Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

[GBrushTWood]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

Plus nothing beats being able to go to a game in Philly, like on Friday, and scream out "You've been Paps-Smeared" after he closes out the game.

First off, I just puked in my mouth after reading that. Less mentions of
'pap-smears' in my day to day life is a good thing.

Maybe it's just me but I always think that closers is the most overrated position in the game. Not saying that you don't need them but I feel that you can still win the World Series with a decent closer. Your closer doesn't have to be the best in the league nor even top 5. Just decent enough. The White Sox won the World Series with a rookie closer who was called up in July. The Marlins won in 2003 with Brandon Looper. The Diamondbacks won it in 2001 with Byung-Hyun Kim and he blew some games in the playoffs and W.S.

And I'm a firm believer that closers should never win the MVP. How can a guy who pitches less than 100 innings help a team throughout the course of a season. Now playoffs might be understandable because there is less margin for error but for the regular 162-game season...I'm against it.

I've gotta say I strenuously object. I think the closer (or preferably, relief ace) is a tremendously important part of the team, maybe one of the most important. To me, the last 3 outs of the ball game when you are ahead and it is a 1 or 2 run game are far more difficult to obtain than 3 outs in the 3rd inning. In the abstract they should be the same because they are identical "baseball" situations, but anybody who's watching the game can see that it takes a different kid of approach and mentality to get those 3,4, 5 whatever outs. It is imperative to have a guy who attacks hitters, has excellent control, and isn't afraid to fail.

If you do not have that guy, you run a high risk of losing games you should be winning, and that comes back to haunt teams at the end of the season in the standings. Personally, I think the reason the Yankees virtually always outperform their Pythagorean projection is because they have Rivera, who is nearly superhuman.

[CMH]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

Translation: Im a Yankee fan who lobbied hard for ARod last year and now, rather than admit I was wrong, I have to perpetuate this phony-baloney idea that Ortiz didnt get it on principle.

You do realize it's 2006 now, right?

Get over it.

[glucklich]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

You do realize it's 2006 now, right?

Get over it.

I can't. It's too amusing.

[glucklich]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

What Yankee fan starts and makes over half of the posts in the Florida Marlins thread? LOL. That would have taken you 10 seconds to find out, yet you had to go out spewing more ignorance.

Either that or you are so inconsequential that I mixed you up with someone else.

[fugazi]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

And yet if D. Lee goes down, the entire front office for the Cubs not only makes excuses for Dusty but is on the verge of giving him an extension in spite of the fact that they have more "talent" than Arizona.

AB
SO
LUTE
LY

PERFECT!!!!!!!!

Best post ever, no doubts about it . . . says it ALLLLLLL!!!!

i hate you, dusty. i hate you, front office. somebody fix juan pierre.

[dkgojackets]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

Either that or you are so inconsequential that I mixed you up with someone else.

Nice one. Is that the best you can come up with?

[Dice]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

I've gotta say I strenuously object. I think the closer (or preferably, relief ace) is a tremendously important part of the team, maybe one of the most important. To me, the last 3 outs of the ball game when you are ahead and it is a 1 or 2 run game are far more difficult to obtain than 3 outs in the 3rd inning. In the abstract they should be the same because they are identical "baseball" situations, but anybody who's watching the game can see that it takes a different kid of approach and mentality to get those 3,4, 5 whatever outs. It is imperative to have a guy who attacks hitters, has excellent control, and isn't afraid to fail.

If you do not have that guy, you run a high risk of losing games you should be winning, and that comes back to haunt teams at the end of the season in the standings. Personally, I think the reason the Yankees virtually always outperform their Pythagorean projection is because they have Rivera, who is nearly superhuman.

And your right. But maybe I would feel different about closers if the 'save' situations were redefined. Probably the reason why I think closers are overrated is because the save stat is overrated. Here's an idea on redefining the save stat...you only earn a saves with 3-run lead or less if you pitch more than 1 inning. If you pitch 1-inning or less the lead has to be 1-run.

Look at it like this from a hypothetical perspective. Let's a guy saves the game with 1 inning pitched but he gave up a 2-run homer BUT when he came into the game he had a 3-run lead. Is that fair to give a guy credit for earning a 18.00 ERA for that game?

That's my prespective. Maybe if they made it harder for saves to be earned then a closer would be a valuable piece. However, I still feel that winning a World Series doesn't require a top-notch closer. BUT you can't win with a terrible or less than average closer. If your team is good enough to get you a 3-run lead in that 9th inning then an average closer can get the job done.

[Stu]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

I think the easiest way to define a save should be:
A pitcher gets a save if he finishes the game and the tying run comes to the plate. So for example:

1 run games would be the same, because any batter could be the tying run.
2 run games: 1 baserunner
3 run games: 2 baserunners
4 run games: bases loaded

[glucklich]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

Nice one. Is that the best you can come up with?

You didnt like what I said. Thats a shock.

[mjb2124]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

glucklich and dkgojackets - Just stop it. No need to ruin a good thread with petty comments.

[Misfit]

Re: Since 1/4 of the season is done time to dish out some early awards.

AL ROY - Jonathon Papelbon - opponents are only hitting .139 against him and he's allowed 1 run in 23.1 innings pitched with an 0.60 WHIP. 5 of his 15 saves have been in 1 run games and 4 in 2-run games so he's not getting a lot of the cheap ones.

NL ROY - Hanley Ramirez - has been the perfect lead-off hitter so far carrying a .417 OBP into Wednesday. He's also stolen 16 bases and has only been caught 3 times. He has made 6 errors on the young season but he is only 22 years old. It will be interesting to see if the pitchers in the NL can catch up to him.

AL MVP - Jim Thome - he's surprised me as I didn't expect him to get off to this kind of start. There really isn't much to say, the numbers speak for themselves.

NL MVP - Albert Pujols - best hitter in the game, without question. I don't think he'll hit 70 but he'll certainly hit a lot and flirt with the Triple Crown all year.

AL Cy Young - Mike Mussina - he's quietly put up 6 wins with a 0.98 WHIP and has pitched in a lot of innings (though he doesn't have a complete game like my runner-up Roy Halladay, who has 2). He's tweaked his change-up and is now using it as an out-pitch. We'll have to wait and see what its staying power is or if the league will catch up to it but one thing is certain, he's been the ace of the staff in New York and has a shot at 20 wins.

NL Cy Young - Brandon Webb - Pedro's been the most dominating pitcher in the NL (0.84 WHIP) but Webb has been the most consistent and has pitched in over 70 innings already this season with a complete game shut-out under his belt. He's also 7-0.