Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Your Thursday afternoon tizzy


There is some brewing discontent over the NL Cy Young vote, as two members of the webby portion of the BBWAA -- our friends Keith Law and Will Carroll -- did not include Chris Carpenter on their three-man Cy Young ballots. Keith voted Javier Vazquez second (Lincecum first and Wainwright third) and Will voted Wainwright first, Lincecum second and Danny Haren third. They were the only ones who included Vazquez or Haren on their ballots.

A comment about this from reader Ron in the thread below my earlier post:

“Two voters, Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus and Keith Law of ESPN.com, did not include Carpenter on their ballots.” Nice. Leave the best pitcher in the NL off of your ballots to insure the saber-metric favorite wins. The BBWAA guys might not be the best at voting, but the saber friendly guys don’t have the right to accuse them of manipulating the vote anymore.

Ron, I love you. You've been reading this blog longer than just about anyone and I always appreciate your input. But you're factually wrong here inasmuch as even if Will changed his vote for Haren to Carpenter and and Law did the same with his Vazquez vote, Lincecum still wins. And really, if Will was really trying to throw it to Lincecum, wouldn't he have voted him first?

But I don't mean to single out Ron. I posted his comment simply because it stands at the somewhat extreme end of the discontent I've read at a few message boards. There really are people out there scratching their heads at this, and I imagine there will be at least a little grousing about their votes over the next couple of slow news days.

For my part, I wouldn't have voted the same way Keith and Will did -- neither Vazquez nor Haren would have made my ballot -- but they explain their rationale and I understand why they voted the way they voted even if I disagree with it. At the very least I understand docking Carpenter based on innings pitched, and that seems to be the point of controversy here. I'm a bit more of a romantic than Keith and Will are, I think, so I'd probably have included him on my ballot for reasons associated with his comeback from injury and all of that, but it's certainly legitimate to not include him.

I predict that some people will use Keith's and Will's votes in some argument that statheads shouldn't be given the franchise over the next couple of days. Such an argument, if it comes, should be rejected out of hand. At most this is some down-ballot curiosity, the sort of which we see on the votes for every award.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:24pm (40) Comments

Lincecum takes the Cy Young


I don't have a link yet, but people are talking about it already. He's a fine choice. Great year. I probably undervalued the fact that he had more innings than Carpenter, so no arguments here.

Given that he has a court date on a controlled substance thing coming up soon, be prepared for the most boring celebration party of all time.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:54pm (24) Comments

My Morning in Exile


I know it's basically just been a string of MMIE's lately, and for that I apologize. Wrapping up one's legal career and preparing to jump right into a new one really has a way of taking up the afternoon. Still, six new posts a day ain't exactly chopped liver as far as baseball bloggers go. You can still complain in the comments, though. Heck, I'm not happy with it myself. I feel like I'm watching baseball from 1000 yards right now. Anyway:

  • A guy I know up in Flint tells this story about life at GM in the 80s that may be total bullshit, but I hope to God is true (it's certainly truthy). Goes like this: GM used to give out cash awards to engineers and designers who came up with particularly innovative ideas, redesigns, etc. that ended up being adopted in production cars. One year, this fellow suggests that the radiator caps and windshield washer fill caps and stuff be painted and color coded so that morons don't confuse them with one another and, I dunno, quit putting oil in the radiator. Great idea! Here's your $1000 or whatever. After it's put in production, the paint started to burn and bubble under the heat of the engine and caused a terrible smell. Same guy proposes that they cease painting the caps and gets another $1000. I bring this up only because Bud Selig now has the bright idea to tighten up the playoff schedule he loosened up a couple of years ago. I can't wait until this dude's Hall of Fame induction speech.


  • The Nats hire Davey Johnson. Maybe they should call Howard Johnson about their opening at shortstop.


  • Hideki Matsui pays for himself. You can't afford not to buy!


  • Scott Boras is allegedly living in fantasyland. I wish it were "Fantasy Island." I loved that show. I even liked the Malcom McDowell remake from a few years ago. Smiles everyone, smiles.


  • Lincecum or Carpenter? I dunno. Lincecum was probably better, but I'm finding myself sort of leaning Carpenter. If this whole blogging thing takes off I suppose it's not crazy to think that I'd become a BBWAA member someday. In light of that I should probably man-up and make a case for one of them.


  • The Yankees and Jays are talking Roy Halladay. If that happens, they may as well just suspend baseball because it will guarantee the Yankees the championship. You know, like how signing Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi and Randy Johnson guaranteed them all of those championships a few years ago.
    • Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:16pm (9) Comments

    Wednesday, November 18, 2009

    My Morning in Exile


    In the wake of my many threats to grow the greatest Grizzly Adams beard the world has ever seen once I start blogging full time next month, my wife emails me this post written by famed blogger Heather Armstrong and says "you married the wrong woman!" Which, while I see her point, is totally not true. Armstrong may have a thing for guys at computers with beards, but she's a stay at home blogger too. If I had married her, our kids wouldn't have health insurance. So, no worries Mrs. Shyster, I still love you and all of your fabulous benefits . . .

  • Mike Scioscia and Jim Tracy are almost certain to win the Manager of the Year Award today.


  • The Nats are interested in John Lackey. I'm interested in expensive stuff that I can't really use too, but neither of us is going to get it.


  • Are the Dodgers going to go after Keith Lockhart too?


  • Cooool.


  • Joba has no idea if he's gonna start or come out of the pen next year. He doesn't strike me as a live-in-the-moment guy, so the Yankees should probably tell him their plans eventually.


  • Rosenthal says that Mark DeRosa is going to sign with the Phillies. He also had the story on my breakfast before I even woke up this morning. Dude's good at what he does.


  • Attention Omar: there's a guy out there who doesn't suck who actually wants to play for the Mets. You'd better get on this before he changes his mind.


    • Parent-teacher conference at ShysterDaughter's kindergarten at 1PM. I have this feeling that the fact that I've been calling her "Mookie" lately is going to come up.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:31am (17) Comments

    Tuesday, November 17, 2009

    Great Moments in Transparency: Christina Kahrl’s Rookie of the Year vote


    It's too much to ask every writer to be as thorough as Christina Kahrl is in explaining her Rookie of the Year vote, but how nice would it be if every voter actually explained the thought process behind their awards choices?
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:59pm (6) Comments

    It’s Greinke


    Not a big surprise. Two writers voted King Felix first. One voted for Verlander. First place votes for Sabathia would have bothered me. Overall nothing to complain about here.

    He's getting married on Saturday too, so all in all it's a pretty good week for Zack.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:41pm (7) Comments

    My Morning in Exile


    Slow day, so I scan the news. Great (Captain Robert Falcon) Scott! Or was it Shackleton?

  • AL Cy Young today. Greinke should get it, but the writers once gave the damn thing to Jack McDowell for cryin' out loud, so who knows?


  • For relaxing times, make it Takahashi time.


  • Cancel the candlelight vigil: the ballplayers who had money with Allen Stanford aren't going to get sued.


  • The Mets want to be in the Joel Piniero business.


  • Caveat Emptor on Pedro.


  • I take a second pass at the Twins' new uniforms.


    • Roald Amundsen: the Chase Utley of explorers. Discuss.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:48am (11) Comments

    Monday, November 16, 2009

    New Twins uniforms revealed


    New house, new duds:

    Plans for the new uniforms and logos unveiled today include:
  • Primary Home Uniform - The "Twins" script has been slightly altered and updated for 2010 and beyond.

  • Secondary Throwback Uniform - Twins players will wear a circa 1961 throwback uniform on Opening Day as well as every home Saturday during the 2010 season. The uniforms are modeled after the wool version worn during the team's first season in Minnesota.

  • Primary Road Uniform - Twins players will wear new solid grey road uniforms (no pinstripes) in 2010 featuring a "Minnesota" script inspired by the team's original "Minnesota" script found on the players jackets from 1961-1986.

    • Some pics available here. Some others here. Personally, I like the elimination of pinstripes on the road, which I think looks impossibly lame. Pinstripes = sharpness. Sharpness demands white. Pinstripes on gray looks terrible.

    I also like the near elimination of the "M" cap (it's still available in an alternate cap). The TC is one of the coolest logos around. The more of that the better. And of course, as I've mentioned many times in the past, the M logo gives me flashbacks to 1987 and 1991, and those Twins teams bummed me out pretty terribly.

    If they really wanted to be cool they would have eliminated the solid blue home alternate which never, ever, ever, ever, ever looks good. On any team. Anywhere. at any time. Solid jerseys that don't match the pants ought to be banned.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:28pm (13) Comments

    Rookies of the Year: Bailey and Coghlan


    Over at NBC I figured that Beckham and Happ would win it. I even forgot to mention Andrew Bailey in my first pass at it and had to go back and update. Shows you what my figuring is worth:

    A's right-hander Andrew Bailey's rise from Minor League obscurity to Major League limelight turned historic Monday when he was named the 2009 American League Rookie of the Year.

    and
    The franchise with a knack for producing some of the best young talent in the Major Leagues has another gem to add to its resume -- Chris Coghlan.

    That fact was evident through the rookie sensation's first season in the big leagues this year, but it was a point that was driven home on Monday afternoon - when the 24-year-old infielder-turned-outfielder took home National League Rookie of the Year honors from the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

    I'll take Hanson and Beckham over both of them over the long term, but hey, that's not what the award is about.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:55pm (3) Comments

    “The Official Major League Baseball World Series Film Collection”


    If anyone is looking for something to buy me for Christmas:

    "The Official Major League Baseball World Series Film Collection" (A&E, $229.95), a spectacular DVD set that contains 20 discs featuring extensive footage of 65 World Series from 1943 to 2008.

    It comes packaged in a thick, elongated hard-cover book that chronicles many memorable World Series moments with a forward by multi-award winning sportscaster and avid baseball fan Bob Costas. The book is great but the discs, located in pockets throughout its hefty pages, are the big attractions.

    "Thick, elongated hard"

    "Bob Costas"

    What's not to love?
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:27pm (10) Comments

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