MLB - 2008 All Star Break and Beyond!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hell, put A-Rod in that spot and he'd be approaching Barry Bonds early 00's numbers!

[snoopy369]

Approaching??? Surpassing...

Fist, I certainly wouldn't consider Danks for MVP or Cy Young or, well, anything else other than 'best pitcher on the White Sox, probably'. My point was that he's every bit as good as Joe Nathan...

[snoopy369]

On Youk-Quentin, Youk's are close but not as good in most rate categories, he had significantly fewer HRs, and while he had significantly more RBIs, those aren't a good MVP statistic - RBIs are correlated with your team's performance, and Quentin managed 100 RBIs on the team that had three of the five HR leaders and a relatively low team OBP (ie, Quentin didn't have a lot of guys to hit in). Admittedly, most of the time those HR leaders hit after Quentin, but the team OBP certainly didn't do much for his RBI total. Overall, I think Quentin is a somewhat stronger candidate than Youk (though I'd certainly consider Youk in the top 5-6).

[-Jrabbit]

It's Pedroia.

Pedroia, who led the league in runs (118), hits (213) and doubles (54), received 16 first-place votes in collecting a total of 317 points from the voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau (.300, 23 homers and 129 RBI), the 2006 winner, received seven first-place votes and was runner-up with 257 points.

Red Sox infielder Kevin Youkilis (.312, 29 homers, 115 RBI) got two first-place votes and finished third with 201 points.

The 25-year-old Pedroia became only the third player to win MVP honors the year after being named Rookie of the Year. The last second baseman to win the AL MVP award was Nellie Fox of the Chicago White Sox in 1959.

Twins catcher Joe Mauer (.328, 9 homers, 85 RBI), who won the AL batting title by two points over Pedroia, was fourth in the voting with 188 points.

The other first-place vote went to Los Angeles Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, who set a major league record with 62 saves and tallied 143 points.

Carlos Quentin was 5th in the voting.

[snoopy369]

to the voters for this one ... Pedroia wasn't the most valuable player on the Red Sox, and shouldn't have been in the top 5. A-Rod finished 8th (!!!) and 2-4 was Morneau, Youkilis and Mauer.

In other news, Cubs fans will be seeing more Ryan Dempster over the next 4 years...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Though enough BBWAA voters are idiots (and this year they haven't made a mistake yet... so they are due ).

I called it

What a travesty.

[-Jrabbit]

No one in the top 4 with 30 dingers, I wonder when that happened last.

It's a shame Quentin got hurt. Any kind of half-decent September and he might have run away with it.

Plus, the Sox might have won a playoff game...

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
It's probably a result of him being a much better player in 2006:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/le...L_2006_t.shtml

If it were just about numbers, they wouldn't have people voting - they'd let a computer program (or eight) figure it out. Of course that would eliminate all controversy, right? (I'm looking at you, BCS)

[Imran Siddiqui]

It probably would be better if we didn't have people (specifically BBWAA members) voting .

But I guess you have to have people weigh the numbers as well.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
No one in the top 4 with 30 dingers, I wonder when that happened last.

It's a shame Quentin got hurt. Any kind of half-decent September and he might have run away with it.

Plus, the Sox might have won a playoff game...

Umm, like game 3?

[-Jrabbit]

Like not having do much drama in the last weekend.
Like not having to play an extra game.
Like being focused and ready instead of emotionally drained.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And Maddux decides to hang 'em up. Here is to a first ballot Hall of Famer!

[-Jrabbit]

Wow. The end of an era -- one of my all-time favorites. Saw him 2-3x/year in Wrigley before he went to Atlanta. The very definition of a pitcher's pitcher in the modern era, and a class act all the way.

Good for you Greg! Enjoy your time on the golf course -- another place he'll quietly kick your ass!!

[Sharpe]

Yeah Maddux was one of the all-time greats. Two things stick out to me from his final career numbers.

First, that he ended up with 355 wins - one more than Roger Clemens. Clemens was great, but now there are real questions about his late career resurgence due to steroids. Also if Maddux really had wanted to, he could have passed Spahn's modern day record of 363 wins - most teams in the league would have signed him.

Second, that he ended up with 999 career walks, just one short of 1000. Appropriate for a pitcher who had such great control - who defined control and movement as a pitcher over power.

And you're righ Jrabbit - class act defines what Maddux was.

[snoopy369]

If he had played for a real team last year, and not the Padres for most of the season, he would've taken the win record... but he's not the sort of guy to play when he cannot play his best.

I started following baseball in 1988 (game 6 of the 1987 world series, actually), and the Cubs were one of the few teams I could catch on TV in New Mexico (via WGN). I can't remember baseball before Maddux, and it will be sad for me to watch baseball without him.