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Awards Joaq the Vote: Meet Your 2003 Andujar Finalists
It's December. It's time. Time to cast your ballot for the recipient of the first Batter's Box Andujar Award. Remember, it's all about the greatest single word ever uttered to describe The Grand Game: YouNeverKnow!

The What Award?
Original Announcement & Rules
Preseason Nominations
Midseason Update

We've selected the 12 finalists. Now it's up to you to vote. The 2003 Andujar Winner will be announced -- natch -- on Dec. 26 ... Boxing Day.

The 12 finalists are listed below alphabetically ...

Included is each candidate's name, position, team, 2003 salary, a couple of "traditional" statistics, one key "ZLC" statistic and a few pithy lines on why each candidate should or should not win. But it's up to you ...

Vote by sending an e-mail to mickwrites@hotmail.com listing your five choices in order. Write-in ballots will be accepted ONLY if the candidate actually fits all the criteria outlined in the earlier posts. The primary disqualifiers are: former all-star, traded for or signed after the season started, never been on a major league roster before this season.

Votes will be tabulated on a 7-4-3-2-1 basis; one vote per e-mail address, just like the MLB All-Star balloting done online. Votes will be accepted through 11:59:59 p.m. Central Dec. 23. This thread is hereby designated as a discussion/argument/defend your candidate zone -- no votes posted here will be accepted. Votes MUST be e-mailed to mickwrites@hotmail.com. But please feel free to defend or insult any of the finalists here in order to sway other votes.

On a personal note, writing from the DFW Metroplex (but not a Rangers fan per se), I find it highly amusing that six of the listed 12 used to be Texas Rangers.

So ... here they are, your Andujarian Dirty Dozen!

Candidate: Casey Blake, 3B, Cleveland Indians
2003 Salary: $330K
Traditional Stats: .257/17/67
ZLC Stats: .727 OPS (95 OPS+)
Why he should win: "Casey at the Bat" headlines for announcement very exciting.
Why he shouldn't win: "Casey with the Glove" ... not so much.

Candidate: Frank Catalanotto, OF, Toronto Blue Jays
2003 Salary: $2.2M
Traditional Stats: .299/13/59
ZLC Stats: .823 OPS (111 OPS+)
Why he should win: Hometown favorite.
Why he shouldn't win: Last name is hard to spell.

Candidate: Jose Cruz, Jr., OF, San Francisco Giants
2003 Salary: $2.5M
Traditional Stats: .250/20/68
ZLC Stats: .779 OPS (104 OPS+)
Why he should win: Hometown favori ... oh, wait. Never mind.
Why he shouldn't win: "I got it! I got it! I ... dammit!"

Candidate: Danny Kolb, RP, Milwaukee Brewers
2003 Salary: $300K
Traditional Stats: 1-2, 21 saves 1.96 ERA
ZLC Stats: 223 ERA+
Why he should win: All 21 saves after July 19.
Why he shouldn't win: Plays for Brewers.

Candidate: Esteban Loiaza, SP, Chicago White Sox
2003 Salary: $500K
Traditional Stats: 21-9, 207 K, 2.90 ERA
ZLC Stats: 155 ERA+
Why he should win: 20 wins! Started All-Star Game!
Why he shouldn't win: Insert your own punchline here.

Candidate: Kevin Millar, 1B/DH, Boston Red Sox
2003 Salary: $2M
Traditional Stats: .276/25/96
ZLC Stats: .820 OPS (110 OPS+)
Why he should win: Blew off an entire country, Japan, for Sox.
Why he shouldn't win: Third best candidate on own team?

Candidate: Bill Mueller, 3B, Boston Red Sox
2003 Salary: $2.1M
Traditional Stats: .326/19/85
ZLC Stats: .938 OPS (140 OPS+)
Why he should win: Cool "Mueller Time" headline possibilities.
Why he shouldn't win: Staying with either of his previous two teams would have kept Marlins out of World Series.

Candidate: Darren Oliver, SP, Colorado Rockies
2003 Salary: $350K
Traditional Stats: 13-11, 5.04
ZLC Stats: 94 ERA+
Why he should win: Thirteen wins! For the Rockies!
Why he shouldn't win: Forget Coors. An ERA over 5 is an ERA over 5.

Candidate: David Ortiz, 1B/DH, Boston Red Sox
2003 Salary: $1.25M
Traditional Stats: .288/31/101
ZLC Stats: .961 OPS (144 OPS+)
Why he should win: Peter Gammons thinks he should've been MVP.
Why he shouldn't win: Peter Gammons thinks he should've been MVP.

Candidate: Scott Podsednik, OF, Milwaukee Brewers
2003 Salary: $300K
Traditional Stats: .314/9/58 43 SB
ZLC Stats: .822 OPS (112 OPS+)
Why he should win: With Sexson gone, now Milwaukee's marquee player.
Why he shouldn't win: See "Kolb, Danny."

Candidate: Desi Relaford, IF/OF, Kansas City Royals
2003 Salary: $900K
Traditional Stats: .254/8/59 20 SB
ZLC Stats: .691 OPS (73 OPS+)
Why he should win: Versatile. Team player. A "baseball" guy.
Why he shouldn't win: Did you see that OPS?

Candidate: John Thomson, SP, Texas Rangers
2003 Salary: $1.3M
Traditional Stats: 13-14, 4.85
ZLC Stats: 102 ERA+
Why he should win: Named Rangers Pitcher of the Year.
Why he shouldn't win: Named Rangers Pitcher of the Year.

Boxers, the floor is yours.
Posted by Mick Doherty on Monday, December 01 2003 @ 05:54 AM EST.
Joaq the Vote: Meet Your 2003 Andujar Finalists | 17 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_Jonny German - Monday, December 01 2003 @ 06:41 PM EST (#33076) #
Hmmm, at least half of the candidates don't even belong on the ballot, IMHO. Those would be Casey Blake, Jose Cruz, Kevin Millar, Darren Oliver, Desi Relaford, and John Thomson. In fact, in the case of Millar it's much more reasonable to argue that he underperformed. I'm assuming Desi Relaford is a joke. Well, I know he's a joke, but I assume it's a joke that he's on the ballot.

I'm writing in our very own Greg Myers. For $800k he went .307/.374/.502 (124 OPS+) in 329 ABs, 15 HR and 52 RBIs. His career OPS+ is 86, and the only previous season in which he broke 100 was a 103 in 2001 (161 ABs).
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_benum - Monday, December 01 2003 @ 07:31 PM EST (#33077) #
Good catch on Myers Jonny. With all due respect, there really isn't much of a contest here. For half a Mil the White Sox had a pitcher who would have been a reasonable choice for the Cy Young award. I think the Andujar Award should be split into pitcher and position player.
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_Donkit R.K. - Monday, December 01 2003 @ 08:25 PM EST (#33078) #
Well, it's a race for second (and it's also interesting to see if us Jays fans will give credit where credit is due for Mr. EL).
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Leigh - Monday, December 01 2003 @ 08:30 PM EST (#33079) #
For half a Mil the White Sox had a pitcher who would have been a reasonable choice for the Cy Young award.

Esteban had a very, very good year, but there was only one reasonable choice for the Cy Young award.
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_Mick - Monday, December 01 2003 @ 10:58 PM EST (#33080) #
Well, first, let me say that none of the candidates are a "joke," intentional or otherwise. Go back and look at the previous three articles; Relaford, for example, was a strong pre-season choice and a mid-season contender. Even the ZLC's own Unkle Robby Neyer wrote a glowing Pro-Relaford article at one point. Don't confuse "no shot at winning" with "doesn't belong in the final 12."

Second, great catch -- pun intended -- on Myers. Hard to believe this is his first mention for an Andujar nomination, and as per above, he would require a write-in vote (even if it was essentially an oversight that he's not on the ballot), but here is his unofficial nomination:

Candidate: Greg Myers, C, Toronto Blue Jays
2003 Salary: $800K
Traditional Stats: .307/15/52
ZLC Stats: .876 OPS (124 OPS+)
Why he should win: Myers is a True Jay ... returning to his roots in Toronto, his similarity scores show that in his first year with the Jays at age 24, he was most similar to former Jay Rick Cerone; in his most recent go-round at age 37, he's most similar to former Jay World Series hero Pat Borders.
Why he shouldn't win: The old man couldn't even win an everyday job.

Finally, I do hope everyone will vote and we'll see how it turns out ... the plan is to send notification of victory to the player and his agent, and I am toying with the idea of a little press release. Mostly for fun, but the more votes we get, the more legitimate the award can be said to be.

I don't think Loiaza is a lock, personally, and it has nothing to do with a Jay Bias (doesn't he do basketball for ESPN?) ... to my reading, and this is a "secret" ballot, so you can draw your own conclusions, there are four legitimate candidates. Loaiza is one.
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_Jonny German - Tuesday, December 02 2003 @ 12:09 AM EST (#33081) #
No disrespect intended, sorry if I came across that way. I took the suggestion to go back and look at the previous articles, and the pickings are indeed thin. I probably would choose Brian Anderson over some, he had his best season.

Relaford, on the other hand, went .254/.315/.376 (500 AB), right in line with his career line of .250/.326/.359 and well short of his best season, .302/.364/.472 in 2001 (301 AB). It would appear he made up for a good first half with an especially bad second half.
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_Jordan - Tuesday, December 02 2003 @ 08:40 AM EST (#33082) #
I'm pretty proud of this pre-season prognostication:

The more I think about it, the more I think Ortiz will have a major breakout for the Sox this year.

Then again, my other candidates were John Halama and Jose Hernandez, so there you go. But Loaiza gets my top vote -- Ruben Quevedo and Jason Bere had equally plausible shots at a Cy Young Award, judging by their '02 stats. Amazing.
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Craig B - Tuesday, December 02 2003 @ 08:42 AM EST (#33083) #
Esteban had a very, very good year, but there was only one reasonable choice for the Cy Young award.

What!? Now I am as big a Halladay booster as anyone, but I think it's silly to pretend that there weren't four excellent candidates for the Cy Young Award.
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Leigh - Tuesday, December 02 2003 @ 10:00 AM EST (#33084) #
What!? Now I am as big a Halladay booster as anyone, but I think it's silly to pretend that there weren't four excellent candidates for the Cy Young Award.

Sorry about that, sometimes I get hung up on the defintion of 'reasonable'. My mistake. I do, however, think that number of innings pitched and difficulty of schedule make notions of Loaiza over Halladay fall short of the reasonableness standard. But yes, Hudson and Pedro would both have been reasonable choices. Excuse my overzealousness.
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Mike D - Tuesday, December 02 2003 @ 11:05 AM EST (#33085) #
I'm going to lobby against Kevin Millar, even though I like the guy. Too much shady dealings, sneaky double agents on the make, international conspiracies...Millar wasn't a pleasant surprise off the scrap heap like many on this list were.

Admittedly, Podsednik's a Brewer. But he truly did come out of left field (both literally and figuratively) to play a fine CF. And even though a mediocre July had many self-styled experts crowing about how they "knew" the 27-year-old speedster was a first-half fluke, he turned his game back up again with a 330/390/520 (approx.) combined line in August and September, going a saber-friendly 21/24 on the basepaths in the last two months.

The rules say that the winner has to "epitomize, in retrospect, a low-risk, high-reward acquisition." Loaiza (boo) should probably win, but I'm slotting him second behind Milwaukee's lone remaining offensive threat.
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_benum - Tuesday, December 02 2003 @ 01:18 PM EST (#33086) #
hmmm...

Just for fun, let's look at Win Shares per $100,000.

Candidate: Casey Blake, 3B, Cleveland Indians
2003 Salary: $330K
WS: 11
WS/$100K: 3.3

Candidate: Frank Catalanotto, OF, Toronto Blue Jays
2003 Salary: $2.2M
WS: 15
WS/$100K: 0.68

Candidate: Jose Cruz, Jr., OF, San Francisco Giants
2003 Salary: $2.5M
WS: 17
WS/$100K: 0.68

Candidate: Danny Kolb, RP, Milwaukee Brewers
2003 Salary: $300K
WS: 9
WS/$100K: 3

Candidate: Esteban Loiaza, SP, Chicago White Sox
2003 Salary: $500K
WS: 23.06 (Halladay had 23.01)
WS/$100K: 4.6

Candidate: Kevin Millar, 1B/DH, Boston Red Sox
2003 Salary: $2M
WS: 16
WS/$100K: 0.8

Candidate: Bill Mueller, 3B, Boston Red Sox
2003 Salary: $2.1M
WS: 24
WS/$100K: 1.1

Candidate: Darren Oliver, SP, Colorado Rockies
2003 Salary: $350K
WS: 10
WS/$100K: 2.9

Candidate: David Ortiz, 1B/DH, Boston Red Sox
2003 Salary: $1.25M
WS: 15
WS/$100K: 1.2

Candidate: Scott Podsednik, OF, Milwaukee Brewers
2003 Salary: $300K
WS: 22
WS/$100K: 7.3

Candidate: Desi Relaford, IF/OF, Kansas City Royals
2003 Salary: $900K
WS: 11
WS/$100K: 1.2

Candidate: John Thomson, SP, Texas Rangers
2003 Salary: $1.3M
WS: 11
WS/$100K: 0.85

Candidate: Greg Myers, C, Toronto Blue Jays
2003 Salary: $800K
WS: 8
WS/$100K: 1

The ranking based on this admittedly goofy exercise:

1) Podsednik - 7.3 WS per $100K
2) Loiaza - 4.6
3) Blake - 3.3

I must admit I never really looked at Podsednik.
Good call Mike D!
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Gitz - Tuesday, December 02 2003 @ 05:13 PM EST (#33087) #
I cast my lot for Esteban Loaiza for the Andujar, and also throw in a vote for Mick as second-best Box "author."
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_Mick - Tuesday, December 02 2003 @ 06:01 PM EST (#33088) #
In today's Bill Simmons "Sports Guy" column on ESPN.com -- well, it's about football, so never mind. But be sure to read the very last sentence.

P.S. to Gitz ... yes, I am the second-best writer on Da Box. But as Tommy LaSorda once said to Pete Rose, "Congratulations, you were voted the second-best-looking Red. The other 24 guys tied for first." So I know my place.
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_Bryan Smith - Wednesday, December 03 2003 @ 02:10 AM EST (#33089) #
http://nextbaseball.blogspot.com
I think Kevin Millar's a horrible choice, his OPS actually has DROPPED each of the last three season! But since he comes to Boston and gets the East bias spotlight he's a breakout player? Hell no. Can you imagine what kind of press Podsednik would have gotten anywhere else?

I like Greg Myers a lot, I think he proved to be huge for the Blue Jays, a lot bigger than what Frank Catalanotto was.

And of course, Loaiza is the first vote and should be, everytime.
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_Tassle - Saturday, December 06 2003 @ 11:38 AM EST (#33090) #
Are pitcher and hitter win shares roughly equivalent? Because Loaiza and Halladay had 23 WS and were the leading candidates for best pitcher in the AL. Podsednik had 22 WS and was never even considered for a second for MVP; The best hitters have way more WS than the best pitchers. Was it just a bad year for AL pitching?
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_SportsmanTO - Saturday, December 06 2003 @ 12:18 PM EST (#33091) #
I'm pretty darn new here but I decided to publicly announce my 3 picks :D

Estaban Loiaza
David Ortiz
Kevin Millar

Kind of distressing that one guy was sulky and sucky as a Jay and the other two are BoSox.
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Named For Hank - Monday, December 08 2003 @ 11:54 AM EST (#33092) #
[Vote Catalanotto!]
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Joaq the Vote: Meet Your 2003 Andujar Finalists | 17 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.