By Dalton Del Don
The following is nothing more than me getting random thoughts off my chest, some about sports, some not.
Can you believe Brian Sabean is the longest tenured GM in baseball? I can’t quite wrap my mind around this. It’s like Nickelback selling the most copies in a year, or “Paranormal Activity” (which was terrible, by the way) killing at the box office – why are we consistently rewarding garbage? I’ve seen some people call his new two-year contract a no-brainer, because the Giants won 88 games this year despite an offense that was in the bottom five in runs scored. Whaatt?! Why do you think the offense sucked? Because Sabean constructed it. You do realize Freddy Sanchez was hurt at the time of last year’s trade, right? This wasn’t bad luck or anything. And how about the Ryan Garko deal? I’ll call it right now: Sabean will give Jason Bay a contract in excess of $60 million. After all, he’s a perfect fit for who Sabean targets: someone coming off (arguably) their career-year, thanks in large part to a hitter’s park during a contract-year. Bay is also more than 30 years old (a huge prerequisite for Sabean) and is one of the two or three worst defensive outfielders in baseball. Jackpot!
I must admit, I’ll miss Steve Phillips on ESPN. It just always fascinated me that a one time general manager for a MLB team with such a high payroll knew so little about baseball. He was always one of my favorite interviews.
It’s safe to say Joe Girardi is a bit of a micromanager. Pinch running for Alex Rodriguez in the ninth inning of a one run game for a guy with five SBs on the year with a lefty on the mound has to go down as one of the bigger head-scratchers I have ever witnessed in a baseball game. Above all, I was rooting for an extra innings game with Freddy Guzman up in a crucial situation rather than ARod.
I know you always hear not to judge spring training stats, but I must admit, I’ve let some performances sway my opinion in fantasy drafts. While I still believe those numbers shouldn’t be totally ignored, there won’t be a better example of why to mostly look past them than Zack Greinke in 2009. Do you realize he allowed 29 runs over 28.1 spring training innings? To put that in perspective, he didn’t allow his 29th run in the regular season until mid-July. It was later revealed Greinke was throwing his changeup almost exclusively in spring training, as he was more concerned with working on a new pitch than he was results. Speaking of Greinke, I’ll give my MLB awards later on in this article.
This may be old, but I still can’t get enough of it. Possibly the best moment of the 2009 baseball season.
I was shocked to learn Brad Lidge has the second most saves in postseason history. I mean, I know the stat hasn’t been around forever, and there haven’t been that many dynasties in baseball, and the wild card is relatively new, but still, Brad Lidge?
I know the general consensus is that while Matt Millen was so obviously an awful GM, he is a good TV analyst. And while this may or may not have been true in the past, he seems pretty brutal to me right now. It’s often cringe worthy, actually. Dude has no clue what he’s talking about.
I understand he doesn’t have any ACLs or whatever, but again, how in the hell did DeJuan Blair fall to the seventh pick of the second round? It’s not luck why teams like the Spurs continue to be good for such long stretches, as they don’t try to get cute or overthink things. Blair is a future star in the league, and it’s laughable how many teams passed him up.
The Cavs are off to a slow start, and Mike Brown obviously needs to get fired. But the one variable with Cleveland this season is that with LeBron James’ impending free agency, don’t be surprised if the Cavs go all out at the trade deadline this year. Expect a much different looking team (with a possible added star) come the second half of the year.
With Tim Donaghy’s latest revelation essentially saying the Kings should have beaten the Lakers in 2002, how am I supposed to feel as someone who lives 60 miles from Arco Arena? Seriously, this story has been UNDERRATED. Officials/refs/umpires get things wrong all the time, but name me one other incident in which after the fact it’s been revealed they did so ON PURPOSE. I’m not the type to dwell on the past, but really, this is a travesty. At minimum, David Stern needs to make it up to me by giving all refs this memo – quit calling so many fouls on Greg Oden! After all, he’s on two of my fantasy teams. It would at least be a step in the right direction for redemption.
Did you know that black widows are responsible for about two deaths per year, while mosquitoes are responsible for about two million deaths per year?
Did you know castmembers from “The Hills” make upwards of $90,000 per episode? Where are all those mosquitoes when we need them?
Did you know I was up 31-3 against the spread last week with the Dolphins. And lost.
Hope you’re watching “Modern Family” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” these days – easily two of the funniest shows on television.
My favorite part of the year 2009 so far has to be balloon boy. I’m sure that kid is going to grow up to live a perfectly normal and productive life with his upbringing.
Short, definitive, rash conclusions about football: Sidney Rice and Miles Austin will both be ranked as top-10 fantasy WRs next year…The Cardinals’ defense will be a fantasy difference maker over the rest of the season…Chris Wells will go higher than Matt Forte in fantasy drafts next year…If the over/under for total number of losses for the Saints and Colts combined with the amount of wins for the Bucs was 3.5 this year, I’d take the under.
My MLB awards:
AL Cy Young:
1. Zack Greinke
2. Roy Halladay
3. Felix Hernandez
4. Justin Verlander
5. Jon Lester
Greinke is the fairly obvious choice, but Halladay is closer than most think. He faced the tougher schedule (third highest aggregate OPS in MLB), had the superior K:BB ratio (5.94 to 4.75) and the better xFIP (3.24 to 3.36). Still, Greinke’s 203 ERA+ was easily the best in baseball, his K rate was far better than Halladay’s, and he had to deal with the worst defense in the league by a wide margin.
NL Cy Young:
1. Tim Lincecum
2. Javier Vazquez
3. Chris Carpenter
4. Adam Wainwright
5. Dan Haren
Comments: I’m sure I’ll get criticized for being a homer here, but the stats don’t lie. Lincecum was pretty much better in every conceivable category this year compared to his Cy Young winning campaign last season, and there isn’t exactly a worthy alternative. Timmy’s 10.4 K/9 mark easily led major league baseball, and he also showed improved command. His changeup was the single most effective pitch in all of MLB in 2009, and his ability to limit homers is starting to become a trend rather than fluke. Lincecum held opponents to an MLB-low .561 OPS this year. To put that in perspective, the lowest OPS by a batter (who qualified) this season was Emilio Bonifacio at .611. As for Vazquez, his 2.89 xFIP was actually the best this year, and he dealt with a far inferior defense than the Giants’. Still, he gave up too many homers to take home the hardware. As for Carpenter, despite the modest K rate (6.7/9), he likely would have received my vote if not for his oblique injury. But the fact remains he threw 32.2 fewer innings than Lincecum, which is obviously significant. Wainwright will probably win the award, and while his year was impressive, he was far from the best pitcher in the NL in 2009.
AL MVP
1. Joe Mauer
2. Zack Greinke
3. Ben Zobrist
4. Derek Jeter
5. Roy Halladay
Comments: The easiest pick by far. Mauer finished with the best OPS in the AL by 70 points while playing the toughest position on the field defensively. He led the league in batting average, OBP and slugging percentage. There’s really not even much more to say. I was forced to put two pitchers on this list mainly because of a lack of viable alternatives with hitters. Franklin Gutierrez was a whole lot more valuable than most people probably realize, thanks to some of the best defense from a center fielder you’ll ever see.
NL MVP
1. Albert Pujols
2. Hanley Ramirez
3. Chase Utley
4. Tim Lincecum
5. Troy Tulowitzki
Comments: Pujols is baseball’s best hitter, but it’s worth noting that of the top-five OPSs in the NL this year, all are first baseman. Further, nine of the top-14 OPSs played first base. It’s simply an easy position to find production (unless you’re Brian Sabean). That’s not to take anything from Pujols, who deserves to win because he’s also a fine defender and possibly the best baserunner in the game as well, but Ramirez’s sixth-best OPS (BA heavy, which is more valuable than BB heavy) while playing solid defense at shortstop deserves a ton of credit, especially coming in a pitcher’s park. Utley, meanwhile, not only was productive with the bat, but he was also hands down the best defensive second baseman in baseball.
AL ROY
1. Brett Anderson
2. Andrew Bailey
3. Elvis Andrus
4. Gordon Beckham
5. Nolan Reimold
Comments: Bailey was awesome and one of the best relievers in the game during his rookie season, finishing with a 1.84 ERA and 0.88 WHIP over 83.1 innings pitched (a lot for a reliever). He’s deserving, but teammate Anderson was almost as impressive, and he did so as a starter. In fact, Anderson’s xFIP (3.80) ranked in the top-20 in all of baseball – ahead of the likes of CC Sabathia, Clayton Kershaw, John Lackey, Johan Santana and Matt Cain, among many others. And for those who like more traditional stats, Anderson posted a 3.48 ERA and 1.19 WHIP with 86 Ks over 88 innings after the All-Star break. Andrus didn’t embarrass himself as a hitter while going 33-for-39 on SB attempts and playing fantastic defense at shortstop. After that, it gets murky. If you want to argue Rick Porcello, Jeff Neimann and/or Ricky Romero over Beckham or Reimold, I’d understand.
NL ROY
1. J.A. Happ
2. Tommy Hanson
3. Chris Coghlan
4. Andrew McCutchen
5. Garrett Jones
Comments: Hanson had the better component stats and is a far better bet moving forward, but the fact remains Happ matched his ERA while throwing 40 more innings. Coghlan was one of the best hitters in MLB during the second half, but his defense in left field was pretty abysmal. Jones had the highest OPS, and his 21 homers over just 314 at-bats were awfully valuable, but he really only put in about a half season’s work, and teammate McCutchen gets the slight edge because he was a league average defender in center field. But this is as deep of a rookie class as I can remember, as Colby Rasmus was the best defensive center fielder in the league this year. Dexter Fowler was also worthy of consideration, and Casey McGehee posted an .859 OPS. Randy Wells was pretty good as well.
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