FOX Sports: Perry: Many surprises in the 25 Percent Awards

Lee. Perry scratches his name all over the place!

AL MVP — Cliff Lee, Indians

Before we get busy justifying this one, a few words on MVP criteria ... Some fans and voters get hung up on the inane idea that an MVP must come from a contending team. The ballot instructions specifically say that this isn’t the case, and common sense will tell you that, too. After all, dismissing the superior player because his team isn’t successful is, in essence, penalizing him because his teammates aren’t doing their jobs. The only objective stand is to give the MVP to, you know, the best player. Importing any other standard to the process is silly and illogical. Moving on ...

As you might surmise, Lee has been the best pitcher in the American League this season, and he’s also been the best overall player (thus far, it’s been a down year for individual offensive performances in the AL). Sure, position players are generally more valuable than pitchers, but on occasion that’s not the case. The 2008 season to date is just such an occasion. Consider Lee’s numbers: he’s got an RA (runs allowed per nine innings) of 1.01 (!), he’s struck out 39 against only two walks (!!), and he’s given up only one home run in 44.2 innings of work. Certainly, he’s not going to be able to keep runs off the board at such an amazing clip, but it’s quite possible that Lee’s long-awaited breakout season is upon us.

AL Cy Young — Cliff Lee, Indians

Obviously, Lee’s the choice here, for reasons stated above. Wins and losses are a terrible way to evaluate pitchers, but by any standard you’re having a dominant season when you’re on pace for more wins than runs allowed. That’s Lee in 2008.

Bradford: Manny Ramirez meets the ’Gold’ standard in left

EGAD! Polynormial equacktions! Dewan’s Plus/Minus System just went kablooey!

Forget 500 home runs, Manny Ramirez has his eyes on another prize - a Gold Glove.

But, according to Ramirez, there’s one problem.

“How am I going to win a Gold Glove if they take me out in the eighth (inning),” said the Sox left fielder, repeating a line he has passed through the clubhouse since he was removed for defensive replacement Jacoby Ellsbury on Friday night against the Twins.

That was a joke. This, however, wasn’t:

“I think I’m the best ever to play left field in Boston,” the slugger said.

...“Why not?” he said. “If (first baseman Kevin Youkilis) can win one, why can’t I? I only made two errors last year. Put a good word in for me.”

Gillette and MLB team up to Present the ‘MLB Rookie of the Month Award presented by Gillette’

Pseudofolliculitis, indeed! Another goofy award by MLB...presented by Gillette, of course.

Nominees are selected from all eligible players by pre-determined on-field statistical criteria. Winners of the MLB Rookie of the Month Award presented by Gillette are now determined by an online vote that will represent 20% of the overall vote with the remaining votes coming from a select panel of baseball writers and Club broadcasters.

“Major League Baseball and Gillette have a long standing and successful business relationship, so it is a great pleasure to announce this new program that allows fans greater access to Major League Baseball,” said John Brody, Senior Vice President, Corporate Sales & Marketing, Major League Baseball. “The ‘MLB Rookie of the Month Award presented by Gillette’ will honor the finest young talent in the game, and our fans will play an integral role in selecting the top performing rookie in both the American and National League each month.”

Seamheads: Lynch: Was Clemente Really Slighted by MVP Voters in 1960?

Dunno...but how did Pancho Herrera manage one vote?

The other night I was watching a documentary about Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente, which stated that Clemente was bitter about not being named N.L. MVP after the 1960 season, so much so that he refused to wear his World Series ring (what his ring had to do with the outcome of the MVP Award is beyond me, but I digress). Not only did Clemente feel snubbed by the voters, but he felt the outcome was racially biased, especially in light of the fact that Pirates shortstop Dick Groat, a singles-hitting white shortstop with a decent glove, won the award. Groat, the acknowledged leader of the Pirates, was said to be affable with the press, with whom he enjoyed a friendly relationship. Clemente, who finished eighth in the voting, was said to be misunderstood and moody, and he openly discussed his injuries, leading the writers to label him a hypochondriac.

One of the historians interviewed for the documentary insisted that there was no way there were seven National Leaguers better than Clemente in 1960. I knew Groat had won the award and I remembered that Clemente hit .351 in 1961, but I wasn’t aware of their 1960 numbers, and I was curious to see how many Win Shares each had produced that season. What I found was interesting.

Not only was Clemente not the most valuable player in the National League in 1960 (at least in terms of Win Shares), it can be argued that there were at least five Pirates who were as valuable, if not more so.

The Biz of Baseball: Brown: Yankee’s Monument Park: Ruth, Mantel, Pope Benedict XVI?

Hey, save some room on that NASCARpet-bombed wall for Rodger Guidry!

Move over, Joltin’ Joe, Babe Ruth, and Mickey Mantle, you’re about to be joined by someone with a lower batting average on Monument Park.

The Knights of Columbus are donating a bronze plaque to commemorate Pope Benedict XVI’s April 20 Mass.

The pontiff was expected to bless the plaque in a private ceremony before the Mass today.

The 105-pound papal plaque, which is 39.5 inches tall and 27 inches wide, will be located in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park, along with plaques memorializing Masses celebrated there by Pope Paul VI (Oct. 4, 1965) and Pope John Paul II (Oct. 2, 1979), also gifts of the Knights of Columbus. The Benedict XVI plaque was crafted by United States Bronze of New Hyde Park, N.Y.

Frank Thomas Makes MLB History

In the 7th inning, Frank Thomas stood at the plate and popped up to short.  Another at bat, you say? Not at all.  It was his 9,832 Plate Appearance of his career, and he’s never had a sacrifice hit.  That breaks Harmon Killebrew’s old record of 9,831 PA without a SH. 

Toronto Sun: Jays honour Roberto Alomar and Paul Beeston

Snookered Beeston? Sounds like a killer from some warped Dustin LaValley novel.

“Alomar was the best player I ever saw live on a daily basis,” Beeston said. “Offence. Defence. His timing was so incredible. He had the ability to do it at the right time. You needed a play in the field he did it. You needed a hit, he got it ... This honour (Level of Excellence) is for baseball people. I don’t belong.

“And I’m not trying to be humble or anything saying that. That’s how I feel. That’s why I wouldn’t agree it.”

So they gave him no choice. They sand-bagged Beeston when he least expected it.

“There are a lot of Paul Beestons around,” Beeston said. “There’s only one Robbie Alomar.”

Dugout Central: Jensen: Reyes and Rollins are NL’s Most Overrated Players

This Jensen isn’t afraid of flying...by the seat of his pants.

Determining who the most overrated players are is inherently difficult – and subjective. Whose ability to rate players are we evaluating? Fans, writers, hardcore fans, players, fantasy geeks? Today I’m going to look at writers in the BBWAA– since their voting on MVP provides direct and clean evidence as to who they feel are the cream of the crop.

Jose Reyes

MVP finishes: ’05-‘07

2007 – 16th
2006 – 7th
2005 – 30th

Reyes is young, flashy and plays in New York, so perhaps that’s part of the reason he’s overrated. His OPS+ the past three years has been 103, 115 and 81, and his career OPS+ is 97. In 2005 he finished 30th (granted that’s not high, but was he the 30th best player in the league?) in the NL MVP voting despite being a significantly below average offensive player and posting an OPS of .686. Like Rollins, Reyes is essentially an average offensive player when discounting the effect of steals. Also like Rollins, he’s a fantasy stud – and someone I’d want on my team. But he’s not in the upper echelon of players.

Newsday: Herrmann: Jeter has earned monument at new Yankee Stadium

And much like the embarrassing Ralph Kramden statue outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal Pissemporium...it’ll be a great place to dunk yer butts and ditch yer beer!

Years from now, when he spends all his days happily settled in that new home he is building in Florida, the Yankees are going to honor him. Fans are going to remember nights like last night, when they gave him a huge ovation as he ran to the first-base line when his name was introduced. They will give him an even bigger ovation that day, as the club retires his No. 2 - and rewards him with either a plaque, like the ones Berra, Whitey Ford, Jackson, Phil Rizzuto and others have; or a monument, like Ruth, Gehrig, Miller Huggins, DiMaggio and Mantle have.

The case for a plaque is that, so far he isn’t a jaw-dropping slugger, league batting champion, record setter or even a one-time Most Valuable Player. Is he a bigger deal than Yogi and Whitey?

The case for a monument so far is about a hundred-fold, such as he is one of the great clutch players ever, has four rings, is very likely to reach 3,000 hits, has three Gold Gloves and breezily handles the responsibility of being an icon on the most pressurized team in the non-stop information age.

I vote for the monument.

He has simply done too much unforgettable stuff to deny him getting his career etched in granite. The home run that broke the Mets’ back, the backhanded relay flip that doomed the Athletics, the face-busting rush into the seats for that foul ball against the Red Sox.

Some Real Longshot Predictions

Not as much of a longshot as having a pillow fight with Angelina Jolie and Amy Adams, but close enough:

Batting Average: NL-Jeff Keppinger AL-Robinson Cano.

Keppinger makes as good contact as literally any player in organized baseball, and has a good eye. Most don’t know it because he was buried, but I think he is a legit .320 hitter right now. Cano is blossoming into a top notch player, and his 90th percentile PECOTA has him at .331. It was a close call between Cano and Billy Butler.

Rosenthal: Handing out the hardware before the season starts

With better sensors than an ultrasonic trekker navigator...Robothal sees all!

MVP
American League
Alex Rodriguez, Yankees: The Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera is tempting, particularly when you consider that it will be difficult for A-Rod to improve upon .314/.422/.645. But Cabrera will split votes with teammate Magglio Ordonez, and the Red Sox’s David Ortiz will do the same with Manny Ramirez. With the Angels’ Vladimir Guerrero seeing more time as a DH, A-Rod will be the choice for the fourth time in six years.

National League
Ryan Braun, Brewers: He wasn’t promoted until May 25 last season, yet finished with 34 homers and 97 RBIs. Project those numbers over 150 games, and you’re looking at 45 and 129. Frankly, Braun might be capable of more.

Manager of Year
National League
Dusty Baker, Reds: Sabermetricians will howl, but Baker is inheriting a team on the rise. Manager of the Year voters love to reward turnarounds; the Reds, after winning 72 games under Jerry Narron and Pete Mackanin last season, could contend in the mediocre NL Central.

FOX Sports: Perry: Handicapping the Rookie of the Year races

or...Holy crap, I forgot Jim Lefebvre was a ROY!

The NL is much more complicated. In a just and meaningful universe, Reds center fielder Jay Bruce would be the heavy favorite. He’s got exceptional skills and a peerless track record, he’s playing a key defensive position, and Cincinnati provides a great hitter’s environment. However, Cincy manager Dusty Baker isn’t inclined to trust young talent, and he’s got other, veteran options in center (to wit, Ryan Freel and Corey Patterson). Worse yet, Bruce is presently sidelined with a strained quad, so he’s falling even further behind.

Similarly, Reds first baseman Joey Votto is competing against a veteran — Scott Hatteberg in this instance — so he may not get the chance he needs to mount a charge for ROY. Some of Baker’s recent comments imply that he cares neither for Votto’s lack of foot speed or patient approach at the plate. Tell us again why you’d hire Baker to manage a young roster?

...Elsewhere, keep a particular eye on Cubs catcher Geovany Soto, who might just be the favorite. You won’t see his name bandied about in most lists of ROY favorites, but he’s got a lot of factors in his favor. One, he’s a darn good hitter (he led all of Triple-A in SLG last season), two, he plays a key defensive position, and three, he’s going to be in the Chicago lineup on a regular basis. Given a full season of playing time in a home park that’s friendly to right-handed power hitters, don’t be surprised if Soto reaches the 25-homer threshold. Doing so, while manning catcher, would make him the top contender for NL ROY.

Dugout Central: Caimano: Musial Deserves Inclusion In “Greatest Living Player” Discussion

I meant to post this yesterday...but the Pags site was down (Hey...you can stop applauding now!) for a while.

The question of whether all of this makes Stan Musial a greater baseball player than Willie Mays and Hank Aaron is a difficult one. There is no doubt that Mays and Aaron showed far more power than Musial who hit “only” 475 home runs in his career, but Stan more than makes up the gap by being a better all around hitter. In fact, although they are essentially even, Musial actually finished his career with a higher slugging percentage (559) than both Mays (557) and Aaron (555). Musial simply never adjusted his swing to incorporate the more uppercut approach that would have resulted in more home runs. He was satisfied to pepper the outfield with an endless stream of line drives.

If we use Win Shares to compare the three, a statistic that includes both offense and defense, Musial falls behind in overall career numbers. Mays and Aaron both accumulated 641 Win Shares and Musial had only 604. The question is does the accumulation of total career numbers define greatness? If we look at the individual seasons posted by these players we find that Musial had the two highest seasonal Win Shares totals. In 1948 he had 47 Win Shares and in 1946 he had 44 while Mays’ highest total was 43 in 1965 and Aaron’s was 41 in 1963. Musial still holds the lead if we look at the best five years of each player (Musial-208, Mays-203, Aaron-187). Mays finally inches ahead if we look at the players’ best ten years and Aaron catches up to Mays because he was able to sustain his greatness a few years longer. In my mind, the fact that Musial’s peak years are the highest of the three is more significant than the career numbers. Greatness is defined by the best years of a player not by how long they could sustain what for them was below average performance.

American Sterilization Society Honors Hank Steinbrenner

Steinbrenner Will Receive “Idiot Son of the Year” Award

“If You Just Keep Opening Your Mouth Good Things Will Happen”

Crawford, TX - The New York Yankees’ Hank Steinbrenner will receive The American Sterilization Society’s “Idiot Son of the Year Award” at the group’s annual gala to be held this year in Crawford, TX. “I dreamed this day would come,” said Steinbrenner, “but, to be honest, I never imagined it would happen so quickly. I guess this proves that if you just keep opening your mouth, good things will happen. I’m thrilled.”

The prestigious ISY (“eye-see”) award will be presented by James Dolan, major domo of the NBA’s New York Knickerbockers, and himself the son of a successful (and proud) father, mega-mogul Charles Dolan, owner of Cablevision. 

“Hank and I are kindred spirits,” said Dolan, Jr. in a written statement, “this is extremely cool.”

Steinbrenner’s father, George Steinbrenner, known as “The Boss” was well known for his headline-grabbing quotes, including this now iconic pearl: “Some guys can lead through genuine respect, I’m not that kind of leader.”

This week, The Boss’s son did his father proud when he told The New York Times Play magazine: “(America) is a Yankee country. We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.”

“I’m a big Hank fan,” said Red Sox owner John Henry in a telephone interview with eTrueSports, “he’s truly deserving of the ISY Award.”

Dugout Central: Eliminate Bonds, McGwire and Sosa From The Record Books

Bless “Dan from Oakland”!!

Baseball needs to send a stronger message than Congress.

Yes, we need more coordination between these two wholly unrelated and completely separate bodies. Next they should team up with Baskin Robbins in a bi-partisan effort to uncover that elusive 32nd flavor. Gosh darn it, the children of this country depend on it!

We shouldn’t consider Bonds and McGwire when listing the top OPS seasons of all time.

Because they are dirty, dirty filthy liars. God help us, jesus! God and baby jesus help us! Our statistics are getting messed up, the ones that simply provide a record of what happened!

The Maris family deserves that respect.

Absolutely, because, you know, they fought valiantly in World Wars I and II, the number “61″ emblazoned on their flak jackets, even though the unborn (or recently born) Roger had yet to set the record (though the pieces had already been set in motion, with Roger routinely knocking Cheerios out of his playpen with his wooden feeding spoon, swinging from the northwest side of the playpen so as to take advantage of the short right field barrier….without the help of Enfamil or Similac, I might add).

The Baseball Analysts: Mayo: Facing the Facts on Clemens

Jonathan Mayo’s turn as Designated Hitter…

A lot has changed since I started writing my first book, “Facing Clemens.” What was meant to be a fairly cut and dry baseball book about what it’s like for a hitter to try and ply their craft against the Rocket over the course of his career has obviously turned into much, much more. That being said, I still maintain the book has relevance. Regardless of where you stand on the current news surrounding Roger Clemens, the challenge of trying to hit him hasn’t changed. Perhaps his career has been forever tainted, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t one of the toughest pitchers of all-time for a hitter to try to make a living off of.

The numbers, of course, more than back it up. He finished the 2007 season – now certainly his last – eighth on the all-time list in wins. Only one pitcher whose career was after 1940 is ahead of him: Warren Spahn. You’ve seen the other victory numbers. He’s first all-time on the active list and he reached 350 wins with the second fewest losses in the game’s history, behind only the guy who’s name is on the pitching award.

Now, before all the sabermetricians click elsewhere or write me off as an old fogey who knows nothing, I’ll go further. Wins, of course, can be misleading because they are so often not within a pitcher’s control. Clemens is second all-time in strikeouts and his name can be found on career leaderboards in a host of categories from things that show off his longevity, like games started or innings pitched, to his dominance, like shutouts, or to “new-fangled” stats like adjusted ERA+, which measures a pitcher’s ERA against the league average with ballpark effects taken into account (he’s ninth all-time, in case you were curious). Something like that helps bridge the generational divide for a “greatest pitcher of all time debate.” When stacked against his contemporaries, it almost isn’t fair. He leads just about every active career statistical list.

Rosenthal: Essence of Pedro could help Mets contend

I found that essence rare, its what I looked...FOUR MORE CY YOUNGS?

The last time Martinez recalls being this sound was as a member of the Red Sox in 1998, before he injured a back muscle during a postseason game in Cleveland. After that, he says his shoulder was never the same, even though he won American League Cy Young Awards the following two seasons.

“Now I’m feeling like I did back in those days,” Martinez says, nodding to a reporter from Boston. “I remember I used to pick up the ball and fire it. Remember when I would go to the outfield and just fire a ball? That’s how I am now.”

As his arm strength returns, so does his familiar bravado. In one breath, Martinez proclaims, “If I take the ball, I’ll take my chances against anybody.” Minutes later, he adds, “I’ve only got three Cy Youngs. (Roger) Clemens has got seven. I don’t see why I shouldn’t get a couple (more) if I could.”

THT: Seidman: Why Cy?

Or as Mike Francesa said, when Moose Skowron told him that he had met Cy Young once at a Yankees Old-Timers Day....."But...he’s like from a long time ago.”

With ideas like this in mind I came up with a slight derivative of Bill James’ formula that will take into account these statistics relevant to the early years of baseball. I also factored in a type of K/BB ratio since players, despite occasionally recording high strikeout totals, would post high walks counts as well. For instance, between 1890 and 1892, Amos Rusie averaged 322 strikeouts and 273 walks per season. The 322 is very high but so is the 273. It would not seem fair to simply reward him for reaching that high a strikeout count if his BB count was just as high. My version of the Cy Young formula is below:

CY PTS = ((5*IP/9)-ER) + (K/12) + (4*W) – (2*L) – (GS-CG) – (BB/8)

I got rid of the Victory Bonus because, before divisional play, few teams would make the playoffs. Plugging the numbers into my formula, here are the results from 1890-1911, the duration of Cy Young’s career. Keep in mind that Young was in the NL from 1890-1900 and the AL from 1901-1911.

S.I. : Heyman: Ranking the best general managers in the game

No Houston GM...yet the Williams Towers show up.

Who is the best general manager in baseball? Normally that’s a tough call, but not this year. There’s one fellow who stands out, only one GM whose team has won two World Series championships in the last four years after failing to win even one World Series for 85 straight years.

OK, so it doesn’t take a sabremetrician to see it all adds up for Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, an easy choice for my first Best GM in the Game award.

10T. Ken Williams, White Sox. No one can say he’s afraid to take a chance or make deals. Williams brought the first championship to the South Side in decades, but his constant trading and tinkering left the Sox with a placid roster (thus the acquisitions of SS Orlando Cabrera and OF Nick Swisher) and hard-throwing but erratic bullpen (thus the deal for Scott Linebrink). They look no better than a third-place team in their tough division, but Williams’ teams are full of surprises.

10T. Kevin Towers, Padres. Another very good trader and master of the bargain-basement pickup, he and his scouts have been especially good at acquiring pitching help (see this offseason’s addition of ex-phenom Mark Prior). Towers is unafraid to use soft-tossers, and not just closer Trevor Hoffman, who have become a San Diego staple. But much like past Padre teams, you wonder where the offense is coming from. Gets bonus points as Epstein’s mentor.

Suit begins against Dodgers by blinded woman

Opening statements are scheduled today in the trial of a lawsuit by a woman left legally blind in her right eye after being punched by another woman during a Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants game at Dodger Stadium. “This action arises from a dispute between two baseball fans,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Fruin said in reading a brief summary of the case yesterday to prospective jurors.

...Maria Parra Helenius, seated in the lower reserve level on the first base side, claims she was heckled by Denise Ordaz, a Dodger fan who was seated about three rows away from Helenius and the others. Ordaz, 27, used foul language and racial slurs against Helenius even though both are Latinas, according to the plaintiff’s court papers. She claims Ordaz also chastised her for having a white boyfriend.

Helenius complained to Dodger Stadium security officials, who moved Ordaz and her party to different seats and held them for 10 minutes after the game—the Giants won 4-1—to allow Helenius and her boyfriend to leave, according to her court papers.

However, Ordaz managed to catch up to Helenius in the parking lot and punched her in the face, the suit states.

Thanks to Dave P

Joe Posnanski Blog: The Pozcars Results!

Direct from the Dorothy & Spud Happy Chandler Pavilion...it’s Poz with this year’s Pozcars! (Music to be provided by The Rocky Rockwell Orchestra, as usual)

Pete Rose received 46.85% of the vote.
Joe Jackson received 52.76% of the vote.

It did surprise me that quite a few Pozcars voters gave Jackson the vote but not Rose. I’m only guessing, but I suspect it came down to three things: The movie portrayals of Jackson as the innocent (or as the Michael Landonesque angel who saved James Earl Jones and brought Kevin Costner and his Dad together); the fact that Jackson’s been dead for more than a half century while Rose signs autographs in Vegas; the fact that Pete Rose lied.

There may be something else, something that I have obviously been thinking a lot about lately. I suspect there is now at least one, maybe two generations of baseball fans who really did not see Pete Rose in his prime, when he was unique, a force of nature, the most irresistible force in the room. Everyone here I suspect knows what a stats guy I am, and yet I think the further we get away from Rose’s prime, the more difficult I think it is to look at those big numbers and find the one-of-a-kind player Rose was — selfish, intense, ferocious, indestructible, generous, obsessive, money-hungry and absolutely more in love with the day-to-day life of baseball than anyone. I would say the biggest goal of the Red Machine book will be to get at the heart of THAT player — before the records, the gambling and everything else.

Birds in the Belfry: THE TWELFTH ANNUAL KERRY’S PIÑATA AWARD

“We’ve been crying now for much too long...Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up”

Or as Belfry Bob sez..."Happy New Year...we’re starting off the O’s with a bang! (or is a whimper?)”

The rest of the pitchers in this mass have absolutely nothing to complain about whatsoever.  Jon Leicester, Fernando Cabrera and Cory Doyne each posted ERAs above 10, in a total of 19 appearances.  Paul Shuey posted a 9.82 ERA in 25 appearances; in the modern history of baseball, Shuey’s ERA is the fourth highest among pitchers with at least 25 appearances in a season and the absolute worst in franchise history.  Rocky Cherry, Todd Williams and Jim Hoey appeared in a combined 47 games and all posted ERAs between 7.30 and 8.  Kurt Birkins, Danys Baez and Brian Burres combined for 90 games out of the pen (Baez appeared in 50 all by himself) and finished with ERAs between six and seven.  Rob Bell just barely missed the six mark (5.94), but posted a WHIP of 1.81.  John Parrish posted a WHIP of 1.78 in 45 appearances before he was dumped on Seattle.  Closer Chris Ray blew six of 22 save opportunities before being lost for the year due to injury.

As bad as all the participants were individually, the real ineptitude shows when considered collectively--part of the reason for assigning the Award to an entire unit.

Fogg to be given Margate’s key

Colorado Rockies World Series pitcher Josh Fogg will be presented with the key to the City of Margate at City Hall on Friday afternoon, Dec. 28.

Fogg, who pitched for Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons High School and the University of Florida, became the first player from Broward County to start a World Series game.
[...]
He will be inducted into the Cardinal Gibbons Athletic Hall of Fame on Jan. 26 along with Micah Gardner, Fran Giblin, Gene Morrison and Jill Stephens.

Top of the world, Ma!

Rich Lederer : 30 Rock

Greetings from Schoharie! Next stop Cooperstown! (Seriously)

For those first seven seasons, Raines and Schmidt were clearly the two best players in the NL. Raines was every bit as good as Henderson was in those years. He led the league in Win Shares in 1984, 1985, and 1986. Just think what his résumé would look like had he won three consecutive MVP awards!

Best Regards

John

Stankevitz: 300 wins: An in-depth analysis of why it is a mark never to be reached again

Why, oh why...did my purple ozoline connection have to get popped.

The problem with scrapping the 300 win statistic is that the criteria for voting in a pitcher does become very subjective. Looking down a list of the top starting pitchers in baseball today, no name jumps out as “Hall of Fame-worthy” besides Santana, John Smoltz, and Pedro Martinez, both of whom should be Hall of Fame locks despite not having 300 victories. Smoltz has a career ERA of 3.26 and is just 25 strikeouts away from reaching 3,000 for his career that also included 154 saves in four years as a closer. Martinez leads all active pitchers with a 2.80 ERA, has 3,030 career strikeouts, and has earned an incredible 1.03 WHIP for his career. But of younger pitchers of the day, no name really jumps out. Perhaps it is because most of the top-tier pitchers in today’s game do not pitch in large markets, thus meaning they do not get as much exposure as a Curt Schilling gets, who will make a push to the Hall of Fame largely in part to his service time in Boston. Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jake Peavy of the San Diego Padres, Roy Oswalt of the Houston Astros, Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays, Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox and C.C. Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians are all excellent starting pitchers who would definitely make pushes for Cooperstown when their careers are over if they played in larger markets. With no set criteria for voters to base their judgment off, some may resort to voting for the players they’ve seen the most—meaning a Josh Beckett would likely get into the Hall of Fame easier or with more votes than a Jake Peavy.

38 Pitches: Schilling: One players take on the Mitchell Report, Canseco, Clemens, records

As the late great Billy Welu used to say..."Trust is a must or your game is a bust.”

So as a fan my thought is that Roger Clemens will find a way in short order to organize a legal team to guarantee a retraction of the allegations made, a public apology is made, and his name is completely cleared. If he doesn’t do that then there aren’t many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and 3 Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end. From that point on the numbers were attained through using PED’s. Just like I stated about Jose, if that is the case with Roger, the 4 Cy Youngs should go to the rightful winners and the numbers should go away if he cannot refute the accusations.

Will there ever be a “50-50” man?

I believe that Hanley Ramirez will do what other speedy sluggers could not---hit 50 homers and steal 50 bags.

Posnanski: And the Pozcar goes to …

Who needs the BBWAA? We’ll form our own stinkin’ awards! And we won’t let Tracy Ringolsby in!

Voters I intend to invite (if you see your name on this list, yeah, I plan on inviting you): Jim Banks; Dave Barry; Alex Belth; Will Carroll; John Dewan; John Donovan; Bob Dutton; Dave Eggers; Sean Forman; Bill James; Rany Jazayerli; Keith Law; Ryan Lefebvre; Alyssa Milano (call me!); Rich Lederer; Rob Neyer; Dave O’Brien; Jeff Passan; Scott Raab; Michael Rosenberg; Paul Rudd; Curt Schilling; Joe Sheehan; Bruce Springsteen; Jayson Stark; Mike Vaccaro; Darren Viola; several unnamed scouts and lots of other really famous people I would rather not name for various legal reasons!

Now, I know that as you loyal reasons look at that list of people who will undoubtedly and rudely turn down their opportunity to vote for the Pozcars, you are thinking: “Gee, I’d like to turn down that opportunity too!”

Well, unfortunately, I can’t invite you all. So here’s what we’re gonna do. Thanks to the magic of gmail, I have created a special email All you have to do is send me an email saying why you would like to be a Pozcars voter, and assuming that your reason is good enough (it would be hard for me to imagine a reason that would get you turned down), you too may be an official Pozcars voter. Maybe we’ll get T-shirts made.

38 Pitches: Schilling: The Schilling clause??

More power than a floating Cecil von Renthe-Fink memo...it’s The Schilling Clause!

Give me a break. Don’t get me wrong, 100k, 500k, 1 million dollars is a huge sum of money. But to think that these guys ever approached this as anything other than them being touted as the ‘experts’ on who wins what is crap. Add to that I seriously doubt anyone ever looked at this from a perception standpoint and thought wow, they are making this guy rich. I would disagree.

The only step that hasn’t happened yet is to stop them from voting on awards altogether. They shouldn’t do it. Anytime someone is allowed to vote on this, on the Hall of Fame ballot, and that person injects personal bias into their vote, they should lose the privelage.

The main problem with my opinion on this is that someone, probably more than just one or two people, will assume I mean this as a blanket plastering of the baseball media, I don’t. There are a ton of great people that write about our game.

LoHud Yankee Blog: BBWAA moves against incentive clauses

From the indispensable Peter Abraham…

The Baseball Writers’ Association Of America had a national meeting today and we approved an interesting motion.

Starting in 2013, any player with a contract clause giving him a bonus or some other benefit for receiving votes for a BBWAA award will be ineligible for that award. That means the MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year.

Abraham goes on to say the incentive problem has been an ethical issue for the writers group for a while, and it was exacerbated by Mr. Schilling’s $1 million bonus for just getting one vote.

It’s unclear though if this means bonuses for winning awards will make one intelligible or just getting votes will.