Author: The Baseball Zealot

Witch hunt begins for Pedroia non-voter

As you heard, Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox won the 2008 AL MVP vote comfortably. 

Fortunately, he won the vote comfortably enough that he didn’t need the vote of Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News who left Dustin Pedroia’s name off the ballot altogether. 

Here was his ballot:

Kevin Youkilis
Francisco Rodriguez
Justin Morneau
Josh Hamilton
Carlos Quentin
Alex Rodriguez
Cliff Lee
Joe Mauer
Grady Sizemore
Carlos Pena

Grant is pretty red-faced about the whole thing.  In between answering emails and phone calls, he’s posted his explanation/apology on his blog.

Did I perhaps get too “cute” at the bottom of the ballot? Yeah, probably. Was that a mistake? Yeah, probably. Was it a mistake to leave him out of the top five; in retrospect, yeah, it was. My colleagues all thought he belonged in the top five. My opinion on this one was obviously wrong. What I’m happiest about is that if my analysis was so wrong, at least it did not cost Pedroia the MVP award. I can assure you I give the MVP vote an awful lot of time. In this case, perhaps I gave it too much time and overanalyzed, particularly at the bottom of the ballot. In retrospect, it’s hard to argue that Pedroia wasn’t one of the 10 best players in the league.

He over analyzed… putting too much weight on stats like BA in scoring position etc. 

Despite all that, while some Red Sox fans are understanding that it was just a stupid mistake, others are calling for Grant’s head.  I’ve seen commenters calling Grant an idiot, a moron and yes, the prerequisite requesting that his voting privileges be taken away. 

Meh, it’s just the American League. 

 

Update:  Grant goes on The Big Show to explain his non-vote.

The interview can be heard here. (thanks College Baseball Blog)

Captain Obvious here but maybe it would have been better if had just not gone on the air.  Just my opinion. 

Cubs reward Dempster with 4-year contract

Ryan Dempster, who more than anyone, helped the Chicago Cubs to a second straight NL Central championship, was rewarded today with a four-year, $52 million contract by the Cubs.

Terms of the agreement:  $4 million signing bonus; 2009- $8 million; 2010- $12.5 million; 2011- $13.5 million; 2012- option for $14 million

In the last week and a half, I’ve heard rumors bandied about of such a deal mostly in the context of “…in my opinion, Demp isn’t a 4-year, $50 mil kind of pitcher.” 

You didn’t hear that from me, though.  Like I said, Dempster was responsible more than any other pitcher on the Cubs for getting them as far they got.  I admit I was a little dubious when I heard he was being transformed from a starter during the last off-season.  But from the beginning, he took to it like Tony Oliva to Wii Baseball. 

For the year, he was 17-6 with a 2.96 ERA.  He initially had trouble winning on the road and ended up with a 3-3 record away from Wrigley despite a 3.13 ERA. 

Dempster says he has a desire to get the Cubs to the World Series and that played into his decision of staying with the team.  I’m sure the $52 mil didn’t hurt either. 

Money well spent in my opinion.  Now let’s see if there’s any money in the coffers for a leadoff hitter.

Female Knuckleballer gets drafted in Japanese pro league

Schoolgirl Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new Japanese independent league that debuts in April. 

Those bus rides won’t quite be the same now.

Yoshida says that Tim Wakefield is her hero.  She is a sidearm knuckleball pitcher and eventually wishes to play in a higher league. 

All-time worst MVPs list? I don’t think so.

In light of the upcoming MVP awards to be announced this week, Scott McCoy who covers the Texas Rangers for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has come out with his list of Baseball’s Top 5 worst MVPs. 

In typical Texas Ranger fashion, the author seems to focus on hitting (particularly power) for his baseline and doesn’t consider context when making his choices. 

Seven of his ten choices (he had five honorable mentions) were middle infielders and in most cases (1944 Marty Marion, 1959 Nellie Fox, 1995 Barry Larkin) were excellent with the glove. 

Some while not exhibiting great stats by today’s measures, were playing in hitting-depressed eras (again Fox and Marion).  Others yet displayed leadership beyond the statistics (1931 Frankie Frisch, 1925 Roger Peckinpaugh) or played a good part in leading their team to championships (Fox once more, Frisch). 

Would I have made those same MVP choices given the chance?  I’m not sure.  But “Worst MVPs” seems a bit harsh.

I couldn’t let that one go.

Seattle Mariners to be crunching data

Looks like the Mariners who lost 101 games in 2008, are planning to focus more on statistical analysis. 

It was about a year ago that the Pittsburgh Pirates’ newly hired  smartypants GM Neal Huntington was talking sabermetric smack at a press conference.  One would have thought that have meant they were approaching the game in a different fashion.  So different that they finished… last again.

Must have been in the implementation. 

The Mariners meanwhile, are creating a whole department devoted to the topic.

The department will fall under the auspices of Tony Blengino, a longtime baseball stats analyst and a special assistant to new Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik. Details of the department’s mandate and size are still to be worked out, but the move could vault the Mariners from their perceived Stone Age approach to stats to one in which they’re seen as one of the game’s more progressive franchises.

hehe, Stone Age. Good one.

The Mariners plan to take all the statistical data they accumulate and combine it with their scouting info.

Braves drop out of Peavy race… that means the Cubs get him, right?

It seem that every team has backed out of the Jake Peavy hunt save the Braves and the Cubs. 

Now word comes out that Atlanta has gone as high as they can/will:

“We felt that we offered a strong package of players, and if we couldn’t get a deal done with the players offered we would move on to pursue other players,” the Braves general manager said Friday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

That means we get ‘im, right?

Not so fast.

Apparently, the Cubs original offer doesn’t wow Pads GM Kevin Towers.  IF Peavy gets traded, the Cubs are still in the mix but right now, Ryan Dempster is probably a higher priority. 

Seeing that there’s no deadline set on any potential deal, this might be something that gets put on the backburner. 

According to Paul Sullivan from the Tribune, the Cubs are probably good for just one “big-ticket item” this off-season.   Ok, I’m not a GM but if I were Hendry, I’d sign Dempster for what he’s worth and spend that big-ticket money on a leadoff hitter.  Preferably one that hits from the left side.

Breaking up is hard to do

Speaking of Hendry and such, it sounds like Kerry Wood never really wanted to leave the Cubs after all.  At least, that’s the press’ take on what Wood had to say:

“It’s bittersweet. Obviously this is my first choice. I wanted to stay here and the best choice for me and my family. … But that’s part of baseball right now,” Wood said in a conference call Friday.

These just may be polite words, there may be an element of truth to it, or quite possibly, he really means it.

Illini Baseball: 6 sign letters of intent

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about the Illini.  But yesterday, news came out that six Illinois players have signed letters of intent. 

As of now, the 2009 class includes

Christian Cummins of Harrisburg, Ill., Davis Hendrickson, of Macomb, Ill., Brandon Hohl, of Mokena, Ill., Kevin Johnson, of Midlothian, Ill., Matt Milroy, of Batavia, Ill., and Seth Schwindenhammer of Bartonville, Ill.

Schwindenhammer, that’s a name that’s made for baseball. 

Complete bios on the CSTV web site.