AL Central race: September 5, 2010

MIN 80-57 [4-1 in SEPT] 
CHW 76-60 [4-0 in SEPT] (3.5 GB)

MLB.com: Twins continue home mastery of Rangers

[Nick Blackburn] delivered another strong outing on Sunday afternoon, pitched seven solid innings and giving up two runs on six hits in a 6-5 victory over the Rangers at Target Field.

MLB.com: Improbable rally lifts White Sox in Boston

Down to their last out in the ninth inning and trailing by two, the White Sox rallied for four runs to claim a 7-5 victory Sunday before 37,570 at Fenway Park.

And the White Sox did it primarily against Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon, who left with his head hung low and near 50 pitches

AL Central race: September 4, 2010

MIN 79-57 [3-1 in SEPT] 
CHW 75-60 [3-0 in SEPT] (3.5 GB)

MLB.com: Thome, Tolbert power Twins past Rangers

Jim Thome blasted two home runs, taking sole possession of ninth on the career home run list with 584 homers, en route to helping the Twins to a 12-4 victory over the Rangers on Saturday afternoon at Target Field.

MLB.com: White Sox keep pace, sweep DH in Boston

Ozzie Guillen’s crew swept an undermanned Red Sox team on Saturday at Fenway Park, grabbing 3-1 victories in both the afternoon affair and the nightcap, to move back to within 3 1/2 games of the American League Central-leading Twins (79-57). The White Sox also improved to 5-0 on this 10-game road trip through Cleveland, Boston and Detroit.

AL Central race: September 3, 2010

MIN 78-57 [2-1 in SEPT] 
CHW 73-60 [1-0 in SEPT] (4 GB)

MLB.com: Fox pitches in as Twins rally past Rangers

Matt Fox had not been in line to be one of the Twins’ September callups. In fact, the right-hander probably wasn’t even on the organization’s radar for one.

Yet there Fox was on Friday night at Target Field, making his Major League debut in a 4-3 Twins win over the Rangers and pitching in a situation that even he might not have been able to envision 24 hours earlier.

MLB.com: Earl postpones series opener in Boston

The White Sox active pursuit of the American League Central-leading Twins has been postponed one day by Hurricane Earl.

SI.com: Manny will quit on White Sox just like he did with Red Sox, Dodgers

He will quit on the White Sox just the way he quit on the Red Sox and the Dodgers. Sooner or later. Bank on it.

Manny Ramirez returns to Fenway Park tonight and he’ll get booed with gusto—which he deserves. It’s nice to know that folks in Los Angeles now understand what we were trying to tell them when Manny first got to L.A. in 2008 and everybody out there talked about mean Boston and how Manny was just “misunderstood.’‘

Now they understand. Manny is all about Manny. And greed. Oh, and he’s also a steroid cheat, who’s been caught twice.

Manny the con man spoke through an interpreter (White Sox bench coach Joey Cora) when he joined the White Sox in Cleveland Tuesday. What a fraud. Ramirez went to high school in New York City. He’s been speaking fluent English for decades. He understands everything he hears in English and has never spoken through an interpreter until this week.

Good luck, Ozzie Guillen. You’ve managed some beauties before, but you’ve never had a guy like Manny.

AL Central race: September 2, 2010

MIN 77-57 [1-1 in SEPT] 
CHW 73-60 [1-0 in SEPT] (3.5 GB)

Yahoo!: Twins stumble late, fall to Tigers in 13 innings

The Twins sure could have used the extra bodies as they wrapped up their series against the Tigers with a 10-9 loss in a 13-inning contest that lasted four hours, 47 minutes at Target Field.

Gerald Laird blasted a solo home run off right-hander Nick Blackburn, who had been scheduled to start on Friday against the Rangers, with one out in the 13th to give Detroit the victory.

MLB.com: [Scott] Baker exits game early with right elbow pain

Manny to have dreads trimmed in Boston - Extra Bases - Red Sox blog

Where will he get his nails done?

ESPN: Szymborski: Manny Ramirez will help the White Sox (INSIDER)

For the Chicago White Sox, picking up Manny Ramirez for essentially nothing—they’re going to pay $4.3 million of his salary the rest of the way—was a good move, especially for a second-place team that appears to be treading water.

Fuentes and Hawpe are over on TO.

ESPN: Source: White Sox claim Manny Ramirez

The clock started ticking on Manny Ramirez’s future as a Dodger on Friday, when the Chicago White Sox were awarded a waiver claim that gives them exclusive rights to make a deal to acquire Ramirez over the next four days. The teams now have until 1:30 p.m. ET Tuesday to complete a trade. According to a source monitoring the waiver wire, the White Sox were one of three teams to claim Ramirez after the Dodgers placed him on trade waivers Wednesday.

The Texas Rangers also claimed the 38-year-old future designated hitter, a source told ESPNDallas.com’s Richard Durett. And there were strong indications that the other team to claim Ramirez was the Tampa Bay Rays.

ESPN: Manny Ramirez not in Dodgers lineup

MLB.com: Lilly placed on waivers by Dodgers

Former Major League Baseball player Cal McLish dies at 84

Farewell, Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish. Each and every one of you.

Cal McLish, an Anadarko native who played 15 seasons in the majors and had the longest full name in MLB history, died Thursday morning. He was 84.

His full name was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish, a name his father gave him when his mother told John McLish that he could name his son.

“There were eight kids in the family, and I was No. 7, and my dad didn’t get to name one of them before me. So he evidently tried to catch up,” McLish told The Oklahoman in 1999.

CHI Sun-Times: Chicago White Sox close to obtaining Manny Ramirez

The White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers may be closing in on a deal to send Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez to the South Side in exchange for minor league prospects.

The deal appeared to be close Wednesday when reports surfaced that Ramirez was claimed by the Sox on waivers. The right-handed slugger must approve any potential deal because he has a no-trade clause in his contract. But Ramirez may have approved a move, having said he wants to return to the American League next season when he becomes a free agent.
...
Sources confirmed the Dodgers were reviewing scouting reports on some of the Sox minor league players in anticipation of a deal.

Gleeman: Hawk Harrelson spent an entire game complaining about umpire Joe West

Nehrubbish!

Harrelson talked about the umpiring for literally innings at a time and his broadcast partner Frank Thomas, who was subbing for a vacationing Steve Stone, frequently chimed in to agree.

After every close pitch that was called a ball for a White Sox pitcher or a strike for a Royals pitcher, Harrelson launched into another monologue about the umpires conspiring against the White Sox. He frequently used words like “disgusting” and “disgraceful” to describe the situation, and called it a “travesty” that West was even allowed to work White Sox games after his incident with Mark Buehrle earlier this season.

At one point Thomas noted that “back when I was playing” the catcher and pitcher would intentionally get “crossed up” on a pitch and let it hit the umpire, which seemed to be mostly a joke because a) Thomas laughed, b) “back when I was playing” was all of two years ago, and c) that rarely, if ever, actually happens. But then Harrelson liked the sound of Thomas’ “idea” and suggested the White Sox actually do it to West.

Seriously.

Finally, in the 10th inning Jason Kendall broke a 2-2 tie with a walk-off single, winning the game and the series for the Royals and dropping the White Sox to 2-4 on their road trip, at which point the following exchange took place:

  Harrelson: This is absolutely ... [five-second pause] ... this is absolutely not right.

  Thomas: This really sucks.

Guillen fuming after Sox’s 2-4 trip

Omar Vizquel - .300/.365/.354 (crams thick fistful of Leaders® knockawful dose of Tums rejects)

A 2-4 trip seemed just as bad as an 0-6 trip to manager Ozzie Guillen after the Sox’s 3-2 loss Sunday at Kansas City in 10 innings.

“A very horse(bleep) road trip,” Guillen said after the Sox paid the price for their 1-for-10 effort with runners in scoring position. “Disappointing, my (bleeping) (rear). Disappointing for (bleeping) managers that have patience. Very bad road trip.

“The way it ended was the way we started - very bad. No excuse. I don’t give a (bleep) the way we lose, I don’t care the way we win, we didn’t get it done. This road trip was very important for us, and we played like (bleep).’‘

...Fueling Guillen’s anger was that the offense failed to produce on a day when closer Bobby Jenks equaled his career high with three (scoreless) innings to aid a bullpen that could possibly lose All-Star reliever Matt Thornton to the 15-day disabled list because of continued soreness in his left forearm.

“We had men on second base for like five times with two outs, and we didn’t get a hit,” Guillen said. “We’re supposed to not give into this guy (Jason Kendall). We give in, base hit to win the game. Very bad, very bad.”

N.Y. Times: Cheering on Your Favorite Team With Your Lawn

“Lawn Logo” is about to hit the market, and as the New Jersey-based company behind it touts, “suburbia may never look the same.”

Starting with 14 major league teams, do-it-yourself kits first will be sold for an unspecified introductory price on QVC on Aug. 31. They will be sold at select retailers, including True Value and Ace hardware stores, with a suggested retail price of $129.99.

The kits, officially licensed by Major League Baseball, include a 52-inch reusable stencil and enough spray paint, in the team’s official colors and designed for grass, for several applications. There is no guarantee, of course, that the kits will not be used to paint the sides of houses, abandoned buildings or subway cars.

According to the company’s website, the teams available first are: NYY, BOS, CWS, DET, MIN, LAA, TEX, ATL, NYM, PHI, CHC, CIN, STL, and LAD

ESPN’s Jay Mariotti arrested by L.A. police

Damn! This slipped by our Anti-Mariotti protection system.

ESPN personality and sports columnist Jay Mariotti was arrested overnight by Los Angeles police officers in the Pacific division.

He was booked on suspicion of a felony, but officials would not provide further details.

A source with knowledge of the case described it as a domestic disturbance charge involving his girlfriend. He was being held on $50,000 bail.

Mariotti is a well-known sports commentator who can be seen on the ESPN show “Around the Horn.” He also writes for a sports website called Fanhouse.com. Known for his outspoken views, he used to write a sports column for the Denver Post and the Chicago Sun-Times.

[Updated at 9:30 a.m.:] LAPD sources said Mariotti allegedly got into an argument with his girlfriend at a club in Santa Monica.

The argument continued at the couple’s apartment in Venice, where some type of physical altercation allegedly occurred. Police were called to the apartment, and Marioitti was arrested. He is currently being held at the 77th Street station.]

Deadspin: White Sox Beat Writer Goes Nuts On Minnesota

Nuttier than Matthew Cowley taking on Baby Face Nelson…it’s Joe Cowley, guns a-blazin’!

Sun-Times reporter Joe Cowley is a homer in a city of media homers. But his Twitterrhea explosion last night against the Twins and their fans was something else. Stereotypes about being ugly? Calling players jag-offs? Mocking the dead? Check, check and double-check.

Cowley has a history of this sort of thing. He once called Canada a third world country, and refused to stand for the Canadian National Anthem at a Blue Jays game in Toronto. He’s also been suspended from the BBWAA for his “embarrassing” MVP votes on multiple occasions.

Easy Twins fans. Just because they where the Twins uni doesn’t make them Angels. Kirby treated women like crap ... fat women at that

...And for Twins fan that doesn’t understand how this twitter account works, unfollow. Let the adults talk, go back to fishing or something.

...Obviously Twins fan doesn’t like reality. If u can’t handle it, unfollow and go listen to Sid’s 95-yr-old ass tell you everything is great.

Gonzales: Ozzie fires back at critics over Thome’s departure

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen fired back at critics who still can’t stomach the departure of Jim Thome, who hit a two-run walkoff home run Tuesday night for Minnesota to beat the Sox and shove them four games back in the American League Central.

“For all those people there saying it was my fault about Jim Thome, yes it’s my fault,” Guillen said Wednesday during a 13-minute pre-game interview devoted mostly to Thome’s departure last August and the decision not to re-sign him.

“If those people don’t like that, (bleep) them.”

...“I’m not afraid,” Guillen said. “I can care less what people think. We’re in second place. When Jim Thome was here, we finished third three times out of four years (actually two third-place finishes and one fourth-place ending). We went to one playoff because he hit a home run to go to the playoffs.

“Listen, I don’t make that decision, we made that decision. It was hard for me to do this. A lot of people in Chicago talk about Jim Thome. How about J.D.? I think Jermaine Dye did more stuff for the Chicago White Sox than Jim Thome did, with all my respect to Jimbo.

“What’s going on here? I don’t get it. Why do people forget about J.D.? People don’t even talk about J.D. at all. If Thome was a better player than J.D. for the White Sox, that’s the answer.

J.D.‘s not playing for the Twins.”

Thanks to Barnald.

Jim Thome’s 2-run homer in 10th inning sends Twins past White Sox 7-6

Take that, is right!

Jim Thome hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning against the team that decided not to bring him back this season, sending the Minnesota Twins to a 7-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night to stretch their AL Central lead to four games.

After Delmon Young’s leadoff single against Matt Thornton (3-4), Thome smashed an 0-1 pitch and sent it sailing over the right-field bleachers to send his new team and the fans at sold-out Target Field into a frenzy. Thome chucked his helmet into the air as he eagerly approached the mob at the plate.

Alexei Ramirez hit the tying home run in the ninth inning and the go-ahead RBI single in the 10th, as Twins relievers Matt Capps and Jon Rauch (3-1) gave up three hits apiece in the last two innings.

ESPN: Neyer: White Sox by ‘eras,’ 1901-2010

(In best Cal/Logan/Cal West voice)...“Heh, he said Dickshot”.

1915-1922: The Joe Jackson Era
Beginning in 1911, Indians outfielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson began to establish himself as one of the American League’s greatest hitters, just a tick behind Ty Cobb. Nevertheless, in 1915 the Indians made it known that Jackson could, for the right price, be had. As the story goes, Comiskey dispatched his secretary, Harry Grabiner, to Cleveland with a simple order: “I want Jackson. Don’t come back without him.”

Grabiner got him, and Jackson ranked as the White Sox’s star among stars—leading the team to the World Series in 1917 and 1919—until he and the rest of the Black Sox were permanently suspended after the 1920 season. Future Hall of Famers Eddie Collins, Red Faber, and Ray Schalk remained, but the White Sox immediately fell from contention and the shadows of Jackson and the other Black Sox still loomed.

1963-1968: The Joe Horlen Era
Two things not many people would guess: From 1963 through 1965, the Chicago White Sox averaged 96 wins per season. Among all American League pitchers who pitched at least 1,000 innings from ‘63 through ‘68, Joe Horlen’s ERA, relative to the league, was easily the best. Why don’t people know these things? Because the White Sox finished second in those three seasons, and because their hitting attack generally was so weak that Horlen won more than 13 games just once.

MLB: Galarraga, Avila scuffle in Tigers dugout

And as usual, Gerald Laird lacks punch.

It was a bizarre altercation for a pitching battery that had just finished off a scoreless first inning. Galarraga had just finished off the White Sox after giving up a two-out single to Paul Konerko, but something during the inning set him off. Once Carlos Quentin popped out to third for the third out, he jogged back into the dugout and went directly towards Alex Avila, who still had his catching gear on after walking in moments earlier.

Galarraga came in pointing and yelling at Avila, who initially looked startled before he started to return fire.

“It was a big deal at the moment, but it kind of got out of hand for a second,” Avila said. “It was just a little blown out of proportion. It was just on what we wanted to do to some guys and going through the game plan. It was just a heated conversation.

...“It was getting a little heated, and I just wanted to get in there,” Laird said. “I got both my teammates in there. Alex is a young guy at the position that I play. I know what he’s going through back there, and it’s tough when you come in and [someone] like that gets in your face. He was doing a good job of just taking it.

“I just thought enough was going on, and I tried to get in between to kind of calm things down. I think Galarraga kind of took it the wrong way, and maybe I said something I shouldn’t have said. But the kid’s young. He’s only got a year in the big leagues. He’s still learning. For [Galarraga] to come in and try to embarrass him in front of his teammates like that, I just didn’t think that was the right time to do it.”

Olbermann: Whaddya Mean Carlton Fisk Worked On J.D. Salinger’s House?

Big deal! I remember Thomas Pynchon showing up for The Crying of Parking Lot 49 tribute after Thurman Munson’s death!

I get these emails offering me all sorts of memorabilia, sports and otherwise. Some I open, some I don’t. This one looked pretty mundane until near the end when it told a story I hadn’t heard before and could barely believe. On the internet there seems to be nothing about it, except for the trail of provenance of the memorabilia item, which is a neatly-typed 1989 letter addressed to a Colonel Reeder, that reads in part:

  Hearing from Red Rider may just possibly be my second and last claim to bonafide and hitchless fame, the other probably claim dating back some twenty years, when one of the three or four young guys who poured the new foundation for my new house went on to catch beautifully and almost without end for the Red Sox: one Carlton Fisk.

It’s signed “Jerry Salinger.”

That’d be J.D. Salinger to you and me. Autographs, documents, confirmation of personal interaction with the late and famously reclusive author of The Catcher In The Rye are rare, to say the least.

But this one describes, to his World War 2 Division Commander, meeting a teenaged Carlton Fisk when he came to put in the foundation for Salinger’s home in Cornish, New Hampshire. I have no way of verifying the story (the inquiries to Fisk are out, but I only saw this thing tonight) but it offers verisimilitude: born in Maine, Fisk grew up in Charlestown, N.H., about 20 miles away from the site of the concrete in question.

“Hawk” Harrelson says last three weeks will doom Minnesota Twins

STOP SAYING TANK!

But Harrelson says the White Sox will end up winning the division.

“In my 51 years in the game, I have had more respect for the Minnesota Twin organization than any other organization in baseball,” Harrelson, 68, said this morning before the big Twins-White Sox three-games series starts tonight at U.S. Cellular Field.

“The Twins have done things right. It’s just a shame that they didn’t spend more money there for a few years because, in my opinion, they could have won four or five more world championships. But it looks like they’re going to spend some money now.”

The Twins and White Sox are tied for first in the AL Central with 63-49 records.

“This race, to me, is going to come down to the last 22 games of the season; that’s why we’re going to win the division,” Harrelson said.

His reasoning?

“The last 22 games of the season, Minnesota has 12 on the road and 10 at home,” said Harrelson, a former all-star outfielder with Boston. “The last 22 games of the season, we’ve got six on the road and 16 at home.

“It’s going to be a tight race all the way down, and we’re going to win it in the last three weeks of the season.”

Fegan: Alex Rios - The man who fell to Earth

RIP! Is Rios becoming anthema to White Sox fans? TORN!

But there are also holes.  Deep, dark, horrifying holes.  He averaged 41 doubles per year during his three-year prime stretch, and barely has half that at present (21).  His stolen bases are high because Ozzie runs him all the time, but his success rate has dipped toward the unjustifiable side (68.5%), and he’s already set a career-high in times caught stealing…by 3.  His UZR is even the worst it has ever been save for last season when he was clouded by sadness.  29 is not that young apparently.

But that’s not the worst thing.  The worst thing is that everything has been pretty much C-grade for Alex except for the month of May.  In May, Alex hit .344 (.280 otherwise), had a .406 OBP (.325 otherwise), slugged .700 (.419), for a 1.106 OPS (.744 otherwise), hit 8 HRs (almost half of his season total), and hit 16 of his 37 extra-base hits.  What.  The.  Deuce.  Alex Rios is Mark Teahen except for May?!?!?  To put things in perspective, Mark Teahen without May is Bob Zupcic.  (Waiting all year for a Bob Zupcic reference?  You’re welcome!)

...Career years don’t just fall apart…unless of course a season-ruining, career-jeopardizing slump envelops everything around Alex right as he turns 30.  But I’m thinking positive.

Former White Sox Ron Kittle talks baseball

Seeing that Neyer is down at the SABRvention…can someone run some Tracers on these unbelievably flavorful Skittles? Thanks!

On Tony La Russa, Kittle’s first manager in the major leagues:

“My first dealing with Tony, and I don’t even know if he’ll remember that . . . he was (the White Sox’s) Double-A or Triple-A manager and I was in Class A (in spring training) and the catcher got hurt so I was in my catcher’s gear . . . my team had already left; they were at home . . . and it was Double-A vs. Triple-A. So Tony’s at third base (coaching) and the catcher gets hurt, I fill in for him, man at first and third.

“And he goes, ‘We’re not going to steal on you.’ The first thing he said. So I’m thinking, ‘I know what he’s going to do.’

“So the first pitch, they steal on it. The runner takes off and I throw a bullet right at the runner at second base. He ducks, my second baseman catches it, tags him, throws to home and Bobby Molinaro was the guy coming in from third base. And I buried him at home plate. I could have broken his legs. Two hundred and 45 pounds of steel just knocked him down, and it was a double play.

“So Tony’s still at third base and I took the ball and I rifled it and I hit him right in the chest. I go, ‘You won’t steal again, either.’ That’s all I said. And that was our first meeting.”

Cowley: Ozzie-Showalter fued? Forget it

Ah, such sweet sedimentality! Nothing like dredging up the classic…

“(Showalter) never even smelled a jock in the big leagues,’’ Guillen said. “Mr. Baseball never even got a hit in Triple A. I was a better player than him, I have more money than him and I’m better looking than him.’‘

quote.

Fast forward to Thursday: Guillen is older and obviously wiser, downplaying the fact he’ll face off vs. Showalter and the Baltimore Orioles tonight.

...As far as the feud ...

“To me, it was (over),’’ Guillen said. “I don’t think it’s anything. I’m not the type of guy to hold anything against anyone. I did what I did and he did what he did. And we respect each other as a manager and a man.’’

Guillen says Latinos at disadvantage

Good day on the soapbox for Ozzie:

Guillen said it’s unfair that Japanese players are assigned translators when they come to the U.S. to play pro ball, but Latinos are not.

“Very bad. I say, why do we have Japanese interpreters and we don’t have a Spanish one. I always say that. Why do they have that privilege and we don’t?” Guillen said Sunday before Chicago played the Oakland Athletics. “Don’t take this wrong, but they take advantage of us. We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid ... go to the minor leagues, good luck. Good luck. And it’s always going to be like that. It’s never going to change. But that’s the way it is.”

He goes on to talk about how MLB doesn’t pay attention to PED usage in Latin America. He covered plenty today.

White Sox’s GM certainly has been trying

It’s fine… Berkman wasn’t meant for Chicago.

In the last 24 hours of the non-waiver trade deadline, word has come out that Lance Berkman vetoed a trade to the White Sox and the club was “rejected” in its efforts to land Manny Ramirez, according to a Fox Sports report. That is on top of their so-far failed efforts to land Adam Dunn and Prince Fielder.

D-Backs, White Sox nearing deal for [Edwin] Jackson

The Diamondbacks are very close to shipping right-hander Edwin Jackson to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for right-hander Dan Hudson and another prospect.

Hudson, whom the Diamondbacks would have under club control for the next six seasons, had a 3.47 ERA with 108 strikeouts in 93 1/3 innings in 17 starts for Triple-A Charlotte.

Rated as the White Sox’ No. 3 prospect by Baseball America entering the season, Hudson has a 6.32 ERA in three starts in the big leagues this season and a 4.72 ERA in 34 1/3 career innings in the majors.

He figures to slot immediately into the Diamondbacks rotation.

The deal, first reported by FOXSports.com, also will net the Diamondbacks another pitching prospect.

Even after moving right-hander Dan Haren on Sunday and now Jackson, the Diamondbacks remain active on the trade market, with second baseman Kelly Johnson drawing the most interest.

CJ, out. EJ, out. KJ, out? Somewhere, RJ is shuffling his feet…

Teahen behind Kotsay’s bat burning

WTF? Has Ted Williams come back and asked another Mark if he’s ever smelled a bat burning?

Manager Ozzie Guillen likes the way his team has bonded through rough and good times, and Mark Kotsay’s bat burning before the White Sox’s players stretched Tuesday added some amusement before an 11-0 win over Seattle.

Kotsay, who is batting .221 and has hit into several line-drive outs, had two of his bats burned in a small fire pit in an effort to change his fortunes.

“That was (Mark) Teahen’s deal,” Kotsay said after Tuesday night’s game.
“I walked out and saw what was going on and obviously I wanted to find out what was going on, but I had nothing to do with it.”

Kotsay, a 13-year veteran, never recalled a bat burning to change a player’s luck.

“There are quirky things like changing your uniform or your undershirt or your shoes, but never burning bats,” said Kotsay, adding he has changed his routines in the past.

Gavin Floyd and xFIP

After getting shelled by the Texas Rangers on June 2nd, 2010 (2.2 IP, 6 earned) Gavin Floyd’s ERA weighed in at a rotund 6.64, to the uninitiated it would appear that he was having a terrible season, but what is the truth?  During Floyd’s early season struggles it was pretty clear that luck was not on his side as his BABIP in April was 369 and in May slightly better but still high at 343, while his strand rates during those months were 55.8% and 66.8 un-respectively.  Floyd is throwing harder (FB velocity 2009-91.8, 2010-92.4), missing just as many bats (2009 contact%-77.8, 2010-77.0) and even getting hitters to chase his pitches more often (2009 o-swing%-27.6, 2010-28.3).

Someone in my fantasy league made a comment regarding Floyd’s terrible season and I commented “outside of a brutal BABIP and low strand rate, Gavin Floyd has essentially been the same pitcher” to which I was basically ridiculed.  But as we can see from this chart, Gavin Floyd was and is the same pitcher…

Feldman: The Steroid Era: Its Lasting Scar; Alex Rodriguez Almost At 600 Homeruns

As one of friends screedled after downing a dozen squeezed-out bar rag shots…“MY HEADS GOTS A SPLOSION!”

Or, maybe it’s the fact that Thome has only been home run champion once. Babe Ruth was a 12-time home run champion; Griffey took the title four times, as did Aaron and Mays. Rodriguez has won it thrice; Bonds twice and Sosa twice. It’s ironic that most of the recent members represent the bottom of the group in terms of the accolade.

But it is more than that. The six current members of the club have a combined 14 Most Value Player Awards (MVPs). Rodriguez, when he joins, adds another three. Jim Thome doesn’t have one MVP distinction.

Some claim him to be an “underrated All-Time great,” like netdougout.com. And I think that’s a true statement. Just the first and last words really. Jim Thome is completely underrated in baseball standards. He represented a consistent player. And if you dissect the statistics from Thome’s prime, he should have won another home run title (in 2002) and should have been in sole possession of the one he co-won in 2003. Both times, admittedly tainted Alex Rodriguez was matching Thome stride for stride.

But in terms of MVP voting, he never would have won one, even when removing the steroid users. In 1997, he came in 6th place. When removing the steroid users/accused, he would have still come in 6th. In 2001, he came in 7th place, but should have come in 4th place. In 2002, he came in 7th place, but should have come in 4th. And those were his best seasons statistically.