Verducci: My All-Star team: Youth is served and popularity means nothing

Happy just to be away from the chair-adjusting smugidocity of Mitch Williams...the Dooch offers.

With only three days left before polling closes, it’s time to recognize the players who should be going to the All-Star Game, as if Ben Zobrist and Aaron Hill have any chance of catching Dustin Pedroia in the balloting. My All-Star team is based purely on merit, not on popularity or some archaic rule that every team must send a representative.

Indeed, after picking 62 deserving All-Stars, I discovered five teams were shut out: the A’s, White Sox, Nationals, Cubs and Reds. The Mariners, Rays, Blue Jays, Dodgers and Brewers put the most players on my team, with four apiece. Fourteen picks come out of the beastly AL East.

But what struck me most of all about this group of players is the youth. Forty-four of the 62 All-Stars were 30 and younger. I picked 15 starting pitchers, and 11 of them were between 23 and 28 years old, including my picks to start the game, Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum.

What about the old guard? They’ve moved on to retirement (not always voluntarily) or decline. Alex Rodriguez had made nine straight All-Star Games. Manny Ramirez had a run going of 11 straight selections. No more. Only four players are older than 35: outfielder Raul Ibanez, 37; and three relief pitchers, Ryan Franklin, 36; Mariano Rivera, 39; and Trevor Hoffman, 41.

So here are my All-Star picks that from Aardsma to Zobrist are full of new faces (starters are marked with an asterisk).

MLB: A-Rod ties Reggie on all-time homer list

Between Reggie being miffed and the Grammys dropping Polka as a category. Tough times.

Jackson expressed some of his feelings about Rodriguez’s pursuit in a Feb. 25 chat with reporters, acknowledging that Rodriguez would soon “blow by me like I’m standing still.”

Jackson chuckled at that comment, but the Hall of Fame slugger said that he also has a problem with players who played in the era of performance-enhancing substances surpassing him on hallowed lists.

Six players have now hit the 563-homer mark since Jackson’s retirement, though among them, only Rodriguez has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs.

“I guess I get angry sometimes,” Jackson said then. “I’ve been reprimanded by the Commissioner [Bud Selig] and the president of our team. I pleaded with them to say, ‘Try to understand. I’m personally involved. I’m selfish today and made some negative comments.’

“I’m hurt and bewildered. I don’t know if we’ll ever get through it. We’re all hurt, and it’s in our lifetimes.”

White Sox to unveil tribute to Jerome Holtzman on Friday

Or as poet turned Expo, Petrarchi Cianfrocco, once said about Holtzman and the Save rule..."There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a Thigpen.”

The Chicago White Sox will pay tribute this week to the late Jerome Holtzman and his career as a sportswriter covering Major League Baseball.

At a private ceremony Friday for his friends and former colleagues, the White Sox will unveil a display case at the entrance of the White Sox front office that will feature photos, headlines and artifacts, including a typewriter from Holtzman’s working days as one of the nation’s most respected sportswriters.

Holtzman wrote for Chicago newspapers for more than 50 years, and is credited with creating baseball’s “save” statistic. He passed away on July 19, 2008.

Bleacher Report: The Best Players in MLB History with Short Careers

From a few months ago, but it’s not breaking news.  The best players with career lengths between 800 and 1200 games.  It starts with the reason behind the list, wrapped in a discussion of why Bill Lange should be thought of as better than Bernie Williams.  Don’t buy it so much myself, but I respect the viewpoint.

Left Field

1. Tip O’Neill (1880s)

Career Stats—1,052 G, 4,248 AB, .326 BA, .392 OB%, .458 SLG%, 161 SB, 879 R, 222 2B, 92 3B, 52 HR, 757 RBI and .917 FA.

2. Charlie Keller (1940s)

Career Stats—1,170 G, 3,790 AB, .286 BA, .410 OB%, .518 SLG%, 45 SB, 725 R, 166 2B, 72 3B, 189 HR, 760 RBI and .980 FA.

3. Lefty O’Doul (1920s)

Career Stats—970 G, 3,264 AB, .349 BA, .413 OB%, .532 SLG%, 36 SB, 624 R, 175 2B, 41 3B, 113 HR, 542 RBI and .964 FA.

4. Adam Dunn (2000s)

Career Stats—1,131 G, 3,871 AB, .247 BA, .381 OB%, .518 SLG%, 59 SB, 699 R, 201 2B, 8 3B, 278 HR, 672 RBI and .968 FA.

I do wish he hadn’t included active players.  It’s kind of pointless.

11 Points: 11 Major League Baseball Feats That Have Only Happened Once

Singular lore of yore…

Caught stealing four times in one game. Accomplished by Robby Thompson, San Francisco Giants, June 27, 1986. It was a 12-inning game and the Giants kept sending their “fast” rookie, Thompson. And he kept getting caught. Four times.

What makes that even crazier is that, in the 149 games he played that season, he only successfully stole 12 bases (and was caught 15 times). So by late June, the Giants should’ve figured out that maybe he wasn’t the track star they thought he was.

FWIW, I love this guy’s site, as I imagine will a number of pop-culture interested (not obsessed) Primates with an obvious love of sports.  Too bad he’s a Cleveland fan.

Pride of the Yankees: Jeter and Rose

Rose DeWitt, Amber Rose, Rose Will Monroe...those I can see. Pete Rose, no.

There’s only one thing I wanted to add - a comparison of Derek Jeter and Pete Rose in terms of hits. As you’ll see below, it’s a good comparison (thus far) because Jeter to this point in his career, in terms of games played, at bats, plate appearances, age, and hits, is at a very similar pace to where Rose was at a similar point in his career.

...Nevertheless, with Jeter regaining form this year and playing closer to his career levels (his OPS+ right now is 117, just 3 points below his career 120), it’s fair to think that Jeter can achieve a very rare hits total in his own right. Let’s do some projecting, comparing Jeter to Rose along the way, and taking into account that as Jeter ages, his abilities and playing time will likely diminish:

...2016 (age 42): This is as far as I will go with projecting Jeter still playing. It certainly wouldn’t be unheard of - Omar Vizquel, a career shortstop, is 42 and still playing, though he gives some defensive flexibility that Jeter will unlikely offer by this point, and even with that he’s had a very limited role this year. If Jeter is still playing, I imagine he will almost exclusively be a role player, and health will almost certainly be a concern. I’ll project 53 hits for him, bringing his career total to a nice round number - 3,640. Rose at age 42 had 121 hits, bringing his career total to 3,990. Rose’s 121 hits is pretty lofty considering his age, but with just a 69 OPS+ that year (1983), Rose was likely more of a drain than anything else on his team, especially considering he played 151 games (and thus would regularly weaken his team’s lineup). Rose would become a player-manager during the following season, and keep himself in the lineup with frequency over the next 2+ years in order to surpass Cobb, ultimately reaching 4,256 (and quite possibly over 4,300 if not for the 1981 strike).

wezen-ball: Yaz and the Triple Crown

I’m reminded of a friend of mine that passed on seeing Cream at MSG back in ‘68..."I’ll catch them next year, man.”

Yaz also provided a little bit of context surrounding his quest for the Crown:

“‘The big thing was just being involved in the pennant race that year,’ Yaz says. ‘When I was going for my 3,000th hit (in 1979), we weren’t involved in the race and I went 10 or 11 at-bats trying to get that hit.

‘But being in the pennant race, I was so focused that I didn’t know I had won it until the next day. There wasn’t any media attention on the Triple Crown. None whatsoever. It was the first time Boston had been in a pennant race in a long time, and everything and everyone was focused on it.’

Yaz hit .523 with five homers and 16 RBIs during the final two weeks. Over the last two days in a critical series against Minnesota, he went 7-for-8, including a three-run homer that won the game on the second-to-last day.”

No media attention? To someone born of today’s era like me, this just seems impossible to believe. Maybe the Triple Crown just wasn’t as exciting at the time. Frank Robinson had won it the year before, and Mantle won it ten years before that (and Williams 9 years before that). That’s not really all that rare. At the time, it was happening about as frequently as an NL All-Star victory today: rare, but inevitable.

Manley: Greinke: How’s this for HOF credentials?

Z for Zackary...the explosion continues.

Dead Ball vs Live Blood

The other thing that is interesting in looking at these 20 pitchers is that 9 of the 20 are in the first 20 years of the century. It is also true that 9 of the 20 are in the last 20 years. For the 70 years in between, only two pitchers are on this list – Koufax (1963) and Seaver (1971). What’s the explanation?

Well, of course, the “dead ball era” (up to around 1920) covers nine of these. And, the 1960’s - early 70’s were pitcher-dominated as well. So, that explains 11 of the 20 on this list. But, what about the nine in the last 20 seasons?

I call that the “Iive blood era”. Who knows who started taking what and when and how much it improved their performance? Because I don’t know and neither do you, I have no choice except to paint a broad brush over the entire group. It’s doubtful if Saberhagen, as early as 1989, had anything going, but after that you have this inexplicable bunch of historically great pitching performances - despite it being during an era when balls were flying out of the park left and right. If anyone wants to believe that is coincidence or “training”, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Back to Greinke

In any event, those are the stats. Based on ERA, SO/BB ratio and HR’s, Greinke could slip a lot the rest of the season and he still would make it on this list of 20. In fact, average innings pitched being equal, he could go the rest of the season with an ERA of 2.81, 1.1 HR/G and SO/BB ratio of only 3.3 and he would still be in this group of 20 – make that 21.

The Book Blog: Tango: Stop the insanity: do NOT vote for Brian Cartwright

Idol Hunter/Cartwright? Bonanza!

It is my wish that no one votes for Brian Cartwright for BPro Idol.  Once he is out of the competition, he gets hired right away.  (What, you mean BPro will make sure to NOT hire him until ten weeks has passed?  Who in the world waits to hire proven talent?) As it stands, his talents get wasted as they give him ten contrived topics whereby he is put through a ringer, like a frat house hazing.

Alternatively, I’d like to put Will, Christina, Goldstein, Sheehan, Clay, et al through a BPro Idol.  Brian is at their level, if not above already.  What exactly is the difference in talent level between Eric Seidman and Brian?  It is condescending on BPro’s part to evaluate him as if he’s some unpolished, unpublished kid.  Brian is already a star.  Give him the 1000$, and be thankful he’s being a good sport in being forced to go through this.

The World’s Best Illusion: The Secret of the Curve Ball

From the American Institute of Physics’ Inside Science News Service:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (ISNS)—The three best visual illusions in the world were chosen at a gathering last weekend of neuroscientists and psychologists at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Florida.

The winning entry, from a Bucknell University professor, may help explain why curve balls in baseball are so tricky to hit.

A must-see.

Lackey: Dusty Baker Sends Aaron Harang Back Out After 2 Hour Rain Delay

Harang only 437 Wins behind Cy Young...and closing fast!

The Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Fay posted Baker’s reasoning on his blog last night:

“I’m just glad the delay wasn’t any longer,” Baker said. “He wanted it badly. He wanted very badly.”

Baker felt the risk was minimal.

“As long as kept throwing,” Baker said. “There’s a risk every time a guy goes out there. We were concerned. He wanted the game and he deserved a chance to go get that.”

I get that Baker wanted to show faith in one of his veterans, but Harang threw 83 pitches before the delay, then kept throwing through the delay to stay loose, then had to warm up again when the game re-started, and finally, he needed eight pitches to strike out Quintero, at which point he was shelved for the night.

Baker might have felt the risk was minimal, but I’m not sure anyone in their right mind would agree with him. He put a ton of extra and unnecessary stress on the arm of one of his best pitchers, just so that pitcher could pick up a cosmetic counting stat that he “wanted badly.” Of course, the Reds are only 2 1/2 games out of first place, so hey, here’s to baseball alchemy.

Manolith: Chicago Cubs - A Century of Suck

Nothing on the infographic is news to anyone here, but it’s drop dead gorgeous and very comprehensive.  More can be found on the website of the creator, including things that were left out.  Which includes this:

October 25, 1986: A picture taken over 20 years ago showing Buckner walking off the field after committing the error revealed something that has been undiscovered until recently. As Buckner walked off the field, he removed his glove, exposing a worn Chicago Cubs batting glove with the Cubs logo on the back. Buckner had previously played for the Cubs before joining the Red Sox and was apparently wearing the batting glove for luck. Instead it acts as one more piece of evidence as to why the Cubs Curse exists.

The picture is there.  Never heard that one, myself.

Conlin: List of top 50 players arguable

Conlin...hotter than a Friedlander Leather Factory workers reunion!

They will represent 18 percent of a list compiled for The Sporting News by a blue-ribbon panel of voters that included 13 Hall of Famers, 13 Cy Young Award winners and 12 league MVPs among a jury 150 strong. The rules stressed that the “greatest” designation only applied to current stars, not players still active but in the twilight of great careers. So, if I was starting the first argument, the question would be: How the hell does Mets outpatient Carlos Delgado weigh in at No. 47? The old warhorse can still launch a fastball but has averaged just 143 games over the past five seasons.

But I’ll give you Delgado and throw down a bigger mace. How does the team that plays in BrokeBank Field (thanks go to an e-mailer) lead this august assembly of living and breathing stars with six current players? I guess Choke Factor didn’t make it onto the ballot. But Mets Meltdown ‘08 was certainly not the fault of lefthander Johan Santana, No. 3 on the list. The Mets shriveled in the stretch like George Costanza in the Seinfeld classic “Shrinkage” episode. The other Mets are David Wright (13), Jose Reyes (22), Carlos Beltran (23), Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez (34) and Delgado.

Hopefully, the blue-ribbon panel missed the Dodgers’ three-game sweep of manager Jerry Manuel’s Hollywood revival of the Keystone Kops. The only thing missing from the end game of the second game of the series was calliope music and a ringmaster. Players were provided by Hertz Rent-a-Clown.

WSJ: Barra: The Great Santana, Star Southpaw

“I come from behind the moon, out of the dark, unannounced.”

In fact, most baseball analysts—and all New York Mets fans—feel Mr. Santana should have already won three Cy Young Awards. Their point of view is expressed by ESPN.com columnist Rob Neyer: “He’s the best pitcher in the game, and by any objective standard should have won the National League’s Cy Young last season.”

Mr. Santana actually finished third in the voting, which many regard as outrageous: He had a better ERA (2.53) than the winner, San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum, and the second-place finisher, Arizona’s Brandon Webb, and a better strikeout-to-walk ratio than either. “Everyone knows why he didn’t finish first in the voting,” says Mr. Neyer. “It’s because he was ‘only’ 16-7.” (To Mr. Lincecum’s 18-5 and Mr. Webb’s 22-7.)

But 2008 was a season in which Mr. Santana could have won a lawsuit against his bullpen for lack of support. Seven times he left the mound with the lead only to see his relievers give it back. Combined with his other statistics, he probably would have swept Cy Young voting if his bullpen had just held on in five or even four of those games.

wezen-ball: Revisiting the 1992 Expansion Draft

Granillo’s features his failed BP Idol submission. (turns out he didn’t have enough squinty-eyed phony octavicious punk gruel, and wasn’t a suzy boyle on the ass of an uprooted Lemongello tree)

I wrote this article about 3 weeks back, as a submission to the “Baseball Prospectus Idol” competition the guys over there were having. For those of you who didn’t see that before (I only saw it thanks to a Rob Neyer link), this was a competition, in the American Idol-style, to find a new weekly writer at Baseball Prospectus. Candidates would submit an article (max: 1,500 words) to BP and they would then choose the 10 best. From there, the finalists would write a new piece every week based on the theme provided and the community would vote on their favorites. The lowest vote getter would be sent home, while the others continued on another week.

Well, the finalists have been announced, and it doesn’t look like I’ve made it. I’m disappointed, of course, but I can’t complain too much. It does mean that I can finally post the article I wrote up here without fear of it interfering with the contest (the rules allowed me to post it if I wanted, but I wanted to wait until the finalists were named). My initial draft was close to 3,000 words, so I had to cut out a lot. That actually may have harmed the quality of the piece a little, but I can’t complain. I think it still managed to come out pretty well. It was an idea that I had had for a while, so it seemed worth exploring. I hope you all enjoy it…

Revisiting the 1992 Expansion Draft

In the 1992 issue of the Sporting News Baseball Yearbook, Newsday’s Joe Gergen took a look at the current state of the two recently announced expansion teams from Colorado and Florida. With only a year left to build a franchise, Gergen points out many of the issues that were still facing the clubs at the time, from scouting players who may or may not be available in the Expansion Draft to building a major league stadium to even finding minor league ballclubs with which to affiliate. It’s a good look at the difficulties of bringing a ballclub into existence out of thin air.

BPro: Prospectus Idol

And it’s no slam dunkle, man!

It is our privilege to present the slate of competitors in the first-ever edition of Prospectus Idol. The objective of this competition is to find a new Baseball Prospectus columnist, but it is also an exercise in learning, from the authors for the benefit of the audience (ideally), as well as by the authors and judges from one another. As Kevin Goldstein initially laid out in his introducing the competition and explaining the basic rules for entry, this also represents a potential gateway to work within the baseball industry itself, given the increasing number of former contributors who have already landed jobs with the various clubs.

Brian Cartwright
Jeff Euston
Ken Funck
Brittany Ghiroli
Jeremy Greenhouse
Tyler Hissey
Matthew Knight
Tim Kniker
Byron Lescroart
Brian Oakchunas
Matt Swartz

MetsBlog: L’Millz and the All Star Ballot

Milledge is currently in Triple-A, since being demoted by the Nationals earlier this season.  Yet, he is still listed on the ballot from MLB for the National League All-Star Team.

So, the popular Red Sox site, Sons of Sam Horn, is encouraging Red Sox fans to vote Milledge in as a starting outfielder, writing:

“Milledge is on the NL All-Star ballot.  He needs to make the team.  Nothing would be more NatsTown than having the Natinals’ (lone?) All-Star game representative be a AAA player for whom the organization has no plan.”

I’m down.

Time Magazine: Bill James: Nate Silver - The 2009 TIME 100

What Nate Silver does on fivethirtyeight.com — and this is my understanding of what he does, not his description of it — is search data for the underlying order of the universe that is depicted by those facts and statistics.

Bugs and Cranks: 10 Greatest Hitting Active Pitchers in Baseball

Meh...There’s no newcombers on the list.

Bronson Arroyo, Reds - I make no secret of my disdain for the bleach-blond “pitcher”/house boat owner, but I have to give it to him. He can hit. He’s nearly made up for his below average pitching with his surprisingly not entirely atrocious hitting. He’s homered at least once in each of the past three seasons. If that’s not something to tell (alleged) future STD carriers between poorly-played acoustic guitar ballads, what is?

Jason Marquis, Rockies - 169 homers! Is that right? Oh wait, that’s the amount of homers he’s given up. OK, so Marquis isn’t exactly a pitcher’s pitcher… that doesn’t mean he hasn’t kept his team in games he blew with some timely batsmanship. 5 HR, 43 RBI, a steal and a Silver Slugger… I can only imagine what a season in Denver will do for that career homer total. Six?!?

Dontrelle Willis, Tigers - Things were better for Willis when he was a Marlin. He won a World Series, his gimmicky leg kick and crooked hat fooled many an analyst to believe he was the real deal, only 50 people witnessed his bad home outings and, mostly, because he could hit. With 8 HR, 35 RBI and 21 BB, I’d venture a guess he misses the batter’s box of Miami.

Livan Hernandez, Mets - A lot can happen in 14 years. I can grow facial hair (kind of), 3 1/2 Presidential terms pass, a British boy can be born/knock up his girlfriend/have a year to spare. Livan Hernandez can also smack 9 homers and 75 RBI. I think the British kid-dad thing is most impressive, but not by much.

wezen-ball.com: Cy Young Relief Pitchers

Rolaidsian heartburn occurs when stomach acid flows backwards through an ill-functioning lower esophageal sphincter...or when a reliever wins the Cy Young Award.

1984 - Willie Hernandez* - Detroit Tigers
80 G, 68 Games Finished, 9-3 W-L, 32-for-33 Sv., 1.92 ERA, 140 IP

Only three years later, Detroit’s Willie Hernandez became the second pitcher (and second reliever) to win the MVP and Cy Young awards. It was a strong year for relievers. Hernandez finished first in the Cy voting and KC reliever Dan Quisenberry finished second. In most stats, Quiz had the better year. He had 44 saves, only one shy of the record he set the year before, and pitched in higher leverage situations. Quiz also pitched in the same number of innings as Hernandez, but in fewer appearances. He also walked only 12 batters all season. Hernandez, on the other hand, struck out almost three times as many batters, 112 to 41. Hernandez also had a lower ERA, 1.92 to 2.64, and, most importantly, blew only one save. Both the Royals and Tigers won their divisions, but Detroit did it with 104 wins while Kansas City did it with 84. This award seems to be the best example so far of the writers falling in love with the “aura” of a particular bullpen. As the 1984 Street & Smith’s illustrates:

“[Hernandez] joined right-hander Aurelio Lopez in the bullpen and the two made the champion Tigers nearly impossible to beat late in the game (Detroit was 96-0 when it held a lead in the ninth inning).”

For what it’s worth, Quisenberry won his third consecutive Rolaids Relief Man of the Year award that year, meaning he was the top reliever but not the top pitcher.

AP: VIN SCULLY TO BE INDUCTED INTO NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS HALL OF FAME

LOS ANGELES – Dodger Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully will be inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame tomorrow during the organization’s annual convention in Las Vegas . A reception in Scully’s honor begins at 11 a.m. at the Las Vegas Hilton.

San Francisco State University News: Willie Mays to receive honorary degree

Say Hey Say Hey, My My (Into the Black & Orange).

“Willie Mays has been a tireless ambassador for the city of San Francisco and underprivileged youth in the Bay Area,” President Robert A. Corrigan said. “We honor his work on and off the baseball field for inspiring so many and paving the way for underrepresented youth to pursue a college degree.”

Mays joins a distinguished list of SF State honorary degree recipients that includes Bridge School founder Pegi Young, singer Neil Young, South Africa President Nelson Mandela, Bay Area philanthropist Richard N. Goldman, actor Danny Glover, artist and teacher Ruth Asawa, Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

Mays will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters at the University’s 108th Commencement exercises held Saturday, May 23 at 1 p.m. in Cox Stadium on campus.

Swartz: Why 500 Home Runs No Longer Guarantees Admission to the Hall of Fame

Sorry...BASN hasn’t updated in a while.

2. The Current Era

...The pitching is worse in today’s game than it was in your grandfather’s day. Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, two of the game’s top four career home run hitters, played through the ’60s. The strike zones were larger and pitching dominated the games.

Teams only implemented three or four man pitching staffs, which would mean something like 60 to 80 starting pitchers in the game. In today’s era, there are five-man pitching staffs for each of the 30 teams, which is upwards of 150 starting pitchers in the game. The quality of the starting pitching just isn’t as impressive in today’s game.

The ERA for all of the major leagues in 1965 was 3.50. In 2008, it had skyrocketed to 4.32. The average team hit 134 home runs in 1965, as opposed to 161 home runs for the average team last year.

And modern players are more durable. It’s not that uncommon for a guy who is in his upper 30s to still contend for the league MVP award, even for those players who aren’t on steroids.

In the olden days, players were often washed up and finished by age 35. Jimmie Foxx was all but done with his career by age 33. Lou Gehrig was 35 (although to be fair, he was inflicted with ALS). Mel Ott was 36 years old.

Pujols questions HR derby announcement

Afraid Wally Post might beat you, huh?

Major League Baseball’s announcement that Albert Pujols planned to participate in the Home Run Derby in St. Louis was news to the Cardinals slugger.

“I know they’re using my picture and everything to promote the All-Star Game, but I have never heard that,” Pujols said after Thursday’s 7-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Pujols will join former Cardinals great Ozzie Smith as official spokesmen for the All-Star FanFest, to be held July 10-14 in downtown St. Louis.

The Home Run Derby announcement was made Thursday.

“When is the All-Star Game, six months from now?” Pujols asked about the July 14 game, to be held at Busch Stadium. “If my elbow’s not healthy, I’m not doing it.”

Herz: Derek Jeter’s Lost Awards

or...Jeter and his missing Win Sharewares.

In 2003, Jeter’s .324 BA was good for third in the league, just a tick behind both Bill Mueller (.326) and Manny Ramirez (.325). Here, park effects show a more pronounced difference in Jeter’s favor. Mueller’s BA was 19.4% above the Fenway Park adjusted average of .273, while Jeter’s BA was 22.3% above the Yankee Stadium adjusted average of .265. In a race that was extremely close, park effects almost certainly made the difference, thereby rewarding Mueller for posterity’s sake, while overlooking Jeter.

Also, one may question whether in these years any players on other teams had adjusted averages that trumped Jeter’s, thereby making them and not Jeter the adjusted batting champion? The answer is no - Jeter was the adjusted batting champion in both 1999 and 2003. In fact, since 1950, there have been 7 seasons in which a Yankee player was the adjusted batting champion but not the raw batting champion: Alex Rodriguez (2005), Derek Jeter (2003), Derek Jeter (1999), Bobby Murcer (1971), Mickey Mantle (1962), Moose Skowron (1960), Mickey Mantle (1952) - in four of these seasons, the raw batting champion was a Red Sox player.

To conclude, despite some recent criticism, I don’t believe I am a Jeter hater. Rather, I do get aggravated by the fact that there are a lot of blatant Jeter haters out there who might point to Jeter’s lack of major awards as some kind of evidence, while lauding lesser players who were honored for doing less. The shame of it is that Jeter has deserved some of these distinctions, but it’s a recognition that will likely be lost on most.

AP: Aaron, Ali to be honored by MLB

CINCINNATI—Muhammad Ali, Bill Cosby and Henry Aaron have been chosen by Major League Baseball for this year’s Beacon Awards, to be presented as part of this year’s Civil Rights Game.

The game originated in Memphis, Tenn., in 2007 as an exhibition and will be played during the regular season for the first time on June 20, when the Cincinnati Reds host the Chicago White Sox.

Baseball officials say the awards are intended to honor individuals whose lives are emblematic of the civil rights movement. The honors will be presented at a luncheon before the game.

Previous Beacon Award winners include filmmaker Spike Lee, actress Ruby Dee and baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson.

The Baseball Analysts: Greenhouse: Can Albert Pujols Win the Triple Crown?

Not while Callix Sadeaq Crabbe is still...doing whatever it is he does!

Home Runs

Ryan Howard is going to be Pujols’ biggest challenger in home runs and runs batted in. Howard, unfortunately, simply is more one dimensional than Pujols. There are no average specialists like Ichiro is in the AL, but Howard is the National League specialist in hitting the ball a long ways. A third of his fly balls clear the fence. Howard has hit 48, 47, and 58 long-balls over the last three years. Not a single projection system has Pujols hitting greater than 41 homers. Meanwhile, not a single projection system has Howard hitting fewer than 40. But there is hope.

Looking at their skillsets, Pujols may actually be the better homerun hitter, but is simply in worse circumstances. If we can establish that he has a higher talent level when it comes to homers, I say we can at least give him a legitimate shot to take the category.

Howard’s home park is hugely beneficial to his power output. Statcorner’s park factors show a crazy 116 HR/FB park factor for Philly and an equally ridiculous 87 HR/FB for St. Louis. (That’s Petco level. I had no idea.) Greg Rybarczyk used his Hit Tracker system to come up with a new method for calculating home run park factors. Howard is 15% more likely to hit homers in Citizen Bank Park to any field except for straight away center, where Pujols would have an edge.

Howard’s average homer traveled 400 feet last year and the speed off bat was 104 MPH. But Pujols demonstrated more raw power, as he hit his average homer went 406 feet and 106 MPH off the bat. Furthermore, Howard’s power figures seem to be declining, as his distance and speed figures are trending downward. Pujols shows more consistent power, averaging distance and speed off bat figures of 406, 412, 407, and 106, 109, and 110 in past years.

Rosenthal hands out the preseason hardware

Hey Robothal...lay off the double shots of Micron Moly®!

National League Cy Young

Yovani Gallardo, Brewers

Yeah, it’s a wacky pick, but hear me out. Several of the league’s top starters worked harder last season than they ever had before. Those pitchers might not be as strong in 2009, creating the potential for a darkhorse to emerge.

Giants right-hander Tim Lincecum, the reigning Cy Young, jumped to 227 innings from 177 1/3, including 31 at Class AAA, the previous season. Phillies lefty Cole Hamels, the World Series MVP, jumped to 252 1/3, including post-season, from 183 1/3.

Johan Santana also reached a career high — but not by much — by pitching 234 1/3 innings. The greater concern is that Santana averaged less than a strikeout per inning for the first time since becoming a full-time starter in 2004.

Diamondbacks right-hander Brandon Webb, a top-two finisher the past three seasons, is always a smart pick, but I’ve got a hunch that a Cliff Lee-type sleeper is going to win the NL award.

Gallardo made a strong debut in 2007, then missed most of last season with a knee injury. The Marlins’ Ricky Nolasco or Josh Johnson probably would be a better choice; the Brewers need Gallardo to be an ace at 23, and their bullpen is a mess. Whatever, he’s my Cliff Lee.

Dewan: Who are the Most Valuable Half-and-Half Players?

Ever since Erocktavision started winning everything...I’ve had it up to here (and there) with Awards!

Here’s a question for you: In all of baseball history up to 2007, are there four players that good who were out of the awards picture for either league because they split their duty between the leagues? I’m not sure there are. I know for certain that if you took all of baseball history up until about 1990, you couldn’t find four guys like that.

These split seasons have become more common in recent years, of course, because cross-league deadline trades have come into the game. Carlos Beltran in 2004 had a monster two-league season (38 homers, 42 stolen bases), and Randy Johnson in 1998 struck out 329 batters in the two leagues. Still. . .four in one season is, I am pretty sure, unprecedented.

Do we need an award for these guys? They’re MVP candidates, after all; they merely need legal standing. Are there going to be four of these guys every year, from now on, or was it a one-year aberration?

I don’t know. I just hadn’t heard anybody talk about it, so I thought I would.

Men’s Jounal: Taibbi: The Upside of Ugly

Then there’s Kevin Youkilis. Youk has only three body parts, all hideously oversized: an enormous set of gnomish, bushy forearms; a massive, casaba melon–size white head; and a cauldronlike belly. He has a truly awesome bristle of thick red chin hair that makes his face look like a cross between a vagina and something out of The Hobbit. At the plate he disgustingly gushes sweat by some means previously unknown to science in which the moisture travels upward along his body, racing in a cascade from his balls and armpits up his neck, over his head, and back down over the bill of his helmet to shower the plate. Whereas a guy like Teixeira was born with a swing so gorgeous you want to paint it, Youkilis fighting a middle reliever to a nine-pitch walk looks like a rhinoceros trying to #### a washing machine.

Club president: David Wells

With the caveat that fat is not necessarily ugly, not even in sports, there’s a certain kind of fat that separates itself from the pack. C.C. Sabathia, for instance, is fat without being ugly. He is built more like a snowman or the McDonaldland character Grimace, a giant, mostly muscular round form that is pleasing in some mysterious way to the infantile subconscious; he lacks the spindly legs, the floppy, genitals-concealing rubber tire, the sweaty bald head, and the atrocious Hitler mustache to fill out the awful picture. David Wells wasn’t just fat, he was I-don’t-give-a-#### fat — fat in a way every man knows he could be deep down inside. When you watched him pitch, you looked for mustard stains on his uniform. You could imagine him blasting farts at the third-base gallery as he delivered his curveball, and if you were a kid you didn’t want him to sign your glove because you were afraid he might blow his nose in it. It was disgusting and intimidating. Not many athletes achieve David Wells fatness and live to tell about it. It’s a club that’s pretty much restricted to John Daly, Buster Douglas, Bartolo Colon, and Cowboys guard Nate Newton, who exemplified the species when a Snickers bar flew out of his uniform once during a game. This division is not to be confused with:

Thanks to hellodes.