Lots to cover:
1. Trades. Matt Holliday was traded from Denver to Oakland for a package of three players. The A’s get an MVP caliber hitter, albeit one that will likely not play more than one season in Oakland. To get him, the A’s gave up relief pitcher Huston Street, back-end starter Greg Smith, and outfield prospect Carlos Gonzalez. Here’s what I don’t get: what was Colorado’s hurry? Why rush to trade your best hitter when the off-season hasn’t even begun in earnest? Who knows what else the trade market could’ve yielded the Rockies. I assume they could’ve done better than a demoted closer, a #4 starter, and a very raw outfield prospect.
2. Farewell Trevor? It looks like MLB’s all-time saves leader has pitched his last game for the San Diego Padres. I’m sure someone will offer Hoffman the contract he thinks he deserves but, at this point in his career, I’m not sure a contender will be that interested in a 41-year-old closer.
3. Awards. Starting yesterday and lasting through the rest of the week, baseball will begin doling out the 2008 hardware. As predicted, Evan Longoria and Geovany Soto won the AL and NY Rookie of the Year and in both cases it wasn’t even close. Longoria won unanimously, the first AL rookie to do so since Nomar Garciaparra in 1997. In Soto’s case, he took the NL vote by the largest margin since Albert Pujols won unanimously in 2001. Further, Soto is the first catcher to win the award since Mike Piazza in 1993 and joins an elite list of only seven other catchers to win the ROY vote (Johnny Bench, Earl Williams, Benito Santiago, Mike Piazza, Thurman Munson, Carlton Fisk, and Sandy Alomar Jr. are the others).
4. BBWAA Inanity. By now, everyone that knows me knows three things: I love baseball, I hate Bud Selig, and I hate the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (CAUTION: the BBWAA website is a blinding shade of green that will hurt your eyes. BSD does not have the money to cover your medical expenses if you go blind). Without rehashing all the horrible and idiotic decisions they’ve made over the years (cough, 2006 AL MVP, cough), yesterday’s was perhaps the worst.
Edinson Volquez was Cincinnati’s best pitcher last year. He was also, technically, not a rookie.
“A rookie is formally defined as a player with less than 130 at-bats, a pitcher with less than 50 innings pitched, or anyone with less than 45 days on any Major League roster.”
If you clicked the link to Volquez’s stats, you probably noticed that he logged 80 innings over parts of three seasons with the Texas Rangers. So, if he logged 80 innings, how on earth did he manage to finish in fourth place in the NL ROY vote?
See, this is why I hate the BBWAA: these voters just arbitrarily decide when to follow the rules and when to ignore them. Did anyone in baseball even notice this? It might not have changed the results of the vote, but you never know if another rookie might’ve had a bonus clause in his contract based on the percentage of votes he got. What if these BBWAA clowns just cost another rookie a few thousand dollars?
5. Fond Farewell. Former Brooklyn Dodger lefty Preacher Roe passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Roe was a mainstay on the great late 1940’s and early 1950’s teams for “Dem Bums” along with guys like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella and Duke Snider. Roe’s best seasons were from 1949-1951 where he averaged 240 innings and 19 wins a year and finished fifth in the 1951 NL MVP vote with a 22-3 record for the Dodgers. Most baseball fans don’t know Roe’s name anymore but for fans of baseball history, Roe was a colorful character and one of Dodgers GM Branch Rickey’s most astute finds. RIP, Preacher.
(Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, and Preacher Roe)
1. Trades. Matt Holliday was traded from Denver to Oakland for a package of three players. The A’s get an MVP caliber hitter, albeit one that will likely not play more than one season in Oakland. To get him, the A’s gave up relief pitcher Huston Street, back-end starter Greg Smith, and outfield prospect Carlos Gonzalez. Here’s what I don’t get: what was Colorado’s hurry? Why rush to trade your best hitter when the off-season hasn’t even begun in earnest? Who knows what else the trade market could’ve yielded the Rockies. I assume they could’ve done better than a demoted closer, a #4 starter, and a very raw outfield prospect.
2. Farewell Trevor? It looks like MLB’s all-time saves leader has pitched his last game for the San Diego Padres. I’m sure someone will offer Hoffman the contract he thinks he deserves but, at this point in his career, I’m not sure a contender will be that interested in a 41-year-old closer.
3. Awards. Starting yesterday and lasting through the rest of the week, baseball will begin doling out the 2008 hardware. As predicted, Evan Longoria and Geovany Soto won the AL and NY Rookie of the Year and in both cases it wasn’t even close. Longoria won unanimously, the first AL rookie to do so since Nomar Garciaparra in 1997. In Soto’s case, he took the NL vote by the largest margin since Albert Pujols won unanimously in 2001. Further, Soto is the first catcher to win the award since Mike Piazza in 1993 and joins an elite list of only seven other catchers to win the ROY vote (Johnny Bench, Earl Williams, Benito Santiago, Mike Piazza, Thurman Munson, Carlton Fisk, and Sandy Alomar Jr. are the others).
4. BBWAA Inanity. By now, everyone that knows me knows three things: I love baseball, I hate Bud Selig, and I hate the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (CAUTION: the BBWAA website is a blinding shade of green that will hurt your eyes. BSD does not have the money to cover your medical expenses if you go blind). Without rehashing all the horrible and idiotic decisions they’ve made over the years (cough, 2006 AL MVP, cough), yesterday’s was perhaps the worst.
Edinson Volquez was Cincinnati’s best pitcher last year. He was also, technically, not a rookie.
“A rookie is formally defined as a player with less than 130 at-bats, a pitcher with less than 50 innings pitched, or anyone with less than 45 days on any Major League roster.”
If you clicked the link to Volquez’s stats, you probably noticed that he logged 80 innings over parts of three seasons with the Texas Rangers. So, if he logged 80 innings, how on earth did he manage to finish in fourth place in the NL ROY vote?
See, this is why I hate the BBWAA: these voters just arbitrarily decide when to follow the rules and when to ignore them. Did anyone in baseball even notice this? It might not have changed the results of the vote, but you never know if another rookie might’ve had a bonus clause in his contract based on the percentage of votes he got. What if these BBWAA clowns just cost another rookie a few thousand dollars?
5. Fond Farewell. Former Brooklyn Dodger lefty Preacher Roe passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Roe was a mainstay on the great late 1940’s and early 1950’s teams for “Dem Bums” along with guys like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella and Duke Snider. Roe’s best seasons were from 1949-1951 where he averaged 240 innings and 19 wins a year and finished fifth in the 1951 NL MVP vote with a 22-3 record for the Dodgers. Most baseball fans don’t know Roe’s name anymore but for fans of baseball history, Roe was a colorful character and one of Dodgers GM Branch Rickey’s most astute finds. RIP, Preacher.
(Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, and Preacher Roe)
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