Grading the BBWAA

For many years now the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) have gotten away with putting forth historically bad recipients for their respective awards. Since there is apparently no one else to hold them accountable for their actions, I thought I'd go ahead and do it on this blog, which Commissioner Bud Selig reads every day, hence assuring that all incompetence will be extinguished.

Class is now in session.


A.L. Cy Young: Cliff Lee






BBWAA Grade: A







You really couldn't have gone wrong here with Lee or Halladay. Both were very good, but I'd agree with the voters and give Lee the slight edge. The only real gripe I have hear is the fact that K-Rod finished third in the Cy Young voting. You could maybe make a case that he was third best A.L. reliever, although even that would be pretty farfetched. However, I can live with it since Lee and Halladay finished 1-2. Good job here, guys.


NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum






BBWAA Grade: A










Thankfully, there was no real scare here with Brandon Webb. Lincecum won it easily, and it was much deserved. Kudos to the writers for also recognizing Santana's great season as well. Maybe they're learning? Or getting smarter voters? Who knows.


A.L. Manager of the Year:
Joe Maddon





BBWAA Grade: B







Maddon has gotten FAR too much credit for what he's done in Tampa Bay. Sure, he's done a fine job and it's great that they were able to turn things around this season, but he had much less to do with it than what would be perceived by the media. As Grif has attested to many times (not here, but other places), Maddon made quite a few God-awful decisions throughout the season. The grade would be worse were it not for the implement of the bullpen ace format--although it's unclear whether that's a front office creation or managerial preference. Obviously I can certainly understand the reasoning for voting for Maddon, it just seems evident after looking deeper into it that Gardenhire would've been the better choice. Still not the worst decision, though.


NL Manager of the Year:
Lou Piniella




BBWAA Grade: A





No argument here. Great manager. Great choice.


AL Rookie of the Year:
Evan Longoria





BBWAA Grade: A








Mike Aviles probably should've finished higher, but they got the most important one right so I'll let it pass. This was a pretty easy one, though.


NL Rookie of the Year:
Geovany Soto





BBWAA Grade: C-








Don't be fooled here. Geovany Soto was the right choice. I'm penalizing the voters for something much worse. Edinson Volquez finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting DESPITE NOT EVEN BEING A ROOKIE! That's right, somehow a player who is not even eligible to win the award snuck on to the ballot. Not only that, HE GARNERED THREE SECOND PLACE VOTES! So, while I've overlooked the entirety of the ballot with other awards, I simply can't ignore such sheer stupidity. Seriously, how were these ballots even allowed to be counted? How hard is it to look up the eligibility of a player before you vote? I just looked it up on B-R in about 9 seconds. So the answer is: not very hard. These three writers--whoever they are--should be removed lest we see Derek Jeter finish third in the Cy Young voting in 2009. I applaud you guys for at least getting the winner right, but this is just... there are no words.


Overall BBWAA Grade So Far: C+


I know, the math doesn't quite add up. I ended up docking some serious points for Edinson Volquez receiving three goddamn votes (not to mention Kosuke Fukudome???). But hey, I'm surprised I was able to stay objective for as long as I did. Chances are the BBWAA will tragically fuck up one of the MVP awards, anyways, thus justifying my exaggerated disdain.

Delgado for MVP!

Translation

I was petrified for awhile there (all through Games 5 and 6, actually, and until Aybar's home run in Game 7) that I'd somehow brought a curse upon the Rays with my Latin. You can imagine how relieved I was when I woke up from a cough syrup-induced haze to see smiling Rays faces on the TV.

Because I know you've all been waiting for it (and because now my as-yet-unlatinized additional sentences are even more relevant), here is the translation for:

Longoria iuvenis vim ostendit quem globum lunae capissit ... Artus auriolus Sonnanstinis alba ad thecam nigram designatam torquet.

Young Longoria displays/shows strength which launches the ball to the moon ... The golden arm of Sonnanstine hurls white tablets to the marked out black box.

Yep. That sounds WAY better in Latin. (It's also WAY dirtier.)

Steve Phillips Quickie

From Sports Center a moment ago:

"Evan Longoria had the game winning RBI in the All-Star game and that's why [the Rays] have homefield advantage in the World Series."

Exactly none of that is true, Steve Phillips, and if you don't watch it, some angry Rangers fan who has very few things to be happy about in life and thus takes pride in the fact that his team always finds a way to involve a player in the decisive moment of a mid-season exhibition game is going to call you on it.

The pinnacle of geekdom

Longoria iuvenis vim ostendit quem globum lunae capissit ... Artus auriolus Sonnanstinis alba ad thecam nigram designatam torquet.

Props if you can translate and correct my Latin. Oh, and if you can point out the sexual innuendos, for there are two. EDIT actually the whole second sentence is one big innuendo. Oops.

Translation will be posted ... at some point. For now, I will retire my prose composition skillz and kill all thoughts of somehow transforming those floating sentences into ... verse.

QUICK! RUNANDHIDE!

[Who else has someone composing Latin prose about baseball?]

Why Players Shouldn't be Trusted Reason No. 1

This is a player's poll from the August 4 issue of Sports Illustrated:

Which rookie has impressed you the most?
Based on a survey of 449 MLB players

Geovany Soto, Cubs C......21%
Evan Longoria, Rays 3B......16%
Edinson Volquez, Reds P......16%
Jacoby Ellsbury, Red Sox OF......12%
Jay Bruce, Reds OF......10%

Now, there are a few problems with this. Beyond just the idea of putting Jay Bruce and Jacoby Ellsbury (respective VORPs of 5.2 and 5.0) ahead of Mike Aviles (25.1), Jair Jurrjens (33.4), Jorge Campillo (33.2) or any other of the FIFTY SEVEN rookies with higher VORPs than them (14 position players),* there's a more glaring issue.

See, Edinson Volquez had 80 career innings pitched at the Major League level before this year. A player loses his rookie eligibility at 50.

What does this mean? It means that the players polled by Sports Illustrated determined that Edinson Volquez -- who is not a rookie -- is the second best rookie in all of baseball.

Athletes are awesome because they play sports very, very well. They understand a lot of what they need to do to do their job well, and they're athletically gifted. Too often, though, we decide this means they're a good choice to analyze the sport for us, and clearly this is a great example that they are not necessarily suited to do that. An athlete isn't necessarily paying enough attention to the sport nor do they necessarily have the understanding to analyze it on a major level.


*Yes, I'm aware I just totally ignored defense. Work with me here.