High and Tight.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Congratulations Andre Dawson

You're now one of the worst outfielders in the Hall of Fame.

Was it the lifetime .279 BA or the .323 OBP that had writers swooning (Dawson is now, by the way, the outfielder with the lowest career OBP of any outfielder ever inducted into the Hall).

Dawson's 119 OPS+ for his career speaks to a good player, but not an all-time great.

Most of the defense of Dawson comes from contemporaries who say he was "scary to play against" or a "gamer" or a "hard worker."

Someone enshrine Brett Gardner immediately.

I really don't get it. Usually you can look to RBI for a reason BBWAA members overrate a guy, but Dawson only drove in 100 runs 4 times in a 20-year career.

This isn't to say he didn't deserve some All-Star appearances in his career, but Hall of Famer?

Robbie Alomar of course was one of the best second basemen, both offensively and defensively, of all time. He didn't make the cut.

Tim Raines deserves to be in, far ahead of Dawson. Besides the steals (and more importantly one of the best stolen base percentages of all-time) he has higher career BA (.294), OBP (.385), and OPS+ (123). Yet Rock didn't even come close.

The BBWAA has gotten better in recent years in letting folks like Rob Neyer and Keith Law in, but you can tell there are a lot of knuckleheads still with votes.

Labels: andre dawson, bbwaa, hall of fame, keith law, rob neyer, roberto alomar, tim raines, undeserving hall of famers

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 3:03 PM 5 comments

Monday, July 13, 2009

Keith Law is Awesome

So the Royals traded for Yuniesky Betancourt. Law's take?

On Friday, the Royals [traded] for Yuniesky Betancourt, who might very well be the worst everyday player in the majors.

Betancourt does nothing well on a baseball field. He can't hit and has lost bat speed since reaching the majors. He hacks at everything he sees, and even swings at pitches thrown to other hitters. He has next to no range at short. And he never hustles on anything -- not balls hit in his direction, not ground balls he might have a chance to beat out (well, before he let himself go physically). Other than all that, he's Honus Wagner.

It is really refreshing to see a major media writer not hold punches when it comes to opinions. Law is easily one of my top 3 sportswriters.

Labels: good sportwriters, keith law, mariners, royals, yuniesky betancourt

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 5:15 PM 1 comments

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Well, it's About Damn Time.

Keith Law and Rob Neyer were elected to the BBWAA. Finally. Per Keith:
I am still unclear on why, exactly, I might need to be a member; after conversations with probably a dozen current members, I think the opposite is true - the BBRAA needed people like me, Rob, etc. as members, to try to boost their credibility as an organization in a time when they receive so much criticism for the backwardness and outright hostility towards intelligent analysis (statistical or scouting) displayed in so much mainstream writing, to say nothing of the RBI/wins fetish in BBRAA voting.

I suppose the plus side is that Tim Raines will get one more Hall of Fame vote in 2018, because Lord knows he’s not getting in any time soon.

Of perhaps even more interest was the additional inclusion of Will Carroll and Christina Kahrl of Baseball Prospectus. Not only is the BBWAA adding 'net writers, it's now adding 'net writers not associated with gigantic media companies (SI, ESPN, etc).

My guess is that the reason is exactly the one given by the esteemed Mr. Law.

Of course this won't prevent the other mediots from voting for Joba Chamberlain for AL ROY in 2009.

Labels: bbwaa, keith law, rob neyer

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 5:04 PM 2 comments

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Regardless of what ESPN's "Experts" Say...

Dustin Pedroia should not be the AL MVP.

Joe Mauer should be the AL MVP, and here's betting he gets robbed again.

Here are ESPN's picks:

Pedroia: Jerry Crasnick, Peter Gammons (shock), Eric Karabell, Bob Klapish, Tim Kurkjian, Sean McAdam (double shock), Amy Nelson, Peter Pascarelli, Steve Phillips, Karl Ravech (shock x3), Phil Rogers, Enrique Rojas, John Shea, Jayson Stark
Mauer: Jorge Arangure Jr., Jim Caple, Rob Neyer, Larry Stone
F. Rodriguez: Howard Bryant, Pedro Gomez
Morneau: Orel Hershiser, John Kruk, Chris Singleton, Gene Wojciechowski
Cliff Lee: Jonah Keri
Grady Sizemore: Keith Law
Youkilis: Buster Olney

I'll go more into the "why" after the vote is announced, but the best choices above are Mauer and Sizemore.

With so much of ESPN again in the tank for the Red Sox, you know that they had some influence over voters... voters who sometimes don't even know who's eligible for awards.

Labels: awards, espn, keith law, MVP

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 9:49 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I Told You Most Sportwriters Are Idiots

As it turns out, 3 writers voted for Edinson Volquez for the NL ROY even though he's not eligible because he wasn't a rookie in 2008 (thanks to the always well thought out Keith Law for the details).

Seriously, there is no excuse for this. Remember, the BBWAA denied Law and Rob Neyer membership because they don't write for traditional newspapers. Looks like the choices the BBWAA decided upon were much, much better. Do these guys even follow baseball? I mean, they're paid to do so, right?

Labels: awards, douchebag, edinson volquez, keith law, mediots

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 12:43 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

MVP More? No. So Don't Get Mad, Get Even.

By now you've probably heard that Justin Morneau won the AL MVP. This has to be one of the worst selections in the history of the award. Yes, Derek Jeter deserved it, but there were plenty of other candidates that deserved consideration far before Morneau, and that starts with his own teammates, Joe Mauer and Johan Santana. I won't cry collusion, but you're telling me there's nothing fishy here? There was no split of a vote between Mauer and Morneau? Mauer finishes sixth, and only Jeter and Morneau get first place consideration (besides the one vote for Santana)? There's definitely something rotten in the state of Denmark.

I'm really too disgusted by the BBWAA over their selections for MVP awards to really delve into the numbers here, and I'm sure those will proliferate over the net all day. The only stats I feel like posting are these: Jeter led the AL in VORP and Win Shares. Morneau ranked 12th in VORP and 5th in Win Shares. It's a dark day for SABRheads. Here are some comments by some other sources whom I respect, however.

Rob Neyer:

Justin Morneau won the 2006 MVP

Indeed he did. Which is clearly the wrong choice. The up-side is that there's clearly still plenty of room in my business for young men who enjoy facts. Justin Morneau was not one of the five best players in the American League.

Rotoworld (who usually are not exactly Jeter fans):

"Morneau wins despite leading the league in no significant categories. He finished eighth in OPS and 10th once OPS is adjusted for ballpark, and since he did that as an average defensive first baseman with little value on the basepaths, he qualifies as perhaps the weakest MVP in decades."

Justin Morneau was named AL MVP on Tuesday after receiving 15 of the 28 first-place votes.

Ridiculous. Derek Jeter came in second with 12 first-place votes and 306 points. Even though Morneau was, in reality, the third most valuable player on his team, he ranked in the top four on all 28 ballots cast by the writers, giving him 320 points. In third place was David Ortiz, who received 193 points. The rest of the top 10 included Frank Thomas (174), Jermaine Dye (156), Joe Mauer (116), Johan Santana (114), Travis Hafner (64), Vladimir Guerrero (46) and Carlos Guillen (34). Santana received the lone first-place vote not going to Morneau or Jeter, but seven voters left him off the ballot entirely. Morneau wins despite leading the league in no significant categories. He finished eighth in OPS and 10th once OPS is adjusted for ballpark, and since he did that as an average defensive first baseman with little value on the basepaths, he qualifies as perhaps the weakest MVP in decades.

BBTF:

A twincredibly bad decision by the voters to choose the Doctor over the Chairman or the Captain.

Keith Law:

Morneau awful choice for AL MVP

I think all carping about the NL MVP voters getting their choice wrong must immediately cease. The AL's voters couldn't even correctly identify the most valuable Twin, never mind wrapping their heads around a whole league.

The reality of baseball is that a great offensive player at an up-the-middle position is substantially more valuable than a slightly better hitter at a corner position. And when that up-the-middle player is one of the best fielders at his position in baseball, there's absolutely no comparison. Joe Mauer was more valuable than Justin Morneau this past season. If you don't understand that, you don't understand the first thing about baseball.

Mauer had a 54-point edge in OBP over Morneau, which overwhelms the advantage Morneau had in slugging percentage (a 52-point edge). But Mauer won the Gold Glove for his position this past year, and he is arguably the best-fielding catcher in the game when you consider all aspects of catching. Catchers who field and hit the way Mauer does are extremely valuable, just as shortstops who hit like Derek Jeter does and play passable defense are extremely valuable. First basemen who hit like Morneau just shouldn't win MVP awards in years when there are Mauers and Jeters and other candidates to choose from.

Here are the official votes.

You'll notice Jeter actally got a 6th place vote.

Peter Abraham found the culprit:

The person who voted Jeter sixth was Joe Cowley, the White Sox beat writer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Jeter was .292/.393/.542 against the White Sox this season.
Cowley just went on Mike & The Mad Dog and didn't represent the profession very well. He claimed the Yankees would have done just as well without Jeter in the lineup, that Ortiz kept the Red Sox in contention and that Ortiz had better numbers in the clutch than Jeter did. Never mind that the Red Sox were out of the ace in mid-August, the Yankees played nearly all season without Sheff and Matsui and Jeter had better RISP numbers than Ortiz.

Runners in scoring position

Jeter: .381/.482/.581
Morneau: .323/.401/.575
Ortiz: .288/.429/.538
Thomas: .298/.400/.547

Close and late situations

Jeter: .325/.434/.434
Morneau: .299/.343/.540
Ortiz: .314/.443/.756
Thomas: .298/.400/.547

(I'll provide the Mike and the Mad Dog audio link when it becomes available).

Well let's all let Joe Cowley know what a useless, mindless, small little man he is. After all, he gets paid to write and thus gets to vote on things that affect people, and giving Jeter a 6th place vote in inexcusable. So tell him. Berate him. I encourage, nay, I call upon all of you to mail bomb Joe Cowley. Contact him at jcowley@suntimes.com. Mail him once. Mail him twice. Sign him up for pornography lists. Set up a mail rule to forward all of your spam to him. Find the filthiest, most disgusting site, and register his email address.

I'm not taking this sportwriter idiocy lying down anymore. Neither should you. Join me in this crusade and let's give Mr. Cowley a very, very bad day.

** Update: Mike and the Mad Dog interviewing the guy we're all signing up for porn and spam (right?) is available here.

Labels: keith law

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 2:18 PM 18 comments