Nitpicking the AL MVP votings

First off, congrats to Dustin Pedroia for winning the 2008 MLB AL MVP. I have no qualms with his winning the award, though I thought Kevin Youkilis was probably more valuable to the Red Sox, but whatever.

Despite it not being a controversial decision, there still are matters of concern found within the voting results.

First off, Pedroia received 16 of 28 first place votes. However, he only had a total of 27 votes. One voter left him off his ballot of 10 completely. 16 first place, 6 second place, 4 third place, and 1 forth place. 27 writers had him in their top 4; the 28th writer left him out of his top ten. Stupidity or balls, you decide. Anyways, kudos to you, Evan Grant, for being a maverick.

Perhaps the next biggest issue I have is with Fransisco Rodriguez. Sure, he had a great season for a closer, and yes, he broke the all-time saves record for a season. But in order for a closer to be 6th in MVP voting, you had damn well not have blown 7 save opportunities. Not only that, but one voter put him #1. One of 28 selected voters felt K-Rod was more valuable to the Angels than any other AL player was to his team. Take that, more deserving players!

I'm a Twins fan. A BIG Twins fan (not fat, just a high level of enthusiasm for the team). Therefore, I love following former Twins in their careers post Twins, though I wouldn't have minded if David Ortiz had managed to put up the numbers with the Twins that he has with the Red Sox. Anyways...

I love most former Twins, but c'mon, Jason Bartlett does not deserve a 5th place vote in the AL MVP race. Sure he's decent and all, but really? One of the voters felt there were only four more valuable players in the AL than Jason Bartlett? I'm not even sure he is the 5th best on that team, let alone the entire league. And yes, I am well aware that the Rays voted him their team MVP. Why they did this, I am unsure. Maybe he was feeling down after leaving Minnesota, and the team wanted to boost his spirits.

Another big thing jumped out at me this year. It wasn't who got a vote that was deserving, it was the shock of seeing that not a single voter put Derek Jeter anywhere in their top ten. This is significant as it is only the second time since his rookie season that he received 0 votes for MVP. I'm not saying that Jeter deserved any votes, because he didn't, it's just different to not see him getting any votes. Kind of relieving really.

Oddly enough, each division had one team that had no players receiving any votes. The A's, Royals, and Blue Jays collectively received 0 votes. Mike Mussina received an 8th place vote and yet Roy Halladay zero? Actually, now that I'm checking out their respective stats, that vote may piss me off more than any of them. Who voted for Mussina? Can they explain why they felt Mussina was more worthy of a vote than Roy Halladay?

Halladay is the steak to most pitchers' hamburger. (Food metaphor tribute to FJM...RIP)

Oh yeah, and the NL had an MVP too. Well deserved Pujols! Looking over the voting results there, that shit is fucked.

Awards woohoo!

Quick shoutout congrats to Lil' Timmy Lincecum for winning the NL Cy Young in only his second year in the bigs.

Also congrats to Evan Longoria and Geovany Soto for well deserved Rookie of the Year awards in their respective leagues.

And congrats to Joe Mauer for winning his first Gold Glove, not to mention his second batting title.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!

Goddamnit. Goddammit. Goddamit. No matter how you spell it, it all means the same:

Pat Neshek will miss the entire 2009 season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery next week, as was learned on www.sethspeaks.net.

This should add to what was already looking to be an interesting offseason for the Twins.

So it's the offseason...where have I been?

Ahhh my baseball blog pet project, how quickly I can come to neglect you, like a child's lost interest in his pet hermit crab. Is it time to break out the defibrillator in an attempt to resurrect you from death's near grasp? I'll give it a shot, which means this is gonna be another catching up to speed on what the hell's been going on with baseball since I last posted.

What's that? Baseball is over? Surely you jest! For any true baseball fan knows, baseball is NEVER over. It is a 12-month season, we just happen to be in the segment referred to as the "off" season, which contains as much, if not more, excitement than certain parts of the "regular" season. But anyways...

Congrats to the Phillies on winning their second World Series title ever. Two titles, 126 seasons. Six pennants, 126 seasons. As has been well reported, now that Philadelphia has ended its 25-year championship drought, the distinction of a four sport city going the longest without a title now belongs to...Minneapolis. Yep, that's me! Our last title came from the Twins in 1991. Asides from the Twins in 1991 and 1987, you gotta go back to the days of the George Mikan and the Lakers to find a title that Minnesota has got to celebrate.

Sure, we've now gone the longest, but we've only got D.C. beat by a few months, as the Redskins won the Super Bowl shortly after the Twins won the World Series. Could be worse though, Cleveland has got a pretty shitty championship history. Indians have gone 60 years without a title and only have two in their 106 seasons. Browns have no Super Bowls, though they were pretty good before the Super Bowl era. The Cavs may have no titles, but having Lebron is pretty awesome. Although the Timberwolves did have Garnett all those years, but no Finals appearances to show for it. Thank you, Kevin McHale.

Ah who am I kidding, I don't genuinely give a shit about the NBA.

There was an interesting (at least to me) article linked off of Deadspin from the New York Daily News. Apparently it's been 50 years since the Yankees won a World Series while a republican was the sitting president. Any other team this may not seem that big a deal, but when you think about how many damn titles those fuckers have (I try not to), it is actually pretty bizarre that they've gone 50 years without one while a republican was president. Of course, now that I'm looking over the Yankees' history on Baseball Reference, that doesn't seem nearly impressive as it first sounded. Over the past 50 years they've had 8 titles, the last four of which were during the Clinton administration (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000).

Which reminds me, Barack Obama won the presidency. I'm sure you've heard and read enough about that so I'm gonna skip that for now. There's talk of him throwing out the first pitch for the White Sox in the 2009 season. Let's hope that doesn't interfere with his duty to throw out the first pitch at the Nationals home opener, as it is his presidential responsibility...i think.

Anyways, it's the start of the offseason. That means months and months of false speculation about who is going where and for how much! Already I've heard numerous theories about what the Twins should/could/are going to do to strengthen their team. Obviously solid starters at 3B and SS are desired, and names abound! Adrian Beltre! Casey Blake! Hank Blalock! Garrett Atkins! Orlando Cabrera! Etc. Etc! With some money to spend and a year away from a new ballpark, I do have high hopes that the Twins will actually make a solid offseason signing for a change. I've had enough of signings like Livan Hernandez, Craig Monroe, Tony Batista, Rondell White, Ramon Ortiz, Ruben Sierra, Mike Lamb, Adam Everett, Jeff Cirillo, Sidney Ponson and Phil Nevin.

My preference would be to swindle the Brewers into trading J.J. Hardy to the Twins, but I have no idea why they would do that.

Ok bye for now.

The race to 100 has been won!

By the Seattle Mariners! Congrats on not only being the first team eliminated from playoff contention, but you are also the first team to 100 losses! At 58-100, they still have the chance to be a sub-60-win team. Keep it up boys, I just know you can do it!

Other teams on their way to 100: The Nationals are sitting at 59-99, so they seem like a certainty. The Padres have a chance too, they are 61-97. Remember that the Padres just missed the playoffs last year, losing on the final day to force a one game playoff for the wild card with Colorado. Must've been pretty demoralizing, what with going from one win away from the playoffs to a possible 100 loss season.

On the other end of 100, the Angels sit 2 shy at 98-60, and the Cubs and Rays are 4 shy. Cubs are at 96-61 and the Rays at 96-62. Man, if the Rays can win out the rest of the season, they'll be a 100 win team. The Rays. A team that only once before had won 70 games in a season, could still be a 100 win team. Regardless if they get it or not, what a phenomenal turnaround for that franchise.

There are three awesome races going on in baseball right now. The Mets stand only 1.5 games behind the Phillies for first place in the NL East and are tied with the Brewers for the NL Wild Card. Over in the AL Central, with a spectacular win last night the Twins are only 1/2 game behind the White Sox for the division title. Tonight's game will determine who controls their own destiny in that division.

Um...GO TWINS!

So I haven't updated in awhile...

So maybe I'll ramble a bit on what's been going on in baseball.

Yankee Stadium is done, save for a miraculous Yankees comeback, which would require winning out the rest of the season and the Red Sox losing out. So yeah, the Yankees are set to miss the playoffs for the first time since the strike. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays's magic number to clinch the division title is down to 5. So that's pretty exciting. I watched the game in which they clinched their first playoff appearance, and that was fun, except it came at the hands of Twins. Oh well, I'm too happy for the Rays to take it too personally that they clinched against my team.

Yes, my team. My true identity is Carl Pohlad.

The Brewers fired their manager with just a couple weeks left of the season. I understand why, but still weird timing. I guess whatever steps you need to take to spark that team into making a better push for the wild card than they have been this month. Speaking of this month, Ryan Howard has been a beast hitting .348/.420/.855 with 9 home runs and 27 RBI through the first three weeks of September (though he did go 0-4 tonight...slacker).

But speaking of the Brewers, it would seem that they are in direct competition with the Mets as to who can have a bigger late season collapse. Whichever one doesn't make the playoffs shall be declared the Fail Kings.

MVP awards? I like Justin Morneau's chances in the AL, though Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis are both worthy candidates, as is Joe Mauer. Also I suppose A-Rod should always be considered no matter how poorly the Yankees performed this year. Josh Hamilton's awesomeness has certainly dwindled as the season has progressed, and Carlos Quentin's injury may have killed his chances. NL: There's a few Phillies worthy of consideration, and Pujols is once again a stud. But with how they've greatly helped their teams make late season pushes, I think we could maybe see a MVP repeat of 2006 with Morneau and Howard. If Howard had a better BA, I would think he would be a no doubter.

Cy Young? Cliff Lee in the AL for sure, though that should diminish the great season that Roy Hallady has had. NL? My vote (which I don't have) goes to Tim Lincecum. It's too bad the Giants suck so bad as this has resulted in lil' Timmy not getting the recognition he deserves for the season he's had. Dude ripped right through the minors, playing in only 13 games before making it to the bigs.

In other random (non-baseball...gasp!) sports stuff, the U of M Golden Gophers football team is 4-0, and while that is against non-conference opponents, it's a nice change from last season's 1-11 record. Also, the Vikings may be on the right path to righting the ship. Beating the Panters bumped them up to 1-2, just one game behind the Packers at 2-1.

Ok, I'm gonna be done rambling for now and leave on this note. The Twins host the White Sox this week for a pivotal three game series at the dome. At 2.5 games out of first, the Twins need these games like (insert whatever analogy you please here, I'm feeling lazy).

Go Twins!

The Perkilator dominates!

So I went to last night's Twins/Yankees game at the Metrodome, and boy am I thankful I did. That was a sweet game, for I got to see Glen Perkins pitch the finest game of his young career, and just a day after welcoming his second daughter into the world.

Perkins pitched 8 shutout innings, giving up only 4 hits and 3 walks with 4 strikeouts. His only real blemish came on a throwing error to first baseman Justin "You Know" Morneau checking Robinson Cano back to first base. The error allowed Cano to reach third. Richie Sexson followed with a walk, but Pudge followed with a popup and Melky Cabrera grounded into an inning-ending double play, rendering Perkins' error meaningless. Afterwards, Perkins did not allow another Yankees baserunner past first base for the remainder of the game.

Glen Perkins, after heating up the Yankees last night, I dub thee "The Perkilator."

Perkilator picture is all me, baby! Bow to my skills!

Say it ain't so Griff!

Ken Griffey, Jr. has been one of, if not the, most likable player since entering the league, if not one of the most likable players in all of sports. He was kind of like the Shawn Kemp of baseball there for awhile in the 1990s, only way more talented. Not in the paternal manner, but rather than he was a naturally flashy player who everyone was excited to watch, regardless if they followed his team or not.

And now, in the (post-?) steroid era, appreciation for Griffey's natural skill has only grown. It's commonly agreed upon that if not for Griffey's run of injury shortened seasons, it would be he, not Bonds, holding the career home run title.

Today, the Cincinnati Reds have agreed to trade Griffey to the Chicago White Sox.

Fuck.

It's not so much the impact he may or may not have on the White Sox that upsets me. It's that I can no longer root for him. He's on one of my most despised teams (along with the Yankees). Well, I can still hope that he hits like a billion home runs, meanwhile the rest of the White Sox bat .000 so they never win again.

It's not reported yet who the Sox gave up for him, but I sincerely hope it was someone really good.

P.S. That picture of Griffey is like the quintessential Griffey pose from the 1990s. Watching a home run fly, immediate bat on the ground...classic.

Awwww, El Capitán Chorizo cares...

You know, I found this to be rather endearing of CC.

He took out a full page ad in a Cleveland paper called The Plain Dealer to thank the people of Cleveland for the ten years that he spent with the tribe.

A nice sentiment in this day and age of sports, when often times a player's only farewell to the fans may be in the form of a one finger salute. Or in the case of Brett Favre, an enormous headache.

And speaking of CC, this gave me quite the laugh, despite the fact that Prince Fielder went vegetarian this past year.

I also want to take a moment to send my thanks the Milwaukee Brewers for taking one of baseball's best pitchers out of the AL Central.

Congrats Denard!

Denard Span connected for his first career home run today, a 2 run bomb off of Mark Buehrle in the third inning to take a 2-0 lead over the Chicago White Sox in a pivotal series for the Twins and the White Sox.

Congrats on your first (of hopefully many) major league dinger Denard!

EDIT: Not to be outdone, Twins leader in home runs Justin Morneau got his own 2 run home run in the same inning to take a 4-0 lead, his 17th of the season and the 127th of his career.

My AL picks for the day

My preferences for AL outcomes for Sunday, July 20, with home team in CAPS:

TWINS over Rangers
Royals over WHITE SOX
ANGELS over Red Sox
RAYS over Blue Jays
ORIOLES over Tigers
A's over YANKEES
MARINERS over Indians

I am too damn impulsive, and the Internet is my enabler. I just randomly decided to bid on like 4 different beckett baseball price guides. One purely for the sweet Deion Sanders picture on the front, you know. Why did I do this?

I'm not impulsive enough however to pay $55 for one these beautiful personalized beach towels.