Major League Baseball 2009

[SmoothieX]

I'm all for looking at walks and innings pitched and strikeouts and stuff. It's the stat geek fan boy kinda stats that bother me.

Opposing batting average on the first Tuesday after the full moon with a runner on second and one out vs. a batter with an orange undershirt, since 1940.

 

[Starbreaker]

Atlanta is looking to trade Derek Lowe. I think we could get a decent reliever or outfield or both for him.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I wonder who will get Roy Halladay. Has he said who he wants to play for? (He is pretty much NOT interested in the Jays anymore, not after his contract runs out.)

 

[RAMA]

Glad to see Greinke win the Cy Young. He didn't have the wins, but that was a product of the team he played for: In just about every other category, he was tops.

Wins and losses really aren't the top indicator of a pitcher's quality. There may be a few old fart baseball voters who heavily factor wins (like those few college football pollsters who always rank Notre Dame high no matter what) and a large portion of fans who don't actually understand baseball, but most baseball fans know better than that.

I remember arguing with someone who insisted that home runs were more important than RBIs -- and this was in grade school! It's the same sort of mentality with wins.

I'll be sure to let Denny Mclain know his 31 wins didnt matter. His ERA didnt come anywhere near leading the league.

RAMA

 

[Neroon]

That was a little while ago. Odds are Denny would have a different performance today when the emphasis is on a greater variety of statistics than just wins.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Wins is by far the least useful stat for determining who the best pitcher was in a given year.

Heck, if wins were REALLY super important, Brandon Webb would have had his 2nd Cy Young in 2008.

EDIT: Kudos to shaggy haired pothead Tim Lincecum for doing what no one else has ever done before. He won back to back Cy Youngs in his first two full seasons in the Majors. That kid is a monster, with sick stuff. The sky is the limit for that guy, if he can avoid getting busted with the mota in the future.

 

[SmoothieX]

Ugh, I wish the Mets went after him instead of resigning Ollie "Can't find the strikezone with a map' Perez.

 

[Aragorn]

Can't say that I'm surprised that the person bitching about Greinke's "low" win total hasn't said anything about Lincecum's lower win total.

 

[Pegaritaville]

No surprise for the MVP in either the NL or the AL. Which is good because both Pujous and Mauer deserve their MVP titles.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

And with the naming of each league's MVPs, we'll close the books on this season and start up the Hot Stove League