Today's the big day when they announce the winners of the Most Valuable Player awards, but yesterday was Cy Young results day. Everyday is Halolinks day thought:
Another day, another award announcement. Yesterday's award winners were for the 2013 Cy Young. You know, the two pitchers who the baseball writers tell us were the best last season...Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer win 2013 Cy Young Awards - MLB.com. "Both products of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft's first round won with dominance similar to what they delivered in the regular season, Kershaw taking the NL just one vote short of a unanimous outcome and Scherzer taking 28 of the possible 30 first-place votes in the AL. " Unlike with the majority of the awards given out recently, I'm in agreement with this year's winners:
If you're curious, here's how each of the baseball writers voted in the A.L.: 2013 AL Cy Young. The two representatives for the LA region voted like this (sorry, but I've never heard of these two guys):
J.P. Hoornstra - Los Angeles News Group - LA: Sale, Darvish, Scherzer, Hernandez, Sanchez
Anthony Witrado - Sporting News - LA: Scherzer, Iwakuma, Sale, Sanchez, Colon
Over in the N.L., the voters voted their votes like his: 2013 NL Cy Young. And the LA Marks cast the following ballots:
Mark Saxon - ESPNLos Angeles.com - LA: Kershaw, Fernandez, Harvey, Lee Kimbrel
Mark "You've Left the Yard" Whicker - Orange County Register - LA: Kershaw, Wainwright, Kimbrel, Fernandez, Harvey
Deadspin is trying to make a point about the Hall of Fame voting by attempting to purchase someone's ballot. I hope they're successful:Are You A Hall Of Fame Voter? We'd Like To Buy Your Vote. "If you're a 10-year member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, we want to give you cash in exchange for allowing Deadspin's readers to fill out your ballot. We're not entirely sure what the market value of a vote is, so we'd like you to contact us—at marchman@deadspin.com, or in the comments below—and name a price, so that we can start negotiations." There's no place for write-in votes, but if there were, I'd like to see Bobby Grich get a vote (or 200).
Rob Neyer makes a very good point with this post: The biggest thing nobody talks about - Baseball Nation. "Why do I think this should be the most prestigious award of all? Because executives play a far larger role in what actually happens on the field than anyone who's actually on the field. When you look at the list of past winners, it's essentially a list of the men who have shaped most of the game's history, both on and off the field. Men like Branch Rickey, Branch Rickey, Walter O'Malley, Bill Veeck, and Billy Beane. These are the men who do things we can study, rather than just admire for their athletic skills." It's true, the baseball executives have the biggest impact on their teams' success, and the good exec's moves will last a lot longer than a manager's or player's.
Bill Soneman's quote within this article is very interesting: Darin Erstad honored with induction into Arizona Fall League Hall of Fame - angels.com. ""Everyone knows about the five tools you always look for in a player," said Stoneman, still a senior advisor to Angels owner Arte Moreno. "But the players themselves also know about two other tools that are equally important -- what's in your heart, and what's in your head. "I was quick to figure out Darin was someone with the character to help bring a team together. He was a player's player." Yet, with that skillset, one would think Erstad would be the perfect type for a job in the dugout. Curious as to why that hasn't happened.
Yesterday, I gave Jon Heyman some crap about his posts lacking anything significant or "concrete" -- although I didn't use those exact words -- however, one of today's articles Heyman does a good job of including some interesting facts regarding Ervin Santana's quest for a big payday: Sticker shock? Santana's agents make their case for $112M - CBSSports.com. "Stringfellow, White and Alou come armed with data that shows, at least over one- and three-year periods, Santana and Greinke are a lot closer than one might think. Greinke, we all know, received a $147 million, six-year Dodgers deal, with a three-year opt out. And don't think for a second the Dodgers aren't thrilled with that deal, by the way. Greinke is considered a star, and Santana usually isn't. But over the three years heading into their free agency, they are remarkably and shockingly similar.Greinke had a 3.83 ERA, 106 ERA plus and 1.215 WHIP. Santana had a 3.85 ERA, 101 ERA plus and 1.208 WHIP. All the other numbers are very close, too. Except for strikeouts, where Greinke leads."
How about this tweet...which one of you HHers is HBMike27?:
The beard has nothing to do with the decision regarding Brian Wilson signing with the Halos: Yankees will not sign Brian Wilson ... because he won't shave his beard - CBSSports.com. "With Mariano Rivera calling it a career and GM Brian Cashman saying he's "not sure" if setup man David Robertson is ready for the ninth inning, the Yankees figure to be in the market for a closer this winter. Joe Nathan and Grant Balfour are free agents, among others, but we can cross former Giants closer Brian Wilson off the list." But I hope they don't just because I don't want to spend the next couple of years following Wilson's antics.
Scott Boras has gone off the deep end. Yesterday he spouted about Kendrys Morales' numbers being the new whatever, and now he's completely off base with his assessment of Chicago Cubs baseball: Scott Boras bashes New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros - ESPN. "The Cubs were 15th in payroll this year at about $101 million. Boras said the Rickets family, which bought the team four years ago, has put too much emphasis on the redevelopment of Wrigley Field and not enough on major league payroll. "You're developing the infrastructure, but fans don't come to see seats, grass, cement. They come to see players," he said. "They've done a great job in the draft and development and they've got a really good core of young players coming, but it is just not what's expected when you have a (family) buy a major-market club." I think Boras would be right if he were talking about most teams, except Wrigley Field is itself a tourist attraction, one that happens to house a baseball team. Much like Fenway Park, people would still show up at Wrigley regardless of how well the Cubs are playing.
Insert obligitory "balls to face" joke here:
I missed this last week, but here's an interesting write-up about the blog that started it all at SB Nation: A Decade of AN Awesome Community - Athletics Nation Turns 10 - Athletics Nation. "And yeah, this little A's site eventually joined up with five more baseball sites to form the earliest version of SB Nation back in late 2004 (I don't think they officially "launched" on the Scoop platform until early 2005). Those sites were casually referred to as the original six of the network. A few of those great folks are still with us today (Hi Grant and Al- two of my favorite people ever!)." Congratulations to Athletics Nation.
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