Late Innings

Over the past few days, I’ve never seen so much sludge against the BWAA on the MVP vote, not because of their first place winners, but because of other players who got votes in the later selections. I’ve seen some great essays, and then I saw this piece from Joe Posnanski this morning. He attempts to solve what goes through the minds of a BWAA writer who unfortunately has to choose (to many single, living-in-parents’-home bloggers’ disgust) which players will receive MVP votes. Here’s the crux of the argument:

…the only logical and common-sense way to measure the 2008 baseball achievements of Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols, is to look at:

1. The number of RBIs they drove in.
2. The finish of their teams.

Anyone who read this blog last night saw the following from yours truly:

If there are two things that determine the outcome of the MVP race (at least according to old-school BWAA writers), they are:

1. Whether a player’s team makes the postseason
2. RBI totals

When I saw this, my jaw was agape. I couldn’t believe it. I jumped out of my cubicle this morning and screamed! Actually I didn’t do that, however I know at times I think I’m clairvoyant, but I never thought my mind was on the same page as Posnanski’s, especially when it comes to something as *serious* as the MVP voting. Posnanski then addressed the same points I made last night, that is involving VORP into the voting, stating that Pujols’ season was many, many, …, many times better than Howard’s was, mentioning that Howard had many more opportunities with runners on base before him, and essentially how most people who work in the BWAA and were given the chance to vote should be unemployed right now. Actually I don’t think he said the last point, however anyone who cast a first place vote Howard should be working for McDonalds right now, and anyone who cast a first place vote for Francisco Rodriguez should be, um, there was only one writer.

It’s not like I call Posnanski each night and talk smack with him, but his essay really inflated my ego this morning. The only thing the two of us disagree on is the ordering of the two ‘li’ children in the above ordered list (it’s HTML talk.) Posnanski weights RBI higher, I weight postseason presence. So let’s look at what happened the first two days this week. The AL? In the end it came down to two players, Dustin Pedroia and Joe Mauer. Mauer had more RBI (84) last year than Pedroia did (83), however Dustin was playing in the ALCS last October, Joe was not (check point me.) In other words, this allowed Pedroia to get the most first-place votes, and Mauer to get the most second-place votes (though he finished fourth overall.) And anyone who cast the first place vote for Howard (there were twelve of you!, shame shame shame)… Pujols’ statistical season last year was just as monstrous as Alex Rodriguez’s was in 2007, and he overwhelmingly won the MVP that season.

…

Any ways I could use that little Posnanski endorsement (if you want to call it that) to plug a main reason why you should read this blog. Most of the stuff I write turns out true many months later (just search for my “10 hitters to watch")… I also did some improvement on this thing, and paid respect for the great season that Tampa Bay had, by adding Don Zimmer to my montage logo. And I also fought the enormous urge to put ads on this site… so there are your reasons. This is one person writing the content, and unlike Sandra Bernhard’s material, the content is original (and albeit humorous.)

You Won’t Have Joe Morgan To Kick Around

The main reason why I’m keeping this site “ad free” is because one of the most humorous sports blogs FJM did the same thing themselves. And In case anyone noticed, Ken Tremendous and the gang hung up their keyboards at FJM (I think they have lives, wives and girlfriends, something I kinda lack.) Actually I saw this last week, and within 30 minutes, there was a post up on Shyster Ball explaining this. I give Mr. Calcaterra some credit, since he did his best FJM impression the other day. I’m planning on doing the same thing soon as well, I just need an idiotic story to trash. I’ll start scouring philly.com or boston.com more, or if something about David Eckstein comes my way… anyways now onto some baseball related stuff.

The Moose is Loose

Breaking: Mike Mussina officially hung it up, after (finally) notching his first 20 win season last year. My prediction to this, he’ll be like Brett Favre and will want to come back. The team that will take him? Baltimore. I think Peter Angelos is offering 140MM over six years… Any ways the last playoff game Baltimore had recently (ten years ago) was pitched by him, and I was there. There were a lot of people pissed off at Armando Benitez that night (I remember the expletives being shouted walking down from the upper deck.)

Sickels on the East Coast

John Sickels has his Top 20 prospects up now for the Orioles up by the way, and as a fan I couldn’t be any happier. He gave an “A” to Matt Wieters, and “B+"es to their upcoming “big three", that is Jake Arrieta, Brian Matusz and Chris Tillman.

Say hello to your “mutant cross between Mauer and Piazza” (Baltimore Sun Photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

It’s not a bad system, at least in comparison to the thinned-out Diamondbacks system (should be replenished after the compensation comes during next year’s draft) and the Washington Nationals, whom he is currently going over now. It’s not pretty, or as he so eloquently put it:

Yuck!

What’s Going on in Kansas City

There was another big trade that went down today in Kansas City. Even though I’ll wait for Posnanski to write about it this weekend in his Kansas City Star piece, I’ll briefly touch it here. The Royals came into the off-season with a surplus of middle relievers. They dealt Leo Nunez for Mike Jacobs a few weeks ago, and now just dealt Ramon Ramirez for Coco Crisp.

The team isn’t hurting for middle relief, since they still have Ron Mahay, Horacio Ramirez, … and they have some dude named “Joakim.” Still the team now has a glut of outfielders, and I think now’s the time for them to deal Mark Teahen. I like David DeJesus though, but if he can fetch a Felix Pie, you got to pull the trigger. Still, looking at right now, Crisp suddenly gets everyday at bats, 625 plate appearances next year (as Roto Professor put it, Crisp screams “must start".) Last year he was hurt, and he was platooning, however he was still solid. I doubt he’ll slug .460 again like he did in 2006, but he moves fast and plays stellar center field. At 5.5MM he’s a steal, and most importantly, Mr. Crisp gets on base. He, much to Royals’ fans like, clipped at a very solid .340 OBP. Suddenly Mike Jacobs and Alex Gordon are smiling…

The Red Sox had to move him, and they got good return in Ramirez. They can do cheaper for a fourth outfielder, whom they’ll need for Jacoby Ellsbury/J.D. Drew injury insurance. Still looking at Crisp, you can’t all but not love this move. And if the Royals give him his 650 plate appearances this year and next (they’ll need to exercise a 8MM option), they’ll (likely) have a Type A free agent in 2010, who could net a pair of draft picks in the 2011 draft. Contrary to what many people are saying, I like what the Royals are doing (wait until Gordon breaks out…) And dare I say this, but I don’t think 85 wins are out of the question. After all the exact same thing worked out well for Tampa Bay last year.