Jonny Gomes is a favourite of Jonny German's because he's got the right initials, the right spelling of his first name, and the right pop with the bat.:)

Cano might end up with the more valuable career, but Chacin and Gomes were better in 2005.

Gomes, Chacin and Francoeur each received exactly two first-place votes. Hometown writers?

This seems like a good time to link to the Huston Street interview over at Athletics Nation. Blez described Street as "one of the most friendly, polite and humble members" of the Athletics. I read this when it was posted back in April and enjoyed it then; reading it after his ROY win was just as good.

Jonny Gomes is a favourite of Jonny German's

You got that right, I've been on the bandwagon since early last year. And check out this recent Ken Rosenthal article that Jordan brought to my attention:

"The Devil Rays' new executives not only are young and bright, but they've also impressed executives both inside and outside the organization with their willingness to listen - a quality that helped persuade former Astros GM Gerry Hunsicker to join the team as a senior consultant. The next step for the Rays is to trade expendable hitters like Aubrey Huff and Jonny Gomes for pitching ."

See, this is why Burnett's a good idea... Need to free up some of that young, cheap pitching and send it to TBay for Gomes...

Hey, I'm all for Gomes in a Jays uniform. Anything to make the Devil Rays even less of a threat than they already are.

Just kidding, it was too easy.

Rob, I had the pleasure of chatting briefly with Steet down the sidelines when he signed autographs during the A's trip to Toronto this season. Blez is absolutely right. He's an incredibly humble and polite guy. He signed autographs for ages, interacted with the kids and was a pleasure to be around. He seems to be the epitome of the great-player great-indidividual athlete.

I wondered how often rookie relievers win this award, so...

Year     Name                Stats
2000     Kazuhiro Sasaki     3.16 ERA, 2-5, 37 SV, 78 SO
1999     Scott Williamson    2.41 ERA, 12-7, 19 SV, 107 SO
1989     Gregg Olson         1.69 ERA, 5-2, 27 SV, 90 SO
1986     Todd Worrell        2.08 ERA, 9-10, 36 SV, 73 SO
1980     Steve Howe          2.66 ERA, 7-9, 17 SV, 39 SO
1976     Butch Metzger       2.92 ERA, 11-4, 16 SV, 89 SO
1952     Joe Black           2.15 ERA, 15-4, 15 SV, 85 SO

Olson and Worrell had pretty good careers, but Sasaki didn't last long, Williamson has battled injury problems, and Steve Howe liked illicit substances a little too much. Metzger was done two years after his rookie season, and Joe Black also had a very short career, too.
Looking through these players' stats made me appreciate the brilliance that was Tom Henke all the more.

Need to free up some of that young, cheap pitching and send it to TBay for Gomes...

Well, the GM meetings are on, and trades can happen any time, but new teams cannot sign free agents until Thursday. The logical order of things is to attempt to make trades first, and then to sign if the trades go through. Not that I think Burnett would do significantly better than Shaun Marcum, but I realize that I am being contrary...I do agree that Gomes would be a reasonable acquisition target, as would Bankston and several other D-Rays' properties.

Sasaki didn't last long

Sasaki pitched in Japan a long time before joining the Mariners so his 'rookie' season was when he was 32.

Logical or not, Mike, JP (per Blair, anyway), plans on storming out of the gates in free agency and then after a couple of weeks (US Thanksgiving time), he will turn his attention to trades depending on how free agency pans out.

(Guess I should have put it in here)

Colon wins AL Cy Young.

(tsn.ca)

Actually, the weirdest thing about the Cy Young voting is Cliff Lee getting 2 second place votes. I like Cliff Lee, but there's no way that he was anything like the 2nd best starting pitcher in the league. It's not quite like the Shannon Stewart for MVP campaign or the Pete Vukovich vote, but it does show that not all the voters have thought about this. For all the ragging on Griffin, a ballot with Colon followed by Rivera is a lot more reasonable than anybody followed by Cliff Lee.

but it does show that not all the voters have thought about this.

I believe all voters put a lot of thought into their votes. The problem is the logic that they use to decide their vote. I'm sure the Cliff Lee votes, just like Colon, were based on primarily on their win-loss record. The prevailing thought is still that wins are what matter for pitchers above all else.

I gave up on the baseball writers a long time ago (after the Pedro/Pudge voting) and recognize the IBA's as the true baseball awards.