Good Morning everyone!  Well, yesterday was a harsh day for me, physically. I didn't even make it in to work. Seriously, I want nothing more than for this stone to come out of me! But, I guess it'll go at its own pace, huh? So today, I really don't have much for you, and again, I apologize for that. I just thought I would touch on a couple of topics and then rest and call it an evening.

 

First, thank you again, so much, to Jeff Dooley, the Radio Voice of the New Britain Rock Cats. What a fun and informative interview. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did.

 

MORE ON, JOHAN

Secondly, you know I promised not to talk about the AL Cy Young vote anymore, but I can't help it. Yestrerday, the Strib's Patrick Reusse again called out all "stat freaks" for daring to think that the Cy Young Award should go to the league's best pitcher over the full year. Here is what he wrote on the subject:

As the great Aaron Gleeman pointed out yesterday:

Odd, isn't it, that a guy who calls people "statistical freaks" would then use statistics to support his argument?

The best counter-point I have seen was an excellent e-mail I received from Travis Brunson that throws it all back in Mr. Reusse's face:

Saw in the fish wrap that Patrick is still chiming in trying to defend his crappy third-place vote and the votes of others about how Santana was not robbed of the Cy Young.  His argument was that his last 10 starts were in "garbage time" when the Twins were out of it.  How about those 10 starts?

 

4 of the 10 against the White Sox. 32.1 innings, 2 ER's, 33 K's (0.56 ERA) (aka WOW)

 

2 of the 10 against the Indians.  13 innings, 5 ER's, 12 K's (3.46 ERA) (still 1 full run better than league average)

 

1 start against the A's. 9 innings, 0 ER's, 9 K's. (aka, a little dedication to all my homeys in Oaktown I like to call the "nine-oh-nine")

 

So, 7 of the 10 starts were against legitimate playoff calibre teams during August and September.  And with the exception of one mediocre start against Cleveland, he completely shut them down.  I am quite certain that those three teams didn't view these games as garbage time as the playoff spots were well up for grabs at this time.

 

Reusse can harass the "statistical freaks" crowd all he wants (although he still uses stats to make his argument, which I think is mildly interesting).  He argues that Santana's previous 10 starts were "humdrum."  Yet in that stretch, Santana gave up a league average 4.64 ERA in the 10 games with 7 of them being against Boston, New York, Angels (twice), Oakland, San Diego and Tampa Bay (a good offensive team).  He had two bad starts in the 10 and the rest were above league-average.

 

How the best pitcher in baseball gets a "generous reward" for finishing third is beyond me.  When he is on his game, the best hitters on the planet are completely clueless.  That makes Santana's "A" game world-beating, and his "B" game nearly unbeatable.  His "C" game or worse allows 3 runs to the Red Sox in 6 innings.   Ask any hitter in MLB and I bet they'd tell you that there is almost any starting pitcher they would rather face than him; if they were interesting in succeeding anyway.  Three starting pitchers like him throwing their "A/B" game and the New Britain Rock Cats lineup would win the World Series.

 

Right now he is the best starting pitcher in MLB.  Meaning that in the entire world, no one does what he does better.  And Reusse and everyone else knows it as well.  They just don't have the balls to admit it; its just easier to rip the pocket protector crowd.

 

Now that is actually doing some research, and that is the beauty of being able to have a blog like this. Sure, we could all read what Mr. Reusse said and just accept it. And, truth be told, I am guessing that 90% of the people who read that in the newspaper actually did buy it as acceptable. However, a little research later, and we see that it is a ridiculous statement. Thanks Travis!

 

And finally, remember last week when Roger used his formula to calculate the score that the Cy Young candidates would have received? In that, he showed that Santana was far and away better than Bartolo Colon:

1. Johan Santana - 142.462 points

2. Mariano Rivera - 135.751 points

3. Mark Buehrle - 128.762 points

4. Bartolo Colon - 122.402 points

5. Cliff Lee - 113.102 points

Well, let's add another Twins starter who was very good in 2005 to this list and see where he ends up. Carlos Silva, using all of the same information, would have had a point total of 128.178, also significantly better than Colon's. Of course, Silva was just 9-8, so he wasn't even worth looking at by the voters.

 

And then we realize that the voters not only vote the post season awards like Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP, but they also vote for the Hall of Fame. And yet some of us still wonder why Bert Blyleven isn't already in the Hall of Fame!

 

NL MVP - Albert Pujols

Well, I have to say that the voters did get both MVP votes right. Yesterday, Albert Pujols edged out Andruw Jones for the trophy. Jayson Stark had some interesting thoughts on the awards, and Stick and Ball Guy disagreed with him greatly. I actually don't. I happen to believe in intangibles, but only as a tie-breaker. I don't believe it should simply go to the most outstanding player, otherwise, you just pick out your stats and don't even need a vote.

 

Pujols received a $200,000 bonus for winning the award. Did you know that Alex Rodriguez got a $1 million bonus for winning the AL MVP award? I'm sorry, but if you have a salary of $25 million, shouldn't you pay the team $1 million if you DON'T win the MVP award?

 

STEROID PENALTIES

MLB and the Player's Union finally agreed upon some punishment for failed steroid (and amphetamines) tests. First offense will be 50 games. Second offense will be 100 games. And for a third offense, the player will be banned from baseball... with the right to appeal in two years.  I hate talking about this. However, I am glad it is done. Hopefully after a few days we won't have to hear any more about this!

 

The TOPPS Contract

Pat Neshek discusses the contract that Topps tries to get all minor leaguers to sign. It is really rather interesting; how much the contract is for and how that changes, and more. Hopefully we can see Pat with his own Topps or Bowman cards in 2006 sets!

 

More Awards For Liriano

At MiLB.com, they gave three awards to the Twins Francisco Liriano. He was named the Overall Foreign-Born Player of the Year, Triple A Starting Pitcher of the Year, and Triple A Foreign-Born Player of the Year.

 

Comparing Brandon McCarthy and Scott Baker

John Sickels takes a look at the two AL Central pitching prospects on a number of categories including Background, Tools, Performance and more. It is a very interesting read, and these two will likely match up against each other for the next few years. There is also a poll to choose who will have the better, longer career.

 

Glen Perkins - Cy Young?

The Baseball Analysts say that if there would be a Cy Young for the Arizona Fall League, the Twins Glen Perkins likely would be the winner.  

 

WHAT I'M WATCHING

When I first started this site two-and-a-half years ago, I used to write about a lot more topics. One prominent one was the TV shows that I was watching. As a matte of fact, on the left of the screen with the other links were the links to all of the shows I watched each night. There were anywhere from three to six shows a night. I know. I was pathetic. I would watch one channel of shows and tape other channels so I could watch those shows later.

 

Well, a little over a year ago, I moved out of my apartment and into a house. Since that time, I have gradually reduced the number of shows I watched. On one level, I feel pretty good about that. I did watch too much TV (a term you never would have heard me say in the past). On another level, I kind of miss knowing what was going on with so many shows.

 

OK, to the point of this section, I wanted to discuss what I am watching now. I am really down to just a few shows that I actually watch with any regularity. Of course, Thursday night is the big night. Friends was always my favorite show, and Joey has replaced it. I think that it is excellent. I really can't watch Will & Grace since it isn't funny very often anymore, so I flip over to CBS and watch the second half of Survivor. I then really enjoy The Apprentice, only the Donald Trump version though. And ER is still a very good show. On Tuesdays, I really like watching The Biggest Loser. That show could be very inspirational to a lot of people, I'm sure. Then I also watch My Name is Earl, which is very funny! I thought I would like The Office more than I do, but it's humor is frequently too dry for me. That is about it! Actually, after a long day of football on Sundays, I do enjoy the Fox lineup. The Simpsons are alright, but Family Guy is hilarious. The War at Home is great, and I really like Michael Rappaport. American Dad is another excellent cartoon comedy worth watching.

 

Of course, like so many, I am eagerly anticipating the new season of American Idol. And, ok, I really enjoy the show Stacked!!

 

And that is it! I am sure there are other excellent shows that are not sports. When the Twins are on, that's what I watch. Even with the two TVs, the focus is on the Twins game. Are there any other shows that I should be watching or that you enjoy? Let me know, send me an e-mail.  

 

And on that note, I am going to go get some sleep and try to get comfortable. If you have any thoughts or ideas, or if you would like to contribute a guest column or a Why Baseball essay, it would be great for me. Please e-mail me if you're interested.

Have a great day!