Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
Features Tribe's Lee wins AL Cy Young

Previously headlined:
More awards coming today ...
Shortly, this very thread will carry news of the announcement of both the AL Cy Young Award winner and the 2008 AL and NL "lineups" of Silver Sluggers.

Before we get to the announcements -- they're still a few hours off -- tell us, who will win? Who should?

Update: Lee wins; Jays' Halladay a far-distant second
Update II:  And here are your Silver Sluggers '08.

Posted by Mick Doherty on Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 10:30 AM EST.
Tribe's Lee wins AL Cy Young | 31 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
AWeb - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 10:56 AM EST (#194082) #
AL Cy Young - Cliff Lee, wins, and probably should win. There are compelling arguments to be made for Halladay, and we can only hope Rodriguez doesn't win.

NL Silver Sluggers (predictions), like with Gold Gloves, all three OF spots appear to be merged in this award, but I'm giving one to a CF anyway:
C - McCann
1B - Pujols
2B - Utley
3B - Wright (Maybe Jones deserves it for 3/4 of a great year?)
SS - Hanley Ramirez
OF - Braun (maybe Dunn or Holliday)
CF - Beltran
RF - Ludwick
[ Reply to This ]
Mike Green - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 11:19 AM EST (#194083) #
Lee will win, and should win (narrowly) over Doc.  He is likely to win easily because of his 22-3 record.  Normally, I'd treat that as utterly irrelevant, but I'd give it a little credit in this case.  Lee has beaten his expected W-L (from his run support and runs allowed) by a significant margin 3 times in his career and is 12 games over expected for his career, according to BP.  For his long career, Jack Morris was 9 games over his expected W-L.
[ Reply to This ]
Dave Rutt - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 12:28 PM EST (#194084) #
Assuming LF, CF, RF instead of 3 OF's, I'd give the silver sluggers to:

AL
C: Mauer
1B: Youkilis
2B: Pedroia
SS: ??? Jeter?
3B: A-Rod
LF: Quentin
CF: Hamilton
RF: Markakis

NL
C: McCann
1B: Pujols
2B: Utley
SS: Hanley
3B: Chipper
LF: Braun
CF: Beltran
RF: Ludwick
[ Reply to This ]
92-93 - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 12:34 PM EST (#194085) #
I have no idea what the Silver Slugger criteria are, but judging purely on the name I'd say it should be Peralta > Jeter.
[ Reply to This ]
John Northey - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 02:13 PM EST (#194086) #
http://www.baseballwriters.org/awards/2008/2008_AL_cy.html
No shock, Lee wins and Halladay 2nd with 4 first place votes.

Lee on all 28 ballots, Halladay on just 25, K-Rod on 18 for 3rd place (2nd place on 7 ballots), Daisuke Matsuzaka is 4th the last 2 2nd place votes (guess 2 voters were snoozing completely).  Others getting votes are Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina, and Ervin Santana.

[ Reply to This ]
Chuck - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 02:19 PM EST (#194087) #
http://www.baseballwriters.org/awards/2008/2008_AL_cy.html

John, you owe me new retinas.
[ Reply to This ]
Chuck - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 02:21 PM EST (#194088) #
Three voters didn't have Halladay in their top three. I wonder what they were watching all summer.
[ Reply to This ]
Mick Doherty - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 02:30 PM EST (#194089) #

John, you owe me new retinas.

Dang, Chuck, your comment prompted me to visit the link and no kidding, I actually have spots in my eyes and a headache from trying to look at the text on the page there for a few minutes.

BaseballWriters.org needs to hire themselves a Web content usability pro! A 16-year-old unpaid intern who plays Wii a lot should suffice.

[ Reply to This ]
braden - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 03:15 PM EST (#194091) #

I'm surprised the URL wasn't geocities.com/baseballwriters.

Do you think their site is an ironic statement at their view of Internet Baseball Writers?  Nah, me neither.  They really are just that out of touch. 

[ Reply to This ]
John Northey - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 03:19 PM EST (#194092) #
No kidding about the BBRAA site.  I go there just to get the final numbers for everyone as I love seeing how many 1st/2nd/3rd place votes each person gets.  Best idea is to copy the data then past it into Word so you can get rid of that scary background.  I mean, c'mon, better sites than that were up the day the web started.  Guess someone who is colour blind designed it - not their fault, just the fault of whoever said 'hey, that looks great!' (I've had a few clients with that kind of taste).

Now Halladay's collection of Cy Votes includes a 1st (2003), 2nd (2008), 3rd (2006), and a 5th (2007). 

Dave Stieb, for reference, also made the Cy ballot 4 times but just came in 4th, 5th, and 7th twice.  Key just once as a Jay (2 more as a Yankee), Hentgen twice had votes including his win, Clemens of course won it twice, Guzman had votes once, Morris once (plus 5 as a Tiger and 1 as a Twin), Wells once (3rd place, plus a 3rd as a Yankee), Doyle Alexander got votes once (plus as a Tiger), Eichhorn got some his rookie year, Ward twice.  Strangely Tom Henke never got a single Cy Young vote.

So with Halladay's next vote for a Cy Young he will overtake Stieb for most times on a Cy Young ballot for a Blue Jay.  He still needs another win though to tie Roger Clemens for most wins.

[ Reply to This ]
92-93 - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 03:52 PM EST (#194094) #
Nick Swisher was traded to the Yankees.
[ Reply to This ]
Mike Green - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 03:58 PM EST (#194095) #
Randy Johnson will apparently be filing for free agency.  I wonder how much he wants.  The nice thing about Johnson is that while he may want a truckload of dough, one year might be enough. 
[ Reply to This ]
Dave Rutt - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 04:14 PM EST (#194096) #
Nick Swisher was traded to the Yankees.

And for peanuts, too. Anyone else wish J.P. had been in on that? Swisher did hit .219 this year, but he's only one year removed from being a very good hitter. I'd be calling Kenny right now and finding out what it would take to get Thome or Dye.

[ Reply to This ]
Ron - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 04:34 PM EST (#194097) #
As Jay Jaffe pointed out today, Swisher's BABIP dropped by 52 points last season for no good reason given his line drive rate. He will bounce back next season and given his age and team friendly contract, Cashman flat out robbed Williams.

Given how little the Sox got for Swisher, if I'm the Jays GM, I'm going to call Kenny to see what it would take to get Vasquez or/and Thome.

[ Reply to This ]
Mick Doherty - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 04:37 PM EST (#194098) #

According to BBRef, Swisher's career comparables include luminary Yankee names like Dan Pasqua, Otto Velez and Bubba Trammell. And all three of those guys were out of the game by age 31 or 32. Swisher is 28.

I'd love to be more excited about a power-hitting switch-hitter coming to the Bronx, hauling with him 102 homers over the last four years, but I dunno -- this seems to have "Steve Kemp" written all over it, and Yankee fans of a certain age can't like that idea!

Kemp, ironically, exactly like Swisher, came to the Yankees  after just one season with the White Sox. Maybe things will go better for the poorly-named hitter "Swish"er.

[ Reply to This ]
Mike Green - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 04:40 PM EST (#194099) #
Oh yeah.  Swisher's .219 batting average this year is driven by a .249 BABIP, 34 points off his career norm.  He hit more line drives than usual, didn't pop up any more than usual and continued to hit for power.  The White Sox apparently got frustrated with him, and moved him all over the lineup.  I'd gladly have him around.

Swisher is signed up for 3 more years at  5.3, 6.75 and 9 million.  A wonderful relatively cheap acquisition by the Yankees. 



[ Reply to This ]
Glevin - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 04:55 PM EST (#194100) #
Well, I was a little worried that Halladay would finish behind K-Rod. Great  trade for the Yankees. Swisher is a Yankees kind of guy. Lots of power, walks a lot, takes a lot of pitches.  Damn! they added a piece and didn't even give up anything.  If Pedrioa wins the MVP, his 122 OPS+ will be the worst for an MVP winner since Zoilo Versalles won the award in 1965. I know his VORP was great because there were so few good hitting 2Bman, but I don't like the idea of giving an MVP award to a guy who finished fifth on his own team in OPS+. Mauer SHOULD probably win, but he won't.
[ Reply to This ]
Brito - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 05:43 PM EST (#194101) #
Perhaps Swisher has a bust shoulder and won't be able to hit or throw for the next 3 years?
[ Reply to This ]
John Northey - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 06:02 PM EST (#194103) #
<a href=http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081113&content_id=3678086&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb>http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081113&content_id=3678086&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb</a> is a cleaner Silver Slugger link.  I just looked at the first link and saw a table of winners and thought they gave the catcher to Posada but it was the 2007 winners it lists in the table while 2008 were listed in the article. 

SS are voted on like GG's - by mangers and coaches who cannot vote for their own team members.  Kind of silly imo as that leads to guys just going on quick gut feel or voting for someone who they know won't win so their guy has a better shot at it.  Like the Gold Gloves I'd rather they used advance scouts or GM's to vote on it as they'd be more likely to produce a list that makes sense, although the SS rarely have super ugly choices.

[ Reply to This ]
92-93 - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 06:17 PM EST (#194104) #

but I don't like the idea of giving an MVP award to a guy who finished fifth on his own team in OPS+.

You must have hated the Rollins choice last year. This is what the voters do, and I'm not sure why everybody gets all upset by it every year.

And John may have said this, but the link to the Silver Sluggers is from last year.

[ Reply to This ]
Mylegacy - Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 07:07 PM EST (#194105) #
Swisher, Smisher -

Adam Loewen went 3 for 4 today with an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base. Overall he's hitting 240.

[ Reply to This ]
ayjackson - Friday, November 14 2008 @ 02:07 AM EST (#194107) #
This just in....Bill James thinks Adam Lind is going to hit .300 next year and slug .494.....cool.
[ Reply to This ]
Chuck - Friday, November 14 2008 @ 06:51 AM EST (#194108) #
Three voters didn't have Halladay in their top three. I wonder what they were watching all summer.

It turns out that I am not alone in my bewilderment over this.
[ Reply to This ]
Mike Green - Friday, November 14 2008 @ 09:31 AM EST (#194112) #
This just in....Bill James thinks Adam Lind is going to hit .300 next year and slug .494.....cool.

ZIPS has Lind at .276/.323/.443 for 2009, and Wells not much better.  Last year, ZIPS was somewhat low in its offensive projections for the Jays and Bill James was very high.  It looks like the pattern will be repeated for 2009. 
[ Reply to This ]
unclejim - Friday, November 14 2008 @ 10:34 AM EST (#194114) #
I'm surprised JP didn't try to pick up Swisher... if only to add to his apparent off season plan to pick up as many players from the 1st round of the 2002 'moneyball' draft as possible.

Bullington
Loewen
(coulda shoulda woulda) Swisha
apparently strong interest in trading for Khalil Greene

Maybe he's been reading that book too many times, or is still trying to overcome the horror of picking Adams over several other available players.

Now if he could find a way of landing BJ Upton, Kazmir, Hamels and Fielder I'd be happy !



[ Reply to This ]
ayjackson - Friday, November 14 2008 @ 02:06 PM EST (#194123) #
I think Brian Dopirik was a Supplementary first rounder in 2002.
[ Reply to This ]
Petey Baseball - Friday, November 14 2008 @ 09:21 PM EST (#194140) #
Not sure where to pitch this one but an interesting candidate to play some shortstop and third base for the Blue Jays next season is Nick Punto.  He would come cheap and is superior to John McDonald offensively.  According to Reference, his defense is nothing to scoff at either.  The  .252/.319/.322 line is far from impressive, but he has played all four positions, switch hits and has excellent speed.  If the Jays can't upgrade through trade or free agency at short, they may think about turning to Punto as a platoon partner for Scutaro and an occasional spot starter for Scott Rolen.  Of course, this would mean McDonald is flipped for probably a low prospect, but Punto clearly is the superior player. Just a small way the Jays can improve in the offseason without breaking the bank. 
[ Reply to This ]
John Northey - Saturday, November 15 2008 @ 12:10 AM EST (#194143) #
Punto?  Lifetime 74 OPS+, plays SS/2B/3B.  I guess if his defense is solid he'd be an improvement over McDonald, but not someone I'd want to give more than marginal playing time to.  He is now 31 and not likely to be any more than he is now.  A guy I'd give a 500k contract to, but in exchange you'd have to release McDonald (can't imagine anyone would trade for him) so what is the point really? 

Nah.  No need for more light hitting middle infielders who are on the wrong side of 30.

[ Reply to This ]
Chuck - Saturday, November 15 2008 @ 06:42 AM EST (#194147) #

If the Jays can't upgrade through trade or free agency at short, they may think about turning to Punto as a platoon partner for Scutaro and an occasional spot starter for Scott Rolen. ... Just a small way the Jays can improve in the offseason without breaking the bank. 

First off, Punto's bat clearly can't carry him at third base. Second, while he may represent an incremental improvement over MacDonald, the Jays need to make massive upgrades if they intend to be relevant in 2009. Upgrading the 25th man with another 25th type player won't make a dent of any significance.

[ Reply to This ]
Petey Baseball - Sunday, November 16 2008 @ 05:01 PM EST (#194161) #
All the same Chuck, I'd rather have Punto being the 25th man than McDonald.  Its a minor move that would improve the club.  Just because the difference might be "marginal" its still a move worth making. He got a decent amount of playing time with the Twins, not to mention he runs, hits and plays more positions than Johnny Mac. Just sayin.
[ Reply to This ]
Tribe's Lee wins AL Cy Young | 31 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.