Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Chipper Jones currently leads the NL in batting with his .337 mark. Jones is 35-years old and if he won the batting title - he'd be one of the oldest players ever to do so. The oldest player to win the batting title was Ted Williams who won his last batting title at age 39.... Al Kaline of the Tigers was the youngest player to ever win a batting title. Kaline was 20 years, 9 months and six days when he won the title in 1955... The race for the NL Cy Young is pretty tight. Who do you chose? Jake Peavy has 14 wins, leads the league in strikeouts and is second in ERA but he plays in the uber pitchers park and playing in San Diego doesn't enhance his Q rating. Brandon Webb has 14 wins, leads the league in innings pitched and complete games and is second in strikeouts and fourth in ERA, however, Webb is the complete opposite of flashy and his workman like approach may not be sexy enough to woo the voters. Cole Hamels has 14 wins and even though he plays in the biggest bandbox in baseball - he still has a decent 3.50 ERA. What about old man John Smoltz who is 12-6 with a 3.01 ERA? My guess is that first place votes could go to as many as six players. The person to take home the award will probably be the guy who gets the most second and third place votes... Mike Lowell has 90 RBI and his career high is 105 which he set in 2003 when he was 29-years old. I'm rooting for Lowell to set a new career high this year and to be re-signed by the Red Sox... David Ortiz hit 2 HR last night to give him 23 for the season. Last year he hit 54 - so I'd say he's a bit behind last year's pace.