Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

When Manny Ramirez comes back from his suspension - I hope he hears the "cheater, cheater, hormone eater" chant every time he comes to bat. That chant is the best... Did you know that Tris Speaker actually had more triples in his career (222) than strikeouts (220)?.... Two blondes walk into a bank - you think one of them would have seen it... Today the Boston Globe's Nick Carfardo had this throw-away line, "Evan Longoria is turning into Mike Schmidt before our eyes." Umm - no. After his first 145 games (at age 23) - Schmidt had just 19 HR and a sub .200 batting average. After 152 games into his career - the 23-year old Longoria already has 38 HR (basically double Schmidt's output) while hitting at a .292 clip. Longoria is actually off to a much better start of career than Schmidt... Did you know that no player has ever reached 3,000 hits during his tenure with the Yankees? Gerhig, Ruth, Mantle, Dimaggio, or Mattingly never reached 3,000 for the Pinstripes. Derek Jeter is at 2569 for the Yankees but will his contract situation keep him from 3,000?... Johnny Damon hit his 9th HR of the season today for the Yankees. As I've mentioned before - it is very important for the Yankees to re-sign Damon. The fact that 7 of the 9 HR have been hit in the new Yankee Stadium underlines how important he can be to that club in that park... The Boston Trifecta - YES!!!!

Baseball Awards

With Cliff Lee winning his 20th game he has all but guaranteed that he'll be the AL Cy Young Award winner. That got me thinking - who gets the rest of the awards? Here's who I think is most deserving at this late point in the season.

AL Cy Young - Cliff Lee Cleveland
AL MVP - Justin Morneau Minnesota*
AL Rookie of the Year - Evan Longoria Tampa Bay
AL Manager of the Year - Joe Maddon Tampa Bay

NL Cy Young - Tim Lincecum San Francisco
NL MVP - Albert Pujols St. Louis
NL Rookie of the Year - Geovany Soto Chicago
NL Manager of the Year - Lou Piniella Chicago

* - A real tight race but Morneau currently edges Boston's Kevin Youkilis in my mind right now

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

I think if the Rookie of the Year Awards were given today - then the Cubs Geovany Soto would win in the NL and the Rays Evan Longoria would win in the AL. Jair Jurrjens was the leader for the NL award a little while ago but has since cooled off.... Tim Wakefield has been an under appreciated hero for the Red Sox this season. A quality start in baseball is when the starting pitcher goes at least 6 innings and gives up 3 runs or less. Wakefield has 16 quality starts in the 23 starts he has made this season. Only two pitchers in the AL have more quality starts (Jeremy Guthrie and James Shields). The ability of Wakefield to save the Boston bullpen from wear and tear is a very important but as I said unappreciated factor in the Red Sox being poised to make a run at another playoff run... You would think that a AAA pitcher who is 13-4 with a 2.89 ERA would be a hot commodity for pitching starved teams - right? Wrong. That pitcher in question is Charlie Zink who plays for the Pawtucket Red Sox. His problem is that he's a knuckleball pitcher. It seems nobody wants to take a risk on a knuckleball pitcher. Have people learned nothing from Tim Wakefield's example?... Greg Maddux needs 10 more innings to pass Bert Blyleven's 4970 IP for 13th place on the all-time list. The reason Maddux will be a sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer while Blyleven remains on the cusp of election after so many years is because Maddux got 353 wins and 222 losses out of those innings while Blyleven managed just a 287-250 record. I'm not Joe Morgan and I know "wins" are an iffy stat but I am just pointing out the obvious. When I watched Maddux pitch - I thought I was watching a Hall of Famer. I never thought Blyleven was as good as Louis Tiant