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
Chris Lynch's slanted view on sports, politics and entertainment. Please send thoughts or comments to chris.lynch@gmail.com
Showing posts with label Geovany Soto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geovany Soto. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Labels:
Cliff Lee,
Evan Longoria,
Geovany Soto,
Joe Maddon,
Justin Morneau,
Lou Piniella,
Tim Lincecum
Sunday, August 10, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam
Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.
It looks like rookie Geovany Soto will be the Opening Day starter for the Cubs. Two thoughts on this. First you have to wonder how having a rookie catcher will impact the effectiveness of the pitching staff. People who know praise catchers like Jason Varitek for their ability to handle pitchers and call games. I'm not sure how much stock I put into that but it will be an interesting situation to monitor especially since team ace Carlos Zambrano is a bit of a head strong player who could use some "handling". The second thing to mention is the fact that Soto seems VERY good with the bat. He had 26 HR and hit .353 in 110 games for Iowa last season. He could be an excellent fantasy baseball sleeper pick.... I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Matt Stairs. In the off-season Stairs coaches hockey for John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, Maine. You know that has to resonate with Toronto GM JP Riccardi who when he was with the Oakland A's used to spend his off-seasons coaching high school basketball for Holy Name in Worcester, Mass... The experts are pegging the NL Central to be a two team race between the Cubs and Brewers (the Cubs are 10 to 11 favorites to win the NL Central while the Brewers odds are pegged at 9 to 5). The Brewers should be much better defensively this year. The three areas of concern I'd have for the Brewers are Eric Gagne as closer (first he blew-up in Boston and then he gets his name in the Mitchell Report); the starting pitching depth and finally the contract status of JJ Hardy. The team and Hardy have until February 18th to work out a deal before it goes to arbitration. Hardy is asking for $3 million and the team counters with a $2.4 million offer. I'm guessing that a deal is reached within the next week but you never know. If the Brewers let this go to arbitration the lingering bad feelings could be a cloud over the start of the season.
Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.
It looks like rookie Geovany Soto will be the Opening Day starter for the Cubs. Two thoughts on this. First you have to wonder how having a rookie catcher will impact the effectiveness of the pitching staff. People who know praise catchers like Jason Varitek for their ability to handle pitchers and call games. I'm not sure how much stock I put into that but it will be an interesting situation to monitor especially since team ace Carlos Zambrano is a bit of a head strong player who could use some "handling". The second thing to mention is the fact that Soto seems VERY good with the bat. He had 26 HR and hit .353 in 110 games for Iowa last season. He could be an excellent fantasy baseball sleeper pick.... I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Matt Stairs. In the off-season Stairs coaches hockey for John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, Maine. You know that has to resonate with Toronto GM JP Riccardi who when he was with the Oakland A's used to spend his off-seasons coaching high school basketball for Holy Name in Worcester, Mass... The experts are pegging the NL Central to be a two team race between the Cubs and Brewers (the Cubs are 10 to 11 favorites to win the NL Central while the Brewers odds are pegged at 9 to 5). The Brewers should be much better defensively this year. The three areas of concern I'd have for the Brewers are Eric Gagne as closer (first he blew-up in Boston and then he gets his name in the Mitchell Report); the starting pitching depth and finally the contract status of JJ Hardy. The team and Hardy have until February 18th to work out a deal before it goes to arbitration. Hardy is asking for $3 million and the team counters with a $2.4 million offer. I'm guessing that a deal is reached within the next week but you never know. If the Brewers let this go to arbitration the lingering bad feelings could be a cloud over the start of the season.
Labels:
Chicago Cubs,
Geovany Soto,
JJ Hardy,
Matt Stairs,
Milwaukee Brewers
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