Results matching “awards”

Not only did Zack Greinke claim a victory for statheads everywhere by winning the AL Cy Young yesterday despite only 16 wins, afterward he outed himself as a believer in sabermetrics thanks to stathead teammate Brian Bannister: I’m also a follower … of sabermetric stuff and going into details of stats about what you can…

As part of the Kansas City Star‘s well-done, blowout coverage of Zack Greinke winning the AL Cy Young yesterday, Sam Mellinger put together a list of all the pitchers since 1985 who also won the award in or before their age-25 season. Greinke joins Dwight Gooden, Bret Saberhagen, Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez, Barry Zito, Roger…

They’ll be announcing both AL and NL Manager of the Year today.  Let’s break it down scientifically: One look at MLB.com’s rundown of the candidates shows you who’s gonna win this thing in the American League. It’s all Mike Scioscia, folks.  The reasoning kind of goes like this:  “Nice season, Ron Gardenhire. You showed great…

This should be a no-brainer.  The only reason — and it’s not a good reason — that anyone would not have Zack Greinke listed #1 on their ballot is because they don’t think his 16 wins for an awful team are worth the 19 wins CC Sabathia, Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander posted for good…

Bobby Crosby. Bob Hamelin. Jason Jennings. Kazuhiro Sasaki.  Immortals all, each of whom got their start with the Rookie of the Year Award.  Who will join their esteemed ranks today, as the major post season awards begin to be rolled out? AL:  Multiple candidates here. Elvis Andrus probably deserved a Gold Glove this year. And…

Because there hasn’t been a ton of baseball news in recent days, a lot of folks were talking about Sammy Sosa’s complexion: as in, he looked like a cross between later period Michael Jackson and a zombie when he showed up at the Latin Grammy Awards over the weekend.  No worries, says a friend of…

Here at CTB we’re going to hit you with news, rumors and commentary all offseason, so if you want, you can simply lock the page in, hit “refresh” over and over again between now and April and never miss a thing. But if you’re one of those types that just has to see what’s ahead, here’s a handy…

Anyone who saw the results of the “Hank Aaron Award” yesterday knows to take the results of any award voting with a grain of salt, particularly if fans are involved. (No offense to the masses, but when Derek Jeter beats out Joe Mauer for a hitting award, something is wrong.) Some awards, though, are worth…

* Cuban left-hander Aroldis Chapman had what agent Edwin Mejia described as “a very good visit” with the Red Sox yesterday at Fenway Park. In addition to the Red Sox, Pete Abraham of the Boston Herald lists the Yankees, Mets, Tigers, Cardinals, and Mariners as having interest in the 21-year-old free agent. Earlier this offseason…

Perhaps a pair of homers off CC Sabathia last night will end Chase Utley’s reign as the most underrated player in baseball, although even his big night was overshadowed by Cliff Lee’s complete-game victory. Despite playing for a highly successful big-market team Utley’s excellence has somehow managed to fly under the radar, as many media…

After hiring Jed Hoyer as their new general manager earlier this week the Padres fired vice president for scouting and player development Grady Fuson and reassigned scouting director Bill Gayton. Those are two of the front office’s most important positions and it’s understandable that Hoyer would want to fill them with his own choices, but…

In the wake of an impressive showing by the Phillies in Game 1 of the World Series, let’s take a stroll around the nation and see what’s going on … In New York, they were actually eating cheesesteaks. And no, that’s not some kind of euphemism for what Cliff Lee did to the Yankees. Speaking…

Juan C. Rodriguez covers the Marlins for the Florida Sun Sentinel and apparently believes that Chris Coghlan had an absolutely spectacular rookie season. Last week Rodriguez criticized the Baseball Bloggers Alliance for ranking Coghlan fourth in their Rookie of the Year balloting despite “the historic nature of Coghlan’s offensive season.” This week Rodriguez criticized the…

How is .270 with 14 homers and 63 RBI more valuable than 13-6 with a 3.94 ERA or 6-3 with 26 saves and a 1.84 ERA? I don’t even want to get into the more complicated statistics, because the voters clearly aren’t. But Gordon Beckham has now won AL top rookie honors from The Sporting…

Rudy Jaramillo has spent the past 15 years as the hitting coach in Texas, but he’s now a free agent after leaving the Rangers earlier this week: I’m not going to be in this position very often, and I don’t know what’s going to happen with the Rangers and the ownership situation. I didn’t want…

* After clinching their third straight division title, the Angels scratched Scott Kazmir from last night’s start and have also bumped Jered Weaver from tonight’s scheduled outing. Matt Palmer will take Weaver’s place against the Rangers. Lyle Spencer of MLB.com speculates that the Angels’ postseason rotation will have John Lackey in Game 1 followed by…

This afternoon Baseball America announced Jason Heyward as their minor league player of the year after the Braves farmhand and 2007 first-round pick batted .323/.408/.555 with 17 homers, 46 total extra-base hits, 11 steals, and a 51/51 K/BB ratio in 99 games between high Single-A and Double-A before finishing the year with a brief stint…

Giants 9, Rockies 5: What a difference a week makes. Heck, not even a week. Six days after the Rockies beat the Giants on a grand slam, the Giants do it to the Rockies, courtesy of Edgar Renteria. Given the Dodgers’ relatively uninteresting play lately, I think I’m going to squint my eyes until the…

Even with eight shutout innings last night Cole Hamels merely lowered his ERA to a still-mediocre 4.52 to go along with a 7-8 record. That represents quite a decline from last season, when he won 14 games with a 3.09 ERA before taking home the MVP awards for both the NLCS and World Series. However,…

* Milton Bradley added a little more fuel to the fire regarding his treatment by Cubs fans, hinting that he’s been the victim of racial taunts and revealing that he’s had “to listen to the waiters bad-mouthing me at another table” when he goes out to restaurants in Chicago. Asked if he regrets signing a…

Earlier this week the Nationals removed the “acting” tag and made Mike Rizzo general manager, choosing him over Diamondbacks vice president of player personnel Jerry DiPoto and Red Sox assistant general manager Jed Hoyer. Between making trades and signing No. 1 picks for $15 million Rizzo has been in the spotlight recently, but Bill Ladson…

Randy Wolf picked up a win with 7.2 innings of three-run ball yesterday and also provided his own run support by going 3-for-4 with a homer, a double, and three RBIs at the plate. In doing so he becomes just the 11th pitcher since 1954 to have a win with at least one homer, one…

All law and no blogs makes Craig a dull boy. Let’s try to remedy that today, shall we? Nationals 8, Pirates 4: The Laughingstock Series went four games, and nothing was decided. Adam Dunn went 3-for-4 and was a triple short of the cycle. He may as well have been eight unicorns, cold fusion and…

Fred McGriff will be eligible for the Hall of Fame next year, and the folks in Tampa (his home town, and where he currently works) are already banging the drum for his induction. His basic numbers are pretty good — 493 homers, 1,550 RBIs, a .284 average. Further research by Rays VP Rick Vaughn makes…

Whenever major steroids news breaks, we can be assured of a few things: shock, outrage, overreaction, and moralizing. I don’t think anything I can say will head that off at the pass, but let me at least try. This is addressed mostly to the sports media, but let’s just make it a general “to whom…