MLB 2005 -- Number of Starters by Race

[Don Wassall]

This is the breakdown of every day starters (position players plus DHs) and starting pitchers for 2005. Relief pitchers and utility players are not included. This was as of opening day last week, it doesn't include players injured or benched since then. Percentages are rounded to the nearest number.
EVERY DAY STARTING POSITION PLAYERS AND DHs
White: 132 or 52%
Hispanic: 75 or 30%
American Black: 42 or 16%
Asian: 5 or 2%
STARTING PITCHERS
White: 105 or 70%
Hispanic: 35 or 23%
Asian: 5 or 3%
American Black: 5 or 3%
Just five black starting pitchers. Just more evidence of how contrived the whole campaign is to turn quarterback into a black position in football. And just 42black position players starting on 30 teams.Overall, whites continue to hold their own in baseball. The Asian influx is still tiny, but the ongoing hispanic flow continues to look ominous. The minor leagues are now majority hispanic, which indicates that probably within a decade if not sooner the majority of starting position players and pitchers in the majors will be hispanic as well if the caste system in baseball continues to operate as it is now.

 

[robcat]

"American black pitchers 3%" Laugh, laugh, chortle, chortle. Why just 5 of those "superior athletes" on America's pitching mounds? Arent blacks supposed to be possessed of "cannon arms"? Maybe iso420 can give us an explanation. I guess now we can understand why the NFL produces so many "Kordell Stewart types"

 

[right winger]

It seems like there are more hispanics than what there actually are. Probably because that's the one group whose presence has increased so much while the white proportion stays about the same. Blacks are the ones who have really lost ground. Yet it's still an item of faith with most sports fans that blacks "dominate" baseball.

 

[Bear-Arms]

Why don't they seperate it in another group called hispanic black? I mean they would seperate American blacks from the hispanic Americans.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

That's a good question, Bear Arms.

 

[Bear-Arms]

Well today is Jackie Robinson day, and a lot of the black players are being interviewed. I guess they're overall concerned with the drop in American blacks in baseball. Carl Everett said something along the line that the scouts aren't coming to black neighborhoods. You know when a decline of black player's happen its immediately seen as something racial. What about football and the basketball with the decline of white's. Nothing is spoken of it, and we just accept that the best players are being taken.

Do any of you think team scouts play a big part in taking certain races ahead of others?

 

[JD074]

Do any of you think team scouts play a big part in taking
certain races ahead of others?

After reading Moneyball I would have to say so. In the first few
pages of the book the author relates a great "Caste System"
story in Billy Beane's life. As a high school senior performing
for baseball scouts, he and another white guy are sprinting
against three black guys, and one of the scouts says that the
black guys are gonna smoke the white guys. When Beane
torches them, the scouts are shocked and make them run
again. Beane wins again. That's a pretty good metaphor of
sports in general, and how people simply assume that blacks-
and also Hispanics- are going to be better than whites.

One of the main points about Moneyball is that scouts base
their decisions about players on their "hunches". They try to
size up a guy by looking at him, and watching him play, rather
than objectively and even scientifically evaluating his
performance (which is what Beane tries to do.) The book
never makes it a racial issue, but we can read between the
lines and clearly see that it is. Some whites benefit from it- like
Billy Beane himself when he was playing- but it's largely blacks
and Hispanics who have gained so much from these superficial
evaluations. Like I recently said in another thread, whites
"don't look the part."

 

[Bear-Arms]

Thanks JD for the informative post. I wasn't really aware of how scouts evaluated talent. Picking players soley on a hunch though is indeed troubling, and disturbing at the sametime. You're right when you say we dont look the part because thats how the media portrays us. We're currently battling a stereotype that we can't compete with blacks or latinos. These scouts I assume can go anywhere they want to find players. Why are they spending so much time in Latin America? I'm sure anywhere they go they could find equal amount of talent right here at home. I'm sure it could also be argued thats where the talent is right now. But, even the black Americans are now saying they're not getting scouts in their area. They will probably get the help they need, but the sad part is that white players won't. Times have changed, and I think the only ones who benefit from these evaluations now would be blacks, and hispanics. It's totally reversed now.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I think this is where channeling of people into certain positions because of their race is a big problem. More so in football, but still in other sports. Scouts go on what is generally accepted, without doing any real research. That is one reason things are so out of balance. If players were combed through by scouts, instead of just observed, things would be a lot different. I guess I should really say they "could" be a lot different.

 

[Don Wassall]

Orioles 2B Brian Roberts is off to a nice start. He's tied for the AL lead in stolen bases with 6 (Podsednik has 4), and is also tied for the home run lead with 6.

 

[SVcabron]

Who ever said that Latinos are naturally better athletes than their
white counterparts??? I have never heard this theory before, the
black theory yes. Scouting in Latin American is increasing
because they do nothing but play baseball everyday year round.
That makes their skills develope faster than their white
counterparts. The white American players don't catch up until
college and the minor leagues and then they surpass their Latin
counterparts, as evident in the racial breakdown of MLB. To me
this has nothing to do with race or the caste system trying to keep the
white man down.

 

[kevin]

where did roberts come from he is a nice pickup.

 

[Bear-Arms]

Who ever said that Latinos are naturally better athletes than their white counterparts??? I have never heard this theory before, the black theory yes. Scouting in Latin American is increasing because they do nothing but play baseball everyday year round. That makes their skills develope faster than their white counterparts. The white American players don't catch up until college and the minor leagues and then they surpass their Latin counterparts, as evident in the racial breakdown of MLB. To me this has nothing to do with race or the caste system trying to keep the white man down.

If their skills develop so fast why do they hide their age? Half these Latin ballplayers are 5 to 10 times older than what they say they are. El Duque/Albert Pujols they don't their real ages.

 

[SVcabron]

Who ever said that Latinos are
naturally better athletes than their white counterparts??? I have never
heard this theory before, the black theory yes. Scouting in Latin
American is increasing because they do nothing but play baseball
everyday year round. That makes their skills develope faster than their
white counterparts. The white American players don't catch up until
college and the minor leagues and then they surpass their Latin
counterparts, as evident in the racial breakdown of MLB. To me this has
nothing to do with race or the caste system trying to keep the white
man down.

If their skills develop so fast why do they hide their age? Half
these Latin ballplayers are 5 to 10 times older than what they say they
are. El Duque/Albert Pujols they don't their real ages.



Half of the Latin ballplayers? Doubt it, 2-3% most likely.
Those ballplayers hide their age to increase their value.

 

[jaxvid]

I don't remember anyone saying that Latin ballplayers had more natural talent then white players. Where does it say that on this site????

Problem is Latin American players are treated better as are any non white players in the country, it is a byproduct of the "diversity" movement which we oppose.

I also think a country should support its own economy and restrict foreign workers. If the workers become US citizens then that is one thing but to come here just to take money away is wrong.

 

[Bear-Arms]

Half of the Latin ballplayers? Doubt it, 2-3% most likely. Those ballplayers hide their age to increase their value.

You have no more proof than I have, but you can't deny those latin ball players lie about their age.

They develop no more or less than white players. I have guy on my team called Pablo Ozuna he is like 31 finally getting to play. He is never played more 35 games. If you went around the league you find ton of guys just like him.

A lot of American born players go to winterball and play just as long as them. So scouting in Latin America because they do nothing but play baseball everyday is just propaganda.

 

[SVcabron]

Half of the Latin ballplayers? Doubt it, 2-3% most likely. Those
ballplayers hide their age to increase their
value.

You have no more proof than I have, but you can't deny those latin ball players lie about their age.



They develop no more or less than white players. I have guy on my
team called Pablo Ozuna he is like 31 finally getting to play. He is
never played more 35 games. If you went around the league you find ton
of guys just like him.


A lot of American born players go to winterball and play just as
long as them. So scouting in Latin America because they do nothing but
play baseball everyday is just propaganda.

You are right we don't have any proof and yes they lie about their age
sometimes. I mean they develope faster when they are
younger, below 16 years of age. All they do is play
baseball. They don't go to school or do anything besides play
baseball. Plus they have playable weather year round.

Also go back and read my first post, I also say that American white
players catch up with their latin counterparts when they play in the
minor leagues, high school, and college. This is because they can
finally dedicate themsevles fully to baseball and also play against
higher competition which futher sharpness their skill set.

 

[Bear-Arms]

Also go back and read my first post, I also say that American white players catch up with their latin counterparts when they play in the minor leagues, high school, and college. This is because they can finally dedicate themsevles fully to baseball and also play against higher competition which futher sharpness their skill set.

I read your post I was just disagreeing, but you could be right.

 

[Don Wassall]

This is a little off topic, but CNNSIis runninga list of baseball's worst free agent signings ever. About the only time we see lists that are majority white is when it's for something negative, i.e. lists of the NFL's biggest first round flops which always focus on Ryan Leaf, Tony Mandarich and Brian Bosworth anddownplay the huge number of black busts. In baseball too, white flops are more vividly remembered than black ones:


[url]http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/jacob_luft/05/ 13/may13.chatter/index.html[/url]

 

[whiteCB]

Hey, Don wasn't Akili Smith a huge bust yet we always hear about Ryan Leaf. Or what about Andre Wadsworth or Ki-Jana Carter or Curtis Enis. It really is amazing how much the media loves pointing out white athletes that flop. It just makes their day.

 

[speedster]

That 3% for Black-American pitchers is quite telling.But I think the stupid white media is about to go crazy over Dontrelle Willis,are you ready for the hype.I'll say one thing for the guy,he sure can spit.He's a human sprinkler.

 

[Bear-Arms]

Jon Garland is pitching rather well, but he isn't a strikeout pitcher. He is a groundball pitcher so he won't get much attention unless he leads the league in wins.

 

[speedster]

No wonder that there are so many ball players of hispanic origin these days,they're all on the juice.I just saw a piece on the sports network,The Score,and the talk was about how many players from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela start off their baseball lives,very early on, taking the stuff.The kids in the Dominican are desperate to make it as a pro that they will do anything,and these so called"street agents" know this so they start feeding them the roids until the cows come home.They don't have the sophistication to beat drug tests yet,which is why somany of the them have failed tests so far this year.With the recent sweep of drug tests this year in the minors,the majority of the failures were hispanic.I wonder if Bud Selig and MLB will have the guts to stop over-emphasising scouting in these other countries and concentrate on the country that produces the best major leaguers in the world,the United States.If that were to be the case,plus factor in the number of blacks ofAmerican heritage playing baseball dropping,then in a few short years the percentage of white players will really go up.Although that sounds to good to be true as there will probably special programs set-up to keep people of colour in the game.