Late Night MLB Bits
November 11, 2008, 5:39 amLate night bits, indeed (it’s 2 AM out here).
1. First, congratulations to Evan Longoria (AL) and Geovany Soto (NL) as both players earned their ROTY honors for 2008. In a few years, Alex Rodriguez’s prowess at the hot corner will be eclipsed by Evan Longoria, who’s freakish power and defensive ability will keep him in the limelight for a long time. However, I’m sorry to say that the honeymoon will be extremely short for Soto. Next season, I can say with certainty that Chris Iannetta will be the best power-hitting catcher in the NL. In fact, the NL has a great crop of young catchers (Iannetta, Soto, Doumit, Martin, etc.) and has truly surpassed the AL, in that regard.
2. Next up, while the Matt Holliday trade dominated news outlets yesterday, the less heralded Marlins-Nationals trade was pretty big too. The Marlins sent Scott Olsen, a talented lefty, and Josh Willingham, a hard-hitting OF, to the Nationals for Emilio Bonifacio and 2 prospects. I like the trade for the Nationals and the Marlins are the Marlins, cutting costs when necessary. Therefore, it works out for everyone (yaaay).
3. Also, there was big news out of San Diego, as the Padres and Trevor Hoffman have ended their 16-year relationship. Hoffman is reportedly walking away from a $4 million deal and he could probably garner a better offer from another team (one that’s not rebuilding). Amazingly, Hoffman, while having a poor year in comparison to his other seasons, actually pitched better on the road than at home, so he’ll definitely field some offers as his numbers aren’t entirely a Petco fabrication. Would the Mets give him a shot? Probably not, but it could make sense for teams that aren’t willing to invest in K-Rod (who I hate with a passion) and that lose out on Brian Fuentes.
4. Finally, closing with a Yankee-related bit, the Yankees and Cisco Systems are joining together in order to provide fans with a few high-tech treats at the new Yankee Stadium. Honestly, I hope the Yankees come up with some fun “sideshows”. Yes, the game is the primary entertainment at the new park and that’s how it always should be, but other activities could be fun for the kids and for some of the drunken adults me.
Best part of the ROY voting – In the NL, two sportswriters cast votes for Volquez, who wasn’t a rookie for TWO seperate reasons. First, he pitched 80 or so innings for Texas in 07. Secondly, because he was first called up in 2005.
Another reason not to trade Cano, if he has a bounce back year, there is an outside chance he wins the AL ROY!
How uninformed are those writers? Wow, that’s embarrassing.
Keith Law of ESPN actually outed the culprits (and hilarity ensues).
http://www.meadowparty.com/blog/?p=398
And I assume everyone knows that the organization that votes on these awards denied Keith Law admittance into their organization.
Yup. However, we’ve all looked at the voting for these awards in the past and have said, “Hell, this makes no sense, these guys must be stupid… I can do a better job.” At least now, we know that to be true (for some of them).
I now want to make it into that organization, just so I could pick the wrong guy, probably ineligible players, for EVERY award, and see if they would ever kick me out or cancel out my vote. Seriously, I would vote a setup man from the NL for the AL Cy Young.