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Overheard and Understood: How King Felix and CC Sabathia Can Both Win

September 28, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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This week, members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will fill out ballots for the BBWAA’s postseason awards. Meanwhile, it’s important for us to point out that voting patterns and criteria evolve.

The Most Valuable Player award, for example, has come to be based on something other than a strict definition of “value” — something many critics of the BBWAA fail to understand. The way I explain it is that the MVP goes to the player who has the greatest impact on the outcome of the league as a whole. That’s my way of tailoring the definition to the way the voting has evolved: giving the award to the player on a playoff team who has the best season, unless none stands out (i.e., Alex Rodriguez in 2003).

Likewise, the Cy Young Award voting continues to evolve. As recently as 2004, Roger Clemens won the National League version by going 18-4 — second in wins and first in winning percentage — while not finishing in the top four in innings, strikeouts or WHIP.

After all, the award is named for a guy who had 511 wins.

But in the past five years, BBWAA voters have de-emphasized wins. In 2008, 18-game winner Tim Lincecum beat out 22-game winner Brandon Webb in the NL, and last year, Lincecum and Zack Greinke won the award with 15 and 16 wins, respectively.

Which brings us to this year’s race. Felix Hernandez has clearly been the best pitcher in the AL. He leads in ERA and innings and is second in strikeouts. But he also plays for the worst offensive team since the 1981 Blue Jays, and thus his record is only 12-12.

 

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Overheard and Understood: Pirates Plunder Depths, but Hope on Horizon

September 21, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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Chris Snyder has seen this before.

The Diamondbacks called him up in mid-August 2004, and he got to see the final seven weeks of a 111-loss season.

The Pirates acquired him at the end of July this season, and he will witness first-hand the final nine weeks of another 100-loss season.

Here’s the thing: Three years after his rookie season, Snyder was in the playoffs.

So could it happen in Pittsburgh?

“There’s a lot of similarities,” Snyder told FanHouse. “How far off [the Pirates are], I don’t know.”

These Pirates probably won’t lose as many games as those Diamondbacks, but they are in one key respect worse — in fact, historically bad.

 

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Overheard and Understood: NL Packed With Standout Rookies

September 14, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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Mike Stanton has 20 home runs. Tyler Colvin has 19. Ike Davis has 18.

Ian Desmond has 58 RBI, 27 doubles and 15 stolen bases. Neil Walker has a .306 average and had an 18-game hitting streak. John Axford has 21 saves. Jon Niese has nine wins, a 3.85 ERA and 134 strikeouts. Jonny Venters has a 1.86 ERA and .188 average allowed in 67 appearances.

None of those players has a chance to be National League Rookie of the Year.

And we never even mentioned Stephen Strasburg.

Sure, the AL Cy Young Award choice is tough. But that’s going to essentially come down to a debate on the value of wins for pitchers.

Picking the NL Rookie of the Year is the much knottier problem.

 

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Overheard and Understood: Cito Gaston Getting Off Managerial Carousel

September 07, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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One could not blame Cito Gaston, with the Blue Jays not in contention for the playoffs, if his mind occasionally wandered to thoughts of the Irish countryside, South African safaris or Sydney harbor.

But as the end of his managerial career approaches, Gaston claims no twinges of wistfulness nor sentimentality — “So far I haven’t,” he told FanHouse last week.

There are indications Toronto will name its next manager within days of the season’s end. Third-base coach Brian Butterfield deserves consideration — if passed over, he could wind up coaching third in Baltimore for Buck Showalter, with whom he worked in New York and Arizona — as does Yankees third-base coach and native Ontarian Rob Thomson. Red Sox bench coach DeMarlo Hale is thought to be on Toronto’s list as well.

General manager Alex Anthopoulos said he hasn’t had the managerial search on the front burner until now and wouldn’t comment on candidates or timing.

“I’m just going to let the process play out,” he said. “It’s an important decision, and it can’t be rushed. I think the timeline will determine itself.”

 

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Overheard and Understood: Postseason Path Will Include Lefty Land Mines

August 31, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

Unfortunately for fans of pennant races, we pretty much know the playoff field, except perhaps for one or two NL spots.

We also pretty much know this. To advance in the postseason, teams (especially American League teams) will have to be able to beat left-handed pitching.

Very good left-handed pitching.

For example, to get past Texas in the first round, a team would have to win a game Cliff Lee starts or sweep the other three. Same with the Yankees and CC Sabathia.

 

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Overheard and Understood: How the Tigers Lost Their Bite

August 24, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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Only avid baseball historians will recall this, but the Tigers were one-half game out of first place in the AL Central at the All-Star break.

That was a mere six weeks ago, but it has been a long six weeks in Detroit.

Since the break, the Tigers have gone 14-25, the worst record in the American League — and that’s having won four straight.

The easy explanation: injuries.

But not the full explanation.

“We don’t make excuses here,” manager Jim Leyland said last week. “Everybody has injuries. We just got blindsided within 24 hours, pretty much, with our third hitter, our six hitter and our seventh hitter.”

 

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Overheard and Understood: Bronson Arroyo Heating Up, As Usual

July 27, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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Certain players start fast. Some hit their stride in the second half.

Cincinnati’s Bronson Arroyo is one of the latter. Despite losing his last two outings — on Monday he allowed just three runs in eight innings at Milwaukee — Arroyo is holding form.

Since mid-June, Arroyo is 5-3 with a 3.29 ERA, allowing only 39 hits in 54 2/3 innings. His overall ERA has dropped from 4.80 to 4.21.

“This time of year,” he said earlier this month, “when it starts heating up and we start getting closer to August, for some reason I always feel like I have good stuff.”

This is nothing new. Over his career, Arroyo’s ERA is nearly a full run better after the All-Star break (3.71) than before (4.70).

 

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Overheard and Understood: ‘The Boss’ Set Unreachable Bar for Yankees

July 20, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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At one point during Friday’s pregame memorial to George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard at Yankee Stadium, the fans began chanting, “Let’s! Go! Yan-kees!” It was as if they were saying, “It’s nice to remember the recently deceased, but we need a win.”

Steinbrenner would have been chanting along with them.

As much as seven World Series and a new palace in the Bronx, Steinbrenner’s legacy is a culture. Not necessarily a healthy one.

“He had a football mentality,” Derek Jeter said last week of Steinbrenner, who long before buying the Yankees was an assistant football coach at Northwestern and Purdue. “He feels as though you should win every single game. You try to tell him, we play 162 games, and it’s a little bit difficult to win every single game. But he really expected that.”

 

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Overheard and Understood: Broken Wings Have Kept Jays From Flying

July 06, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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Shaun MarcumShaun Marcum went back on the disabled list last Friday, another reminder of the fragile nature of pitching. And of what could have been in Toronto.

“I haven’t even thought about it,” Marcum told FanHouse, “but it would be nice.”

Marcum is expected back shortly after the All-Star break, but the pitching talent that has spent time on the Blue Jays DL lately — not even including A.J. Burnett — is staggering.

It was just two years ago that Toronto led the AL in team ERA, starters’ ERA and relievers’ ERA.

And then …

 

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Overheard and Understood: Mr. Smith Goes Shopping

June 29, 2010   Ed Price   No comments

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Bill Smith‘s first task as Twins general manager was to trade away his ace.

Less than three years later, who knows, he may trade for one.

But Smith insists his job hasn’t really changed.

“We always want to be a team that is successful because of player development and scouting,” he told FanHouse. “If you have good players coming, it gives you prospects to deal for players that can help you. At the same time it gives you prospects to replace players.

“We always want to be a team that’s known as a scouting-and-development organization.”

 

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