Results matching “awards”
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The St. Louis chapter of the BBWAA is having its annual dinner on January 16th. And in addition to the usual awards and things, they’re shaking things up by roasting Tony La Russa: To mark manager Tony La Russa’s return for a 16th season in the Cardinals dugout, the writers have invited some of his close…
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What kind of reception would the first active gay baseball player receive?
Dec 21, 2010, 4:28 PM EDT
I don’t think it would be quite what most of us expect. And I think that what he’d face would be even more daunting than dealing with simple bigotry.
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Ken Davidoff of Newsday reports on the specifics of Derek Jeter’s contract, including some of the bonus terms: $4 million for winning the MVP Award; $2 million for placing second through sixth in the MVP voting; $1.5 million for winning the Silver Slugger award; $500,000 for winning the Gold Glove; $500,000 for winning the LCS…
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And you thought the Gold Glove awards were screwy: the Dodgers were just named the Topps Organization of the Year. The Topps award is given to club that “has shown outstanding performance, depth and talent throughout their Major and Minor League teams.” I guess that technically doesn’t include the owners’ suite, but can you imagine…
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Hall of Fame or not, Ron Santo ranks among the all-time great third basemen
Dec 3, 2010, 1:15 PM EDT
When someone successful and beloved dies there’s a natural tendency to perhaps overstate their greatness and at first glance it may seem as though people are doing that today in touting Ron Santo’s qualifications for the Hall of Fame after the longtime Cubs third baseman and announcer passed away yesterday. However, in Santo’s case amplifying…
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Awful news: Chicago Cubs great Ron Santo has died at age 70. Santo had been battling bladder cancer, lapsed into a coma on Wednesday and died yesterday. Ron Santo was one of the most productive and consistent players of the 1960s and early 70s. Because of the low overall offensive profile of the era, however,…
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John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle has his Hall of Fame ballot, and he tweeted the first time eligibles who are on it. Here they are with my insta-take: Carlos Baerga: There were about six months in the mid-90s when people thought he was a mortal lock. Of course, back then people thought Pamela…
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Another slow day, as all the agents and players and front office people and reporters are apparently out fighting to get cheap toasters and stuff out in that retail hellscape. People: shop online. Really. Anyway, to pass some time, you should read this really interesting article by Elizabeth Merrill and Amy K. Nelson of ESPN.com. …
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Vlad Guerrero has won the Edgar Martinez Award, which is given to the league’s best DH. As Aaron pointed out back when Silver Sluggers were announced, Vlad had no business winning any awards that purport to honor the best DH. By all rights, David Ortiz deserved it. Aaron established that pretty conclusively. Of course, Ortiz…
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The voting for the final award of the year is in and the trophy goes to Josh Hamilton, who beat out Miquel Cabrera and Robinson Cano for the AL MVP award. Hamilton received 22 of the 28 first place votes. Cabrera had five and Jose Bautista — who finished fourth overall — had one. I…
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Ryan Howard got a second place MVP vote. That actually happened.
Nov 22, 2010, 2:40 PM EDT
It has become ritual for we blogger-types to scan the awards ballots to find the oddities, outliers and outrages of the BBWAA vote, so I dutifully do so now. No real outrages here. Any reasonable person figured that Votto, Pujols and maybe — maybe — Carlos Gonzalez were your huckleberries, and they finished 1-2-3. So…
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As I wait for the NL MVP to be announced — likely the only real news that will be had today — I find myself struggling with something: when do we start calling 2010 “last season?” When do we start calling 2011 “this season.” More importantly, what do we call them now? Let’s start easy:…
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The results have been released and Alexander Mendoza was right: Felix Hernandez has won the 2010 American League Cy Young Award. He beat out David Price, who finished second, and CC Sabathia who took third. Jon Lester and Jered Weaver rounded out the top five. Ultimately — and as I predicted — the voting wasn’t…
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Yasushi Kikuchi, the writer who left Buster Posey off his Rookie of the Year ballot, explains himself: Kikuchi said he left Posey off his ballot because of the late-May promotion. “Obviously it was a tough decision,” Kikuchi said. “To me, Rookie of the Year is the best rookie player throughout the whole season. “On the…
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If you blog about your own blogging, I’m pretty sure you create a rift in the space-time continuum. It’s kind of like dividing by zero or putting Minute Rice in the microwave.
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Admittedly no one really cares about the Silver Slugger awards, so I’m not sure why I care enough to write about them, but Vladimir Guerrero being the pick at designated hitter is pretty clearly the wrong choice. Guerrero had a good season, hitting .300 with 29 homers and an .841 OPS, but he just wasn’t…
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Derek Jeter won his fifth American League Gold Glove yesterday, but in a tremendous slight to the future Hall of Famer he’s been denied the National League version of the award. Jeter not actually playing in the NL perhaps made it difficult to honor him, but then again Jeter not actually being a good defensive…
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Beau Torbert spent four seasons playing in Houston’s farm system after the Astros made him their 17th-round pick in 2004, but the 6-foot-4 outfielder hit just .250 with one homer and a .642 OPS in 93 games between Double-A and Triple-A in 2007 and was cut. Since then he’s been playing for the independent league…
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I haven’t seen an award decision that had such uniformity of negative opinion about it since Jethro Tull beat Metallica for Best Heavy Metal Performance Grammy in 1988. Or maybe it was Taste of Honey beating Elvis Costello for Best New Artist in 1978. To be honest, we should probably rename the Gold Glove the…
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I have no words. Aaron’s analysis is here. Here are the winners: C: Joe Mauer 1B: Mark Teixeira 2B: Robinson Cano 3B:Evan Longoria SS: Derek Freakin’ Jeter OF: Ichiro Suzuki OF: Carl Crawford OF: Franklin Gutierrez P: Mark Buehrle I suppose good arguments can be made for and against most of those guys, but I…
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Injuries have wrecked Eric Chavez’s career and after paying him $62.5 million to hit just .249/.322/.434 while missing more than half of the team’s games over the past six seasons the A’s declined his $12 million option for 2011. Chavez will get a $3.5 million buyout instead and may be considering retirement despite being just…
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Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News has an interesting story about how the Rangers nearly ended up with Tim Lincecum. Texas had the 12th overall pick in Jon Daniels’ first draft as general manager back in 2006 and “had identified the diminutive, hard-throwing right-hander from Washington as the club’s No. 1 target.” According to…
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In announcing their annual awards Wednesday, The Sporting News declared Alexei Ramirez the shortstop on the American League All-Star team. It’s a choice that will probably surprise a lot of people, but the AL shortstops really were so bad this year that a guy with 18 homers in a hitter’s ballpark and an unexceptional defensive…
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Remember how Kirk Gibson is selling a bunch of memorabilia, including the bat from the home run in the 1988 World Series? Today he tells the Detroit News why he’s doing it. Part of it is charitable. Some of it seems like he would just like the money. But one part of it all resonates…
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The players have spoken, and according to them, Josh Hamilton is the best among them. The Texas Rangers center fielder, who has tormented the New York Yankees with four home runs in the ALCS, has been named Sporting News’ player of the year, as selected by a panel of 326 Major League Baseball players. Hamilton…
