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Say "Hello" to the front-runner of the American League MVP Race
Connecticoin
Posts: 12,542 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
Connecticoin
Posts: 12,542 ✭✭✭✭✭
Connecticoin
Posts: 12,542 ✭✭✭✭✭
Connecticoin
Posts: 12,542 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
and the writers like to share the wealth anyway.
This guy is an absolute freak of baseball nature. Everyone on this board is built better then him, yet he hits the freak out of the ball,
and is taken from the mold of guys like Paul O'Neill and Lou Pinella.
<< <i>I don't think they give it to him right after he won ROY last year. .. >>
Then Youkilis gets it!
Pedroia is also a contender for the Gold Glove.
Anyone notice how close Ozzie the trash mouth stands to fans (two kids) last night? Anyone read lips? When Piersynski missed the signal to chat it up to allow the bullpen to get a few more pitches in, I thought he was gonna come unglued...he did manage a couple of GDs...really a classless guy.
Enjoy da game, hope the rookie has his stuff.
HOF SIGNED FOOTBALL RCS
He may get a vote or 2
Steve
<< <i>Do you guys think a Rays player might be deserving after their turnaround? personally I dont know which one, but one of em? >>
none have stats that compare to people like Quentin, Kinsler, Hamilton, Youkilis, Pedroia, or even Arod. Truly a team effort by those magnificent bastages.
<< <i>You guys are kidding right? >>
It is so hard to tell with Red Sox fans, isn't it. I sure hope they are, he's not in the top 10, or close to it.
This is going to be a year where a lot of people are in the race, though, since the best players are mostly on teams that won't make the playoffs or are DHing. THe reason I think they have to be kidding is that Youkilis is - easily - the best Red Sox player this year, and he does have to be considered one of the front-runners for the MVP. Bradley is having the runaway best year at the plate, but probably not by enough for a DH on a losing team to win it, and A-Rod is having his typical MVP-quality year but he won't win a fourth in a down year for his team. Quentin will get serious consideration if the White Sox win their division, and Lee will if the Indians do. Starting pitchers don't win the MVP often, and only when their teams win. If history is any guide, Josh Hamilton will get a lot more votes than you might think, or that he deserves, because he is the RBI leader. The list of people who have won the MVP for absolutely no other reason is shamefully long (and most of them are Red Sox).
<< <i>
<< <i>You guys are kidding right? >>
It is so hard to tell with Red Sox fans, isn't it. I sure hope they are, he's not in the top 10, or close to it.
This is going to be a year where a lot of people are in the race, though, since the best players are mostly on teams that won't make the playoffs or are DHing. THe reason I think they have to be kidding is that Youkilis is - easily - the best Red Sox player this year, and he does have to be considered one of the front-runners for the MVP. Bradley is having the runaway best year at the plate, but probably not by enough for a DH on a losing team to win it, and A-Rod is having his typical MVP-quality year but he won't win a fourth in a down year for his team. Quentin will get serious consideration if the White Sox win their division, and Lee will if the Indians do. Starting pitchers don't win the MVP often, and only when their teams win. If history is any guide, Josh Hamilton will get a lot more votes than you might think, or that he deserves, because he is the RBI leader. The list of people who have won the MVP for absolutely no other reason is shamefully long (and most of them are Red Sox). >>
with 15 homers and 65 RBi's and hits 300 out of that spot is an MVP
to them.
Lets not over state this guy. Good? You bet, MVP material? not yet.
Steve
edited to add the current pos he plays, when i first saw the kid he was a SS,
Prolly not good enough to hack it there so they moved him?
Oh and the Wharton school of business has done a paper on this and they think you guys are nutz.
Steve
Pedroia is having a great year and leading the AL in BA, Hits, and Runs. He should be a serious candidate for MVP and what the heck does winning ROY last year have to do with this year if the writers are unbiased? He has been clutch as they come. Reminds me of a young Derek Jeter his first two years. Although Derek is better looking.
"The answer was in the Patriots eyes. Gone were the swagger and c0ck sure smirks, replaced by downcast eyes and heads in hands. For his poise and leadership Eli Manning was named the game's MVP. The 2007 Giants were never perfect nor meant to be. They were fighters, scrappers....now they could be called something else, World Champions."
<< <i>
<< <i>You guys are kidding right? >>
It is so hard to tell with Red Sox fans, isn't it. I sure hope they are, he's not in the top 10, or close to it.
This is going to be a year where a lot of people are in the race, though, since the best players are mostly on teams that won't make the playoffs or are DHing. THe reason I think they have to be kidding is that Youkilis is - easily - the best Red Sox player this year, and he does have to be considered one of the front-runners for the MVP. Bradley is having the runaway best year at the plate, but probably not by enough for a DH on a losing team to win it, and A-Rod is having his typical MVP-quality year but he won't win a fourth in a down year for his team. Quentin will get serious consideration if the White Sox win their division, and Lee will if the Indians do. Starting pitchers don't win the MVP often, and only when their teams win. If history is any guide, Josh Hamilton will get a lot more votes than you might think, or that he deserves, because he is the RBI leader. The list of people who have won the MVP for absolutely no other reason is shamefully long (and most of them are Red Sox). >>
Here's a shocker - hold on to your hats, but dallasactuary hates another Red Sox player! What a shocking turn of events this is!
You hate the Red Sox, we get it.
<< <i>Here's a shocker - hold on to your hats, but dallasactuary hates another Red Sox player! What a shocking turn of events this is!
You hate the Red Sox, we get it. >>
I don't hate the Red Sox, I hate overrated players. That a disproportionate number of them are Red Sox is just a fact of life, but rest assured that I am as disgusted with George Sisler and Jack Morris as I am with Jim Rice. And I don't hate Pedroia, I just don't understand why any Red Sox fan would think he belonged in an MVP discussion when Youkilis is so much better.
But as a gesture of good will:
1. Carl Yastrzemski is terribly underrated; he's often compared with Kaline but he was much better, and he's one of my favorite players
2. Dwight Evans and Fred Lynn were both much better than people think; as Red Sox fans perhaps you will recognize the irony that this is mostly due to over-adulation of Jim Rice
3. Wade Boggs was awesome
4. Carlton Fisk is a top-tier HOFer
5. Red Sox pitchers are almost all underrated, even and sometimes especially by the Red Sox fans who don't get how easy it is to score runs in Fenway. Tiant belongs in the HOF.
6. If the season ended today I'd probably vote for Youkilis for MVP
7. Every Red Sox player on the 2004 team is a scum-sucking demon from hell who should die a painful death (OK, I do hate some of the Red Sox)
You hate the Red Sox, we get it.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////'''
3 years ago Jeter was having a BETTER season and you guys couldn't put down your Yankee hater blinders.
What goes around comes around. Now back to this ridiculous talk of Pedroia for MVP.
Where the heck is Softie?
Jeter wound up 2nd in MVP voting, this kid, while having a great season will be lucky to get 2 votes.
The Wharton School says so.
Steve
There is a guy that belongs in the Hall.
Steve
lol MVP.
Geez you guys finally get a Derek Jeter type player and in only 2 yrs, he is touted as the next coming.
Maybe one day he will get 50 votes (out of 1000) and be declared the most over rated .......hehe
Then and only then will he have really come of age.
Steve
<< <i>Ian Kinsler is having as good a year as Pedroia yet no Rangers fans are creating threads touting the next
lol MVP.
Geez you guys finally get a Derek Jeter type player and in only 2 yrs, he is touted as the next coming.
Maybe one day he will get 50 votes (out of 1000) and be declared the most over rated .......hehe
Then and only then will he have really come of age.
Steve >>
We all know this guy is jealous because his team outspends the Red Sox but can't even make the playoffs
Pedroia brings it to the table every game, every series. An opposing catcher said to him, "Pedroia, we can't figure out how to get you out",
Pedroia responded, "That's ok, neither can the rest of the AL". Pitchers want nothing to do with this kid.
Pedroia can't help it if Reyes or Beltran can't him like him. Don't be jealous lil' Stevie, your turn will come in the next
hundred years or so.
Youkilis is defintely in the running though.
Also I would expect Cliff Lee to get many votes for MVP but he would be in the mix with Krod I'm sure.
Right now, I think KRod wins it, with Quentin a close second, and Youk in 3rd.
By the way, is Aubrey Huff (back?) on HGH or something this year? His numbers are phenomenal.
<< <i>Ian Kinsler is having as good a year as Pedroia yet no Rangers fans are creating threads touting the next
lol MVP.
Geez you guys finally get a Derek Jeter type player and in only 2 yrs, he is touted as the next coming.
Maybe one day he will get 50 votes (out of 1000) and be declared the most over rated .......hehe
Then and only then will he have really come of age.
Steve >>
there are Rangers fans?
lol now ain't the the pot calling the kettle black!!
And by the way they have made the PO since 1996
Not sure if the Sox can make that claim.
Oh and by the way I am not a Yankee fan.
Did you hear that Baseball America has Jeter as the 3rd best SS in the AL?
I wonder why a certain blogger that always creates threads regarding Jeter and
lists did not mention this one? Oh I know why it was not negative.
Steve
yawn. a one inning reliever should not win the MVP much less the Cy Young award. saves these days are terribly overrated.
<< <i>"I guess you guys have yet to hear about Francisco Rodriguez and the yr he is putting together."
yawn. a one inning reliever should not win the MVP much less the Cy Young award. saves these days are terribly overrated. >>
agreed. So if he pitches 60 innings and gets 60 saves, that's worthy of MVP status? BS. I don't recall the stats, but somewhere between 85% to 95% of games are won by the team leading going into the ninth inning anyway...so what's the marginal improvement that K-Rod brings to the Angels? Pretty dang low.
Or did you guys not figure that out?
Steve
tell that to the Mets who have lost many a game while Wags has been out.
Steve
<< <i>"I guess you guys have yet to hear about Francisco Rodriguez and the yr he is putting together."
yawn. a one inning reliever should not win the MVP much less the Cy Young award. saves these days are terribly overrated. >>
Bulls-eye.
<< <i>
I don't hate the Red Sox, I hate overrated players. That a disproportionate number of them are Red Sox is just a fact of life, but rest assured that I am as disgusted with George Sisler and Jack Morris as I am with Jim Rice. And I don't hate Pedroia, I just don't understand why any Red Sox fan would think he belonged in an MVP discussion when Youkilis is so much better.
But as a gesture of good will:
1. Carl Yastrzemski is terribly underrated; he's often compared with Kaline but he was much better, and he's one of my favorite players
2. Dwight Evans and Fred Lynn were both much better than people think; as Red Sox fans perhaps you will recognize the irony that this is mostly due to over-adulation of Jim Rice
3. Wade Boggs was awesome
4. Carlton Fisk is a top-tier HOFer
5. Red Sox pitchers are almost all underrated, even and sometimes especially by the Red Sox fans who don't get how easy it is to score runs in Fenway. Tiant belongs in the HOF.
6. If the season ended today I'd probably vote for Youkilis for MVP
7. Every Red Sox player on the 2004 team is a scum-sucking demon from hell who should die a painful death (OK, I do hate some of the Red Sox) >>
Dallas, I think points number 2 and 5 are excellent, especially number two! Plus I like how you worded them.
I disagree. most of the saves are cheap saves, no one on base, no pressure, how many 2 inning saves does any closer have these days? heck how many even come in for 4 lousy outs. It's pathetic.
Collecting: Topps 1952-79, Bowman 1952-55, OPC 1965-71, and Pre-War White Sox cards
it is a tuff one to get through, all one has to do is look at how many games the Mets
have lost without there closer. Jeez guys it ain't rocket science.
If it was so easy each team would have 3 or 4 guys doing it.
Steve
Take the blinders off fellows.
Steve
<< <i>yeah and they win those games 90% of the time BECAUSE of the closer.
Or did you guys not figure that out?
Steve >>
This actually is not true. A guy did a research project on this where he examined the % of leads from the seventh innning on that were preserved by the the leading team since 1900, and he found that the number has remained virtually unchanged in the last 100 years. In other words, if you look at the percentage of leads that were held back in the days when closers weren't used, and the percentage that are preserved today, there is no significant difference.
<< <i>
<< <i>yeah and they win those games 90% of the time BECAUSE of the closer.
Or did you guys not figure that out?
Steve >>
This actually is not true. A guy did a research project on this where he examined the % of leads from the seventh innning on that were preserved by the the leading team since 1900, and he found that the number has remained virtually unchanged in the last 100 years. In other words, if you look at the percentage of leads that were held back in the days when closers weren't used, and the percentage that are preserved today, there is no significant difference. >>
I read that, which is where I was trying to recall the 85%-95% statistics
If he? he has already done just about that with 30 games left in the season.
Right now he has 60+ games and 59 Innings with 53 saves and he has the whole month
of Sept left.
Not saying he will win it, just saying aloud that he too is deserving of some votes.
and for those that think the save and closer role is meaningless I suggest they root for the Mets
the next month.
Steve
That may be true, however that really does not tell me much. The game today is much
different then the game from 1900-60 and perhaps the closer is/was needed for it to remain UNCHANGED.
Perhaps if the starters pitched 9 innings like yesteryear it would not stay virtually the same.
Steve
<< <i>
<< <i>yeah and they win those games 90% of the time BECAUSE of the closer.
Or did you guys not figure that out?
Steve >>
This actually is not true. A guy did a research project on this where he examined the % of leads from the seventh innning on that were preserved by the the leading team since 1900, and he found that the number has remained virtually unchanged in the last 100 years. In other words, if you look at the percentage of leads that were held back in the days when closers weren't used, and the percentage that are preserved today, there is no significant difference. >>
Krod is a fantastic closer, but this is a great reason why closers really shouldn't win the MVP. Pitchers in general shouldn't win the MVP, but in the case of an outstanding season by a starter you can make an exception.
And yes, if Papelbon had 60 saves I'd feel the same way.
<< <i>Perhaps if the starters pitched 9 innings like yesteryear it would not stay virtually the same. >>
That's a mighty big "if", and there is nothing we can use to confirm it or refute it. I am confident that any team should always (other than blowouts) have on the mound the best pitcher available, and that in general a team's best pitchers are the ones they send out there for over 200 innings a year. The decision to remove an often better pitcher for a worse pitcher has become automatic and there are a lot of teams winning a lot fewer games becasue they do it. Now, if a team's best pitcher is its closer - which is true on occasion - then that team should get a lot more innings out of that pitcher. To keep your best pitcher out of a tie game or a game you're losing by one in the 7th or 8th simply because it isn't a save situation is insane. If you don't use your best pitcher in late, close games but you do use him with a three run lead in the ninth then you're an idiot. That's my thoughtful, considered opinion.
For me, I think it's just plain silly to say that a pitcher who pitches less than 100 innings is as valuable as a pitcher who throws 250 unless he gives up no runs at all or something close to it. In any event, anyone who would vote for K-Rod over Lee for the MVP needs to have his voting priveleges revoked and probably some heavy medication. K-Rod, despite the inherent advantage relievers have in keeping their ERA low, has an ERA higher than Lee's - and less than 1/3 the innings. Lee is more than 3 times more valuable than K-Rod, maybe more than that.
On many teams the 2nd best pitcher is the closer.
I am past speaking of F Rod winning an award, they have fireman for those guys.
My point is now the value of the closer. In today's game it is a very valuable pos.
Steve
A closer is not as valuable as the best starting pitcher....they simply don't pitch enough innings.
They are valuable though.
They are also surprisingly interchangable. If an Ace pitcher goes down, good luck trying to replace him with somebody else and getting even close the same production. With the closer position, it is almost a revolving door at times, and the second guy that comes in often times saves the same percentage of games. Heck, the White Sox went through three closers in '05.
There was one study by Playing the Percentages in baseball that showed that even when you compare the worst bullpen mates to the best, that the worst ones are very close in save percentage!
Reason being is that most save chances are cupcakes. If you are on to protect a two run lead, all you have to do is pitch at a rate of a 9.00 ERA to nail down the save. An 18.00 ERA keeps the game alive still! That really isn't that hard for an average MLB relief pitcher. We know this because even the worst bullpen guys save those games at a 90%+ clip.
Dallas is correct, it is insanely dumb to opt to bring in your best pitcher with a three run lead in the ninth, as opposed to a one run lead with a man on 1st in the 7th. A scrub will save that three run lead 95% of the time.
The thing that blurs people's perception is that almost all blown saves are shown on the highlight reel.
Tell that to the Mets.
Steve
<< <i>A scrub will save that three run lead 95% of the time.
Tell that to the Mets.
Steve >>
I make a good living off 3-run saves for the Tigers.
Sincerely,
Todd Jones (4.97 ERA)