Awards Week

[Frayed Knot]

OK it's next week - except for Silver Sluggers which will be tomorrow (Thurs, 11/8).
But, just like with the Gold Gloves, they're doing this three finalists stuff for each award by announcing ahead of time who the top three contenders are (top 5 for MVP) for each. And, for the first time, they're going to announce these things live on MLBN at 6 PM each day.
I'm not sure I like this method as some years more than three players receive 1st place votes so limiting it ahead of time can take one or more guys out of contention even though an argument can be made. Also not sure I see the point in it all but whatever.

Rookies -- Monday Nov 12
AL: Yu Darvish (Tex), Mike Trout (LAA), Yeonis Cespedes (Oak)

NL: Todd Fraizer (Cin), Bryce Harper (Wash), Wade Miley (Arz)


Managers -- Tuesday Nov 13
AL: Buck Showalter (Bal), Robin Ventura (CHW), Bob Melvin (Oak)

NL: Dusty Baker (Cin), Bruce Bochy (SFG), Davey Johnson (Wash)


Cy Young -- Wed Nov 14
AL: David Price (TBR), Justin Verlander (Det), Jered Weaver (LAA)

NL: RA Dickey (NYM), Gio Gonzalez (Wash), Clayton Kershaw (LAD)
So I guess that takes any suspense out of whether a reliever (Kimbrel, Chapman) will be considered


MVP -- Thrus Nov 15
Robinson Cano (NYY), Josh Hamilton (Tex), Mike Trout (LAA), Adrien Beltre (Tex), Miguel Cabrera (Det)

NL: Ryan Braun (Mil), Chase Headley (SDP), Andrew McCutcheon (Pitt), Yadier Molina (StL), Buster Posey (SFG)

[Frayed Knot]

Silver Slugger Awards

C: Posey & Pierzynski

1B: LaRoche & Fielder

2B: Aaron Hill & Cano

SS: Ian Desmond & Jeter

3B: Chase Headley & Miguel Cabrera

LF: Braun & Josh Willingham

CF: McCutcheon & Trout

RF: Jay Bruce & Josh Hamilton

P: Steven Strasberg

DH: Billy Butler

[Edgy MD]

Willingham and LaRoche were always great bats to have around. Always able to produce as long as you didn't ask too much of them. But pencil them in as the number six hitter or the fourth outfielder and they may well surprise you by the end of the season.

How and when they became the best hitting firstbaseman and leftfielder in the league is a mystery to me. Good for them, and chalk one each up to Davey Johnson and Ron Gardenhire. Heck, Davey Johnson, special assistant with the Nats back in 2010, probably gets an assist for Willingham.

[Frayed Knot]

Willingham was just always limited by everything else in his game except for his hitting.

LaRoche had a legitimately great year all around and should be a top-10 MVP guy. But for the SS it helped him to have Pujols & Fielder leave his league at the same time that Howard & Votto were missing a chunk of the season.

[Edgy MD]

[*]And... Ike Davis sleepwalking through the first two months of the season.
[*]And... Freddie Freeman deciding to put off getting better for a year or so.
[*]And... Gaby Sanchez getting a blood transfusion from Jason Bay.
[*]And... Allen Craig being held up until May 1 to get started.
[*]And... Cory Hart spending 1/3 of this season in the outfield.
[*]And... Anthony Rizzo spending an absolutely huge chunk of his productivity in the Pacific Coast League.
[*]And...

The league has a lot of good firstbasemen. Paul Godschmidt and Yonder Alonso too. Brandon Belt ain't bad either, but his ballpark dulls his shine.

Things just really fell into place for LaRoche in a way I wouldn't expect them to again. But Davey Johnson sure gets his players to play.

[ashie62]

Goldschmidt is close. Belt will figure it out.

Dickey deserves it over Kershaw..

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: [*]And... Ike Davis sleepwalking through the first two months of the season. [*]And... Freddie Freeman deciding to put off getting better for a year or so. [*]And... Gaby Sanchez getting a blood transfusion from Jason Bay. [*]And... Allen Craig being held up until May 1 to get started. [*]And... Cory Hart spending 1/3 of this season in the outfield. [*]And... Anthony Rizzo spending an absolutely huge chunk of his productivity in the Pacific Coast League. [*]And... The league has a lot of good firstbasemen. Paul Godschmidt and Yonder Alonso too. Brandon Belt ain't bad either, but his ballpark dulls his shine. Things just really fell into place for LaRoche in a way I wouldn't expect them to again. But Davey Johnson sure gets his players to play.

Thing is, it was a good year for LaRoche but not outrageously so.
HIs BA & OBA were essentially identical to his career averages (3 & 5 points up) and while his 33 HRs were a career high it was only by one as he did hit 25 or more four times during his other six full ML seasons.
In all he's put together some nice years during his nine overall seasons, just done so kind of quietly and doesn't seem to hang around in one spot for very long. Logged time on three different teams in 2009 alone.

The odd part may be that his now 28 y/o brother Andy was considered the better prospect coming up but he spent his entire 2012 season split between AAA Columbus & Pawtucket in the Cleveland & Boston orgs not getting a call by either even as both clubs put up very sorry and injured-plagued ML squads. While there he even manned all four IF positions, plus DH, plus logged a scoreless inning of pitching. Problem is he did so while hitting quite mediocre-ly.

[Frayed Knot]

RoYs:

PLAYER	TEAM	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Mike Trout	Angels	28	0	0	140
Yoenis Cespedes	A�s	0	19	6	63
Yu Darvish	Rangers	0	9	19	46
Wei-Yen Chen	Orioles	0	0	2	2
Jarrod Parker	A�s	0	0	1	1

PLAYER	TEAM	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Bryce Harper	Nationals	16	8	8	112
Wade Miley	DBacks	12	13	6	105
Todd Fraizer	Reds	3	7	9	45
Willin Rosario	Rockies	1	2	1	12
Norichika Aoki	Brewers	0	2	5	11
Yonder Alonso	Padres	0	0	1	1
Matt Carpenter	Cardinals	0	0	1	1
Jordan Pacheco	Rockies	0	0	1	1

Edited November 12, 2012 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

On the other hand...

[Benjamin Grimm]

Eighteen hours until we get the news on Dickey.

I'll be driving home from work, listening to NPR. There's very little chance that they'll mention it. If I think of it, I may switch to WFAN, but only briefly. (There's only so much WFAN I can stand.)

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If I think of it, I may switch to WFAN, but only briefly. (There's only so much WFAN I can stand.)

It's kind of like staring at the sun, you can do it for a few moments but then you've just got to turn away

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Eighteen hours until we get the news on Dickey.

Actually about 30 hours (from when you wrote that). They're going with 6PM announcements in conjunction with a show on MLBN - so they might not even get around to it until nearly 7 on Wednesday depending on whether they do AL or NL first.

I'll be driving home from work, listening to NPR. There's very little chance that they'll mention it. If I think of it, I may switch to WFAN, but only briefly. (There's only so much WFAN I can stand.)

Maybe no one can cover it worse than ESPN.
I flicked by 'Sportscenter' this morning and caught their announcement of the winners, which led them into a (much longer) retrospective on past rookie greats. Past Baseball rookie greats? Of course not. All of the past winners they thought to be worthy of truly great rookie seasons just happened to be NFL & NBA rookie greats. Apparently a past stellar season from a teenage phenom like Tony Conigliaro wasn't on their radar screen, and the likes of Jackie Robinson, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, etc. just didn't make their cut in a discussion of great rookie seasons. Certainly can't compare to the likes of Randy Moss & Cam Newton.
I then heard them tell me that "coach of the year" would be announced tonight.

[Edgy MD]

Really?

Jeeps.

[Frayed Knot]

MoYs

MGR	TEAM	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Bob Melvin	A�s	16	12	0	116
Buck Showalter	Orioles	12	16	0	106
Robin Ventura	White Sox	0	0	12	12
Joe Maddon	Rays	0	0	7	7
Joe Girardi	Yankees	0	0	5	5
Jim Leyland	Tigers	0	0	2	2
Ron Washington	Rangers	0	0	2	2

MGR	TEAM	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Davey Johnson	Nationals	23	4	4	131
Dusty Baker	Reds	5	14	10	77
Bruce Bochy	Giantss	4	10	11	61
Fredi Gonzalez	Braves	0	4	5	17
Bud Black	Padres	0	0	1	1
Mike Matheny	Cardinals	0	0	1	1

[Edgy MD]

Davey in the gravy. Amazingly never won the NL MoY, despite turning both the Mets and the Reds around. Won one for the Orioles in 1997, which was announced the same day he tendered his resignation under duress to Peter Angelos.

[TransMonk]

Per Rubin: NL Cy Young will be announced at 6:47 p.m. ET.

[Frayed Knot]

TransMonk wrote: Per Rubin: NL Cy Young will be announced at 6:47 p.m. ET.

I haven't been watching any of these shows that they've put together for RoY or MoY, but they've essentially created a full hour show to read off two names so obviously they use much of that time trying to simulate as much "tension" as possible.

[metirish]

Fuck, I have to leave my house at 6:45, going to miss the announcment.....

I watched the first show where they announced the finalists.....yeah, too long, I do like Harold Reynolds though, he's found a good spot on the MLB Network.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Tensions were inadvertently broken via twitter, breaking news prematurely for Gold Glove (Brandon Phillips), NY ROY and NL MOY (congratulatory tweets from nationals official feed). All bs.

[Frayed Knot]

Ever since the NFL draft and 'Selection Sunday' became 'must see' events (for some anyway) in their own right, this trend toward making an entire show out of these silly non-events like an award announcement or the unveiling of a list has become de rigueur for these sports.
Besides, what else do these channels have to do with their time?

[Frayed Knot]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Tensions were inadvertently broken via twitter, breaking news prematurely for Gold Glove (Brandon Phillips), NY ROY and NL MOY (congratulatory tweets from nationals official feed). All bs.

So if someone wants to follow the Nats tweets again and see if there's a premature congrats for Gio Gonzalez then we'll know ahead of time.
Nats front office probably won't be able to contain themselves if they hit on three in a row this week.

[Guest Kong76]

Frayed Knot wrote: Besides, what else do these channels have to do with their time?

Those hour long shows are just a small step up from an hour-long
show of Bucky Dent hightlights.

[Ceetar]

Kong76 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Besides, what else do these channels have to do with their time? Those hour long shows are just a small step up from an hour-long show of Bucky Dent hightlights.

i'm surprised there isn't already a Yankees channel that's just an animated GIF of Derek Jeter.

[ashie62]

Dickey's trade value peaks in about a half hour.

[Gwreck]

He wins

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Ashie62 wrote: Dickey's trade value peaks in about a half hour.

This hit me-- like, viscerally-- just after the joy.

[Frayed Knot]

Not even close as it turned out.

27 1st place votes (of 32) and either 1st or 2nd on every ballot.

[ashie62]

Everyone likes a great story.

[Frayed Knot]

PITCHER	TEAM	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	TOTAL
R.A. Dickey	Mets	27	5	0	0	0	209
Clayton Kershaw	Dodgers	2	11	10	1	6	96
Gio Gonzalez	Nationals	1	12	6	8	4	93
Johnny Cueto	Reds	1	4	10	10	2	75
Craig Kimbrel	Braves	1	0	5	5	9	41
Matt Cain	Giants	0	0	1	6	7	22
Kyle Lohse	Cardinals	0	0	0	2	2	6
Aroldis Chapman	Reds	0	0	0	0	1	1
Cole Hamels	Phillies	0	0	0	0	1	1

Edited November 14, 2012 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

He won it because Chris Christie said nice things about him.