack Wilson | 68 |
| Emmanuel Burriss | 68 |
| Jordan Schafer | 67 |
| Orlando Cabrera | 67 |
| Eli Whiteside | 67 |
| Danny Worth | 65 |
| Julio Lugo | 64 |
| Michael Martinez | 64 |
| Eric Chavez | 64 |
| Matt Tolbert | 64 |
| Taylor Teagarden | 63 |
| Jonathan Herrera | 63 |
| Cesar Izturis | 61 |
| Brendan Harris | 61 |
| Steve Holm | 61 |
| Humberto Quintero | 59 |
| Mark DeRosa | 58 |
| Koyie Hill | 57 |
| Wes Helms | 56 |
| Drew Butera | 56 |
| Jeff Mathis | 55 |
| Omir Santos | 50 |
The list is filled mostly with backup catchers and utility infielders — some of whom may not actually have Major League jobs — but hey, it’s something. And for a man who almost never had a career at all, to be projected better than so many players in what would have been his age-44 season when he would have been coming off a season with an OPS+ of 21 and a wRC+ of 24 last season, that’s something not too shabby at all.
Hopefully he catches on with a good slowpitch softball team.
Matt Stairs was beloved of all normal humans due to his non-physical physique that we can all relate to while we’re curling or playing darts on ESPN at noon.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19792213&c_id=mlb
“Deep in to the night.”
Best call Joe Buck ever made.
Also hit the last home run called by Harry Kalas.
This cannot be a real account, can it?
I was at this game. The homerun landed about four rows back of me. The. Best.
Yup, he could hit and did play fine in the field when he was asked. Good luck to him.
14.3 WAR = meh, although I have fond memories of him from his days in Oakland…
Really? That’s more WAR than the majority of players in the history of the game get. I think you could easily say he was good at baseball.
Good point John! Lets write articles about all the players with more WAR than a majority of players in the history of the game!
more like D-Baggy….
I’ve been playing Strat since 1964. Stairs was a terrific offensive force in Strat if he was platooned correctly. I drafted him after his 1995 season and kept him for a decade or so.
“Matt Stairs… professional hitter.”
Gionfriddo goes back, back, back…and he makes a one-handed catch against the bullpen.
I remember when I was at a twins game where Matt Stairs hit a Grand Slam. In between innings an angry fan Yelled “since when has Matt Stairs ever done anything?” He had hit a HR the night before too….
2009?? I would say most Phils fans will remember him for that bomb he hit off Broxton in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS.
Leaving this out is like leaving out Watergate in a story about the Nixon resignation.
Matt Stairs was good at baseball and had excellent taste. As a Phils fan I will remember Matt Stairs for using Stone Cold Steve Austin’s theme song for his at-bat music.
As an added bonus for some Matt Stairs love, he used to drive the Zamboni on the University of New Brunswick’s campus in Fredericton in the offseason. Not because he wanted to get paid, mind you: he just wanted to.
Everyone and their ornery Aunt would love to drive the Zamboni. Nothing against Stairs, but he probably got to drive it because of his celebrity status. He don’t get no love for that.
He was also a High School Hockey Coach in Bangor, Maine. Yesah.
In case of emergency, use Stairs…
Many Phille fans have that shirt, and will keep wearing it despite the retirement
As a Pirates fan, I was excited to see Stairs sign with my team prior to the 2003 season. My buddy at the time gave me a hard time for thinking that Stairs would have any impact at all. That year he put up a wOBA of .401. Matt Stairs, professional hitter, thanks for the memories!
I remember hearing that when the mood was bad in the Cubs’ clubhouse, Stairs would walk around wearing nothing but Santa hat and jockstrap…
Pfffft, Mike Redmond would take nekkid batting practice.
Ah yes, Mike Redmond. Tom Glavine’s personal kryptonite, he was.
One of the few decent players the royals had during the oughts.
Meeting Matt Stairs as a little leaguer was one of the highlights of my baseball playing youth. Seeing him come to bat was always an exciting time for me because I just expected a mighty swing and a top spin liner into the right field corner.
Technically, Octavio Dotel is on his thirteenth MLB team. I guess he hasn’t officially played yet though.
Any article that mentions the legendary Julio Franco is a good article. Matt Stairs and Julio Franco need to be in some sort of hall of something.
Last June, I was in Fredericton with some time to kill, so I when I saw the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, I thought, “I’ve got to see what Matt Stairs stuff is there!” Unfortunately, it wasn’t much. There was the A’s uniform he wore when he passed some milestone, but not much else.
Even though I’m staring at a Jose Bautista autographed picture across from my desk, I want a Matt Stairs to go beside it. Yes, there were better players, but he made the most of his talent, when given the opportunity.
Will this URL be a permanent link?
Now it’s time for Brooks Conrad to replace him as a pinch-hitting extraordinaire…..Guy has more pinch-hit homers(8) than he does when he was starting games(6). Although, his career line off the bench is pretty pathetic. I just love him for that pinch-hit GS he hit against the Reds in 09, down 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th. A month later he hit a go-head GS against the Marlins to cap an impressive comeback.
Then came the ‘errahs.’(I blame Bobby Cox more than I do Brooksy though)…
When playing for the Blue Jays, he wore number 24; it was his favourite number because that’s how many beers you get in a case up here
As opposed to the 24 beers you get in a case down here?
We can get 30 in a case here, depending on the brand.
Keystone Light isn’t beer.
Aww, beer snobbery is so cute. I’m sure you were drinking expensive microbrews in college.
I was partial to cheap “vodka” in college.
Fair enough.
There are few players I will enjoy watching as much as Matt Stairs. Getting to see him jack homers in the Coli with those terrible A’s teams of the late 90′s was something fun to watch.
Baseball certainly needs more guys like him.
That being said, his name will always bring a smile to my face for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJwoNSLRwg
I’ll always have fond memories of Matt Stairs and his brief stint in a Blue Jay uniform. A class act with power and patience, that’s hard to find, period.
It seems like so many fans relate to him and love him because he inevitably played for their team for at least one year. He was generally the only guy worth rooting for for some pretty terrible teams. No knock on him, just an observation.
Matt Stairs will be remembered for more than PH duties in Oakland. He was a real character and fan favorite here. He drove an old F-150 pickup and would cruise into the player parking area; hat backwards, windows down, music cranked and smiling like he was in heaven.
Also, he owned or owns his own Mexican Professional Baseball team. Crazy cat.
Yes, he played for sonme mediocre-bad teams… but he actually played for a large number of very good teams.
92: Mon: finished 2nd
93: Mon: 2nd.
95: Bos: 1st
96: Oak: 3rd
97: Oak: 4th
98: Oak: 4th
99: Oak: 2nd
00: Oak: 1st
01: ChN: 3rd (89 wins)
02: Mil: 6th
03: Pit: 4th
04: KC: 5th
05: KC: 5th
06: KC 5th, TEX 3rd, DET 2nd
07: Tor: 3rd (83 wins)
08: Tor: 4th (93 wins) Phi: 1st (93 wins)
09 Phi: 1st
10: SD: 2nd
11 Was: 3rd
Total of nine 1st or 2nd place teams in there.
sorry… those win totals are inaccurate… I was looking at the Pythagorean wins
Thanks for depressing all Blue Jays fans with those equivalent 2008 pythag win scores.
He was bad when he was a Cub.
.250/.358/.462
Is his triple slash form the one season he was in Chicago. His OPS was third on the team. What more can you expect?
Watching Matt Stairs this past year, and having seen him play before, I’d figured out what was wrong with him by the end of April. He’d lost a significant amount of bat speed, and his timing and reflexes were still in line with his previous speeds.
I’ll just leave this here:
http://greatnamesinbaseball.blogspot.com/2011/08/in-case-of-emergency-use-stairs.html
Written by FG reader/commenter/Canadia fan Steex
The “two Canadian cities” notation killed me.
I didn’t know that Stairs was coming to NESN – looking forward to it. Maybe he’ll pop up on a Bruins telecast prior to the baseball season.
soft spot for Stairsy as he is a fellow New Brunswicker! (not that anyone knows where the fuck that is)
Central New Jersey?